Why David’s glowing eulogy of King Saul is wrong, and how we can do better at funerals – 1 Samuel 31—2 Samuel 2:7

Sometimes I find David difficult to figure out.  One moment he has what appears to be a big emotional reaction, going so far as to commanding the capital punishment of the Amalekite, as we learned in the previous post.  The next moment, David writes a glowing eulogy for King Saul and Jonathan.  Look at 2 Samuel chapter 1, verses 17-27,

“David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan, and he ordered that the people of Judah be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the Book of Jashar):

“A gazelle lies slain on your heights, Israel. How the mighty have fallen! Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.

“Mountains of Gilboa, may you have neither dew nor rain, may no showers fall on your terraced fields.  For there the shield of the mighty was despised, the shield of Saul—no longer rubbed with oil.

“From the blood of the slain, from the flesh of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, the sword of Saul did not return unsatisfied. Saul and Jonathan—in life they were loved and admired, and in death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

“Daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and finery, who adorned your garments with ornaments of gold.

“How the mighty have fallen in battle! Jonathan lies slain on your heights. I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.

“How the mighty have fallen! The weapons of war have perished!”

This is a lament.  Lament is holy complaint.  A crying out, with anguish or mourning, often to God, telling God your emotional feelings and thoughts about the struggles you are going through. David’s lament expresses his feelings about the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. 

We learn in verse 18 that it is a “lament of the bow,” and scholars are uncertain as to what that means.  One scholar I read suggested that it was a song David wanted his archers to sing while they were practicing, almost as a prayer that the awful military defeat that killed Saul and Jonathan wouldn’t happen again.  This passage also mentions the Book of Jashar.  The word jashar in Hebrew means “upright”, so that title, “The Book of Jashar” is probably better understood as “The Book of the Upright.”  Scholars believe it was a book of epic poems about righteous Israelite heroes. 

The lament itself is curious because David makes both Saul and Jonathan out to be really amazing people.  For Jonathan, David’s words are true.  Jonathan loved God, was courageous, brave and David’s loyal friend.  Saul, though?  Saul was a coward, selfish, ungodly, and erratic.

Why would David write this poem that makes Saul sound amazing, and lead us to believe that David is extremely upset about Saul’s passing?  We can’t ask David, so of course we don’t know for sure.  But it could be that David is doing something like what people often do at funerals.  Even if the deceased was an extremely difficult person, we can call the funeral a “Celebration of Life.”  

Long ago I attended a funeral in which the person who passed had behaved very very poorly toward numerous people.  When news of his behavior became public, it rocked the family.  Before he died, people confronted him, and he was wishy-washy at best in admitting his sin, and did not work toward reconciliation.  So when it came time for his funeral, what do you say? 

At funerals, there is an emotional desire on the part of family and friends to emphasize how great the person was, and to celebrate their life.  It is the rare funeral where speakers bring up the sins of the deceased.  So I don’t blame David too much for saying Saul was great.

As Kirk mentioned last week, this was an honor and shame culture.  We do not live in an honor and shame culture in America.  In honor and shame cultures, you avoid confrontation and truth in order to preserve honor and dignity, even when a person is wrong or confused or sinful. 

When my wife Michelle was working in Cambodia, communication could sometimes be difficult because Michelle and the Cambodians had different primary languages.  She would explain a product design to the Cambodian seamstresses, and they would nod their heads in understanding, as if they really got it.  Often they didn’t understand her fully.  Why would they nod their head?  Were they lying?  No.  It is an honor/shame culture.  They did not want to give the impression to Michelle that Michelle hadn’t explained something, or that they were people who didn’t understand her.  They wanted no part of shame.  They only wanted to preserve honor. 

It could be that David is doing something of the sort.  Saul was the Lord’s anointed, and thus, he should be honored, period.  Personally, I don’t like it.  I think David should have said that Jonathan was great, because Jonathan really was great.  And I think David should have truthfully said that Saul was difficult, selfish, erratic and unwise. I think it would also be fair if David said that from time to time Saul made some good choices too, and Saul won some great battles. As with most people, Saul was not 100% bad. 

Maybe David would read this and say, “But I meant all that I said about Saul.  I wanted to point out good things about him.  I want him to be remembered well.”   Maybe.  I just find it curious that David says nothing, not a peep, about Saul’s many faults.  Saul was a murderer.  Remember that story when he commanded the slaughter of the priests?  That is psycho killer, unhinged, behavior.  Yet David doesn’t mention it.  Do we revise the past to make for a more peaceful future? 

Some people critique those in our culture who bring up the sins of our American past.  Genocide of indigenous peoples (Native Americans).  Racialized chattel slavery of millions of Africans.  Barring women from owning property, voting, and paying them less money than men for the same jobs.  Do we just turn a blind eye to the past?  No. I would suggest we need to face the truth of the past, so we can learn from it.  I think David is wrong for making Saul out to be a wonderful leader. Far better to tell the truth. 

This episode in David’s life reminds me of the sci-fi series by Orson Scott Card called the Ender series, in which Ender is the main character.  In the book, Speaker for the Dead, Ender has taken on a priest-like role, called Speaker for the Dead, and he performs a Speaking for a family that has lost a loved one.  A Speaking is like a funeral, but so much more.  Ender is one of many Speakers for the Dead who go to the deceased’s family and live with them, sometimes for months, to learn the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Then they hold the Speaking, and they tell the true story of the person.  The whole truth.  In the book, fictional though it is, a great emotional and relational healing takes place through the speaking of truth.  Family wounds were uncovered, broken relationships mended.  I wish David would have told the truth in his eulogy and sought that kind of healing. As we will see in the upcoming weeks, the dysfunction in Saul’s family will lead to significant pain. But eventually there will be a healing and David will be central to the healing.

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Was David’s use of the death penalty just? – 1st Samuel 31—2nd Samuel 2:7, Part 2

Over the past year a friend of mine has been incarcerated. He has many more years to go in his sentence. During my weekly visits, we’ve talked a lot about the question, “What is justice?” How do participants in the criminal justice system know if the punishment fits the crime?

