Year 4, Day 304: 1 Samuel 18

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

In this chapter we are introduced to a beautiful friendship.  David and Jonathon become good friends.  In fact, they loved each other as much as they loved themselves.  Their friendship is built on a genuine respect for one another and what God is doing in their life.  We’ll have the privilege of watching this relationship grow over time.

But what is really neat about this chapter is that nowhere does Jonathon get jealous.  As David gains power and prestige among the people, it is actually Jonathon who should be worried as Jonathon is the person next in line to be king.  But we get no sense of jealousy here.

Furthermore, Jonathon doesn’t turn on David when it becomes obvious that Saul has it out for David.  Jonathon keeps his friendship with David.  In spite of his father’s feelings, David and Jonathon become quite close.

This is true In.  True In doesn’t get jealous of one another; they give God the glory for when things go well in your life.  True In doesn’t follow in party line, they make up their own allegiances and stay true regardless of the world around them.  True In helps us point to God and stay close to God.

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Year 4, Day 303: 1 Samuel 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

This chapter – while long – is a really neat chapter about identity.  You see, David knows his identity.  David hears about the battle when he is asked to bring some supplies to his brothers.  While he is there, he hears Goliath and becomes indignant.  He takes offense at Goliath’s insults leveled to God and sets out to resolve the issue.  He knows that he is God’s child and that he will find protection in the Lord.

This is a great perspective of identity.  Goliath is huge compared to this young David.  But David doesn’t get his identity from the world’s perspective.  David gets his identity from God and what God can do through him.  He could have easily believed that he was powerless against Goliath.  But through God, David knows that he is powerful.

Notice also that David refuses to wear the armor of King Saul.  David knows what his identity is not, too.  David knows that he is not a warrior.  David knows that he hasn’t tested the armor.  It doesn’t fit quite right. He cannot depend upon it.  So David casts off the armor and instead picks up 5 stones.  He only needs one – that’s how powerful God is.  But here is a clear case of David being successful because he knows what he is not.  He is not a warrior.  He doesn’t try to be one.  He focuses on his identity from God and lives that out.  And he finds success, because he is living as God would have him live.

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Year 4, Day 302: 1 Samuel 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: In

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

In is well-described as the people in our lives that give us spiritual counsel and whom we trust.  They are important people to us.  We all need people in our life who can speak truthfully and honestly in our life rather than people who just tell us what we want to hear.

This idea came across to me really well as I read this chapter.  Samuel comes to Bethlehem and the people are afraid.  Now, they aren’t afraid of his ability to conquer them or physically oppress them.  What they are afraid of is Samuel’s ability to speak truth.  They are afraid of Samuel’s ability to look at how they are living and convict them.  They are afraid of Samuel being able to do what true people of God can do.

So I wonder.  How many people do I have in my life that can challenge me like I should be challenged?  How many people in my life do I let that kind of truth come into my life through them?  Is that something that we as Christians in the Western World even value anymore?  Or do we want someone who will make us feel good, pat us on the back, and let us live the way that we want to live?

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Year 4, Day 301: 1 Samuel 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

Today we get to see Saul’s third major sin against the Lord.  God tells Samuel to commission Saul to destroy the Amalekites.  Saul goes forward eagerly to do so.  However, when Saul is victorious he doesn’t destroy the Amalekites.  Saul destroys most of the Amalekites but allows their king to live.  Saul absorbs Agag’s wealth into his own rather than destroying it as God commands.

This is a sin of Appetite.  Saul doesn’t trust that God can provide for his whole life.  Saul sees wealth, animals, and provision in general.  Rather than allow it to be destroyed, Saul takes it for himself.  His appetite for accumulating wealth and being able to provide for himself guides his decision-making, not his faithful obedience to God.

Let’s be honest.  All of us do this from time to time.  But what makes Saul’s action egregious is that when confronted he lies about it.  Saul doesn’t repent.  He doesn’t confess.  He lies.  He tries to cover up his action.  His appetite takes over and he doesn’t want to get caught.  Saul is thinking about himself first and foremost.

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Year 4, Day 300: 1 Samuel 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

Saul displays a horrible perspective of decision making here in this chapter.  He makes a rash vow that ultimately places his son in jeopardy.  When his son – who knows that the vow his father made was silly – is found to be guilty, Saul demands justice.  Saul could have acknowledge how poorly timed his vow was.  After all, what general starves his soldiers the day of a big battle?  But rather than admit how foolish the vow was, Saul demands that his vow be executed even if it means that His own son must die.

