Tag: grace

2 SAMUEL #21: OUTRAGEOUS GRACE

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

After Absalom was dead, and his rebellion put down, David encountered various individuals and groups who had conspired against him, or used the situation in some way to their own advantage. These people ranged from cowards to treasonous quislings. David, once again with the power of kingship, chose not to punish them, but rather, to forgive them. His kindness and grace to such despicable people comes across as offensive; outrageous, even. In this way, David reminds us once more of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, whose forgiveness to undeserving people is also outrageous. God’s grace is for those who don’t deserve it. We must never forget that.

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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.

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2 Samuel #21 .  2 Samuel Chapter 19:9-43

The second half of chapter 19 appears to be mostly a detailed record of the political history of that time. This was valuable and significant to the ancient Israelites who lived not long after David’s time. It is still interesting today to historians, and bible-geeks like me. But what is the point of it really?

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I think it is important to revisit it periodically. We all tend to forget. The Holy Spirit made sure first that this history was written; second, that it was preserved through the years; and third, that it was included in the bible. So there must be some reason for this. There must be some way the Lord wants to speak through it to Christians living today.

Sometimes, in order to hear what the Lord wants to say today, we first need to understand it better. So please bear with me. I think we’ll find some fruitful bible application here if we pay attention to details that might otherwise seem tedious.

Here’s the situation. David’s army has defeated and killed Absalom, who had rebelled against him and set himself up as king in David’s place. There were no computers or telephones or newspapers in those days, so it took a while for the news of David’s victory to spread. Meanwhile, David seems to have waited. This might seem a little bit strange. But remember who David is. He has many faults, to be sure, but he has never grasped at power. Instead, he always waited for the Lord, even refusing to take opportunities to gain the kingdom when he was younger. It is my opinion that once Nathan confronted him about the Bathsheba incident, David once again became like the person he was when he was younger. All of his confidence was once more in the Lord. So here, he once more waits until he is sure that the Lord still wants him as king. He doesn’t want the civil war to continue, so he waits until he is sure he can return in peace. This is David once more at his best, trusting the Lord.

The writer of Samuel often makes a distinction between the tribe of Judah and the other eleven tribes of Israel. Often when he writes “Israel” he appears to mean the tribes as distinct from the tribe of Judah. This shows us that there was some tension between those two factions even in the time of David. In the time of David’s grandsons, the nation was split. Judah absorbed most of the tribe of Benjamin and became a separate nation named “Judah” (from which we get the word, “Jew”). The other ten tribes formed a kingdom to the north of Judah, which was called “Israel.” I’m of the opinion that it was shortly after this split that someone took the writings of the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad, along with some official court history, and made it all into the books of First and Second Samuel.

After Absalom’s rebellion, people from the other tribes began talking about inviting David back officially, and officially receiving him once more as king.

Now Israel had fled every man to his own home.  9 And all the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom.  10 But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?” 

Apparently, the people really had committed to Absalom. They said he was the one they had anointed to be king over them. This wasn’t as strange as it might seem. After all, he was the king’s son and heir. I’m sure many people assumed that sooner or later, Absalom would be king anyway, and why not have him in the full vigor of his youth? But now, he was gone. I would have thought that at this point it was a clear choice to go back to David, but the people still seemed at a loss. Even so, from most of the tribes, sentiment turned back toward David.

But the tribe of Judah did not seem to know what to do. At first, this seems strange, since David was from the tribe of Judah. But then, so was Absalom, David’s son. Absalom’s rebellion was conceived and carried out in Hebron, the chief city of Judah. Absalom’s military commander, Amasa, was a relative of his (and David’s) from the tribe. In fact, most of his inner circle were probably from Judah. In other words, although they were David’s people, they were also Absalom’s people, and they were probably chiefly responsible for the rebellion.

David reached out to them. He sent a message to the leaders of the tribe of Judah, saying,

 ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace? The talk of all Israel has reached the king at his house. 12 You are my brothers, my flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king? ’ 13 And tell Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don’t become commander of the army from now on instead of Joab! ’ ” 14 So he won over all the men of Judah, and they sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your servants.” (2Sam 19:11-14, HCSB)

As David made his way back, he was met at the Jordan river by a host of people who wanted the honor of escorting him to Jerusalem. What follows was a slightly sickening display of sycophancy. People ended up arguing amongst themselves about who got to show David honor, and who was honoring him more (19:40-43).

Along with the leaders of the tribe of Judah, one of the first people to come meet him was Shimei. You may remember him from 2 Samuel 16:5-13, which we covered in Part 18 of this sermon series. This was the man who cursed David and pelted him with rocks and dust as he fled from Absalom. When David was down, he piled on with insults and taunting, rubbing David’s face in the humiliation, exulting in David’s misfortune and shame. Shimei did not just mess up and make a mistake – what he did was clear and deliberate. Now that David was king again, Shimei came fawning to him like a disobedient dog, begging forgiveness. Clearly, he wouldn’t have had this attitude of Absalom had won. I don’t know about you, but I think that Shimei was pond-scum. His behavior and attitude are despicable, detestable, the lowest and ugliest forms of hypocrisy and cowardice. He is a jerk, plain a simple, the kind of person I want nothing to do with.

And David forgave him.

Stop for a second, and think on that. Let it sink in.

Let’s be honest. David’s forgiveness and compassion are offensive. Abishai, brother of Joab suggests, as he did before, that Shimei would be a more attractive person if his head was removed. I tend to agree with Abishai. But David did not.

Does this remind you of anything? The love and compassion of Jesus were also offensive. The Pharisees were offended that he would eat with tax collectors and known sinners. He allowed a prostitute to kiss his feet in public, and wash them. It offended them.

I think once more, this text is a far-off picture of Jesus, the ultimate anointed savior of God’s people. It isn’t really about David, it is about Jesus, his wisdom and love, and how people respond to him. So let’s consider the rest of this text in that light.

We’ve been talking about Shimei. His sin was obvious and deliberate. There was no excuse for it. It wasn’t a momentary slip. It revealed an ugly character. Even so, David offered him forgiveness and redemption. Jesus does the same. That’s right, Jesus came to redeem and forgive class-A jerks, cowards and crawling hypocrites. It is offensive sometimes, to think Jesus would forgive someone that I want to hate so much. But he does.

Abishai was like me. Shimei’s character was clear to him. He was offended by David’s compassion and mercy. But David rebuked him. Sometimes we really are offended by the idea that Jesus would forgive certain people. Would he forgive a child-molester? Based on what I know of the bible, the answer is “yes.” Jesus is king, and he can forgive who he pleases. He does not answer to us.

But as an illustration, I do want to finish the story of Shimei, though it does not end for many years. When David was dying, he told Solomon to watch out for Shimei. So, even though David forgave him, he certainly saw the truth about what kind of person he was. Solomon made a just and fair ruling for Shimei, allowing him to live in peace if he would show his obedience and faithfulness by never leaving Jerusalem. Shimei, revealing his true character, agreed, but then ignored the agreement when it became inconvenient. As a result, Solomon had him executed. So in the end, forgiveness did Shimei no good, because he did not allow it to touch his heart and change the kind of person he was.

In the same way, the forgiveness of Jesus does not help those who don’t truly repent, who don’t allow him to work in their lives. Jesus sees all, so we can let ultimate judgment rest with him. He knows what’s really in each person’s heart, and responds accordingly. You can’t be truly repentant without letting God’s love change you.

Back to David, the next person to arrive was Ziba. At this point, Ziba was revealed as a trickster and manipulator, because right behind him was Mephibosheth, whom Ziba was supposed to serve. Mephibosheth revealed how Ziba took advantage of his disability, and took the donkey that was supposed to be for him, and lied, telling David that Mephibosheth rejoiced over David’s trouble. Mephibosheth had not washed his clothes, or cared for his hair or feet since David left. In those days, anyway, it was not possible to fake long fingernails and toenails. Mephibosheth’s physical condition proved that he was telling the truth.

So, David reversed his previous declaration, that Ziba should have all of Mephibosheth’s property, which was, no doubt, why Ziba lied in the first place.

Even so, even though he tried to trick his master Mephibosheth, David told Mephibosheth to divide the land between him and Ziba. This amounts to forgiveness, and even a reward, for the trickster and manipulator, Ziba. There it is again, that offensive forgiveness.

Mephibosheth’s response shows that his loyalty was always true. He didn’t care about the land, as long as David was safe, and king again. I mentioned before that Mephibosheth is a great picture of God’s grace. Unlike Shimei, the grace he received through David changed him permanently. He didn’t just want what David could give him. He wanted the best for the king that saved him, and he wanted fellowship with him, whether he had blessings from him or not. Mephibosheth rejoiced that David was back and safe, far more than he rejoiced about being vindicated in the dispute with Ziba.

This is an encouragement to me to have a similar attitude. It isn’t about what Jesus can do for me in this life. It isn’t about me getting what I think I deserve, or being proved right. It is about loving Jesus and being in relationship with him. You can’t manufacture that. It only comes when you love Jesus for who he is. If you feel like you lack that kind of love (as I often do), ask the Holy Spirit to give it to you.

One of the people who helped David in his exile was an old man named Barzillai. David blessed him and rewarded him, though again, Barzillai wanted no other reward than the safety of the king, and in fact, was too old to enjoy any of the blessings David wants to bestow. So too, I find it helpful to remember that even though Jesus sometimes offends me by his radical forgiveness of people whom I think are undeserving, he does also love his faithful servants. He does not forget them, or offer them less than anyone else. Maybe, like Barzillai, we don’t enjoy the blessings in this life. Even so, Jesus offers us blessing and joy that can never spoil or fade.

Another group to consider is the leaders of the tribe of Judah. They made a deliberate choice to follow Absalom instead of David. But before they even repented, David was reaching out to them, forgiving them, restoring them to a relationship with him. So Paul writes about Jesus in Romans 5:

For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (Rom 5:6-8, HCSB)

Jesus’ love and forgiveness is given time and again to those who don’t deserve it – because no one deserves it. So, if you think you are unworthy, you are correct. But that doesn’t stop Jesus from giving you grace and forgiveness anyway. You may think someone else is unworthy. You are also correct about that. But if you don’t want the Lord to forgive them, you cannot have forgiveness yourself. We are all unworthy. Instead of being resentful about how God forgives others, be grateful about how he forgives you.

