SERENITY PRAYER #4: WISDOM

On August 9, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Serenity Prayer Part 4

James 3:13-18

Brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome back for another look at the Serenity Prayer and how God can use it in our lives as part of His work in transforming us into the image of Christ. Two weeks ago, we talked about serenity – the ability to accept with peace and confidence the reality that life is sometimes difficult and painful. Last week, we talked about courage and the need at times to take action in response to those circumstances. This pretty naturally leads to the question, “How do I know when to serenely accept something and when to courageously take action to change it?” And this week, we will look at at least a partial answer to that question. We are going to talk about asking God for the wisdom to know the difference.

What does it mean to have wisdom? We will look to the Biblical text in just a minute, but before we do that I want to distinguish between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is information, facts, data. These days, you can learn in five minutes on your phone what would once have taken hours at the library to look up. Is that good or bad? Probably some of both. But my point here is that some knowledge is pretty easy to obtain. How much did it rain in London yesterday? Who holds the world record for the 100m dash? When was Louis the 14^th King of France? How can I get to this address? But having information and knowing how to use that information – those are two different things. Wisdom is more concerned with the second.

For instance, knowledge can tell you where you can purchase a certain piece of equipment for your home or business, how much it will cost, even how long the warranty will last. But it takes wisdom to know if now is the right time to make that purchase. And particularly when it comes to human relationships, knowledge may be important, but wisdom is far more helpful in navigating those relationships. So, one way to look at wisdom is by saying, “How do I use the information and tools that I have?” And as Christians, we are asking, “God, how do You want me to use the information and tools that You have given me in order to bring You glory?” This includes the tools of serenity and courage – things that He has been giving us in response to our prayers.

Wisdom is something that appears to be pretty high on God’s radar for us. The Bible is full of references to wisdom and descriptions of wisdom, including entire books of the Old Testament like Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Several of the psalms also connect with that theme of wisdom. But I want to start with a New Testament reference to wisdom. The book of James, traditionally assigned to James the brother of Jesus, is clearly influenced by his knowledge of the Jewish wisdom tradition. As with most of the New Testament, the Jewish background that prepared the way for the Messiah takes on new depths once Jesus has come and paved the way for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So, while the language that James uses would have been very familiar to his readers, who were primarily early Jewish Christians, he is adding depth to their understanding now that the Messiah has been revealed. In some ways, this is similar to what Jesus was doing with the law when He preached the Sermon on the Mount – building on a foundation that God has laid in Israel and taking it farther than Israel had dreamed it could go.

Let’s look at one of the passages in James that describes wisdom. We’re going to read from James 3:13-18.

“13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. 17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”

There’s a lot packed into these six verses. If God gives us wisdom, what is it going to look like? One of the first attributes James mentions is humility. There’s one place where the difference between knowledge and wisdom comes sharply into focus. I love the way C.S. Lewis describes humility in Mere Christianity at the end of the chapter The Great Sin, which is about pride:

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realize that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

Honestly, I’m tired of hearing Christians – myself included – go on and one about how smart we are, how we have the right answers to everything, and how everyone ought to just stop and listen to us. We may have the right knowledge – but in that case we are still lacking in wisdom. And that can be hard when I do, in fact, have some right answers. But James is right to point us to humility as a key component of wisdom. If my response to a situation is built on how good it is going to make me look, or boosting my ego, that solution is not based in wisdom (at least, not in Godly wisdom). One of the most brilliant Bible professors I ever knew, a man who was fluent in multiple ancient languages, the contexts in which the passages were written, and the history of their interpretation, would often begin his answers to a difficult theological question by saying, “I might be wrong, but it seems to me…” His humility was profound.

James goes on to talk about the dangers of envy and selfish ambition. Paul says almost the same thing in Philippians 2:3. He is calling the church in Philippi to imitate Christ in unity, and he also makes the connection between humility and selfish ambition:

“³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves.”

Am I seeking to get my own way in a situation? Am I trying to make sure I come out ok? Then I am probably not operating in wisdom. James associates that kind of wisdom with disorder, wickedness, and even the demonic. So, what is Godly wisdom like? We’ve already talked about humility, and the important role that it plays. Let’s look at a few more of the characteristics James mentions

Full of mercy and good fruit. Mercy is so central to God’s character. And wisdom will often call on us to show mercy to others rather than demand what we may deserve in a situation. Our responses are to be full of the attitude that God has toward us – rich in mercy, slow to anger, and desiring repentance where there has been wrong. Wisdom, like love in 1 Corinthians 13, is not self-seeking and does not keep a record of wrongs. And I think James is intentionally connecting this to good fruit. Merciful actions toward others will often result in good fruit – and especially when we are engaging other believers. Of course, sometimes we don’t see that fruit until years later, if ever. But wise choices on our part should be ones that open doors to good outcomes in the lives of the people we are engaging.

Impartial. Wisdom doesn’t play favorites. If we use the information or influence we have to steer the outcome of a situation toward what we want (instead of seeking what God wants), we are operating in that realm of competition to get what I want – we are engaging like the world does. James goes on in the next verses (which start chapter 4) to talk about how the world fights for what it wants, but that is not God’s way for us. And it can be so easy for me to convince myself that what I want is really what is best anyway. That’s why I need God’s wisdom – and in just a few minutes we will talk about some ways to help us sort through our own agendas, needs, and preferences to hear the wisdom of God more clearly.

Sincere. Wisdom is honest in its dealings with others. Wisdom does not play the game of pretending to believe one thing so that we can manipulate a situation to get what we want out of it. God’s wisdom doesn’t need to be sneaky and deceptive in its dealings. When we are behaving wisely, we mean what we say, and we follow through on it as best we can. No promising one thing while intending to deliver another.

And finally, peace. Wisdom leads to peace. Now, what is James, as a Godly Jew, thinking of when he uses his word for peace? The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom.” We often use “peace” to describe a situation where there is an absence of conflict. We sent the kids to their separate rooms so that we could have a little peace. But shalom is deeper. Shalom is not just an absence of conflict – getting everyone to put down their weapons. Shalom describes a situation where the conflict has gone away because the causes of the conflict have been appropriately and healthily dealt with. In other words, the peace that is a part of Godly wisdom is not just accepting whatever happens, no matter if it is right or wrong (that is not the serenity that we have been asking God to give us). But this peace is the peace that comes when things are well-settled. And that may actually require some healthy conflict in order to get to a place of real peace. Wisdom will move in the direction of peace – eventually. But wisdom does not always mean just doing what it takes to “keep the peace.” With God, things often are more difficult in the short-term, but He is looking toward a very long end – eternal even – and He is willing to have conflict now to bring true and lasting peace.

My wife and I have had our struggles over the years with doing this well. I’ll give you one example that may seem small, but it points to a bigger problem. When we first started dating, I really wasn’t good at remembering flowers for special occasions. Well, one time I brought her some chrysanthemums. And she was so glad that I bought her some flowers that she made a big deal over them, and I decided that must be her favorite flower. For the next ten years or so, any time I got her flowers, I bought chrysanthemums. It turns out, those weren’t particularly her favorite. But she didn’t want to upset me or discourage my flower-buying, so she didn’t say anything. And I thought all was well until she eventually told me the rest of the story. Now I sometimes buy her chrysanthemums, but I also buy roses, or lilies, or whatever I see that makes me think of her. And in that small area of our lives, we are closer to shalom. But we only got there when she took the risk – found the courage – to bring up an area that could have caused conflict. By the way, there are much more significant examples of conflict in our marriage over the years – I just decided to tell a simple one.

Okay, there’s several of the attributes of wisdom. But, in addition to praying, what else can we practically do to help us make wise decisions? Here are three things that I have found helpful in making wise decisions.

First, slow down. Yes, some decisions have to be made in the moment, but even then, there is rarely a time where I am faced with a significant decision, and I can’t take a moment to breathe and ask God for help, rather than simply react. This is especially true for me when I’m feeling strong emotions about whatever is going on where I need wisdom. Alcoholics Anonymous has a great line for me to remember: “We pause when agitated or doubtful and ask for the right thought or action.” If I want wisdom, I generally need to stop, take a breath, remember that God is running the universe, not Wade, and see what He has to say.

And most of the time, I don’t have to make a decision on the most important things in that moment. I usually have time to stop, to think, to pray. And what has become really important for me is having trusted friends that I can ask for input. When I am facing a difficult decision, it is easy for me to be blind to my pride, selfishness, hidden agendas, and mixed motives. And taking my own advice about what is wise has led me to some of the stupidest decisions of my life. When I talk to my wife, my fellow pastors, my most mature friends, and others, I can gain a perspective on the situation that is not skewed by what I know I want. And I am much more likely to receive the wisdom that God has for me.

About two years ago, Jayme and I were trying to make a difficult decision about how to handle a situation with our children. We both stopped and prayed. We took time to think about it. And after months of doing that, we were still in different places about what God wanted us to do. So, we came together to Tom and Kari and laid out our perspectives as best we could. Jayme (my wife) and I agreed ahead of time that we would trust Tom and Kari and take their advice. I didn’t like their answer. They agreed more with Jayme. And we have followed their input since then. I still don’t know that I like it – but I agree that it was wise to listen to them. Involving other people takes courage, because I am surrendering my right to be in charge and trusting that God will use His people to help me.

Here’s a different example, also family-related, where getting input from the Holy Spirit through other believers has led me towards the serenity to accept something I can’t change instead of the courage to change something. I run into this with my kids regularly. They have a problem. I have an answer. And my answer is probably right. But one of the wisest pieces of advice I’ve ever been given – and this applies to more than just my children – is, “Wade, stop answering questions that people aren’t asking you.” Wow! That requires a lot of the humility James talked about. I have to stop thinking of myself as the fount of information and answers and trust that God is at work in the situation, and sometimes the wisest thing for me to do is Shut Up! I don’t like that. And it may not always be the perfect answer – but it is often a good one.

And that’s suggestion number three. Some of us, including me, can get hyper-focused on making sure we have the wisest answer, and then we get bogged down and don’t do anything because we are not completely sure which way to go. I am convinced that God is more interested in the long process of developing relationship with Him than He is whether we get a specific decision exactly right. So sometimes, we pause, we take input, and then we make the best decision we can, trusting that even if we got it wrong, God is able to work with us and in us and around us to bring things back on course. He certainly did that with the history of Israel. And He has certainly done that with me.

So, when do we accept a thing we cannot change, and when do we courageously act to bring change? We ask God for wisdom. We look for answers that lead to humility, mercy, and true peace. We take a breath, ask others for help, and take action trusting that God can work in our imperfect decisions.

I’ll close again this week by praying the Serenity Prayer, and if God leads you, please feel free to join me in learning and praying this prayer.

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

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

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

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

Well, now we have gotten through the more familiar part of the Serenity Prayer. Next week we will start into the less-known part. May God bless you with serenity, courage, and wisdom until we talk again next week.

SERENITY PRAYER #3: THE COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS WE CAN

On August 2, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Serenity Prayer Part 3

SCRIPTURE: JOSHUA 1:1-6

Welcome back to our look at the Serenity Prayer and how it can be a tool for God to use to help us walk in Biblical truths as we allow the Holy Spirit to continue to transform our lives. If you’ve missed the first two weeks, I’m Wade Jones, pastor at Priest Lake Christian Fellowship and long-time friend to the Hilpert family and New Joy Fellowship.

So far, we have talked about what it means to ask God for gifts, and what it looks like to receive and practice the gift of serenity. This week, we are going to look at the gift of courage. When we ask for courage, what does that look like, and what effect will it have on our lives when we receive and practice that gift?

I know when I think about Biblical courage, the first passage that comes to mind is Joshua 1. So, in this passage, Moses has died, and God speaks directly to Joshua, his successor. Three times in this chapter, God tells Joshua to “Be strong and courageous.” What is God asking Joshua to do? And more importantly, what is God doing around Joshua when He gives Joshua this command? Let’s read the first six verses of this passage together:

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. 5 No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.” (Joshua 1:1-6)

I want to make an important point here. It may seem small, but sometimes small points can make an incredibly large difference, especially over time. We often talk about Joshua leading the Israelites into Canaan to take the land, and the way we do that implies that Joshua and his army are the primary actors. But look carefully at the language of Scripture in this passage:

Verse 2 – The land I (YHWH) am about to give the Israelites
Verse 3 – I (YHWH) will give you every place you set your foot
Verse 5 – No one will be able to stand against you, because I (YHWH) will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Right here at the beginning, God is emphasizing how fully this will be His action, His power, His conquering. In verse 6, He talks about Israel inheriting the land. How do you get the property of an inheritance? Someone else owns it, and they give it to you on their death. And God also says in verse 6 that He is fulfilling the oath He made to their ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He says similar things later in the chapter, but hopefully this is enough to make the point. The major actor in the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites was God.

And if we move ahead in the story, we will see that pattern continue. How does Israel get across the Jordan River? God piles up the water on either side and they march through on dry land. How does Israel conquer Jericho? They march around it in obedience and God brings the walls down. He is the one making all this happen. Well, if God is the one making all this happen, why does Israel, and Joshua in particular as their leader, need to be strong and courageous?

Remember, Israel has been here before. Forty years before. They stood in basically the same spot, with Moses at their head, and when they were on the brink of coming into the land, how did they respond? (Well, most of them anyway.) They were afraid. They heard the report and got preoccupied with the power of the enemies they were facing instead of focusing on the power of the God they were following. (This is all in Numbers 13 and 14 if you want to read the whole story.) And Joshua had been there for that. He pleads with Israel to go into the land in language that is similar to the language God uses with him in Joshua 1. “The Lord will bring us into the land…The Lord is with us.” Forty years ago, Joshua knew that God was the primary one at work in God’s own plans to bring Israel into Canaan, but Israel couldn’t see it. And as we all know, that led to forty years of wandering in the desert, and along the way Moses lost patience as well, so when they finally come back to this point, he is gone, and Joshua has taken his place. God is telling Joshua to be strong and courageous just as Joshua had told Israel 40 years earlier and based on the same reason: taking the land is God’s job; our job is to be faithful to Him!

