Today’s readings are 1 Samuel 15-17

🌿I want to start by backtracking a bit near the end of chapter 14. 

1 Samuel 14:47 states ⁴⁷ When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned he routed them.

Saul had enemies on every side. His kingdom was surrounded by enemy nations. If Israel was directed to clear the land of its inhabitants before taking possession of it. Rather than do that, though, they decided to just move in among them. E V E R Y problem plaguing Israel could have been avoided by them simply walking in obedience. And truly, today as it was then, walking in obedience to the Father is far simpler than keeping step with the world. 

🌿Lest we think the Father isn’t paying attention to our behavior, 1 Samuel 15:2 sure is a wakeup call! YHWH says “I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came out of Egypt.” Some translations say “I have witnessed” and some simply say “I will punish” but the lesson is the same. No one pulls one over on the Father. 

🌿1 Samuel 15:3 is another difficult passage for reasons we have addressed before. Bear in mind that in these cultures, children were raised with a hatred of the enemies of their nation. It was ingrained in them from birth. Similar to how we occasionally see horrifying footage of young boys of a radical faith practice preparing for war and gleefully telling of how they will kill their enemies. They have been desensitized to it. Just as some members of previous generations didn’t think our culture was racist for having segregation – because it was what they were born into, surrounded with, and all of their authority figures told them it was okay. It is a form of generational brainwashing and yes, some are strong enough to step out of that but by and large, people tend to believe the values and “truths” that are handed down through generations. Another factor is that in most of these cultures, children were honor bound to seek vengeance on anyone who took the life of their parent. So if they left the children, in a matter of years there would be another war rising up. 

🌿1 Samuel 15:6 Saul directed the Kenites to depart from the Amalekites. Although the Kenites had been kind to Israel and were going to be shown grace, they needed to separate themselves from the Amalekites or else they would face the same punishment, regardless of their personal behavior. There is a great lesson in this for us. 

🌿1 Samuel 15:8-9 Do you see what Saul did? He did NOT OBEY the Father. However, he did obey YHWH a little bit, and we see in 1 Samuel 15:13 that Saul felt partial obedience was just as good as complete obedience. How does YHWH view partial obedience? He tells us: 

1 Samuel 15:11 ¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.

YHWH views partial obedience as disobedience. Saul was given a clear directive but He decided to override the wisdom of YHWH with his own wisdom. He decided that his way was better than what the very word of YHWH told Him to do. 

He chose his own understanding over YHWH’s truth.

How does YHWH view this? Samuel tells us: 

Because you have rejected the word of YHWH, He has also rejected you from being king. – 1 Samuel 15:23]

When we go our own way, do things our own way, decide that we know a better or more suitable way to follow the instructions of YHWH (oftentimes this “better way” is to disregard the instructions altogether) the Father sees this as a direct rejection of Him. 

Why do we do this? I have a few blunt answers to that but I’ll reserve them for my own family’s Bible study and give you the more polished “company” answer instead. Actually, I’ll let Saul tell you in his own words. 

“I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandments of YHWH and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” 1 Samuel 15:24

A few things I want to point out here: “the people” being referenced are YHWH’s chosen people. If we were applying this wisdom in our time, as gentiles, this would be the church. Who did Saul fear MORE than YHWH? The people. Who did Saul obey INSTEAD of obeying the voice of YHWH? The voice of the people. 

This is something that merits some turning over in our minds today. Deep reflection and conversation with the Father is in order. 

Do we fear the opinions of people so much that we are willing to live in disobedience to YHWH? 

🌿We see something that may seem like a contradiction in the character of YHWH if we were just surface reading as most folks do. But, having built our foundational knowledge of Scripture we are equipped some knowledge of YHWH that causes us to pause and reexamine the passage instead.  The verses are 1 Samuel 15:11, 1 Samuel 15:29, and 1 Samuel 15:35

Essentially the text has the Father saying that He regrets making Saul king, and then in the center verse Samuel says that YHWH is not a man that He has regrets. The text seems to be talking out of both sides of its mouth but if we go back to context and original meaning we can see a different view. 

Rather than regret, some texts have YHWH saying He repents of making Saul king. Repent, but that is for sinners right? In our modern language repent is a very diluted word. Nowadays it just means a momentary sorrow over some wrongdoing but oftentimes no change takes place. In the case of a Believer, this is generally due to the lack of the Holy Spirit in one’s life (we know them by their fruits, good trees don’t bear rotten fruit). However, the original meaning of repent means to turn from something. YHWH is stating that He has turned from Saul. He knew this was going to happen, there is no regret, but He is now turning from Saul. 

