Category: Bible Teaching

REBEL WITH A CAUSE

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Old Testament, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

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David was God’s chosen king, the rightful heir to the throne of Israel. But for a time he had to live hiding in his own kingdom. While he did a few unlikely characters joined him, and were molded into the future heroes of Israel.

The rightful King of this world, Jesus, is here incognito, so to speak, and he calls us to join him in a campaign of rebellion against the usurper, Satan.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 20

1 Samuel #20. 1 Samuel 22:1-2

Last time we saw how David took the time to make one last stop to worship the Lord. He almost certainly lost a chance to go home to Bethlehem one last time. He did this because he wanted to be in the presence of the Lord once more. He wanted to hear what God had to say to him in this difficult circumstance. Those things were more important to him than home, family or even the certain help he would have received in Bethlehem. After stopping at the temple, he spent some time in Philistine territory. Realizing he’d made a mistake, he fled from there, and ended up hiding and living in a cave near a place called Adullam.

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Pause for a moment and consider how low David has fallen. He was anointed to be God’s chosen instrument, ultimately, to be the king. He served as a feared and honored warrior – he was, in fact, a national hero. He was the son in law of the king. He had lived in comfort and honor. Now he is hiding for fear of his life, in a cave. Caves are not known for their comfort. There is nothing soft to sleep on. There is no natural light. There are no bathrooms, so after a while of living there, it would smell pretty ripe. And yet, David’s heart didn’t falter. He did not appear to think he was somehow too good to live that way. Arthur W. Pink commented on this:

“The high favorites of Heaven are sometimes to be located in queer and unexpected places. Joseph in prison, the descendants of Abraham laboring in the brick-kilns of Egypt, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the great fish’s belly, Paul clinging to a spar in the sea, forcibly illustrate this principle. Then let us not murmur because we do not now live in as fine a house as do some of the ungodly; our “mansions” are in Heaven!”

Sometimes I think we Christians in the Western world are a little soft. God loves to bless his people, but his main purpose for us in this world is not that we merely feel comfortable. David was God’s chosen instrument, just as we Christians are today. And the Lord was with him in the cave, perhaps even more potently than when David finally lived in a palace. We need to take the long view, the view of eternity. What happens here and now is not the end. I like where I live right now, but it is a dump compared to my permanent home in heaven. David knew that was true for him as well.

There are two Psalms that show in the title that they were written by David “in the cave.” Unfortunately for David, he spent time hiding in several different caves, at different periods in his life. So we can’t know for sure that these were written in the caves near Adullam. But there’s a good chance that either one or both of Psalm 57 and 142 were written at this point in his life. Remember, the Psalms are not collected in chronological order, so 142 could easily have been written before 57.

Both Psalms start with David expressing fear and anguish at his dangerous and uncertain situation. But both end with him declaring his trust in the Lord, and his praise to him. The last line of Psalm 142 says, “The righteous will gather around me; because you deal generously with me.”

This is a declaration of trust. It is also an optimistic take on what actually happened shortly afterwards. David’s brothers and his father’s whole family came to live with him in the cave. He was no longer all alone – his family shared in his hardship and persecutions. In addition, more men joined him until there were about 400 altogether. The text says that these men were all either “desperate, in debt or discontented.” It doesn’t sound exactly like “the righteous.” It sounds more like a ragtag band of malcontents and ne’er-do-wells. David’s family aside, these sound not like the cream of the crop, but rather the sludge of society.

However, they all agreed upon one thing – David was now their leader. This was actually a pretty big deal. As we will learn in a moment, Saul the King felt that anyone who helped David was committing treason, and he sentenced them to death. So when these men gave their allegiance to David, they forfeited their lives. There was no going back. If David failed to vindicate himself, they were dead men.

In the Old Testament, sometimes we encounter people or events that theologians call “a type of Christ.” What they mean is, sometimes God used historical events or individuals to show the world what Jesus was like, even though Jesus had not come yet. It is a foreshadowing – a partial picture of what the real messiah will look like. These “types of Christ” serve two purposes. First they were for the people in Old Testament times, to help them understand what God is really like, and how he really saves people. Remember, Romans 3:25-26 tells us that even people in Old Testament times were saved through Jesus, as God looked ahead to what he was going to do at the cross. And so there are these shadows and parts of pictures that gave people a sense of what was to come. Second, these “types” are there to strengthen our faith. Even the Old Testament is all about Jesus, and so when we read it, we should be looking for Jesus and how it shows Him to us.

By the time Jesus walked the earth, even the Jewish Pharisees believed that many of the people and incidents in the Old Testament were pictures of the coming Messiah. In particular, the Jews felt that David’s life and character would help them to identify what the Messiah was like. David was anointed with oil and with the Holy Spirit to be God’s uniquely chosen instrument. Both the Hebrew word “Messiah” and the Greek “Christ” mean simply “anointed one.” Jesus Christ means “Jesus, Anointed One.” So some of the life of David, the anointed one, looks ahead to the ultimate Anointed One.

In this particular case, there are several significant comparisons. David was God’s chosen anointed one, and yet he was rejected by the leader of the nation. He lived with integrity and didn’t do anything wrong, yet he was forced to live as an outcast. Jesus was God in flesh, the Ultimate Anointed One, and yet he was rejected by the status quo of Israel. He too was an outcast. David accomplished miraculous things in battle against the Philistines. Once he and another warrior were surrounded by Philistines in an open field. They stood back to back and killed three hundred enemies that day.

Jesus also performed many miraculous signs – healings, driving out demons, calming storms and more. He destroyed demonic enemy strongholds.

There is one “type of Christ” in this passage that I want to dwell on a little bit longer, and that is the followers of God’s anointed. The men that followed David were of no account. They were shiftless and in trouble, the dregs of society. And yet mostly from these ragtag 400, came some of the mightiest names in the history of Israel. There was an exclusive trio of warriors, known as “the three.” One of these was the warrior that stood back to back with David when they were surrounded. There was a larger elite force of “thirty mighty men.” From what we can tell, they all started out among this group of no-name, no-account people.

In the same way, the important members of society did not join the ragtag band of Jesus’ disciples. Instead he got tax-collectors, prostitutes and smelly, calloused fishermen. He had his “three” – Peter, James and John. He had his twelve then beyond that, a few more.

The followers of David had to be kind of desperate to go to him. They were literally giving up everything to join him. If he didn’t come through, they were lost. There was no halfway commitment. This wasn’t, “I’ll go hang with David for a while, and if it doesn’t work out, I can always go back.” No it was an irrevocable alignment with David, breaking off the loyalties of the past.

Jesus calls for that kind of allegiance from us also. He doesn’t want us to come to him, keeping our options open in case something we like better comes along. Jesus talked to his disciples about this very thing, and Peter expressed the kind of commitment they made to him:

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69, ESV)

Just as David’s followers were desperate and poor, Jesus calls to the broken and poor in spirit. Let’s face it, it hard to really give ourselves over to Jesus unless we realize that without him, we are lost. Paul describes it like this:

26 Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one can boast in His presence. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord. (1Cor 1:26-31, HCSB)

Let’s be honest. Sometimes it seems like it might be more exciting to be one of David’s men than to follow Jesus. I mean, as I read this, I think this real history was likely the inspiration for the legend of Robin Hood, and even if Robin Hood was real, he might have been inspired to his deeds by this very story. There are battles, betrayals, secret hiding places, defections. It is all very well to say David is a type of Christ, but following Jesus might sometimes seem more boring. I mean we go to work or school and come home and do stuff, go to bed and then get up and do it all again. Sometimes we’re so bored, we make excitement for ourselves.

I think that is all because we fail to recognize the spiritual reality that exists with and alongside our world, hidden, but no less real. What David was involved with physically, we are engaged in spiritually. David was the king who was chosen by God, but rejected by many of the people. He lived almost as an agent in enemy territory, gathering those few worthless people who had nowhere else to turn to help him. In the same way, C.S. Lewis describes our life of following Jesus like this:

Enemy occupied territory – that’s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You see, though the battle is more spiritual than physical, it is no less real for all that. We have a faithful, loving intrepid leader. We are undercover – living as part of society, but not living for the same purposes as the rest of the world. Sometimes perhaps we need to wake up, and open up our lives to be more engaged in this secret mission. We need to be more aware of how the Lord wants to work, to be more aware of the people he is bringing across our paths and into our lives.

Joining the Rebel King paints a target on our backs, a target his enemies would love to use. But if we trust him and submit to his leadership, he will mold us into mighty men and women of faith, significant in God’s kingdom forever.

WHERE DO YOU RUN TO?

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Old Testament, Uncategorized2 Comments

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What or who do you turn to in trouble or hardship? Why?

1 Samuel #19. God as Refuge 1 Samuel Chapter 21

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 19

The excitement, adventure and romance of David’s life are not over yet – not by a long shot. So I encourage you to take to hear the message of these true stories. When something grabs your attention, shocks you, or stirs your heart, pause and ask the Lord to speak to you through it. Pay attention to how the Lord is appealing to your heart through the life of David. I trust that you can and will continue to do that, even when we move through the text a little more pedantically.

We left David just after he made a daring midnight escape, assisted by his young wife. He fled to the tabernacle of the Lord, which was being kept at a place called Nob, outside of Jerusalem. In fact, Nob was probably located at the place we now call the Mount of Olives. We are so used to thinking of the biblical capital city of Israel as Jerusalem, but Jerusalem at this time was controlled by foreigners known as Jebusites. David, at the time of his escape, was in Saul’s home-town, Gibeah, which was north of Nob.

