All right now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but it's never too late to start and we're in this together.

This is the Join the Journey podcast.

Thanks for joining. I'm Lauren Atkinson on the Join the Journey staff team, and today we are reading 1st Samuel 14 through 15.

And we will be answering the question, if God made Saul

King and then said he regretted making Saul King, does God make mistakes? When you think of regret,

what do you typically think of? Maybe it was a decision you made a long time ago or a dream you had that just never became

reality. Maybe it's something you wish you knew before and just hadn't learned yet. Often regret is

associated with missing the mark or having an expectation that was unmet or maybe it's tied

directly to a decision you made that you would do anything to go

back and do differently. And when we think of situations around regret, they often reveal aspects

of someone's character, who they really are. And today, in 1st Samuel 14 through 15, instead of

getting lost in all the events and details going on, we are going to look more at how these events reveal Saul's character and how they also reveal God's character.

And for Saul, his response to these battle with the Philistines, his unlawful sacrifice, his unwise vow, all of these things reveal what's going on in his character.

Essentially, his heart has shifted and instead of submitting to God as king, he has looked to himself as the king of his own life.

Instead of yielding to God's law as good, he has decided what is good

and then followed something other than God. And in that, Saul disobeys God and ultimately he

disqualifies himself from being the king over Israel. And we also see in these events that God reveals

more of who he is in this display of Saul's sin.

God says that he regrets making Saul king.

And so that brings us back to our question.

If God regretted his action in making Saul king, does that mean that God makes mistakes?

All the way back in 1 Samuel 8 through 9, Israel had demanded a king.

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