1 Samuel 12
F.B. Meyer · Citado em PreceptAustin
1 Samuel 12
Meyer - 1 Samuel 12:22a The Lord will not forsake His people for His great Name’s sake. The certainty of our salvation rests on the character of God. Moses, years before, had pleaded that God could not afford to destroy or forsake Israel, lest the Egyptians and others should have some ground for saying that He was not able to carry out His purpose, or that He was fickle and changeable. “What wilt Thou do for thy great Name?” Samuel uses the same argument. We also may avail ourselves of it for our great comfort. God knew what we should be-how weak and frail and changeful-before He arrested us and brought us to Himself. Speaking after the manner of men, we might say He counted the cost. He computed whether His resources were sufficient to secure us from our foes, keep us from falling, and present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. He foreknew how much forbearance, pity, consolation, and tenderness, we should require. And yet it pleased Him to make us His people. He cannot, therefore, now run back from His purpose; otherwise it would seem that difficulties had arisen which either He had not anticipated, or was not so well able to combat as He had thought. What an absurd suggestion! In the former case there would be a slur on His omniscience; on the other, upon His omnipotence. “What if God should cast you into hell?” was asked of an old Scotchwoman. ‘“Well,” she answered, “If He do, all I can say is, He will lose mair than I will.” The gracious promise given to Joshua may be appropriated by every trembling saint of God “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” And to the poor and needy He says, “I the God of Israel will not forsake them.” 1 Samuel 12:23 "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way. BGT 1 Samuel 12:23 καὶ ἐμοὶ μηδαμῶς τοῦ ἁμαρτεῖν τῷ κυρίῳ ἀνιέναι τοῦ προσεύχεσθαι περὶ ὑμῶν καὶ δουλεύσω τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ δείξω ὑμῖν τὴν ὁδὸν τὴν ἀγαθὴν καὶ τὴν εὐθεῖαν KJV 1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: NET 1 Samuel 12:23 As far as I am concerned, far be it from me to sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you! I will instruct you in the way that is good and upright. CSB 1 Samuel 12:23 "As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. I will teach you the good and right way. ESV 1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. NIV 1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. NLT 1 Samuel 12:23 "As for me, I will certainly not sin against the LORD by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right. NRS 1 Samuel 12:23 Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. YLT 1 Samuel 12:23 'I, also, far be it from me to sin against Jehovah, by ceasing to pray for you, and I have directed you in the good and upright way; far be it from Ac 12:5 Ro 1:9 Col 1:9 1Th 3:10 2Ti 1:3 I will instruct : Ps 34:11 Pr 4:11 Ec 12:10 Ac 20:20 Col 1:28 the good and right way: 1Ki 8:36 2Ch 6:27 Jer 6:16 Related Passages: 1 Samuel 7:5+ Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 1 Samuel 8:6+ But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 1 Samuel 15:11+ “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night. Hebrews 6:11-12+ (DEAR READER - HERE IS MY PRAYER FOR YOU AS YOU STUDY SAMUEL'S LIFE) And we (I) desire that each one of you show the same diligence (AS SAMUEL!) so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that (TERM OF PURPOSE/RESULT) you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Numbers 11:2 The people therefore cried out to Moses, and Moses prayed to the LORD and the fire died out. Numbers 21:7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Deuteronomy 9:20 “The LORD was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him; so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. Deuteronomy 9:26 “I prayed to the LORD and said, ‘O Lord GOD, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Acts 6:4 (PRAYER AND THE WORD) “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” SAMUEL'S BINARY RESPONSE: FIRST PRAY - THEN TEACH Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you - Samuel says for him not to pray for Israel would be committing a sin against Yahweh! We know Samuel felt rejected by their desire for a king (1Sa 8:7-9), but that did not prevent him from still praying for them. THOUGHT - Have you ever considered that failure to pray for your brethren is sin against the LORD? If we truly received this truth and our hearts were transformed by the Spirit, with this truth, what might it stimulate in our life? Or to ask another way, how would our prayer life change? Or would it change? Dear preacher or teacher (we are all teaching someone!) have you ever instructed without praying? That's rhetorical and reflexive (Self- reflexive as I am very convicted as I write this question!) And so it behooves us to pay special "Hebrews 2:1+ style" attention to Samuel's God honoring pattern - pray, then instruct. Brian Bell - God will bless Elijah & send rain on Israel, but Elijah must pray for it. If the chosen nation is to prosper, Samuel must plead for it. God will bless Paul, & the nations shall be converted through him, but Paul must pray. God will effect lives around you saint, but you must plead & intercede on their behalf!