Abishai was not the only one who took offense at the mercy of God that David showed to all who would see. The ten other tribes of Israel were also offended that even though they were the ones who first talked of bringing David back, it was the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who got the honor of doing so.

In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were also offended at Jesus’ graciousness. In those days, the Roman government and the provincial government were corrupt and horribly oppressive.  Roman soldiers often raped local women and got away with no repercussions. Government officials took whatever they wanted, including, at times, the daughters of Jewish families. Tax collectors were Jewish people who worked for these awful Romans and got them the money they needed to maintain their power. Not only that, but they could collect whatever tax they wanted. So if the Roman and local taxes equaled six months labor, the tax collector could add whatever he wanted on top of that to make himself rich. Some people ended up as slaves because they couldn’t pay their taxes. Therefore, tax collectors were deeply hated, and with good reason. They were like Nazi collaborators in German occupied Holland or France during WWII. And yet Jesus forgave tax collectors. He fellowshipped with them. It was offensive.

God offers not only amazing grace. He offers outrageous grace. This is good news, and a tremendous comfort for those who know they need it, but it can be dangerous when we think only certain people should be allowed to receive God’s grace. The very essence of grace is that it is given to those who don’t deserve it.

I think that may be a key. If the forgiveness and mercy of God to others offends you, is it possible that perhaps you do not realize how much you yourself need that same grace? Jesus said:

“Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:5-6, ESV)

Let the Spirit speak to you today.

2 SAMUEL #11: GRACE FOR THE UNWORTHY

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Jesus, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment

This Old Testament story is ultimately about how Jesus Christ loves us, pursues us, and redeems us, most especially when we know we are unworthy. It is a beautiful story, the gospel, given to us through the life of David.

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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.

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Second Samuel #11. The Kind Messiah. 2 Samuel 9;1-13

2 Samuel chapter 9 contains an interesting anecdote about David. I assume that the Lord allowed this to be included in the bible for a reason, so let’s look at it.

2 Samuel 4:4 tells us that Saul’s son Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth. He was just a little boy of five years old when his father Jonathan was killed in the battle with the Philistines. In the chaos that followed that battle, Mephibosheth’s nurse fled with him, and at some point there was an accident. The text says the nurse fell, presumably with the child in her arms, and Mephibosheth was permanently crippled in both feet.

If you remember, Jonathan was Saul’s firstborn son. Mephibosheth was Jonathan’s only surviving son. That means that he was Saul’s rightful heir. But if you remember, it was Jonathan’s brother, Ish-bosheth, who claimed the throne and fought with David. What this means is that when he was a child, Mephibosheth’s life was probably in danger from his uncle (Ish-bosheth) and also the war leader, Abner. No doubt, those who took care of him believed he was also in danger from David. So the adults in his life took him into hiding.

The fact that Mephibosheth was even alive was obviously not well known, and his location appears to have been a secret. He had probably lived in fear most of his life, thinking that both his own uncle, and then David, must have wanted him dead. Most civilizations in those days were not kind to people with disabilities, and certainly made no effort to make life easier for them. Especially a man who could not work or fight was considered somehow less of a man. So Mephibosheth was an outcast because his birth made him a threat to others, and he was doubly outcast because he was a cripple. There is little doubt that he spent most of his life hiding in both fear and shame.

Now once David was well-established as king and he had a little time to reflect, he wanted to honor the memory of his dear friend Jonathan. So he began looking for anyone in Saul’s remaining family he could help. His attendants found a man who had been one of the chief servants of Saul’s household, a man named Ziba. David said to Ziba

“Is there anyone left of Saul’s family that I can show the kindness of God to? ”

David’s choice of words here is interesting. If you have been a church-goer for a while, you’ve probably heard a sermon on the Greek word agape, which means “sacrificial, selfless love.” The Hebrew word David uses for “kindness” is essentially the equivalent of agape. In Hebrew is pronounced “hesed” (but it should sound like you are clearing your throat on the ‘h’). It is often translated “everlasting love,” or “faithful love.” It is usually used to describe God’s love for his people. I think the sense of what David is saying is, “I want to show the family of Saul the faithful love of God.” In a moment I will explain why I think this is so significant.

Ziba revealed the existence and location of Mephibosheth. Ziba is a complex person, and we’ll learn more about him later. He was the manager of Saul’s family’s land and property. I think it is quite possible that he was hoping David was being deceptive, and that he actually wanted to completely annihilate the family of Saul, because then he (Ziba) would have that land and property for himself. But Ziba played his cards close to the chest, and simply gave David the information he wanted. So David brought Mephibosheth out of hiding, and officially turned over to him the ancestral lands of Saul, and ordered Ziba and his family to work the land and manage it. This wasn’t entirely a bad deal for Ziba – it was a position of great responsibility and some honor, and they would be able to make a good living. But he may have wanted Saul’s inheritance for himself. I say this because later on it looks like Ziba created a nasty scheme against Mephibosheth. But we’ll tackle that incident when we get to it.

David also gave Mephibosheth a permanent place to eat at the royal table. Not only was this a great honor, but it also basically meant that Mephibosheth would never again have to worry about where he would live or what he would eat. In other words, it was kind of like being given a really good permanent retirement income. Mephibosheth’s reaction is understandable. He says,

“What is your servant that you take an interest in a dead dog like me? ”

These things really happened – they were real historical occurrences. I’ve shared many reasons at various times to believe that the bible is historically reliable. Even so, we need to realize that the writers did not record every single incident in the lives of those they wrote about; and many documents were lost or not included in the bible. As Christians we believe that the Holy Spirit guided the process all the way through. He prompted people to write what they wrote, he allowed the loss of some documents and the exclusion of others. The Holy Spirit had a purpose for including this particular piece of the bible (and in fact, every piece). The writer himself may have been unaware of God’s purpose. Jesus told his disciples that the entire Old Testament points to him. I think this is one more place where the Holy Spirit used something from the life of David to show people what the true and ultimate messiah would be like. David’s actions here reveal the heart of Jesus in him. This really happened – it isn’t an allegory. But we can still use it a little bit like a spiritual allegory, and learn about the heart of Jesus from second Samuel nine. Jesus once told the following story:

1 All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to Him. 2 And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them! ” 3 So He told them this parable: 4 “What man among you, who has 100 sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep! ’ 7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don’t need repentance (Luke 15:1-8, HCSB)

Jesus’ heart is for the lost and the broken. He has a special tenderness for those who think they are worthless. He doesn’t wait for people to straighten themselves up and come looking for God. Instead, he goes after them, seeks them himself.

David reflected this with Mephibosheth. He didn’t wait for someone in Saul’s family to summon the courage to find him. Instead, David sent people out looking for someone to show God’s faithful love to. This is one reason I think that Hebrew word is so important. David wanted to bring God’s faithful love into the life of Mephibosheth. Jesus wants to bring that same love into our lives.

Mephibosheth was afraid of David. Technically he was David’s enemy. As the grandson of Saul, he could have made a claim to Israel’s throne. Most middle-eastern leaders in David’s situation would have found him in order to put him to death. In addition, Mephibosheth felt he was damaged goods – a worthless man who couldn’t work or fight, because of his disability. No self-respecting life-insurance agent would ever write a policy on him, because clearly he was worth more dead than alive. I think when he called himself a dead dog, it wasn’t just an expression. More than likely, he really thought of himself that way.

But the king sought out this worthless “dead dog.” He brought him out of exile. He gave honor to the man who had none. He made others serve him. And he gave him a permanent place at the royal table, making him essentially a prince, a son of the man who by rights should kill him.

Technically, we should be the enemies of Jesus. Because of our ancestors, and tragedies in our own life, we belong in the kingdom of the devil. We aren’t worth much in the eyes of the world. And truthfully, a lot of people hide from God in various ways. They completely avoid him, or deny that he exists and spend their days as far from him as possible. Others hide in religion, using empty words and good works as a way to avoid actually dealing with him face to face.

But Jesus doesn’t leave us there. He doesn’t wait for us to come to him. He seeks us out, to show us the faithful love of God. He brings us back from exile. He himself restores us as rightful citizens of his kingdom. He honors us, and declares that we are not worthless, but rather worth his attention and love. Not only that, but he gives us a permanent place with him – eternal life in relationship with him. And he treats us as his own children, inheritors of the promises of God.

David’s treatment of Mephibosheth is a signal for us that this is how Jesus will treat us, if we let him. All Mephibosheth had to do is come when David summoned him, and gratefully place his life in David’s hands, allowing David to show him God’s everlasting and gracious love. That’s all we have to do with Jesus. Mephibosheth didn’t have to make himself acceptable to David, or earn what was given him. In fact, Mephibosheth had done nothing to deserve the kindness David showed him. We can’t earn God’s grace and kindness either. But he showers it on us freely if we will come when he calls and trust our lives into his hands.

1 SAMUEL #31: GOD’S LOOT

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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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.

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 31

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 #19: GRACE, JEALOUSY, LOVE AND INTEGRITY

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

1 Samuel 18 depicts the rise of David as a warrior and leader, and the escalating tension between him and Saul. Jonathan, Saul’s son, recognizes David’s faith and forms a covenant with him, seeing in David a kindred spirit. Despite David being the hero of the day, Jonathan, as the king’s son, was seen as the more important man. Yet, he reached out to David in an act of grace, giving him his robe and belt, symbolizing their bond and enabling David to stand without shame in the king’s court. This act is reminds us of how Jesus gives us his righteousness so we can stand without fear or shame in the presence of God.

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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.

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1 SAMUEL #19. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 18:1-30.

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

In number 11 in this series, we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 14, and saw that Jonathan, son of Saul was a very different man from his father. Jonathan was a man of faith. He trusted that if God wanted to deliver his people, he could do it, whatever the odds. I have wondered at times, why Jonathan, being the man he was, did not fight Goliath himself. The bible doesn’t tell us, but I suspect that Saul might have forbidden him to do it, since he was the eldest son, and thus very important to Saul. In any case, it was God’s desire to use David in that situation.

David approached Goliath with exactly the same kind of faith that Jonathan had when he fought the Philistines in chapter 14. Jonathan recognized the faith of David and recognized in him, a kindred spirit. Without any pretensions as the king’s son, and in self-confident humility, Jonathan reached out to David in brotherly love, and made a covenant with him. Remember, though David was the hero of the day, everyone around them would have felt that Jonathan was the more important man. Jonathan reaching out to David was an act of grace – he didn’t have to do it. A “covenant” was a solemn agreement. It doesn’t spell out here what exactly the covenant was. I think we can assume that it was a little bit like the old native American tradition of becoming blood brothers. Certainly, they became lifelong friends, inseparable in spirit, loyal to each other in spite of the difficult circumstances that could have come between them. In addition, after the victory over Goliath and the Philistine armies, Jonathan gave David some of his precious iron-age battle equipment.

