I Samuel 26:

“Then Saul arose and went down to the Wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the Wilderness of Ziph.” (Verse 2)

Saul after his encounter with David in the cave in chapter 24- appeared to be touched by David’s sincerity and realizes David has returned good for evil. David has spared his life and he tells David, he is more righteous than he is. Saul says: “And now I know indeed you shall surely be king.”

David was anointed by Samuel and assured by Samuel he was God’s choice to be king. Abigal has confirmed it. Jonathan has confirmed it. And now even King Saul has stated he knows David will be king.

What the challenge for me in this lesson is to determine what this second encounter, which David boldly seeks to make happen is all about. Why did David enter the camp of King Saul and put himself in such a dangerous position? Why did he seek to have this bizarre close encounter the 2nd time?

A JUG OF WATER AND THE KING’S SPEAR

Let’s focus on King Saul first. When Israel looked for a king, like the other nations, outward appearance was more important than character. And Saul certainly looked the like a king- handsome and tall, he was also rich. It is often assumed rich people are better, smarter and certainly envied. In fact, wealthy men often seek political office and the power it represents. We also can observe with wealth and good looks, pride is often the result. Pride would be one of King Saul’s besetting sins. His pride and ego could not tolerate anyone else being more popular than he, or receiving more praise them he received. Saul would do it his way, not God’s way. And if there was failure- it was someone else’s fault not his. But if there was success, it was because of his efforts, his brilliance and his talents.

His first encounter with the enemy after being named king was a successful one and King Saul appeared to be a spiritual man and a capable leader. He enlisted Samuel’s help and spiritual guidance and gave credit to the Lord for their first victory over the Philistines. But he would soon show his true character when he did not wait upon Samuel to make the sacrifice and did it his way.

But from the moment, David, the shepherd boy killed Goliath; there was a love-hate relationship between Saul and David. In their last close encounter David cut a piece of Saul’s robe and recognized King Saul as his king, as the one anointed by God to whom he meant no harm. Saul says David is a better man than he, and he will surely be king. Saul recognizes David has returned good for the evil he had received from Saul.

Now in the account before us in chapter 26, this seems to be ‘déjà vu’ all over again. Here we go- the second time around. What has caused David to seek out this encounter? The first encounter was not sought out- it was providentially arranged by God to test David and teach him the principles of: kingdom authority; letting God avenge you; returning good for evil; and letting God define what is good. But no sooner than David had been taught this lesson, he was tested when Nabal returned evil for the good David and his men had provided him. David was set to avenge himself and in anger set out having forgotten the lesson he had just been taught. Fortunately Nabal’s wife intervened and David realized how close he had come to taking revenge and treating Nabal, like Saul had treated him.

When last they met and David spared King Saul’s life, Saul had acknowledged that David would surely be king of Israel. He asked David to swear by the Lord he would not cut off his descendants and not destroy my name from his father’s house. David swore to Saul. So why had Saul upon learning of David’s whereabouts from the Ziphites come down to where he was with 3,000 chosen men and armed to the teeth? His previous confession was soon forgotten and Saul wants nothing more than to destroy the man who would be king. David now wants to test the sincerity and honesty of Saul’s confession from their previous encounter. For it appears Saul has once again taken up arms to destroy David.

Isn’t this like the flesh, our old nature? He will swear he will never do it again, just please don’t punish him, don’t take his life. Spare him, let him live. This is why Jesus said we must take up our cross daily. Our old nature cannot be used by God. You cannot put new wine in an old wineskin. There is no good thing in our flesh, our old nature. David wants to see if Saul has changed. If he is really willing to live in peace with David? This meeting will be their last.

David is a picture of the Lord Jesus here in this encounter. Remember what Jesus said from the beginning of his earthly ministry? He would often say, “My time (hour) has not yet come.” He was invincible. He was unbeatable. He could walk through crowds who had gathered to kill him, unharmed. He could teach in the temple right under the noses of the very Pharisees who wanted to destroy Him. But then Jesus turned toward Jerusalem and knew: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say unto you, unless a grain of seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12) And the in prayer to His Father, Jesus prays: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.” (John 17:1)

David, I believe, knew he would be king of Israel. David had been anointed by Samuel, and confirmed by Jonathan, Abigail, Saul and hundreds of men and their families who followed David. So like Abraham who believed God would raise Isaac from the dead, and Jacob believed he would return to the land he left; and Joseph knew they would someday return to Israel and take his bones to be buried in his homeland- David was assured. Blessed Assurance. God would fulfill His purpose in David’s life. Even though he was on the run and outnumbered, David had a hedge of protection around him.
Saul is a picture of the flesh – the sinful nature of man who has a veil over his eyes when he looks at the Word of God. This veil can only be removed by Christ when a person turns to Christ. Paul writes in Romans 11 regarding Israel and their rejection of Jesus Christ as Messiah: “God has given them a spirit of stupor; Eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”

When David and Abishai enter King Saul’s camp where 3,000 soldiers lie sleeping, they are in a spirit of stupor. God has caused a deep sleep to fall upon the whole group and David and Abishai walk right up to where King Saul is asleep. His spear by his head and Abner by his side. David takes his spear and the jug of water as proof he has been in his presence and could have easily killed him. But God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is not willing that any should perish but all would come to repentance.

The spear represents the weapons of war as well as the king’s authority. Remember what Jesus said to Pilate? Pilate had asked Jesus, “Do you not know I have the power to crucify You, and the power to free You? Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given to you from above.” (John 19) Paul explains: “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God and shall bring judgement on themselves” (Romans 13:1, 2)

The Lord is the One who ultimately places people over us in our work or country. Our responsibility is to honor God first and to obey the laws (except when obedience is to disobey God) and pray for our leaders.

Our country is divided today over those who have been placed over us by the Lord. The God Most High, who is the God who fulfills His purpose for our lives is in control. When man tries to usurp God’s rule, God overrules. His will cannot be thwarted. David knows this in his heart of hearts.

His weapons of war have been taken away. His authority has been given by God and can be taken away by God by the man God chooses. Our weapons are mighty to the pulling down of stronghold. (2 Cor 10) Our weapons are divine; they are based on righteousness, faith and truth. No weapon formed against us will prosper.

Saul’s jug of water has been taken from him. Water represents both the Spirit of God and the Word of God, which cleanses us and refreshes us. The weapons we possess are mighty. And the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. The Word of God also refreshes us so we will not grow weary in well doing. The Spirit of God which had come upon Saul had departed. It departed the same time it came upon David. From that moment on, Saul was man of the flesh. Now Saul is without weapons and without the refreshing which comes from the One who gives strength to the weary.

THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL.

King Saul’s last words to David were: “May you be blessed, my son, David! You shall bot do great things and you shall prevail.” The truth always prevails.

David senses the army which follows King Saul will one day be his army. They must know David is truthful when he says he means no harm to King Saul. David recognizes King Saul is the king God has set over Israel at this time. He wants the men to know he respects the office of the King of Israel. This conversation is heard by this armed force of 3000 men. The hear the truth from David and the acknowledgement of this truth by Saul.

He also wants them to know for the second time he could have taken the kingship from Saul by killing him, but did not. He will not return evil for evil. Paul writes in Romans 12: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Jesus at the cross asks His Father to ‘forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)

Men have attacked the Word of God for centuries, but it still stands. The Truth prevails. Men die, the Word of God last forever. Men’s works are forgotten and return to dust. God’s Word lasts. It is still the Gospel which saves men’s lives. The Word of God is alive and powerful.

When we mediate upon it day and night and obey the Word of God it is able to transform and renew our minds. It builds a grid within our mind which serves to filter every thought which enters our mind. The entrance of light into our minds comes through our vision system. We must guard what we take in through our eyes in what we view on television and movies, what we read and also to what we listen. From birth to age 12, we receive 80% of our knowledge through our vision system. The battlefield is the mind of man. Satan placed an idea in Eve’s mind and she began to see the world differently. When light enters the eye it brings information which enters directly into our minds. The enemy today is correctly called, ‘the prince of the power of the air.’ The media which fills the airwaves with entertainment, advertising, opinion and everything from world events to the interpretation of world events, sports, weather reports and pornography wants to reshape our thinking. It can impact and reshape a culture and a generation. Media can place ideas in minds and create dreams and ignite the imagination.

Our eyes are the entrance to our hearts and minds. They provide access to our very souls. This is why they are referred to as “the windows of our souls”. We must be able to perceive good from evil. Satan can appear as an “angel of light.” He intends to blind us to the truth and corrupt our minds. He uses our eyes to gain entrance to our hearts. He deceives us into believing these things we look upon will make us happy. Today there are many who call darkness light and light- darkness. Jesus said the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. (Matthew 6: 22, 23.)

The Bible contains light to direct you; food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is a lamp unto your feet and a light upon your path.

God’s Word generates life. It is our doctrinal guideline. Faith comes from hearing it. The Word of God has changed my life and transformed my mind. It produces change, it frightens the devil, it causes miracles. The Word of God builds character. It overcomes adversity. It releases power and infuses hope at the same time. It cleanses our minds, brings things into being and guarantees our future forever. Read it to be wise. Believe it to be safe. Practice it to be holy.

Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart and guide the feet. It is given to you in life, will be opened at the judgement and be remembered forever. (Gideons International)

Build your life upon these sayings and you will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock. The storms of life came, but it did not fall. A life built on the Truth will prevail. On the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

I Samuel 24 & 25: Dark Moments in Life

“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent.” Psalm 22: 1-2.

You recognize the first sentence as being quoted by the Lord Jesus on the cross. It was first moaned by David in the season of night- the dark moments of his life. One of Charles Stanley’s 30 Life Principles is: “The dark moments of our life will last only so long as is necessary for God to accomplish His purpose.” (Life Principle 7)

There is a season for everything including a ‘night season’. It has a purpose. In fact it has been personally designed by God for you for such a time as this. In life’s journey here on earth, we have to travel the road of adversity in order for God to accomplish His purpose in us.

There are two ways to approach this season: wishful thinking and blessed assurance. Let us view both of them in today’s lesson. But first from Charles Stanley’s Life Principles, Dr. Stanley explains the three principles we can learn when facing adversity.

1. Adversity is God’s choice tool for building godly, spiritual character into our lives. Until we experience heartache, disappointment, and pain we are not properly equipped for service.   2 Corinthians 1: 3-7) God does not bring adversity into our lives without purpose. David felt like the Lord had forsaken Him. And so did the Lord Jesus who was forsaken so we could be forgiven.
2. Adversity usually comes in an area or areas where we are most self- confident. God wants to break us of the idea we are sufficient on our own. Paul had to receive a thorn in the flesh. Peter was humiliated by his fear and weakness when he denied the Lord three times. God uses adversity to remind us we are completely dependent upon him.
3. God’s ultimate design for adversity in our lives is to conform us in the image of His Son. Through adversity He develops the fruit of the Spirit in us. ( Gal. 5: 22,23)

As is His custom, God gets multiple benefits from adversity in our lives:
• It gets our attention.
• Reveals our weaknesses and strengths
• Increases our aversion to sin
• Demonstrates his faithfulness
• Strengthens our faith.
• Removes pride and self-centeredness
• Prepares us for future service
• Enables us to comfort others
And remember His promise from I Cor. 10: God will never place more on you than you can bear.

WISHFUL THINKING VS. BLESSED ASSURANCE

Jonathan went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. “And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father knows that.” This is wishful thinking on Jonathan’s part that he and David would co-reign. Why? Because he has no word or promise from the Lord. For God would not allow Saul’s line and David’s line together in the throne room.

David on the other hand, had the blessed assurance of God’s anointing and we see the blessed assurance allows David to resist temptation.

The temptation comes in I Samuel 24, when King Saul is pursuing David. Saul has been informed David is in the desert of En Gedi. There King Saul pursues David with three thousand men. They come to the caves and King Saul goes to relieve himself in a cave, in which David and his men are hiding. David is tempted, even encouraged by his men to kill King Saul. His men even quote Scripture: “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, “Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand that you may do to him as it seems good to you.” David’s men meant it one way- David took it another. He did what seems good – he spared King Saul. David explains his thought process to his men: “ The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.” King Saul was to David what Potiphar was to Joseph. King Saul was his master, whom he served. He could not do this to Saul, Lord forbid. He could not sin against Saul for he would be sinning against God, just as Joseph saw his loyalty to his master Potiphar was reflected in his loyalty to God. No wonder the Lord when He taught us to pray, taught us to pray: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Good and evil travel on a parallel path. David sneaks up behind King Saul as he is in the act of relieving himself and cut a section of Saul’s robe without his noticing it. King Saul departs the cave, completely unaware of what has just occurred.

David went out of the cave and called to King Saul, saying, “My lord, the king! David stooped with his face to the earth and bowed down. David then says to King Saul, why do you listen to the lies of men who say I am against you. He showed King Saul, he has just cut a section of his robe off in the cave, revealing he could have just as easily cut his throat. David says, “I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.

King Saul is overwhelmed with emotions. He says, “Is this your voice, David, my son? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Then he said to David, “You are more righteous than I: for you have rewarded me with good, whereas, I have rewarded you with evil. And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.” Saul goes on to say since you have let me, your enemy go, may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done today.

King Saul says, I know the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. Swear to me by the Lord you will not cut off my descendants and you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.

David swore to Saul.

Again I notice the similarity between David and Joseph. Joseph said to his brothers who sold him into slavery, “you meant it for evil; God meant it for good for the saving of many souls.”

Did you notice David got out of the cave? Living in a cave, under the ground was a part of God’s training program for the future king of Israel. Dwelling in dark places for a period of time is necessary for God to achieve His purpose in one’s life. It was as David looked back and recorded in his Psalm 22 a: “night season.” He bows down to King Saul. ONE CANNOT BE OVER THOSE THINGS GOD WANTS YOU OVER, UNTIL YOU LEARN TO BE UNDER THOSE THINGS THAT GOD HAS SET OVER YOU.

Now watch what happens next and realize when God teaches you a principle, He will then test you to see if you have learned the lesson. What had David learned? To return good for evil. First we will deal with Samuel’s death.

SAMUEL’S DEATH

I Samuel 25 records for us the death of Samuel. I identified with Samuel when after his successful years of leadership which resulted in a revival and restoration to the nation of Israel and their relationship with God, the people asked him to retire. He was deemed too old. Samuel represented to me what I had experienced in my career. I believe Samuel is an example to all older believers in every generation. All older generations are prone to glorify the past, resent the present and all the change and ‘new-fangled’ technology and lose hope for the future. So let’s also identify with how Samuel responded. Without abandoning the past, Samuel accepted change. He then did all he could to make things work and served as a mentor. Every leader needs a Samuel, a person in touch with God. A person who appreciates the good things of the past which should not be forsaken, but willing to follow God in a new era.

The world may look hopeless to us some days. Young people may seem clueless. But so were we once. But I believe God is at work in this hour of confusion and chaos. And the Lord has work for us to do for such a time as this we have come into the kingdom. In fact we are needed more now than ever. I believe the fields are white with harvest. Never have so many been discontented with their life and the world around them. What an opportunity to enter the conversation with hope which has nothing to do with politics or the economy, but with the human heart. But we need workers. Retired from a career? God needs worker. He is hiring. He provides great benefits. You have a degree from the University of Life. You have a Masters Degree from the School of Hard Knocks. You have gained wisdom the hard way, by making unwise decisions and bearing the consequences. You have gone down the broad way and made a u-turn. It is time to quit sitting around and remembering the good old days.

GOD’S LESSON PLAN

Tests in school come in two forms- expected and unexpected. This true in life also. A test can be a regularly scheduled test- six weeks, mid-terms, final exam. You were told at the beginning of the course what was to be expected. Pop-tests were the unexpected. This mean you had to be prepared. These test in school tested your knowledge. Routine tests can sometimes reveal a problem with your health. God’s test is designed to test you spiritual well-being.

David has just learned a lesson. He has learned to return good for evil. Let us see if David passes the test.

Meet Nabal and his wife Abigail. Nabal is a wealthy man with an abundance of livestock and land. He is very rich. David and his men have protected him from raiders and thieves by their presence in the area. It is shearing time which also meant a feast day celebration. David sends 10 of his men who go in peace and request some provisions and food.

Nabal says no way- he is not providing them with anything. David’s men return with his answer. David tells his men to gird on their swords and he prepares to deal with this ungrateful man with 400 of his soldiers. A young servant goes to tell Nabal’s wife, Abigail, what has happened. He reminds her, David’s men ‘were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.’ In other words, David and his men protected them from harm.

Abigail immediately begins to gather supplies for David and his men. I Samuel 25: 21 reveals David’s response to this test: “Now David said surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good.”

David then vows he will not leave one male alive who belong to this man. David who had just been taught to repay good for evil by King Saul. David who had more times than he could count cried out to God – “have mercy on me, O God! “ Was coming to destroy all this man had because he had wronged his men, to show him no mercy for he had treated them unfairly and repaid them evil for good.

Abigail meets David and bows down to him and says let this iniquity be on me. My lord, Nabal is a fool. I did not see your young men who came with their request.

David is stopped in his tracks. He realizes he was about to come to shed blood and avenge himself with his own hand. He realizes it is the Lord who has kept him back from doing this.

THE REST OF THE STORY

Abigail returns home. Her husband is drunk and making merry at the feast. In the morning, when he was awake and sober, Abigail told her husband, Nabal, what she had done. We read, ‘that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. Then it happened after 10 days, that the Lord struck Nabal, he died.

David proposed to Abigail and she became his wife. David’s cries were being heard by the God Most High. He was coming out of the cave of darkness. It had been a night season of darkness, there would be others. Just as we have been through night-seasons and welcomed the morning sun, we know there will be other seasons, but they will not last any longer than it takes and God will never place more on us than we can bear.

Dr. Charles Stanley has been a blessing to me for years. His teaching, his books, his devotionals. He credits his grandfather, an itinerant preacher, who taught him one of his most often repeated principles: “Granddad told me, Charles, if God tells you to run your head into a brick wall, you head for that wall, and God will make a hole in it before you get there. Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him.”

We are only one generation away from total paganism in this country. We need parents and grandparents to pass on these life principles taught in the Scriptures.

Samuel was upset with a lot of what was happening in Israel and with the younger generation. But to me, he is a role model for me at my age. He looked back and thought those were the “good old days” and looked at the present with a shake of his head as if to say- ‘these young people are missing it”. He could throw in the towel and say the future is hopeless. But he stayed involved. He became a mentor to the first two kings Israel had. One was a failure- but one was the greatest king Israel ever had. And from David would come the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our intimacy with God- His highest priority for our lives- determines the impact of our lives Life Principle 1.

Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him. Principle 2.

Thank you George Washington Stanley for taking the time to mentor your grandson Charles Stanley, the next generation. Well done!!!!!

Now it’s our turn………..

I Samuel 22B-23: Re-Routing

Can you imagine how tired David is? He is constantly in fear for his life. In just a short period of time David has gone from shepherd boy to giant slayer to becoming the most well- known and beloved hero in all of Israel. Now he dwells in a cave. An innocent fugitive who has a price on his head and insanely jealous king after him with all his army. He is worn out, tired, in need of food, rest and sleep. He is in need of mercy and grace. Where do we go to find this rest? Where is there a source which can provide us with these desperately needed things? David longs for safety.

David wrote Psalm 57 while hiding in the cave: “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities pass. I cry out to the God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me.” We can be thankful David found himself in such dark places of discouragement, for it was in those dark places he wrote these inspired Psalms which encourage us in our times of discouragement. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne room of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4) Coming to the throne room of the God Most High reminded David of the One under whose authority and power he lived and breathed.

Did you see the names David used: the God Most High, and then a description of what God does- ‘to God who fulfills His purpose for me’? David knew he was anointed by Samuel as God’s choice to become king. What he did not know was the training program for kings would involve such hardships. Who can imagine the next king of Israel was training his troops in a dark cave, yet this was God’s plan. When God reroutes your life journey, do not be surprised where He might send you to fulfill His purpose for your life.

In the coming passages and adventures we will see David and his army become a sort of Robin Hood and his merry band of men. Hiding out but always with his eyes on the one and only God Most High. Perhaps this is a name you need to use when you are at your lowest point to remind yourself you are talking to the God Most High and what you are seeking is His purpose for your life.

Here is another Psalm which David wrote during his cave dwelling days: “I cry out to the Lord with my voice; with my voice I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him all my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. I cried out to You O Lord; I said you are my refuge. My portion in the land of the living, attend to my cry. For I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I might praise Your Name; the righteous shall surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me. “(Psalm 142) Notice some of David’s descriptions of his condition: overwhelmed; very low, in prison.

In Psalm 81 we hear the heart of God when He speaks and tells us: “ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not heed my voice, and Israel would have none of Me. So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.” (Psalm 81: 10-14) Are you listening to God? Are you doing what He tells you to do? For if you are not- He will give you over to a stubborn mind to walk in your own counsel.

“This is what the Lord says: Stand at the crossroads and look and ask for the ancient paths; ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, “I will not walk in it.” (Jeremiah 6: 16) God will intervene in your life to re-route you, just like your GPS will re-route you when you make a wrong turn. Just like your ‘router’ does for your computer. A router connects devices within a network by forwarding data packets of information between them. I have the Spirit of God within me- He is my Router. And sometimes He re-routes. Re-Routing when traveling involves changing directions.

LISTENING TO GOD

If we want to walk with God, we must listen to God. Do you believe God wants to show you great and mighty things? He tells us He wants to do just that- in Jeremiah 33: 3. Surely what comes to David’s mind sometimes is the same thing which comes to your mind during a difficult time: can anything good come out of this situation? Let me say when God is involved- the answer is YES! Realize it may take time, in some cases years. David will be on the run for 10 years. Joseph was sold into slavery at age 17 and did not reach the place God had re-routed him to until age 30. And in those 13 years, probably 10 years were spent in an Egyptian dungeon.

David wrote ‘even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.’ There is only one way to face adversity and that is with faith in Jesus Christ. Turn to Him. Ask Him to give you wisdom and strength. He will perfect that which concerns you. His lovingkindness is everlasting. (Psalm 138: 8)

Paul wrote: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4: 13) *This is the secret to handling life’s difficulties. It is total dependency on a sovereign, all powerful God who loves you with an everlasting love.

Paul knew something about adversity. Listen to what his re-routed journey brought into his life:

“Five times I received 39 lashes from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned and left for dead. Three times I was shipwrecked and spent a night and day in the deep. In danger from robbers, in danger from my own countrymen, danger from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the country, dangers at sea and dangers among false brothers. (2 Corinthians 11) Now keep in mind, before Paul, previously known as Saul of Tarsus, was saved and re-routed, he was on the path of achievement and success. A Pharisee of Pharisees. A promising young man gifted with intelligence and ambition. Probably with the goal of one day becoming the High Priest.

In David’s 10 year journey to become king of Israel, God has re-routed David’s life. It is a difficult, but necessary time in his life to prepare him to rule and reign as God’s chosen man to be king of Israel. One of the most important things David must learn, is the same thing we must learn: How to Listen to God.

For a Christian this is probably the most important lesson we can learn. Some might think, as a recent television host did, that people who think God speaks to them are crazy. But I can assure you God speaks to you, the question is are you listening. How does God speak to us? Hebrews 1 answers the question: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in the past to the fathers by prophets, has in the last days spoken to us by His Son.” God speaks to us individually. If you have not learned the secret of personalizing scripture, that is putting you name in the place of the pronoun in a verse and claiming this specific promise for you, then you have missed a blessing and the intention of the Word of God. For God longs to gather you as mother hen would her chicks under His wings. Allow the Holy Spirit, your Router to bring this information to you, right where you are in the midst of troubling circumstances.

God speaks through His Word. Through the Holy Spirit. Through People. Through Circumstances. God’s Goal in speaking to us is: To know the truth- about Him, about ourselves and the world around us. His goal is to conform us by transforming our mind. To do this God communicates truth to us which sets us free in order to communicate this Truth to others. As Christians we have something to say and we must know how to say it!

Know this: there is no problem too great for God. He specializes in hope, for He is the God of all hope. When David the shepherd boy bowed his head for Samuel to anoint him king, he had no idea of the trouble and turmoil which lay before him. A cave of discouragement taught David a lesson which could only be taught in the dark cave. He learned to trust God with his circumstances and leave the consequences to Him. Have you learned this lesson?

Learning to listen to God through His Word is the most important thing you can do because there is no other way to experience the abiding life, the exchanged life, the abundant life God has for you except through His Word.

So through the study of God’s Word and His working in the life of David, we will learn:

No problem is too great for God. But we will also learn and see there will be the tests of endurance. Endurance is linked with patience. Listen to these verses: “And we desire the each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience (endurance) inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6)

Do not throw away your confidence- do not throw in the towel admitting defeat. God has an answer for your need. He will provide the faith to stand and where does faith come from? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Wait for God’s timing. Solve your problem through prayer and discover the power of praying God’s Word and promises back to Him.

God wants to train us to do His will. David and his men are in boot camp. In the meanwhile, King Saul has come to Nob and put Ahimelech, the priest on trial. Doeg, the Edomite delivers misleading testimony and Saul slaughters 85 priests in Nob. One of the priests, Abiathar escapes and fled to David. He knew David was his only hope. David had to be crushed by knowing what had happened to the priests and the role he played in it.

Now I mentioned earlier, David and his band of men reminded me of the legendary Robin Hood and his band of men. David hears the Philistines are attacking the city of Keilah and robbing their threshing floors. David prays, inquires of the Lord should he attack the Philistines in Keilah. Interesting word used in describing David’s prayer- he ‘inquired of the Lord.’ Inquire means to ask for information, to question someone. The One David inquires of is God Almighty who possesses all knowledge and wisdom and is all powerful. David knew who he was talking to- God Most High. And we read, “The Lord said to David…” Do you believe David heard from God? This question must be answered by you. Prayer is a conversation with God. Conversation means we talk and we listen. We listen to God. Is God still speaking to us today? Yes. He has in these last days spoken to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants to encourage you. He wants to give you directions. He wants to transform your life.

David’s men thought attacking the Philistines in Keilah was a foolish move for this would put them in greater risk from Saul and his forces. Yet we read: “So David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines and carried off their livestock. He inflicted heavy losses on the Philistines and saved the people of Keilah.” If we lose sight of God’s purpose during times of testing, we will lose heart and grow weary. Remember this: God is conforming us to the image of His Son. By His divine power He has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him.

Our purpose on earth is to pursue godliness. The sanctification process is training. Paul writes to Timothy and says, ‘….discipline (exercise) yourself for the purpose of godliness. ‘Spiritual disciplines are those personal disciplines to promote spiritual growth. These spiritual disciplines are given to us by God to help us pursue holiness. Now we must not be like the Galatians who began in the Spirit and then tried to finish in the flesh. Pursing godliness creates and builds godly people. Godly people are disciplined people because godliness comes through discipline. God uses three catalysts to change us: people, circumstances and the Word of God. People and circumstances work on us from the outside in, but intake of Scripture works on us from the inside out. We have little or no control over the people and circumstances God allows to come into our lives. But we have control over how much time we spend in meditating in the Word of God.

ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD

Obviously when God re-routes our lives it is not to put us further away from Him, but bring us into a closer encounter with Him. Strange how being a cave of discouragement can bring you closer to God. Yet, many a Christian who has entered the dark, unknown cave of a cancer diagnosis has found the re- routing of their life has altered their life and their perspective like nothing else. Same can be true of failures by the world’s standards are sometimes God’s most important successes in our lives in the pursuit of holiness.

Think of the blindman, Bartimaeus, and his encounter with the Lord Jesus in Mark 10. He was blind and a beggar who for years had sat by a roadside near Jericho begging for alms. Then one day he heard a crowd of unusual numbers. Interesting how the loss of sight makes one hearing more acute. He heard the excitement and inquired what is happening. Someone said it is Jesus of Nazareth passing by. Bartimaeus had heard the stories of Jesus’ healing. There is the sense of hearing again- for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Bartimaeus began to shout with all his might, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Others told him to be quiet, to shut up. But Bartimaeus would not be quiet. I like what Jesus did next. “So Jesus stood still…” Can you picture this scene? Can you imagine when you cry out to Jesus in your desperation that He stands still and listens to you?! Jesus then commanded them to bring Bartimaeus to him. Then Jesus asked him, “What would you have me to do?” Bartimaeus answered: “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God.”

Now right after this in Luke 19, Jesus enters into Jericho, and we read there was man named Zacchaeus who was chief tax collector and very rich. He sought to see Jesus. He was not physically blind, but spiritually blind. But he was seeking. So many of the spiritually blind around us today are seeking for something which is missing from their lives. The Bible says we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Coming short was also a description of Zacchaeus’ physical stature. So climbed up in a tree to see Jesus. Jesus looked at him, called him by name and went to his house that day and Zacchaeus was saved.

Spiritual disciplines start with intake of God’s word. This our road map which will re-route our lives and place us the path of God’s grace. And when we ask, seek and knock we will receive, find and have opened to us the way God would have us to go.

He will re-route our life’s journey.

I Samuel 21&22: Untangled

I have referenced to Ecclesiastes 3 often in the last few weeks. The lead-in verse tells us: “To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven:”

The bottom line is God in His wisdom and sovereignty has set an appropriate time for everything. And he has made everything beautiful in its time.

We are experiencing a change of seasons now as fall and its cool nights and pleasant days have arrived. Leaves will put on a majestic show before they leave us with barren trees for the winter months. For some winter is a depressing season, void of color and warm temperatures with long, dark nights and short days of light. We have those seasons in our lives also- seasons of darkness. Cold, bitter winds blow into our lives bringing a longing for spring, for renewal.

As we continue our story of David, we see many pictures of the Lord Jesus. But interestingly, we also see many pictures of ourselves in the mistakes David makes. David will lie when it suits him to do so. Are you shocked? Have you ever lied because it suited you? Of course you have. Have your actions caused hurt for others? Have you felt you were treated unjustly?

It is a dark time for David. Made even darker, by the fact he will be living in a cave. Is this any way for a king to live? Can anything beautiful come out of this? Yes, David’s suffering created some of the most comforting and beautiful Psalms. There is no book in the Bible filled with such comforting passages but also with such suffering. We know God is the God of all comfort. He comforts us in our suffering. David is the appointed king. But like the Jesus, he must suffer and be humbled before he is exalted.

If God must tear down first in order to build up then we must not be surprised when the purging fires of adversity come. James said we are to rejoice in tribulations, ‘… knowing the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect lacking nothing.” ( James 1) Peter tells us , “…though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious that gold that perishes , though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 1) How can you expect to learn to trust God, if you never were placed in a situation where only God can help you? Have you been there before? Of course you have. Will you be there again? Yes, in fact you may be in a storm or headed for a storm right now. David’s most encouraging Psalms come during some of his most discouraging times. So we should surmise, a season of discouraging circumstances are to serve a purpose in our lives and thus are allowed or sent by the Lord.

Our Lord quoted from Psalm 22:1 and 31: 5 on the Cross!

David seeks refuge among the priests. Ahimelech, the priest at Nob is the great-grandson of Eli. He is suspicious as to why David has come without a royal entourage. Does David lie to the priest? Yes. Why? Perhaps out of fear, convenience or to protect the priest from knowingly aiding and abetting a fugitive. Whatever his motive there are consequences and David will hear of the slaughter of the priests and he will know he was the cause of it. (I Samuel 22: 22) We know fear is the enemy of faith. And sometimes David’s fears surpassed his faith in the Lord.

David then goes to Gath, the home of the late giant, Goliath, to see the King Achish. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy becomes your friend. Perhaps David figured King Saul would not look for him here. What follows is a bizarre incident: David feigns madness, scratching on doors and drooling in his beard. Also remember, Goliath had brothers. David is scheming to escape death. We often do desperate things in desperate times.

From there David will retreat to the cave of Adullam. His family will be gathered to him as they believe David will be the future king, but also fear the wrath of King Saul.

DAVID’S ARMY

“And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became the captain over them. And there were about 400 men.” (I Samuel 22:2)

What a clear picture of those who come to the Lord Jesus. Those in distress, in debt and discontented. David’s army is an army of nobodies. Look at the disciples. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4 🙂 Untrained. Uneducated. Training and education were prerequisites and required pedigrees for these “somebodies” the Sanhedrin, the 70 rich and powerful men who ruled Israel through their religious system. Weak, powerless, foolish, uneducated and untrained, and nobodies, those without influence or social status are God’s armies. He does select a few who are wise, strong and influential, but like Paul they must first be humbled.

The army of General George Washington which defeated world-class, professional soldiers of Great Britain was a ‘rag-tag’ untrained group of volunteers, shop keepers and farmers. But as Victor Hugo observed, “There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, an idea whose time has come.” I would remind you, Jesus came the first time in the fullness of time and He will come the last time when the time is right. Life was God’s idea. The plan of salvation was God’s idea. The creation of man in His image is God’s idea. And He created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. It was perfect. And man had been given everything he needed for life and godliness through his knowledge of God. We were created to rule and reign with God. The enemy, the thief came to steal, kill and destroy. To make you discontented with what you did not have. Then when you were drawn into sin, you became distressed, owed a debt you could not pay, and discontented and dissatisfied with life.

Look at these three adjectives which describe David’s followers:

Distress is defines as extreme anxiety, sorrow and pain.

Debtor- one who owes a sum of money. There used to be debtor’s prisons. Debt is a prison to itself.

Discontent- defined as lack of contentment; dissatisfaction with circumstances.

We are living in a time of extreme distress, anxiety, sorrow and pain. We are a debtor nation made up of a debtor population. Our economy is driven by consumer spending. We are the richest nation on the face of the earth. And to watch the news and events unfolding around us, you would believe we are the most discontented nation on the face of the earth. We are also a divided nation. And a house divided against itself cannot stand. David has an army of followers. They look as rag-tag as the forces of General Washington.

Looking around today, it appears the cause of Christ is waning. We are reporting fewer baptisms than we did fifty years ago. We have resources like never before. If we are to use the military terms to describe the church as Christian soldiers marching as to war, we would question if we are marching forward or retreating. Does the cross of Jesus go on before us? Is Christ, our Captain, the Royal Master leading us against the foe forward into battle, do we see His banners go? Where is the power?

Are we distressed? Follow the arguments in the public arena and hear the anxiety, worry and fear. David had a real enemy intent on killing him and taking from him what was rightfully his, given to him by God. Jesus told us about this enemy- He said, ‘he came to kill, and steal and destroy.’ He is a liar and a murderer.

Do you see what has happened to us? We have a program which the Lord gave us. It comes with all the power and authority in heaven and on earth. It is called the Great Commission. And I would remind you as we heed the call_ “Faithful is He who calls you, Who will also do it.” (I Thess. 5: 24)

David is entering a painful period of time in his life. A season of suffering. Let’s look at ourselves and our country and the status of the church and see what we are facing as we look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word.

THE LORD’S ARMY

“You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier. “(2 Timothy 2: 3, 4) KJV

“When they had come into Capernaum, a centurion came to Jesus asking Him for help. “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering. Jesus said, I will go with you. The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, Go, and he goes; and that one, come, and he comes. I say to my servant, do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, He was ASTONISHED, and said to those following Him. I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone is Israel with such great faith.” (Mathew 8: 5-10 NIV)

So what are our problems in the church in the 21st century? They are the same they have always been. The Lord reveals what the church’s problems are in the book of Revelation.

Problems: we have left our first love. Remedy: repent and do the first works.

Problem: compromise Remedy: hold fast to His Name, the Word of God, the Truth who sets us free. It is still the Gospel which sets men free. It still the blood of Christ which cleanses us our sins. DO NOT COMPROMISE THE WORD OF GOD.

Problem: sexual sin, immorality. Remedy: flee sexual sin. Guard what our eyes gaze upon. The world culture has deadened our sense of shame and outrage.

Problem: deadness, dead churches remedy: Realize and believe Christ is your LIFE. The exchanged life, the abiding life, the abundant life. Apart from Him, you and I can do nothing.

Problem: lukewarm; got away for what made your heart burn within you, the Word of God. Remedy: Get in the word of God meditates on it day and night. The process of becoming lukewarm occurs when we get away from the source which made us hot. Coffee set on the counter and ignored will soon become room temperature, it takes on the temperature of its environment. Our society and culture of political correctness has created an environment of fear which has marginalized us.

OUR MARCHNG ORDERS

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19 & 20)

Those are very clear, specific orders, aren’t they? The Roman Centurion, a seasoned military veteran understood the principle of authority. You cannot be over those things God wants you to be over until you learn to be under those things God has set over you.
THEN YOU REALIZE THE ROOT OF ALL OF THESE PROBLEMS: WE ARE ENTANGLED IN THE WORLD. And to be effective, we must become UNTANGLED. Entangled is defined as ‘interwoven; wrapped or twisted together in such as manner as to not be easily freed.’

We were told to be ‘in the world, but not of the world.’ What does this mean? Well a boat is designed to be in the water. But water in the boat is a disaster, it causes it to sink. The enemy wants to rock the boat of your life and to sink you and ensnare you in the world. We are told not to love the world or the things of this world.

We are engaged in warfare, like never before in our lifetimes. This is the most dangerous time to be entangled. This is why we were instructed to sober and alert for our enemy seeks to devour us. This is why we are told to guard our hearts and minds with all diligence.
There is another reason we do not want to become entangled with the affairs of this life in order to please the One who enlisted us. We must be prepared to endure hardships for His Sake. To be entangled in this world as a solider in the Lord’s Army is to be double-minded and with a divided heart, therefore a divided allegiance. We must become UNTANGLED. “..let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us , and let us run with endurance the race set before us.” (Hebrews 12)

We must serve Him wholeheartedly and with a single mind.

What we have received is an order from the Lord Jesus. He has all authority and power in heaven and on earth. We are to go under that authority. When we do- the power of the Lord Jesus is available to us. His power for His program.

“ And His incomparable great power for us who believe, that power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead an seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God has placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, Who fills everything.” (Ephesians 1: 19-23)NIV

“For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him. (Colossians 1) NIV The enemy has captured music, entertainment, the media, news, and education. Everywhere you turn in our culture and society, you see the enemy has influenced and holds sway over the world culture.

One thing to keep in mind- we are in a race, a metaphor Paul uses an illustration. Our race is a relay race. In a relay race, each runner has a designated leg of the race he runs. At the end of his part of the race he passes the baton to the next runner. The baton we pass on is the baton of God’s Truth, the Word of God, the Gospel which saves men from their sins.

*The power that is behind us and in us comes from above us from God the Father. It is the same resurrection power in us that raised Jesus from the grave. Yield to the Spirit. Yield means to put yourself under authority. When you yield, Kingdom Authority with all its power takes over. Where the Spirit of the Lord there is liberty and peace. TRUTH WHICH SETS YOU FREE AND UNTANGLES YOU! Onward Christian Soldiers!

I Samuel 20: My Life

“Got a call from an old friend, we’d used to be real close. Said he couldn’t go on the American way. Closed the shop, sold the house. Bought a ticket to the west coast. Now he gives them as stand up routine in LA. I don’t need you to worry for me, cause I’m alright. I don’t want you to tell me it’s time to come home. I don’t care what you say anymore- this is my life. I never said you had to give me a second chance. I never said I was the victim of circumstance. I still belong. Don’t get me wrong. And you can still speak your mind. But not on my time.” (My Life by Billy Joel.) He was a prolific songwriter, piano playing singer. He played for a while in Memphis in a club on Overton Square. Many believe this is where he wrote Piano Man. Billy Joel’s mother and father were Jewish. His mother was from England and his father escaped from Nazi Germany where he was trained as a classical pianist. He started teaching Billy when he was six years old. But when classically trained Billy was 15 years old, he heard the Beatles and his music took a different direction. I can imagine this song being written in resistance to his parent’s encouraging him to come home. But the title: “My Life”, has significant meaning to us Christians individually. And it can also be the plea of our old nature, the flesh which wants to control our lives and our decisions. You get those calls from your old friend, the flesh, you used to be real close. Let me start this lesson by turning to some verses in Colossians 3. Actually my search began looking in my library for my copy of “The Saving Life of Christ” by Major Ian Thomas, one of my favorite books. I could not find it but came upon a copy of one my other favorite books which contains a chapter on Ian Thomas. A book entitled: They Found the Secret. I was reminded of the passage which set his life aright and back on course.

Colossians 3 tells us these truths: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, and sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. FOR YOU DIED, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, WHO IS YOUR LIFE APPEARS, then you will also appear with Him in glory.” For me to live is Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. If when were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, how much more than being just reconciled, we SHALL BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE. The saving life of Christ. As believers we possess the saving life of Christ in us. He is my life.

Have you made the mistake we all have made? Having begun in the Spirit are you now trying to finish in the flesh? Am I trying to live my life for Him on behalf of Him in my own strength? What He wants is to live His life through me. Hudson Taylor found the secret. He called it the exchanged life. Andrew Murray found the secret. He called it the Abiding Life. Jesus told us He came to give us His life, the Abundant Life. He wants to be MY LIFE.

I must stop telling Him I’m alright. I am not all right. I am all wrong.

So what happens when we try to live our lives for Christ in our own strength? We become weary and heavy laden. Fearful. We become perplexed. We are finding ourselves in despair. We feel crushed with a weight we cannot bear. Listen to Ian Thomas’s despair at his lack of accomplishment: “Oh, God, I know that I am saved. I love Jesus Christ. I am convinced that I am converted. I have tried to the uttermost to serve you and have failed to the uttermost. (He had not seen one person converted with his preaching and teaching in seven years.) His desire was to be a missionary. Ian Thomas concluded: “I am finished. I am not going to be a missionary. It is useless to continue like this.” That night he went to a meeting. When the leader read these words from Colossians 3, everything fell into place. He heard, “When Christ who is my life.” Out of his utter despair from seven weary years of failure, the Lord spoke to him. He said it was if Christ spoke to him and said, “For seven years, you have been trying to live for Me, on My behalf, the life that I have been waiting for seven years to live through you.” The following Sunday, Ian was to speak to a class of 90 boys. He remembers saying to the Lord on the way to speak. “Yesterday Lord, I was going to speak to these boys, but now You are! Guess what happened? At the end of his teaching, Ian Thomas invited any who would want to accept Jesus as Savior to come forward. 30 boys came forward that day! I submit to you those seven years had not been wasted. They were seven years of preparation which involved tearing down those things which had to be torn down in order to build what God had planned for Ian.

This is the truth he learned which we must learn. Jesus is telling us, which we must realize. It is not a new method or a new technique. Jesus is telling us – it is My Life, being what I am, doing the inevitable. This is what you must realize, you cannot have MY life for your program. You can only have MY life for MY program. Major Thomas who had wanted to become a doctor and a medical missionary, became an evangelist, writer and teacher and started the Torchbearers Bible Schools. (Read I Thess. 5: 24; Phil.2: 13 and John 15- you can do nothing apart from Me.

“For everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven.” (Eccl 3) The purpose driven life. There is a season of preparation. Brokenness is a requirement for maximum usefulness. Brokenness comes from tearing down idols and casting down strongholds.

DAVID

David, the shepherd boy had run toward the giant Goliath, confident the Lord would provide him victory. In today’s lesson, David runs away from King Saul. He hides from him. Jonathan, his best friend and son of King Saul, wants to persuade David his father would never kill him. He says I would know it if this were so. They are both confused. They are both in despair, afraid and in the dark. They are leaning to their own understanding.

What we have seen in the life of David is a season of learning to lean on the Spirit of God. He understood it was not his prowess and skill set which delivered him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. It was the Lord who delivered him. This was a season of learning in which he developed the gifts the Lord had given him. The purpose of these experiences were faith building experiences which enabled him to face the giant, Goliath. “When Christ who is your life appears (makes Himself known, reveals truth to you) then you will also appear with Him in glory.” Imagine the marquee- Now Appearing the Lord Jesus with Tim Fortner. The marquee does not say, now appearing Tim Fortner with the Lord Jesus. His appearance is the Glory. This is the light which shines within me is the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. When I do His Good Works which He has ordained for me to perform, created and enabled me to do, then the light of His Life in me will shine and the glory is credited to Him. When I take credit for the good work- I put the light under a basket not on a lampstand.

Now when we become skilled and successful doing the Lord’s work we can become overconfident. Joshua must have thought I am some kind of military genius and a devastating defeat comes along like Ai and Joshua realizes he has assumed power which was not his.

God anointed David to be His king. God gave Joseph a dream. By studying their lives we see how God prepares us in the ongoing process of seasons and times and the purpose for which they occur. God is preparing you for what He has anointed you to do, to accomplish the dream, the desire, He has placed in your heart.

THE PROCESS OF BUILDING UP

How does God build up? This is where the lesson becomes difficult. In Ecclesiastes 3- we are given a list of things which are opposites. Yet they are part of the necessary process of sanctification- which is being set apart. Guess what precedes the process of building up? Tearing down. There is a time, a season of tearing down which is part of the process of building up. Now tearing down is hard work. Not fun. Scary. But it has a very important, necessary purpose. God must deal with our old sinful nature. The self-life. The selfish life. It is the life we refer to as “my life.” “I don’t care what you say any more- this is my life.” Ever say that to God? We must focus on the outcome, not the process.

Joseph and David. Two very talented young men. Joseph had a dream. David was anointed. Joseph shares his ‘I have a dream speech’ and his brothers hate him all the more. He is seventeen years old. David is probably about the same age when he faced Goliath. He had previously been anointed by Samuel as God’s choice as King of Israel. Joseph is sold into slavery and ends up in Egypt with Potiphar, captain of the palace guard as his master. David has been attacked by King Saul and from this day forward will be on the run the next 10 years. Joseph will be accused of sexual assault and be sent to prison. He will come out of prison to become the second most powerful man in Egypt. And David will become king of Israel. Both at age 30. But the process leading up to that was painful.

David was anointed, which means set apart unto God. Told he was God’s choice for king of Israel.

Joseph had a dream and this dream became the desire of his heart. In this book, “They found the Secret”. We find these common denominators:

1. A desire to be all for Christ which accompanies us at salvation and the beginning of working out your salvation with fear and trembling.
2. Then comes a sense of failure and falling short.
3. Then comes the Lord and a definite meeting with Him.
4. What follows is complete surrender.
5. We then begin to walk by faith and not by sight. We appropriate by faith the Resurrection Life of the Lord Jesus Christ through abiding in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Do you notice David is fearful? He is afraid. He is overwhelmed.

Had David come to depend on his skills? His abilities to control the situation and solve the problem? I know how to develop a lesson. How to teach it for I have done it well over a thousand times. Ian Thomas said to the Lord those many years ago- “Well now Lord, you are going to speak to the boys’ class today, isn’t it wonderful. Yesterday I was going to do it but You are going to now!”

It matters not what age you are, David and Joseph were only boys, seventeen years old. Moses was 80 when he was challenged. Abraham was 75 and Job was 70. They all ended well. The outcome was exactly what God planned, but the process was very painful at times.

How do you make decisions? How do you live your life? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge he and he shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3) Jesse Ventura was a Navy Seal, a man of great physical strength and intelligence. As a professional wrestler, he was known as “The Body.” Later he was a popular host of a radio talk show and author. He became the governor of Minnesota and was later a college professor. At the height of his popularity, success and accomplishment he was asked in an interview what he thought of Christianity. He replied, “Christianity is a crutch for the weak.” Does this statement offend you? I am sure Jesse did not mean it as a compliment. But the truth is – we all lean on something. Jesus says lean on me.

David is a man after God’s own heart, but like many good men, he sometimes leans to his own understanding and has developed some crutches other than the Lord he uses when fearful situations arise.

Now you may not be facing a life and death situation, but there is something hanging over you which you cannot seem to get out from under. You are asking God for wisdom, but in the meanwhile you keep taking actions on your own, leaning to your own understanding. You may even realize you are doing this, but cannot seem to break free. You hide sometimes from the problem or the person or the situation. Hiding is something we do in fearful situations. Adam and Eve tried to hide from God when they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. And remember, we have an old Adamic nature.

David, like all of us, makes mistakes. He faces grave danger and leans to his own understanding. He wrestles with problems the same way we do as he is both angry and afraid, worried and anxious. And David is saddened as God takes away from him those things he loves and depends upon. God wants David as He wants us also to depend on Him and Him alone.

Remember how God trained David? David was trained in isolation- alone with God as he tended his sheep. Here is where his confidence was built. Confidence to go up against the giant, Goliath, a formidable foe, seemingly impossible to defeat. David said the Lord delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear, and He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. Where has that confidence in the Lord gone?

Psalm 37 is written when David is old, for he states he has been young and now he is old. (Vs 25) Age teaches us things only age and experience can teach. Experience can be a brutal teacher sometimes. Failure is inevitable. Wrong decisions are sure to occur. We will fail and usually when we do, it was something when we look back to determine what happened, to analyze the problem from the perspective of hindsight, we see what happened. We leaned to our own understanding. And as a result God allowed us to suffer loss- which after it was over we realized- God wanted us to know He alone is our source. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him. David looked back and this is what he saw: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, (and we all will fall) he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.” Psalm 37: 24

Are you wrestling with the Lord over a long- standing problem like Jacob was the night before he was to meet his brother, Esau? The one who wrestled him is believed by many to be the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus. For Jacob was holding on to him for dear life. This pre-incarnate God-Man dislocated Jacob’s hip. Jacob said I will not let go until you bless me. He asked Jacob what was his name and Jacob replied, “Jacob”. “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. Are you struggling with God? Wrestling with Him over a problem?

What is interesting is Jacob walked with a limp the rest of his life and leaned on his staff, which became his crutch.
What are you leaning on? Are you leaning on the everlasting arms of the Good Shepherd? Or are you leaning on your own understanding? Wrestling with God at night? Waking up tired and fearful? Downcast? Why are so downcast my soul? And why are you disquieted in me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.

We are about to witness through the truth of God’s word in the amazing story of David. David is going to become poor. He is going to hounded by his enemy for years and years, day and night. He is going to share with us his journey as he pours out his heart in the Psalms, as we hear the desperation: “as the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. “

David will become poor. Hungry and thirsty, Weary and heavy laden. This is when the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus invites us to “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11

Are you worn out with fear, worry and anxiety? Do you feel the tension in your shoulders? You are carrying the burden by yourself, you cannot manage. The Lord has brought you to this point to teach you about resting in Him. Are you fighting for victory? JESUS IS MY VICTORY BECAUSE JESUS IS MY LIFE!

I Samuel 19: Deliverance

Deliverance is defined as the act of being set free; liberated. God heard the cries of his people in Egypt and said to Moses: “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…” (Exodus 3)

This chapter starts out with Saul speaking to Jonathan and all his servants, that they should kill David. Jonathan goes to warn David. This chapter in the life of David is the beginning of how God delivers David time after time over the coming years of David’s life as an innocent fugitive on the run. Four times in this chapter Saul attempts to have David killed.

1. Jonathan intervenes on David’s behalf to his father, King Saul. He reminds him of David’s faithful service; how he killed Goliath, risking his own life. In verse 5, we read: “…the Lord brought about great deliverance for all Israel. And you will sin against innocent blood to kill David. Saul agrees not to kill David. “So Jonathan brought David to Saul.”
2. Saul in one of his fits of rage, attempts to kill David with a spear. David’s quickness allows him to escape.
3. Saul sends messengers to David’s home to watch him and kill him in the morning. Micah, David’s wife and intervenes to help David escape, letting him down out of the window. She then places a dummy in her bed to deceive the soldiers sent to kill David. Psalm 59 describes this event.
4. David goes to Samuel, the one who anointed him and tells him all Saul has done to him. Saul learns of David’s whereabouts and sends three teams to assassinate David and each team is overcome by the Spirit of God. Saul goes himself and he also is overcome by the Spirit of God.

Notice in the first encounter, Jonathan reveals who is responsible for deliverance- the Lord. Here we also see a picture of Jesus, as Paul writes in Romans 5: 1- “…. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus brought us before God the Father, faultless before His throne.

In the second account where David’s quickness allows him to dodge the spear intended to take his life David realizes, even the gift of his athleticism is from God as he writes in Psalm 139:

David understood the Lord had been present at his conception and had arranged his genetic structure. He wrote: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made I secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book* they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139) We were all created with the same detail, personally by God. We were created for a purpose. Paul writes: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2: 10) This explains why David was created with the talents and abilities he had. God gave them to David for a purpose. *How interesting that over 3,000 years ago, the Word of God tells us we were created according to God’s book. In the beginning of the 21st century, in June of 2000, President Bill Clinton held an event in the White House which was covered by the international press and a live hook up to Tony Blair in London as an international team under the leadership of Dr. Francis Collins, a committed Christian, medical doctor and science extraordinaire had broken the human genome code consisting of all the DNA of our species, the hereditary code of life. This code was written in a complex, cryptic 4 letter code, 3 billion letters long. Dr. Collins said, “It’s a happy day for the world. It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring, to realize we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God.” Clinton said, “today we are learning the language in which God created life. We are gaining even more awe for the complexity, the beauty, and the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift.” (The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, by Francis S. Collins) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…..this is where the story starts. It is where Paul begin his witness on Mars Hill to the Greek philosophers.

The key to David’s success is stated in I Samuel 16:18: “…the Lord is with him.” This was the secret of Joseph’s success, of Joshua’s success, of Samuel’s success and it is the key and basis for success in the Christian life today. David knew his gifts and he experienced the power of God in using those gifts in his daily life. David loved the Lord and worshipped Him. When you love the Lord with all your heart you long to serve Him and do the work He has called you to do.

Notice what David said before he faced Goliath: “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (I Samuel 17: 37) We, who are believers, have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light.

