Sun.’s Devo - Saul Disobeys

Read: 1 Samuel 12:1-13:23; John 7:1-30; Psalm 108:1-13; Proverbs 15:4 Samuel addressed all the people who met at Gilgal for a solemn assembly to the Lord. He reminded them that as their judge, he had never taken a bribe or perverted justice. The people agreed. They and the Lord were his witnesses on that day. Then Samuel reminded them of all the things the Lord had done for them as a nation and how they had so quickly forgotten the Lord and turned from him to worship other idols. *** Samuel reminded them that it usually didn’t rain during this time of year, but to show them how unpleased the Lord was, God would send thunder and rain. When Samuel prayed, it thundered and rained that day. The people were terrified and realized their sin in asking for a king. *** Samuel told them though they had done wrong, they must change and do right. They must worship the Lord and not their worthless idols. *** If they feared the Lord, and faithfully served him then God would do wonderful things for them. *** Saul was 30 years old when he became king and reigned 42 years. *** Saul selected 3,000 of his best troops and gave 1,000 of them to his son, Jonathan. They went to the country of Bethel to attack the Philistines. Johathan’s group attacked first and Saul sounded the ram’s horn to rally all Israel to revolt. They won the battle. *** The Philistines retaliated with 3,000 chariots, 6,000 charioteers and an uncountable amount of soldiers. They camped at Micmash. The Israelites were in a tight spot and began to panic and many deserted. *** Saul stayed at Gilgal waiting for Samuel to come and present the sacrifice to the Lord. Saul was losing his army so when Samuel didn’t arrive soon enough for Saul, he presented the burnt offering himself. As soon as he had finished, Samuel walked up. *** When Samuel heard Saul’ excuse for not waiting for him he told him he was foolish. Since he hadn’t kept the command of the Lord, his kingdom, that would have lasted forever, would be taken from him and given to a man after God’s heart. *** Samuel and Saul went their own way from there and Saul only had 600 men left. He took them with him to meet the rest of his army in Geba. *** None of the Israelites had swords or spears because they were not allowed to have them under the Philistine rule. *** In John Jesus traveled around Galilee and stayed out of Judea because they were plotting his death there. *** It was nearing the Feast of Tabernacles and his disciples wanted Jesus to go to it so he could do his miracles and become famous. Jesus told them it was not the right time for him to go but they could go anytime. Jesus remained in Galilee. *** His brothers left for the festival and Jesus went secretly. The Jewish leaders were looking for him at the festival and the people were all giving their opinion about Jesus. No one had the courage to speak about him favorably in public. *** In the middle of the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. The people were amazed at his wisdom and knowledge of God and the scriptures. Jesus explained that his message was not his own but God’s message to the people. He accused them of no obeying the Law given by Moses. The crowd shouted that he had a demon. *** Jesus showed their hypocrisy. They got mad at him for healing a man on the Sabbath when they circumcised their own children on the Sabbath. What was the difference? *** The people wondered why the religious leaders weren’t arresting Jesus and thought it might be because they thought he was the Messiah. But the fact that they thought the Messiah would just appear and no one would know his origin, it made them question if Jesus was the one. *** Jesus answered their question. He told them that they did know where Jesus came from, but he wasn’t here on his own. God had sent him to them. The leaders tried to arrest him but couldn’t lay a hand on him because it was not the time. *** Lord, may we be bold like Jesus and speak without fear of consequences. Thank you for your example. Thank you that you did all that for us. Increase our faith.