Tag Archives: Saul

For God so loved – he waits

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.

My pastor is going through a series of sermons entitled “For God So Loved” through the Lenten Season. There is a devotional book that goes along with it that has devotionals written by several different authors. And for the next few weeks, I will be using the same scriptures and themes that come from that devotional to align with the sermon series my church is going through. So today I’ll be looking at a passage from Psalms 17 in which David writes these words:

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
   hide me in the shadow of your wings
9 from the wicked who are out to destroy me,
   from my mortal enemies who surround me.
10 They close up their callous hearts,
   and their mouths speak with arrogance.
11 They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
   with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
12 They are like a lion hungry for prey,
   like a fierce lion crouching in cover.
13 Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down;
   with your sword rescue me from the wicked.
14 By your hand save me from such people, Lord,
   from those of this world whose reward is in this life.

We feel like David sometimes, don’t we? Try as hard as we may to live like we are supposed to, the bad guys seem to win and we want them to get what’s coming to them. We know there is a judgment day they will face. We know Jesus will sort the sheep and the goats. We know we will ultimately be avenged for what wicked men have done to us in this life. But we would like to see a little of that justice now, wouldn’t we?

I’d like us to go back and look at the setting in which David wrote this psalm for a minute. Samuel, the great and last judge of the nation of Israel, warned them about the trouble a king would bring on them. But the people insisted on having a king like the nations around them. God chose Saul for that position. Interestingly enough, of all the troubles a king would bring, like taxes, standing armies, forced labor, and so forth, all the things Samuel mentioned, Saul was the only king that did not impose any of those things on the people. David did, but not Saul. But Saul disobeyed a command God gave him through Samuel and made a sacrificial offering he was not authorized to make. Only a priest could perform that duty, but Saul took it upon himself to do it when Samuel was delayed. It cost Saul the kingdom and brought about the enmity between Saul and David. Samuel anoint David as the next king, but he had not yet been crowned.

Saul’s jealousy raged. He tried to kill David on many occasions and David fled for his life. As one of Israel’s greatest warriors, defeating the Philistines on the battlefield many times, the nations around Israel wanted the young warrior dead. Now the king of Israel wanted him dead, too. David had enemies surrounding him from every corner. He felt like he had nowhere to turn even though he was doing what he thought God wanted him to do in fighting for his nation and his king.

Remember, that on at least two occasions, David had the opportunity and the means to take Saul’s life, but refused because he would not harm the man God anointed as king. Instead, David ran for his life. It wasn’t fair. God laid out some spectacular things for him to do. God made some incredible promises to him and gave him talents that brought fear to his enemies. (When you can defeat a nine foot giant wearing battle armor with a sling and a stone, that can cause people to be afraid of you.) Yet David displayed a gentle spirit with many who came in contact with him.

Now on the run, David pours out his heart to the God he learned to trust as a shepherd out on the hillside protecting his father’s sheep against the wild animals in the wilderness. Was it fair? No. Did God ever tell us life would be fair? No. Was David’s life on the run an easy one? No. Did God ever tell us life would be easy? No. In fact, Jesus told his disciples to expect trouble. Following after God is bound to put you in opposition to the world. The average person will not like what you do if you follow his teaching. He puts boundaries on your actions. You can’t do anything you want to do. Your rights stop where they collide with responsibilities.

I would love life to be like that a couple of those line we read. “… hide me in the shadow of your wings, from the wicked who are out to destroy me… Rise up, Lord, confront them, bring them down; with your sword rescue me from the wicked. By your hand save me from such people…”

Doesn’t that sound good? But God doesn’t always do that. In fact, like with his son, Jesus, we often face the worst. God sometimes puts us in the very front of the battle lines of this world and we must stand against some of the most wicked and atrocious acts Satan has in his bag of tricks. Does that mean God doesn’t love us? No. Does it mean he has abandoned us? No. Does it mean he doesn’t care about the struggles we face in this world? No. God still loves and cares for us.

But as with David as he ran for his life, we sometimes draw closest to God in the times of our greatest struggles. Sometimes God allows these things to happen because it is in those times when we find we have nowhere to go for relief that we throw ourselves into God’s great arms because we know he is our last and only hope. It’s at times like those that we learn the greatest lessons about how little of life we control and how much we rely on him for every heartbeat and every breath of life.

God loves us so much he lets us endure some of the hardships of this world so we might draw closer to him and find solace in his embrace when life seems to overwhelm us in every direction we turn. Then when the lions roar, when the vipers strike, the hurricane winds and floods push to engulf us, we can rest in the assurance that God’s hand will reach down and cover us. He will not let us suffer more than we can endure. He will rescue us. But he does so will his purpose in mind.

