In a compelling blend of scripture and personal testimony, we explore the transformative power of God’s word and the critical message of 1 Samuel 15. Discover how Saul’s disobedience led to his downfall and reflect on how these lessons apply to our daily lives. Alan shares a pivotal moment from his youth, when a miraculous car accident led him to a life of devoted Bible reading. This episode inspires listeners to put God first and seek forgiveness when we fall short, emphasizing the grace and patience God extends to all who return to Him with faith and repentance.
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.
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Today we come to 1 Samuel chapter 15, almost the halfway point of this great book. Today’s reading will be read by Morgan Jackson, the Senior Vice President of Faith Comes by Hearing, our guest reader for 1 Samuel.
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1 Samuel 15 And Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Teliam, 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all of the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah, as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatted calves and the lambs. And all that was good, it would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned and passed on, and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed be you to the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction. Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, Speak. And Samuel said, Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoiled sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Has 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 listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
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What a dramatic and very sad chapter in the Word of God. Let’s go to the journals to see what this chapter has meant to me over the years. Back in 1983, I wrote, I continued that theme in 2002 when I wrote, When we do not obey… When we go our own way, God gets hurt. What hurts God is disobedience. And I quoted chapter 15, verse 22, to obey is better than sacrifice. And in 2007, I wrote, why did Saul fail? And I quoted verse 11, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands. And then I continued with verse 19. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? And then verse 23. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Saul’s response to Samuel’s accusation was in verse 24. I have sinned. I have indeed transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and listened to their voice. I continue to write, Saul disobeyed, rebelled, was insubordinate, rejected the word of the Lord and feared people more than God. And God gave Saul every chance to succeed, but Saul couldn’t get it right. So finally, God rejected Saul. Sad, but a great lesson for us today. God calls, he equips, he blesses, but we disobey, rebel, reject his word, and please people rather than him until he removes his blessing and favor on us. Then we wonder what happened. Maybe my prayer that I recorded that day is like what you’re feeling right now. I wrote, God, please never reject me. Keep me faithful, obedient. Forgive me for my sins and sinfulness. It is so scary to fall out of your favor. I give you my life, everything, nothing ahead of you. So let’s go back and remember. Israel begged for a king. God didn’t want them to have a king. They wanted a king. So God gave them a king. He picked out the tallest, most handsome guy in all the tribes of Israel, Saul, and made him their king. Outwardly, Saul looked like a brilliant king. But again, as we mentioned in days past, inwardly, he could never get it spiritually right. Don’t let that happen to you. God gave Saul every opportunity to succeed, and Saul continued to fail spiritually before the Lord. The chapter closes with a very sad verse, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. How are you living your life? Is there anything that God regrets that he gave you or any opportunities that you’ve had that God would regret that he’s given you responsibility over? If so, take a moment today to seek his forgiveness. That’s all he ever wants. He knows we fail, but when we fail, he wants to forgive us. He wants us to come to him, seek his forgiveness, and he will do that. He will do that for you today. Father, we thank you that you are a God who forgives, that all you want is our love and our obedience to you and your word. But if we continue to reject that, we continue to fail, you too will reject us as you have so. Lord, please don’t let that happen in my life. Forgive me for anything I’ve put before you. Restore my relationship with you today. We ask it humbly, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license, and we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour, and he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. The sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf. Get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
