1 SAMUEL #9. UNFAILING GRACE

On November 3, 2023 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, House Church, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The things that God did for his people in the past are supposed to be considered part of his faithfulness to us in the present. What God did for previous generations, he also did for us. God’s goodness to others is part of his goodness to us, because we belong to his people. His faithfulness does not end when we make mistakes. He walks with us even when we choose the wrong path, and redeems us in our mistakes, if we will let him.

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1 Samuel # 9. God’s faithfulness to us at all times. 1 Samuel 12:1-25

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 a 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 mistake. 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 who 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 fully 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.

In the first place (12:1-5), 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 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.

There is something else about part of Samuel’s speech that is striking: most of the incidents he described of God’s goodness to the people happened to previous generations of Israelites, not to the people with whom he was speaking. However, he speaks as if God had done all this for the present generation. This is something important that Moses taught the people of Israel long before. Every generation of Israelites was called to remember the great acts of God in the past, and to live like God had done those things for themselves, in this present generation. The people of God are heirs to all that God has done in the past. God’s work in the past should be considered a sign of his faithfulness in the present.

We live in a highly individualized society, and on top of that, our culture is obsessed with the future, and new things. But there are other ways to live, other ways to view the world. God’s people in ancient times were much more communal, and much more in touch with the past. If God did something for past generations, it was counted very much as if he had done it for the present generation. If God did something for me, he did it for his people. If he did it for his people he did it for me.

I think we should learn from this way of looking at the world. I find that I easily forget the things God has done in the past even in my own life. I hardly even consider things he has done for others, or what he did for previous generations of his people. But if we start to see ourselves as part of the intergenerational community of God’s people, then his faithfulness to us becomes overwhelmingly apparent. Twenty years ago God healed my friend Adam from a broken back. The healing was documented by before and after x-rays. A few years ago, he healed my friend Doug from twisted intestines – again documented before and after by CT scan. But those healings weren’t just for Adam and Doug – they were for me, for all of us in the community of faith. And they weren’t just for those moments in the past – they were for us now, and for future generations. I could easily name a dozen other amazing things God has done for me, and for people I know. And then add in God’s graciousness to Christians I don’t even know, and then to his people of previous generations, and suddenly, God’s grace and faithfulness become overwhelming. I think it would be very helpful if we began to consider God’s faithfulness to his people as a whole, including his faithfulness to previous generations. The writer of Hebrews encourages us to do exactly that. After writing about God’s mighty acts for his people in the past, he says this:

¹ Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,² keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne. (Hebrews 12:1-2, HCSB)

There is a great cloud of witnesses to God’s faithfulness to his people. We belong to God’s people. His goodness to them is also his goodness to us. Everything God did in the past, he did for us, the people of God.

⁴ For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. (Romans 15:4, HCSB)

Let that sink in, and let it lead us to lay aside all heaviness and sin, and run our race with perseverance, knowing that we too, are a part of that group of witnesses.

Back to Samuel’s speech. The overall point Samuel is making is that when they followed the Lord faithfully, he delivered his people, 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?

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 mess 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 blow it, 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 an ordinary young man who falls in love with a princess, and she loves him back. The father of the princess, the king, is not pleased. He decrees that the young man be placed in front of two doors, with a choice to open one or the other. Behind one of the doors is a beautiful maiden, however, not his beloved princess. If he chooses her door, he will be married to her immediately and they will be exiled to another kingdom. 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. However, the princess, 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 the beautiful maiden behind that one, and the princess who loves him will be left alone. She signals him secretly to open one of the doors. Here’s the question: which door did she tell him to open?

This story has endured for over a hundred years, in part because there is an agony in knowing that the choices matter. However, as a thought experiment, change the story a little. 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 herself and they would live happily ever after. 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. 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 the Lord doesn’t undo them.

What the Lord did do for the Israelites was promise to walk with them through the consequences they brought on themselves. He works even with their wrong choices, and accomplishes his purposes in spite of them. So, 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 a 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 messed 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 marriage, 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. In the same way, 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 to 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.

Once again I’m reminded of Romans 8:28:

²⁸ We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28, HCSB)

IS JESUS ABOUT TO RETURN?

On October 27, 2023 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized2 Comments

With things happening in Israel right now, there are a lot of Christians talking about the End Times. This happens to some degree every time there is a conflict in Israel, and I’d like to share some of my thoughts about this, to try and provide some guidance. Rather than my normal sermon format, I’m attaching some notes below that are a little bit rough still, along with an audio file with some of my thoughts.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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

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

HOW SHOULD WE THINK ABOUT THE END TIMES?

I want to make something really clear: I trust the scripture absolutely. But with regard to the end times, I am not nearly so certain about my own understanding of it, my own interpretations of it. I think that kind of humility about our own interpretations is important when we talk about things like the end Times. So hear me say it clearly: I could be mistaken. Please consider the possibility that other viewpoints might also be mistaken.

It is good and natural to desire the return of Jesus. His return is the substance of our hope. When he returns, it means that the new creation will soon appear, and we will be freed from sin, sorrow and death. All Christians ought to desire it. If we don’t eagerly want Jesus to return, it might even be a symptom of a spiritual problem. Perhaps we don’t really believe in it.

However, it seems to me that some people misdirect their desire for the return of Jesus. They spend much of their energy trying to figure out when it might happen. It becomes an exciting puzzle that they are trying to solve. It’s understandable. When you want something badly, you want to know that it might happen soon. It’s hard to not want to figure out when you’ll get it.

However, Jesus did not tell us to eagerly desire to solve the puzzle of when he would return. In fact, he said almost the opposite. He said no one will know. Several times, and in several ways, he told us that we cannot solve this puzzle. He never encouraged us to try.

Instead, Jesus tells us to direct our desire for his return in two ways:

Let it feed our hope

Let the fact that we won’t know the day of his return lead us to live faithfully ready at all times. The parables of the ten bridesmaids and the talents are making exactly that point: Every day, live in such a way that you are ready for him to return.

⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
⁴⁵ “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? ⁴⁶ Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. ⁴⁷ Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know ⁵¹ and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:44-51, ESV)

At the conclusion to the parable of the ten bridesmaids, which Jesus told as part of his teaching on the End Times, he said:

³ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. (Matthew 25:13, ESV)

Likewise the parable of the ten talents, and the sheep and goats are about being ready for Jesus’ return by living faithfully at all times

WHAT IS THE RAPTURE?

There are a few Bible verses that seem to say that when Jesus returns, those believers who are still alive will not have to die, but they will be brought into his presence and transformed. Sometimes this is described as being caught up into the air. This is often called the rapture.

Some Christians think that this “rapture,” this event of being taken up in the air to be with Jesus, will occur before Jesus actually returns. They think that suddenly all the Christians alive at that time will either vanish, or perhaps be visibly lifted up in the sky. They will go to be with Jesus, leaving behind those who do not trust Jesus. After that, they say, there will be seven years of great trouble and hardship on earth (sometimes called “the Great Tribulation”), and only then will Jesus actually return. In theology, we call this idea “the pre-tribulation rapture,” or the “pre-trib rapture,” for short (we theologians are a cool bunch, with our slang and all).

This idea – the pre-trib rapture (which most people just call “the rapture”) – is the main thing that most people have heard about the end times. Most people think it is gospel truth. You might be one of them. Probably, everyone you know thinks this way. Pastors and other people you trust have told you this is what the Bible teaches. Maybe you’ve seen the Left Behind movies, or read the books. It might feel like you know this is true. I have met people who were deeply blessed by the Left Behind materials, and I’m grateful that God used them in that way. I don’t agree with everything in them, but I recognize that they are the work of dear fellow-Christians.

So, I understand that the “pre-trib rapture” is a dearly held belief. I realize that it will upset a lot of people to hear anything different. Before I go any further, let me ask you this: Do you really want to know what the Bible teaches?

Now, I don’t mind if you disagree with me, especially if you have really good reasons from the Bible to do so. I certainly could be wrong. In fact, I will be overjoyed if it turns out I am wrong. So, I’m happy to continue in fellowship with anyone who disagrees with me on this. I don’t think this issue is a good reason for Christians to separate from one another.

If I don’t think this issue is big enough to make us separate from other Christians why am I teaching on it at all?

In the first place, consider this: If you believe Jesus will take you away before things get really bad, and then things do get really bad, and you’re still here, what will you think? You might think you were never a real Christian at all, and experience terrible doubts about your salvation. Perhaps you might even believe you are destined for hell. Or you might think none of it was true in the first place, and lose your faith altogether.

On the other hand, if you believe, like me, that some Christians will have to go through the great tribulation, and then you get raptured away instead, where is the down side? As I said, I would be overjoyed to find myself raptured before the great tribulation.

In other words, I think it is far better to be prepared to suffer for the sake of Christ. As it happens, there are many, many verses in the Bible that tell us we should be prepared to suffer as followers of Jesus, whether or not we experience the Great Tribulation of the end times. So, on the whole, if we are going to be wrong about the rapture, I think it’s better to be wrong by believing as I do, and be ready, than wrong the other way, and be unprepared for terrible suffering. One of the main points of Jesus’ teaching on the end times is that we should be ready, living faithfully at all times, because we won’t expect it when he shows up.

Secondly, I am teaching on this because I want to share what I believe the Bible actually says about the issue. It’s OK to disagree, and it’s also OK to have a firm opinion, while we deal with our disagreements in love and grace.

All right, let’s dive in.

In the first place, this teaching about a pre-tribulation rapture – a rapture that occurs some time before Jesus returns – was not common at all until the mid 1800s. In other words, for about seventeen-hundred years, hardly any Christians thought that the bible taught this. This is actually quite important. To say that the pre-trib rapture is correct, you must assume that most of Christians throughout most of history just absolutely missed it. You need to believe that only after 1700 years did some people get smart enough to see what the bible really teaches about the end times. It also means that the Holy Spirit allowed virtually all of God’s people to be in error for all of that time. That’s quite an idea. It could make you question whether we can trust anything we think we know about the Bible, because maybe Christians have got everything wrong all this time.

Even the word rapture doesn’t exactly come from the Bible. It is an English translation of a Latin translation of a Greek word from the New Testament. In other words, “rapture” is a translation of a translation. It is not the best translation directly from the Greek. I’ll keep using this word, however, since everyone knows what I’m talking about when I say it.

Most pre-tribulation rapture people have detailed ideas about the end times, and they are pretty confident that they know how it goes. They take parts of Daniel, and of Zechariah, little pieces of the gospels, one two pieces of the letters of Peter and Paul, and put it all together with the book of Revelation. They do not take these verses in context. They don’t consider the books as a whole. Instead they take verses out of the context in which they were written, and add them to other verses taken out of context, and then come up with their detailed plan for how the end times are supposed to go. They also often ignore the type of genre in which those verses are written, and take many things literally when some of them were probably intended to be metaphors.

That is the part that I believe is a bad way to study the Bible. If we used the Bible like this for other subjects, we could make it say all sorts of crazy things. In fact, when people start cults based on Christianity, this is how they treat the Bible, and those cults often start with strange new teachings about the end times.

Let’s look at two important “rapture” verses:

⁵¹ But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! ⁵² It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. ⁵³ For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)

It says here that first, those who have died will be raised to life, and then the living will be transformed. In other words, the rapture happens after the resurrection.

You might argue that the verse above is not about the rapture, because it only talks about the transformation of our bodies, but not about being caught up in the air. So then, read this:

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

When it says “those who are asleep” it means “those who have died.” Just as these days we use “passed away” as a euphemism for dead, so in those days, the expression was “fallen asleep.”

So this is all quite clear. First, the Lord will descend with great fanfare from heaven. Then the dead will rise. Then, those who trust Jesus and are still alive will be “raptured,” along with those who have just been resurrected. Again, the resurrection of the dead will occur before the rapture. It happens at the moment that Jesus himself is descending from heaven with a loud cry and trumpet blast. In other words, it happens while the whole world witnesses the return of Jesus.

Jesus also makes it clear in Matthew, that the rapture happens at the moment of his return:

²⁹ “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matthew 24:29-31)

It’s actually quite straightforward: The elect (those who trust in Jesus) will not be gathered up (raptured) until:

a) After a time of tribulation (verse 29) and

b) The sun and moon are darkened

c) The dead are resurrected

d) Jesus appears in the clouds, visible to all people in all his power and glory.

In other words, as we have already seen, the rapture happens at the same moment that Jesus returns to earth in power and glory.

A DETAILED LOOK AT ONE BIBLE TEXT (MATTHEW 24:3-44)

(Mark and Luke have very similar passages)

Here is the most clear and complete teaching about the end times given by Jesus while he was still on earth:

³ As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ⁴ And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. ⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

So, in the first place, we need to guard against being deceived. Many people will claim the end is about to come, but we should not be alarmed, or led astray. Wars, natural disasters and so on are only the beginning of the birth pains. They are not the end. If someone says “This war in Israel means the end is near,” they are not paying attention to what Jesus actually says. He says wars will happen, but they do not mean the end has come.

Some people may not be aware of it, but Israel has been involved in many wars and military actions since it became a modern nation in 1947. The website Jewishvirtuallibrary.org documents twenty-two major military actions during that time. I’m not judging Israel for it – I believe they’ve been attacked every single time, and they’ve defended themselves, as they certainly have a right to do. However, every time there is a conflict in Israel, many Christians claim that the return of Jesus is imminent. The people claiming that have been wrong every time – twenty-two times – so far. Why do we still pay attention to them?

Let’s continue with the words of Jesus:
⁹ “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. ¹⁰ And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. ¹² And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Jesus says that we will experience tribulation before the end comes. Many awful things will happen while disciples of Jesus are still alive in the world. It does not say that we will be “raptured out” before bad troubles begin. It does not say we will be raptured out before the wars and natural disasters. Instead, it calls us to endure until the end. It also says the gospel must be proclaimed to all ethnic peoples (that’s the Greek meaning for “nations”) before the end will come. We can’t do that if we are raptured away. There is no need to “endure until the end” if we will be raptured away.