This is one of the primary forms courage takes for God’s people, whether Israel or us: to trust that God will do what He says He will do and act on that basis. Sometimes those actions will be risky. That wall of water in the Jordan River could have collapsed at any moment, drowning the Israelites in the same way that the Egyptians had drowned in the Red Sea. Joshua needed courage to trust God when He said, “Walk on through.” And sometimes those actions will appear foolish. What possible military value does it have to circle the city of Jericho for seven days? All that does is make sure the enemy has a good count of your army. We would fire any general who suggested that! Joshua and Israel needed the courage to trust that following God’s directions was the best possible way for them to take the city of Jericho. And we still need the courage to trust that following God’s directions is the path that leads to the best possible future for us.

It’s my opinion that the order of requests in the Serenity Prayer matters. One part of serenity is the ability to accept that life is as it is – to accept life on life’s terms. You see, courage is not glibly or blindly denying that there are difficulties ahead. God does not call us to live in denial, but in trust. And when we have seen the world as it is, some of it will be pretty scary. Courage does not mean closing our eyes to the dangers around us. It means trusting that our Father is a good Father and moving ahead with what He has told us to do no matter what it looks like. We are not called to change the circumstances of the world. We are called to change our responses to the circumstances of the world. And to do that, we need courage. The trust to obey the word of the Lord even if it doesn’t make sense.

“If I tell the truth about that business deal, I will probably lose that customer, and my boss has already told me that if I don’t make my quota this week, I’m going to get laid off. We’re already late on a couple of payments, and I don’t know what we’ll do if I lose my job.”

“That woman is spreading all kinds of rumors about me in the neighborhood. I saw her talking across the fence to Jane just last night. But I know a thing or two about her that will put her in her place, and frankly, I could use the peace and quiet. She’s going to cause me all kinds of trouble if I don’t make sure everyone knows what kind of scoundrel she really is.”

“My close friend is slowly drifting away from God. He hasn’t been to church in weeks, and he’s making jokes at the restaurant about how little time he spends reading his Bible or praying anymore. I’d like to say something to him, but he’s got a pretty mean temper. I’m afraid if I confront him, we’ll get into an argument, and I don’t want to risk losing that friendship.”

I don’t mean to paint any of these scenarios as ones that are simple to navigate. If you are in one of them, please talk to Tom and Kari to get good, Christ-centered counsel about what some good next steps would be. But I can tell you for myself, that when I am in situations like these, I have a pretty strong response of fear to the idea of losing income, or reputation, or friendships. And if I do not pay attention to that, it is really easy for me to slip into making a decision based on that fear, instead of a decision based on trust that God is my Father, and He is on my side. Can God provide for my family if I lose my job? He can – but it may be embarrassing when He uses others to help me. Can God guard my reputation if someone is gossiping about me, or do I need to gossip back to protect myself? He can – but sometimes it takes Him a lot longer than I’d like, and it’s pretty uncomfortable in the meanwhile. Can God comfort me through the loss of a friendship when I have spoken the truth in love, and it hasn’t been well-received? He can – but that doesn’t take away the pain.

This is one of the connections between courage and serenity. I must have the courage to act in line with what God has commanded, and the serenity to accept the reality that the results may not be what I want. And both of those require me to trust Him in ways that may end up being pretty painful.

Here’s another connection: when I recognize that there is something in the way of my serenity, of my peace, that can make me aware of something that needs to change – and usually, at least part of the change will be something that needs to change in me. When life doesn’t go the way I want it to, when things go south, one of my default reactions can be to look for someone else to blame. That goes back all the way to the beginning, doesn’t it? “It was this woman You gave me – she just handed me a fruit and I ate it!” I have always wondered what would have happened next if Adam had the courage to own his responsibility as Eve’s husband and the leader of his garden home. How would the Father have responded if Adam had gone to Him (instead of trying to hide), and said, “God, I blew it. I made a mistake, and I take full responsibility for it. What do You want me to do now?” God probably still would have addressed not only Adam’s sin, but also Eve’s, and I’m sure the serpent as well. But when we resort to blaming someone else, even if they share responsibility, we are missing the opportunity to make courageous changes in ourselves, or even better, to ask God to do that.

Not everything painful in my life is my fault (Tom has a great podcast about suffering that addresses a lot of that). But most of the things in my life are things where I play at least some part, and where there is at least something I can change. All of us have some defects in our character (shortcomings, sins, strongholds) that God wants to address, and those changes will take courage. Maybe I need to be more up-front with my customer to begin with. Maybe my irritation at that neighbor means I haven’t been praying for her, or maybe my tendency to be judgmental is causing me to see her wrongly. Maybe some of my concern for my friend is based on the realization that my own time in the Word has been slipping of late. When I ask God for the courage to change, the first place I ought to look for change is within me. For one thing, that may be the only thing I actually can change. I can’t change my boss or my customer; I can’t change my neighbor; I can’t change my friend. But by God’s grace, I can change. And I will, if I ask Him for the courage to do so.

One of the rooms I go to for recovery meetings has a poster on the wall that refocuses the first part of the Serenity Prayer. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the person I cannot change, the courage to change the person I can, and the wisdom to know that person is me.” If I’m trying to find the courage just to make someone else behave the way I want, I may not have much peace at the end of the day. But if I find the courage to ask God to change the places in me where I’m not walking in trust, where I’m not walking in obedience, where I’m not following Him – those changes are much more likely to occur, and there’s not much anyone else can do to stop them.

I want to wrap up this week by saying again that this is not about trying harder. We are not trying to make ourselves more courageous, or to act more courageously. We are asking God to give us courage to do what He asks us to do. And part of asking that is putting ourselves in a place to receive it from Him. As I said about serenity last week, God usually works in my life through a process of gradual change, not an instantaneous transformation. We are not likely to move from being dominated by fear today to being completely free of it tomorrow. But what we can do is ask for it and cooperate with God as He does it.

Trevor Hudson has written a short book on the Serenity Prayer – that’s what it’s called, The Serenity Prayer, and I recommend it; it’s a good read. At the end of his chapter on this section, he gives the following illustration: “Imagine an escalator going up to God. Whenever we find ourselves struggling with a particular character defect – for instance, always wanting to be in the right – we imagine ourselves picking it up as if it were a poisonous snake, placing it into a sack, and putting it on the escalator. When the sack comes back again, as it surely will, we have a quick look inside, see what it is, and immediately place it back on the escalator. We continue doing whatever we need to, but we don’t try to beat the character defect in our own strength. If we do, it will win every time. Every time the sack returns, we simply put it back on the escalator. After days, weeks, months, or even years, we notice one day that the sack doesn’t come back. We realize that God is in the process of changing us.

Change is often painful. Change generally requires courage. God can, and will change us – He will lead us into the Promised Land that He is giving us – if we will continue to ask Him.

I’ll close again this week by praying the Serenity Prayer, and if God leads you, please feel free to join me in learning and praying this prayer.

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

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

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

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

Thank you for letting me be with you a couple weeks ago at New Joy, and for listening today. May God bless you and keep you as you go through this week. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

SERENITY #2: THE SERENITY TO ACCEPT THE THINGS I CANNOT CHANGE.

On July 26, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Churches in Lebanon, Podcast, Serenity Prayer, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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

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

Serenity to Accept the Things I Cannot Change

John 14:27; John 16:33; Luke 22:41-44; Hebrews 12:1-3

New Joy Fellowship, I’m glad to be with you again. If you missed last week, I’m Tom’s consuegro, which means our children Alana and Matthew married each other. I’m also a pastor at Priest Lake Christian Fellowship in Antioch, Tennessee, and I’m blessed to be able to be a direct part of what God is doing in your fellowship for a little while.

Last week we talked about this prayer as a petition to God – asking Him to give us things that we need. This week we will look at the first thing we are asking Him for – serenity – but I want to emphasize that this is something we are asking God to give us. I may overemphasize this point because it is so easy for me to pray and prayer like this, but interpret it as, “I need to work harder to be serene (or courageous, or wise)” instead of admitting that on my own, I will never reach that goal, and what I am doing is asking God to give me something that I can’t do for myself, and trusting that He wants to do that, is capable of doing that, and will do that in response to my prayer.

So this week, we will focus on asking God for “the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” Serenity may not be a word you use often in your daily life – I know it isn’t common for me – so let’s talk a little bit about what serenity is. Or maybe we can begin by talking about what it isn’t.

Do you ever feel like life is coming at you faster than you can handle? As soon as you put one fire out, the next one starts. Or you run from spinning plate to spinning plate, trying to keep them all going so that nothing falls to the ground and smashes. Do you hit the pillow at night worn out because your whole day was lived trying to fix one thing after another, solve one problem after another, and clean up one mess after another? Or even if the circumstances you are in are fairly routine and predictable, do you find that your mind can move at breakneck speed, bouncing from one worry to another, and never quite able to settle into a place of peace?

And it’s not just our individual lives, it is also the world around us. We are surrounded by conflict, anger, violence, unpredictability, and rapid change. It seems like as soon as one war ends, another begins. Our neighbors argue, our kids fight, our marriages have tension, and we see all kinds of pain and suffering in the communities around us. It’s no wonder that we often have trouble coming to a place of peace in ourselves!

In fact, the peace that we need and are designed for is not something we can find in ourselves anyway. As Augustine, one of the great church fathers, said, “God, You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You.” Serenity – peace – true rest. It’s something we receive from God, and that may be why this prayer begins by asking God to give us serenity – a peace that goes beyond anything that the world can experience or that we can create for ourselves.

The world’s peace is dependent on circumstances. My family goes to a vacation spot in West Virginia every two years called Capon Springs and Farms. It is a beautiful place in the Appalachian Mountains. When we are there, I have a week of real rest and relaxation. The most difficult decision may be whether to have a slice of cherry pie or a brownie with ice cream and hot fudge for dessert (and sometimes I do both). Our kids are all old enough to take care of themselves, and Mom and Dad pay for everything, so it is easy to lay in the hammock and read a book while smelling a hint of bacon cooking on the cool mountain breeze. I usually turn my phone off for the week, so the outside world doesn’t intrude. And my greatest disappointment may be missing a short putt on the mountain golf course. When everyone is having a fun time, getting plenty of sleep, and no one has to do anything but have fun, it is pretty easy to find peace.

Then we come back home. And we find that life has all the same problems it had when we left. The bills are still due. The truck still has no working air conditioning. The child without a job is still without a job. Our friends’ marriage that was struggling when we left is still struggling. That sick relative has gotten worse. And for that matter, the neighbors have gotten a new dog that barks. All. Night. Long. The peace that comes from living in comfortable circumstances has evaporated. In fact, it likely didn’t survive the traffic on the way home.

But Jesus offers us something different. In John 14:27, He says, “27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” It’s pretty obvious that what Jesus is describing is not dependent on what is happening around Him. Judas has just left to betray Him. He has told Peter that Peter will deny Him that very night. And when this conversation ends, they will head to the garden, where He will be arrested and then brought to trial and executed. Most of the disciples will flee. And yet, Jesus has peace to offer them in the midst of trouble. In fact, later in this same conversation, in John 16:33, Jesus says, “33 I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

There seems to be a connection between the peace Jesus offers and a confidence that He has overcome the world. And in these chapters of John, Jesus is also preparing the apostles for the coming of the Holy Spirit to continue the work He has begun. So peace (or serenity) is connected to the work of the Holy Spirit as well. In fact, John makes this connection again after the resurrection. In John 20:21-22, when Jesus appears to some of His followers, He says to them, “21 Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” I think Jesus is making it pretty clear that if we are to receive the peace that He is offering to us, the serenity to walk in assurance that Jesus has overcome in the middle of events that would seem to say the opposite, we will have to receive this gift through the Holy Spirit. This is why we need to ask God to grant us this serenity.

So what does it look like to walk with serenity through a chaotic and painful world? This prayer talks about accepting what we cannot change. Let me begin by saying this: accepting does not mean approving. There are many things in our lives that we do not, should not, and cannot approve. But one of the things that gets in the way of our peace is when we attempt to insist that the world simply must be different than what it is. Jesus’ peace did not depend on the loyalty of His closest friends, the justice of the Roman governor, the religious and spiritual maturity of the leaders of God’s chosen people, or living a pain-free life. In fact, He maintained His peace, His serenity, through the betrayal of His closest friends, the injustice of a cruel government, the hypocrisy and manipulation of the priests, and the brutal physical suffering of the cross.

How did He do this? Partly, by accepting that those things were part of God’s will for Him. By trusting that since His Father is Good, He will not allow anything that He does not intend to use and redeem for good. This does not mean that Judas or Peter or Pilate or Annas or Caiaphas or the centurions carrying out the sentence were right. They were wrong, and in need of forgiveness. But Jesus trusted that God would make all things right in the end, and that faith carried Him through the pain, not just of the cross, but of His entire misunderstood life up until then. The cross was not the beginning of Jesus’ suffering, but its culmination. And yet He lived in peace. In serenity.

Have you ever noticed how rarely Jesus seems flustered? How infrequently He seems to be in a hurry? And how willing He is to accept some situations that were not what He wanted them to be, coming to the highest and clearest point in the garden. Luke describes this in Luke 22:41-44 “41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

Accepting the Father’s will did not keep Jesus from asking if there was another way. It didn’t keep Him from experiencing pain and anguish as He asked. But it did give Him the ability to walk through this night with assurance that, no matter what happened, His Father was ultimately in control, and He could accept those events with confidence and serenity, even though they were going to be indescribably painful for Him on many levels.

We also face things in life that are painful, unjust, and difficult. And one of the things that derails peace is trying to insist that the world should not be this way. On the one hand, we are right – this is not what God wanted from the beginning. But on the other, we can only live with God in the life that is in front of us, and that means accepting many things that we cannot change. What are some of the things we can’t change? Things that are outside of our control? The weather. The decisions other people make. Whether or not I keep my job. What happens with the economy over the next year. Who runs for president. How long it will be until my car breaks down. Do I have some influence over some of those things? Yes, in some cases I do. And we will talk next week about the courage to change the things I can – to take the actions that God does want me to take in my life. But that will not be enough to make sure that these things go the way I want.