The logical thing for David to do first was to stop at his home in Bethlehem, just a few miles further on from Nob. There, it is certain that his family would supply him for a longer journey. However, by stopping at Nob, even though it was on the way, David probably delayed long enough for Saul’s men to get to Bethlehem before him – any reasonably smart person would assume that David would go there first. In other words, by stopping, David gave up his chance to go home and get certain help from people loyal to him by blood. So why did he go to Nob and give up that up?

We can certainly speculate about the answer to that question. He might have been afraid that Saul would punish his family. Even so, there is no reason Saul wouldn’t punish them anyway, because Saul could not have been sure that David had not, in fact, been to Bethlehem. Perhaps David was being cunning, and staying away from places he’d be expected. That’s definitely a possibility, but I think we can learn the real answer from the words of David himself.

1 O God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You.

I thirst for You;

my body faints for You

in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.

2 So I gaze on You in the sanctuary

to see Your strength and Your glory.

3 My lips will glorify You

because Your faithful love is better than life. (Psalm 63:1-3)

Or again:

1 I am at rest in God alone;

my salvation comes from Him.

2 He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my stronghold; I will never be shaken. (Psalm 62:1-2)

For David, God was his family. He was the most important family, and the most certain help in times of trouble. Even though David went far beyond most of his contemporaries in his relationship with God, we need to remember that in those days, worship was oriented at the tabernacle. The presence of God was believed to be most real there. And before the time of Jesus, there was something unique and special about the tabernacle (and later, the temple). And so David was faced with a choice. He could go into exile and hiding without ever seeing his family again, or without ever worshipping at the tabernacle again. He chose God over his family. He couldn’t stand the thought of leaving without spending one more time in the presence of God in a special way.

In addition, he saw the Lord as a very real help in times of trouble. And so he chose to seek whatever help he might get from the Lord, trusting in the Lord’s help even more than the certain assistance he would have received from his family. Besides what we know of David’s heart from the psalms, the confirmation is also given in the next chapter. In 1 Samuel 22:10 we learn that David “inquired of the Lord” while he was there.

From verse 2 onwards, David refers to companions who are with him. So apparently a few people loyal to him went along when he fled. If we read this in isolation, we might think that David was embellishing the story for Ahimelech, the chief priest. In fact, Jesus refers to this very incident, and confirms that David had some men with him.

Another thing we notice in this text is that David tells a lie. He claims to be on a mission for Saul. I’m ashamed to say that when I first read this, I excused this behavior, because after all, he was fleeing for his life. But David’s lie leads to an awful slaughter, later on. The priest Ahimelech, and almost his entire family, were later murdered by Saul for helping David. Now Ahimelech, had he known the truth, may still have chosen to help David. But in that case, his death would have been the result of his own choice. As it was, David, by his lie, made the choice that led to the tragedy later on. It may seem harsh to point out that David sinned here. But you see, David had the right to risk his own life. He did not have the right to deceive someone else into risking his own life, and the lives of his wife and children. He ought to have given Ahimelech that choice by telling him the truth.

The priest gives David and his men some of the holy bread. In the tabernacle, (and later, in the temple) there was a table that held twelve loaves of bread. This was called the “bread of the presence.” The twelve loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel, sitting in the presence of the Lord. Each week, the priests baked twelve fresh loaves, and took the old ones off. Those old loaves were supposed to be eaten only be the priests and their families, since they were consecrated and considered holy. Ahimelech makes the choice to give some of this consecrated bread to David and his men. 1000 years later, Jesus officially approved this action. He taught that this incident demonstrates that the goal of worship activities is to bring us closer to God – not to serve empty religion and mindless tradition.

In addition to the bread, David obtains the sword of Goliath. Obviously, at some point, he had given it to the priests. This again shows us something about David’s heart. He never looked at his victory over the giant as his personal success. It was God’s victory, on behalf of the entire nation. So he placed the sword in the Lord’s sanctuary, so that all who worshiped could see a physical reminder of God’s power and grace and care for his people.

However, at this point his life, David needs a weapon. So he takes the sword back. It must have done the same thing for him that it did for the worshipers. It would have reminded him of how the Lord cared about him, and fought his battles for him.

After this David fled to the only place he thought he could be safe from Saul – to the Philistines. Once again, we are limited by writers who did not take the time or sheepskin for complete explanations about what happened, or what David could possibly have been thinking. It’s true that now David was Saul’s enemy. As the old saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy, is my friend.” And so he may have expected the Philistines to welcome him. In addition, war in those days was conducted very differently. There were often rules and even a kind of etiquette. It is possible that it would have been very bad form to kill an enemy when you met him away from the battle field; even more so if he came to your town of his own free will.

Even so, David seems to have overlooked the fact that he has killed thousands of Philistines in battle. Though they did not immediately kill or imprison him, the Philistine leaders felt pretty sour about their king welcoming the man who had killed so many of their soldiers and friends. They reminded the king of this, and David realizes that he is not in a good position. So he pretends to be insane until they let him wander off and escape once more.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this part of David’s tumultuous life is his attitude and heart through it all. It is true that he failed and gave in to fear by lying to Ahimelech. But through the rest of it, his heart remained steadfast, trusting in God alone for help. He wrote a psalm shortly after he escaped from the Philistines. Considering his circumstances, what he wrote is remarkable. Here is part of it:

1 I will praise the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.

2 I will boast in the LORD; the humble will hear and be glad.

3 Proclaim Yahweh’s greatness with me; let us exalt His name together.

4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

5 Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed.

6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him from all his troubles.

7 The Angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.

8 Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the man who takes refuge in Him! 9 You who are His holy ones, fear Yahweh, for those who fear Him lack nothing. (Ps 34:1-9, HCSB)

Let’s listen to the Lord for what he would say to us through 1 Samuel 21. Consider some of these questions:

Where do you run to when you are in trouble? Who, or what do you see as your most reliable help in trouble? Is it to the Lord? If not, why not? Take heart from David’s example, and let it encourage you to consider the Lord your best and most certain help. Learn from David that seeking the Lord is even more important than any other kind of assistance you might find.

Maybe your temptation is to cave in to fear, like David did when he lied. His lie had awful consequences. We don’t get to know what would have happened if he had told Ahimelech the truth, but it could hardly have been any worse than what did happen. Maybe the Lord is calling you to be honest in a situation where honesty could ruin a relationship or at least get you in trouble. But before you do, remember the awful consequences to dishonesty.

And what reminds you of God’s power, grace and help given to you in the past? What can encourage you like Goliath’s sword encouraged David? Take a few minutes now to listen to the Lord.

THE BATTLE GOES ON

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, Old Testament, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Christians need to recognized that we are not in neutral territory. We are in the middle of a spiritual war.

1 Samuel #17 Wars within and Without. 1 Samuel chapter 18

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 17

1 Samuel chapter 18 is part of a larger section that records the development of David as a warrior and leader, and the increasing tension between Saul and David.

In number 10 in this series, we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 14, and saw that Jonathan, son of Saul was a very different man from his father. Jonathan was a man of faith. He trusted that if God wanted to deliver his people, he could do it, whatever the odds. I have wondered at times, why Jonathan, being the man he was, did not fight Goliath. The bible doesn’t tell us, but I suspect that Saul might have forbidden him to do it. In any case, it was God’s desire to use David in that situation.

David approached Goliath with exactly the same kind of faith that Jonathan had when fought the Philistines earlier. Jonathan recognized the faith of David and recognized in him, a kindred spirit. Without any pretensions as the king’s son, and in self-confident humility, Jonathan honored David and made a covenant with him. A “covenant” was a solemn agreement. It doesn’t spell out here what exactly the covenant was. I think we can assume that it was a little bit like the old native American tradition of becoming blood brothers. Certainly, they became lifelong friends, inseparable in spirit, loyal to each other in spite of the difficult circumstances that could have come between them. In addition, after the victory over Goliath and the Philistine armies, Jonathan gave David his precious iron-age battle equipment.

Saul had made a vow to honor the giant-killer with marriage to his daughter, and riches, and exemption from royal taxes (17:24-27). But there is a great contrast between Saul and his son. Jonathan made no vow, and yet rewarded David with honor, and such gifts as he had power to give. Saul made promises, and then reneged on them.

After Goliath was killed, the armies of Israel pursued the Philistines to the gates of two of their cities. Previously, Israel had won only defensive victories – they had driven the Philistines out of the hill country when the Philistines invaded. However, this time, spurred by David’s feat of faith, they took the battle into Philistine territory. As they returned from the fight, the people celebrated and sang songs and verses. In their songs they sang that Saul had killed thousands, and David tens of thousands.

This was a faith opportunity for Saul. He could trust that God was Lord of both him and David, and that God would be merciful and good to him even now. But instead, Saul gave in to fear and doubt and insecurity – as he always did. 18:10 says this:

10 The next day an evil spirit sent from God took control of Saul, and he began to rave inside the palace. David was playing the lyre as usual, but Saul was holding a spear, 11 and he threw it, thinking, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David got away from him twice. (1Sam 18:10-11, HCSB)

Previously, when the Lord used the evil spirit to try and bring Saul to repentance, Saul was able to find hope and relief by God’s spirit working through David’s music. But this time, Saul utterly rejected God’s spirit. He chose to not live by faith. He chose to try and control his own fate, apart from God’s plans. And so when David played the lyre for him after this, there was no relief, because Saul cut off all of God’s efforts to reach him.

