GO TO THE SOURCE

DAILY WORD

3/10/23

7. When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching.

8. “Don’t stop pleading with the LORD our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel.

9. So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the LORD as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the LORD to help Israel, and the LORD answered him.

1 Samuel 7: 7–9 NLT

Today’s Passage finds the Children of Israel in trouble again. Go figure. It seems like this is a recurring theme throughout their long, storied, and turbulent history. God Blesses them, they rebel, an enemy comes to destroy them, and they repent of their transgressions, returning to God’s Favor.

You would think, at some point, the people would get the idea and remain under God’s Protection, but that was never the case. All the way through their tenure as God’s Chosen People, the Israelites displayed the characteristic and distinctive human archetype of willful rebellion.

But even in their seemingly endless cycle of sin, Redemption, and Restoration, the Israelites, despite their frequent missteps, offer us an invaluable example of Faith that leads us to Today’s Lesson. And Today’s Lesson is to go to The Source when you are in trouble.

For the Israelites of Samuel’s day, that meant coming to their newly minted priest and judge, young Samuel, to offer supplications to God on their behalf. But today, we have another avenue available to us. God, through the Sacrifice He made for us on The Cross, has appointed it so that we no longer have to go through the proxy of a priest to Communicate with God directly.

Now, because of the Blood, He shed covering our confessed transgressions, we have both Forgiveness and Direct Access to God in a manner the Israelites, the people God chose as His own, never had the chance to enjoy, at least in Samuel’s day.

But even in Christ’s era, a thousand years later, when given a chance to accept The Messiah, the Jews would mostly reject Jesus’s ministry. So the Blessing God conferred through His Death wasn’t even really received by those of His own Blood. It’s sad when you think about it. Many of Jesus’s own people never recognized the Glory shining from their very bloodline!

Still, when the threat of destruction loomed, the Israelites, newly repented from their idolatry, went to the one place they knew they could find Help. To God. And the only way, at that time, they could contact Him was through Samuel.

Today’s Lesson taken from our study of The Story of Samuel is to know where our Help comes from and to go Directly to The Source of our Salvation. God Bled and Died so that we could enjoy the Freedom He suffered to provide us. Please don’t throw away your opportunity! Break the chains of your captivity and give God free rein in your life. He is our only Source of Hope. Lean into Him!

Have a Fantastic Friday And Lean Into The Source Because He Became Captive To Break Your Chains!

#dailyword