The Feed Mill

Today’s Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 11-13

Today’s Devotional: 1 Samuel 11:1-6

1 Samuel 10 ended with all the people accepting who the Lord had chosen as their king, and with a group of rebels in the mix.

Then comes an opportunity to act on and trust the Word of the Lord in their lives. An Ammonite king came against Jabesh Gilead and expected to see the people of the city give themselves over to them without a fuss. The Ammonite king trusted in the decisions of Israel at the time and the people doing only what seemed best for themselves in the moment at Jabesh and throughout Israel. The city was allowed 7 days to find someone who would protect them.

So now Israel was faced with the sudden call to trust the Lord and His Word for strength and deliverance.

1 Samuel 11:6 is the key to what Israel’s deliverance from their enemy was, the Spirit and presence of the Lord in their midst and upon. The peoples of the land had grown used to the lack of Israel’s trust in the Lord, they had grown to trust and count on Israel not trusting the Lord especially when divisions were amongst them and those divisions being their because of the Lord not being the center and focal point of their hearts and minds.

The Lord here confirms His Word with a move of His Spirit, and what at the time most likely would have been a miracle that the children of Israel would have stood together and fought to obey God’s Word.

All of this comes from Samuel explaining God’s Heart in the new direction Israel chose to go in, the Spirit of God coming upon, then Israel trusting and acting upon the Word of God and direction for their life. The same is even true for us, if we desire to stand against the temptations and our desires that pull at our hearts that we know we ought not do and later regret because we have become ensnared to them, we have here the exact recipe or how it is done to stand against and not to get ensnared to those things and serve those things but instead to serve the Lord and His Word and Heart. This is our fortress and our strength.