Today's Reading; 1 Samuel 17:31-58

The Battle Belongs to the LORD

“In heavenly armour, we’ll enter the land. The battle belongs to the Lord.

No weapon that’s fashioned against us shall stand.  The battle belongs to the Lord.

We sing, glory and honor, power and strength to the Lord.

The power of darkness comes in like a flood. The battle belongs to the Lord.

He’s raised up a standard, the power of His blood.  The battle belongs to the Lord.

We sing, glory and honor, power and strength to the Lord.

When your enemy presses in hard, do not fear. The battle belongs to the Lord.

Take courage my friend, your redemption is near. The battle belongs to the Lord.

We sing, glory and honor, power and strength to the Lord.

The battle belongs to the Lord.*”

These are the lyrics of a great worship song written some forty-plus years ago.  In these lyrics, the writer expresses the same sentiment as David in today’s passage.  Confronted by a strong enemy, Goliath, the mighty warrior of the Philistines, David defiantly tells him that “the Lord will give you into our hand.”  David wasn’t being boastful or arrogant with these words.  He wasn’t expressing confidence in his own abilities or the abilities of the Israelite armies. No, he was expressing his total confidence in the Lord.

David recognized the awesome truth that, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). To put this truth another way, with God on our side like this, how can we lose? The reality is that the battle always belongs to the Lord.  We must always remember this truth and whenever we face darkness, fear, temptation, or attacks, it is imperative that we look to the God who is for us and sing, “glory and honor, power and strength to the Lord.” 

Don’t defy your enemies in your humanity. Don’t rely on your own strength or resources to battle life’s battles. Instead, look confidently to Him and recognize that the battle belongs to the Lord.

 * © Maranatha! Music

 

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 17:1-30

 

When Your God is Big Enough

The Philistines were an intimidating people.  They had a strong military and had defeated Israel on numerous occasions.  Truth be told, the Israelites, were terrified of this army and its soldiers.  And now, the Philistines “rub salt in the wound” by sending forward one of their greatest warriors. This giant of a man, nearly ten feet tall stepped out from the Philistine line into the open, Goliath from Gath. He had a bronze helmet on his head and was dressed in armor—126 pounds of it! He wore bronze shin guards and carried a bronze sword. His spear was like a fence rail—the spear tip alone weighed over fifteen pounds. His shield bearer walked ahead of him.

Goliath issued a defiant challenge to Israel, “Send out a man to battle with me. Let us fight it out together!”  The Israelites, to a man, fell back the moment they saw the giant—totally frightened.  Except one.

David, the shepherd boy from Bethlehem arrived that day to hear the arrogance and defiance of Goliath and the Philistines.  David was blown away that this man openly and defiantly challenged Israel, which he saw as a challenge of Israel’s God.  To speak like this to God’s people was something David just could not comprehend.

Why was David not afraid like the rest of the Israelites?  Because he saw how big his God was and knew in his heart that this defiant Philistine was no match for the God of Gods and Lord of Lords.  Yes, Goliath was big.  But David’s God was bigger.  David wasn't intimidated by this Philistine Giant because David’s God was big enough!

Whenever we face big problems in life, it is so important to remember that our God is bigger than our problem.  It has been said that “the difficulty of any task is always measured by the agent doing the work.”  If your “agent” is puny and weak, the task will always look insurmountable.  But if your “agent” is God, then every challenge pales in comparison to His unlimited power and resources.  David’s God was big enough to conquer this defiant Philistine.  

Is your God big enough to conquer your problem? 

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 16

The Lord Looks on the Heart

Appearances can be deceiving. The outward appearance doesn’t reveal what people are really like. Physical looks don’t show us a person’s value or character or integrity or faithfulness to God. Outward qualities are, by definition, superficial. Moral and spiritual considerations are far more important to God.

The Lord is about to reveal to Samuel the next king of Israel.  The Lord told him that He has chosen a new king from among the sons of Jesse in the town of Bethlehem. After some initial hesitation, Samuel heads down to Bethlehem and begins to look over Jesse’s sons.  He is most likely looking for a strong warrior-type individual to lead the nation.  Someone who looks strong and able who can muster the support of the people.

So, one-by-one, Jesse’s sons come and present themselves to Samuel.  And, one-by-one, God rejects them, because they are not His chosen leader. God, told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. God judges persons differently than humans do. You tend to look at the outward appearance, but I look into the heart.” 

