I think we read this passage before. But reading it over helped me refresh my memory. Also, I noticed something that I did not pay attention to when I had read it for the first time. Verse 20 says "... you have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lor with all your hear." They did bad "we have added to our sins the evil of asking for a king.." But Samuel says that God will still accept them if they come back to him. It does not mean that they will not live with the consequences of their sins as we find out later (they wanted a king and they had to deal with him) but God was still with them. When we do bad things and we come back to God we still have the consequences of our actions or words but God is still with us and helps us live with those consequence and eventually will take us through.
Could you imagine going for a walk trying to locate your lost donkeys only to be told all these things will be happening to you and oh yeah, you will also be king! Crazy...I could only imagine what was going through Saul's mind...but I found it interesting that for all those things to have happened, God changed Saul's heart. And I love how people who knew him could tell he was a changed man.
I liked what my study Bible had to say about "is neglecting prayer a sin?" in reference to 1 Sam 12:23. It says "Neglecting prayer can reveal a sinful attitude of self-sufficiency and independence. It would be wrong to try to straighten out a difficult situation with only human resources. It can be sinful to ignore a problem, choosing instead to just let things happen. True prayer comes from an attitude of dependence on the Lord, whether celebrating his provisions, confessing sin, or expressing need". It made me think on how I need to depend more and more on God in my life vs being so independent.
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I think we read this passage before. But reading it over helped me refresh my memory. Also, I noticed something that I did not pay attention to when I had read it for the first time. Verse 20 says "... you have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lor with all your hear." They did bad "we have added to our sins the evil of asking for a king.." But Samuel says that God will still accept them if they come back to him. It does not mean that they will not live with the consequences of their sins as we find out later (they wanted a king and they had to deal with him) but God was still with them. When we do bad things and we come back to God we still have the consequences of our actions or words but God is still with us and helps us live with those consequence and eventually will take us through.
Could you imagine going for a walk trying to locate your lost donkeys only to be told all these things will be happening to you and oh yeah, you will also be king! Crazy...I could only imagine what was going through Saul's mind...but I found it interesting that for all those things to have happened, God changed Saul's heart. And I love how people who knew him could tell he was a changed man.
I liked what my study Bible had to say about "is neglecting prayer a sin?" in reference to 1 Sam 12:23. It says "Neglecting prayer can reveal a sinful attitude of self-sufficiency and independence. It would be wrong to try to straighten out a difficult situation with only human resources. It can be sinful to ignore a problem, choosing instead to just let things happen. True prayer comes from an attitude of dependence on the Lord, whether celebrating his provisions, confessing sin, or expressing need". It made me think on how I need to depend more and more on God in my life vs being so independent.
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