Micah acts to save David in the third attempt. And it the fourth attempt- it is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit who delivers David from three groups who were sent to kill him and even from King Saul himself. In fact, it was the Spirit of God acting through Jonathan’s mediation with his father, David’s own quickness, and Micah’s help which were all inspired by the Spirit.

DELIVERANCE

Deliverance is the act of being set free. Do you know what will set you free? Deliver you from what holds you captive? ‘Jesus said to those Jews who believed, if you continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed.’ This is a very important statement because it tells us what is the earmark and habit of a disciple: they continue in the Word of God day and night. Jesus then said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” And then four verses later, Jesus substitutes His name for the truth, “If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8: 31- 36) In the movie, “ A Few Good Men”, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, Nicholson as a Colonel of the Marines stationed in Guantanamo Bay has a memorable line, “ You Can’t handle the truth!” Can you handle the truth? Paul wrote to Timothy and us and admonished us “To study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightfully dividing the Word of Truth.”

Jesus said in John 14: “Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus is telling us the remedy for a troubled heart is to believe in Him. “In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you , I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am , there may you be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. “ In John 16, Jesus tells them it is to their advantage He goes away, so He can send the Helper. “However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all the truth;” Notice He, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Who is Truth, the Lord Jesus. His Spirit comes to dwell within us- and will never leave us nor forsake us. The Spirit of Truth is with us to guide us in truth.

In John 18, during his arrest, Jesus is brought before Pilate and the conversation between Jesus and Pilate is of great interest. Listen in on this conversation as Jesus speaks to Pilate: “For this reason I was born and for this CAUSE I came into the world that I should be a witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth, hears my voice.

Truth in the 21st century is an endangered species. Do you know why truth is an endangered species? Because the enemy of your soul knows the Truth – the person of Jesus Christ can set you free. And it is faith in the Truth of who He is and what He did and believing in Him that sets you free. It is still the cross. It is still the blood of Christ which cleanses us of our sins and sets us free and allows us to be brought faultless before the throne of Almighty God by our Deliverer, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan has been trying to keep the truth for mankind since the garden of Eden.
Jesus invites people to believe in Him. I know there is a heaven, for Jesus, who is the Truth, said, if it were not so, he would have told me. I know there is a hell, a place of torment, which Jesus told us about it and described it in Luke 16.

The Spirit is our sure and absolute ultimate protection. We must trust the Lord with ALL OUR HEART. God enemies are under His control. How futile and foolish to go your own way and disregard God. Remember to always go to God for help when you are in trouble.

David fled to Samuel, God’s prophet. David was seeking the will of God. He wants to draw near to God. He wants to know how God would have him respond in this life-threatening situation.

I know you have problems you are facing, have faced or will face in the future. But let us consider David’s situation. David’s world is falling apart, or so it must seem to him. He has lost his job. He has lost his home. He will be hunted and persecuted for the next 10 years. He has to run for his life. What has he done to deserve this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing, but obey God. Serve God. Worship God. Love God. He has been faithful to God and David has also been faithful to King Saul. Yet King Saul is jealous of David and is determined to put him to death.

David has become an innocent fugitive.

So let’s observe what David does in these dire circumstances. Is he disappointed in how his life is going and how God is allowing him to be treated? Is he angry with God? Does he run and hide? No. David goes to Samuel. He goes to God’s prophet. He seeks refuge in God.

What do you do when life disappoints you? When it seems God is punishing you rather than rewarding your obedience and your service to Him and for Him? Does your flesh whisper to you- why are you being treated this way? Why has God turned His back on you? Do you turn away from God? This is exactly what the enemy of your soul wants you to do. You must turn to God. Run to Him. Draw near to God.

Job had every reason to curse God for the trouble which had fallen on him. He must have felt crushed by all God has allowed to happen to him. His wife told him to curse God and die. She was used by the enemy to get Job to give up on God. Abandon God. If you abandon God, you abandon all hope, for He is the God of all hope. The only source of hope which does not disappoint. Now it is hard for you to get too upset about David’s dire circumstances because you know how the story ends. David came to learn this truth: “THOUGH I WALK IN THE MIDST OF TROUBLE, YOU WILL REVIVE ME; YOU WILL STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND AGAINST THE WRATH OF MY ENEMIES AND YOU RIGHT HAND WILL SAVE ME. THE LORD WILL PERFECT THAT WHICH CONCERNS ME.”( Psalm 138: 7&8)

Are you upset with God today? Are you wondering why these things keep happening? Are you facing dire circumstances and crying out to God? Do you really just want to say to God- “God give me a break- gives us a break here Lord; we are worn out and we are barely hanging on. What about those promises you made to us that you would never put more on us than we can bear? Where is the way to escape or get through this? Be still and listen as Jesus tells you, I am the way, the truth and the life. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me. (John 14) I am working all things together for good for those who love me…

The mistake people make when things go wrong and their world is turned upside down is they move further away from God. They stop reading their Bible. They stop praying. They stop attending church, Bible study and fellowship with believers. Be honest- have you ever had a time when you were disappointed with God and they way He treated you? I have. And I believe based on scripture, others did also.
Do you see what David did? He went to Samuel. He poured out his heart to Samuel. “So David fled and escaped and went to Samuel at Ramah, and told all that Saul had done to him.”

SUFFERING

I confess I do not like suffering. I do not like to see my loved ones suffer. Neither does God. We have a high priest, the Lord Jesus who is our advocate. He intercedes for us and understands us, because He has suffered also. He has suffered pain. He has suffered hunger and thirst. He has been forsaken by his followers, forsaken by His own Father, had one of his own disciples who betrayed Him, they spit on Him, they beat Him, plucked His beard, brutally beat Him and then crucified Him. We are told to look to Jesus, ‘the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Do you see the cross came before the joy of being the author and finisher of our faith. This tells us suffering comes before joy. Death comes before life. And Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” The cross is a symbol of suffering.

LIFE IS DIFFICULT.

Life is filled with decisions. We want to make the right choices. Those choices which glorify God and benefit us and others. We need God’s guidance. How do we draw near to Him?

1. Cleansing. Is anything in my life hindering me from hearing from God has to say. Cleansing comes from confession. I John 1: 9. Ask the Spirit to search your heart.
2. Surrendering. Submit to God’s instructions. “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you in DUE TIME, casting all your cares upon Him who cares for you. (I Peter 5: 6) It takes time. There are no short cuts. Waiting the right way is important.
3. Asking. James said, you have not, because you ask not. “Now this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of Him.”
4. Meditating. God promise us if we meditate on His word day and night and do what is says we will have success. His word is a lamp unto our feet and a light upon our path.
5. Believing. I love the story in Mark 11 of the man whose son is sick. He desperately wants someone to heal his son, yet even the disciples cannot. Jesus tells him all things are possible to those who believe. The man blurts out- I believe, help my unbelief. Do you have an area of your life, a problem which has been there for years, which seems as if God can do nothing about? And you confess you have come to have a stronghold of unbelief. Pray Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. For when this man prayed this prayer, his son was healed.
6. Waiting. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked;” (is your flesh or someone else mocking God, by saying God is not going to help you out of this problem) for whatever a man sows, that will he also reap. For he who sows to the flesh will to the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in DUE SEASON WE SHALL REAP IF WE DO NOT LOSE HEART.
7. Receiving. When we obediently seek the will of God, we can be sure that He’ll hear us and give us the wisdom we need to make the right choices. Do not doubt. Be single minded, not double minded. He will keep in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast on Him, because He trusts God.

Now just as you are not worried about David’s problems, because you know how they will turn out. Guess what? God has said He will work all things together for good for those who love God who are the called according to His purpose.

So what do we say to these things- these problems which hinder you- the spears being thrown at you, the enemies who wait for you each morning? If God is for us (and He is!) who or what can be against us. If we are heirs to the promises made to Abraham, Joshua, David, then all we have to do is not grow weary in well doing and God will supply power to the weak, to not grow faint for in due season we will reap what we have sown..

It is not quitting time it is waiting and working time. Harvest time is near.

In the meanwhile know you have already been delivered.

I Samuel 18: My Best Friend is Jesus.

What a picture of comparisons and contrasts this chapter reveals. Comparison provides contrast, and contrast provides clarity. We will begin to see clearly the character of these three individuals:  King Saul, David and Jonathan.

David does not create problems for King Saul, instead he reveals the deep- seated problems which lie within Saul’s flawed character. David’s character is almost like a mirror which when Saul looks in it he sees all that he, himself, is not.

Let’s define some words which we need to differentiate:

Envy- a feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by or in conjunction with desires for possessions or qualities of another person.

Jealousy is defined as an apprehension of losing affection of a person or a position one holds to another. 

Malice is the intention or desire to do evil to another. 

Quite often malice arises out envy which leads to jealousy and anger which causes one  to strike out with  the intention  to harm and can even  lead to murder. In fact murder in the first degree is proved when there is “malice aforethought.”  Jesus said anger is often the first steps toward murder. And remember malice can murder a person’s reputation, as words are fueled by envy, jealousy and hatred. We see this in our political system today like never before.  The fear of losing power and position create jealousy which gels into malice – the intention to do evil to another.

Let’s look at love, popularity and pride, envy, jealousy, anger and fear.

LOVE

I Corinthians 13 is the chapter which describes the highest type of love: “ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

Now we read: “Then Jonathan loved him (David) as his own soul.”  Many have tried to pervert this as a homosexual love. But God has made clear this type of relationship is sinful as is adultery and fornication among heterosexuals.  God would not only not approve these types of relationships, He clearly condemns those types of relationships in both the Old and New Testament.  There is an interesting verse tucked away in Titus 1: 15: “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.”  We have come to a time and a place in our culture dominated by unbelievers in which nothing is pure.

Jonathan as the son of King Saul is a prince, a king in waiting. He is also a valiant warrior and a man of character. He is probably 20 -25 years older than David. What he does here in stripping himself of his princely robe, his armor and sword, his belt and bow is a most interesting picture.  Jonathan made a covenant with David from that day forward.  This is a rich illustration which provides us with two spiritual pictures.  First if we think about the passage of Philippians 2 which describes what the Lord Jesus did.  “ Who being in the very form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made of Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of a men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2: 6-11)  We can see this as an illustration of the Lord Jesus in Jonathan’s actions. The Lord Jesus left His throne in heaven and stripped Himself to give us His robe of righteousness for our filthy rags of sin; and His breastplate of righteous, His armor to protect us from evil. And in becoming a sacrifice for our sins, the Lamb of God took away the sin of the world and established a covenant with us who believe.

But I find most interesting is I can also see myself in Jonathan as I come to recognize in David this young man from Bethlehem, a picture of the Lord Jesus.  He has slain the enemy, the giant who represents the devil and death the weapon of the devil. His victory over the enemy who held us as prisoners has freed us and it is for freedom which Christ set us free. What did Jonathan do in response to the glorious victory which David had won, which Jonathan knew he could not win?  He stripped himself of all his badges of royalty.  He yields the throne of his heart on which he himself as sat to David. He divested himself of all the things of which he could boast in.

The Lord Jesus’s victory over sin and Satan should encourage us, even compel us, to strip ourselves of all that we might boast of and lay it at the feet of the Lord Jesus our Savior, Lord and Master out of love and devotion to Him. 

But don’t miss this- the Lord Jesus wants not only to save us from our sins, He wants to be our best and most intimate friend. My best friend is Jesus!

When Jonathan gave his robe, sword, bow, armor and belt to David, he was establishing a covenant with David not only as a friend, but the One who would take his rightful place as king, and Jonathan would be under his command.  Have you surrendered to the Lord Jesus the kingship of your life? Have you placed yourself under His rule?   Is He your best friend? 

Saul places David over the men of war. But the popularity of David soon is to surpass that of King Saul’s.

POPULARITY AND PRIDE

“The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives.” (Proverbs 27:21)

Just as the crucible and the furnace test the purity of silver and gold, praise tests and prepares people for what God has planned for them. Will praise humble you or puff you up?  If it humbles you, you are ready. If it puffs you up- you are not ready.

Watch how one word in a song, one line of praise infuriates King Saul. We read King Saul was with David as David was returning from a victory over the Philistines.  The women of the cities came out to sing praises to King Saul and David.

“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”

ENVY, JEALOUSY, ANGER AND FEAR

Saul was very angry and displeased with the saying. His pride and ego cannot stand for another to be praised more than he. He cannot stand for someone to have the spotlight on them. He is an insecure man, as proud and boastful men often are. Who does God give grace to?  The humble. Who does God resist? The proud. Saul cannot see the victory over the enemy and what it means to the people. His pride ignites the danger combination of envy, jealousy and anger. Then we realize fear most often festers in these emotions.

Listen to his fear: “Now what more can he have but the kingdom?”    When we first met Saul what was he most noted for?  His appearance. He was the MOST HANDSOME MAN IN ISRAEL and was also the tallest.  What do we know of Lucifer this created angel?  In Ezekiel 28 we read ‘he was created perfect in beauty.’  Lucifer envied what God had- worship and power. Lucifer wanted what God had.  Lucifer was filled with pride. He was popular among the other angels. In fact 1/3^rd followed him in rebellion.  Pride in self. Pride in one’s appearance, talent, abilities, intelligence can cause one to puff up, want their own way. “I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation. “  Pride goes before destruction.

Envy is a tool of the enemy which causes pain when somebody achieves or receives what we think belongs to us.  Envy is sin often found in successful people who cannot stand to see others reach or surpass their success. Everyone wants to feel important and appreciated. We all enjoy the feeling of being recognized.  Do you see how subtle and how easily we can be drawn into receiving praise for doing something well?  May I remind you as I often do- and remind myself also- the chief end of man is to glorify God. To God be the glory- we sing; but does our flesh want to bask in the spotlight also?  Amen or oh me. What can I boast of, anyway?   I cannot boast of gifts, abilities, talents or appearance which were given me by the Lord to glorify Him. I can take credit for my sins, mistakes and failings. But God wants to teach us all- His strength is made perfect in weakness. His grace is always sufficient. He knows we have need of healthy emotions as He tells us we are to love Him with all our heart and to love others as our self.

Yes we are to love ourselves. Jonathan loves David as his own soul, his own self.  The enemy wants you to love your self the way he loves himself and wants to be worshipped and praised. Yet Lucifer was a created being. God was the One who gave him his beauty, wisdom and abilities. And guess what? He could not handle it. He was envious. He was jealous. He was prideful. 

Do you see how important love is? We clearly have before us in the story of the Bible- the love of God and the love of Lucifer. God so loved the world, He gave His only Begotten Son. Lucifer so loved himself, he wanted to overthrow God’s rule, the very One who created him and gave him such wisdom and beauty. He wanted to kill the Lord Jesus. He is a murderer and the father of all lies.  Jesus is to Lucifer, what David is to Saul. When Saul looks at David he sees all that he wants to be and is not, or ever will be, and he sees a threat to his kingdom and tries to kill him. Lucifer looks at Jesus the same way.

I Corinthians 13 tells us three things very important to us here in this life:  faith, hope and love, But it tells us love never fails. This is the love of God which has been shed abroad in our hearts. It tells us the love is the greatest of all.

Saul tries the first time to kill David with his javelin while David was playing his harp for him. David escaped his presence twice.

“Now Saul was AFRAID of David, because the Lord was with David, but had departed from Saul.”

From this time forward, King Saul will scheme to kill David, one way or the other. He will give David his daughter, Micah in marriage, for he believes she will be harmful for him. He sends him into danger after danger in hopes he will be killed in combat.

He requires David to kill one hundred Philistines and bring him their foreskins as a marriage price for his daughter. Saul believes this is an impossible feat and will surely result in David’s death.

He will pursue David for more than a decade.

His pride creates envy which turns to jealousy combined with fear and anger – a deadly combination.

The thief comes to kill and steal and destroy.

Saul’s mind and heart were so possessed by hatred for David that he is consumed with killing him.

Many believe Hitler and the German forces and their allies might have been successful in winning the war in Europe if Hitler had not been so fanatical about destroying the Jewish people.

The focus of the fallen angel Lucifer has been fanatical in his desire to destroy the seed of the woman since the fall in the Garden.  From Abel, the first victim to all the destruction of the Jewish male babies in the time of Moses, to the slaughter of the all the male children under two years of age in Bethlehem under Herods’ rule, a relentless enemy battles in every generation to try and turn the tide. And Jesus told us in this world we would have trouble, but He told us to take heart, for He has overcome the world.

King Saul will die. His rule will end. David will take his place upon the throne. God is in control.

The fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abraham would bring Jesus the Messiah through the line of David. David would write over half of the Psalms which would encourage generation after generation. They provide us with light in the dark nights of battle. No wonder Satan was so determined to kill David!

Whenever you feel the pressure of daily life- the crisis which some into our lives, you must realize greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Realize, the prince of heaven has given you His robe of righteousness, His armor and His sword. He will never leave you or forsake you.  He stripped Himself so that we might be clothed. He was forsaken in order that we would be forgiven.

He wants not only to be your Savior, Lord and Master. Jesus wants to be your best friend.

 

 

I Samuel 17:  Facing Giants

In last week’s lesson we read of David’s anointing by Samuel and we were told the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.  At the same time, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a distressing or evil spirit came upon him from the Lord and troubled him.

This seems to be a case of demon possession. Before the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to dwell within believers and never leave them, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon individuals to empower them to accomplish a task.  The Spirit would depart from them also.

The Spirit departed Saul for Saul had rejected the word of God. And when one rejects the word of God, he is given over to the power of Satan.  In the New Testament, it is striking we find many cases of demon possession brought before the Lord Jesus and His mastery over the demons. He cast out legions of the Gadarene demoniac and they entered into the pigs. God is in control over the devil and the demons and they can operate only within the boundaries God allows.  I believe Saul must have sensed he was forsaken by the Lord and no longer had his approval as Samuel left him, never to return.  Theologians believe before the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God came indwell and seal believers there were only two men who possibly experienced the permanent resting of the Spirit on them:  David and John the Baptist.

When the Spirt departed Saul, there was a vacuum created, into which God sent an evil spirit which would terrorize King Saul from that day forward. What is interesting is Saul’s servants sought a remedy for when these occasions became unbearable for King Saul.  And David, the singer of Psalms was brought into the King’s presence and soothed Saul with his music. His music soothed the king and King Saul loved David.  Genuine worship includes not only biblical truth, but the expression of our faith in music, lifting our voices to heaven to God. There was music before creation, we read, “the morning stars (angels) sang together.”  There will be singing in heaven as we read we shall sing- “worthy is the lamb” in heaven.  In the middle of the Bible is the longest book in the Bible:  Psalms, 150 chapters of praises, songs of depth, not shallow lyrics repeated often. When we are filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5 says we will be: “speaking to one another ins psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

David was a nobody. His older brothers were considered more worthy than he. His own father did not invite him to this all- important meeting with Samuel.  When the Bible tells us God is searching for those who have a heart after Him, what does that mean?  In David we find the answer:

1. David had the heart of a servant. A servant does not rebel against the authority of his or her master. They are sensitive to their master’s needs and seek always to do their will.
2. They are not only humble, a person with a heart after God has integrity. Honesty. Open with no motive except to do the will of their master. Not seeking glory for themselves. David would continue to watch over the sheep, when he was not soothing the king.
3. A person with a heart for God is seeking God with their whole heart.

FACING GIANTS

Isn’t it interesting, the Lord mentioned to Samuel specifically not to look at his appearance or height- how tall he was.  David will face Goliath who is 9 feet, 9 inches tall.  Goliath is the champion of the Philistines. He is from Gath. Goliath’s name means “banishment.”  Gath means “the winepress.”  Theses names are a foreshadowing of those who come against God and His people, will be banished and will be tread in the winepress of His wrath.

We read of his immense size. Some wonder could it be possible for a man to be this large. In the 20^th century an American man held the record as the tallest man in the world- he was 8 feet, 11 inches tall.

We read the description of his armor and his weapons which are huge. His armor probably weighs more than David.  This giant comes every day to front of the battle line and challenges them to send out someone to fight him. The offer is straight-forward:  If the Israelite soldier is able to defeat Goliath, the Philistines will be their subjects; but if he overcomes him and kills him, Israel will be the slaves of the Philistines.

“On hearing the Philistines words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.” (NIV)

Do you remember what God told Joshua?  “No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. “(Joshua 1; 5) God goes on to tell Joshua to do all that is written in His word and He will make their way prosperous.  “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Easy to believe when everything is going your way. But when you are facing a giant in your life- a problem so large, it seems insurmountable it is a different story. What ‘giant’ are you facing?

David is a man after God’s heart. Saul is a man after the flesh. Saul and all of Israel were dismayed and greatly afraid, terrified. Paralyzed by their fear. And suffering from amnesia of God’s promises to them.  They were for all practical purposes- powerless. They were in desperate need of a deliverer. The very first step in achieving sobriety was to admit, confess, I was powerless over alcohol and my life had become unmanageable. Two interesting words in that first step:  powerless and unmanageable. Our flesh, our old nature likes to be in control, to manage the circumstances in our own power.  Control is an illusion.

Notice who sent David to the front- his father. David is taking bread to them. God the Father sent His only Son, the True Bread of heaven to earth to deliver us from our sin. The Lord Jesus we read in Philippians 3, “made of Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men, humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death on the cross.

We are told David’s three oldest brothers are with Saul’s army facing Goliath. David is still working his two jobs, playing music for Saul at his requests, and taking care of the sheep.  Meanwhile, Goliath has issued this challenge for 40 consecutive days.

On the 41^st day, Jesse decides to send David to the battle front to take his brothers some bread and supplies and see how they are doing and report back to him.

So the stage is set, David arrives and leaves supplies for his brothers with the supply keeper and ran to the army and greeted his brothers. At the same time, Goliath comes out for the 41^st day in a row and issues his challenge. David heard Goliath’s challenge. All of the men of Israel when they saw Goliath fled from him and were dreadfully afraid.

Now David hears of what will be done for the man who kills the giant. He will be given the king’s daughter for a bride, receive great riches and his father’s estate will be exempt from all taxes.

The Lord Jesus was given the church, the bride of Christ for defeating the enemy. David’s relationship with his bride would be difficult at times, as is the Lord’s relationship with His bride, the Church often strained.

Now remember Eliab, David’s oldest brother, whom Samuel was so impressed with?  We now see his envious, cruel nature and how he despises David and accuses him of motives which are not true. “Why did you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep? He then accuses David of being prideful and insolence in his heart. Insolence is defined as an arrogant lack of respect, impudent, insulting.   Nothing could be further from the truth about David.

Now a ravine separated these two armies, but verse 25 tells us on this day, Goliath has come up, meaning he is drawing nearer to the army. No wonder the men are fleeing. If you tolerate a Goliath in your life, he will sooner or later move right up into your camp. Your thoughts will be of nothing else but this giant who is threatening you with ruin. You cannot tolerate this giant, you must face your giant, this bully, this problem, this pending disaster. Lots of people will offer you advice how to handle this problem. Many times it comes from family. Joseph’s brothers could not stand him. David’s brother’s belittled him. And Jesus’ own family at one time thought he had lost his mind. God wants you to depend on Him completely.

God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. To all appearances, David looked like the least likely candidate to take on this giant. His size, his experience, his youth were all against him by all standards men used to measure the worth and ability of others.

When David volunteers, this is King Saul’s first reaction:  you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth, and he a man of war since his youth. David tells the king, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.  Notice, David does not take credit for killing a lion and a bear.  He said the Lord delivered me from the lion and the bear. We tend to remember our defeats and forget our victories.   David knows it is God who will empower him and protect him.

Saul is willing to let him try.  But first Saul who is a man after the flesh wants to equip David with the weapons of the flesh. But David, not only can wear this armor, it hinders him from fighting in the strength of the Lord.

God made you and me uniquely different. He did that for a reason, because God knew exactly how he would use the uniqueness of me to accomplish His will. God chose my parents, He chose the time and place in which I was to be born. And like Esther, it is for such a time as this, that you and I have come into the kingdom of God. The giants we are facing are to frighten us, dismay us and discourage us and tell us we are not equipped to take on this mission.

If the chief end of man is to glorify God, then God’s name is to be magnified. The Holy Spirit which indwells us and the Holy Spirit who came upon David wants to magnify God’s Name. His strength is made perfect in weakness, for in weakness, no man can boast.   God can empower us to win the battle, no matter how formidable is the enemy we face.  We must remember the promise to Joshua is to us also. We must remember the verse in Isaiah 54:17, which says no weapon formed against you shall prosper. No matter how large the weapon or how large the enemy who wields it.

David goes forth without armor, for we have the spiritual armor of God. David uses those things he has become proficient, even gifted with- his expertise with a sling and the experience he has had of defeating the lion and the bear. David knows it is God who has empowered him.  One last taunt by Goliath made it clear to David what this battle was about: “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. David knew instinctively what this battle was about:  “You come to me with sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beast of the earth, that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel. Then all the assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord’s.

Now you know the rest of the story as well as any story in the Bible. Goliath headed toward David and must have been surprised when David ran toward him. He took a stone out of his bag and he slung it and hit the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over Goliath. He took Goliath’s own sword and cut off his head. The Philistines fled when they saw what happened. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee.” (James 4: 7)

David stood before this giant and was not intimidated by his size and prowess. Intimidation is quite often the tactic of the enemy when we face giants in our lives which threaten us.  Our thoughts get confused, we can’t think clearly. We focus on the giant, the problem before us and forget to pray.   The secret in these battles:  the battle is the Lord’s.

God wants you to remember the victories, and forget the defeats. Facing giants is intimidating, the Lord Jesus understands this. Doing battle is often a lonely experience. Jesus experienced this in the Garden when his most trusted disciples could not even stay awake and pray. He knew it when His Father had to forsake Him at Calvary. Trusting God is a stabilizing experience. A calm in the eye of the storm. He keeps in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast on Him because he trusts God.  The battle is fought on our knees in prayer. The battle is the Lord’s and He has never lost.

Perhaps you are trying on someone else’s armor. God says I want to strip you down to nothing but your faith. This is all I need- a heart that is loyal to me and I will show myself strong on your behalf.

David was trained and became competent over time. His expertise with the sling came from hours and hours of practice as it was an important skill he had to develop to be proficient as a shepherd to protect his flock. Our flesh wants to become skilled and proficient without spending the time and discipline to develop our skills which God has given us.  The musician spends hours and hours of monotonous repetition in order to train his fingers to form the chords and find the right keys.   Everything has its time. “To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven.” What does this mean to you?  A season is a specified time period. There is a season and a time of training and developing skills.  Purpose is defined as ‘the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.’  God has allowed whatever has come into your life for a purpose. And ultimately that purpose is that His Name will be glorified.  David did not learn how to use a sling in one day. He learned how over years and years and hours and hours of practice. God drives out the enemy, little by little. He builds a fortress in your life brick by brick, precept upon precept, line upon line.

It in these times and seasons you are sowing what you will later reap. What you must guard against in the season of training and sowing is growing weary of the training. “Do not be deceived God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows that shall he also reap. For he who sows to the flesh, will of the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6)

If you have a heart toward God, loyal to God, then He will show Himself strong on your behalf. “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40)

I Samuel 16:  How Can I Go?