¹⁵ “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, ¹⁸ and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. ¹⁹ And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! ²⁰ Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. ²² And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Most Biblical prophecies contain layers. For instance Isaiah prophesied about the return of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem after they were in Babylon. This happened in about 517 BC. Mixed and jumbled with those same prophecies are things about the first time Jesus came into the world, and also (we think) about the end of the world, when he will return.

Joel 2:28-32 is a prophecy that was fulfilled by the coming of the Holy Spirit on all who trust Jesus (Acts 2:14-21). However, also jumbled in with Joel 2 are prophecies about the return of the Jewish people from exile in Babylon that was fulfilled in about 517 BC, and, as far as we can tell, prophecies about the very end of the world.

So, in Matthew 24:15-22, Jesus is probably talking about several things. First, it is almost certainly a prophecy about the Jewish-Roman war of 70 AD (roughly forty years after Jesus). The temple was desecrated at that time, and it was probably the most horrible slaughter in world history until the first world war. In fact, Jesus’ prophecies here are so right on about that war that it makes unbelieving scholars think the gospels could not have been written until after 70 AD., because they don’t believe Jesus could have predicted the future so accurately.

Part of this prophecy may also be about the end of the world and the return of Jesus.

Jesus says the days of tribulation will be cut short “for the sake of the elect.” The “elect” are those who belong to Jesus through faith. He does not say the elect will be “raptured out” before those days. Instead he says the suffering won’t last as long for everyone, for the sake of the elect.

Some people might say that “the elect” means the Jewish people, whom, they say, will remain behind after the rapture. However, in the New Testament, the Greek word “elect” is never used to refer specifically to the Jews or people of Israel. It is always used of all those who trust in Jesus, whether Jews or Gentiles.

²³ Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. ²⁴ For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ See, I have told you beforehand. ²⁶ So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. ²⁷ For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ²⁸ Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Here we see again a warning against being deceived about all this. He says that false prophets and false miracles will be used to try and deceive the elect. That means the elect (in other words, believers) will still be in this world.

He also says that when Jesus returns, no one will miss it. It will be obvious.

²⁹ “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

All of this happens after “the tribulation of those days.” Once again, we see that the return of Jesus will be completely obvious. Everyone will see it and know it. As Jesus is returning in power and glory – after the tribulation, after the sun goes dark – he will send his angels to gather the elect – those who belong to God through faith. This is the “rapture,” and it doesn’t happen until the very end, until everyone on earth sees Jesus returning.

³² “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. ³³ So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. ³⁴ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
³⁶ “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

The lesson of the fig tree is that we can recognize the signs that his return might be likely. The generation that Jesus spoke to didn’t pass away before the fulfillment of his prophecies about the Jewish-Roman war.

Again, however, NO ONE KNOWS WHEN JESUS WILL RETURN, NOT EVEN JESUS KNEW WHILE HE WAS ON EARTH.

³⁷ For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴² Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³ But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Verses 40-41 are often used as “proof” of the pre-trib rapture. However, such a thing is not at all clear from these verses alone. It might be referring to the rapture at the moment Jesus returns, but it is certainly not proof that for those who aren’t raptured, life will continue on normally for a while.

Jesus says it will be like the days of Noah, which is to say, life was going on as normal, and then suddenly the flood came and destroyed the world. So, life will be going on as normal, and then suddenly Jesus will return. The main point here is obviously that the end will come as a surprise.

Jesus compares it to Noah’s flood. Think about the days of the flood. It wasn’t that the flood came, and some were saved from it, while others continued on with their daily lives for seven more years. No, the flood came suddenly, and then it was too late to get on the ark. Those who trusted God’s word through Noah were saved. Those who didn’t were lost in a moment.

So, if “one was taken…etc.” does refer to the rapture, there is no reason it should not mean that one is taken up to be with Jesus as he returns for the final judgement, while the other is left to face that judgment alone, since he doesn’t belong to Jesus. There is nothing here that suggests that some people are taken up to heaven seven years before Jesus returns.

Once again, however, the main point for us is not about when the rapture, and the return of Jesus will happen. The main thing is for us to be living faithfully, ready, if necessary, to suffer for the sake of Jesus, and ready at all times for him to return. Let’s dedicate our energy and effort to that, more than to trying figure out something that we already know ahead of time we will be unable to discover.

Once again, I hold my own interpretations fairly loosely. I could be wrong about some of this, and I will be delighted if I am wrong about when the rapture happens. But I do think it’s important to consider the perspective I offer here, because it often does not get much of a hearing in Christian circles.

1 SAMUEL #8. THE FORGOTTEN ARE REMEMBERED.

On October 21, 2023October 21, 2023 By Pastor TomIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Saul struggled with insecurity, but God used him even so. A town that was still shamed and forgotten received honor and deliverance from God, through king Saul.

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1 Samuel #8. 1 Samuel 10:24 – 11:15

I want to reiterate something that happened at the end of chapter 10, and then we’ll move on to chapter 11. Remember, Samuel anointed Saul as king of Israel when it was just the two of them in private. After being anointed king, Saul went home. As he journeyed back, his anointing was confirmed by several signs that Samuel had prophesied to him before hand.

Even so, Saul did not tell anyone that Samuel had anointed him king. At first glance this looks like it could be humility, and maybe it was. Perhaps he was waiting for God to confirm it before he said anything. And yet – God already did confirm it, through the signs that Samuel prophesied, which came true. So, maybe Saul’s silence about being made king was something else altogether: insecurity.

After some time, Samuel gathered the people together, and they asked the Lord to choose a king by lots. Saul was chosen. This was another powerful confirmation of Saul’s calling, this time in public, for all to see. But Saul hid among the baggage while it was happening. Again, this could be either humility, or insecurity. Actually, I think it is a little bit of both. When we read the texts carefully, we can see that Saul is a very complex, very real person. This is one way the Bible is very different from ancient myths and legends. In other ancient legends (as in the Epic of Gilgamesh, for example) people are portrayed more simplistically. They are either strong or weak, honorable, or shameful. But in the Bible, we find that the people and situations it describes are often complicated – like people are in real life. This helps to give me confidence that what we read in the Bible is real history. It is true.

So, I suspect that Saul had a lot of insecurity, but that he was also capable of genuine humility. I want to point out that his insecurity seems to be because he had trouble believing what God has said. Through Samuel, God told him he would be king. Through the signs, he confirmed it. Through the choices by lot, God confirmed it again. But I suspect, for the reasons I shared last week, that Saul had never really been a man of faith. He did not know God, and had not ever been very interested in Him. It’s hard to believe what God says if you don’t really know God. It’s hard to trust someone you don’t know. If you go your whole life ignoring God, then it is hard to believe it when someone tells you that God has a purpose for your life.

Listen to what happened next:

25 Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. 26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. (1 Samuel 10:25-27)

Just put yourself in Saul’s situation for a minute. You have just been made king – twice. It has been confirmed by lot and by prophesied signs that came true. A future with possibilities you never dreamed of is opening up in front of you. Everyone shakes your hand and slaps you on the back, and congratulates you…and then they all go home. You look around. It’s time for you to go home also. There’s nothing else to do. I can’t help thinking that this was a major let down for Saul. So he’s king. Big whoop. Now he’s got to go back and plow his fields.

A few warriors felt called to stick with the new king and serve him. The Lord touched them and they believed in him and stuck with him. But there were at least an equal number of people who didn’t believe in him at all, and mocked him and his calling. I think all of this must have been disappointing. It probably fed into his insecurity.

Now, I want to leave Saul for a moment and go back and set the stage for what happened next. I spoke about this a little bit last time, but I want to go into more detail now. Roughly two hundred years before Saul’s lifetime, the residents of a town called Gibeah, in the tribe of Benjamin, had committed an atrocity. Rather than welcome a traveling priest, they had attempted to abuse and rape him. When they were prevented from this they raped and killed his concubine instead. In those days a concubine was considered a wife.

The priest took the dead body of his wife, and cut it up, and sent the pieces to the twelve tribes of Israel as a graphic way of letting the whole nation know what had taken place in Gibeah. Eleven of the tribes assembled, but the tribe of Benjamin did not come, even though Gibeah was in their own territory, and the atrocity had happened on “their turf,” so to speak. The other tribes demanded that the tribe of Benjamin deliver the residents of Gibeah to the rest of the nation so that justice could be done. The whole tribe of Benjamin refused, and they actually fought a war with the other tribes rather than punish the evil-doers. Naturally, there was a great deal of outrage against the tribe of Benjamin. The other Israelites destroyed almost the entire tribe. The only survivors were six hundred Benjamite warriors who escaped into the hills. Everyone else – including women and children, had been killed.

In their rage, the other tribes had sworn an oath to not allow their daughters to marry any Benjamite. That meant that within a few years, there would be no more tribe of Benjamin. But after the war, the Israelites began to mourn for the loss of the twelfth tribe. They looked for a way to get wives for the few remaining men of Benjamin without violating their oaths, so that the tribe could be eventually restored. They found that one city in Israel had refused to go to war along with the other people – the city of Jabesh-Gilead, on the other side of the Jordan river Valley. In effect, Jabesh-Gilead had also been defending the evildoers, at least passively, by refusing to fight for justice. So the rest of the Israelites took all of the unmarried women in that city, and gave them to the Benjamites to be their wives. If this sounds brutal and awful, it is. The Bible does not say that what they did in this situation was good and right. It just tells us what actually happened. And we know from historical studies that those kinds of thing certainly did happen all throughout the region in those days.

Last week I explained that I think the Lord’s choice of Saul was in part to remove the shame of the tribe of Benjamin. Not only was Saul from Benjamin, but he was actually from the town of Gibeah – the very town that had committed such shameful acts. The Lord was saying to them, “You are no longer under a cloud of shame. You are not second-class in my eyes. Your forgiveness is complete.”

But there was another group that was still under a cloud of shame for that incident – the city of Jabesh-Gilead. They too, had defended the evil act of Benjamin, even if only passively. When Saul was made king, the shame of Benjamin and of Gibeah was finally removed. But it appeared that Jabesh-Gilead was forgotten by God in all this. Their sin had not been as great, but they had suffered too, and they still lived under a cloud of shame. God was finally noticing Benjamin and Gibeah, but no one seemed to remember poor Jabesh-Gilead.

Now, after Saul was chosen as king, things got even worse for Jabesh-Gilead. The foreign nation of Ammon came up to besiege the city. You can almost see the low self-esteem born of 200 years of shame. They didn’t even pretend they had the courage to fight, and they were pretty sure none of the other Israelites would be interested in coming to their aid. They started negotiating a surrender right away, ready to give up their freedom in order to keep their lives. As often happens when a bully encounters someone with a poor sense of self-worth, the bully senses weakness, and begins to pile it on. Surrender wasn’t good enough for the Ammonites. They wanted to rub the faces of their enemies in it. They demanded that all the men have their right eyes gouged out, as one of the conditions of surrender.

The next exchange of messages sounds strange to us who are used to modern warfare. The city of Jabesh-Gilead asked for seven days to see if anyone would help them. The strange thing is that the Ammonites granted them the time. But there are three reasons for this. First, if the Ammonites didn’t grant the time they would end up having to fight for sure, but if they waited, there was still a chance of a bloodless victory. Second, the Ammonites probably felt that the other Israelite tribes were too disorganized to do anything within seven days anyway. Third, both the Ammonites and the people of Jabesh-Gilead seemed doubtful that anyone would help them. They were the black sheep of the family. Of any town in Israel, they were the least likely to be helped.

Their messengers went all over Israel. When the messengers got to Gibeah, Saul’s home town, no one thought to go get the king. In fact, his royal majesty was plowing a field at that moment. He just happened to come to town as the people were weeping over the fate of Jabesh-Gilead.

6 And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. 7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. (1 Samuel 11:6)

Years ago my wife Kari did an exhaustive study on the Holy Spirit. She has pointed out to me many times that when the Holy Spirit comes on people in the Old Testament, it often seems to be almost an external thing, and God seems to use people whether or not they are close to him or in tune with him. For instance, the hero Samson was clearly ignorant of God, and lived a sinful life – and yet God used him. After Jesus came, however, the Holy Spirit stopped working in that external way, and now he is connected with all who believe in Jesus through a spirit-to-spirit connection. Now the spirit is within everyone who trusts Jesus, and he flows through us and does his work from the inside out.

Saul was living in those Old Testament times, however, and in spite of his deficiencies, God used him. The Spirit came on him, and he acted. Even as God was using him, however, we can see his insecurity. First, he called the people not only in his own name, but also the name of Samuel, as if he was afraid they wouldn’t come for the summons of the king alone.

The next thing he did was somewhat typical of ancient Middle Eastern leaders, except with a few surprising differences. In those days, when people swore allegiance to a king or leader, that leader would confiscate someone’s cow or goat, and cause it to be cut in pieces. Then the leader would declare something like this: “Unless you fulfill your oaths of loyalty to me, I will come and cut you into pieces, just as this animal has been cut to pieces.”

But Saul changed the ceremony. First, he didn’t confiscate anyone else’s oxen. He cut up his own animals – shooting himself in the foot, you might say. And then, he did not say: “I will come and do this to you, if you do not fulfill your oaths to support me and send warriors to help me.” Instead, he said: “I will do this to your oxen.” It’s almost humorous. He has already destroyed his own oxen, and now he threatens not the people, but their cattle. Again, even in his boldness, we see glimpses of insecurity.

Verse seven describes a large number of people who responded: three-hundred thousand men from “Israel,” plus thirty thousand from Judah.

I struggle with the actual numbers here. In World War Two, the famous American Third Army, led by General Patton, was about three hundred thousand men. But even in the days of Patton, it was a massive effort to keep so many men fed, supplied, and organized. The supplies were measured in thousands of tons. I find it difficult to believe that there was such a massive army in the days of king Saul, which was at the very beginning of the Iron Age.

Thankfully, there is a very easy explanation. The Hebrew word for “thousands” is written exactly the same way as another word that could mean “war leaders” or “chieftains,” or “family leaders.” In those days, relatively few people had weapons of bronze or iron. You had to be somewhat wealthy or influential in order to obtain such things. So battles were organized around a few well-armed warriors who had swords, spears, shields, and so on that were made of bronze or iron. These well armed warriors were each supported by a few followers who were more lightly armed with clubs, slings and perhaps farming implements.