In today’s post, as we continue the story of the life of David, David takes justice into his own hands. He is the judge, jury, and executioner. Yes, David enacts the death penalty. There is no investigation and no trial. Here’s what happens.

Remember that David had two easy opportunities to kill Saul, who was pursuing David to kill him, and David did not take either of them?  Instead, he saw them as opportunities to show mercy to Saul, because even though Saul was trying to kill David, Saul was the Lord’s anointed. In David’s view, you do not kill the Lord’s anointed.

But David has just heard a man report the news of Saul’s final moments, and the man said that he killed Saul.  No doubt, the man only did so because Saul was at death’s door and Saul asked the man to do it.  But you can see the wheels turning for David, and it is not sitting well with him. 

Also the man is an Amalekite.  Where have we heard that recently?  Look at verse 1 in the chapter we’re currently studying, 2nd Samuel 1.  Verse 1 reminds us that David had just returned from striking down the Amalekites.  That line is a call back to 1st Samuel chapter 30.  It was the Amalekites who had sacked David’s town of Ziklag and carted off all the Israelite women and children while the men were away at war.  So David and his men, after inquiring of God, chased down the Amalekites and defeated them. 

How do you think David is feeling about the Amalekites right about now?  Yeah, it’s a bitter taste to say the least.  Now here is an Amalekite man saying that he mercy-killed Israel’s King Saul.  For David, this is a very dark situation, and it seems like the Amalekite man doesn’t view it that way. 

David calls for the man, as we read 2nd Samuel 1, verse 13.

“David said to the young man who brought him the report, ‘Where are you from?’”

Oh man.  David is setting a trap.  This young man has no clue.  He takes the bait.

“‘I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite,’ he answered.”

You can just watch the darkness all over David’s face.  David could easily be thinking, “That’s what I thought I heard him say earlier.  He’s an Amalekite.  An Amalekite who just killed Saul.”

David draws him further into the trap.  Look at verse 14, “David asked him, ‘Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?’”

And there it is.  The buzz word. “The Lord’s anointed.”  Remember how David used that word in both of the situations when he himself could have struck down Saul?  In both of those episodes, David’s men were even trying to convince David that God had set him up to kill Saul.  But David refused to strike down Saul because Saul is the Lord’s anointed.  But this Amalekite did kill Saul, the Lord’s anointed.

From this point on, it’s lights out.  Look at verse 15.

“Then David called one of his men and said, ‘Go, strike him down!’ So he struck him down, and he died. For David had said to him, ‘Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth testified against you when you said, “I killed the Lord’s anointed.”’”

I have to admit, this is a tough one for me.  Saul asked the Amalekite to kill him.  Saul was dying.  The Amalekite young man is merciful to Saul.  Maybe he didn’t want to kill Saul.  But he obeyed Saul.  We could easily respond, “David, lay off.  This guy did the merciful thing by finishing what was already an inevitability. He was merciful just like you were merciful to Saul.” 

David doesn’t see it that way.  David has no way to authenticate the man’s story about Saul pleading for a mercy killing.  All David has to go on is what the man said, and the man admitted to killing Saul.  Maybe the man thought David would view him as a hero.  After all, Saul had been trying to kill David for a long time.  But nope. David sees one thing and one thing only.  Saul was the Lord’s anointed, and David strongly believes it is wrong to kill the Lord’s anointed, even if Saul only had minutes to live and was begging for a mercy killing.  David believes he must enact capital punishment on this man, because this man killed the Lord’s anointed.  It sure didn’t help the man that he was an Amalekite. 

It is a fraught story.  I don’t like it.  I wish David would have taken the time to investigate this guy’s story.  There’s a Wild West justice that often pops up in the life of David, and it doesn’t sit well with me.  We’ve seen this before in the life of David.  Remember a few weeks ago when Abigail, wife of Nabal, had to intervene because David was on the warpath to kill her husband.

Sometimes I find David difficult to figure out.  One moment he has what appears to be a big emotional reaction, going so far as to commanding the capital punishment of the Amalekite.  The next moment, he writes a glowing eulogy for King Saul and Jonathan. We’ll learn about that eulogy, and why I have a problem with it, in the next post.

For now, I’m thankful to live in a nation where that kind of unexamined justice is illegal. We need due process. We need investigations and trials and juries and judges. Sure, they don’t get it right all the time. Loads of people on death row are exonerated by DNA evidence. But there is a system of checks and balances, so that justice is most often preserved. I am convinced that the time does not always fit the crime. Because of my friend’s recent experience with the justice system, there seems to be a significant, and unacceptable, measure of randomness to the criminal justice system. We Christians would do well to advocate for an approach to justice that aligns more closely with God’s heart. Restorative justice rather than punitive justice.

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The deep pain of losing a loved one – 1 Samuel 31—2 Samuel 2:7, Part 1

I’m going to list some names below, and as I read them, notice the emotion that you feel about them. Read the names, imagine their faces in your mind. What do you feel?

George Washington

Abraham Lincoln

John Wilkes Booth

Martin Luther King Jr

Richard Nixon

Margaret Thatcher

Donald Trump

Kamala Harris

Did you feel the emotion? Depending on your viewpoint of history, a person might be a hero, and they might be a villain. They might be someone you respect, and they might be someone you really have a hard time with.

Last week, Kirk Marks walked us through the narrative of chapters 28, 29 and 30.  We learned that the Philistines summoned a huge army to attack the Israelites.  Now in chapter 31, war erupts between Philistia and Israel. Here’s what we read in 1st Samuel 31, verses 1-2,

“Now the Philistines fought against Israel; the Israelites fled before them, and many fell dead on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua.”

This is bad news for Israel.  Not only does Philistia win big against Israel, but three of Israel’s princes are killed, including the crown prince Jonathan.  The Philistines want the big prize, though.  They want the king.  Let’s keep reading verses 3-6,

“The fighting grew fierce around Saul, and when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically. Saul said to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me.’ But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him. So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.”