In this chapter we meet David, one of the most well-known characters in the Bible. Writer of over half of the Psalms, Israel’s most famous king who was known as “a man after God’s own heart.”  He was a poet, a musician, a warrior-king. His name, David, means “beloved.”  He is a picture of the Lord Jesus in many ways. Now in last week’s lesson I found myself identifying with Saul’s dilemma and empathized with his predicament, which told me I was leaning to my own understanding, the wants of my flesh. This week I find myself understanding Samuel’s feelings.

Our story takes up after King Saul’s disobedience once again to God’s commands. God has rejected Saul. Samuel tells Saul he will have nothing to do with him from now on.  And now Samuel is depressed and mourning over what has occurred and God comes to Samuel. God tells Samuel to quit mourning over Saul’s rejection and prepare to anoint the one God has chosen to be king over Israel.  We have been told I Samuel 8, Samuel was old and the elders came to him and said, “Look you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways, now give us a king to judge us like the other nations.” Samuel is told it is time for you to retire.

Has something ended in your life over which you are still mourning?   “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:  a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance.”  In a word, Samuel was depressed. He was saddened over how Saul had turned out and over the changes in his own life.   He was mourning and now it was time to dance. God knows Samuel needed a time to mourn. He had been a dedicated servant and had experienced a successful career as judge, priest and prophet. He had led the nation in a revival and a return to renewal of their relationship with the Lord. We see the very cycle of times and seasons in life, which King Solomon described in Ecclesiastes.  God knows we need time to mourn that which we have lost, whether it be a loved one, or something we loved, such as our careers.   Like Samuel, I had been young and filled with ambition to be successful. I had a successful career as a national speaker. I loved what I did. Now that is over and I need not to mourn over what I have been, but get excited about what is next to come into my life.

 Am I retired?  Or redirected?  Samuel is being redirected and restored by God.  Everyone who has enjoyed their career, knows there is a loss when one’s career ends. It could be health which caused it, or age, or new management and younger people with different ideas.   There is a loss of certainty which came with our positions.  Then we realize there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. And I return to Mordecai’s words to Esther:  Yet who knows for such a time as this you have come into the kingdom? You may mourn your losses. But do not allow these losses to define who you have become. Renewal and redirection come from a fresh encounter with God. Does your happiness and joy and worth depend on career? On success in business?   What or who are you looking to for approval and worth which supply you with joy and purpose? 

This study has shown us Saul’s happiness and joy depended on his success and approval ratings. His victories in battle and his adoration of the people were what made his day. Then when these conditions change, (and they will change, for all of us) we can find ourselves distressed as Saul was distressed because things are not what they used to be. We long for yesterday when things were better, when we were young and opportunities were available and many. What we call the “good old days.”

There was another man named Saul, Saul of Tarsus. He was from the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee and a zealous Jew.  He had been born with a father who had both Roman and Israeli citizenship, which Saul enjoyed this envied Roman citizenship as well as his Jewish heritage. He was highly intelligent, well educated and hard working. His career was everything to him. He trusted his intelligence, his background and heritage, and his hard work. In other words, he trusted in himself and in his giftedness and abilities. This man who would change his name to Paul, the great apostle who wrote so much of the New Testament. He had to lose his career and come to count his accomplishments as junk.  In Second Corinthians, Paul writes to tell the church – “of our trouble which came on us in Asia; that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, THAT WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES BUT IN GOD WHO RAISES THE DEAD.” Who or what are you trusting to give your life meaning, happiness and joy?  Yourself, your job, your health, your wealth, your family? Or God?

Can you identify with Samuel’s emotions?  God has something for Samuel to do of great importance.  He tells him what he is to do. Fill your horn with oil. Remember horn is a symbol of power. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.  When you realize you are powerless, weak, and not in control. God has you where He can fill you with His Spirit and empower you. God uses the weak, the foolish, the base, that is the nobodies for His strength is made perfect in weakness.   

Samuel is now estranged from King Saul. He knows King Saul will be watching him now as a potential threat to his kingdom.  We know Saul is a man of the flesh. Everything we have read about him and learned from his behavior, his physical good looks and size tells us it is all about the outward appearance. The flesh is prideful. The flesh is jealous and the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. Samuel fears Saul will kill him. In a perverse way, it gives me reassurance Samuel a man of great faith is fearful. And then I remember, ‘what time I am afraid I will trust in you.’ Are you in a fearful, either life-threatening, or happy-threatening situation? Then you are in good company for Samuel feared for his life and Paul shared we were scared to death.

Samuel asked a simple, straightforward question:  “How shall I go?”  I use the search engine of Google very often. It performs up to 60,000 search requests per second. You learn to ask good questions in order to get the specific answer for which you are searching. The same is true with God. Be specific in your questions and God can be specific in your answers. Here is a good question. God is directing you to do something. Here is a good question to ask:  How shall I go? Then watch, wait, and pray.

Samuel has had another disappointment in his life. His career has ended. His sons are not what he wanted them to be. Now Saul is a failure. Samuel is running on empty. He needs to be filled. He needs to be restored.  David is a shepherd. And David knew ‘the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.” How does God restore us? He restores our souls, (mind, will and emotions) through fellowship with Him. How does He do this? He allows us to wander from Him to meet our own needs and wants. Then when those fail and we find ourselves empty. We come our senses like the Prodigal Son, don’t we? We return home to our waiting Father.  He leads us. He provides for us. He protects us. We will be referring often to the Psalms as David wrote many of them when he was experiencing some of the most difficult and trying times in his life.

 God tells Samuel exactly how to go about this journey to anoint the one who will be God’s choice for king. He is to go with the purpose of making a sacrifice to the Lord. He is told invite Jesse and his sons and God will reveal to Samuel who he is to anoint.  

Samuel has Jesse bring his sons before him. They are impressive in looks and size. But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks a the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Understand this:  God had given the people what they wanted, a king who was handsome, tall and wealthy. What do you do when you have gotten your own way and that which you have made king of your life fails you?    God is searching for a man after His own heart.  Notice God is not searching for a man who is handsome, tall, rich, strong and smart.  He is searching for man after His own heart. In I Corinthians 1, we read of the weak, the foolish, the nobodies God uses. Why?  So no one can boast before God. When we look for people to admire- we are impressed by their physical appearance, their intellect, their wealth, their possessions, their accomplishments. These are the best, the brightest and the beautiful people our fallen society worships and wants to be like.   God says I choose nobodies and make them into somebodies.  This is the story of David.

David is the baby in the family.  The 8^th son. He is so insignificant in the eyes of his father, he is not invited to the dinner. He is out taking care of the sheep. God has told Samuel, none of these seven sons are the one chosen to be king.  What does it mean to be a ‘man (or woman) after God’s own heart?’ The first quality is spirituality.  Esau was a man’s man- strong, athletic, skilled as hunter. Jacob, the younger, was more a ‘momma’s boy’, but was interested in the spiritual things his grandfather, Abraham had taught him about. Esau cared nothing for the spiritual. A spiritual person is concerned about spiritual things. Your heart is sensitive to the spiritual things of God. “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those who heart is completely His…( 2 Chronicles 16: 9)

You long to please the Lord. When you sin, you are grieved. You hunger and thirst for righteousness. You mourn over your sin and the sins of others and of your nation.  A person with a heart after God is sensitive to spiritual truth. They are also a person of humility.  Saul is a poster boy for pride. David, a picture of humility. He has servant’s heart. He obeyed his father and tended the sheep although an important guest had come on an important mission. A servant is not a rebel. A servant is faithful. They will hear this from the Lord at the Bema:  “Well done thy good and faithful servant.”  A servant does not care who gets the glory. Saul was jealous of anyone who was successful and wanted no one else to receive credit for accomplishments but him.

David was also a man of integrity, which is described and defined: as honesty and having strong moral principles. The world teaches us it is all about making a good first impression. The Bible tells us God is not impressed by outward appearances but the inward contents of a person’s heart, their character.

Spiritual, humble, and a person of integrity. How does God train a person who has a heart after Him? Let’s observe David. He is a shepherd. His job is done in solitude. God trains and teaches us life’s lessons alone, before we are placed in a position of responsibility.  You must get alone with God and allow His Word to search your heart. We see a culture today which cannot stand to be isolated. Who constantly want to be connected to others via our smart phones while we search online while a large screen television offers a limitless number of choices for mindless entertainment and ear buds placed in our ears constantly provide music.  We are an affluent society and affluence breeds boredom.

As we read David’s Psalms, we know this is a young man who spent time, evening after evening sitting under the stars at night alone watching the sheep. He contemplates the God who created everything and asks Him, – what is man?  David was born in the small town of Bethlehem away from the crowds of Jerusalem. David, like Jesus, was raised in both adversity and obscurity.  David had seven older brothers and he had been forced to fight off both a lion and a bear. Solitary and isolated. God wants us to spend time with Him alone.   David knew how to deal with the monotony of life to deal with the same-old, same-old with faithful service, doing the everyday monotonous task that were required of a shepherd. David understood what the real world was about.

We watch so much make-believe on television and in the movies, it blurs what the real world is about. And yet God chose to use David, a shepherd boy for he had developed a heart for God. Moses was a Prince in Egypt, but it was on the backside of nowhere doing the same thing every day for 40 years he was equipped for the task. Our own Lord Jesus, God the Son, spent 30 years in Nazareth as a carpenter in a poor family until the fullness of time came. After that, He made Himself known and began a 3 year ministry which would turn the world upside down.

Surely this was not the way you prepared a man to be king and fight giants. But God’s ways are higher than our ways.

Now let’s make sure we do not take this method and turn into monks who live in isolation in a monastery. Getting alone with God means you get alone with Him to discover which way to go. How to be more responsible and diligent in all areas of your life.

It is in the little things and the lonely places God trains us and empowers us to do the bigger things. Faithful in little is God’s first tests.  Taking care of sheep. God takes His time doesn’t He?  The conversion of your soul took place in a moment. The sanctification process of conforming you to the image of His Son is a lifetime task. Welcome to God’s classroom and curriculum:  obscurity, adversity, monotony, this is the real world.  This is my Father’s World.

Now notice when Samuel anointed David with the oil, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. At the same time, we read the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.

Guess what happens next?  To soothe the troubled Saul, one of his servants knew of David the shepherd boy who could sing and play the harp with such skill it would sooth the troubled king. And David came to Saul and stood before him. David loved King Saul and became his armor bearer. He found favor in Saul’s eyes just as Joseph did with Potiphar, and the prison warden and the Pharaoh.

It was David’s musical ability which introduced him to the royal court which then led to his military career. The opportunities of life matched his gifts and talents which had been developed in isolation, small, seemingly unimportant tasks, which he performed faithfully day in- day out. Adversity came in the form of not only older brothers who can be relentless in picking on a younger brother, but also in the protection of his flock from a lion and a bear.

Here in lies our basis for success as Christians:

1.      Know your gifts.

2.      Realize God chose the time and place you are to serve Him.

3.      God gave you the gifts which shape your life. S.H.A.P.E. God has given each of us Spiritual gifts when we got saved. He then gives us a Heart, a passion to express and use those gifts. These gifts will be teamed with Abilities you were born with, natural talents. These are to be developed and when empowered by the Holy Spirit, you can do what only you can do in the place where God has placed you according to Acts 17. Each of us are unique, and each has a Personality which God uses along with our Experience He has allowed. All of this comes together as the Potter shapes your life through the pressures, the perplexities, the ups and downs of life.

4.      Then you can surrender to God and say where ever you lead I will follow.

In Psalm 139, David after years of following the Lord and looking back realizes:  “For you formed my inward parts; you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and marvelously made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

David knew, and I hope you know, God made you and shaped you and gifted you with what He wanted you to have.

Ask God – how can I go?  He will answer you. And we will go like Samuel did.  “I have come to make a sacrifice for the Lord.”  This is our purpose. This is how I can go.

I Samuel 15: Because I Said So!

“ Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, and infant and nursing child, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey. “ ( vs.3)

That sounds like an order one does not expect from God, doesn’t it? Destroy the enemy, ok. Destroy the live stock? Well maybe ok.  Kill the women?  Kill the infants, the nursing child? I am confused Lord. Is this really necessary? Why are we doing this, Lord?  ‘ Because I Said So.

For the second time, I realized I understood Saul’s behavior. In fact I knew how he felt when he did not wait for Samuel to arrive out of fear of the negative circumstances he faced. He faced overwhelming odds:  outnumbered by a military force better equipped combined with the growing problem of desertion by his own under-equipped army.  It was a recipe for disaster and a catastrophic defeat. So Saul leaned to his own understanding and  left God out of the equation and did what he thought was best in the situation.  He went ahead and offered the sacrifice himself instead of waiting for Samuel.  I understood his actions, have done the same thing in the past, as you probably have also. A mistake- but an understandable mistake. Or was it more than just a mistake?  A test designed by God to see if we understand the importance of obedience.

Now comes this order and we see Saul again not obeying God’s command completely.  And again I understand and empathize with Saul more than I understand God’s command. I was troubled because this command of God’s seems overly harsh. I wanted to understand so I could know as much as I possibly could know and understand what was happening here.

One thing became obvious- if I was siding with Saul and his actions, I was on the wrong side and did not want to be.  Please help me understand Heavenly Father what was happening here.

Now every parent has had those moments when a child questions their wisdom or ask why they should be doing something the way they were told to do it.  And the reply was, “ Because I said so..”  We use this explanation, because we know the child is incapable at their age and level of wisdom to understand the explanation.

Deuteronomy 29: 29 tells us the same:  “ The secret things of God belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

And Paul writes in Romans 11: 33:  “ Oh the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and His ways past finding out.

Does this mean I cannot understand or expect to know why? Or do I continue to try and find out. Now some would wave their hands in dismissal and say that was the God of Wrath of the Old Testament, not the loving Savior of the New Testament. But God made it clear in Malachi- “ I the Lord, do not change.”

So my thought process was this:  Generals and leaders in war make decisions when it comes to attacks, knowing there will be innocent victims who will be killed in the battle. These finite men make the best decisions they can in difficult situations knowing there will be no perfect solution. But God is not like us- He is perfect and His decisions are perfect. But- if I can understand more about His reasons, I want to know if I can. If I exhaust my search without finding a suitable answer, then I will know it is simply a secret of God I cannot understand( at least at this time)  and will accept it as best as I can.

Verse 2 which precedes the Lord’s command of utter destruction of these people points me in the right direction. It takes us back to the reason for this command. It is a reference to what occurred in Exodus 17, so my search led me there.

THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

Sometimes we are so consumed by what we want, we miss  God is wanting to provide us with what we need.  I have discovered my flesh, that is my old nature can distract me with its wants, while God is wanting to provide me with what I need. The wants, or the things my flesh want are keeping me from getting what God knows I need.  The Israelites who were led out of Egypt by God’s mighty acts performed through Moses are an example to us.  They constantly complain about what they wanted, while God provided everything they needed. He provided them with daily bread, the manna which came down from heaven.  The incident in Exodus 17 is another situation in which the people were in need of water. They were thirsty. God instructs Moses to take his rod and strike the rock . Water flows from the rock and people drank the water from the rock.  Now Ezekiel’s vision in the first chapter of Ezekiel allowed him to see visions of God in  heaven.  Of all the strange and wonderful sights he saw was what he described as “ the appearance of wheels and their workings was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.  A wheel within a wheel. Thus is how God’s Word works, a story within the story- a truth within a true story.  I wanted to find the story within this story if I could.

For example we know the story within the story of the Passover Lamb and the blood posted on the doorpost which represents the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, whose shed blood for our sins saves us from the wrath of God.

Paul helps us find the story within the story in I Corinthians 10 he tells us of the meaning of these truths in Exodus:  “ Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”

Here is the picture, the metaphor, the symbolism, the truth within the truth:  they were baptized into Moses- a picture of the believer identified with Christ and taken with Him in baptism through the death, burial and resurrection, and thus the resurrection life. They were partakers of the daily manna, the picture of the believer receiving the witness of the Holy Spirit enabling us to understand the Word of God, the spiritual truths. This occurred as we were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, an eternal spring.

In other words, in New Testament language, when the people drank of the water from the smitten Rock which was Christ, they were a picture of the Christian believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  Make sense- do you get the picture?

No sooner had they drank of the water then came the attack.  “ Now Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.”  Who is this Amalek and the Amalekites?  Amalek is a direct descendant of Esau. And Esau is clearly and consistently a picture of the flesh. The sinful nature which has nothing to do with God or spiritual things of God.   God even said:  Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated.  Esau despised his spiritual birthright. And that which is born of the flesh is flesh. This why we must be born again of the Spirit. And the flesh must be put to death.

Guess what as soon as you and I were saved and the Holy Spirit comes into our lives to indwell and seal us and restore us and begin the process of sanctification- our flesh, the old nature attacks , resisting the work of the Holy Spirit.  We are told what to do:  “ Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things you wish.” ( Galatians 5: 16, 17)

Paul describes his own internal, infernal battle in Romans 7 where he shares with us- what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate – that I do.  He said evil was always present when he wanted to do good.

The Amalekites are descendants of Esau. They attacked Israel shortly after they left Egypt. In Exodus 17 we read of their attack, where Moses lifted up his arms and prayed to God during the battle. With him were Aaron and Hur helping him hold up his hands to God. Joshua led the army in the defeat of Amalek and his people with the edge of his sword.  But it was God who gave them the victory.  We must remember it is the Lord’s battle.  “The Lord said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” (Exodus 17)

Now where was the nation of Israel headed?  To the Promised Land. The Promised Land is the spirit-filled, spirit-led, abundant resurrection life the Lord wants us to live here and now. Standing in your path to the Promised Land, the land of spiritual maturity is Amalek. He is there at the beginning of this journey at the very outset of your Christian life. He wants to keep you wandering in the wilderness of carnality.  For the carnal Christian is the flesh’s goal. If the flesh can keep you from spiritual maturity, if it can keep you living in the wilderness, complaining and griping and constantly giving into what your flesh wants and you cannot live a victorious life.

This is why God told them to remember and write it down as a memorial this enemy must be utterly destroyed for he will plague and battle every generation. He will attack you children, and your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s children.

Now when God spoke through Malachi, he knew there would be no more additions to the Old Testament. Interesting the things He wanted to remind us of in the last book of the Old Testament:  “Yet Jacob  I have loved; but Esau I have hated.” God then says of Esau’s descendants:  “They may build, but I will throw down. They shall be called the Territory of Wickedness and the people against whom the Lord will have indignation forever.” (Malachi 1) Later on God says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.” Malachi 3: 6

Amalek and the Amalekites are always a symbol of the flesh. He is always attacking the Spirit of God. Always after God’s children from generation to generation. Not only are the Amalekites descendants of Esau, so also are the Edomites.  King Herod who had the infants of Bethlehem killed in his attempt to kill Jesus was an Edomite.  Haman who in the book of Esther, devised a plot to destroy the Jewish people was a descendant of Agag, the very king of the Amalekites, Saul had refused to kill.  And we will discover Saul’s assisted suicide is with the aid of an Amalekite- how fitting that the man who would not utterly destroy that which is a symbol of the flesh- is destroyed by the flesh.

God has all knowledge and He has given us a picture of our flesh in the Amalekites. In it dwells not good thing.  Saul thought at least we should save the best of the flocks. That is like saying let’s give God the best of that which is evil in His sight. He says there is only one way to deal with the flesh- utterly destroy it. He says I want you to write this down and remember it.

In Hebrews 10: 17, God says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” What God forgets and remembers not more, we are to forget and remember no more. He has put them away as far as the east is from the west.”(Psalm 103: 12) Though my sins were as scarlet, they have become white as snow.

God says we do not have the right to remember what He tells us to forget. And we do have the right to forget what He tells us to remember.

Samuel told Saul, the Lord said:  ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up out of Egypt.”   And He had it written down for us not to forget- He, Almighty God, would blot the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

“For He said, BECAUSE THE LORD HAS SWORN THE LORD WILL HAVE WAR WITH AMALEK FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION.

Now this sounds harsh, even difficult to think of God destroying a nation because of what they did centuries before. The nation of Amalekites were unspeakably wicked and empowered by the evil one, they wanted to destroy the nation of Israel. They wanted to exterminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth, just as Hitler and Nazi Germany wanted to in World War II.  These people were not just opposing the Jewish people, they were opposing Almighty God and His plan of redemption for the whole world. As Abraham said in Genesis 18: 25:  “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do Right? “ God has the right to what He does and He always does what is right.  God’s promise to Israel was: I will curse those who curse you.

So as I come to the end of my second revision of this lesson. I find it is as much about me as it is about Saul.

That I can find myself understanding his motives, his reluctance to obey fully God’s difficult commands, and in doing so I realize I and Saul have much in common. We have an old nature which if not utterly destroyed will try to block our path to the Promised Land.

We find our paths to spiritual maturity blocked by our own Amalekite, our flesh. Who when finding something hard to understand, lean to our own understanding.

Having begun in the Spirit, we sometimes find ourselves attempting to accomplish God’s will in our own ways in our own strength and might.

*Now a word to the wise:  the devil loves to twist and invert the word of truth. He may have said something like this: ‘try not to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, and then you will walk in the Spirit. But the truth is we are to walk in the Spirit and then you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Now I do understand more about this command to utterly destroy the Amalekites. For the flesh always lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

The enemy will try to get you to remember what God told you to forget and forget what He told you to remember.

But sometimes we forget, don’t we.  Sometimes our flesh questions God’s commands because they seem difficult.

It is all right to ask God why. And I asked Him why in this lesson, because my flesh was lusting against the Spirit. But the Spirit gave me answers I could begin to comprehend which are in keeping with God’s attributes and character and knowing He always does what is right.

So when I sometimes do not understand or can trace His hand, I trust His heart.

And I will do what He says – BECAUSE HE SAYS SO.

I Samuel 14: Braveheart

The Philistines had strongholds in the midst of Israel. Their forces outnumbered the Israelite army. There were no blacksmiths in Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make swords or spears.” The Israelites had to go down to the Philistines to sharpen each man’s plowshare, his ax or sickle.  So it came about on the day of battle, there was neither sword, nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul or Jonathan.”  (They used slingshots, bow and arrows, axes, & goads for weapons.)

It appeared the Israelite army was:  outnumbered, had inferior weapons and the enemy had numerous strongholds in the land from which to launch raids and attacks with superior weaponry. From a military viewpoint, these were dire circumstances, designed by the enemy to cower us and make us fearful, anxious and with an attitude of defeat.  ‘We’re never going to get out of this- type attitude.

Today we see the church’s numbers dwindling.  We see the enemy has strongholds in every community. We see our spiritual weapons in need of sharpening.  We are in a battle, we are surrounded. The enemy has created an environment and culture of confusion, chaos, and fear.

However, the Lord has told us: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.” (Isaiah 54: 17)  Paul told Timothy – God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind.

But in reality- there is at present a spirit of oppression among Christians. The culture wants us to ‘go along – to get along.’ Everywhere we turn it seems we are being pressed to conform to the new normal of today’s society where there is no king and everyone wants to do what is right in their own eyes. We are being marginalized in every area:  our public schools, the work place, the public arena of debate, and the Word of God is not to be allowed in any of those places.  The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. The Word of God is our weapon for it is the Truth, the absolute truth- yet is being slandered by the enemy as hate speech.    In other words, the enemy knows the boundaries provided by God’s word were not to enslave us but to keep us free. When we moved those boundaries, we crossed God’s line and entered into sin, which is the beginning of bondage. All bondage begins with sin. This is why Jesus told us if we continue in His word, we shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set us free.

God has not allowed us, His People to be oppressed to be defeated, but so we would cry out for help, realizing without Him we have no defense against the enemy. But greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. As long as we think we can handle the situation with our finite earthly weapons, the enemy has us right where he wants us.

Do you see the similarity between what had happened in Israel and what is happening today in our country?

THE STORY OF JONATHAN AND HIS ARMOR BEARER

Jonathan is the son of King Saul. And he could not be more unlike his father. He is a godly man. He is a man of extraordinary courage, conviction and faith.

Watch now how God worked in the life of Jonathan and his armor bearer.

“ Now it happened one day that Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who bore his armor, “ Come let us go over to the Philistine’s garrison that is on the other side.”   We sometimes forget God knows precisely what we will face each day.

An armor bearer was to bear arms for his master. He was to go into battle with him.  He carried the weapons needed to pull down the strongholds of the enemy. Now we know the Israelites do not have the strength and powerful weapons the enemy does.

Jonathan and the armies of Israel faced a real enemy on the battlefield. So do we. But we must recognize where the battlefield is- the battlefield is the mind.  This is where the enemy sets up strongholds. This where the enemy launches attacks on us. 

Remember God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. What good is it to have knowledge of God but not think it worthwhile to retain it?  How do we keep our minds steadfast?

“You (God) will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26; 3)

Remember we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places. We must understand the schemes of the enemy and how to use our armor and the weapons we have which are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Cor. 10)  If you do not take your wrong thoughts captive, they will take you captive.

So let us analyze the spiritual armor which Jonathan and his armor bearer carried and more importantly how they used it.

Notice Johnathan knows where the enemy is and says to the armor bearer: “Come let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.”

Remember what Jonathan and the Israelites have – God’s Word, the first five books given to them by God through Moses on the mount when they came out of captivity.  In Deuteronomy 28: 7 God said: “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face: they shall come out against you one way and flee seven ways.”  In Leviticus 26, we read: “You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.”

Jonathan had meditated on God’s promises of victory- have you?  It is obvious Jonathan went out this day armed with the promises of victory from Almighty God.   “Nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.”  Nothing is impossible for God.

“YOU WILL KEEP IN PERFECT PEACE HIM WHOSE MIND IS STEADFAST BECAUSE HE TRUSTS IN YOU.” (Isaiah 26: 3)

“FOR THOUGH WE WALK IN THE FLESH, WE DO NOT WAR ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. FOR THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL BUT MIGHTY IN GOD FOR PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS, CASTING DOWN ARGUMENTS AND EVERY HIGH THING THAT EXALTS ITSELF AGAINST THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, BRINGING EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY OT THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST.”  (2 Cor. 10: 3-5)

In Ephesians 6, we are told to put on the full, whole armor of God that we might stand against the schemes of the devil.  Are you aware of his schemes? He tempts by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

When you read the pieces of the whole armor of God you realize it is all about the Word of God. It starts with the belt of truth- the Word of God is the first and foundational piece. Satan does not want you to have this belt on -so he has questioned its truthfulness since the Garden of Eden; “has God really said?”

Next is the breastplate of righteousness which comes from faith. Paul tells us Abraham was counted righteous by faith.  Then our feet are shod with the Gospel of Peace.  The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. A soldier must have good footing so he will not slip in battle. The shield of faith which is the largest piece of armor and protects us from the flaming arrows of temptation, doubt and fear from the enemy.  And where does faith come from?  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The enemy wants to steal the word of God the seed, before it takes hold. He wants to crowd it out with the things and cares of the world.  Then there is the helmet of salvation for our minds must be transformed by the Word of God so we will not be conformed by the culture around us. And then we take the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.  And after putting on the full armor we are to stand and pray.

