Do We Ever Have a Good Excuse to Sin?

1 Samuel 13

Do We Ever Have a Good Excuse to Sin?

Saul started out good, but as things go along it progressively gets worse and worse. In this chapter Saul attacks the Philistines but in the process awakes the “sleeping bear” and the Philistines assemble a massive army against Saul. His army panics and many hide or run away altogether. This isn’t exactly the kind of spot you want to be in (although from what we’ve learned thus far this is the kind of spot where God just might do something really cool).

Unfortunately, Saul doesn’t wait for God. You see, Samuel was supposed to be showing up to make sacrifices for the people but while Saul waits, his army is hemorrhaging men right and left who are afraid of the amassing Philistine army. So what does Saul do? He performs the sacrifices himself in an attempt to try and muster the confidence of his army, trying to convince them that God really is on their side. The only problem with this plan is that Saul has no business making the sacrifices. He might be king, but he is not prophet or priest.

 As you might guess, Samuel shows up as soon as Saul has finished with the sacrifice. Instead of simply owning up to his sin and repenting, Saul makes excuses for why he “needed” to disobey God’s orders. He even goes so far as saying he “forced himself” to do the deed.  In other words, he says that is wasn’t really his fault, the circumstances and the people made him do it, Samuel didn’t show up in time, he was really doing it for God, etc. However, God’s commands were clear and Samuel as God’s messenger tells Saul the consequences for his actions. His kingdom will one day be given to another. Saul’s disobedience will have lasting and drastic consequences. He can self-justify and make excuses all he wants but he cannot fool God.

To round out the chapter, the narrator continues to paint a bleak picture for the Israelites. Saul has only 600 men, they are surrounded by the Philistines, and Saul and Jonathon are the only two in the entire army that have swords. In case you were wondering, this doesn’t look very good at all. Only God could get them out of such a predicament. If you hadn’t read the story before, in light of everything that has happened in this chapter so far, is seems like Saul’s end is near…

Lessons: God takes obedience seriously…seriously, He does.

Human nature really hasn’t changed all the much over the millennia. We still like to make excuses for why our sin isn’t really our fault. We like to blame others or our circumstances for why we act wrongly. We let others around us or our problems influence us more than God’s word.

God wants to use you in His plan, He wants what’s truly best for you. So the question is, will you trust Him? Will you obey Him even when things get tough or when you are tempted? Will you trust him when you are pressured not to? Will you chose to obey God even when the choice is hard? 

Or…

Will you make excuses, will you choose temporary happiness over lasting peace and joy, will you blame others and give in?

We never have a good excuse to sin. God sees strait through us to the core. He knows what really goes on and we can’t fool Him. Our choices matter so let’s make the right ones and trust that God knows what He is doing. It will be worth it in the end.

Letting other's lead can be hard for a leader

1 Samuel Chapter 12

Samuel has served the Lord faithfully but the people have decided that they would rather be led by a king. King Saul has proved himself in battle and so Samuel makes the public transference of power away from himself and over to Saul. Samuel will, of course, still be a mouthpiece for God and still be a spiritual leader but Israel now has a king and much of Samuel’s responsibilities will be diminished. 

Even though Samuel has been obedient to God’s command throughout this transference, he really sticks it to the Israelites in his farewell speech. They have been sinful and ungrateful and wanting a king and he makes sure that they know it. He also makes them publically testify that he has been faithful and just in his dealings with them. 

If a tongue lashing wasn’t enough, he also has God rain down thunder and lightning and destroys crops that were just about ready to be harvested. The people freak and beg Samuel to ask God for mercy. He does of course and leaves them with one final charge. If they will be faithful to God and if their king will do the same, then things will be just fine. If not, well, you know how that goes. 

Lessons: Samuel wasn’t perfect but he finishes strong (and still has some miles left to go). He is faithful to the end even if he is a bit ornery in the process. Obedience through thick and thin counts and we need to be able to trust God even when it’s not easy. How often to people willingly give up power because it’s the right thing to do? Rarely are any of us humble enough to do this at the right time. May we be obedient to let God work, even if that means that we have to step aside and let someone else take authority and credit. May we serve God how He sees fit, not how we see fit.

Start Strong Good, Finish Strong Best

1 Samuel Chapter 11

As you might imagine, now that Saul is king, one of the surrounding nations is going to take a shot. Saul’s war leadership will have its first test. The Ammonites want some more subjects and land and so they decide that they want to take Jabesh-gilead. The people in the city really would rather not die so they attempt to negotiate with the large Ammonite army. The condition of gouging out all of their right eyes and becoming slaves doesn’t sound very appealing though so they send out the alarm and appeal for help to Saul.

