Blogging the Bible

What a great leader Saul was, he definitely had a great desire to serve his people and honor his God. From chapter 13-14 he leads
Israel towards a victory against their enemies. I think we tend to underestimate his life and accomplishments because the type of mistakes and sins that he made.  If we really are honest we know that he was a great man of God for a long period of his life.

 Saul’s problems began when in his desperation he tried to give people what was not given to him. He was the king not a priest and because of that he was not allowed to perform priest activities. We have to learn to receive God’s support according to our possibilities and circles of influence; the rest is up to him.

It is pretty amazing that Jonathan Saul’s son seemed to have a better understanding of all this than his father. We come to see this example when Jonathan was attacking the Philistines and said: “Come, let us go over to the garrison of the uncircumcised; it may be that the Lord will act for us; for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few”(1 Samuel 14:6).

“Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving” the same God that has been saved us in the past is doing it in the present and will continue to do it in the future. Who taught Jonathan to do this? I think his father taught him that, but why did Saul not apply this to his circumstances?

One thing is pretty clear and that is that God expects from us obedience in every situation that we face, and part of that obedience is serving him according to the call he has given us.

Saul’s main problem was his great necessity for approval, he admitted: “I feared the people and obeyed their voice” (1samuel 15: 24-25) what a big difference the ending would have been if instead he would have said: I trusted the Lord and obeyed his voice?

 Saul (In Hebrew: asked of God) was the man chosen by God to be the first king of Israel. It is very interesting that Saul did not feel adequate for the job that God was calling him to do. (1 Samuel 9:21.) In my view he was aware of his weakness and because of that he had a good beginning. Nobody can do God’s work by pretending to be stronger.

Saul also began well when he was following Samuel’s indication regardless of God’s assignment for him. I think both Samuel and Saul were happy in doing God’s work together. It is wonderful when you can work with others in partnership for the Lord, this is something we need to learn and we need to cultivate in our Christian communities.

Samuel and Saul definitely were a great team, but in my understanding they needed to be together longer and continue to relate to one another. Unfortunately it did not happen and Saul got too busy with the Kingdom ofGod that he ended up being too busy for God.

Today we are not going to talk about Saul’s mistakes and sins, but I want to remind you and myself that we need to start well and also finish well, and with both of them we really need help.Saul needed more than a prophet he needed a partner and a supporter because his calling was really overwhelming in human terms.

Are you doing everything in your own or are you in partnership in the kingdom ofGod?

God is so patient with us! And so accommodating of our weakness and shortsightedness. Chapter eight tells the story of the people whining to God for a king like the other nations. Samuel is displeased because he sees it as a rejection of him (and his sons who did not follow his example).  God tells Samuel that it is not him they are rejected but God himself.  Then comes the stunner. God tells Samuel to give them what they want. 8:8 tells us that God has seen this from the beginning.  All along the people of Israel have chafed at his attempts to lead them and love them.  So now he will give them what they want.  But he tells Samuel to warn them what it would mean.  Samuel does, the people don’t listen.  They want a king and they are going to get one.  Stay tuned for what happens when we get what we want rather than trusting God for what he has given us!

 What a contrast between Samuel and Hophni and Phineas! And what an example of the sins of the father visiting the children and the childrens children. Failure to obey God and to follow his word only brings heartache and destruction to us and our loved ones. But God uses us as we are and gently, mercifully tries to move us closer to where he wants us to be. So God uses Eli, but he does not allow rebellion and wickedness to go unpunished especially when it jeopardizes God’s merciful love to his people.  Hophni and Phineas are not acting like priests at all.  They are acting like scoundrels and treating the Lord with contempt(2:11ff).

So the Lord raises up a new servant/priest in Samuel.  Out of one woman’s pain and barreness, God demonstrates his power to answer prayer and do miracles, but he also uses the circumstances to accomplish his purposes, not just to give Hannah what she prayed for. Hannah’s prayer for a child becomes God’s vehicle to find the right person to “judge” Israel and to direct them to the king God would choose for them. It also continues the lineage of Abraham that will result in the Savior being born of the house of Judah and the line of David.
Hannah “barters” with God.  If you will do this, then I will do this.  This is not a text on “how to pray.” The text merely records how Hannah prayed and what God did to answer her prayer. It is a story about dire circumstances, simple faith, and God using both to accomplish his purposes. The principle that applies to us is that we can pray whatever we want and God will answer in a way that we know he  has heard us but also uses the circumstances so that God’s kingdom is advanced, not just our needs met. Sometimes God’s purposes are accomplished by us NOT getting what we pray for.  Then Hannah responds to God’s faithfulness with a beautiful prayer. Hannah’s song/prayer in chapter two is beautiful.