YOU WILL KEEP- God is our watchman. We need a watchman on the wall of our minds. And God is the perfect watchman. He protects us. He neither sleeps nor slumbers. He stands watch and alerts us to approaching danger. He is the perfect watchman because he knows our thoughts before we think them and sets off the alarm there is an opening in the wall- a doorway of wrong thoughts in which the enemy wants to creep in.

PERFECT PEACE- peace is between two parties. The two parties here are God and us, (you and me) We were not at peace with God before we were saved. But when we got saved, we were justified through faith and we have peace with God.  But we also have the peace of God, for Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you, not as of the world gives. Let not your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14: 27) Perfect peace is peace with God and the peace of God.

HIM WHOSE MIND IS STEADFAST- the mind is where decisions are made. Our minds frame our view of the world, the news, the temptations, and every circumstance which comes into our life. The steadfast mind of the believer chooses to believe there is no weapon formed against them which will prosper and that the Sovereign God of the universe is in charge and nothing can happen without his approval, knowledge or decree.

Overwhelming circumstances?  Think what Jonathan faced: inferior weapons, a more powerful enemy, more numerous and better equipped to fight. The enemy has always wanted you to look at what you DON’T HAVE INSTEAD OF WHAT YOU DO HAVE.  Whatever is making you anxious, worried and fearful seems to be a problem without solution and all you can see is defeat.  If those are our thoughts, you need to cast them down using the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

BECAUSE HE TRUSTS IN YOU- God wants you to trust Him like you trusted your parents when you were a child. This is why He has taken the role of Father.

THE DIVINE POWER TO DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS

Satanic strongholds require divine demolition Not by your power or might, but by the Spirit. Satan’s power comes from his ability to bluff. Bluff is defined and described as ‘to try and trick someone into believing something in order to get an advantage over that person.’  This is why the enemy goes about like a roaring lion.

We are to demolish those arguments and every pretension.  See bluffing is pretending to have something the person bluffing does not have. His arguments appeal to rationalization and thus to get our minds to accept this is the way it is- this is truth. But it is not- it is based on a lie, sometimes mixed with half-truths. The rationalizations are for allowing this truth to exist.  Some excuses are:  it is not harming me or anyone else; I cannot help the way I feel; – and the list of excuses are endless.

Now we know this about Lucifer, he wanted to be worshipped like God was worshipped. If he cannot get someone to worship him directly he knows he can accomplish the same goal by getting them to worship something besides God. This is why he appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.   God wants to take the yoke of the sin away from us because He knows how destructive it is. He wants us to be yoked with Him.  For His yoke is easy and His burden is light. There will find rest for our souls.

These thoughts set themselves up against the knowledge of God.  Set is an interesting word, especially when used in nautical terms- in sailing.  It is the set of the sail that determines the direction in which we go. Satan wants to hoist up a sail to lift our eyes on the things of the world, his lie is these things will make your life more enjoyable. This is the abundant life- God is withholding from you.

Knowing the truth is the key to recognizing the lies and deceptions of the enemy- the counterfeit is recognized by knowing the genuine, the absolute truth of God’s word. This is how we determine right from wrong. You cannot recognize the lie without the truth.

Taking every thought captive is a discipline and Paul tells us what to think on and about in Philippians 4. He tells us to put our minds on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, think about those things.  You demolish those wrong thoughts by thinking and putting your mind on things Paul describes here. Your thoughts influence your behavior. When you allow those wrong thoughts to occupy your mind, they will sooner or later result in behavior for every sin first starts as a thought. Thought replacement is based on replacing those wrong thoughts with the word of God.

Victorious lives come from victorious thinking for a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Now understand these wrong thoughts which are destructive are thoughts which you dwell on and if not dealt with, cast down, they will result in sin. Captivating thoughts can become controlling thoughts.

God wants us and has enabled us to have the mind of Christ. Do you desire, more than anything to have the mind of Christ? 

Let me re-mind you- isn’t that an interesting word?  It is a verb, therefore an action which is defined as:
“To make someone think of something they have forgotten or might have forgotten.”

In Lamentations 3, Jeremiah describes his feelings, his depression in the most vivid words:  walking in darkness; God has turned His hand against me; He has aged my flesh and my skin and broken my bones, and besieged me with bitterness and woe; made my chain heavy; made me desolate; turned me aside and tore me to pieces; filled me with bitterness….’ It is depressing just to read his expression of hopelessness in such dark, dreadful thoughts.

Then the light of God’s Word breaks through:

“This I RECALL TO MY MIND, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul (mind, will and emotions) therefore I hope in Him.

This story of Jonathan and the armor bearer started out with this phrase: “Now it happened one day…”

We must remember the Lord neither sleeps nor slumbers and His grace is always sufficient and His strength is made perfect in weakness.

We must also remember when we awake in the morning- this is the day the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it.

What is going to happen this day?  I do not know, but God knows.

How will I start this day?  By remembering through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed because His compassions fail not, they are new every morning.

You just woke up to a day which the Lord has made. It comes with a new, fresh supply of compassion, mercy and grace which He promised us would be sufficient for any and all task we face.

I have clothed myself in His whole armor which reminds me it may be the Lord will work for us and through us, today for nothing restrains the Lord from saving the many by the few.

NOW IT HAPPENED ONE DAY…

I SAMUEL 12/13: 

We all long to succeed in important areas of our lives- relationships, careers, and finances. But sometimes in our daily pursuit of success in those areas we lose sight of the chief end of man- which is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

How does one measure success? Is it in your finances, career accomplishments and the things you own?  Jesus said a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Of the many themes and sub-themes in the books of I and II Samuel is the contrast of the life and goals of Samuel, Saul and later David. It is a study in character and conduct and how they impact one’s life.

Samuel is coming to an end of his official duties and career as we all do. However, Samuel says he will continue in two main areas: “Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way.” (I Samuel 12: 23)   Prayer and the Word of God always go together.

Samuel was a man of integrity and now he is stepping down from his role as judge, for they will be ruled by a king. In his last official address to them, Samuel reviews his ministry and his life of ministry. Like Paul, Samuel is finishing the race and looks back to affirm he has fought a good fight and has kept the faith.   Better yet, Jesus, Himself, reviewed His own life and ministry on earth: “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given me to do.” (John 17: 4)

A HISTORY LESSON

It was Samuel who directed them to Gilgal after the victory over Nahash and the Ammonites. He wanted them to remember what all God had done for them going back to Jacob and Moses and Aaron. It was God who appointed Moses and Aaron, not the people. It was God who enabled them to do great and mighty works. It was God who had freed them from Egypt and God who parted the Red Sea and God who had given them the Promised Land. Yet they forgot the Lord their God and served the gods of the pagans, the Baals and the Astoreths.

And as they looked back at their history it was clear from their history they continued to repeat the cycle of:  disobedience, discipline and deliverance.

The essence of sin is to see God in His creation and refuse to glorify Him and give Him thanks. Paul describes this cycle in Romans 1. He is the creator of all things and all things are created by Him and for Him. But when we refuse to honor Him and thank Him – our foolish hearts are darkened and we worship the created rather than the Creator.  We are to thank the Lord. We are to fear the Lord. We are to obey the Lord.

Samuel says: “And do not turn aside: for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver for they are nothing. “  (vs. 21)  Have you looked in your closet lately? Have you looked in that drawer in the kitchen; in your garage, your attic?  Filled with empty things which cannot profit or deliver for they are nothing. Churches must make organizational changes. We must embrace technology which helps us better spread the Gospel. But Samuel reminds them of principles that never change:  the character of God, the Word of God, the necessity of faith, and the importance of obedience. Also that teaching the Word of God and prayer go together. And for God’s people not to pray is to sin against the Lord, and yet this is quite often what is lacking in the church today, prayer by the saints based on the Word of God. Samuel passed the test of leadership. And the test is always submission to God’s authority.  Godly character is developed through perseverance in tribulation and trials.  Perseverance is patience which is a byproduct, a fruit, which comes from the testing of one’s faith. Patience is a necessity to make one complete, lacking nothing, as James noted in James 1.  Samuel did not abuse his position of authority and leadership to profit himself.

KING SAUL’S CHARACTER REVEALED

After the great victory over Nahash, King Saul will make a foolish and unwise decision which will the beginning of a tragic decline that ends terribly. Remember we are told patience is a fruit of the Spirit and a necessary ingredient to developing godly character and perfecting a believer where they lack nothing.

Let us observe the first flaws in King Saul’s character in this chapter.  Their standing army has dwindled from over 300,000 to just 3,000.  We are introduced to Saul’s son, Johnathan in this chapter. He has 1,000 soldiers with him when he attacks the Philistine’s garrison and defeats them.   Saul blows the trumpet and announces to all of Israel, he has attacked the garrison and takes credit for the victory. Do you remember after the victory over Nahash, Saul gave the Lord credit for the victory?

Now Samuel had forewarned Saul two years ago of the event which is to occur. He told Saul when he went down to Gilgal to wait for him to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. He specifically told Saul, “Wait seven days until I come to you and show you what to do.” (I Sam. 10:8) Meanwhile the enemy was growing stronger and Saul was greatly outnumbered. His army began to grow fearful and began deserting Saul. His meager forces were shrinking by the day and Saul was growing desperate as he awaits Samuel’s arrival.

This was a test of faith and patience.  “ And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who THROUGH FAITH AND PATIENCE INHERIT THE PROMISES.” 

First we see, Saul takes credit for Jonathan’s victory a sign of pride and also weakness in that Saul does not want anyone to look better than him.

Second as Saul is waiting the seven days, the Lord has commanded him to do through Samuel. We see he grows more fearful as the circumstances grow direr. Fear is overcoming faith. It is easy for us to see in this story- this is the Lord’s way of testing Saul’s faith and patience. Without faith and patience we can’t receive the Lord’s promise. Unbelief and impatience are marks of spiritual immaturity.  We must learn to trust God and wait on His perfect timing. We cannot learn the other lessons, nor can we receive the blessings He’s planned for us if we cannot learn to wait on the Lord.

The circumstances were scary. One’s imagination runs wild in these situations as we believe there is no way out. Saul has shown himself to be prideful, jealous of anyone who looks better than he looks, after all appearances are very important to man known for his appearance.

Saul was very adept at making excuses and reasons which justified his actions. His army was deserting him. He faced an overwhelming problem. He needed to make the sacrifice before going to battle and Samuel was not there. It was Samuel’s fault not his. Eve blamed the serpent. Adam blamed Eve and God who gave him Eve.  It is the “blame and shame” game which has been around since man’s first sin.

Saul is very good at making excuses. As we often see, those who are good a making excuses are rarely good at anything else. He had no other choice Saul tells Samuel. It was Samuel’s fault for not arriving earlier and the soldiers’ fault for deserting.  Notice what Saul said:  “I SAW that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed and the Philistines were gathering at Michmash.”  Saul was walking by sight and not by faith. When faith is defeated by fear, then unbelief and impatience replace faith and patience.

We see his flawed character which first is revealed in his pride, then his impatience which leads to disobedience and deception. Samuel announces God’s sentence: your kingdom shall not continue because you do not have a heart after God.

WRITTEN FOR US

Paul reminded us all these things written in the past were to teach us that through patience and comfort, the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  Waiting on the Lord is mention so many times and always coupled with the reward we will receive if we wait on the Lord and do good. If we wait patiently. 

So let’s look at what has been written for us for those times we must wait on the Lord:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, thought war may rise against me; in this I will be confident.  I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait I say on the Lord.” (Psalm 27)

“Rest in the Lord and wait patiently on Him.”(Psalm 37)

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints or grows weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases in strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faith.”

Remember earlier I quoted from Galatians 3: 29 which tells us if we are Christ’s we are the seed of Abraham and heir to the promises.  The verse from Hebrews 6 which speaks of faith and patience as necessary to receive the promise are about Abraham.  And we know from study of the Scripture it took Abraham 25 years to see that promise fulfilled.  Surely Abraham would have lost faith and hope if he did not see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Are you facing what seems to be an impossible situation? Are you and your loved ones standing at the entrance of what you know will be a time of hardship and you are wondering am I up for this undertaking? Can I stay strong in what I know will be a scary, draining, and painful journey?

You believe God and His promises, but like Saul, you are looking at the circumstances and they look contrary to what you think God has promised you.  This is when the enemy wants to create doubt.  Did God really say He would do this? 

Romans 4 and in fact the story of Abraham in Genesis was written for us. I love the story of Abraham and I love Abraham, because he was a man, a frail human being just like us. He would sometimes make a great step of faith, only to see him face a trial like a famine and take off to Egypt.  Facing a powerful king, he resorts to lies, deception and excuses to get himself out of harm’s way.  When the promised child is not born. When the promise now is becoming even more impossible to fulfill because of his age and Sarah’s barren womb they devise their own plan to fulfill God’s promise by Abraham having a child by Sarah’s maid, Hagar. The result is disastrous, Ishmael. 

Now remember – without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is the key to righteousness. Faith is the sole basis for our relationship with God.  By studying what has been written for us we can see the following about the nature of faith:

1.     Faith involves agreeing with what God has said.

2.     It involves living not merely with a hopeful wish but a solid expectation that God will do what He said He would do.

3.     It means we depend not on ourselves but on God.

4.     It requires us to see the invisible reality of God’s plan despite the physical evidence.

5.     It compels us to live as though what GOD SAID HAS ALREADY BEEN MADE MANIFEST EVEN THOUGH IT HASN’T APPEARED YET.

6.     It removes ‘impossible’ from our vocabulary, for all things are possible to those who believe.

So these things are written for us to realize the promises depend on God’s faithfulness and not our own. Faith puts our focus on God, not on ourselves or our circumstances.

*If you live in fear that your ability to mess up is greater than God’s ability to set you right, that’s works, not faith. God said to Abraham: “I HAVE MADE YOU FATHER OF MANY NATIONS.” God is taking full responsibility for the outcome.  What work must I do the crowd ask Jesus- believe in the One Whom He sent, Jesus replied.  

When I look at Abraham’s story, I see myself.   His faith wavered on more than one occasion. He tried to fulfill God’s promise in his own strength.  But what I like most about Abraham and Sarah’s story is even though they wandered, and wondered if God was really going to fulfill His promise we see the end result, which is what God always looks at:

“ Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might sure to all seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all, for it is written, (“ I have made you a father of many nations.”)  in the presence of Him whom He believed- God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did:  who contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father  of many nations, according to what was spoken, “ so shall you descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead, since he was about a 100 year old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.”  (Romans 4)

Have I wavered in unbelief and impatience before and made foolish decisions? YES, just like Abraham and Sarah did.  But ultimately Abraham and Sarah believed God and were fully convinced God was able.

This story shows us how faith works. How patience is developed and how it takes time. It is a process. And the journey is not an easy one at times. But God never places more on us than we can bear. And when we make mistakes and get ahead of Him, there will be consequences, but even the consequences work for our good.

These things were written for us that through patience and the encouragement of Scripture we might have hope. For our God is the GOD OF ALL HOPE.

I Samuel 11:  Let Us Go to Gilgal

When a change in leadership occurs, the leader will be tested by his enemies both from outside and inside. We read in the last verse of I Samuel 10, there was those in Israel who despised King Saul and questioned his ability: “How can this man save us?”   George W. Bush had been president less than 9 months when the terrorist struck down the Twin Towers, attacked our Pentagon and were on their way to take down the White House before they were stopped.

All through history we see leaders tested, we see nations tested. Israel had asked for a king like the other nations so they would have one leader who could unite the people and thus face their enemies. Even though God as Israel’s King had shown Himself mighty on behalf of the nation of Israel in delivering them from Egypt with a mighty hand, the people wanted to trust the created, rather than the Creator. God gave them Saul as their king. 

In today’s lesson we see King Saul face his first test as King.  The attack occurs against Jabesh Gilead which was located about 50 miles from Saul’s home.  The Ammonites are led by a man named, Nahash.  Nahash in Hebrew means “snake.”  The Ammonites are related to the Israelites. In Genesis 19, we read the what happened with Lot and his family when they fled Sodom and Gomorrah.  Seeking safety in a cave, Lot’s daughters conspired to get their father drunk and lie with him as a way of preserving the family line. The result was two sons, Moab, father of the Moabites, and Ben-Ammi, father of the Ammonites. These two nations would become bitter enemies of Abraham’s descendants.

Nahash surrounds the city and then makes an offer to negotiate surrender. One of his provisions for surrender is each man must have his right eye gouged out. This crippling punishment would render their men ineffective as archers and swordsmen. Nahash would subdue the city without killing anyone and obtain all their wealth and enslave the people at the same time.  Paul said, ‘the one to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. 

The people of Jabesh ask for seven days delay, in hope of seeking help. Word comes to Saul and we read in verse 6: “The Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard this news, and his anger was greatly aroused. “  Saul took his team of oxen and cut them into pieces and sent them throughout the all the territory of Israel. Here was his message to Israel: join me in battle or the same will happen to you.  Notice also Saul links himself with Samuel.

THE FEAR OF THE LORD

“And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.”  We will see King Saul mobilize an army of 330,000 men. He then shows his ability to wage war as he divides his forces in three companies and attacked the Ammonites in the mid-morning watch and killed Ammonites until the heat of the day.  Saul recognizes the Lord’s role in their victory and his first test as king is successful. As we will see in this study in days to come, Saul will become more prideful and abusive. Interesting Paul, the great apostle was named Saul and in his natural abilities, talent and intelligence, he was proud of his accomplishments and grew even more abusive toward Christians.

LET US GO TO GILGAL

“The Samuel said to the people, “Come let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there.” So let’s return to Gilgal to renew the kingdom.   Renew as a verb means to resume an activity after an interruption; to restore or refresh.

So let’s return to the story of Gilgal and its significance.

Did you notice in today’s story in verse seven, the “fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.”  Does it seem to you today, there is no fear of God in our country? Does it seem to you other countries have ceased to fear America? But let me ask you an even more personal question:  do you fear God’s judgment of your sins? Do you presume to sin as a believer, because you presume God will not judge your sins?

Let us go back to the story of Joshua in his new role as leader of Israel. Here is his first test:  lead the people of Israel across the Jordan River and take the Promised Land. Now the God who parted the Red Sea would have no problem parting the Jordan River.

Let’s look at the steps of preparation necessary before God would give His people victory in Canaan. Canaan is the Promised Land.  It is a land flowing with milk and honey and grapes so large a cluster had to be carried on a staff by two men. It is a picture of the abundant, spirit-filled life Jesus came to give us. The physical and external in this story of Gilgal represent the steps we must take to experience the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led abundant Promised Land Life. We will see entering the Promised Land took place as they did what God commanded, without question, one step at a time. 

Now let’s look at the overall picture of what was about to happen after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Here was the situation:  their revered leader Moses had died and the appointment of Joshua as their new leader. He immediately is told by God to take them into the Promised Land. Think about their concerns and realize they are the same concerns we face when God calls us to do something for Him which get us out of our comfort zone.

1.     God sometimes asks us to go where we have never been before.

2.     God leads the way; He always goes before us.

3.     Faith sometimes requires you get your feet wet. After all if you want to walk on the water, you have to get out of the boat of your comfort zone.

4.     God’s best always comes through faith.

In Joshua 3 we read the leaders went through the camp and gave people instructions:

“When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests who are the Levites, carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know the way to go since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about 1000 yards between you and the ark.” Give God room and time to work, especially when you are going somewhere you have never been before.  Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  You will never know the way to go in life, until you know the Truth.

Joshua 3: 15 tells us: “Now the Jordan is at flood stage during the harvest.” Be ready for this- when you determine to trust and obey and step out in faith on God’s Word, the enemy will come in like a flood. As soon as they took the first step into the river, the waters backed up and they passed through on dry land.

Joshua 5 tells us the effect on the enemies of God’s people:  “ Now when the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard about how the Lord had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites. “

Now what happens next makes no sense in terms of preparing for a battle. God instructed Joshua to have all the men circumcised. We read the generation born in the wilderness had not been circumcised. Circumcision was the physical sign which had been a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham. It marked them as God’s people. It also is a picture of cutting off the flesh, our old nature.   For the nation of Israel it was a renewal of their commitment. This was a test of faith. To voluntarily put themselves in a physical condition where they could not defend themselves much less go into battle after this surgical procedure.  If these people were doing what was right in their own eyes, this would not have ever been done. They have decided to follow the Lord, no turning back, no turning back.

After this they celebrate the Passover. This would include telling of the Passover Story and how God delivered them from Egypt with a mighty hand and led them every step of the way. The Passover story reminded them of the goodness of the Lord, of His faithfulness and of His Might, Power, and Mercy.

“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or our enemy? Neither, he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come. Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant? The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground and Joshua did so. “  Remember God told Joshua He would be with him like he was with Moses.  Here is an encounter much like the encounter of Moses with God at the burning bush where he was commissioned by the God to lead His people out.

Now God will commission Joshua to lead His people into the Promise Land. For we get in the Promised Land, the same way we got out of Egypt, by grace through faith.

Here are the steps of preparation:

1.     Renewal of your commitment to the Lord. Renewal means to refresh, to re-energize, restore. The Promised Land is a picture of the Spirit-filled life. We realize this is a continuous process for the believer. We are prone to sin, it is important for renewal and refreshing and refilling to be a part of our practice as we seek to live lives which reflect the glory of God. Renewing our minds is a very important part of this process: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing or your mind. The you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will.”( Romans 12: 2)  Remember you are in the service of the Lord. You are His soldier, His servant- awaiting His orders. In return He has promised to provide you with everything you need.  In days gone by, we used to see a decision by believers in the church we called “re-dedication”.  It was a coming forward to acknowledge they had wandered away and wanted to renew their fellowship with God. Renewal of one’s commitment.

2.     Remember God’s goodness.  The celebration of Passover was a time of remembrance and re-telling of the story of the Passover and how God was faithful to save them with a mighty hand and lead them out of Egypt.  When faced with difficult times, remember what He has done for you in the past. He saved my life. He gave me hope when I was hopeless. He got me sober and removed the desire to drink. He has given me so much and is always faithful. He has never forsaken me. Looking back I can see how faithful He has been to me.

3.     God told Joshua I will be with you like I was with Moses. And He has told us He will be with us and never forsake us. He has sent His Holy Spirit, the third, and co-equal person of the Trinity to indwell me and seal me.  He is the earnest deposit, His guarantee of my inheritance.  In Deut. 11:20, 21 God instruct them to: “ Write them ( His commands) on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give to your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”

God knows we need times of renewal and refreshing. Here we see in the story of Gilgal- the steps – 1. Renewal, refreshing a time of rededication; 2. Remembering God’s goodness and faithfulness and 3. Realizing He will never leave us or forsake us.

Here is how it starts.

1.     Sit down. Everyone probably has their favorite chair, or spot on a sofa where they sit down to rest at day’s end. What we need to see is this where we start, not end in our serving the Lord. We start from a position of rest, seated in Christ Jesus in heaven. God raised the Resurrected Lord up to heaven and seated Him at His right hand. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. “ ( Ephesians 2: 6) When Jesus said, “It is Finished!”  He was telling the world, I have done everything that needed to be done. I have completed the task. He did all the work. This was God’s principle from the very start. God created Adam on the sixth day. He rested on the seventh day. So Adam’s first day of his new life was a day of rest. God had done everything. It was finished. Mankind must first enter God’s rest of completed, perfect work before they can take up the work God has for man. God has completed the work of redemption. We enter into it by grace through faith and that not of ourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which He has ordained we walk in.

2.     Next step- Walk after we sit.  When Paul talks about our “walk”, he is talking about how we live life. He told us not to walk in the flesh, but in the Spirit.  We are to walk in the light as He is in the light.

3.     Finally we stand. Sit- walk- stand.  We stand in battle. Stand means this our possession our inheritance in which we stand. This means the victory has already been won. We do not fight FOR victory; we fight FROM victory- Victory in Jesus!

I visualize that cluster of grapes so large it took two men to carry it and realize they were getting a glimpse back then and as they tasted those grapes a foretaste of glory divine.

Blessed Assurance – Jesus is Mine! Oh what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed in His Blood.  Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior, happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long.

Are you at rest? Are you happy and blest? Are you watching and waiting and looking above? Are you filled with His goodness and lost in His Love?

If not- then you need to go to Gilgal and be refreshed. Let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom of God!

I Samuel 10: APPROVED

It has always been the custom when a new president was elected in our country, the president who was leaving office would have the newly elected president and spouse come to the White House for a tour and insider’s view. It has been the “ hallmark” trait of the peaceful passing of one administration to the next ,as the outgoing president, who was sometimes a defeated president, graciously made the newly elected president feel at home in his new place of dwelling. Samuel is doing this for Saul.

So it is was we see the end of Samuel’s rule and the anointing of Saul as the new ruler- a king of the people’s choosing, not God’s.  Samuel is a gracious as can be, humble and unselfish as he passes the torch to the man taking his place.  Samuel was asked to resign by a new generation who thought he was too old, and wanted him to replace himself with a king like the pagan nations.   We see no bitterness in Samuel as the Lord has told him to “heed the words of the people.”

God through Samuel provides Saul with assurances God is equipping Saul for the task.  It is in this giving of these three assurances to Saul, I want us to see God does the same for all of us who are His children. Saul wants the approval of the people of Israel.   We all long for approval. And the most important approval of all is to be approved by God.

God wants us to have confidence as we live out our lives and go forth to carry out the Great Commission.  He has given each of us talents, gifts and promises. The enemy of your soul does not want you to know what all you possess, and he will do everything in his power to intimidate you and cause you to shrink back from performing the tasks God has for you to do. We must remember God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1)

SAUL’S THREE SIGNS OF ASSURANCE

First Sign:  Saul would find two men at the tomb of Rachel who will confirm the lost donkeys have been found, and now his father is worried about Saul’s safety.

Second Sign:  Saul is to go forward to the Tree of Tabor where three men of God are on their way to Bethel( House of God) carrying three young goats ( goats were a sin offering), three loaves of bread, and a skin of wine. Samuel tells him they will give him two loaves of bread.

Third Sign:  Saul will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is. Here he will meet a group of prophets come down from the high place with musical instruments and prophesying. (Understand prophesying can be expository preaching or praising, not necessarily prophecy which is the foretelling of the future.) We believe this group has come from worshipping the Lord and this outburst of praise and preaching was a result of their time of worship.  Samuel tells Saul:  “Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.”    This does not mean Samuel was indwelt with the Spirit, only that the Spirit was upon him. The Spirit in the Old Testament could depart a person after coming upon them. In the New Covenant enacted by the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes to indwell us and will never depart from us.  David understood this was how the Spirit of the Lord functioned in his time. And David also knew the Spirit of the Lord which came upon King Saul also departed King Saul. In Psalm 51, David’s Psalm of repentance for his horrific sins with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, David prayed:  “do not cast me away from Your Presence, and DO NOT TAKE AWAY YOUR SPIRIT.”