Saul is after approval in this passage.  Saul wants the people to see how seriously he takes his own words.  Saul wants the people to take their own words as seriously as he takes his words.  He wants the people to look at him and admire him for being willing to have the “law” apply to himself as much as it applies to everyone else.

But Saul is in the wrong.  The vow he made was foolish.  It was foolish on many levels.  If Saul wanted approval, he should have repented of the foolish vow and shown the people what repentance looks like.  That would have not only gotten him the approval of the people – who ransom Jonathon back from death anyways – as well as gotten him the approval of God.

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Year 4, Day 299: 1 Samuel 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

Saul knows the Philistines are gathering against him.  He needs to be victorious.  After all, that’s why the people wanted a king!  The people want someone to rally the troops and follow.  So Saul feels the pressure of the situation.  He feels the pressure to succeed.

Saul’s ambition gets ahead of God.  Rather than waiting upon the Lord, Saul offers the sacrifice himself.  In his quest for ambition, Saul becomes impatient.  Because Saul wants to be victorious, he takes matters into his own hands.

Look at the consequences of Saul’s foolishness.  Saul’s son will not reign over Israel.  The line of kings will go through someone besides Saul.  Saul’s quest for ambition actually ends up thwarting his long-term ambition.  That’s how it often is with God.  When we take matters into our own hands, our efforts often act counter-productively to what God is actually doing.  We need to let go of our personal ambition and instead seek the Lord and His designs for our life.

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Year 4, Day 298: 1 Samuel 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Given everything that is going on, I find it absolutely amazing to hear these words from 1 Samuel.  The people have rejected God as their king.  They want a human king so that they can be like all the other nations.  God has every right to abandon them and forget about them.  God has every right to tell the people that they have made the covenant void.

But that isn’t what God does.  God has Samuel tell the people that God is still with them.  If they continue to follow God and God’s ways, it will go well with them.  God has every right to abandon them, but that isn’t what happens at all.  God sticks by them in spite of their rebellion.  God displays His desire to forgive rather than judge in wrath.

For that matter, so does Samuel.  Samuel follows God’s lead.  Samuel is saying farewell as the judge over the people in this passage.  But Samuel isn’t saying goodbye.  He will still pray for them.  He will still lift them up before God.  He might not be their leader anymore, but that doesn’t mean that he cannot pray that they find God’s will and obey it.  Although they have been rebellious, Samuel still prays for them.  That’s a man after God’s own forgiving heart!

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Year 4, Day 297: 1 Samuel 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

The Hebrew people make me laugh.  They were brought out of Egypt under Moses.  They conquered the Promised Land under Joshua.  All of this was put in motion by God.  But a few chapters ago they told Samuel that they don’t want God as their king – they want a human as a king so that they can be like the other nations.  I don’t know that there is a clearer statement of identity to be found.

Then we get to this chapter.  Saul goes out to battle and musters a huge force to go with him.  When he gets the victory, the people embrace Saul.  He can’t do wrong in their eyes.  In fact, they embrace Saul so much that they want to go out and kill the people who stood up and asked why Saul should reign over them!  They get swept up into a single momentous victory!

I heard someone say once, “The person who is in the position of victory always seems to be invincible at the moment.”  Victory comes and goes.

But it is interesting to see who desires to place their identity in being Saul’s supporters.  They rejected God.  They clearly don’t want their identity to be from God.  So they put their identity in the next successful human that comes along.  In their disobedience to God their identity shifts to a different source.

Of course, I’m not always any better.  I’m not judging the Hebrew people.  I’m learning from them.

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Year 4, Day 296: 1 Samuel 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

What a great place to look at character!  We get to pick up right where we left off.  Yesterday we saw God’s continual provision over the Hebrew people, over Samuel, and over Saul.  Here in this chapter we continue to see God’s provision.  God uses Samuel to prepare Saul for both prophetic utterings as well as to be king.  God’s provision is amazing to watch!

But how does Saul respond?  Saul prophecies when the glory of the Lord comes upon Him.  Who doesn’t like to be a part of those once-in-a-lifetime spiritual moments?  Who doesn’t like to be a part of those spontaneously cool spiritual moments?

