I Samuel 14 The Greatest Bible Story You Never Heard About

Every kid in Sunday School learns very early the story about David and Goliath, where one man faced a giant that nobody in his nation’s army was willing to face.

Yet a few chapters earlier in that same book of the Bible, one man dared to face an entire army.

The enemy was the same as that David faced, the Philistines, Israel’s neighbor to the west.  Like the Gaza strip today.  That’s where they lived.

The Israelite army was discouraged.  Heck, most of them were in hiding.

One man, Jonathan, the son of the king, tells his armor bearer, Let’s go engage the Philistines in battle.  “The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.” (I Samuel 14:6)

He knew that very rarely does God ever work on behalf of His people without His people doing something.  It could be anything.  What they do might not have an effect on the outcome at all. 

David faced one man, albeit a giant.  Jonathan faced a whole army.  The Philistines were up over the ridge, and he had no idea what he would find up there.  But he went.

He knew if God was going to help them, it didn’t really matter if he had ten men or ten thousand.  Or one man.  One person and God could do anything. 

Our problem is that we’re not sure God wants to do the thing we have in mind. 

Jonathan did put out a fleece, as we call it.  He said that they would show themselves to the Philistines.  If they said, come on up, that would be a sign that God was in it.  They did, and Jonathan went up, not knowing what he would face, but believing that God would give them the victory.

You have to ask if there was anything in the history of Israel that would suggest to Jonathan that God would do such a thing.

And there was.  Twice in their history God spoke to them about one person chasing a thousand (Deuteronomy 32:30, Joshua 23:10). 

Oh, and yes, God did give them the victory.  God caused the Philistine army to basically lose heart.  In addition to sending a small earthquake.  And then the news of all this reached the Israelite army in hiding, and they came out and joined the battle.

Who would have thought?  One person believed God for a miracle and acted on it. 

I Chronicles 28:9 Where is your Heart?

 The idea of God is both scary and reassuring.

 It’s scary in the sense that He knows every thought of our heart.

It’s reassuring, because He knows every thought of our heart.

The same fire that can burn your house down can cook your food and warm your house in winter.

In I Chronicles 28, King David is approaching death, and he is addressing the nation and his son Solomon, who will replace him on the throne. 

In verse 9, David tells him:  As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your fathers and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every intent of the thoughts.  If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

All too often Christians can feel like their relationship with God changes constantly, depending on what we are doing, have done, or will do.  I know I carried for years the sense that I had failed God through choices I had made.  My salvation wasn’t jeopardized, but if God is disappointed with me, then that had to have had an effect on things.  Right?

But David’s words to Solomon say something different.

God knows every intent of our thoughts.  The question is whether we are seeking God in our lives or forsaking Him.  That may sound extreme, but the direction of your life is either going toward God or away from God.  We may think we are doing neither, just staying even, but in the myriad of choices that we make every day, our lives are never staying still.

David says that if you seek Him, He will let you find Him.  Seeking God or forsaking Him are not like leaves blowing in the wind, going all over the place.  Either we want God or we don’t. 

Because God knows you so well, He is never surprised by things you do.  So even in those times when you feel like you are doing really well, He is quite aware of what’s coming ahead, like when Jesus told Peter ahead of time that Peter would deny Him. 

Jesus knew the intent of the thoughts of his heart, and that was just a bump in the road.  When we realize that God knows all the intents of our thoughts, we realize it’s not the particular actions that need concern us but the direction of our heart.  It’s not the times we fall that matter so much, but the direction of our steps.

Ephesians 4:13 True Unity and Diversity

They say that no two snowflakes are alike.  And there are around 900 thousand different kinds of insects in the world.

I am not a geneticist, but I think it’s safe to say that no two human beings have been identical in the history of humankind.  I read that even identical twins are not identical.

The world calls this diversity.  I prefer to think of it as uniqueness.  Every human being is unique.