Therefore, rather than a number, the word “thousands” could mean “well armed war leader and his followers.” Especially at this point in history, the word more likely meant something like that, rather than “thousands.”

So I think it is reasonable to read it that there were three hundred well-armed war leaders from Israel, plus another thirty from Judah, plus somewhere between five and twenty lightly armed followers for each leader. Therefore, my best guess is that this represents maybe two or three thousand men total.

In any case, they assembled for battle and went up and destroyed the Ammonites, saving the city of Jabesh-Gilead. This no-account, shame-filled place has now been protected and defended by the most powerful people in the country. As with the tribe of Benjamin and the city of Gibeah, they have been forgiven, and their shame removed.

I have pointed out some of Saul’s faults, and unfortunately, we’ll see even more in the future, but as I said last week, God was not just trying to mess up the Israelites for rejecting the Lord as their king. Saul, among all the tribes of Israel, would have been more sensitive to the shame and disgrace of Jabesh-Gilead than anyone else. His own tribe and clan had been under that same cloud until he was chosen as king. I am reminded again of 1 Corinthians, written by another man from the tribe of Benjamin, who was also (originally) called Saul:

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. (1Cor 1:26-29, HCSB)

Saul was chosen by the Lord. He started out well. God graciously gave him opportunity after opportunity to respond in faith. In this instance, he did.

What does all this mean for you right now?

Maybe, like Saul, you are facing confusion, hurt and disappointment with God. Perhaps the Lord has given you a calling or done something in your life that seemed momentous. It seemed like it was all heading somewhere. But now everyone is turning out the lights and heading home, and you are left to make your way back to life as usual, and you don’t understand. You wonder what it was all about, if all these ways in which God seemed to be at work amount to nothing. I don’t have every answer for you. But I do know that Saul experienced that. In time, however, God showed him what to do and opened up the opportunity to step fully into his calling. Trust the Lord that he will do that for you also, even if it looks like it is all over right now.

On the other hand, maybe you have been dealing with insecurity, like Saul. The Lord has shown you he is real. He has spoken to your heart, revealed himself through the Bible. But you aren’t sure if you can trust him. Maybe you are afraid to step up to God’s calling. Perhaps that is because you don’t yet know him very well. Here, you can take a different path than Saul. Seek the Lord. Seek him by reading the bible, or listening to recordings of scripture passages. Seek him in music, in fellowship with other Christians, in worship. And make a decision to trust him and trust that what he says is true. Trusting means you act in accordance with that trust.

You might be someone who feels like the city of Jabesh-Gilead. For a while maybe other people shared your shame or humiliation. But now they’ve been able to move on, and you are stuck in the same old place. You feel forgotten. Maybe things have even gotten worse lately. You’ve gone from a bad place to a really dangerous or horrible place. I think the Lord would say to you, through this scripture, “Do not fear! Do not give up hope. I never forget you. Sometimes I let things get a lot worse so I can then make them far, far better than ever before.”

Pause for a few moments now, and listen to what the Lord is saying. Thank him for it, and receive it with the choice of faith.

1 SAMUEL #7. THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

On October 13, 2023 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Saul was a tall, impressive, handsome man. The people wanted a king that would make them look good to other nations, and that made Saul the best choice, given their own parameters, which God honored, though it limited the options. Even at this early stage, there were some warning signs about Saul’s character. Yet, when the Lord chose Saul, he used that choice to end the shame of the small tribe of Benjamin, and he began to give Saul opportunities to respond to Him in faith.

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1 SAMUEL #7. 1 SAMUEL 9-10. THE CALLING OF SAUL

There is an age-old story line, repeated in all the great books and movies. Boy meets donkeys. Boy loses donkeys, and goes looking for them. Boy forgets donkeys when he meets the prophet who anoints him as the first king of his country. Boy briefly joins a group of different prophets, then goes back home, because the donkeys, having more common sense, are already home as well. You know what I’m talking about, right?

OK, so it isn’t a normal or well-known tale. But I love it, in part because it seems almost random. Yet in that randomness, we can see God at work. That gives me comfort when events in my own life seem both ordinary and random.

In chapter 8, The elders of Israel gathered and asked God to give them a king. Through Samuel, God warned them against it, but they persisted in asking for it anyway, so the Lord agreed to give them a king. Then everyone went home.

The narrative suddenly switches, and 1 Samuel chapter 9 tells us about a young man who went out with his servant to look for some lost donkeys. The young man was named Saul. He was not at the meeting where the people asked for the king. He was not seeking the Lord, or going on a pilgrimage to a place of worship. He was just doing his job, which at that moment, was to find his dad’s lost donkeys.

After a few days of wandering in the hills, Saul and his servant decided to give up. As they turned back, they were near Samuel’s hometown. Saul’s servant knew this, and suggested that they ask Samuel to ask God where the donkeys are. Saul wasn’t sure about it, because they had nothing to give Samuel, but the servant had some money. Saul then said, basically, “OK, if you think it will help us find the donkeys.” In other words, he had no desire to see a prophet in order to get closer to God, or to learn God’s will for his life. He just wanted God’s help with his own problems.

We learned at the end of chapter seven that Samuel used to travel around to various places in Israel and lead worship and judge disputes and share God’s words with the people. Even though Samuel did not live very far from Saul (compared to other areas of Israel) the two had never met. This implies that Saul had not, up to that point, been particularly interested in God. He clearly had never sought guidance from the Lord through Samuel for any other purpose, and he obviously had never taken a sacrifice to worship with Samuel when he was in Saul’s area. Even in our text for today, he seeks Samuel not because he wants to know God, but because he’s lost his donkeys. His focus is not on the will of God or on relationship with God, but rather what Samuel can do for him.

So by this point, we can already see some things about Saul. The first few verses tell us that he was an unusually tall and large man – the tallest man in all twelve tribes. It also says he was handsome. But other than that, there is nothing out of the ordinary about him. We can see from the incident with the donkeys that he isn’t particularly persistent. He isn’t especially patient, or spiritually sensitive. He’s just an ordinary person, except that he is very tall, and impressive to look at. He had no clue what was coming.

Samuel, as always, had been talking to God and listening. Samuel is one of my favorite heroes of the faith. The people wanted a king. God told Samuel he would grant their request. So Samuel went back to work, and waited for God. He didn’t immediately go out and try to find a king for them. He talked to God and listened, and then, some time later, God told him when to anoint the first king. So when Saul showed up in town, Samuel was ready. He recognized him as the person God had chosen to be the answer to the request of the people of Israel. God had previously told Samuel to expect someone like Saul, and so Samuel made him a guest of honor at the feast he was going to.

After the feast, Saul stayed overnight with Samuel. They spoke for a long time. Later, in private, Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head which was a symbolic gesture showing that Saul was now chosen by God. The significance of oil was that it represented the Spirit of God. The idea was, that along with the oil, the Holy Spirit was poured out onto Saul, and he was to be God’s chosen instrument from now on. The pouring of oil on the head, and the pouring out of God’s Spirit are both sometimes called “anointing.”

This anointing shows us one of the big spiritual differences between the time before Jesus, and the time since his resurrection. In the Old Testament it appears that God generally filled only one or two people with His Holy Spirit in each generation. It was as if he had just a few chosen instruments for each period. But the prophet Joel predicted a great change that would arrive after the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah:

28 After all of this I will pour out my Spirit on all kinds of people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your elderly will have revelatory dreams; your young men will see prophetic visions. 29 Even on male and female servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. (Joel 2:28-29, NET)

That’s a promise that things were going to change. No longer would God limit his spirit to one or two people in each generation. Instead, all people who trusted the Messiah (Jesus) would have God’s Spirit in them.

In Acts 2:17, on the day of Pentecost, the Lord gave his Holy Spirit to all 120 followers of Jesus. Peter quotes this prophecy from Joel and affirms that it was fulfilled from that day on. And so, from that day on, God’s chosen instruments to work in this world are every single person who trusts in Jesus. It is no longer one or two people in a generation – it is all of God’s people. We are all given the anointing of the Holy Spirit to do God’s work here and now.

But in the time of Saul, this was still many centuries into the future. And so when Samuel anointed Saul, it was something very significant and very special. We can see this anointing at work almost immediately. Samuel predicts that the Spirit of God will fall on Saul, and change him:

The Spirit of the LORD will control you, you will prophesy with them, and you will be transformed into a different person. (1 Sam 10:6)

When Saul turned around to leave Samuel, God changed his heart, and all the signs came about that day.(1 Sam 10:9).

So the anointing was the outward sign of what was to take place spiritually with Saul. However, it was done in private, because Samuel wanted to make sure that Saul really was God’s choice. So he did this privately, and then also arranged a public ceremony (more on that later) where they asked God who should be king, and through the casting of lots, God again chose Saul.

Now, I want us to pause for a moment, and ask “Why Saul?” Saul himself asks basically the same thing in verse 21. Again, the only thing remarkable at all about him was that he was tall and handsome, and those had nothing to do with this character. I think God choosing Saul is all about God’s grace.

First, Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin. The patriarch Benjamin (son of Jacob) was the youngest of the twelve brothers who founded the twelve tribes. In those days, elders were honored above those who were born later. Even though we are talking about many centuries later, still, the tribe of Benjamin was descended from the youngest brother, which was not a place of honor.

Next, about two hundred years before the events we are looking at right now, one of the towns belonging to the tribe of Benjamin perpetuated a terrible atrocity. The story is in Judges 19-21. The other tribes demanded justice from the evil town, but the whole tribe of Benjamin made a terrible choice, and rose up to defend the evildoers. The result was war between Benjamin and the other eleven tribes, and the tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out – everyone was killed except for six-hundred men who fled to the hills. The other Israelites eventually forgave them, and wives were found from the other tribes for those six hundred Benjamites. This is why, two hundred years later, Benjamin was still the smallest tribe in Israel. Even in the time of Samuel and Saul, the tribe of Benjamin was probably still under a cloud of shame for their history of fighting a war to defend something that was truly wicked and sinful.

The Lord had twelve tribes from which to choose a king. But he chose the tribe of the last-born patriarch, the smallest tribe, and the one that was still under the cloud of a shameful history, to bring forth the first king of Israel. It is as if he is saying, “Tribe of Benjamin, your shame is removed. Look – I am paying attention to you. You are as significant and important as any other part of my people.” It is sheer grace.

There is another reason God might have chosen Saul himself. In the very near future, the Philistines were going to challenge Israel with a huge warrior – a giant of a man named Goliath. Israel’s new king – Saul – was also a very large man. Saul was not as tall as Goliath (who was probably nine feet tall) but many commentators speculate that while the average height of a man was maybe five foot three, Saul must have been well over six feet. Regardless of what the actual heights were, the Bible is clear that everyone else only came up to Saul’s shoulders in height; which is to say he was almost a foot taller than the next tallest man. Israel wanted a king who would lead them in battle. They wanted someone who would bring them respect among the other nations. Saul is big and strong and impressive. He is exactly what the people of Israel asked for.

Once Samuel heard from the Lord, he gathered the people of Israel. They chose the king not by election, but by a process that was like rolling a special kind of “dice” that had been blessed by God. The “dice” might have been the Urim and Thummin – special stones first mentioned in Exodus 28:30. This process was called “casting lots.” They would pray, ask God a question, and then cast the lots, trusting that God would determine the result. So they went through, asking about each tribe until Benjamin was chosen by the casting of the lots. Then Saul’s father’s family was chosen, and then Saul himself. So the choice that Samuel privately felt God had made was now confirmed in this public process. But when he was chosen, Saul hid himself among the baggage.

At first this makes it seem like Saul is charmingly humble. However, in light of what we will see in Saul’s life later on, maybe it wasn’t actually humility. Maybe it was reluctance to let himself belong so fully to God, reluctance to give up his own agenda in order to be God’s instrument in this world. We know that Saul was not spiritually sensitive, or even interested in God to begin with. God gave him his anointing, but we don’t see Saul really embracing it. We don’t really know much about how Saul received these things. It looks like it was mostly external for him.

Think of the contrast between Saul and Samuel. When Samuel was called, he invited God to speak to him. He said “speak for your servant is listening.” he spent his life listening to the Lord, and not shrinking back from what God said, waiting when God said “wait” and acting when God said “act,” speaking when God said, “speak.” He was willing to let God be God even when he didn’t understand why God would, for instance, let the people have a king.

Saul, on the other hand, didn’t look for God. He looked for donkeys. He didn’t look for the responsibility of leadership, and God practically had to force it on him. There is no record of him saying to the Lord, “I am your servant, use me as you please.” These things in Saul’s character are warning signs. They are seeds of destruction that, if not rooted out and given to the Lord, will end up causing big problems later on.

It wasn’t that God was trying to mess with the Israelites because they had rejected Him as king. But he was trying to allow them their free will, and answer their prayers. They had certain parameters. They wanted a king to give them respect among the nations. They wanted him to be a fine figure, impressive, a war leader. They didn’t want a prophet – they had rejected the idea of someone who listened to God and then encouraged them to do God’s will.

Before the lots were cast, Samuel warned the people again about the folly of choosing a king. But they went ahead with it anyway. So the Lord gave them the best possible king he could, given their demands and choices. But those demands and choices meant that their king would have other deficiencies. We can see those deficiencies already.

Sometimes God is more gracious to us and gives us greater blessing when he does not answer our prayers the way we want him to. But the Israelites insisted, and he allowed them to make their own choices.

We can see that this might all end badly, even so, this incident in Saul’s life shows us a little bit of how gracious and caring God is. Saul was not looking for God, he was looking for donkeys. And yet God was still reaching out to Saul. Saul had no thought of becoming a king, but God gave him a kingdom. He was not special in any way, except perhaps physically, and of course, his physical characteristics were something given to him genetically, not earned. Ultimately, his physical appearance came from God as well. Yet, in spite of the fact that Saul did nothing to deserve it, God chose him. This is grace, all the more amazing because it is totally unexpected, and totally undeserved.