But then Saul returns home. He says nothing about becoming king to his closest family.  He doesn’t share what God is doing in his life.  In fact, even when the tribes come together and the new king is selected – we find Saul hiding among the luggage!  Saul wants to be a part of the spiritual moments without taking ownership of what God is really asking him to do.

This speaks deeply to his character.  Saul doesn’t have the character to follow God with all of his heart.  Saul’s character wants the flair without embracing the hard work of day-to-day responsibility in a walk with God.  Saul shows us from the very beginning that his character is flawed.  Granted, who are we to judge, right?

What a great day to examine character.  Do we fare any better than Saul?  Should we not strive for God’s character while acknowledging the failings of our own character?  Let’s prepare today to follow God diligently and develop character as it should be developed.

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Year 4, Day 295: 1 Samuel 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

You might think this is an unusual topic to study for this chapter.  But let’s stop for a moment and count just how many times God provides in this chapter.  Remember that the people have just rebelled against God and His kingship and instead demand a human king.  Still, God provides.

First, notice that God does provide a king in Saul.  Yes, Saul is a flawed human being – but who among us isn’t flawed?  But what does God provide in Saul?  Saul is a man who can save the people from the Philistines.  He’s a great military general with a good tactical mind.  He is a personable king, who will be able to rally the people around him.  All things considered as far as humans go, he’s not a bad choice for king.  God provides a capable person in spite of his flaws.

With respect to Samuel, God provides a message to him in order to make sure he got the message right.  God gives Samuel a warning to prepare a feast.  He even provides Samuel with the tribe from which the new king will come!  God provides Samuel with everything that he needs to be successful in his calling to recognize the chosen king.

Finally, let’s look at what God provides Saul.  God finds the missing donkeys for Saul so that he can take the time and feast with Samuel and partake of his faithful presence.  Perhaps even more importantly, God provides Samuel for Saul to have as a resource for when he steps into the kingship!  God gives Saul what he needs to be successful as a king.

It’s neat to see God provide so abundantly in the very next chapter after the people reject God.  He is a gracious God.  How has He provided for you?

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Year 4, Day 294: 1 Samuel 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

This is a natural chapter in which we can examine the concept of king.  We as human beings really enjoy living out of other people’s authority and power.  We like having people to make the tough decisions for us.  We like to have people against whom we can complain when things go wrong.  We actually need to have people provide structure and framework to bring order to the chaos of our lives.

The question, though, is this.  Do we live out of the authority and power of the one who is over us?  Or do we simply like to have someone bring order to our chaotic lives so that we can continue to do our own thing?  Are we really about serving God as King?  Or do we just want God to make our life okay so that we can live as we please?  Do we want a God to follow and obey or do we want someone to make all the hard decisions and protect us with no thankfulness from ourselves?

The Hebrew people wanted a king.  They wanted to be like other nations.  They wanted someone to make decisions and train an army and be the figurehead.  They wanted someone who would leave them alone if they just paid their taxes and didn’t rebel.  They don’t want to live out of the power and authority that comes from following God.  They want to be like the rest of their world and live as they choose.

Do we want God as our king?  Are we any different than the Hebrew people?

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Year 4, Day 293: 1 Samuel 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

1 Samuel 7 is all about Samuel pulling the people back to God.  Samuel knows that this process is possible.  People can always return to God.  God is gracious and genuinely desires relationship with us.  It is impossible to be beyond God’s grace.

That being said, Samuel also realizes that repentant obedience is a part of the process.  Forgiveness can’t happen if we don’t put away our gods.  Repentance cannot happen if we do not confess our sins and take ownership of our sinful behavior.  A sacrifice needs to happen for our sinfulness to be wiped away.  What we see happening here is these very things.  Samuel takes the people through the process of forgiveness.  But he demands obedience.

The thing I love is that Samuel does not progress forward until the prior steps are completed.  I find that humbling.  Samuel had the authority and power to demand that this process was followed.  He would not lead them through confession until their gods were put aside.  He would not offer a sacrifice until they understood and confessed their sins.

The process is still the same for us.  In Christ, we can know forgiveness and relationship with the Father.  But we must put away our gods.  We must confess our sins and take ownership of our sinful nature.  We must sacrifice.  Thankfully, Christ is the blood sacrifice; but that doesn’t mean that we cannot follow the example of Paul in Galatians 2:19-20 and allow ourselves to be crucified with Christ so that it is Christ who lives within us.