God still wants his message to ring through our lives so others will see the peace in our hearts that come from knowing him. He wants others to know the legacy his son left us. Peace that when the chaos of life crushes in upon us, we can know that with our last breath, we awake in a new heaven and a new earth surrounded by the brilliance of God glory forever. A place where pain and death and evil can never touch us again.

Will I stop praying David’s seventeenth psalm just because I know my future in heaven? No, I would still like relief from the wickedness that plagues this world. I would still like God to intervene to stop the suffering that comes from the evil that lurks in the dark places that seem to encroach more and more on the innocent. I still cry out like David for God to rise up and confront those who find their reward in this world instead of in his kingdom.

But I also read the last chapter of the book. I know how it all ends. I have confidence and hope that someday soon Jesus will come as the avenger for all his children. And I cry for those who do not know him. Their eternity will not be as short or pleasant as they imagine. Eternity is something our human mind cannot grasp. Eternal punishment and banishment from the God of creation is something we cannot fully understand or imagine. I pity the lost whose souls will forever experience that awful place.

During this Lenten Season, take time to understand what Jesus has done for you in making a way to avoid that place of eternal lostness. Take time to think about the avenger who will come again and make right a world that has gone very wrong because of our refusal to accept God as God. Stop and remember that he will one day soon call an end to time and he will do exactly what the psalmist asked. He will rise up, confront, bring down, and destroy those of this world whose reward is in this life.

You can find me at richardagee.com. I also invite you to join us at San Antonio First Church of the Nazarene on West Avenue in San Antonio to hear more Bible based teaching. You can find out more about my church at SAF.church. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, send me an email and let me know how better to reach out to those around you. Until next week, may God richly bless you as you venture into His story each day.

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Saul lacked only one thing (1 Samuel 31), Apr 25, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Samuel 31
Set – 1 Samuel 31; Matthew 12
Go! – 1 Samuel 30-31; 1 Chronicles 10; Matthew 12

1 Samuel 31
¹Meanwhile the Philistine and Israelite armies had clashed. The men of Israel ran away, but many of them were killed on the heights of Gilboa. ² The Philistines even followed Saul and his sons and closed in on them; there they killed his sons, Jonathan (the beloved friend of David), Abinadab, and Malchi-shua.

³ The battle closed in around Saul, and he was shot with arrows and badly wounded.

Saul (to his armor-bearer): ⁴ Please take out your sword and thrust it through me. Don’t let these uncircumcised dogs come and put their swords and spears into me for their sport.

But his armor-bearer was afraid and would not do it. Saul drew his own sword and fell upon it. ⁵ When the armor-bearer saw this, he also drew his sword and fell upon it and died. ⁶ So Saul, his three sons, his armor-bearer, and all his men died together on the same day.

⁷ When the people of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and even those beyond the Jordan River, learned that the Israelite army had been defeated and heard that Saul and his sons were dead, they left their cities and fled. Then the Philistines came and lived in them.

⁸ The next day, as the Philistine army was looting the bodies of the fallen Israelites, they found Saul and his three sons dead on the heights of Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off Saul’s head, stripped his body of his weapons, and sent messengers with the good news to the temples and to the people throughout Philistia. ¹⁰ They put Saul’s armor in the temple of Astarte and nailed his body to the wall at Beth-shan.

¹¹ But when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard about this indignity done to Saul by the Philistines, ¹² the brave men among them rose up and traveled through the night. When they arrived, they took down the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall at Beth-shan. They returned to Jabesh and burned them there. ¹³ Then they took their bones and buried them in Jabesh beneath the tamarisk tree, like the one where Saul had held court in Gibeah, and for seven days they fasted and mourned.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Saul did a lot of things wrong and caused Me to reject him as king over Israel. But he also did a lot of things right. He remembered the rules I gave Moses about kings and what they should and should not do as leaders over My people. Saul didn’t want to be king, but I chose him over all the other Israelites to be the first king. I chose him for a reason.

If you look back through Saul’s reign, you’ll find he never taxed the people he served. All the other kings did. He never conscripted soldier to fill his army, he only asked for volunteers to fight with him to defeat the Philistines who invaded the country. All others except David conscripted young men to fill the ranks of a standing army. Saul came from a poor family and took care of the poor in many circumstances and with the way he targeted rewards for various activities.

Saul exercised his leadership well throughout his reign in almost every area only failing in the most important one. He failed to obey My commands. When I told him to destroy all evidence of the Ammonite inhabitants, leaving nothing behind to attract his soldiers or the rest of the Israelite people to any of their belongings or idols, he failed to do so. The idols and possessions his soldiers brought back with them began a downhill process from them in which they switched their loyalties to pagan gods instead of Me.

