King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34
Date: Tuesday, April 09, 2019
Chapters: I Samuel 4-7
Message: One Judge Above All
Hello My Friend,
I was thinking about the responsibility of a judge, they cannot be biased, they have to listen to and examine every bit of evidence that is presented by both the defense and prosecution, and they have to make their decision based solely upon the law. Judges have had to set criminals free over mere technicalities, and have had justice served. And there have been judges influenced by what the Bible calls, filthy lucre, and make a mockery of the law, and find every possible way to go around the law. There one Judge above all, He is not biased, He cannot be influenced, and we will all stand before Him, and give an account for everything we have done. We also have a Counselor, one, who by the way knows the Judge personally, and if we listen to the instructions of our Counselor we might just receive a pardon, and not face judgment.
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” – Revelation 20:12-15.
“And I saw the dead, small and great,” Who are the dead? Those who never received the Lord, Jesus Christ as their Saviour before they died physically. We must understand that salvation is given freely to us upon our faith and acceptance of Jesus Christ. Those who are not saved, will be accountable for every single sin, even if it were only one foul word spoken, and will be cast into the lake of fire. Does this seem unjust? It is actually not. God is a just God, we must obey His Law, we cannot alter it, and we cannot ignore it, we either abide by it or face judgment. After more than a century of Israel going from one judge to another, and going back and forth in their obedience to God, the time had finally come that God put an end to this. Eli, who had raised up Samuel, had been judge, but there was much wickedness, even his sons were corrupted, a battle broke out between Israel and the Philistines, and none of the elders could understand why it was happening, they came up with the plan, “We need God with us.” Instead of praying to God they got Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to get the Ark, which was the chest that contained the two tablets with the ten commandments on them, and place it in the midst.
“So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight. And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.” – I Samuel 4:4-11.
“who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods?” Okay, one, there is only one God, and He is in the form of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all three are prominent throughout the entire Bible. And two, they knew the power of God, and that they needed to fear Him. Sadly, they never even attempted to put away their false gods, and turn to Him. In fact, they thought they had all the power now because they had the Ark. They soon found out that God will have no other gods before Him or with Him.
“When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him. But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof. And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts. Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.” – I Samuel 5:2-4,6,9-10.
“and smote them with emerods,” And people say that God has no sense of humor, I love reading this every year, and always ask God to show me something new, and here it is, God actually struck them with hemorrhoids. I am laughing as I type this as the world is so clueless, and do not tell me they do not know the power of God, which is why they resort to such crazy things. People actually make shrines and tombs to preserve the dead, but let me tell you, the only way the dead are going to be preserved is if they are made alive through Jesus Christ, who is the only one who can save us. “For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.” – Psalm 37:28.
“but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.” Belial, Beelzebub, whatever you want to call them, they are all sons of the devil, and it is him that loves to distort the image of God, and convince his seed over and over again that God will never cast one soul into hell. He is a liar, and a deceiver, and will be cast in that lake of fire with everyone else who is dead. The Philistines were beside themselves, everywhere they sent the Ark the city was destroyed and the people struck with emerods. They came up with a plan to get back into Israel’s hands.
“And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place. Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us. And they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart, and the coffer with the mice of gold and the images of their emerods. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Bethshemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone: and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD. And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.” – I Samuel 6:2,5,9,11-12,15,19.
“it was a chance that happened to us.” No one likes to admit that God played a part in allowing diseases, war, and catastrophes to get them to turn away from their false gods, and to Him. Nothing is by chance, it all in God’s hands. I often think about those maniacs who kill so many people who never got the chance at life, we may think that justice never gets served as many are killed themselves, but God is Judge and no one goes unpunished with God. They will be held accountable for ever single baby, every single child, and every single saint that was taken. Amen! Now, why were the people of Bethshemesh killed? They opened the Ark and looked into it. The only one able to touch the Ark was a Levite, but none were allowed to open it, let alone look into it. No one can look at God face to face and live, that is unless we are saved or pardoned of our sins. Jesus pardons us with His blood, when we accept Him as our Saviour, He actually covers us in His blood, He no longer sees any sin, He sees His Son’s blood, then we are able to stand before our Judge, and live. The people of Bethshemesh called for help, in which a priest sanctified himself and was able to keep the Ark with him for twenty years.
“And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD. And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.” – I Samuel 7:1-6.
“If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts,” It in only when we offer ourselves wholly to God that He hears us. It is only when we come to Him with the proper sacrifice that He hears us. It is only when we accept the sacrifice of the LORD Jesus Christ that He hears us. One can try to seek God any other way, and bring thousands of sacrifices to Him, but there is only one way and one sacrifice that gets God’s attention. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” – Hebrews 9:27-28.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him.” – I Samuel 7:9.
Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for my salvation, I can stand before You and live not for anything that I have done, but for what Your Son as done for me. There is nothing more exciting than to see Your power come pushing through the most unbelievable things, but is also comes through the little things we do every day. It can be easy to lose sight of Your power as every day life seems to get more and more of my attention and less of Yours. Lord, give me Your power, keep me in Your Word, lift my spirit by Your living Word. Help me to understand the things I am not sure about and seek Your guidance to make the right decisions in all that I do. Open my heart, reveal anything that keeps me from giving myself to You wholly and show me what I need to do to overcome them. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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