6/3/2010
8:30:45 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My
Worship Time Focus: David’s city—Bethlehem
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 1Samuel 16:1-5
Message
of the verses: “1 ¶ Now the LORD said to Samuel, "How long
will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over
Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the
Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his
sons." 2 But Samuel said, "How
can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me." And the LORD said,
"Take a heifer with you and say, ’I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 "You shall invite Jesse to the
sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me
the one whom I designate to you." 4
So Samuel did what the LORD said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders
of the city came trembling to meet him and said, "Do you come in peace?"
5 He said, "In peace; I have come
to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the
sacrifice." He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the
sacrifice.”
In
Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on 1 Samuel, “Be Successful,” I come to the sixth
chapter this morning for today’s Spiritual Diary, and he entitles this chapter
“God Chooses a King,” and the first main division in this chapter is entitled
“God chose David” which will cover the first sixteen verses of chapter sixteen
of 1Samuel. In his introduction to this
chapter he wrote some very similar things about Samuel that I wrote in
yesterday’s SD and that it was time for him to stop his mourning over Saul and
arise to anoint a new king over Israel, David the son of Jesse, God’s choice
for king over Israel.
It
seems that the writer of 1 Samuel now makes another break in this book as at
first the main man in the book was Samuel, and then Saul, and now he turns his
attention to David. The Psalmist writes
of the choosing of David in Psalm 78:70-72, “70
He also chose David His servant And took him from the
sheepfolds; 71 From the care of the ewes
with suckling lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His
inheritance. 72 So he shepherded them
according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful
hands.”
Bethlehem
means house of bread as the word “Beth” means house and the word “Beth” with
different endings is seen in different places throughout the OT. Bethlehem was close to the place where
Rachel, who was Jacob’s favorite wife died while giving birth to Benjamin, and
it was also the place where Ruth found love and married Boaz and gave birth to
Obed who would become the father of Jesse, who was the father of David. This was all a preview of the most famous
birth ever to be born in the world and that is Jesus Christ who is the living
bread from heaven who came to dwell in human flesh. One of the titles of the Messiah is that He
is called the son of David, and this speaks of His humanness, while being
called the Son of God speaks of His holiness and being God in human flesh. So Bethlehem was a famous town and it was
there that God told Samuel to go and anoint the next king of Israel.
There
was much fear among the people during this time as Saul had many spies out
looking for people who would oppose him as king and Samuel’s estrangement with
Saul was well known and this brought great fear to the elders of
Bethlehem. It also brought fear to the
heart of Samuel so the Lord told Samuel to take a heifer with him to have a
fellowship sacrifice with the people of Bethlehem and to invite Jesse and his
family to this fellowship. When the
elders heard of the sacrifice this calmed their fears.
I
want to kind of zone in on this sacrifice that Samuel was to offer to the Lord
as it kind of fits in with a message that I am going to give at GBC this Sunday
evening. Samuel told the elders of
Bethlehem to consecrate themselves and this word from the Hebrew is translated
108 times in the AV of the Bible as sanctify.
One of the meanings of this word
is to set apart, set apart something or someone for God. A person taking a Nazareite vow would be set
apart for the purposes of God, the Holy Spirit told the elders at Antioch to
"Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” These words “set apart” are translated from
one word in the Greek which means to set apart for some good purpose, and this
was what Saul and Barnabas were set apart for.
Now back to 1 Samuel and I want to look at a bit of history of what the
elders and those who were invited to this sacrifice were to do to get ready to
go there. In the book of Exodus 19:10-15
the children of Israel were about to meet their God at Mount Sinai and they
were told to do the following: “10 The LORD also said to Moses, "Go to the
people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their
garments; 11 and let them be ready for
the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in
the sight of all the people.” Now later
on in the book of Leviticus Moses would write instructions on what a person
should do when attending a sacrificial feast, for no one should be
unclean. “19 ’Also the flesh that touches anything unclean
shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire. As for other flesh, anyone
who is clean may eat such flesh. 20 ’But
the person who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong
to the LORD, in his uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from his people.
21 ’When anyone touches anything
unclean, whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or any unclean
detestable thing, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings
which belong to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people.’”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There are symbols in this section that have
to do with how I am to live my life today in order to grow in Christ and in
order to have fellowship with the Lord and I believe that some verses from the
book of 1 John chapter one give insight into what I am to do: “5 ¶
This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God
is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him
and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is
in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His
Son cleanses us from all sin.
“ 8 ¶ If we say that we have no
sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we
make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”
This was a fellowship sacrifice that the people of Bethlehem were
invited to by Samuel so this surely seems to fit into this section of
Scripture.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Psalm
139:23-24 along with the verses written above from 1 John are good steps of
faith for me today.
6/3/2010 9:40:38 AM
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