Cover to Cover

Reading: 1 Samuel 12:1-14:52

Focus: 1 Samuel 12:1-15

We constantly say, “learn from the past…learn from the mistakes of history…” Yet, how often do we repeat the mistakes of the past? Most of the time, we don’t realise it till it’s too late. Over and over, we make the same mistakes that our parents made, that our grandparents made, that people keep making throughout history. We just don’t learn out lesson and we continue to just putting ourselves into the same, difficult, trying situations.

As it was coming towards the end of his timing serving Israel, Samuel gave them some departing words. He summarised their history, their heritage as God’s chosen people, recounting a few selected events that reminded them of God’s deliverance in the past (from Egypt) and in recent history (from Moab). There were certainly more that Samuel could have reminded them of, but at this point in time, he wanted to remind them that God had been faithful to them and would deliver them in their hour of need—only if they would fear God and obey Him.

Our past, our history, our heritage has a lot for us to stand upon. It is what we stand on, what we have come from, what has moulded us into the people we are today—for better or for worse. However, it still gives us the opportunity to learn from past mistakes and to grow. The choice is ours, whether we choose to learn and grow, or to continue in our old ways and continue making the same mistakes, over and over again.

Next Reading: 1 Samuel 15:1-17:31