Tag: A chapter a day

“And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.”

Samuel is often remembered as the little boy who heard God speak to him while he served in the temple. Here is Samuel the man of God, ever the Lord’s servant, doing even this at His direction.

But while Saul was talking to the priest, the confusion in the Philistine camp grew louder and louder. So Saul said to the priest, “Never mind; let’s get going!”

Saul had called for the ephod, i.e., for special direction from God, but then he told the priest to forget about it —time was wasting.

This was Saul —impulsive, self-willed. Those two characteristics render any man useless in the kingdom of God.

“How foolish!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Saul’s army became discouraged waiting for Samuel to come to Gilgal, and many of them left for home. Saul took matters into his own hands and offered the sacrifices to the Lord himself, despite Samuel’s clear instruction to wait for him. But a week had gone by, and Samuel had not come.

It was this “taking matters into his own hands” that proved to be his downfall.  The Lord delayed Samuel’s coming to Gilgal, so as to test Saul.  But he failed the test.  The Lord would now look for a new king —one who, as Samuel told him, was “after my own heart”.

So they asked the Lord, “Where is he?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.”

Samuel was about to anoint Saul as king over Israel, but he was hiding. Was Saul displaying humility here? Did he feel unworthy to be king? Was he afraid of the responsibility? Perhaps all of them.

Being humble and shouldering responsibility are not mutually exclusive. Our responsibilities are truly God-given, and should cause us to lean hard on Him.

“But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact.”

There was no voice from heaven. There was no handwriting on the walls of the pagan temple. And yet the message was crystal clear. It is not that there are no gods equal to the God of Israel. There are no gods besides the God of Israel.

“His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.”

The Lord had all along warned his people not to intermarry with the Caananites, Philistines, etc. Samson’s parents were right to question his desire to marry the girl from Timnah. And yet we learn from this verse that the Lord was in it.

The Lord would always have us take the right path. But if we take a left turn instead, He does not forget about us. After all, the whole map belongs to the Lord.

God would have much preferred Samson marry a virtuous Israelite woman; but He knew Samson, and used him nonetheless.

“The people of Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua.”

This verse is very positive when read by itself, out of context. Overall, the people of Israel were very inconsistent in serving the Lord. Moses struggled to get a complaining, wayward people through the wilderness. Their faithlessness grieved the Lord so much that of the hundreds of thousands who crossed the Red Sea who were twenty years of age or older, only two—Joshua and Caleb—lived to actually enter the promised land. The Lord had determined the rest would die in the wilderness. Now Joshua and Caleb were gone. A new generation was in the promised land, but would they prove more faithful to the Lord than their parents had been?

“And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as He had solemnly promised their ancestors.”

The Lord is very solemn about his promises, for He intends to keep them, no matter the cost.

“For my part, I wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.”

Caleb reminds Joshua how the two of them were faithful to the Lord when they returned from spying out the land of Canaan at the direction of Moses. He gives his testimony, now forty-five years later, and declares that he has not just followed the Lord in the years since, but followed him with all his heart.

Faithfulness is what the Lord is all about. He is certainly pleased when he finds it in his people, and grieved when he does not.

Starting well is important, but finishing well is much more important. The race must be run—to the finish line. The faith must be kept.

The Lord said to [Joshua], “You are growing old, and much land remains to be conquered.”

This was not a condemnation. Joshua had done all he could do. He had battled thirty-one kings and defeated them, but the war was not over.

Even so, the Lord directed Joshua to assign lands still unconquered to the tribes of Israel, promising to drive out the nations living there through his successors.

The book of Joshua is a history book, yet it serves as a metaphor for the mission of the church today. There is much at stake. Much has been accomplished. There is much yet to do.