Month: October 2024

2 SAMUEL #2: TRUSTING GOD IN TIMES OF CONFUSION AND HATE

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

When we belong to Jesus, we can, and should, be gracious even to those who consider themselves to be our enemies. In our text today, many people resisted God’s choice for king. For a long time, it seemed that David’s enemies were successful. Ultimately, even with all the people who wanted something different, David still became the king, and it was the best possible thing – even for all the people who did not want him at first. Sometimes we resist God’s Lordship in our lives. It would be better for us than us running things ourselves, but we fight it anyway. It is better for us in the long run to trust the Lord to work things out.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 2

2 SAMUEL #2. 2 SAMUEL 2:8-4:12

Last time we considered some of the events of 2 Samuel, chapters 1-5. Mostly, we learned how at first, David only received part of the kingdom that he felt he was destined to lead. Today, we will go over those same verses, and deal with some more of the details.

Chapters two through five of second Samuel describe the years after David was made king of Judah, but before he became king of all Israel. There is some natural confusion about the time period involved, because the text puts it like this:

8 Abner son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Saul’s son Ish-bosheth and moved him to Mahanaim. 9 He made him king over Gilead, Asher, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin — over all Israel. 10 Saul’s son Ish-bosheth was 40 years old when he began his reign over Israel; he ruled for two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David. 11 The length of time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. (2Sam 2:8-11, HCSB)

We are going to go into the political history of all this for a moment. 3000 year old politics might seem confusing, irrelevant and boring to you. But please bear with me, for a short time, because I think once we understand the politics, we will actually understand better what the Lord wants to say to us today.

Ish-bosheth (try to say that name quickly!) was the only son of Saul who was still alive. He was clearly not king for the entire time of David’s reign over Judah alone. To put it another way, for five of the years that David was king over Judah, the rest of Israel had no king at all. Those five years may have been split between a time before Ish-bosheth’s rule and after. Or they might have come all before-hand, or all after. There is no way to tell for sure, but here is my guess:

After Saul’s death there was a great deal of confusion among the northern tribes of Israel. Many Israelites were now living in subservience to the Philistines, who had conquered a good portion of the country. The others had no leader or central organization to turn to for national identity. Remember, Saul was the very first king of Israel, and just a generation or so before him, the people had no king, no single leader. So when Saul died, and three of his four sons with him, the tribes reverted back to how they had lived before-hand – as a federation of tribes, loosely connected, but without a strong national identity. Some of them may have recalled Samuel’s warnings about having a king – and they had seen that Saul didn’t work out so well. So I suspect that there were several years immediately following Saul’s death without any strong desire or impetus to get another king.

In the meantime, the writer of the book of Samuel says that there was a war between Saul’s family and David’s. The text says that Abner became more and more powerful in the family of Saul (3:6). Abner was Saul’s  nephew or cousin, depending on how you read the Hebrew. He had also been Saul’s chief war-leader. It looks as though after Saul’s death it was mainly Abner and his ambitions who opposed David’s kingship over all Israel. It took Abner some time to pull all his plans together. David was king for probably five years, while Abner blocked his every attempt to lead the whole nation. Meanwhile Abner himself was making connections, re-establishing a national identity, and finally setting up Saul’s son as the new king, but with himself as the real power-holder.

I think there are several understandable (but not justifiable) reasons for Abner’s actions. As Saul’s chief general, he had been the second most powerful man in Israel. With Saul dead and everything in confusion, all that went away. I think Abner wanted to go back to the way it was. I think he loved the power and position and wealth, and he was trying to regain it. In addition, Abner had been Saul’s right-hand man since the beginning. He was already there when David killed Goliath (1 Samuel 17:55-58). So I imagine he had completely internalized Saul’s attitude toward David. Along with that, he may have felt that David was just like him – a great warrior, to be sure, but not a king. They had served Saul together for a short time – who was David to now pretend he was a king? Why did David think he was better than everyone else? He was a warrior, just like Abner, not a king. In fact, during the time David served Saul, Abner might have been jealous, and he may have worried that David would take his place. Finally, remember when Saul was hunting David, and David and his nephew Abishai stole Saul’s spear and water-bottle? Afterwards, they mocked Abner in front of Saul and his men. So there may have been some personal animosity there also, fueling Abner’s ambitions.

At some point, Abner was finally able to get the other Israelites to declare Ish-bosheth king over “all Israel.” But I think realistically, we have to assume that Ish-bosheth was more or less just a figurehead. The real driving force behind the civil war and behind Ish-bosheth’s monarchy was Abner. In fact, we see this reflected when Ish-bosheth was afraid to argue with Abner (3:11), and also because once Abner died, the whole thing fell apart.

Now, I want to pause for a moment to consider this. It seems to me that Abner was not a very admirable man. Later on, we’ll see that he was completely willing to switch his allegiance to David when he realized that David was going to win. Abner was an unscrupulous political hatchet-man looking only for his own gain and ambition. We have plenty of people like that today. Modern-day politics drives me crazy, because the people in power seem to get there and hold onto their power through blatant dishonesty, corruption and scheming. Sometimes it helps me to calm down when I realize that this sort of thing has been going on for at least three-thousand years, since Abner lived that long ago.

