The New King

1 Samuel 16:1-13

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"  Jeremiah 29:11

Saul disobeyed God twice.  First, he offered the burnt offering, and only priests were allowed to offer the sacrifices.  Then God clearly instructed Saul to destroy all the Ammonites and everything that belonged to them, specifically citing the people and the livestock.  Saul spared Agag the king and the best of the sheep and cattle.  God sent Samuel to rebuke Saul for his disobedience.  Samuel told Saul,  "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king."  1 Samuel 15:23b

Saul actually served as king over Israel for forty two years, but shortly after he disobeyed God a new king was designated and anointed.  God told Samuel to quit grieving for Saul, to fill his horn with oil, and go to Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint one of his sons as king.

Samuel told the elders of Bethlehem that he had come to make a sacrifice, and he invited Jesse and his sons to the sacrifice.  Samuel looked at Jesse's son Eliab and thought he must be the one, but God said no.  1 Samuel 16:7 gives great advice for us to apply,  "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'"   Kenneth Chafin wrote,  “Like Samuel, we are too impressed by the things that can be seen with the physical eyes.  Consequently we live in a world where physical beauty outranks spiritual depth, where success in business tends to be defined in materialistic terms, and where charisma is prized above character…”

Then Jesse had six more of his sons parade before Samuel, one at a time, but each time God told Samuel this was not the one for him to anoint king.  Samuel asked Jesse if he had any more sons, and Jesse said there was the youngest son who was tending the sheep. Samuel instructed Saul to send for that son, David, and when David arrived God told Samuel this was His choice. Then Samuel anointed David in the presence of his father and brothers.

David was a young shepherd.  Although he had been anointed king, he was unprepared to fulfill that position.  God took many years to prepared David for the throne before he allowed him to reign over Israel.

Notice that David didn’t have a press conference or make an official announcement of his anointing.  He didn’t gather an army and try to take over the throne.  He simply went home and kept tending his sheep, waiting on God’s timing and God’s method of putting him on the throne.  

God has plans for each of our lives just as he did for David's life, but often it takes many years of preparation to make us usable.  Think of Joseph and all his hardships in Egypt before he was promoted to second in command in Egypt.  Think of Moses tending sheep on the back side of the desert for forty years before he led Israel out of Egypt.  God prepares us and fulfills His plans for us if we obey His word and walk in His will.

Father, I don't want to miss Your best for my life.  May I walk daily in obedience to Your word and Your will so Your plans for me will be fulfilled. Amen.

Is Partial Obedience Disobedience?

1 Samuel 13:1-14; 15:1-2

"To obey is better than sacrifice."  Part of I Samuel 15:22

Since the Israelites insisted that they wanted a king like all the other nations, God gave them one.  Samuel introduced Saul as the new king to the Israelites.  He looked the part.  He was very handsome and was a head taller than all the other Israelite men.  The people were pleased and had a great celebration at Saul's coronation in Gilgal.

Samuel had given Saul these instructions before the coronation celebration,  "Go down ahead of me to Gilgal.  I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do."  I Samuel 10:8.

After he was crowned king, Saul attacked the Philistines who had been enemies of Israel for a long time.  The Philistines gathered a large army for a counter attack, and Saul's soldiers became frightened and began to scatter.  Saul became impatient.  Samuel had not appeared at Gilgal, so Saul took it upon himself to offer the burnt offering, a ministry only the priests were allowed to perform.  Just as he finished, Samuel arrived and asked Saul what he was doing.  Saul explained that Samuel had not yet come, and he didn't want to go into battle without God's favor.  But Samuel said to him,  "You have not kept the Lord's command."  Saul yielded to the temptation to take things into his own hands rather than trusting God and waiting on Him.  This is an ever present temptation for us all.

Later Samuel was preparing to battle the Amalekites, and he received these very specific instructions from God through Samuel,  "This is what the Lord Almighty says:  I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them.  Do not spare them; put them to death, men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."  I Samuel 15:2-3  Saul was victorious over the Amalekites. but he spared Agag the king and the best of the livestock.  When Samuel found the new king, Saul greeted him with these words,  "The Lord bless you.  I have carried out the Lord's instruction."  I Samuel 15:13b  "But Samuel said,  "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears?  What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?"  I Samuel 1514.  Saul played the blame game and gave an excuse.  He told Samuel that the soldiers brought the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord but destroyed the rest.  PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE!  If we do not obey God in everything, we have disobeyed God.  And there is nothing that we can do that will make God satisfied with our disobedience.  Samuel's words to Saul should be seared into our memory banks, "To obey is better than sacrifice."  In fact, to obey is better than anything else!  There is no substitute for obedience.

After Saul disobeyed, he asked Samuel to come with him to worship God so he wouldn’t lose face before the people.  He was more concerned about his reputation than his character.  He was more interested in being popular than pleasing God.  He was sorry he got caught, but he didn’t have that Godly sorrow for sinning that leads to true repentance.

Father, obedience is not an option but an essential if we want to walk in fellowship with You.  May we confess and repent of any disobedience in our lives as soon as we are aware of it.  Amen.

Israel Demands A King

1 Samuel 8-10

"So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.  They said to him, 'You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.'"  1 Samuel 8:4-5

Samuel had been Israel's leader for many years.  Now he was old, and he appointed his two sons, Joel and Abijah, as leaders in his place.  But his sons "turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice."  1 Samuel 8:3b  So the Israelites asked Samuel to appoint them a king "such as all the other nations have."  The Israelites were not only rejecting Samuel's sons as leaders because of their dishonesty.  The human instinct to be like other people is strong, and this was a big part of Israel's desire to have a king.

