5/23/2010 7:43:24 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: An Army’s
insecurity
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Sam.
13:15-23
Message of the
verses: “15 ¶ Then Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to
Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him,
about six hundred men. 16 Now Saul and
his son Jonathan and the people who were present with them were staying in Geba
of Benjamin while the Philistines camped at Michmash. 17 And the raiders came from the camp of the
Philistines in three companies: one company turned toward Ophrah, to the land
of Shual, 18 and another company turned
toward Beth-horon, and another company turned toward the border which overlooks
the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness. 19
Now no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, for the
Philistines said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears."
20 So all Israel went down to the
Philistines, each to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, and his hoe.
21 The charge was two-thirds of a shekel
for the plowshares, the mattocks, the forks, and the axes, and to fix the hoes.
22 So it came about on the day of battle
that neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people who
were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and his son
Jonathan. 23 And the garrison of the
Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.”
I am going to try and do three sub-titles in today’s SD,
and the first one will cover verses 15 &16, and is entitled “A dwindling
army.” And so it was because of its leadership, for Saul was a poor leader,
however it will be seen that his son was a great leader. The difference was that Jonathan walked by
faith and not by sight, for He knew the Lord in whom he put his faith, while
the opposite was true of his father Saul, and so those 600 men who were left in
an army that began as 300,000 did not fear their leader, but did fear the
enemy.
“A threatened army” is the second sub-title that I want to
touch on this morning, for indeed Israel’s army was threatened. In verses 17&18 it is told that there
were four different raiding parties that came from the Philistines in order to
make sure that none of the citizens were going to help the army of Israel, and
this was very effective because every where that the army went they would
encounter the Philistines. In the next
chapter it will be seen that this will not detour Jonathan, as he will begin to
defeat the Philistines because of his great faith in the Lord.
The final sub-title for today is “A deprived army,” and
this covers verses 19-22 of chapter thirteen.
It is seen in these three verses it shows what a sad state of affairs
this army of Israel was in for they could not even make any spears or swords
for the Philistines even charged them a lot of money to sharpen their garden
tools. As stated earlier all will change
with the faith of Jonathan and God will use him in order to bring about a
victory.
Spiritual meaning for
my life today: I wish to quote a
paragraph that was written by Warren Wiersbe for this section of my Spiritual
Diary: “In the way it functions or
doesn’t function, the church of Jesus Christ today may sometimes resemble
Saul’s army, but if we do, it’s our own fault.
Through His great work on the cross, our Lord has defeated every enemy,
and His power is available to His people.
We have the armor and the weapons we need (Eph. 6:10ff), and His Word
tells us all we need to know about the strategy of the enemy and the resources
we have in Christ. All He asks is that
we trust Him and obey His orders, and He will help us win the battle.
‘Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Ephesians
6:10 KJV) for ‘the battle is the Lord’s (1 Sam. 17:47)”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Put on the whole armor of God.
5/23/2010 8:16:32 AM
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