Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 11-13.

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At the end of yesterday’s passage, after Samuel had anointed Saul king over Israel, Saul went home to Gibeah with some men of valor who chose to accompany him.  Today’s passage begins with Nahash the Ammonite threatening to maim all of the men of Jabesh-gilead.  The people of Jabesh-gilead sent messengers to all of Israel requesting aid.  I point this out because it was the actions of the men of Gibeah which led to the rest of Israel all but wiping out the tribe of Benjamin in the account at the end of the Book of Judges.  Then, when the men of Israel realized that they had almost wiped out Benjamin, they got brides for most of the remaining men from Jabesh-gilead.

After Saul’s victory over Nahash, Samuel called the people of Israel to Gilgal to renew the kingdom and reaffirm Saul as king.  Once they had offered sacrifices to renew their dedication as one people under Saul as king, Samuel gave a farewell address.  In that address, Samuel pointed out how Israel had repeatedly sinned against God, yet God repeatedly sent people to save them and lead them back to Him when they cried out for deliverance.  Now they had sinned yet again by asking for a king, when God was their king.  Yet God honored their request and gave them a king.  Samuel further told them that they needed to live with the consequences of this sin, but that they should serve the Lord going forward and He would not forsake them.  We need to understand the message here.  We have sinned.  We cannot undo those sins.  Instead of focusing on our past sins we need to focus on fear of the Lord and serving Him faithfully going forward.  If we do so God will not forsake us.  However, if we do not put our sins behind us, we will be swept away.

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