People tend to judge the character and worth of others by looking at outward appearances. If a person is tall, good-looking, well-built, well-spoken, and tastefully dressed, then he or she possesses physical qualities that humans generally admire and respect. Often these are the physical qualities we seek in a leader. But God has the unique ability to see inside a person. God knows our true character because he “looks at the heart.”

God was looking for someone who had a faithful heart. David, Jesse’s youngest son, whom they had not even bothered to call, was out tending the sheep. After Samuel passed over the other sons, they sent for David, and the Lord told Samuel, “This is the one.”  David was God’s choice.  He was not perfect, but he was humble and faithful, a man after God’s heart. In his time alone in the fields, shepherding the flocks, David had come to know God as his Shepherd.

There are two important lessons for us in this passage.  First, if we desire to be used of God and chosen by Him for ministry, we must focus on the inner person and cultivate a faithful heart. The Lord is looking for those whose hearts are humble and faithful to place into positions of service.  Second, we must be careful not to look at appearances when making choices in life.  We must humbly seek God’s person and rely fully on His wisdom to help us choose wisely.

 

Today's Reading - 1 Samuel 15

Obedience is Better than Religiosity

A lot of people make the same mistake as Saul.  They think that their religious activities will cover their life of disobedience to God.  Tragically, this never works.  God is not impressed with our religious acts, nor does He give us credit for our religiosity or dutiful sacrifices. To put this another way, we could say, behold, to obey is better than “going to church,” and to listen to Him is better than “taking the eucharist.”  To obey is better than “working as a volunteer” on the church committee, and to listen to Him is better than “donating to the church offering.”

It is an ugly characteristic of human nature to believe that we can “be good enough” or do enough “good works” to somehow make ourselves pleasing and acceptable to God.  But this is never the case.  There is no amount of human goodness that could ever be enough to satisfy a holy God, because there is no way to cover all of my sins and acts of disobedience.  The goodness that God demands is perfection and our religiosity will never, ever, achieve it.

Saul disobeyed God.  He failed to utterly destroy the flocks and herds of the enemy as he had been clearly commanded to by God.  And then, to make matters worse, he attempted to placate God by offering sacrifices on the altar.  When Samuel arrived, God’s decision to replace Saul for his disobedience had been sealed.  He would no longer be king.  Why?  Because he carelessly handled the word of God and thought he could justify himself by performing “religious activities.”

Oh, how we need to be so careful about this.  We, as followers of Christ are, of course, saved by grace through faith.  There is nothing more we can do to make ourselves acceptable to God than to believe in the sacrifice of His Son on the cross for our sins.  Once cleansed of our sin by faith, we are to embark on a life of obedience to God, listening to His voice, and following His word.  When we fail in our obedience (and we will), we must never make the same mistake as Saul by trying to cover our sins with religious activities, going to church, paying our tithes, reading our bible, etc.  We must return to Him in humility and repentance and be cleansed by the ONLY thing that can truly make us right with God – the blood of Christ – for “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

If only Saul had learned the value of obedience over religiosity.  The outcome of his life would have turned out dramatically different.

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 14:24-52

Impaired Decision Making

We can see from today’s reading that king Saul is beginning to become impaired in his thinking and decision making.  At the beginning of his reign, he had been humble and filled with the Spirit of God.  And the Lord gave him many victories over Israel’s enemies. But slowly the spirit of pride started to grow in his heart which led him to rebellion and disobedience to God’s commands.  This ultimately led to the loss of his ability to make sound judgments. 

In today’s passage, Saul arbitrarily issued an order that his soldiers were not allowed to eat any food that day on penalty of death.  This, in itself, was an impaired decision as any military commander would want his troops to be well nourished and strong before entering battle.  But Saul’s mind wasn’t right.  He just couldn’t see the error of his command.  (Now, some believe that the bread in Israel had been contaminated with some sort of toxic substance, and that Saul was simply protecting his troops from sickness.  If that were the case, a command to abstain from the contaminated bread would have sufficed.  There was no rational reason to mandate abstaining from all food). Saul’s judgment was impaired.

When Saul found out that Jonathan had disobeyed his command and ate some honey (even though he had done it unintentionally), he ordered his execution.  This was another sign of Saul’s cognitive decline.  He had reached a point in his mental state where he just couldn’t reason things out rationally and sensibly.  Fortunately for Jonathan, the people rallied around him and rescued him from Saul’s rash sentence.

