Good morning Everyone!
1st Samuel chapter 10.
Samuel spoke 4 prophecies over Saul and they focused on four areas.
- His outward needs relating with the donkeys that were lost but are now found.
- Saul's physical needs because God will provide him 2 loaves of bread in his travels home.
- His spiritual needs for he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and he will prophesy and he will be noticeably changed in his life.
- God has called him to do his work.
God Cares About Us!
- God cares about our present needs so we need to take them before him and he will take care of us.
- God cares about our physical needs. He'll be our provider.
- God wants to fill us with his Holy Spirit and change us into a new person so that we are a noticeably different person to those around us.
- God has set us apart for doing his work. He has a call on our lives.
Saul tries to keep silent and hidden after being anointed as king over Israel. I'm not sure why, unless it refers back to the time that he told Samuel how could he be chosen King when he's from the small tribe of Benjamin? Is he so much lacking in confidence? Does he not feel good enough or qualified? Regardless of his feelings he is a child of the KING! He is called and chosen by God for a specific purpose. When God calls us he equips us and prepares us and uses us to carry out his plans. We will never be good enough in our own attempts. But when God calls us he gives us the Holy Spirit who will make us qualified and good enough. He will use us to carry out his work and to impact people's lives for the kingdom. We must rise above the lies that Satan tells us and move forward in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We can't let lies tear us down or make us ineffective!
- What are your current needs right now? Take them to the Lord.
- Have you been filled with his Holy Spirit so that those who look at you see a new person in Christ?
- What is God asking of you now to do as his servant? Do it with confidence and boldness relying on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit!
I was thinking today about how Saul’s life was completely changed after meeting with Samuel. He had simply been out looking for lost donkeys. Now Samuel told him what was going to happen and it all came true. Everything was going so well for Saul at this point in time in his life, but how things would change over time. After he disobeyed the Lord and Samuel had died, he became so desperate to get answers and know what to do in 1 Samuel 28 that he sought after a medium to hear from Samuel even though Samuel was deceased.
Saul had the good appearance on the outside, but he became plagued on the inside with some ugly things in his heart such as jealousy, anger, arrogance and impatience as we will see in the coming chapters. God used a human, Samuel in the process of making Saul into a king and it’s true that we do need to have good relationships with people, but I think Saul’s relationship with Samuel is an example for us to realize how we all need to have our own personal relationship with the Lord or we would be missing out and empty on the inside. Instead of confessing and repenting of his sin, Saul went a different direction that didn’t have such a happy ending. He should have dealt with the sin in his heart to get right with God instead of seeking answers elsewhere by going to a dead man.
Three lessons that I get from Saul.
1. Don’t hold on to the past.
2. Don’t hold on to the things of this world.
3. Don’t hold on to sin.
Having an earthly king is what the people wanted, but it was sad that they were actually rejecting the true King. Life as a king didn’t seem to have such good results for Saul either. I know that I’ve skipped ahead much today with Saul’s life, but reading about his early interactions with Samuel made me think more about what went wrong with him later on.
I’m reminded of Jeremiah 29:13. “You will seek Me (God) and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.”
Saul was filled with God’s Spirit after his private anointing as king by Samuel. This filling by the Spirit would be temporary because when Saul’s power grew so did his pride and the Spirit left him. But, God gives us so many lessons in Saul’s life. PB covers some in his comments above.
V17-19 Samuel reminds the people that they have rejected God who saved them so many times for a human king. It breaks our heart to think about this yet people are still rejecting God today. It should make us all stop and think if we are putting anything/anyone before the true King in our lives? I’ll be asking God to search my heart on this one today as I sit at His feet.
V13-16 Saul didn’t tell his uncle that he (Saul) would be king one day. I believe he pondered it in his heart in humility. We should ponder more in our heart than we ever speak about. (Is this not a good lesson about social media too?) God chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1Corinthians 1:27). Amen?