Year 1, Day 304: 1 Samuel 18

David and Saul

Today we get to watch David go from “honored general” to “hated fugitive.”  There are really two issues at stake in this chapter: David’s success and David’s faith.  Both issues intertwine throughout the whole chapter.

Clearly David had a great career beginning with Goliath.  1 Samuel 18 is quick to tell us several times that whenever David went out against the enemies of the Hebrew people he had success.  He was so successful that Saul set him over the army according to 1 Samuel 18:5.

In addition to this success, Jonathon and David had developed a great friendship.  Jonathon and David’s friendship was so true and faithful that they cared for one another as they cared for themselves.  This put David once again in close proximity to Saul, but on this account Saul didn’t seem to mind.

We also see that David is popular with the people, more so than Saul even!  Saul is given credit for his victories, but David is given ten times the credit.  Now, whether this is because David actually killed more people in battle or because his battles were simply fresher in the minds of the people we don’t really know.  Given Saul’s hesitation when Jonathon went out to battle against the Philistines, Saul’s hesitation to fight Goliath, and Saul’s hiding before his coronation it is quite probable that David actually was a more famous soldier.

If we add all these things up, we begin to see the picture of David.  He made a few close friends.  The people liked him.  He was successful.  He was put into a position of power.  There is good worldly reason for Saul to be jealous of David.

There is an old proverb that says “Praise is like a hot furnace to man: it reveals of what kind of things a person is made.”  As Saul sees David growing in power, he becomes jealous of David.  Saul does not stop to consider the spiritual reasons for what is happening.  Saul does not stop to think that maybe he is making worldly decisions instead of spiritual reasons.  Saul becomes jealous of David’s popularity and success and it spoils the relationship completely.

David and Jonathon

On the other hand, let’s look at how David’s success affected Jonathon.  By rights, Jonathon is next in line to be king.  He is the heir to the throne.  If David’s success should threaten anyone it should be Jonathon.  Yet their friendship remains true.  Even after Saul tries to pin David to a wall, Jonathon remains loyal to David.  This is great example of how spiritual relationships are unaffected by worldly conditions.

David and Himself

Finally, we look at David’s reaction to his success.  First, notice that we aren’t given an official reaction by David with respect to the praise of the people.  And did you notice that the people praise David and Saul rather than the God who enabled the victories?  David is wise to ignore the praise of the people.  A truly spiritual person will let praise of themselves roll over them and pass on by.  A truly spiritual person will be the most flattered when their work leads to the praise and glory of God.

This is actually what we see David do in this chapter.  David does whatever Saul appoints him to do.  Verse 5 seems to indicate that David was set in front of the whole army as a general-type figure.  Verse 13 seems to indicate that after David has the praise of the people Saul removes him from that lofty position and demotes him to simply a commander of 1,000.  Yet David rolls with the action and continues to find success with the leading of the Lord.  David does not seem to get caught up in worldly things but rather maintain his focus on God.

David and Saul’s Daughters

Of course, all of this is said without even considering the portion of this chapter with respect to David’s marriage to Saul’s daughter.  Before we get to Micah, let’s get to Merab.  There are some that want to say that Merab is given to Adriel to spite David.  However, I don’t think we can be quick to say that the text indicates this.  It is possible, but it is equally possible to read the text as saying that the offer was made to David, David turned the offer down (1 Samuel 18:18), so the daughter that should have been given to David was given to someone else.  I find no concrete reason to force this text to say that David was wronged in this process.

More Sin On Saul’s Behalf

Where I do see the text lifting up Saul as doing something wrong is in the bride price required for Michal.  Saul demands the death of 100 Philistines.  This demand is probably made hoping that David would be killed in the process of collecting the Philistine foreskins.  At the very least, Saul realizes that if David is successful then he will have put enmity between himself and the Philistines.  Saul is trying to get David to make enemies who might rid Saul of the problem of David.  Saul’s corrupt character is coming out even more now.

What can we learn from all of this?  When people focus on the world, bad decisions are made.  People get jealous, greedy, and selfish.  When people focus on God, worldly problems cannot break the spiritual bonds that exist.  This chapter gives us a pretty good place to analyze the differences between spirituality and worldly thought.

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Year 1, Day 303: 1 Samuel 17

Two Human Beings

Today we get to see a great contrast between Saul and David.  But before we go there, let’s not forget their similarities.  If we do forget how David and Saul were similar, we will end up worshipping David – a thing we must not do.  So we begin with what Saul and David have in common: They were both human beings.  While this may seem obvious, there is a point I am making here.  Both David and Saul were sinners.  Both were guilty of sin and uncleanliness.  We don’t have this point in this passage per se, but we know it to be true.  Neither was righteous on his own merit.

Differences

Now that we have firmly understood their nature of sin and depravity, let’s talk about the differences that we see here in this chapter.  First of all, there is a reminder of the physical difference.  Remember that Saul was praised for being the biggest of the big Hebrew people.  He was a large man.  We know that David wasn’t of any particular great stature and we have proof of this when David puts on Saul’s armor.  David can hardly move around!  This is significant because Goliath was a man of great stature.  It would have made sense for Saul to fight Goliath as that would match the two biggest specimens.  But where is Saul?  Saul is cowering in his tent waiting for someone else to go out and die at the hands of the Philistine.  David – a poor physical choice against Goliath, but a great spiritual choice! – is the one who goes.

What do we learn from this point?  Size (physical characteristics) is irrelevant when it comes to doing God’s will.

Since I’ve already spoken of the armor of Saul, let’s lift up this difference as well.  Saul has armor, a fighting sword, a shield-bearer, and plenty of other means for fighting.  David has a sling, a staff, and five little stones.  Saul had all the protection he could afford, David had all the protection he needed.

What do we learn from this point?  Our protection does not come from this world but from knowing we walk in the will of God.

