Maybe you’ve seen the famous slogan in the photo above. Portland, Oregon, really wants to stay weird. The city of Portland has embraced its self-identity of weirdness, while others have suggested that weirdness is not good.
Have you ever read the Bible and thought, “This passage is…weird.”? If you’ve thought something like that, you’re not alone. The Bible is an ancient document about ancient people in a culture and era that is vastly different from our own. I personally find this strangeness in the pages of the Old Testament more frequently than I do in the New Testament. This coming week on the blog, guest Kirk Marks will resume our series on the Life of David, blogging through 1stSamuel chapters 28-30.
These chapters are, well, weird.
To bring you back up to speed, we started the Life of David series this past April. For two months we worked our way through 1st Samuel chapters 1-15, studying the lives of the prophet Samuel and Israel’s first king, Saul. We finally met David in June, when Samuel secretly anoints David to be Israel’s second king. Over the next few weeks, we watched as David rockets into superstardom, providing music therapy for King Saul, then killing Goliath, marrying Saul’s daughter, and becoming a successful military leader. Everyone in Israel was praising David. Except one person. King Saul.
Saul’s jealousy led him to attempt to kill David multiple times, so David fled. The hunt was on as Saul and his men attempted to track down David who was now a fugitive. With help from his wife, from Samuel, from his best friend, Prince Jonathan, and even from the priest at the tabernacle, David successfully escaped. But no one would stop Saul from hunting David. Slowly other disaffected men joined David, but Saul’s military was far larger. Twice David had the opportunity to kill Saul, and twice David showed mercy. When David and his men eventually sought refuge with the Philistines, Saul called off the hunt. And that is where we left David, his men and their families, living in the Philistine town of Ziklag. What happens next?
We find out in the weirdness of 1st Samuel chapters 28-30. Read these chapters for yourself ahead of time and see if you find them weird too. But as you read, and on the blog next as we study God’s word together, don’t think that this passage is so weird that it can’t relate to our lives. Our lives are sometimes weird too, aren’t they? In fact, what we will discover is that through this passage God can speak powerfully to our lives.
Photo by Janne Simoes on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 