I want to point out a few things that come out of this particular incident. First, when we close the door on God, it means we open a door to the realm of Satan and evil spirits. I don’t mean that this happens every time we make a single mistake and choose wrongly or fall into sin. But Saul persistently and deliberately rejected God over a long period of time. It seems to me that chapter 18 records a time when Saul makes a firm, final decision to not trust God. Therefore, God had no way to reach him anymore. And since Saul put himself beyond God’s reach, he was a sitting duck for the devil.

Second, we see the intention of all evil spirits – to destroy the work of the Holy Spirit. David was the instrument of the Holy Spirit at that time. The evil spirit, when given control took the most direct route – destroy God’s chosen instrument.

I think it is important for us to recognize the spiritual war that this reveals. David was aware of it in the battle against Goliath. Jonathan was aware of it in his earlier battles. The devil wants to destroy the work of God. Jesus said, talking about Satan in John 10:10 said, “a thief comes to kill, steal and destroy.” Peter wrote this:

8 Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. (1Pet 5:8, HCSB)

This world is not neutral territory – it is a battle ground. All of us who trust in Jesus are now the chosen instruments of the Holy Spirit. The devil cannot kill us all. But he seeks to undo the work that God wants to do in and through us. We don’t need to fear the devil – Jesus told us that he has won the definitive victory over Satan.

18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:18-20, ESV)

Satan cannot harm us if we remain in Jesus. Therefore the New Testament tells us to be alert (1 Peter 5:8), to remain in Jesus (John 15:1), to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:9 and James 4:7) and to take our stand against all the powers of evil in the spiritual realms (Ephesians 6:10-18). We don’t need to be afraid, but we shouldn’t be naïve either. If the devil could, he would drive a spear through you too. Saul shows us the only way the devil can get at us – when we shut God out.

When you feel particularly angry, ask yourself – is my anger level unreasonable? Could the devil be tweaking an already tense situation? Perhaps you feel a weight of sadness and depression that is out of proportion to the situation you are in. Pay attention to it. Don’t just submit to it and let it hang like a cloud over your life – ask the Lord about it. Maybe when you try to move ahead with what the Lord has for you, you encounter continual discouragement — maybe even physical roadblocks. Don’t just accept this. Ask the Lord about it, and you may need to pray specifically against spiritual opposition. Satan’s biggest weapon is deception. If he can get us to believe he isn’t involved, we will never kick him out of places where he doesn’t belong.

Consider David for a moment. He was God’s chosen instrument. He killed the giant. But after the party, the biggest result is that now the king hates him. Reading on, we see more opposition. Saul promised his eldest daughter in marriage to the giant killer. But he reneged on it, and had her marry someone else. As it turns out, that was OK, because Saul’s younger daughter, Michal, loved David. When this came up, Saul, no doubt realizing that not keeping his promises would make him unpopular, proposes that those two marry.

Now, in those days, in that part of the world, a prospective groom was supposed to give goods and property to the father of the bride. This gift was called the “Bride Price.” They did the same thing in Papua New Guinea where I grew up. In New Guinea, the price was usually paid in livestock and other property, and ancient Israel was probably similar. In chapter 17, the wording implies that killing Goliath is more or less equal to providing the bride price. However, in chapter 18:23-25, an additional bride price was clearly part of the negotiations. David said basically, he couldn’t afford to become the king’s son in law. This means two things: first, Saul is now requiring something more from David than the death of Goliath. Second, it means that Saul also went back on his promise to make the giant killer a wealthy man (17:25) – since David had no resources to pay the Bride price.

Saul now requires a new price – that David kill 100 Philistines, and bring back a certain gruesome proof of each death. He was hoping that the extreme danger involved in doing this would actually put an end to David.

None of this is fair. None of Saul’s treatment of David from here on out is righteous or godly. David is God’s chosen instrument – and yet through Saul, the devil is continually cheating him and threatening his life.

Even so, David did not become bitter, or even disrespectful toward Saul. He did not even confront him about his false promises. He continued to trust the Lord to work in him and through him. He continued to do what the Lord put in front of him to do. And through the Lord, he was protected and blessed in his endeavors. He and his men killed not 100, but 200 Philistines. While he remained trusting in the Lord, the devil could not get to him.

So I have a few thoughts for application here. Are you engaged in the mission that God wants to accomplish through your life? If you don’t know, I challenge you to pause and ask God about it right now. If you know you aren’t, I want to warn you that you are endangering the work of God, and yourself.

In addition, when we are letting the Lord live his life through us, we ought to heed the warnings of the New Testament. We need to be alert and aware that the devil is out to attack the work of the Holy Spirit. He wants to stop you from experiencing grace. He wants to stop you from the mission God has for your life – from touching others the way God wants you to. We aren’t in neutral territory – we need to be aware that the devil will try to use every discouragement, every burst of anger, unforgiveness, hate, envy, discord – anything we do not turn over to the Lord.

FACING THE GIANT

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, Old Testament, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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1 Samuel #16. David & Goliath. 1 Samuel Chapter 17

1 Samuel chapter 17 contains one of the most familiar incidents in the whole bible: the fight between David and Goliath. There is one puzzling thing about the text, and I want to deal with that first, so that we conclude by focusing on what the Lord is saying to us through it.

After the whole thing is over, Saul asks his military commander a strange question: “Whose son is this youth, Abner?”

The question is strange because at the end of chapter sixteen, prior to the fight with Goliath, David was brought to court to play the lyre and sing for Saul. The text even says that Saul loved him. And David’s father, Jesse, is mentioned by Saul’s courtiers in chapter 16. This is one of those places where some people claim that the Bible contradicts itself. I want to point out to begin with that there is no theological or spiritual significance to this “contradiction” even if it exists.

Some scholars speculate that chapter 16 and chapter 17 came from two different sources, and the source for chapter 17 was unaware of the account of how David came to court as a singer. The problem with this theory is that whoever put the sources together, right next to each other, must surely have seen the apparent contradictions – but they made no attempt to explain it. Therefore it is safe to assume that whoever wrote the history that we call “1 Samuel” saw no necessary contradiction between these two chapters, and in fact, assumed that readers would be able to understand the differences. And in fact, there are several possible explanations.

Chapter sixteen records how Saul was afflicted with an evil spirit. The manifestation of this was apparently some kind of mental illness. In fact, continuing on through 1 Samuel, Saul exhibits some of the classic symptoms of paranoid-schizophrenia. To put it simply, sometimes, he was a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and confusion went along with that. So his question may have been partly a result of that affliction.

Notice also that David’s brothers are verbally tearing him down. That shows that there is a kind of jealousy there. It hints at the idea that at some point David had been called back home, and the older brothers were concerned about him getting uppity because of his previous time in the court of the King. So it is also quite likely that Saul hasn’t seen David in a while. Since David was still a teenager, he had probably changed a great deal in a short amount of time.

In addition, Saul had promised a reward to the person who killed Goliath. He said the warrior who did it would be married to his daughter. He also said that the whole family of the victor would be exempt from taxes. In order to keep these promises, he needed to officially verify the identity of David’s father, since the father was the key figure in both the marriage arrangements and tax exemption. Remember, Saul doesn’t ask, “who is that young man?” – he asks, “who is his father?”

The man Saul asked was Abner, who was commander of the Army. Saul may have been further confused, because he did not think of David as a warrior, but rather as a minstrel. So when he seems him accomplish a great feat of war, he thinks, “Is that David? Can’t be.” He is seeing him in a whole different context; he has never thought of David as a warrior. So he asks Abner, but he, as military commander, has had nothing to do with David up until now.

All this is to point out once more, that an apparent contradiction in the bible has no spiritual significance, and actually, does not have to be a contradiction at all.

Now, most of us know the story outline pretty well: a young man (almost certainly a teenager) defeats a hardened warrior twice his size. I want to point out a few things that we don’t always consider.

Goliath was about nine feet, six inches tall – almost three meters. He was huge. But Israel had a huge man on their side also – King Saul was likely around seven feet. Certainly, that was smaller than Goliath, but he was bigger than anyone else in the Israeli army. He would have been the natural choice to face Goliath. But Saul was afraid just like everyone else. By this point, he had already rejected his role as God’s chosen instrument.

The bible describes Goliath’s armor. Only two people in the Israeli army had equipment like it: Saul and Jonathan. The armor and weaponry was iron age technology. The rest of the Israelis were using bronze age weapons. The difference, and the advantage it gave the Philistines was a little bit like the difference between muskets and modern semi-automatic rifles. Both can kill you, in roughly the same way, but the more modern weapon is far more deadly.

Saul tried to get David to wear his armor, to even out the advantage. David ultimately rejected it for three reasons. First, it didn’t fit him. Saul was a much bigger man. Second, it was not David’s style. David had fought for his life before, and he didn’t use that sort of thing. God used him differently. Third, David did not believe he was at a disadvantage.

Everyone else looked at the external situation. Here was a man almost twice as big as anyone else. He was well armored, with potent modern weapons that others would have a hard time even lifting. It was like fighting an intelligent, well armored grizzly bear. To send a boy with a sling against a giant with armor was crazy. The odds were completely in favor of the giant.

