1 Samuel 12
G. Campbell Morgan · Citado em PreceptAustin
1 Samuel 12
Morgan - As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.—1 Sam. 12.23. Let us be very careful not to misread these words of Samuel, for rightly apprehended they are most arresting and revealing. •Samuel did not say: "Far be it from me that I should sin against you, in ceasing to pray for you." There is a secondary sense in which he might have said that, for we do certainly sin against men when we cease to pray for them. But that is so for the very reason which is revealed in what Samuel did actually say, namely: "Far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you. His thought was that if he ceased to pray for Israel he would be sinning against God. What a remarkable truth is involved in that conception concerning prayer. Quite simply stated, it is that in prayer we create conditions which make it possible for God to' act in ways otherwise impossible to Him. When we cease to pray we limit God. (ED: NOT SURE I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THOSE STATEMENTS) When we pray we open His way to act. We may not be able to account for this philosophically. It may seem to us as though our praying could not possibly make any difference to the putting forth of the Divine power, even though it might possibly affect His will. As a matter of fact, the reverse is true. No prayer of mine can change the will of God, which is ever "good and acceptable and perfect." But my prayer can and does make it possible for His power to operate in ways impossible apart from it. When I cease to pray for men, I sin against God first, because I hinder Him in that I do not help Him. Therefore I grievously sin against men when I cease to pray for them. (Borrow Life applications from every chapter of the Bible) C H
1 Samuel 12
Morgan - Those Precious Words - 1 Samuel 12:24KJV - February 9 - Borrow From this verse : 365 inspiring stories about the power of God's word On my bookshelf sits an old volume with a mile-long title: Autobiography of Lemuel Norton: Including His Early Life—Two Years in a Printing Office—Eleven Years at Sea, in which he was Twice Shipwrecked, and Experienced Several Narrow Escapes From Death. Also His Christian Experience and Labors in the Gospel Ministry. Once, returning home between voyages, Norton, then an infidel, shared a bedroom with Deacon Weed, who prayed upon retiring, “Lord, I am going to bed with this impenitent sinner.” Norton later recalled: The next morning, I awoke with a most singular groan, which surprised me not a little. In a few minutes, the old gentleman arose and went to where my mother was getting breakfast, and said, “That son of yours is going to be a Christian.” Mother replied, “What makes you think so, Deacon Weed?” Said he, “I asked the Lord if he would make him a Christian to make him groan; and he immediately groaned out.” Sure enough, Norton was soon converted and began devouring the Scripture. In 1817, Thanksgiving Day was the first time I took a text and tried to explain it to the church. The day previous while traveling along the road, these words pressed through my mind: “Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth, with all your heart; for consider what great things he hath done for you.” These words, so full of encouragement, looked to me very suitable for the foundation of a discourse the next day. On being assembled, the acting deacon passed the Bible to my hand. I turned to the text named above, and read with much solemnity those precious words which had been food to my soul the day before. And if ever words found place in every heart, these did, for the attention given them was profound. I spoke just twenty minutes with much freedom, when all at once I found nothing further to say, and took my seat. From this day forward it was understood that I had commenced preaching the gospel. … 1 Samuel 12:6-25 Adjusting Your Theory An economist made this comment about his profession: "In most fields, if the facts don't fit the theory, you find a new theory. But an economist doesn't do that--he tries to explain away the facts." Economists aren't the only ones who sometimes refuse to change their thinking. For example, we may live by the theory that we have no reason to be afraid of God, even though the Bible reminds us that we should fear Him (1 Samuel 12:24; Prov. 1:7). The solution to this problem is to adjust our faulty theory to fit the facts. We must admit that there are reasons both to be afraid of the Lord and not to be afraid of Him. We should have a healthy fear of His rod of correction when we refuse to honor, obey, trust, and love Him. Yet we should not fear what He will do when we admit our sins and accept His offer of life, love, and fellowship with Christ. We should not be afraid to believe Him, to trust Him, and to cling to Him. This, I believe, is what Samuel was trying to teach God's people in today's Bible reading. Though love for God should always move My heart to do what's good and right, It's wise to fear His judgments true And stand in awe of His great might. --DJD He who fears God has nothing else to fear. 1 Samuel 12:25 "But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away." But if: De 32:15-44 Jos 24:20 Isa 3:11 and: 1Sa 31:1-5 De 28:36 Ho 10:3 DIRE CONSEQUENCE OF DOING EVIL But if you still do wickedly (lit., “if bringing about evil you should do evil”), both you and your king will be swept away (saphah) - If you still implies they had been doing evil and the danger would be to still keep doing evil in face of all the warnings, etc. Samuel's prophetic promise (warning) is similar to that given by Moses who wrote "The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone." (Dt 28:36+) Moses gives the reason for predicting their exile in Deuteronomy 28:15+ writing "it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you." Swept away pictures God's wrath as like a mighty wave, a spiritual tsunami that destroys everything in its path! Was Israel swept away? Indeed they were, the 10 northern tribes were swept away to Assyria and 2 southern tribes were swept away to Babylon! Why were the 12 tribes swept away? They would continue to "still do wickedly!" Bergen sums up chapter 12 - The elderly prophet/judge Samuel addressed the nation of Israel publicly for the last time in his career. The focus of his final speech was a condemnation of the people for their desire to trust in an earthly king more than in a heavenly King. He encouraged them to return to a sincere trust in God and warned them that if they failed to do so, God would destroy both their nation and their king....The final sentence Samuel spoke to an all-Israelite assembly is perhaps the most ominous of his career. In eight words (Hebrew) it summarizes the judgments of the Torah and foresees the ultimate futility of Israel’s experiment with kingship. (Borrow 1 & 2 Second Samuel - Shepherd's Notes) Swept away (05595)(saphah) means to scrape or sweep away, to destroy, to perish, to be captured. The basic idea is that of sweeping—both the process of heaping things together and of sweeping them away (cf. Arabic safāʾ "to raise and carry away dust"). Saphah described the fate of those in the rebellion of Korah when Moses "spoke to the congregation, saying, “Depart now from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing that belongs to them, or you will be swept away in all their sin.”(Nu 16:26) Gilbrant - The verb sāphāh means "to sweep away" or, in the Niphal, "to be swept away." A similar verb in Arabic means "to sweep away dust." In Middle Hebrew, the verb means "to carry off," and in Syriac it means "to collect." Sāphāh first occurs in the account of Abraham pleading with God on behalf of the righteous people living in Sodom and Gomorrah. Because of these few godly men, Abraham begged God not to "sweep away" the notoriously evil cities (Gen. 18:23f). Though God ultimately destroyed the cities, angels warned Lot to take his righteous family and quickly leave Sodom, lest they be swept away when God's wrath was poured down (Gen. 19:15). A similar situation arose when Moses warned the Israelite community to move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram because they were about to be swept away due to their rebellion against Moses' leadership (Num. 16:25-35). Also, David foretold Abishai that Saul's end would come when the Lord caused him to be swept away and destroyed (1 Sam. 26:10). Numbers 32:14 depicts a different nuance, in that Israel was "sweeping up," or increasing, the anger of the Lord through their sin. For example, as a flame grows in response to fanning, the Lord's anger mounted in response to Israel's disobedience. Sāphāh is also used in an illustration of the result of the stubborn attitude of the Israelites toward God: dry land would replace the good land because of Israel's idolatrous disobedience (Deut. 29:19). Isaiah 30:1 is often translated "to add" sin to sin, taking the verb form there to be from yāsaph, rather than sāphāh. (Complete Biblical Library)