So where does this leave us? Are you making demands of God? Perhaps God will give you what you ask for, but maybe you should consider letting him have his way instead. He is gracious sometimes to give us our free choices, but His will is always best. Sometimes there is more grace in a prayer that is not answered the way we want it to be.

Maybe the Lord is making it clear to you that he wants you to be his instrument in this world, but you, like Saul, are reluctant. God did use Saul, but Saul would have been much better off if he had willingly given up his own will and desires. Maybe like Saul, you’ve been coasting along, doing your thing, and God has gone out of his way to get your attention. Don’t be like Saul, who remained insensitive to the Lord even afterward. This is grace, and I encourage you to respond in faith and surrender, and re-orient your life and priorities around listening to God and letting Him live his life through you.

I myself was like Saul in that way for about three years. In college, I became convinced I was called to ministry. I finished college, and then spent almost five years in graduate school, and jumping through hoops in order to become a pastor. But then, after I had been a pastor for a few years, I decided I didn’t have to do that anymore, and I walked away from ministry. It didn’t go particularly well for me. After many hard lessons, the Lord brought me around to his way of thinking, and I went back into ministry. I learned that accepting the Lord’s call is always best.

Perhaps you feel like the tribe of Benjamin. You feel insignificant. Maybe there is a cloud of shame or disgrace in your past. Think of God’s grace to this tribe. That grace is for us as well:

²⁶ Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. ²⁷ Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. ²⁸ God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. (1 Corinthians 1:26-28, NLT)

Listen! God has chosen you. He chooses the foolish to shame the wise, the lowly to shame the great, the small to teach the grand. Your shame is removed and God wants you.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you now.

1 SAMUEL #6. BAD CHOICES, GOOD GOD.

On October 6, 2023 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Samuel thought the Israelites were making a bad choice. Even though he was a wise, mature, man of God, he did not assume he was right, but instead, he brought their request to the Lord. Surprisingly, the Lord told Samuel that he was right, that what the people wanted was bad…but then he said he would grant their request anyway. The wrong choice of the Israelites led to pain and heartache. But God did not abandon them. He used their wrong choice to bring about good things even so.

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1 Samuel # 6. Kingship, Freedom and Responsibility. 1 Samuel 7:18–8:1-22

The battle recorded in 1 Samuel chapter seven ended when Samuel was in his twenties. Verses 13-17 summarize much of the rest of his life. He led Israel, listening to the Lord, and telling them what the Lord had to say, helping them to understand what it means to follow him, and encouraging them to actually do it. And the people seemed to respond to his leadership. After those first tumultuous twenty years or so, things went well for that generation. The Philistine threat was greatly reduced. There was peace and people seemed to want to listen to the Lord. What began with a simple woman wanting to become a mother, had brought peace, joy and goodness to thousands and thousands of people.

As he aged, Samuel tried to groom his two sons to lead Israel as he had. But it looked like they were headed down the same path as Hophni and Phinehas, the wicked sons of Eli, who had been in charge when Samuel was very young. History seemed poised to repeat itself. Samuel’s sons were dishonest – they took bribes to settle disputes, instead of judging fairly.

People Samuel’s age and older probably remembered what it was like back in the days of Eli, and were afraid of going back to those dark times. In any case, the people gathered and told Samuel they wanted him to find them a king. This was a bad idea for many reasons. The most important thing against it was that the people of Israel were supposed to see God himself as their king.

I love Samuel’s response. The same little boy that was ready to hear God, still wanted to hear him as an older man.

One bible version says, “the request displeased Samuel.” The Hebrew word for “displeased” actually means to “ruin or spoil.” So it could mean that Samuel was upset about it – it ruined his heart. Or maybe he thought that the Israelites were going to spoil a very good thing. I think that is the best way to translate it, considering what followed.

So the first part of Samuel’s response is that he thinks it is a bad idea. He has good reasons for thinking so, and history basically proved him right. But, while that is what he thinks, he doesn’t just come right back with that. Instead, the second part of his response is to pray about what the people have said. So, Samuel was a humble God-follower. He was experienced and wise. He was a proven and popular leader. But he did not assume that his own well-considered opinion was automatically right. Instead, he asked God about it.

Samuel’s attitude is definitely one worth learning from. When I have to make decisions about something, or deal with others, too often I know I’m right, and when I know I’m right, I think I don’t have to ask the Lord about it. Now, I’m not talking about things that the Bible is very clear about – like who Jesus is, or whether it is wrong to lie. In those types of things, where the Bible is clear, we can be confident. In other words, we don’t have to pray: “Lord should I advise my co-worker to lie to our boss?” The answer is obvious from scripture. We don’t have to ask God whether or not we should lie, or get drunk, or cheat someone.

However, there are many situations where God hasn’t given us a set of rules or a manual, and instead, we are supposed to rely on him to reveal his will in various situations. Should you take the new job or not? Does the Lord think it’s a good idea for you to go to that party? Should your let your kids go on the overnight trip? Does the Lord want you to talk to your co-worker about what the bible says in this situation? In such situations rather than relying on a set of rules, the Lord wants us to come to him directly, like Samuel did.

What God said to Samuel is surprising, puzzling and (I think) extremely interesting.

The LORD said to Samuel, “Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king.
1 Samuel 8:7

So, let’s get this straight. God is saying, “Samuel, you have it right. When they ask for a king, they are rejecting me as king. This is a bad idea. So go ahead and help them get a king.”

Say what?

I think there are several things going on here. First, Samuel may have felt that he had personally failed as a leader. After he led them for a lifetime as a prophet, the people of Israel said, “we don’t want a prophet anymore. We want a king.” So Samuel probably felt that he had somehow failed to teach them or encourage them in their relationship with God. He may also have felt bad about the choices his sons had made. The Lord was saying first of all “No Samuel, it isn’t you. You haven’t failed. They aren’t rejecting you, they are rejecting me.”

Sometimes this is a word we need to hear from the Lord. Maybe you have a family member you’ve been praying with or for. Maybe there’s a friend who has sought your advice. And yet the relative or the friend has ultimately decided to ignore what you have shared with them. Your prayers don’t seem effective. That person is going her own way, and that way is to move farther away from the Lord. Perhaps the Lord wants to say to you right now, “My beloved child, that person has not rejected you. She is rejecting my will for her life. Don’t take it personally. Don’t feel that you are a failure. This is about Me, not you.”

I want to talk for a minute about what the Lord meant when he said the Israelites were rejecting Him as their king. Since the time of Abraham, the people of Israel were not ruled by kings. For four hundred years in Egypt, and another four-hundred after they came to the promised land, the people were supposed to live free, with God as their only king. They were supposed to answer to Him – above any earthly authority.

I am fascinated by how similar this is to the basic political philosophy of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her life growing up on the American Frontier during the late 1800s. In Little Town on the Prairie she makes some observations that are surprisingly relevant to our text today. One year, the new town she was living in celebrated the fourth of July. As part of the celebration, they read aloud the Declaration of Independence. After that, the crowd sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” ending with this verse, causing Wilder to reflect:

Long may our land be bright; With Freedom’s holy light. Protect us by Thy might; Great God our King.

The crowd was scattering away then, but Laura stood stock still. Suddenly she had a completely new thought. The Declaration and the song came together in her mind, and she thought: God is America’s king.

She thought: Americans won’t obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa; he has to boss himself. Why (she thought) when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn’t anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good.

Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means, you have to be good. “Our father’s God’s, author of Liberty — ” The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God’s law is the only thing that gives you the right to be free. (Little Town on the Prairie, page 76)

The problem is, it didn’t work very well for the people of Israel. Most people didn’t want to live that way. This is what God meant when he said to Samuel that the Israelites were not rejecting Samuel, but God himself. They were saying, “It is too hard to have to listen to what God says for ourselves. It is too much responsibility for us to do what is right. Give us a king to lead us. He can tell us what to do. He can listen to God and be responsible for what happens.”

There is a deeper truth here. Whenever we reject the Lord, we are actually rejecting freedom. We tend to think of it the other way around. We think God gives us rules to follow and that is the opposite of being free. I want the teenagers reading this to pay careful attention, because you are at an age where you crave freedom. True freedom only exists with true responsibility. What that means is, you can’t really be free unless you are also really responsible.

Think about it like this. Suppose you are sixteen years old, and you want the freedom to go wherever you want, whenever you want to. In other words, you want the freedom to drive your own car. In order to get that freedom, you must take on the responsibility of learning how to drive, and you must take on the responsibility of learning the traffic laws, and abiding by them, and maintaining your license, and maintaining your car and paying for gas. If you were in our family, you had to have a job, and pay for insurance as well. You get the idea? You can be free, but in order to be free, you must also be responsible. If you don’t want to be responsible enough to do these things, you won’t be free to drive either.

Ever since Adam and Eve sinned, we human beings want to be free without being responsible. But that never works. The two things simply go together. What the Israelites finally admitted is that they would rather not be free, if it meant they actually had to be responsible for their own relationships with God. They were saying, “we don’t want to grow up spiritually. It’s too hard. We would rather give up our freedom, so that we don’t have to be responsible for ourselves.”

In exchange for their freedom, the Israelites thought they would get real security. The king would protect them. The king would make the hard choices. They could see the king, talk to him, and he would be easier to deal with than an invisible God.

In verses 9-18, the Lord through Samuel told the people that this was exactly the choice they were making. He warned them that the king would take away their freedom. But they said that they still wanted a king.

I think we do the same thing when we rely too much on Christian leaders or on religious rules that aren’t really in the Bible. Hearing God through other believers is a valuable thing, a gift that the Lord sometimes gives us. I definitely need to hear what God says to me through other Jesus-followers. We all need a community of believers to help us as we follow the Lord. But we can’t rely on others alone; we are all supposed to connect with the Lord individually also. It’s a kind of spectrum – we need to rely on both the Christian community and also our own individual relationship with God, and keep the two in balance.

These things require effort and personal responsibility. It’s easier just to have someone tell you what to do. Some people find it easier to have an extensive list of rules that can apply to every situation. That way you don’t have to actually deepen your relationship with God, to learn to hear him, to put in the time required to get close to him. This theme – the tension between following God closely, or, instead, trying to live only by rules and leaders, will occur several times throughout the books of Samuel.

God’s response to the people is fascinating. What they want is a bad idea. They will ruin his plan for them to be free as they follow him. And yet, he says to Samuel, “Let them go ahead with it. In fact, help them pick a king.” Basically he said to the people: “I’ll give you what you want, but it will frustrate you in the end. In the end it will just bring you back to the same place.”

This is one of those places in the Bible where we see clearly two things that seem contradictory, and yet they are both true. God gives everyone free will. He let the Israelites choose something that was not what he wanted for them. They truly had a choice, and they used it to choose against God’s plan. But then, once they made their free choice, God began to work his will in and through the circumstances that their choice created. They got to have their free choice. And yet God’s will was not ultimately thwarted, and he began to work. Before we are done with 1-2 Samuel we will see some really amazing ways God used the poor choice of these people to have a king. It is a reflection of Romans 8:28:

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28

All things – even our own bad choices – are used by God to accomplish his purposes in and through us. God let the Israelites ruin his plan for a nation that lived free from tyranny and served only Him. In fact, before he ever made the universe, he knew this would happen. He didn’t stop them. But he didn’t give up on them either. He continued to work with them, in them and through them.

As we read the Old Testament, it is helpful to remind ourselves how it points to Jesus. What about this text? Does it tell us something about what life is like while following Jesus? Does it remind us what Jesus is like, or what he did for us? I think it does. Obviously, the idea of balancing our dependence upon others with a strong individual relationship with the Lord is important for following Jesus. Samuel also gives us an example: rather than relying on his own wisdom and experience, he checked with the Lord, and was willing to hear something counter-intuitive.

The Lord’s own response shows us his character, the same character that Jesus Christ displayed. The people rejected him, but he did not abandon them.

Sometimes we are like the Israelites. We want what we want, even when someone (perhaps even the Lord) has warned us it is a bad idea. Yet God can work through even our mistakes. Now, this doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to completely ignore God, because he’ll make it work out anyway. The Israelites experienced a lot of pain and heartache from their bad choices, but it did not separate them from the love of God. We may experience pain and heartache. But if we continue in faith, if we continue on in Jesus, God will work out all things in some way to our good.

1 SAMUEL #5. THE POEPLE WHO REPENTED

On August 28, 2023 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized2 Comments

The ancient Israelites faced tremendous cultural pressure to worship false gods. But even when they finally resolved to follow the Lord with all of their hearts, things did not go well for them at first. This passage reminds us of God’s holiness. It reminds us that we need Jesus. It shows us the parallels between the ancient Israelites, and us today. It shows us that it is good and helpful to deliberately reminisce about times past when we had powerful experiences with God.

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First Samuel #5. 1 Samuel 6:13-7:17. Repentance.

We left off last time where the Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant into a cart, and hooked it up to two cows who had been separated from their calves. Rather than return home to their calves, the cows pulled the cart into Israelite territory. They stopped near the town of Beth-shemesh, which was a town given to the tribe of Levi. The tribe of Levi (Levites) were the priests for the people of Israel.

¹³ The people of Beth-shemesh were harvesting wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they were overjoyed to see it.¹⁴ The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-shemesh and stopped there near a large rock. The people of the city chopped up the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.¹⁵ The Levites removed the ark of the LORD, along with the box containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. That day the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD. (1 Samuel 6:13-15, HCSB)

The Ark had come home, so to speak. Remember, the Lord had refused to let the Israelites manipulate him through the Ark; he had erased their idea that it was a kind of lucky rabbit’s foot. Next, he used the Ark to show the Philistines that he was more real and powerful than the idols and demons they worshiped. And now, he brought it back to Israel. Even so, the Lord does not seem to be finished with the lesson. This perplexing incident is recorded:

And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow. Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to you.” (1Sam 6:19-21, ESV)

The Old Testament has several stories like this. They can be confusing and perplexing. A few years ago I was reading through Leviticus for my daily devotions. I did this almost to dare God to speak to me through Leviticus, which is some pretty dry reading at the points when you can even understand it. I got nothing out of it for almost two weeks. Then I read a story from chapter ten. Two priests sacrificed “unauthorized incense” and God burned them up instantly. I said, “What’s up with that, Lord? That doesn’t sound like you. It doesn’t sound like my Father, my Comforter, my never failing Friend.” Then I read Leviticus 10:3

I will show my holiness among those who come to me. I will show my glory to all the people.