This is one of those bittersweet stories.  For weeks now, we have been rooting for David as he has been on the run, a fugitive from Saul.  We have known since all the way back in 1st Samuel chapter 15 that God was taking the Kingdom away from Saul, and in chapter 16 that God had anointed to be the next king.  On the blog, that was three months ago. Having waited so long, it is sweet to finally see God’s promise and prophecy fulfilled.  But it is also bitter.  The loss of life was massive.

War is just plain old terrible.  The horror of war rains down on the good and bad.  Yes, Saul dies, and Saul was wicked.  But Jonathan also dies, and Jonathan was good.  Jonathan seems as though he would have been an outstanding king.  But his life is cut off too soon.

Who but Saul is to blame for all this loss but?  Saul chose to turn from God numerous times, and the result is great pain and suffering.  Let me summarize the rest of 1st Samuel 31. Saul, mortally wounded by Philistine archers, decides to fall on his sword.  The people of Israel living in nearby towns flee to avoid the Philistines.  The Philistines have not taken over all of Israel.  They have taken only several border towns between Israel and Philistia. 

As Philistine soldiers loot the dead Israelite soldiers, they come across the bodies of Saul and his sons.  They remove Saul’s armor, and cut off his head.  They place his armor in one of their temples, and they hang his body on the wall of a Jewish town that they now occupy.  This is brutal awful stuff.  It’s gory.  But that’s war. 

The chapter ends as some incredibly courageous Israelites in nearby Jabesh Gilead sneak to the town of Beth Shan, recover Saul’s body (and those of his sons) and they bring the corpses back to Israel for a proper burial and fasting. 

That brings us to 2nd Samuel.  There is no gap in the narrative between the two books.  The story continues seamlessly.  Before we jump into 2nd Samuel chapter 1, we need to think about what has just happened.  Saul, the king, is dead.  Three of Saul’s sons are also dead.  Who gets to be king now?  It seems as though the narrator of the story has this question of succession on his mind, because 2nd Samuel chapter 1, verse 1 starts right in on David.

“After the death of Saul, David returned from striking down the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days. On the third day a man arrived from Saul’s camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him honor. ‘Where have you come from?’ David asked him. He answered, ‘I have escaped from the Israelite camp.’ ‘What happened?’ David asked. ‘Tell me.’ ‘The men fled from the battle,’ he replied. ‘Many of them fell and died. And Saul and his son Jonathan are dead.’ Then David said to the young man who brought him the report, ‘How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?’ ‘I happened to be on Mount Gilboa,’ the young man said, ‘and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and their drivers in hot pursuit. When he turned around and saw me, he called out to me, and I said, “What can I do?” He asked me, “Who are you?”  “An Amalekite,” I answered. Then he said to me, “Stand here by me and kill me! I’m in the throes of death, but I’m still alive.” So I stood beside him and killed him, because I knew that after he had fallen he could not survive. And I took the crown that was on his head and the band on his arm and have brought them here to my lord.’ Then David and all the men with him took hold of their clothes and tore them. They mourned and wept and fasted till evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the army of the Lord and for the nation of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.”

This story is dark and ominous.  First, the intimate details of King Saul’s final moments are awful.  Also David is learning that not just Saul, but worse, Jonathan, his best friend, is dead. 

At first, David and his men have an impromptu period of mourning.  Tearing their clothes is a customary method of expressing anguish.  The physical ripping of cloth symbolizes the emotional ripping they feel.  We would say, “You ripped my heart out!”  They literally ripped their clothes.  And they wept and fasted.  As of course they would.  They just found out that their countrymen were slaughtered. And for David it goes deep, as Jonathan was his best friend.  When you lose someone close, it is right and good to mourn and feel the loss. 

At some point in the mourning and fasting, though, a realization dawns on David.  You can almost see the look come over David, as he thinks to himself, “Wait a minute…what did that guy say?”

This story is about to take a dark turn. We find out how in the next post.

Photo by Yosi Prihantoro on Unsplash

What happens when there is no Designated Survivor? – 1 Samuel 31 – 2 Samuel 2:7, Preview

What would happen if a bomb destroyed the US Capitol during the State of the Union speech when nearly every government official is at the Capitol, and they all die? The President, VP, Speaker of the House, the senators and representatives. The Supreme Court justices.  The Joint Chiefs of Staff.  The president’s Cabinet, all those secretaries of this and that.  Not only would this be a tragic loss of life, but imagine how it could throw our government into turmoil.

We know that if a President dies or resigns, their Vice-President becomes the new President. And if the Vice President cannot serve, then the Speaker of the House becomes President. But if they all die at the same time, who gets to be president?

This nightmare scenario is the premise of the TV show Designated Survivor. At least for the first season.  But it’s not just a Hollywood speculation.  The Designated Survivor is a real thing.  Ever since the era of the Cold War, when it became a possibility for a nuclear attack to wipe out that many people at once, the government created a designated survivor system as a contingency.  If there were a mass casualty event that kills all those people, the Designated Survivor becomes president. The Designated Survivor does not attend the event, and thus they are safely far away from danger.

So, who gets to be Designated Survivor?  Every single time there is a mass gathering of government officials, like the State of the Union or the Inauguration, the President chooses a person for this role.  Usually it is a member of his cabinet.  The House and Senate also designate one person from each of their chambers to be a designated survivor for their chambers.  These three people are sequestered in a safe location until the event is concluded.

What about in ancient Israel?  Who gets to be king when the current king dies?  And what if not only the king, but his successors die at the same time? As we learned last week when Kirk Marks blogged through 1st Samuel chapters 28-30, Israel is facing a serious threat. The much larger Philistine military is about to invade Israel, and King Saul panics.  Through a diviner, he speaks to the ghost of the prophet Samuel who tells Saul that not only will Israel lose that battle, Saul will lose his life.  The Philistines will win a major victory, and Israel will be without a leader.  Who gets to be leader then?  Will a family member of King Saul?  As we’re about to find out, Samuel’s prophecy is fulfilled when not only Saul, but three of his sons are killed in battle. Who will become king? Saul had other sons and daughters.  David used to be married to one, Michal.  Will she become queen?  And what about David?  He’s already been anointed by God to be the next king.  But David is living in Philistine territory.

