BIAY - Principled faithfulness
1 Samuel 26-28, Proverbs 28:15-28
Welcome to the Bible in a Year for 2025. Intro to this series and resource links available here, plus here’s how I’m approaching this year.
Scriptures for Today:
Reflection:
David spares Saul, again (26:5-25) - Once again, an opportunity to kill Saul is presented to David, those under his command interpret it as a sign from God and encourage him to do so, and David refuses on principle out of respect for the Lord’s anointing upon Saul as king. This pattern is helpful for discipleship. We will be presented with an opportunity to do something. This could be misinterpreted, from a worldly perspective, as something positive to help us advance ourselves—and others may encourage us to do so. But David’s model is correct. Sometimes we must rely on our guiding principles when the situation would tempt us to seek an advantage in an ungodly way.
David’s cunning (27:1-4, 10-12) - Even though Saul has promised—“for real this time”—not to hunt for him after sparing his life again, David doesn’t take his word at face value. Interestingly, the text says that Saul declined to hunt for him again “when Saul was told that David had fled to Gath,” not necessarily because David had spared his life. Also, David lies to the Philistine king about his raiding activity when asked in order to create a useful misperception in that king’s mind. David has great respect for the activity of God, but he does not assume honesty and honor on the part of the activities of human kings.
Saul’s folly (28:3-19) - This is a truly odd and surprising scene. The strangest thing that happens is when the spiritual medium calls up Saul from the afterlife, he actually shows up and has something to say! Wild. What is not at all strange is that a human being (Saul) acts in faithfulness to God at one point (in verse 3: “Saul had expelled the mediums and spiritists from the land.”). He then acts opposite to his earlier faithfulness while he is stressed and afraid, when Saul disguises himself and seeks out a medium for help. So disappointing and yet unfortunately, so relatable.
Questions:
When have you been tempted to follow a worldly approach?
When did you stick to your principles anyway?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, help me live by godly principles rather than seek worldly advantages. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™