Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Have You Made God a Doormat? | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 12

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Are you taking advantage of God's kindness? Are you fighting to remain faithful? Is God a doormat? In today's episode, Patrick shares how 1 Samuel 12 reminds us that God's kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 12

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. I have a friend who is honestly one of the most kind and generous people I know. We'll just call her Kelly. That's not her name. But Kelly is always willing to help. She always says yes.

She always shows up when people need her. When Kelly was in college, she had a roommate that she honestly didn't know very well. But again, Kelly is just that kind of person who's always trying to show kindness. And so one day when that roommate asked Kelly, if a friend of hers could crash at their place overnight, Kelly said, yeah, sure, absolutely. And when her roommate went on and said, oh, and could she borrow your air mattress? Again, Kelly said, happy to serve, of course. Now, after one night passed, her roommate came back to her and said, hey, can my friend actually stay for a second night?

And again, of course, Kelly said yes. And then her roommate asked for a third and a fourth night. By this point, the friend staying over, what was becoming something of an inconvenience, because that friend literally slept in their living room, their shared space. and she kept really strange hours. She stayed up really late and would keep them up and she would sleep in until lunch. And so every time Kelly was up in the mornings

trying to get ready for class, that friend was asleep in the living room. And so Kelly felt like she had to tiptoe around not to wake her up. And when that friend was awake, she was more than a little strange, a little bit tough to be around. But again, Kelly is a long-suffering friend.

I think in this, she's a lot like Jesus. She's willing to give more and put up with more and show more patience than the average person. But eventually one week became two weeks and two weeks became three. And then Kelly's roommate just stopped asking her for permission for this friend to stay over. It was just a given. Now they were just going to be having someone sleeping on her air mattress in the living room,

keeping strange hours indefinitely. Weeks became months. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are saying, hey, you know what, she needs to stop being a dormant. Step up and do something. But reflect on Kelly's character for a moment. She showed love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and a lot of self-control. These aren't fruit of the devil? The fruit of the spirit, aren't they?

Now, I know other people listening to this. You're nodding along because you're a lot like Kelly. You love to help others. You love to serve. And you know what it's like for someone to take advantage of your kindness, to take advantage of your generosity, to take advantage of your mercy and your goodness. Now, if you're hoping that this episode is going to give you advice about what to do in these circumstances, I'm going to have to disappoint you because there's a plot twist. The point of the story isn't that we're all a lot like Kelly. I mean, we all like to think of ourselves as the person who's, you know, being generous and kind and being put out by other people and they're taking advantage of us. No, here's the plot twist. In real life, before God,

we're the bad roommate who keeps asking for more. In real, real life before God, we're the freeloader, sleeping in the living room, keeping weird hours, making everybody uncomfortable, we're carelessly making a mess and we're making it hard for God. In real life, we're the ones, not who are always giving ourselves away and being taken advantage of, no. In real life, we are the ones who often take advantage of God's kindness, God's mercy, and God's forgiveness. So I want us to reflect on God's word and see what we see in our souls as we do. Because in many ways, the first 15 chapters of the book of 1st Samuel are a case study in people exploiting God's kindness.

The exact same way my friend Kelly's roommate exploited her. In 1st Samuel 8, the people ask for a king like the nations. They don't want a king that's made after God's own heart that's like God. They want a king that worships idols, that leads them in violent warfare, that gives them all the things that the other nations have. And God warns them in 1st Samuel 8 that if they do this, it's not going to turn. turn out well, but they demand this king like the nations anyway. They know. They know. God is kind. He's generous. He's forgiving. And so rather than allowing his kindness to lead them to repentance and say,

you know what, we're wanting the wrong things. We got this all wrong. Instead, they use his kindness and generosity to exploit him. And God does give them what they ask. He gives them the king. So after that, we end up meeting Saul, the man who is first anointed as king. And in a lot of he is a king like the kings of the nations. He's tall, handsome, commanding, easy to follow, and of course, he's not very faithful to God. Some people ask for a different king, maybe even a worst king, but others accept Saul as their king, and he's eventually enthroned over all of Israel. Everybody accepts him. Thus, in today's passage, 1 Samuel 12, the prophet Samuel is actually offering his farewell speech. He's basically saying, hey, now that you guys have a king,