Succession can be a very messy business if it is not spelled out before the succession needs to take place.  For Israel, succession is about to get very complicated.  This week, I’ll be blogging through 1st Samuel chapter 31 through 2nd Samuel 2, verse 7.  We’ll observe a leadership vacuum, a leadership transition, and the difficulty of honoring leaders when they are dishonorable. I’m guessing you’ve interacted with some leaders who have been distasteful to you. Obviously, politicians come to mind.  But it could a boss, a coach, a teacher, a parent.  How do you honor the dishonorable?  Join us on the blog next week as we learn some principles that will help us honor the dishonorable.

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Three steps for avoiding spiritual panic – 1st Samuel 28-30, Part 5

As a pastor for many years, I’ve had the opportunity to interacted with people in spiritual panics, some funny, some sad, some tragic.  People come to me as their pastor, or I’ve found out about their situation, and they just don’t know what to do. They feel that God’s not answering them.  They’re praying. They’re asking God to help them to know what to do, but God’s not answering. And they panic.

Maybe you’ve been in a situation like this, where you’ve been in a difficult situation. You’re praying. You feel like God’s not hearing you, not answering your prayers, and you’re at the point where you need to make a decision. You don’t want to do the wrong thing. You want to do what God wants you to do, and you feel like you’re not getting any direction. Sometimes, when people are in that situation, they will panic. They will resort to strange things to get an answer from God.

In 1st Samuel chapter 28, Saul is with the Israelite army getting ready to fight the Philistines, and he sees that he’s overwhelmed, and he panics. The Philistines have thousands of soldiers, and Saul see that Israel will not be able to prevail. Israel will be invaded, Saul might be overthrown, terrible things might happen.

Saul tries to inquire of the Lord, but the Lord did not speak to him through dreams nor through the Urim, as David had used, nor through the prophets. God did not respond to Saul in any way because we know Samuel had already told Saul before he died, “God has cut you off. You’ve made God your enemy, so God’s become your enemy and he isn’t going to be speaking to you anymore.” So Saul decides to take desperate measures, and the story takes a really weird turn.

We’re told in this passage that early in his reign, Saul had, in accordance with the Old Testament law that God had given them, driven out, illegalized all spiritualism, all fortune telling, and any kind of witchcraft. Saul had made that all illegal; the only kind of supernatural practices that were going to be followed is the temple worship and the things that the Lord has told us to do and that’s it. The Old Testament law is really clear about worshiping God only.

Now Saul turns the table and he says, “We need to find some kind of spiritualist to help me get an answer out of God,” and somehow, some of Saul’s men know that there’s one left. There’s a woman who is a witch, a spiritualist, a diviner of spirits. She lives in a town called Endor, and Saul thinks, “This is how I’m going to get an answer from God.”

He disguises himself and he goes to this woman at Endor and he asks her, “Can you divine spirits for me?” And she says to him, “Oh no, no, no, we can’t do that. Saul’s made that illegal.” Saul responds, “Don’t you worry, we’ll keep this all a secret. I really need you to do this for me.” So she says, “All right, maybe I can. What spirit do you want me to call up from the nether world?” Saul replies, “I want Samuel to be brought back.”

The witch at this point realizes who Saul is and what’s going on. She says, “You’re Saul, you’re doing this to trap me. I’m going to be in all kinds of trouble.”

Saul says, “No, no, no, I really need you to do this. Can you bring Samuel back from the dead? Can you bring his spirit back to us?” Somehow, though don’t know what in the world God’s doing in all of this, he lets this happen, and a spirit appears.

The witch says to Saul, “I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.” Saul asks, “What does he look like?” She answers, “He’s an old man with a beard and old clothes.” And Saul exclaims, “It’s Samuel, he’s come back.”

Now I have an opinion about this story at this point that you can take or leave. But I think ancient people reading this story would have found some humor in what happens next.

Think about it. Here’s the ghost of Samuel come back from the dead.  Samuel says to Saul, “What are you doing? Why are you bothering me? Why have you brought me here? I was very happy resting in the netherworld. I’m done with this world. What are you doing bothering me?” 

Saul says, “We’re going to war with the Philistines. I need to hear from God. I need to know what’s going to happen.” And Samuel says, “Why, Saul, why would you consult me? Do you really think I’m going to have any good news for you? You know what the message is, Saul? God’s not speaking to you because you’ve made God your enemy. He’s turned against you. He’s turned against Israel. He’s with the Philistines. You’re going to lose this war.  And tomorrow, you and your sons will be with me in the netherworld because you’re going to be dead because this is not going to go a good way.”

With that Samuel disappears, and Saul falls down in a dead faint. He’s paralyzed by fear; so paralyzed that they can’t even get him out of the house. His servants who came with him say, “Come on, Saul. You’ve got to get up.”

He says, “I’m not moving. I’m going to lay here and just die. I’m just going to not move again.”

His servants beg him, “You can’t do that. At least eat some food.”

Saul is adamant, “No, I’m not going to eat anything. I’m going to lay here.”

So the witch herself says to him, “Well, you know, not only can I call up spirits, I’m a pretty good cook, too. Let me make you some food and eat it. Maybe you’ll feel good enough to get up and get out of my house.”

She makes the food. He smells it, and it smells good. He digs it. He tastes it. It is good. He regains his strength.  He gets up, and he leaves. And that’s where this weird story ends. Saul goes back to this ill-fated war, knowing the end is going to come.

What a weird story. The ghost of a dead prophet comes back to say, “What are you doing bothering me? I only have bad news for you, and here it is.” Weird. The whole thing’s weird.

But I do think we can learn some valuable things, maybe as a cautionary tale from the mistakes that Saul makes here. We’ve seen Saul make a number of mistakes. Saul’s really been spiritually confused and messed up and just evil a couple of times. And here he is again, making a poor decision, trying to get an answer from God in this way.  Saul, in his fear about the military situation, goes into what I would call a spiritual panic. A spiritual panic is when you’re just so overwhelmed by emotion, you make really bad decisions.

