KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Chapters: I Samuel 12-14
Message: Three Strikes
Hello My Friend,
We can praise God for His endless mercy and grace upon all believers of His Son, and we can praise Him for His promise to never leave nor forsake those who are trusting Him as their Saviour, and we can praise Him for always forgiving us when we confess our sins, but there are limits to all these things should we continuously disobey His commands. While our salvation is not based upon our works, and we are never fully sin free until the day we see Jesus in heaven, it is important that we follow His commands after we are saved, especially concerning how we are to worship Him, we cannot worship Him our own way, it must be His way, and He knows whether or not we are sincere in our worship. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” – Matthew 15:8-9.
We must understand that being saved by grace means that we are no longer under the law of Moses, but that does not mean we ignore the law, it was given for a reason, sin is still sin, and it still separates us from Him, whether we are saved or not. Israel wanted a king so God allowed it, but He chose the man who would reign over His people and that was Saul. After Saul finally became accepted by all the people he began to reign, Samuel talked to them, reminding them that they rejected God when they chose an earthly king over Him. And all of a sudden a great fear came over the people as they discovered what they really did was sin against God and begged Samuel to pray for them.
“And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.” – I Samuel 12:19-25.
“yet turn not aside from following the LORD,” The worst feeling you will ever get is discovering that you have sinned against God. All sin is against God, but when you actually realize what you did impacted your relationship with Him it makes you feel down right shameful. But we cannot run and hide from God, we cannot ignore Him and act like nothing happened, all we can do is confess our sin and go back to doing things His way. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” – I John 1:8-10.
God has an abundance of grace in that no matter how many times we mess up He is forgiving, right there ready and willing to accept our confession and mover on. However, if we continue to disobey, without one morsel of guilt that what we have done was wrong, He will keep tabs, and for Saul, it was three strikes before God took the kingdom away from him. Saul did great in his first year as king, the second year, not so much, a war broke out with the Philistines, and Saul was supposed to wait for Samuel so he could find out from God what he should do, instead he took things into His own hands, built an altar and offered sacrifices to God.
“And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass, that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might salute him. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash; Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the LORD thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the LORD have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.” – I Samuel 13:9-14.
“the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart,” Strike one, while Saul’s intentions were good, this was not the way to get God’s attention, only a high priest was allowed to offer the sacrifices. We cannot stand before God on our own, we have always needed a high priest, one who has been consecrated of sin, who will stand before God on our behalf and plead for us. Only then will God listen to us and be pleased with our sacrifice. Today, our high priest is Jesus, He is our intercessor, our middleman to God, and without Him we might as well be talking to a wall because He will not hear us. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” – Hebrews 7:25-27.
Now, all Saul had to do was repent and ask God to forgive him and I am sure God would have changed things for him, instead he takes things into his own hands again. This time, he ordered all of Israel to fast from eating or drinking anything during the battle, including the army, if anyone ate he would be put to death. Saul’s son Jonathan, not knowing the order ate some honey and encourages fellow soldiers to do so also, but this caused a huge problem because the people were so hungry that they turned into savages. Once again, Saul tries to get God’s attention by building an altar and offering a sacrifice to Him, he actually thought it was the people who sinned that was a fault and if he offered an offering God would forgive them.
“Then they told Saul, saying, Behold, the people sin against the LORD, in that they eat with the blood. And he said, Ye have transgressed: roll a great stone unto me this day. And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and say unto them, Bring me hither every man his ox, and every man his sheep, and slay them here, and eat; and sin not against the LORD in eating with the blood. And all the people brought every man his ox with him that night, and slew them there. And Saul built an altar unto the LORD: the same was the first altar that he built unto the LORD. And Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night, and spoil them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatsoever seemeth good unto thee. Then said the priest, Let us draw near hither unto God. And Saul asked counsel of God, Shall I go down after the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into the hand of Israel? But he answered him not that day.” – I Samuel 14:33-37.
“Ye have transgressed:” Strike two, if we want God to accept our offering we must admit we are a sinner. It is not enough to believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us, we must receive Him also, that means admitting we personally have sinned against God. You know, God does not want to see anyone end up in hell, He rather see the lowest person on earth be saved than see them burning it torment for eternity, but that is a choice up to each individual. “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” – Romans 3:22-24.
Saul was quick to offer punishment for those who disobeyed his orders, but gave one excuse after another when he was caught disobeying God’s. God declared a war on the Amalekites. Saul was commanded to destroy everything, people and livestock, and take nothing for themselves. Saul disobeyed a direct order from God, he then lays the blame upon the people, which they could not have done without his consent. Even worse, he tries to say that the animals were spared for God’s sake to offer up sacrifices to Him.
“And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD. And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.” – I Samuel 15:20-26.
“to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.” Strike three, God will not accept any offering that goes against His will, especially one that they lie about and say that it was for Him when it really was not. Okay, we can come up with as many excuses as we can to justify our reason for not following a command, but bring God into it and watch what happens. Saul got demoted that day, Samuel made it known to him that God was renouncing him as king and searching for a new king. Of course, then he wanted to do what was right, but it was too late, God’s decision was made. While we are all saved by the grace of God, that does not mean we are to live the way we want and expect it to be acceptable to Him, we should be doing everything possible to show God that we are grateful and thankful for what He has done for us, we cannot worship Him our way, we must do it His way. “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” – I Peter 2:15,16.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.” – I Samuel 12:22.
Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for Your mercy and grace, and for the liberty You have given me when I accepted Your Son as my Saviour. You know that I want to live my life according to Your commands, if you were to evaluate me right now I know You will find a willing heart, but I also know there are some things that I need to work on. There are no excuses for disobeying Your commands, especially when I learn of something You do not approve of. Lord, open my heart, reveal to me anything that I need to repent of, and forgive me of my sins, Give me Your power, lead me and guide me, help me to improve on my weaknesses and train me how to increase my skills to serve You with all my heart, mind, and soul. I love You, and pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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