Not-So-Quiet-Time: 1 Samuel 30-31

At-Home Bible Guide for the Week of 9/27

Day 1: 1 Samuel 30:1-6
David was in a hard place. He was worried and sad because his family, and the families of his men, had been taken. He was distressed because his own men were so bitter they were talking about killing him. And he was tired from weeping. So what did he do? “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (6). In the face of pain and fear, people have options. We can quit, we can blame, we can self-medicate, we can complain. But those things don’t help or heal; they only deepen our pain. Ask God to help you face hardship like David by strengthening yourself in the Lord. 

Day 2: 1 Samuel 30:7-15
While God had stopped answering Saul, the Lord was speaking to David. In his trouble, David turned to the Lord in prayer. And God responded. The Lord encouraged David and put the exact right people in his path for him to succeed. You can trust that God will answer and lead you just like He did for David. Does this mean that you will have an easy life? No! David’s family had been taken and his home burned. But He had hope because He had the Lord. Turn to God today, and bring your burdens to Him.

Day 3: 1 Samuel 30:16-31
David and his men caught up to their enemies and destroyed them. And they rescued their families. But even in victory some worthless men stirred up trouble and did not want to fairly share the spoils. But David knew that everything that they had was given to them by God (23). And at the end of this chapter, we see that David sent even more of what they had captured as gifts to those back in Judah. Freely he received, so freely David gave. Pray that God would help you to live a giving life too.

Day 4: 1 Samuel 31:1-7
Compare Saul’s fearful death to David’s words in Psalm 27:1, “The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Saul did not trust in the Lord so he didn’t have—he couldn’t have—the firm hope that David had. Jesus said it like this, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Do you believe this? If so, you have hope that can stand up in the face of an army of Philistines or whatever comes your way. 

Day 5: 1 Samuel 31:8-13
Saul had not lived or died righteously, but his valiant men still acted honorably toward him and his family. Saul’s wrongs didn’t stop the valiant from doing what was right and from showing him more honor than he deserved. Ask God to help you to live righteously even in the face of evil. 

Catechism Connection: 37-38
Saul feared death, but if you have Christ, the Lord has prepared a place for you to be with Him (John 14). And here is what happens at death: “The souls of believers…  are made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory; their bodies, being still united to Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection” (WSC 37). And at the resurrection, “will be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God to all eternity” (WSC 38).

Monthly Memory: Hebrews 11:1, 6
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen… And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.