Jonathan also gave David his robe and his belt. In those days, robes, belts, tunics and so on were actually quite precious. There was no mass produced clothing; every piece had to be painstakingly made by hand. Jonathan, son of the king, likely had more than one set of clothing, but David, eighth and youngest son of a sheep farmer, had only his rough shepherd’s outfit. David’s clothing was probably not very nice, and not really appropriate to the court of the king. So Jonathan gave David a robe and a belt to wear over his clothes, probably so that he could be at Saul’s court without embarrassment.

I think it is always worth asking: “Can we learn anything about Jesus from this passage of scripture?” I think in this place, Jonathan shows us something about Jesus, and then, elsewhere in the text, David does. So, right here, Jonathan, the son of the king, clothed David, who was the least honored son from a poor family, so that he could stand without shame in the presence of the king. Does that remind you of anything? I’m thinking of 2 Corinthians 5:21:

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:2, CSB)

Just as Jonathan imparted his own clothes to David, so that he could feel that he belonged in the presence of the king and court, so Jesus gives us his own righteousness, so that we can stand without fear or shame in the presence of God. This text, through Jonathan, reminds us of that. Jonathan’s gracious covenant with David reminds us how God has reached out to us in a covenant secured by the death of Jesus Christ.

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

When we looked at the psalms, we learned that Hebrew poetry and song is not about rhyme, rhythm and meter. Instead, it uses parallelism. In parallelism, a thought is stated, and then it is re-stated in a slightly different way. So that’s all that was happening in the song that the Israelites were singing about the victory, recorded in verse seven: Saul has killed thousands; David, ten thousands.

Saul should have known that this was just a poetic way of celebrating the victory. In fact, he must have known that. It was just a song, and it was typical of Hebrew songs. But it bothered him. This was a faith opportunity for Saul. He could trust that God was Lord of both him and David, and that God would be merciful and good to him even now. Before this, the Lord had used David’s music to deliver him from his torment of the mind. He had just used David to deliver the whole country from the giant, and the Philistines. He could have been thankful for what the Lord had done for him through David. But he let this poetically expressed song eat into his mind. It bothered him, and he gave in to doubt and insecurity. 18:10 says this:

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

We can see a horrifying progression happening in Saul. First, Saul was God’s chosen instrument, and the Spirit of God moved him to lead the people victoriously against their enemies. But then, he began to give in to insecurity. He tried to manipulate the people through religion; he even tried to manipulate God. Then, he stopped seeking the Lord whenever it was inconvenient. After that he flat out disobeyed God, and then lied about it. He lost his status as the Lord’s instrument, but the Lord reached out to him, allowing him to be in need, and then providing a way to meet that need through David’s music.

Previously, when the Lord used the evil spirit to try and bring Saul to repentance, Saul was able to find hope and relief by God’s spirit working through David’s music. But at this time, it seems that Saul utterly rejected God’s spirit. He chose to not live by faith. He chose to try and control his own fate, apart from God’s plans. And so when David played music for him after this, there was no relief, because Saul had cut off all of God’s efforts to reach him. Now, instead of bringing relief, David’s music made Saul worse. He threw a javelin at David, while he was playing.  Apparently, David thought this was just one of the fits that Saul had. It seems like he didn’t, at that point, believe that Saul was truly, actively, trying to kill him. So after the fit passed, David returned to Saul’s service.

Before Goliath was dead, Saul had promised that whoever killed him would be made rich, would marry the King’s daughter, and his family would be freed from taxes. But after David killed Goliath, Saul did not immediately let him marry his daughter. Instead, he added conditions, saying that David must join the army and prove himself. David’s response: “Who am I, that I should become son-in-law to the king?” was probably just the normal, proper form in such a situation. It didn’t mean David was refusing the marriage, it just meant he was proving his humility and loyalty to the king. Saul, however, ignored his promise, and had his eldest daughter married to another man. It is possible that Saul did this to try and provoke David into anger, so that David would respond in some way that could be called treasonous, after which Saul could have him executed. But if that was Saul’s plan, it didn’t work.

In the meantime, Saul’s youngest daughter had fallen in love with David. In those days, in that part of the world, a prospective groom was supposed to give goods and property to the father of the bride. This  gift was called the “Bride Price.” They did the same thing in Papua New Guinea where I grew up. In New Guinea, the price was usually paid in livestock and other property, and ancient Israel was probably similar. In chapter 17, Saul promised that killing Goliath was the bride price for marrying Saul’s daughter. Yet, Saul didn’t let him marry the first daughter, and when he finally offered his youngest daughter, Michal to be married to David, in verse 23, David said basically, that he couldn’t afford to become the king’s son in law. Probably David said this as a gentle reminder that Saul had already promised the marriage as a reward for killing Goliath. It would give Saul the opportunity to say: “No, no, don’t worry about it, you’ve already paid the bride price.”

But Saul didn’t say that. Instead, he actually demanded something more from David than the death of  Goliath. In other words, he did not keep his promise. Second, David’s statement that he was poor, and couldn’t afford the bride-price meant that Saul must have also gone back on his promise to make the giant killer a wealthy man (17:25).

Saul’s new bride price was that David had to kill 100 Philistines, and mutilate their bodies to bring back a certain gruesome proof of each death. He was hoping that the Philistines would get so angry about this that they would hunt down David and kill him.

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

Even so, David voluntarily paid double what Saul asked – he killed not 100, but 200 Philistines. So Saul finally let David and his daughter, Michal get married. But even then, he treated David poorly. The law of Moses says this:

5 “When a man takes a bride, he must not go out with the army or be liable for any duty. He is free to stay at home for one year, so that he can bring joy to the wife he has married.( Deuteronomy 24:5, ESV)

But Saul made David continue to serve in the army. So, in his hatred of David, Saul was willing to hurt his own daughter. In spite of all this, David did not become bitter, or even disrespectful toward Saul. He did not even confront him about his false promises. He continued to trust the Lord to work in him and through him. He continued to do what the Lord put in front of him to do, which in this case, was to fight in Saul’s army. And through the Lord, he was protected and blessed in his endeavors.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Satan cannot harm us if we remain in Jesus. Therefore the New Testament tells us to be alert (1 Peter 5:8), to remain in Jesus (John 15:1), to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:9 and James 4:7) and to take our stand against all the powers of evil in the spiritual realms (Ephesians 6:10-18). We don’t need to be afraid, but we shouldn’t be naïve either. If the devil could, he would drive a spear through you too. Saul shows us the only way the devil can get at us – when we shut God out. No doubt it would have been hard for Saul, given his insecurity, to keep receiving help from David, whom he now saw as a rival, but that help was there for him. However, he was not willing to humble himself to receive it. He was unwilling to trust God’s goodness, and so he put himself into a very bad situation.

We have several positive things in this text, also. Jonathan, as I mentioned earlier, shows us a bit of what Jesus is like. He made a covenant of grace with David, and by giving David his clothes, made him able to stand without shame or fear in the king’s court. This is exactly what Jesus does for us. We do not have to be ashamed or fearful in the presence of God, because Jesus has clothed us in his own righteousness. He made a covenant with us, though we have nothing to give to him in return. David was not too proud to receive that grace. I believe that we too, should give up our own pride and our own “rights” so that we can receive the grace that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.

There is something else here. Yesterday and today I saw items in the news that bothered me deeply. People with a great deal of power are using it to impose their own personal view of the world upon others. When I read things like this, I feel angry and worried about the future. But then I think about today’s text. David was God’s own chosen instrument. Yet he encountered massive injustice. The king was changing the terms of his own promises, making things harder and harder on David, and there was no one to hold him accountable. David had no option but to live with the injustices, and they kept piling up. Even so, the Lord was with him, and there was nothing that king Saul could do that would stop God’s work in David’s life. David’s response was to trust God, and do the work that was in front of him to the best of his ability.

We are not promised a life free from hardship. But we are promised that God’s presence is with us, no matter how difficult things get, or whether or not we can consciously feel that presence.

We tend to look at David as a special person, and of course, he was. But what was most special about him was that he trusted the Lord. Do you know that the Lord does not love David any more than he loves you? If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a chosen instrument of the Holy Spirit, just like David was. There is no quality of love or grace that God gave David that he withholds from you. His grace to all of us is overwhelming. His desire to save each one of us is powerful. If you look at David and think “He was special to God,” you would be right. But you are no less special to God than David was.

Receive the grace of the Lord now. Ask the Lord for the faith to trust Him.

1 SAMUEL #17: AN EVIL SPIRIT…SENT FROM GOD?

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment
Photo by Keith Wako on Pexels.com

At first glance, this seems to be a horrifying passage of scripture. Did God really send an evil spirit to torment Saul? However, when we understand all of the context, and consider the solution that was available to Saul, it becomes a powerful witness to God’s never ending grace. Although he couldn’t use Saul as his chosen instrument, the Lord never gave up trying to reach Saul’s heart.

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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.

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1 SAMUEL 16:14-23

14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had left Saul, and the LORD sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear. (1 Samuel 16:14)

When we first read this, it almost feels like one of the most troubling verses in the Bible. God sent a tormenting spirit? The word for “tormenting” could also be translated “evil,” which does not make it any better: God sent an evil spirit? It almost seems like God first rejected Saul, and then decided to torment him out of spite. This seems completely out of character for the God we worship. I believe, however, that when we really understand what was going on here, the Lord’s action with Saul in these verses becomes one more instance for us to thank him for his incredible grace to human beings.

Let’s begin with the context. Saul, since the very first record of him in the Bible, has either ignored God, or considered Him a tool to be manipulated and used. Time after time, Saul revealed his own insecurities, and chose to act in ways motivated by his fear. Time after time, he refused to trust the Lord, and sought instead to protect his own interests. When he did engage with God, it was to get the people to remain in the army, or to try and manipulate the Lord into helping him, or guiding him. Saul represents the very worst in religious leaders – he tried to use religion as a way to exercise power over others, all the while avoiding personal trust in the Living God.