In fact, that’s a good thing. If I could control all those things in my life, what would that make me? Well, it would make me a god. Lowercase g. And I know when I am honest with myself, that a life that runs according to my own plans, wishes and desires is not going to work out in the long run. Not for me, and certainly not for the people around me. Instead, I have to turn my life and my will over to God. And part of that means accepting that, for today, this is the life He has given me to live. With its joys and pains, with its heartaches and its celebration. This is what Jesus did.

And what Jesus has done, He wants to empower us to do. The Hebrews writer says, “12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:1-3) Now remember, the witnesses the writer refers to in chapter 11 includes people who faced a lot of suffering: jeers, flogging, torture, stoning, prison, poverty, mistreatment, persecution. And he says we have it better than they do, because we can look to Jesus Himself. Jesus endured with hope and peace (serenity) because He saw the joy that was coming. He saw resurrection. He saw our reconciliation with God. And that helped Him keep going – not just trudging along, but walking in joy because He knew that what He was facing was leading to an outcome that God had guaranteed would be good.

Brothers and sisters, we can have that same joy. In fact, for us, we can already see that resurrection has begun in Jesus. He is the firstborn from among the dead, but we know by faith that we will be raised to life to join with Him. A key part of the serenity that comes from accepting things we cannot change now is the confidence that God will right all wrongs, exterminate all evil, and bring us fully into His kingdom of joy and peace.

As we wrap up this week, let me say one more thing about asking God for serenity. The most valuable things God has given me in my life have come as part of a long process. God rarely answers my prayers with instantaneous transformation. I believe He can. I know sometimes He does. But it has been much more frequent that He works on me gradually, over time, to form and change my character into the character of Jesus Christ. I did not ask for serenity once and receive it forever. But as I have continued to ask, to seek, to knock, I find that He is faithful to give it to me one day at a time. And Jesus talks about that, too. Matthew 6:34 “34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

When I pray, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, I am not praying it generically for all things that will ever happen. I am praying it for this day, this moment, this circumstance. I am asking for the serenity to accept the fact that I hit a pothole and have a flat tire that will make me an hour late to my next appointment. I am asking for the serenity to accept the reality that one of my children has just made a decision is not what God wants for them. I am asking for the serenity to accept that my performance this month did not give me the bonus I had hoped for. I am asking for the serenity to accept that it rained during the one good slot I had to work in the yard. And over time, I have found that God has expanded my ability to receive the serenity that He has for me in each of those moments and walk in confidence that His future for me is good – even if that good is a good that I experience after the resurrection.

I’ll close again this week by praying the Serenity Prayer, and if God leads you, please feel free to join me in learning and praying this prayer.

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

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

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

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

Thank you for letting me be with you last week at New Joy, and for listening today. May God bless you and keep you as you go through this week. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

SERENITY PRAYER #1: GOD GRANT

On July 19, 2024July 18, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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

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

Last week, we finished the book of First Samuel. We will pick up with Second Samuel in a few weeks. In between, I’m really excited to host a short series of messages by Wade Jones. Wade is my daughter’s father-in-law, and one of the pastors of a church about thirty miles away from us here in Tennessee.

Wade will spend the next few weeks talking us through the Serenity Prayer. Although the prayer itself is not from scripture, Wade will use plenty of scripture as we go. One reason I’m excited about this is because I think it will get very practical, very relevant to living day-to-day as we follow Jesus.

A note to to those who will listen to the audio version: Wade is a good preacher. Before this, he had never recorded a message except in front of a live congregation. So, during this first message, he said he felt a bit stilted—he was worried about making too much background noise. But I’ve already heard the second one, and he seems to have gotten into the flow quite well for that one. My point is: have patience. I think this will be good stuff for us.

Without further ado, here’s Wade!

SERENITY PRAYER #1: GOD, GRANT

Greetings, brothers and sisters of ClearBible! My name is Wade Jones. I’m one of the pastors at Priest Lake Christian Fellowship, where we pray for your church family at each service. Perhaps more importantly, I have been blessed for many years by the friendship of your pastor, Tom, and we have become family – not just metaphorically, as my son Matthew is married to his daughter Alana. I talked with Tom recently about a teaching series I’d done at Priest Lake, and he asked me to share it with your fellowship as well, which I feel honored to do over the next several weeks.

The substance for these messages will come from the Serenity Prayer. It’s unusual for me to spend this much time on writing that is not specifically from Scripture, but I have made an exception in this case, in part because this prayer specifically has greatly blessed my life and walk with God, and I hope it will prove to bless yours as well. My father had the words of this prayer on the wall of his study at home when I was child. Later, when I came into the world of 12-step recovery, I learned that this prayer was (at least in part) important to that community as well. Praying this prayer has become a regular part of my spiritual disciplines and routines, and God often speaks to me through it. Today will mostly be an introduction to this series, so bear with me through the first part.

Depending on what your spiritual background and tradition is, the idea of praying a prayer that someone else wrote may feel awkward or impersonal to you. And certainly, you have the freedom to pray as the Lord directs – I have no intention of insisting that you use this prayer in the same ways that I have. However, I have found that it is at times useful to pray words that others have written, and I want to spend a few minutes talking about that before we get to the prayer itself.

Often when we pray, we speak conversationally with God, using whatever words and phrases come to mind. That kind of extemporaneous prayer is a wonderful thing. I practice it regularly. At the same time, I find that I sometimes have difficulty putting into words what I am thinking or feeling, or knowing how to come to the Father with what is on my heart. Four different approaches have helped me in those times. Sometimes my best response is to pray in tongues (and talking about that might be a whole different series). At other times, I will turn to the Psalms, and pray the prayers that Jesus would likely have learned in his home and in the synagogue. Yet again, I may sing my prayers with hymns I learned as a child or the most recent worship tunes, and let the words of those texts express my heart’s cry. And I will also turn to prayers that have been a part of classic Christianity – some for hundreds of years, some for decades. One of those last prayers is this one: the Serenity Prayer.

The origins of this prayer are unclear, and go back to classical philosophers. Certainly, the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr used part of this prayer in the 1930s, and he attributed it to a German theologian named Friedrich Oetinger. But as with many good sayings and quotes, there are several different theories and attributions for it. No matter who wrote it, the important part is what it says, and whether or not the words of the prayer fit with the teaching of the Bible and can help us as the Holy Spirit works in our lives to bring us closer to living the life the Jesus has given us.

This prayer has also become very important in recovery circles. I’ve been in 12-step recovery for over 20 years, and almost every meeting I’ve attended has started with the beginning and most familiar part of the prayer. “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” There’s quite a lot to unpack there, and we will focus on those lines over the next three weeks. But the prayer goes beyond that to say this: “Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace. Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it to be. Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will – that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.”

With that background, I want us to spend the rest of this week’s time focusing on just the first two words of the prayer: “God, grant.”

There are many types of prayer: prayers of praise and adoration, prayers of confession, prayers of intercession, prayers of petition – even prayers of complaint! (If you’re not sure about that last category, there are several psalms I can show you.) The first words of this prayer show us what kind of prayer it is. This is a prayer of petition, of requesting. We are asking God for something. And so, let’s talk about what it means to ask God for something.

Let’s start with God. This prayer is addressed to God, which is just a generic term, although we often think of it as a proper name. For us, we mean specifically the God of the Bible, the Creator of heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; the God who revealed Himself to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God who spoke to Moses, giving him the law and using him to lead Israel out of Egypt; the God who spoke through the prophets, did miraculous works through kingdoms and exiles and returns, and the God who has revealed Himself most fully in Jesus the Messiah, His beloved Son. When we approach this God, what does it mean for us to ask Him for something?

Here’s one important piece. When we come to God to ask Him for something, that means that we know Him well enough to expect that we have the invitation to ask Him. I don’t just go up to strangers on the street and ask them to give me something good. But when I come to someone I know and love, and someone I trust loves me, I am free to ask with hope and expectation. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 7:7-11:

“7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

What does this passage tell us about asking God? First, Jesus actually directs us to do this. It’s a straightforward instruction. Ask, seek, knock. But not just ask anywhere, or seek for anything, or knock on any door. Look at the last verse of the passage. “How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Jesus is pointing us to the Father as the one who can give us the things that we need for life. And He compares the Father’s response to the response of parents. While there are cruel and painful exceptions to the general rule, most parents want and try to give our children what they need when they ask for it. When it’s time for dinner, we give our kids food they can eat, not rocks or serpents. But Jesus says the Father in heaven’s goodness in giving is so much greater than ours that the kindness of parents is evil by comparison. That’s pretty strong! We could talk a lot about what and when and how the Father gives, but the point I want to emphasize here is that it is good and right and even necessary for us to go to the Father to ask Him for what we need. That’s what He expects; it’s what He wants.

What would keep us from going to Father God to ask for something? Well, the picture we have of God will certainly influence that. And often that picture has been distorted by things that we have experienced, or even by beliefs that we have absorbed from the world around us – often without realizing it. If you experienced a parent who was unpredictable, untrustworthy, or unkind – one who might in fact give you a stone or a snake – that can distort the image of who God is. And it can become a vicious cycle. We don’t trust God to give us what we need, so we don’t ask Him, so our life gets worse, and then we trust God less, so we ask Him even less – and it just goes downhill from there. On the other hand, when we can push through whatever barriers the enemy has erected in our relationship with our Father (or when He tears those down for us), and we ask Him for His help, we will receive it. It doesn’t always look like we might choose – sometimes dinner includes broccoli because it’s good for you – but it will in fact be good. And the more we experience His goodness, the easier it becomes to trust and ask Him again.

This is part of what the Hebrews writer is saying in Hebrews 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Don’t hear this as a reprimand – it’s an encouragement found in the middle of a long list of deeply flawed people who were nevertheless blessed by Father God. Do you believe that God exists? If you don’t, you aren’t going to ask Him for anything, are you? And do you trust that what He gives is good? That He will reward those who seek Him? We will talk more about trust later in this series, but for now, think about trust as enough willingness to ask God for help. Or maybe it isn’t willingness, but desperation.

One more note about God before we turn to the second word. James 1:16-17 says,

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

The ultimate Source of anything good in your life is God. If it’s a good gift, it comes from Him, even if it passes through other channels to get to you. The air you breathe? A gift from God. The car you drive? A gift from God. The work that puts food on your table? That’s a gift from Him as well. The people in your family, your community, your life? Those are His gifts as well. If it’s good, and you have it, you have it because God has given it to you.

Now on to the second word – and we are not going to go word by word each week, but these two initial words set the context for us to understand everything else that we would pray in this prayer. “Grant.” Or give. Provide. The Person we are asking for something is God, and in asking Him we are acknowledging that He has something we lack and need.

That can be hard for us for at least a couple of reasons. A few minutes ago, I mentioned beliefs that we have absorbed from the world around us. Here’s one: “God helps those who help themselves.” Do you remember where that is found in Scripture?…That’s right – it isn’t! Benjamin Franklin popularized it in America, and while he did many good things, his religious beliefs are not generally ones we want to take for ourselves. And he was expressing a belief that goes back to Greek myths about their gods and goddesses and the ways they interacted with people. Again, not a good source for us to build our understanding of the Christian God on. But many of us have internalized that as a part of our faith. We thank Jesus for salvation through the cross, and then proceed as if the rest of life and godliness are up to us. I’m reminded of the prayer Jimmy Stewart prayed at the dinner table in the film Shenandoah: “Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvested it. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be eatin’ it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog bone hard for every crumb and morsel, but we thank you just the same anyway, Lord, for the food we’re about to eat. Amen.” Wonder what picture of God Jimmy Stewart’s character had? It doesn’t appear to be the same as what Jesus revealed. But it is one that can easily slip into our thinking, and so we don’t ask God because we believe it is really all up to us anyway. We adhere to salvation by grace, but then act as if sanctification and daily Christian living are things we are supposed to do for ourselves.

Peter, however, in 2 Peter 1:3-4 says,

 “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Now, we aren’t passive in all this. Peter goes on in the next verses to tell us to make effort to put these gifts into practice. But they begin as gifts – things God is doing for us that we cannot do for ourselves.

That brings us to a third and final (for this week) barrier to asking God to grant us something. Sometimes, our pride gets in the way. At times I don’t like acknowledging how badly I need God. A cultural message of self-sufficiency and independence, being able to do things on my own, has infected our faith. In fact, I need God desperately. Not just for the big things, but even in the small details of my life – sometimes in those more. I love the bumper sticker that says, “Do I really need Jesus to go to Heaven? Man, I need Jesus just to go to Wal-Mart.” And yet, it’s easy for me to adopt the attitude of a toddler who insists on doing it myself rather than admitting that I need help. And when I say, “God, grant” I am beginning with an admission that what I am and have is not enough, and that I am coming to the One who does in hope and expectation that He can give me what I need for this day.

I want to end each week by praying the Serenity Prayer, and I hope that over time, as you listen, you may decide to learn it and pray it as well.

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

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

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

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

Thank you for letting me be a part of Clear Bible, and New Joy Fellowship for a season. May God bless you and keep you as you go through this week. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

1 SAMUEL #32: THE END OF SAUL

On July 10, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To the very end, Saul chose to act as if he couldn’t trust the Lord, as if everything depended upon his own ability to stay in control. When his own schemes and capacities failed, he despaired, and determined to be in control of his own fate to the very last, he took his own life. The great tragedy is that the Lord was always there for him, and was constantly trying to get through to Saul. When Saul killed himself, the Lord lamented his loss.

Let’s use Saul’s story to remind us that even when we feel like God isn’t there, he has never abandoned us. Let us give up on control, and instead, like David, trust the Lord in all circumstances.

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 1 Samuel Part 32

1 Samuel ends with the death of king Saul, recorded in chapter 31. While David was returning home, and then pursuing the Amalekites who had destroyed his town and taken his family, the Philistines and the Israelites began a great battle.