But David saw it primarily as a spiritual battle. What it looked like on the outside made no difference to him. In David’s eyes, Goliath wasn’t challenging him, or Israel – he was challenging God. So it wasn’t a boy against a giant. It was an arrogant giant…against the Creator of the Universe. All David had to do was give God a chance to strike Goliath down. It didn’t matter what weapons or armor he had. Using the sling wasn’t a clever surprise tactic. It was just the tool that was most handy and familiar to David. The real weapon, in David’s eyes, was the power of God.

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (1Sam 17:45, ESV)

The outcome, of course, made history. David killed Goliath with a stone slung into the skull. He completed the job for certain by cutting off the giant’s head with his own giant sword. David predicts what will happen, and why:

47 and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD’s. He will hand you over to us.” (1Sam 17:47, HCSB)

I invite you to pause for a moment to consider what the Lord might say to you through this. What are you facing in your life that seems like a giant threat? Is there any place where you feel that the odds are stacked against you doing what God wants you to do? I encourage you to see God’s battles from God’s perspective. Now, sometimes we are fighting battles that are not God’s – that is a whole separate issue. But if we are walking in faith, letting Jesus live his life through us, the battles we encounter in the course of doing what He wants to do in us and through us – those are battles that He will fight. All we need to do is grab whatever is most handy and comfortable, and let the Lord do the fighting.

There is a related truth here. God will use you – the unique person that he has made you to be. Others pressed David to take Saul’s armor, to fight the way everyone thought he should fight. David politely but firmly declined. He was just fine for the job, being who God made him to be. So when it comes time to rise to the challenge, I am not saying you should despise advice. But it is OK to approach your challenges as the person that God made you to be. You don’t have to pray in the fashion of “all good prayer warriors.” You don’t have to look or sound exactly like other good Christians as you face your giants. But do listen to the Lord, and do what he tells you.

Do you realize also, like David did, that our battle is not in the arena of flesh and blood, but is actually a spiritual conflict? David actually had to fight a flesh and blood conflict. Even so, he recognized that it was primarily about what was happening spiritually. So, we have to face trials and difficulties of various kinds – and yet it is good to remember the spiritual reality behind it all. Maybe we have to pay bills and it is hard to make ends meet. That is flesh and blood. But there is a battle that goes along with that – the battle of discouragement and hopelessness and the challenge to trust God as provider. Yes, we must deal with the flesh and blood, but the battle is spiritual.

Maybe you have to deal with someone in your life who is difficult, or troublesome or who causes you anguish. Obviously, you encounter that in flesh and blood situations. But the real battle is to trust God, to continually allow God’s power to forgive that person, to recognize that the devil wants you to hold on to rage and bitterness.

Right now, my wife and I both have health issues going on. Nothing life threatening, but they do affect our active lifestyle, and place a financial burden on us. Both of our issues are difficult, complicated and expensive to deal with. We have to deal with them in the realm of flesh and blood. But at the same time, there is a spiritual battle to make us discouraged and hopeless. That’s the real battle and that’s the battle that Lord will win for us every time we let him.

Let the Lord speak to you now about giants and battles!

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Faith, Old Testament, UncategorizedLeave a comment

God is not concerned with your appearance or religious activities. He wants your heart.

1 SAMUEL #14

 

david1

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 14

 

 

I mentioned last time how we need to understand the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament. It contains the first two acts of a three-act play. It won’t make sense until you also see the end. It is all about Jesus. If we just read the Old Testament alone, we get a message that seems to contain a lot about following rules and a mean, incomprehensible God. But every once in a while we get a hint that this is a set up for something more to come – the more that was fully explained and fulfilled in Jesus. In 1 Samuel 16, we get another of these hints.

Saul struggled with insecurity. In his fears he did not turn to God for mercy and grace – instead, he tried to control and manipulate God through religion. He did not want a relationship of trust in the Almighty – he just wanted an Almighty who would do what he (Saul) wanted him to. When it came right down to it, Saul wanted God to serve him, not the reverse. Ultimately, he rejected God, and so God let him go his own way.

The prophet Samuel grieved over this turn of events, and even over Saul personally. This shows us something of the man Samuel was. He knew it was wrong for the people to want a king. He knew that Saul was insecure and not a true follower of the Lord. But Samuel hated to see him fail, hated that he had turned away from God. He knew that because of Saul’s own choices, God could not do anything more with him, but even so, he was sad for Saul.

The Lord told Samuel to go anoint the one who would be the next king of Israel. It is interesting to note that Samuel, for all his care for Saul, had no illusions about what kind of man he was. He thought Saul would have him killed if he found out he was anointing another person to be king. Even so, he obeyed and went to the home of Jesse, a descendant of Judah who lived in Bethlehem.

He had Jesse bring his sons with him to a sacrifice that they offered to the Lord. When Samuel saw Jesse’s oldest son, he was impressed.

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the LORD’s anointed is before him.” But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Sam 16:6-7, ESV)

This one of those times when the curtain is drawn back, the Old Testament shows plainly what God is after. It may be one of the most important verses in the Old Testament. God looks at the heart. The word for “heart” is a form of the Hebrew word “leb.” This is a word with a rich meaning, just as “heart” is in English. In German leben – a very similar sounding word – means life. In Hebrew this word means innermost being, intellect, the center of a person or thing.

Writer Brent Curtis points out how important the heart is:

We describe a person without compassion as “heartless,” and we urge him or her to “have a heart.” Our deepest hurts we call “heartaches.” Jilted lovers are “brokenhearted.” Courageous soldiers are “bravehearted.” The truly evil are ‘black-hearted” and saints have “hearts of gold.” If we need to speak at the most intimate level we ask for a “heart-to-heart” talk. “Lighthearted” is how we feel on vacation. And when we love someone as truly as we may, we love “with all our heart.” But when we lose our passion for life, when a deadness sets in which we cannot seem to shake, we confess, “My heart’s just not in it.”

Curtis adds, “it is in our heart that we first hear the voice of God and it is in the heart that we come to know him and live in his love…For above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart.”

Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance

Continue reading “THE HEART OF THE MATTER” →

OBEDIENCE, OR TRUST (OR BOTH)?

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, Old Testament, UncategorizedLeave a comment

What does it mean to obey God? Do we have to?

1 Samuel #13. The Obedience of Faith

 

defusebomb2

(and what the heck does this picture have to do with it?)

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 13

 

The Old Testament has a lot of value for us in many ways. We can learn from examples, both positive and negative. We can see how God deals with people who live by faith, and with those who don’t. We can receive comfort in God’s promises to his people (and if we trust Jesus, we are his people, those promises are for us). We can learn about God’s standard for holiness.

But we must never forget that the Old Testament is first and foremost about Jesus. The Life, death and resurrection of Jesus are the central concern not only of the New Testament, but also of the Old Testament. Luke describes how Jesus helped his disciples to understand this.

25 He said to them, “How unwise and slow you are to believe in your hearts all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Didn’t the Messiah have to suffer these things and enter into His glory? ” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Luke 24:44-45 (ESV)

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures

The Jews divided the Old Testament into two parts: “the Law” or “the book of Moses” which are the first five books of Bible. The second part was called “the Prophets” and it included not only the books which we call “prophetic” but in fact, all of the other books of the Old Testament. So when the New Testament says “the Law and the Prophets” or “Moses and the Prophets” it means “the entire Old Testament.”

The purpose of the entire Bible is to help us to know Jesus better and walk with him in faith. So even as we read these Old Testament scriptures, we should be asking, “Lord, show us Jesus in this part of scripture.”

I think this is particularly important when we come to a section like 1 Samuel 15. We talked about the concerns of Holy War last time, but now we get to a part that is very easy to apply wrongly.

Saul disregarded the Lord’s command to utterly destroy the Amalekites. He spared the life of the Amalekite king. Quite possibly he did this because, out of fear for his own head, he wanted his followers as well as foreign armies, to differentiate between royalty and ordinary people. In any case, he disobeyed God’s command in this respect. He also allowed his followers to keep the best livestock alive. Once again, this may have been from insecurity. His warriors may have been grumbling about pointlessly killing good animals. Even if they weren’t, he may have wanted to appear gracious and become popular by rewarding those who fought with him. There may not be anything wrong with that, except that the Lord clearly commanded otherwise.

When Samuel confronts Saul about what he has done (or, failed to do) Saul claims that he has saved all the animals for sacrificing to the Lord. Frankly, I think he was lying. I think he got caught, and he decided in that moment to make up for his failure to obey by making a sacrifice with the captured animals.

Samuel says something very significant:

Then Samuel said: Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. (1Sam 15:22)

This is theme repeated throughout both the Old and New Testaments. The Psalms reference this exact concept several times. So does Isaiah, and Hosea. Jesus mentioned the idea a few times in the New Testament. Even so, we need to be careful as we apply this to our own lives. It is very easy to say, “That’s right. I just need to obey God. We just need to do the right thing. What’s the point of saying we follow God if we don’t obey him?” I understand this attitude, but I think it tends to lead us away from the true meaning of this passage.