But there is more than that here for us. Abner was a scoundrel. For five years, he carried out his schemes successfully. For two more years, it seemed that he had achieved his ambition. For seven years total, it seemed that he had thwarted David and thwarted God. And yet all the work that Abner did for himself and his selfish ambitions ended up serving God’s purposes and plans for David.

You see, the nation was fractured after the death of Saul. It was Abner who reunited them. It was he who encouraged them to return to a sense of national identity. It was Abner who got Israel to commit once more to having one king over the whole nation. And once that was done, God handed that united kingdom over to his chosen servant, David.

If David had become king right after Saul, he would have inherited a kingdom that was disorganized, disheartened and fractured. He would have had to do the work of rallying the tribes and unifying them. But instead, he simply watched while Abner did the work for him, and then God turned it over to him.

This is incredibly encouraging for me. There are long periods of time in my life where I think that God’s will is being thwarted, or that evil is prevailing, and unscrupulous people are successful. But God knows what  he is doing. He will use it all, sooner or later, to accomplish his purposes. Not even a man who gained control of an entire nation through dirty politics can stop God from working. And it turns out that all that selfish evil work was turned into God’s work.

Let’s continue on with the historical events. After Ish-bosheth became king, there was a significant battle between his men and David’s. The location of this battle, and of Ish-bosheth’s headquarters, is telling. The battle took place in the heart of the territory belonging to Benjamin – the tribe of Saul, Ish-bosheth and Abner. However, Ish-bosheth’s headquarters were located far to the east, across the Jordan valley. This means that by this point, David’s kingdom of Judah was starting to dominate the surrounding areas. It wasn’t safe for Abner and Ish-bosheth to be based in the territory of their own tribe.

The rest of chapter 2 describes the battle, beginning with the tragic death of twelve young men from each side. If your response is “that’s horrible,” then you got the message. After the twenty-four young men killed each other, the men of Judah fell upon Abner’s men and crushed them. Abner and his forces flat out ran away.

During the chase, David’s nephew Asahel fixed his sights upon Abner. Asahel was the brother of Abishai, the man who went into Saul’s camp with David, and stole Saul’s water jug and spear (1 Samuel 26). His other brother was Joab who was David’s chief war-leader. All three of them were the sons of David’s sister Zeruiah. Remember, it is likely that even though they were David’s nephews, all four of them were probably pretty close in age.

Asahel was apparently an unusually fast runner. He probably knew that Abner was the main force behind this war, and Asahel seemed determined to kill him. Perhaps he wanted to win great honor, like his other brothers had. He might also have thought that if he killed Abner, it would end the war altogether.

Now, we come to the curious sense of honor that often restrained the brutality of war in those days. Abner saw Asahel pursuing him. He knew who Asahel was, and he warned him off.

18 Joab, Abishai, and Asahel—the three sons of Zeruiah—were among David’s forces that day. Asahel could run like a gazelle, 19 and he began chasing Abner. He pursued him relentlessly, not stopping for anything. 20 When Abner looked back and saw him coming, he called out, “Is that you, Asahel?”
“Yes, it is,” he replied.
21 “Go fight someone else!” Abner warned. “Take on one of the younger men, and strip him of his weapons.” But Asahel kept right on chasing Abner.
22 Again Abner shouted to him, “Get away from here! I don’t want to kill you. How could I ever face your brother Joab again?” (2 Samuel 2:18-22, NLT)

Nowadays we think in terms of total war. But war in those days was a curious mixture of unimaginable brutality combined with strangely restraining rules of honor. Abner and Joab have just been commanding their men to kill each other in hand to hand combat – the most brutal, personal kind of war there is. And yet, Abner now was extremely reluctant to kill one of the chief leaders of the enemy. However, Asahel would not stop. So finally Abner did. The language seems to indicate that Abner stopped with his spear sticking out, butt-first behind him. He might have stuck the sharp point into the ground to brace it. His intent was probably to knock the wind out of Asahel, and bruise him to the point where he would stop pursuing him. But Asahel was running so fast that the blunt end of the spear pierced him through the body and killed him.

The pursuit continued until Abner rallied his men on a hilltop. He called to Joab to stop, and again, following those curious rules of war, Joab agreed to let them go.

Not long after all of that, Abner had a falling-out with king Ish-bosheth. I think he could see the writing on the wall, and he knew that David was going to prevail. The argument with Ish-bosheth was the final breaking point, and Abner decided to change his allegiance, to gain power in David’s new kingdom. He openly promised Ish-bosheth that he was going to turn the whole kingdom over to David. Chapter 3, verse 11 shows us that Ish-bosheth was indeed merely a figurehead, while Abner held the real power:

11 Ish-bosheth could not answer Abner because he was afraid of him. (2Sam 3:11, HCSB)

After this, Abner opened negotiations with David. He came to visit David in Hebron, and he left just before David’s nephew and war-leader, Joab, got back from a trip. Remember, Asahel, whom Abner recently killed in the battle, was Joab’s younger brother. Joab was full of bitterness and rage about it. Unknown to David, Joab sent messengers to Abner to bring him back. Abner believed he was there under the agreement of truce and safe passage that David had made with him. So he was taken by surprise when Joab pulled him aside and stabbed him, killing him. It was a nasty, cowardly deed, not at all like it would have been if Joab had killed Abner in battle.