Why did YHWH make Saul a king to begin with? Israel cried out for a king and in doing so, Israel rejected YHWH as their king. Sometimes, rather than give us what we need, YHWH gives us what we deserve – there is still a grace in that as it may bring us to our knees and become another opportunity to see the error of our ways and return to Him. 

🌿More of my random observations: 

🌿YHWH clearly instructs Saul on exactly what He is to do with Amalek (Note that Amalek was the First Nation to attack Israel and they are the descendants of Esau) – but rather than put to death everything as God had commanded, Saul kept the best sheep and calves, claiming later that it was to sacrifice to YHWH.

🌿I LOVE Samuel’s response to Saul saying he had done all that the lord had commanded. I imagine one eyebrow raised and a hand on his hip as he says:
“Then why do I hear the bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen?”

🌿Samuel further points out Sauls disobedience in:

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”

💕Again, we see: What is God’s love language? Obedience.

Now I know that seems like a weird thing to talk about when it comes to the creator of the universe, love languages. But knowing someone’s love language makes a HUGE difference in how we are able to effectively show them we love them.

When Ricky and I got married, a few months in, we did a love language survey and it was a game changer! You see, we had no idea that we had different love languages. Ricky’s love language is words of affirmation and mine is acts of service. Well, here Ricky was telling me he loved me and saying all these nice things and I was inwardly rolling my eyes and wondering why he was doing that all the time. It made no sense to me because I was more of a show me don’t tell me type of person.

And here I was cooking all these nice meals and folding his laundry and such and to him, he still didn’t feel loved through my actions. Why? I was speaking to him in my language and he was speaking to me in his and neither one of them made sense to the other.
So we switched horses so to speak because now I understood what made Ricky feel loved and he understood what made me feel loved.

God’s love language is obvious just a few minutes into reading His word and we see it time and again. When you truly love someone, you show them in ways that make them feel loved, not in the ways that make you feel loved.  The Father does not want our knockoff version of faith: lipservice and portions of our heart and attendance at the most comfortable congregation conveniently located and scheduled to suit our life. He wants our time, He wants our trust, and He wants our obedience. 

There is a vast difference between having faith in YHWH and being faithful to YHWH. 

🌿At this point, at least Saul was smart enough to know he’d messed up but his main concern seems to be saving face as he tells Samuel to go with him so he can bow down before the Lord. And did you catch that part where he built a monument for himself after his great victory? We are going to see the opposite of that attitude in Chapter 17, and I talk about that a little at the bottom of this post.

He finally admits he has disobeyed YHWH but refuses to see what a bad position he is in as a result.

This is a classic example direct from a parable of Jesus in Matthew 13, the Sower and the Seed. Saul’s ground was rocky. The seed shot up quickly but the roots didn’t go deep and as a result the plant didn’t thrive for long.

🌿After more pleading for Samuel to return with him, Samuel responds:
“I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

You have rejected the word of YHWH. Ugh. Gut punch.

Takeaways from todays reading are, again, details matter to YHWH.
Obedience is better to Him than our sacrifices. Getting dressed up and giving Him half a day once a week may be a good thing – but if we do it in lieu of obeying Him and living according to His word, it’s useless.

🌿AND NOW the opposite example: 🙌1 Samuel 17 – notice, time and again, that David’s confidence is not in himself but in YHWH. What a different outcome we see for him as a result!

🌿Pay attention to all of the times the Holy Spirit descends on and moves in today’s reading. We’ve seen the Holy Spirit indwelling in people since the very beginning and will continue to see it. As I’ve mentioned, this is a direct contradiction to a popular doctrinal belief that states that the Holy Spirit didn’t come until the “new” testament. But who needs manmade doctrine when we have the Father’s truth!? Don’t settle for less than He wants to give you. 

🌿1 Samuel 16:7 “For YHWH sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance but YHWH looks on the heart.” 

I don’t know about y’all but every time I read the Bible I feel like the Father has given me a new scrub brush and is helping me scrub and scrub all those stains on my heart so that I can be clean in His eyes! 

We praise you, Father, for making us new. For teaching us how to follow you in spirit and in truth with our whole hearts. You ask us to return to you and we answer “WE ARE RETURNING!” 