Now you may be thinking as I did- O God that you would give me such specific signs of assurance as you did Saul.  Yet God has given us the same assurances and even greater ones.

God cared about the success of Saul to protect His children, the nation of Israel from their enemies.   You must know God cares for you as deeply and that we also are His children, those who have been born again and received the Holy Spirit who will never leave us or depart from us. We can grieve the Spirit and quench the Spirit, but He will never leave us.

Saul has not been born again, he has a become another man, which means he is becoming something he was not before- a king. Just as when a man first becomes a father, he is another man- a father, with a different role in life he did not have before.

THE MEANING OF THE THREE SIGNS

Signs direct us when we travel and God provides signs for us as we travel in our spiritual journey. These signs for both Saul and ourselves are to assure us God is equipping us for the task to which He has called us to perform.

FIRST SIGN:   The location is important for Rachel’s tomb is a reminder she gave her life, she died giving birth to Benjamin, of whom Saul is a descendant. His very life comes from death. Hannah’s prayer in I Samuel 2 reminds us of this truth:  “The Lord brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up.”  Also Rachel’s tomb is located where the future town of Bethlehem would be and where the King of Kings would be born in the town where Rachel, the beloved bride of Jacob/Israel was buried.  The men there confirm the lost donkeys are found and Saul’ s father is concerned about his safety and whereabouts.

*First Sign tells us:  God can solve your problems. He is in fact working on whatever problem you have now as Jesus told us: “My Father is always working.” (John 5: 17)

SECOND SIGN:   These men are on their way to house of God and have three loaves of bread and give two of them to Saul.  Remember when Saul’s servant suggested they go up to see the prophet, Samuel, Saul said, ‘we have nothing to give him, we have no food.’  God provided manna for the nation of Israel for 40 years. Jesus said, I am the true bread of life who comes down from heaven.  Man does not live by bread alone, but every Word which proceeds from the mouth of God.

*Second sign tells us God shall provide all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

THIRD SIGN:   Saul will encounter a group of prophets coming down from a worship service and they are prophesying and the Spirit comes upon Saul and he prophesies also.

*Third sign tells us: God will empower us with His Spirit who indwells us and equips us to serve the Lord and do His will. “For it is God who works in you both to will and desire His good pleasure. “

Now it is also important we take note of the instructions Samuel tells Saul in verse 8:  “You shall go down before me to Gilgal and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait till I come to you and show you what to do.”  (We will see what happens when Saul decides to not wait on Samuel, thus not wait on the Lord.)

ASSURANCES

“Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. “ (Phil 1: 6) This is an assurance to a born-again believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

God gave Saul these three signs as signs of assurance that God had indeed chosen him to be king over Israel. And God would be faithful to equip Saul for the task.  God changed Saul’s heart, that is his attitude about the role God had given him to perform.

If we are to be successful in what the Lord has called us to do- we need assurance the Lord will be with us to enable us to carry it out, just as Saul needed assurance.

Joshua had to feel overwhelmed that he was to take over for Moses.  Moses was such a great man of God who had been used in such a mighty way. Joshua was told by God:  “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life.”  What God did for Joshua and Moses, He can do for us. He said I will be with you as I was with Moses.  Guess what?  We have it even better than Joshua. We have God with us- Immanuel, indwelling us in all his fullness. We have God’s complete word and revelation. We have a perfect High Priest who intercedes for us. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the Righteous One. We have a New Completed Covenant and can enter the very throne room of heaven with boldness. We have been adopted and blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven. We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed and have the riches of His grace abounding toward us. John proclaimed: “oh what manner of love is this the Father has lavished on us.”  He, God, has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure. We have obtained an inheritance and in fact are joint heirs with Jesus.

MAY I…

We have available to us:  spiritual wisdom. Listen to Paul’s prayer for us and pray this prayer for yourself and your loved ones: “ …that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, MAY give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you MAY  know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places far above all principality and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.  And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all thigs to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1)

May is a verb which expresses both possibility and permission. God is saying to us the possibility of living this way is real and He wants to assure us as He did Joshua we can do what He has called us to do, what He has gifted and equipped us to do. No one can stand against us. We have weapons which are divine, which are powerful and spiritual to pull down strongholds.

May represents the permission God has given us- to have all these things possible in our lives if we will trust and obey. God told Joshua and is telling us- “The Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate upon it day and night, that you MAY observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make you way prosperous and you will have good success. MAY I GOD – DO ALL THESE THINGS? .GOD IS SAYING TO YOU- YOU MAY, IF YOU: MEDITATE UPON THE WORD OF GOD DAY AND NIGHT AND DO ALL THAT IS WRITTEN IN IT.

So remember when the enemy intimidates you tries to scare you to death, God has not given you a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind.

Remember you can be confident that He Who began a good work will complete it.

Remember Jesus told you, His Father is always working. He is working in your life and His purpose is to work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to the purpose to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Remember Jesus said: “I in them and you in me. MAY they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them (that’s you and me) even as you have loved me.” John 17: 23.   “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14: 12)

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter 1)

Paul gives us our spiritual inheritance and what riches and power and hope we have in what Jesus’ finished work at Calvary has provided us. The first three chapters of Ephesians tell us about all of this inheritance. It is like reading a will of what we have inherited and is ours and is available to us.

Then the last three chapters of Ephesians tells us how we are to walk, that is live out, what we have inherited and is ours,  for as Paul tells us:  “…we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works He has ordained for us to walk in.’  Are you aware of what you have inherited? Are you living like a spiritual pauper?  If so why?

STAND YOUR GROUND

Paul sums it up in Ephesians 6: 10 and following:  “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take you stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then with belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all saints. “

God has provided the perfect equipment needed for all our needs. First things – first:  the belt of truth. It is the Word of God which is truth. From the very beginning the enemy has attached the Word of God for he knows how powerful it is. He probes to see how well we know the word and in doing so he is looking for a ‘chink in our armor.’ The truth is what sets us free. Jesus is the called the Word of God and He also said I am the way, the truth and the life. IT IS NOW OBVIOUS, THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT IN THE WORLD IS TRUTH?  WHAT IS TRUTH?

The breastplate of righteousness is attached to the belt of truth.  When we come to know the truth and believe it by faith we are given Christ’s righteousness.  WE also see the Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God with which we combat and parry the enemy’s lies with the truth and promises of Scripture.

What a shame to have inherited all this wealth and live like paupers. What a shame to be deceived and waste all our energies fighting the wrong enemy of flesh and blood. The enemy knows the word of God and knows you and I have the weapons which are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds he builds in our minds and thus influences our lives.

Think about it- He is called the deceiver the father of lies. A thief and a murderer who comes to steal, kill and destroy. While Jesus comes that we might have life and have it more abundantly. It is a shame the enemy knows more about what is true of our position in Christ than many of us do.

Jesus said you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. We must be holy as He is holy. We must pursue holiness.  The only way to be perfect and holy as the Father is to be clothed through faith in the perfect, righteous holiness of Christ.   This is both Old Testament truth and New Testament truth.

Isaiah 61: 10:  “… For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He covered me with the robe of righteousness.”  We have taken off the old and put on the new- we have put on Christ. (Colossians 3)  “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.”(Hebrews 12:14)

The enemy’s scheme is clear:  to keep us as Christians from living our full potential. He knows he cannot destroy us, so his strategy is to discourage us, to conform us and to get us to compromise what the word of God says.

He would have us offer the gospel with a spoonful of sugary new age compromise and softening of the truth of God’s word. Now as Mary Poppins sang a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down in delightful ways.  But we are not called to be sugar, we are called to be salt.

Salt can sting but that is its healing power, it also preserves and flavors. In fact, recent studies show sugar is not good for you.

What a shame for the enemy to know more about what is true about you, than you a child of God should know.

“Study to show yourselves approved unto God a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of God.”  We should always love the approval of God over the approval of man.

Approved- officially accepted. I am accepted in the beloved. Approved. Affirmed. Indwelt and empowered.  I can do all things in Christ who is my strength.

I am now free. There is therefore now no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Without the Word of God we cannot know the true nature of God and the beauty of holiness.

 

 

 

I Samuel 8: “Changing of the Guard”

There is a time lapse when we come to chapter 8, and Samuel is now old.  Probably 20-25 years have lapsed since the meeting at Mizpah and Samuel is 65- 70+ years old.  A new generation has come of age.  As is always the case with a new generation there are new ideas and new leaders.  Change is inevitable. Change occurs from one generation to the next.

Life goes on, circumstances change, and God’s people hopefully  adapt to new challenges but do so without abandoning old convictions. But as we know from experience and see before our very eyes what has happened in our country, is we have abandoned old convictions. For example:  It used to be we kneeled at the Cross and stood at the flag. It used to be you could watch television and not be offended by language and pornography. It used to be you pledged allegiance to the flag and prayed in school   Each successive generation comes with ideas on how to do something better and different from the previous older generation. Older generations resist change, while the younger generations are eager to change.   Moses was chosen by God to lead the people out of Egypt.  The nation of Israel was led by God and they considered God their King and they were His people.  They were set apart from all other nations. And even Peter tells us as Christians we are a peculiar people and a royal priesthood.

Moses was told by God to appoint Joshua as his successor.  However, when Joshua was old and near death, God did not tell Joshua to appoint an individual successor. The era which followed is recorded in the book of Judges and time and time again we read in that account: ‘there was no king in Israel and the people did what was right in their own eyes. ‘

When we observed Samuel in Chapter 7, he was a respected national leader and a man of God. He became a respected national leader as Samuel led the people of Israel in a national revival which came because of their repentance and return to God. Following God’s way seemed to have lasted for 20-25 years.  But Samuel was now considered an old man and he was passing from the scene.  Many of us know what it is to reach a “peak” in our careers. We are at the “top of our game”, we are the leaders in our field and are recognized for our expertise and or abilities.  Samuel had had his day. He was faithful to serve the Lord. He had made his two sons, judges. This turned out to be a mistake on his part. His sons were not their father and they took bribes in their roles as judges. This seemed to be known by all. And if the truth were known, it was probably a common practice among many of the judges during this era.

Samuel had become a focal point for political unity and spiritual authority. He made his home in Ramah and faithfully served as a judge as “he traveled on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah and judged Israel in those places.” (I Samuel 7: 16)    But times were changing, and a new generation of leaders wanted the nation of Israel to change as well.

Sound familiar?  In 2015, something happened which we are now beginning to see the results of what happened.  In 2015, the generation known as the Millennials, who were born between 1981 and 1997 surpassed the Baby Boomers as the largest demographic segment of the population in America. The Gen-Xers, those born between 1965 and 1980 will soon be larger than the Baby Boomer generation with the passing away of the famous Baby Boomer generation who changed the 20^th century.

Here are some statistics:  Millennials are almost 25% of the population and account for 30% of the vote.  They are only 56% white compared to Boomers who are 72% white.  They are tech-savvy, health conscious and drive social media. They describe themselves as spiritual, not religious. Favor non-denominational churches if they attend at all. Overall- church attendance is declining.

Boomers are traditionalist, religious, believe the Word of God is absolute truth and defines our world view of right and wrong. 2 out 3 Boomers believe our form of government our forefather founded is very important. While only 1 out of 3 Millennials believe it is important. History is being revised to make our forefathers and our nation look bad- and apologize for the wrongs which we have committed and the troubles we have caused. For sure, America is not a perfect country, but then there are none that are. America has done some things which were wrong, but sooner or later we corrected our mistakes as best we could.

What political scientist tells us about this form of government and capitalism is this: If a country is both affluent and democratic it is almost always stable. To sustain a durable economy a country must attain a high level of wealth and education.  In the USA, the standard of living doubled from 1935 to 1965 and then doubled again from 1965 to 1985.  But has been stagnant since then.  The latest elections and leadership changes in the past few years have been about choosing a form of government, with the following factors changing our views: globalism, nation states and democracies.  As Christians we believe the Bible is the Word of God and it tells us we are moving toward a one world government. We can now see this is where we are moving.  We can empathize with Samuel’s feelings: he wants things to stay the same.  One nation under God. Sound familiar?

Wanting to have one powerful nation, a one-world government is nothing new. It was attempted in Genesis 11 after the flood, when a new generation came along and wanted to build a Tower which reached to the heavens. The Tower of Babel was intended to signify and promote a “one world government.” We know Satan was behind this attempt and we know he will be behind the last attempt which will take place in the Tribulation period in the future. Understand, since the rebellion in heaven led by Lucifer to take over the kingdom of God, we have had two kingdoms at war since the fall in the Garden of Eden. I believe the enemy has grown bolder and bolder and senses the time is coming for the final battle.  It will come in God’s perfect timing, and not before.

We have had our attention drawn to stone and stones recently in the falling face down of the stone idol, Dagon in the presence of the God of the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus is called the Cornerstone, on which the church, the body of Christ is built. God builds with stone. In building the Tower of Babel, they used brick instead of stone. Brick is man-made, hardened clay. Clay represents humanity, in other words this ancient attempt to build a one-world government was humanistic. Read the account and you will see they used slime for mortar. What fitting materials to build such an abomination.  The leader of the one world government in the future will be the “man of sin.” He will unite mankind in wickedness in a godless union. He will call dark – light and light- dark. Sin will be glorified.  The key to this attempt to build a one-world government recorded in Genesis 11 was based on one language and one speech. This was a culture which had been conformed and thought alike.   For this reason God dispersed and scattered the people by confounding their language.

God was not allowing this to happen at that time. But we know the time is coming when the Tower of Babel will be rebuilt and the world united with one common language.  The internet and the personal computer and smart phone has provided the world with one language and social media drives communications through the world and causes man to rise against governments in country after country. For this reason, in my opinion, we are looking at the man-made foundation for the new Tower of Babel being laid today and it appears God is going to allow the building of the one-world government as we move toward the end times. No one knows the day or hour- but we can see the signs like the buds on the tree. We are closer now than ever before.

In the meanwhile  what happens to  Samuel is in today’s language, Samuel  is being given his ‘ gold watch’ and told to go home, his time has come and gone. Make way for the new generation with new ideas.

GIVE US A KING

Israel was at this time  a nation-state made up of  a loose confederation of sovereign tribes.  The new generation wanted a strong central government.  Listen to their logic for change:  “you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.”  Then comes their demand:  “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations have.”  Not give us a king of God’s choosing, but give us a king like the rest of pagan nations have.

As Samuel was growing older, his sons not qualified to lead, the new generation wanted a leader like their pagan neighbors.  God had been Israel’s king. God had provided their needs. God had enabled their armies to have amazing victories. He was their national security and prosperity, as long as they obeyed Him.

Samuel recognized this demand for king like the other nations was evidence of spiritual decay. Remember when Moses who was their God appointed leader was up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights, they asked Aaron to “make us gods.”  This was the Golden Calf incident which occurred in Exodus. It was a blatant act of idolatry.  God knew Israel would want a king like the other nations when they came into the Promised Land. For this reason, God gave them instructions which are recorded in Deut 17: 14-20.    God had already told Abraham in His covenant with him that kings would come from Abraham and rule nations.  And Jacob knew the tribe of Judah would be the one from whom the line of kings would come, pointing to the Messiah, Jesus who would come from the family tree of Jesse and David.

Deut 17: 18,19 are the key verse for the main attributes of God’s qualifications for a godly king, a man after God’s own heart.  “Also it shall be, when he (the king) sits on the throne of his kingdom, and then he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book from the one before the Levite priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes.”    God is saying for the king to make wise decision and lead the country, he must follow God’s laws and keep his eyes on the Lord.

The desire for a king was a desire God was willing to provide in His perfect timing and in accord with these qualities. But the people of Israel did not want to wait for God to give them a king. They wanted a king now of their own choosing.

Israel wanted to be like the rest of the world. This human king would be someone who could take care of them, provide a safe country, protect them from their enemies, give them a vibrant economy, a strong army and peace in the land.  Sounds like the platform of a politician running for office trying to appeal to the people’s desires for the life, which “seems right in their own eyes.”

God had a king in mind. He was a man after God’s own heart. He was alive at this time, but he was not yet ready to be king as he was still too young. David was a man after God’s own heart. But the people wanted a king right now.

Have you ever gotten ahead of God?  Gone out and done something which seemed right in your own eyes, but had not really sought the will of God in the situation?

It was not Israel’s sin to want a king, God foreknew this would be their desire. But their sin was they would not wait on God’s chosen king, but would make a king for themselves. It was the epitome of worldliness they wanted a king like the pagan nations and what they wanted their king to do was what God had promised to do for them: to protect them, and provide for them and make them a great nation, unlike any other nation.  They wanted a king to do for them what God wanted to do for them. They placed their faith in another to provide what God had said He would provide. They had made for themselves an idol.

The greatest judgment God can give us sometimes is to let us have our own way.  God would then have Samuel warn them of what doing this their way would cost them.

THE COSTS OF A KING

Samuel then outlines the cost of a king and notice how often the word “take” is used.

The king will:

1. Take your sons for his armies
2. Take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
3. Take the best of your crops from your fields to feed his armies
4. Take a tenth of your grain.
5. Take your menservants and maidservants.
6. Take the best of your cattle and donkeys for his own use.
7. Take a tenth of your flocks

Samuel told them the unvarnished truth, including this king will make you his slaves. And when that day comes and you cry out to the Lord for relief, God will not answer you in that day.

But the people refused to listen to Samuel.

We want a king over us like the other nations to lead us and go before us and fight our battles.

The Lord tells Samuel:  “Listen to them and give them a king.”

We will meet the first king, Saul, in the next chapter. The fact that he is from the tribe of Benjamin tells us he is not of God’s choosing and his kingdom will not become a dynasty. That is reserved for the tribe of Judah.

But when you meet Saul you will see he is exactly what the “king-makers” of today’s political world look for:  handsome, tall, wealthy and charismatic.

Israel found it too demanding to trust an invisible God. They wanted to have a king of their own choosing. In spite of all God had done for Israel from the call of Abraham to the conquest of the Promised Land, they turned their back on Almighty God and wanted a king like the pagan nations and God gave them what they wanted and demanded.

A new generation who did not want to embrace the old ways.  Israel had come to a crossroads, an important phase in their country. The Word of God says when you come to the crossroads consider the ancient paths and walk in them and you will find peace.  But Israel would not listen. I wonder if America will?

I Samuel 7:  I’m Coming Back to the Heart of Worship

The lyrics to the song are a perfect fit for today’s lesson:  coming back to the heart of worship, which the song writer says is all about Jesus. The songwriter goes on to confess saying I’m sorry for the thing I’ve made of it- that is what he had made of his relationship with the Lord.

We did not hear anything about Samuel in chapters 4, 5 &6. Chapter 7 picks up the story 20 years later. The Ark had returned to Israel. The Ark of the Covenant had returned to Israel. But Israel had not yet returned to the Lord. The Lord had to strike many of the Israelites dead as they mistreated the Ark as an idol rather than the presence of God among them. It left the field in which it was originally found and was placed in the home of Abinadab with his son Eleazar as keeper of the Ark.

So this is where the story picks up with Samuel twenty years later. We read:  “All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” (Verse 2)  “ Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. “  (Verse 3)

COMING BACK TO THE LORD

This chapter gives us step-by-step directions for coming back to the Lord. This is about repentance and like the song lyrics tell us- ‘it’s all about your relationship with the Lord.’ The steps for returning to the Lord have not changed over the years. We also see human nature has not changed. We are as prone to wander as the people of Israel were. They had been drifting for years and years. The period of Judges had been a spiritual low, not just a plateau and no growth, but a decline. It is very similar to the period we have seen in American from the 1960’s to today.

The first step in returning to the Lord is always repentance. Verse 2 stated, they all lamented, (mourned) after the Lord.   It seems like in the last couple of years, believers in America have been awakened from a period of indifference and compromise to have their eyes opened to what has happened in the Body of Christ, His Church.

The Philistines were a constant thorn in the flesh of the Israelites. As the nation drifted away from its principles and promises of God, God used the Philistines to make life miserable for them. They mourned for the Lord.  They were not just sorry that they were under the Philistines, they were sorry most of all that they were apart from God.

True repentance is Step No. 1.  It involves godly sorrow for sin and seeking after the Lord. Just as the Lord allowed a famine to come into the land in the story of the Prodigal Son. God had allowed a spiritual famine to enter the land of Israel. They hungered for the Lord.  One becomes sorry for their sin, because of how it has affected one’s relationship with the Lord. So true repentance begins with mourning over our sin and seeking to re-establish that relationship with the Lord.  Are you there? What about America?

Step No. 2:  Put away foreign gods.  Put aside anything in your life, in your heart that is a rival to God.  For Israel it was the Baals and the Ashtoreths. Baal was the Lord of Rain and Dew, whom the pagans trusted to make their soil fertile.  Ashtoreth was the goddess of love, sex and fertility. They were the male and female god and goddess the pagans worshipped.  If you are returning with all your hearts, you must put aside all rivals to the Lord.

When as a Christian we drift away from the Lord, we do not drift away to nothing, we are pulled to some thing or someone. You must ask yourself what is keeping me from loving and serving God with all my heart?

Step No. 3:  Once you identify those rivals and put them away, your next step is preparing your heart to serve the LORD ONLY.  The first commandment is to have no other Lords before Him. Now you are seeing the two sides of repentance. First the turning away from idols, rivals for your whole-hearted affection for the Lord. Turn away from those sins, and turn towards God.   I’m going back home, said the Prodigal Son. His sins had depleted him left him in ruin. But it was this emptiness which turned him toward home. He was coming back. He was leaving behind the life which had at first seemed so much fun and exciting which had brought him to a pig sty.

Step No. 4:  Prayer.  There is no doubt  in my mind now as I look back I realize it was the years and years and thousands of prayers of my parents, grandparents and their friends which they enlisted in intercessory prayer for me, their prodigal son.  It was those prayers which were an important, integral part of my turning from sin and turning toward home to my Heavenly Father. “There is no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth.”(3 John 1)  Prodigals come in all ages, genders and races. What they all have in common is they left home and are missed!  God misses you when you drift away. For parents and grandparents of prodigals, I say to you do not stop praying, I am a prodigal who returned home after 14 years and I know it was intercessory prayer which played an important part. If you weep over your prodigal, imagine how the Lord weeps. I want and even more importantly the Lord wants you to be encouraged because the Lord is all about: RESTORATION WHICH COMES FROM REPENTANCE.  Notice in verse 5 what Samuel does:  “Gather all Israel to Mizpah (at town outside of Jerusalem) and I will pray to the Lord for you.”  Intercessory prayer. Remember the Lord Jesus is our High Priest and ever intercedes for us.

When one walks away from the Lord, they grow weak spiritually. They need help. They need the effective, fervent prayers of righteous believers.  It is humbling to admit we are weak and need help. The nation of Israel drew water and poured it out before the Lord. I believe this is corporate confession of a people who realize they have drifted away from the Lord, and rivals have crept into their hearts and their hearts are divided.  We must love the Lord with ALL OUR HEART.

When one loves the Lord with all his/her heart, they can then trust the Lord with all their heart. The people of Israel are learning to trust the Lord to fight their battles.  Not use Him as they had before for their own glory. Now what happens as they are meeting in Mizpah, the Philistines hear about it and draw near to battle against Israel thinking the Israelites are planning to attack them. Notice in verse 10:  The Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day. Remember Baal is their god of rain and dew to make their soil fertile. God uses thunder to confuse them for He controls the thunder and lightning. In their confusion, the Israelites defeat them.

So the consequences of believers walking away from God are obvious as Israel suffered defeat and destruction at the hands of the enemy. So defeated were they when the Ark of the Covenant was stolen, they did not even go after it.  But we also see the results of godly repentance and turning away from sin and turning back to the Lord.  Victory in Jesus.

Step No. 5:  Spiritual Growth.  Sometimes spiritual growth comes through a painful process. It takes time. It is not always easy. Sometimes it is very difficult.  Listen to what Paul relates:  “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us, as you help us with your prayers.”2 Corinthians 1. It is also here in this passage Paul explains God is the Father of Compassion and the God of all Comfort who comforts us in ALL our troubles, so we can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” People who have not experienced a wayward child, a prodigal, do not understand your situation. They have not had to pray and weep as you have.  But if God has allowed this to happen in your life, God will comfort you in all your troubles and will thus equip you to comfort others, because you have experienced this.  AA is made up of people who have experienced the same problems and troubles and having found comfort from their Higher Power, can comfort others who suffer the same. No one who has never had your problems can understand your problems. But God does. And God wants to comfort you and uses other to comfort you and pray for you so that you can do the same for others.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

In Step No. 5- when spiritual growth begins you want to mark your progress. I have been blessed to receive some awards in my career for my accomplishments. But the greatest award I ever received, my Ebenezer stone, was a yellow poker chip given to me at my AA group meeting when I had achieved 30 consecutive days of sobriety.   Ebenezer actually means “Stone of Help.”  This is about marking your progress that God has given you in life. It is a step by step process. But God loves and delights to order our steps. He wants us to remember where we have come from, the progress we are making and keep us encouraged. The Lord is our Number 1 Encourager.  God has given me encouragers through my journey. My wife is my chief encourager and after there are many of you who have encouraged me. Its Grace which has brought me this far, and it is Grace which will lead me home. John Newton, (he who wrote Amazing Grace), had lived a wicked life. Here is what he said: “I am not the man I ought to be; I am not the man I wish to be; and I am not the man I hope to be; but by the grace of God, I AM NOT THE MAN I USED TO BE.”  Progress. Change which can be seen and marked.

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” Do you see what was happening?  Israel was in effect saying, I’m coming back the heart of worship and it’s all about you, LORD!  I’m sorry for the thing I’ve made of it.

“The Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Israelites all the days of Samuel.”   The Lord not only gave them protection from the Philistines, God gave them peace with the Amorites who lived within in their borders.

When we began to get our relationship with the Lord right, this all important vertical relationship. We will see our life began to get right in other areas of our lives. It is the work of the Holy Spirit as He begins to conform us to the image of the Son of God, who loved us and gave His life for us.  Do you get that truth? He GAVE HIS LIFE NOT ONLY FOR US- BUT TO US.

Now let me make sure you understand:  there will be lingering consequences for some of our sins.  Old things will pass away and continue to pass away and there will new things which continue to happen as we grow spiritually.

It is a step-by-step process.  It is a daily routine. All the while as you get one part of your life back in order with the Lord, other parts begin to come together also.

Notice Samuel’s life fell in a routine as we read about the rest of his years in verses 15-17 until the end of his life.

We love mountain top experiences, but mostly we live in the valley.  But we can look back and perhaps say like John Newton- I am not all I want to be, hope to be, and should be, but looking back at that young man who 17 years old and left home to live life they way I wanted to live, I can say: I am not the man I used to be.