David’s reaction to Abner’s death was just like his reaction to Saul’s death. I don’t think David had any illusions about what kind of man Abner was. He had known him for a long time, and Abner had been trying as hard as Saul to put an end to David. Even so, David refused to treat him like an enemy. Instead, he deplored the actions of Joab. David immediately declared that what Joab had done was wrong, and he prayed for God to repay him for it. He made Joab tear his clothes and mourn for Abner, the man who had killed his brother. He publicly praised Abner, and publicly condemned Joab.

David was clearly not concerned with what people thought about him. He was concerned about what was right and wrong.

Not long after this, with no Abner there to hold things together, Ish-bosheth was betrayed and killed. The murderers brought David his head, believing that David would be pleased to have his rival dead. But David treated them just as he had the Amalekite who claimed to have killed Saul – he had them executed.

This makes three times in five chapters that David punished people who claimed to have killed his enemies. I think we need to pay attention to it. Saul was clearly David’s enemy – he tried to kill him numerous times. Abner was clearly David’s enemy – he too tried to kill David by way of helping Saul, and then Ish-bosheth. Ish-bosheth was also technically David’s enemy.

And yet David mourned each of these men. He reacted strongly and negatively to those who caused their deaths. He was not pleased when they died, and he was not pleased with those who killed them. We have seen that David is a man with many faults and failings. But we have also seen that however imperfect, he was a man with a real and living faith in the real and living God. The Lord often used David to show us the Lord’s own heart.

David maintained a gracious perspective. He could look beyond personal rivalry, jealousy and even personal attacks. In the end, David was never willing to consider another Israelite – one of God’s chosen people – to be his enemy. In fact, when we read these chapters carefully, we find that David himself never participated in these battles against other Israelites. David wasn’t stupid. He knew that his enemies hated him, and were fearful and ambitious. But he never took it personally, and he didn’t consider the people themselves to be his enemies.

So let’s think about how to apply these chapters to our own lives.

I am working on this sermon about ten days after someone tried to kill former-president Donald Trump. Political tensions are very high right now. Friendships and families are being split apart by people with strong feelings about politics. In this moment, I think we can learn a lot from David. David trusted God to convince those that needed to be convinced. David seemed genuinely and deeply upset when his enemies were killed. We too, can trust God when it comes to people who disagree with us. Whatever you think of Donald Trump, I think all Christians should be sad about such a terrible thing happening in our culture. If you wish Trump had actually been killed, shame on you! I think you might need to repent of that. In the same way, I think we should also be sad that President Biden has become too feeble to go on campaigning for reelection. It’s one thing to make a sober judgment that he is no longer fit to be president. But if you are actually happy that his health has declined so much, shame on you! You might need to repent. We Christians belong to the God of the universe, who loves all people. Even when those who claim to hate us are killed, or otherwise hurt, we should be sad, not glad.

We can afford to be gracious, because we belong to a gracious God. I am not suggesting that you cannot hold strong opinions, or that we need to pretend to agree with everything anyone says.  But our disagreements should be kept in perspective. Politicians have been saying for years that if the other side wins, it will be the end of America as we know it. Unfortunately, that tradition goes back to the first presidential election after George Washington retired. And yet, we’re still here. Don’t believe their lies. Maintain your perspective.

There is another piece of this. Sometimes we get caught up in personality conflicts, and we become very upset at other humans who frustrate or oppose us. But the real enemies are the demonic forces that only use and influence other humans (Ephesians 6:12). Other human beings are not the enemy. Particularly, if we follow the example of David, other Christians may often be misled and used by the devil, but they are never our real enemies.

I am also encouraged to not be overly stressed when people I distrust are succeeding and growing in power. If I was David, I would have been very concerned about Abner and his schemes. I would have been upset that for seven years Abner apparently succeeded (seven years is almost as long as two presidential administrations). But David simply trusted God and waited. The ultimate result is that his enemy Abner did a lot of hard work on David’s behalf, and David got to reap the benefits – all for God’s glory. We don’t know when David wrote Psalm 37, but it certainly could have been shortly after these times:

1 Don’t worry about the wicked
or envy those who do wrong.
2 For like grass, they soon fade away.
Like spring flowers, they soon wither.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the LORD.
Trust him, and he will help you.
6 He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,
and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
7 Be still in the presence of the LORD,
and wait patiently for him to act.
Don’t worry about evil people who prosper
or fret about their wicked schemes.
8 Stop being angry!
Turn from your rage!
Do not lose your temper—
it only leads to harm.
9 For the wicked will be destroyed,
but those who trust in the LORD will possess the land. (Psalms 37:1-9, NLT)

Abner, and to some degree the other Israelites, either resisted, or passively ignored God’s choice for king. Ultimately, David still became the king, and it was the best possible thing – even for all the people who did not want him at first. Sometimes we resist God’s Lordship in our lives. It would be better for us than us running things ourselves, but we fight it anyway. It is better for us in the long run to let God have his way.

