Daily Bible Devotionals

“So they went up toward the city. Saul and his attendant were entering the city when they saw Samuel coming toward them on his way to the high place. Now the day before Saul’s arrival, the Lord had informed Samuel, ‘At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him ruler over My people Israel. He will save them from the hand of the Philistines because I have seen the affliction of My people, for their cry has come to Me.’ When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told Him, ‘Here is the man I told you about; he will rule over My people.’” 1 Samuel 9:14-17 (HCSB)

“Providence” is God’s way of providing for the needs of His people. In a wonderful, strange, mysteriously unpredictable way, the Lord rules His world and sustains His people. And He does it frequently by going over, under, around, through, or in spite of the most common stuff in our lives. He works His will, even when it is against our will. God is always deliberately working, even though we are unaware of His presence. That is why it is of utmost importance to align ourselves with Him. He always wins.

Saul’s rise to power all seemed so casual; who would know it was planned? God wove people & situations together so well that it looks like we are dealing with what organically appeared rather than what was ordained: lose some donkeys, find a kingdom.

The ignorant onlooker might say that Saul was lucky. He was in the right place at the right time. Perhaps, they would say Saul’s charisma overwhelmed an aged prophet desperate for a successor. But God tells us He orchestrated everything. He allowed the donkeys to go missing; He prompted Saul’s father to send Saul after them; He told Samuel He was sending Israel’s king, and in the moment, He told Samuel exactly who that king would be. Saul is detached, designated, and disclosed by God.

The Lord’s providence not only operates in the affairs of major figures in salvation history; He also directs our paths.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs His steps.” Proverbs 16:9 (NKJV)

“Man’s steps are ordained by the LORD, how then can man understand his way?” Proverbs 20:24 (NASB)

So, providence is not the exclusive privilege of some kingdom elite; it extends to each of His people, no matter how apparently common. However, He may not let you in on the secret. You may see traces of what He has been doing much later as you look back, but in the present, you may be just as in the dark as Saul was. If so, you must continue searching for your lost donkeys (or whatever task God has given you). But do so, knowing God is leading, teaching you along the way how to accomplish the things He has prepared for you. It is not as if our relationship with Him is not dynamic. There is a call and response. Our choices make a difference, yet we choose to follow His Word, knowing He does not need us. Rather, He loves us and chooses to interact with us. Our participation in the process is to seek His Word, trusting in Him as we obey and share it.

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.’ But the thing displeased Samuel when they said ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Samuel 8:4-7 (NKJV)

Growing up in Arkansas, my family had a persimmon tree in the backyard. Unripe persimmons are numbingly bitter! Unripe persimmons also look a lot like plums. So, one day my brother decided to prank me by placing a few unripe persimmons at the top of a bag of plums, and offered me one. There he stood, eating a nice plum, offering the bag to me. Of course I wanted one! Everything about the situation said “yes” until I took a bite!!

Because some of our idolatry can seem so sophisticated and appear so reasonable, it can be extremely difficult to detect. But God's eye penetrates the fog. Samuel experienced from his own people what Jesus, Moses, and the prophets experienced:

“We don’t want this man to rule over us.” Luke 19:14b (HCSB)

We have an aversion to holiness, the same as Biblical Israel did. By “aversion,” I simply mean that we do not like to be different, for God’s sake. Do you recall the last time you shared your faith with the intent to lead another person to the Lord? Most believers have NEVER shared their faith. Why? They say they don’t like the feeling of being rejected or judged for being different. Most believers want the benefits of following Jesus (salvation, eternal life), but when given a choice, their decisions reveal they would rather have a “king like all the other nations.”

Believer, your distinction from the world is not a curse! It is the sign that your Savior is able to effect drastic change in the lives of sinners!

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove [discern] what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2 (NKJV)

We do not naturally like to be distinctly “God’s.” We would rather blend into the world, waiting out our time until the Last Days trumpet sounds. When we refuse to engage in spiritual battle, as the Lord prescribes in His Word, we become like that military deserter who refuses to fight yet refuses to leave the regiment. We show up for roll call and the chow hall, but when the battle ensues, we hide behind a tree, waiting for it to all be over. GET INTO THE BATTLE! Serve the King, Whose Kingdom is UNLIKE all the other nations, and trust Him to lead others into His Kingdom through your bold, courageous, and gracious testimony.

