1 Samuel 13 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: God Still Changes Families - June 23, 2022

To recognize God as Lord is to acknowledge that he is sovereign and supreme in the universe. To accept him as Savior is to accept his gift of salvation offered on the cross. To regard him as Father is to go a step further. Ideally, a father is the one in your life who provides and protects. That is exactly what God has done. Now it just falls to us to be trusting children. Let God give you what your family does not.

Having your family’s approval is desirable, but it’s not always possible, and it’s really not necessary for happiness. Jesus gave his family space and time and grace. And because he did, they changed. One brother became an apostle and others became missionaries. So don’t lose heart. God still changes families.

1 Samuel 13

“God Is Out Looking for Your Replacement”

Saul was a young man when he began as king. He was king over Israel for many years.

2 Saul conscripted enough men for three companies of soldiers. He kept two companies under his command at Micmash and in the Bethel hills. The other company was under Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. He sent the rest of the men home.

3-4 Jonathan attacked and killed the Philistine governor stationed at Geba (Gibeah). When the Philistines heard the news, they raised the alarm: “The Hebrews are in revolt!” Saul ordered the reveille trumpets blown throughout the land. The word went out all over Israel, “Saul has killed the Philistine governor—drawn first blood! The Philistines are stirred up and mad as hornets!” Summoned, the army came to Saul at Gilgal.

5 The Philistines rallied their forces to fight Israel: three companies of chariots, six companies of cavalry, and so many infantry they looked like sand on the seashore. They went up into the hills and set up camp at Micmash, east of Beth Aven.

6-7 When the Israelites saw that they were way outnumbered and in deep trouble, they ran for cover, hiding in caves and pits, ravines and brambles and cisterns—wherever. They retreated across the Jordan River, refugees fleeing to the country of Gad and Gilead. But Saul held his ground in Gilgal, his soldiers still with him but scared to death.

8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel. Samuel failed to show up at Gilgal, and the soldiers were slipping away, right and left.

9-10 So Saul took charge: “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” He went ahead and sacrificed the burnt offering. No sooner had he done it than Samuel showed up! Saul greeted him.

11-12 Samuel said, “What on earth are you doing?”

Saul answered, “When I saw I was losing my army from under me, and that you hadn’t come when you said you would, and that the Philistines were poised at Micmash, I said, ‘The Philistines are about to come down on me in Gilgal, and I haven’t yet come before God asking for his help.’ So I took things into my own hands, and sacrificed the burnt offering.”

13-14 “That was a fool thing to do,” Samuel said to Saul. “If you had kept the appointment that your God commanded, by now God would have set a firm and lasting foundation under your kingly rule over Israel. As it is, your kingly rule is already falling to pieces. God is out looking for your replacement right now. This time he’ll do the choosing. When he finds him, he’ll appoint him leader of his people. And all because you didn’t keep your appointment with God!”

15 At that, Samuel got up and left Gilgal. What army there was left followed Saul into battle. They went into the hills from Gilgal toward Gibeah in Benjamin. Saul looked over and assessed the soldiers still with him—a mere six hundred!
Jonathan and His Armor Bearer

16-18 Saul, his son Jonathan, and the soldiers who had remained made camp at Geba (Gibeah) of Benjamin. The Philistines were camped at Micmash. Three squads of raiding parties were regularly sent out from the Philistine camp. One squadron was assigned to the Ophrah road going toward Shual country; another was assigned to the Beth Horon road; the third took the border road that rimmed the Valley of Hyenas.

19-22 There wasn’t a blacksmith to be found anywhere in Israel. The Philistines made sure of that—“Lest those Hebrews start making swords and spears.” That meant that the Israelites had to go down among the Philistines to keep their farm tools—plowshares and mattocks, axes and sickles—sharp and in good repair. They charged a silver coin for the plowshares and mattocks, and half that for the rest. So when the battle of Micmash was joined, there wasn’t a sword or spear to be found anywhere in Israel—except for Saul and his son Jonathan; they were both well-armed.

23 A patrol of Philistines took up a position at Micmash Pass.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Thursday, June 23, 2022

Today's Scripture
2 Kings 23:3–7

The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous.

4–9     Then the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, his associate priest, and The Temple sentries to clean house—to get rid of everything in The Temple of God that had been made for worshiping Baal and Asherah and the cosmic powers. He had them burned outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and then disposed of the ashes in Bethel. He fired the pagan priests whom the kings of Judah had hired to supervise the local sex-and-religion shrines in the towns of Judah and neighborhoods of Jerusalem. In a stroke he swept the country clean of the polluting stench of the round-the-clock worship of Baal, sun and moon, stars—all the so-called cosmic powers. He took the obscene phallic Asherah pole from The Temple of God to the Valley of Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it up, then ground up the ashes and scattered them in the cemetery. He tore out the rooms of the male sacred prostitutes that had been set up in The Temple of God; women also used these rooms for weavings for Asherah.