First, I think it comes back again to the fact that Saul was religious, but had no relationship with God. What he did seemed good. Saving the animals to sacrifice later was a religious thing. After all, sacrifices were part of Jewish religion. But Saul used his religion to keep from actually interacting with God, actually listening to him and responding in faith to what God said. Jesus said the Pharisees were religious like Saul too, and he hated it. Instead of listening to what the Lord actually said, they practiced religion. So this is a warning to us, to not let religion get in the way of faith. Religion keeps track of rules and regulations to follow, instead of living in a real, faith-relationship. In all sincerity, I try not to be religious. But living in faith is very important to me. Sometimes “sacrifice” is obedience. But we don’t live by rules, rather by relationship.

Second, we must understand that Jesus fulfilled this passage on our behalf. The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 40, and says that it is fulfilled in Jesus:

6 ​​​​​​​​In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, ​​​​​​​but you have given me an open ear. ​​​​​​​Burnt offering and sin offering ​​​​​​​you have not required. ​​​ 7 ​​​​​​​​Then I said, “Behold, I have come; ​​​​​​​in the scroll of the book it is written of me: ​​​ 8 ​​​​​​​​I delight to do your will, O my God; ​​​​​​​your law is within my heart.” ​​​ Ps 40:6-8 (ESV)

Jesus delighted in God’s will. He didn’t live according to religious rules – the law of God was within his heart and during his time on earth he lived out that law through dependence upon the Father. He obeyed God perfectly. We cannot obey perfectly. So Jesus did it on our behalf. The obedience we owe God is complete and perfect in Jesus Christ, and only in Him. So when you think, “Oh, I have to obey God, because to obey is better than sacrifice” actually what you should hear is “I need to trust Jesus even more. Trusting him is my obedience, because has already done the obedience for me. Rather than act more religious, I need to trust more.” This is living by faith.

One reason we sometimes get confused is because obedience and trust can sometimes look the same. When you live by faith, it does result in certain actions. It does eliminate other actions. The bible does use the term “obedience.” But we must remember, it is the obedience of faith – not the self-effort of religion. Let me give you a little analogy to help us understand this.

I love spy/suspense shows like the Bourne Identity. Not everything in these shows is entirely righteous, but living in faith, we can find good things in them. Sometimes in shows like this, one of the characters may encounter a time-bomb. Picture a scene like this, where a lady has just a few seconds to defuse a bomb. She doesn’t know how to do it. But she gets on the phone with her friend who does. He tells her, “cut the blue wire, but be sure not to cut the red one.” So she carefully cuts the blue wire, but not the red one.

Now what is going on here? Is she obeying her friend, or trusting him?

Well, both, of course. But you see, her actions of obedience proceed from her trust of her friend. She trusts that he knows how to save her. She trusts that if she does what he says, she will be safe. And so, because of that trust, she acts according to what he says. She isn’t just doing what her bomb-expert friend says because it is the right thing to do. She isn’t doing it from a sense of moral obligation. She is “obeying” him because she trusts that he wants to save her life, and has the power (in this case knowledge) to do so.

You could call it obedience. But I would call it primarily trust. The obedience is a result of the trust.

I want to pursue this analogy a little bit further. In order to get this kind of trust-obedience, you need several factors. First, you have to believe that your life is really in danger. If the lady didn’t believe the bomb was real, chances are, she wouldn’t have called her friend anyway. She would not have been seeking the help she needed, because she wouldn’t have believed she needed it. Second, she had to believe that her friend had the knowledge that could save her. Third, she had to believe that her friend wanted to save her.

Peter expressed this attitude of faith. A lot of people had turned away from following God and Jesus was left with just the twelve apostles.

66 f After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to g the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have h the words of eternal life, 69 and i we have believed, and have come to know, that j you are k the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66)

When we encounter problems with obeying God in our own lives, I think it is usually a combination of these factors at play. Maybe we believe that the situation isn’t really very serious. Although we think obeying God is the right thing, when it comes down to it, we think we’ll be OK even if we don’t. We don’t see his words as life and salvation. So we don’t obey because we don’t believe our problem is that big.

Second, maybe we doubt whether God really has the answers we need. Perhaps we don’t obey him because we aren’t sure that what he is saying to us is relevant and helpful to us in our own situation. I think this was one of Saul’s major issues. He seemed to feel that God was fine for religious things, but in everyday life, you had to take care of yourself and use your common sense. Saul didn’t seem to think the command for Holy War was really right or had any value in his situation.

Third, we sometimes don’t obey because we aren’t sure we can trust God. Maybe we aren’t sure if he really has our best interests at heart.

Do you see the solution to the obedience problem – no matter what causes it? Faith. In each case, we need to change what we believe. We need to make a leap of trust. We need to trust that our situation is in fact serious, and we really do need the Lord to make it through life. We need to trust that the Lord really does have what it takes to save us, that his words are life; we need to trust that He is relevant in every moment of our lives. And we need to trust that he really has our best interests in his heart.

The devil likes to trick us into religion. Do the right thing because it is the right thing. And something in us responds to that. After all, it is the right thing. But is the wrong path, the wrong way to go about it. We can do the right thing with our own effort – for a while. But we fail eventually because it based upon our efforts, not the obedience that Jesus has already done on our behalf.

Then the devil likes to beat us up: You just aren’t obedient enough. You just don’t try hard enough. But the problem isn’t effort. The real solution lies in trusting more. Jesus has obeyed perfectly. His righteous obedience has become ours (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our part is to trust. If we do truly trust, then our lives will reflect the kind of actions the Lord desires. But it doesn’t start with our action, it starts with our trust.

So let me put it to you today. Do you trust that your situation is serious? Do you remember that no one gets out of this world without dying? Do you recognize that you are in a desperate place, the bomb is about to go off and you can only get help from one place?

Do you trust that the Lord has the right, relevant Word for you? Do you accept that he knows better than you, that he will save you if you trust him to?

And do you know that he wants to save you? Do you trust his goodness?

Take a moment right now to let the Lord into your thoughts and prayers as you consider these things.

Holy War! What is it Good For?

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, Old Testament, Uncategorized1 Comment

1 SAMUEL #12. (1 SAMUEL 15:1-3)

holywar

 

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

 

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 12

 

There is one big and totally natural question when we read 1 Samuel chapter 15. Why did God want the Israelites to destroy every living Amalekite? Why the women and children too? How can we accept that God wanted this, and yet still believe that he is merciful, forgiving and loving? There are a handful of passages like this in the Old Testament, and for the modern mind, it seems inexplicable and even repulsive. I think we can get help sorting this out if we consider three things.

First, God does not answer to us. The questions are natural, but the truth is, God does not owe us an explanation. Our human nature wants God to justify himself toward us. But this is exactly the opposite of the situation the Bible describes. We are accountable for our actions before God, not the other way around. If God indeed made the universe, if he is infinite and we are not, then he has the right to do what he wants, and what he wants may be beyond the ability of our limited minds to comprehend.

This is true, but the Lord often chooses to reveal his reasons anyway. So the second thing to consider is that this is about holiness. Several weeks ago I shared what happens when pure sodium is exposed to water. The sodium explodes and burns up. Pure sodium simply cannot exist in the presence of water. The greatest scientist in the world cannot bring the two things into actual contact without creating spontaneous combustion. In the same way, sin simply cannot exist in the presence of God. So unless there is some kind of intervention, God’s presence will destroy sin. We live after the time of Jesus. Jesus and his sacrifice have eliminated the holiness problem for us, if we trust him. He has made us holy. He took the destruction of sin into himself so we could be spared. But we forget that without Jesus, God’s holiness is a huge problem for sinful people. Sin is so serious and God’s holiness is so pure, that if it wasn’t for Jesus, it requires the destruction of every living thing associated with sin.

The Israelites, however imperfectly, were living in faith that God’s promises to Abraham were true, and that God would redeem them from their sins. So the Lord included them in what he was going to do through Jesus. Their faith in God’s promises protected them from the effect of God upon sin. Paul writes to the Romans:

1 So what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? 2 Considerable in every way. First, they were entrusted with the spoken words of God. 3 What then? If some did not believe, will their unbelief cancel God’s faithfulness? 4 Absolutely not! God must be true, even if everyone is a liar, as it is written: That You may be justified in Your words and triumph when You judge. 5 But if our unrighteousness highlights God’s righteousness, what are we to say? I use a human argument: Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? 6 Absolutely not! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? (Rom 3:1-6 )

Is God unrighteous to inflict wrath? Absolutely not. His presence destroys sin, whether or not you believe his words. The only salvation through Jesus Christ, by faith. This was true even for the generations who lived before Jesus came:

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. (Romans 3:22-26 NLT, emphasis mine)

Everyone in the past who believed God’s promises, was included in what God was going to do through Jesus. But in Old Testament times, before Jesus had come, those who rejected God became physical illustrations of how serious God’s holiness is, and how big a problem our sin is. God was showing the world their desperate need for a messiah who could bridge a gap between our sin and God’s holiness.

In the case of the Amalekites and the other Canaanite tribes that God commanded Israel to destroy, they were given both a witness to God’s holiness and grace, and an abundance of time to repent of sin. All the way back in the time of Abraham, the Lord said this:

13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. 14 However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. 15 But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. 16 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” Gen 15:13-16 (emphasis mine)

Amorites were just one of the tribes that Israel was supposed to drive out or destroy. They had witnesses to the truth of God through Abraham, Lot, Isaac, and Jacob. They had four hundred years after Jacob to correct their ways – God was still giving them a chance to repent and live in faith. For forty years, after the Israelites left Egypt the nations in Canaan heard about what God did for them. They had the chance to repent during that time, and a few of them did (Joshua 2:9-15).