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Year 4, Day 292: 1 Samuel 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

This is a fairly harsh chapter, especially when we remember back to the fact that this chapter happens because Eli’s sons treated the Ark of Lord casually.  Eli’s sons did not go to the Lord and discern whether the Ark should go up.  Because they brought the Ark to a battle without the Lord’s permission it is captured among the Philistines.

After getting a pretty bad plague, the Philistines now want to send it back.  They don’t know how to handle the Ark, so they get some advice.  They send the Ark back with gold – an offering – and cattle – a sacrifice.  They likewise treat the Ark casually, although to their credit they are actually doing the best they can do since they proved yesterday they weren’t willing to change.

But then the Hebrew people get the Ark back.  Yes, they rejoice.  But they fail to treat the Ark as the seat of God should be treated.  70 people die because they treat the Ark casually.

All of this brings me back to the idea of Up.  Yes, God should be in our Up position.  But God should be revered.  We shouldn’t just be in a relationship with God, we should worship Him.  We do not need to be casual about our relationship with God.  If God is in our Up, then we need to live like it!

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Year 4, Day 291: 1 Samuel 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

This is a great chapter to look at the lens of competency.  The Philistines are certainly competent people.  They beat the Hebrew people in battle.  They managed to take the Ark of the Covenant – the prized possession of the Hebrew people and their God.  This is a statement to their competency with respect to human matters.

However, with respect to spirituality they lack competency.  God makes a demonstration in their midst.  First, God causes Dagon to fall down.  When they set Dagon back up the next day, God causes Dagon to fall down so that his head and feet are broken away from his body.  God is telling the Philistines that He is more powerful.  God is telling the Philistines that their god Dagon is incapable of acting in his presence.  God is actually inviting them into a time to walk away from Dagon and embrace Him.

This is where their spiritual incompetence comes into view.  Rather than change and follow a God who is powerful enough to work in their lives, they send away God and stick with Dagon.  They reject that which would require them to change just so that they can continue in what they know.  Instead of being competent in searching to truth in God, they find themselves only competent in searching out their own selfish desires.

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Year 4, Day 290: 1 Samuel 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

In my theological commentary from three years ago, I talked about Eli’s successful spiritual perspective at the end of his life.  And I made an interesting assertion over the fact that Eli gets more upset over the loss of the Ark of the Covenant than over the loss of his sons.  I make the assertion that true love for others can only come when our love for God supersedes all other loves in our life.

I really do believe this to be true.  One of the hardest – yet most important – things that I ever heard my father tell me is that as much as he loves me, he loves God more.  What he was telling me was that in order to have enough love for me, he had to have his love replenished by a greater love for God.  Without his love for God in my father’s life, he couldn’t have loved me as he did.  I believe the same is true for Eli as this chapter ends.  Yes, Eli loved his sons – as unrighteous as they were.  But he could love them because of his love for God.

What we’re really talking about here is Up.  Eli has put God in his Up position by the end of his life.  Only when Eli is focused on God above all else is his life oriented in a healthy direction that allows for healthy reactions.

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Year 4, Day 289: 1 Samuel 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

This is one of my favorite calling stories.  Clearly Samuel is called by God.  Of that there can be no doubt.  God speaks to Samuel three times in a single night.  Samuel listens and finds a relationship with God like he’d never known before.

But look at what brings about his calling.  Samuel is devoted.  He is devoted to Eli.  He is a dutiful servant to Eli.  Truth be told, Samuel is the son to Eli that he never had.  Eli’s own sons – as we saw yesterday – were more devoted to their own passions.  Samuel is devoted to Eli, much like he will be devoted to the Lord God.

There is really something great to be said about Samuel and his calling.  And then you consider his age.  Samuel was just a boy when he was called.  God doesn’t require us to be the wisest or more mature.  He just wants us to be inclined to His calling.  If we are willing to hear, He is willing to speak.

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Year 4, Day 288: 1 Samuel 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

Hannah continues to impress me with her choices.  Once she has a child, she could have easily focused on her life and turned away from God.  After all, is that trait not common among human beings?  Do we not often go to God and ask for something and then when we get it we wander away from God?

But not Hannah.  God is truly in her Up position.  God is truly Hannah’s focus.  Listen to her prayer here.  She cannot stop talking about the character and nature of God!  That’s what it feels like to have God in your Up position.

