Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 12:1-25

Helpful thoughts:

• After Samuel’s public proclamation of innocence and faithful service, he instructs the nation:
  • Who they are
  • Why they exist
  • Who gave them freedom
  • Who brought blessing on them…and who didn’t (False gods)
  • How they responded in disobedience
  • How God had responded in justice, and mercy and grace
  • That sinning in the past does not mean you cannot move forward in obedience, though the consequences of past choices can make things more complicated
• The people responded to these clear declarations by confessing their sin and asking for prayer.

Questions to consider:

1. How could we write our own story of God’s goodness to us in the Gospel?  Why do we have every reason to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength?
2. Why doesn’t the Lord forsake His people (Verse 22)?  Why is the Lord’s reputation so utterly important?  Who is He?  If He ceased to be trustworthy, what would be the result?
3. God’s mercies are new every morning.  What might you need to confess and turn from?  What has God’s Word instructed you to do today?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 11:1-15

Helpful thoughts:

• Chapter 11 provides the occasion that Israel has been asking for (8:20)
• Saul’s rise to popularity and respect matches many of the elements of the victories in the period of the Judges.  This narratives sounds like it belongs in that book, except that Saul had already been anointed as the king.
• When Israel was called out for rejecting God, they reiterated their rejection.  When Israel saw that some had rejected Saul, they called for their execution.

Questions to consider:

1. When did fearful Saul become a brave leader (Verse 6)?  When did all the people become as one man (Verse 7)?  Who brought this about?
2. Who did Saul give the credit to for Israel’s victory?  What did this decision of leadership lead to?
3. How could a passage like this exemplify the confusion of God’s people?  God did save them on this day from the Ammonites!  But, what direction was Israel heading?  What mentality did this victory drive in for the nation?  Israel was praising God for giving them what they wanted when what they wanted was not good.  How might this truth challenge our thinking on spirituality and the ways we measure godliness today?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 10:1-27

Helpful thoughts:

• Saul came home a different man, because he had a different heart, because God gave it to him.
• When Saul was asked directly by his uncle to recount all that Samuel had said, he left out the most important part.  This may have been our first evidence of Saul’s fear of man.
• Samuel made clear to all Israel what they had done.  They rejected God.
  • Their response? “Long live the king!”

Questions to consider:

1. In light of God’s sovereignty over this situation, what does “Do what your hands finds to do” mean? (Verse 7)
2. What was Saul’s second example of his fear of man?
3. What is happening in this passage?  For example: Israel is rejecting God and also relying entirely on Him to choose their king?  How many strange ironies can you identify in this chapter?  How is God showing that the people of Israel are still very much His own?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 9:1-27

Helpful thoughts:

• Saul was a wealthy, handsome guy…just out looking for his father’s donkeys.
• God said of Saul , “He shall save my people from the hands of the Philistines.” And, “He it is who shall restrain my people.”
• Israel requested a shepherd, God gave them this handsome tall man, who was unable to find his animals.  Good-looking man, terrible shepherd.

Questions to consider:

1. Whose idea was it to ask the Lord for help, Saul or his servant?  What did Saul appear to know about Samuel (Who was known to all Israel)?
2. Who does Israel still belong to in this passage?  Even though Saul is about to become king, who does God call Israel? (Verses 16-17)  Whose sheep was Saul supposed to shepherd?
3. Knowing that God removes and sets up kings (Daniel 2:21) and that God can turn the heart of the king wherever He will (Proverbs 21:1), how should we look at our “rulers”?  Where must our hope be placed?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 8:1-22

Helpful thoughts:

• Samuel’s sons turned out to be much like Eli’s sons.
• Israel did not sin in rejecting the conduct of their new judges.  They sinned by rejecting their King (Verse 7).
• In a way, Israel was given this choice:
  • Have God as your king and deal with the sinful crooked judges who will be unjust and take your stuff, OR
  • Reject God as your king and deal with a man as your king…who will be unjust and take your stuff.
    • The nation weighed their options and chose to reject God.
    • The people that God had set apart from all the other nations (Leviticus 20:26) has now chosen to become just like all the other nations. (Verses 19-20)