Humans like to bunch humans together by things they have in common, like race, ethnicity, gender (I mean, sex), religion, sexual orientation, language, age, education, favorite sports, favorite books.

And that’s okay, because we all want things that unite us, things that bond us to others like us.  It helps to make conversation and even friendships. 

Humans today often put an emphasis on what they call diversity, because it seems so ‘enlightened’ and compassionate.  We look on outward signs of differences, but I think God sees those differences as arbitrary, minor, and distracting, a few out of a myriad of differences. 

Humans also like to classify things, which helps us to see some kind of order and structure, so we can feel like we have a hold on things to some extent.  God creates an infinite number of unique things as an expression of His infinite nature.   

But what does this have to do with true unity and diversity?

Diversity means differences, and we are all different, and to each one of us the manifestation of the Holy Spirit has been given for the common good.  (I Corinthians 14:7)  The Apostle Paul then lists 9 different kinds of manifestations of the Spirit, but then later in the chapter he names 6 more, and I doubt if these are all the possible ones.  With every person being unique, I suspect that different people with the same gifts will make different contributions, like different preachers preaching a sermon on the same passage of Scripture create unique sermons with unique benefits.

Now each person is a member of the Body of Christ, and as a member he/she has a function that is needed for the well-bring of the Body.

When you read about how Paul sees church gatherings, it is clear that they are small ones, like we would call a small group.  Each person is to bring something to the group.  (I Corinthians 14:26)  Each one contributes something unique to them.  Paul only names a few gifts, or manifestations, here, but each person being unique I think we can expect unique ministries here, one person offering what no one else can in quite the same way.

Now these are also open groups, unlike many small groups in churches today.  Paul speaks of unbelievers being present (I Corinthians 14:24), and many gifts certainly help in reaching people for Christ.

Churches today like big gatherings, and that’s OK.  Some preachers and teachers are better than others, and they will draw people to hear them.  And if you want worship music in your gathering, larger is often better. 

So if we are all unique and diverse, how do we unite?

We unite around our common goal of building the Body of Christ:

Ephesians 4:11–13 (NASB95)  11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the UNITY of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

And, of course, adding members to the Body of Christ is probably even more important than our building up each other in the faith.

We are all diverse in our uniqueness, which means that we should find ways to take advantage of those differences, and we are united when we live with the goal of building up each other, as the Body of Christ, and adding new people to it.

Deuteronomy 12:9 God our Resting Place

 

Every so often, you will encounter something in the Bible that changes everything.

Let’s start with Deuteronomy 12:9.

We all know the story how God delivered Israel out of Egypt and brought them to a Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Sometimes this land is called an inheritance.  In Deuteronomy 12:9, it is called that and something else.

Deuteronomy 12:9 (NASB95)  9 for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the LORD your God is giving you.

The expression ‘resting place’ can also be translated as ‘rest.’

So though this land required the Israelites to conquer it first, it is their place of rest, their rest.

In Psalm 95, this land is again referred to as ‘rest,’ or ‘resting place.’

Psalm 95:7–11 (NASB95)  7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, 9 “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work. 10 “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. 11 “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”

So far we have been talking about Israel and their Promised Land, but the book of Hebrews quotes this passage from the psalms 3 times and mentions ‘rest’ 8 tunes in explaining to us how our lives in God and in Christ are a rest.  (Hebrews 3:11,18;4:1,3,5,10,11)

Now you can’t rest, until your mind is at ease.  So the writer of Hebrews ends this section on rest with these words: Hebrews 4:14–16 (NASB95)

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,  . . . 16  let us draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

Some translations read ‘confidence’ where I have ‘boldness’ here.  The word is παρρησία (par-ray-see'-ah), which means: a use of speech that conceals nothing and passes over nothing, outspokenness, frankness, plainness; a state of boldness and confidence, courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness, esp. in the presence of persons of high rank.  We are to draw near to God being totally open with everything we say, not afraid of any consequences.