Had Saul kept his eyes focused on Me and kept the commands I gave him. There is little doubt he would have been regarded as one of Israel’s greatest kings. As the first king, he established many precedents in how the kingdom would run. How kings would operate on a daily basis. How they should be viewed by the populace and by other nations. Saul did many things right.

The intervention by the men of Jabesh-Gilead at his death provide an indication of how good a king Saul was. Those men risked their lives and the lives of their wives and children to retrieve the bodies of Saul and his sons after the Philistines hung their bodies on the wall of the city fortress of Beth-shan. They risked their lives, brought back their bodies and gave them heroes burials to honor them after the battle despite their defeat at the hands of the Philistines.

I rejected Saul because of his unfaithfulness to Me, but his faithfulness to his tasks as king should not go unnoticed. He served well, he lacked one thing to live well. He just needed to honor and obey Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

The blame game continues (1 Samuel 15:10-23), Apr 14, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – 1 Samuel 15:10-23
Set – 1 Samuel 15; Matthew 1
Go! – 1 Samuel 15-16; 1 Chronicles 5; Matthew 1

1 Samuel 15:10-23
¹⁰ Then Samuel heard the voice of the Eternal.

Eternal One: ¹¹ I regret that I made Saul king over Israel because he has turned away from Me and from executing My commands.

Samuel was distressed when he heard this, and he cried out to the Eternal One all night long.

¹² Then he rose early in the morning to go and find Saul, only to hear that Saul had gone on to Carmel, where he had erected a monument to himself, and returned to Gilgal. ¹³ At last Samuel caught up with Saul. When Saul saw him, he greeted him as if nothing was wrong.

Saul (to Samuel): May you be blessed by the Eternal One. I have carried out His commands.

Samuel: ¹⁴ Then why do I hear the sounds of sheep and cattle?

Saul: ¹⁵ They brought the best of the Amalekites’ sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Eternal One your God. But we destroyed all the rest as we were told.

Samuel: ¹⁶ That’s enough. Stop talking, and let me tell you what the Eternal told me last night.

Saul: Go ahead, I’m listening.

Samuel: ¹⁷ Don’t you remember when you didn’t amount to much in your own sight, but you were made the leader of the tribes of Israel? Wasn’t it the Eternal One who anointed you king over them? ¹⁸ The Eternal One sent you on a mission, commanding you, “Go and destroy the Amalekites, who are sinners. Fight them until they are completely destroyed.”

¹⁹ Why didn’t you obey the voice of the Eternal One? Why did you grab the spoils of battle, doing what the Eternal considers evil?

Saul (defending himself): ²⁰ I did what the Eternal One instructed. As He commanded, I went on the mission and decimated all the Amalekites, and I have brought back Agag, their king. ²¹ It was the people who took the sheep and cattle from the spoil that would have been devoted to destruction and brought them back to sacrifice to the Eternal One, your True God, in Gilgal.

²² Samuel: Does the Eternal One delight in sacrifices and burnt offerings
as much as in perfect obedience to His voice?
Be certain of this: that obedience is better than sacrifice;
to heed His voice is better than offering the fat of rams.
²³ Rebellion is as much a sin as fortune-telling,
and willfulness is as wicked as worshiping strange gods.
Because you have rejected His commands,
He has rejected you as king.

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Watch how easily Saul tries to deflect his guilt. From the time of Adam men, women, and children have attempted to push the blame for their sin on someone else. But it never works. Samuel addressed Saul with the question of obedience to My command and Saul assured him he did everything he was supposed to do. I obeyed, they did the evil action. I decimated the Amelekites, they brought back the spoils.

Of course, if Saul had really carried out My command, Agag would not have been brought back. The spoils would have been destroyed. Nothing would remain of the Amelekites. No trace of their existence would remain. But Saul didn’t do what I asked. He thought he would appease his men for their efforts by sharing the spoils of war with them, rather than obeying My command to him. I imagine he was thinking more about gold than he was about Me in those days.

Maybe he thought he needed to reward his men with the spoils of the battle in order to keep their loyalty. But it’s not their loyalty he needed to worry about it. It was Mine. I needed a leader who would obey Me as this new nation grew. I needed someone who understood the riches of the land would come from Me, not from the bounty taken from the previous occupants or from their conquests of war. I wanted peace across the land, though sometimes peace required violent means to achieve it.

It’s not easy to accept the blame for the wrongs you do, but it is the first and necessary step toward your redemption. If Saul had accepted his role and responsibility in the actions of the soldiers that day, he might have saved his kingdom and his life. But he didn’t. He refused to budge an inch. Consequently, his throne fell in a monumental chapter of history to a shepherd king named David, a man after My heart.