Speaking along the lines of military terms, notice that David says that he is not trained in the implements of war.  David knows the staff and the sling.  It is Saul who knows the ways to battle.  Saul knows how to use the shield, the sword, and the armor.  Saul knows how to stand so that the armor protects him best.  Saul knows how to attack so that he doesn’t open up any weaknesses within the armor.  David knows … well, David knows how to put a smooth stone into a sling and let go.

What do we learn from this point?  If we view being prepared in worldly terms we will never feel as though we are ready.  When we view being prepared from spiritual terms we can always feel as though God will get us through so long as we follow His will.

Foreshadowing

As long as I’m drawing comparisons, let’s shift gears here for a moment and now begin to see how God uses David to foreshadow Jesus Christ.  Of course, we have the often commented fact that David and Jesus were both born in Bethlehem.  That’s a fact worth noting, but not of great spiritual significance.

However, we can see here in this story that David was sent to the battlefield by his father.  In fact, David was sent to the battlefield by his father to bring relief to those fighting (specifically David’s brothers and their leaders).  Is not the same true about Jesus Christ?  Did not Jesus come to earth at the will of His Father?  Did not Jesus come to earth to bring relief to His spiritual brothers and their leaders?

Furthermore, remember that David has already been anointed as a king, but now is not his time to reign.  It is David’s time to serve; his time to reign will come.  So it is with Jesus.  Jesus is the Messiah – the anointed one.  But He came to serve first; His time to reign comes.

David looks like the weak player, but in an act of selfless sacrifice David shows that he is actually the victor over Goliath.  In the same light, Jesus seemed weak to those around Him who did not truly know what the Father was doing through Him.  But Jesus demonstrates through an act of selfless sacrifice that He is the victor over the “strong man.”

Finally, after the victory, notice that the troops rally behind David and fight the Philistines.  The victory is already won before the army of the Hebrew people truly take the field!  So it is with Jesus.  The victory was decided on the cross.  He has already won.  We do not fight for victory; as it is commonly said we actually fight from/out of victory. 

Okay, one last point.  Saul doesn’t recognize David.  David was one of many servants of the king and as a musician wouldn’t have a need to be too close to the king anyway, so this statement doesn’t imply a contradiction. Neither was Jesus recognized by the Jewish leaders when He came to this world.  Jesus came and did His work not for the recognition but because the work of the Lord needed to be done. 

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Year 1, Day 302: 1 Samuel 16

Transitioning to David

1 Samuel 16 begins the transition to David, although the conflict between Saul and David will stick around for a little while longer.  There are a few things we can pick up from this chapter.

First, let’s nail the obvious one.  David is chosen in spite of being the youngest, not necessarily the tallest, and not necessarily the best physical specimen.  David is loyal, obedient to the will of his father, and willing to work.  God chooses people based on their heart, not their appearance.  And so should we.  That’s where most people go with this passage.

Samuel Comes to Bethlehem

Now let’s go somewhere else.  Look at Samuel’s coming to Bethlehem.  Notice the elders of the town’s response to the prophet of the Lord coming into their midst?  They are fearful.  This is something that makes them tremble.  I’m not saying that we should live in fear of people, but sometimes I think we take our spiritual leaders in the world a little too lightly, too.  When a pastor gets up to speak, are we ever a little fearful about what he or she might say to convict us? 

Yes, I know that some people out there will say, “Yes, I want to be convicted.” That’s a good thing.  But shouldn’t we also fear the true depth of conviction that should be occurring?  After all, true conviction and repentance is hard work!

But it doesn’t need to end with the pastor.  Do any of us really have spiritual friends who occasionally hold us accountable and make us stop and think?  Are we ever fearful of how God might use them, too?  If we don’t have friends who convict us from time to time, what does that say about our spirituality?

When Samuel comes to Bethlehem, the people are afraid.  They know what it is like to have a prophet among them.  They are right to be initially afraid.

Move Along, Samuel.  Nothing to See Here

Let’s look at another point in this passage that often gets overlooked.  Where does this passage open?  The Lord says to Samuel, “Get over it; I have moved on and Saul has proven who he is.”  I gave him a chance to prove his character to himself and he has done exactly that.

So often we dwell on the sorrow of things not going the way that we expected.  So often we mourn over tragedy.  No!  We should not be spending our time here on this earth mourning over the world and its downfall.  We should be spending our days here on this earth looking for God and joyful of the fact that we can be in relationship with Him.  Yes, it does hurt to see people we care about reject God.  But even so, what is that next to the fact that the creator of the universe wants a personal relationship with you and He has called you to play a part in what He is doing in this world? 

God is looking at Samuel and basically telling him to get back on board with where His plan is heading.  That’s some great advice.  I find God’s speech to Samuel here in 1 Samuel 16:1 strikingly consistent with Jesus advice about mourning in Luke 9:60.  I also find it consistent with the advice of the angels in Luke 24:5 when they ask the women “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”  In this passage from 1 Samuel 16, God is telling Samuel to recover his focus.  Quite literally we can make this parallel: Do not seek God and His ways (the living) among Saul (the dead).

The Spirit of the Lord Left Saul

 Then we move into the second half of the chapter and I can’t get but a single verse read before stopping to comment.  The Spirit of the Lord left Saul because David was now the Lord’s chosen king and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented Saul.  Now, let’s be clear.  Do not confuse these spirits.  The first is the Spirit of the Lord and the second is a spirit from the Lord.  Even there, note the description well. 

The second spirit is from the Lord, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the spirit is there because the spirit and the Lord are “on the same side” as it were.  All you need to do is read the first two chapters of Job to understand how God and Satan discuss involvement in Job’s life.  Satan cannot touch Job without God’s permission.  The same thing could be happening here.  Saul has chosen his lot, and now God is permitting an evil spirit to give Saul the fruit of his efforts.  So many people try to use this verse to indicate that God sent an evil spirit to Saul to torment him.  It need not be read that way.  God could simply be permitting an evil spirit to torment Saul because Saul has made it clear that he has no interest in following God’s ways anyway.

