Saul sinks lower.

What a faithful God have I. I allow these words to sink in, to sink in deep to my inner consciousness.

” Ribbons of mercy and grace adorn my throne, filling the air with a message which brings joy to every weary soul. Surrounded by the multitude of believers everyone covered by that message – the message that if God is for us who can be against us. If he gave his Son to die on the cross for you – how much more will He give you all things. Can you take the fullness of that message in? You can have, you already have, if you are a believer every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. You have My complete Grace and My love to cover the multitude of your transgressions. So come closer this morning, let the ribbons of mercy and grace wrap around you and cover you and bring you deep peace and joy.”

The picture of desperation and terror which have taken over Saul’s life, pictured here in 1 Samuel 28, is very real reminder of what it is like when God turns His back on you. In today’s society there are many who give God no thought, but anyone who has really tasted what God is like may experience this desperation. It is a stark reminder to us of what Jesus must have experienced, multiplied by a million times when He called out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In vs 15 Saul calls out, “God has turned away from me”. Samuel reminds him in vs 17 that he had predicted this and Saul should not have been surprised. However, he had obviously not really believed Samuel. He had made a half-hearted attempt at cleansing Israel by banning all the mediums and spiritists, but this act alone was clearly not from a fully believing heart. The very fact that he was prepared to seek out a medium in his fearful state shows where his heart really was.

The chapter opens with a chilling message as Achish plans to use David and his men in an attack on Israel. We already know that David would do anything to avoid having to do this from the previous chapter. The question hangs in the air and will lead us into reading the next chapter.

The chapter ends on an interesting note as the women seek to minister to Saul in his desperate state. I take that as an indication of God’s ‘common grace’, which he extends to the world as a whole, whether you are a believer or not.

This passage may again raise the perennial question, “Can you lose your salvation?” After all Saul was anointed as king of Israel by Samuel, described in ch 10. Samuel tells him that: v 6, “The Spirit of the Lord will come on you in power and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person”. This is the sort of language which we associate being born again in the New Testament. Yet here we find this same man with God having turned His back upon him. Can that happen to us?

This is an important question which needs a definitive answer. The answer lies in the fact that the promise of the new covenant was that our sins would be forgiven and we will be given a new heart able to live a new life of obedience. This promise followed centuries of apostasy and disobedience by the people of Israel, despite the promises of relationship with God under the various covenants.

The work of Jesus on the cross and the subsequent offer of full regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, indwelling each believer, places the NT believer on a different plane to those in the OT. There are a number of promises under this new covenant which indicate that once God has saved you, He will never, never leave you eg Rom 8:1 ff, Philippians 1:6.

However, we should never become complacent. In the same book Philippians, Paul says in 2:12, “continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling”. There are many stories of apparently devoted Christians turning their back on God. What is not always clear but is a fact that those people were probably never truly saved. Jesus warned us in the parable of the tares that the church will be made up of a mixture of Christians and Non-christians. The tares were a weed which so closely resembled wheat that it was only when they came into ear that you could distinguish them.

So while we can never lose our salvation if we are genuinely saved, the genuineness of our salvation will only be proved if we persevere to the end, Heb 10:19 ff and ch 12.

The work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was different to the new. He was given as an anointing to help specific people accomplish God-given tasks. Like kings and prophets, but others as well. It did not involve salvation and He would often only be given for a time till a task was accomplished. Thus, we can see David and Saul next to each other. Both anointed by God to be a king and both being involved in some horrendous things. Yet God could say about David that he was a man after God’s own heart and on the other hand turn His back on Saul. God could obviously discern the motivation of each of their hearts. Faith and love in one and disbelief and disregard in the other. Ultimately true forgiveness is only possible through Jesus and even the OT saints were only forgiven in retrospect through Jesus’ work on the cross, see Romans 3 :25

So, friends let us continue with joy, believing in the absolute certainty of God’s love and nothing separating us from that yet working out our salvation in fear and trembling. God bless, till next week.

David spares Israel.

I am overwhelmed this morning with thoughts of the love of God – the height, the depth, length, and width of it and more so since He has revealed this love to me in the fact that He took my place on Calvery.

“It is so easy to speak of love – a word which provokes feelings and thoughts of a huge variety and depth in each person. Some people have been so disappointed by the broken promises of someone who claimed to love them and later let them down. Others may have experienced the heights of ecstasy followed by the depths of despair due to the fickleness of their lover. On the other hand, I have taken pains to show that my love is absolutely steadfast, never wavering or failing. The ultimate demonstration is in the death of My Son Jesus on the cross for your sake, taking every punishment due to you on Himself and setting you free from bondage. Free to love Me fully and experience My love. Never get tired of contemplating My love and seeking to experience it in our most intimate relationship.”

We come now to 1 Samuel 27. This short chapter may seem to be fairly barren, describing a period in David’s life voluntarily exiled again from His beloved Israel and the Promised Land of Canaan. At first reading it may not be completely clear what was happening in this foreign territory.

