Daily Notes & Observations is a 365-part series that follows a chronological daily Bible reading schedule and contains a short article based on something found in the text for each day. This material is also available in paperback.

April 10, 2012

Serve God in Spite of Your Previous Sin (4/10)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from 1 Samuel 9-12.

The Israelites sinned in asking for a king because God was already their king. God granted their request, but had warned them that once the king was in place, it would be too late to undo what had been done (1 Samuel 8:18).

However, even though requesting a king was a sin with consequences that would exist for generations, the people would still be able to, and would still have the obligation to, serve the Lord.

“Then all the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.’ Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart’” (1 Samuel 12:19-20).

There was no way to undo their sin. They now had to live with the consequences. But they still needed to obey the Lord from that point forward.
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April 9, 2012

That We May Be Like All the Nations (4/9)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from 1 Samuel 4-8.

When the people demanded Samuel appoint a king over them (1 Samuel 8:5), thereby rejecting God as their king (1 Samuel 8:7), one of their reasons was so that they might be “like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5).

After consulting with the Lord, Samuel proceeded to tell them what it would be like to be ruled by a king (1 Samuel 8:10-17). He warned them that living under a king would not be like what they envisioned; but once they realized that, it would be too late to change their condition (1 Samuel 8:18). Yet the people would not listen.

“Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, ‘No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles’” (1 Samuel 8:19-20).

Despite the warnings and the fact that a human king was wholly unnecessary as long as they were wholly committed to following the Lord, these people wanted a king. They could not see past the fact that “all the nations” had kings to realize that they were better off submitting to the Lord rather than a human ruler.
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April 8, 2012

Samuel’s First Message from the Lord (4/8)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from 1 Samuel 1-3.

As a boy, Samuel “ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest” (1 Samuel 2:11). At this time the Lord spoke to Samuel, calling him three times, yet each time Samuel thought it was Eli who was calling him (1 Samuel 3:4-8).

“Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him” (1 Samuel 3:7).

Naturally, Samuel did not recognize the voice of the Lord. After Eli figured out what was happening and told him to listen to the word of the Lord, God revealed His message to the young boy.
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April 7, 2012

The Character of Ruth (4/7)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Ruth 1-4.

“So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son” (Ruth 4:13).

“So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David” (Ruth 4:17).

Ruth was a Moabite woman who had married one of the children of Israel (Ruth 1:2-4). Yet after her husband died (Ruth 1:5), she was not only welcomed by God, but gave birth to David’s grandfather, Obed. More importantly, she was part of the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:5).
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April 6, 2012

Safety Among Brethren? (4/6)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 19-21.

We remember Sodom where homosexuality was so prevalent that the men of the city demanded that Lot’s visitors be brought out so they could rape them (Genesis 19:4-5). God destroyed the city for this sin (Genesis 19:12-13, 24-25; Jude 7).

A few hundred years later, a similar event happened in Gibeah when a Levite and his concubine visited the city (Judges 19:1-28). The men of the city surrounded the house in which they were staying and called for the man to be brought out so they could rape him. When the owner of the house refused and the concubine was sent out instead, they brutally gang raped her throughout the night. She was treated so severely that she died just before dawn from the abuse she had received.

How did this couple find themselves in such an awful and dangerous place? They actually believed it was a place of safety.
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April 5, 2012

Annoyed to Death (4/5)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 16-18.

Delilah was offered eleven hundred pieces of silver by the lords of the Philistines to find out the source of Samson’s great strength (Judges 16:5). So she asked him three times and each time he gave her a wrong answer (Judges 16:6-14). Afterward, she tried to make him feel guilty about deceiving her.

“Then she said to him, ‘How can you say, “I love you,” when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.’ It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, ‘A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man’” (Judges 16:15-17).

Samson had to have known she was up to something. Yet he eventually told her his secret. Why? She annoyed him to death with her persistent pestering. As this continued day after day, she wore him down and was told the secret.
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April 4, 2012

Who Was Samson’s Wife? (4/4)

Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 13-15.

The woman which Bible students associate with Samson is Delilah. Because of this, many assume that Delilah was Samson’s wife. But if we take a closer look, we will see that she was not.

“Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his father and mother, ‘I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife’” (Judges 14:1-2).

Later, Samson and this Philistine woman are called each other’s husband and wife (Judges 14:15).
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