In a spiritual panic, like Saul, we often resort to trying to force God to do something, to answer our prayers no matter what. But forcing God just never works. That’s witchcraft. That’s idolatry. That’s religion at its worst, trying to force the gods to do something for you, even force God to answer you. God doesn’t work that way.  C.S. Lewis said, “He’s not a tame lion.” God acts as he will, and we can’t force him or make him do things.

In a panic people can treat the Bible like their witch of Endor, that the Bible will answer their question. Or they come to their pastor asking, “Where in the Bible can I find an answer? I need to know. Should I take this job? Should I break up with my boyfriend? Should I do the marriage? Should I make this decision? Where in the Bible can I find that?”  A woman in one of my congregations once asked, “Pastor, can you give me a Bible verse that’s going to solve my problem?” I had to say, “No, it doesn’t work that way.”  The Bible doesn’t work that way. It’s not a magic answer book to the problems we have.

What, then, do we do when we really feel we need an answer from God, we’re not getting one.  How do we not spiritually panic? I’d like to make three suggestions in that regard.

First of all, what I’ve already been saying, don’t panic. Don’t do what Saul did. Don’t resort to the weird. Don’t resort to thinking I’m going to open the Bible to a page, and whatever I read there, that’s going to answer my question. Don’t resort to horoscopes, or spiritualism, or other sources claiming to tell you what to do. Those paths are not going to bring any good things, as Saul’s story shows us so very clearly.

Secondly, in times of God’s silence, when we feel like God’s not answering us, practice demonstrating the Fruit of the Spirit. That fruit of the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience. Patience is a good one.

Sometimes we’re very impatient, and sometimes all we need to do is wait, and the Lord will give us an answer and some guidance and direction.  It might be further down the road than we would like, but it’s going to come, and we need patience.

In your waiting, practice love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness. Remember, too, don’t resort to immorality. That’s the mistake that Saul had made. Some people, because they’re so frightened by not hearing from God, start thinking that maybe stealing the money they need from my employer is a good idea.  They think “Just to get me out of this mess,” and God’s not answering, so maybe it’s okay. Avoid all kinds of wrong choices like that.

But goodness and kindness, keep those things in play. Faithfulness. Remember that God is there with you. He’s going to answer, so practice faithfulness, and the thing that Saul did not do, self-control. The Holy Spirit is still with us, working with us, even in times when it seems like God is silent and not responding.  He is there, he is at work, just not in the ways that we expect and we can see.

So thirdly, I’d like to suggest an idea from one of my theological heroes, Soren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard was a Dane, and he wrote in Dutch, and his writings were very difficult to translate into English, so some scholars suggest that he never said these exact words, but he’s very famous for this understanding of what we sometimes have to do as Christians, and that is take a leap of faith.

Sometimes as Christians we need to take a leap of faith. What I mean by that is this. You may have been in a situation where you must make a decision. You’re praying about it, you want to do the right thing, you’re asking God to give you an answer, no direct answer seems to come, and now the moment’s come.

You must decide, it’s the deadline. Are you going to take the job or not? Are you going to sell your house or not? Are you going to get married or not? You have to do it, the moment’s there. But you don’t have an answer from God, you don’t know what to do.

Sometimes we have to take a leap of faith when all of the options before us seem perfectly moral, perfectly right, there’s no good or bad kind of choices.  We think, “This is important, though, my future could be riding on this.” Do the best you can in that situation, and leap into the arms of your Heavenly Father who is there for you the whole time, and regardless of what happens, he’s going to be there with you and see you through it. Take that leap of faith, trusting into the arms of God.

I think that was the point that Saul was at. Rather than going to the witch at Endor and doing these crazy things, Saul should have thrown himself on God’s mercy to see what would have happened.  That would have been a much better choice than the weird stuff that he did get into. We can trust our Heavenly Father.

Jesus once taught “Fathers, if your son asks you for a loaf of bread, would you give him a stone? If he asked you for a fish, would you give him a snake? No, you wouldn’t do that. If you, as a fallen human being, know how to give good gifts to your children, will not your Heavenly Father, who knows all good and all righteousness, not give you good things in his time as well? He will.”

Times of God’s silence do come to us, and then we need to trust in the Lord and lean into the things that we know that we can trust in him, that fruit of the Spirit, trusting in him no matter what, clinging to him, and seeing how he will bring us through and meet us in those times.

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How David was shamed by the Philistines, and it turned out to be a good thing – 1st Samuel 28-30, Part 4

This week we welcome guest blogger, Kirk Marks. Kirk retired from a long career in pastoral ministry, denominational leadership and theological education. He now works in global fair trade.

The armies of Philistia and Israel are gathering, facing off. War is about to erupt. As we reviewed in the previous post, though David and his 600 men are Israelites, they have been living in Ziklag, a Philistine town, with the blessing of the Philistine king Achish.

Now in 1st Samuel 29, David and his 600 men arrive at the front, ready to join the Philistine army. The commanders of the Philistine army look at Achish and they say, “What are you doing bringing this Israelite here with his Israelite soldiers? You really think they’re going to fight for us? As soon as this fighting begins, they’re going to turn on us. They’re going to chop off our heads and say, ‘Hey, Israel, see what we did? We actually are with you!’ This is all going to go against us.”

Achish says, “I trust David. He’s going to be fine. This will be okay.”

But Achish’s other officers will not have it, leaving Achish in a tough political spot in that honor and shame culture.  By honoring his officers, Achish will need to shame David, which is a cultural sin.  The other option is to honor David and shame the Philistine officers, which Achish cannot do.  What does Achish do?  He goes to David and he says, “David, you know what? I think you need to sit this one out. This is not going to work. My commanders aren’t comfortable with you guys around here.”