I can look at my Ebenezer Stone which I have marked and left a record of in my spiritual autobiography which began when I turned toward home on September 16, 1977.  Our lives fall into a routine which varies very little. And if we are not careful, we fall into a humdrum life of “ same-old, same-old.”   Boredom can come in many forms. Affluence breeds boredom. Boredom is a dangerous weapon the enemy uses very effectively to get us to look for fulfillment outside of the Lord.   “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. And He delights in his way. Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down: For the Lord upholds him with His hand. “

Sometimes a fall is the only way God can get us back on the path He has for us. And sometimes a fall which appears to be horrific is actually an Ebenezer Stone. A stone of help.

Has life seemed to trip you up lately?  Take a good look at that which tripped you up- it may very well be your Ebenezer Stone at this time in your life. God placed it there to cause you to fall, that He might uphold you with His Mighty Right Hand!

 

 

I Samuel 5&6: Raiders of the Lost Ark

In 1981, America was introduced to a fictional character developed by Stephen Spielberg named Indiana Jones. The first in the series of movies was a search which has fascinated men for centuries, a search for the Lost Ark of God. The Ark which is described in detail in the Book of Exodus was lost when the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 586BC.  Scholars believe when the Temple was destroyed and plundered, the Ark was either taken by King Nebuchadnezzar and destroyed or hidden by the Levites. Its existence and location remain uncertain and mystery to this day.

It is interesting to note, when the second temple was built, there was no Ark in the Holy of Holies. The only thing in the Holy of Holies was the foundation stone on which set the Ark originally.  This rock is the rock referred to in the Dome of the Rock which now sits on the Temple Mount.

In I Samuel 5 & 6 we read of what happened when the Ark of God was taken by the Philistine raiders.  A series of disasters fell upon the Philistines which are recorded here in these two chapters.

It is interesting to note the Philistines knew about the God of Israel and what He had done on their behalf in Egypt. They feared this God for the reason He might be more powerful than their god, Dagon.   Mankind has been marching into war behind symbols of power and honor symbolized in flags, banners, standards, etc.  Those symbols were used to motivate people to sacrifice and fight for the glory of their cause.

For Israel, the Ark of the Covenant was much more than a symbol, it represented the very presence of the God in their midst. When the Philistines defeated them in the two battles we read about in I Samuel 4 and t killed 4,000 and 30,000 respectively in those battles and took the Ark of God as a trophy of victory, Israel must have believed Dagon had defeated their God. Or else why did they not go after the Ark? 

But God had a plan, He always does .And His plan cannot be thwarted. In battle after battle since the rebellion in heaven, Lucifer has been defeated in every encounter. He has battles he has appeared to win, but things are not what they seem.  If it appears in your life, you are losing a battle, rest assured, God has already won, but the path to victory sometimes travels in unexpected ways, for His Ways are higher than ours.  We must remind ourselves He is working all things together for good for those who love Him.   When you look at our culture today, our country’s journey into spiritual darkness, it may seem as if we are losing. But things are not what they seem.

DAGON

The Philistines must be as gleeful as the devil and his demonic forces were at the death of Jesus on that fateful Good Friday.  But not for long, within 24 hours, what a difference a day makes. They bring home the Ark of the Covenant, that which represented the presence and power of Israel’s God and place in in the temple of Dagon.

God needs no army of men to protect Him. He does not need our strength, or might or power. The threats and denouncements we hear of those who march in the streets and belittle our faith and our God are no problem for God.   We read the Ark of God sat next to Dagon. Dagon is a stone idol, carved from stone by man’s hand.  He dwells in a temple built by human hands.   Our God does not dwell in a temple built by human hands.

“Why do nations say: “Where is your God????” Our God is in heaven; He does what pleases Him. But their idols are silver and gold made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell; they have hands but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk; nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them.” ( Psalm 115)

Watch what happens in the first 24 hours:  When they arose the next morning, they found Dagon fallen on his face before the Ark of the Covenant.  They quickly put Dagon upright. ( I imagine they spent a restless night and tried to reason with natural reasoning, there was a sensible explanation for this – perhaps an earthquake had caused their Dagon to fall on his face.) The next morning, it was worse. Dagon had fallen before the Ark again and his head and hands were broken off.  No head- no wisdom. No hands- no power, no protection, no prayers heard for he was stone deaf.

God also struck them with tumors. The priest calls in the leaders. Alliances between religion and politics is nothing new.  The political leaders do what they always do, ‘kick the can down the road.’ Send it to Gath. So they carried it away to Gath. God struck the men of the city with tumors there also.   They then sent the Ark to Ekron.  By now it has become a virtual “ hot potato” , no one wants.  Another meeting is held- for this is what natural man does, he holds meeting to find solutions. But unless one is meeting with God, man -made solutions will not work or will only provide temporary relief.  Men labor in vain.  God is dealing with these heathens. He wants to break through to them to see the truth of who He is.

THE RETURN OF THE ARK

Now in I Samuel 6, we read this had been going on for seven months. The leaders call in the priest and inquire how should we go about sending this back to Israel. After all, they must not admit the God of Israel is superior to their god. Notice in I Samuel 6: 6- the knowledge these people have of the God of Israel and what their God did in Egypt.  A plan is devised, an offering to the God of Israel is made and a method for returning the Ark is laid out with a convoluted plan of return involving a new cart, two cows who had just had calves. 

Man devises his plans, but God directs his steps we read in Proverbs 16.  The Ark is thus returned to Israel. The people reaping wheat in the field lift their eyes and see the Ark has been returned and rejoice.  They offer the cows as a sacrifice and set the Ark of the Lord on a stone in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED?

After seven months in which no one from Israel came to rescue the Ark, God has returned it Himself.  The army of Philistines which had defeated the armies of Israel was brought to its knees, its precious stone idol, Dagon, shattered; the people ravished by disease until they sent the Ark of the Covenant back with a guilt offering of gold. God does not need an army to bring an enemy to its knees.   One day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess He is Lord.

God said there would be no other gods before Him. He caused the stone idol of Dagon to fall prone on its face before Him. When they set Dagon upright the next morning, the next night, God brought Dagon face down again, head decapitated, hands off, only a torso left. God  was saying, “ Now stay down!”  Dagon does not rise on the third day. 

What happened?  What made Dagon bow down?  Before Dagon was carved by man’s hand, Dagon was a stone. This stone from which Dagon was carved was quarried by man, transported by cart by man, and carved and used in many different ways.  But the stone was created by God.

Stone is stone. It has no life in it. It is stone and will not stop being stone because man has made for himself an image out of the stone.   Do you remember the story of Samson?  Blind and old, Samson was brought into the temple of Dagon. There Samson who had lost his physical sight, regained his spiritual sight and pushed against the stone pillar which was mighty enough to hold the roof of a building which could contain 3,000 people at one time and Samson pushed it and the power of the Lord entered Samson and the roof came down and killed 3,000 people plus destroyed their temple and their stone idol, Dagon. A stone pillar brought down the temple and killed all those in it.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem on that last Holy week, on Palm Sunday, the people worshipped Him and lay down their  cloaks and palms and said “ Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”  The Pharisees demanded that Jesus tell the people to stop worshipping him immediately.

Do you remember what Jesus said?  “ If these people are silent, the very stones will cry out.”

Stones do what stones do. They are used in building, cornerstones; they are used in paving roads, building houses, foundations, etc. But here Jesus tells us stones will worship. All creation worships its Creator. Paul tells us in Romans 8, creation groans for its Creator to return and set things aright once again.   

Jesus, God in flesh, tells us if we do not worship Him, all  of creation will. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess He is Lord.  For some the confession will come too late to allow them to live in the presence of God for eternity.

Man is creative because we were created in the image of our Creator.  Man can form things from other things, from stone, metals, wood, etc.   Remember our hearts were stone. And God gave us a new heart in which He placed His Spirit.

God broke their stone idol, but I believe He wanted to break their stone hearts. God is not willing that any should perish, but all would come to repentance.  These people were visited by God for seven months. He wanted them to know Him and worship Him.  He showed them even the stones worship Him and fall on their  face before Him.

It is interesting the Ark of the Covenant and its contents went missing after the destruction of the Solomon’s temple in 586BC.  To this day, its whereabouts are still unknown. Although we know the Ark of the Covenant which was the pattern for which Moses made the Ark in the Tabernacle is safe and secure in heaven.

When the second temple was rebuilt, there was no Ark of the Covenant behind the Veil, only a stone upon which it sat.

When Jesus died, he proclaimed with a loud voice:  “ It is finished!”  He had fulfilled the first covenant, every jot and tittle. He said the old way to have your sins forgiven was finished, completed. A new way to have your sins had now surpassed the old way. He did away with the old by fulfilling in order to establish the new covenant.  When Jesus proclaimed it was finished, a great earthquake shook Jerusalem.  The Veil in the Temple was rent from top to bottom. The Holy of Holies was empty. And empty place where only a stone of prideful tradition dwelt. For the Glory of God which was once in Temple of Solomon no longer dwelt.

The Glory of God had come down  and  dwelt,( tabernacled ) among men. He was veiled in flesh, His glory was veiled.

The Glory of God had come among men. He came unto His own, but His own receive Him not.

“Therefore, brethren , having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is His flesh. “

God does not dwell in a temple made by human hands. God dwells in the new heart He placed in us when we believed  in His Name, the Name above all Names, the only Name under heaven by which men can be saved.  He came to dwell in our new hearts, in which He placed His Spirit. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God’s. “ 

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

We have in these earthly bodies this excellent treasure, the Glory of God. And it will not depart from us.

We know there will be a third temple built during the Great Tribulation.  I believe the temple will be a place where all religions worship, the peace which was established by the Anti-Christ in the first years of his reign in the Tribulation were achieved by a One World Government with a One World Religion which adapted all components and rituals of all religions.

We see this movement today, where Muslims are being welcomed to worship with Christians. Where the Gospel is being watered down to adapt to social whims.  Where certain sins are being accepted  in the Post Modern Christian era which is saying it is time to ‘ re-think’ our theology and move away from the exclusivity of Christianity as the only way to redemption.

Time to revise what is considered sin, to redefine marriage, family, and religion.

It may appear Christianity is doomed, defeated and on its way out. But God has told us these things would happen. He told us to watch and pray. The signs are evident. And I believe for such a time as this we came into the kingdom.

I believe we are living in a time of fulfilled prophecies before our very eyes. Read the Bible if you want to understand the headlines and the movement of our  culture.

 

 

 

I Samuel 4: Have You Put Your God in a Box?

Now so far in our study, we notice the focus on the Tabernacle and its important role in the life of the people of Israel. Even their enemies were aware of the power of their God. The Tabernacle has been mentioned several times so far in our story and in today’s study, it is central to the lesson.

Now to understand the significance of the Tabernacle, we must go all the way back to Genesis to see what God’s intentions and plans for mankind were and still are.  It is interesting in the creation account, God gives stars, and those massive, mysterious bodies of light which cannot be numbered only receive a brief mention in just five words:  “He created the stars also.” Yet the tabernacle, the tent with its outer court, Holy Place and Holy of Holies receives over 50 chapters of minute details, each filled with symbolical meeting. Why?  Because the Tabernacle is a picture of Restoration and Transformation. It speaks of Gods plan of Redemption.

Adam and then Eve were created by God to walk with Him and talk with Him in a personal relationship. God wanted to dwell among His people.  They were to depend on their Creator for everything. His divine power had given them everything they needed for life and godliness through their knowledge of Him. From the Creation account we realize we are God’s chief creation.  We were created for a personal relationship with Him, for His pleasure, and for His Glory.  “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. “ (Westminster Catechism)   Now let me be clear, God did not create us because He needed us. He created us because He wanted us.   We are God’s treasure and He takes pleasure in us, for where one’s treasure is where you heart will be also. Never doubt how much God loves His children.  But when sin entered the world through disobedience, God had a plan already for redemption and restoration.  

Man was placed in a paradise, called the Garden of Eden. Man was to rule and reign with God. We were commanded to fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the bird of the air and over every living creature that moves on its ground. (Genesis 1: 28)  But instead they disobeyed God’s law. They experienced guilt, shame and fear. Instead of walking with God, the hid from God. But even then, God had a plan which would restore man to his rightful position. What God wanted for Adam and Eve, He wants for you and me. What God did for Adam and Eve, He wants to do for you and me. He wants to redeem us from our sin and sins.

But to experience this transformation, we must be born again. The first time we were born, we were born with sinful natures inherited from Adam the first man.

The Tabernacle was a sanctuary built for God according to His throne room in heaven. This would be the place God would choose to dwell with His people. The Tabernacle would be the focus point of Israel’s national life from the time God brought them out of bondage in Egypt, until the entering of the Promised Land, where it would be housed in Shiloh. Israel would not have a temple until King Solomon built the magnificent first temple in Jerusalem. The Tabernacle had many features, but the three main compartments were:  the outer court where the bronze altar and bronze laver were, the Holy Place the first enclosed compartment where the table of show bread, the golden altar of incense and the gold lamp of God, (the Menorah) were; then behind the veil was the Ark of the Covenant.  Only the priests entered the Holy Place and only the High Priest entered behind the veil into the Holy of Holies in his priestly garments to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat once per year on the Day of Atonement.

Atonement carries the idea of a Just, Holy and Righteous God’s nature being satisfied. God’s law required death as a penalty for sin. When God saw the blood signifying the death of an innocent sacrifice, He was satisfied the demands of the law were carried out. Sacrificing an animal on an altar did not take away Sin. Man was still sinful. The sacrifice pictured what was necessary for sin to be forgiven- death and the shedding of innocent blood. The blood provided atonement, a covering, for sin. This was placed on the Mercy Seat. Thus through obedience these people were placing their faith in the future sacrifice of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who takes away the sin of the world. They were saved by grace through faith by looking forward to God‘s future grace in the future act of the Lord Jesus’s crucifixion. We are saved in the same way by looking back. Everyone is saved by Grace through faith in the shed blood of Christ.

Here is the key for you and me in the 21^st century:  Just as Adam was a pattern of the One who was to come, and just as the sacrificial lambs offered by the Jews in that tabernacle foreshadowed an even greater Sacrifice to come, so the Tabernacle itself was a picture of something even more amazing.  If you are a Christian, a believer saved by grace through faith, your body is now the temple of God. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (I Cor. 6:19) You and I as believers are His tabernacle.  When Jesus came, John wrote the Word became flesh and dwelt ( tabernacled) among us.

The outer court represents your body. The Holy Place – your soul. The Holy of Holies- is your heart. “Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. “ (Ephesians 3:17)   How can this be?  God cannot abide in the presence of sin. Is not the heart desperately wicked and deceitful above all things? Yes your old heart, the heart of a sinful nature you inherited and were born with cannot be God’s dwelling place. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36. 26     We were born again.  Now that body is to be presented as a living sacrifice. You soul, your mind, will and emotions must be transformed and renewed by the Word of God, not conformed by the world culture. And your heart is where your new life lives and the Holy Spirit abides. “The spirit of man is the lamp of God searching all the inward parts.  You are a new creature, old things are passing away and all things are being made new.  This is the abundant life Jesus said He came to give us. Do you realize the “abundant life”; this new life is the life of Christ indwelling you.

Therefore we believe we were created to reflect God’s glory, to bear His image and rule and reign with Him and be fruitful and multiply.

Sin required a payment plan and God developed the payment plan before the foundation of the earth. “He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Blotted it out. Paul was comparing to a certificate of indebtedness which showed what you owed to your creditors. Jesus paid it all. Paid in full.   WE have to reckon our old nature dead, and this involves taking up your cross daily.  We know we have three enemies- the world, the flesh and the devil. And more than likely, if you are like me, the enemy you fight the most, is your old nature.  He wants to be back in charge.

In today’s story, Israel suffers defeat.  Sometimes, God’s Victory can only be accomplished through defeat.  Meet the Philistines, the ancestors of today’s Palestinians.  The Philistines were distressed when Israel conquered the Promised Land. They kept attempting to drive them out of the land, just as their ancestors continue to do to this day.

In the first section of today’s study, Israel suffers a defeat at the hands of the Philistines and 4, 000 Israeli soldiers are killed in battle.   Israel is shocked. How can this be?  We are God’s chosen people. He gave us this land. How can these heathens, these idol-worshipping Philistines defeat us?   Why, indeed, did they suffer defeat?  Why do we sometimes suffer defeat? God allowed them to be defeated because they were disobedient. Deuteronomy 28 is where God speaks to Israel of blessings on obedience and curses on disobedience. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee seven other ways. “ (Deut. 28: 7)  God then spells out in detail, the curses which shall come upon them if they do not obey God’s commandments, which includes all types of misery, defeat, disease and disaster.

The battle is the Lord’s.  When we try to accomplish God’s will with our own power and might, we will be defeated. It is not by our own power or might, but by the Spirit.  Do you hear the pride in their voices- as they question how can these pagans defeat us – God’s chosen people? How are we to fight our battles? Ephesians 6 tells us how to prepare to fight:  we are instructed:   to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand the wiles of the devil.  As you read about the armor, notice what you are to do when you have put on the whole armor:  “… praying always with all prayer and supplication for all the saints.”  Prayer. Prayer is where the believer in whole armor of God fights the battle.

They then decide to take the Ark of the Covenant into battle. Eli’s two sons evidently enter the Holy of Holies and take the Ark into battle.  They are in effect, “using God” to accomplish their own purposes, their own will.  Now as we shake our heads in disgust, I wonder if we are being honest with ourselves. Have you ever tried to use God to get what you want?  We are to seek the will of God. For in doing the will of God we glorify God.  How can anything done by the hands of these two sons, described by the Lord as “vile” be blessed? It cannot. When we have unconfessed sin in our lives, when we are living in sin, practicing sin, we cannot expect God to help us achieve our selfish purposes.  The unnamed man of God who came to Eli in I Samuel 2 told Eli: God will not honor those who do not honor Him. 

So when the ark arrives, there is great enthusiasm on the part of Israel’s army and great concern on the part of the Palestinians. But to the surprise of the Philistines and the dismay of Israel, the Philistines have a mighty victory and not only are Hophni and Phineas killed, but also 30,000 Israeli soldiers die in battle and the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the enemy.  Never before in their history had the Ark of the Covenant fallen into the hands of the enemy.

The ark of God was the throne of God. Now the throne was in enemy territory.  God is only on the throne when Israel is obedient to God and to His covenant.

Your new heart is the throne of God. Your body is the temple, the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. If we neglect to obey God. If we seek our own selfish purposes. If we have unconfessed sin in our lives, if we try to “use” God to accomplish our own selfish purposes, we must realize we have allowed our old deceitful hearts to control our decisions and actions.

THE OUTER COURT- OUR BODIES

Our bodies are represented by the outer court of the tabernacle. We are to present them as a living sacrifice as our act of worship. When you entered the outer court there was only one way, through the gate which faces the east. Jesus will come from the East. The Gate represents Jesus who said He was the gate, He is the WAY. There is no other way to come to Father but by Him. Once you entered through the Gate, you would encounter the bronze altar.  The altar was the place of sacrifice. The altar represents the cross on which our substitute died, the One called the Lamb of God. Abraham told Isaac on the mount, God Himself would provide a sacrifice. And God provided that day in place of Isaac, a ram whose horns were caught in the thorns of the thicket.  The Brazen Altar had four horns on each corner for by which the innocent sacrifice was tied down. Christ is the Horn of our Salvation who was secured on the cross so that we could be secured in the Lamb’s Book of Life.   A horn had three uses in Scripture:  to secure the substitute sacrifice; a trumpet used in war; and a horn of oil was used to anoint David. There is a perfect picture of Christ: the horn of our salvation. He secured Himself as our sacrifice; anointed us with His Holy Spirit and leads us into battle and victory. 

Also in the outer court was the bronze laver of water for cleansing one’s hands after dealing with the sacrifice. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?  Or who shall stand in His holy place: He that has clean hands and a pure heart.” (Ps. 24)  Cleansing from sin as we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

THE HOLY PLACE – OUR SOUL

As we entered the tabernacle by the Gate, which represented the Way, we now enter the enclosed Holy Place where we encounter our Lord Jesus Christ as THE TRUTH.

Only as a member of God’s Royal Priesthood can we enter the Holy Place.  Remember the Tabernacle was built after a heavenly pattern, where each part of this structure was patterned after what was in heaven.  The Lampstand, the Lamp of God, also called the Menorah, was crafted from a solid piece of gold.  John encounters this lamp when he is caught up into heaven in Revelation 4.  The Lampstand has one middle shaft with three branches to the right, and three to the left. According to Isaiah 11:  The Middle branch is the Spirit of the Lord; the other six are: the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.   The Word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light upon our path. This light must be kept burning continually in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the fuel which allows us to see, understand spiritual truths. He will never leave us. He dwells in the Holy of Holies in our lives in our new heart.  One of the greatest needs of this present world we live in is to allow others to see this light, this excellent treasure we have in these earthly vessels.  The cups were filled with pure olive oil. We are the heavenly lampstands to show Jesus to this dark world. Christ was the Olive Tree who was pressed as we read of the great pressure in the Garden of Gethsemane, a garden of an olive press. He makes this fuel available to us to fuel our lamps continually.  If we do not burn with bright flames, it is not the fault of God who has provided us with everything we need; it is our neglect of our priestly duties.  We are to tend to the filling of the lamps with the oil every morning and evening, or else we cannot accomplish our priestly duties.  We are the light of the world. We are to let our lights so shine that men may see our good works and praise our Father in Heaven.  (Matthew 5)  

Now with the lights burning brightly look around in the Holy Place and observe what we find there:  a table with the show bread, the bread of presence.  “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. (Psalm 23)

Here is a unique fact:  this is the first time in all of Scripture the word, table, is mentioned. We are taught to always carefully observe the first mention of a word. The word table here is not just the wood structure with four legs. It means a meal or spread.  Some will often say as they observe a fine meal set out before them:  ‘you set a fine table, mam or sir.’

The table was a place of fellowship and communion. Being asked to sit as someone’s table and join them in a meal was both an honor and privilege. It was also an unmistakable sign of acceptance.  The Pharisees were infuriated when they saw Jesus eating with publicans, prostitutes and a variety of sinners.  When you are invited to eat at someone’s home it is for the purpose of fellowship and or celebration.

The table in the Holy Place had a gold rim. The rim was to make sure nothing fell off.  If this bread represents the manna, then it is a picture of Jesus, the True Bread of Life.  Notice the progression:  we have received the Spirit of God which enables us to understand the Truth of God’s Word. We are anointed with oil. Our cups are filled with oil which speaks of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth. He teaches us and opens the eyes of our heart that we might see the hope to which we are called.  With the lights burning brightly we see the Table of Show Bread. The place of fellowship with the One who is not only the Way, but the Truth. He is the Word of God, the Light of the World, the True Bread who had come down from heaven, just like the manna in the wilderness.   He told Pilate, for this reason I was born and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the Truth, and all who side with the truth listen to me. (John 18)

He is the Way, the Gate by which we enter. He is the Truth, the Word of God who is the Light of the World.

The death of Eli is the end of an era which began with the death of Joshua.  It was an era epitomized with the life of Eli. Unable to restrain his wicked sons, slowly becoming spiritually blind as well as physically blind, Eli’s life is a symbol of a flawed age in the history of Israel. It was an era when there was no King in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  A nation who put their God in a box who could be summoned to do what the wanted Him to do when they wanted Him to do it.   

Have you put you God in a box called West Jackson Baptist Church?  Or does He dwell in your heart of hearts?

I Samuel 3: Are You Listening?

“Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli.  And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” (vs. 1) NKJV    The NIV says, ‘ there were not many visions.’   Remember this is in the period of the judges, when there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.  It was a time of selfish, extreme individualism.  They wanted their personal freedom to live they way they wanted to live, not the way God had told them to live.  Do you see the conditions of that day were similar to the conditions we see in our country today?

God was not speaking to His people very often. We read the spiritual leaders were corrupt and compromised. The silence of God was the judgement of God.  Why should God reveal truth to people who will not live up to the truth He has already given them?   What we are seeing here is a prelude and a prerequisite to revival.  We will see three actions necessary:

1. Purging of hypocrisy.
2. Fresh vision of God.
3. The need for young people to stand for the truth.

God is sovereign. He sits on the throne. When His rule is not allowed. God overrules.  It is a sad day, a tragic day when the Living God is silent. He is still speaking. But He is speaking to those who would obey Him.  We need to have a servant’s heart, like Samuel did.

We read:  “And it came to pass at that time, while Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down, that the Lord called Samuel. And he answered, “Here I am!”

The ‘lamp of God’ was the seven-branched golden candlestick which stood in the Holy Place next to the veil, to the left of the golden altar of incense. It was the only light in the Holy Place, and the priests were ordered to always keep it burning and to trim its wicks when they offered sacrifices morning and night. The lamp was the symbol of God’s Word the light of God’s Truth given to the world through the nation of Israel.  Remember when Jesus came, He was called the Word of God, the Light of the World.

Physically, Eli was probably suffering dim vision from the formation of cataracts. Physically, it is early morning, just before dawn as we read it was “before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle”. This refers to the lamp of God which received fresh oil and had its wicks trimmed early in the morning, was burning low.  Spiritually, Eli’s vision problem is with the lamp of his body, which is the eye. Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If therefore your eye is good, you whole body is full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness, how great is that darkness.”

What does this mean? To grasp the meaning of this statement, we look at what precedes this verse and what follows.   The familiar verses before are about laying up treasures in heaven, not on earth. The principle is where your treasure is there will your heart be also.  The verses that follows says no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

We live in a materialistic society and culture. What your eyes are on- speaks of what the eyes of your heart love. If your eyes are on things above, you eye is good and your body is full of light. If your eyes are on the things of the world, your eye is bad and your whole body will be full of darkness. I am afraid for most of us, the light of God’s Word has been dimmed by the glitz and glamor of this world. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in light of His Glory and Grace.”  What does your heart yearn for, desire and you spend time and money on and with?

The priests ( and we are a royal priesthood) had to make sure the lamps were filled with oil each morning and the wicks trimmed or else the light in the Holy Place would go out. Are we living in a time where the light of God’s truth has grown dim?  Whose responsibility is it to make sure the lamp stays filled with oil, which is a picture of the Holy Spirit.?  It is our responsibility, for we are a royal priesthood.

Question:  Do you arise early each morning to fill the lamp with oil and trim the wicks?  How else can you see to perform your duties for the day, if this is not your first act of the day?

Notice we cannot serve two masters.  We are all servants. The question is who are you serving? Eli was told by the unnamed man of God in I Samuel 2 because of Eli’s failure as a father and priest and because he honored his sons more than God by fattening themselves on the choice parts of the offering made by the people, he would lose his position and his sons would lose their lives.   The ark was in the tabernacle containing the law of God, but their eyes had grown dim and the light was low, the people of God did not honor the law of God. People perish when there is no vision.

