Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 16-17.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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I first thought to title today’s blog, “The Battle Is the Lord’s,” but as I began to gather my thoughts to write I realized that the message God gave Samuel when he thought Eliab was the one to anoint to take Saul’s place applied to Goliath as well.  When Jesse had his sons pass before Samuel, Samuel saw Eliab as having the qualities we look for in a leader: he was tall and handsome, and probably stood with presence (eldest sons often do, they are used to bossing their younger brothers around).  However, God told Samuel that Eliab did not have what He was looking for in the next king.  After Samuel checked each of David’s older brothers, he asked Jesse to send for David.  The fact that David was not present tells us something about how even his father viewed him.  David was just the kid brother.   In the account about Goliath we get some hints as to why God did not choose Eliab, and clear evidence about why He chose David.  We also see in that account reason to believe that Jesse, David’s father, explicitly chose not to include David in the feast with Samuel.  When Jesse needed to send David with supplies to his brothers, he was able to leave someone else in charge of the sheep while David went.  Yet, he did not think it worthwhile to do the same in order to have David present for a feast with Samuel, the man who had made Saul king.

When David was trying to get someone in King Saul’s army to confront Goliath, Eliab did not just call him to account and correct him, he belittled his little brother.  I do not want to condemn Eliab  for this.  However, Eliab should not have been angry with David.  One should even consider that he may have felt called out by David.  Most importantly, we see that God did not choose Eliab to be king because he did not do what David did.  When King Saul had David brought before him to chastise him for trying to instigate trouble among his men, David immediately said, “If no one else is willing to fight this Philistine, I will go.”  David then dismissed Saul’s contention that he was too inexperienced to take on a seasoned warrior.  David said that he had taken on lions and bears to protect his father’s sheep and God had delivered him.  How much more could he expect God to deliver him from this Philistine who had defied the armies of the living God?*  When David confronted Goliath, Goliath proclaimed that he would kill David and cursed David by his gods.  David replied by saying that God would give him the victory bringing glory to His name because Goliath had defied God.  David did not believe he would win because he was the superior warrior or better tactician.  David outright stated that he would win because the battle was the Lord’s.  We will not emerge victorious from this life’s challenges and battles because of our own greatness, any victory worth having will come to us because God gives it to us.  God chose David to be king because he was willing to rely on God, even when others were afraid to act.

Note: this is one of the earliest references in the Bible where an Israelite compares YHWH, the living God, to the gods of other nations, which were carved out of wood, or formed out of metal.  It is clear that David did not fear the gods of the Philistines because they were man made.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 14-15.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

This passage highlights how King Saul went wrong, and gives us a warning of something to watch out for in our own lives.  First, Saul made a foolish vow which almost resulted in him killing his son Jonathan.  Jonathan’s life was spared only because the army insisted that Saul not kill him.  Later, God ordered Saul to conquer and completely destroy the Amalekites and their possessions.  However, Saul kept the best of the cattle and sheep captured from the Amalekites for a sacrificial feast, and spared the life of their king.  When Samuel came to him, King Saul greeted Samuel by saying that he had performed the command of the Lord.  When Samuel called him out for not completely doing as God had commanded, Saul repeated that he had done as God commanded and attempted to blame the people for his failure to destroy all of the sheep and cattle.  In doing so, he glossed over the fact that he had indeed violated God’s command by keeping Agag, the king of the Amalekites, as a captive.

Here’s the thing, I think King Saul actually believed it when he said, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.”  Despite the fact that he clearly had not.  He justified keeping the best of the sheep and cattle because he was going to have a big sacrificial feast.  We all too often do the same sort of thing.  We tell ourselves, “Oh, I am only doing this thing which is contrary to God’s commands in order to do this other thing to honor God.”  I thought of giving an example here, but I think that each of you can look at your lives and see the areas where you are tempted to justify violating God’s commands in order to do something which you think honors God.  We might even do what King Saul did here, blame others for our failure to fully carry out the will of God.  Let us not do that.  Let us examine our lives and our motives and seek to do away with our justifications for not following God’s instructions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.