“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” Ps 119:89
“But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamour of his sin may play on him].” Heb3:13 AMP
Settled into rebellion! That was the problem with King Saul. To have a heart full of rebellion and stubbornness is one thing…
To have a heart settled in that condition is quite another thing… and is a condition where repentance will not move your heart any longer.
You have chosen a particular way, or course, or attitude, or end goal over and over. To have that end, that result which has been elusive has become the most important thing. Your hands have gripped it so hard in your posture, you are not going to let go now.
In fact, the enemy has campaigned in your thinking, that your strategy to persist and hold on is actually an honorable thing. But in truth, when the thing you pursue is out of the will of God what you are persisting in is stubbornness and rebellion.
King Saul was told, “…rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry…” 1Sam 15:23. We are generally familiar with the whole witchcraft part of that verse, but we also often fail to apprehend the idolatry part. Idolatry – the deifying of self, making yourself your own God.
This is what happens when we won’t give over our opinions, plans, sense of correctness, desires or goals, or hungers, or sins over to God. They begin to rule over us, and we become deceived…
James 1:22 talks about this in terms of obeying the Lord’s message, not being merely a listener – but being a doer as well. To be only a listener, as King Saul was, means you betray yourself into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth. King Saul reasoned contrary to the Truth.
Truth said: “Kill all the Amalekites, all their people, herds, even children and babies.”
Saul said, “I am saving the best for a sacrifice to the Lord (and I have the support of the people).”
This is very dangerous to be so self-assured. But it is fatal in the worst sense to be “settled’ in this self-assuredness!!!
It means you have chosen to be settled against God!
Settledness is also often rendered as hardened in the Bible. King Saul had allowed and chosen to become hardened in his opinions that were adversarial to God’s. This was to his detriment and ultimate destruction. But it also the same for anyone who persists in their own course.
Deut 10:16 says, circumcise the foreskin of your minds and hearts and no longer be stubborn or hardened.
Proverbs 28:14 says, blessed is the man who reverently fears the Lord but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Proverbs 29:1 says, he who being often reproved hardens his neck shall suddenly be destroyed – and that without remedy.
To be settled is important, but to be settled like the word of God which is settled in heaven is the wise course. It is the course of Life abundant. To be settled along these lines means you are in submission and aligned in obedience to what the word says and required. You are not in rebellion or stubbornness opposing what it requires. Especially not opposing what it instructs as the way to believe and think.
You see, before King Saul ever disobeyed in his conduct, he had already entertained disobedience in his heart. It was that disobedience that he justified over and over, that caused him to become settled in rebellion and stubbornness.
How about you?
Do you recognize the imprints of stubbornness and idolatry in your own heart? Is there something you are wrestling with God about, determined to have your own way no matter what the cost? Maybe it is a relationship that you are stubbornly pursuing, even to your own harm? Or is it a habit that you know you should give up? This day, give that thing over to the Lord! Do not continue another day into the path of becoming settled in rebellion!!! Turn today!
In the most graphic terms, fighting for our way is like the dog who returns to his vomit. Is that what you want to end up with? Lay it before Him now. Do it. Ask Him to help you repent, and to be settled like the word rather than be settled into stubbornness and rebellion.
I pray you do it today…
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