Transcript

Today's Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today's episode: Ch. 11-12 NKJV, Ch. 13-14 NLT, Ch. 15. NET

Associate Producer

James In Norway

Podcast Introduction

This is the History Tuesday. Our reading will be 1 Samuel 11-15 I’m calling this episode, “Does God Make Mistakes?” 

Design: SWS | Photo: Jasmin Ne on Unsplash

Comments on 1 Samuel 12 and 15

Thoughts on 1 Samuel 12

Have you ever sinned in such a way that you felt that God would be so disappointed in you that He would turn His back on you? Have you felt that you just couldn’t come to Him for forgiveness, because you knew, going in, that what you were about to do was sin, but you did it anyway, and you were just too ashamed to ask God for forgiveness? I think probably most of us have. 

Well, that’s what Israel did when they asked for a king. Samuel told them that this was a bad thing that they were doing, but they wanted it anyway. You know how it went. God told Samuel to go ahead and grant their request, because they were rejecting God, not Samuel.

So in chapter 12 today, Samuel reminds Israel of all the good things that God had done for Israel, how he had delivered them so many times, and he reminded them that in asking for a king, they had sinned. This caused them  to plead to Samuel that he would pray for them, that they would not die because of their sin.

And Samuel’s response is what I want to bring to your attention today. Here is what he said: “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. (((Here’s the important part…))))  22For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.”

Because God *decided* to make them His people, He will not forsake them. He made a covenant…a promise. If he forsook them, it would be breaking that promise. And God never makes a promise. 

When you became a follower of Jesus, you became one of God’s family. I don’t have time to go into details, but what He did when you became a Christian was a legal, formal adoption. You became His, and He will no more forsake you when you sin than He would forsake Israel when they sinned.

So move forward. Forsake your sin, follow the Lord and serve Him with all your heart. You are His son or daughter. Rest in that. Don’t let the enemy convince you of the lie that you have gone too far astray. You haven’t.

Thoughts on 1 Samuel 15

In Chapter 15 we read…

“…but the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.”

1 Samuel 15:35 NET

What does it mean when it says that the Lord regrets something that He did? Does it mean that God saw that He had made a mistake? 

When I lose my tempter and speak crossly to someone I love, later on, I regret it. Did I make a mistake when I lost my temper? Was it wrong to say what I said, the way I said it? Usually. 

When I forget to do something that my wife asked me to do, I regret it when I have to tell her that I forgot. I disappointed her. I made a mistake. 

Can God make a mistake? Not if He is God. God is, by His very nature perfect. And we have recently read God saying, “I do not change my mind.”

So what does it mean when we read that God regretted something He did?

The Hebrew root for the word “regret” is “to sigh”. If you are a parent, you understand this kind of sigh. I remember watching my kids making mistakes, and my wife and I sighing in disappointment. Many times, we could see what led up to the fateful moment, but in the hopeful love of a parent, we so wanted them to make the right decision. And when the inevitable happened, all we could do was sigh.

This gives us an idea of the regret that God had. Here in chapter 15 of 1 Samuel, God knew that Saul would fail,