1 Samuel 12
Meyer - Not Ceasing in Prayer (1 SAMUEL 12:16–25) O, who can tell how many hearts are altars to his praise, From which the silent Prayer ascends through patient nights and days! The sacrifice is offered still in secret and alone, O world, ye do not know them, but He can help his own. —A. PROCTER. IN all Samuel’s career there is nothing finer than the closing scene of his public action as the judge and leader of the Hebrew nation. Had he died young, his place in the annals of his country, and indeed in history, would have been much lower; and our appreciation of his character much less. Naturally he found it difficult to step down from his premiership, and inaugurate a régime with which he had no sympathy, since it seemed to be a setting aside of Israel’s greatest glory in having God for King. But he suppressed his strong personal antipathies, and did his very best to start the nation on the new path it had chosen, selecting a king with the utmost care, and, regardless of personal suffering, bridging over the gulf between the old order and the new. We cannot turn from the record of the great convocation, assembled before the Lord at Gilgal, to ratify Saul’s election, without noticing the repeated allusions to Samuel’s power in prayer. He appears to have been the John Knox of his age, as mighty in prayer as in statesmanship. His whole career seems to have been bathed in the spirit of supplication. As a boy, with hands meekly clasped, as Sir Joshua Reynolds has depicted him, he asked God to speak, whilst his ear was quick and attent to catch his lowest whispers. In the Book of the Psalms he is mentioned as chief among those that call on God’s name, and as having been answered (99:6). The Prophet Jeremiah alludes to the wonderful power which he exercised in intercessory prayer, when he pleaded for his people (15:1). All Israel knew the long, piercing cry of the prophet of the Lord. In their perils his intercessions had been their deliverance, and in their battles his prayers had secured them victory (1 Sam. 7:8, 8:6). There was “an open road” between God and him, so that thoughts of God’s thinking were able to come into his heart; and he reflected them back again with intense and burning desire. I. SAMUEL’S PRAYER FOR THUNDER AND RAIN.—The heart of man cries out for Divine authentication. In every age a crooked and perverse generation seeks a sign, and in seeking it proves how far it has wandered from the source of light, and become blinded in spiritual vision. If our nature realised its Divine ideal, it would discern God in the ordinary and common incidents of providence, in the morning light and the summer air, in dews that noiselessly alight and zephyrs that gently kiss the slumbering woods, in the garniture of spring and the carpeting of flowers (Acts 14:17). But the eyes of the soul are blinded, and men do not see the traces of the Divine footprints across the world day by day. “Lord,” said the prophet, “thy hand is lifted up, but they see not” (Isa. 26:11). In default of the faculty of detecting God’s presence in the noiseless and ordinary providence of life, man asks for some startling phenomena to prove that God is speaking. “Bring,” he cries to the heaven-sent messenger, “credentials so startling and extraordinary that I may know without doubt that thou art properly accredited. The still, small voice is not enough. We must have the hurricane, the fire, and the bolt from the blue. Then we shall know that God speaks by thee, and that the word from thy lips is true.” Samuel knew this, and he perhaps longed for some Divine corroboration of his words. God’s trusted servants are content to work through long years amid persistent resistance and apathy, if only they are assured that they are on the line of the Divine purpose. “And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.” Thus, in a supreme moment, one of the noblest of his successors appealed to God, and his words expressed what was in Samuel’s heart at this great hour. He had surrendered his prerogatives, and introduced his successor; had confronted his people with their sins, and announced the heavy penalties that must follow on disobedience; and he yearned that they should hear another voice, asseverating his words, and pressing them home on conscience and on heart. It was under the influence of these thoughts that he concluded his address and appeal, with the announcement, “Now, therefore, stand still, and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord, and He shall send thunder and rain, that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.” During the wheat-harvest, lasting from the middle of May to the middle of June, rain is almost unknown in Palestine, and the occurrence of