2 SAMUEL #1: WHEN DREAMS KINDA, SORTA, COME TRUE. MAYBE. A LITTLE BIT, ANWAY.

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David shows us that God does not hate those who hate him, and does not delight when bad things happen to them. He also serves as a model of patience. God’s promises were only partially fulfilled for him at this point, but he trusted and waited, because he recognized his life was about God’s purposes, not his own ambitions. In this life, even for Jesus, God’s promises have only been partially fulfilled. We wait with joyful expectation for the day when all of them come to complete fruition.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 1

We recently finished the book of 1 Samuel. However, that book leaves off in the middle of the action, so to speak. It doesn’t tell us what happened to David after Saul died. The reason for this is that originally, First and Second Samuel were one book. The Jews who translated the Old Testament into Greek divided this history into two books. Probably the division arose because Greek uses vowels, where Hebrew does not. This means that the Greek translation is much longer than the original Hebrew. As a result, it had to be put into two separate scrolls – the “first,” and “second.” Bear in mind as we study it, however, that it is all part of one work.

At the very end of 1 Samuel, we considered the lament that David wrote about Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-27). But there were a few things which preceded that. Remember, David and his men had fought a battle of their own with the Amalekites, who had attacked when everyone else in the region was off to the Israelite-Philistine war. Two days after he got back from defeating the Amalekites, a man came from the north, bringing news of the great battle between the Philistines and Israelites in the valley of Jezreel.

This man got the main news correct – Israel lost the battle, and Saul and Jonathan were killed. But then his story diverges from the one recorded in 1 Samuel 31. In 1 Samuel 31, it says that Saul killed himself when the Philistines got close to him. The writer does not make editorial comments, but it is clear that whoever wrote it regarded 1 Samuel 31 as the accurate record of events, and the story of this stranger as embellishments and lies.

Jewish tradition holds that the man who came to David with this story was actually the son of Doeg the Edomite, whom they also suppose was Saul’s armor bearer at the time Saul died. They think his claim to be an Amalekite was to hide from David the fact that his father was the infamously evil Doeg. There is nothing in the text one way or another to tell us if this is so or not, but it is possible that Doeg was elevated to the status of Saul’s personal armor bearer and bodyguard after he did him the favor of killing the priests when no one else would. If this man is Doeg’s son (and if Doeg was Saul’s armor bearer), it would explain his presence close to Saul, and how he was able to take Saul’s crown and escape.

He claims that the Philistine chariots were coming close to Saul. This shows us, the readers, that he is not being completely truthful. He probably said it to try and justify to David why he (allegedly) ended Saul’s life. Chariots were formidable weapons that the Philistines had and the Israelites did not (at this time). It would be the modern equivalent of tanks closing in on an infantry position. If the chariots were close, then indeed all was certainly lost. However, we know that Saul was on Mount Gilboa, and the messenger even affirms this. There were no roads (the way we think of roads) in those days. Chariots simply did not work well, if at all, on roadless mountainsides. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that they used chariots on the mountain where Saul died.

David, experienced warrior that he is, probably sensed right then there was something wrong with the story. Even how the messenger begins is quite suspicious: “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa…” He “just happened” to be in the middle of a battle? Just “happened” to be near king Saul? Not likely.

It was clear however, that this man thought claiming to have killed Saul would make him a favorite with David. Whoever he was, he completely misunderstood David. This was because he assumed that deep down, David was not really serious about being the Lord’s man; or perhaps since he was part of Saul’s retinue, he had never heard anyone talk about David’s strong faith. He condemns himself with his lie.

16 And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the LORD’s anointed.’”

David had him executed immediately for the crime of killing Saul. Once again, as harsh as this seems, it is a reflection of David’s humble heart and in a way, a reflection of how the Lord felt about Saul. God is not happy that Saul is dead. Neither is God’s servant. And David, by executing this man showed everyone that there was nothing to be gained by lies or treachery or unnecessary bloodshed. If anyone thought they could ingratiate themselves to David with that kind of behavior, their illusions would be shattered. God didn’t want Saul dead, and neither did David. You won’t earn any favors with God by hating or hurting people whom you think are God’s enemies. People do turn away from God and do evil, and God does not want them to do that. But he doesn’t hate them — He grieves over them, as he grieved over Saul. Saul was destroyed by himself and his own choices, not by God. You can destroy your own life, as Saul did, but the Lord is never out to destroy you.

I am writing this less than a week after someone tried to assassinate former President Trump, who is campaigning to become president again. Our political situation in America is very tense at the moment. It is a good and timely reminder that God does not rejoice at the death of those who have turned away from him. So, we who follow Jesus should not be happy at the downfall of others, even others whom we think might be enemies of God. We will not earn God’s favor for hating, or trying to harm his “enemies.” This goes for all sides of the political spectrum. War and the punishment of crime are situations in which evil might be restrained, or good defended, but they should not be motivated by hatred or anger. Rather, they are a sad necessity in this fallen world. Listen to how the Lord puts it to the people who were rebelling against him:

11 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die? (Ezekiel 33:11, NLT)

 By the way, this lesson is repeated three times in the first four chapters of 2 Samuel, which means we are really supposed to pay attention to it, and take it seriously.

