5/11/2010 8:59 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Samuel anoints Saul
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 Samuel 9:26-10:16
Message of the verses: “26
And they arose early; and at daybreak Samuel called to Saul on the roof,
saying, "Get up, that I may send you away." So Saul arose, and both
he and Samuel went out into the street. 27
As they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul,
"Say to the servant that he might go ahead of us and pass on, but you
remain standing now, that I may proclaim the word of God to you."
“1 ¶
Then Samuel took the flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and
said, "Has not the LORD anointed you a ruler over His inheritance? 2
"When you go from me today, then you will find two men close to Rachel’s
tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say to you, ’The
donkeys which you went to look for have been found. Now behold, your father has
ceased to be concerned about the donkeys and is anxious for you, saying, "What
shall I do about my son?"’ 3
"Then you will go on further from there, and you will come as far
as the oak of Tabor, and there three men going up to God at Bethel will meet
you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and
another carrying a jug of wine; 4 and
they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you will accept
from their hand. 5 "Afterward you
will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is; and it shall be
as soon as you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of
prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a
lyre before them, and they will be prophesying. 6 "Then the Spirit of the LORD will come
upon you mightily, and you shall prophesy with them and be changed into another
man. 7 "It shall be when these
signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with
you. 8 "And you shall go down
before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings
and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you
and show you what you should do."
“ 9 ¶ Then it happened when he
turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs
came about on that day. 10 When they
came to the hill there, behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of
God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them. 11 It came about, when all who knew him
previously saw that he prophesied now with the prophets, that the people said
to one another, "What has happened to the son of Kish
This
is a very long portion of Scripture with many new thoughts that I have learned
for the teaching of Warren Wiersbe, things that seem to make this passage come
alive with meaning that can be applied to my life. Saul has always been a character in the Bible
that caused me to wonder about him, and one of the things that I have done is
to compare his life and the life of David to help me get perspective on my own
life, for if you actually compare the two you will see that recorded in the
Scripture is many of their sins against the Lord and David’s sins seem to be
greater in number and greater in severity as compared to Saul’s, and yet the
Lord was with David, but He was against Saul after he sinned. One of my conclusions is that their hearts
were completely different when it came to the Lord and so one of the things
that I can learn from the comparison of these two kings of Israel is to have a
good and honest heart before the Lord, for the Lord wants me to be honest
before Him, when I sin I am to confess it and not cover it up.
As
Saul was leaving Samuel’s house he was anointed by Samuel as the first king of
Israel, and it is hard to think what it was that was going through his mind,
and so God through Samuel gave him three signs in order to show him that all of
this was of the Lord. All three signs
are told to Saul by Samuel, and yet only one of them is recorded as to
happening to him in the Scriptures, yet all of them did happen just as Samuel
assured him they would. In his
commentary on this section Warren Wiersbe points out the meaning of these three
signs that were given to Saul. The first
sign was that he would meet two men who would tell Saul that the donkey’s were
found and that his father was now concerned about Saul. “—this
was a good experience for the young king, for it assured him that God could
solve his problems. One of Saul’s greatest failures as a leader was his
inability to take his hands off of situations and let God work. In modern language, Saul was a ‘control freak.’
The
second sign would take place at the oak of Tabor and it was there that he would
meet three pilgrims who would be carrying three loaves of bread and have a jug
of wine along with three goats, and they would give Saul two of the loaves of
bread. They were heading to Bethel Israel
The
third sign had to do with spiritual power, for Saul was not a spiritual person
but he would meet some prophets and begin to prophesy with them. “In this sign, God told Saul that He could endue him with the power he needed
for service. ‘And who is sufficient
for these things?’ is the question in the heart of every servant of God (2 Cor.
2:16), and the only correct answer is ‘our sufficiency is of God’ (3:5).” This is a lesson that Saul would not learn to
well, for he tried to do things on his own without the help of the Lord.
It
is told that the Holy Spirit came upon Saul to give him another heart, but this
is not like when a person in the NT times is regenerated by the Spirit and
saved from their sins, this was to give Saul the heart to rule the people
Israel, and the Holy Spirit would be taken from him later on in his life, and
the interesting thing is that after He was taken from Saul He was given to
David. The ministry of the Holy Spirit
in the OT is different than the ministry in the NT, for all believers today has
the Holy Spirit living in them. The Spirit
can be grieved, and quenched, but He will not be driven out of believers
today.
As
far as the saying about Saul when he prophesied with the prophets this was “Is
Saul also among the prophets?” “This was
asked of anybody who suddenly stepped out of character and did the unexpected.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I want to have the heart of David and not the
heart of Saul. I want to trust the Lord
with all things in my life, and not get in His way of accomplishing what He
wants to accomplish in my life. I do not
want to quench or grieve the Holy Spirit.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Trust
in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not upon your own understanding, in
all of my ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct my path.
5/11/2010 10:06 AM
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