Romans calls this being at peace with God and having been brought into a state of grace, or favor, with God in which we now stand.  (Romans 5:1,2)

It’s not often that we hear of our relationship with God as being rest, or a resting place.  Like a haven where you can turn off the world and be at peace.  Too many of us are constantly wrestling with God, having questions and worries about too many things.  God wants us to leave all that outside too.  Like going home where you can totally relax and be yourself.  We should feel that same way when we pray or just spend time conscious of God.

We have peace with God, now we need to experience it.

 

Luke 4:2 Forty days, being tempted by the devil

We don’t talk much about the devil any more.  Maybe it’s because we have become so sophisticated, at least in our own minds, that everything that goes wrong in our minds and our emotions can all be attributed to physical and psychological causes.

We have gone from everything is the devil or evil spirits to nothing is.

This is one reason why the Bible is so important.  There are just some things you’re not going to be able to figure out on your own about life.  Science can only deal with things that can be seen or measured. 

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the devil came to Jesus and tempted Him in basically three areas.

The first was in the area of physical needs, or you could even call it emotional need.  Jesus was hungry.  Very hungry.  Our bodies can have all kinds of cravings: sex, the need for recognition, companionship, hey, food and drink too, drugs, the need to feel good inside.

But Jesus said that man does not live by bread alone.  He is quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, which goes on to say: “Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”

The Hebrew text has a different word order to emphasize different things. “Not by bread alone will live man (humans), but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord will live the man.

If we live our lives by what we perceive to be our needs, we can miss God’s best and play into the hands of the devil, who wants us to focus on ourselves and not God’s leading in our lives.

The second area is in the area of pubic recognition.  This need not be public acclaim and notoriety.  We need not be famous, but we all want to be somebody.  We don’t want to be ignored, unappreciated, especially when so many others who we know are no better than we are get recognized and promoted.  We want our lives to matter, but if nobody knows or sees us, it can be hard sometimes.

But Jesus said to the devil, and He might as well have said it to us: The Lord your God worship, and Him only you shall serve.  (Which is from Deuteronomy 6:13)

In other words, focus on God and let the rest take care of itself.  Israel had a problem, a common problem, that when they had success, they were tempted to think that they did it all on their own, that that too wasn’t a gift from God.  When we desire and seek to gain public recognition, fame, or just trying to gain attention in some way, again, we fall into the devil’s plans to keep us self-focused and not God-focused.

The third area has to do with someone who presumes on God.  Proverbs 3:5,6 says we are to trust in God with all our hearts and not, I repeat, not to lean on our own understanding.  In all, I repeat, all our ways acknowledge Him, and He himself will direct our paths.

Life isn’t all about choosing between good and bad, such that anything that is not bad is good.  When you seek God’s guidance in everything, you will find new possibilities opening up that you didn’t imagine before, that you wouldn’t have even known about if God didn’t lead you there.

So we can get involved in good things, but we miss God’s leading and God’s best.

This may sound like I’m making life more complicated.  No, it’s actually making life a lot easier.  God is far more willing to guide us in the small things than we think and to bring us that satisfaction that we need deep down.  He just wants to make sure that we are grounded in Him and not in ourselves.

I Samuel 1:5 “but the Lord had closed her womb.”

 Why would God close somebody’s womb so that they can’t have children?  Does this happen a lot?

Twice in this passage of Scripture, it says this.  The very next verse repeats it.

Hannah was troubled by the fact that she couldn’t have kids.  She was even ridiculed for it. 

This caused her to pray to God about it such that she vowed to dedicate her firstborn son to God all the days of his life.

And that son was Samuel, who was a prophet of God who lead Israel, the last judge of Israel before it had a king.

If Hannah’s womb had not been closed by God, she never would have prayed that prayer, and Samuel never would have been dedicated to God, and Samuel would not have become the judge of Israel. 

