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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Saturday, August 12, 2023
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Samuel Abandons Saul Bible Verse:1 Samuel 15:24-35 (abridged) (NASB) "Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and listened to their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.” But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors, to one better than you.” Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel. " Message:
Saul goes through four phases of reaction to Samuel’s indictment of him, for failing to destroy the Amalekite livestock: First, he says he retained them to sacrifice to God; then he says, basically, “the people made me do it”; then he confesses his sin; then he begs Samuel for mercy.
We have no reason to doubt that the Hebrews pressured Saul to spare the fat, healthy livestock. The Hebrews were herders, and destroying healthy sheep, goats, etc., was to them like pouring money down the drain. It made no sense.
But God did not (and throughout the Bible, never does) give government to the people. He gave government to Saul; and then, only because the people agitated for a king. He expects Saul to resist the will of the people, when it conflicts with His orders.
To think democracy is somehow “Christian” is a delusion fostered by those who will claim that the Bible says what they want it to say, rather than what is actually written. When God is not our sole king . . . well, the outcome is presaged in Exodus. When Moses climbed Mt. Sinai, the people wasted no time in building a golden calf to worship; and we see the popular tendency to godlessness reflected in the ever-increasing immorality of Western society. Salvation does not lie in civil government, but in Christ and Christ alone. “[A]nd the government shall be upon his shoulders . . . .” (Isaiah 9:6)
Solomon
Solomon
Nor does God approve of monarchy. The best one might say about the Hebrew demand for a king is to speculate that God acceded to the request, in order to hasten the destruction of Israel. But certainly, God considered the demand for a king to be a rejection of His holy authority: “The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.’” (1 Samuel 8:7)
Which leads us to consider: What form of government does God want us to have? Well, there is no really clear explicit statement in the Bible. We might infer, from the quote above, that God preferred the tribal/elder form of government prevalent in Judges to a monarchy. On the other hand, we see a continual ebb and flow of holiness in the Hebrews during this period; they are constantly veering off course, only to be returned to the path by a great prophet or judge, such as Moses, Joshua, or Samuel.
We also see this sort of government in very early Christianity, where ultimate authority lay with a council of elders in Jerusalem. And we see it today, in Amish communities. One might speculate that this is the “most-favored” form of civil government in the Bible. But again, civil government, being always human, is a dead-end. Our only salvation is in Christ.
Meditation : Prayer : Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip me with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in me what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.....Amen |
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