It makes me wonder about my life.  How many times in my life have I been a true witness to God’s glory?  How many times have I had an opportunity to give God all the credit and managed to actually do it?  That’s the goal.  I know I’ll never get it perfect every time.  But I desire to be more like Hannah.  When given the opportunity, may I not be able to stop talking about God’s glory!

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Year 4, Day 287: 1 Samuel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

Ambition is a great thing when properly focused.  But when it is improperly focused ambition becomes a devastating communal force.  Take most sporting events as an example.  Rather than being about the beauty of the game, victory-seeking fans often become rabid with their booing, hissing, and yelling of insults.  Or look at many commercials that have no difficulty slandering their competition instead of genuinely demonstrating their own product.  Ambition can lead to moving society forward, but it can also lead to the corruption of society movement as we seek to crush opposition instead of seek progress.

I think this is what I love about the witness of Hannah in this chapter.  She has Elkannah’s approval – although I would say that if Hannah has a fault it is that she doesn’t let that approval be as meaningful in her life as it should be.  Hannah knows that her needs are cared for.  She isn’t going to starve anytime soon.  And through all of this Hannah isn’t living with an ambition of needing to be on the top, either!

Penniniah comes to her and continues to put down Hannah for her barrenness.  From a human perspective, Hannah could easily fall into the sin of ambition and want children to prove to Penniniah that she can be better than Penniniah.  From a human perspective, it would be so easy for Hannah to want to compete with Penniniah for all the wrong reasons.

But that isn’t what we see in Hannah. Hannah doesn’t want to compete.  She just wants the experience.  She doesn’t need to have the best son or even the most sons.  She just wants a child that she can devote to the Lord.  Now that’s a healthy ambition!  She wants what God would want for her.  Hannah’s heart is turned to the Lord.  What a great example in faith!

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Year 4, Day 286: Ruth 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

In the end, what makes Ruth a great story is how this Gentile Moabite woman finds her God by living among a people she did not know even though her mother-in-law tried at one point to convince her to leave her.  This is an incredible story of provision.  But it isn’t just material provision in things like land, food, and clothing.  It is truly deep spiritual provision.

Let’s start with Naomi.  Remember how Naomi was when she came back from Moab?  She was bitter.  She was angry.  See Ruth 1:20-21.  But look at her now as the story ends.  She has a grandson – and she doesn’t seem to care that technically the child isn’t biologically related to her!  She gets the opportunity to hold the grandfather of the greatest king of Israel in her arms.  She gets to hold one of the ancestors of God’s own Messiah.  Naomi is content.  God provided.

Now let’s look at Boaz.  Yes, Boaz gains the ability to acquire land and increase his materialistic wealth.  But more importantly he finds a spiritual equal.  He finds a woman whose spirit complements his own.  He becomes a part of the genealogy of kings.  He gets to fulfill the calling that God had invited him to accomplish.  He gets the opportunity to bear God’s love to two women that even the true kinsman redeemer had rejected.  God provides Boaz not just with material gain but even more importantly with spiritual opportunity.

And of course, let’s look at Ruth.  Ruth gains a new home.  She gains a new people.  She gains a son.  She becomes the great-grandmother to King David.  She gains a husband who is every way her spiritual equal and companion.  But perhaps most importantly, Ruth gains a relationship with God.  She once was a Moabite with foreign gods; now she is a worshipper of the true God.  God is faithful to Ruth and provides deeply for her in both material and spiritual ways.

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Year 4, Day 285: Ruth 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

A few days ago I was pretty harsh on Naomi.  That part of the story wasn’t her shining moment.  But here in chapter 3 Naomi gets it right and it is marvelous to behold.  Naomi correctly calibrates challenge and invitation with Ruth.

Let’s take a look at what Naomi does.  Naomi senses that it is time for Ruth to move along, find a new husband, and find God’s provision for her in her life.  This doesn’t mean Naomi is pushing Ruth out of her life; Naomi is just prodding her into God’s calling.  Naomi does this through challenge and invitation.

Look at the huge amount of challenge that Naomi puts in Ruth’s life.  Here’s what Naomi essentially says to Ruth.  First, go find that man you just met.  Then wait for him to fall asleep.  Then uncover his feet and lay there.  When he wakes up, put yourself at his mercy and listen to whatever he has to say.

Talk about challenge!  Imagine putting yourself in Ruth’s position.  Could you do that?  Do you have the obedience within you?  Do you have the trust within you?  Do you have the faithfulness within you?  How would you have responded to that challenge?

