Welcome to the book of 1 Samuel! Every Wednesday and Friday, I post my thoughts from one chapter of 1 Samuel – today is chapter 8. Read 1 Samuel 8 for yourself, take notes, and compare what you hear from God with what I see and hear. God’s Word is alive and active. We don’t need to see the same things!
If you are new to reading the Bible, I encourage you to read my post, How to Understand the Bible. It gives you 5 tools to read the Bible, so you understand it. You can also go back and read through the story of Joseph and his family and all of Luke with me.
So let’s go ahead and jump in!
Father + Son
Like spiritual father…like spiritual son. It began with Eli, the high priest. He was righteous and feared God. His sons turned out nothing like him. They perverted justice and God’s tabernacle. It continued with Samuel, the prophet, who was also righteous and feared God.
Eli’s spiritual son didn’t learn the lesson of his spiritual father. Just like Eli, Samuel allowed his sons to pervert justice. If you read to the end of the chapter, you see this wasn’t the real reason the people wanted a king (“We want to be like the nations around us.” -1 Samuel 8:20), but it did crack the door open as a great excuse to ask.
What lessons do you need to learn from your mother or father (natural or spiritual)? What mistakes have they made that you don’t want to repeat? Take a moment and identify a thing or two.
Now want will you do differently? How will you parent different? What will do different to manage your money? How will you engage in conflict different? How will you live more intentionally?
Don’t open the door for the people you are leading – your family, your team, your group, your church – to make an excuse to go down the wrong path. Lead well by leading yourself with your eyes wide open.
Learn from your father.
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