Insight

The covenant-renewal activities of King Josiah in 2 Kings 23:3–7 included house cleaning—the “[removal] from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah” (v. 4). Baal (a word that means “owner, lord”) was the most prominent deity among the gods of the Canaanites. It was believed that Baal (the god of life and fertility) controlled the rainfall and crop production. Asherah was the female companion of Baal. Depending on the context, sometimes the word Asherah (translated “grove” or “groves” in the kjv) can refer to the deity itself (2 Kings 21:7) or to the cult objects associated with her worship (1 Kings 14:23). Anything that usurps God’s rule in our lives is an idol and must be eliminated. By: Arthur Jackson

Drastic Measures

The king . . . renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands.
2 Kings 23:3

The ornate ceremonial bow and quiver had hung on the wall of our home in Michigan for years. I’d inherited them from my father, who acquired the souvenirs while we were serving as missionaries in Ghana.

Then one day a Ghanaian friend visited us. When he saw the bow, he got a strange look on his face. Pointing to a small object tied to it he said, “That is a fetish—a magic charm. I know it has no power, but I would not keep it in my house.” Quickly we cut the charm from the bow and discarded it. We didn’t want anything in our home intended for the worship of something other than God.

Josiah, king in Jerusalem, grew up with little knowledge of God’s expectations for His people. When the high priest rediscovered the Book of the Law in the long-neglected temple (2 Kings 22:8), Josiah wanted to hear it. As soon as he learned what God had said about idolatry, he ordered sweeping changes to bring Judah into compliance with God’s law—changes far more drastic than merely cutting a charm from a bow (see 2 Kings 23:3–7).

Believers today have more than King Josiah did—much, much more. We have the entire Bible to instruct us. We have each other. And we have the vital filling of the Holy Spirit, who brings things to light, large and small, that we might otherwise overlook.

Can you describe a time when a believer wisely pointed out a change you needed to make? What things in your life might be offensive to God?

Heavenly Father, by the work of the Holy Spirit, help me steer clear of anything that’s offensive to You.

Learn about leadership from the kings of Israel.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, June 23, 2022

“Acquainted With Grief”

He is…a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. —Isaiah 53:3

We are not “acquainted with grief” in the same way our Lord was acquainted with it. We endure it and live through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of our lives we do not bring ourselves to the point of dealing with the reality of sin. We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.

We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that. The culmination of sin was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will also be true in your history and in mine— that is, sin will kill the life of God in us. We must mentally bring ourselves to terms with this fact of sin. It is the only explanation why Jesus Christ came to earth, and it is the explanation of the grief and sorrow of life.

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else.  The Shadow of an Agony, 1163 L

Bible in a Year: Esther 9-10; Acts 7:1-21

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, June 23, 2022

What Your Open Door Is Waiting For - #9249

I hate to make extra trips back and forth from the car. So I have a tendency to load up with a little more than I should probably carry. (Is this a guy thing? I don't know.) At the grocery store, I would rather not be hassled with taking a cart out into the parking lot. So, if at all possible, I'll just load up all those grocery bags in my arms and start walking. It's then that I especially appreciate a particular convenience that stores have - those doors that open automatically, without you even having to touch them. I mean, you do have to do something...you have to walk toward those doors. Yeah, see, that's when they open.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "What Your Open Door Is Waiting For."

Interestingly enough, the way you get that automatic door to open is often the way to get God to open a door for you. You have to start moving in that direction. You have to start walking toward it before it will open.

One classic illustration is in the Jews' crossing of the Jordan River in our word for today from the Word of God in Joshua 3. It's time to finally enter the land that God has promised to them. But in between them and where God has told them to go is this river, at flood stage yet. The priests are supposed to lead the way, and there's no bridge. Beginning in verse 8, God says, "Tell the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant: 'When you reach the edge of Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river.' ... The priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the Ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing." Wow!

Now, if I'm one of those priests, I'm saying, "Lord, I've got an idea? How's this? You part the waters, and then I'll step in." God says, "No, you step in, and I'll part the waters." He's been saying that to His followers ever since. Jesus was ready to change water into wine at a wedding, if the servants would collect the waterpots and fill them with water. Jesus was ready to miraculously feed 5,000 people, if the disciples would have enough faith to at least go and find a lunch and get everyone organized for a picnic that did not yet exist. Jesus planned to raise Lazarus from the dead, but He first expected the men to roll the stone away from the tomb. God responds to our faith and to our obedience.

He's been talking to you about something He wants to do maybe in your family, your finances, in a life that He wants to touch through you, with a change that He's been leading you to make. Somewhere in your life there seems to be a closed door standing between you and something God wants you to do. You've been waiting for God to do something. Well, guess what? He's been waiting for you to do something: to start walking in the direction of where you believe He wants you to go, even if there's a closed door or a flooded river in front of you. See, that's His problem. Your problem is to get moving in the direction He's leading!

If you've been looking for more leading from God, remember the way to discover what you need to know about God's will is to do what you already know is His will. You can't get anywhere as long as you're staying in neutral. You've got to shift into forward gear. All those "yeah buts," "Yeah, Lord, but what if...?" All those "yeah buts?" Those are God's problem. So, start walking toward that door. That is when it's going to open!