Thursday Devo
Scripture:
1 Samuel 9:22-27
22 Then Samuel brought Saul and his servant into the hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. 23 Samuel then instructed the cook to bring Saul the finest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor. 24 So the cook brought in the meat and placed it before Saul. “Go ahead and eat it,” Samuel said. “I was saving it for you even before I invited these others!” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
25 When they came down from the place of worship and returned to town, Samuel took Saul up to the roof of the house and prepared a bed for him there. 26 At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called to Saul, “Get up! It’s time you were on your way.” So Saul got ready, and he and Samuel left the house together. 27 When they reached the edge of town, Samuel told Saul to send his servant on ahead. After the servant was gone, Samuel said, “Stay here, for I have received a special message for you from God.”
22 Then Samuel brought Saul and his servant into the hall and placed them at the head of the table, honoring them above the thirty special guests. 23 Samuel then instructed the cook to bring Saul the finest cut of meat, the piece that had been set aside for the guest of honor. 24 So the cook brought in the meat and placed it before Saul. “Go ahead and eat it,” Samuel said. “I was saving it for you even before I invited these others!” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
25 When they came down from the place of worship and returned to town, Samuel took Saul up to the roof of the house and prepared a bed for him there. 26 At daybreak the next morning, Samuel called to Saul, “Get up! It’s time you were on your way.” So Saul got ready, and he and Samuel left the house together. 27 When they reached the edge of town, Samuel told Saul to send his servant on ahead. After the servant was gone, Samuel said, “Stay here, for I have received a special message for you from God.”
Commentary:
9:25–26 After the meal, the three men go into the city, to Samuel’s house. The Masoretic Text reads “and he spoke with Saul on the roof” (cf. ESV mg.), without indicating what passed between the two men. Since Samuel reserved his main announcement until the next day, the Septuagint is followed by the ESV: “A bed was spread for Saul on the roof,” which would be suitably cool in summer for sleeping, and conversation with Saul is left until the following day.
There is another textual variant here, as the Hebrew reads “and they arose early” whereas the ESV follows the Septuagint and reads “and he lay down to sleep.” At any rate, very early the next morning Samuel calls to Saul on the roof to get ready to set out, because he does not want anyone else around when he anoints Saul. “Send you on your way” refers to the custom of a host accompanying a departing guest for a short distance.
9:27 When they leave the dwellings of the town behind them, Saul’s servant is sent on ahead so that Samuel and Saul may talk without being interrupted or overheard. Specifically, Samuel promises Saul that he will “make known to you the word of God.”
John L. Mackay, “1-2 Samuel,” in 1 Samuel–2 Chronicles, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. III, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 115–116.
There is another textual variant here, as the Hebrew reads “and they arose early” whereas the ESV follows the Septuagint and reads “and he lay down to sleep.” At any rate, very early the next morning Samuel calls to Saul on the roof to get ready to set out, because he does not want anyone else around when he anoints Saul. “Send you on your way” refers to the custom of a host accompanying a departing guest for a short distance.
9:27 When they leave the dwellings of the town behind them, Saul’s servant is sent on ahead so that Samuel and Saul may talk without being interrupted or overheard. Specifically, Samuel promises Saul that he will “make known to you the word of God.”
John L. Mackay, “1-2 Samuel,” in 1 Samuel–2 Chronicles, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. III, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019), 115–116.
Questions:
There are days when you can be busy from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall into bed and still feel like you didn't really get anything done. There is always something waiting. A text to answer. A responsibility to handle. A person who needs you. A notification on your phone. Another thing on the calendar. Even when you finally have a few quiet minutes, it can feel strange to leave them empty. So we reach for our phones, turn on a podcast, check one more thing off our never ending list, or find something else to fill the silence.
Saul had been moving from one thing to the next. He had spent days searching for his father's lost donkeys. He was ready to go home and get back to normal life. But before he left, Samuel stopped him. “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stay here for a while, so that I may cause you to hear the word of God.”
Stay here for a while. Saul needed to stop. He didn't need another task. He didn't need to hurry home. He needed to be quiet long enough to hear what God wanted to say.
We fill our schedules with good things and leave very little room to actually be with God. We can listen to sermons, read Christian books, serve at church, and stay busy doing things "FOR Jesus" without ever slowing down enough to pay attention TO Jesus. Sometimes the spiritual discipline we need isn't adding something else to the calendar.
It's removing the things that keeps us from listening.
Jesus understood this. Even when people were constantly looking for Him, He made room to withdraw and pray. He didn't live at the mercy of every demand around Him. He knew where His strength came from, and He returned again and again to the Father. Jesus invites us into that same kind of rest.
Maybe you need to let the phone stay down. Sit with an open Bible. Take a walk without something playing in your ears. Turn off the noise and let yourself be still before God.
You don't always need to do more. Sometimes you need to stop long enough to hear from God.
Saul had been moving from one thing to the next. He had spent days searching for his father's lost donkeys. He was ready to go home and get back to normal life. But before he left, Samuel stopped him. “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stay here for a while, so that I may cause you to hear the word of God.”
Stay here for a while. Saul needed to stop. He didn't need another task. He didn't need to hurry home. He needed to be quiet long enough to hear what God wanted to say.
We fill our schedules with good things and leave very little room to actually be with God. We can listen to sermons, read Christian books, serve at church, and stay busy doing things "FOR Jesus" without ever slowing down enough to pay attention TO Jesus. Sometimes the spiritual discipline we need isn't adding something else to the calendar.
It's removing the things that keeps us from listening.
Jesus understood this. Even when people were constantly looking for Him, He made room to withdraw and pray. He didn't live at the mercy of every demand around Him. He knew where His strength came from, and He returned again and again to the Father. Jesus invites us into that same kind of rest.
Maybe you need to let the phone stay down. Sit with an open Bible. Take a walk without something playing in your ears. Turn off the noise and let yourself be still before God.
You don't always need to do more. Sometimes you need to stop long enough to hear from God.
- When you finally have a quiet moment, what do you usually do with it? Think about what you reach for when there is nothing demanding your attention. What might that habit be keeping you from noticing about your own heart or your relationship with God?
- How has busyness affected the way you relate to God lately? Are you spending time with Him because you genuinely want to be with Him, or has your relationship with Him started to feel like another responsibility to check off your list?
- Jesus regularly stepped away from the demands around Him to spend time with the Father. How does knowing that He invites you into rest change the pressure you feel to always be productive or available?
- What is one distraction you need to remove so you can spend unhurried time with God? Be specific about when you will do it and what you will put away so that you can actually be present with Him.
Prayer Topics:
- Confess the ways you have allowed busyness and distraction to crowd out time with God.
- Ask God to give you a greater desire to slow down and listen to Him.
- Ask Jesus to help you rest in what He has already done instead of trying to prove yourself through productivity.
- Thank Jesus that you can come into God's presence without having to earn your place there.
This Week's City 7:
Try to commit to memory!
4. Can a person be good enough to go to heaven? No. Because Jesus rose from the dead, proving He is God, I believe a person is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
(John 1:12, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-25, 5:1-2, 6-11, 6:23, 10:1-4, 10:9; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 3:4-7)
(John 1:12, 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 4:1-25, 5:1-2, 6-11, 6:23, 10:1-4, 10:9; Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 2:1-9; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Titus 3:4-7)
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