“Time went by until 20 years had passed since the ark had been taken to Kiriath-jearim. Then the whole house of Israel began to seek the Lord. Samuel told them, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashteroths that are among you, dedicate yourselves to the Lord, and worship only Him. Then He will rescue you from the hand of the Philistines.’ So the Israelites removed the Baals and the Ashteroths and only worshiped the Lord.” 1 Samuel 7:2-4 (HCSB)

Perhaps, you have been so caught up in the story that you have forgotten the man whom this book is named! Having been absent since 4:1, Samuel reappears to restore the severely judged Israel to repentance.

It is therapeutic to have tears and sorrow over sin. Repentance often begins with signs of grief and consciousness of misery. But true repentance consists of something more substantial.

Genuine repentance is tangible. It does not stop with weeping over sin but moves to concrete action: The putting away of foreign gods. The Lord teaches this pattern several times in Scripture.

“So, Jacob said to his family and all who were with Him, ‘Get rid of your foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your clothes. We must get up and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me everywhere I have gone.’ Then they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and their earrings, and Jacob hid them under the oak near Shechem.” Genesis 35:2-4 (HCSB)

“Therefore, fear the Lord and worship Him in sincerity and truth. Get rid of the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River in Egypt, and worship Yahweh, choose for yourself today the one you will worship: the gods your fathers worshiped beyond the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my family, we will worship Yahweh.’” Joshua 24:14-15 (HCSB)

Is there something between you and the Lord which continues to cause you to fall? Get rid of it! Repentance is replacing sin-pursuance with the pursuit of righteousness. It is not simply saying, “I’m sorry,” or feeling remorse. It is harder than that! It took 20 years for Israel’s remorsefulness to become repentance. True repentance is spiritual warfare. It takes action, and God honors such actions with encouraging evidence of His presence. Consider the words of Jesus:

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:15-18 (NKJV)

“The Philistines summoned the priests and the diviners and pleaded, ‘What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we can send it back to its place.’ They replied, ‘If you send the ark of Israel’s God away, you must not send it without an offering. You must send back a restitution offering to Him, and you will be healed. Then the reason His hand hasn’t been removed from you will be revealed.’” 1 Samuel 6:2-3 (HCSB)

Israel was in a season of its history where personal relationships with the Lord had been replaced with rote devotional elements, offering sacrifices at the appointed times and in the prescribed ways. As a result, their understanding of the Lord (and His national relationship with Israel) had become distorted. This led to Israel’s defeat by the Philistines and resulted in the Philistines capturing the Ark of the Covenant.

With the Ark in “captivity,” the Philistines became aware that the Lord was stronger than all their gods. In the narrative is a glint of God’s great plan of salvation, for the God of Israel stooped to reveal Himself to the enemies of Israel, to non-Hebrew people. He gave a pre-Messianic glimpse of His willingness to bring the nations to repentance. In this account (like that of Jonah), God was inferring that He would someday bring near many who are far off through the blood of Messiah Jesus. (Ephesians 2:13)

This is a moment of truth for the Philistines. Would they surrender their gods and worship the Lord alone? That was, no doubt, God’s desire. No, they decided to send Him away. Instead of tapping into His power, they sought to distance themselves from it.

Much later, in the New Testament, the Gerasenes will try the same solution. They will be afraid of the power of Jesus that restored people and destroyed pigs. The only option they will see is to beg Jesus to leave. (Mark 5:1-20) No self-examination. No searching of hearts. The Lord – and His power – must be removed.

By the end of chapter 6, Israel isn’t faring much better than the Philistines with the Ark’s return. Some of the men of Israel rejoiced while others were indifferent. These were those who sought the Lord’s proximity purely for what it could do for them. Once Israel had been defeated and the Ark captured, God ceased to be of use to them. For their attitude and lack of repentance, they were stricken. **Some translations may vary, so read the fine print notes.