a thunderstorm, coming as it did at the call of the aged prophet, was too startlingly unusual to be viewed as other than the Divine authentication of his claims. It may be supposed that this incident is altogether without parallel, belonging to the realms of Old Testament story; but I cannot think it to be so. Nature is much more sympathetic with man than we sometimes suppose, because her beauty or terror is but the veil beneath which the Almighty hides Himself. How, save on the supposition that God answered the appeal of his servants, can we account for the fact of the terrific tempest that swept over our shores when the proud Armada of Spain menaced the liberties of Protestant England? And how, save on the supposition that Heaven itself protested against the blasphemous pretensions of the Papacy, can we account for the memorable fact that on the afternoon when the dogma of the Papal Infallibility was announced the Vatican at midday was suddenly invested with a pall of blackest midnight? But there are other methods of Divine authentication on which every true servant of God may rely. When Paul and Barnabas abode for a long time in Iconium, speaking boldly in the Lord, “He gave testimony unto the word of his grace”; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews generalises the experience of the early heralds of the Gospel when he says that the message of God’s great salvation was confirmed by them that heard the word, “God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according unto his own will” (Acts 14:3; Heb. 2:3, 4). We cannot be too thankful for the witness of the Holy Spirit, whose voice is to the faithful servant of God all, and more, that the thunder was to Samuel. It was this that armed the primitive saints with irresistible power. “We are his witnesses,” cried the apostles, “and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” “Our Gospel,” wrote the greatest apostle of all, “came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance” (1 Thess. 1:5). May I ask if my fellow-servants realise this—that the Holy Spirit is in the Church to-day, that He is prepared to bear witness to every true word which is spoken in the name of Jesus, and that He will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment; so that the faith of our hearers should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God, God bearing them witness and giving them the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:1–4; Acts 15:8). This is the fatal lack of our preaching. We speak earnestly and faithfully, but we do not sufficiently look for nor rely on the divine co-witness; we do not understand the communion and fellowship of the Comforter, and our hearers do not hear his voice thrilling their souls, as thunder in the natural world, with the conviction that the things which we speak are the truths of God. Only let the passionate longing of our heart be, “Father, glorify thy name,” and voices will come as from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” Whilst some that stand by may say that “It thundered,” others will say “An angel spake” (John 12:28, 29). Oh, our God, give us such power in prayer that when we pray Thou shalt answer “in the secret place of thunder,” and send thunder and rain. II. SAMUEL’S UNCEASING INTERCESSIONS.—Terrified by the loud thunder-peals and the torrents of rain, the people were urgent to secure Samuel’s intercession on their behalf. They feared for their lives and their property, and entreated him to pray for them. “Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God,” they said, “that we die not”; and the emphasis they laid on the word thy seemed to indicate that they felt no longer worthy of their ancient prerogative, as the chosen people. Touched with their appeal, and confident that Jehovah only desired to corroborate his word, the aged seer calmed their fears, urged them never to turn aside to vain idols, which could neither profit nor deliver, assured them that the Lord would not forsake them, and ended with the striking words: “Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” Samuel realised that prayer was action in the spiritual plane. The energy which we exert in action in the physical sphere becomes prayer in the spiritual. It has often been said, Laborare est orare (“to labour is to pray”); but the converse is much truer, Orare est laborare (“to pray is to labour”). “The fervent prayer of a righteous man,” says James, “availeth much in its working.” Therefore it was, that when the good Epaphras could no longer help his brethren at Colosse by his words and deeds, he betook himself to prayer, and laboured fervently for them all in prayer (Col. 4:12). “Work shall be prayer, if all be wrought As Thou wouldst have it done: And prayer, by Thee inspired and taught, Itself with work be one.” Samuel could no longer exert his energies for his people, as he had done. The limitations imposed by his advancing years, and by the substitution of the kingdom for his judgeship, made it impossible that he should