As I mentioned before, the Philistines invaded the valley of Jezreel, which was the only relatively easy way to get from the Mediterranean coast into the Jordan Valley of Israel. Saul’s forces were on a mountain ridge to the south of the valley, a place called Mount Gilboa. When the Philistines began to move east toward the Jordan, Saul moved to attack them and block them.

The picture below is of the actual area (with present day roads, reservoirs and buildings that would not have been there at the time, of course). The Philistines were invading through the valley in the left of the picture, starting in the foreground and pushing toward the Jordan valley in the distance. The Israelites were positioned on the ridges to the right. The little hill labeled “Tell Jezreel” was probably not there.

The massive Philistine army turned to destroy the Israelites. This was a good strategic move, because if they left them alone on the mountain, the Philistines couldn’t be secure in the valley. The battle became a rout. Israel’s army fell apart. Jonathan and his brothers were killed. I want us to consider some things in the following verses:

³ The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. ⁴ Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.” But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. (1 Samuel 31:3-4, ESV).

Verse 3 contains some ambiguous Hebrew expressions. Most English translations make it seem like Saul was severely wounded before he committed suicide. That is certainly one possible way of translating it, and probably a good one. But even so, it is quite possible that Saul was not wounded at all, but only in despair. An almost literal translation of verse 3 would be this:

“The battle became a great burden upon Saul. When the archers came within range of him, he was deeply traumatized.”

The “burden” of battle could be intense physical combat. However, that doesn’t make sense when we learn that the enemy archers have only just come into range. If he was fighting hand to hand, archers would be irrelevant. They would not shoot, for fear of hitting their own men. From this, it seems likely that Saul was not even involved in actual combat. Therefore it seems probable that the “intensity” or “burden” of the battle was purely psychological for Saul.

The literal translation of Saul being “wounded” is “deeply traumatized,” or “anguished.” We have just learned that the intensity of the battle is most likely only psychological for Saul, and probably not physical (see previous paragraph). “Traumatized” can mean physically wounded of course, and it isn’t wrong to translate it that way. Even so, knowing that what is happening with Saul is already psychological, it would not be wrong either to interpret the trauma as emotional distress, rather than a physical wound.

I believe that this view is reinforced by two things. First, Saul is clearly afraid of being captured and “mistreated.” He says so in verse 4. Several commentators speculate that Saul was thinking about what happened to Samson, the Israelite judge, who was captured by the Philistines. They blinded him, chained him like an animal, and paraded him around to be cursed and spit upon for their entertainment (Judges 16:21-25). Saul was clearly afraid of this sort of thing. That certainly makes it unlikely that Saul had any severe physical wound, because if he was badly wounded, the chances were much greater that he would simply die before the Philistines could do much else to him. Remember, in those days, there were no painkillers, no antibiotics, no modern medicine. Wounded people died at a much higher rate. Severely wounded people frequently died within a few minutes or hours. If Saul had been severely wounded, he would not have feared what else the Philistines might do to him, because he would have soon been dead.

Second, notice his armor-bearer’s response when Saul ordered the armor-bearer to kill him. The armor-bearer would not kill Saul, “because he was terrified,” (also verse 4). What was he afraid of? If Saul was mortally wounded, why would the armor bearer be afraid to finish what was inevitable anyway? No, I think Saul’s mood and his words are what scared the armor-bearer. He didn’t want to kill Saul because Saul was not physically anywhere near death.

The night before the battle was when Saul went to the witch of Endor, and consulted with a demonic spirit who masqueraded as Samuel. If you remember, that spirit had spoken only words of condemnation and despair to Saul. Saul accepted this message and believed it as if it was truly Samuel speaking. So, here’s how I think it went down: You have a man who has his entire life been insecure, erratic and manipulative. He is a control freak, now in a situation where he does not have control. He has recently accepted and believed the words of a demon. He is deeply emotionally troubled by the battle long before it even comes near him, in fact, he was troubled even before it began (because of his encounter with the witch the night before). When he sees that the archers are finally in range, he suffers deep psychological trauma. He is horrified at the idea that he might be taken prisoner, and made a spectacle in front of his enemies. So he orders his companion to kill him, and when that person refuses, he takes his own life. In other words, he gave up even before all was truly lost. The words of the demon were a self-fulfilling prophecy, in large part because Saul believed them and acted accordingly.

Now, I want to write about something that most Christians don’t talk much about: Suicide. It’s right there in the text, so I think the Holy Spirit wants to deal with the subject. But before we get into it, let’s get one thing clear. You may have known someone who committed suicide. Sadly, I’ve known several. I am convinced that some of the suicides I have known died still clinging to Jesus. There are others about whom I really don’t know. If there is any question, it doesn’t do anyone any good to wonder whether that person died in faith, or if he went to hell. That’s not the point of what we are about to consider. What’s done is done. I cling to the biblical truth that God is far more gracious and merciful than I can comprehend. We leave our loved ones in God’s hands. I certainly don’t believe that suicide in general is some kind of unforgiveable sin.

But right now, I want to talk to and about the living. If you are reading this, you are alive, and these words are for you, not for someone who has already died. Don’t waste your time wondering how to apply these words to someone else – these are for you, for me, for the living.

Saul’s suicide was clearly an evil, demonically influenced act. It was his lack of faith that prompted him to take his own life. It was his lack of trust in the Lord, combined with the fact that he believed and agreed with demonic words. He behaved as he believed. If you are ever tempted to suicide, please understand – you are being tempted by a demonic power. Do not listen to demons. Do not agree with them.

G.K. Chesterton has some insightful thoughts about killing oneself. He says:

The man who kills a man, kills a man. The man who kills himself, kills all men; as far as he is concerned, he wipes out the whole world.

His point is clear, but we don’t often think about it. The person who commits suicide does not merely kill herself. From her point of view, she is killing the whole world. Suicide looks at the world and says, “As far as I am concerned, there is nothing worthwhile in the entire universe. I would be just as well off if the whole world is destroyed.” Now, many times, this is because of despair and hopelessness that things will ever get better. I have compassion for people in that much despair. But that level of despair sure sounds demonic to me.

And of course, suicide is not a private decision that affects only yourself. It is a terrible thing for those left behind to know that you preferred death to living on with them. Sometimes the suicidal person knows this. They are angry at loved ones, and they want to hurt those people as well as themselves. Suicide is not just self-destruction – it destroys everyone who knows you. Once again, if that doesn’t sound demonic, I don’t know what does. Sometimes, of course, the suicidal person just can’t see beyond their own struggle. They just aren’t thinking about how their action might affect others, or maybe they even think that everyone will be better off without them. My heart breaks for such people, but suicide is not the answer.

Some Christians may say: “Well, I want to get to heaven. I’m tired of the struggles of this world – I want to be in the peace and rest of eternity with Jesus. Wouldn’t suicide get me to heaven faster?” But that is so much like Saul’s attitude. Saul always insisted upon his own way. He manipulated, fumed and got depressed and sought help from demons – all to get his own way. Like the ultimate spoiled brat, when he realized that this time there is simply no way it was going to happen, he would rather die. We Christians are supposed to live in trust – not in control. We don’t get to determine how and when we die. To do that is to put yourself in the place of God.

I’ll be honest. Several times a year the pain I live with gets so bad that I want to die. I have actually prayed for the Lord to take my life not once, but several times. But I will not take matters into my own hands, because my life is a gift from God. It isn’t mine—it belongs to Jesus. Only the Lord gets to say when and how it ends. No matter how bad things feel, suicide is not God’s answer for me, or anyone reading this.

Remember, Jonathan and his brothers died too. Their result was the same as Saul’s. And yet it was entirely different. They died fighting for their country and for each other.

Jonathan showed courage. Saul showed demonic self-centeredness. I don’t think Saul’s death was the result of God’s judgment. It was the result of a lifetime of Saul’s self-absorbed choices, culminating in the final ultimate act of selfishness. About Saul, you can say for certain, “he chose his own fate.”

Even so, Saul’s story ends with people who loved God mourning for him. I think this is because they were led by the Holy Spirit. God always wanted Saul to turn to Him and trust him. And so after he died, the Spirit of God moved two groups of people to honor Saul in a special way.

After the battle, the Israelites in the nearby parts of the Jordan valley fled. The Philistines took over their towns, among them a town named Beth-Shan, which has been the site of an archeological dig for many years in modern times. The Philistines found Saul’s body, cut off his head, and hung the corpse on the wall of Beth-Shan. They did the same with the bodies of Jonathan and his two brothers. There is a reason that we call brutal, ignorant cruel people “Philistines,” even today.

The residents of an Israelite town further south in the hills on the other side of the Jordan heard about this. That town was Jabesh-Gilead – the place of Saul’s very first battle, the town that had been shamed for centuries, but which Saul had rescued. They remembered how Saul had saved them and finally removed their shame. So they sent a commando-type unit through the night to Beth-Shan. They stole Saul’s body, and those of his sons, from the Philistines, and brought them back to Jabesh-Gilead. They burned the bodies and then buried the bones with honor. It was a bittersweet end to the reign of Saul, coming full circle to the beginning when he was younger, and did trust God. I think their actions were a reflection of the Lord’s sorrow at Saul’s choices. Saul chose his own way, and he suffered the consequences. But I do not believe that was what God wanted. He gave Saul the freedom to choose, and I believe he was sorrowful for what the king chose. The Lord reveals this same attitude in Ezekiel 33:11

Tell them: As I live” — the declaration of the Lord GOD — “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked person should turn from his way and live. Repent, repent of your evil ways! Why will you die, house of Israel? (Ezek 33:11, HCSB)

A second person who reveals this attitude toward Saul is David. Remember, David had the Spirit of God in a way that was special in those days. Often, he is a type of Christ – he reveals the kinds of actions and attitudes that the true Messiah has. And so when he heard of Saul’s death, he wept in sorrow. Because he was human, I’m sure he was more upset about the loss of his friend Jonathan than the death of Saul. But he reveals the heart of God. The Lord was never against Saul. He always wanted him to turn back, repent and receive grace. Inspired by God, David wrote a beautiful lament, recorded in 2 Samuel 1:19-27

19 The splendor of Israel lies slain on your heights.

How the mighty have fallen!

20 Do not tell it in Gath,

don’t announce it in the marketplaces of Ashkelon,

or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice,

and the daughters of the uncircumcised will gloat.

21 Mountains of Gilboa,

let no dew or rain be on you,

or fields of offerings,

for there the shield of the mighty was defiled —

the shield of Saul, no longer anointed with oil.

22 Jonathan’s bow never retreated,

Saul’s sword never returned unstained,

from the blood of the slain,

from the bodies of the mighty.

23 Saul and Jonathan,

loved and delightful,

they were not parted in life or in death.

They were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions.

24 Daughters of Israel, weep for Saul,

who clothed you in scarlet, with luxurious things,

who decked your garments with gold ornaments.

25 How the mighty have fallen in the thick of battle!

Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

26 I grieve for you, Jonathan, my brother.

You were such a friend to me.

Your love for me was more wonderful

than the love of women.

27 How the mighty have fallen

and the weapons of war have perished!

The greatest tragedy of Saul’s life is that the Lord always loved him, continually reached out to him, never stopped offering his grace, and yet Saul acted as if God wasn’t there for him. Saul was never in as much danger as David, and he didn’t have any real reasons to be afraid and insecure. Yet he let his fears and insecurities rule him. David’s life was often in danger and insecure, and yet he lived in deep security, because he trusted the Lord. But Saul rejected that path. He preferred to try to control things himself. He did not surrender his own will to God. But God’s love and grace and forgiveness were never more than a heartbeat away, if only he had turned to receive them. And so when Saul died, the heart of God was to lament his loss.

1 SAMUEL #31: GOD’S LOOT

On July 5, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The way David disposed of the loot from the Amalekites gives us an idea of how God wants us to use our material wealth and possessions. Even more importantly, it is a picture of the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ. Some of David’s men failed to fight the battle. But David spoke up for them, and blessed them with gifts that they had not earned. In the same way, this reminds us that through Jesus, we have God’s grace, even though we haven’t earned it. And Jesus Christ himself speaks up on our behalf, even when we have failed.

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1 SAMUEL #31. 1 SAMUEL 30:9-31

In chapter 29, we read that David and his men traveled north with the Philistine army to Aphek. This is around 70 miles from Ziklag as the crow flies. In actual miles that they had to travel, it was probably 85 or more. But the other Philistines objected to David’s presence, so David and his men went back home. It took them three days on the return trip. That’s a pace of around 30 or so miles per day. Because of events which happened later on, I assume that they had some beasts of burden with them – either donkeys or camels or both (horses were never used widely in ancient Israel). That’s a fast walk or slow jog for 10 hours a day (not counting time for rests). It is basically the same for either donkeys or camels. Even if they rode the entire way, they were being bounced and swayed for hour upon hour, probably traveling from just before dawn to a little after dark.

It was a long distance at an exhausting pace. And when they got home, they found their town burned to the ground, and their wives and children taken for slaves.

Last time we examined David’s reactions in detail. After grieving, and after holding on to the Lord with all his strength, David and his men worshipped, and ask God what he wanted to do.

When he was convinced that God did indeed want him to pursue the Amalekites, David and his men set out again, possibly late on the same day that they arrived home. They came to a place called Wadi Besor. It’s hard to pin down the exact location today, but it was somewhere in what is now southern Israel, probably near Gaza, but further inland. My best guess is that it formed a kind of psychological border between the dry land and the full desert. Now remember, they have come from the northern part of Israel (where they were with the Philistines) to the extreme south. Two-hundred of the six-hundred men were too exhausted to continue. These men had traveled a round trip of probably more than 170 miles in a matter of days, either by foot, or by uncomfortable animals. Exhaustion was nothing to be ashamed of. David left them with some of their provisions, and carried on, lighter and faster.

They encountered a lone Egyptian slave out in the desert, almost dead from hunger, thirst and exposure. David and his men treated him kindly, giving him food and water. As he revived, they asked for information. There is no doubt that they hoped to get good intelligence from him when they stopped to help him, but even so, they helped him before they knew he could be of any use to them. This is in stark contrast to how the Amalekites had treated this slave. Though they had plenty of loot, when he took sick, they left him in the desert with nothing.

