1 Samuel 30:22 (KJV) They’re Not All Heroes

1 Samuel 30:22 (KJV)

Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart.

All those souls who had gathered with David were distressed, in debt, and discontent. Of them, David had some mighty men and some real heroes. I think maybe even his brothers were among his subjects.

But though they had come to David instead of Saul, they were not all heroes. Some of them weren’t even good men, and many of them may not have been loyal. They had spoken of stoning him when they learned that Ziklag had been captured. 

Here we discover that some were wicked men, and some were men of Belial.

Wicked men
Ill-natured and sour. Their discontentment had turned them cross.

Men of Belial
Belial is a name for the devil. Many commentaries wish to soften this and say that the term had come to mean those who were sour and angry. It would be like the Bible uses the two terms, wicked men, and men of Belial, synonymously and emphatically. I tend to think it’s better to leave it as it is. David had, in his group, some men who were ill-natured and sour. He also had some that were downright devils.

Matthew Henry writes of this passage. “Let not the best of men think it strange if they have those attending them that are very bad, and they cannot prevail to make them better. We may suppose that David had instructed his soldiers, and prayed with them, and yet there were many among them that were wicked men and men of Belial, often terrified with the apprehensions of death and yet wicked men still and men of Belial.”

Even so, every church has the ill-natured, the sour, and the devilish. We may pray, preach, and practice sound faith, but it will always be so. This isn’t pessimism. It is realism and meant to steel the man of God for his work.

Let us find our encouragement in Christ and not men.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

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1 Samuel 30:22 (KJV) They’re Not All Heroes

1 Samuel 28:7 (KJV) The Christian’s Wrongful Fascination with the Enchanted

1 Samuel 28:7 (KJV)

Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.

The verse previous describes King Saul in a desperate situation. He knew he was about to be attacked. His spiritual bent (everyone has one) demanded that he seek the blessing and the mind of God but, when he enquired of the Lord.

By dreams
I think this would equate to the Word of God, the Bible, in our day. The Word of God was not complete then. God used various means to deliver to people His Word.[1] Saul had been numbered among the prophets and had heard the Word of God through these various means.

By Urim
This was in the hands of the priests. I think it may equate to the house of God, the local church, in our day.

By the prophets
I think this equates to the pastor in our day.

Though Saul was a spiritual man, his rebellion had cost him a relationship with God. He had no access to any of the means a believer discerns the will of God. In this desperation, he sought out a witch.

Consider our current situation. We live in a world that has, for the most part, separated itself from the things of God. The Bible, the church and the preacher are practically abandoned. Those who still claim some relationship to them have so corrupted their version of the Bible, so compromised their version of church and so castrated their version of the preacher that there is little to no voice from God coming from them.

And so, they turn to the very thing Christians are called to turn from. And we have the modern fascination with the enchanted. The supernatural, the paranormal, the occult are fictionalized, fantasized, and found in our homes. We make light of that which God abhors. No wonder we hear so seldom from Him. 

The voice of the Lord and the familiar spirit cannot reside in the same abode.

---

[1] Hebrews 1:1-2 (KJV)
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

1 Samuel 28:7 (KJV) The Christian’s Wrongful Fascination with the Enchanted

1 Samuel 25:17 (KJV) And Everyone Else…

1 Samuel 25:17 (KJV)
Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

I spoke with a man the other day who described a fellow Christian this way, “You don’t speak to him. He speaks to you.” The guy he referred to refuses to converse about ideas. He rejects any side of a spiritual subject other than his own. In his head, he is right and everyone else … well, he is right.

It happens in a number of arenas of life:

• A military officer
• A foreman or workmate
• A lost man who will not hear the gospel
• A preacher

I have worked construction jobs with partners who refused to hear any idea of how to do a job other than their own.

The description of Nabal by his own workers was that he was “such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.”

I’ll just say it, whether a lost man or saved, the one who refuses to exchange words and thoughts in conversation is a son of Belial. Godliness cares enough for people to hear them even if we disagree with them. Ungodliness is too insecure to allow another to have a voice unless that voice agrees.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

1 Samuel 25:17 (KJV) And Everyone Else…

1 Samuel 22:4 (KJV) What A Parent Goes Through

1 Samuel 22:4 (KJV)

And he brought them before the king of Moab: and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold.

