{"id":33455,"date":"2024-11-17T22:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-samuel-25_23-44-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-11-05T17:29:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T00:29:15","slug":"1-samuel-26_1-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-samuel-26_1-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Let God Do It God’s Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Samuel 26:1-12 \u00a0 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Samuel 26:1-12.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Samuel<\/em><\/strong>\u00a026<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em><\/strong>1<\/em><\/strong>-2 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n1<\/sup>\u00a0<\/em>The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?”\u00a0<\/em>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand chosen men of Israel, to search there for David.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-2: \u00a0 Previously in chapter 24 Saul had an emotional encounter with David and with God where his sinfulness was exposed and Saul seemed to be repentant.\u00a0 Yet here in chapter\u00a026\u00a0we find Saul returning to his old ways, hunting David down\u00a0again.\u00a0 How did Saul’s bad habit restart?\u00a0 Verses\u00a01-2 give us a clue: The Ziphites, who had previously committed to helping Saul hunt down David (1 Samuel 23:19), were still acting as informants to Saul, telling Saul where David was hiding.\u00a0 In other words, Saul was still allowing the wrong people to influence his thoughts and had not taken a stand against old destructive habits in his life.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0I can have an emotional encounter with God — at church, at a conference, listening to a speaker, while praying or being prayed for — but if I don\u2019t take a stand against old, destructive habits in my life or if I continue to let the wrong crowd influence my thinking, I will eventually return to my old ways, like a dog returning to its vomit (Proverbs\u00a026:11).<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Samuel 26:3-6 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the desert. When he saw that Saul had followed him there,
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the camp, with the army encamped around him.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0David then asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?” “I’ll go with you,” said Abishai.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 3-6: \u00a0After making some inquiries and learning that Saul had indeed gone into the desert to look for David (v3-5), David asks for someone to go down into Saul’s camp with him. Abishai volunteers to go (v6).\u00a0 David was wise enough not to go into enemy territory alone.\u00a0 Likewise, especially\u00a0when you are stepping out to face difficult or uncertain circumstances, don’t try to go it alone<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Like David, be humble and wise to ask for support.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Samuel 26:7-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice.”
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the\u00a0LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As surely as the\u00a0LORD\u00a0lives,” he said, “the\u00a0LORD\u00a0himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the\u00a0LORD\u00a0forbid that I should lay a hand on the\u00a0LORD’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.”
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had put them into a deep sleep.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-12: \u00a0David and Abishai head down into Saul’s camp, undetected by any of Saul’s men.\u00a0 They find Saul asleep and unarmed (v7).\u00a0 Abishai asks David for permission to kill Saul (v8), but David refuses.\u00a0 David trusts that the Lord Himself would deal with Saul and that David would not have to lay a hand on him (v9-11).\u00a0 Instead of killing Saul, David takes Saul’s spear and water jug as proof that he could have killed Saul but decided once again to spare his life (v12).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Instead of taking matters into your own hands and doing evil, like David we want to trust God to accomplish His purpose for our lives His way.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0Notice that David didn\u2019t stop and pray about what to do when he saw Saul sleeping and vulnerable.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t have to.\u00a0 That\u2019s because God had already taught David an important principle of not taking matters into David\u2019s own hands, but trusting God to do it His way.\u00a0 So when another situation presented itself where David could choose whether or not to kill Saul, David, by his convictions, already knew what was the right thing to do.\u00a0 Likewise,\u00a0as you grow in your relationship with Christ, there are certain lessons that God teaches you that He wants to become convictions and values by which you can live and immediately apply to different situations you face, such that you don\u2019t need to keep asking God afresh what to do because God has already shown you what you should do<\/strong>.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m not saying we shouldn\u2019t pray.\u00a0 We want to be praying continually and depending on God continually.\u00a0 But in certain situations, it actually takes more faith, maturity and dependence on God not to ask God again for direction and to simply stand on the word God has already spoken to you than to ask God for direction as if God has never spoken to you or taught you what you should do.<\/p>\n

Father, I pray that I would not be influenced by the wrong crowd, but rather that I would grow in my understanding of the kind of person You want me to be and the kind of life You want me to live.\u00a0\u00a0 I pray that I would not take matters into my own hands by doing evil, but trust You that You will work out Your best will for my life in Your way and Your time.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Samuel 26:1-12.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

1\u00a0Samuel\u00a026:1-2 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?”\u00a0
\n2\u00a0So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand chosen men of Israel, to search there for David.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-2: \u00a0 Previously in chapter 24 Saul had an emotional encounter with David and with God where his sinfulness was exposed and Saul seemed to be repentant.\u00a0 Yet here in chapter\u00a026\u00a0we find Saul returning to his old ways, hunting David down\u00a0again.\u00a0 How did Saul’s bad habit restart?\u00a0 Verses\u00a01-2 give us a clue: The Ziphites, who had previously committed to helping Saul hunt down David (1 Samuel 23:19), were still acting as informants to Saul, telling Saul where David was hiding.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33458,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455\/revisions\/33458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}