11.19.07
Posted in Bible Study, Tim Marshall at 10:39 am by Gene Cornett
Introducing the books of Samuel (they are really one record, but scrolls had physical limits on their size), Eugene Peterson makes a very challenging observation. He says that as we read and pray our way through the lives of Hannah, Samuel, Saul and David we start to understand that:
“These four stories do not show us how we should live but how in fact we do live, authenticating the reality of our daily experience as the stuff God uses to work out his purposes of salvation in us and in the world.”
Think about that – not how we should live, but how in fact we do live. It puts a whole new light on these stories, doesn’t it? As we take the time to look into the lives of Bible characters, we see ourselves too, as if we were looking into a mirror.
More than once God says His word is like a mirror for us. When He gave instructions about how to build His wilderness house, God told Moses to have his craftsmen fabricate a large basin using ladies’ mirrors and place it at the entrance. Water in the basin was then used is ceremonious washing. It’s not hard to see in the image that those who would meet with God must first find Him in His word. It has the ability to reflect our true image, and it also holds the water that is necessary for cleansing. (Ex 37:8, Eph 5:26)
Let’s look at some of the events captured in this short biography of Saul
- In the press of business, Saul took sacred matters into his own hands.
5And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. 6When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, 7and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. 8 He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” 15And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army; they went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin.
Saul pleaded his case with Samuel – “I felt compelled!” Notwithstanding the clear instruction to wait for Samuel, Saul was overcome by emotions and desires, and he chose an alternate approach - to do Samuel’s job for him.
At the beginning of his reign, Samuel charged Saul and the people, don’t turn aside from following the Lord, and don’t turn aside after empty things that cannot profit. But Saul turned sacrifice and worship into an empty thing, by going about it in his own way, rather than in the way that honored God.
Saul knew exactly what the limits of his power were. Even this unusual 7 day charge from Samuel was familiar to him – Samuel had given him the exact instruction centered on the exact location at least once before (10:8).
I know you gave clear instructions on this, but I simply couldn’t wait any longer. Is there ever a time when this attitude characterizes us? It would cost Saul his kingdom.
2. In executing the daily business of running his kingdom, Saul failed to take care of routine things, like properly outfitting his army.
19Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.” 20But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle, 21and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads. 22So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them.
On the day of battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people. I’m not sure what was consuming all of Saul’s time and energy – but it seems stupid for a military leader to send his troops into battle against so formidable an army without so much as a sword or spear. Why else would the writer have captured this anecdote? What would you infer from it?
I’m reading the biography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (highly recommended!) and in it he describes a time when he and a friend decided to run the New York City marathon. He took his training motto from basketball coach Bobby Knight: “Everybody has a will to win. What’s far more important is having the will to prepare to win.”
The next few events in the story of Saul are not much better than the first, and it became obvious that Saul was bent on going his own way. By the end of this next vignette in Saul’s life of Saul, his attitude and life choices cost him the best friend he ever had – Samuel.
3. Saul’s true character came through in both failure and in success.
Saul had been instructed to totally annihilate the nation of Amalek, taking no one captive and nothing as the spoils of war. He mustered a huge army and descended on the enemy as instructed. But what happens next is the beginning of the end for him.
15:7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive(J) and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
Saul openly defied the command by saving the king – either as a trophy or as a negotiating tool for their dealings with other nations, and by saving the best of the land. When challenged by Samuel, Saul at first denied any wrongdoing. Then when exposed (“what’s this bleating of sheep in my ears?”) he blamed the people. When all else failed he offered to sacrifice to God all that had been taken.
This string of events led to one of the great texts on sin and sacrifice:
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
Much has been said about this famous text in the 3,000 years since it was first spoken, and if you’ve been around the Faith for a while you’ve given much thought to it. One thought occurs to me today that recalls the kind of word association we had on our SAT tests:
Obey is to rebellion as listen is to presumption.
Selah – meditate on that.
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11.13.07
Posted in Bible Study, Tim Marshall at 1:27 pm by Gene Cornett
Our Old Testament survey brings us to a character today that may best be described by the word enigma. Saul is an enigma to us – a puzzle and a mystery. There may be more about Saul’s life that’s unexplainable than we’re comfortable with, but God captured his story for us anyway, and He expects us to give it some thought. And so today, with God’s help, we will.
If you were here last week you remember we were introduced to Samuel, the last of the judges of Israel and probably the best. For the two weeks prior to Samuel we studied the life of his mother Hannah. She was a God honoring woman who lived in what we would call a highly dysfunctional family. God seems determined to use people like that to teach us His way.
The story of Saul takes place about 1000 years before Christ, and it marks the beginning of the period of the Kings in Israel – Saul was the first man to be named king in Israel. His life is sketched out in the book of 1 Samuel.
As a prelude to the introduction of Saul, the Biblical record tells of the day when Israel demanded that before he died, Samuel should appoint a king over them. 1 Samuel 8:5″You are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
Samuel was surprised and grieved, and took the issue to God, who helped Samuel see that it was not Samuel they were rejecting, but God. Israel no longer saw the benefits of the type of Government instituted under Moses. In that system, God was king and judges were his appointed rulers.
