A wonderful day to you!

The long-awaited series that I mentioned in the previous  post begins today. I will like to say that inasmuch as two books of the bible will be deliberated upon, on this blog is no shortcut or replacement for your time in the word of God. I really do encourage you to dig into the word of God. Study it for yourself, no blog post or sermon should be sufficient. Get a direct contact with God-through His word.

The more reason why this series won’t be sufficient for your portion in the word is the fact that I will be discussing lessons from some of the chapters of the book of 1 & 2 Samuel. Also, you need your own rhema, mine is not enough for both of us. I do not mean to sound like a broken record, but I’ve to reiterate that gone are the days when you live off others interpretation of the word of God.

However, it is my earnest desire that as we study and discuss the books of Samuel, that the word of God will change us inside out. Amen!

Today, we will be focusing on 1 Samuel 30. Permit me to say that, indeed, David was a man after the heart of God. He was just an impeccable leader, not that he was perfect; he had his flaws [will be discussed in future posts to come] He is one man who I know experienced God in different dimensions- no limits.

Chapter 30 previews with a raid of Negev and Ziklag. The Amalekites had torn Ziglag to pieces and burnt it down, captured all the women, young and old. They had also captured David and his men’s wives, sons and daughters. This was a tragedy.

As if that was not bad enough, the men out of their bitterness over the loss, started badmouthing David, they wanted to stone him. This is just typical. As human beings, we are very susceptible and quick to blame someone when something bad happens, especially when there is a leader to put the blame on. After all, the leaders should know better right? One thing is certain- when something ill takes place looking for someone to pin the blame on, never solves the issue. Being clouded by the tragic happening does not give room for coherent thinking.

Pause and think: How do I react when unexpected unpleasant occurrences happen? Do you respond like a leader or a follower?

The thing is even with the present tragedy, David’s reaction was distinct. You see, David cried with his men. He did not tell himself: ‘Okay! Be a man. Keep those tears back. You are the leader here’. No, he cried with them, he had lost his family too. This part of the scripture makes me understand that God feels our pain when we go through rough times. He is there. He cries with us. God is not oblivious to the aches.

But David could not just cry with them and end there, he was a leader. So he strengthened himself with trust in his God, and approached God on what to do next. You see what I have come to understand is that all the men did was wail and talk about how David was so unfit. The same men that were [probably] part of those that chanted the “Saul kills by the thousand, David by the ten thousand!”…Do you see why you cannot live by the praises [words] of men? They are prone to be feelings-led; and feelings change. David knew he could not be distracted by what was going on around him, he knew who had called him and was not ready to be sucked in to the feelings of his men.

So after enquiring from God, God told David to go after the raiders. God made a way by allowing one of the Amalekites to abandon one of his slaves because he had gotten sick. A slave who had inside knowledge of the raid. David’s men fed him and he became better and was ready to be of help to them, so long as he did not have to return back to his master or be killed.

Pause and think: Do you remember those times when it felt like there was no way out, and just as you trusted God blindly, you realized that all along; God had everything figured out? You sat down and tried to think of how God could have pulled such, and you could not grasp how?

So David and his men fought the Amalekites and recovered the whole lot, and the same men that were planning to stone him, were now chanting “David’s plunder!”. Need I state any further how emotionally controlled we humans are? Still looking to please man?

But you see what I found intriguing was the fact that some of the four hundred men who went to battle with David did not want to share the plunder with the other two hundred. What happened was that, on their [David and the 600men] way to war, 200 men were too tired to cross Brook Besor, so they stayed there.

So some of the men among the 400 that went to war with David did not see it fit that the ‘lazy bones’ get anything other than their wives and children.

Don’t look far! Don’t even shake your head at them! Let’s come home……

How many times have we thought that because that person is not living as right as we think they should, they should not be entitled to manifold blessings from God?

Or because we feel we are tongue speaking and spirit filled Christians, it is not our place to have compassion for those who are not really in Christ. Where were they when the good news was being spread? Don’t they have the same ears and hearts like you?

Or we have given our lives to Christ for 6years and a new believer who is just a year in Christ is blossoming and we feel it is just unfair that this should be the case? How can it be?

Or what about times when we’ve been offended by a people and we feel we are in the right position to torture them emotionally, they have to feel the pain of the hurt that they caused…..

I really love how David responded to this outrage in verse 22…

“Families don’t do this sort of thing! Oh no, my brothers!” said David as he broke the argument. “You can’t act this way with what God gave us! God kept us safe. He handed over the raiders who attacked us… [MSG]

Everything they experienced was sheer grace, but they felt their works earned them the plunder. How many times do we get frustrated because we feel God is not fair in this ‘race business’? How dare we think that the Almighty, just God is not fair? His ways are not our ways.

The words of Jesus when He was sending out the twelve disciples in Matthew 10:8b NIV were thus; and the same He is reminding us today:

Freely you have received, freely give.

Are we gracious with our lives? There is no time to be pretending that we are living for Christ in some parts of our lives and not the whole.

I am reminded of the story about the workers in Matthew 20: 1- 16, and I love the commentary of The Student Bible, NIV..

…You cannot calculate the grace of God like you can a day’s wages. We receive it as a gift from God, not as something we work hard to earn. The person who comes to God at the end of life- like the robber on the cross- enjoys the same ultimate benefits as someone who follows God from early childhood. Jealousy of another’s “unfair” rewards can take the joy from your own.

Beloved! The things that pertain to the kingdom of God does not go with the world’s principle. The world makes us understand that when you have been a good child, then Santa will bring a gift to you. But God wants us to know that we all get generously treated by Him, and this same grace should be shown to all.

This is not to condone sin or prevent correction with love. This post is to remind us of how compassionate our God is; and how we are supposed to look like Him- in totality.

Stay gracious!

P.S As usual, I don’t know it all. Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section and most of all, study the 1 Samuel 30, and let us know what resonated with you or what lessons stood out for you.

PT QUOTE OF THE DAY

You have been treated generously, so live generously!

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Princess Okechukwu!