Category: 1 Samuel

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Providence, not chance is at work here. The Amalekites are the original enemy of God’s people as they came up out of Egypt. David’s rescue of his own from their hands, is a divine beacon to the fact that David is the Christ/Messiah of God. His kingdom is to succeed Saul’s.

SJA Notes

* Lord God Above, it is good to be near You – May we make You our refuge!

“But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”

This is a coin-story, two sides.

We see David continue to rise, and act like a king should.

We see Saul, the Lord’s anointed, suffer death.

It is a violent end for Saul and his sons. Killed in battle, bodies mutilated afterward.

And David shows how we should respond to trouble and anguish – He turns to the Lord for strength.

He did not try to work in his own strength or intellect, did not try and find a way through on his own.

David turns to the Lord.

Saul was a broken man, who in the darkest moment died on his own sword.

David was a broken man, who in the darkest moment turned to God.

We can be encouraged to persevere as David did, and to turn to the Lord in times of trial as well as when we succeed – That our trust and faith in the Lord and His working for our good is clear and evident.

* Lord God Above,

Please help us turn to You Lord. To bring You thanks, and cast our cares on You, to confess our wrongdoing.

Please forgive us our sins Lord God, wash us clean today.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

Saul starts his messiahship with a feast to the Lord (ch.9) and finishes using necromancy. Saul is religious, but he has never had a close relationship with God. He tries to talk to the dead Samuel, rather than the living Lord. Can you and I avoid Saul’s error?

SJA Notes

* Faithful God, blessed are You, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.

“And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him,”

The LORD did not answer Saul.

What Saul does after this is not the action of repentance at the Lord’s silence. He doesn’t come in humility before God seeking forgiveness.

Instead Saul does what he always does, repeating the same pattern of seeking out the solution of his own means, using his own wisdom.

Saul is mired in foolishness.

This is a stark witness to us about how we make decisions, what wisdom should be to us, and also of what Jesus has done and is doing for us.

Because the Lord does answer His people.

He did answer in the act of sacrifice and love at the cross.

And He does answer as we walk this road, listening to Him, talking with Him, sometimes even crying out to Him with groans that cannot be made into words.

* Dear Heavenly Father,

Please guide our steps, Your word as the lamp for our feet.

Please write Your word on our hearts.

That we might be good soil and bear much fruit.

Amen.

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

David flees to Gath and its king. 600 men of Gath follow David later and become his bodyguard. David acts like Odysseus in the Greek myths. He deals craftily with Israel’s enemies. Appreciate the differences between David and Jesus. When Jesus visited Gentile territory, he healed a Canaanite woman’s daughter. Matthew 15:26.

SJA Notes

* O Lord God, in You do we take refuge, let us never be put to shame!

“But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?'”

These words show again David’s strong and absolute conviction in the sovereign will of God Almighty, and our walking obediently under it.

When Jesus taught us to pray, He gave us these words,

“… Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

We are to be like David, and even more like Jesus – To both submit under God’s will AND go about God’s will.

When we read of David and Abishai standing dangerously over a sleeping king Saul, we can think about Jesus. About the question.

Who can put their hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?

What a question. What a weight. The trembling fear that can come when we think on this.

Because we crucified the Lord’s anointed!

We are not guiltless!

He went to the tree for our sins, our guilt!

Praise God that while we are absolutely guilty of putting our hands against Jesus – that in Him, the true and prime Lord’s Christ, in Him we are absolutely saved.

* Lord God Above,

We praise You for Your grace and mercy to us.

Please help us to rest in You, rely on You and find our refuge in You today.

Amen.