Still Within the Dominion of God

Whatever the case may be, notice that God uses the evil spirit of torment.  Saul needs to be soothed, and David is introduced to the palace to soothe him.  It is a neat transition for God to employ here.  David has already been secretly anointed by Samuel.  If Samuel had told Saul what he had done out in the open, Saul would have no doubt tried to kill David.  At the very least David would never have been invited to the palace!  But God and Samuel will give Saul time to self-destruct while David is learning the palace routine.  It’s a phenomenal plan full of brilliance!

Furthermore, David will see Saul’s self-destructive behavior.  Now, this doesn’t mean David will be able to avoid self-destructive behavior.  David’s reign will be full of self-destruction, as is all of our lives, too.  However, what David will learn is the importance of confessing our sin when we self-destruct.  That is a valuable lesson that David will find reinforced time and time again in the presence of Saul.

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Year 1, Day 301: 1 Samuel 15

Dealing with the Ending First

What a great passage – if not a bit gory in the end.  So let’s deal with that part first and then come back to Saul.  Samuel seeks out Agag, the king of the Amalekites and hacks him to pieces.  There are some out there that question this behavior and ask if it is really behavior one can expect from a follower of God.

This is a tough question, but the answer I must come to is yes.  This is behavior that was righteous in God’s eyes.  Notice that I didn’t say “pleasing.”  I said righteous instead of pleasing because what would have been ultimately pleasing for God would have been for Agag to live according to God’s ways so that judgment did not have to fall upon him.  That would have been pleasing to God.  But since Agag chose to continue to lead his people in the ways of the Amalekites – and the worship of the Amalekite gods – and follower their ways, then he came under judgment.  Since the judgment came from God, it is righteous.

Now here we discover a very important point.  I do not believe God wants us to be self-appointed judges over others.  We cannot know each other’s hearts, and it is not our place to go out and destroy another person.  But notice that although Samuel cuts Agag to pieces, he is not acting on his own authority and his own reason.  Verses 2-3 confirm that what Samuel did (and told Saul to do) was from the Lord.  Samuel was not a self-appointed judge over Agag.  Samuel was God’s appointed judge over Agag.  This is a crucial point to understanding how this action actually is righteous in God’s eyes – as difficult as that might be to accept.

Saul’s Third Sin: Lying to God

Let’s put the judgment of Agag behind us and return to the topic of the last few days: the decline of Saul.  What is Saul’s sin here in this chapter?  Saul is not only disobedient, but he also lies about it.  It is one thing to be a disobedient sinner; not many of us can change that fact about ourselves.  It is another thing to lie about it.  All along Saul has had some real trouble confessing his errors, so it should not be any wonder that he has trouble now.

You see, Samuel tells Saul to destroy every aspect of the Amalekites.  God wants the people dead and the animals destroyed.  {We’ll get to why God demands the utter destruction in a little while.  For now let’s focus on Saul.}  Saul does not obey the Lord.  He keeps the best for himself.  And as I stated earlier, to make it worse he lies about it to Samuel.

The Root of Saul’s Sin

If we examine Saul’s sin, the main problem isn’t just disobedience.  The main problem is that the disobedience is rooted in greed and a lack of faith.  Why would someone keep the spoils of war?  Well, one might keep the spoils of war to make oneself wealthier, more powerful, etc.  To take the spoils of war is inherently rooted in selfish behavior.  Saul is showing his character of being a self-monger in this action.

Furthermore, Saul is showing his lack of faith {or even more importantly, his lack of perspective!}.  Saul may be increasing his wealth and animal possessions so that he can be assured of having provision in the future.  This is why most people get worried about things like retirement accounts, amassing possessions, etc.  We have an innate desire to provide for ourselves; so much so that it often comes in conflict with a faithful desire to trust in God’s provision.  When Saul takes these sheep, donkeys, and other things he is inherently showing a lack of desire to place his faith in God.

Israel has rejected the idea of having God as their king because they could not live with trusting in God’s ability to provide.  They wanted a king to provide security for them like everyone else.  Now their king has also rejected trusting in God’s ability to provide as well.  The downfall of humanity often begins and ends with our need to focus on our own desires rather than focusing on God and God’s desires.

Destruction of the Amalekites

I have one last point to make.  I said earlier that I would talk a little bit about why it is that God demands the utter destruction of the Amalekites.  You can already see how claiming their possessions can be taken as a testimony about the human desire to provide for ourselves and not trust God.  But there is more than that.  The history of the Hebrew people {and Gentiles, too!} is a history that shows how easily we are swayed into false religion and false faith.  Throughout the period of the judges the Hebrew people were always being swayed into following the gods of the Canaanites.  We seldom hear about Canaanites turning to the God of the Hebrews.  The smallest thing – even the animals of conquered people – can be used to sway our hearts away from God.  It is not just about faith in God’s ability to provide; it is also about establishing an environment of loyalty to God.

This is a place where we as Christians can learn from Saul and the Hebrew people.  I don’t think we consider how easily our hearts are swayed from God.  I don’t think that we consider often enough how the influences that we allow in our life really do affect our relationship with God.

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Year 1, Day 300: 1 Samuel 14

The Difference between Saul and Jonathon

Here we see evidence of Saul’s sinfulness as exposed in the last chapter and how it continues into more sin today.  We also see a great contrast between Saul and his son Jonathon.  Let’s begin with the faith of Jonathon since that is where the story itself begins.

Jonathon goes up into battle, trusting in the Lord’s guidance.  Jonathon makes a plan, and notice that his plan is open to God’s leading.  He doesn’t say, “We’ll go up and attack them.”  No, Jonathon says “We’ll go up and if they invite us up we’ll know that God has given them to us.  But if they say wait, then we’ll know that God doesn’t want us to attack them.”  Jonathon is setting himself up to be used by God without forcing his will upon the will of God.  He gives us a great testimony of faithful obedience here.