OK, moving on, once Saul was dead, David’s reason for staying out of Israel was gone. His main obstacle to becoming king and fulfilling the Lord’s calling was removed. David knew he was anointed to be the next king of Israel. A large portion of the population knew this also. I think a lot of people at this point would move ahead and “just go for it.”

Not David. The first thing he did was to ask God what he should do. He did not assume anything. I think the reason for this is that David was not trying to establish his own kingdom – instead, he was trying to be God’s servant. His attitude was not, “How can I behave so that God can help me?” That was Saul’s basic approach to life. But David’s heart was this: “Lord, what do you want to do next?” He did not view God as his assistant in achieving his goals. Instead, he felt that his whole life was God’s own project. His role was to try and assist God, not the other way around. David’s anointing and his destiny were not about David – they were about the Lord. So becoming king is not David’s idea nor his goal – his goal is to serve the Lord.

I also want to point out that in this matter, David learned from his mistakes. He did not ask God before he took his family, his men, and their families to live among the Philistines (1 Samuel 27:1-3. We looked at this in 1 Samuel sermon #28). However, after that mistake, he started asking God what to do even for decisions where the conclusion seemed obvious.

As I have pointed out before, David is one of the people in the Old Testament who sheds light on what Jesus is like (that is, David is a “type” of Christ). Jesus expressed this same attitude of being here for the Father’s purposes in John 8:28 and 12:49 (among other places)

So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. (John 8:28, ESV)

For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment-what to say and what to speak. (John 12:49, ESV)

This is not complicated, but it is HUGE when it comes to living out our faith practically. It is so easy to fall into the idea that the life of faith is about God helping us each achieve our own destiny. We make this seem good and spiritual, because we assume that our destiny was created by God. And of course, it is. But it isn’t about us. It is about God. When we think that it is about us, we inevitably get angry or disappointed with God when he fails to do things for us that we think would bring about our destiny.

Our true destiny is to bring glory and honor and praise to God – not  to meet our own personal goals. Achieving that destiny is God’s business from beginning to end. Some people, like David, brought glory to God in very public ways, like becoming a well-known leader. Others do it quietly, like being a loving wife and mother, or praying regularly for others.

I think some things in life get a bit easier once we really accept this. We should give all of our strength, skill and energy to the things God wants us to, but we no longer have to control the outcome. Our hearts can be at rest as we trust God to fulfill his own plan and purpose.

Now, I think it would be wrong to assume that David didn’t care either way if he became king. First, he wanted what God wanted, and God did want that. Second, because God wanted to work in this way through him, David was drawn to it. He wanted to lead because he was created for it. So I am sure that David really wanted to become king. Even so, he subordinated his own desires to God, because he understood that it wasn’t really about him. Like Samuel’s mother, he had real desires that he acknowledged, but at the same time, he also surrendered them to God.

This is important, because right after he asked God what to do, David received a partial fulfillment of God’s calling, but it was only partial. The Lord told David to return to Israel, to the town of Hebron in the territory of Judah. When he did that, the tribe of Judah received David as their king. However, Saul’s war-leader, Abner, rallied the other tribes around Saul’s one remaining son, Ish-Bosheth. So the other 11 tribes still did not acknowledge David as their king.

Judah was one of the largest, most powerful and prestigious tribes. Though just one of twelve tribes, their territory made up about one quarter of all the land held by Israel in Saul’s lifetime.  In two generations after David, Judah became its own independent country and most of the Jews living today come from that tribe (that’s why they are called Jews. “Jews;” from “Judah”). Even so, being king over just one tribe and about one quarter of the territory of Israel isn’t exactly what David thought the Lord had planned for him. It is sort of a fulfillment of God’s promise and calling. He was now a king. But he wasn’t the king of the whole nation. At that point, his kingdom was only 25% of the kingdom that Saul had ruled.

There was potential here for David to become frustrated. After all, you could not make any argument that Saul was more worthy than David, but even so, Saul’s kingdom was much larger than David’s (at least during this period of time). And David waited a really long time, even for this partial fulfillment of God’s call on him.

Think about it. Samuel anointed David when David was perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old. At first it seemed like everything was falling into place. He grew a little, killed the giant and became a famous warrior and trusted member of the king’s court, all while he was very young. But it all fell apart again after just a few years. It was likely more than a decade that David had been living like a vagabond, with only a band of misfits who called him their leader. When Saul died, David was thirty years old. Probably fifteen years went by between the time he was anointed to be king and the time when Saul died. That’s a long time – half of his entire life up until that point. And now finally he was one out of two kings of Israel. His kingdom was the smaller of the two. It will be seven more years before he becomes king of all Israel. That’s a total of twenty-two years waiting for God to fulfill his promises.