Finally, the Lord told Samuel that he had rejected Saul as king:

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
He has rejected you as king.
24 Saul answered Samuel, “I have sinned. I have transgressed the LORD’S command and your words. Because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them. 25 Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the LORD.”
26 Samuel replied to Saul, “I will not return with you. Because you rejected the word of the LORD, the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 When Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. (1 Samuel 15:23-28, HCSB)

 This happened after several incidents when Saul either ignored God, or tried to manipulate him, or used religion to manipulate others. He had many, many chances to turn to the Lord, but he never did it. The Lord simply could not use Saul as His chosen instrument in that generation, because Saul wouldn’t let him. Saul refused to trust the Lord.

After this became painfully obvious, the Lord directed Samuel to David – a boy who had given his heart fully to God. David became the Lord’s chosen instrument in that generation. (Remember in those days, Jesus had not come, and so the Lord worked usually only through one or two people at one time. Today, all believers are given the Holy Spirit. We are all supposed to be his chosen instruments in this generation).

Now, to come to terms what happens next, to make sense of God sending an evil spirit to Saul, we need to understand this situation completely. The Lord rejected Saul from being king. He rejected him as His chosen instrument for that generation. Samuel makes this quite clear in the passage I just quoted. But this does not mean that the Lord has given up on Saul as a person.

When I was a child, I remember I desperately wanted a knife. A knife represented power and maturity. It was both a weapon and a tool. It was the next logical step in my progression to responsible adulthood. After a lot of powerful legal maneuvering on my part, I got my parents to give me one. Looking back, I realize now that my wise parents gave me a tiny pen-knife, something I couldn’t do much damage with. I didn’t realize that at the time, however. After carrying it around for a while, it seemed to me that I wasn’t really using it. Out in our yard we had a clothesline made of rope. I opened my knife and took a swing at it. To my delight, the line parted like the waters of the red sea. Later on I examined the metal fly-screen on one of our windows. I wonder if this knife will cut metal? I thought. There was really only one way to find out. It did. I was awed by the power I held.

I don’t remember much about the discipline that followed these incidents. But I do know this: my parents continued to love me and teach me, while at the same time, they took away the knife until I was older. I wasn’t ready for that kind of power. Even so, they loved me. They didn’t reject me. They just rejected the idea of me with a knife.

I think that when they took the knife away, I was probably more upset about losing the knife than I was about the fact that I had done wrong. I don’t remember, but I probably had to be disciplined in other ways so that I could see that what I had  done was wrong.

Saul was in a similar situation. The Lord didn’t reject Saul as a person; instead, what he rejected was Saul, as his chosen king. When Samuel told him that the Lord had rejected him as king, Saul was naturally upset. But to me, it reads like he was upset about losing his position as God’s chosen instrument, far more than he was upset about the fact that he didn’t trust God. As we continue through 1 Samuel, we will see that this is in fact the truth.

Now, even though the Lord rejected Saul as king, as His chosen instrument, he did not force Saul to abdicate the crown. He remained king until the day he died. It’s just that he was no longer God’s chosen king, and Saul wouldn’t start a whole dynasty. What grace – that God allowed him to continue as the king, even when he couldn’t use him.

Second, though he was rejected as king, what 1 Samuel 16:14 means is that God did not reject Saul as a person. In fact, he did not leave Saul alone. He was still working on him, trying to bring him to a place of repentance and trust. If God’s plan was just to send Saul to hell, he could have let him be killed soon after. Short of that, he could have simply ignored Saul, and left him to his own selfish insecurities until he died naturally.

Instead, God sent an evil spirit to torment him. I realize that this sounds awful at first reading. We know that those who go to hell will suffer in torment, likely torment augmented by evil spirits. So why did God let it start before Saul even died? Was he just especially vindictive toward Saul? That isn’t the kind of God that the rest of the bible reveals. So what other reasons could the Lord have for doing this?

To bring Saul to true repentance.

There are several other places in the Old Testament where the Lord used evil spirits to accomplish his purposes: Judges 9:23-24, 1 Kings 22:18-23; 2 Samuel 24:1 (combined with 1 Chronicles 21:1); and Job 1:6-12. In each case the picture we get is the Lord allowing an evil spirit to affect a particular person or group. In each case, the evil spirit wants to do the evil, but must get permission from God first. God’s permission seems to be limited to what will accomplish his purpose. In most of these cases, the purpose is to bring judgment, and if possible, repentance. I want to make sure we understand: Even evil spirits are made to serve God’s purposes, though they do so unwillingly.

Therefore, as we look at the whole of the Bible, I think the most accurate way to understand this is that the Lord allowed a demonic spirit to have a certain limited influence on Saul, with the purpose of bringing Saul to repentance and true faith. When we look at what follows, I think the text confirms this.

The NLT says the spirit filled Saul with depression and fear. Although that’s a bit of extra interpretation (in Hebrew it just says that it was a “tormenting spirit”) it is probably pretty close to reality. Even so, I don’t want anyone to get crazy ideas here. This scripture is not saying that all depression is caused by evil spirits. It does not say that whenever someone feels depressed, it is an attempt by God to get them to repent. We are learning here specifically about Saul. In Saul’s case, these things certainly seem to be true. But I don’t think we have here a blanket teaching about all cases of depression.

Saul’s courtiers recognized that at times, he seemed to be affected by something that caused torment in his heart or mind. They thought the problem might be eased by music. Their search for a musician lead them to David – who was now the chosen instrument of the Holy Spirit. They got David, to come and play and sing for Saul. Listen to the result:

23 Whenever the spirit from God troubled Saul, David would pick up his lyre and play, and Saul would then be relieved, feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him. (1Sam 16:23, HCSB)

God allowed the spirit to trouble Saul. But he also gave Saul the means to be free from it. And what freed Saul from the evil spirit was the Holy Spirit, working through David. In other words, even though the Lord couldn’t use Saul as his chosen instrument any more, He was not just abandoning Saul as a person. He had to remove the anointing of his Spirit from Saul, but he gave him a way to still receive grace from the Holy Spirit. He allowed him to experience a problem that could only be fixed if Saul would trust the Lord, and rely on the Holy Spirit’s work through David. I think the Lord was still trying to teach Saul to have genuine faith.

Do you see what grace the Lord had on Saul? Saul viewed God as a tool, and paid attention to Him only when he could see some benefit from it. And yet, if anything, it was supposed to be the other way round. Saul was supposed to be the Lord’s instrument. When Saul could not be used as his tool anymore, the Lord did not just cast him aside. He still worked to get Saul into a true, heart-and-faith relationship with Himself.

There are so many applications here. First, this is a great faith-strengthener for me. I used to view this passage as one of the most troubling in the Old Testament. Now, I can hardly stop praising God for his incredible grace to people like Saul, and me.

I think of the words of CS Lewis:

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

God wasn’t being mean. He was trying to get Saul’s attention. He was trying to get at his heart. Though the Lord had to give up on using Saul as his chosen instrument, he didn’t give up on Saul as a person. He was still calling to Saul, trying to teach him to rely on His grace.

The writer of Hebrews says something interesting:

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or faint when you are reproved by Him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He receives. 7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline — which all receive — then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness. 11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:5-11, HCSB)

(By the way, if you are female, I want to reiterate that you too are a “son.” In Hebrew culture, it was the son that carried the father’s name, the son that inherited from the father. So too, all of us who are in Jesus, whether we are male or female, are counted as God’s chosen people to receive and inherit his grace.) The main point is, sometimes we have to endure discipline in order to mature and fully receive the Lord’s grace. This discipline is positive, not negative. It is a sign of God’s grace and love, not of anger or rejection.

If God was still trying to reach Saul’s heart, after all the ways that Saul had rejected him, you can be sure He won’t give up on you either. Turn to him, and receive that amazing grace.

Another thing that strikes me about this passage is the role of music. The Holy Spirit used music to try and reach the heart of Saul. I have mentioned this before. Music can be a powerful tool in God’s hands to call to our hearts. Five-hundred years ago, Martin Luther wrote: “He who sings, prays twice.” He also wrote this:

 Experience testifies that, after the Word of God, music alone deserves to be celebrated as mistress and queen of the emotions of the human heart… A greater praise of music than this we cannot conceive. For if you want to revive the sad, startle the jovial, encourage the despairing, humble the conceited, pacify the raving, mollify the hate-filled—and who is able to enumerate all the lords of the human heart, I mean the emotions of the heart and the urges which incite a man to all virtues and vices?—what can you find that is more efficacious than music?

He was right. Pay attention to the music that speaks to your heart. Let God use it to draw you to Himself.

One other thing that amazes me as I read this passage. Even today, we know some of the songs that gave Saul peace and relief. They were written and played by David, and we have many of them preserved for us in the book of Psalms. Many times when my heart is troubled, I find relief from reading the psalms, and even singing some of the modern songs that are made from them. I encourage all of us to do that.

Take a moment to pray and let the Lord speak to you about this scripture now.

1 SAMUEL #12: LEGALISM VS. GRACE

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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Even when his army was victorious, Saul continued to be controlling. He imposed his own foolish impulses on others, and cost him, and those he loved. Jonathan continues to show us the way: he was willing to die for Saul’s foolish and hasty mistakes. That gives us a picture of Jesus, who did indeed die for our sins.

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.

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Last time we looked at how Jonathan single-handedly attacked the Philistines. He acted out of faith, not fear, and God used that to create a huge victory for the people of Israel. The Israelites pushed the Philistines back to the edge of the hill country in fact, back to the previously held borders between the two peoples. But Saul, once again, showed his lack of real relationship with God. Because of his legalism and false religion, the victory was not as great as it should have been. Nothing spoils true good works like false religion and religious pretenses.

The situation was this: The Israelites had routed the Philistines, and were pursuing them back toward their own territory. This was in spite of the fact that the only two people who had iron weapons were Saul and Jonathan. Perhaps Saul remembered this fact. For whatever reason, even though the battle was going well – literally, miraculously well –  he became worried about the outcome, and so he made an oath and imposed it upon all the army. The oath was that no one should eat until the sun went down. It sounds very religious and impressive. The oath was supposed to show the soldiers that their mission was serious; it was supposed to motivate them. It was supposed to impress God, so that God would help them even more.

It backfired because it was a stupid idea that again came not from faith, but fear, selfishness and pride. By the way, I want to point out the fact that Saul was not content to make the vow for himself alone. Instead, he imposed his fake religion (which sounded holy) on everyone else. This is typical of people who do not live by relationship with God. Precisely because they do not have their own relationship with God, they feel that everything they experience must be a rule that everyone should follow. They don’t recognize the give and take and unique life experiences that go along with walking with God in faith. They live only by rules, and they must impose those rules on others in order to feel secure.