While we’re speaking of this act, let’s not forget that this is a situation of 2 people against an army.  Jonathon knows he can’t possibly win against the army, but he trusts God.  God fulfills that hope.  As Jonathon attacks, God lets the earth quake underneath the camp.  It is God who throws the Philistines into a panic; Jonathon is just doing his part of God’s greater plan.

On the other hand, Saul is cowering in the caves.  Only after he notices the panic in the camp of the Philistines does he take action.  Here we see his impatience rearing its ugly head once more.  Saul calls for the Ark of the Lord so that he can consult with the priest.  While this seems like a good move – and it would be if Saul waited patiently for the direction of the Lord – it is unfortunately a great opportunity for his impatience. 

Rather than wait for wisdom to come out of the conversation with the priest, Saul orders the priest to “withdraw his hand.”  This is most likely an order to the priest to use the Urim and Thummim to make a decision.*  Saul is not patient enough to hear the priestly wisdom from the Lord.  Saul wants to fight and he wants to fight now!  How often do we become impatient with the people who can spiritually guide us as we want them to “get to the point.”

As Saul rushes into battle, his impatience causes him to make a rash vow.  He didn’t even pause to think that Jonathon couldn’t possibly have heard the vow.  This just goes to show us why we should be careful making vows – especially vows that may affect people who aren’t present to hear the consequences.

Yet, the rashness of the vow isn’t the worst part of this story.  Saul’s rashness ends in pride.  When Saul does actually inquire of the Lord, he gets no response.  This leads to the discovery of Jonathon’s guilt.  Saul could have turned to the priest and confessed that his vow was rash – especially since Jonathon couldn’t have possibly known about the vow.  Saul could have turned in humbleness and repented himself.  But this is not what Saul does.  In pride Saul stands by his vow and offers up the death of his son.  Rather than acknowledge his own fault, Saul is willing to let his son die.

Comparison of Saul to the Father of the Hebrew People

This story shows Saul to practically be the anti-Abraham (sacrifice of Isaac).  In pride, Saul seeks to sacrifice his son to prove himself just.  On the other hand, Abraham followed God humbly trusting that the Lord will provide a sacrifice so that his son might be spared.  Here we see a great lesson between the pitfalls of human pride and the righteousness of spiritual humbleness.  Spiritual humbleness leads to righteousness.  Human pride leads to sin.

In the Old Testament, no unintentional sin results in the punishment of death.  Yes, death is the punishment for several intentional sins; but unintentional sin always has a more minor consequence than death.  Here we see Saul’s impatience lead to arrogance and pride as he demands a price to be paid greater than what the law would demand.  Saul demands death – even the death of his own son – so that people would understand how seriously they should take his vows.

We are now seeing Saul’s unraveling.  Only a few chapters ago he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord.  But now he is impatient, rash, and swelling up with himself.  He is becoming arrogant, and soon he will be a king like the rest of the kings of the world.  The Hebrew people wanted a king so they could be like the other nations.  That is happening pretty quickly in the story, and I find it a bit sad.

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*See Exodus 28:30 for the first reference to the Urim and Thummim.  This was a way for the priest to cast lots quickly and answer a “yes/no” type question.

Year 1, Day 299: 1 Samuel 13

Impatience

1 Samuel 13 begins a trilogy of sins in Saul’s life.  We’ll get to the other two sins in the coming days, but for now we will settle in and examine the sin of impatience.  Saul sees the gathering Philistines and he gets a little nervous.  He loses sight of the fact that God is in control and he takes control himself.  He forgets that God can provide even in the face of imminent defeat and impossible odds.  He takes matters into his own hand and in spite of the fact that he is not a priest – nor even trained in the ways of a priest – he offers a sacrifice to God!  {I’d like to pause here and state that there is a good thing about living in a time when we are all priests of the kingdom of God!  We need not worry.  So long as we are spiritual people, we are all priests!}

After God’s Own Heart

Now, perhaps you might be wondering about the difference between a man after God’s own heart and someone who is not after God’s own heart.  Well, we get a great picture of it here.  Just take a look at 1 Samuel 13:12.

We know that Samuel catches Saul in the act.  We know that Saul has no excuse for doing what he has done.  What does Saul do?  He begins to make excuses.  “I saw the Philistines gathering.”  “I forced myself to do it.”  “I was just seeking out the Lord’s favor!”  Bah.  What Saul should be saying is “I wanted to do it my own way because I grew impatient waiting for God!”

Understanding Saul’s Reaction to Being Caught

Saul sounds like a teenager in this passage.  I can’t tell you how many times as a Sunday School teacher of teenagers that I have caught one of them doing something.  Inevitably the response I get is, “It wasn’t me!”   Or maybe I hear, “It wasn’t just me!”  Excuses.  Human beings have an innate sinful nature for denying accountability.  Fortunately, most of the youth are quick to learn to not argue.  They learn that I respect the one who is humble when they are caught far more than the one who denies their involvement.

That is Saul’s mistake.  He is impatient.  He worries for his ability to be successful.  And he has pretty good reason to be worried – well, outside of the fact that God is on his side.  The Philistines are gathering.  Every day he waits is a day where more enemies show up.  From a worldly perspective he has every right to be worried.  Oh that Saul had simply said, “Yes, Samuel, I have sinned in the eyes of the Lord.  I was worried, and I see now that I should have trusted in God rather than wrenching the reigns out of His hands.”  Had Saul had this perspective, he might not have received the condemnation that he receives from Samuel.

I have once more been reminded of Psalm 51:15-17.  God does not require sacrifice; He requires a broken and contrite heart.  Oh how poignant that passage is to this story from 1 Samuel!  God wants a broken spirit.  God wants humbleness.  What does God get from Saul?  He gets a sacrifice that is made out of pride and shallow faith.  God gets what God does not require.  How often do we do that to God?