The Israelites invaded the Canaanite lands under Joshua. The Israelites in subsequent generations did not eradicate the Canaanites as they were supposed to. So the tribes of Canaan had four hundred more years through the time of the Judges to repent and follow the Lord. All told, these civilizations had roughly 800 years before the time of Saul to repent and follow God. During all of those centuries, they were witnesses to the truth about God through the Israelites. So it isn’t as if God suddenly woke up one day and said, “ You know, I hate the Amalekites.” Basically, the Canaanite civilizations had showed, over the course of about 800 years, that they would not live by faith, that they would not repent, that they were determined to continue in their sinful, rebellious ways. As such, there was no purpose in giving them more time, and until they were eradicated, they remained a spiritual and military threat to God’s people.

A third possible reason for this harsh command was that while the Canaanite peoples continued to live in the land next to the people of Israel, the people of God were often led astray. The Israelites were the only people in the whole world who understood about living in faith. They were the people entrusted with the word of God, as Paul points out in Romans. God could not allow them to be corrupted and lose the truth. If they lost it, the whole world lost it. So the Lord commanded his people to take extreme measures to make sure the world did not lose the truth about faith-relationship with God.

Fourth, God did not choose the promised land randomly. For thousands of years it has been both the cradle and the crossroads of civilization. Trade routes flowed through the land from Africa to Asia and Europe, back from Europe to Asia and Africa, and from Asia to Africa and Europe. It is the meeting place of three continents and two oceans. Whoever lived in this geographical location from the beginning of civilization until the fall of the Roman Empire was in a position to spread ideas, culture and religion to most of the people in the world. In fact, one reason Christianity spread so quickly and influentially is because it began in the Holy Land. In fact, the three most dominant religions in the world – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – all began in the Holy Land. The reasons these three are so widespread is due in part to geography. Even today, Jerusalem is a major epicenter of the world political situation. [click the link to keep reading]

Continue reading “Holy War! What is it Good For?” →

MAKE A MOVE OR SIT STILL?

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Faith, UncategorizedLeave a comment

1 Samuel #10. Faith (1 Samuel Chapter 14:1-23)

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:


To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 10

Please read 1 Samuel 14 in order to understand what we will talk about here.

Last time we saw what came out of Saul when he was pressured. In that particular situation, what the Lord wanted him to do was wait in faith. He did not want Saul to try and save himself. He did not want Saul to just do something to hold things together. But Saul tried to make something happen on his own.

In chapter 14, Saul and his son Jonathan and the rest of the army are still basically in the same situation. The Philistines have almost cut the nation of Israel in half. The ordinary people in the region of the invasion have gone into hiding. Saul started out with 3,000 professional soldiers, but now he is left with only 600. In other words the only difference between the situation recorded here in chapter 14, and that in chapter 13, is that now, Saul has lost two thirds of his men to desertion. All his efforts to do something on his own have achieved nothing. Some might have thought of Saul’s actions as bold leadership. He offered the sacrifice. He made a move. He didn’t just sit there. But that didn’t stop a large majority of people from deserting anyway.

Now, we might conclude from this that when great pressure is upon us, the Lord wants us to sit still and wait for him, and do nothing. That could indeed be true. But we can’t make a law out of it. Sometimes he may want us to wait, even when things seem to be falling apart. But at other times, in almost the exact same situation, he may want us to act. The key to understanding whether you should act, or whether you should sit still, is to cultivate your relationship with the Lord. The Bible is an indispensable tool in doing that. If we treated it as only a rule-book, we wouldn’t need God at all. We could just follow the book. But actually, “the book” is all about helping us follow God, not a pre-determined set of rules covering all possible eventualities.

Saul’s son Jonathan, is NOT a chip off the old block. He appears to be a man of great faith. Even though he saw that his father had made a mistake, Jonathan did not, from that, assume that it meant things were the same for him and he should sit still and do nothing. He seems to have had a genuine faith relationship with God. He is willing to act, but he is also willing to not act. He knew the point was to ask this question: “Lord, what do you want to do in this situation?”

We see Jonathan’s faith first in his remarks to his armor bearer, his assistant in battle.

Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “Come on, let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised men. Perhaps the LORD will intervene for us. Nothing can prevent the LORD from delivering, whether by many or by a few.” (1 Samuel 14:6)

He has it on his heart to do something. He assumes that the Lord is working through that. In addition, see how he is motivated not by fear, but by faith. In chapter 13, Saul acted out of fear. He thought, “I am outnumbered already, and now I am losing men. I just need to do something.” Jonathan thinks the opposite: “It doesn’t matter how many men we have. What matters is whether or not God wants us to do something. If he does, the two of us are enough.” Jonathan’s action is prompted not by fear, but by faith. It proceeds from the relationship he has with God.

Notice that Jonathan doesn’t leave it there. He is prompted by faith. He trusts that God doesn’t need 3,000 or even 600 men to defeat the Philistines. But he does want God to confirm that he is leading Jonathan to do this. So when they get closer, Jonathan gives the Lord a chance to show him, one way or another, what He wants him to do.

8 Jonathan replied, “All right! We’ll go over to these men and fight them. 9 If they say to us, ‘Stay put until we approach you,’ we will stay right there and not go up to them. 10 But if they say, ‘Come up against us,’ we will go up. For in that case the LORD has given them into our hand – it will be a sign to us.”

Jonathan is not following a rule book. He is following the living God. And so he opens up to letting the Lord interact with him, and show him what to do. As it happens, what the Lord wants Jonathan to do is opposite of what he wanted Saul to do just a short time earlier. The Philistines taunt him. Basically, they say, “Hey, c’mere. We want to show you something.” It’s a sadistic joke. If he climbs up to their position, they’ll kill him. But this is the sign that Jonathan asked for, so he and his armor-bearer climb up to them.

The Philistines had assumed they were just trading taunts. They didn’t really expect two people to be crazy enough to attack uphill against overwhelming numerical superiority. They didn’t count on a warrior like Jonathan, and they didn’t count on God. Jonathan and his assistant killed twenty Philistines in a short span of time and within a pretty small area.

This threw the garrison into panic and confusion. Perhaps they sensed something supernatural in the ferocity and deadliness of Jonathan’s attack. Their panic spread to the other Philistine soldiers as they fled. Apparently, God timed an earthquake to coincide with the assault, only increasing the confusion and fear.

Soldiers talk about the “fog of war.” In the midst of battle things are very hectic and often happen very fast and confusion develops in a hurry. The Philistines had no radios, no overhead airplanes or other modern conveniences to offset the fog of war. Things got worse for them and soon there was a general panic.

Saul, encamped some distance away with his army noticed the stir in the Philistine positions. Just a few days (at the most, weeks) earlier, Saul had been ready to do something – anything – to try and make something happen and show himself a leader. If he had listened to God, he would have heard that at that point in time, that was the wrong course. But Saul still hasn’t learned his lesson. Now is the time to act. If he would just pray and listen for God’s response, he would know it. But Saul does not have that kind of relationship with God. Samuel told him that it was wrong to act, last time. So now, when he should be following up on Jonathan’s bold blow, Saul hesitates.

He sends for the priest and the Ark of the Covenant. Saul doesn’t have the confidence that Jonathan has, the confidence that God will lead him. So Saul needs to have the priest perform a religious ceremony to tell him what to do. Even so, as the ceremony begins, the confusion among the Philistines increases even more, and Saul basically says to the priest, “forget it. Let’s just go.”

So you see he wasn’t really serious about hearing from God. He just wasn’t sure at first if the battle would go his way. When things got to a point where it was obvious that the Philistines could be defeated, he dropped his attempt to hear from God, and joined in. As before in his life, Saul just looks at God as a means to an end. He only wants to connect with God in situations where God can do something for him.

The battle became a rout. Remember, the Philistines were led by five kings, from five different Philistine cities. So, many of the professional warriors on the battlefield did not know each other. It is highly unlikely that there were any kind of regular Philistine uniforms. There would have been many different war banners, designating different leaders and army units. Now, during the initial assault, the first garrison of Philistines were faced with only two warriors. They lost a lot of men, and quickly fled. It is likely that they ran headlong toward other Philistine positions to get away. But the other Philistine units may not have recognized them. They may have looked for enemies, and seen no one other than the mob running toward them. After all, there were only two real enemies on the field. So scripture records that they began fighting each other. They weren’t crazy, they were just unfamiliar with their own allies, and confused. The retreat of the unit that Jonathan attacked was probably considered an attack by the unit that they fled toward. This kind of confusion spread rapidly. By the time Saul and the rest of his 600 men joined in it was easy. The Israelites who had been hiding realized the Philistines were fleeing, and they came out to help also. Apparently some Israelites had joined the Philistines, or been conscripted by them. They turned on their Philistine masters. Now the victory was really on.

When I was at Oregon State University, I took a course in botany. I was given a “key” to the flora of Western Oregon. It was a book, about as thick as a bible, that could help me figure out the species of virtually any plant I was likely to see in that area. The way it worked was to present with me with a possible choice, and, depending on what I chose, send me to another page with another set of choices, until my choices narrowed down to the correct answer. So I might start by deciding if I was dealing with an evergreen or deciduous plant. Say I chose deciduous. Then it would ask me to choose whether the leaves were lobed or not. Say I chose lobed. Next I might choose whether the leaves were directly opposite each other, or if they were staggered, or if they were in clumps. And so in one case I proceeded through each step, covering every possible plant I might encounter, until I narrowed it down to find out I was holding poison oak, which I could have found out just by waiting a few days for the rash to appear.