“God struck down the men of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the Lord. He struck down 70 men out of 50,000 men. The people mourned because the Lord struck them with a great slaughter. The men of Beth-shemesh asked, ‘Who is able to stand in the presence of this holy Lord God? Who should the ark go to from here?” I Samuel 6:19-20 (HCSB)

The absence of ‘Godly fear’ signifies an absence of the knowledge of God. We read the Bible to KNOW the Lord, so that we are neither indifferent, nor too afraid to draw close to Him. (Hebrews 4:16)

“After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, brought it into the temple of Dagon and placed it next to his statue. When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place. But when they got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen with his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. This time, both Dagon’s head and the palms of his hands were broken off and lying on the threshold. Only Dagon’s torso remained.” 1 Samuel 5:1-4 (HCSB)

In my lifetime, I have watched several major “Christian” leaders fall into sin, which led to public scandal and the downfall of the large ministries built on their vision and charisma. Every time this has happened, skeptics of Christianity don a coy grin and announce that God is either dead or dying in our culture. This was surely the mindset of the Philistines toward Israel when they introduced the “defeated” God of Israel (the Ark) to His “conqueror,” Dagon.

What the Philistines were about to learn was that “the God of Israel” is actually the God of all creation! And apart from Him, there is no god. Furthermore, His power and agenda being accomplished are not dependent upon the worship of His followers. It is not as if we are the “batteries” that empower the Lord. He is not waiting on us to surge Him with worship before He can act. He is completely independent and self-sustained.

I believe it was Oswald Chambers who said, pertaining to Kingdom work, “God has given us a limited participation in something He doesn’t need us to do.”

Here is our big takeaway from today’s chapter: Don’t begin to think that you can manipulate God like a lucky charm for your own convenience, and don’t think He needs you to support and carry Him. He doesn’t need our worship. His holiness demands it, and His loving kindness accepts it. He existed before creation, and He can take care of Himself. The only community He needs is His own tri-unity. And in that notion is our understanding of His great love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, He sent Messiah Jesus to die for us. Still, if any carrying is to be done, He will carry us!

“Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity. “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by Me from birth, who have been carried from the womb: even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” Isaiah 46:1-4 (NKJV)

By the way, despite the moral defeat of those high-profile Christian leaders, God is very much alive and has not diminished in power and authority, holiness, or praiseworthiness! There is no panic in Heaven, only planning. And with that knowledge, we trust and worship Him.

“When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by the Philistines? Let’s bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh. Then it will go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” 1 Samuel 4:3 (HCSB)

Last week, I noticed my cologne had run out. When I went to a department store fragrance counter, I noticed a small cup of coffee beans. The person at the counter told me I should smell the beans in-between fragrances because the smell of the coffee helps “cleanse the nose’s pallet,” allowing one to differentiate between scents.

The opening statement of 1 Samuel 4, “And Samuel’s words came to all Israel,” sounds more like the closing thought of chapter 3. We don’t hear any more from Samuel until chapter 7. His absence is intended to “cleanse the reader’s pallet.” The Lord is drawing a distinction between the sweet aroma of Samuel’s personal worship and the stench of Israel’s national worship under the direction of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas.

Today’s passage begins with a question: Why did the Lord let us be defeated? Perhaps, you have faced that question in your own life. Israel would have done well to let that question linger awhile. Then, maybe the Lord’s threats in Leviticus 26 would have come to mind.

“But if you do not obey Me and observe My commands – if you reject My statutes and despise My ordinances, and do not observe all My commands – and break My covenant, then I will do all this to you – wasting disease and fever that will cause your eyes to fail (Eli) and your life to ebb away (Phinehas’ wife). You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. (Hophni and Phinehas were Eli’s “seed” or offspring) I will turn against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies” Leviticus 26:14-17 (HCSB)

Sadly, in haste, Israel resorted to “Rabbit’s foot” theology. They should have remembered God’s Word, repented, and drawn close to the God of the Covenant. Instead, Israel made an impetuous decision (based on their ignorance of God’s Word) to bring the Ark of the Covenant of God to them. The assumption was that God would be forced to protect His reputation, despite His children’s obvious rebellion. As they say in Jerusalem, “Yahweh don’t play that!”

