1 Samuel 13:12

“…Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”

As the second year of king Saul’s reign began to unfold, the nation of Israel was in trouble. The Philistines who occupied the southwest portion of the land were seeking to expand their territories by defeating Israel. When Saul’s army saw the Philistines approaching, they began to hide in caves, and many deserted. It did not take long before his three thousand soldiers were reduced to six hundred men. Understandably, Saul was overcome by emotion. Unfortunately, he let his emotions make his decisions for him, and these decisions would prove to be very costly. 

Saul decided that what he and the people needed to do was to offer a sacrifice to God. While this might sound like a good and even noble idea, it was actually a form of disobedience, since sacrifices could only be offered by…

1 Samuel 12:7
“Now therefore, stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which He did to you and your fathers . . .”

After a great battle in which the men of Jabesh Gilead were rescued from certain destruction, the nation of Israel gathered in Gilgal to inaugurate Saul as their king. As part of the process, Samuel the prophet, now an aged man, stood before the people to persuade them to continue to follow the Lord. To influence their decision, he did not seek to stir their emotions, but to incite their reason. He suggests that it is reasonable to believe in, follow after, and serve the Lord.

Webster defines reasonable as, “not extreme or excessive”, or as the use of “sound judgment.” Some words synonymous with reasonable are – rational, logical and sensible. Essentially, Samuel is…

Psalms 9:10

“And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.”

A few years back I was teaching in a Bible school in Ghana on the subject of trust. I invited one of the students to come forward and asked him to put his arms at his side, close his eyes, and face the class. He had no difficulty doing what I asked until I added, “now remain stiff as a board and fall backwards.” He immediately opened his eyes, turned around, and looked at me as if to say, “No way!” I assured him that I would catch him, and asked him to face the class again. I counted to three and told him to fall back. To his credit, he tried, but once he began to lean, he stepped back to catch himself. The…

1 Samuel 10:6
“Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.”

Saul was first chosen by God, then equipped for service. This seems to be a pattern. Saul, along with Moses, Jeremiah, and Peter, all resisted the idea of being selected for service by God. Their objections stemmed from a realization of their own shortcomings. What they failed to realize, was God would equip them for whatever He called them to do.

We often have the same objections. We size ourselves up, and limit the ways God can use us. Then we sense a stirring from the Lord to serve in a capacity in which we have no gifting or experience. Right away we begin to come up with the excuses. “I can’t do that, I am not a …”

It is so important…

1 Samuel 9:23

”And Samuel said to the cook, ‘Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, “Set it apart.”‘”

The intersection where Samuel and Saul meet is a crossroad between two fascinating story lines. Saul, the son of a wealthy and loving father, was commissioned to search out three stray donkeys. As they wandered through the land, they were divinely directed to the land of Zuph where they encountered Samuel. Meanwhile, the day before, while Saul was seeking donkeys, Samuel’s day was interrupted by the voice of God. We read, 

1 Samuel 9:15-16

“Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, ‘Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel…'”

It is worth noting how Samuel responded to the word he…

Psalms 8:1

“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, Who have set Your glory above the heavens!”

Webster defines glory as “Great beauty and splendor, even magnificence.” David is declaring things about the magnificence of God. It seems this Psalm was penned as a result of looking at the beauty of creation, in light of the Creator. He realizes that as glorious as creation is, it pales by comparison to the Creator.

How sad it is that we often neglect to consider the creation’s glory. We seem to be surrounded by the works of men. We live in a manmade house, drive a manmade car, on manmade streets to a manmade office, eating manmade food, from manmade packages, and wonder why we have lost sight of God. What if we took time to consider the works of God’s hands? We are, after all…

1 Samuel 8:6

“But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us., So Samuel prayed to the Lord.”

Samuel was given some very bad news. He was informed that the people no longer wanted to be governed by God, and personal responsibility, but wanted to have a king to lead them. We read, their actions displeased Samuel and his displeasure drove him to pray. It was in prayer that he was able to hear the word of the Lord. 

The word “displeased” describes Samuel’s emotional state. This same word is also translated as troubled, afflicted, or angered. We learn Israel’s godly leader was affected by the same emotions that we struggle through and he allowed his emotional condition to drive him to prayer. Samuel is not alone. We find a variety of Biblical characters experiencing a vast array of emotions, which was the driving force that…

1 Samuel 7:13
“So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel…”

Israel faced a constant threat from the Philistines. They had come into the territory promised to Israel, taken land, and threatened the people. Earlier in 1 Samuel, the nation mustered all its strength to drive the Philistines out of their territories, only to suffer a devastating loss. In that earlier battle, the people gathered around a religious artifact, went forth in all the strength they had, and were defeated. Now, some years later, we find them once again facing the same threat. This time, however, their efforts resulted in a great victory. What was the difference? How were they able to defeat an enemy which had plagued them for so many years?

1 Samuel 7:3
“Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, ‘If you return to the LORD…

Psalms 5:3 “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.”

On a regular basis, how would you describe your mornings? Do you wake up grumpy, dreading another day? Or late, rushing to get your responsibilities done? Or perhaps you arise and rush to get the morning paper, check the news, or peruse Facebook, or the web.

David declares that his mornings began with the Lord. Even in the midst of difficult and trying times, he would start his day off enjoying fellowship with God. David determined that before he spent time walking about in this life, he would first spend time with the Lord. There is something special about beginning our days with the Lord. Like the early morning offerings sacrificed at the Temple, we should bring our lives before God as a morning…

1 Samuel 6:6

“Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He did mighty things among them, did they not let the people go, that they might depart?”

Tucked away in the story of the Philistines return of the Ark to Israel, is this powerful exhortation regarding the danger of hardening our hearts to God. We are reminded of the difficulties Pharaoh endured because of his refusal to humble himself and obey the Word of God. The lessons from this exhortation are two-fold.

First, we need to examine our lives to be certain we are not hardening our hearts. If there is any area where we are making excuses for an attitude or behavior that is unbiblical, then we are in danger of hardening our heart to the Word. This may seem obvious, but the danger of hardening our hearts is that we…