1 Samuel 12:20-22/ Why God Never Gives Up On You

20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 22 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. 1 Samuel 12:20-22

 Do you ever feel that you have gone too far in disobeying God? Do you ever wonder if He has given up on you because of your disobedience? 

 Here's the short answer: Jesus will never give up on those who belong to Him. 

 You notice a very strange line at the beginning of the passage above; Samuel says, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil." Now, what kind of sense does that make? Typically, if you do evil then you should be afraid. 

 If you park illegally, you should be afraid of getting a ticket. 
If you cheat on your taxes, you should be afraid of going to jail. 
Likewise, if you do evil in the eyes of a holy God, you should be afraid of condemnation.  

 And Israel has done some serious evil: they raped and murdered and served false Gods and sought to have God's Kingship replaced by a human king—that's the kind of evil Samuel has in mind here. If anyone had gone too far in disobeying God, Israel had. 

 But Samuel says, "Do not be afraid." Why would he say that? What's his reasoning for saying something that goes against everything we know as humans? 

 The answer is found in verse 22: " For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself." First, Samuel appeals to the covenant God made with Israel, which made them "his people." Then, he gets to the heart of his reasoning: "for his great name's sake …" 

 Why shouldn't they be afraid despite having done evil? Well, according to Samuel, God will not forsake them because they belong to Him and His namesake is on the line. In short, God will not abandon His children because that would not bring Him glory. 

 So, what's this mean for us when we feel we've gone too far? When we feel we've disobeyed for too long?  It means we can appeal to something deeper when these questions pop up. If we question God's faithfulness (and we all will at some point) we can rely on much more than our good works, our past promises to Him, our remorse, our hatred of sin, our good intentions, or anything else that we could offer. 

 The faithfulness of God toward His people is rooted in His commitment to His own glory. He put His own name on the line so that we can be sure that He will never forsake us! His honor … His glory … His reputation … His namesake … He put it all on the line so that we could be sure of His faithfulness. 

 Hebrews 6:13-14 says: 

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”

 And here's the point according to the writer of Hebrews, "We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain," (Hebrews 6:19).

 Do you see what God did here? He put His name on the line so we could be sure and steadfast, having His faithfulness as an anchor for our soul when we feel we may have gone too far. God will not bring shame on His own name, and therefore He will never forsake His people. That is the most solid footing we can have when we begin to wonder if He will abandon us.  

 If you belong to Jesus, He will not forsake you. You do not have to be afraid of that, no matter what sins you have committed. But you do need "serve the Lord with all your heart," as Samuel called Israel to do and "do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver."

 Your gracious, covenant-keeping God who put His name on the line to show His faithfulness to you is inviting you to turn to Him—will you turn to Him instead of other, empty things that will not benefit you? 

 When you feel you have gone too far, remember that God will never forsake His children because of the blood-bought covenant He made with us through Jesus Christ. He will remain faithful for His own namesake, and that is a great surety in times of doubt. 

 If you want to dig deeper into this, need help, need prayer, or have questions—please reach out to us here: Roots Help & Prayer Form.

 In Christ, 

Pastor Kevin