It has been noted that Saul’s prideful departure from God led to his mental deterioration.  Because God was no longer ruling in his mind, he became disassociated with reality.  It is known that some of the signs of manic depression are “exaggerated optimism and self-confidence,” “aggressive behavior,” “inflated sense of self-importance,” “poor judgment, distractibility,” and “reckless behavior.”  Saul was experiencing all of these symptoms.

Tragically, this is often the result of anyone who allows the spirit of pride to grow in their heart and it leads to rebellion and disobedience to God.  The human mind is a delicate thing.  This is why God has given us the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), to protect us from such folly.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)  A sound mind is a terrible thing to waste!

 

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 14:1-23

 By Many Or By Few

Vastly out-numbered and out-armed, Jonathan decides to take the battle to the Philistines—but in a very God-dependent way. 

Jonathan, Saul’s son, rightly understood the greatness of God.  He recognized that if the LORD was fighting on his side, it didn’t matter how big his army was, or how strong his arsenal was, or how brilliant his battle strategy was.  He rightly acknowledged that nothing can hinder the LORD from saving when it was His will to do so.

He got to thinking "You know, there's a whole army of the Philistines over there. Maybe God wants to give Israel the victory over that army of the Philistines today. Now if the Lord wants to give the victory to Israel over those Philistines, He doesn't need a whole army. He can give the victory to one man as well as six hundred or to two. It really doesn't make any difference to God whether we have a huge army, or whether we just have a few if God wants to give the victory to Israel, He will.

There’s no rule that says God can only deliver by using a big army. No one can stop God from saving when he sets His mind to it.  Unlike human strength, which has limitations and requires substantial resources, God’s strength knows no limitations.

What ministry has God called you to?  What battle does the Lord want you to win? Has He called you to take His word to a hostile world?  Has He called you to stand up for the innocent?  Has He called you to take the Gospel into uncharted waters or to an unreached people? Has He called you to challenge a corrupt politician for his/her political office?  Do you feel inadequate for the challenge? While it may seem to be an insurmountable challenge from a human standpoint, God is not limited by human frailty or inadequacy. 

It has been said, “Me plus God is a majority.”  You alone will outnumber armies of thousands, if God is with you.  You can accomplish great victories if you take your battle to the enemy in a very God-dependent way.  This doesn’t mean to be cocky or foolish.  It means to make certain God is leading you and, if He is, He will work powerfully on your behalf.  Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 13

Saul's Folly

Motives of worldly expediency are not to be weighed against the express commandment of God.  Anytime you deliberate on a matter and then willfully disobey the commandment of God based on your own assessment, you are doing foolishly. God's ways are best. God's ways are right. For Saul to presume that he could improve on God's ways was sheer foolishness. Saul thought his way was better than God’s way.

Saul, the king of Israel, disobeyed the LORD on at least three different counts.  First, under the Law of Moses, kings weren't supposed to offer sacrifices on behalf of the community. Kings could offer sacrifices for themselves, but never for the nation. That was to be done only by priests. Saul acted foolishly by ignoring this holy precept of God's Law.  Second, he was explicitly commanded by the LORD to wait for Samuel to come before offering the sacrifice. But he didn’t wait.  He got nervous about his dwindling army and decided to take matters into his own hands.  Rather than waiting upon God, he felt it would be more expedient to rush into the sacrifice.  To him it was a matter of utmost “expediency” in order to bolster his own position. Third, and most important, Saul made the foolish decision to trust himself and his “common sense” rather than trust in the LORD whose ways are not man’s ways.

Saul’s decision may have looked very pragmatic and practical in the moment.  After all, he really couldn’t afford to lose any more support from his people and his armies.  Many may have looked and thought, this was a good practical decision (from a human standpoint).  But the reality is that obedience to God, although it may not look practical or pragmatic to others, is always the right thing to do.  Even if it looks foolish.  Even if it looks like it is against your own best interest.  Even if another course of action would "improve" your position.  Obedience to God is always the right course of action.

Saul’s punishment may appear excessively severe at first. Stripped of his kingdom. However, the king of Israel was the Lord’s lieutenant. Any disobedience to his Commander-in-Chief was an act of insubordination that threatened the whole administrative organization of God’s kingdom on earth. Saul failed to perceive his place and responsibility under God. 

Remember, any time you think you can improve your position by disobeying God, that's sheer folly.  It may seem the right course of action to your “common sense,” but God’s sense is not always common, and His way is always the right way.