As it turns out, the Egyptian helped them find the place where the Amalekites had stopped. No doubt they figured both Philistines and Israelites (whom they had raided) were still engaged in battle (as indeed they were). The Amalekites thought they were safe, so they stopped to celebrate their victory, to engage in eating and drinking some of the food they had captured, and probably to do worse things with the women they had seized.

David and his men fell upon them like an avenging fury. Four hundred Amalekites escaped, but the rest were killed. That statistic tells you something about the kind of warrior David was, and the men he had with him. The number of Amalekites that escaped was equal to the total number of men that David used in the attack. In other words, the Amalekites must have outnumbered David’s men considerably. David and his men had traveled a couple hundred miles in a matter of days, and yet David achieved total victory. It is true that David and some of his men were exceptional warriors. But I think it is impossible to look at this without seeing a miracle of God.

David recovered not only his own family and those of his men, but virtually everything that the Amalekites had taken from them. In addition, they recovered the loot that the Amalekites had taken from the Philistines and other Israelites in their expedition. So they ended up with far more than they had even before Ziklag was destroyed. The end of chapter thirty devotes some time to talking about what happened to all this stuff. There is a reason for that, so we will look at it too.

First, some of David’s men were not inclined to share with those who collapsed in exhaustion at the edge of the desert. David could have gone along with that, and no one would have blamed him. On the other hand, he would also have been within his rights as their leader to rebuke the miserly ones harshly, if he did not like their attitudes. He chose neither typical reaction. Instead, he spoke as a companion, urging them to do right:

23 But David said, “My brothers, you must not do this with what the LORD has given us. He protected us and handed over to us the raiders who came against us. 24 Who can agree to your proposal? The share of the one who goes into battle is to be the same as the share of the one who remains with the supplies. They will share equally.” (1Sam 30:23-24, HCSB)

His main point was very important. David clearly felt that it was the Lord who gave them the victory; therefore all that they gained from the Amalekites belonged not to David and his men, but to God. It was the Lord’s loot, so to speak. Yes they worked for it. But even so, it was given by God. He said they shouldn’t be selfish “with what the Lord has given us.” David wanted to distribute these gains with an understanding that it all came from the Lord.

It was not the fault of the 200 that they were not strong enough. And they did play an important strategic purpose, guarding a portion of their equipment. And those 200 had already shared in many battles and hardships with the others. David would rather err on the side of kindness and generosity. This policy apparently became law later on when David was king – the ones who guarded the baggage received an equal share with those who fought. Remember, the person who pulled all the sources together to make the books of Samuel was probably living in the time of David’s grandchildren, so this law was still in force then.

There are two important points in connection with this. First, it shows that David continually placed his trust in God, not in his own strength or the strength of his warriors. Giving the baggage-guards equal shares would make some men more inclined to stay back and guard in the future, rather than fighting. After all, guarding the baggage is safer than fighting the battle, and the pay will now be the same. But David was not worried about weakening his army. He trusted God. He didn’t have to try to motivate people to help him. He trusted that God would be all the help he needed. Consider the contrast between that attitude, and Saul’s attitude of trying to manipulate his men into fighting harder, for example, when he forced his army into an oath that they couldn’t eat until his enemies were fully defeated.

Second, this is where David again shows us once again what the Messiah is like. Jesus told a parable about workers in a field in Matthew 20:1-16. The basic point Jesus made is that the person who comes to him at the end of her life will receive the same eternal life as the one who followed Jesus for all her days. This can be seen as offensive. When I work harder than another person, but I get paid the same amount, something in me doesn’t like that – even if I agreed beforehand to work for that amount. But what David’s actions show us is a picture of the grace of God. God’s grace is not fair. If it was fair, no one would be allowed to have it at all, and it wouldn’t be grace. No, God graciously gives us what we do not deserve at all – and so here David mirrors that. The Bible clearly says that no one has the capacity to be good enough to get to heaven or earn God’s love or favor. But when something concrete like this happens, it forces us to see what that really means.

After everyone received his own possessions back, plus a share of spoils, there was still more left over. David also used this extra wealth as if it belonged to God, not to him.

First, he sent a portion to the elders at Bethel (verse 27). This could be the town of Bethel. But in Hebrew “Beth-el” means “house of God.” So far, we don’t know of any special connection between David and the town of Bethel. Considering that, and knowing David’s heart for God, I think that probably the best translation is that David’s first gifts were given to Beth-el, “the house of God” – meaning the tabernacle where the Ark was kept and where all Israel went to worship God.

Next, he sent gifts to a variety of towns and people. I think verse 31 sums up what he was doing. He was giving back “to all the places where David and his men had roamed.” He had depended on the generosity of others for years. Now, as soon as he had the chance, he returned the generosity. I don’t think he was trying to pay them back – I think it was a gift of thanks, in honor of God.

Now, what do we do with this?

I have met people before who are proud of what they have accomplished, and who are unwilling to admit that they ever had God’s help with anything. “I’ve worked hard for what I have” is their underlying attitude. “I deserve it.” But David and his men clearly worked hard for what they gained also. They traveled 200-plus miles and fought a battle at the end of it. But even so, David received it not as something he got for himself, but as a gift from God.

I want to encourage all of us to understand that everything we have ultimately comes from God – even if we feel we worked hard for it. A lot of people in this world work harder every day than your toughest day at work, and barely get enough to stay warm and fed. What makes your hard work better than theirs? Nothing, of course. For those who are reading this in America, Australia, New Zealand or Europe, your work pays off more productively because you were born into a society that has advantages that some other countries don’t have. You didn’t make yourself get born here, it was a gift given before you could ever deserve it.

This is also true of your “natural” talents. How did you get your gift for sales? How did you come to have the ability to be a good craftsman, or to handle the complexities of medical work, or scholarship? Did you give yourself the ability to work well with your hands? No. You were born with certain abilities. You didn’t get them for yourself. You probably did sharpen and improve on your natural talents, but you weren’t the one who gave yourself those original abilities. They were an undeserved gift from God.

The late radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh used to say of himself: “Talent on loan from God.” He said it in a way that made some people think he was being arrogant. But actually, he was being strictly accurate. No one has any talent except that it is on loan from God. Everyone’s talents are on loan from God, and it wouldn’t hurt for us to remember that more often.

Now, I am not trying to make anyone feel bad. The point I want to make however, is that even the opportunity to be rewarded for hard work comes from the Lord. What I want us to understand is that everything that we have has been loaned to us by God, even if we work for it. It is His, not ours. If you aren’t sure about this, just ask yourself this: “How long do I get to keep what I have worked for?” At the latest, when you die, it isn’t yours anymore. This should make it clear that it is all given to us in trust, for us to use for God’s purposes.

So like David, the first thing to do with the fruits of our labor is to give some back to God’s work, and then to bless those we are led to bless, and then yes, to keep some to enjoy for ourselves. But we should always keep in mind that nothing we think of as “ours” is truly ours. It all belongs to the Lord, and it is on loan to us. If we really believed this, it might change our attitude toward money and possessions.

The most important thing for us to understand from 1 Samuel 30, however, is God’s grace. We don’t deserve it. No one does. The men who waited at the edge of the desert simply failed physically. They couldn’t keep up. They didn’t journey as far. They didn’t risk their lives fighting to recover even their own families and goods, let alone the extra goods. Notice that those men did not speak up or argue, because the others were correct. But David spoke up for them, on their behalf. He awarded them with wealth that they did not deserve. God shows his gracious heart through his servant David.

We have all failed, like those men. We haven’t done what we needed to do to get salvation for ourselves or our loved ones. We don’t have any excuse, or any claim upon the goodness of God. And yet, Jesus speaks up on our behalf. Through Jesus, God gives us what we do not deserve. He blesses us abundantly with his love, his forgiveness, his acceptance, his favor, the material things we need to live, and especially his presence in our lives.

Remember this. Just as David spoke up for the men who failed, Jesus speaks up for us. Listen to these verses:

²⁶ At the same time the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we don’t know how to pray for what we need. But the Spirit intercedes along with our groans that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ The one who searches our hearts knows what the Spirit has in mind. The Spirit intercedes for God’s people the way God wants him to. (Romans 8:26-27, God’s Word)

³³ Who will accuse those whom God has chosen? God has approved of them. ³⁴ Who will condemn them? Christ has died, and more importantly, he was brought back to life. Christ is in the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne. Christ also intercedes for us. (Romans 8:33-34, God’s Word)

²⁵ Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf. (Hebrews 7:25, NLT)

¹ My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. (1 John 2:1, NLT)

Jesus Christ himself intercedes for us. He speaks up on our behalf.

My Dad passed away a few months ago. He was a man of integrity, whose faith made a big impact on all who knew him. Not long after he died, more than one person said something like this: “Now we’ve got someone who knows us up in heaven talking to God for us.” I understand the sentiment, I really do. I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for thinking such things. But the truth is we have always had someone who knows us who is speaking to God on our behalf. As wonderful as my dad was, he was still a human sinner. He has no standing of his own to talk to God for us. But Jesus himself speaks up for all of us, and for my dad. There is no one better. We can be at peace knowing that Jesus Christ himself speaks up for us.

1 SAMUEL #30: FAITH IN A DESPERATE SITUATION

On June 28, 2024 By Pastor TomIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

When David’s bad decisions started to burn him, he didn’t try to control things. He didn’t despair, and he didn’t get angry or blame others. Instead, he accepted his own part in the mess, turned to the Lord, and clung to Him in obstinate, persistent faith. The life of faith isn’t about performing perfectly, or even performing well. It is about grabbing hold of the Lord in trust, even when you might not understand what he is doing, and holding on for dear life, through good and bad, through the evil brought about by others and the messes brought about by yourself. This, and this alone, is what made David such a great man.

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1 Samuel #30. 1 Samuel Chapter 29:1-30:8. David in Jeopardy (again).

A few weeks ago we observed that though David went to live among the Philistines without consulting God, things seemed to go well for him. But starting this chapter, and culminating in the next two, we will learn why it was a mistake. Remember, even though David made this mistake, God was gracious and continued to work for David and through him.

At the beginning of chapter 28, David was put in a very difficult position. He had deceived king Achish of Gath into believing that he had been attacking Israelites. So when all the Philistines together began a campaign against the Israelites, Achish invited David along to fight against his fellow Israelites. In fact, it sounds almost like a test of loyalty. He essentially said to David, “you know of course, you and your men must come along with me.” David answered: “Good. You will find out what I can do.” Notice, he doesn’t say who he is going to do it to. I think David secretly meant, “Good, you’ll find out what kind of warrior I am when I have to fight you.” Achish, believing as he did that David had truly defected to the Philistines, did not catch the possible double meaning. Instead, he felt that David passed the test of loyalty, and he even wanted David to become his lifetime bodyguard. So David was on his way to the war between the Philistines and Israelites – but he was on the wrong side.

I need to briefly set out the strategic situation, because it will be important later on. The Philistines decided on a new tactic in the war against Israel. Rather than attack directly east into the mountainous region of Israel, the Philistines marched north along the Mediterranean coast to one of the flattest places in Israel, known as the Jezreel Valley. This valley is a kind of lowland gap that bisects mountainous Israel roughly from the Mediterranean coast at the northwestern of Jezreel, all the way to the Jordan River valley at the southeast end of the Jezreel gap. If the Philistines were able to fight through here, they would separate large chunks of Israel from each other, and they would have access to the fertile Jordan Valley. To get there, David and his men (along with the king of Gath and his men) would have to march about 130 miles to the north.

Now, I want you to picture how it was for David and his men. In the past, David consistently refused to hurt Saul. He, and his men have never attacked fellow Israelites. But now, suddenly, they are marching to war against Saul and the people of Israel, allied with their long-time hated enemies, the Philistines. I can’t imagine that David’s men were happy about this.

They had two choices. First, they could do what they appeared to be doing, which was, to remain allies with the Philistines, and fight on their side during the battle. This choice could create considerable emotional and spiritual turmoil. They might find themselves facing friends and relatives, and truthfully, I doubt they would have believed in the righteousness of the Philistine cause for war. If they did this, they would be true traitors, and Saul, for all his unfair suspicions in the past, would be proved right in the end. If they won, they would have destroyed their country, and no one in Israel would ever accept David as king again. If they lost, of course, many of them would be dead, but those who weren’t killed in battle would be executed as traitors by the victorious Israelites.

Their second choice was to betray the Philistines in the middle of the battle. But that would be problematic for several reasons. First, it would show them as faithless to the Philistines who have treated them fairly for more than a year. Also, if they did that, they would be immediately fighting behind enemy lines, surrounded by the enemy army. Casualties would be very heavy. Another thing is that the other Israelites might not understand what David’s men were doing, and if they were able to fight through and link up with Saul’s army, the Israelites might start fighting them anyway. Remember there were no cell phones or radios for them to communicate their intentions to the Israelite army. Finally, Saul’s history shows that even extreme demonstrations of loyalty do not convince him for long. There is no guarantee that turning on the Philistines would actually win Saul’s favor. Saul might even take the battle as an opportunity to kill David, even if he knows that David is helping him.

We don’t know what David would have done – it is not clear in the text. I suspect that he had some vague thought of turning on the Philistines, and rallying the Israelites. We’ll never know, however, because some of the other Philistines interfered. David was allied with king Achish of Gath. But there were five Philistine kings altogether. Each Philistine King ruled over a city and some surrounding territory. When the other four kings saw that Achish had David and 600 Hebrew warriors with him, they objected strenuously. They felt they couldn’t trust him, and so reluctantly, Achish sent David back to the town he had given him, Ziklag. David objected to Achish, and I’m not sure if the objection was genuine, or merely to maintain the deception that he was truly loyal.

In any case, it seems to me that the Lord arranged things to get David out of a very difficult position. David had placed himself there by deceiving Achish about who he was raiding over the past year. It was his own fault that he was between a rock and a hard place. But the Lord extricated him anyway. This is more evidence of God’s incredible, undeserved grace. So David and his men did not take part in the battle, but traveled home to Ziklag. We don’t know if they went all the way to the Jezreel valley, but they must have gone some distance, because it took them three days to get back.