you don't need me to be your judge and your prophet. And so he calls the people and the king, King Saul, not to exploit God's kindness as they have been doing. He says to instead fight to remain faithful to God. To trust that in God's kindness, God will do them good despite their sins. This is what Samuel says in verse 12. But when you saw that Nahash,

the king of the Ammonites, was moving against you, you said to me, no, we want a king to rule over. us. Remember, we already talked about this. Samuel goes on, even though the Lord your God was your king. Now, here is the king you have chosen, the one you have asked for. See, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God, good. But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you,

as it was against your ancestors. Do you see the kindness of God in this passage? I mean, the people have rejected him as their king. Samuel's explicit about that. They've demanded a different king. They want Saul. But God graciously refuses to cast them off. He gives them the king that they shouldn't have asked for,

and he says, well, okay, look, I'll give you the king. And if you'll still try to walk in my ways and worship, me and not the idols, then I'll still be with you, even though you've chosen against me. He says, I'll still bless you, even through the king you never should have asked for. Do you see God's grace? His mercy, his kindness? And it's obvious that the proper response of the people would have been to repent to say, we actually don't want this king. We want you, God, as our king. But instead they say, yeah, we know it's wrong, but we don't want to change. So can you just help us out? Verse 19.

The people all said to Samuel, pray to the Lord your God for your servant so that we will not die. For we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king. And I want you to know here, they realize we have all these sins and we know we shouldn't have asked for a king. But notice they aren't repenting. They're saying, Samuel, would you just step in and ask God to help us out anyway? They're not turning around. The passage goes on. Do not be afraid, Samuel replied.

You have done all this evil. Yet don't turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord. your heart. Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you because they're useless. For the sake of his great name, the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you, and I will teach you the way that is good and right. Man, God is so patient. God is so merciful. He is so forgiving. Even when people do foolish things, he's willing to help them mitigate the consequences

if only they would turn to him and trust him. So are you going to call God a doormat? Or will you admit instead that you're just a lot like the people of Israel? I know that I am. I know that I am so tempted and often do exploit God's kindness and mercy and use it to my own advantage. Do you know why God shows such kindness? The New Testament makes it. makes it clear again and again. Paul asks the church in Rome, do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, patience, not realizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. God's kindness to Israel after they asked for a king wrongly. That wasn't meant to just tell them, hey, you can do whatever you want, do whatever you like. It was meant to lead them to repentance.

God's kindness to us when we sin is meant to lead us to turn back to him, the one who's kind to us. perfect sense. You want to turn back to the kind one, and yet so often we don't. In Jude 1-4, Jude warns, for certain people have crept in unnoticed, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ. It's a really severe warning. He's saying that sometimes we're tempted, and we do pervert God's grace into a justification for sensuality and sin. We treat his forgiveness as grounds for doing wrong. You know, some people say something like this. I do the sinning.

God does the forgiving. That's how our relationship works. But God's grace isn't meant to lead us to exploit him. His forgiveness isn't meant to be used as an excuse to do more sin. Paul wrote to Titus, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It, that grace, teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. And instead to live self-controlled, upright, and

godly lives in this present age. So the question before us is the same question before the Israelites, the question that Samuel put before them. Will we use God's kindness to exploit him? Or will we use His kindness to propel us towards repentance? Will we use God's grace to justify our sin? Or will we allow His grace to compel us towards godliness? In 1 Samuel 12, God reminds the Israelites that if they continue down the path of exploitation, there will be dire consequences. At some point, God does say, if you want to live controlled by sin, if you want to give yourself over to it, then at some point, I won't stop you. I'll give you what you want. I'll give you what you demand. And I'll tell you what, being given over to your sin, being given over to your idols, that is a hell on earth that leads to a hell for eternity.

So let's all realize that we are the freeloaders living in the living room. We're the roommate who keeps asking for more. We're the person who's exploiting God's kindness and mercy and forgiveness. Let's wake up. Let's repent. Let's thank him. And let's ask him for the strength to grow in godliness, not exploitation.