But Naomi also gives her invitation.  She comforts Ruth and tells her than Boaz is a kind man and a kinsman redeemer.  Naomi puts Ruth in a place for success, not a place for failure.  Naomi comforts Ruth after the fact saying that Boaz is a man of his word and he will take care of the situation on that very day.

Chapter three is a wonderful chapter where we see challenge and invitation being calibrated quite well.  In this chapter, Naomi is the star mentor.  Naomi does a great job at putting God’s character on display within these words.

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Year 4, Day 284: Ruth 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Financial Capital, Relational Capital

• Financial Capital: Financial capital is that which the world pursues with all of its heart.  However, from God’s perspective it is the lowest of the five capitals.  As with all capitals, it absolutely has value.  But it can be traded for capitals that have much greater value.
• Relational Capital: Relational capital is that which we have between one another.  This capital is secondary only to spiritual capital.  It is a capital that binds people together and allows us to help one another out.  It is our relational capital that drives community.

The story of Ruth and Boaz is a great love story filled with humble attraction.  Clearly Boaz and Ruth find a spiritual companion in each other.  But we can save that for the coming days.  Today, I want to focus on Boaz and his maturity.

Look at what Boaz literally does here in this chapter.  Boaz is a land-owner.  He has plenty of grain, but that grain is also his livelihood.  Surely Boaz can sell the excess grain and turn a profit.  But instead of being greedy, Boaz allows Ruth to take some of his financial capital for free.  Boaz recognizes that with respect to the capitals, financial capital is the lowest one on the totem pole.

So what does Boaz receive in return?  Boaz receives relational capital with Naomi.  Naomi blesses Boaz.  Naomi does not have much, but she gives Boaz what she can.  Boaz parts with financial capital and instead gains relational capital.  His standing in the community rises.

Boaz also receives relational capital with Ruth.  He turns her eye towards him.  He gains her favor and loyalty.  He finds someone who values relational capital as much as he does.  Boaz is an incredible model of true prioritization.  Boaz knows that in the great scheme of things, financial capital is of far less significance than relational capital.

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Year 4, Day 283: Ruth 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

Ruth is such an inspiring book.  It is a book about a Gentile woman who actually makes better spiritual decisions than the Hebrew people around her – at least until she meets up with Boaz, who is a great spiritual equal to her!  Ruth is a competent woman.  In truth, Ruth is one of the most competent people in the Old Testament.  How cool is it that one of the most competent people in the Old Testament is not only a woman, but a Gentile at that!

Let’s look at this dynamic for a moment so that we can truly be amazed at the spiritual faith of Ruth.  Elimelech takes his family away from the Promised Land.  They only planned to go away for a little while but they end up staying for long enough that his sons not only find wives but Elimelech and his sons each die!  Elimelech strikes me as a man who is wise in the world but not necessarily wise in the spirit.  He makes a solid family decision, but in doing so he spiritually brings his family away from the place God has called his people.

Then we get to look at Naomi.  Naomi clearly has a love for her daughter-in-laws.   That is to be commended.  But look at the advice that she gives to her Moabite daughter-in-laws.  She tells them to go back to their families and be supported by them.  Naomi is trying to convince them to return to a Moabite lifestyle!  From a spiritual perspective, this is horrible advice!  What is better, to live in the security of this world or to live in security of being with God?  Furthermore, look at her relationship with God at the end of this chapter.  All she can focus on is how tragic her life is in the moment.  Gone are the happy memories of her family.  Gone is any recognition that God has allowed a deep bond to exist between Naomi and Ruth.  I can understand why she feels this way.  But it is sad to see that she chooses to place the focus where she does.

Yet out of this we get Ruth.  Somewhere along the way something spiritually clicked in Ruth.  She found God.  She found truth.  She knew that so long as she stayed with God that God would provide for her.  She clung to Naomi because Naomi was her ticket back into the place of God’s calling.  Ruth could have easily turned back like Orpah did.  But she chose God and God’s calling over the security offered in the world through her biological family.

Here is a competent woman.  When God calls, Ruth follows.  Even when the path seems bleak and there are few answers to be found, Ruth follows.  What an inspiration!

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Year 4, Day 282: Judges 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Judges 21 ends the book on a real downer.  The people of Israel have no leader in their midst and boy is it showing.  We have civil war.  We have a nation rising up against their brothers.  We have a tribe almost being decimated in genocide.  We have another group of people being slaughtered so that the tribe won’t be decimated.  Then we have the approval of kidnapping and stealing to compensate.  This is really a chapter where character is in very short supply.