When they arrived they received a horrible shock – their homes were burned to the ground, and all their wives, children and possessions were gone.

The Amalekites had been very wily. They had seen that the Philistines and Israelites were focusing all their attention on one another. So when the armies were gone, they raided all through the southern territories of both peoples, finding only defenseless towns and villages, because all the men had gone off to war.

This was as horrible as it sounds. Imagine your own home burned to the ground and your family kidnapped. David and his men were naturally devastated at the loss of their families. It says:

Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. (1Sam 30:4, ESV)

When the grief was over, anger kicked in. But it was chiefly anger against David. His men had fairly good reasons to complain. David had led them to settle with the Philistines in the first place. David had not let them be at peace in Ziklag, but had insisted on raiding the Amalekites, arousing their ire. David had decided to deceive the Philistines into thinking they were allies. Therefore it was David’s fault that they had marched away with the Philistine armies, leaving their families defenseless. The men talked not just of mutiny, but of stoning David to death. Stoning wasn’t considered murder – it was considered a righteous punishment for gross wrongdoing.

Try and get inside the mind of David for a minute. There is no doubt that he himself had made a mess of things. He didn’t have many good options to start with, with Saul chasing him, and people betraying him, but even so, all his choices of the past 18 months had led to this mess. He had lost his own family. He had lost the families of his faithful men, and all the possessions they had finally been able to accumulate after years of homelessness. Now his men were turning on him.

There were several options for David at that point. He could have said, “Yes, go ahead and stone me.” That would have been the response of despair and giving up. Or, he could have gotten angry. War leaders in those days had a great deal of authority over their men. He was, after all, God’s anointed. He could have rebuked his men, and blamed them for some of what happened. After all, there is no doubt that they had been happier in Ziklag than wandering homeless in the desert. He would have been within his rights to execute the ringleaders of the rebellion. He could have tried to fix the problem himself immediately, trusting in his own strength and wisdom to pull off some kind of miracle.

Instead, it says:

But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God. (1 Samuel 30:6)

The word “strengthened himself” is the Hebrew word transliterated “chazaq.” It means to seize upon, to lay hold of with obstinate persistence. The sense it gives us is that David focused and fastened his heart, mind, soul and strength on God and God alone, and held on for dear life. He did not immediately try to fix anything or even to defend himself. He just held on to the Lord.

David almost certainly wrote Psalm 62. We don’t know when in his life he did so, but this moment would certainly fit. Hear him strengthen himself in the Lord:

¹ For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.
² He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
³ How long will all of you attack a man
to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
⁴ They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths,
but inwardly they curse.
⁵ For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us. (Psalms 62:1-8, ESV)

Once more, we see evidence of David’s faith-filled heart. There is no doubt that he had already made some very bad decisions in his life. He was in a mess created by some of those unfortunate choices right now. But his instinct was always to turn back to the Lord.

That is the life of faith. Make sure you understand this. The life of faith isn’t about performing perfectly, or even performing well. It is about grabbing hold of the Lord in trust, even when you might not understand what he is doing, and holding on for dear life, through good and bad, through the evil brought about by others and the messes brought about by yourself. This, and this alone, is what made David such a great man.

We can see how David’s focus on the Lord brought him back on track. He already knew that the Amalekites were God’s enemies. Clearly, they had already attacked, and this was war. In the views of that time and culture, it was certainly David’s right to pursue them and bring them to battle if he could. In addition, it was probably also the natural response to be angry and seek revenge; it would feel right. So, it would be easy to assume that they should pursue the Amalekites. But David, after strengthening himself in the Lord, also humbled himself, assuming nothing, wanting earnestly to hear from God. Therefore before doing anything else, he inquired of the Lord.

As I’ve mentioned before, “inquiring of the Lord” most likely involved a sacrifice and a worship service, and possibly even a fellowship meal. It wasn’t a quick thing. You had to sings songs and say some liturgy. You had to butcher the animal, and then cook it, along with other food, and then serve it out to everyone and eat. Going from killing to eating an animal the size of a sheep or goat is a matter of some hours. But David took the time to worship the Lord, and to lead his men to do the same before anything else was done. All this time, it would be natural to think: The Amalekites are getting further and further away. But David did it anyway, because he thought that getting right with the Lord was even more important than the tactical advantage of a quick pursuit.

Think for a moment about your typical response when you are in difficulties. Do you tend to trust yourself to come up with a solution? Do you want to control the situation and work it out, essentially save yourself? If you are in a situation where time is short, do you begrudge any time to pray and listen to God?

Or maybe your response is depression and despair. You might tend to think the worst will happen to you, so you may as well get resigned to your fate. Perhaps you even blame yourself and accept that you deserve the disaster because you brought it on yourself.

Possibly, you take another approach – you blame others, and get angry at them when things don’t go well. It helps you feel better, or more righteous, to say it is someone else’s fault.

I think we all tend toward one or more of these things when trouble comes. I want to encourage us, however, to be more like David. He didn’t do any of these. Instead, he fastened his hope and trust on the Lord. Like a bulldog latching on and not letting go, he focused on God with all his soul, heart and strength. All the energy that he might have put into controlling the situation, or blaming others or blaming himself, he instead put into holding on to the Lord.

Don’t put your energy into blame, or self-abuse. Don’t even put your energy into fixing things. Put all your focus into obstinate faith. This is just as important when you know your problems are mostly your own fault.

What is the Lord saying to you through this part of scripture today?

What are you going to do about it?

Who are you going to tell about it?

1 SAMUEL #29: WHATEVER WORKS

On June 11, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

Saul was committed, above all, to being in control of his own life and getting the results he wanted. When it appeared to him that God wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he turned to the devil for it. Demanding self control or results is a dangerous path to walk down for anyone. The alternative to the need to be in control is trust in God. Let this scripture lead you into a deeper level of trust in the Lord.

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1 SAMUEL #29. 1 SAMUEL 28:1-25

Remember all that we have learned about king Saul. One of the most important things we discovered is that he was a religious man, but not a man of faith. Time after time, when he felt he could somehow use or exploit God, he did so. But when he was confident in himself, or when he felt that God had nothing to offer him, he ignored God. He had the trappings of religion and he used them to try to control others and manipulate God. But he did not live in a day to day walk of faith, trusting God in all things, relating to him, loving him. The depths of Saul’s spiritual poverty are revealed in 1 Samuel chapter 28.

Saul, having no real trust in God, was terrified when he saw the Philistine army that came against him. Now consider something. Every time Saul was involved in a battle with the Philistines up to this point, God saved the Israelites. The Lord used Jonathan in chapter 13, and David in chapter 17, and several other times. But none of that seemed to make any difference to Saul. He was just as scared and faithless as he had always been.

I want to pause and say something about that here. Sometimes we think that if God just did a miracle for us, then we would really trust him. If we saw the Lord do something really great, then we wouldn’t doubt, then we wouldn’t disobey or draw back in fear. But that wasn’t the case with Saul. God’s previous miracles didn’t matter. The same was true with the first Israelites who came out of Egypt. They saw many miracles. Their food and water were daily miracles. And yet it did not help them to have faith and surrender to the Lord.

Jesus addressed this issue in his own ministry. Though he did many miracles, often people came and demanded more miracles on the spot – basically asking him to prove himself to them—again. Jesus addressed this in Luke 11:27-29:

²⁷ As He was saying these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “The womb that bore You and the one who nursed You are blessed! ” ²⁸ He said, “Even more, those who hear the word of God and keep it are blessed! ” ²⁹ As the crowds were increasing, He began saying: “This generation is an evil generation. It demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. (Luke 11:27-29, HCSB)

John records that many miracles (‘signs’) still did not convince people who did not want to be convinced:

³⁷ Even though He had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in Him. (John 12:37, HCSB)

On one occasion, when Jesus told people to trust in him, the people demanded that he prove himself with another miracle—and this was only the next day after the feeding of the five thousand! (John 6:22-31). In another place, Jesus told a story about a poor man named Lazarus, and a rich man. At the end of the story, the rich man found himself in hell. He begged that someone be sent from heaven to tell his family the truth about the afterlife. Jesus concludes the story like this:

³¹ “But he told him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’ ” (Luke 16:31, HCSB)

When people in the New Testament say “Moses and the Prophets” they mean “the Bible,” since that was all of the Bible that they had at that time. What Jesus is saying is this: if you don’t trust God’s Word and the promises in scripture, no amount of miracles will cause you to trust.” The problem can’t be fixed by a miracle. That is both hard and good for us to remember. Seeing is not believing. With God, believing is seeing.

So Saul, in spite of all that he has seen God do, was a religious pretender, not a man of real faith. All of the amazing ways God had worked throughout his life did not give him real faith. Therefore, now, facing the Philistines, he was quaking in fear. It says that he “inquired of the Lord.” As before, Saul didn’t go to the Lord unless he thought God could do something for him. So now, he inquired of the Lord only out of fear and a desire to manipulate God. It doesn’t tell us what Saul was asking God. I think it is most likely that he made an animal sacrifice to the Lord, and was hoping for some prophecy that God was pleased with the sacrifice, and would give Saul the victory. But he didn’t hear anything by way of the “sacred dice” (the Urim and Thummim) or through the prophets, or from dreams. Basically, Saul was demanding another sign here (that is, a miracle) before he would really trust God. He had God’s help all his life, but he still wouldn’t trust the Lord without some kind of additional sign.

God was working on Saul all of his life. Remember how he called him to be king? There were several miracles in connection with just that. Remember how he gave Saul the victory at Jabesh Gilead? Remember how even after Saul proved to be useless to God, God kept pursuing Saul’s heart, trying to get him to turn to the Holy Spirit for relief? Saul has had decades to surrender his heart to the Lord. The Lord never quit trying to win him over. I think this lack of a sign was one more chance for Saul to surrender his heart. The Lord put him in a crisis where he had the same two choices he had always had: 1. Trust God, or 2. Manipulate God and other people to control his own destiny, and get the outcome he wants. Before this, Saul had always chosen #2. He didn’t know it, but this was now his last chance to surrender his heart to the Lord.

Tragically, Saul once again chose to try to control his own life and outcomes, rather than trusting God. When he didn’t hear from the Lord, trust was not even an option. Saul felt that he simply must find some way to manipulate God into saying what he wanted to hear, or doing what he wanted God to do. So he sought out a medium, or witch, or spiritist, or whatever you want to call it.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 says this:

¹⁰There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer¹¹or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,¹²for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you.¹³You shall be blameless before the LORD your God,¹⁴for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this.

These practices were part of the reason for Holy War, which Saul failed to carry out as king. Not only were the people of God not supposed to do these things, they were supposed to wipe out those who did. Such things separate people from God and put them under the influence of hell. Saul did make some attempt to stamp out the practice of the occult, but obviously he wasn’t entirely successful. And now he was willing to deliberately abandon faith in God, abandon his own previous laws against these things, and seek help from a medium through “communication with the dead.”

Here is the final proof of Saul’s internal condition. Religion was just something to be used and manipulated. Clearly, for Saul all that mattered is that he got some kind of good result, and if he couldn’t get what he wanted from God, he was willing to seek it from the instruments of the devil.

So Saul and a few of his men disguised themselves and went to the witch. The disguise was actually pretty pathetic. The woman lived not far from the battlefield. Her visitor was the tallest man she’d ever seen, and he wanted to talk to the ghost of the prophet Samuel. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was Saul. So at first the woman thought it was a trap. Then when she was convinced, she pretended that the ghost of Samuel told her who Saul was. All that is reading between the lines, but I feel pretty confident about it. You can’t disguise your height, and the Bible tells us that Saul was the tallest man in the whole nation of Israel by far. The witch would have had to be pretty stupid to not think it was Saul.

Now it is natural to wonder, what really happened here? Was the woman a charlatan who made it all up? Was there really a spiritual presence there? And if so, was it really Samuel?

To answer that, we need to consider what the Bible says about life after death. Certainly, the entire New Testament teaches that at the end of time, there will be a judgment day. Those who reject Jesus will be thrown into a lake of fire with the devil and his demons. Those who receive him will be physically resurrected to an eternal, joyful existence.

But there is that period of time in between. Samuel was in that period, as is every person who has died up until today (except for Jesus). Some people believe that in that “between-time,” you are unaware of existence until judgment day, at the end of time. Others believe, as I do, that there is a period of time when dead people are not yet resurrected into new bodies, but their spirits are either with Jesus in joy and freedom, or in hell. The presence of Moses and Elijah with Jesus in Matthew 17, suggests this very strongly. Jesus painted this picture of life after death in his story of Lazarus and the rich man. Revelation 6:9-11 shows people who have died, yet are aware and are waiting for the final judgment day and the resurrection. Actually several passages in Revelation suggest that there is life with Jesus between death and the physical resurrection that will occur at the end of time.

Therefore in order to believe that it really was the spirit of Samuel, we have to believe that some people on earth – mediums, fortune tellers etc. – have the power to pull people out of the presence of God and back to earth so we can talk to them. I don’t buy it for a second.

However, could God have allowed this to happen for some reason? In my opinion, that just brings up another reason to believe that this was not really Samuel. God chose not to answer Saul when Saul wanted some reassurance. He did not answer through the “holy dice,” or through the prophets or in dreams. If God would chose not to speak to Saul through these holy and righteous means, why would he then work through the unrighteous means of a medium – basically rewarding Saul’s wicked behavior, and giving the impression that, actually, God does work through such things?

Even beyond these most significant facts, there are other things in the text which suggest that this was not Samuel. Saul himself could not see the spirit – he had to ask the medium what he looked like. Her reply was very vague: “An old man wearing robes.” That’s pretty much how I picture Samuel myself. Saul accepted this description as true, but there is nothing in it that actually identifies Samuel personally.

Finally, there is the message that Saul got from this apparition. Once again we need to question why God would speak through this illegitimate means after not answering by any legitimate route. But secondly, listen to the tone of the message. It is angry, bitter and hopeless. There is no encouragement. There is not even any opportunity for repentance. Not too long after this, Saul was wounded and committed suicide, rather than fight on with courage. I personally believe that his encounter contributed to that act.

