1 Samuel 12:1-13:23 ~ John 7:1-29 ~ Psalm 108:1-13 ~ Proverbs 15:4
Today is the 12th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s good to be here with you today as we round the corner toward the end of another week. We’re not there yet. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have been learning about Israel’s first king, Saul, and he’s had a great victory and rallied the people together and this is a good point to just point out watch this. Watch this story unfold. Watch Saul. Look for yourself in Saul. Not everything is going to be you, but look for the things that he is doing and why he’s doing them because it becomes a very, very close mirror into our lives because we’re very, very quickly seeing cause and effect, like where the road goes, and it is supremely helpful. So we’ll dive back into this story – 1 Samuel chapter 12, verse 1 through 13, verse 23 – and we’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week.
Commentary
As we’re getting to know Saul, the first king of Israel, we should notice that it is kind of doomed before it ever really, really gets going. The prophet Samuel comes to Saul today because of what he’s done and basically tells him as much, that this is not going to work out and God is going to pick somebody else. But we’ve already learned a lot from Saul. And we’re nowhere near done learning from him, but let’s just look at it.
When Saul is open to the Spirit of the Lord, he becomes something greater than he is. He is even prophesying with the prophets or he’s rising up and people are following him into battle. But when Saul is not open to the Spirit of the Lord, he’s diminished and he shrinks. So he’s prophesied with the prophets and that spread through the land to the point of a proverb, like a euphemism, like a slang term. “Is Saul now one of the prophets?” This becomes a saying. That is when he’s open to the Spirit of God. And then when he’s about to be anointed king and God is calling clans and tribes and families and people out to show who is going to be the king, Saul can’t be found anywhere and when they finally do find him he is hiding. He’s hiding in the baggage, which should say something to us. When Saul is open to the Spirit of God he’s prophesying. When he’s not, he’s hiding in the baggage. Now we have our own lives in front of us. Boom! Now we have a mirror.
So what we had in today’s reading is that the Philistines have been provoked and they have been kind of lording it over Israel now. There is this back and forth between the Philistines and the Israelites throughout most of the Old Testament, but the Philistines have the upper hand at this point and they won’t even let the Hebrews have weapons. So they are about to go into battle and they have gone into a little battle, but it is just basically assembling the armies. So Saul is waiting for Samuel to come and seek the Lord’s favor in the battle and Samuel doesn’t come on time. And Saul is sitting there watching his army disintegrate. So he feels like he has to do something and what he decides to do is basically take on the role of Samuel and seek the Lord’s favor for himself with a sacrifice, which is not what God told him to do. And Samuel had been explicit with the people and with Saul. “All you have to do is listen and obey. That is all you have to do. That is all you’ve ever had to do. It’s all any of you have ever had to do, but you won’t do that.” And Saul doesn’t do that. And what is his excuse? “I felt pressured into sacrificing the burnt offering. You didn’t come when you said you would. The Philistines were assembling. I thought ‘now they are going to come against me and I haven’t sought the Lord’s favor,’” and so he’s beginning to see all of the excuses, all of the elaborate intricate ways that Saul is trying to explain himself while deferring blame for his own actions onto some other set of circumstances or some other person which he will continue to do.
We do this kind of stuff and I point this out now because there is a lot to learn from Saul. We went through the entire life of Joseph. It seems like forever ago, way back in those early books, but Joseph was doing the right thing in spite of every wrong thing happening. We learned a lot from Joseph. There is plenty for us to learn from Saul.