David should have said, “Whew, thank goodness. I don’t have to go fight my brother Israelites.”  Instead, David becomes indignant. It’s the weirdest thing.  He says, “Wait a minute.  I’ve been loyal to you, Achish. We should be here. We should be part of this fight.” 

We don’t know why David responds like this.  Maybe he is keeping up a ruse of being loyal to Achish.  Maybe he is feeling shamed and is defending his honor. 

No matter, because Achish says to him, “No, David, it’s not going to happen. I want you to sit this out, go back to Ziklag, take a vacation, and after this war’s over, we’ll settle things out.”

That brings us to 1st Samuel chapter 30. As the war is ready to start between Philistia and Israel, David and his soldiers goes back to Ziklag to discover something terrible has happened. While he and all his armed men have been gone, Ziklag was unprotected.  The Amalekites, which were a neighboring ethnic group that was opposed to Israel, took advantage of that vulnerability and sacked Ziklag. They have taken away all the people that were there, David’s wives, all his soldiers’ families, and all their possessions, and carried it off.  When David and his men arrive back home in Ziklag, they are shocked to find it’s not there anymore.

Notice the irony. David, who’s been raiding his neighbors while he lived in Ziklag, now himself has been raided.  It’s a sad and terrible moment. David and his soldiers don’t know what’s happened to their families. They think they may have lost them, and they mourn the loss of what’s happened.

Then David says, “Let’s inquire of the Lord and see what he wants us to do.” David has with him Abiathar, the priest. Through Abiathar, David inquires of the Lord using the Urim, and he receives the message from the Lord that he should pursue the Amalekites.  God’s going to give him favor, and there’s going to be a rescue involved. So David says, “Okay, men, let’s go.”

David and his men head into the desert. They don’t know where to find the Amalekites, but they stumble upon an Egyptian man.  It turns out he was with the Amalekites, got sick, and the Amalekites left him for dead, but he didn’t die. David, knowing the Egyptian is an intelligence asset, says, “Can you tell us where the Amalekites are going?” He says, “Yeah, if you promise you won’t kill me, I’ll help you,” and he gives David usable intelligence.

They catch up with the Amalekites and overthrow them. To David and his soldiers’ great surprise and joy, none of their families who were kidnapped from Ziklag have been harmed in any way. They rescue every single person, retrieve their possessions which the Amalekites had stolen, and then they plunder the Amalekites. The bring everything safely back to Ziklag, and David sends some Amalekite plunder to his needy Israelite neighbors. David’s sharing with nearby Israelites is the beginning of David’s growing reputation among the Israelites. In the coming weeks we will see how that relationship blossoms.

That brings us to the end of 1st Samuel 30, but what about the war between Philistia and Israel?  In the previous post, I mentioned that I was skipping some crucial events in 1st Samuel 28.  In the next post, we’ll return to that chapter which tells the story of an extremely weird episode in King Saul’s life.

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The end of 1st Samuel is like a military thriller – 1st Samuel 28-30, Part 3

This week we welcome guest blogger, Kirk Marks. Kirk retired from a long career in pastoral ministry, denominational leadership and theological education. He now works in global fair trade.

I love sci-fi like Star Trek and Star Wars. Think with me about the Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi. At the end of that movie, the third movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, the conflict between the Rebellion and the Empire is coming to an end. The story comes at you fast and furious, in different settings, and the story just keeps shifting.

Luke Skywalker is fighting with Darth Vader and the Emperor on the Death Star. Han Solo and Princess Leia are on the forest moon of Endor trying to take down the energy shield that’s protecting the Death Star. At the same time, Admiral Ackbar is leading the Rebel fleet of starships to take out the Imperial fleet and destroy the Death Star.

The story flashes back and forth from these scenes, and it comes at you so fast that you find yourself gripping your seat. I have that same feeling about the end of 1 Samuel as we flash back and forth between the war of Philistines and Israel and then to David and what’s happening with him.

For many weeks, we have been studying the history of Israel during Saul’s reign as king, and David’s coming onto the scene.  When we last left these men, David moved his 600 men and their families to the Philistine town of Ziklag, while Saul the army of Israel were forming battle lines to fight the Philistines. 

From an Old Testament literature point of view, it’s very exciting kind of stuff. People reading this would have said, this is like a thriller, this is like a Don Bentley novel where stuff is just happening and it’s all exciting and how’s it gonna come together?

Here’s what’s happening. There’s been an ongoing conflict between the Philistines and Israel through the story of 1st Samuel. Remember when Jonathan fought the Philistine outpost?  Remember when David defeated Goliath? The military conflict between the Philistines and Israel has erupted again and now it’s coming to a head in all-out war.

The Philistines have decided now is the time to invade Israel. Looks like Saul is weak; looks like Israel is vulnerable. The Philistines muster their forces in the Jezreel Valley in the southern border of Israel, and they’re ready to invade.  Saul knows this is coming. He musters Israel’s forces there to meet the Philistines, and they face each other. That’s where the story begins in 1 Samuel 28.

But as Saul looks out across the Jezreel Valley, he sees the thousands of Philistines armed for war and ready to invade, and he freaks out.  His courage fails. Now, hold on to that thought for just a minute because we’ll return to that in the last post in this series.  We’ll talk about what happens with Saul and learn some things that we can apply to our lives. But while Saul is freaking out, the narrator of the story shifts scenes to David in 1st Samuel 29.

We’ve heard about how Saul has been pursuing David for some time. Saul had been actually using his military to try and track down David. And as David’s been on the run, David gathered up this band of 600 followers, along with all their wives and families.  Imagine them moving all their stuff around Israel, trying to hide from Saul.  It gets harder to avoid Saul as David entourage grows. To make matters worse, Saul has spies, and Saul was catching up with David. We observed the two weird encounters where they were so close, David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but he doesn’t.

After that second close call, David decides this plan of running as a fugitive isn’t working. He thinks, “Sooner or later, Saul’s gonna catch up with me. I need to do something else.”

