David brought the ark of Almighty God up to Jerusalem and back to the people of Israel. It had started to trouble him the ark of Almighty God was in a tent while he lived in a gorgeous house. So he got the concept in his mind to build an abiding residence for God in which to house all of the sacred furniture. David recounted, “It isn’t fitting the king should live in this beautiful cedar dwelling and the ark, the presence of Jehovah himself, should be in a little tent out there. Now I would like to emphasise, from everything we all know about him, David had no alternative motive here.

He had no need to create a name for himself or his folks. As a matter of fact, he would have liked to exalt no other name but God in building this house.

It is in the interludes of life that we have time to seize a dream or a perfect target. A small number of you, in a quiet moment of your life, realized the vocation into which God was calling you.

Perhaps it occurred in the silence of your own room after a church service one evening.

Or maybe it was while you used to be a student in a dorm. Before long, they stretched into a direct arrow toward some exciting and new target. You’ve got to slow down and become quiet in those special times to hear His voice, to sense His leading.

But let me add this : infrequently the dream is from God ; infrequently it is not. But when it is not of the Lord God, it will not come to fulfillment—nor should it.

To build a healthy fear of Almighty God. “Moses related to the people, ‘Do not be fearful ; for God has come to test you, and so that the terror of Him may remain with you, so you may not sin’ “( Exodus 20:20 ). “Now the LORD recounted to Moses, ‘Come up to Me on the mountain and remain there, and I’ll give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandment which I’ve written for their instruction.’ So Moses arose with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God” ( Exodus 24:12–13 ). Isn’t it great that God gave His folks written instructions to obey? This is the 1st time in all of history that God set down His Word. And to think, you and I possess those written words.

Back before the downfall of the unbelieving Soviet Union, my chum John Truck Diest represented the Evangelical Christian Publishers organisation at the Moscow Book Fair. The authorities had granted them disinclined authorization to hand out a controlled number of Russian language New Testaments, and long lines of folk waited in a queue to get a copy. When the supplies were exhausted, one despairingly disappointed man questioned if he could have one of the empty boxes that had once held those Testaments. “With tears glistening in his eyes, the person answered, “Then I at least require the box.”

The Bible was so valuable to this person that he valued the card box that had held the Scriptures.May our eyes be opened to the amazing privilege that’s ours to hold the entire written Word of the Lord in our really hands.

Moses thought he was due to be the deliverer, many years before he was given his recommission at the burning bush. He believed everybody else would realize it too. The passage goes on to inform us, “On the next day he seemed to them as they were fighting” ( Acts 7:26 ).

Now why did he return to the scene of the crime? I think he came back to carry out his plan. He’d proved his loyalty to the Hebrews by striking down an Egyptian official. That was Plan A. Now for Plan B. He would return to the scene of his action and rally the troops. But they did not hear his counsel. In truth, they did not respect him in any way. “But the person who was hurting his neighbour pushed him away, exclaiming, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?'” ( Acts 7:27 ). How those words must have stung a person who had just hazarded everything.

It is a reasonably easy plan, isn’t it? A meat-and-potatoes kind of offer. If you are a religious leader, religious folks will follow you. That is true for any leader. If you have the products, folk follow. But they did not follow Moses. At that point, the prince of Egypt led a forsaken one-man parade. The bills of the flesh are now coming due. Let’s level with one another. Ever experienced something similar to that? Many of us have been there. You get all prepared to tug off something huge for God. You set goals. You spend some time and money. You tell a handful of folk. But as agonizing as it could be for us to confess it, goals not washed in prayer or brought before the Lord in meekness turn out to be downright pointless. They do not go anywhere. They do not achieve anything.

They generate heat but no light. And you are left with misunderstanding and defeat. Bottom line : if you’re moving in the energy of the flesh, your work are cursed to fail. But when you trust the Lord God to offer you the following step, when you wait in meekness on Him, he’ll open the doors or close them, and you will get to rest and relax till he asserts, “Go.”.

Kings could offer sacrifices for themselves, but never for the state.
2nd , it was Samuel who was to convey the Lord’s battle plans. since Saul kept his eye on the sundial and his dwindling armed forces, he gave in to panic and rushed ahead on his very own.

Gentile generals decided where, when, and whom to attack, mustered their troops, then sacrificed to their gods to gain favor. The Hebrew sacrifice was changed ; it was to be an act of submission, not bribery.

3rd , and most crucial to our study, Saul made the choice to trust himself at the emergency point. His call to sacrifice and attack was based mostly on good common-sense ( from a temporal point of view ). Just like Israel’s wish to have a human king and their prepared acknowledgment of Saul based mostly on his outward appearance, the new king was prepared to advance on the enemy with a human technique. He saw his armed forces evaporating like water and the city of Michmash stuffed with his enemy. He saw the appointed a week had passed and that Samuel was late. So he tossed aside any pretense of decorum and custom.

He, actually put on the ecclesiastic garb together with his crown and signet and attempted to make the altar his very own special instrument of power—something he had no right to do. We need a Samuel, someone that cares more about our character than our image or comfort. Regularly that sort of loving truth calls for pointed words. “You have played the fool” isn’t simple to hear, but when it comes from the mouth of a reliable, godly mate, we must hear it and take heed.