Saul’s oath is actually much more like a curse. He says: “Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.” This doesn’t sound like the voice of the Lord. It sounds more like the devil. There is an Old Testament tradition of making vows that are associated with curses. However, such vows are also associated with blessings and promises from the Lord. Saul does not include any blessings in his vow. Neither is it associated with any promises from the Lord. To put it simply, there is nothing positive about it.

Notice too, how Saul sees this as his own battle, with the Philistines as his own personal enemies. This is in contrast to Jonathan, who clearly saw the battle as the Lord’s fight, with himself simply a tool in God’s hands.

Three negative things came out of Saul’s religious pretenses.

First, the victory was not as great as it could have been. In other words, the vow had the opposite effect of the one Saul wanted. The men were weakened by hunger, so they could not sustain their offensive against the Philistines. Saul’s vow proceeded not from faith, but from the flesh. It was all about self-effort. Because of that, it was as weak as the flesh. Flesh without food is weak. So the vow flopped. Jonathan’s act of faith energized and sustained the troops. Saul’s rash vow, based in self effort and the flesh, drained them, and robbed them of strength. Jonathan himself realized this. After he himself had eaten in ignorance of the vow, one of the soldiers told him of his father’s words. Jonathan said:

“My father has brought trouble to the land. Just look at how I have renewed energy because I tasted a little honey. How much better if the troops had eaten freely today from the plunder they took from their enemies! Then the slaughter of the Philistines would have been much greater.”

(1 Samuel 14:29-30)

Second, because they were so hungry, when sundown arrived, the troops began to slaughter the captured livestock of the Philistines and eat without regard to the laws of Moses. Specifically, they were eating meat that had not been properly drained of blood. Moses had commanded the people of Israel to drain the blood from any animal that was butchered.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.

(Leviticus 17:11-12)

The idea expressed in the Old Testament is that the life of an animal (or person) is carried in the blood. The life belongs to God, and so the blood must be given to him, not consumed by people. It is a way of saying, “Even as I take this food, I recognize that the life of this animal belongs to God, not to me. I receive it as a gift, and I give its life into God’s hands.” This was something that God still wanted his people to practice in the days of ancient Israel.

But Saul’s vow weakened the resolve of the people who had been running, fighting and marching all day long, and when sundown finally came, they were tempted to sin. They were in such a hurry to eat that they did not properly bleed out the animals. To look at it another way, Saul’s vow did not protect people from sin, but rather made them more vulnerable to it. As a result, Saul had to waste valuable time and energy getting the people to butcher the animals properly.

Third, Saul’s foolish vow led to strife when it came to Jonathan. Saul had bound everyone to his vow – even those who didn’t know about it. Jonathan, unaware of his father’s oath, ate some of the wild honey that was in the forest where they were passing through in pursuit of the Philistines. The Hebrew says that as a result his eyes became bright. This is one of those Hebrew expressions that is very obscure. The HCSB says, “he had renewed energy” which is probably pretty close to the meaning, though not the exact words. You might say, “brightened up” or “perked up.”

After the men had finally eaten and regained some strength, Saul decided to pursue the Philistines further – as he could have done earlier, if he had not subjected his troops to such hunger. Once again, Saul was simply moving ahead without regard to what God might have wanted him to do. He was acting not out of faith or his relationship with God, but rather out of a rash desire to make up for the loss of time that he himself had caused.

In the earlier part of chapter 14 we saw that Saul was indecisive. He wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to win the battle, and so he sent for the priest to inquire of the Lord. However, before the priest had finished asking God, Saul saw how things were going and told the priest to shut up while he charged ahead. In other words, he wasn’t asking God because he really wanted to hear from God, he just wanted to know whether or not he would win. Once he saw that winning was virtually a certainty, he didn’t bother to ask God. After the men had eaten he made a decision to continue the attack without even considering if it is God’s will or not.

It was the priest who had to stop Saul, and say: “Let’s ask God first.” But when they did there was no clear answer from the Lord. We know that the Israelites cast lots, trusting that the Lord would determine the result. However, we don’t know exactly how this worked. Obviously, there was some possibility that the Lord would not answer at all. In this case that’s what happened.

Sometimes – not always, but certainly at times – we can’t hear God because we are separated from Him by our own sin. If your heart is turned away from God, if there is un-repented sin in you, it will be difficult for you to hear what he wants to say to you. This was a physical demonstration of that fact. Again, I’m not saying that every time you fail to hear from God, it is because of sin. However, if you are asking God to speak and you are not hearing, the very first thing to do is to ask Him to show you if there is any sin standing in the way. We can at least credit Saul for recognizing this. Again, Saul is not 100% evil. He is a complicated man who had his good moments. On the other hand, though he was right to recognize that sin might potentially stop them from hearing God, he tried to make himself look good by declaring: “Even if the problem is Jonathan my son, I will kill whoever committed the sin.” Saul didn’t need to say this. There were certain sins that were supposed to be punished by death. But this was not one of them. In fact, eating on the day of battle was not actually a sin against God – it was Saul’s curse, not God’s. By making it into a sin punishable by death, Saul was taking upon himself more authority than God himself.

Now, a straightforward reading shows that Jonathan was the one who caused God not to answer. He was the one chosen by lot. And yet, as I just said, we know that eating honey is not intrinsically a sinful act. In addition, Jonathan was totally unaware of the curse Saul had called down on the army concerning food, so he did not deliberately or knowingly violate any oath. I don’t think the Lord chose Jonathan by lot to show that Jonathan was sinful. I think he did it to expose Saul – to impress upon Saul his own arrogance and foolishness and show him the results of it. God did not withhold his answer because Jonathan ate honey. He withheld it because of Saul’s oath. Without the oath, Jonathan’s eating would have had no significance.

So Saul’s oath weakened the army both physically and spiritually, it prevented them from hearing the Lord, and now it led to the condemnation of their greatest warrior. Let’s say it plainly: the result of Saul’s rashness was to condemn his own son to death for simply eating when he was hungry, even when that son was responsible for their great victory that very day.

Yet, even when his arrogance and insecurity were exposed in this way, Saul did not repent. He didn’t say: “I am so sorry, that was a foolish vow to make, let us ask the Lord for forgiveness and mercy.” No, he would rather kill his own son than admit that he was wrong. He continued his rashness and said, ““May God punish me and do so severely, if you do not die, Jonathan! ”

Remember those words. Nothing bad ever happened to Saul that he did not bring upon himself.

The people protested. Jonathan was the one that achieved the great victory that day. He was ignorant of the curse. He didn’t deserve to die. Notice that Saul finally backed up. We can hope that he did so because he had a tender heart toward Jonathan, and really didn’t want him to die. But truthfully, that tender heart wasn’t enough. He didn’t back up until the people protested. What really changed his mind was popular opinion. Again, he shows his insecurity.

It is quite likely that during all these proceedings, which probably took several hours, the Philistines made their escape. In other words, again, it was Saul’s rashness, harshness and foolishness that made the victory less than it could have been.

A thousand years later, Saul’s namesake, who became known by his Roman name, Paul, wrote this:

 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)-according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

(Colossians 2:16-23)

King Saul’s oath, imposed on the entire army, did indeed have an appearance of wisdom. It promoted self-made religion and severity to the body. But it was of no value. Unfortunately, even today there are people try to impose their false sense of religion upon others. I’m not talking about people who speak the truth about what the bible says. I’m talking about people like Saul, who don’t really operate out of a faith-based relationship with the Lord. These are the folks who tell you that you cannot eat meat on Fridays, or wear blue jeans in church, or that you are not holy unless you sound like they do when you pray. You must worship in exactly the same way as them.

There are certain core things that all Christians believe and agree upon. I’m not talking about things like these. But apart from those core beliefs, when another Christian insists your faith must look and sound and feel exactly like her faith, she is operating out of a sense of law and false religion, not a sense of relationship.

I have fasted many times in my life. Often, fasting is a spiritually rewarding time for me. However, a few times, I’ve been in the middle of a fast and I realized it wasn’t doing me any good. At those times, I simply quit. This is because I’m walking in relationship, not by law. The whole point of fasting is to bless the relationship that I have with the Lord. When it doesn’t accomplish that, there is no point in doing it. Once or twice, I have fasted even when I didn’t feel called to, but only because others told me they wanted me to fast with them. Those times were counterproductive, spiritually speaking.

Most people don’t make vows like Saul’s anymore. Maybe we’re too fond of our food. But the truth is, we do sometimes make internal promises to ourselves. Sometimes we let our negative emotions control us, and we act or speak rashly, or make quick, impulsive decisions that somehow bind us. You might say something like “I’ll never do something nice for that person again.” You might have almost forgotten that you said that, but as the years have gone on, your relationship with that person has soured, and you have become bitter and unforgiving even in other relationships.

Or maybe you decide because of a certain incident that you hate and distrust all men, or all Asian people, or something like that. We may not think of it like a harsh or rash vow, but it is basically the same thing that Saul did. I think we should expect the same types of results, which are not good.

But, Jonathan gives us a kind of picture of Jesus. Though he did no wrong, and in fact, was the one who delivered Israel that day, he was willing to die. It wasn’t his own sin that he had to die for, but that of Saul. The Lord protected Jonathan and delivered him through the protests of the people. However, the Lord did not protect himself when it was time to die for the sins of others. He allowed himself to be slaughtered for our sins, mistakes and failings.

It seems obvious now what Saul should have done. He ought to have repented and asked the Lord for mercy and forgiveness. That would have involved humbling himself in front of his people. But everything might have been different for him if he had done those things. If there is some way in which we have taken Saul’s course, we can still correct that by doing what Saul was too proud to do. If we humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness and mercy, if we repent of our ungodly internal commitments, I am confident that the Lord will forgive us and help us.

All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your care on Him, because He cares about you.

(1 Peter 5:5-7, HCSB)

Let the Lord speak to you right now. Maybe you need to give up an internal commitment or vow that you have made. Maybe you need to realize that you are free from the invalid religious expectations of others, so long as you continue to walk and true faith and in relationship with the Lord. Remember that Jesus allowed himself to be killed for our sins, our mistakes, which are as bad, in their own way, as Saul’s. Saul remained proud, and the Lord had to resist him. But if we will be humble, he will forgive us, and lift us up in due time.