make his yearly rounds as aforetime, but he was able to translate all that energy into another method of helpfulness. The light became heat, the water became steam. The prayers of God’s saints were equivalent, henceforward, to battalions of soldiers. What the telescope is to the eye, the bicycle to the foot, the telephone to the voice, and the steam-driven machine to the hand, in enlarging and increasing human power, that is prayer to the soul, because it links us with the mighty power of God, it touches springs that unloose spiritual forces which are eternal in their duration and universal in their scope. “Mighty is he who is mighty in prayer; he has learned how to labour with the energies of God.” Why, O soul of man, wilt thou not lay thy fingers on the keyboard of the eternal powers, which would respond instantly to the touch! How great a mistake and loss it is for thee to be satisfied with the lower keyboards of the natural and intellect, when the spiritual, the highest and furthest-reaching, awaits thee! Samuel viewed prayer as a Divine instinct. For him to thwart the promptings towards prayer which arose within his soul would be nothing short of sin. “God forbid,” he said, “that I should sin against Him in ceasing to pray.” Let us recognise, we may say with another, that, logic or no logic, men pray, and they want to pray. The instinct to do so seems to be part of ourselves. Probably it is not constant, and it is only the saint who remains in the spirit of prayer; but some time or other, and always when the spiritual nature stirs within us, we begin to pray. Prayer is therefore more than petition, it is the movement of the spirit Godward. We recognise our own limitations and attempt to reach beyond them into the infinite. Therefore, in every true prayer, there is much that cannot be put in words. “The spirit maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered.” To thwart this instinct, whether it prompts us to pray for ourselves or for others, is to do violence to our noblest nature, to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and to sin against the Divine order. Prayerlessness is not only an indication of a besotted and demoralised nature, but is in itself a sin, that requires confession and cleansing in the blood of the Cross. And when, in answer to our lowly supplications, we are again brought nigh by the blood of Christ, we shall find that prayer will rise as naturally and freely in our hearts as a fountain from unseen depths fed from the everlasting hills. Prayer is the response of the soul to God, the return tide from us to Him, the sending back in vapour what we receive in showers of heavenly rain. Samuel viewed prayer as a trusteeship. He could no longer act as judge, but he felt that the interests of the nation had been entrusted to his hands for the highest ends, and it would be treachery to fail in conserving and extending them at least by his intercessions. Often must he have gone aside, as Moses on the Mount, and as our Lord on the hills that engirdled the blue waters of Galilee, to pour out his soul in strong cryings and tears for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who were Israelites, to whom pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. Often, like the apostle Paul, he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart. Often, when the Philistines overran the land, and oppressed the people with their tyranny, it must have seemed as though his heart would break. The failure of Saul to realise his ideal only elicited the more strenuous appeals to God to save both king and people, and the victory which we must record in our next chapter must have been due to his eager entreaties. This is a model which we may all copy. The one question for the Church in the present day is whether she may reckon on a new manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit, and this is entirely contingent on another question, “Is it possible to bring the whole Church to her knees?” If these words are of weight with any, let me ask them to join in one persevering and heaven-moving appeal to God that He would awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old, and do great things like those of which our fathers have told us. David Jeremiah - STRAIGHT LINES 1 SAMUEL 12:23 - Borrow Sanctuary : finding moments of refuge in the presence of God Do you know someone who is heading the wrong way? Someone struggling with an overwhelming problem or temptation? Pray—earnestly pray—for that one. The prophet Samuel told the Israelites, “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23). J. Sidlow Baxter pointed out that our loved ones may “spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.” In Colossians 4, we meet a man whose prayers for others were so powerful that he received special commendation in the Bible: Epaphras … “a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (v. 12). Oswald Chambers said, “By intercessory prayer we can hold off Satan from other lives and give the Holy Ghost a chance with