Jephthah made a shortsighted vow. God could have arranged events so that a dog came out to greet him, or could have spoken to him and told him to change his vow. God did not stop the proceedings. The tragedy occurred. Life on the earth is hard and the Western nations are not emotionally prepared for the Gentile holocaust that is at hand. There will occur no pre-tribulation "rapture" to save us from pain!

Jephthah died a few years later, no doubt of a broken heart.

True faith includes a grasp on our citizenship in Heaven that is so strong no painful circumstance on the earth can ever shake us.

King David of Israel pleased God as few other people have. David always was thinking about God, speaking to God, listening to God. God was in all his thoughts.

His first action as king was to bring back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. After this his thoughts were occupied with the need for a dwelling place for the Lord.

It is surprising that a man with the material resources of a king would be so humble of heart, so dependent upon God. Absalom, with the blindness of the usurper, thought he could take David's place as king over Israel. How foolish! David was a man after God's own heart. When David governed Israel it was actually the Lord who was ruling.

David shows us that no matter how great may be our material possessions we still can be occupied wholly with the Lord. After reading the Psalms you would think David was a poor shepherd camped on the side of a hill instead of the most successful of all the kings of Israel. David was rich in gold and silver but his heart was with the Lord at all times.

David's faith was the faith of continual occupation with God. God loves the individual who is thinking about God and talking to God throughout every day and into the night.

None of Samuel's words fell to the ground. God was with him in all he did. From his youth Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.

During the days of Samuel the Lord's people were beginning to turn away from the Lord. The priest, Eli, was not serving God as he should. The Ark of the Covenant came into the hands of the Philistines. The people cried for a king, bringing the rule of judges and prophets to an end.

King Saul never had a heart for God. Samuel had to be careful what he said and did, for Saul might have killed him.

One of Samuel's finer moments came when he stood before Saul and rebuked him for not obeying the Lord in the matter of the Amalekites.

And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. (I Samuel 15:22,23)

To be continued.