Look again at this list.  I am willing to bet all of us can look at this list and agree that all the concepts here in this list are indeed bad things.  None of us would ever say about something on this list, “I’d really approve of that!”  No, most of us wouldn’t be caught dead participating in events like genocide, kidnapping, and theft.

But before we’re too harsh on the Hebrew people, how many of us are perfect?  How many of us don’t know what it is like to be caught up in something bad because we made a serious of small bad decisions along the way?  How many of us can honestly say we’ve never done something that under other circumstances we’d never want to do? 

You see, that’s what character is all about.  Character realizes what is right and what is wrong.  Character helps us make those distinctions.  And when we do get caught up in something bad and we finally realize it, character helps us step back, admit our fault, and get on the right track rather than continuing to head down that bad path.

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Year 4, Day 281: Judges 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: D2,

• D₂ is the step in the discipleship process where God builds character as we begin to help in God's work.  Often it involves us taking a good long look at ourselves and seeing what needs to be cut away.  Affectionately, this process is referred to as “the pit of despair” because when we see ourselves for who we really are it is easy to despair and feel like we’ll never get it right, we’ll never be right, and we’ll never be useful to God.  The disciple needs time, vision, and grace to come out of the pit of despair.

In Judges 20 we have an unusual story where Israel comes in civil war against Benjamin.  Within this story we hear the people of Israel seek the will of the Lord, obey the will of the Lord, and find themselves stumbling into failure the first few days of battle.  In my theological commentary from three years ago, I give some really cool thoughts as to why this should happen.  You can read more about that in the post to which I link above.

To continue further with what I say there, I think what we see happening is that God isn’t afraid to use failure to build character.  When we are building character, we know that we need time, vision, and grace in order to build that character.  Sometimes we experience failure because God needs us to develop the necessary components before truly being drawn into a successful obedience to God’s calling.

That’s actually what we see here.  The Hebrew people are routed the first few days of battle.  God is teaching the Hebrew people patience and humbleness while drawing out the arrogance and over-confidence of the Benjaminites.  When the Hebrew people are properly humbled and patient and obedient, then God springs his trap on Benjamin.  The Hebrew people bring mass destruction upon Benjamin and the town of Gibeah only after God has developed character within the Hebrew people.  The Hebrew people may lose a few battles, but because God is with them developing their character, the victory of the war was assured.

I think we can really pay attention to this dynamic.  How often do we give up when we experience failure when in truth we should dig in and be patient with God?  How often do we quit when God is just getting started with where He wants us to go?  How often do we see the pit of despair in D2 discipleship and we retreat away rather than taking the time to learn the lesson at hand?

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Year 4, Day 280: Judges 19

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

I have always been disgusted with this Levite in this chapter.  He should know God’s ways – although it isn’t fair for me to expect him to live up to them perfectly.  But he should at least know God’s ways.  He should know about God’s love and God’s ability to keep His promise to be with us.  He more than anyone else in the story should be able to reflect God’s ways and understand what a godly response should look like.  He should be able to live out of the authority that God our King gives to us.

But he doesn’t live out God’s love in any dimension in his life.  Take a look at this woman around whom the story sets up.  Here is a man who has a concubine.  He should know what godly marriage looks like.  He should know how much importance God places upon marriage.  But he doesn’t have a wife, he has a concubine.  Although note that he does have a father-in-law.  So we can understand that this is a political and social marriage, not a union of love.  This is never clearer in the story than when he pushes his concubine out of the house at Gibeah in order for her to be raped and abused by the men of the town.  He has God-given authority to demonstrate love into the life of the woman who should be his wife.  Instead he chooses to treat her like an unimportant concubine.

This expands into a larger issue with the Levite.  As a religious leader within Israel, he should have been an example of godly living.  He should be a part of the group that sets the bar for what morality and ethic look like among the Hebrew people.  But what does he do?  He expects the people of Gibeah to act morally without considering his own morality!  He judges the people of Gibeah and makes sure to declare the amorality of the people of Gibeah throughout the nation.  Don’t get me wrong.  What the people of Gibeah did was wrong.  But it is not in the authority of the Levite to judge them.  There is always a danger when we act out of God’s authority in judging others without first taking a hard long look into our own life to judge ourselves, too.

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