Year 4, Day 316: 1 Samuel 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

1 Samuel 30 is an interesting chapter.  David has been living among the Philistines.  He’s been raiding the other Canaanite people to sustain his life.  He’s been murdering innocent women and children in the process.  He’s been lying to the Philistine kings to cover his tracks.  But in this chapter – after his family is captured and taken from him – we get to see him begin to turn back to the Lord and inquire of Him.  When David’s life begins to fall apart, he turns back to God and put the pieces back together.  He begins to remember to get his approval from God and not from the people around him.

On the other hand, we see the people around David continue to fall into sinfulness.  When their life falls apart with David’s life, they don’t remember all that David has done for him.  They don’t think about what’s happened to David’s life, either.  They want to be done with David.  They want to take it out on David.  They want David to pay for the bad things that had happened in their life most recently – regardless of what David had helped them do in the past as they’ve all fled from Saul.  They seek their own approval.  They do what is right in their own eyes.

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