I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 14-15.

The New Living Translation, which I primarily use for these studies, uses the Septuagint to translate 1 Samuel 14:18 as “Then Saul shouted to Ahijah, ‘Bring the ephod here!’ For at that time Ahijah was wearing the ephod in front of the Israelites.”  However, in the notes they mention that the Hebrew reads “Then Saul shouted to Ahijah, ‘Bring the Ark of God.’ For at that time the Ark of God was with the Israelites.”  Now you may ask why that is significant.  It shows us that Saul sought to make God the center of his kingship.  Here, and again at the end of the battle when he had this soldiers bring the beasts they were going to butcher to eat to be ritually killed so as to meet God’s dietary commands, Saul turned to God.  Yet, here we also see the root of Saul’s failure.  When he saw how things were going with the Philistine army, he decided that he did not have time to wait for the Ark to be brought, he did not have time to wait for God.  This follows what happened in yesterday’s passage where Saul became impatient waiting for Samuel to come to offer the sacrifices and did so himself.  We need to wait for God, even when it seems that we do not have time to do so.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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

Yesterday’s passage indicated that not all of the Israelites agreed with the idea of making Saul king.  In light of the thoughts I expressed about the government, or lack thereof, of Israel before they had a king, I suspect they disagreed with the idea of appointing a king, of establishing a government.  Also, in Samuel’s address to Israel after Saul’s victory Samuel puts the Israelites request for a king in a different light than yesterday’s account of it.  Samuel says that the Israelites requested a king because they were afraid of Nahash, king of the Ammon.  Samuel spells out for them what their request for a king really meant.  Previously, when oppressors threatened the people of Israel, God raised up someone to lead them through the crisis.  This time they did not wish to wait for God to act  They wanted someone to take charge and rescue them immediately.  We too are often like that when we are frightened about the future we often seek someone, or something, to rescue us rather than waiting for God to deliver us in His time.