I love 3:19-21.  Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground (fail).  And all Israel knew that he was a faithful and trustworthy prophet of the Lord.  Wow! What a reputation! Oh that those words could be spoken about each one of us!

What a wonderful story this is! Though it begins with tragedy–a famine, dislocation, and unbelievable loss in one family (the husband and two sons!)–it holds so much evidence of the goodness of God and his people and how faithfulness to God can bring blessing to others.

Ruth is not an Israelite.  She is a foreigner.  Yet she has fully embraced the God of Israel and demonstrates amazing devotion to her mother-in-law, Naomi.  Her reputation spreads throughout Bethlehem upon her return with Naomi (2:11). She trusts in God, she respects the customs of the land she is in, she is faithful to her mother-in-law, she is hard-working and God blesses her for it. Naomi, who has lost husband and two sons, has a daughter-in-law who is “better than seven sons” (4:15).  But even more significant is that this non-Israelite woman becomes part of the lineage of Jesus (4:17-18 and Matthew 1:5)!

This is God’s great and impartial grace and mercy shining through all the darkness–Ruth is part of God’s promise to Israel to deliver them! Though the actual dating of the story of Ruth is not definitive, its presence anywhere near the period of the Judges is a great sign of hope. It is such a contrast to the lust and violence and cruelty of the people described in Judges. Here there is love, faithfulness, care for the poor (allowing people to follow behind the reapers and collect what is left), and respect of customs being honored in the common life of common people (kinsman redeemer ch4).  All is not dark.  God always has a remnant of people who remain faithful to him and through whom he continues to work to accomplish what he has promised–a redeemer who will save God’s people from their sin. And once again, God uses the most unlikely people.  The Israelites whom he had chosen to be his own and give an inheritance have wandered and it is a Moabite woman who leads the way.  God is truly awesome and his ways unsearchable!

If you have been paying attention, there have been two phrases repeated over and over again in Judges.  First, “the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ” and second, “every man (person) did what was right in their own eyes.” The significance of these statements is that what is described in the book of Judges is the record of a people who had rejected God’s instructions and way of living and, as a result, did whatever they wanted and it was evil.  Judges is a graphic description of humankind without God. In no way can God be associated with the account of what happened to the concubine in Judges 19. This account displays the extreme decadence of a people without God and God’s moral guidance.

Again, the ancient cultural context plays a significant part. The laws of hospitality and the violation of them by the Israelite community of Gibeah is the setting for the horrible scene. This is not a pagan city. This is one of the cities of the tribes of Israel. Oh how far from the rule of God’s law they have drifted! It is hard to read.  It is hard to believe. Believe it or not, according to ancient customs of hospitality, the host is actually choosing a lesser evil than the one the men at his door are proposing! But it is not just ancient Israel that exhibits the evil of humanity against itself when worship and abeyance of God is abandoned.  Just watch the nightly news or read the newspaper and read about the decadent and grisly behavior of our own time.  Sin City advertises with pride its venues that exist for and profit from drunken binges and sexual promiscuity. Pornography is the number one income producer for one of the top telecom companies in American. And sexual slavery is not only in Thailand and the far east. It is here in the United States and in Southern California. Child molestation and and sexual perversion are now paraded with pride. Children kill children over jewelry and tennis shoes and jackets. Adults make their living off of children pedaling drugs. Company execs live lives of excess to the point of bankrupting their companies and putting hundreds of thousands of average income people out of work. Politicians campaign on platforms of moral values while living private  lives that diametrically oppose what they say in public.  We cannot be outraged at the moral decadence of the period of the judges if we remain silent about the moral decadence of our own communities, indeed, of our own lives.

The lesson of the judges is that no human judge, no earthly king, no person walking the face of the earth is capable of living a moral life apart from submission to and dependence on the God who created them and what that God has revealed about what is right and wrong.  If left to ourselves, we will all do what is right in our own eyes. This is moral relativism and it leads to evil and death.

I Corinthians 10 tells us clearly that these things  (Israel’s history) were written for an example for us so that we will not do the same–ignore God’s word and disregard his instructions and reap the horrible consequences. It is always easier to disdain the  sin of others than it is to acknowledge our own.  There is hope in Christ. Sin, even wickedness, can be forgiven.  But it requires admitting that we are sinners and being so repulsed by OUR OWN sin, that we turn and run in the opposite direction! We have so much more of God’s Word revealed.  We have no excuse. We cannot change the world, but we can change our own heart. Then the world can be changed, one heart at a time. This is what we strive for and this is what we pray for.  This is what the church is to be–a radical counter-culture movement.  A community that does not follow what is right in its own eyes, but follows what God has revealed is right in God’s eyes.