them. No wonder Jesus put such tremendous emphasis on prayer!” Henry Blackaby - Not Failing to Pray - 1 Samuel 12:23 - Borrow The experience : a devotional and journal : day by day with God Rejection is never easy to take, but everyone faces it at some point. Samuel was rejected by an entire nation. God appointed Samuel as Israel’s spiritual guide because he didn’t want his people to have a secular king like other nations had. God wanted them to trust in him and to listen to his spokesmen, people like Samuel. But the Israelites had other ideas. They whined. They pleaded. They begged for a king. Samuel warned that they were asking for trouble, but they persisted in their demands. Finally, God gave them what they wanted. Poor Samuel had to anoint the person for whom he’d been rejected. Once the people got what they wanted, they realized their mistake. They turned back to Samuel and begged him to continue ministering to them. If there was ever a time for an I-told-you-so, this was it! Fortunately for Israel, Samuel was more mature than that. He knew that if he gave up on God’s people they would be in even worse trouble, so he swallowed his pride and stuck with them. Your friends will not always thank you for warning them when they are headed into dangerous territory. They may reject your advice; they may even reject you. Even though it hurts, resist the temptation to abandon them to their own foolishness. Continue to pray for them, and be ready to forgive them when they realize their mistake. Wouldn’t you want them to do the same for you? KEEP PRAYING TO AVOID SINNING AGAINST THE LORD. —1 Samuel 12:23 - Larry Keefauver Prayerlessness sins against God and others. God’s will moves from eternity into time through prayer. God has intended for His bride, the church, to pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” When we fail to pray, the invisible does not become visible and the substance for which we believe remains still hoped for. Prayerlessness is sin; it separates us from God. Without prayer, communion ceases. Without prayer, nothing happens, as E.M. Bounds wisely instructed. Without prayer, the Spirit remains uninvited to move through us by His gifts and produce in us His fruit. With prayer, sin is confessed and cleansed away. With prayer, communication with God becomes a river of living water and a consuming fire burning away our dross and refining our faith. With prayer, our ears are opened to hear the incredible. With prayer, our eyes are opened to see the invisible. With prayer, our lives are empowered to do the impossible. Therefore, prayerlessness breeds more than neglect in our lives. It offers up the stench of sin and the putrid odor of wasted and unfilled dreams. Prayer becomes the sweet odor of a living sacrifice offered up to God as you worship Him on the altar of obedience. Build the altar of prayer now. Let your sin be consumed by the fire of His Spirit. Let your life become a sweet aroma as the smell of being with Him permeates your talk and your walk. I come to You, Lord Jesus, in obedience, offering myself to You as a living sacrifice, that I may worship and serve You. As I pray, consume me with the fire of Your Spirit, that the odor of my life might be sweet to You and the scent of Your presence as a testimony for the lives of others. Amen. 1 Samuel 12:16-25 When You're Unappreciated Samuel was a Mount Everest personality who appeared when the historical landscape was monotonously flat. As God's prophet, he judged the people. Since Israel was a theocracy (ruled by God), Samuel was virtually a king. He discharged his duties with skill and dedication to both God and the people. But the people wanted a king such as the pagan nations around them had (1 Samuel 8:5). So they asked the man of God to step aside. Samuel was hurt by their rejection. He understood the scope of their disobedience (1 Sa 12:17-19). The prophet could have turned his back on the new king and his rebellious people. Instead he declared, "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you" (v.23). Why did Samuel say that? He knew that even as doors were being slammed in his face, another door was open to him--the door of intercessory prayer. Samuel demonstrated his godliness by the way he reacted. He was still God's man, and he would still care for God's people. How deep does it wound you when others despise Your labor of love? Don't despair-- It's then you must view them with Spirit-filled eyes And love your offenders with prayer. --Gustafson Pray for those who spitefully use you. --Jesus (Matthew 5:44) 1 Samuel 12 Afraid Of The Dentist? Why are so many people afraid of going to the dentist? It may be the result of a bad experience. One woman said of her childhood dentist, "I started getting upset and crying and he said, 'If you don't shut up, I'm going to slap you.'" She now drives 70 miles to The Dental Fears Clinic in Kansas City. People who are afraid to go to God have a similar problem. Some may have been mistreated by spiritual leaders. Others may have learned unhealthy