We are commanded to walk in the light as God is the light and when we do, we will experience fellowship with Him and one another and His blood continually cleanses us. (I John 1)

THE CALL

The Lord called Samuel four times. The first three times, Samuel thought it was Eli calling him. He did not recognize the voice of the Lord, for perhaps at his age (probably 12) he did not personally know the Lord, but knew about the Lord.

But Samuel had developed the heart of a servant which is revealed in his attentive ear and his immediate response.  As soon as he heard his name called, he heard it and responded.  These are (pardon the pun) the “earmarks” of a good servant.

In the fourth call, the Lord calls Samuel’s name twice.  We are reminded the Great Shepherd knows His sheep by name.

Looking back in your life, can you now recall a time when the Lord was trying to get your attention?  How many times did He have to do something to get your attention?  How long did He have to knock on your door before you let Him in? This applies not only to salvation, but to repentance and restoration.

Samuel responds this time and says” “Speak for Your servant hears.” Now the Lord tells Samuel: “Behold, I will do something in Israel which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.”

On September 11, 2001, God allowed something to happen which made the ears of everyone in this country tingle. All of a sudden, we felt vulnerable. We were fearful, alarmed, and guess what?  Churches were filled. People wanted someone to tell them what had happened. They wanted someone to pray. Late night comedians lost their ability to joke and make people laugh. News anchors broke down and cried on air. The Democrats and Republicans locked arms together and sang God Bless America. Billy Graham was called on to pray and bring us comfort.

It was a moment when our ears tingled. But it only lasted a moment.   Why should God call you, if you are not going to respond.  Samuel listened with the intention to obey.  We listen. But do we hear?

We must be active listeners. An active listener will ask the Lord: “What are you saying to me? How should this influence my life so I can better conform to Your image?

First of all to hear His voice, we must turn to His Word and James tells us how then to listen:

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what is says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man, who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it- will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1)

Jesus said those who hear his word and do it will like the man who built his house on the rock. And it withstood the storms of life. Those who heard it and did not do it were like the man who built his house on the sand, and the storms came and it fell with a mighty crash.

Purposeful listening, listens with the purpose of learning, understanding, and applying the truth to our lives.

GOD IS STILL SPEAKING- ARE YOU LISTENING?

God speaks to build to us to build an intimate, personal relationship with each of us. He wants to communicate His will to us and empower us to do it. In this way God can mature us spiritually. God wants to fill you with His peace, which passes understanding as He guards your heart with all diligence.

God also likes to spend time with you. He loves you with an everlasting love. When my mother would call and ask how her grandchildren were doing, she did not necessarily want to know if they were in good health, although this would be a concern. She wanted to hear about their life, what they said, what they had done. Stories are the language of the heart. She wanted to hear stories about them.  God dearly loves to hear from you. Give Him a call.

As you fellowship with the Lord, He helps you see things from His view. This view is only available through the lens of the Bible. This becomes our view of the world. He has given us His Spirit so when we open His word, we can see what He is talking about.

Now we have an enemy who Jesus described not only as a liar, but a thief who comes to steal, and kill and destroy.  God has plans for us and they are for our good. The enemy wants to keep you from carrying out God’s plan for your life. He will do what he can to disrupt God’s plan and good intentions for your life.  It is a spiritual battle which requires spiritual weapons. We must learn how to use those weapons to tear down strongholds and take captive wrong thoughts. God can prepare us to resist the devil, sin and temptation. First, He helps you avoid pitfalls and traps the enemy uses. Second, He identifies those triggers the enemy uses to trip us up and uproots them.  He will teach you how to use the mighty weapons we have.

GOD’S MESSAGE

The Lord tells Samuel what He is about to do to Eli and his sons.  Samuel was afraid to tell Eli what God’s message was. Ever find yourself in situation where you know you need to speak the truth? But you are afraid of what others will think of you or what they might say to you?

Samuel was just a boy. Eli was an authority figure to Samuel. It was bad news. No one likes to tell someone bad news.

But Samuel was faithful to obey God.  Samuel we read: ‘grew in the Lord.” Obedience always creates spiritual growth.   Samuel grew because of his obedience and we read: “the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.”  In other words, all that Samuel spoke came to be and he was recognized as a prophet. He would become a judge, a priest and a prophet. His reputation was established because he was a faithful servant. A servant with an attentive ear, who obeyed his Master’s commands.

Israel was about to experience their own 911. It would make everyone’s ears tingle. It was a new day dawning in Israel. A thief would take something so important to them, they realized he was stealing their identity as God’s people.

Identity theft is rampant today. Gina and I have had our debit cards hacked on more than one occasion. When I travel, I notify the bank where I am going so they will not block charges.

We will see the enemy steal something from Israel which makes their ears tingle. What will be stolen is the Glory of God.  We will read about it in the coming chapters. But today as we look around America we realize something is missing in our culture. Something is not right. The Light of God’s Word has grown dim.

We know God’s intentions for us are good, but we have an enemy who opposes God’s good intentions for us.

We will see- sometimes what seems to be a defeat is actually part of God’s Victory.  Or as I often say:  “A setback is a setup for a comeback.”  And we will see in this story God comes back.

God directs history. God answers prayers. God judges sin. God rewards faithfulness.

God is still speaking.  Are you listening?

He (the Lord Jesus) who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!”  Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

 

 

I Samuel 2:  A New Life

When a baby is born, a new life begins. Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”  We exist because God willed for us to exist. We were created by Him, hand-made and knit together in our mother’s womb.  We are told we were created by Him and for Him, for His purpose.   Samuel, this baby boy born to Hannah and Elkanah was an answer to prayer. We read in chapter 1 after she weaned him, probably at age 3, she took him up to Shiloh to be raised by the priest Eli to serve the Lord.

Now one can imagine how difficult it would be to send off your child, your baby boy to be raised in the tabernacle by the priest. The prayer of Hannah in the first part of chapter 2 is her reaction:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord.  (Horn is a symbol for strength) I smile at all my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.”   Have you ever heard- “the joy of the Lord is my strength”?  It is a quote from the Bible. The Lord’s delight is to forgive us our sins, to save us. Jesus compared this new life in Him to being “born again.” A baby is a picture of a new life which did not exist before. God’s joy and happiness is in showing His love to all who have believed in Him. Therefore whenever we feel weak, helpless, and hopeless, we need to remember that God loves to step in and deliver us. This gives Him joy. Jesus spoke of the rejoicing in heaven over the repentance of just one sinner. His joy is contagious and it gives us strength, help and hope. For He is the God of all hope. “Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water. Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea. Put your hand in the hand of the Man from Galilee.  My momma taught me how to pray before I reached the age of seven. When I am down on my knees that’s when I am closest to heaven.”

“I have made the earth and created man on it. I- My hands- stretched out the heavens and all their host I have commanded.”  (Isaiah 45: 12)

I have put my hand in the hand of President Harry S Truman and George Bush, the elder. But when I pray on my knees to God, the Creator of all things I put my hand in the hand that stretched out the heavens.

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth neither faints or grows weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40: 28-31)

This is where Hannah’s strength and joy come from, knowing she has placed her life and the life of her son in the hands of God Almighty.

She praises Him for His holiness, she affirms the first commandment- there is none besides Him, there is no other God, and there is no other rock like our God. The Rock of Ages. The Cornerstone. The unchanging, everlasting God.

She praises her God for He has all knowledge- who would be arrogant enough to argue with Him. He weighs our motives and actions and His scales are accurate.

He turns the world upside down. Which the enemies of the apostles and Paul said of them: “These are those who have turned the world upside down.”

She explains how the mighty are brought down and the weak raised up and girded with strength.  Jesus would tell us: he who is first will be last, and he who is last will be first. And the servant will be the greatest.   The poor will be rich and the rich – poor. In Luke 16 Jesus tells us a rich man and the beggar, Lazarus.

Now Hannah and her husband agreed to give this son, this baby boy to the Lord. And we read the Lord gave her back 5 children for the one she gave Him. (Vs 21)  In addition, Hannah was able to see her son once per year when she would come up for the Feasts and bring him clothes, robes, she had made for him.

Now the story turns to Eli and his two corrupt sons, Hophni and Phineas.

“They were corrupt and did not know the Lord.” (vs. 12)

They took the meat offered for a sacrifice for their own selves. Their sin was very great before the Lord for they treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

We read of the contrast between these two wicked sons and this young boy, Samuel. They were wicked and Samuel was faithful.

An unnamed man visits Eli and tells him of his son’s wickedness which Eli knew and did nothing about. He told him both sons would die on the same day. Eli was guilty of not reprimanding them and punishing them. In a court of law this would be called “aiding and abetting” in the commission of a crime. He was therefore guilty by what he did not do as a father and a priest.

GROWING UP

Now as much as we love babies and young children, every parent wants to see their children grow up. And God is no different. He wants to see us grow up.  In verse 26, we read: “And the child Samuel grew in stature and in favor with both the Lord and man. “  In Luke 2, we read a similar verse about Jesus: “And the child grew and became strong in the spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him<”

God wants us who are born again, not to stay babes in Christ. He wants us to grow up in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man.

All of us have wanted to change something, sometime in our lives. It might have come from dissatisfaction in our lives. It might be motivated by guilt.   It may come from some bad habit from chewing our fingernails to smoking. We want to change outwardly- we want to lose weight, get on a budget, eat healthier, exercise, and improve something in our lives.  These changes done in the flesh usually are short-lived.

Ask an alcoholic why he doesn’t quit drinking, and they will tell you quitting is easy, I have quit a thousand times. It’s staying quit which I cannot do.  Paul asked the Galatians why having begun in the Spirit are you trying to complete it in the flesh?

When we fail, we often use the same excuse:  “No one is perfect.”  Or- “God understands and forgives me.”  Yes He does forgive, but there are consequences for sin.

Growing spiritually is a process takes time and effort. The process is called: sanctification.  This process is laid out in the Bible, our “how-to manual.”   Before Jesus departed he told the disciples and us He would send a “Helper”, the Holy Spirit, because He knew we would need help. Jesus knew we would attempt to live out the Christian life in our own strength. Peter was a classic example.

HOW IT WORKS

“As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Colossians 2: 6)  How did we get saved?  By grace through faith and that not of ourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.” From the moment we are born again of the Spirit, the Christian life is “by grace through faith” operation.

Paul goes on to write: “…rooted and built up in Him and established in faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2: 7)

“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” I Timothy 4: 7

God uses three main catalysts to change us:

1. People- as iron sharpens iron; people are used to change us.
2. Circumstances- ‘we know God works all things together for good for those who love Him.
3. Spiritual disciplines.

The first two catalysts you have little control over.  They also change you from the outside – to inside.

The third catalysts you have control over, for you decide how much time and effort you will put into disciplining yourself.  We are told:  Study to show yourself approved, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightfully dividing the Word of God. This changes us from the inside to the outside.

We live in an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down. Yet we know the accomplished musician who sits down to play in front of an audience with ease and confidence came as a result of years and hours and hours of practice, discipline. He or she played with confidence, freed from anxiety because of the discipline of practice and preparation.  Freedom is a reward of discipline.

You must therefore develop spiritual disciplines in order to grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. Or you will live a life of fear and anxiety.

God has done His part:  He has saved you. You have been born again of the Spirit and the Incorruptible Seed, the Word of God. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Phil.2: 13)

God has given us Himself. He has given us the tools- His power, His Word, His Helper. We must work it out with fear and trembling.   He also gave us the example of Jesus Christ. If we believe He is who He says He is, then we must believe that Jesus knew how to live.  We can through faith and grace become more like Him by practicing the types of activities He did in His life on earth. For in doing those Jesus was able to keep in constant contact with His Heavenly Father while here on earth.

Here is a list of Spiritual Disciplines you must practice from the book: “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” by Donald Whitney.

1. Bible Intake.
2. Prayer
3. Worship
4. Evangelism
5. Serving
6. Stewardship
7. Fasting
8. Silence and solitude.
9. Journaling.
10. Learning.

Let me share a word or two about each, but encourage you to get this book.

1. Bible intake: the whole purpose of meditating on the Word of God is obedience. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.  We are to hear the Word, Read the Word, Study the Word of God, Memorize the Word of God, Meditate on the Word of God. All for the purpose of obedience. But also to come to know the author of the book, the One who is also the author and finisher of our faith. “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. A disciple abides in the Word, day and night.
2. Prayer: we are told to devote ourselves to prayer, to pray continually. Here the Word of God and our “Helper” the Holy Spirit teach us how to pray. Jesus got up early each morning, a great while before daylight to pray and spend the beginning of the day with His Father. Meditation and prayer go together. Meditation is the link between Bible intake and prayer. We take in the Word, engraft it and digest it by meditation; we let it out by prayer. Someone said, meditation is the sister of reading and the mother of prayer. Prayer is also a will alignment as I seek to know and do His will as Jesus did, ‘not my will, but thine.’
3. Worship: worship is focusing on and appreciating God. Entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. We are to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The word ‘worship’ comes from worth. He alone is the Only One worthy of our worship. Now perhaps you are thinking these disciplines are my duty. Duty sounds like something we do, but do not like. The more you learn about Him and come to Know Him, the more you will love Him.  And Jesus said if you love me, you will keep my commandments. It should be not only an honor to worship Him, but a joy to do so.
4. Evangelism: witnessing or the telling of the Good News, the Gospel. Let say this up front: evangelism is expected. Jesus commands us in the Great Commission to be witnesses. Evangelism is empowered. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses to the end of the earth. “  In fact, the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.
5. Service: we are expected to serve Him. He will give you the gifts you need to serve Him. Our service is motivated by obedience. We are told to serve the Lord with gladness. I also serve Him out of gratitude for what He has done for me. You should be motivated by love. “Each one should use whatever gift he/she has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” ( I Peter 4)
6. Stewardship: Our first thoughts usually when we hear this discipline is giving money. We know and acknowledge God owns everything and we are but stewards. Giving is an act of worship. We should give on a regular basis, weekly or bi-weekly or monthly depending how you are paid or receive your monies. God promises if we will be faithful to bring the tithes into the storehouse He will open up the heavens and pour out such a blessing we cannot contain it. If you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. If you sow abundantly you will reap abundantly. Give and it will be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing into your lap, for with what measure you give, and it will be given to you.
7. Fasting: Fasting is another spiritual discipline which is expected. Fasting is done for a purpose. Fasting strengthens prayer. Fasting seeks God’s will and guidance. Fasting sometimes expresses grief. Fasting can be to prepare to minister to others. Jesus fasted 40 days after His baptism to prepare for the beginning of his earthly ministry.
8. Silence and solitude: Jesus always went off by himself, usually early in the morning before anyone was up to be alone with God. You need silence and solitude to better hear God. Remember how you used to tell you children to turn off the music while they were studying?  Same principle- helps us concentrate.  I never put on my hearing devices in the early morning hours when I study and meditate on the Word of God.
9. Journaling: My father-in-law, Houston Sipes, Gina’s daddy, always used to say: “Get it in writing.” Journaling can keep a record of events; prayers answered, memorable events, because as we know, our memories fade with age.  Journaling will also be a legacy in writing to leave your children of your walk with God.  So you grandchildren and great- grandchildren will read and learn about a life lived walking by faith. Writing helps us remember; helps us meditate; helps us express our thoughts and feelings to the Lord. Leaves a legacy, a family heritage.
10. Learning: continuous learning is the way of the Christian disciple. We need a heart full of the Word of God plus a mind filled with the Word of God. For our thinking must be transformed by the Word of God. A disciple is not just defined as a “follower” but also as a “learner.” Proverbs 9:9 states “Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning.” Wise men store up knowledge like it was a treasure.   Remember we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our minds… If you are not transforming your mind day and night with the Word of God, then you will open yourself to being conformed by the world culture around you. You will lose that burning heart, and turn lukewarm.

So this is quite a list.  Do not be overcome. Start with Bible intake each morning and a review at night, perhaps before you go to bed or even as a discussion at the dinner table.

You have a “Helper” 24-7, the Holy Spirit who indwells you. His presence in your life creates a hunger for holiness. His job is to magnify Christ. He is the One who gives you a desire to be like Christ. He provides the power to do His Good pleasure.

God did not give us a spirit of fear (timidity) but a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)

Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

And you will grow in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and manlike Samuel did.   You will grow more like Jesus as the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to make us more like Jesus.

 

 

I Samuel 1: A Change is Coming

In this book you will meet Samuel, the man who anointed the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. You will meet his mother, Hannah, and a host of others including: Eli and his two sons, a giant named Goliath, Elkanah, Hannah’s husband,   Peninnah, Elkanah’s 2^nd wife, and others.  Our three main characters are: Samuel, a former judge and now prophet, Saul the first king and David, his successor.  These ancient stories contain many truths for us. As we will see this is also a study in character.

These two books of Samuel are about success and failure of both individuals and a nation.  We will look at what caused success and failure of both individuals and nations. We will see there are always two voices which vie for our attention and desire to influence us. Both want to define success for us: we will see success as defined by the world culture and success as defined by God’s Word.

Success is defined as “accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)  This defines success. But which voice you listen to- defines what your aim or purpose is. The culture which we live in today defines success as achieving wealth, respect or fame.

The Bible defines success as: obedience to God, empowered by the Spirit, directed toward the advancement of God’s kingdom. What our study will reveal is success or failure is a byproduct of our character. Character is defined as the excellence of moral being, moral qualities such as honesty, loyalty, an ethical person of principles. As the excellence of gold is measured by its purity, and the excellence of art by its beauty, the excellence of a man is measured by his character.

We will see in this study the nation of Israel fail, Eli and his sons fail, King Saul fails. And we will trace their failure to their character flaws and failures. David was a success in his character, his conduct and service. David was described as a man after God’s own heart.  But even David failed also.  We all fail. We all fall short sometime at something.

We read how character is developed by God in Romans 5:  “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been give to us.”

Success is a byproduct of character. And this character is Godly Character, His Character, which is developed by perseverance in tribulations.   Problems come into our lives, as we will see in this story. God has allowed these problems and the suffering they bring so we will learn to persevere, so you’ll develop His Character which will provide you with hope which does not disappoint. God wants you to experience the abundant life. The only way to prepare you is through tribulations and suffering. Endurance produces joy. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12)  Did you notice the joy came after the endurance, the suffering and the sorrow?

Until we as individual believers, as churches and as a nation start emphasizing character and obedience, there can never be true success.  Oh, we can attain wealth, our churches can build big building with gyms, coffee shops, book stores and entertainment, but never attain true success in the eyes of God. Only through faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to His will can we have godly character and the kind of success which only comes from fiery trials, which Peter said we should expect. Most of us are aware how for the first time in our lives we are being ridiculed, called bigots, hypocrites, and our words called hateful as we speak the truth of God’s Word.  Christians are experiencing tribulation for their faith. Imagine that!  Peter is saying to us in the 21^st century, I told you not to consider it strange when you endure fiery trials.

“As long as he (King Uzziah) sought the Lord, God gave him success.” (2 Chronicles 26:5)  I believe God has a specific purpose for each of us. I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe God is on the throne and when He is isn’t allowed to rule- He overrules.  Therefore this story begins with Hannah who is in sorrow and suffering. Tribulation that has gone on for years.

HANNAH

We are first introduced to her husband, Elkanah. And we read he had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Penninnah had children, Hannah did not. Hannah’s womb was closed. It was an emptiness in her life which produced sorrow and suffering.  To make matters worse, the 2^nd wife, Penny made her life miserable because Hannah was barren and she was not.  Our story opens with the annual visit up to the city of Shiloh to worship and make a sacrifice. This was probably the Feast of the Tabernacles which celebrated God’s care for the people in the desert journey to the Promised Land. It also celebrated the blessing on the year’s harvest.  The very celebration of fruitfulness and the provoking of Penny made Hannah and her barrenness even more sorrowful.

Paul says we rejoice in tribulations because we know tribulations develop perseverance and perseverance, character which produces hope which does not disappoint. Hannah’s prayer comes out of sorrow and suffering.  Have you experienced prayer that comes out of sorrow and suffering?  Are you experiencing tribulation in your life right now? Has it been ongoing for some period of time? For Hannah’s has been going on for years, we can assume.  She was her husbands’ first wife. After some period of time, when it was evident she was barren, he took a 2^nd wife. We can conclude the suffering and sorrow grew even more intense over time as the 2^nd wife had numerous children and the 2^nd wife took every opportunity to provoke, irritate and belittle her.  Do you have someone in your life who does that to you?

Let’s look at Hannah’s prayer as we now understand the depth of her sorrow and suffering. For I want you to see Hannah not only was suffering and in sorrow, we read: “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.”   Do you remember the Lord’s prayer in the Garden before His arrest?  He said: “my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with me. Then Jesus prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26)  It was a bitter cup. He despised it. Yet the suffering and the shame and the sorrow came before the joy. It was endurance that was needed and endurance was given- enduring the cross for the joy set before Him.  Our Lord knows what it is to endure tribulations. Tribulations He did not deserve.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER

Bitter. Empty. Sorrowful. Ashamed. Ridiculed. A soul in anguish seeking help from the only One who can help. This was Hannah. Been there?  Maybe you are there this very morning.  Facing a battle, a difficult, ongoing situation which you cannot win on your own?  Then take hope- for God answers prayer.

I like what she called Almighty God- Lord of Hosts. Lord Sabaoth. Lord of the Host of Armies of Angels. She is calling on God who is Our Mighty Fortress.  Martin Luther wrote that great hymn while meditating on Psalm 46, which begins with God, is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed. The Lord of Host is with us: The God of Jacob is our refuge.”

Luther wrote, “For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.  So we do not fight him in our own strength we depend on the man of God’s own choosing, the Lord Jesus, our undefeated champion.  We call on Him in this name, when we are overmatched by an enemy too powerful; when we are overwhelmed; defeat is sure, darkness is closing in- we are powerless and at the end of ourselves.

Hannah prayed out of her sorrow, shame, suffering and bitterness:  “O Lord of hosts; if you will indeed look on the affliction (misery, NIV) of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.”

Now Eli the priest is watching her pray. She is praying in her heart, but her lips are moving. For some reason, Eli concludes she is drunk.  He says to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!”  But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. “ ( * Notice she was in bitterness of soul- so she poured out her soul before the Lord. Take your bitterness and pour it out before the Lord.) “Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.”  Eli answered and said, “Go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”

Nine months later, Hannah gives birth to Samuel.

Her prayer came out of her sorrow. It was a prayer of submission which also included sacrifice.

Hannah would keep the baby boy, Samuel, until he was weaned, probably age 3 then take him and give him to Eli to be raised as a Nazarite priests.

Listen to her praise and worship for what God had done as she sacrifices a bull and brought the child to Eli to be raised.

“O my lord (Eli)!  As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord. So they worshipped the Lord there.”  Do you have a testimony to share? Are you sharing it? If no- why not?

Hannah lived in a divided home. We live in the United States, it is our home, but it is a divided home. We live in a pluralistic society and culture. We are not one nation under God, we are a nation divided by race, gender, politics, sexual practices, beliefs, economics and geography. Our families are being torn apart, divorce is as common among Christians as among unbelievers.

The church is called the “house of the Lord”, but even our churches are divided.

God is in control. He is on the throne and when He is not allowed to rule, He overrules.

This story will make it clear. The life and future and character of a nation depends on the character of the home, the family. The character of the home depends on the spiritual life of the parents. The strength of a nation is dependent upon the strength of family. Now do you see why the enemy has attacked the family since the Garden?  He knows the importance of family.

The principle of adversity, tribulation is very important. The Lord uses adversity in the life of a believer for many purposes, all of them ultimately good. He uses adversity to conform us to the image of Christ. This develops godly character and also a deeper relationship with Him

God is just and righteous and therefore He must judge and oppose sin.  He allows both the saved and the unsaved person to bear the consequences of their willful acts of sin. God moves decisively against sin with the desire that all would repent of their sin and seek Him wholeheartedly.

Strangely, I am blessed by the fact that this godly woman, Hannah, had experienced bitterness in her soul as a result of her ongoing tribulations.  It tells me God understands these emotions we experience.  Our Perfect High Priest has experienced them personally. Both Hannah and the Lord Jesus poured out their souls to God in prayer. They emptied their souls of bitterness and sorrow for their situation in prayer.  When Jesus finished pouring out his soul in prayer and prayed with such intensity He sweat great drops of blood, we read in Luke 22: “An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him.

Have you ever heard someone say about tribulations- they can make you better or bitter? ‘Every test in our life can make us better or bitter. Don’t let the winds of adversity blow you down, let them lift you up.

Hannah knew God had answered her prayer. For God answers prayer. Prayer allowed her to empty her soul of bitterness and be filled with the presence of God. In order to be filled with the Spirit, we must empty ourselves of anything which keeps us from being filled. Bitterness, envy, coveting, self-pity and unbelief are some of those things which keep us from being filled with the Spirit.

I think of the passage in John 5 of the man healed at the pool of Bethesda. Bethesda means “house of mercy.” Jesus came to the pool which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  Here lay a great number of disabled people: the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One was a man, who had been an invalid for 38 years.  When Jesus saw him laying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made whole, (well)?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”  Do you see the depression? The self-pity?  The envy of those who have help?  The unfairness of life which had made this man bitter, not better.

Jesus did not give him a stern lecture about pulling himself up by his own boot straps, He knows about the areas in your life, you find difficult to walk by faith. Jesus does not hold your weakness against you. Nor did He hold it against Hannah.  He did not chastise her for the bitterness in her, for her sorrow over her condition of barrenness.

Jesus knows that is easy for physical weakness and mental depression and emotional pain to rob a person of hope and in their hopelessness lose their willingness to even try to do anything about it. The question is do you want this bitterness to be uprooted? Do you want the emptiness to be filled?   Jesus said to the paralyzed man- “Get up, take your mat and walk.” What does this mean to us?  It means if we put our faith in Jesus alone and obey His Word absolutely, you will have all the power you need. Your bitterness will be uprooted. Your emptiness will be filled.

Get off your mat of self-pity, depression, envy, bitterness and blame and shame, and pick up your responsibilities as a child of God, a royal priest and come walk with Jesus.

It is interesting the story and event right before this healing at the pool of Bethesda was the healing of the nobleman’s son.  Do you remember the key verse?   “The man took Jesus at His word and departed.” Took Jesus at His Word.  And obeyed Him.

Have you taken Jesus at His Word and obeyed Him?  Do you want to be made whole? Do you want bitterness and unbelief  to be uprooted?

It is never too late to do the right thing. Take Him at His Word and whatever He tells you to do- do it.

I called on the Lord Jesus to save me on September 16, 1977. I was at the point of committing suicide.  My life, I felt, was not worth living. I called on the name Jesus, because his name means ‘He saves his people.

But I would be introduced to Lord Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts that very morning in my first AA meeting. The first step says:  We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and our lives had become unmanageable.  I could not defeat this enemy. I needed help The Lord is our very present help in time of trouble. I was no match for this enemy- I was overmatched- I was headed for sure defeat. The second step says: I came to believe a Power greater than our selves cold restore us to sanity.  I met and began a journey led by Lord Sabaoth.