                Where is Saul, king of Israel to come and help? He is plowing his own field. Not living in a palace, not being waited on hand and foot, but doing hard labor in the field. Some might see this as symbolic of a humble servant leader, others might see it as a man shirking the heavy responsibilities that have been thrust upon them. At any rate, when he hears the news he reacts decisively and sends out a threat to all of the tribes if they do not respond to his call for arms. The people respond and the battle is successful.

                Remember those guys who wouldn’t honor Saul when he was appointed king? Now that the army has been successful in battle they are brave enough to want to take on these guys and punish then for dishonoring the king. Saul wisely shows mercy and seeks peace.

Lessons: Saul’s kingship starts off strong. If we didn’t know the rest of the story we might be filled with hope that he just might be the one to deliver the people and lead them toward God. Staring strong is good but finishing strong is essential. So many of us can muster the effort to get off on the right foot, or to follow God for a period of time, but will we do so even when the going gets tough? Will we do so when life gets too easy? Will we stay diligent until the end? We need to start strong AND finish strong.

Dear God, Aren’t You So Glad Someone Special Like Me Serves You? 1 Samuel 9, 10

Dear God, Aren’t You So Glad Someone Special Like Me Serves You?

1 Samuel 9, 10

If you have been following the theme of 1^st Samuel to this point, you would know that as Saul is described at the beginning of chapter 9, he will not be successful as king. He is described as physically gifted, “From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people”. Saul looks the part, the opposite of the kind of people God has been using thus far. Certainly God can use those who are physically blessed in this world but the author has purposely described Saul in this way. God is giving the people what they want, but it won’t be what is really best for them. He is letting them learn the hard way.

We can tell the Saul is definitely part of the plan though because of his interactions with the prophet (King maker) Samuel. We see lots of prophecy spoken and then take place as Saul bumbles around looking for donkeys (insert all the donkey jokes here). Saul first gets anointed in secret, and then chosen in front of all the leaders of Israel. The people love it and through a great party. Saul looks good and even acts good at first. He shows patience and perhaps some humility (he might just be shy which is not the same as humility but can be mistake for it).

Lessons: We shouldn’t just assume that the person who looks the part can play the role, especially in ministry. Of course only God can truly see the heart, but we can look for evidence of a humble and sincere life. Don’t be too quick to elevate someone to savior status.

If God has blessed you with gifts, make sure that you remember who gave them to you. Remember who should get the glory in their use. God doesn’t give you gifts for you. God isn’t blessed to have you on His team, you are blessed that He lets you play, so play hard, play well, and give Him the credit for your success.

No Leader is Perfect (unless your Jesus)

1 Samuel Chapter 8

     

“When Samuel became old”. This is the opening line to chapter 8. We fast-forward through who knows how many years of Samuel’s life to the point that he is now old. This chapter, like so many in the Samuel narrative, makes me sad. We have seen Samuel be a faithful and courageous servant to the Most High God and we will see him continue to be in many respects. In this chapter, however, we see a chink in his armor, and a significant one I might say. Like his mentor Eli, he has allowed his sons to use their religious authority for injustice. In case you didn’t know, abusing God given authority is about as bad as it gets. 

                I honestly wonder how Samuel could have made this same mistake as Eli did, especially after he saw firsthand how horribly it turned out. Why didn’t he punish his sons for their disobedience? Why were they allowed to remain Judges, over Israel? This is a huge leadership mistake and Samuel pays dearly for it. 

                Because of his son’s dishonest reputations, the people seek to have someone else lead them after Samuel. His sons are a disaster, the people decide they would like a king. And why not? Everyone else has one and the other nations look really cool when they go to battle with their king leading the way. “Why, if we had a king, all of our leadership problems would be solved and then we would be victorious on battle and prosperous in peace time” right? 

                At least Samuel does the right thing and goes to God with this issue. It must have hurt to be rejected like this but he does the right thing, unlike the peoples solution to the problem, he goes to God for counsel. God tells Samuel that the one they are actually rejecting is God himself. Even though they wrongly ask for a king, God is going to let them have one, and suffer the consequences of getting exactly what they want. 

Lessons: No matter how close or interconnected our relationships are with those we have authority over, they must always be held accountable for their actions. We must not let friendship or family loyalties blind us from poor performance or character flaws. They have to be dealt with quickly and intentionally. Far too many businesses and ministries have been destroyed because top leadership refused to acknowledge the problems in the leadership below them. Open your eyes and do the hard thing. Plan on it, do it on purpose, do it now.

