As we continue reading from 1 Samuel, Fr. Mike points out how God gave the people a king like they wanted, even though it was not part of his plan. This reveals to us that even when we choose things that God does not want for us, he is still with us. The readings are 1 Samuel 11-12 and Psalm 55. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: What is the focus of Day 107 in the Bible in a Year podcast?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 107, and we're reading today from 1 Samuel chapter 11 and chapter 12. We'll also back to the Psalms. We are praying today, Psalm 55, as always.
The Bible translation that I am using is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year, and you can get that delivered directly to your inbox. Also, if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast,
Please consider yourself invited. You're not commanded. You don't need to do anything I say. You just are invited to hit click, subscribe. And also, if you want to comment, that'd be cool. If you want to rate this podcast, if you've been journeying with us for 107 episodes and it's blessed you, great. And if you don't like it, I guess you can. I'm really glad. Thanks for sticking it out.
That's amazing. But you can also rate this podcast and hopefully it will help other people find it and hear the Bible. As I said, today is day 107, and we're reading from 1 Samuel chapter 11 and 12, and we're praying Psalm 55. 1 Samuel chapter 11. Saul defeats the Ammonites. Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-Gilead.
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Chapter 2: What are the key events in 1 Samuel chapters 11 and 12?
And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you. But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, O On this condition, I will make a treaty with you that I gouge out all your right eyes and thus put disgrace upon all Israel. The elders of Jabesh said to him, give us seven days respite that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel.
Then if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you. When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the hearing of the people and all the people wept aloud. Now Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen, and Saul said, What ails the people that they are weeping? So they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.
And the Spirit of God came mightily upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.
Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people and they came out as one man. When he mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah, 30,000. And they said to the messengers who had come, Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead, Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have deliverance.
And when the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.
And the next day Saul put the people in three companies, and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and cut down the Ammonites until the heat of the day, and those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. Then the people said to Samuel, Who is it that said, Shall Saul reign over us? Bring the men, that we may put them to death.
But Saul said, Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has wrought deliverance in Israel. Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let us go to Gilgal, and there renew the kingdom. So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord.
And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. chapter 12 samuel's farewell address and samuel said to all israel behold i have listened to 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 and 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.
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Chapter 3: What does Samuel's farewell address reveal?
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,
Fear not, 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 vain things which cannot profit or save, for they are vain. For the Lord will not cast away his people for his great name's sake, 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."
The book of Psalms, chapter 55.
Complaint about a friend's treachery. To the choir master with stringed instruments, a mascal of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my supplication. Attend to me and answer me. I am overcome by my trouble. I am distraught by the noise of the enemy because of the oppression of the wicked, for they bring trouble against me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me.
My heart is in anguish within me. The terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fear and trembling come upon me and horror overwhelms me. And I say, oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would wander afar. I would lodge in the wilderness. I would wait for him who saves me from the raging wind and tempest. Destroy their plans, O Lord. Confuse their tongues.
For I see violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it, on its walls, and mischief and trouble are within it. Ruin is in its midst. Oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace. It is not an enemy who taunts me, then I could bear it. It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me, then I could hide from him.
But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to hold sweet converse together within God's house. We walked in fellowship. Let death come upon them. Let them go down to Sheol alive. Let them go away in terror to their graves. But I call upon God and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan and he will hear my voice.
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Chapter 4: How does God respond to Israel's desire for a king?
We give you thanks. Lord God, even in the midst of not just enemies, but friends who have failed us, friends who have betrayed us, even in the midst of love that has run out, people who have promised, made covenants to us and promises to us, and then have failed to live up to those promises, have broken those covenants.
We know that you are faithful and you love us and you fight for us and you never break your promise and you never break a covenant. And so we give you thanks. you delight in us and you love us and you choose us and you sustain us. And so we thank you and we love you back. Help us to receive your love more and more this day and every day.
In Jesus' name we pray, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Okay, amen. Wow, so gosh, here we are with 1 Samuel chapter 11 and 12. And what we have in chapter 11 is we get to see Saul as a great leader. We have to see Saul as an actual leader. And one of the things that give context, we have Nahash the Ammonite, right?
So the member of the Ammonites, Philistines, these are some of the major characters who are the enemies of Israel at this point. And Nahash says to the men of Jabesh Gilead, basically other Jews, they say the men of Jabesh Gilead are afraid, terrified of Nahash the Ammonite. and say, we'll serve you. And Nahash says, well, if you serve me, let me gouge out your right eyes.
And that'll be a sign of disgrace that you gave yourselves up to me, that you basically, if a warrior was allowed to have his right eye gouged out, you realize how compromised you would be in battle. If you had a sword and shield, your sword would typically be in your right hand, your shield be in your left hand. So you'd have your shield in your left hand
kind of blind you from the left side because you have to hold it up. You won't be able to see anything on your right side where you'd have your sword side. And so this is kind of Nahash's way of saying, I would basically neuter you, hamstring you in such a way that you would never be able to rise up against me. If you want to belong to me, let's make it permanent, that kind of a situation.
So what does Saul do? Saul says, this is the deal. We're going to go to war. We're going to fight. We're going to battle against Nahash the Ammonite. And every person who belongs to Israel, you're going to fight too. He unites them, rallies them behind this challenge that Nahash had said to the men of Jabesh Gilead. And it goes well, right?