Despite his apparent reconciliation with Saul, it is clear that David does not trust his fickleness, so he chooses again to put himself at the mercy of Achish who we have met earlier when David was alone and fled there pretending to be mad eventually to keep himself safe. Now, however he has 600 men with him as well as all their families and represents a potential threat to Achish. Achish tolerates his presence, even giving him some land to settle on, but obviously remains nervous and suspicious of David and his intentions.

To set his mind at rest David pretends to attack various tribes of Israel, who were living in various places in the Negev. The word Negev means South and describes those Israelites who had settled in the Southern part of the Promised Land. He is clearly trying to deceive Achish into thinking he had turned against Israel and was therefore no threat to him. Hence the last vs 12: “Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so odious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant forever“.

Instead, David was raiding other pagan tribes and to prevent this from being discovered he was simply killing everyone on each raid.

There is no judgement given in this chapter to help us evaluate what David was doing, so we need to approach it with care, asking Jesus to speak to us through it.

Our first impression is to be horrified at David’s behaviour, especially the apparent unnecessary annihilation of whole tribes of people including women and children.

Before we make too strenuous a judgement we should try and understand some of the pressure David was under. Spending years fleeing from a determined foe with great powers and the ability to kill him at any moment. He must have been desperate to leave the comfort of his beloved Canaan and hide under the power of a pagan king who was not really well disposed to him.

Nevertheless, where is the great faith that he had shown with Goliath, believing he could accomplish anything in God’s name? Had the constant fleeing eroded his faith? What about the times God had apparently delivered Saul into his hands?

The main positive note in the story is his commitment to not harming his own people in any way, despite his exile. Admittedly he had taken this to extreme, being prepared to kill innocent women and children. There is no way that the bible expresses approval of these actions.

Looking at it from a New Testament perspective, we can say that the NT equivalent to Israel in the OT is the church. And the question I found myself asking was, “What is my commitment to God’s church?” How would I react if I was forced out of a fellowship, or even out of a position of responsibility that I enjoyed? Would I at all costs (hopefully legal and moral) continue to defend this group even if they had become hostile to me?

David clearly had a very high view of God and hence the importance to him of firstly his anointed king at the time and secondly the chosen people of God. Do I have such a high view of God that I will defend the church and its members as strenuously as possible?

One thing is also clear. David was very human and full of failings, like each one of us and nevertheless we know that in Acts he is described as a man after God’s own heart. So, God continues to love us and use us, despite our shortcomings. What a wonderful relief that we have a God who is so full of grace and love that He sent His Son to die for us so that these character wrinkles can be ironed out.

Have a blessed week.

Constant threat to the Kingly Line.

Am I totally sold out on you oh lord, you know innermost desires of my heart?

”As I look into your heart as every other person I have created, I see a huge mixture of emotions. On the one hand the desire to make me the most important in your life, your thoughts, your desires. On the other hand, there are many issues which take your attention and drag you away from me. Take heart, I look at the intentions of your heart and understand the complexity of it. Your desire is to seek me completely and I will honour that desire and help you to accomplish it by My grace. yet the trials and tests of this world are there to test and grow your faith – not to destroy it. So, I hear you as you sing; ‘As the deer pants for water, You alone are my heart desire and I long to worship You.'”

Chapter 26 of 1 Samuel almost seems like a repeat of ch 24. However, although Saul is once again relentlessly pursuing David, circumstances have changed. Things are out in the open and David is no longer so vulnerable. On seeing that Saul was exposed to him David plans a daring intervention in an attempt at diverting Saul and his murderous intentions. Accompanied by Abishai they enter Saul’s camp and take some trophy’s to prove that they were there.

Although Saul is completely at his mercy David refuses to harm him on the basis that he was God’s anointed. Once again David confronts Saul with the evidence and Saul appears to be heartily sorry for his actions. But a worldly sorrow? 2 Cor 7:10

As I pondered this passage, I wondered how much of a role Satan was playing in pushing Saul to kill David. We need to remember that David was in a line of kings who would eventually end with Jesus. From the beginning of Matt gospel, we read how Satan tried to annihilate this Messiah king. Was he already active at this stage of God’s story? We should at all times be on our guard against Satan’s attempts to derail God story which is playing out in our lives,

I was struck again how David acknowledged God all the time as the story unfolds cf vv 9.16,19,23. In turn there is no doubt that God is there all the time with David cf v 12.

Maybe we feel that we are not as important a part of God’s story that He should also be intimately with us as we live our lives. However, I believe while David was an important part of God’s story each one of us is equally important to God and He is busy all the time in our lives too. Are you totally sold out on God’s providence? It is such a deeply reassuring fact that God is big enough and wise enough to be involved in each of our stories. Of course, the way He is involved is far above our understanding and therefore tends to puzzle us. We can rest assured though that His way is always the best.

God bless till next week.

Abigail brings propitiation.

I am sure you do not seek groveling servants. But servants that humble themselves under your mighty hand and yet can discover their full potential in you, this is another Christian paradox.