I do believe that there was something spiritual going on here – something creepy and utterly evil. Remember the other Saul, in the New Testament, the one who repented and came to Jesus, and later was known as Paul? He encountered a girl who could tell the future. But it was an evil spirit that gave her the power of limited fortune telling (Acts 16:16-19). I met someone once who used to be involved in fortune telling, and spirit-communication for money. She became a Christian and rejected all that.

We asked her what was involved in it. She said that sometimes she was just tricking people by being observant, and making vague statements combined with educated guesses. But she also told us that sometimes she was aware of a spiritual presence which gave her information – a presence which she now realizes was a demon.

I personally believe that Saul unknowingly sought (and received) an audience with a demon, masquerading as Samuel. Saul was rewarded with the kind of thing you would expect from a demon: condemnation and hopelessness. By turning to witchcraft and séance to try and control his life, he was turning his back utterly on God and seeking help from hell. And he got exactly what you might expect from hell.

So where to do we go with this text?

First, if this isn’t too obvious, don’t play around with séances, spirit-guides, mediums, psychics and so on. The best case scenario is that you are being fooled by a con-artist. The other possibility is that you are dealing with something that comes from the pit of hell, and you are inviting demonic influence into your life if you fool with it. The Bible says that sometimes Satan (and presumably other demons) masquerade as angels of light:

¹⁴ And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15, ESV.)

In the context of this verse, “his servants” is about human beings who are trying to lead people astray. But if it is true about humans who have turned from God, it seems likely to be true about demons also. As we can see, the result of fooling around with this for Saul was dramatic and self-destructive. The Bible tells us everything we need to know about God and human nature. It doesn’t tell us everything in the universe there is to know. There are unresolved questions about supernatural things. But the Bible is clear about mediums and seances and so on: they are not for the people of God. It is like playing with explosives.

I also find some reminders here about religion. There are many people like Saul who go to church and talk the religious talk as a way to manipulate God or influence others. It became a way of life for Saul, and ultimately it destroyed him. God never gave up on him, but by his empty religious spirit, Saul took himself out of God’s jurisdiction. I hate religion. I love Jesus, but I hate religion. I think maybe God hates it too. Religion is about appearance and manipulation. Real faith is about surrendering your heart to the One who created you, and cares about you more than anyone else in the universe. Saul had plenty of religion. David had faith.

I also think there is a warning here about being willing to get results, no matter how. I remember, some years ago, hearing a fellow Christian talking about Madonna, the singer. Some of you might be too young to remember, but she started out with a “good girl” image. She didn’t get a lot of success that way. When she switched to being all about sex, she became wildly popular. My Christian friend said: “You gotta admire her for doing what it takes.” I don’t think so at all. We don’t have to admire that, and I think we shouldn’t. Sometimes there are things that are more important than getting the results we want.

Americans tend to be in favor of “whatever works.” Sometimes, that’s a good trait, but sometimes, it isn’t. If drugs and alcohol work to cheer me up, should I abuse them? If I’m unhappy in my marriage, should I have an affair? If I need more money, should I cheat and steal? “Whatever works” is a very dangerous philosophy to have. In the end it destroyed Saul.

There is also a caution here about how we view miracles. The Bible teaches us that they are real. I have personally seen miracles. I love it when God does them. But my faith does not depend on God continually doing more of them for me, and I know I cannot demand them from God whenever I choose. We sometimes think (like Mike and the Mechanics) that all we need is a miracle. Not so. All we need is the Lord, and to get him all we need is faith to believe he is there, and to trust him. Miracles are real, and great, but if we won’t trust God unless he keeps doing more miraculous things for us, I think we are in trouble. Jesus himself warned against that attitude.

I think there are many times when we get ourselves into situations like Saul’s. We come face to face with a problem. We can try to manage and control life ourselves; or we can trust the Lord and surrender to him. I pray that we make the second choice, not the first.

I guess the main message is the same message we hear over and over through scripture: Trust the Lord. Base that trust on his word and his promises, not on anything else. And base your life on the trust you have for Him.

1 SAMUEL #28: TRUSTING GOD AMIDST FAILURES

On June 1, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

David was weary and discouraged, and he made a major decision without consulting the Lord. But the greatness of David was not about him doing everything right. It was about the fact that he repented when he failed, and almost always relied upon the Lord in everything. In spite of his failure, the Lord graciously allowed David and his men to have a season of safety and stability for their families, and gave the warriors an opportunity to still serve the Lord. When God blesses us, it is not necessarily an endorsement of everything we’ve done. It is a sign of his gracious nature. He does not treat us as our sins deserve.

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1 SAMUEL #28. CHAPTER 27:1-12

Many people have the misunderstanding that David only failed spiritually once in his life, in the matter with Bathsheba. If you have been following this sermon series, however, you will have noticed that in fact, even before he became a king, David failed a number of times in his life, both spiritually and in terms of achieving his goals. The picture we have of David is not a man who was almost perfect. Instead, he is a very flawed human being. But he was a person who was always willing to admit his mistakes, and he continually looked to the Lord (not to himself or to others) for forgiveness, help and encouragement. That is what makes him a hero of the faith.

Chapter twenty-seven seems to record yet another time when David failed spiritually. The last time the Lord spoke to David about where he should be making his base, he said, through the prophet Gad, that David should stay in the land of Israel, in the territory of the Tribe of Judah (1 Samuel 22:5).

David did that for several years, but it was brutal. He and his men couldn’t live in a town for fear that Saul would catch them. If they stayed in a town, but escaped before Saul got to them, it was likely that Saul would punish the citizens of that place. So David and his men lived in caves and outdoors. They couldn’t farm to support themselves. There were six-hundred of them, so they couldn’t hunt or gather enough food either. They relied on friends and strangers to help them through their tough times. But often, the people alerted Saul to their location, and they found themselves running for their lives. They continued to barely survive, but it didn’t look (at least on the outside) like they were doing anything constructive.

At one point, it looked like David had convinced Saul to leave him alone, by sparing Saul’s life in the cave. But Saul eventually came back, and David was so surprised, he had to go see for himself. Last time we saw how David once again dramatically showed Saul that he meant him no harm. This caused Saul to leave again, but you can almost see the wheels turning in David’s head, as he realizes that Saul will never leave him alone for good. If sparing his life the first time would not convince Saul that David was a loyal subject, nothing could.

There is something else that the text mentions that we haven’t talked about yet. These men were young, but many of them, including David, had families (v.2-3). Living like they were, it must have been hard on their wives and children.

I’m sure you noticed that David now had two wives, not including Michal, daughter of Saul, who married someone else after David had been gone for a few years. Remember, this is historical narrative, which tells us things that actually happened, not what should have happened. Every time the Bible draws particular attention to polygamy, it paints it in a negative light, showing the jealousy, bitterness and other sins that result from it. Not only that, but even in the Old Testament, there are clear teachings that show that polygamy is wrong. The second chapter of Genesis portrays marriage as created to be between one man and one woman, and Jesus, in the New Testament, makes that very clear. But even elsewhere in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) it teaches that polygamy is wrong:

14 “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,’ 15 you are to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses… …17 He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. (Deut 17:14 & 17, HCSB)

Now, it is likely that David had never heard this verse. Nobody had a personal copy of the Torah at home. To know what was in it, you had to go to the worship services and hear it read. It seems unlikely that David was there on any of the few days on which that particular passage was read. But obviously, the priests at the time did not make sure that this was known throughout Israel. It seems that David unthinkingly adopted the values of his culture on this issue. Powerful men in the ancient Middle East had multiple wives. So, David got himself multiple wives. I think this serves as a useful warning to us. Is there anything in our own culture that we adopt without thinking about it? Could it be that some of what we think of as “normal” is actually wrong in God’s eyes?

Anyway, to get back to the narrative, David and his men were living in a hard place, and so were their families. So David did something uncharacteristic – he made a unilateral decision without consulting the Lord. The last thing he heard on the subject was that he should stay in the territory of Judah. Without asking God again, he took his men and their families and went to the territory of the Philistines. The Hebrew shows David’s thoughts to be something like this: “There is nothing good left for me. So I’ll go to the Philistines.”

Now, we should be careful stating absolutely that David was sinning by doing that. The scripture doesn’t say one way or the other. But I think we can say that to do this without asking God was unusual for David, and it did not seem to reflect the relationship of trust in the Lord that he normally had. In fact, it seems more like something that Saul would do, not David. At the very least, it looks like David made a decision that was based more on fear, hopelessness and weariness than on faith. We can also see that as a result, he put himself in a position where he had to be deceptive.

He went back to Achish, king of the Philistine city of Gath – the same place he went when he first fled from Saul (chapter 21). No doubt Achish had heard what David had been doing since he left last time, and he knows now that David is not insane. However, it was probably a decade or so since David killed Goliath, and many years since he fought against the Philistines. All of that time, Saul had considered David his enemy. You’ve heard the saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That’s probably what king Achish was thinking. David might be a powerful ally. He was bringing six-hundred men who were hardened by the wilderness and by some battles. He was technically the enemy of Saul, king of Israel. So Achish once again allowed David to take refuge in his territory. He saw the potential in an alliance, and also the potential danger in picking a fight with David and his six-hundred hard men.

This time, however, David was a little wiser, and sought to keep physical distance between himself and the king. He asked if he and his men could stay in some town out in the country, away from the capital, Gath. So Achish gave David the town of Ziklag to live in.

Four hundred years before, when Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan river, the entire land was given to the Israelites by God. They still had to enter in and take possession of the land by driving out the pagan Canaanite tribes – but the Lord promised to be with them and help them do that. However, no Israelite tribe truly trusted God enough to fully possess what he had promised. So the town of Ziklag was supposed to belong to the tribe of Judah – but they had never actually taken possession of it, being too afraid to challenge the Philistines. Now, David – a man from the tribe of Judah – received this little town as a gift, without any fight at all.

We could look at this and say, “Oh, I guess David did the right thing after all, because things began to work out for him.” But I think it’s a lot more complicated than that. Just a little more than a year after David went to the Philistines, David’s problem with Saul was solved, and he was free to live in any city in Israel. This would have happened whether or not he had gone to live in Philistine territory. So I don’t think the gift of Ziklag was God’s endorsement of David’s actions. Instead, I think it shows us how gracious God is. Even when David was afraid and more or less ran away, the Lord blessed him, and through him, blessed his people. The Lord did not allow David’s fear and lack of faith to hinder what He (God) wanted to do. Though David didn’t deserve it, God used him anyway. Though David didn’t deserve it, God allowed he and his men to have a time of relative rest and stability. God continues to work, no matter what happens. Our own failure will never stop him from being at work.

There is something else that strikes me. Right or wrong, now that David had done this, the Lord moved forward from that point, and he led David to do the same. Remember in chapter 15, earlier in Saul’s reign, the Lord told Saul to wipe out the Canaanite tribe called the Amalekites? Saul only partly obeyed. He didn’t carry out the war the way the Lord asked. But now David began a campaign of raids against the Amalekite clans. In each raid, he completely wiped out everyone he found. This was something that God wanted to happen. We don’t have time and space to re-hash all the discussion about Holy War, where we considered why God might want to do this. If you need to, go back to 1 Samuel parts 13 and 14 to review this subject. The point here, is that David, even after he messed up, is back on track. He is letting the Lord accomplish his purposes through his (David’s) life. David and his men were warriors, with the hearts and desires that go along with that. So the Lord used them just as he made them. Even so, there is an obedience here. They weren’t fighting just anyone they could find. They were letting the Lord fight His battles through them, making war only when and where the Lord led them to.

Unfortunately, David had to engage in some deliberate deception at this point. King Achish wanted to know what he was up to. So David replied accurately, but deceptively. He said he was raiding in the southern territories of Judah and Israel. Technically, that was true. All that land was supposed to belong to Israel, including the places where David fought the Amalekites. But he was certainly not fighting other Israelites. Even so, he let Achish believe that he was making war on his own countrymen.

Now, we might say that David’s deception was part of the war between Israel and the Philistines, and therefore it was justified. After all, Achish was actually David’s enemy, though they were in a temporary truce. So it is almost like a spy lying to the enemy – it is an act of war, not a sin. I won’t say that interpretation is definitely wrong. And in the short term, David’s deception allowed him and his men to be at peace, and to advance God’s agenda.

Even so, David’s deception led to problems in the future – even as it had in the past. It put him in a very awkward position not too long after this. He had to be saved from that position by people and circumstances beyond his control. In fact, I suspect it was the Lord who saved him from the consequences of his own lies.

In the long run, true honesty is always the best policy. One reason I suspect that it wasn’t in the Lord’s original plan for David to be among the Philistines is because it put David in this position where he basically had to lie. And, as far as the fact that he was attacking the Amalekites as the Lord wanted, it seems to me that he could have done that while he and his men were still in the wilderness of Judah. They could have gained much needed supplies and food that way.

Let’s turn to application. Here are some things that I personally take away from this passage:

First, when I think about David marrying multiple wives, it makes me think that I need to learn to look at my own culture with a skeptical eye. Perhaps there are things that we think are normal, and “OK,” but are actually wrong in God’s eyes. For instance, wealthy men in David’s time had many wives; while wealthy people in our time have many homes. I wonder if it is really OK for Christians in America to own a vacation home while Christians elsewhere in the world are starving. That’s just one example; I’m sure we could come up with more.

A different thing that strikes me about this passage is how the Lord moves forward with us and with his plan, even when we take a wrong turn. We don’t go back to where we messed up and do it over. Instead, the Lord mercifully picks us up where we are, gets us back on track. When David went to the Philistines, the Lord didn’t make David go back to Judah and start over. Instead he adapted his plan, accounting for David’s mistake.