This partial fulfillment is also a “type of Christ.” The kingdom of Jesus Christ has only come in part so far. Jesus reigns over the hearts of those who will let him, but not everything is under his rule, as it will be when this world ends. Speaking of Jesus, Paul writes:

9 For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth — 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11, HCSB)

But currently, at the name of Jesus, not every knee does bow, not every person does worship. There is a part of Jesus’ exaltation and kingship that is still in the future. It is not fully here yet. The writer of Hebrews says:

7 You made him lower than the angels for a short time; You crowned him with glory and honor 8 and subjected everything under his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. As it is, we do not yet see everything subjected to him. 9 But we do see Jesus — made lower than the angels for a short time so that by God’s grace He might taste death for everyone — crowned with glory and honor because of His suffering in death. (Heb 2:7-9, HCSB) (added italicization)

We do not yet see everything subjected to Jesus. The fulfillment of the prophecies about Jesus are, at this point in time, only partial. In the same way, we too have only partially what has been promised us. Paul writes to the Ephesians:

13 You heard and believed the message of truth, the Good News that he has saved you. In him you were sealed with the Holy Spirit whom he promised. 14 This Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive our inheritance. We have this guarantee until we are set free to belong to him. God receives praise and glory for this. Ephesians 1:13-14, God’s Word)

We haven’t received the whole inheritance yet. We have the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that some day we will fully receive everything that He has promised us.In other words, right now, we have only part of what has been promised us. This means that Christianity is above all, a faith that is all about hope. We know this world doesn’t fully satisfy. True justice isn’t available here and now. True, unblemished joy is scarce and temporary. True satisfaction, contentment and fulfillment are always elusive. Those who don’t surrender their hearts to Jesus get angry at God because of this. But they aren’t listening. The true fulfillment of  God’s love for us and his promises to us comes after this world ends. We don’t have to make the credits outweigh the debits in this life. We don’t have to have everything we have dreamed of before we die. It is still coming. It was still coming for David. It is even now, still coming for Jesus, who is not yet king over everything. And it is still coming for us.

How is the Lord speaking to you through this text today? Perhaps you need to remember that even those who have rejected the Lord are not our enemies. We could all use a reminder that not even God is happy when those who reject him are hurt. I am not suggesting that we allow people to do evil without attempting to resist it. But even when we have to be involved in restraining evil and defending good, we can reflect God’s heart of sadness that people have chosen to reject him.

Possibly you need to remember that your life is not really yours, but that it belongs to God. I think we could use reminding that God is not there to help us fulfill our personal desires or destinies. Instead, we are here to serve God.

Maybe you are struggling because it seems like you have received only part of what you think God has promised you. First, make sure you know what God has indeed promised. And then, remind yourself that in this life, all fulfillments are partial. We have an amazing future in which everything that God has promised will indeed be completely ours, and that future is in a New Creation where there is no more sorrow, suffering or death. Until we reach those eternal shores, everything we have here is just a temporary shadow of the stunning reality that will be ours. This should help us to have patience as we wait in hope.

SERENITY PRAYER #12: SUMMARY AND APPLICATION

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Serenity Prayer Part 12

  This week I just want to do a brief summary of the lessons on the Serenity Prayer. We’ve talked about a lot of things, and while I don’t expect everyone to connect with everything, I also trust that at least some things have been helpful in your journey with God. As I quickly go through the lines of the prayer, I’d like to ask you to consider these questions:

  1. What is one new or refreshed way of thinking about my life in Christ that I have seen through this study?
  2. What is one practice, habit, or discipline in my life in Christ that I have begun to practice or would like to begin practicing after this study?
  3. What is one area we talked about that I’d like to know more about, whether in this group, or in my own personal times of studying God’s Word?

            Ok, let’s walk through the lines as we did week by week. And if your most important takeaways were different from what I summarize here, I think that may well be a good thing. We serve a God who speaks to us both as a community and as individual children.

God, grant: The character of the God we pray to shapes the way we pray and how we expect Him to answer. And we recognize our dependence on God, not just for our salvation, but for our day-to-day sanctification.

The serenity to accept the things we cannot change: Life is outside our control, and that’s not only ok, it’s actually good. We can turn to the God who is in control and trust Him as we learn to accept life on life’s terms. We also recognize the truth that we are limited beings, not gods ourselves.

The courage to change the things we can: Living faithfully means doing hard things and costly things at times. We operate in trust that God is at work, and that He will give us what we need to make the changes in ourselves that He is asking us to make. We set aside fear-based decision making and the need to blame others and bravely face what we can do something about.

The wisdom to know the difference: We look for wisdom from God, not from ourselves. That wisdom will come through His Word, through Christian community, and through our time in prayer. It will generally be found in humility and peace.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time: We don’t stay trapped in the past, or live in anxiety about the future. We try to pay attention to what God is doing in our lives right now and respond to Him in the present. We enjoy what He has given us today for our daily bread more than we focus on what we had in the past or hope to have in the future.

Accepting hardships as a pathway to peace: Hardship and suffering are part of the normal Christian life. We can fight against that reality, or we can look for ways to accept what we have and find contentment in the presence of God with us in the middle of the pain.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it to be: Jesus was able to live a holy and righteous life of perfect submission to the Father in the middle of a very broken and sinful world. If we want to navigate this world well, as He did, we need to adopt the same tools of prayer and acceptance.

Trusting that He will make all things right: Trust does not just mean agreeing with an idea, it means taking actions that show that idea. And God gets to determine what “right” looks like. If that doesn’t match our definitions, we choose to trust Him and revise our definitions.