And not only that, but Saul shows that he actually has some leadership capability. He shows that he has the spirit of God. Why? Because at the end of chapter 11, The people who fought say, hey, those people who stood against Saul, because we just made him our king, like basically, yes, he was anointed in private by Samuel, then elected in public in front of everybody.
But here now, he has basically consecrated himself a king by the fact that he just led us all in battle into victory. And they say, everyone who was against you, Saul, let's kill them. And Saul does a great job. He says, no, let's not do that. Let them go. And we'll just renew the kingdom. We'll sacrifice peace offerings. And there he will be the leader, right?
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Chapter 5: What themes are present in Psalm 55?
He is tolerating this because of the hardness of your heart. Now, this is so important for us because it highlights the ways in which, you know, we've read through Joshua. We read through judges. We read through those battles that the people of Israel were led into. And we can think sometimes mistakenly, we talked about this before, we need to be reminded of this again.
We can mistakenly think that that was what God wanted. No, that's what God allowed. So even though it says that God said, okay, go do X, Y, and Z when it comes to battle, when it comes to leading people into those places of violence, even though it says, well, God, you said to do this, that was not the original plan. Just like how God is giving the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God upon Saul.
And you think, well, no, this is clearly God's plan because he's giving the spirit upon Saul and Saul can lead into battle. He was anointed by Samuel, all these pieces. But God is saying, I'm merely doing this because of the hardness of your hearts. I'm doing this maybe some ways in spite of myself. You know, it's what we're going to hear later on in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 19.
At one point, the people or the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus about divorce. And Jesus says, no, divorce and remarriage is not allowed. It's committing adultery. And they say, Moses, you said you could divorce and marry another. And Jesus says, because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses said you could do this. One of the things we're going to find is that
God's call is always higher, but he sometimes allows us to stay lower, I guess, for lack of a better phrase. But what we have to do is keep our mind and our heart and our eyes set on the heights, set on what would God's original plan be. And this is so important, not just when it comes to the Bible. Not just when it comes to these areas of he was willing to let them have a king.
He was willing to, again, allow things that he doesn't like, like violence and like this destructive warfare or divorce, that kind of situation. But in our lives, this is the word of encouragement. In our lives, many of us have made the wrong decisions. I'm sorry, let me clarify. All of us have made the wrong decisions in our lives. And yet, what has God done?
He hasn't said, well, you're disqualified now. You made the wrong choice. Therefore, I don't wanna go where you're going. You're done. And hey, it was a good run, but it's over now. He doesn't do that. What God does is he says, okay, you made a choice that's against my will. Ah. I can send you my spirit even now. Okay, you made a choice.
You made maybe even a permanent choice where here you are now in a state in life that you can't get out of. Okay, but this is not my wealth, not what I wanted, but I can still work with this. I can still give you my spirit. Ultimately, here's the word is that in 1 Samuel chapter 12, that Samuel is saying, even though you're choosing what God does not want, he is still gonna be with you.
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Chapter 6: How should we respond to betrayal according to the Psalm?
And that's just such a hard word to really allow into our hearts because on one side we can say, well, if that's the case, then I'll just keep choosing whatever I want if God's going to still be with me. On the other hand, we can say, are you sure? I don't know if that's the case. I still believe that I'm disqualified from the Lord's anointing. I'm disqualified from the Lord's spirit.
I'm disqualified from the Lord being present to me. And yet here is the truth that is revealed in 1 Samuel chapter 12, is that here's the people who are directly going against what God wants, and yet he is going to cooperate with them in their hardness of heart, out of the greatness of his own heart, out of the patience in his own heart, from the mercy that is unlimited in his own heart.
Now, of course, what does he say? The last word here, he says that... This will be blessed. This will be a blessing provided that you and your king both are faithful to me. If not, it will end in catastrophe. It'll end in catastrophe. So yes, I can give you this thing that you've asked for. I don't want it, but I'll do it and I'll be with you. But even in this moment, you're not disqualified.
But, but please, please know that from now on, you're called to be faithful. This is what conversion is all about. We recognize our brokenness and we recognize that I need God's grace. I need his help. And he says, okay, you have it. You have my mercy. You have my forgiveness. Okay.
Now, like he said to the woman caught in adultery in chapter four of John's gospel, he just read it a couple of days ago. It's okay. And I'll go and sin no more. Okay. You're forgiven, but sin no more. Okay. That's not what I wanted. So I'm with you. I'm with you in your presence. Now move forward. You're not disqualified. I'm present to you. I can heal you. I can restore you.
Now let's move forward together. I think that's one of the messages here in Samuel's final farewell speech, even though we're At the same time, this is his last big speech that we get in 1 Samuel chapter 12. I am so grateful for you all to hang with me and stick with me here. What a gift to be able to be journeying in this way together. We all have broken lives. None of us are disqualified.
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Chapter 7: What is the significance of trusting in God amidst trouble?
We've all chosen things that God didn't want for us. And yet he's still present to you. If you're listening to this, he is still present to you. And I know I brought up even topics of violence or topics of divorce and topics that are really present in a lot of people's lives right now. recognize you are not disqualified. The Lord continues to be present to you.
The Lord continues to call you and me and me forward. That's why we need to pray for each other because we hear those words of Jesus. Okay, you've been forgiven. Now go and sin no more. And sometimes even that is so daunting and sometimes that is so intimidating, but that is our call. So we need, we need God's grace. That's why we need to pray for each other. Please, please pray for me.
I am praying for you. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.