My God and My Country

My Daily Meditation

Today’s Reading

The Book of Joshua Chapter 24:15

The First Book of Samuel Chapter 10:1, 6-9

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served (that were beyond the flood) or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but I and mine house will serve the Lord.

1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head, and kissed him, and said, Hath not the Lord anointed thee to be governor over his inheritance?

6 Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.

7 Therefore when these signs shall come unto thee, do as occasion shall serve: for God is with thee.

8 And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal: and I also will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace. Tarry for me seven days, till I come to thee, and show thee what thou shalt do.

9 And when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those tokens came to pass that same day.

Friends there is a well known musician and he once penned a song with the lyrics;

“You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.”

So, who are you “gonna” serve? Well, Joshua made his choice quite clearly, and without hesitation.  There was no doubt in his mind as to who he was going to serve and that would be our Creator.  Do you seek favor in the things of man? 

Now, let us be honest, everyone wants to be told their doing a good job. And likewise, those in authority over us no matter what capacity, should and would do well to commend those under them when they do well.  However, do you, seek only that praise? The scriptures say in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 5:29 that we should obey God rather than man. 

Friends do not misunderstand me here, and follow along. I am not submitting that we should never listen to those in authority over us. If we all did, we’d be a nation of total anarchy and confusion. In fact, we’d not be a nation at all.  When law and authority are just, and within the confines of God’s view of righteousness, mercy and justice, then any authority over us is to be considered as if from God Himself.  Again, the scriptures say,  those in authority are to be feared only by those who are themselves, evil, wicked, or inclined to criminal activities.  Do good, and you’ll have nothing to fear from them, and will likewise receive praise from same.  However, when injustice rules the minds of those in the seats of power, then it is our duty to access and discern them as such and seek what God has to say on any given matter.  Scripture tells us when they, the righteous are in power the people rejoice, but when the wicked are so, the people groan.  

My apologies for going off on a tangent here friends, but it is important that we understand the difference. Too often there are many who find these commands as a paradoxical contradiction and conflicting passages of scripture. 

So this once again begs the question, who are you going to serve?   Are you going to serve God, who through His servants seek only to guide you in a proper path, or are you going to serve man whose paths usually tend to go off the straight and narrow road, and lead to all divers of problems. You’ll have to make that choice friends. But as for me and mine; We will serve the Lord. 

Brethren, in the second passage of today’s study, we see Samuel anointing Saul king over Israel. I don’t think it is quite apparent yet to Saul at this point of what is actually being done to him. It is possible that he knew that he had received a spiritual promotion so to speak, but the full magnitude of it, was still unknown to him.  But I do believe, that God’s intention was for him, that is Saul, to be guided by the man of God, Samuel, in His ways, so that the new king would be a righteous, leader.  Hence the knowledge of a change that had come over him.