161st Week, I Samuel Chapters 15-19 (Click on Title for Video Intro)

 

Click on Title for Video Intro

Monday, I Samuel Chapter 15

I Samuel 15

Verse 22

Mindy Strayer

Verse 22: But Samuel replied, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”

THOUGHT

This is said many times in the Bible, so I think that God wants us to really get it! God says in Isaiah 1 that meaningless offerings are detestable, hated, and a burden to God. He says that He will hide His eyes from us if we try to offer up prayer without a pure and repentant heart.  God will not hear us if we are not truly sorry for our sin and want to rid ourselves of it. Proverbs 21:3 says, to do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. 

What does God have to gain if we ask for forgiveness, but don’t ever want to stop sinning against Him? Why should He bother wasting His time if the outcome of sin is still there?

In chapter 15, Saul told Samuel that he had obeyed God when in reality he had not. When we continue to disobey the Lord and not respond to His attempts at correcting us, we, like Saul, lose God’s truth. The web of lies that follows sin deceives us, and we eventually become entangled in them. We cannot see God when covered in sin. Unless we cry out to God with a pure heart, He will not be with us.

I would encourage you all to read Psalm 51. It is David’s plea to God for mercy, forgiveness, and cleansing. This is an awesome example of a man wholeheartedly, and with complete humility, asking God for forgiveness.

PRAYER

We love You and want to please You, Lord. We pray that You would help us to see the sin in our lives. We pray that our hearts would respond in humility and repentance. Please cleanse us, Lord Jesus, and create within us a pure heart. Give us a greater understanding of Your Word, Lord, and help us to obey You daily, so that we would learn to delight in Your Ways.  AMEN

Tuesday, I Samuel Chapter 16

I Samuel 16

Verse 7

Mindy Strayer

Verse 7:  But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

THOUGHT

Again we see that God’s interest is our heart’s condition. So here we are introduced to David. He is described as a handsome man, but kind of the runt of the family who tends to the sheep. Jesse did not have David even come to the sacrifice that Samuel had invited him and his sons to attend.  When Samuel asked Jesse if he had any more sons, Jesse had to send for David as he was not present. He was tending the sheep, probably what his father told him to do. 

David ends up being chosen by God. Not his other 7 older and bigger brothers, who must have all looked the perfect picture of kings. The reason being because God saw into David’s heart and saw his faith and character, and he found them to be pure and right.

I also would like to comment on David’s response to God.  Now, God uses everyone, including those without faith, in His master plan. Those of us who are followers of Him, however, need to be ready to respond to God’s call. David was probably having a fine life of tending sheep when God called him for something great. I wonder what was going through his head when he was interrupted from his duties as shepherd and told to go home to meet with Samuel, Israel’s religious leader.  He may have even been told that Samuel was looking for the one that the Lord had chosen. Whoa!!! 

Well, David showed up, and God poured out His spirit into David. Then David goes to work for King Saul, kind of a sticky situation considering the events that had just taken place with Samuel. David answered God’s call and went where the Lord directed him. And he must have done the work with a positive spirit because the Bible says that Saul liked David very much. Saul made him an armor-bearer, told him that he was pleased with him, and asked him to stay.

Things to pray about: How does God see our hearts? Does He see ours as He saw David’s, of pure character and faith? Are our hearts prepared to answer God’s call?

PRAYER

Lord, we thank You for the story of how and why You chose David to be king.  We pray that while we are living in this world of “appearance counts for everything,” that we would not fall into the trap of being overly concerned with how the world sees us. We should do our best to be physically healthy.    But we pray that our biggest concern would be for our inner character and the picture of faith that our hearts display.  We ask you, Lord Jesus, to cleanse our hearts of all the sin that lies within.  Make our hearts a perfect appearance in the eyes of the Lord.  We pray in Jesus Name.  AMEN

Wednesday, I Samuel Chapter 17

I Samuel 17

Verse 45

Tanya Ruden

Verse 45:  David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”

THOUGHT

How awesome it is to read the story of David and Goliath!! It reminds us that nothing is impossible with God! First of all when I was reading this story I was thinking about the troop’s reaction when they found out that Saul had chosen or agreed to let David fight Goliath. Of all people, David did it. David was not the biggest, not the strongest, not the tallest, not the most experienced warrior.  They tried to give him a great suit of armor to make him appear to be something he wasn’t.  However, David took it all off and fought in his own clothes.  