Prayer
Father, we invite you into this territory that we’re in, this good fertile ground, this trail, this patch of path that we’re following through this hard portion of the Bible. It is so rich in drama and intrigue and humanity and choices and people and it is a retelling of so much of the story of our own lives. So we invite you, Holy Spirit, to begin to awaken us to these facts. To not just listen to stories that have drama and keep our attention, but to also look deeper and understand that these stories are speaking to our hearts and they are telling our story and you are giving us such wisdom in where these paths lead. So come Holy Spirit, we ask. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Leonard from Brooklyn, NY. I’m Saved by Grace and I’m calling because I’ve been meditating on a scripture for the last few days and I would like to share. It’s 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and it states, “Rejoice and pray continually. Give praise in all circumstances for this is God’s will concerning you in Christ Jesus.” These are commands, Daily Audio Bible family, commands we can’t possibly hope to fulfill on our own, but if we ask anything according to God’s will, he hears us and we can be confident that he will answer us. So my prayer request for me and for the rest of you guys, let’s pray for this together, is that we can do this and our lives would be a testimony. We won’t need words as much because we’ll be living out the gospel. That would be such an amazing testimony to the glory of God. Thank you. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible family. Thank you, Brian. I love you guys. Be blessed. Be encouraged. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible. My name is Sarah. I’m a longtime listener, first-time caller as I’ve heard many people. I’m calling for I have a prayer request for my children, for their salvation, that God would draw them closer to him. And I pray specifically for my younger son and his girlfriend as she has just been diagnosed with a liver disease and they are talking about hospice. They are so young. I just pray that God would do a miracle in their lives. I pray for their salvation, that God will open doors that will allow us to go into their lives and share God’s love with them. They are pretty private. I just ask that they would be open to letting me sit with her and just love on her and pray with her. Pray with me that God would lead them to the right doctors, that people would explain things to them because there are a lot of things that they don’t understand and they are going to the doctor alone. I just pray a miracle, that they would just be surrounded with God’s love, that God would use these doctors as his tools. God is in control. He is our physician. Ultimately, he knew her before she was born. He wove her in her mother’s womb and I just pray for a miracle for their lives, both my son and his girlfriend. I thank you all for your prayers. I thank you in advance as I pray with you daily, every single prayer request I am in agreement.
Hi, this is Pastor Joanna. This is the first time calling. I’ve been listening for several years now. I love the program. I want to reach out to I think it was a grandmother who was talking about their grandchild who is not tolerating the formula. I think they were premature. Anyway, we had the same situation with my grandson. He wasn’t premature but he had a really bad allergy to the formula they were giving him and we found out he could not drink any formula that had a milk base. He ended up going through 12 different formulas by the time he was two months old and they finally prescribed him a formula that is amino acid based. It has no milk whatsoever in it and he’s tolerating that just fine and he’s going to be eight months old and he’s doing great. So I just wanted to reach out to you and hope that helps you. Maybe you would want to talk to the doctor about it, but I want you to know that I’m going to be praying for your grandchild. God bless you. Bye-bye.
Hi, this is Megan calling from beautiful British Colombia. First time calling in. God put it on my heart this morning to encourage those of you who are thinking about going to Israel, who have come up with lots of excused not to go, to trust God for provision and for protection on that journey. I know that I had an experience two years ago to go. I didn’t want to go to Israel. I didn’t have the money or the time and God removed all those obstacles for me and allowed me to go. It was an experience I will never forget. He really changed my heart in the Holy Land, so I want to encourage. If you’re thinking about going, I want to encourage you to trust God to guide you there. Thank you family. And I thank you for your prayers and I pray for you all every day. Thank you.
Hi, this is Stanley from Maryland. Hello to Stan from Maryland. I’m glad we acknowledge that we both have the same name. Hey, I just wanted to let you guys know that I’m praying for you guys. I am seeking the Lord myself and he’s been so great to me. He’s been showing me how much he loves me lately and how he cares and that he is a faithful God. You know, I change but he stays the same. He is a God of love and he chooses to love us throughout whatever we go through, so I’m just here to give a word of encouragement to trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding, but in everything you do, acknowledge him and he shall direct your path. Thank you so much, Father, for everything that you’re doing in our lives. Thank you that even though things don’t always seem hopeful, things don’t always seem happy, things don’t always seem right, things don’t always seem good, things don’t always seem like they are going to work out, we thank you that you are faithful and that you have come for your people and that the prayers of the righteous will not be forsaken. Thank you so much Lord. We love you. You are our hiding place. You preserve us from evil. You surround us with songs of salvation. And as we go throughout the rest of this day, may your Holy Spirit be with us. Alright you all, have a good rest of your day. Bye.