In other words, God knew who this child would be and called him before he was even conceived.  That means also that God couldn’t have just taken anybody for that position.  He needed Samuel, who hadn’t been conceived yet, but He also needed Samuel to be dedicated to God so he could fulfill that position.

Psalm 139:16 says: “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

We see unborn babies as potential human beings.  We decide whether they should live or not depending on the circumstances or the desires of the parents.

God already sees this child as to what they will do in the world.  In Hannah’s case, He even cornered her to make the decision to dedicate this child to Him, because God wanted her child to be judge over Israel.  And, apparently, this is not like an arbitrary choice where He could have taken anyone.  It had to be Samuel.  Or, to put it another way, only Samuel could have done what he did, what God wanted to be done in that generation.

This reminds me of Jephthah, another one of the judges of Israel.  What is particularly interesting about him was that he was born of a harlot and rejected by his (half-)brothers and thrown out of the family.

Today, we might have considered him a good candidate for an abortion.  Son of a prostitute, what kind of life is he going to have?  But it was he and not his brothers who delivered Israel from her enemies. 

And then there was Jeremiah, whom God knew before Jeremiah was even formed in the womb, and whom God consecrated and appointed before he was born.  (Jeremiah 1:5)  And the apostle Paul whom God set apart from his mother’s womb for his ministry.  (Galatians 1:15)

This tells me that human life is sacred, but way beyond how we are accustomed to seeing it.  It’s like God knows you so intimately, heck, even before you are conceived, He sees the end from the beginning, and your whole future is clear before His eyes. 

We cannot judge the value of a human life when it is still in the womb.  Or rather I should say, the value of that human life extends far beyond we might ever think. 

Let me end with this:

I read the story of a woman who conceived a child in rape.

She realized that nothing was going to take the memory away, whether she had the child or not.  She also realized that this child had nothing to do with what happened to her.  This was just a new human being who had a right to live and grow up just like she had.

So she had the child.

Turns out that this child, her love for the child and the child’s love for her, saved her life.  Saved her from sadness, depression, and the pain of what she experienced.  This child brought joy to her that she never thought she could or would experience.

Hannah’s story also tells me about God, a God who knew me before I was born or even conceived.  A God who shapes the circumstances of my life in ways I never would have imagined.

 

 

 

Colossians 3:1 Raised with Christ

Christianity is different from all the other religions of the world.

I know when I say that that a lot of Christians will insist that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.

But the word ‘religion’ can rightly be used to describe this whole system of belief about God.  All the teachings about God, life, human beings that make up Christianity is the Christian religion. 

But what makes Christianity unique among all the world religions is that very point, but even that point isn’t enough.

Christianity is not merely that we now have a relationship with God.

We are united with God in ways other religions can only dream about.

In ways we humans do not fully understand, we died with Christ (Colossians 2:20) and we were raised with Christ (Colossians 3:1).  All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and we are being made full in Christ. (Colossians 3:10)

We don’t know all that means, but our lives are no longer ordinary and insignificant.  We are in some unimaginable way partakers of the Living God, the creator of the world and life.  Our lives are now hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). 

So Paul says that we are to seek things above, where Christ is.  (Colossians 3:1)

But what does that look like?

First of all, don’t let your lives be run by your passions, especially covetousness.  Always wanting things, and more things, and things that belong to other people.  (Colossians 3:5-7)

Then, as people chosen and valued by God (Lit. loved by God), put on compassion, kindness, humility, patience, all things that have to do with how we relate to other people.  And then he caps it off by saying ‘love,’ like it’s the sum total of the whole thing (Colossians 3:12-15).

Why is this so important? 

Life is full of things.  People are not things.  If a person is a Christian, they too have died and were raised with Christ and are being made full in Him.  People who are not Christians are people for whom Christ died that they too might be made full in Him. 

So don’t let things or your passions run your life.  See the bigger picture.  Value the things that God values, which are not things at all, but fellow-creatures made in the image of God.

There’s a lot more here, but life is learned one step at a time.