So also, the Israelites say when they are struck down for disrespecting the ark: “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God?”

When I was a teenager, my High School science teacher took a very small piece of pure sodium (which exists as a soft metal) and put it into a tub of water. It immediately began to hiss and steam, and then suddenly the sodium exploded into flames. Pure sodium cannot exist in water. It burns up and explodes in the presence of water, becoming a different chemical in the process.

Just for grins, below is a video of two guys dropping pure sodium into a toilet. It’s pretty dramatic, especially if you start at about 3:10 into the video.

All right, hope you enjoyed that. The video was kind of fun and whimsical, but it portrays a physical reality: two elements that simply cannot coexist. In the same way, though we often forget it, sin cannot exist in the presence of God. It burns up, explodes and is destroyed. It isn’t a matter of God not tolerating sin – the very nature of God destroys it. The problem however, is that we human beings are born in sinful flesh – from our very birth, we are corrupted by a nature that rebels against God. This means that there is no way for us to get close to God without being destroyed. Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? Who indeed? Certainly, no one with sin in him or her. So in the time of the Old Testament, unless people took the extreme precautions laid out by God, they were destroyed if they even did something like touch the ark improperly, or offer unauthorized incense. In the case of our text today, it might be that some people actually looked inside the ark at the stone tablets, or possibly that they gloated over the fact that they were now in charge of it.

The difference between these incidents I read about in the Old Testament, and my own experience of relationship with God, is the work of Jesus. Jesus took all of our sin – past, present and future – into himself. When Jesus took that sin into himself,

“God made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Because Jesus was in nature God, and as a human was not himself sinful, the sin which God laid on him could be destroyed without destroying Jesus also.

So now, through Jesus, we are no longer in a situation where the presence of God destroys us. Now his holiness is not a problem that keeps us apart, because our sin has been removed. This is one reason why I say that if we are in Jesus, we don’t have a sinful nature anymore. If we did, the Holy Spirit could not live in us, and we would be destroyed by God’s presence. We continue to battle with the effects of a body corrupted by sin, but in Christ we have been given a spirit that is holy in God’s sight.

In any case, the point I’m making is this: the way the Old Testament describes God is not inconsistent with the way God is revealed by the New Testament. They are not two different Gods. In fact, we don’t really understand how much we need Jesus without passages like this in the Old Testament. Now, through faith in Jesus, we are reconciled to the holiness of God in a way that in those days, people were not. This passage, above all, reminds me of my deep need for Jesus.

The writer of 1 Samuel continues the narrative, twenty years later. An entire new generation grew up. Previously, under the leadership of Eli, Hopni and Phinehas, the people were disconnected from God, and they didn’t care. They were arrogant, sure of themselves, sure they could manipulate God through the ark. They blamed God in their defeat, and tried to force him to give them victory.

But after their defeat, and their difficult experiences with the ark, the new generation grew up in humility. By the way, this was Samuel’s generation. He was probably in the middle of it, age-wise, and he led them spiritually. This generation didn’t take anything for granted.

² A long time passed after the ark came to stay at Kiriath Jearim. For 20 years the entire nation of Israel mournfully sought the LORD. (1 Samuel 7:2, GW)

Finally, for a sustained period of time, the Israelites were humbly seeking God. For once it appears that it wasn’t their circumstances that they were upset about. They truly repented. They actually wanted to be close to the Lord. Samuel told them that they needed to get rid of the idols in their lives, to stop seeking comfort and hope in anything that was not the Lord.

And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only. (1 Sam 7:3-4)

The “Ashtaroth” means the idols made in the image of the goddess Ashtoreth, a Canaanite deity of war and fertility. Baal was the most important male god, and Ashtoreth the most important female one. Typically, every family had copies of idols to these gods. It may seem obvious to us that the Israelites should get rid of these false gods if they wanted to worship the Lord. But if we think that, we may not really understand the culture of that time.

We need to remember that in the first place, four-hundred years before, the Israelites had failed to do as God commanded, and displace the Canaanite peoples (like the Philistines) who lived in the Promised Land. As a result, for four hundred years the people of Israel had been influenced by the pagan cultures that lived around them. Though they often had small wars, just as often they traded with the pagan peoples, and sometimes, even though they weren’t supposed to, they married people from these pagan groups. In other words, there was a lot of peaceful interaction between the Israelites, and those who worshipped pagan gods. This interaction exerted a lot of cultural pressure on God’s people.

The Israelites were literally the only people in the entire world who were supposed to believe in only one God. The kind of cultural pressure they felt to at least believe that there were other gods is similar to the type of cultural pressure we might feel today if we believed the world is flat. Israelites would have felt inferior, not smarter, for believing in just one God.

“Of course there are other gods,” said the people around them. “Everyone knows that. It’s obvious. Yahweh might be the god of Israel, but he can’t be the only god. That’s ridiculous. You might as well say the sky is brown. You people are ignorant twits.”

Practically speaking, a lot of Israelites caved into this pressure. Many of them probably believed that Yahweh was indeed Israel’s special god, but that, obviously, other gods must exist. And the gods Baal and Ashtoreth had been in the land long before the Israelites and Yahweh came along. It made sense, even if you were going to worship Yahweh primarily, to make sure you didn’t get on the bad side of the local gods that were here before you and your god.

It made even more sense when you realized that if you worshipped other gods, you’d get to eat meat more often. People didn’t eat meat very often in every day life. But animal sacrifice and then feasting on the animal, were a regular part of many worship rituals. So, if you worshipped lots of gods, you got to eat meat more frequently.

Some pagan gods were also worshipped with fertility rituals. In these, women were encouraged to have sex with any man at the festival who wanted to, in order to get the god/goddess to bless the harvest. If you lusted after the spouse of one of your neighbors, you might get a chance to indulge your lust if you all worshipped these pagan gods. Even if your lust was more general, there were obvious reasons to participate in these rituals. It’s possible that some of the cultural pressure even came from pagan women inviting Israelite men to such ceremonies. And actually, these festivals were not exclusively heterosexual, either.

I hope you can see that actually, the Israelites faced the same types of cultural pressures that Biblical Christians face today. After about 500 CE, up until quite recently, a lot of the dominant cultures in the world believed in only one true God. But we’re back to ancient times again, now, in that respect. Christians are considered strange and backwards for believing that there is only one way to God, or even just one God. It’s hard to maintain our true beliefs when everyone around us thinks we are obviously wrong, and also thinks we are ignorant and bigoted for believing as we do.

We’re also back to a culture that thinks we are stupid for not indulging our every desire as fully as we want to. How silly is it to only have sex within marriage? There are plenty of temptations and opportunities to do otherwise. How silly is it not to indulge your every desire whenever you can?

Everyone around us is doing it. Everyone around us thinks we are stupid, and even dangerous for our beliefs. So, it shouldn’t be too hard to understand the ancient Israelites.

In Samuel’s generation, however, under his leadership, the people found courage. They listened to Samuel, and quit worshipping the false gods, and remained faithful to the one true God.

What happened next is something that I think surprises most of us in America these days. They turned to the Lord with their whole hearts and then things got worse. While they were gathered to worship God, the Philistines attacked. For some reason, preachers in America have been telling us for awhile now that if you just start following Jesus, everything will go well for you. Funny thing – Jesus never said that. Following Jesus, giving their whole lives to him, brought plenty of trouble to Peter, Paul, John James, Barnabas and many others. Following God brought trouble and hardship to Jeremiah, Ezekiel and yes, to Samuel’s generation.

It’s a bad idea to turn back to God in the hope that doing so will make your life go more smoothly. It just ain’t necessarily so. The great thing about Samuel and his generation was that they wanted to follow God because they believed he was the one true God. They dedicated their lives to him because it was good and right, and their hope was in God alone. If he gave them victory, that would be very good indeed. But they planned to follow him regardless. They turned their hearts to the Lord before Samuel told them that he would deliver them.

One of the reasons I get so angry at people who preach that following Jesus brings mainly prosperity and peace is that when trouble comes, those who believe that lie are undone spiritually and emotionally. A common reaction among those who believe this is that if they experience trouble, either they must have failed to follow God, or God is not truly real. They won’t allow for the idea that God might lead us directly into trouble sometimes.

The truth is, not only did Jesus promise persecution and trouble (Matt 6:10-11; John 16:33), but we also have spiritual enemies who will do whatever they can to make trouble for us – the devil and his demons (Eph 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8-10). The older I get, the more I think we should be surprised if we are truly seeking the Lord with all our hearts, and we experience no opposition at all. At the very least, we should be deeply grateful for those times. I’m not trying to make you depressed. I’m only suggesting that we take what Jesus said seriously:

I have said these things to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, ESV)

So how did Samuel’s generation react when the Philistines attacked them? Naturally, they were afraid. No one with any sense at all wants to fight in a war. No one really wants suffering or tribulation. At the same time, they faced it with courage, and asked the Lord humbly for help. They didn’t assume he would deliver them, but they asked for it, in case he would. They didn’t try to manipulate him; they didn’t blame him. They just asked for his help, and they seemed ready to trust him and follow him whether or not he gave it at that particular time.

As it happened, the Lord helped them. The text says that he “thundered against the Philistines with a great and loud voice” (7:10). As I have pointed out before, these older manuscripts were often originally written on either papyrus, or animal skins. If you wanted to explain things in detail, you had to go out and kill another animal to make another manuscript. In the case of papyrus, though it was a paper-like substance, it was also time consuming and costly to make, and it wore out quickly. So you didn’t write down any more than you really had to. Therefore, the thunder is not explained, because the writer didn’t think it was as important as the main thing, which is that God did something to deliver his people. It may even be an expression that was common in those days, something almost like slang, that we don’t understand the full meaning for nowadays. In any case, it was clear that the Lord intervened, and protected his people on that occasion.

As the Philistines, fled, the Israelites chased them. Where the battle stopped, Samuel set up a stone, and called it “Ebenezer,” which means, “stone of help.” It was a way for the people to remember how God helped them that day.

Sometimes it may be helpful for people of faith these days to have our own “stones of help” – something that reminds us of specific times when God helped us. This sort of remembrance can be helpful when we face the pressures of a culture that mocks and denigrates us for worshipping the God of the Bible.

One way to set up an “Ebenezer” is to keep a journal, and record the times when God helped. For other folks, it might be a song that you listened to frequently during a time when God was especially present or helpful. I know of some Christians who collect rocks, and each rock reminds them of something the Lord has done. These days, photographs aren’t a bad way to remember what God has done for you, though you might want to create a special “Ebenezer” album to preserve photos that remind you of what God has done for you. The principle is to have a helpful, concrete way to remember times when God’s presence was obvious to you.

Take a minute to reflect on what the Lord is saying to you through 1 Samuel 6:13 through 7:15. Do you need to be reminded of your need for Jesus? Do you need to remember that in Jesus, your sin has been thoroughly removed and is no longer a barrier between you and the Lord? Is the Lord calling you to come back to him with your whole heart, like Samuel’s generation? Maybe you are really feeling the culture’s pressure to believe there are many ways to God, or many lifestyles that are equally acceptable for those who follow Jesus (in spite of what the Bible says about that). Maybe you need to be encouraged to stay strong.

Perhaps you need to be reminded that trouble is a normal part of life, even when you are walking with the Lord. Or perhaps today you need to set up an “Ebenezer” – a reminder of God’s presence and help in your life. Let him speak to you.

1 SAMUEL #2. THE WOMAN WHO BELIEVED GOD WAS IN CONTROL

On August 11, 2023August 11, 2023 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

The idea that God is in control raises many objections for some people, but even before her situation was totally changed, Hannah found peace, comfort and joy in the fact that God is entirely in control.

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1 SAMUEL #2. 1 SAMUEL 2:1-11

Not long ago, we were looking at various psalms. I said at the beginning of the series on the psalms that in every case where we know the author of a given psalm, it was written by a man. I want to make sure I was clear though, that there is still the possibility that some of the psalms were written by women, it’s just that we don’t know which ones might have been. However, here we have a psalm that we know for certain was written by a woman: Hannah, mother of Samuel. I might call this particular psalm an example of “prophetic poetry.” Hannah is proclaiming God’s truth through poetic language, and there are several important truths to look at here. One reason I call it prophetic is because even though Hannah wrote this about her own life, in a big-picture kind of way, it reflects what God is doing, and will do, for the entire nation of Israel during the lifetime of her children and grandchildren.

When Hannah says, in verse 1 that her “horn is lifted by the Lord,” she is using pictorial language that would have been understood by the people of her time, but probably not by most modern readers. The horn was a symbol of strength, power and victory. So by saying this, she means that the Lord has given her strength, and victory.

No doubt Hannah was thinking of her husband’s second wife, Penninah, when she writes about her adversaries, or says things like: “Do not boast so proudly.” But the things she writes about could apply to the whole nation of Israel. The whole nation was poor and needy, seemingly neglected by God, at that time. Other nations dominated the Israelites, and were proud and boastful about their power. But God was about to give the Israelites strength and honor, in part, through Hannah’s son, Samuel. The mighty nations around them were about to be humbled, while the poor and needy Israelites would soon find themselves to be a dominant power in the region.

The heart of Hannah’s psalm is verses 6-9:

⁶ The LORD brings death and gives life;
He sends some to Sheol, and He raises others up.
⁷ The LORD brings poverty and gives wealth;
He humbles and He exalts.
⁸ He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the garbage pile.
He seats them with noblemen
and gives them a throne of honor.
For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’S;
He has set the world on them.
1 SAMUEL 2:6-9

This is not just about Hannah’s life, nor even just the life of Israel. These verses declare an important truth that is often hard for us to get our heads around: God really is in control of everything.