Sometimes, we are tempted to treat the Bible or religion like a “key” to life. We expect that we should find specific instructions for every possible scenario. And we assume that if the answer was “X” one time, than the next time we encounter a similar scenario, the answer will still be “X.” But that isn’t really what the Bible is for. The Bible is to help us to get to know God. The answer is always in relationship with the Lord. And if we start treating the Bible or religion as an answer key instead of as a means to get close to God, we will miss the point. The idea is this: The Bible helps us get to know the Lord – and then the Lord tells us what he wants us to know or do. It won’t contradict the Bible. But if you have the Bible and not a faith based relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ, you don’t have the right answer, no matter how well you know the Bible.

The lesson here is not, “you should wait when you are pressured.” Nor is it, “you should move forward decisively when you are pressured.” No. The message is that you should cultivate your relationship with God. Then when you are under pressure and need to know what to do, you won’t be like Saul, hesitating and unsure. You can simply check with the Lord, and move forward – or not – as he leads you.

Maybe there is something else here for you. Perhaps you needed to hear God speak through Jonathan – “nothing can stop the Lord from saving, whether by many, or by few.” Maybe you are tempted, like Saul, to believe deliverance cannot come until you have more – more people, more resources, more time, more money…whatever. But maybe the Lord is saying to you, “what you have is plenty. The point is not your resources, but mine.”

Let Him speak to you right now.

What Comes Out When you are Squeezed?

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, Old Testament, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The tough times that Saul faced revealed what was inside him. What do tough times reveal about you?

1 SAMUEL PART 9. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 13

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To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 9

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During his first battle as leader of Israel, Saul defeated an enemy that dominated the Eastern tribes of Israel, as well as the Jordan valley. After that victory, the people finally accepted him officially as king. Saul conscripted 3,000 professional warriors and sent everyone else home. He let his son Jonathan command 1,000 of the soldiers.

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Everything we read about Jonathan suggests he was an outstanding young man in every way. He took his 1,000 men and promptly handed the Philistines a stinging defeat. This was good, as far as it went, but basically it had the same effect has kicking a hornet’s nest, or shooting a grizzly bear with a BB gun. Jonathan inflicted damage, but he didn’t impair the power of the Philistines to make war. In addition, after almost a generation of peace with Philistines (under the leadership of Samuel), the war was beginning again. We will see as we go on that Jonathan had a warrior’s heart, and a trust in the Lord, and he wasn’t worried about stirring up Israel’s old enemy. The problem was, the rest of Israel – including his father – was worried. The news of victory was carried throughout the land, but this is how it went:

“Saul has attacked the Philistine garrison, and Israel is now repulsive to the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 13:4)

At this point, we need some historical and geographical background. Chapter 13:19-23 describes something very significant. It tells us that these events took place at the end of the Bronze Age, and the beginning of the Iron Age. Quite simply, at this point the Philistines had Iron-Age technology, and the Israelites did not. This is one clue to why the Philistines were so feared by the Israelites, and why they were such a persistent military problem. They had iron weapons, and the Israelites did not. When we keep this mind, this makes any Israelite victory over the Philistines something of a miracle.

I want to chase a side trail for just a moment. 13:5 records the number of Philistine warriors. Some translations will say 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen. Other bible passages record battles involving tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of people. This seems surprising to me; in fact unlikely. For most of history, battles did not involve hundreds of thousands of people, and rarely involved even tens of thousands. It used to trouble me as a potential issue with the reliability of the bible. However, I think the answer may lie in ancient Hebrew. Ancient Hebrew did not include any vowels. The vowel was implied by the context. Even today, Hebrew vowels are expressed as little punctuation type marks, not by actual letters. Anyway, the point is, that the word for thousand “eleph”(“lp” in Hebrew) looks exactly the same as the word for professional solider — “alluph” (also “lp” in Hebrew). Thus, 100 lp could be 100,000 people, or simply 100 professional soldiers. In addition, “eleph” (thousand) can mean a few other things as well, just as many words in English have more than one meaning (For example: Present can mean “here” or “gift” or “the current moment in time” or “to show or display.”) Remember of course, professional soldiers were usually accompanied by peasant-militia troops as well.

In addition, we have examples of parallel passages where extra zeroes have been added or dropped. 2 Samuel 10:18 records the defeat of 700 chariots; 1 Chronicles 19:18, speaking of exactly the same incident, writes 7,000. Generally, I would suspect the lower number to be correct. So if you ever read these numbers and think, “Gee, that sounds like a much bigger number than seems likely,” you can knock off a zero – and in some cases, three zeros – and still agree that the bible is faithful and reliable. The problem is simply in the translation.

In any case, we ought to understand that whatever the actual number – 3,600 or 36,000 – for the times, it was a formidable professional fighting force that the Philistines sent into Israelite territory, along with a large number of peasant-militia troops. It was a big threat in two additional ways. First, up until this point, the Philistines had stayed mostly on the coastal plain. Technically, that was Israelite territory also, given to them by the Lord when they entered the promised land, however, Israelites had never really lived there. But in the incident recorded in 1 Samuel 13, the Philistines were pushing inland, up into the mountains that had been occupied by Israelites for hundreds of years.

Secondly, the Philistine invasion recorded here nearly cut the nation of Israel in half. They pushed all the way to Micmash, which was just a few miles short of the Jordan River valley. If they moved all the way down to the Jordan, the largest tribe in Israel (Judah) would be cut off, along with the tribes of Benjamin and Dan, and roughly half of the territory of Israel would be isolated from the other tribes. In clip_image002other words, the Philistines were about to take a gigantic, and possibly fatal bite out of Israel. See the picture at left. The brown line shows the territory occupied by Israelite tribes, and the yellow is the Philistines (this is a rough approximation, just to give you an idea of the danger they were in). Micmash is the yellow dot. The red dot next to the river is Gilgal, and the red dot closer to the Philistines is Gibeah.

Israel was just a few miles and one lost battle away from a huge national catastrophe.

It is interesting to note that Saul had originally held the position at Micmash, but retreated from the Philistines down into the Jordan valley. He gathered his army at Gilgal, a town in the Jordan river valley not far from the Philistines as the crow flies, but a fairly rough walk up or down the mountains by foot. The text doesn’t explain things clearly but apparently Samuel had sent a message to Saul, telling him to wait until he came, and then they would worship the Lord and make sacrifices before commencing the battle. In other words, they wanted God’s favor and help when they went out to fight.

Now it is quite likely that Samuel’s home town was affected by this invasion. The Philistine forces may have also forced Samuel to travel a considerable distance out of his way to get to Saul – remember, they had almost cut the nation in half. In any case, days passed, and Samuel did not show up. Saul’s army got restless and afraid. No doubt, many men were thinking of their families, wanting to prepare them for the disaster, or wondering if their homes had already been overrun by the enemy. They began to desert.

So Saul took action. He decided to go ahead and lead the worship and offer the sacrifices himself. He made the burnt offering. This was animal that was killed and completely burned up. No part of it was eaten – it was all “given” to the Lord through fire. It was used to seek God’s favor, to bring God’s forgiveness or to avert judgment. Just when Saul finished, Samuel finally made it to the camp.

Now, here is what troubles me. I think many Americans, if they didn’t read any further, would approve of what Saul did. People might say, “he’s a go-getter, a self-motivated leader.” They might think, “There’s a real leader – he’s losing men so he takes bold decisive action, he makes something happen.”

But Samuel didn’t see it that way, and apparently, neither did God.

13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 15 And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. (1Sam 13:13-15, ESV)

The prophet immediately identified that the problem was Saul’s heart. It wasn’t fixed on God. Instead we see now that Saul was not humble, but rather insecure. He was worried about the future of Israel, of course. He was worried about his own ability to keep the men with him and maintain an effective fighting force. He did not trust the Lord with these concerns. Instead, he trusted in his own action. He trusted in the offering ceremony. Clearly, Saul viewed the offerings as a tool. It was a way to keep his army together and energized; perhaps also a way to manipulate God into helping him. Saul did not offer the sacrifices to please the Lord, or because was personally repentant or worshipful. If either of those had been the case, he would have waited for Samuel, who was the one who was supposed to do such things.

Saul was in a tight spot, there’s no doubt about it. But the tense situation did not create the problem in his heart. It only revealed it. When you squeeze an orange, what comes out? Whatever is inside the orange of course, which is orange juice. Now, when you are squeezed, what comes out? Whatever is inside you, of course. If you curse and rage when you are in a tough spot, that is because cursing and rage are inside you. Jesus said:

20“What comes out of a person — that defiles him. 21 For from within, out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, 22 adulteries, greed, evil actions, deceit, promiscuity, stinginess, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” (Mark 7:7-23)

45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

When Saul was squeezed by his circumstances, he did not put his faith steadfastly in the Lord. He refused to wait on God or on other people. He let his insecurity rule him, and he chose to act, rather than depend on the Lord. When Saul was squeezed, it was fear that came out. He put his trust in the number of men he had, rather than the Lord. It was more important to him to keep as many men as possible, than it was to seek God and his favor. His situation was not easy. But it didn’t cause his heart-problem – it just revealed it.