The Lord will suffer shame rather than allow us to carry on a false relationship with him, and He will allow us to be disappointed with Him if that will awaken our understanding of what kind of God He is. Have you observed that things go better with prayer? Let’s make sure our delight is in aligning ourselves with God’s will rather than trying to coerce Him to align with ours! When the church stops confessing, “Thou art worthy” in exchange for “Thou art useful,” we know the ark of God has been captured again!

Then again, the Lord may be cleansing the pallet for Revival once more. Let’s seek God as a Samuel so that “Ichabod” (the glory of the Lord has departed) would not be written over the doorposts of our hearts, churches, and nation.

Grab your Bible & experience the Groundworks Ministries Podcast as Steve Wiggins leads us through the full chapter of 1 Samuel 3. Click the links below to watch or listen now!

“Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy served the Lord in the presence of Eli the priest. Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord or for the priest’s share of the sacrifices from the people.” 1 Samuel 2:11-13a (HCSB)

A spiritual resurgence looked out of the question for the American colonies in 1740. Samuel Blair wrote, “Religion lay as it were a-dying and ready to expire its last breath of life in this part of the visible church.” This was the setting before the Great Awakening, where America’s soul was born again, so to speak. The Church-at-large had become corrupt, yet the Lord did not abandon His plan for America. He set into motion a chain of events, which led to America’s spiritual revival and their fight for independence from British tyranny. America could use that kind of revival today!

We can expect opposition from the secular world, but what can we do when the creeping death seeps inside the Church? How should we respond when religious leaders are lacking in faith and unholy in lifestyle? What happens when purveyors of the “light of the world” are themselves full of darkness? Hophni and Phinehas were such men, yet the Lord did not abandon His people, Israel. God was there – in both judgment and grace – when judgment began at the house of God.

There are many leaders in the Church today who are purveyors of darkness. They add to and take away from the Gospel as suits their personal agendas. Furthermore, they lead people along heretical paths on which the Lord has never intended His children to travel.

Reading today’s chapter, it may be easy for us to separate ourselves from these characters. After all, most of us do not hold the office of “priest”...or do we?

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be His very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2:9 (ISV)

The truth is that God considers EVERY believer to be a priest. Maybe we never join a church staff, but the calling remains for each of us.

Setting aside, for a moment, the time you spend in church worship services, how well are you doing at representing Jesus in the World? In a church culture littered with “Hophni and Phinehas,” the Lord has called us to be “Samuels.” Consider this pattern as a challenge for us to faithfully serve the Lord in the midst of Worldly self-servers:

Samuel serving (2:11), Liturgical sins (2:12-17), Samuel serving (2:18-21), Moral sins (2:22-25), Samuel growing (2:26), Prophecy of judgment (2:27-36), Samuel serving (3:1a)

“And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore, she wept and did not eat.” 1 Samuel 1:4-7 (NKJV)

Though it would probably not comfort Hannah, it helps us to remember that Hannah is not the first barren woman noted in scripture. We remember Sarai/Sarah and how Genesis 11:30 hangs like a dark cloud over the next 10 chapters of Genesis. Rebekah had no children for the first 20 years of marriage, and we find a soap-opera turmoil swirling around the barrenness of Rachel.

God raised up mighty Samson from the fruitless womb of Manoah’s wife. And who would have guessed that old, childless Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist? Barren women seem to be God’s instruments in raising-up key figures in the history of redemption, whether preservers of Israel (Joseph, Samson, Samuel) or the forerunner of the King of kings Jesus (John the Baptist).

Hannah, therefore, shares in a “fellowship of barrenness.” And it is frequently in this fellowship that new chapters in God’s history with His people begin – with nothing. God’s tendency is to make our total inability His starting point. Our hopelessness and our helplessness are no barriers to His work. Indeed, our utter incapacity is often the prop He delights to use for His next act.

This matter goes beyond the particular situations of Biblical barren women. We are facing one of the principles of the Lord’s modus operandi. When His people are without strength, without resources, without hope, and without human gimmicks – then He loves to stretch forth His hand from Heaven.

Once we see where God often begins, we will understand how we may be encouraged in the Hope of God’s Word and unchanging character.