Before we dive deeper into this, I want to make sure to reiterate another biblical truth: human beings are responsible for their own actions. The Bible makes that very clear. We are held accountable for what we do. That is one reason we need Jesus: because every human being does sin, and break faith with God. We need forgiveness, and that forgiveness is found only through Jesus Christ. If we weren’t responsible for our own actions, we could not be considered accountable for our sins. But we are accountable for what we do, and since we all sin, that means we need Jesus.

²² God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all: ²³ everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. ²⁴ But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free. ^25-26 God offered him, so that by his blood he should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in him.
(Romans 3:22-26, GNT)

Sometimes the Bible describes two truths that need to be held in tension with one another. On the one hand, we are responsible for our own actions. On the other hand, as Hannah tells us here, God is entirely in control.

I want to share two analogies to help us wrap our heads around this. The first comes from the laws of physics. In general at the level of our everyday experience, physical things are either particles, or waves. A particle is something with physical mass in a specific place. Think of a piece of wood. The wood is made up of a bunch of particles. They don’t move, and they weigh something – they have mass. For an example of a wave, think about sound. You don’t have “a piece of sound.” It doesn’t really weigh anything. Instead, sound is a wave that acts on the air ( or other medium) through which it travels, pushing it in wave patterns that act against our eardrums. So you have particles, or you have waves.

And yet, when you get to quantum physics, suddenly some things can act like both particles and waves, especially light. Light appears to be both a particle, and a wave. It doesn’t really make sense, but it’s true anyway. Both things are true. In the same way, the Bible describes two truths that seem in conflict: we are entirely responsible for our own free choices, and, at the same time, God is entirely in control.

Here’s another analogy. I write murder mysteries – I like to say I kill people for fun and profit (to be clear, I’m talking about making up stories where certain people die, not real killing). Early on I noticed that sometimes, as I was writing, I “realized” that my characters wanted to do and say things that I hadn’t originally planned for them. I have since found out from other writers that this is fairly normal.

Now, I’m the author, the only author of my books. No one in my books can do anything at all unless I write it. At the same time, I’ve realized if I want to write stories that ring true, I have to allow my characters to choose things that are consistent with the kind of people I’ve made them to be, and sometimes those things surprise me, or turn out to be different from what I had originally planned for them. In my first book, there are two main bad guys. I had plans for one of them to repent of his wrongdoing at the end. But when I got to that point in the story, I realized that the kind of man that he was, and the choices he had made up to that point meant that he would not really repent. He was too proud, for one thing. I could have made him repent, but it would have made a bad story. My readers would have known that I, as the author, intruded on the story and forced it. They would have sensed that the story did not reflect reality, that my characters were not real people, free to make real choices. Now, on the other hand, even when I allowed the character to choose a different path, I was the one writing it. He couldn’t have moved a muscle without me. But on the other hand, he “chose” something different from my original plan. The path he chose turned out worse for him than I wanted it to be.

So, what does this have to do with 1 Samuel 2:6-9? Human beings are truly morally free agents. We are responsible for what we do. But, at the same time, nothing that happens is out of God’s control. He allows us to do things that he wishes we would not do, but nothing in this world is ever out of his control. Both things are true at the same time.

All right, having established both of those truths, I want to, like Hannah, spend some time focusing on the truth that God is in control. I think most of us understand instinctively that human beings are free agents, responsible for the choices we make. But we often struggle to believe that even so, God is in control, and we can trust him. Some people think that if God is really in control, he must be some kind of monster, because so many horrible things happen in this life, and if he is in control, why can’t he stop them?

That kind of question is worth a whole book, not just a paragraph or two in the middle of a sermon. But I’ll offer two suggestions. First, because we human beings do, in fact, make free choices for a which we are responsible, we often make a big mess of things. For instance, God did not choose the Second World War. It was largely the choices made by leaders in Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan that made that happen (along with other choices by leaders in other countries). It’s true, God could have stopped it, but if so, he would have had to take away human free will. And when you take away human free will, you take away love.

The essence of love is that one has a choice to love, or not love. If you take away the choice to not love, then love itself is no longer real. But to not love a perfect, good God is ultimately to choose evil. Even indirect suffering, like sickness and death, is a result of the fact that the first humans chose to rebel against God. So my own intense chronic pain is the result of the fact that sin is in the world. It isn’t anyone’s fault in particular (unless maybe Adam and Eve’s) but it is a result of the fact that human beings as a race chose to not love God, and so corrupted not only human DNA, but the entire natural creation. In other words, it is not God’s direct doing. If all human beings had chosen to never forsake God, I wouldn’t be in pain, babies wouldn’t be born disabled, and human beings wouldn’t hurt one another. So if God brought an end to suffering by making it impossible to choose anything that leads to suffering, then he would also make it impossible to truly love.

The second thing is that the bible’s teaching that God is in control of everything is an invitation for us to trust him. When we respond to that invitation, and do, in fact, trust him, the result is often wonderful grace and comfort.

I will have to stop writing this soon, and take a break, because it is becoming difficult to maintain focus through the intense pain that I am experiencing at this moment. Even with this level of pain, the knowledge that God is in control of my pain has brought me deep and wonderful comfort.

(I’ve had my break. In fact, it’s the next day now). Let’s start with the alternative. If God does not want my pain to continue, and yet it does continue (as it has), that would mean he is not all-powerful. It would mean that I am at the mercy of something stronger than God. It would mean that there are forces other than my own choice, that can take me away from God’s plan for my life, and keep me from his help. If God is not in control of my pain, we live in a horrific world where not even God can help us in our suffering. If God is not in control of my suffering, then I am utterly alone. Life is very difficult, and I am beyond God’s help. That is not a helpful, or comforting idea.

Now, someone might ask, “But Tom, if God could change someone’s terrible circumstances, and yet he doesn’t do it, doesn’t that make God cruel, or at the very least, uncaring?”

The thought behind that question often causes people to lose their faith. Thankfully, I didn’t experience my eight years of suffering until I had already experienced almost forty years of following God. So, I couldn’t abandon my faith over my suffering, because I already knew God too well. I have experienced too much, studied too much, thought too much, to convince myself that God isn’t real, or that he isn’t loving, or that he isn’t powerful. What I did have to learn is that I don’t know what God knows, and in many circumstances, I am simply not capable of comprehending why he might do something, or not do something. God’s control, even of my suffering invites me to trust him beyond my own understanding.

Little children don’t always know why their parents do things. Sometimes parents take their children to a cold room, where a stranger in a white coat stabs a needle into the child. How could loving parents do that? Are the parents not strong enough to protect their children from being stabbed with needles by strangers? Does this mean the parents don’t care about their children?

Sometimes, if the child is seriously ill, parents make their children go through far worse things than just being poked with needles. Childhood cancer and chemotherapy come to mind as examples of this. The children in those cases are often too young to really understand why they have to suffer in this way. Their only real hope of peace and comfort is to trust their parents; trust that their parents love them, and want the best for them, and are in fact, making sure that everything that happens is for their best good.

Hannah’s viewpoint was one of trust. Remember, at this point, she had borne Samuel, and then brought him to live apart from her. She had other children, but that was not until later. She wrote this psalm before everything turned out better for her. That’s trust! She learned, and gave us an example of, the kind of joy and peace that comes when we trust that God is in control of all things.

This is our best chance for peace and comfort as well. We often won’t understand why we, or our loved ones might have to suffer. But, I tell you, speaking from personal experience, the best path to peace and comfort is in admitting that I don’t know what God knows, and trusting that he loves me, even when I can’t understand what is happening.

If ever I begin to doubt that love, the best antidote is to look at Jesus. He literally went through hell for me, so I cannot doubt that I am indeed loved. That helps me trust in a God who is indeed in control. I pray you can do the same.

PSALMS #8: WATER IN A THIRSTY LAND. (PSALM 63)

On July 27, 2023 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

*Judean Desert. Photo by Leon Mauldin. leonmauldin.blog.*

When times are difficult, or spiritually dry, David urges us to dwell upon the memories of spiritually good times to encourage our hearts to remain steadfast.

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The Superscription for this psalm indicates that David wrote it while he was in the wilderness of Judah. There are a few times in his life that this might describe. When he was young, even before he was anointed to be the next king, or had killed Goliath, David was a shepherd for his father’s flocks of sheep. In those days, shepherds spent extensive time in the wilderness alone with the sheep. However, sheep need a fair amount of grass, which requires a certain amount of water, which doesn’t really fit the description here.

Some commentators think that David wrote this when he was much older, fleeing from the rebellion of his son Absalom. But the description of the land where David went at that time doesn’t match very well either. In his lifetime, there was a great forest near where David fled from Absalom. However, here, David talks of a dry and thirsty land, a weary land without water.

Therefore, I believe David wrote this during the period when he was running and hiding from king Saul. I think he is talking about the desert that is southeast of Jerusalem, and to the west of the Dead Sea, in Israel. At certain times of year, you can stand on a mountainside, and see for miles and miles, and there is hardly any vegetation visible at all. That area gets less than 8 inches of rain per year, which is a little bit less than the low desert outside of Phoenix, AZ (not the mountains, the flatlands). It is a very desolate place. David spent a couple of years in that area, avoiding king Saul’s unjustified jealous rage. I imagine that there were many days when David hiked through the dry, dusty mountains, hot, parched, and yearning for the sight and taste of fresh, cool water.

I want to point out the obvious here, that once again, David is not writing from a place of comfort and safety. In fact, he was struggling to survive in a hostile wilderness, and he was there because a very powerful person was trying to kill him. Even so, his focus was on the goodness of God.

I have wondered sometimes if David wrote this psalm not only in the wilderness, but also while fasting. Fasting from food, combined with prayer and focus on God, loosens our bonds to the world around us, and reminds us that we need God even more than we need food. It tends to sharpen our desire to be close to God. Certainly, this psalm seems to have those characteristics. David says that he thirsts for God. He says that the presence of God will satisfy him, like rich food satisfies a person. He says God’s love is better than life itself. If you find yourself dry spiritually, fasting might be a way to increase your hunger and thirst for God. If you’ve never done it, start out small – maybe stop eating after your evening meal one day, and don’t eat again until the following evening. Use the hunger pangs to remind you to pray, and to remind you that you need God even more than food.

David clearly understood that he could pray in all situations. Even so, he, and virtually all the Israelites of that time, felt that the truest, best way to worship God was at the tabernacle. This was the “holy tent” which contained the altar, for sacrifice, and the inner sanctuary into which God infused his presence in a special way. Personal prayer would tide you over for a while, but the presence of God was at the tabernacle in a special way that it was not elsewhere. You could make sacrifices and offerings to God only at the tabernacle. This is important to understand because during this time of his life David was cut off from the tabernacle. For the years in which David was “on the run,” it was set up near King Saul’s hometown, about five miles from Jerusalem. So, if David went to the tabernacle, Saul would easily capture and kill him.

Therefore, David was missing the special presence of God that, during his lifetime, could only be found through worshipping at the tabernacle. This psalm speaks of his longing to experience that presence again, to have the joy of worshipping God in the presence of his people.

Let’s consider David’s situation, and begin to apply this psalm to our lives. Because of the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, God sent his Holy Spirit to all people. Now, there is not just one place where God is present. He is present within all people who trust Jesus. We can worship God virtually anywhere, anytime. However, there remains something special about the gathering of God’s people together for worship. The Greek word for “church” means “the intentional gathering of God’s people.” Though “church” can happen almost anywhere, it cannot happen with just one person, and it cannot happen without intentionality. So, though our situation is not exactly the same as David’s, it still has some similarity. God is present in a special way when we gather with other believers to worship, pray, and apply his word. There is also something important and unique that happens when we take communion together, and that is not meant to happen individually. Sometimes, I think we don’t value that enough, or we think there is no difference between worshipping God with his people, or doing so on our own. I encourage you to recognize that God did not intend us to be a bunch of spiritually independent free agents. He wants us to worship him in community with other believers, and to receive communion together, and when we do so, something special happens. Like David, it is good to learn to long for, and desire, that special blessing.

There is another piece. At times, believers today experience spiritually dry periods. Maybe you are not cut off from worship and communion with God’s people, but even so, spiritually, it feels like you are in a dry and weary land. Though perhaps there was a time you delighted in the presence of God, and felt filled spiritually, there can also come times when you don’t feel the presence of God in a close way like you used to. If that happens to you, or is happening right now, do not panic. It does happen at times. Sometimes it even lasts years. For anyone in that situation, I think this psalm can be very helpful.

Now, of course, sometimes our own sin separates us from God. If you feel distant from God, the first thing to check is the state of your own soul. Have you been sinning without repenting? Have you been justifying your wrongdoing to yourself or to God? Such things will indeed create spiritual dry times, and make us feel far from God. Some sins are obvious, and you know you’ve committed them, even if you don’t want to admit it. And we don’t generally have to wonder if something is a sin, because for most things, the Bible makes it very clear. But if you are still not sure what is going on in your heart, it is a simple matter to ask God. Pray that he will show you. David prayed this very thing in other psalms:

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
(Psalms 139:23-24, NLT)

This is a prayer that God will certainly answer. When he does, we must be honest enough with ourselves to accept the truth that God shows us. Thankfully, if it is sin that is making you feel distant from God, the cure is simple: repent, and turn to Jesus. We have no excuses for any of our sins, but we have a defense: Jesus Christ, and the sacrifice he made to cleanse us from sins. When we confess our sins, repent, and turn to Jesus alone for hope of forgiveness, we have that forgiveness.

However, in David’s case, it was not his own sin that was cutting him off from a sense of God’s special presence. Sometimes, this is true of us, as well. If you have examined yourself, and you have prayed for God to reveal any hidden problems, you may find that you are still in a dry place. This is not necessarily your fault. So what can we do?