Samson. What a character of contrasts! A man whom God chose before birth (13:3) and the Spirit of God was on him (13:24; 14:6, 19; 16:28) but also a man who was driven by his lust (14:1; 16:1; 16:4). God used him to judge Israel and deliver them from the Philistine rule, but Samson also suffered the consequences of his own sinful appetite. Not once, not twice, but three times it is recorded that his lust became a source of destruction. But once again Samson is an example of how God uses even our bad choices to accomplish his purposes (14:4). The fact that God uses our bad choices, does not condone them, nor does it eliminate the consequences of our sin. But the message is clear–God’s purpose of redemption cannot be thwarted by any human effort. This is the good news of the gospel in Old Testament story form.

Our salvation is by grace alone. There is not a single bit of merit involved.  In fact, all we bring is demerits–our sin. And in the course of God’s great redemptive act throughout history, everything that happens can be used by God to accomplish this purpose.  Samson’s strength of character and his weakness of character were both used by God. We are saved IN SPITE of ourselves! Israel was delivered even though they repeatedly turned away from worshiping and obeying the Lord. Because he had promised to save them they would be saved.

The same is true for us.  We are saved because of God’s promise.  The promise is that if we believe that Jesus died for us (Rom. 10:9,10), then God counts it as if we were righteous.  Jesus’ righteousness is given to us (2Cor 5:21). The Israelites did not deserve it, Samson did not deserve it.  You and I do not deserve it.  But God is true to his word and when we trust him, he comes through.

Samson is a man of extreme contrast of character.  He is not so different from all of us. Thank God, for God’s steadfast love and unconditional mercy.!

We are back on schedule (according to the bright green guide!). Judges records the time between Moses and Joshua’s leadership until Israel’s first King, Saul. The history is pretty easy to “read.”  It goes like this.

Israel wanders away (“does evil in the sight of the Lord”) from God and his instructions to them.

Israel is oppressed by others.

They cry out to God.

God sends them a judge to deliver them.

They are delivered (“the land had peace”).

They wander off again (“everyone does what is right in their own eyes” )

But there is one other “pattern” that sometimes is missed in the midst of all the mayhem.  Over and over again God’s tender heart toward his people is moved and he responds to their cries. 10:16  says “and he could bear Israel’s misery no longer.” What an amazing thing!  Though they had prostituted themselves with other gods and blatantly disobeyed all that God had commanded them, and though he told them to “cry  out to the gods you have chosen” in 10:14, God cannot bear to hear his people suffer! This is a God of great love and compassion. In the midst of all the judgment and warfare if we miss this in the story we miss the primary evidence of God’s great love and mercy.

The story of Jephthah is another “puzzler.” It is an excellent example of a interpretive principle I blogged about when we started reading in October.  The bible is full of stories from history that are true records of false ideas. The text accurately records what Jephthah did.  The truth of the story does not mean that God approved of what is recorded. Thus, it is an accurate record (true) of something that is not the way God intended it to be (false idea). Throughout the Old Testament God works with men and women who are “mixed bags.”  They are set apart for God’s use and exhibit significant faith and character. Yet they are also sinners, like you and me, and they all have weaknesses that are also revealed in their stories. 

Jephthah in his exuberance and headiness of victory made a rash vow. He obviously did not think through all the “what ifs.” As was the custom, he believed he had to keep this vow.  The scripture records this unfortunate true story.  But we know that one of the things God commanded the Israelites, was NOT to sacrifice children like their pagan neighbors did (Lev. 18:21). God did not require, condone or approve this act of Jephthah. I do not know why God did not intervene, but he did not. It is one of the questions I will ask him someday in glory!

However, it is worth contemplating, what kind of a world it would be if God intervened EVERY time any one of us was about to do something that was wrong or that he does not approve of??!! It would be a crazy chaotic world where no one could be sure about anything.  Because you and I often go against what God has commanded. We consciously choose to go our own way. What if God were to intervene at every point a person was about to do something that God does not approve of??!! It would be a very different world. In effect, there would be no such thing as human will as we know it.  God created us, like himself, with moral will. We CAN choose good or evil–to obey God or not. And as a result we both reap the benefits and suffer the consequences of our choices. God created us, like himself, with emotional capability.  We can love or hate. We can choose to be in a relationship with God or not.  This is the central issue of God’s love for us.  He did not create automans forced to serve him. God created us so that we could choose to worship and love him. This is true love. 

So in the horrible story of Jephthah offering his daughter as a sacrifice to God, is the wonderful revelation of just how very much God loves us! He loves us enought to allow us to make horrific mistakes when it is the cost of relationship.  He then offers himself as a sacrifice to pay for our horrific sin. This is a God of deep and tender love!