Let him talk to you about this right now.

1 SAMUEL #9. UNFAILING GRACE

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, House Church, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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The things that God did for his people in the past are supposed to be considered part of his faithfulness to us in the present. What God did for previous generations, he also did for us. God’s goodness to others is part of his goodness to us, because we belong to his people. His faithfulness does not end when we make mistakes. He walks with us even when we choose the wrong path, and redeems us in our mistakes, if we will let him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the first place (12:1-5), Samuel wanted to make sure his conscience was clear. He also wanted to draw a contrast between his own actions, and the rights of a king. Samuel has never taken anything that wasn’t his. Yet he had warned the people in 8:10-18 that the King would have the right to take many things from the people in taxes to run his household and the kingdom. The people affirmed that Samuel had been a good and fair leader. There is an unspoken implication to this part of Samuel’s speech “So – in me, God gave you a good and fair leader who listened to him and did right. But you wanted a king!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is a famous old story about an ordinary young man who falls in love with a princess, and she loves him back. The father of the princess, the king, is not pleased. He decrees that the young man be placed in front of two doors, with a choice to open one or the other. Behind one of the doors is a beautiful maiden, however, not his beloved princess. If he chooses her door, he will be married to her immediately and they will be exiled to another kingdom. Behind the other door is an angry, hungry tiger which will surely kill him. He doesn’t know which door holds the lady and which holds the tiger. However, the princess, the young man’s lover, knows the secret of the doors. If she tells him to open the tiger-door, he will be killed in agony. But if she tells him to open the lady-door, he will be married to the beautiful maiden behind that one, and the princess who loves him will be left alone. She signals him secretly to open one of the doors. Here’s the question: which door did she tell him to open?

 This story has endured for over a hundred years, in part because there is an agony in knowing that the choices matter. However, as a thought experiment, change the story a little. Suppose that no matter which door he chose, the tiger would be there. Or, no matter which door he chose, he would get the princess herself and they would live happily ever after. The story is no longer compelling if the choices do not result in some consequence.

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

So we see that with the Israelites, the Lord gave them their free and meaningful choice. If He undid their choice, it would mean their choices would have no consequences, and therefore no meaning, and therefore they would not actually have free choice. The same is true of our choices. So the Lord doesn’t undo them.

What the Lord did do for the Israelites was promise to walk with them through the consequences they brought on themselves. He works even with their wrong choices, and accomplishes his purposes in spite of them. So, Samuel encourages them to walk with the Lord NOW.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOD’S GLORY FOR OUR GOOD

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Single Sermons, Uncategorized1 Comment
Photo by Jaime Reimer on Pexels.com

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 God’s Glory, Our Good

3 Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. 4 For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love 5 He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, 6 to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:3-6, HCSB)

11 We have also received an inheritance in Him, predestined according to the purpose of the One who works out everything in agreement with the decision of His will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in the Messiah might bring praise to His glory.
13 When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:11-14, HCSB)

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, 7 so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.(Ephesians 2:4-7, HCSB)

I want to share some things this time that the Lord has been showing me. I don’t want to pretend that this is something new. Many, many people have written about what I am going to say here. Even so, it is a subject that is often neglected in churches these days. Also, I think I have a piece to share that makes the main lesson a bit more concrete and personal.

I have highlighted several phrases from the first two chapters of Ephesians. Here’s the first thing I want us to notice from the verses above: God wants to display his glory and his grace to the universe he created.

God is the best, most beautiful, most wonderful, amazing, superlative being in all of existence. There is nothing better than him. Nothing more beautiful. Nothing more wonderful. Nothing more worthy of praise or attention. He is the highest and best good. Therefore, the highest and supreme good, the most wonderful thing that can ever happen at any time, is that God’s wonderfulness and goodness and amazingness is displayed to, and known by, all of creation. For short, we can call this: “God is glorified.” When God is glorified, it means that his goodness, wonderfulness (and so on) is being displayed, and recognized.

Think of it like this. Just as we should seek to honor and glorify God because he is the Supreme Good, so he should seek to bring honor and glory to himself – for the same reason. That is God’s focus. That is His continual, ongoing activity. In a big-picture sense, this is always what God is up to: bringing glory to himself. This is always the end result that he has in mind, because it the best thing that can happen in the universe, and it is the best thing for the universe. The best thing that can ever happen, in any situation, at any time, is that God is glorified. This is always God’s end-goal, in every situation. Scripture tells that:

10 at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow —
of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth —
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11, HCSB)

25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. 26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) 28 Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere. (1 Corinthians 15:25-28, NLT)

33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
34 For who can know the LORD’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
35 And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?
36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36, NLT)

Stay with me here, because I think the end result will bless you. We have a bit of mind-work to do first, however. If God’s main purpose is to show his glory, then that is the thing that will most certainly happen. Nothing compares to God, and the scripture says he does not change or waver. So, we can count on the fact that God will be glorified. It is more certain, even, than death or taxes. Nothing will prevent God from ultimately being glorified in all things. His own nature and his own purpose guarantee it.

Now, if you are a self-centered creature like me, or maybe even if you are just hurting, you might say, “I can recognize that God’s goal is to be glorified, and, with my mind, I can even agree with that goal. But I don’t see how it helps me when God is glorified.” I know this is a shallow, selfish approach, but I can’t help feeling that way at times. I might think: “Good for God, that he gets the glory that he deserves. But in the meantime, I’m suffering.” If you know me, you know that I mean that part quite literally. I am physically suffering right now, as I write this. But even if you aren’t suffering, you might wonder: “What does God’s glory have to do with me?” It’s nice for God that his purpose will not be thwarted. It’s great for him that ultimately he will be glorified. But life is hard right now. Sometimes, I wonder if the idea of God working so that his wonderfulness is displayed to all creation really does much for me.

But it does.

You see, what the verses I quoted in the beginning (from Ephesians) tell us is not just that God is glorifying himself. They tell us the way he goes about bringing glory to himself. And, simply because he chose to do so, he has decided that he will make loving us a central part of his own glory. The foundation of God’s glory is his love. So, when he glorifies himself, he does it through love. Particularly, he does it by loving human beings. Even more specifically, he does it through loving you and me.

This means that God’s love is not based on something so shallow as our own lovableness, or even our own need. No, he has connected loving us to the eternal good purpose of showing his glory. He will never stop loving us, because he will never stop showing his glory. He has made his love for us central to his own nature, and integral to his own best purpose for the universe.

So now, we can say that because God will always be glorified, God will always love you. Not because you deserve it. Not even because you need it. But because God’s love for you is built into the very purpose for the universe.

This has several implications for us. First, and I mean this is a very positive way, life is not about you. This is in contrast to the message we generally get from our culture, which is all about people being the “best authentic selves” that they can be. However, for Christians, self-fulfillment can be a by-product of trusting God, but it should never be our goal. God does not exist to help you become a fulfilled person. He does not exist to fix the people around you, or to make your circumstances better. He exists to glorify himself. But because of his very nature, when he glorifies himself, you will be loved. We are safe to live not for ourselves, but for God, because God has us at the center of his own purpose. When we let God become the center of everything, our own lives in are in their proper place. It frees us from being focused on ourselves. God’s got us, because we are part of us his purpose and plan. We can relax, and let him do his work in us and through us.

Second, it means that we can trust that God is working for our good in all things. In fact, he has tied our own good to the highest good and purpose of the universe – his own glory. So Paul writes:

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.
(Romans 8:28-30, HCSB)

Not only does God love us for his own glory, but he invites us to partake in that glory! This is not theoretical for me, and I don’t want it to be theoretical for you, either. Simply put, it means that no matter what we might experience – even very difficult things – it will be used for God’s glory, and for our good.

Most of you know that I am in a very difficult season of life. Every day I experience hours of excruciating pain. Doctors cannot figure out exactly way – the best they come up with are guesses. Doctors can’t make it stop, either – they can only provide medicine that eases it a bit, a couple times a day.

If I did not have the confidence that God was using my suffering for his glory, and my good, I would be going crazy. I would feel like these hours and hours of pain (more than 61,000 hours at this point. Not that I’m keeping track) are pointless, meaningless. I would be angry, and bitter, and I’m sure that would filter into my relationships, and make my life even worse.

But as it is, because of God’s word I know this: God will use my pain for his own glory, and for my good. He will do so not because I am worthy, but rather, because it is according to his own nature, and his own unchanging purpose.

I certainly hope you aren’t experiencing physical pain like mine. But you might be experiencing other difficult things in your life. It might be grief and loss. It might be uncertainty, or fear. It might be broken relationships, or a struggle of some other sort. You can have confidence that in every situation, God will be glorifying himself. That means that every situation, he will be glorifying himself by loving you and blessing you. Glory for him means goodness and grace for us. So in every single situation, God will bring goodness and grace to you.

I cannot guarantee that you will always understand exactly how God is making that happen. I can’t guarantee that you will always feel like God is doing good things through our pain, sorrow and struggles. But God himself guarantees that he is, in fact, glorifying himself, and bringing grace to you. He guarantees it by his own nature.

16 Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. 17 God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. 18 So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. (Hebrews 6:16-18, NLT)

God has got this. He’s got it because his very nature means that he will glorify himself by being loving and good to us. Therefore, we can be patient in difficult times. We can be at peace and trust God.

16 That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day. 17 Our suffering is light and temporary and is producing for us an eternal glory that is greater than anything we can imagine. 18 We don’t look for things that can be seen but for things that can’t be seen. Things that can be seen are only temporary. But things that can’t be seen last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, GW)

LIVING CRUCIFIED #7: SIN and GRACE

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, House Church, Living Crucified, Podcast, Religion, Sermon2 Comments
Photo by Bianca Salgado on Pexels.com

Being a Christian is not primarily about sinning less, or sinning less grievously. Being a Christian is about being immersed into the love, grace, beauty, truth and joy that are found in Jesus Christ alone. When we are deeply connected to the love of God through Jesus Christ, when we truly trust that he has crucified our old person, and resurrected a new, holy spirit in place of the old, one result is that we will begin to sin less often, and less grievously. But reducing sin is a side effect of being in Jesus. Let’s talk about how all this looks.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Living Crucified Part 7

I want to add a few more brief thoughts about fighting sin. The first is this: being a Christian is not primarily about sinning less, or sinning less grievously. Being a Christian is about being immersed into the love, grace, beauty, truth and joy that are found in Jesus Christ alone. When we are deeply connected to the love of God through Jesus Christ, when we truly trust that he has crucified our old person, and resurrected a new, holy spirit in place of the old, one result is that we will begin to sin less often, and less grievously. But reducing sin is a side effect of being in Jesus.