                We also need to be humble enough to take the criticism of others and bring it before God instead of proudly or arrogantly shoving it back in other’s faces. We need to let God mold us and shape us. Perhaps we might just learn something in the process.

                We need to be careful what we ask God for, He just might let us have it. God wants us to come to Him with our dreams and desires, but we need to do so recognizing that our hearts can be deceived. We need to want God’s will above our own and be willing to let Him mold and shape our lives. We need to be willing to let God change us when we come to Him in prayer, not just wanting Him to change our circumstances.

Ebenezer What?

1 Samuel 7:3-17                

EbenezerScrooge or “Here I raise mine Ebenezer”. This was about the extent of my knowledge of the word “ebenezer” growing up. One I know was a name of a person, the other I had no idea, other than it was in a song we sang at church. I was pretty sure, but not positive, it wasn’t referring to the old guy in A Christmas Carol. Today we see in chapter 7 that the word Ebenezer means “stone of help”.

                If you’ve been following along then you know that things have not been going well for the Israelites. The Philistines have been whooping up on them and they are preparing to do so again. Enter, Samuel the grown man prophet of God. We haven’t seen him for a few chapters but now he returns a grown man and ready to lead. We need to remember when we are reading a narrative like 1^st Samuel that large amounts of time can take place between verses and chapters even when it seems like they happened one right after the other. The author tells give us information for a reason, but we don’t get everything. Samuel has obviously been living among the people and serving God but we don’t know what or how that has been happening. The last thing we knew about him was back in chapter 3 where there was a summarizing statement about him “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel…knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.”

                Now in Chapter 7, with the Philistines preparing for war, the people cry out for help. Samuel provides leadership, but not just any leadership. He points the people back to God before he helps them with their physical deliverance. The people promise to serve God whole-heartedly (haven’t we heard this before?) and then Samuel, and then the Lord helped the people rout the Philistines. 

                Have you been wondering when the Ebenezer was coming in? Samuel had the people set up a stone near where God had helped them in battle. It was supposed to be a permanent reminder to them that God had saved them even when they were greatly outnumbered. In the years to come, even if things were bad, or if they were tempted not to trust God, they could look at the stone and remember that their God was faithful and powerful. Their God was their stone of help. 

Lesson: Remember those times in your life where you have seen God work in amazing ways. Perhaps He helped you through a difficult struggle. Maybe He helped you lead someone to Christ. There could be any number of things. I would encourage you to intentionally remember those times, perhaps journal about them so that when times are tough you can look back and be encouraged that your God is faithful, He is powerful, He does care.

Can’t I Worship How I Want?

1 Samuel 5:1-7:2 

The Israelites have just had anEpic Fail in which they tried to use the Ark of the Covenant as a lucky charm to defeat the Philistines and well, things went just about the opposite of what they had planned. The Philistines have taken the Ark and put it in the temple of their best god, Dagon. They actually show some respect for the Hebrew God but certainly don’t want to worship on His terms. Chapter 5 actually has some comic relief as we see the large statue of Dagon falling on its face before the Ark several times and even falling apart before the Ark (representation of God’s presence). Kind of embarrassing right?

To make matters worse, the city Ashdod (where the Ark is) is plagued with tumors so they pass the Ark off to Gath only to have the same thing happen. As you might imagine when they tried to pass it on to another city, its leaders were none too happy and so they devised a way to send it back to Israel. Though they don’t know how to worship God properly, we see them take great care and respect in trying to transport the Ark back to Israel and rid themselves of the curse God put on them. If only Israel had been or would be as respectful. 

As the Ark returns to Israel in chapter 6, we see the Israelites not show God the proper holy respect that He has demanded and many are even struck dead for not handling the Ark properly. Only when people start dying do they start to freak out and seek more carful action. They put the Ark in a guy’s house nearby (probably a Levite) and there it stays for years. Not in the Tabernacle, not in a temple, just in some guy’s house. This place where the glory of the Lord is supposed to be embodied is just shuffled away somewhere for years. Not until David takes the throne is anything done about it and we haven’t even got to Saul’s kingship yet. 

Lesson: Our heart attitude is, of course, important when we worship God, but He still cares about how we worship Him as well. We no longer worship Him with the Ark of the Covenant, or with animal sacrifices, or with the help of priests, but that doesn’t mean that we can just do whatever we want. Just simply following your heart will lead to wrong and sinful worship. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. We need to seek God through His word and come before Him carefully, intentionally, and respectfully. So, how do you worship, who do you worship and how will you worship?