In the first place, David, cut off from the special presence of God, chooses to remember the wonderful times he has had with God in the past. He writes: “I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.” God already knows what David is telling him. David isn’t writing to remind God – he’s reminding himself. So, we too, can help ourselves during dry times by reminding ourselves of the many wonderful things God has done for us in the past. We can, and should, dwell in the memories of times when we felt close to God. At times, we might be tempted to feel bad about this, like we are “living in the past,” and have no ongoing experience of God’s presence. But I’m not sure it’s ever a bad thing to dwell on times you have felt close to God. Sometimes, good spiritual memories can be very helpful and sustaining.

David also says he will praise God as long as he lives, and lift up his hands to God, and sing for joy. He is choosing to worship God in whatever ways he can, even though he can’t go to the tabernacle for now. He is not focused on what he is missing. Instead, he is doing whatever he can do at the moment. I think this is a path for us, also. With a little self-discipline, we can learn to thank God, and praise him, even when life isn’t going the way we want it to. Remember, at this point in his life, David is not just cut off from the sanctuary alone. He has been branded a criminal, with a bounty on his head. People are trying to kill him, and he has to move around somewhat frequently, and a lot of the time he is living in caves. But he chooses to praise God, lift up his hands, and sing. The choice is not about how he feels. We can make those same choices, and we might be surprised at how much it helps us to praise God in all things.

Next, David commits to remembering God, and meditating on Him. He will discipline his mind to think about what God has done, and what his character is like. David did not have the advantage of a written Bible to carry around with him. But we do. When we feel cut off from God’s presence, we can still read the Bible. We can discipline our minds to think about what God is like, and to remember his steadfast love. Whether or not we feel God’s love, this fact remains: Jesus died for our sins. That is worth remembering, and meditating on.

David writes: “My soul clings to you.” I love this. Whatever else is happening, David is clinging to God. It is a great example for us. We cling to the Lord when times are good and happy, and we cling to him when we are in a dry and weary place. We can become oblivious to the hard, dry place where we are, and focus entirely on the good, sweet, fresh presence of God. This is the essence of trust. This is what it means to be a believer: to cling to God through Jesus Christ.

The ending of this psalm has a slightly different tone. David has been earnestly seeking God, and it’s easy to identify with him, and then all of a sudden he seems to get angry and bloodthirsty:

⁹ But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; ¹⁰ they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. ¹¹ But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.
(Psalms 63:9-11, ESV)

There are many psalms that contain things like this. In fact, this is pretty tame compared to some of what we find. But what are we to make of this? In the first place, as I mentioned at the beginning, David is in this situation because of the evil of other people. He is cut off from God’s presence because of Saul, who has rejected God’s will, and who has almost unlimited power in Israel. David has no court to appeal to, no police who will protect him, no way to get justice. However, here, he is expressing confidence that God will make sure that justice is done. Notice that David does not say: “I will send my enemies to the depths of the earth,” or “I will kill them, and leave them as food for jackals.” Instead, he is saying, “I trust that God will make sure justice eventually prevails.” We can know that this was indeed David’s attitude, because two different times he had the opportunity to kill Saul, but very deliberately he chose not to do it. He trusted that God would bring justice.

The last part, about the king, might also be confusing. One possibility is that David is referring to himself, because even though he is not yet the official king, he has already been anointed to be the monarch. Another possibility is that he believed that the reason Saul was trying to kill him was because of advisors who were lying to Saul about David. That helps make sense out of David’s line: “the mouths of liars will be stopped.”

However we interpret the part about the king, what do we do with these last two verses, which sound slightly bloodthirsty? How do we apply them to our own situation?

In the first place, we should remember Paul’s words from Ephesians 6:12

¹² For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
(Ephesians 6:12, NLT)

All Christians do indeed have enemies, very real ones. They are the evil spiritual powers who rebelled against God along with Satan. They seek to destroy us. It is appropriate for us to want God to put an end to them, to their warfare against us. We can use verses like these in the psalms to ask God to deliver us from powers of evil.

There are also times when we experience injustice in this world, and probably many more times when we see others who do. Yet, often, we cannot really do anything about it. Although it is good and right to work for justice in ways that are legal and godly, we trust that final justice is not up to us, but to God. In such moments, we can learn with David to remember and trust that God will eventually make sure justice is done.

What is the Lord saying to you today through this Psalm?

PSALMS #7. PSALM 51: A BATH GONE HORRIBLY WRONG

On June 30, 2023 By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Psalm 51 is a remarkable part of scripture. David committed horrific sins, including murder. And yet the Holy Spirit did not give up on him, and eventually brought forth this precious and powerful psalm as a result of that horrible sin and tragedy. David identifies the deepest need of anyone who really understands themselves: a new heart, a clean spirit. And through David and Bathsheba physically, God brought a savior to the world who gives us that new heart.

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PSALMS #7: PSALM 51.

King David is famous for many things: killing Goliath, being a great warrior and leader, being fair and just. He was not only a manly man, but also a sensitive and passionate one: he was a skilled musician and prolific songwriter, and his heart was constantly oriented toward worship and spiritual things. Unfortunately, along with all the good, David is also known for a spectacular failure: his affair with Bathsheba, and the killing of her husband.

David spent years in a tough situation, hiding from both king Saul, and the Philistines. Then in a battle that was disastrous for Israel, Saul was killed. Finally, the way was open for David to step into his destiny as the next king of Israel. There were still significant bumps on the road, but at last David became king of all Israel, and he led his people into becoming the dominant power in the region. He eliminated the immediate threats to Israel, and then began attacking countries further away, expanding the kingdom. Although he was a formidable warrior and great leader, at some point, his advisors made him stop participating in battles personally, because the whole country depended on his leadership, so it was too risky for him to be exposed to the weapons of the enemy.

So it was that David found himself in Jerusalem while his army was away elsewhere, conquering more territory. This man of action suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. One evening, from his palace, probably the tallest building in Jerusalem, he noticed a beautiful woman, bathing. Most likely, he saw her naked, since people don’t usually bathe with their clothes on. David immediately ordered his men to find her, and bring her to him. The woman, as we know, was named Bathsheba, and her husband, Uriah, was away at the war. It is possible that David seduced her, but it is also possible that Bathsheba could not have said “no” even if she wanted to. Even if she did, technically, have the choice to not sleep with him, David was the most famous and powerful man in the entire region. She would have felt a great deal of pressure to please him.

The affair was bad enough. But then she got pregnant. David, like so many men after him, decided to try and cover it up. He brought Uriah back from the war, and urged him to go home and sleep with his wife, Bathsheba. The plan, obviously, would be for Bathsheba to pretend that the child was Uriah’s, not David’s. However, in those days, it was traditional for soldiers to abstain from sex until after the battle was over. Back on the front line, Uriah’s fellow soldiers were still in danger, and in solidarity with them, and possibly also out of a superstitious fear that he might jeopardize victory, Uriah chose not to sleep with his wife. David even got him drunk, and sent him home, hoping that would erode his self control, but Uriah remained steadfast.

That self-control and integrity cost Uriah not only his wife, but his life. David gave up, and sent Uriah back to the front line. He had Uriah carry sealed orders to the commanding officer. Those orders were that Uriah should be sent to the fiercest part of the battle, and then his fellow soldiers were to withdraw from him, so that he would be killed in battle. In other words, David made Uriah carry the orders for his own murder.

It’s even worse when we realize that Uriah was one of David’s “thirty mighty men,” part of a faithful core of warriors who had been loyal to David in the difficult days before he became king. He was David’s faithful follower, who had endured many hardships with, and for, David, and now David slept with his wife, and then had him killed.

David did not appear to repent. Not long after this, the prophet Nathan came to the king. He told David about a rich man in Israel who had a great flock of sheep, goats and other animals, and a poor man who had nothing except one little lamb who was his beloved pet. The rich man had a visitor, and he was obliged to feed the visitor. But rather than take one of his own vast herd, he extorted the one beloved pet from the poor man, killed it, and fed it to his visitor, while the poor man was helpless to prevent it.

David was enraged by the injustice of what the rich man had done, and furious that such a thing would happen in Israel, where he was king. He demanded to know the name of the rich man, so he could punish him for such blatant extortion and injustice.

Nathan said: “You are the man.”

Shocked and horrified, David finally admitted his terrible sins. He repented, and he expressed his remorse and repentance by writing Psalm 51.

I think Psalm 51 is amazing at so many levels. It is a powerful part of scripture, and contains much important truth. And yet, this amazing and helpful part of the Bible came about because of terrible sins. Therefore, one of the things this psalm shows us is that God can bring good out of any situation, even good out of our own horrible, deliberate sins.

The important truths begin with the very first verse, in the way that David asks for forgiveness. He could have said, “Forgive me, Lord. After all, I am your chosen king.” He might have written: “Lord, if you don’t forgive me, all the amazing things you’ve done in my life up until now would be wasted.” Another possibility: “Forgive me, or the enemies of Israel will be encouraged. If you let something bad happen to me because of this sin, your people will be without a leader.”

He could also have made the claim – correctly – that compared to others, he had lived a mostly righteous life. Before this, he had followed the Lord even in spite of great suffering. He had refused to kill king Saul – twice – when he had him in his power. There was a lot of credit he could have claimed. But instead he asks for forgiveness on the basis of one thing alone: God’s hesed; that is, the covenant love that God has for his people. By doing so, David is saying: “I have no claim on you for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I dare to ask for forgiveness only because I know that you are a loving God. Please forgive me because of your own good and loving character.”

One of the things that is so amazing here is that it is a thousand years before Jesus. We might have expected David to offer sacrifices at the tabernacle, and then consider that he had fulfilled his duty. In other words, he might have expected God to forgive him based on offering the right sacrifices. But he recognizes (and he says it explicitly in verses 16-17) that sacrifices mean nothing unless his heart is in it. He knows that there is nothing he can do to earn God’s forgiveness, and no good he has done in the past is enough to “make up” for his sin. His only hope is that God will have mercy on him. This is one half of the very same gospel preached by Jesus and the apostles a thousand years later. No one can be righteous enough to please God. Instead, we depend entirely on God’s willingness to have mercy on us.

In verses 3-6 David expounds on this. He fully confesses his sin and brokenness, and he goes out of this way to show that he is not making excuses. There is no hope in excuses. There is no excuse. When speaking of his sin, David uses three words, translated by the ESV as: “transgression,” “iniquity,” and “sin.” Transgression describes a moral revolt against God. This is the part inside of us that rises up and says, “I know what’s right and wrong, but I want what I want, and I’m going to get it for myself even if it’s wrong.”

Iniquity describes an internal character of sinfulness. David says: “I was born in iniquity,” (verse 5). He means he was born with a flawed and sinful nature. The New Testament describes this as our sinful flesh. We are all deeply flawed, and not all of those flaws are wonderful and beautiful. Some part of us is broken and twisted from birth, always oriented away from God.

Finally, David uses the word “sin.” Sin (or sins) describes the wrong, bad action. His affair was a sin. The arranged murder was a sin. But it is important to see that sin is just the tip of the iceberg. It starts with a broken and twisted internal character, and then desire that rises up in rebellion against God, and bears fruit with the actual wrong action. This reminds me of what James wrote:

¹³ And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. ¹⁴ Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. ¹⁵ These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15, NLT)

David says something interesting in verse 4: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” When we first read this, it can sound surprising. Surely David sinned against Uriah as well, by committing adultery with his wife, and then by having him killed! How is it that David says his sin is against only God? Although this sounds wrong at first, it turns out to be quite accurate, and important – perhaps even more important today than it was when David wrote it.

In the first place, think of it like this: If there was no God, there would be no such thing as sin. Atheists believe this, and if they were right about the non-existence of God, they would also be correct about the non-existence of sin. If there is no God, even the idea that it is wrong to hurt someone else is just an arbitrary, made up human rule. If there was no God, what David did to Uriah would be a tragedy for Uriah personally, but without God, who has the authority or power to declare it was a sin? David got away with it, after all, and he was the most powerful person in the region. Without God, that’s just the way the world works, and we need to live with it. So, you see, it can’t be a real sin unless there is some absolute standard.

The Bible tells us that the absolute standard is God’s holy character. Therefore, all sins are ultimately and finally sins against God. They are a violation of God’s holy character, and against his design for the human beings he made. There is no way to sin against another person without sinning against God as well.

Next, ask which is worse: violating the trust of another human being, or violating God’s? As a very imperfect analogy, suppose you kill your neighbor’s dog. Obviously, this is terrible for the dog, and it was wrong for you to hurt the dog. But the heart of your sin is really against your neighbor who loves the dog and is responsible for it. Obviously any human is more important than a dog, and in the same way, God is infinitely more important than any human being.

David is not saying that he did not wrong Uriah. Instead his point is that all sin is ultimately against God, and since God is infinitely greater, his sin against God is the heart of the issue. If he had not sinned against God, he certainly would not have sinned against Uriah.

This is especially important because in our world today, many people claim that nothing is really sinful if it doesn’t “hurt someone else.” So, for example, it is claimed, pornography doesn’t hurt anyone, so it’s not wrong to view it. Of course, they are wrong about pornography not hurting anyone. Hundreds, if not thousands, of former porn stars have testified that performing porn devastated them emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes physically. In addition, some of the performers are undoubtedly women who are forced or coerced into it one way or another; no better off than sex slaves. But even if everyone was truly willing to do it, and happy about it later in life, porn is still a sin against God. We can’t say “it doesn’t hurt anyone,” because even if we lived in a fantasy world where it didn’t, it would still be a sin against God.

The same arguments are made about virtually any activity engaged in by consenting adults. We claim that the only sin is when someone doesn’t consent. But David puts us straight: all sin is sin against God. Even if Bathsheba went along with it willingly, they were both sinning, because God’s holy character intends sex for marriage alone. We can’t get ourselves off the hook by saying “I didn’t hurt anyone,” or even “I didn’t coerce anyone.” No, because all sin is against God, we have no defense. David, for his part, did not pretend to have a defense. He says: “therefore you are right when you speak, and justified when you judge me.”