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways does this chapter reminds us of the problem of sin?  From families, to government, etc.
2. What is ironic about the cause of Israel’s sinful decision?  What kinds of actions did they claim as motivation to reject God?
3. Is a leader (Outside of Jesus, outside of God’s gracious intervention) ever going to make a nation perfect?  What did the Israelites truly need to do in order to make their nation better?  How could we apply this to ourselves today?  What message do our neighbors need to hear?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 7:3-17

Helpful thoughts:

• After Israel’s lament (Verse 2), Samuel commands them, if they were going to follow the Lord, they must follow the Lord alone. (Exodus 20:3)
• God defeated the Philistines and gave Israel victory and peace in a way that could only be explained as having been His doing.
• Ebenezer means, “Stone of help”.  This is what we sing about in Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
• The greatest victory in this passage was not the defeat of the Philistines.  It was Israel’s repentance.

Questions to consider:

1. How does the putting away of other gods coincide with following the Lord with your whole heart? (Verse 3)
2. How was their repentance evidenced?  When they saw a need for prayer, to what power did they turn?  To whom did they ask Samuel to pray?

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2

Helpful thoughts:

• These diviners told the Philistines not to harden their hearts, and then proceeded to give them instructions for the ark that went against God’s instructions in every possible way.
  • And, to cover their bases in case this grand plan didn’t work, they threw in a big “perhaps”. (Verse 6)
  • God gave them an answer to their question anyway.  He used these untrained cows to show the Philistines that it was Him who had brought these plagues on them.
• When the ark returned to Israel, we should have seen a people who knew how to handle it…the opposite of the Philistines.  Instead, we find a people who seem to be just as ignorant.
  • Beth-shemesh was a city for the Levites.  Of all the people in Israel, these people should have known.  They didn’t.  (Numbers 4:5-6)
• When God showed Himself to be the true God in Philistia, instead of repenting, the people there became distressed by their consequences and tried to get rid of God’s apparent presence.
  • When God showed Himself to be the true God in Israel (Beth-shemesh), instead of repenting, the people there became distressed by their consequences and tried to get rid of God’s apparent presence.

Questions to consider:

1. How might the excitement of the people of Beth-shemesh to get the ark back cause us to be confused or distressed by the judgment they experienced?  Why might it feel unfair?  Why was it perfectly just?
2. How could reading verses like 2 Timothy 3:16-17 give you a sense of gratitude and eagerness to faithfully continue studying the Word of God?
3. Knowing of the righteous justice of God, how should our praise and thanksgiving to Him increase? (Romans 3:21-26)

Today’s passage: 1 Samuel 5:1-12

Helpful thoughts:

• The statue of Dagon suffered the same fate as Eli.  They both fell over and broke their necks.
  • Dagon was a god of weather and warfare.  Dagon’s “decapitation” before the ark of God was a sign of God’s superiority.
• The ark went on a tour of Philistia, resulting in the people wanting to give it back!
  • They came to understand they had defeated the Israelites, but not their God.
  • We are reminded that Dagon did not give the Philistines their victory (He can’t! He doesn’t exist!), God did.
• Without a single Israelite around, God showed His power over the Philistine people and over their “god”.  They were fearful of Him, but they did not repent.  They only wanted to remove the ark so that they could carry on the way the had been.

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways was God’s power and holiness put on display in this chapter?
2. Did God need Israel (Or us) to display His power and glory?  Who all benefits from our obedience and witness?
3. Are there ways we look at God the same way the Philistines looked at Dagon?  How might we be thinking about Him as a God of weather and warfare?  Or a God of finances and physical health?  God is able to do ALL things, but in what ways is He superior and all-together different than the idols we might stack up against Him?