I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
When Samuel got old, he had a similar problem to that of the man who raised him, Eli. His sons were not godly men as they began to take over for him. As a result the people of Israel came to Samuel and requested that he anoint them a king to take care of them. Samuel warns them that if they crown a king to take care of them, he will take away their freedoms. Samuel tells them that the king will take the best of everything and either keep it for himself or give it to his friends. The people demand that Samuel give them a king to take care of them anyway. It is amazing how much Samuel’s warning to Israel about what a king would demand reflects what happens whenever people demand that the government take care of them. The story then goes on to tell us how Saul was selected as king. While we are told that God selected him, we are also told that he was the most handsome man in Israel and that he stood head and shoulders above everyone else. Again, notice how similar that description is to that of a successful Presidential candidate. We, as humans, often select our leaders on superficial characteristics rather on those that would make good leaders of the people. God often grants the wishes of people to be ruled over by handsome and impressive people who are otherwise shallow in order to show people that they should put a higher priority on other characteristics. And just like the Israelites of old, we today are often slow learners.
This passage is perhaps one of the strongest condemnations of prosperity theology there is in the Bible. Prosperity theology says that if you believe, you will receive material blessings. Here Jesus condemns the people because they are following Him merely because He fed them (gave them a material blessing), not because they understood the meaning of His miracles. Jesus goes on to say that we should be more concerned about eternal things than we are about material things that will perish. The people replied that they wanted to do God’s works and asked what they should do to do so. Jesus replied by telling them that they should believe in Him. The people then demanded a miraculous sign like Moses providing manna in the wilderness. Jesus then tells them that Moses did not provide the manna, it was provided by God. He goes on to tell them that God is now providing the bread of life and that He is the bread of life. When the people finally understand that He is not talking about some literal bread that they can eat, but about following Him and serving God, they start to mutter among themselves, “Who does he think he is? We know his parents and they aren’t anybody special.” This is something we all do, when we don’t like the message, we start to attack the messenger. We try to make it seem that the messenger can’t possibly be right when we know in our heart of hearts that the message is from God (even though He sometimes uses unworthy vessels to deliver His word to us).
The psalmist continues with his recounting of the ways which the people of Israel rebelled against God’s commands. He spends quite a bit of time talking about how sacrificed their children to the gods of their neighbors and how this caused the Lord’s anger to burn against them. When I read this psalm I cannot help but think that God’s anger is burning against this country because of the way we are sacrificing our children on the altar of convenience in the name of “choice”. God has made His judgement clear about those who will sacrifice their children for their own betterment and abortion is sacrificing a child. The psalmist is writing from a time when the people have suffered God’s judgement and have come back to worshiping Him. The psalmist ends by petitioning God to restore His people and calling on those people to rejoice and praise the Lord. As we choose to be faithful to God and rejoice in His goodness and praise Him, we will be a witness to those around us who are enslaved to the idols of this world.
This proverb tells us that godliness makes a nation great and sin is a disgrace to any people. What happens when a people is no longer ashamed of sin? When people become proud of their sinfulness? To me the answer is obvious, it is only a matter of time until tragedy strikes.