So David goes to the king of the Philistine city of Gath, ironically where Goliath was from.  There David says to King Achish, “Help me, protect us, give us a safe place to be.” And David’s plan works. Achish gives David and his band the town of Ziklag, and they set up camp there. Since Ziklag is in Philistia, Saul can’t get David, and Saul gives up the pursuit.

David and his people are safe in Ziklag, but he has kind of feudal arrangement with King Achish.  Achish has said to him, “You can have Ziklag and be safe there, but if I need you and your 600 fighting men, you be ready to help me.” In 1st Samuel 29 Achish calls in that chip. Achish is going to war with Israel, and he’s ready to invade.

Remember what we learned in 1st Samuel 27.  Once David gets to Ziklag, he uses it as a base to invade and attack some neighboring towns of people that are not Israelites.  When he raids those places, he kills the people and take their things. We discussed the moral weirdness and theological, moral and ethical conflict in that. But while David is raising those neighboring people groups, he has been lying to Achish, “I’ve been attacking Israel.”  David was not attacking Israel, but Achish believes him, thinking David has turned against Israel.

Now that the war between Philistia and Israel has actually come, Achish says to David, “You bring your 600 men and join in the war. You’re drafted into the army now. We’re gonna go and fight Israel.”

David says, “Okay, let’s go.” David gets all of his 600 men to come and join the Philistine army that’s ready to invade Israel. It’s a terrible moment of tension, and I can’t help but wonder what’s going on in David’s mind.

Is he really going to go to war with Israel? Is he going to kill his own brother Israelites in this war that’s coming? We find out in the next post!

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Three reasons Christians should study the Old Testament – 1st Samuel 28-30, Part 2

This week we welcome guest blogger, Kirk Marks. Kirk retired from a long career in pastoral ministry, denominational leadership and theological education. He now works in global fair trade.

Is it worth it to read the Old Testament? As we learned in the previous post, the Old Testament is sometimes so strange to us that many people, myself included, have raised the question, “Is it worth it?” For months on the blog, we have been studying the Life of David in 1st Samuel, and we have months yet to go, as his life story continues in 2nd Samuel and 1st Kings. We have encountered many weird episodes that seem ancient or foreign. We will encounter many more. Is it worth it?

You and I are trying to be followers of Jesus.  We’re trying to be his disciples. In our church families, we’re trying to follow Jesus together, and the purpose of our coming together is to worship our God and to work together and learn together how to follow God and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren’t there better ways to learn how to do that than studying this weird Old Testament stuff?

Some months ago, the previous blog series was through the Gospel of John. In that series we heard all about Jesus. We heard about his life. We studied his teaching.  That series helped me be a better follower Jesus.  Isn’t that what we should really care about?  Being a follower of Jesus? Studying Jesus and his teaching certainly helps us to do that, so why don’t we just focus on Jesus? Why do we go into all this Old Testament stuff and deal with all its complexity and weirdness?

As a young Christian, I really struggled with that. As a pastor, I struggled with it sometimes in my teaching and preaching ministries. In this post, I would like to share with you three good reasons for why we do this, why we study the Old Testament, why it is good and helpful for us.

Number one is what I call the seminary answer. I was taught in seminary that we cannot fully understand the New Testament without understanding the Old Testament. Jesus didn’t just fall out of the clouds or drop off of a turnip truck.

Jesus came into a context, into a people group, into a culture, into a world that was already in place, and into a place where God had already been working with people for thousands of years. Jesus came to the people of Israel. There’s a whole history behind that, and as Jesus spoke and taught in that culture, people were steeped in that history.

Those New Testament-era Jews knew their Old Testament history. Remember a few weeks ago on the blog when we talked about Pharisees confronting Jesus and his disciples because the Pharisees caught the disciples gathering and eating grain on the Sabbath?  The Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking the law.  Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Remember in our history when David was on the run, and he went into the priest and ate the consecrated bread?” Jesus was drawing their attention to the story from 1 Samuel 21.  Did the Pharisees he was talking to say, “Oh yeah, we sort of remember that story.  I think I learned that in Sunday school.”? Did they say, “I have to go home and read my Bible and check that out.”?

No, they knew the story. They were immersed in that history.  The people Jesus is talking to and teaching in the New Testament are people who learned and heard all of the Old Testament stories. Jesus is teaching in that well-informed context.  

Therefore, we understand Jesus’ teaching better when we understand the Old Testament. That was drilled into my head in seminary, but there is another reason why studying the Old Testament is valuable to us.

Second, the Old Testament was, for the people of Israel, their family history. They were the descendants of Abraham. The Old Testament tells the history of what happened to people they descended from. Think about the people Jesus was speaking to.  King David could have been their great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather. The Old Testament meant something to them because it was their family history.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul says that now we as Christians, we as people who have accepted Christ as our Savior, seeking to be God’s people, have been grafted in to that people of Israel (Romans 11). From a certain point of view, the Old Testament is our family history, too. We as God’s people are reading and studying about how God’s people who went before us heard from God, experienced God and lived their lives trying to follow God.  That is our family history that we’ve been grafted in to.

I’m fascinated by my family history. I’m very much from a Pennsylvania German background.  The ancestors of my family came to the United States in the early 1800s in the German immigration. Because of that, I’m intrigued by German things, Pennsylvania German culture, the German language, and German theologians. I just love all that.

Years ago we adopted Margaret into our family. Margaret looks different than the rest of us.  Margaret, biologically, is a full-blooded Mayan, a very different culture and ethnicity than us.  But she’s been grafted into Pennsylvania Dutch culture. Margaret loves the German language. Margaret loves Pennsylvania German food.  On Labor Day, Margaret’s going to make a Pennsylvania Dutch corn pie for our family get-together, and you should see that girl make and eat shoo-fly pie and pot pie. She loves it. She’s as Pennsylvania Dutch as we are because she’s been grafted into that.

You and I, as followers of Christ, as people of God, have been grafted into the history of ancient Israel.  The Old Testament is our family history.

But there is a third, even more compelling, reason why I think studying the Old Testament is valuable. We study the Old Testament because of the teaching of Jesus himself.