This chapter contains the last mention of King David’s parents and his brothers. They were included in those who came to David “in distress, in debt, and discontented.” Fearing for the safety of his parents, David took them to Moab. Jewish tradition claims that the Moabites killed his family, leading later to David’s brutal attack upon the Moabites. While many oral traditions are based on some truth, they are not dependable for history. I tend to believe that at least his brothers would have stayed with him, much as Jesus’ brothers became followers of Him.

David was concerned for his parent’s safety, but I’m thinking of the concerns of David’s parents for him. Imagine.

• They knew him as a faithful young man in the fields
• They saw him anointed as King instead of Saul
• They heard of David’s defeat of Goliath and other military victories
• They would have known of King Saul’s jealousies and David’s attempts to alleviate that
• They knew of David’s flight and eventually found and joined with him
• They heard of the death of Saul
• They heard of David’s coronation over Judah
• They may have lived to hear of his coronation over the whole kingdom but

They might have also sensed the distrust of those who had once been loyal to Saul.

• Love for their son
• Pride for their son
• Fear for their son
• Admiration of their son
• Joy for their son 

followed by

• Concern for their son

All the while David seeks his parent’s protection, his parents ride a roller coaster of emotions as they observe the hand of God upon him.

Oh, if only we might all keep our eyes upon the Lord.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

1 Samuel 22:4 (KJV) What A Parent Goes Through

1 Samuel 20:31 (KJV) Settle That Or Else Be Unhappy

1 Samuel 20:31 (KJV)

For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.

1 Samuel 19:6 (KJV)
And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, Asthe LORD liveth, he shall not be slain.

After Saul had spoken to Jonathan, he swore he would not kill David. He swore it, but still, he tried to do it. Chapters nineteen and twenty give the accounts of Jonathan, Michal, Samuel, and even the Holy Spirit intervening between Saul and David. Saul could not be persuaded. Even if something inside him told him David was not guilty of anything wrong, Nothing and no one could quell Saul’s spirit. Rage built within him, driving him toward killing the young man.

I think the answer to this anger is revealed in our text. Saul’s wrath could not be reconciled because Saul had not reconciled himself to the will of God.

Saul’s family, it had already been determined, would not inherit the kingdom. It was not God’s will that Jonathan be king after Saul. God had not deposed Saul, but he had pronounced that the kingdom would go to another. Had Saul resolved that in his spirit, he may have been able to settle with David. Having resentment with God’s will, Saul could not but have hatred with David, the presumed heir of what Saul had lost.

The will of God is forever supreme. Until we settle that, we’ll always be at odds with the world around us and our place in it.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

1 Samuel 20:31 (KJV) Settle That Or Else Be Unhappy

1 Samuel 17:8 (KJV) No Choice to Make

1 Samuel 17:8 (KJV)

And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.

Choose you a man.

Goliath’s challenge seemed reasonable and natural. Who else would choose the man? But Saul, and all of Israel, stood there, speechless.

• They had no answer
• They had no man
• They had no hope

Goliath's challenge seemed impossible.

Just one man – but the consequences of the wrong choice made no choice possible. Who in the world could they possibly choose to fight Goliath?

• It would be the choice of that man’s death.
• It would be the choice of their nation’s defeat.

This battle was out of their hands. They could never have made the right choice.

So, God made it for them.

1 Samuel 17:12 (KJV)
Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

• No one in Israel would have chosen David
• No one in Israel would have chosen David’s choice of armor
• No one in Israel would have chosen David’s five smooth stones

But no one in Israel could have defeated Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:32 (KJV)
And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

The hopelessness of Israel is evident in even allowing David to propose it.

1 Samuel 17:45 (KJV)
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

A giant like Goliath requires a weapon far greater than any man possesses.

The name of the Lord will defeat the greatest giants in the land.

Let us go then, not in human power, not with choices we have made for ourselves, but only in the name of the Lord.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5900 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

1 Samuel 17:8 (KJV) No Choice to Make