Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Danger of Success | The Writings | 1 Chronicles 10

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Who do you credit for your success? Do you struggle to keep your spot at the top? Where do you turn in the midst of prosperity? In today's episode, Tanya looks at 1 Chronicles 10 to share the true root of success. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! 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 Chronicles 10

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 Tanya Wilmeth. Who gets credit for your success? Is it you? Did you outwork your competition? Did you study harder than almost everyone else? Did you have an idea before someone else did?

Did you make a plan and stick to it day in and day out? Or were you in the right place at the right time? Were you born into a family that valued work or education? Were you given a chance because someone noticed you? When the people of Israel were under attack by the Philistines, they asked for a king. They really, really wanted a king. They wanted someone who could protect them from the constant battles that were around them, just to keep them safe from all of the armies that were more equipped than they were.

The Philistines were ruthless. So for the Israelites, there was a man that came, and his name was Saul. He came from an ordinary family. But his family was wealthy. Saul was good looking. He was tall. And one day, Saul's father lost some donkeys. So Saul went out looking for the donkeys. And on his way, he was also looking for a man named Samuel, who was known to have wisdom. Saul wanted to consult Samuel about where his donkeys might be. But just the day before, God had revealed something important to Samuel. God told Samuel that the following day he was going to send him a Benjamin, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, or from that area, and he should be anointed as the new prince over Israel. From 1 Samuel 9, it says when Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, here is the man of whom I spoke to you. It is he who shall be over my people. So Samuel tells Saul, hey, don't worry about the don't worry about the donkeys. They have been found,

but you, Saul, you're the one we've really been looking for. And Saul answers like you would at the overwhelming surprise that come at the beginning stages of success. Saul says, Am I not a Benjaminite from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me this way? Saul was genuinely humble and genuinely surprised.

And when he found out that it was the Lord who had chosen and anointed him, he wanted to learn more about God. He wanted to learn more about God's word. And he wanted to honor God with this new position that he'd been given. But the problem with Saul was that he was forgetful. His brain tricked him into thinking that he had done something to become the king. And then he needed to keep doing it and do it well to stay there. And that got Saul into big trouble. Here's why.

While the Lord had actually chosen and an annoying in Saul to be the king over Israel for a time, Saul was not the promised king the Lord was talking about when he told Israel that he would send them a king to lift them up. That was King David. And he was going to succeed Saul. And then all of David's family was going to take over the throne. None of Saul's family, none of Saul's sons were going to have that heritage. But because Saul forgot about God in his success, he also forgot about God in his failure.

Because Saul's brain tricked him into thinking the world was on his shoulders, he tried to take the world on his shoulders. And this finally gets us to our passage. It brings us to First Chronicles 10. And this tells us how it all ends. Listen in. It says, now the Philistines fought against Israel. And the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain.

on Mount Goboa. Now, this was a tragic battle that came at a time when things were coming to an end for the Israelites, at least as far as this Philistine occupation was concerned. Now, that first verse is important, because Saul has heard about what's happened in this battle. He knows that his army has already been defeated. The scripture goes on. It says, the battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bear, draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and mistreat me. But his armor bear would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.

Saul was afraid that if he was alive, when the Falstines found him, they would torture and mistreat him and do all the things to his body that his armies had done to theirs. But Saul must have also been afraid of something else, that his life was. was over with the defeat. If he could not win the battle, if he could not save his position as the king of Israel, he had nothing to live for. This is exactly where the enemy of his mind wanted to take him when the first seed of pride was planted in Saul's brain. You are on the throne because you are fill in the blank, strong, handsome, powerful, smart, hardworking, fill in the blank. We have all been on the receiving end of these lies, but when we believe them,

we become slaves to them. We spend our lives trying to protect them and keep them. You are on the throne because you're good at basketball, because you do your homework, because you're a good mom, because you're a good provider for your family. Who are we without those things when we think they are what makes us. So the chapter ends, so Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord and that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance. He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse. See nothing about the Philistine army changed God's plans. David was going to be the next king, and David's line would lead to the greater king,

King Jesus. We know King David didn't follow God perfectly either, but God did something in David's heart that convinced him that God was the real king in his life. David might have been on a throne, but he didn't have anything about himself that was worthy to stand before the throne of the true king. Yet God invited him into a relationship anyway. Maybe this is why David was able to write a song. A song, a song about a temple, a really important temple that he was planning to build, but knew he would never get to see into completion. He could have thrown in the towel or sabotage the plan so the one who followed him wouldn't get the credit. But instead, David wrote a song. In Psalm 30, it says, as for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.

But your favor, O Lord, you made my mountain stand strong. What about you? What do you say in your prosperity? Do you say this job and this relationship is the thing creating stability in my life? I need to do whatever I can to hold on to my image and my reputation. Or do you say, God, your love for me makes me stand strong? Lord, your wisdom gives my life stability. Lord, your mercy, the mercy that is new every morning,

no matter what is happening in my life is what gives me eternal life. Is that what you say? Is that what you believe? If it is, then you're going to be okay. You can go into whatever battle you might face today knowing that you're going to be okay, because you're not on your own. You belong to someone greater than yourself. He loves you. He keeps you. He lives in you.