I read an interview recently with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that helped me understand the Old Testament system of Judges better.
Justice Thomas suggested that the job of a judge was not to “choose right and wrong, but to choose between right and wrong”. Adam and Eve’s sin, Thomas went on to say – “was that they thought they could choose right and wrong as opposed to choosing between the two.”
Implicit in Thomas’s argument, of course, is that God already determined what is right and wrong, and He revealed that to us in His Word. It’s our job to hold our lives and actions up against that Word to determine where we stand with respect to it. Judges in Israel were appointed to help the nation with that. But they grew tired of that system, and demanded a King.
Samuel told Israel what life under a king would be like – that he would be a law unto himself and that he would take the best of the land, the best of their children and the best of their goods and services for himself. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” 1 Sam 8:19
1 Samuel 9:1 There was a Benjamite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. 2 He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.
Remember our study of the book of Judges – Eugene Peterson said it’s a book written to “those who believe that a strong man at the top would solve their problems.” What does this description of Saul tell you about him?
I think it says that he was just the kind of man they were looking for - a big man, an impressive man, a man who stood out in a crowd and who had no peers. Saul was just the kind of man they were looking for. Or so they thought. Saul had the stature and charisma that Israel was craving.
I met Bill Clinton once while he was President and got to shake his hand. Before the meeting I’d thought of all sorts of things to say to him but when it came down to the moment I was so struck by his stature and his presence that I forgot everything, and just said one word - “welcome”.
I think Bill and Saul had a few things in common. Bill was a strong man at the top, a Rhodes Scholar. But when we put him there, he was unable to solve our problems. Go figure. Neither will the next guy, regardless of his political party. “Some trust in horses, some in chariots”, some in kings of their own choosing, “but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God”.
If you’ll take the time this week to read the story of Saul in 1 Samuel you’ll be better off for it. But it’s not the kind of story that’s neat and tidy and leaves you with all the answers. It’s messy and disconcerting, and if you’re like me, it’ll probably leave you with more questions than answers.
You’ll be troubled by Saul’s character (despite his special relationship with God) and by God’s severe response to Saul’s failures (where’s the mercy?).
But getting rattled by the Word may not be the worst thing in the world – it may even make you more attractive to unbelievers than people who act like they do have all the answers. One of the most off-putting things about us believers is that we sometimes come across as if we have all the answers.
Read the life of Saul and you won’t be so tempted to feel that way.
I spent most of my study time this week in 1 Samuel 12. It takes place at the beginning of Saul’s reign and is subtitled “Samuel’s Farewell Address”.
In a brief introduction, Samuel reminds Israel that his leadership has not been characterized by the kind of corruption that they’re about to experience, andhe tells them one more time about how they got to this point in time.
6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your forefathers up out of Egypt. 7 Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the LORD as to all the righteous acts performed by the LORD for you and your fathers. 8 “After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the LORD for help, and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your forefathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place. 9 “But they forgot the LORD their God; so he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them. 10 They cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We have sinned; we have forsaken the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.’ 11 Then the LORD sent Jerub-Baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely.
Again at the end of this brief message Samuel tells Israel to consider what great things [God] has done for you. In a way, that’s one of the top priorities of any leader – to help us remember how we got this far. Last week we saw that Samuel erected a monument called Ebenezer to help remind Israel – “hither by thy help I’ve come.” We are prone to wander and forget.
Last week we spoke about the Baals and the Ashtoreths that ancient Israel went after – false gods of the nations around them. Baal worship originated in a belief that every tract of ground owed its productivity to a supernatural being, or baal, that dwelt there. Ashtoreth was goddess of sexual pleasure.
Ancient people had a real problem with worshiping the gods of productivity and sexual pleasure - and these old stories have no relevance? Israel wanted a king to help insure their future – to fight for their right to be free to chase any opportunity they felt like chasing.
Modern men are no different. Like the sacrifice of children to Baal gods, we’ve also sacrificed a relationship with our children by being so set on productivity and money-making. And men are running after Ashtoreth in unprecedented levels, especially through the internet – some say that 60% of internet use (that’s billions of “hits” every day) is focused on pornography.
By the end of his ‘shock and awe’ message, 19 The people all said to Samuel, “Pray to the LORD your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.”
Here’s how Ravi Zacharias summarizes the whole life of Saul, and I think it also speaks the truth about Israel, as evidenced by their repeated demand for a king, which God finally granted.
But in getting what they wanted, they would also get much more than they bargained for…
“If you are determined in going in the wrong direction, even after repeated warnings from God, from His word and from His people, at some point God will step aside and second your motion.”
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11.11.07
Posted in Bible Study, Tim Marshall at 9:27 pm by Gene Cornett
Hannah was a woman so transformed by God that when He granted the desires of her heart she named him Samuel, and gave him back to God. Hannah’s confidence in God, despite her personal situation, and her personal expression of worship to Him, exceeds our wildest imagination.