If we surrender to His will: Choosing to follow Jesus means I die to my self and give control of my life to Him. I don’t have to like His will. I don’t have to understand His will. I choose to give up my rights to Him and obey His will.

That we may be reasonably happy in this life: There are things about living God’s way that work even in this life. They won’t give us perfect happiness, but happiness is not really our goal anyway; it is a by-product of having good and God-centered goals for our lives.

And supremely happy with Him forever: Following Jesus is ultimately not about this life anyway. It is about life in a kingdom that is coming and will last forever. We live in all these ways (because God makes it possible for us to do that) because we believe that our lives after the resurrection are going to be incredible in union with Christ. We are learning to live now in ways that will make sense then.

Before we pray the Serenity Prayer together one last time (at least in this study), let me share again the questions I asked at the beginning.

  1. What is one new or refreshed way of thinking about my life in Christ that I have seen through this study?
  2. What is one practice, habit, or discipline in my life in Christ that I have begun to practice or would like to begin practicing after this study?
  3. What is one area we talked about that I’d like to know more about, whether in this group, or in my own personal times of studying God’s Word?

And now let’s pray.

God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it to be.

Trusting that He will make all things right if we surrender to His will – that we may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.

SERENITY PRAYER #11: SUPREMELY HAPPY IN THE LIFE TO COME

On By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, SermonLeave a comment
Photo by Singkham on Pexels.com

This is what we are doing as Christians: We are trying to learn, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what the language of the kingdom of God is, what its culture is like, how to function in an environment that is foreign to much of what we experience here on a day-to-day level. But in doing that, we are becoming more and more fit for the life that God has waiting for us when He comes again to re-create the heavens and the earth in full reconciliation to Him and full submission to His rule. Much of what we have been praying throughout this study is a part of that training for eternal life. And alongside that training, the tools that we need to keep us going until then.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Serenity Prayer Part 11

And Supremely Happy with Him Forever

1 John 3:2-3; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Revelation 7:16-17; Revelation 21:3-5

            Here we are at the end – and we are going to finish by talking about the end, although I might question whether what we usually refer to as the end (or the last days, or the finish) is really more of a true new beginning. We’ll talk about that as we move through the last phrase of the Serenity Prayer: “And supremely happy with Him forever.” First, let’s pray.

            Last week, we talked about being reasonably happy in this life, and hopefully we realized that our reasonable happiness in this life is tied to our confident expectation that we have something beyond this life. While we live in the present moment, we live as those who are anticipating a meaningful future. The events of this world, from the beginning of time until the end, are not just random, and they are not just a cycle that we are destined to endlessly repeat. As Christians, we believe that history is heading somewhere – that there is a final destination, not only for us, but for all of creation. And this is where we find ultimate happiness.

            The idea of deferring pleasure is not a new one, but it is one that we increasingly struggle with in our culture, and I include the church in that. We can gratify so many of our desires so quickly and so easily – at least in part – that we can easily forget the value of having both to work and to wait for something meaningful. It’s easy to put something in the microwave, or have it delivered, or take the shortcut. And so, things that require sustained discipline in one direction in order to gain a reward have become less common than maybe they once were (or maybe that’s just what all of us say as we get older). But most of the meaningful experiences and changes in my life have come because I have believed that continuing to practice good, healthy, and holy things will eventually produce results that surpass what I can get from a microwave. Much of what the Serenity Prayer has been calling us to is a practice of good, healthy, and holy things now that will benefit us some in the present, and even more so in the life to come.

            Let me be clear: our efforts toward living the life God calls us to live are not in any way the means by which we enter the life of the kingdom. We enter the life of the kingdom by invitation of the King, which He has extended to us in the death and resurrection of His Son. And, there are things we can and should do in order to participate in that kingdom life – not only in the future, but now. As we looked at the Beatitudes last week, I hope that connection came through. What Jesus calls His followers (us) to do in the Beatitudes is to live in line with the life that we are receiving now and will fully enter into when He returns in triumph. We are being trained, equipped, and fitted for the life that is to come – the life that is unending, the life of perfect fellowship with God in all His fullness. And that way of living won’t necessarily make sense now. It will often go against the things that bring temporary worldly success in any field. But we aren’t living for this world. We are living now for the next.

            The closest analogy I can think of for this is preparing to live in a foreign country with a very different culture. My wife Jayme and I were blessed to live in Prague, the capital of Czechia, for three years, and we’ve gotten to travel extensively to visit missionaries from our church across the world. Many of the things we do to get ready for another culture are of little to no value in this one. Before we left for Prague, I spent a lot of time beginning to learn the language. How valuable do you think that was in Nashville, Tennessee? Not very. And knowing the history and geography of the Czech people didn’t do me much good here. Neither did learning how their public transportation system works, or what the established churches in that country were like. We put considerable time and effort into things that only really helped when we moved to that new country. Oh, there was a place here or there when some of that knowledge came in handy in the US. But for the most part, if we had never gone to Prague, the vast majority of that time, energy, and money would have been for nothing.