In verse seven, David again affirms that it must be God who cleanses him; God alone can forgive and purify, and no one can earn it. David can’t make up for what he’s done. Verses 10-12 are the heart of this hard-hitting psalm:

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalms 51:10-12, ESV)

The problem is not just our actions. Our actions come from what is inside of us. David wants an enduring solution. I know many well-meaning Christians who get this confused. Many people, after sinning like David, might say something like this. “OK, from now on, I’m not going to go up on my rooftop alone. I’ll always have a guy with me up there, to make sure I’m not watching women bathe. In fact, I’ll give my wife the key to my rooftop, and she can go up there anytime, to make sure I don’t have any views of women’s bath houses, and we’ll build a wall if I do. Next, I’m going to have Nathan as my accountability partner. Finally, I won’t stay home from the wars anymore, because I might get bored and so get into trouble.”

All that is reasonably good, but it misses the point. David didn’t sin because he happened to see Bathsheba naked. He sinned because from birth, his heart was filled with iniquity. He sinned because he didn’t take that inborn iniquity seriously. Now, after these terrible actions, David knows that the problem is inside. It’s a problem he, personally, cannot fix. So he asks the Lord to give him a new heart, a righteous spirit.

I have never committed adultery, nor conspired to have someone murdered. But my heart is no better than David’s. The same transgression inside David that led him to rebel against God is inside me, also. I’m not just saying that as a theological truth – I know myself well enough to know, experientially, that it’s true about my heart. It is good to protect ourselves against temptation. But it is not enough. We need, along with David, to ask for a brand new heart from the Lord.

God answered David’s prayer for a new and clean heart. He answered that prayer for all mankind through Jesus. When Jesus came, he made it clear that the human heart is the real problem; and that is exactly why he came to redeem us. And the power of God for redemption is so great that it was both David and Bathsheba who became physical ancestors of Jesus who brought us that salvation. If he can turn their sin around and provide, through it, salvation for all humankind, he can also renew our hearts and spirits. Like David, let’s ask him.

PSALMS #6: BAD TIMES, GOOD PRAISE. PSALM 34.

On June 15, 2023 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

When we read psalm thirty-four, and then find out what was going on with David that caused him to write it, it can be surprising. This psalm of praise, joy, and trust was written during one of the most desperate times of his life. We too, can find hope, peace and joy, no matter what we might be going through.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Psalms Part 6

Psalm thirty-four is one of my personal favourites. When I was in university, I learned a song that is made up entirely of words from this psalm. The song doesn’t contain the whole psalm, but all of the words of the song come from it. We use the song in our yearly Passover seder, and so for me, psalm thirty-four is a reminder of joy and thanksgiving, gathering with family and friends in the presence of the Lord.

Before we actually look at the words of the psalm, let’s dig into the background. There is a superscription (that is a note attached to the psalm in the original Hebrew text) to this psalm which reads: “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away.” This sounds a lot like the incident described in 1 Samuel 21:10-15, with one exception. The person mentioned here before the psalm is Abimelech, but the name of the king of Gath in 1 Samuel 21 is Achish. However, like many ancient leaders, he probably had more than one name. It is also possible that Achish is his name, and Abimelech is a title, like “Pharoah.” (The Philistine civilization was relatively small and brief, and we don’t know everything there is to know about it).

Anyway, the situation was this: David was warned by Jonathan that king Saul was absolutely determined to kill him. So David fled to the Philistine city of Gath. Remember, the Philistines were the mortal enemies of the Israelites, and David had already, by this point, killed many of them in battle. This shows us how entirely desperate he was: he was trying to hide among his enemies. He left with absolutely nothing: no food, not even a weapon. Shortly after he arrived in Gath, he was recognized. Some of the Philistines said, “Isn’t this David, the hero of the Israelites? Aren’t the Israelites singing songs about how many of us Philistines he has killed in battle?” They grabbed him, and brought him before their leader: Achish/Abimelech. This was a terribly dangerous moment. David had just escaped one enemy, only to be captured by another. He had the idea to pretend that he was insane. The leader of Gath saw him acting like someone who had lost his wits, and in disgust, he told his men to escort David out of town. It isn’t clear if he believed that it was David, gone mad, or just a generic madman that his men had brought to him. Either way, they kicked him out of town without harming him seriously. He fled from there, and went and hid in a cave. So it was a tense time, and a very narrow escape for David. However, in the end, he was safe (for the moment), from both Saul, and the Philistines. Afterwards, David wrote this psalm. With all of that in mind, let’s see what David has to say.

¹I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
_² My soul makes its boast in the LORD;

let the humble hear and be glad.
³ Oh, magnify the LORD with me,
and 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,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.

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

⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

⁹ Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,
for those who fear him have no lack!

¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

¹¹ Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
¹² What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the LORD is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

¹⁷ When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.

¹⁸ The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
²⁰He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.

²¹Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

²²The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

In the first place, the psalm shows us that in his time of great danger and fear, David put his hope entirely in the Lord. David isn’t just praising God because he happens to be happy. He isn’t writing a psalm like this because he’s never had any problems or experienced trouble. Already by this point in his life, he had faced a literal giant, and been in many battles. And then, just before writing this, he was in the very tricky situation I described above. So we can’t accuse David of being unrealistic about the serious challenges people face in their lives. Even so, he maintains that it is good and right to put our faith in the Lord, and praise him at all times.

Second, as I mentioned, David wrote this sometime relatively soon after his narrow escape from both Saul, and the Philistines. However, even then, though the immediate danger was suspended for the moment, he was still in a pretty precarious position. He had to go live in a cave in order to hide from Saul’s men, and also from the Philistines. In other words, he had enemies in all directions around him. He had no guarantee even about the source of his next meal.

Therefore, when he wrote this psalm, it was almost certainly the lowest point in David’s life so far. Things had started so well, and then came crashing down spectacularly. He was anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s next king. Not long after, he challenged Goliath, and won. Then he became Israel’s foremost warrior, and he spent time also moonlighting as a musician. He became a personal favourite of King Saul. He even married Saul’s daughter. It seemed like everything was on track. His career was moving forward. But then suddenly, everything fell apart. Saul tried to kill him. His best friend warned him to run for his life. He left with nothing – no food, not even a weapon. He couldn’t even find shelter hiding anonymously with Israel’s enemies. So, finally, he ends up in the cave.

But David shows remarkable perspective. He had a great deal to complain about. Things had gone from terrific, to bad, to worse, to “living-all-alone-in-a-hole-in-the-ground.” But instead of complaining, he remembered that God had saved his life. I might have been complaining about why God allowed such things to happen. David, however, thanked God for saving him. Not only that, but he wrote this:

⁸ Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Clearly, there is something going on here that transcends David’s actual experience. I don’t think he means: “Oh, how wonderful it is that that I’ve lost everything, and I was almost murdered twice and now I live in a cave with nothing to my name.” But something in his experience of God was much more significant to him than his experience of fear and loss. I do hesitate to use the word “experience,” here. True spiritual things transcend mere feelings. But at some level David connected with the truth of God’s love and care for him, even when his circumstances told him otherwise. I believe the essence of that connection was faith.

If you have read many of these messages, you have probably picked up on the fact that I have some kind of health issue. The short version is, I have a never ending phantom kidney stone. I am in a great deal of pain almost all the time. I am in pain as I write this. Sometimes, I feel sorry for myself, especially when other difficult things happen to me. At times, I think it is healthy to vent my feelings of frustration, and even to complain to God. We have already considered a psalm in which David did that. However, though God can handle our complaints, too much complaining is not good for us. Although venting my feelings can be cathartic, if I continue to complain for very long, I start to feel worse again. What does reliably help my heart is to surrender in faith to what the scripture says about God’s goodness and love. When I trust, in spite of the circumstances of my life, that God is good and that he loves me, it lifts my spirit, and brings me peace. I think that is exactly what is going on with David in this psalm.

David invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good. How do we do that? I think it begins with thanksgiving. For my part, I have learned that it is important for me to thank him for all things, and especially for the difficult things in my life; even for my literal pain. I am learning to trust that the Lord is with me in the middle of this suffering, and therefore, I can thank him for it.

You might say: “Great thought, Tom, but that’s not going to happen for me.” I might say: “Sure. How’re things working out for you doing it your way? Are you finding peace and grace in the midst of your struggles?” So, I encourage you to try it, even if it is hard, at first to thank God for difficult circumstances. I don’t mean feel thankful, I mean say “thank you” to God for what troubles you. You might be surprised at how much just that one act of will can change your heart.

You can almost feel David’s joy and peace in this psalm. The only explanation for it is that he trusted God beyond what he could see and feel. He said, “I will bless the Lord at all times.” This isn’t the peace of “everything is all right at this moment.” It is the peace of: “I have a hope that no tragedy on earth can destroy or touch.”

The overall point I am making is that in order to taste and see God’s goodness, we have to start by trusting that he is indeed good, whether or not we can feel his goodness at the moment. We taste his goodness when we surrender our own insistence that God do things our way, and instead trust that he is indeed good. Again, I think one way to help us do that is through thanksgiving.

Some of the verses in this psalm raise certain issues for me. There are many such troublesome verses in other psalms as well. For instance:

⁹Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints,

for those who fear him have no lack!

¹⁰ The young lions suffer want and hunger;

but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

The reason this verse troubles me is because it seems to me that at times, I have suffered a lack of good things. For instance, in my particular case, I think it’s fair to say that while, like all human beings, I struggle and fail, at the same time, I do, by any reasonable measure, fear the Lord, and seek the Lord. Even so, I lack healing. Setting aside my own issue, I have travelled all over the world, and there are millions of Christians in other countries, even today, who lack good things like freedom, justice, access to good medical care, and even sufficient food. What do we do with this?

One thing to keep in mind with verses like this, is that this, like all psalms, is poetry. Because of the genre (poetry) we know we aren’t meant to take this in a overly literal way. The psalm invites us to enter into praising God. It also expresses certain truths, but those truths are general, and they are consciously exaggerated in order to express the feeling that David wants to convey. So this is not meant to be a straightforward teaching telling us that all believers will always have every single thing that they think they need. Instead, it invites us to see how good God is to his people, and how much he cares for them.

Secondly, and most importantly, we only receive all the fulness of God’s promises in eternity. That is, we don’t get the “full package” until we die in faith, and then stand with Jesus in our resurrected bodies. So, in that sense, we could say: “The Lord promises that he will completely, and utterly deliver us from every single trouble that we experience in this life.” He does promise that. And we get that total and complete deliverance, along with our new resurrected bodies, in the New Creation. Until then, we still do get some good from God, even when we don’t deserve it. But the complete version of the promise must wait until we step into eternity. Some people might think that’s a bit of a raw deal, but actually, if it were the other way round, that would be the raw deal.

Let’s do a thought experiment to understand why. Imagine you are a kid at a game arcade. In order to play any of the games, you need tokens that only work in that arcade. The tokens will also allow you to buy any of the food sold on the property. As it happens, your dad is a billionaire. You say, “Hey Dad, why don’t you give me a hundred million game tokens, so I can play these games and eat here whenever I want to?”

He says: “I’ll give you some tokens, because I love you, and like seeing you enjoy yourself. But too much time here, and too much of this cheap food would actually be bad for you.” Almost certainly, you don’t understand how just having fun and eating hot dogs could be bad for you. But your dad goes on: “What I actually want to give you is a hundred million dollars in real money. Then you can use it, even when you leave this place. But I have to wait until you are ready to handle it.”

Would you rather have a hundred million dollars worth of game tokens that you can only use in the arcade, or a hundred million dollars of legal tender? Obviously, any mentally competent adult would pick the real money. The game tokens are of limited use. When the kid gets older, he’ll probably stop enjoying the games that much, and he’ll certainly be sick of the cheap hot dogs and stale chips that the concession stand serves. The dad refrains from giving his child everything the child wants in order to give him something far, far better.

So, God does give us good things to enjoy in this present life. But his best promises are only fully realized in our eternity with Him. Jesus told us that the best kind of treasure is the stuff that lasts forever:

¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
(Matthew 6:19-21, NLT)

The best “good thing” I can have in this life will still be destroyed. At most, I will get to enjoy whatever it is until I die. But the Lord promises good to us that will last forever. He is still kind to us, to bless us and give us many things to enjoy in this present life. But those are weak and cheap compared to the real things, which we will be able to enjoy for eternity.

David writes: “The righteous person faces many troubles, but the LORD comes to the rescue each time,” (verse 19, NLT). So we aren’t promised a trouble-free life. In fact, that verse says that those who follow the Lord will indeed face many struggles. But we do not face them alone. And again, the promise will be completely fulfilled in the New Creation, but even now we get partial fulfillments.

Finally, there is this: “The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.” The Lord is merciful. If we take refuge in Him, we will not be condemned. Hear these promises. Trust that they are true, and receive them, and praise him in response.

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1 SAMUEL #9. UNFAILING GRACE

1 Samuel # 9. God’s faithfulness to us at all times. 1 Samuel 12:1-25

IS JESUS ABOUT TO RETURN?

HOW SHOULD WE THINK ABOUT THE END TIMES?

A DETAILED LOOK AT ONE BIBLE TEXT (MATTHEW 24:3-44)

1 SAMUEL #8. THE FORGOTTEN ARE REMEMBERED.

1 Samuel #8. 1 Samuel 10:24 – 11:15

1 SAMUEL #7. THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

1 SAMUEL #7. 1 SAMUEL 9-10. THE CALLING OF SAUL

1 SAMUEL #6. BAD CHOICES, GOOD GOD.

1 Samuel # 6. Kingship, Freedom and Responsibility. 1 Samuel 7:18–8:1-22

1 SAMUEL #5. THE POEPLE WHO REPENTED

First Samuel #5. 1 Samuel 6:13-7:17. Repentance.

1 SAMUEL #2. THE WOMAN WHO BELIEVED GOD WAS IN CONTROL

1 SAMUEL #2. 1 SAMUEL 2:1-11

PSALMS #8: WATER IN A THIRSTY LAND. (PSALM 63)

PSALMS #7. PSALM 51: A BATH GONE HORRIBLY WRONG

PSALMS #7: PSALM 51.

PSALMS #6: BAD TIMES, GOOD PRAISE. PSALM 34.