Judgment

So Samuel delivers judgment.  Samuel tells Saul that his line will not last.  Now you might be thinking that this is a hard judgment for a single act of disobedience.  And perhaps it is at first glance.  However, the word that Samuel uses in judgment of Saul is often translated as “foolish.”  (See 1 Samuel 13:13)  We often think of a foolish action as one that is a simple miscalculation or a silly mistake.  The Hebrew word (and the real meaning of foolish) is “resulting from a lack of good judgment.”  Samuel’s pronouncement upon Saul is not a judgment made upon a simple silly mistake.  This is a pronouncement upon Saul as a person whose character lacks good judgment at all.

I wonder: how often am I guilty of this?  I am foolish – meaning that occasionally I suffer from a lack of good judgment.  How often can God look to me and shake His head at my inability to display good judgment?  I’d like to think I’m getting better; but all I need to do is to remember my past to know all too well how often I have displayed poor judgment.  Thanks be to God that He has not yet given up on me!  Humble us, Lord!

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Year 1, Day 298: 1 Samuel 12

Samuel’s Speech

Samuel gives a phenomenal speech to the Hebrew people as his time as judge comes to an end.  Note that he isn’t saying goodbye to the Hebrew people.  Remember that he will be there to anoint David as king!  Samuel is simply saying farewell to the Hebrew people as their judge.

Accountability Begins with “I”

First, notice that Samuel stands before the Lord and calls for judgment upon himself.  He asks if he has done any wrong to anyone.  He asks if he has stolen anything or acquired anything falsely.  The people find him innocent.  That frees him up to now pronounce truth upon the people.  He doesn’t owe anything to anyone but God, so he proclaims the truth that God would have him proclaim.

This is actually a really neat thought.  Samuel doesn’t owe anything to anyone but God.  Samuel is free to proclaim the truth because his interests aren’t tied up with anyone else.  His livelihood isn’t coming from the people over whom he has been a judge.  He’s not depending on anyone for anything.  So he is free to speak the truth.

Follow the Lord

I love the first truth that Samuel desires to get across.  We get a build-up of this truth the whole way up to verse 14.  “If both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord, it will be well for you.”  Do you see how a nigh impossible situation has been made even more impossible as the people fall out of God’s ways?  That’s the way it is with sin, folks!

Let me state what Samuel is saying really plainly.  Samuel says this:

Before you had a king, it was impossible for generation after generation to follow God.  Now that you have asked for a king, God is still going to hold you accountable for following God.  However, not only do you have to follow God, but so does your king!

Without trying to be a specter of doom, let me ask a simple question.  How many people who have power, wealth, and authority have an easy time humbling themselves to follow God?  Not many, that’s for sure.  Yes, occasionally we do have someone come along who is righteous in God’s eyes.  But not often, and we’ll see proof of that as we hear the story of David, Solomon, and all the kings that follow once the kingdom splits in half.  The reality is that the list of kings who follow the Lord is very short.  David, Josiah, and Hezekiah are the main ones.  There are a few others, but not many.  And the people are now yoked with the king’s behavior.

Because these Hebrew people wanted a king and rejected God, it has now gotten harder for them to fall under God’s blessing.  Not only must they stay faithful, now so must their king!  Sin has that effect on us.  The more we want things apart from God’s ways, the more things we have to keep in balance with God.  That just doesn’t work.  The only thing that works is a complete and total humbling of oneself to God and an acceptance of God as king.

Forgiveness

I said I would not be a specter of doom, and up until now that is exactly what I have been.  So let me prove why this blog post is not a specter of doom.  If we continue to read in this chapter we hear Samuel tell the people that although they have committed this great evil and rejected God as their king, what we see is Samuel pronouncing forgiveness.  Notice that the people confess before Samuel and before the Lord.  Confession and contrition are a significant step in forgiveness.  But the point is that even after the act of a great evil, forgiveness can follow.  There is hope for us even if we at some point reject God as king in our life.

That does not mean we should sin and reject God at will.  We should not sin so grace may about all the more!  Rather, we should be freed of living in fear of sin.  We should live in fear of God, not in fear of sin!  God is not fooled like we are.  God knows the sinner that lies deep within us, God knows that sinner better than we know that sinner ourselves!  We try to fool ourselves and think that “we’ve gotten right with Jesus and now we’ll be better.”  No, we are still sinner; God is not fooled.  If we were not still sinner, we would not have to struggle so much against ourselves.  Any true follower of Christ will confess that the struggle against sin rages hard even after accepting God as King and Lord.

Honesty Before Forgiveness

We must be honest with ourselves.  We are sinners.  We are fallen.  We need God.  We will sin until God casts aside this creation and reforms us.  We should not fear doing something because there is a possibility it might involve sinning.  {Although we shouldn’t do things that definitely involve sinning!}  What we should do is go forth, follow God, and repent when we fall into sin even while confessing that we were trying to follow God.

You Can’t Stop Love

Then there is a neat little third lesson that we can get out of Samuel’s speech.  Notice that Samuel tells the people that he cannot stop praying for them.  Even though they have shown their propensity for rejecting God and rejecting the leader that God has chosen (Samuel), Samuel cannot stop loving them.  Samuel is like Moses who argued with God to not smite that wicked generation and start all over with Moses.  Samuel is a true spiritual leader.  Samuel doesn’t stand only with the righteous.  Samuel stands with the righteous, prays for the unrighteous, and loves them both.  He is a leader to be admired, because he was a leader who followed God’s ways.

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Year 1, Day 297: 1 Samuel 11

State of The Union

1 Samuel 11 gives us Saul’s first military conquest.  Let’s look at what we can learn from this story.  There are a fair amount of life lessons in here.

