5/28/2010
10:35:36 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My
Worship Time Focus: A
foolish judgment
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Sam. 14:36-52
Message of the verses: “36 ¶
Then Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night and
take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of
them." And they said, "Do whatever seems good to you." So the
priest said, "Let us draw near to God here." 37 Saul inquired of God, "Shall I go down
after the Philistines? Will You give them into the hand of Israel?" But He
did not answer him on that day. 38 Saul said,
"Draw near here, all you chiefs of the people, and investigate and see how
this sin has happened today. 39
"For as the LORD lives, who delivers Israel, though it is in
Jonathan my son, he shall surely die." But not one of all the people
answered him. 40 Then he said to all
Israel, "You shall be on one side and I and Jonathan my son will be on the
other side." And the people said to Saul, "Do what seems good to
you." 41 Therefore, Saul said to
the LORD, the God of Israel, "Give a perfect lot." And Jonathan and
Saul were taken, but the people escaped. 42
Saul said, "Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son." And
Jonathan was taken. 43 Then Saul said to
Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." So Jonathan told him and
said, "I indeed tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was
in my hand. Here I am, I must die!" 44
Saul said, "May God do this to me and more also, for you shall
surely die, Jonathan." 45 But the
people said to Saul, "Must Jonathan die, who has brought about this great
deliverance in Israel? Far from it! As the LORD lives, not one hair of his head
shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day." So the
people rescued Jonathan and he did not die. 46
Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines
went to their own place.
“47 ¶
Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all
his enemies on every side, against Moab, the sons of Ammon, Edom, the kings of
Zobah, and the Philistines; and wherever he turned, he inflicted punishment.
48 He acted valiantly and defeated the
Amalekites, and delivered Israel from the hands of those who plundered them.
49 Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan
and Ishvi and Malchi-shua; and the names of his two daughters were these: the
name of the firstborn Merab and the name of the younger Michal. 50 The name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the
daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the captain of his army was Abner the son
of Ner, Saul’s uncle. 51 Kish was the
father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel. 52 Now the war against the Philistines was
severe all the days of Saul; and when Saul saw any mighty man or any valiant
man, he attached him to his staff.”
There
has been some misunderstanding for me as I read this section over when I was
reading through the Bible on a number of occasions. The problem is that Jonathan never heard of
the vow that his father had made about not eating any food, foolish as the vow
was it was still made and this falls under the category of not making vows at
all because some of them are going to be done at the spur of the moment and will
be regretted later on. Saul seems to be
jealous of Jonathan, for it was Jonathan who led Israel to two victories over
the Philistines and although this should have pleased Saul it did not.
Dr.
Wiersbe believes that the Lord was showing Israel the pride of Saul in all that
went on here with the vow, and even though the lot fell on Jonathan the people
who were with Saul would not allow Jonathan to be put to death. Saul thus missed out in destroying the
Philistines because of the foolish vow and also because of the results of that
foolish vow.
Dr.
Wiersbe points out some things about the family of Saul that are written in the
last paragraph of this section in 1Sam. 14 that seem to have some problems when
Scripture is compared with Scripture, although there are no doctrinal issues
involved here. This kind of thing is
something that does not flip my switch and so I will not further comment on it.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to speak on vows and the two that I
made earlier on in my Christian life and the one that I almost made, and if it
were not for the great wisdom of Pastor Burns I surely would have made that
foolish vow and would have suffered greatly for it. I have made a vow to read the Bible for at
least five minutes a day in October of 1980 and have pretty much kept it with
the exception of perhaps eight or nine times.
At this present time, and at this time I do the Spiritual Diaries most
every day and then follow along in the evenings as the Bible is played on a
recording from my Ipod. I hope that this
does not go against the vow I made. The
other vow is to pray at least five minutes each day and I believe that I have
missed this one more times than the first as sometimes when I stay up late and
have not prayed the clock goes on past midnight and then I have my prayer
time. As stated before the vow that I
almost made was a foolish one and I will leave it at that.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
By the grace of God I will continue to keep
the vows that I made to the Lord in 1980.
5/28/2010
10:49:57 AM
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