Ever hear the saying, “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”? David was considered by God as a man after God’s own heart, yet this godly man became idle. In verse one of today’s reading, we see that when King David was supposed to be off to war, he stayed home.

This appears to be the final straw with the Lord’s Prophet Samuel. Samuel replies with an indictment of Saul. One of the more fascinating things we see in his indictment is that the sins King Saul was guilty of were rebellion and arrogance, which the Lord compares to divination (fortune telling) and idolatry; these were the same sins the Amalekites were destroyed for. Because he would not repent, King Saul was informed he was no better than the wicked people he had just warred against. We must be sure not to have selective hearing of God’s Word, but to listen to all of the commandments of Christ.

God has supreme authority, and Saul was not sparing anyone in pursuit of conversion or mercy. He was sparing animals in pursuit of greed and pride, as well as fear of his own soldiers’ opinion of him.

The book of Jude is heavy. There is so much packed into one page of reading. In the end, the awareness of the spiritual battle raging around us can seem overwhelming, even scary. We don’t want to leave this book on edge, seeing a false prophet behind every corner, but that is not the call of the book either. The call of the letter is to be alert. We are to be aware, actively living out our faith. Jesus is able to protect and keep us from stumbling. When we actively remain in relationship with Jesus, He will continue to give us wisdom and strength, and the reminder that we are loved by God. 

Quite a few years ago we did a devotional series called Short and Sweet. In it we studied the shortest books of the Bible, and compared the lessons learned in them to some common tales we had heard as children. We compared the lessons of Jude, to those of Little Red Riding Hood. In the children’s story, Little Red encounters a wolf. She knows she is not supposed to talk to him, but she does anyway. He seems nice, and he says the right things, but inside he is only hoping to feed his own viscous appetite, and destroy Little Red in the process.