First, we begin with the number of soldiers that goes out with Saul.  We are told that there are 300,000 soldiers.  This is roughly half of the fighting force that the Hebrew people had under Joshua when they entered the Promised Land.  What does this tell us?  The Hebrew nation is in a state of decline.  Things are getting worse for the Hebrew people.

This really shouldn’t come as any great surprise.  The Hebrew people had it rough under the judges.  The Hebrew people strayed from God.  They walked away from his ways.  They wanted to be like the other nations.  They lusted after foreign gods.  They had a fair amount of infighting.  Take all of these things together and is there any wonder that the strength of the nation was in decline?

When we walk away from God and desire to be like the people of the world, we can expect the same results to come to us.  Why should God prosper us if we choose to ignore Him?  Why should any of us think that God will look upon us with favor and give us peace when we do not follow His ways?

But Saul does take this fighting force and he does go out and have success against the Ammonites.  Saul does what he has been called to do as a king and raises an army to defend the Hebrew people.  And he does it very well, mind you.

Human Nature in Victory

In fact, Saul does it so well that we see two aspects of human nature in our next lesson.  After the victory, some people come forward and indicate that they want to kill those who initially raised objections to Saul being put over them as king.  In this action we see human pride and human short-sightedness.

Let’s start with human short-sightedness.  What is short-sighted about these people?  Well, for starters they wish to celebrate after a single victory.  They think that one victory has proven that they were right in choosing Saul as king.  How many times do we see things start so well and then fail?  The short-sightedness of humanity latches onto short-term success (or failure) and automatically assumes that it will mean long-term success (or failure, respectively).

Furthermore, we know that God was opposed to the king in the first place.  Human short-sightedness also creates the idea that success implies God’s blessing while failure implies God’s opposition.  Yet, we know how Saul’s reign will end.  Saul’s life will come crashing down around him.  Human short-sightedness keeps us from waiting until the story has been written before making judgments about whether it was God’s will or not.

This event also shows the pride of humanity.  What do victors often do?  They gloat in their victory over the losers.  Victors are more to blame for bitter rivalries than are the losers.  People who win with grace and humility seldom have rivals as the losers can see respectable qualities in the person to whom they lost.  Victors who in their pride gloat over, brag upon, and oppress the losers make bitter rivalries.  And that is human nature.  It is human nature to point out that “we won,” “you lost,”  “we are more powerful,” “you are weak,” and “we are better.”  This is not how God wants us to act.  God wants us to be humble, and gracious, and merciful, caring for the poor and downtrodden, looking out for the oppressed.  Look at Christ!  Jesus did not come to rule the earth, He came to die!  He humbled himself – even in victory over sin.  The people who call for the death of those who opposed Saul’s coronation show the ugliness of humanity.

Grace

Finally, this event shows us the grace with which Saul begins his reign.  Saul does not kill anyone.  Oh, how it would have been easy for Saul to ride the wave of the people and put his opponents to death!  {And the Saul we’ll meet in a few chapters likely would have done it!}  However, the Saul we meet here is humble in his victory party.  He does not encourage that his political opponents be harmed.  In Saul’s mind the victory says enough, for now.  A good leader knows when to let the action speak louder than words.

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Year 1, Day 296: 1 Samuel 10

Prophetic Evidence of the New

In Samuel 10 we begin with Samuel and Saul talking about the coming coronation.  Samuel gives Saul a few prophetic words as evidence of God’s plan in his life.  Now, we might ask why Samuel (or God) would do this.  After all, how many times in your life does someone come up to you and tell you about things that are going to happen in the future?  It doesn’t seem to happen very often with us, so why would it happen here?

The answer to this question is two-fold.  First, part of the answer is that God is doing something new.  Up until now, the Hebrew people haven’t been under a king.  Since they are going to be under a king, part of why God gives this prophetic message is because He is doing something new.  God often does this, let’s look at a few examples. 

When Jesus steps onto the scene in the New Testament, we hear God send John the Baptizer to announce the coming of something new.  When Jesus was about to die on the cross, He announced it to His disciples (and even the Jewish leaders in the form of parables!).  When Paul was going to be charged with opening up faith to the whole world via the Gentiles, he (and Ananias) received a vision telling him what to expect.  When God does something new, He announces it.

This leads us to the second reason that God gives these preparatory visions.  God wants those people with whom He is going to do something new to be prepared.  That’s quite significant.  God wants them to act boldly and confidently.  God wants them to understand what is going to happen and to step into the role that He has asked them to play.  Look at the examples in the prior paragraph.  Is each of those situations a time of preparation?  Does God not want to prepare the people around Jesus?  Does God not want to prepare the Apostle Paul and those who would disciple him?  That is exactly what is going on here with Saul.  God wants him to be prepared.  I’ll say more on this later.

Disclaimer

Before I speak on my next topic I need to make one thing very clear.  Please do not confuse what I am about to say with a conversation on salvation.  I am going to talk about Saul and his change of heart, and I do not want anyone to make the jump that what I am talking about is actually salvation. 

A New Heart

In this story we are clearly told that God gives Saul a new heart.  As he is going home, verse 6 and verse 10 clearly tells us that Saul received the Spirit of the Lord and he was changed into a new man.  Yet, we know that this change did not stick.  God rejects Saul as king.  We know that Saul does not live up to what God has empowered him to do.  Saul does have a moment with the Spirit of the Lord, he does prophesy, but he is not permanently changed.

I think I see a lot of this in today’s Christianity.  In many respects, Saul is the archetypical example of the “seed on the rocky ground” as told in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-9.  People receive the Word of God.  They are inspired by God’s presence.  Yet they wither quickly.  They don’t have the staying power to put God first.  They don’t have what it takes to make good decisions that will lead them into a lasting relationship with God.  The excitement passes; they wither and die.