This is all about trusting God when things don’t look good – maybe things look disastrous. If you get squeezed, what do you think will come out? What is in the treasure-store of your heart?

What if it isn’t good? What if, like Saul, you have insecurity hiding there? What if there is rage or hatred or jealousy or selfishness? I think Saul had the opportunity to repent. When he was tempted, he could have turned to the Lord, confessed his weakness, and put his trust in the Lord. I think that is what we need to do when we are squeezed, and we see there is a problem in our hearts.

There may be an application here for you if you are faced with a difficult situation. Perhaps you feel a lot of pressure just to act, to do something, to make something happen. Sometimes the Lord does lead us to do that. We’ll see that with Jonathan next time. But if the Lord is calling you to wait, or if your action would be from fear or insecurity, maybe you need to sit still and wait for God to show up. Take a moment to the Lord speak to you no

GRACE FOR YOUR MISTAKES

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Faith, UncategorizedLeave a comment

1 SAMUEL PART 8. (chapter 12)

saul

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 8

Think for a moment about some decision you made, or action you took that you now know was a mistake. What would you change today, if you could? How would your life be different?

We all know that you can’t go back and unsay those cruel words, or un-make that decision that led you to where you are today. I’m not going to pretend that I’ve found a way to do that. But I do think that through 1 Samuel chapter 12, God is offering grace even after we have stepped out on the wrong road. It isn’t grace to go back. It is grace to go on.

In first Samuel chapter 8, the people asked God, through Samuel, to give them a king. This was a rejection of God’s plan for them as a nation. It was a choice to exchange the freedom and protection they could have had in following the Lord for the false-security of a king who would take care of them, but also rule over them. Samuel, in his wisdom knew it was a mistake. He talked to God about it, who affirmed Samuel’s instinct that it was mistake. But the people were determined.

Not only did they want a king, they wanted a certain kind of king. Their requirements were also a mistake. But the people were determined. The Lord allowed them to choose their own way. They did, and their choice was a major screw up. Even so, God let them go ahead with it, and helped them to find a king. The man who met their specifications was Saul, a big impressive looking fellow was also insecure and spiritually insensitive and ignorant.

Even so, the Lord began to use Saul right away. In choosing him, the Lord removed an old shame from many thousands of people, and set up Israel with a magnificent big champion to match a Philistine giant whom no one yet knew about.

God chose Saul through the prophet Samuel. First Samuel anointed Saul in private. Later he was chosen by God in a public assembly of the leaders of Israel. Even so, nothing really happened. After the events we looked at last time – after a great military victory – the people finally made Saul an honest king.

15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and there in the LORD’s presence they made Saul king. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings in the LORD’s presence, and Saul and all the men of Israel greatly rejoiced. 1 Sam 11:15 (HCSB)

So you see, even their approach to the king was not one of faith in the Lord and his choice. They waited until Saul gave them something of what they were looking for – military victory – before they accepted God’s help in choosing the king.

After it was finally all official, Samuel stood before the people and made a speech. That speech is the text of 1 Samuel chapter 12.

First, Samuel wanted to make sure his conscience was clear. He also wanted to draw a contrast between his own actions, and the rights of a king. Samuel has never taken anything that wasn’t his. Yet he had warned the people in 8:10-18 that the King would have the right to take many things from the people in taxes to run his household and the kingdom. The people affirmed that Samuel had been a good and fair leader. There is an almost an unspoken implication to this part of Samuel’s speech “So – in me, God gave you a good and fair leader who listened to him and did right. But you wanted a king!”

Next, Samuel reminded them of God’s faithfulness. The Lord led them out of Egypt as a great nation – but without a king. They had Moses, a prophet, and Aaron, a priest, but no king. And the Lord cared for them and provided for them. Although Samuel doesn’t mention this explicitly, the troubles the people had in the wilderness during the exodus were not due to lack of a king, but rather to disobedience to the Lord.

During the time of the Judges, the people had troubles again. But Samuel points out two things. First, the trouble was their own doing, not because they lacked a king. It came because they quit following the Lord. Second, when they repented and cried out for God’s help, he was gracious and delivered them.

11 So the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel. He rescued you from the power of the enemies around you, and you lived securely.

The point Samuel is making is that when they followed the Lord faithfully, he delivered them protected them, and they lived in peace and security. All this took place without a human king. The Lord was their king. Samuel is saying – look, when you were faithful to God, the old way worked just fine. God did so much for you. Even so, you are ignoring everything he did for you. You are claiming it just isn’t working out, when the reason it isn’t working out is your own stubbornness, your own turning away from God.

After the people heard this, they recognized that Samuel was right. They felt bad about what they had done, and they were afraid. I would bet that no one reading this – even you folks who live outside the United States – has asked God to give you a king. But have you asked him for something that was a mistake? Have you ever determined to go ahead your own way, and later realized it was a mistake – maybe even a huge error of judgment?

I have.

1 Samuel 12 gives a picture of how God deals with us in those kinds of situations. I always want to go back and do it over, only correctly this time. I want to have my mistakes undone. But God doesn’t work that way.

Sometimes, I enjoy playing computer games. One of the great things about computer games, is that you can screw up, you can even die – and it doesn’t matter. You just start the game over from the last point at which you saved it. I have often thought – and maybe you have too – wouldn’t it be cool if life was like a computer game? If you screw up, you just get a “do-over.” If you make a bad choice, you go back to that point and make a right choice now.

But there is something else about computer games. They are fun, but they are also meaningless. I don’t mean that it is evil or wrong to play them. But the choices you make within a computer game are meaningless. Death in a computer game is meaningless in real life. Life in a computer game is meaningless. We need to understand something here: choices without consequences have no meaning.

There is a famous old story about a young man faced with a choice to open one of two doors. Behind one is a beautiful maiden. If he chooses her door, he will be married to her immediately. Behind the other door is an angry, hungry tiger which will surely kill him. He doesn’t know which door holds the lady and which holds the tiger. The young man’s lover knows the secret of the doors. If she tells him to open the tiger-door, he will be killed in agony. But if she tells him to open the lady-door, he will be married to another woman, one who is quite beautiful, and the woman who loves him will be left alone. She signals him secretly to open the door on the right. What was behind that door?

This story has endured for over a hundred years, in part because there is an agony in knowing that their choices matter. But suppose that no matter which door he chose, the tiger would be there. Or, no matter which door he chose, he would get the princess. The story is no longer compelling if the choices do not result in some consequence.

Imagine I held in one hand a bag containing a candy bar, and in the other hand, a bag containing a piece of scrap wood that was good for nothing. If you think you might have a shot at the candy bar, it would be fun to try and make the right choice. If you knew that no matter what you chose, I would give you the wood, you wouldn’t bother even playing. If you knew that no matter what you did, I would give you the candy bar, you might be happy about the candy, but you would probably think going through the motion of choosing is pretty pointless and stupid – in fact, meaningless.

So we see that with the Israelites, the Lord gave them their free and meaningful choice. He cannot undo it without actually taking away free choice. If He undid their choice, it would mean their choices would have no consequences, and therefore no meaning, and therefore they would not actually have free choice. The same is true of our choices. So he doesn’t undo them.

God is golfer. He plays the ball from where it lies, even that is off in the bushes somewhere. But he is a master golfer. He can put a ball that is the most ridiculous position, back into play in one stroke. What he does do for the Israelites is promise to walk with them through the consequences they have brought on themselves. Samuel encourages them to walk with the Lord NOW.

20 Samuel replied, “Don’t be afraid. Even though you have committed all this evil, don’t turn away from following the LORD. Instead, worship the LORD with all your heart. 21 Don’t turn away to follow worthless things that can’t profit or deliver you; they are worthless. 22 The LORD will not abandon His people, because of His great name and because He has determined to make you His own people.

23 “As for me, I vow that I will not sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. I will teach you the good and right way. 24 Above all, fear the LORD and worship Him faithfully with all your heart; consider the great things He has done for you. 25 However, if you continue to do what is evil, both you and your king will be swept away.” (1 Samuel 12:20-25)

It was not God’s plan for Israel to be led by king. Once they made that choice they had some difficult consequences to follow, as we will see. But even so, God worked through that mistake. In fact he worked through it in a mighty and amazing way. Eventually he used the monarchy of mistake as a way to bring his salvation to the entire world; Jesus, in his human ancestry, was descended from the kings of Israel.

Maybe it was a mistake for you to take the job you have right now. Perhaps the Lord was calling you to something else, but you just didn’t have the faith to take the risk. OK, so you screwed up. But don’t turn away from following the Lord. He can do great things through this. Just be sure to let him.

Maybe you married the wrong person. People think this all the time. They think that somehow they missed out on their real soul mate, and now their entire marriage was a mistake. Fine, what if it was? God can and will work through this, if you let him. Even now, don’t turn away from following the Lord. Don’t follow worthless things. God will redeem your mistake and make it beautiful, if you allow him to.

I’m not only talking about honest mistakes, either. The people of Israel knew that God didn’t want them to have a human king. They did it anyway. Sometimes we deliberately make a sinful choice. God can redeem even those choices; maybe especially those choices.

God is so good. He wants our lives to have meaning, so he allows our choices be free and real. And yet, even when we make the wrong choice, if we turn back to him, he can work through any circumstance we might create for ourselves, and make good come out of it.