I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 11-13.

    One of the reasons I am hesitant to draw conclusions about Saul’s attitude when he was selected as king is because of his actions regarding the situation at Jabesh-Gilead. First, when he heard the news, he did not just curl up in sorrow. He got angry and decided to take action to protect his fellow Israelites. Second, after his victory, when his supporters wanted to kill those who had earlier refused to support Saul, he forcefully rejected the idea.

    Saul’s decision to not punish those who had not initially supported him as king shows a certain instinctive understanding of the politics of ruling a nation. However, this same political pragmatism led to his downfall. Later when Saul had gathered his forces to combat the Philistine army, he needed to offer a sacrifice to God before going into battle. He waited for Samuel to come and perform the sacrifice, but Samuel was late. Saul was afraid that if he did not make the sacrifice and strike soon, his army would return home. So, he decided that the politically expedient thing to do was to perform the sacrifices himself. Saul failed to trust God and patiently wait for Samuel.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 8-10.

    I mentioned at the beginning of this book that Samuel’s sons turned out similar to Eli’s sons. The way the sons of these two men turned out should be a warning for those fathers who accept leadership positions in the Church (and elsewhere). I will not go into that farther than this. The thing which truly struck me about this passage is the description of Saul’s father:

There was a wealthy, influential man named Kish from the tribe of Benjamin.

Then a few sentences later this:

His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.

When the people first came to Samuel for a king, this was what they were looking for, a tall, handsome man from an influential family. All too often this is what we look for in leaders. There is nothing inherently wrong with selecting leaders from among the handsome offspring of influential families. People who are tall and good looking often develop leadership capabilities. And often times the reason a family is influential is because they have shown leadership qualities, which they may have taught to their children. However, people who are tall and handsome, and people from influential families, have often learned to use their leadership abilities to advance their own interests rather than that of their followers. I want to be careful here because I genuinely believe that Saul was a good man and a good leader. It was only after he had been king for awhile that he began to mistake what was in his own interest for what was in the interest of Israel as a whole.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 4-7.

    The army of Israel was defeated in battle with the Philistines. After the battle, the leaders asked why God allowed them to be defeated. However, rather than wait for God to send them an answer, they decided to force God to give them victory. They brought to Ark of the Covenant to take it into battle with them. This did not work out as planned. Not only did they lose the battle, but the Ark of the Covenant was captured. This is what happens when we try to force God’s hand. When things go against us, we need to ask God what we did wrong. Then we need to wait for His answer and change our actions based on what He tells us.

    I was originally planning to discuss the meaning of what happened while the Ark was in the possession of the Philistines, but decided to instead talk about the contrast between what happened when the Ark was captured and when Samuel began leading the people. Samuel told the people that if they truly wanted God to rescue them from the Philistines they would need to turn to Him with all of their hearts. The same is true for us. If we desire God to work on our behalf we need to turn out hearts to Him and obey only His commands. We need to get rid of those things which divide our loyalty, to which we give a greater priority than we give obeying God’s commands.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 1-3.

    I am very familiar with this passage and started reading it expecting to comment on Hannah’s prayer, or Eli’s response to it. Or, I thought perhaps I would comment about the disparity of how Eli’s sons turned out and how Samuel turned out, with a reference to how Samuel’s sons turned out much like Eli’s sons. Or maybe God would lead me to write about his call of the boy Samuel, giving him a message about God’s judgment against Eli’s family. However, the wording that caught my attention was from Hannah’s song.

Stop acting so proud and haughty!
Don’t speak with such arrogance!

Now my first thought was that Hannah was directing that quote against Peninnah. I still think that was, at least partially, the case. But, as I read on in Hannah’s song, I realized that she was warning against thinking that the way our life is now is the way it will always be. Hannah reminds us that God gives both life and death. She tells us that He makes some rich and others poor. And the key message she puts forth in her song is that the circumstances we are in now may not be the circumstances we will be in tomorrow. More importantly, it is God who determined the circumstances we are in and who will determine the circumstances we WILL be in. If things are going well for us now, it is not to our credit…and if things are going bad, it is not necessarily to our demerit. Whatever our state in life we are there because God has put us there. Let us use that state to bring glory to His name.