Monday, September 15, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 1 Chronicles 9-13
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 107
Key Verse
1 Chronicles 11:22 — “Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day.”
Devotional Thought
The chronicler gathers up the names of the returned exiles like a man counting treasure. After seventy years in Babylon, the people of God come home, and the first thing recorded is not their wealth or their walls but their genealogies—who they were, where they belonged, which gate they kept. The porters of the house of the LORD are named one by one: Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, men who “lodged round about the house of God, because the charge was upon them, and the opening thereof every morning pertained to them” (9:27). These were not glamorous assignments. They opened doors. They guarded thresholds. Yet the Spirit saw fit to record their names forever.
Then the narrative turns, and the turn is sharp. In chapter 10, Saul falls on Mount Gilboa. The archers wound him, his armourbearer refuses to strike him, and the king dies by his own sword. The Philistines fasten his head in the temple of Dagon, and the men of Jabeshgilead—remembering an old debt of kindness—walk through the night to bury his bones and fast seven days. The chronicler gives the reason plainly: “So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD… and enquired not of the LORD” (10:13–14). A man who would not seek God in life found no help in death.
Against that darkness, chapter 11 shines. All Israel gathers to David at Hebron—”Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh”—and they anoint him king according to the word of the LORD by Samuel. David takes Zion, and the city becomes his. Then we meet the mighty men: Jashobeam who lifted his spear against three hundred; Eleazar who stood in a barley field when everyone else fled; Benaiah who slew a lion in a pit on a snowy day. And there is that strange, beautiful scene at the cave of Adullam, where three men break through the Philistine host just to bring David a cup of water from the well of Bethlehem, and David pours it out to the LORD, unwilling to drink what cost men their blood.
It is mid-September now, the season of ingathering, when the year begins to turn toward its close. Perhaps you feel like one of those porters this week—faithful in a small, unseen post, opening the same doors every morning. Or perhaps you feel the weariness of a long exile, wondering if your name is remembered anywhere at all. Take heart: God keeps His own records. He knows the gate you keep, the field where you stood, the cup of cold water you carried for another. And when the Sauls of this world fall, the kingdom still advances, for the LORD of hosts is with His anointed, and His mercy endureth for ever.
Reflection
- Saul died because he “enquired not of the LORD”—where in your life have you been making decisions without seeking Him, and what would it look like to ask Him first this week?
- The porters and the mighty men served in hidden and costly ways alike; which of those two callings is God pressing on you right now, and are you faithful in it?
Prayer
LORD, we give thanks unto Thee, for Thou art good and Thy mercy endureth for ever. Thou hast gathered us from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and led us by the right way to a city of habitation. Forgive us for the times we have rebelled against Thy word and sought counsel everywhere but at Thy throne. Teach us to enquire of Thee first. Make us faithful in the small charge and the great battle alike, whether keeping the gate or standing in the barley field. We ask it in the name of Jesus, who broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 107:1 — “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”