So it is, I believe, with Saul.  Saul was given every opportunity.  Saul was literally handed the keys to the brand new shiny kingdom by God, and he didn’t make it.  He didn’t last.  He got distracted by the world, spiritually withered up, and died.  So we must be careful when we read this passage about Saul that just because the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he was able to prophesy does not mean that the change was permanent.

Bringing It All Together

Now, let’s tie the two points together.  At his inauguration, Saul cannot be found.  He is hiding among the baggage.  What a sad statement.  Saul has been given visions and God had prepared him.  He has had the Spirit of God within him.  He has a strong body, a good mind, the support of loyal friends, a spiritual guide in Samuel.  He has every reason to trust in the Lord, and what does he do?  He hides from what God has called him to do.  We should know right there that things will not go well for this first king of the Hebrew people.

Saul fails because Saul is unwilling to see what the Lord is doing in his midst.  Saul fails to see what the Lord is doing because he fails to humble himself to God.  Rather than humble himself and do what the Lord has clearly asked of him, Saul asserts himself and hides. 

Lord, help us to not make this same mistake.

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Year 1, Day 295: 1 Samuel 9

Why Saul?

Today we receive the story of God telling Samuel that Saul will come before him.  While this is a great story, I can’t help but wonder at a single question.  Why would God choose Saul as the king of Israel when God knows that ultimately He will have to reject Saul?  Certainly God knows the future.  God knows what will happen between Him and Saul.  So why pick Saul in the first place?

That is an incredibly difficult question.  First, remember that the answer lies in an understanding of God’s foreknowledge mixing with His permissive will and humanity’s free will.  God knows what will happen, but that does not mean God forces it to happen.  God sets the opportunity to be a faithful leader before Saul; it is up to Saul to decide just how faithful he is going to be.  From this perspective, God does this in order to reveal to Saul what his true character looks like.

Of course, this doesn’t really help answer the original question because God knows what Saul will do with the opportunity.  It merely demonstrates that although God knows the future, He is permissive to allow it to occur with flaws and all so that Saul can see himself for who he really is.  So again, from God’s perspective, why choose Saul in the first place?

We must also remember that God does not have a single-minded agenda.  God is concerned about leading His people in His ways.  God is also concerned about the Philistine presence in the land.  God is concerned about the status of the tribes.  This only begins to scrape the tip of God’s iceberg of concerns at this time.  Saul will accomplish at least two things quite well.  Saul will bring the tribes together to work together.  And Saul will be quite effective against the Philistines.  So while it seems like Saul is a huge spiritual failure in the end, Saul does accomplish some good points in non-spiritual terms.  When we remember this, the choice of Saul doesn’t seem “all bad.”

Finally, let’s remember a healthy dose of reality.  How many of us can claim to follow God spiritually 100% of the time?  How many of us can claim to be God’s followers without fault?  The reality is that when God looks to you and me and chooses us to participate in His kingdom He is choosing flawed human beings all the time!  So God choosing Saul to be king and to accomplish what He can with a flawed ruler is not really any different than God choosing us with all of our flaws.  Sure, I hope spiritually you and I work out a little better than Saul, but that does not mean that you and I are without fault!

Banquets Come Before Reign

So let’s move ahead to the story of the private meeting between Saul and Samuel, which of course leads up to the dinner invitation before 30 other people.  Samuel had told the cook to reserve a portion of the meat.  The Lord had come to Samuel telling him to get ready to meet the one who will be king.  Faults and all, God is still in charge.

Notice that here we set a very important pattern.  Before the king is inaugurated there is a meal, a feast, a banquet!  This could potentially remind us that before Christ was crucified – inaugurating the time of God’s grace and forgiveness among mankind – He too had a banquet.  We remember a portion of this Passover banquet when we gather for worship.  We call it communion.  What is communion but remembering the first step to Jesus’ inauguration as an authority over sin and death!

However, that was probably not the first place that your mind went with the banquet/king analogy.  You likely thought about the coming future.  Think about when Christ will be appointed king and ruler over the earth.  What is the imagery that prepares this momentous event?  It is none other than the wedding feast/banquet!

Matthew 22:1-14 is a parable about a king who gives a wedding feast for his son.  We know it to be a parable about the coming inauguration of Christ who is united with His bride – and His bride is the church, predominantly made up of Gentiles (the riff-raff out on the street)!  Luke 25:1-13 gives us the parable of the 10 virgins, who are preparing for a wedding feast.  We also know this parable to be about the coming of Christ and our need to prepare for that moment while we can.  Revelation 19:6-12 gives us a great image of the marriage feast of the lamb.  Notice that this story immediately precedes the coming of the rider on the white horse that comes to gather up the beast and to subdue the earth.

As you can see, the idea of a wedding feast, marriage supper, or a banquet before a time of inauguration is quite common in scripture.  So it is here in 1 Samuel 9 as well.  God has chosen a king – flaws and all.  And it begins with the future king sitting down and partaking in a banquet.  It is a neat theme that runs the gamut of scripture.

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Year 1, Day 294: 1 Samuel 8

Give Us a King!

1 Samuel 8 gives a great story of how the Lord is willing to bend His will to the stubbornness of our hearts.  God does not desire Israel to have a king; God desires to be their King.  God has certainly proven his ability to protect them.  God has long proven His ability to govern humanity and keep it functioning well.  There is no reason to not have God as a king.

However, it is difficult as flesh-and-blood people to be in relationship with a God.  We typically like to see the people with whom we are in relationship.  We like to hear them.  We like to converse with them.  We like to be encouraged by them.  We actually really like it best when they are in control – although don’t tell any of us that!  That’s really what this bid for a king is all about.  They want someone to be over them, to command them, to lead them, to make all the hard decisions.  For all that we as human beings say that we love independence, what we really mean is we love to have the independence to do our pleasure while we know someone else is making the hard decisions regarding our necessities.

