[One-Verse Meditation]

1 Samuel 12:17 (NIV) “Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what a great wickedness you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king.”

[Meditation]

Samuel asks all of Israel if, in all the past years, he had ever cheated or harmed them for his own personal gain. “You have not!” they all reply, testifying to his integrity. Why did Samuel bother to bring this up first? He did it to make it clear that his coming rebuke was not the grumbling of an old prophet who had lost his position to a king, nor was it a personal grudge. It was to let everyone know that his voice from now on was not his own, but was speaking the very heart of God.

Now, with God’s heart, Samuel rebukes Israel. He proclaims how grave their sin was in rejecting the LORD, their true King who had saved them. He warns that if they and the king they desired should rebel against God, they would be judged like their ancestors. And as proof, he proclaims the words of today’s text: “Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain.”

In Israel at that time, the wheat harvest was a dry season with no rain at all. For thunder to sound and rain to fall from a dry sky was an event impossible by their logic and experience. The people may have thought to themselves that Samuel had lost his mind, that it was truly time for him to step down. But their logic and experience were the very limits of their unbelief, which trusted only in what could be seen. Now, as Samuel calls on the LORD, the impossible becomes reality, and thunder and rain pour down. Everyone is terrified.

This scene is a precise reflection of us today. We too live as if only the things we can see and touch are real. While we speak of the unseen kingdom of God, in reality, our lives are often disconnected from it. And still, we pray, we sing praises, and we worship—all while living a life seemingly without miracles. But this is the place of grace. Because God does not leave us as we are. Without fail, He grasps us with His Word and sets us in His kingdom. In this way, He puts a fence around us, marking us as His own. As His holy ones.

[Prayer]

Lord, it is true. I see myself living as if what I can see is everything. Though I say it’s not so, my life always follows the logic of the world. That is why I need Your grace. Grant me daily the grace to recognize true value, the grace to be satisfied in that treasure. I long for my steps today to live out the kingdom of God. Amen.
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[Daily Meditation]

1 Samuel 12:1-18