1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD was sorry that he had made Saul king over
The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord." But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, "Neither has the Lord chosen this one." Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, "The Lord has not chosen any of these." Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your sons here?" And he said, "There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep." And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here." He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; for this is the one." Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.
Hold on a second. Just last week, we saw Saul being anointed
as king, at God’s instruction. And now the Lord is telling Samuel to get over
it, Saul is finished. Clearly, there is some background here!
It is true, God had
instructed Samuel to make Saul king, but Saul was always kind of an accidental
king. In fact, when Saul and Samuel first met, Saul was just out looking for a
pair of missing donkeys. And there was always deep ambivalence about having a
king at all. Samuel, and God, thought it was a bad idea. But, if king and
people would both follow God’s ways it might work out. Maybe.
Saul’s main
attribute seems to have been his height. He was also a brave, perhaps reckless
fighter. But he made rash decisions; he deferred to others when he should have
taken initiative. He charged ahead when he should have deferred. One decision
in particular proved problematic. Standard operating procedure during battles
was to get the enemy on the run, chase them for a bit, then go plunder their
stuff. Before a battle with the Amelikites, God told Saul, through Samuel, to
do things differently. No plundering. Keep fighting until the enemy were wiped
out. Saul let the fighters plunder. He wanted the captured animals for a really
big sacrifice of thanksgiving. This
decision, more than any other, got Saul fired as king.
One part of this we
can understand: God wants obedience, not sacrifice. The other part isn’t so
easy to understand: God ordered the destruction of a whole community. We can’t
really make this less disturbing than it is, but here are a couple of things to
think about: 1. This story is inspired
by God, but recorded by a human being, and some human anger, some human
vengefulness may have found its way into the telling. We must be discerning
about this. 2. Israel ’s
survival is of paramount importance, but not for its own sake. They are chosen,
not to dominate or oppress their neighbors, but to lead all people back to God.
A threat to Israel
at this stage in history is a threat to God’s plan for saving all. Sometimes
desperate measures were necessary to ensure Israel ’s continued existence. 3.
This was not standard operating procedure. It was once in the many thousands of
years of Israel ’s
walk with God. In many other cases, God
calls on Israel to
experience suffering, rather than triumph, for example, when the people are
exiled into Babylon .
It all depends on God’s big purpose.
Saul is a tragic
figure: his strengths are his downfall. He is never quite able to get his will
into line with God’s. He is also a lesson in humility: you can be chosen as
king, anointed by a prophet, hailed by the people, and still mess up. Power
does not mean license.
We’ve thought a lot
about someone who isn’t even in the story for the day! What about David? We all
know about David. But with this background, we can see David is kind of the
opposite of Saul: he is a young, small, unknown shepherd. Now that God can work with.
2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17
We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
[Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.] For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
Once again, it is helpful if we think of what Paul writes as half of a conversation. Paul is not the only one claiming to have the Good News. In this letter, he takes a lot of time to defend himself against the criticisms of some other teachers. And he is vulnerable to criticism: he claims to be an apostle, but he was never with Jesus; he invites gentiles to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he doesn’t require them to follow Torah.
We see Paul responding to these criticisms. The main point can be a little hard to make out: Paul’s opponents are looking at things from a human perspective. For them, being an apostle means having walked around with Jesus. Honoring Torah means following Torah regulations, like the dietary laws, or circumcision.
Paul says the game has changed, because of grace, and because of the crucifixion. He has confidence in his role as an apostle, not because he got a lot of face time with the earthly Jesus, but because he has been called by God, and empowered by the spirit, all as a gift of God’s grace. He has confidence bringing gentiles to the faith because he is convinced that Christ’s sacrifice transcends all human divisions, and supersedes physical things, like diet or circumcision.
It’s important to see how radical a departure this is for Paul. N.T. Wright reminds us, “I think Paul even glimpsed something of the dark humor of God, through which a fanatical, right-wing, nationalistic Jew should be the one to take to the pagans the news that the Jewish Messiah welcomed them on equal terms…” (N.T. Wright, Paul: Fortress Press, 2005. p 162) Dark humor indeed. Has God, in His dark humor, ever asked you to give up deeply cherished beliefs or opinions?
Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said, "The
He also said, "With what can we compare the
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
These two parables pick up an important Old Testament theme: God works through small things to accomplish big results. He calls a wandering herdsman and his wife (Abraham and Sarah) in order to begin to address the problem of the Fall; He calls a little boy (Samuel) to address the problem of threats to Israel’s existence; He calls an obscure desert people (the Hebrews) to bring the world back to himself, and He calls a young teacher and carpenter, arrested and crucified, to bring His great rescue mission to fruition.
It’s not a complicated lesson, but it can be tough to embrace. Maybe that’s why Jesus leaves it as a story, for most of the people. He wants to give them time to chew it over. He wants to see who’s willing to make the effort to really understand.
We know all this, but sometimes we need to be reminded, because we get distracted by grand plans, and tend to forget the importance of what seem like little things, even in “Churchland”. We look for big solutions, big things to guarantee the growth of the church, and the coming of the kingdom. When really, it’s the little things that make the church live and thrive: individual believers, and their commitment to Christ; individual disciples, and their acts of love and integrity. That’s where the real work gets done. It’s a comforting thought, and a challenging one, all at the same time: we are the mustard seed.
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