Explore the themes of repentance and divine mercy as we discuss Samuel’s address in 1 Samuel 12. The podcast emphasizes the importance of integrity and the potential harm of turning away from God. Through personal reflections, we examine how these biblical principles apply in our lives today. Discover the recurring cycle of disobedience and God’s willingness to forgive, a cycle that teaches us to strive for a life of devotion and service to others.
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Alan J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
SPEAKER 03 :
Today we are in 1 Samuel chapter 12. These 25 verses will be read by our guest reader, Morgan Jackson, Senior Vice President of Faith Comes by Hearing.
SPEAKER 02 :
1 Samuel 12 And Samuel said to all Israel, behold, I have obeyed your voice and all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. And now behold, the king walks before you and I am old and gray and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am. Testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me, and I will restore it to you. They said, You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man’s hand. And he said to them, The Lord is witness against you and has anointed his witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand. And they said, He is witness. And Samuel said to the people, The Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that He performed for you and for your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord. And the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. But they forgot the Lord their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them.” And they cried out to the Lord and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Astaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you. And the Lord sent Jeroboam and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side. And you lived in safety. And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked. Behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the King who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your King. Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain, and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king. So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king. And Samuel said to the people, Do not be afraid. You have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for Himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.” Only fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.
SPEAKER 03 :
This chapter gives us some great lessons to live our lives by. As we look at Samuel as he recounts his life before the people, he simply asked, Did I do anything wrong? Did I defraud any of you? And if I have, I’ll restore it. And yet no one, no one finds any fault in the way Samuel has lived his life. What a way to live life. Carrying on that theme, as I wrote in my journal in 2002, Have I wronged you in any way? If so, let me make it right. That’s Samuel’s plea. After a lifetime of service to people for the Lord, And then I wrote, Lord, help me walk through this life in service to you and not cheat, oppress, or take undeservingly anything from someone else. Like Samuel, let me, help me live from beginning to end clean before you and those you bring into my life. Oh, could it be that I could live such a life like Samuel? And you too. I’m sure it would be great to never wrong anybody, to never defraud anybody, to never take advantage of someone. But most likely, we’re all guilty. Isn’t it great that God is a God of forgiveness? And if we’ve done that, God can forgive any of those kind of behaviors in our past. Maybe by reading this chapter, it’s caused you to think of some time or someone or some place where you have offended someone or maybe taken advantage of someone. And maybe you can ask the Lord to forgive you even now for that moment in your life. And if it seems right, maybe you can go back to that person and ask them for their forgiveness. In Samuel’s speech here, he also reminds the people that they asked for a king, and it maybe was even against God’s will. And so let’s pick up the story here in 1 Samuel 12, verse 13. And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you’ve asked. Behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the command of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. The conditions that Samuel lays out are the same for us today. If you fear the Lord and you follow His commandments, it will be well with us. But if we decide to rebel against the Lord and His commandments, the hand of the Lord will be against us. So how’s your life going? Have you decided to fear the Lord and obey His commandments? Or are you a bit rebellious and disobedient toward God? Does it seem well with you? Or does it seem like the hand of the Lord might be against you? The people asked Samuel to pray for them. And so I can ask the same, that you might pray about the circumstances to your Lord and your God. I want to read about that prayer in those last six verses of this chapter. Verse 19, and it says, And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for Himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. And I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. Yes, we have all done evil, but Samuel admonishes us not to turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. Follow the Lord, not empty things, for they are empty. Again, fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. I hope those words ring loud and clear in our ears today. that though we have done evil, if we serve the Lord with our heart, we can please Him once again. Just a quick update on Mom back in 2002 as we’ve been going through the process of her being in the hospital and Dad being in the hospital. I wrote in my journal that day, been coming down, that means from Denver to Colorado Springs, once a week and once on the weekend to see my parents. Still, both are in the hospital. And I wrote on that day in my prayer for mom and dad, healing or homegoing, a soft landing whenever it occurs. Father, you remind us that in our past we may have done evil. We’d much more like to live like Samuel. and have no one ever have anything against us, but for some of us that’s just not the case. So we thank you so very much for your forgiveness and for the admonition in this chapter to pray for others. As Samuel said, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you. Bring people to mind today that we need to pray for, we might need to ask forgiveness from. and that we would be faithful in our prayers for others. In the name of the Lord we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. Maybe you wonder if Old Testament prophecy is true, came true already, or is coming true in the future. First, most prophets had a recurring theme. God loves us. Because he loves us so much, he gave us commandments, rules, statutes to live by. If we live by them, we can be blessed beyond what we can think or imagine. But when we choose to disregard, ignore, and set aside his rules, we are subject to his curses. We live under curses until things get so bad we cry out to God. He’s always there, waiting for our cry. Most often, but not always, He responds with grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness. We get back in line, then the cycle repeats. The Old Testament prophets cover this cycle over and over. Sometimes we wonder how the Israelites could have been so foolish. Yet, in our day, we have the same choice. We know God loves us. We generally know the rules, and we’d know them a lot better if we were more consistent in our time in God’s Word. Yet we decide, like those in the Old Testament, to ignore them and live out our lives. Things don’t often go well, so we finally cry out to God. As we see in the Old Testament, prophecy comes true as God restores rebellious, disobedient people like us back into right relationship with Him. But it is not always the case. Sometimes He has enough and does not deliver them. So yes, Old Testament prophecies are true, they came true, and they will come true in the future as we cycle through the same life choices the Israelites made. Thus, the value of reading all the Old Testament prophets Maybe we will learn what they tried to teach. God loves us. Keep his rules, love him back, and enjoy his blessings.