Are there things in your life you need to own up to? Have you failed to accept responsibility for some of the wrongs that put yourself or others in jeopardy because of actions or decisions you’ve made? Maybe it’s time to step up to the plate and do what you know you must do to rid yourself of the guilt that comes from the wrongdoing in your life. Just open yourself to Me with a repentant and contrite heart. I can do the rest.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

God can even use you (Acts 9/1-20), Feb 2, 2015

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scripture

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – Acts 9:1-20
Set – Exodus 33; Acts 9
Go! – Exodus 33-34; Psalms 16; Acts 9

Acts 9:1-20
¹Back to Saul—this fuming, raging, hateful man who wanted to kill every last one of the Lord’s disciples: he went to the high priest in Jerusalem ² for authorization to purge all the synagogues in Damascus of followers of the way of Jesus. His plan was to arrest and chain any of Jesus’ followers—women as well as men—and transport them back to Jerusalem. ³ He traveled north toward Damascus with a group of companions.

Imagine this: Suddenly a light flashes from the sky around Saul, ⁴ and he falls to the ground at the sound of a voice.

The Lord: Saul, Saul, why are you attacking Me?

Saul: ⁵ Lord, who are You?

Then he hears these words:

The Lord: I am Jesus. I am the One you are attacking. ⁶ Get up. Enter the city. You will learn there what you are to do.

These are shocking, unexpected words that will change his life forever.

⁷ His other traveling companions just stand there, paralyzed, speechless because they, too, heard the voice; but there is nobody in sight. ⁸ Saul rises to his feet, his eyes wide open, but he can’t see a thing. So his companions lead their blind friend by the hand and take him into Damascus. ⁹ He waits for three days—completely blind—and does not eat a bite or drink a drop of anything.

¹⁰ Meanwhile, in Damascus a disciple named Ananias had a vision in which the Lord Jesus spoke to him.

The Lord: Ananias.

Ananias: Here I am, Lord.

The Lord: ¹¹ Get up and go to Straight Boulevard. Go to the house of Judas, and inquire about a man from Tarsus, Saul by name. He is praying to Me at this very instant. ¹² He has had a vision—a vision of a man by your name who will come, lay hands on him, and heal his eyesight.

Ananias: ¹³ Lord, I know whom You’re talking about. I’ve heard rumors about this fellow. He’s an evil man and has caused great harm for Your special people in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ I’ve heard that he has been authorized by the religious authorities to come here and chain everyone who associates with Your name.

The Lord: ¹⁵ Yes, but you must go! I have chosen him to be My instrument to bring My name far and wide—to outsiders, to kings, and to the people of Israel as well. ¹⁶ I have much to show him, including how much he must suffer for My name.

¹⁷ So Ananias went and entered the house where Saul was staying. He laid his hands on Saul and called to him.

Ananias: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, sent me so you can regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸ At that instant, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see. So he got up, received the ceremonial washing of baptism identifying him as a disciple, ¹⁹ ate some food (remember, he had not eaten for three days), and regained his strength. He spent a lot of time with the disciples in Damascus over the next several days. ²⁰ Then he went into the very synagogues he had intended to purge, proclaiming,

Saul: Jesus is God’s Son!

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:
I can use the most unusual people to do My work. Sometimes I use people with great character and seemingly unblemished pasts. People like Joseph who withstood incredible tests of his power to forgive. He forgave his brothers, the jailer, Potiphar and his wife, the cupbearer, so many who could have freed him from a life of prison and slavery long before he met Pharaoh on that fateful day when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams.

But often I use those you might never expect to carry My message. Men and women who understand My forgiveness because they have experienced deep forgiveness themselves. They still suffer the physical consequences of their crimes quite often. They pay in this life with poor health, lost family, wrecked lives for the poor choices they made along their path. But they know My grace and mercy. They experience My forgiveness. They understand peace in their heart and life, sometimes for the first time. And share with others in extraordinary ways.

No one in Saul’s day would have thought to choose him as My spokesperson to the Gentiles. After all, he sought to destroy My church. He sought to find and arrest all who believed My Son was the Way to life eternal. Saul found pleasure in finding, arresting, and trying My believers. Who would think I could use this man as the one to propagate faith in My Son and the doctrine of the New Covenant He established with all people who would trust in Him?

But people forget that “all have sinned and come short of My glory.” No one meets the standards of holiness set out in My laws. It is only by the blood of My Son, Jesus that any can come near. It is only Jesus’ sacrifice that makes it possible for any to find forgiveness and wholeness in life. So whether morally good, like Joseph, or corrupted and out to slaughter My sons and daughters, like Saul, it isn’t until you come to Me in repentance and accept My gift of forgiveness for your sins that you can come into My presence and find your real purpose in life.

When you come to that point, though, what a difference I can make! What a life I can give you! How I can change you inside and out! Try Me and see for yourself. Saul did on that road to Damascus and never looked back. I want to do something special in your life, too…if you’ll let Me.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.