It is easy to get confused about this, for a couple of different reasons. First, it is our sin that separates us from God. Our sin is the problem that keeps us apart from ultimate joy, which is found only in the presence of God. It is also sin that makes the world such a terrible place at times. All war is caused by sin. All violence grows out of sin. Selfish actions, abuse of children, rapacious greed, exploitation, racism, sexism, and hatred are all outgrowths of the root of sin. Depression, self-loathing, self-centeredness, apathy, lack of love – all this proceeds from sin. Even disease and accidents are the result of the fact that sin is embedded in the world.

Since sin is the major problem, it is natural to make the mistake of believing that the solution is to commit fewer sins. And that leads to the second thing that confuses us: many churches do indeed seem to be teaching that the whole point of being a Christian is to control sin. Now, if we could, in fact, control our own sin, that would be a good thing to do. But, if you have tried very hard to do it, you realize that doesn’t get you very far. Even if you can control your behavior (and some people are quite good at that) when you look into your heart honestly, you recognize a deep commitment to get your own needs met, no matter what it takes.

Some people don’t realize what a problem this is, because they can get their needs met through things that are outwardly righteous. But even if the means are righteous, the heart that uses them is not. So maybe you go around helping people and quoting Bible verses in all circumstances. Both of those things are good to do. But it might be that you do them because it makes you feel secure, and good about yourself. It makes you feel like no one can find fault with you. So, even though the activities aren’t wrong, you are doing them for the wrong reasons. It is wrong to get your sense of security, or self-worth, from anywhere but God Himself. It is wrong to believe you can be justified by your own actions.

The bottom line is that every one of us is committed to ourselves, and to making sure that we get our own needs met, no matter what it takes. That is the essence of what the bible calls “flesh,” and we all have it.

As we have been learning through this series, God has dealt with human sin through Jesus. In a spiritual way, God crucified our own sinful hearts on the cross with Jesus. We died with him, and so now we are dead to sin. The way to “control” sin is not to think about it all the time, but rather, to immerse ourselves into the love and joy and grace that are found in Jesus Christ. We trust what the bible says: that we are new creations in Christ Jesus, holy, and blameless. We let Jesus live his life through us. The more we trust him to do that, the more we turn toward him, the less we are controlled by sin.

I want to use Romans chapter 7 to help us understand all this. Please take the time to read all of Romans 7:4 – 8:17. It is about the length of one chapter of scripture. Please do stop reading this right now, and open your Bible and read that. Seriously. Please stop reading this, and go read the scripture passage. Please?

Thanks for reading that. This is a section of scripture that is often misunderstood. In the first place, we ought to read the section I just gave you as one unit. The verse and chapter markings we find in our modern bibles are not part of the original. In other words, they were added to make it convenient for us to quickly find places in the Bible, but they were not inspired by God. So, if I were the one dividing up the book of Romans, I would have the section I just gave you as all belonging together. It would be a mistake to read chapter 7, and then stop without reading any of chapter 8.

In the first part of chapter 7, Paul is making two main points. First, that law is good. It was given by God to show us what sin is. Second, though the law is good, it shows us that we are not good, and the law cannot help us to become any better.

Next comes a section with which we are all familiar:

14 So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. 15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. (Romans 7:14-23, NLT)

We usually read this and think: “Yup. That’s me. I want to do the right thing, but I just can’t get it together. I keep sinning and sinning.” So far so good. But many people miss the main point Paul is making. He repeats it over and over again. The point is not that he sins all the time. The point is this: he wants to do what is right.

I had friend once who was not a Christian. After a lot of time and people praying for him, and some long conversations, he gave his heart to Jesus. Afterward, we started to meet together to pray and talk about the Bible and generally encourage each other in faith. One time the subject of lust came up. He said, “You know, before I became a Christian, I did not struggle with lust. Now I struggle with it all the time.”

I was shocked. What had we done wrong? I asked him to explain.

“Well, before I was a Christian,” he said, “there wasn’t any struggle. I lusted, and it didn’t bother me. But since I came to Jesus, it bothers me when I lust because I don’t want to do that now.”

You see the fact that he didn’t want to sin any more was proof that he had died to sin. In his deepest heart, he knew that he didn’t desire sin. In his inner being, he delighted in God’s perfect standard and holiness.

So, in Romans 7, Paul’s main point is not that he sins all the time. The main point is that now, he does not want to sin all the time. That fact shows that he has died to sin, and has been raised to be with Christ. He has a new heart, a new Spirit, and his new self does not want to sin.

Now, it is natural to ask: “If I am already dead to sin, if I’m already a new creation, freed from sin, why do I keep sinning? If I don’t want to sin, why do I do it anyway? Doesn’t this prove I am half-sinner, half-redeemed?”

No. Although I like the New Living Translation (used above) it does have a major drawback. In verse eighteen, the right translation is this: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (Romans 7:18, ESV; formatting added for emphasis). In the original Greek it never, anywhere in the New Testament, uses a term like “sinful nature.” The problem is not that we have “bad self,” along with a “redeemed self.” What we have is a part of us that is that vulnerable to sin, called flesh. I mentioned in the beginning that one characteristic of what the bible calls “flesh” is that it is utterly committed to getting our needs (and wants) met, even if it means going against what God says. We all inherited this kind “flesh” from Adam and Eve. Before we became Christians, we all lived according to the flesh. We all found ways to do what it takes to feel better. We all depended upon ourselves, rather than God, to get our needs met. Sometimes we did that in ways that didn’t look so bad (like being a good student to gain approval from adults). Sometimes we did it ways that were clearly wrong (like getting drunk to numb our emotional pain, feel good, and gain acceptance from our peers). But both the good student, and the drinker, were looking to something other than God to meet their needs, and lead them to a satisfying life.

In addition to the word “flesh” Paul also says sin is located in his “members.” The Greek word is usually used as a generic term for “body parts.” In Matthew 5, when Jesus said it is better to lose an eye than to be thrown into hell, he calls the eye a “member.” He also calls a right hand a “member.” James calls the tongue a member of the body.

So, sin does not live any more in what we call our “(figurative) hearts”. It certainly does not live in our spirit. It camps out in our bodies. Let’s not forget that the brain is part of the body. Our brains are usually the main problem. So the problem is not that we have two natures. The problem is that we inhabit sinful bodies, with sinful brains. In fact, Paul makes this quite clear in Romans 7:24 (which you just read):

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24, ESV)

What are some important things we know about bodies? First, we know that human beings are more than our bodies. Our physical appearance is not the real us. It is, in fact, one of the most shallow things about the true people that we are in our hearts. And that is where sin is located. Sin is not part of your nature anymore than your hair is a part of your nature. Sometimes you have to deal with your hair (or lack thereof). In interacting with others, it is good to maintain a decent appearance. You might fail to get the job you are supposed to if you show up to the interview with your hair wild and askew. But your hair does not really say anything about the real you.

Now you might be tempted to say: “Well, if I have sin in my brain, that is a real problem, because my brain directs everything I do.” That’s not exactly true. This is a little bit complex, but the truth is often complex. There is a difference between your brain, and your mind. Your brain is a physical organ that operates on electrical-chemical systems. Your mind is your sense of self-awareness. Your mind uses your brain, and is linked to it, but your mind is greater than the physical electrical-chemical processes that occur in the brain. The ideas you have are more than electro-chemical processes. Your thoughts and ideas have existence apart from the physical processes that created them. In addition, your will – your capacity to make decisions and follow through on them – is part of your mind, but not your brain. Yes, your brain does exert influence on your mind (and will). But your mind, and your will are greater than your brain. They will live on when your brain (along with the rest of your body) dies. If you don’t believe that, you are an atheist. Therefore, says our text today, we set our minds upon the Spirit, not the flesh.

5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.( Romans 8:5-11, ESV)

Notice that Paul, also, distinguishes between mind and brain (because our brains are part of our flesh).

When we are in Jesus, the sin that was in our souls and spirits has been crucified – killed and done away with. Our minds, too, have been awakened to God. The only sin left in us is found in our physical bodies. When our bodies die, what remains of sin will die with them. Then we will be raised again with new bodies, uncorrupted by sin. But we already have spiritual life, spiritual holiness, as a kind of down-payment of what is coming. The most important part of you – the part of you that you think of as “yourself” has already been crucified with Christ, and raised again in holiness. There is no connection between the “essential you” and sin. If there was, the Holy Spirit could not live in you without destroying you (Since the presence of God destroys sin).

So, let’s find some practical suggestions for setting your mind on the spirit, not the flesh. When you are tempted to sin, try having a little conversation with yourself.

“This is not what the real me wants to do. This is what my corrupted brain and body think will make me happy. But they are wrong. I don’t need to do this, because in Jesus, I am already whole and complete. This sin will not actually help me.”

Or: “You – my sinful body – are dying already, and everything you want leads to death. But the real me doesn’t want to do this. The fact that I don’t want to do this is proof that the most important part of me is already holy in Christ. I am going to act like I am already holy in Christ.”

Remember this: you don’t have to feel like this is true. You merely need to believe that it is true, and then act according to what you believe. We are talking about a mindset, not an emotion. We are talking about continually trusting that what the scripture says is true. You will not feel that continually, but your feelings can go jump in a lake.

Think about it like this. Have you ever met someone who felt things that are not true? Of course. Many people feel unloved even when they are deeply loved by others. Many people feel worthless when their friends and family value them greatly. Feelings are not a reliable guide to reality. God’s Word is. When you believe what God has done for you, it ultimately changes everything.  We will talk more specifics next time.

JONAH #5: THE GRACE OF HARD WORDS

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Jonah, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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We all need to recognize some hard truths before we can truly know God’s grace. We truly need God more than anything else in the universe. We are truly morally corrupt, unable to be with God. We are separated from Him, yet, we will perish apart from Him. And there is nothing we can do about these things.

Once we accept these hard words, we can receive a flood of God’s forgiveness, mercy and grace.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button: To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Jonah Part 5

JONAH #5. JONAH 3:1-10

Let’s remember where we are in Jonah’s book. In case I haven’t said it before, I believe Jonah himself wrote this book. He almost goes out of his way to avoid making himself look good. He seems to be trying to take us, the readers, through the same lessons that he himself had to learn.