I want to follow Jesus.  I want to be his disciple. Jesus said his disciples baptize other people into the kingdom, and we teach them to obey everything he’s commanded us. Remember something that Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount about the Old Testament. He said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 5:17)

When Jesus mentions “the law and the prophets,” he’s using catchphrase. He doesn’t just mean the parts of the Old Testament that are law and the writings of the prophets. He means the whole thing.  All the law, all the history, all the poetry, all the prophecy, everything that’s in the Old Testament.  He says, “I haven’t come to abolish those things. I’ve come to fulfill them. And I tell you the truth, not one stroke of a pen nor the least letter shall in any way pass away from all of that till all things have been fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

All things haven’t been fulfilled yet, so Jesus is saying that the Old Testament is still important. He went on to say that, “Anyone who breaks the least of those Old Testament commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but the one who practices and teaches these things will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19)

I am not striving for greatness in any way, but I think Jesus is certainly saying that studying the Old Testament is valuable. The Old Testament remains important to us followers of Jesus because as we learn and study the Old Testament, we are obeying Jesus. We are following his direction.

The Old Testament is helpful to us. Though it might feel like we are slogging through some of the weirdness of it, those cultural differences that are hard to understand, it’s all valuable and helpful to us.

In the next three posts, as we study the account of 1st Samuel chapters 28, 29, and 30, while it is ancient, we’ll find important Old Testament principles that we can apply to our lives.

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Let’s admit it, sometimes the Bible is weird – 1st Samuel 28-30, Part 1

This week we welcome guest blogger, Kirk Marks. Kirk retired from a long career in pastoral ministry, denominational leadership and theological education. He now works in global fair trade.

Weird is one of those words of which it could be said, “We know it when we see it.” But describing or defining what makes something weird is hard to do. If something is weird, it’s more than just unusual. It’s more than unique or something we never heard of before. If something is weird, it’s just not right on some level.

Have you heard the story of the pig that was hanged for murder?  In that story, something’s not right. Something doesn’t make sense.  It’s weird. 

You’ve probably had the experience of thinking that something was weird and you didn’t understanding what’s going on. But then later on, when you have found out some more about the situation, you realized it wasn’t weird. It kind of made some sense.

Sometimes things seem weird because we don’t understand them. That was the case with US President Zachary Taylor’s death. He died from eating cherries and drinking milk.

Taylor’s death considered so weird and such a mystery that in the 1980s a historian was able to present such a compelling case that more likely Taylor was assassinated and poisoned. Taylor’s family gave permission for his remains to be exhumed, his hair to be tested for poison, and, in fact, the science proved that he was not poisoned. He did die from eating cherries and drinking milk. It’s weird, right? That’s just strange.

There’s another sense in which the word weird gets used. If you have read any Shakespeare, in Macbeth, we encounter the characters who are the Weird Sisters. And they’re not just weird, strange, odd, and ugly too.  They also have supernatural powers, which is another way that the word weird was used, more so in older times than now. Something is supernatural when it can’t be explained by natural things. It’s weird.

All of those aspects of weirdness factor into what we find in 1 Samuel 28, 29, and 30, which we’re going to talk about this week. So keep all of that weird stuff in your mind and see how some of that weirdness will play out.

There have been many times in my 30-year pastoral career where people would come to me and say, “I’ve been reading some things in the Bible that disturb me. I’m reading some things in the Bible that I think are weird, some things I don’t understand, some things I don’t get. Pastor, did you know that this was in the Bible?” The people expressing this were really disconcerted by what they found.

There is a lot of weird stuff in the Bible. Sometimes people find that a little disturbing to have the Bible described that way. Isn’t it the word of God? Isn’t this God’s love letter to us? Isn’t the Bible a unique book? I absolutely believe that. I believe that the Bible is the word of God, that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit, that it is authoritative for our faith and Christian lives.

I believe that it is indeed infallible. It never fails to accomplish what God wants to accomplish through it. But none of that changes the fact that as we, as Christians in the 21st century, read it, some of it sounds really weird to us.

I could give you illustrations of that, but we’ve already had plenty of them in this series from 1 Samuel, as we’ve looked at Saul’s rise to power in Israel, and then the life and the story of David as that all begins. There’s been some weird stuff that we’ve run into already, haven’t we?

Just think for a minute about Israel’s desire for a king.

Israel’s got this great arrangement. God’s their God, and they’re his people, and he’s given them this land, and given them laws for how to live in it, and he’s got them all set up.  But they’re not happy with that. They want a king. And Samuel, in frustration, said to them, “You don’t want a king.  You have God for your king. What do you need a king for?”

“No, no, we want a king,” the people say.

Samuel says, “You know what’s going to happen.  This king is going to tax you. He’s going to take your money. He’s going to take your harvest and your crops, and you’re not going to like that.”

They say, “No, no, we want a king.” That started something that has not stopped. Every April 15th, and every time we buy something at a store in Pennsylvania, we know what a bad idea it was to get a king who’s going do the taxing.

Samuel warned them. They said, “No, no, we still want a king.” He said, “The king is going to take your sons and draft them into the military, and take your daughters and have them work in his kingdom.  He’s going to take things from you. You don’t want this.”

“No, no, we want a king.”

Doesn’t the whole thing sound weird to you? Look how it weirdly unfolds with Saul and all the weird stuff that happened with David and his sons. Then the whole book of the Kings in the scriptures describes the strange things the kings got into. It’s weird.

It’s just a weird history. Think about David. Remember what we learned about David in 1 Samuel chapter 25?  David’s already got three wives, and spoiler alert, he’s going to get some more, and his life is going to get even weirder.  What does David want with three wives?

The Old Testament is just full of these weird situation that are very culturally different from the world we live in, things that are separated from us by lots of time and history. These events happened in a very different place in the world.

It’s so strange to us that many people, myself included, have raised the question, Is it worth it to read the Old Testament? Is it worth it to blog our way through 1 and 2 Samuel and the life of David? In the next post, I’ll try to answer that question.

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The weird conclusion to King Saul’s reign – 1st Samuel 28-30, Preview

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