Skip to main content

1 Samuel 19:8-10 Saul continues downhill - Day 239

 Good morning fellow workers in Christ,

While it is not a biblical statement, I think the idea "there, but for the grace of God, go I" comes to mind today.  We have nothing to boast about in our salvation because we had nothing to do with it.  God made us alive when we were dead in sin and trespasses.  I respond in faith because He regenerated me.  So when I see examples in scripture of people who are left in their sin and trespass, I can only thank God for saving me.

Blessings,

Jeff

Downward slide accelerates.  Saul swears to Jonathan that David will not be killed (v6) and David is restored.  David wins a victory over Philistines (presumably more women singing about David and his 10,000s).  Harmful spirit comes upon Saul and he attempts to kill David. While David escapes, that night Saul sends men to capture him, but they are deceived by Michal.

In the past, David's  music has mitigated the influence of the harmful spirit, but the Saul seems to be more and more susceptible.  I think this illustrates the concept of God giving people up to the passions of the flesh.  Another is Pharoah.  He hardened his heart in the beginning but by the end God hardens his heart.  He chose not to let Israel go.  Saul chose to offer sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel.  Each of them was responsible for the free choices he made.  As they continued in these patterns the offenses become more and more egregious.

Application to me is watch yourself carefully.  A regenerate person can fall in to sin.  He cannot loose salvation, but temporal consequence of sin cannot be avoided.  Marital infidelity has consequences in this life. If we don't take advantage of the ways of escape God provides when we are tempted, we are accountable for falling into sin. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall
Post a Comment
Read more