Saul and Ahab Lacked Discernment

Lastly, there is the man who, in the judgment of God, was the first found worthy of the kingdom over his people Israel. Because he lacked this “eye” of discernment, it was as if his whole body were full of darkness, and he was actually cast down from the kingdom. Deceived by the darkness of this “light,” and in error, he imagined that his own offerings were more acceptable to God than obedience to the command of Samuel, and he met with an occasion of falling in the very matter in which he had hoped to win the favor of the divine Majesty. Ignorance of this discernment, I say, led Ahab, king of Israel, after a triumph and a splendid victory granted him by the favor of God, to imagine that mercy on his part was better than the strict carrying out of the divine command, which seemed to him a cruel rule. Moved by this thought, while he wanted to soften a bloody victory with mercy, he was, because of his undiscerning clemency, made full of darkness in his whole body, and condemned beyond recall to death. [a]