If we are going to pattern our lives after other people, we should choose our role models very carefully.  If we choose to follow others, we should be sure they are following God.  But actually God wants us to get our marching orders directly from Him through His word and prayer and the guidance of the Holy spirit, because God has a different, specific plan for each person.

When the elders asked for a king, Samuel felt rejected.  But God gave him some advice that we, too, can take to heart.  When we witness to someone about God and His goodness, and the person who hears is not interested in what we are saying, we don't need to take it personally.  God told Samuel that they were rejecting Him, not Samuel.

The Israelites were unlike any other nation, because God had taken them as His special people and had been their king for many years.  Now they wanted a king they could see.  Change can be for the better, but it can also be detrimental.  Certainly swapping God for an human king was a bad deal.  God told Samuel to warn the people about the disadvantages of having a man for their king.  Samuel warned them that a king would take their sons and daughters to serve him and would take part of their land, their produce, and their animals for himself.  But the people were stubborn and would not listen to God's warning.  They wanted what they wanted in spite of what God said, and that's a warning to us.  1 Samuel 8:19-20,  "But the people refused to listen to Samuel.  'No!' they said.  'We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.'"  When we reject God's will and God's warnings and insist on having our own way, we will miss God's best for us and may well have regrets because of the adverse consequences of our choices.

Father, help me to remember that Your way is always best for my life no matter how badly I want my way.  May I always yield to You and Your will.  Amen.

Our Powerful God

1 Samuel 5:1-7:2

“Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?” 1 Samuel 6:20

Since the Philistines had soundly beaten the Israelites in battle and had captured the ark, people on both sides could easily doubt God's power.  God wanted to make it perfectly plain that the problem was not a lack of power on His part.  The Israelites had been unfaithful by worshiping other gods.  God displayed His power so there would be no mistaking the cause of the Israelites' defeat.

The Philistines took the ark to Ashdod and put it into the temple of their god, Dagon.  Their idea was to demonstrate Dagon's superiority over the God of Israel.  This backfired when it was discovered the next morning that Dagon had fallen on his face on the ground in front of the ark as though he were worshiping Israel's God.  Some men in Ashdod stood Dagon back up, but the next morning he was again on his face before the ark.  However, this time his head and hands had been broken off.

Have you ever played a game called Hot Potato where you pass an object around a circle of people as music plays?  When the music stops, whoever is holding the object is out.  The ark of God became like a hot potato with the Philistines as they passed it from city to city.

While the ark was in Ashdod, the people of Ashdod broke out with tumors.  They thought the ark might be the cause of this outbreak.  One way to find out was to move the ark to another city and see what would happen.  The people of Ashdod sent the ark to Gath, and the people of Gath had an epidemic of tumors, so they sent the ark to Ekron.  Not surprisingly, the people of Ekron didn't want it.  People broke out with tumors there, and many people died.  The Philistines decided to send the ark back to the Israelites lest it wipe them all out.

The Philistines decided to test God's power one more time with the way they returned the ark.  It was similar to putting out a fleece.  They took two cows who were nursing calves and penned the calves up.  They hitched these two cows, which had never pulled anything before, to a new cart carrying the ark.  If the cows pulled the cart straight to Beth Shemesh, the nearest Israelite town, they would believe that God was responsible for the plagues.  That would be quite unlikely.  The natural thing would be for the cows to go right back to the calves or, since they had never pulled anything before, they might buck and kick at the cart.  But, against the odds, the cows pulled the cart straight to Beth Shemesh.

God had demonstrated His power over and over.  Our God is almighty, omnipotent, sovereign.  What an amazing God we worship!

Father, You are an awesome God.  You are omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, loving, kind, and full of grace.  We worship and praise You for being the God that You are.  Amen.

The Ark

1 Samuel 4:1-11

"The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died." 1 Samuel 4:11

The subject of our story is not a person but a piece of furniture--the ark of the covenant.  It resided in the holy place of the tabernacle and contained three articles--the tablets with the Ten Commandments, a pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded.  This was the specific place where God had chosen to meet with His people.  It was the holiest piece of furniture in the tabernacle.

The Israelites and the Philistines had been fighting each other since the time of Abraham.  The Philistines had claimed five cities along the Mediterranean Coast and wanted to expand their territory.  The battle in our story was probably Israel's attempt to defend their land.

When the two nations met to fight, the Philistines won the battle, killing about four thousand Israelites.  This defeat came as a big surprise to the Israelites because God usually fought their battles and gave them victory.

The Israelites remembered the prominent place the ark held in their history.  When they carried the ark into the Jordan River, the water backed up and allowed them to go across.  They carried the ark around the city of Jericho, and Jericho's walls came tumbling down.  They decided to bring the ark from the tabernacle in Shiloh to the battlefield to see if it would help them defeat the Philistines.  Nothing is mentioned about asking God if they should do this.  They were treating the ark somewhat like a good luck charm.  The ark was a symbol of the presence and power of God, but the people were treating it as though the ark itself was a god.  The Israelites discovered that having the religious symbol of God and having God were two entirely different things.  The Israelites had outward forms of worship, but their hearts were far from God.

The priests, Eli's wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas, carried the ark to the battlefront.  A great cry of excitement arose from the Israelite soldiers.  Howard Vos wrote, "The army of the people of God was going into battle with no particular instruction of God and with greater trust in a religious piece of furniture than in the God whose presence it symbolized.

The Israelites were defeated.  The Philistines captured the ark.  Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and Eli died when he heard the news.  The wife of Phinehas went into labor and died in childbirth.

God is never pleased when people try to substitute forms of worship for sincere hearts or obedience to God's will.

Father, may we love and serve You with sincere hearts and with obedience to Your will.  Amen.