Remember that before this, Jonah was a national hero, a patriot, who, after helping his country become great again, was called to go and preach God’s word to the enemies of his country. Instead, he ran, trying to escape God. God sent a storm, which did not relent until Jonah was thrown overboard, and he began to drown. Before he died, however, God sent a fish, and the fish swallowed Jonah, saving him from drowning. Inside the fish, Jonah repented of his sins, and praised God. Three days later, God made the fish spit Jonah out onto dry land.

Next comes our passage for today. God spoke once more, saying the same thing that he said at first: “Arise. Go to Nineveh – a great city of the Assyrians, who were enemies of Israel – and preach to them.” This time, Jonah got up and went.

Now, it would be easy for us to chuckle at this and say, “Yeah, I just bet he went, after that experience.” We think, “If I was nearly killed by a storm, then nearly drowned, and then swallowed by a fish, and then ended up on the beach lying in fish-vomit, I’d do what God said, too.” In other words,  we think that Jonah went because God forced him to.

However, I think that is a massive misunderstanding of what actually happened with Jonah. When he was drowning, literally dying, Jonah cried to the Lord. He knew that he was in that hard place precisely because he had cut himself off from God, precisely because he was rebellious and sinful. And yet, when Jonah had done nothing but rebel, God saved him anyway. So Jonah says:

9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving
will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9, ESV)

He said that while he was still in the fish. He says he will worship God, ‘sacrifice’ to him, and ‘pay what he has vowed,’ because “salvation is from the Lord. (2:9).” That is, Jonah experienced God’s grace and forgiveness, and that changed him into someone who wanted to be on the same page with God, someone who wanted to do what God asked.

It is really important for us to recognize this; it is one the major themes not only of Jonah, but of the whole Bible. Jonah knew he could not save himself, or redeem himself. He knew that salvation comes from God alone; he said as much.

In the sea, and in the fish, Jonah recognized three things:

1. His separation from God (“Then I said, ‘O LORD, you have driven me from your presence,” 2:4).

2. His need of God (“As my life was slipping away, I remembered the LORD,” 2:7, and many other sentences like that).

3. His utter inability to help himself (“I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever.” 2:6, among other verses).

He cried out for help and mercy, and God answered him. It is because God saved him that he gets up and does what God asks. Jonah wants to do God’s will after this. Later on we will deal with the fact that although he is saved, and he wants to obey God, he still holds sinful thoughts and attitudes. For now, understand that Jonah is not motivated by law and fear, but rather, by grace and by love.

Now, let’s go to Nineveh with Jonah. I’m going to give you “Tom’s Literal-Ish” Translation (TLIT?): “Now Nineveh was a city great to God, of three days’ travel.”

The second half of verse three has been used by some skeptics to show that the bible is inaccurate. They point out that (as far as we know from archaeology) the city of Nineveh was not three days’ journey across at that point in history (three days walking would be about sixty miles). I bring this up in case you ever encounter arguments like these. There are several reasonable answers to this objection. First of all, though there is a lack of evidence showing a walled city that large at that time, a lack of evidence cannot actually prove anything. The evidence could be yet to be discovered. Or, it may have once existed, but now be lost for all time.

Second, in a crowded city, a person is extremely unlikely to average twenty miles a day walking. In ancient cities, the streets were narrow, crooked, and choked with traffic of all sorts: donkeys, donkey-carts, camels, caravans, cattle, street-vendors, beggars and business-people of all sorts. If you have ever been in a third-world city in modern times you realize that most of the residents spend their time outside, in the streets. It would be even more so in ancient times. So you would be lucky to go even ten miles a day through a populous city, which would shrink the size of Nineveh by at least half. In my opinion, it would be impossible to go even ten miles in a day, so that makes it even smaller.

There are other possible answers to this objection. Although Nineveh “proper” (say, the walled portion) may not have been three days journey across, there were three other cities (as well as a few smaller towns) close by, and these were sometimes included when people spoke of Nineveh. If you include these, and outlying “suburbs,” you have a “Greater Nineveh Area” that certainly would take three days to travel through. (See Genesis 10:11-12, if this topic interests you)

But I think these solutions, while possible, are unnecessary. First, as you see from my TLIT, the Hebrew leaves things open to interpretation. It could mean Nineveh was so large it took three days to journey from one side to the other – but that’s not exactly what it says. It might also mean that it took three days to see all the important parts of Nineveh. However, if we simply pay attention to the context, it is clear what the author is getting at. The NLT puts it most clearly.

4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. (Jonah 3:4-5, NLT, italic formatting added for emphasis)

Nineveh was a big city, and it was going to take Jonah three days to complete his work of preaching, in order to make sure everyone had a chance to hear. Even so, on the very first day, the people responded to God’s word. The point is this: the people listened to God immediately, even before Jonah had completed his assignment. That is the point of the three-day comment. It is about Jonah’s mission, and it is there to show us that the people repented even before Jonah was halfway done.

It may surprise some people to read that every single person in the city responded with fasting. Some cultural information is helpful here. In those days, the community was much more important than the individual. In matters of religion the people decided together which gods they would worship, and how they would do so. In these decisions, the community leaders had the most important voices. Therefore, I think verse 5 describes the outcome (everyone gets on board with fasting), while verses 6-9 are an explanation, showing exactly how this came about. Basically, the king and his nobles led the entire community into repentance for their sins.

I want to take a moment and think about what provoked this immediate and drastic response. We are not told exactly what Jonah said in his preaching, other than this: ““Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” (NLT). It is safe to assume that Jonah said more than that, and that this is just a kind of summary. I think we can read between the lines here, and, with a knowledge of the rest of the Bible, get a sense for Jonah’s main message.

Remember Jonah’s background. He was a hero to his own people, an Israeli patriot. Now, God has called him to go preach to Israel’s enemies. Although Jonah has experienced God’s grace and forgiveness, it has not yet filtered down to change all of his thinking and attitudes. So, he doesn’t like the people of Nineveh. He doesn’t understand why God is concerned about them. He doesn’t care that they experience God’s grace and forgiveness and salvation. In fact, he doesn’t want them to. Therefore, he states God word as unappealingly as possible. Basically I think he said this:

  • You all are full of sin and evil. Your actions, and your very lives, are offensive to the one, true, living God. (Jonah might also have preached about the specific kinds of sins that they were committing.)
  • Because your sins have separated you from that one true God, you will be destroyed in forty days’ time.

Jonah did not expect this sort of preaching to be effective. I don’t think he wanted it to be. But two things were going on of which Jonah was unaware. In the first place, before anyone can truly experience God’s grace, they must come face to face with their own sin and evil, and their own helplessness to be better. This is exactly what happened to Jonah in the ocean and fish, but he still didn’t realize that God loves all people, not just Israelites.

If you think you can make yourself into a better person, you cannot experience the grace of God. If you think you aren’t so bad, or that God compares you to other, more sinful people and says, “She’s not so bad, compared to _____,” you cannot be saved. In order to be saved, we must both admit that we are hopelessly sinful, and that we deserve nothing good from God, and that we cannot do anything about this predicament. Jonah helped the people of Nineveh by bringing them face to face with their own depravity. They heard his preaching, and thought, “We need God’s forgiveness, but we have separated ourselves from Him! We cannot do anything to fix it!”

So the fact that Jonah was so harsh and clear about their doom was actually very good and helpful. (Again, however, I don’t think he actually wanted them to repent).

The second thing Jonah didn’t think about was this: God is loving, gracious and forgiving. And so, even though Jonah was trying to simply condemn his enemies, the Ninevites, even though he thought maybe he had succeeded in doing it, God will make his grace known to anyone who is willing to listen. Think about it for a moment. How in the world did God’s grace come through Jonah’s harsh preaching? Hint: in the New Living Translation it is four words. In the ESV, it is three words.

Here are the words of grace, from the NLT: “Forty days from now.”

These words may not sound that amazing to you, but imagine the people of Nineveh. They heard God’s word, and they believed it. They believed that their souls were riddled through with sin. They accepted that they were evil, and deserved to be destroyed. Most importantly, they accepted that there was nothing they could do about it. Put yourself in that position and then ask: “Why forty days from now? Why not destroy us immediately?”

There’s only one logical answer: “Because God doesn’t want to destroy us.”

So they responded with earnest and true repentance.

6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, put on sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 Then he issued a decree in Nineveh:
“By order of the king and his nobles: No man or beast, herd or flock, is to taste anything at all. They must not eat or drink water. 8 Furthermore, both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and everyone must call out earnestly to God. Each must turn from his evil ways and from the violence he is doing. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent; He may turn from His burning anger so that we will not perish.” ( Jonah 3:6-9, HCSB)

Sackcloth was basically the cheapest, ugliest, most humiliating and uncomfortable thing you could wear. It was usually very roughly made out of goat-hair. Goat hair clothing is smelly and itchy, and they deliberately made it utterly unstylish. People wore it in order to show that they were full of extreme grief, remorse and repentance. Ashes were dumped on the head for the same purpose. To wear sackcloth and sit in ashes was to humiliate yourself, to show extreme sorrow and shame and regret.

When they heard that God was going to give them forty days, they believed that meant he might forgive them after all. Since his forgiveness was their only hope, they turned to him. In short, they turned away from the path of sin, and they put all of their hope in God alone. Once more, we find the gospel – the good news – even in the Old Testament, even from a prophet who didn’t want to preach it.

Let’s begin to apply this to our lives right now.

First, think again about why Jonah now obeyed God. It would be easy to think that God forced him to go. Certainly, there was still work to be done in Jonah’s heart, but I think the evidence we have is that he went as a response to God’s grace. I wonder if sometimes we almost have an attitude toward God that is like this: “If you want me to do this (or stop doing that) so bad, why don’t you just make me?” When we think this way, it shows that we don’t understand God’s grace. We may not truly believe that we would be cut off and without hope if it wasn’t for His love and forgiveness. Maybe we think we’re not such bad people, and God’s love is only a small favor that he does for us. If you are having trouble with your behavior, try meditating on God’s incredible love and grace.

Second, let’s not miss the big message. In our natural state, we, like all other humans, have sin wrapped up in our bodies and minds. It cuts us off from God, and there is nothing – nothing – we can do to fix this problem. Yet God says this:

Let the wicked one abandon his way
and the sinful one his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD,
so He may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for He will freely forgive. (Isaiah 55:7, HCSB)

Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit today!