            And this is what we are doing as Christians. We are trying to learn, by the power of the Holy Spirit, what the language of the kingdom of God is, what its culture is like, how to function in an environment that is foreign to much of what we experience here on a day-to-day level. But in doing that, we are becoming more and more fit for the life that God has waiting for us when He comes again to re-create the heavens and the earth in full reconciliation to Him and full submission to His rule. Much of what we have been praying throughout this study is a part of that training for eternal life. And alongside that training, the tools that we need to keep us going until then.

            What is that eternal life going to be like? The most important part of it is contained in this line of the prayer. We will be “with Him.” That is the most meaningful and satisfying aspect of the kingdom life that God is preparing us for (and preparing for us). That we will be “with Him.” That we will walk in deep, fulfilling, intimate relationship with our Creator: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As I introduced the lesson today, I said that what we usually refer to as “the end” might better be described as the true new beginning. What do I mean by that? Let’s look back to the beginning – the first three chapters of Genesis.

            When God created the universe, how did He describe it? It was all good, right? Until He got to people – then it became “very good.” “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:27-28) Man and woman worked together in the garden to exercise the authority God had given them to rule together over all creation. Adam later shows that authority by giving names to all the animals – that was part of his job. Did you realize that there was work to do in Eden? Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” And later in the chapter, Eve joins him. Yes, after the fall, work becomes cursed because of sin, but in the beginning, it was not so. Adam and Eve worked together in harmony to take care of the world that God had entrusted to them. And they were in harmony not only with one another, but with God Himself. We don’t know how long things lasted that way, but until the fall, creation functioned in perfect order with all the pieces meshing together under the Lordship of God.

            And that beautiful picture is what is coming again for us. In Ephesians 1, as Paul is describing what it means to be a saint, a faithful one in Christ – a Christian – he shares one of the mysteries of what God is doing. Ephesians 1:9-10, “And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one Head, even Christ.” God is coming to renew all creation and bring back the Garden of Eden – only this time with no serpent waiting in the wings! A day is coming when Jesus will emerge to exert the authority He already has over all powers and principalities, purifying the earth and all creation, and then reigning over the new heavens and the new earth along with us. We (humanity) are going to be given our old jobs back – we will rule over a sanctified and re-created world alongside Jesus!

            Sometimes our images of heavenly life have more to do with movie depictions or even favorite hymns than they do with Scripture. And granted, Scripture doesn’t give all the details I would like (probably because I couldn’t understand them anyway), but John tells us this:

 “2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)

In living as God’s children now, we are being prepared for something even more that will be revealed when we see Him (Jesus) as He is. Paul makes a similar point at the end of the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13:

 “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

            I want to make one more point about the life that is waiting for us before connecting back to the Serenity Prayer. I have often heard the Christian life described in terms that I will summarize like this: “Say a prayer with these words. Now you will go to heaven when you die instead of hell. Just hang on until then.” I think that is well-meaning. I think there is truth in it. And I believe it is a woefully inadequate picture of what God intends as we live this life in anticipation of the one to come. John, after describing the transformation waiting for us as children of God, then says, “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.” Knowing the transformation that is coming when we are raised into our new bodies in the new creation does not lead John to say, “So just hang on until then.” No, he calls us to purity because we know what’s coming and we want to be preparing for it! And Paul’s statement about the full knowledge that awaits us when we see God clearly is at the end of a long chapter encouraging us to live lives full of very practical love. So, our trust that Jesus is coming for us is intended to shape us now!

            And what we’ve been talking about for the last several weeks is also intended to do exactly that. Accepting the things we cannot change is an acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty in anticipation of His ultimate rule. Courageously changing what we can moves us and, hopefully, those around us, closer to the kingdom life that is coming. The peace that accepting hardship is intended to lead us to is the peace that comes when Jesus overthrows all enemies once and for all. And every time we surrender to His will, we become a little closer to what we will be in the resurrection. We move further into the identity that God the Father has given, is giving, and will give us in His Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

            And in other ways this prayer helps us move well through things now that will no longer be a part of life in the resurrection. Some of the hardships we have to accept now will not be allowed into the kingdom where:

 “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:16-17)

We will no longer need to take this sinful world as it is, because Satan will be overthrown, and God will descend from heaven to live with His people:

 “3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more deathor mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ 5 He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” (Revelation 21:3-5)

We will still take the world as it is, but the world will finally be as God would have it to be, and we will get to enjoy Him and His Presence forever.

            This is why we practice the things we’ve been studying for the past several weeks, as well as all the Word of God teaches us about the way to live: because we believe a new and better life is coming. And in that hope, we choose to do things that are often difficult and painful in this life, because we no longer think of this place as our permanent home. Ultimately, we don’t live in Prague, or Lebanon, or Antioch, or Carthage. We are citizens of heaven. And we are called to live as those who know that one day, we will be supremely happy in our home.

We will wrap up next week with a summary of the Serenity Prayer. I hope that God has used this to shape your lives in some of the ways that He has shaped mine. Let’s close again this week with the Serenity Prayer. Please join with me as we pray this prayer as a community together.

God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it to be.

Trusting that He will make all things right if we surrender to His will – that we may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.

May God empower us this week to live this life in confident hope of the even better life to come. In the name of Jesus, Amen.