As we have seen before, the main goal in the life of faith is to trust God. If we do that, our behavior will naturally be pleasing to God. And even when we fail, if we return to a place of faith and trust, God is overwhelmingly gracious. Despite David’s failure, God gave him stability and rest, and through him, restored to Israel one of the towns that had been given them. Despite David’s failure, he continued to use him and bless him. I can trust that the Lord will deal with me in the same way . I know I am not perfect – not in behavior, not even in how well I trust God. Because of Jesus, my failure is not the final word, not the most important factor. God’s grace is always a bigger factor than my failure. God has a way of turning failure into gracious victory and blessing. That takes a lot of pressure off me.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you?

1 SAMUEL #27: DARING DEEDS BY DAVID

On May 25, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

Saul had abused his power and mistreated David in several despicable ways. But David’s main complaint was that Saul was cutting him off from worshipping in God’s sanctuary, and from God’s people. Even so, once again David refrained from harming Saul when he had the chance. In this incident David reminds us that we need fellowship with God’s people. He also shows again what Jesus is like: he does not treat us as our sins deserve, but instead showers grace on us unconditionally.

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1 SAMUEL #27. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 26;1-25

Often when I teach through the Bible, I am looking for tightly focused themes and messages in each passage. That works pretty well when we encounter the teaching genre in scripture. But often, when we get to narrative history, I feel like each passage is a box of chocolates: a lot of variety, a few surprises, but all of it is sweet.

I want to point out again David’s precarious situation. He was trying to lead and support 600 men who couldn’t stay in one place. In fact, they couldn’t stay in any civilized place, because the king had declared David an outlaw, under a death sentence. He was dependent upon gifts from friends and strangers. He was also vulnerable to those same people if they chose to betray David and his men. We don’t know for sure how long David lived this way, but it was certainly years – maybe even as long as a decade.

One of the reasons I like to point this out is because many churches and popular preachers seem to suggest that if you have faith in God, everything will always go well for you. By implication, if things do not go well with you, it must be because you don’t have enough faith, or you are not righteous enough. David was an imperfect human being, but he did live in faith. In fact he had a great deal of trust in the Lord, and always repented from his sins, and was willing to humbly learn to do better.

Even so, for many years, it did NOT go well with David. I just want to make sure that no one reading this ever falls prey to the teaching that if life is tough on you, it is automatically because you don’t have enough faith, or you are a bad Christian or something like that. Sometimes, by our own choices, we do make life harder than it needs to be. But sometimes, life is just hard, for no reason that we can understand. Certainly David had a heart for God and a great deal of integrity, and those did not save him from trouble and hardship.

Also, I want to make sure you don’t believe that you can earn favors from God by being righteous, or saying the right words or having the right kind of faith. We live by God’s grace. If we had to earn God’s favor, no one would ever earn anything good. You don’t understand the gospel if you think you can earn blessings by being righteous, or saying the right things, or having the right kind of faith. David was not the only person in the Bible who had great faith, but a difficult life.

I do want to say, however, that David became the great man he was because of his faith. Sometimes things went very well for him and sometimes they didn’t. But how it was going on the outside was not as important to David as the quality of his relationship with the Lord. And because that relationship was more important to David than anything else, God was able to use him in amazing ways, and also to bless David without David thinking he had earned it.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to receive all of life as blessing, whether or not it looks that way outwardly? If we could do that, it wouldn’t matter much to us whether circumstances were good or bad. We would always be experiencing life as blessing. David was getting there.

In chapter 26, David was still in a time of outward difficulty. But we will quickly see that things were very good with his heart. Once more, the Ziphites betrayed David – the same people who almost got him killed in chapter 23:19. They knew where David was, and they told Saul to come and get him. As far as we know, Saul had left David alone since the incident when David spared his life in the cave. But the Ziphites basically tempted Saul to sin. Having betrayed David once, this group of people probably thought that if David were not killed, he would take retribution on them if he had the chance, so they may have been quite urgent and persuasive in trying to get Saul to start hunting David again.

Apparently, David could hardly believe it, so he took a few men on a reconnaissance mission to see if Saul had really started hunting him again. One of the men he brought with him was Abishai. Abishai was one of the sons of David’s sister Zeruiah, which made him David’s nephew. Abishai’s brother Joab became the commander of David’s armies later on. If you remember, among David’s men eventually there were “the Three” who became outstanding warriors, and then “the Thirty” who were also an elite force of great fighters among David’s other men. Here is what it says about Abishai elsewhere:

¹⁸ Abishai, Joab’s brother and son of Zeruiah, was leader of the Three. He raised his spear against 300 men and killed them, gaining a reputation among the Three.¹⁹ Was he not more honored than the Three? He became their commander even though he did not become one of the Three. (2 Samuel 23:18-19, HCSB)

Now, for those of you who are Bible geeks, like me, you might find a translation that says Abishai was commander of the thirty, rather than the three. In fact, the translators of the ESV couldn’t make up their minds about this, and older editions read like the HCSB (above) and newer editions have Abishai as commander of the thirty, rather than the three. The problem is that while most ancient texts read like the HCSB (quoted above) two well regarded ancient texts have it the other way, and it seems to make a bit more sense the other way – how could he be chief of the three, if he wasn’t one of the three? This is one of those “major issues” in Bible translation, but of course, it isn’t really that important. What is clear, no matter which way is correct, is that Abishai is one of the greatest warriors alive during David’s lifetime.

Since David was the youngest of ten, it is possible that even though he was technically Abishai’s uncle the two of them might have been basically the same age. It is even possible that Abishai was a little older. They might have spent a lot of time together as boys. At this point, they were both probably in their early or mid-twenties, in the prime of physical power and maybe a little inclined to try something crazy.

The two of them decided to sneak into the heart of Saul’s encampment at night. This was the desert, so the soldiers probably did not have tents. The picture seems to be that Saul chose his sleeping spot, and then the whole army arranged themselves around him, with his bodyguard closest to him and the rest spread around them generally. David and Abishai crept through the entire group of three thousand sleeping men and came to Saul sleeping soundly, along with Abner, the chief of Saul’s bodyguard.

This incident appears somewhat similar to the one in chapter 24. Certainly, the result, and the main point (David sparing Saul) is virtually the same. However, other than that, almost every detail is different. Saul didn’t come alone into a cave where David and his men were waiting. Instead David crept with only one companion into the middle of Saul’s camp. This time it wasn’t Saul almost finding David where he was hiding, it was David finding Saul where he was camped openly. Before, David was passive. This time he initiated the action.

I think that it is no coincidence that this second opportunity to harm Saul was given to David after his interactions with Nabal and Abigail. In chapter 24, we have the record of how David was tested in the cave with Saul, and he passed that test. But with Nabal, he failed. He fully intended to take matters into his own hands regarding Nabal, and was saved from sin only by the wisdom of Abigail. Now, once more, he gets the chance to either take matters into his own hands, or trust the Lord.

It is almost as if the Lord was giving David a chance to see if he really had learned his lesson from the incident with Nabal. It isn’t just a test – obviously, God already knew what was in David’s heart. But David may not have been sure of himself. He may have had times where he thought about the incident with Nabal, and condemned himself, and wished he had behaved differently. The Lord was giving him a second chance, a “do-over.” In the Torah, it says all legal issues must be established by at least two witnesses. Now there were two occasions that “witnessed” David’s commitment to not harm Saul, and to not take matters into his own hands. Those incidents were witnessed by both Saul’s men, and David’s followers also.

Abishai however, did not yet have David’s wisdom. He asked permission to kill Saul with Saul’s own spear. By the way, in one of Abishai’s exploits (recorded elsewhere) he killed three hundred men with a spear in one battle, so he knew how to use that weapon. He’s not just boasting when he says one thrust would do it. It would be all over. The good times could begin. The days of wandering homeless, despised by people around them, in danger all the time, could all be ended by one swift spear thrust. As before, it was a powerful temptation. Who could blame David? In Saul’s mind, anyway, they were enemies. It would be an act of war. It wouldn’t even be David who struck the blow.

But David had learned his lesson thoroughly. He said:

¹⁰“As the LORD lives, the LORD will certainly strike him down: either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. ¹¹ However, because of the LORD, I will never lift my hand against the LORD’s anointed. Instead, take the spear and the water jug by his head, and let’s go.” (1Sam 26:10-11, HCSB)

He saw the battle with Goliath as the Lord’s fight. So now he sees the struggle with Saul. It isn’t his own fight at all, really – it is God’s business, and David trusted God to take care of it in His own time and in His own way.

As morning broke, from a safe distance, David called and awakened the camp. He showed them the spear and the water jug he had taken from Saul’s side. David was young and strong, and he had accomplished an amazing, bloodless feat of arms. So he teased Abner, Saul’s commander for a moment. I get the feeling he was rejoicing in what he and Abishai just did. Maybe he was “crowing” just a little bit. But then, once again he respectfully confronted Saul with his wrongdoing. Like Abigail did with David, so David now did with his king, Saul. He showed Saul he was wrong; he reminded him of true righteousness in God’s eyes – but he did it all with respect. You might say that similar to Abigail’s attitude toward David, David was submissive to the authority of Saul, but he was not subservient or a doormat.

Review the history of abuse Saul has heaped on David: He refused to honor his promises to the conqueror of Goliath. He didn’t reward him with money for killing Goliath, like he had promised to do. He initially didn’t allow David to marry his daughter (as he had promised). Then he made David pay a bride price for the privilege, even though he had promised that killing Goliath satisfied the bride price. He sent David on the most dangerous missions against the Philistines. He threw a spear at him, twice. He tried to have him killed. Then after David fled, several times Saul pursued him with thousands of warriors, to try and kill him. Even after David spared his life in the cave, here is Saul again, trying to kill him.

But listen to what David’s biggest complaint about Saul is:

For they have driven me from my home, so I can no longer live among the LORD’s people, and they have said, ‘Go, worship pagan gods.’ ²⁰ Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of the LORD? (1 Samuel 26:19-20, NLT)

Saul’s worst offense, in David’s eyes, is that he is cutting him off from the people of God. David can’t go and worship at the sanctuary any more. Remember, things were different before Jesus came. God’s presence was in the sanctuary in a special way, and David was denied access to that. This is his biggest concern.

At the end of the discussion, David showed where his trust is:

²³ May the LORD repay every man for his righteousness and his loyalty. I wasn’t willing to lift my hand against the LORD’s anointed, even though the LORD handed you over to me today. ²⁴ Just as I considered your life valuable today, so may the LORD consider my life valuable and rescue me from all trouble.” (1Sam 26:23-24, HCSB)

He didn’t ask Saul to treat him the way he treated Saul. Instead, he declared that he trusted the Lord to treat him with righteousness and love.

Throughout this, Saul seemed to be full of remorse. But he was remorseful last time too, after David spared his life in the cave. David has learned something important from Saul: Remorse is not the same as repentance. Saul let his emotions rage through him uncontrolled. Sometimes he was full of murderous fury; sometimes he was full of regret and sorrow. But the regret and sorrow did not lead to true repentance for Saul – they were just feelings he had sometimes. So, even though Saul invited David to come back with him, David did not do it. Saul was in God’s hands, but David was wise enough not to trust him.

It’s another great story, and I love it just for the daring deeds and passion and trust in God. But what does it mean for us now? What does the Lord want to say to us through this passage today?

When I read this at first, I am tempted to see it as a reason to admire David and Abishai. Here are two deadly warriors who, between just the two of them, can overcome hundreds of enemies at a time. And now, they seem to be showing us that in addition to a capacity for incredible violence on the battlefield, they can move as silently as stalking cats. But verse twelve paints us a different picture. It says that it was the Lord who made this whole incident possible. It was the Lord who made a deep sleep fall on the entire army. It wasn’t the skill of David and Abishai. This was an opportunity given by the Lord.

David shows that withholding violence takes more courage than doing something violent. With one violent act, his troubles could have been over. It was much harder – it was a much greater deed – to leave Saul unharmed. I think we can all learn from that. Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. It takes a lot more courage to do that than to take matters into our hands, and protect ourselves. It takes courage not to reply with harsh words or gossip when someone hurts us. It takes courage to not repay hurt with hurt.

As we read the Old Testament especially, I think it is helpful to ask: “Where is Jesus in this text?” Remember, David is sometimes a “type of Christ.” What this means is that God used David at times to show the world what the real Messiah (Jesus) is like – to people who would never get the chance to know Jesus in their earthly life.

This passage does show us a little bit of what Jesus is like. Like David, Jesus is a mighty warrior, forever in the prime of life, full of bravery and wisdom; ultimately and absolutely victorious over his enemies.

David held back from harming Saul, who, without a doubt, deserved to be harmed by David. In the same way Jesus holds back the punishment that we all richly deserve. Jesus told us to love our enemies, to pay back evil with good. David did that very thing. Jesus forgave the people who were crucifying him, even as they did the deed.

Here’s something else that I think is very significant. David did not know at the time that the Lord was using him to show the world what Jesus was like. He didn’t realize how significant his actions were. But because he lived in trust and obedience, many people in his generation, and for a thousand years after, had some idea of what the Messiah was like.

We don’t always know when someone has a chance to see Jesus through us. We can’t always tell when the Lord is doing that. Very often the opportunity comes when we least feel like it. There was a huge temptation for David to act precisely opposite of how Jesus is. So in the same way, it may be in our toughest moments that God uses us to show Jesus to the world.

The other thing that speaks to me here is David’s strong desire to worship God with other believers, his desire to be counted among all God’s people. I think today in the Western world, we sometimes forget how important this is. Through Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, so it’s easy to begin to think we don’t need any other Christians to help us. But David had the Holy Spirit, also, and the Spirit caused him to yearn to be in fellowship with God’s people, and to worship with them. Sometimes the way we do church in the Western world is a bit messed up, and it doesn’t really reflect God’s design for church. I have a friend who has several valid criticisms of Evangelicals in America. But my friend takes it too far. He says that he is “in church” whenever he has coffee with fellow Christians, or goes to a barbeque with them, so he doesn’t need to be part of a local church. That is not what scripture says. It is vitally important for believers to be in real community with other believers, and especially to learn the Bible together, worship and pray together, and together renew Jesus’ covenant with us through the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42). David understood how important it was to worship with, and be connected to, God’s people.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

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