I am sure the troops had some definite opinions about what was going on.  David had little support from his ‘team’, and he is fighting the biggest guy on the other team.  David was confident!  He was strong in his faith! When you read the story, he is ready to fight. Not once do I get the impression he lacked confidence that he could not win.  Can you imagine having hundreds of people on your team and have them be upset with you, have no faith in you and have them think that victory will not happen.  David walked with confidence, armed with GOD, and knew he could handle this with God.

Isn’t this how God calls us to walk every day?  The world is armed with “worldly things” but we have the Lord Jesus Christ, believing confidently in what makes us all winners in the battles with the Goliaths of life.

PRAYER

Dear Jesus, we have heard the story of David and Goliath since we were small children. Then we learned how You can use little people to overcome big people, and with You nothing is impossible. As we have grown in our faith and understanding, we learn from this story to apply David’s faith and armor and confidence to the battles in our lives.  Knowing that with You as our shield and sword, we will win and beat the ‘impossible’ Goliaths in our lives. Help us to wear Your armor with confidence this day.  AMEN

Thursday, I Samuel Chapter 18

1 Samuel 18

Verse 14

Tanya Ruden

Verse 14:  In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him.

THOUGHT

My first thought when I read this chapter was, ‘can you imagine having someone try to kill you twice, barely escaping death and then later become this person’s son-in-law?’ Isn’t it when you begin dating the girl that the dad really wants to kill you? - Just a random thought.

To the devotion...I really liked the thoughts on jealousy in this chapter. How many of you have ever felt jealous? I know few of you can relate, but from my own experiences jealousy is such a real worldly sin. How often are we jealous that someone is better than us at something? For example, you have a co-worker who is doing better than you or is being noticed more than you. What is your first wish?  Get rid of them - like what Saul tried to do with David. His jealousy had manifested to the point of attempted murder.

I think this is a reminder to be watchful of our ‘little’ sins. We may feel jealous, but not repent of the sin, because it was only a thought and no act was committed. But if we don’t pray and present this ‘thought’ to God and ask for strength to overcome our jealous attitude, it could manifest into something bigger. Look what happened to Saul’s jealous thoughts.

PRAYER

Dear Jesus - Jealousy - what a terrible thing and such a worldly feeling we so often possess. We pray, Lord, that as we start to experience this feeling, we would come before You and lay it at Your feet asking You to give us strength to stop the feeling before it manifests. Help this to be our attitude with other sinful thoughts also.  AMEN

Friday, I Samuel Chapter 19

I Samuel 19

Verse 6

Tanya Ruden

Verse 6:  Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, David will not be put to death.”

THOUGHT

Have you ever noticed how your family is a great judge of character? It seems the people that love us often are great judges of character about our friends. I remember times when my mom or sister would say, “I am not sure she is a very good friend.” or “She is so sweet.”  Here we have a situation where the siblings think David is great and are looking out for their friend.  They are protecting him from death. They are trying to tell their dad, Saul, that he is making a mistake by trying to kill David.  This is an example of family judging character, and in this case, trying to tell a parent someone is a Godly person.

Let’s think of Saul’s family when we are meeting friends of our family members. Are we being honest with them about their friends? We have studied this past year on more than one occasion what hanging with the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ people will do to our character and our hearts. Let’s encourage those relationships which are blessed by God and discourage those we feel could bring destruction.

PRAYER

Dear Jesus, Thank You so much for family and also for the blessing of friends. Thank You that our family knows us so well and looks out for us and our wellbeing. Thank You for good friends also who often fill a physical void when our family is so far away. Help us, Lord, to always be honest with our family. If we see people in our families’ lives causing destruction, give us the words to discuss this with them.  If we see great people strengthening our families’ lives, help us encourage these relationships. AMEN