Without real people like Hannah, we might be inclined to think that her kind of devotion and response to hardship is impossible. But God put her in our lives to assure us that it is possible to rise above every situation, in Him.
The child she gave back to God, Samuel, was the last and one of the best of Israel’s judges. After that came a long line of kings. God saw to it that part of his biography would be captured also – for our benefit.
Samuel, like his mother Hannah, is a good guide who shows us the way to God. And as we’ve been saying over and over in this Old Testament series – if we choose to ignore the lives and experiences and messages of men like Samuel and women like Hannah, we do so at our own peril.
When he was only a boy, Samuel’s mother brought him to the worship center of Shiloh to be a servant boy and almost a son to Eli and the other priests. One wonders how she could have missed the lousy job Eli had been doing parenting his own sons? But she’d given Samuel to God, and would not be intimidated by thoughts of what might happen to him.
God honored Hannah’s steadfast, rock-solid faith, and He saw to it that Samuel did not grow up to be like Eli’s wicked sons. Perhaps Hannah’s faithfulness to pray for her son is part of the unwritten story here? Hannah made a little robe for Samuel and brought it to him each year. I bet she prayed over every stitch. The text goes on to say the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men. 2:26
It says in 3:1 that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, and goes on to tell the story of Samuel learning to discern the word of the Lord. God’s purpose in Samuel was to speak through Him to Israel
At one point in his training God spoke audibly to Samuel 3 times before his master Eli finally understood that it was God doing the speaking. At least he gave Samuel some good advice about how to respond: “speak, LORD, for your servant is listening”. One of the highest goals of spiritual training is to build in us the discipline to listen for and the ability to discern the word of the Lord in and for our day. Only then will we have anything to share.
1 Samuel 3:19 - 4:1 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
In the next few chapters of the story we hear little if anything about Samuel, but Israel seemed to go from bad to worse, despite his word. Because of their stupid strategic and tactical errors they experienced bloody battles in which tens of thousands of their soldiers were killed. The ark was captured.
A child was born to Eli’s daughter-in-law, and with her dying breath she named him Ichabod, which means “the glory of the Lord has departed”. Some think that the darkness of these days in Israel is almost unparalleled.
Like their ancestors before them, Israel had practically invited the wrath of God by falling headlong into worship of pagan deities Baal and Ashtoreth.
Dozens of times in the Old Testament Israel is described as being lost in the worship of Canaanite gods Baal and Ashtoreth. When Gideon died they prostituted themselves to the Baals, it says in Judges 8:33.
Baal worship apparently had its origin in the belief that every tract of ground owed its productivity to a supernatural being, or baal, that dwelt there. Ashtoreth was the goddess of sexual pleasure and fertility.
Baal was the masculine husband, Ashtoreth the sensual wife. Together, they ruled the universe, and when they made love the earth produced a bountiful harvest and enough offspring to sustain the culture forever.
Baal was the god of productivity and Ashtoreth the goddess of sexual pleasure. And who said these old stories have no relevance?
If one was to do an exhaustive study of the culture, values and true religion of our modern world, and many have, I think they would conclude that two deities rise above all others as supreme: the god of productivity and the god of sexual pleasure.
For twenty years (7:2) Israel lamented after the Lord and was made to see the error and exceeding wickedness of their ways. Eventually, the word of the Lord that came through the life and voice of Samuel began to take root.
Apparently, in response to their genuine repentance, Samuel delivered a message of deliverance to the people of Israel. Look at 1 Sam 7:3-6:
And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only.
The Baals and Ashtoreth had symbols to remind people of their presence. I don’t think people necessarily saw the symbols as god, but as the reminder of their god. I’m not sure what the symbols looked like, but scholars tell us that the Asherah poles were actually phallic symbols – the erect male penis.
Samuel said that the beginning of real restoration to the God of Israel would be to put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only. Jesus said exactly the same thing, “you cannot serve God and mammon”, and we understand mammon to be the best this world has to offer – money and all the pleasure money can buy.
5Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 6So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.
Notice what happened at the point when Israel began to turn to the Lord in earnest: when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.
Don’t expect true revival in the hearts of men and nations to be met with no resistance. All the powers of hell are aroused in order to fight for and retain what they thought they’d never lose. And those powers are without a doubt more powerful than us. We are powerless before them, Jehosophat said in a similar situation, and he was right. He said before the people in prayer – “neither know we what to do.” But he did know this – he knew that God was more powerful than all the Philistines.
Samuel prayed for deliverance, he cried out to God in response to the cries of his people, and the Lord answered him. God threw the Philistines into a great confusion, enabling Israel to rout them and leave a lasting impression.
What happened next is something I pray you’ll remember, and duplicate. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.”
Some of us remember an old song we used to sing about Ebenezer - an old hymn from the 1700’s – Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace….
Here I raise my “Ebenezer”;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
Would it stand to reason that sophisticated people like us might need to set up an “Ebenezer” to help us remember a special revelation of the goodness and mercy of the Lord? Does anybody have one? Shouldn’t we all?
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