“Yes, I said blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are the meek – that does not mean that your personhood has been downplayed and degraded – it means a recognition of your total need and dependence on Me – and you recognizing this both spiritually and physically – it is easy to start there and slowly move away again to and independence of thought, of self-worth and self-love. You are called to live a complete, fulfilled life in Me – but the emphasis is” in Me” – it is only in recognizing everything you have, every blessing you have is in Me and through Me and by Me that you will experience that.”

As we move into Ch 25 of 1 Samuel, the first vs brings a key moment in the story. With a simple statement, “Now Samuel died”. The role of the great prophet has decreased and slipped into the background as David and Saul have taken over prominence in the story. Yet this prophet has played a key role in identifying the future kings and his importance is emphasized by the names of the two books covering that period of history.

This whole chapter is further taken up with the story where a lady called Abigail plays a prominent role. David has been protecting that area of the country with his men. At that stage there was much lawlessness and fighting among various bands of men and David had taken it on himself to protect the local population.

When he sends word to the most prominent and rich landowner Nabal, to send him supplies, in payment for his protection, Nabal answers him most rudely and this provokes David to want to seek retribution. When Nabal’s wife hears of this she takes it upon herself to defuse the situation by going behind Nabal’s back and taking the supplies that he had requested to David and more. When Nabal is told about this he is so angry that he actually dies from a stroke or heart attack.

Now to me this is an important story because it gives us a faint prediction of what Jesus did on the cross on our behalf.

You see, since the time of Adam, God’s wrath has been focused on each person for demanding their independence from Him. His wrath is finally expressed in the death and eternal separation from Him and all that is good by each person. There was only one way to deal with this and that was for someone who was totally sinless and did not deserve His wrath to take that wrath on Himself. In so doing He turned God’s wrath away from us onto Himself. This act is called “propitiation”.

In a sort of similar way Abigail through her act of supplying what David had requested and more, she turned his wrath away from her husband and all the people who worked for him. In the process she ran the risk of her husband taking his anger out on her, but was protected by an act of providence which took the husband out.

The chapter ends with the note that David takes this woman as his second or third wife.

Several times as the story unfolds, we are given a glimpse of David’s various wives. It seems that amongst other reasons he used them as a means of making political progress as he moved towards kingship.

As I finished this chapter, I reflected again on the amazing act of Jesus in turning God’s wrath away from us. A wrath which makes Nabal’s uncalled for anger appear as almost mild by comparison.

May God bless you in this coming week as you consider these things.

No Revenge.

I am overcome with thoughts of the vastness of God in size, power, love – awesome thoughts overwhelm me.

It is hard for My creatures to really take in the size and spread of My presence and My power which is focused on you through My grace. But there was a specific moment when that entire power met and impinged on My creation here on this planet where you live. It was a moment when My love in My Son was taken from him and poured out on you so that you could escape judgement and be free – free from slavery to sin and to the law. Free to be the people you were created to be. Consider how difficult it is for my vast presence to be real and close to you, therefore I have made a Way by becoming one of you I can now relate in a new way – a way which you can understand and appreciate. Yet behind all this I remain huge and awesome and unfathomable.

As we continue to read in 1 Samuel 24, the relentless pursuit of David by Saul continues and reaches a climax. However, the climax is not at all what the reader would perhaps have expected. Instead of Saul achieving his goal to catch David and put him to death, God delivers Saul into David’s hands.

Consider for a moment the feelings David must have had, after fleeing for several years, living often under great hardship, even pretending to be mad to escape another enemy. And then God apparently, according to his men, vs 4, delivers Saul into David’s hands. What a moment of triumph, of relief, maybe. He can kill Saul and come out into the open and be crowned king.

Yet at that very moment David is more prepared to obey God’s voice than his own feelings. He perceives Saul as God’s anointed one and he therefore should not touch him. Can you imagine how strong the temptation must have been to take Saul’s life and be done with it.

As I read this passage my thoughts went to the general feeling most people have when they feel they have been wronged. Most people’s first reaction is to find a way to exact revenge. To get back at the cause of their tribulation. If you watch stories on TV you will soon see that many of them are focused and often climax in a most “satisfying” act of revenge.

As I considered this, I thought of Paul’s words in Romans 12:17 – 21. Especially vs 19 :”Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath...” This, folks is so counter-intuitive. It is our nature to want to extract revenge. Just look at Gaza. But the gospel is counter-intuitive. The gospel calls us out to be different. The main point is that we do not naturally have that attitude, it is only after we have been transformed and have the help of the Holy Spirit that we are able to follow this instruction.

That, my friends, is an ideal example of being a witness for Christ. When one takes on that attitude then people will look and say, “But why is he different?”

David made many mistakes. But one thing stands out, he adored Yahweh and really wanted to honour Him and this was one of the early signs of that. There is perhaps much about David and some of his behaviour which could call us to wonder why he is called by God as a man after God’s own heart. Without plumbing the full depths of that statement, it seems that our estimate of what God sees in our hearts may sometimes be questioned. Certainly, God seeks people who will love Him with all their hearts, souls, bodies and strength. This can only be accomplished through the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in what we call the gospel and will be demonstrated in their lives and actions.

Plenty to chew over again this week, if you so wish. God bless till next week.