fear of God as children. Still others, overwhelmed by their sin, see only God's righteous demand for justice and miss the loving provision of His Son's sacrifice for sin. The people in today's Bible reading (1 Samuel 12) were afraid because Samuel exposed their sin. But he also told them that God longed to forgive them. We need to replace irrational fears with healthy ones. God's Word repeatedly assures us that the pain of going to Him is far less than the pain of avoiding Him. It also assures us that because of Jesus we can "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy" (Hebrews 4:16). The love of God is my pillow, Soft and healing and wide; I rest my soul in its comfort, And in its calm I abide. " —Long Only God can fill the emptiness of an aching heart. 1 Samuel 12:24 "Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you. BGT 1 Samuel 12:24 πλὴν φοβεῖσθε τὸν κύριον καὶ δουλεύσατε αὐτῷ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν ὅτι εἴδετε ἃ ἐμεγάλυνεν μεθ᾽ ὑμῶν KJV 1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. NET 1 Samuel 12:24 However, fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Just look at the great things he has done for you! CSB 1 Samuel 12:24 Above all, fear the LORD and worship Him faithfully with all your heart; consider the great things He has done for you. ESV 1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. NIV 1 Samuel 12:24 But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. NLT 1 Samuel 12:24 But be sure to fear the LORD and faithfully serve him. Think of all the wonderful things he has done for you. NRS 1 Samuel 12:24 Only fear the LORD, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you. YLT 1 Samuel 12:24 only, fear ye Jehovah, and ye have served Him in truth with all your heart, for see that which He hath made great with you; fear the Lord: Job 28:28 Ps 111:10 Pr 1:7 Ex 12:13 Heb 12:29 in truth: Ps 119:80 John 1:47 consider: Ezra 9:13,14 Isa 5:12 Ro 12:1 great things De 10:21 Ps 126:2,3 Related Passages: Job 28:28 “And to man He said, ‘Behold , the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.’” Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Deuteronomy 10:21 “He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. Psalm 126:3 The LORD has done great things for us; We are glad. ISRAEL'S THREEFOLD DUTY TO GOD (1) fear, (2) serve, (3) consider. Only fear the LORD and serve (abad; Lxx = douleuo) Him in truth with all your heart - This use of fear by Samuel does refer to a reverential fear. A proper fear of God (e.g., think of a child who has proper fear of the father, out of their love for him fearing they might disappoint him by their disobedience) is a good thing. E.g., Pr 3:7 says "fear the LORD and turn away from evil". Pr 8:13 says "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil." Pr 16:6 says "by fear of the LORD one keeps away from evil." Job 1:1 says Job was a man "fearing God, and turning away from evil." (Why did he turn from evil?) And so we note Samuel begins with fear of Jehovah which will lead one to serve Him. Note the two qualifying phrases in truth for one can pretend to serve the LORD, but it is not sincere but sham service. Secondly, all your heart calls for wholehearted service, not a divided heart. Jesus say “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." (Mt 6:24+) For - This is a great term of explanation, explaining why we should fear and serve Him. Consider what great things He has done for you - When they (and we) truly pondered the great things Yahweh had done for them (has done and is doing and will do for us), it should serve to motivate them (us) to press on toward the upward call, to keep on the straight way and not turn to the left or the right. THOUGHT - Do you ever pause and ponder the great things the Lord has done for you as a believer? The list for most of us would be very long, but if we make a habit of remembering from time to time, the Spirit will use those grateful memories to stir us onward and upward. And remembering God's great deeds is a great antidote for forgetting God! Part of our prayer time might be well spent thanking Him for the many great things He has done for us (is currently doing for us and will do for us!), lest we forget our so great a salvation and begin to take it for granted (cf Heb 2:1+). F Whitfield - Consider how great things he hath done for you - 1 Samuel 12:24 Look back on all the way the Lord your God has led you. Do you not see it dotted with ten thousand blessings in disguise? Call to mind the needed succor sent at the critical moment: the right way chosen for you, instead of the wrong way you had chosen for yourself; the hurtful thing to which your heart so fondly clung, removed out of your path; the breathing-time granted, which your tried and struggling spirit just at the moment needed. Oh, has not Jesus stood at your side when you knew it not? Has not Infinite Love encircled every event with its everlasting arms, and gilded every cloud with its merciful lining? Oh, retrace your steps, and mark His footprint in each one! Thank Him for them all, and learn the needed lesson of leaning more simply on Jesus. THOUGHT - What a great way to preface your prayers in the morning! Robert Hawker - Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth, with all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done for you.