Begin at the beginning with our Genesis notes

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GOOD MORNING!

Today’s readings are: 1 Samuel 13-14

Rabbit Trails 

🌿1 Samuel 13:4  In today’s passage, one translation says Israel had become obnoxious to the Philistines. I thought this was strange so I checked out some other translations and a more common interpretation was “abomination” but I encourage you to dig in for yourself. Either way, what they are referring to is that Saul stirred them up, kicking a hornet’s nest so to speak, in order to get them good and fired up so that he could get the Israelites good and fired up to fight for him.

🌿Sidenote that is always helpful:
Sometimes when a chapter doesn’t start out making sense it is helpful to go back and read the previous chapter and then continue into that next chapter. Remember that chapter and verse numbers were not part of the original text and it often happens that text is divided in awkward places that disrupts rather than helps the flow of a story, making it appear to be two different sections when it was originally written as one. It is surprising how many times doing this simple thing helps the text to make so much more sense.

🌿We open today with Saul picking fights with the Philistines, putting himself and his soldiers in precarious situations, and then deciding he might wanna think about seeking God’s favor and blessing. Umm, yeah, Saul, good idea.

🌿But he takes this further because Samuel does not arrive in what Saul deems to be a timely fashion so he decides to take matters in his hands again (as he did with going off to battle) and make the sacrifice himself, rather than to wait on YHWH’s priest to do it. Note that only priests were allowed to make sacrifices and this had been made very clear so in doing this Saul showed a complete disregard for YHWH’s ordinances. This can be seen as a “This doesn’t apply to me because I’m special” type attitude.

¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of YHWH your God, with which he commanded you. For then YHWH would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. YHWH has sought out a man after his own heart, and YHWH  has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what YHWH commanded you.” 1 Samuel 13:13-14

🌿Now, I want us to be mindful of something here. There is a temptation for us to see this as harsh on the part of YHWH and I want to urge you to move past that because that is the worldliness in us telling us to feel that way. Move past the feelings and into the wisdom of YHWH. How many times has He shown us that DETAILS MATTER TO YHWH? How many times have we seen it? When He says don’t do something, He doesn’t mean don’t do it until you really really want to do it. When He says to obey Him, He doesn’t mean to obey Him only if it feels right to you. DETAILS MATTER TO YHWH – and He has given us those details repetitively, through His words and examples and words again. When a parent tells a child to do or not do something time and time again, and that child chooses to disregard that directive, the hammer will come down. 

🌿We go on to see Jonathan has more faith in YHWH than His father, and YHWH responds accordingly. 

🌿I just want to point out that the vow Saul made his soldiers take not to eat, drink, or rest until he had finished taking vengeance on his enemies was a rash, impulsive, and unwise vow. It showed no regard for his men. Further, notice that in 1 Samuel 14:24 Saul said they weren’t to eat until HE had taken vengeance on HIS enemies. This was not a mission for YHWH, nor was it sanctioned by Him. 

🌿When we later see Jonathan eating the honey he was not breaking any vow. Since he was not around when his father inflicted it on the men so not only did he not hear it, he did not agree to it either. This was just one more of the immeasurable gifts of grace from YHWH.

🌿Why did people suddenly start killing animals? Saul had worked them hard and not given them food, drink, or rest. The vow had been for that day and once evening came, it was a new day for them. Clearly, they were ready for some food! They were so hungry, in fact, that they did not take time to properly drain each animal of the blood, which is a commandment from YHWH. (Lev 17:10) The people of Israel no doubt knew this was a sin but they had been worked up into such a hunger that they did not care at this point. While they were still responsible for their own sin, their leadership (Saul) also bears the responsibility of this as well.

🌿The stone Saul had brought was for the animals to be killed on, if you laid an animal upon it and slit it’s throat you could hang the head off the edge and the blood would drain properly. Anyone who has butchered an animal knows this is a fairly simple process.

🌿I’ll leave you with this challenge and promise. Write the following verse down today and post a picture on the comment thread in the fellowship group. When you’re done, tuck it away in your Bible as a blessing to find another day. 

If you seek Him, He will be found by you  ~1 Chronicles 28:9

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Good Morning! 

Today’s readings are 1 Samuel 9-12

🌿FEAST TIME!  1 Samuel 9:1-2 Meeting Saul – Today we meet the first king of Israel, Saul. From the first two verses we are told that he is tall, incredibly handsome, and taller than all the others. Well, that is one way to please the folks whose values have lined up with the world! 