Think about it.  If we truly lived in a world where we were truly independent, how many of us would be happy?  How many of us would like to live in a world with no police to help keep my house safe?  What about a world with no military to keep invaders away from our border?  What about a world with no supermarkets and food plants to gather and process food into easily prepared items?  What about a world with no power plants to manage the distribution of electricity?  We say that we like our independence and our freedom, but we really don’t mean it.  We want to live nestled in a world where our needs are secured by someone else leaving our desires to be freely pursued.  That’s really what we mean.

That is what these Hebrew people want.  A king will have an army to fight the Philistines.  The king will manage the borders and keep them safe.  A king will help prevent internal disputes.  A king will set economic and taxation policies that will help stabilize the country’s economy.  A king will do everything that the individuals should be able to do but aren’t doing for themselves.

We haven’t even talked about the worst part of this passage!  Do you hear God’s words in 1 Samuel 8:7?  “It is not you they have rejected, it is me that they have rejected as king.”  Wow.  If that isn’t a powerful declaration against the Hebrew people, I don’t know what is!  {For the record, that’s a powerful declaration against humanity in general, too!}  When we establish a king to govern over us because we aren’t interested in handling the details individually ourselves – that says something powerful about whether or not we really want to live according to God’s ways. 

That’s part of God’s point, here.  God is telling Samuel that the people don’t want to worry about the nitty-gritty details of how to live civilized with their neighbors.  They want someone to come and tell them how they have to act rather than make those decisions for themselves.  That’s what government does, essentially.

I’m Not Proposing Anarchy

Now, before anyone reading thinks I’m an anarchist, please know that I am not.  I think God is clear that we do need leaders over us.  Before the time of the kings there were the judges.  Before the judges there was Joshua and Moses.  I’m not saying it is against God’s ways to be under a leader.  I’m no anarchist.  What I am trying to say, however, is that official governments fundamentally take the decisions we should be making ourselves and instead make them universally for everyone.  That process has its consequences.  If nothing else, we get used to not having to make those decisions and are no better off for it!

Like Other Nations

There’s one other dynamic that I’d like to talk about, and it is found in 1 Samuel 8:19-22.  In the Hebrew people’s comments, they declare that they want to be like the other nations.  This is fundamentally breaking the promise that God established with Abraham.  God says that Abraham’s descendants would be a blessing to the nations.  Here the people are saying they would rather be like the other nations rather than being a blessing through their difference.

For the record, I think this applies to the church, too.  I believe God has established the church to be a blessing to the nations.  But when we in the church chooses to govern ourselves like the world, when we treat each other like the world treats each other, and when we think just like the world – then we are doing the same thing that these Hebrew people are doing.  When the church acts like the world, we are no different than the Hebrew people wanting a king so that they can be like the other nations.

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Year 1, Day 293: 1 Samuel 7

Return to the Lord

Here in chapter 7 we have a great example of returning to the Lord.  Samuel gathers the people and then makes some demands and forces some action out of them.  Let’s look at these demands and see if we can’t learn something about the process of returning to the Lord.

1. The first demand: Put away your foreign Gods.

Samuel tells the Hebrew people something quite plain.  If you want to follow God with all their heart, they must put away all other gods.  This makes so much sense academically.  But it is nearly impossible for any of us to actually do.  Sure, we can throw away our stone figurines – most of us probably don’t even have any of those!  We can say we are Christian and we only follow God.  But do we?

How many of us – myself included – follow our own agenda over God’s agenda?  How many of us follow the agenda of other people over God’s agenda?  How many of us truly can claim to constantly be putting God at the center of our life and making our decisions based on His ways?  For that record, how many of us can actually claim to go to God frequently in prayer and conversation seeking His will when we are going to make a decision?  Sure, we pray over the really big stuff.  But how often are we on autopilot, assuming we know what God would say is best for a given decision?  Yes, we have our gods.  Most of the time, the list of our gods begins with ourselves.

2. The second demand: True Confession

Samuel gathers the people after they have put away their foreign gods, not before.  Once their foreign gods are put away, then Samuel has them fast.  Then Samuel has them confess that they have sinned.  Samuel forces them to take ownership of their sinfulness.

Many of us are familiar with the process of confession.  We tell God that we know we have sinned.  We tell God that we’re sorry.  We say that we won’t do it again, knowing that we probably will.  We might even quote 1 John 1:8-9 with consistency.  But compare what I’m talking about here with what Samuel does.  Samuel makes them come together and fast.  How does our typical confession of sinfulness compare with this one?

3. The third demand: Sacrifice

As the Hebrew people gather, the Philistines grow afraid of their numbers so they come out to attack.  The Hebrew people become fearful and ask Samuel to intervene.  Samuel takes a nursing lamb and offers it up as a sacrifice.  The Lord responds and drives away the Philistines without any help from the Hebrew people.

How often is our confession followed by sacrifice?  To put it bluntly, something quite literally died.  That young lamb had its life extinguished.

Now, I don’t mean to sound brutal or gruesome.  And I am certainly not intending to judge the sacrificial system of the Hebrew people.  But let’s face it; we do know that true repentance requires true change.  True change requires true sacrifice.  Perhaps an animal need not die, but the sinful part of ourselves certainly should die! 

Anyone can come before God and say “I’m sorry” and not even mean it.  But the one who is genuinely repentant comes before God, makes their confession, and then goes about sacrificing their sinful nature so that it dies.  The truly repentant person gladly sacrifices their sinful self so that Christ lives within them.

The nature of the process may have changed in the Post-Christ era.  We may not have to offer up burnt offerings anymore.  We may not have to be careful about clean and unclean anymore.  We may not have a special class of people that we call “priests” since we are all priests in His kingdom.  But just because the physical representation changes doesn’t mean that the process changes.  True confession requires a genuine putting away of the foreign gods that lead us into sinfulness.  It requires an honest and meaningful point of confession.  And it requires a sacrifice.

Yes, the sacrifice is Christ, but we too are sacrificed with Him so it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives within us.

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