—1 Samuel 12:24. How truly affectionate was this pastoral advice of the prophet to Israel, in the close of recapitulating Israel’s history, and God’s love over them! My soul! take this portion from Israel’s history, and apply it to thine own; for the argument, and the reason upon which the argument is founded, are one and the same, and thou wilt find the same causes, both from interest and from received mercies from Christ, to form the same conclusion. But at what part of thine history wilt thou begin, or where wilt thou end, in considering “what great things” thy God, thy Jesus, hath done for thee? Wilt thou open with the consideration of God’s mercies toward thee in nature, or providence, or grace? What arithmetic will be competent to score the vast account, even in a thousandth degree, of either of those departments, much more if thou wert to study the subject in all! Who indeed can be sufficient to note them down, or to state in order, as they passed before him, the numberless events which testified divine favour, during the long season of thine unregeneracy? What a long volume might be formed, in nature only, of the Lord’s watchfulness, providings, preservings, and ordinations, in making all minister and become subservient to our welfare! Oh! it is blessed to consider, even if it were here only, what great things the Lord hath done for us. And while we mark the footsteps of his love, and note our wanderings from him; when we trace back the wonderful subject of distinguishing mercy, and call to mind the graves of some, yea, many, with whom were spent our youthful days, while we remain not only the spared, but, we hope, the saved monuments of free sovereign grace and mercy; well may we exclaim, with one of old, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies!” And if from the outer court of nature and providence, our souls enter into the inner court of grace, and there mark down, since the day of our regeneracy and the Lord’s effectual calling, what great things he hath done for us, surely it would tire the arm of an angel to write the whole account. Precious Lord Jesus! in thee, and by thee, and from thee, all our mercies flow. Thou art the first, the last, the best, the comprehensive gift of God; the channel of all blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, through whom all the streams come, from Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and through whom all love and praise return; not only the channel through whom they come, but the substance in whom they centre. Thou hast purchased them, and they are enjoyed wholly from our union with thee; and their continuation in grace here, and glory to all eternity, must result from thee: all the covenant mercies of God in Christ are “the sure mercies of David” on thy account! Think, then, my soul! what causes thou art surrounded with, in the great things God hath done for thee, to fear the Lord, and serve him in truth, with all thine heart! Close then the month as thou hopest to close thy life on earth, with this sweet scripture; and as thou didst open the month in contemplating “the LORD thy righteousness,” as the same whereby thou art enjoined to call him, so now let thy last meditation, before thou droppest to sleep in ending the month, be with the same. “He is” (as Moses told Israel) “thy praise and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen.” Be this, therefore, thy daily meditation, and thine evening hymn: “to fear the Lord, and serve him; for consider how great things he hath done for thee.” Amen. David Jeremiah - HOW TO FEAR GOD 1 SAMUEL 12:24 - Borrow Sanctuary : finding moments of refuge in the presence of God In July of 1861, in an act declaring September 26 as a National Day of Prayer and Fasting, Abraham Lincoln wrote: “It is fit and becoming in all people, at all times, to acknowledge and revere the Supreme Government of God; to bow in humble submission to his chastisement; to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” That may be one of the best summaries of what it means to “fear the Lord” ever penned. Note the action words: “to acknowledge … revere … bow … confess and deplore.” To fear the Lord means more than just one thing. Indeed, it is a phrase that gathers together a number of attitudes and actions. In short, when we fear the Lord, we recognize God’s proper place as Creator over us as His creation. If someone followed us around for a week, what evidence would they see that we fear the Lord? Which would they hear most—grumbles or gratitude, complaints or compassion? A nation that fears the Lord is one whose citizens fear the Lord. Plan a “Personal Day of Prayer and Fasting” soon—a day to reaffirm your own fear of the Lord. Robert