🌿1 Samuel 9:3-4 details the search for the donkeys of Saul’s dad. I was reading all the places they had traveled through and thinking “Man, these are some special donkeys!” 

🌿1 Samuel 9:15 flash backs and tells us that YHWH had told Samuel that the future king would arrive the following day. When we read in 1 Samuel 9:13 that Samuel was preparing to make a sacrifice, the original text denotes the type of sacrifice as one made in an offering of thanksgiving to YHWH, that is then allowed to be eaten in a feast of Thanksgiving. (You can dig into this on Biblehub.com with the interlinear option)

It is entirely possible, probable, and highly likely that Samuel was making this sacrifice in response to the news YHWH gave him the previous day. We further see proof that this was the case when we find that Samuel had a special portion put back for Saul’s arrival.
Now that’s some faith, trust, and obedience!

🌿1 Samuel 9:27 has a line I just love… 

…stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God. 

Doesn’t that just feel like balm to your soul. Y’all, that is what we do each day in this group. We stop a while while the Father makes known to us His word. Shalom washes over my soul just thinking about it.

🌿1 Samuel 10:1-8 I also love how specific Samuel was as to all of the signs the Father was going to send to prove to him that he was the anointed king of Israel! I mean, read these and see how incredibly specific, one after the other, each sign was. In fact, they grew MORE specific from start to finish! Recall that in order to be a prophet of YHWH all things prophesied must come true, with this knowledge it is easy to see that Samuel was close indeed to the Father and his faith was great! WOW! 

🌿1 Samuel 10:9 “When he turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart…” 

Directly following that sentence we will read of an encounter in which the response within Saul  was this “and the spirit of God rushed upon him.”.

This is so akin to the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33) ! Wherein the Father gives us a new heart to WANT to obey His law and then equips us with His spirit to help us do just that!

Do we have a new heart? Do we want to obey the Father or do we make excuses as to why we don’t need to? That question can quickly determine where our heart lies. 

🌿1 Samuel 10 marks  the first time we read of someone being anointed with oil outside of the priesthood.

🌿God gave Saul a new heart after he was anointed with oil. Think of this in terms of our concept of being born again. Saul was now a new person, with a heart for God! 🙌🏻❤️

🌿10:18 “This is what the Lord says….” Or to translate more accurately “This is what YHWH says…”
Pay attention to statements like this because it lets us know that YHWH Himself is speaking. It is important in our reading to always be aware of who is speaking. Obviously, not every statement in the Bible can be attributed to YHWH but those that are His certainly should be. Conversely, when mere men are speaking their own words, they should never be given the authority of YHWH’s. That has already got us into a whole heap of trouble.

🌿We have another if/then statement today in 1 Samuel 12:14-15 . Check it out and see that the pattern of YHWH’s if/then statement has been established. Recall that YHWH has told us, through His words and His repeated actions, that He does not change (Malachi 3:7).  Based on that, we can easily imagine (and most definitely should) that these if/then statements were spoken directly to us.

Are we somehow the only people in history that the Father does expect to obey Him? Did Messiah truly die for us so that we could live however we wanted? If these are still unanswered questions in your mind, I want to encourage you to keep reading. Regardless of how many times the Father has already answered these questions, He is going to continue to repeat those answers time and again – and we will see Messiah do the same, with the same answers as the Father. Keep reading, keep praying, keep seeking. If the light hasn’t come on yet, and you are truly seeking Him with your whole heart, it is just a matter of time. For some, the pieces have fallen into place, but others are still collecting pieces and just now beginning to assemble the puzzle – and that is okay. He reveals in His time, according to His will, and for His good purpose. Keep reading, set your heart to understand, and show up – every day. He will meet you there. 

🌿At the end of chapter 12 we see Israel begin to understand that in demanding a king they were actually rejecting  the kingship of YHWH, and the awareness of the gravity of that sin is sinking in. I don’t know about you but I know that feeling all too well.

🌿We finish our reading with yet another reminder that YHWH wants our whole hearts, not just part time devotion. When does a parent repeat themselves? When it is important. 

²⁴ Only fear YHWH and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24

I’m so glad you are here today. So thankful for the blessing of this group and the ability to read the word together with such amazing people who act as iron sharpening iron with one another!!!

Begin at the beginning with our Genesis notes

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