Standing in the Line of Judgment

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Friday, November 15, 2019

We have two passages today…both hard to hear, both with questions that leave us wanting answers.  The first lesson is a story from King David’s time of long past sins of Saul that have serious consequences for his children and grandchildren; the other passage is Paul’s New Testament take on the suffering Christians were enduring.

There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the Lord about it.  And the Lord said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.”  So the king summoned the Gibeonites.  They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites.  The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out.  David asked them, “What can I do for you?  How can I make amends so that you will bless the Lord’s people again?”  “Well, money can’t settle this matter between us and the family of Saul,” the Gibeonites replied.  “Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.”  “What can I do then?” David asked.  “Just tell me and I will do it for you.”  Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel.  So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.”  “All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”  The king spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, who was Saul’s grandson, because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the Lord.  But he gave them Saul’s two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, the wife of Adriel son of Barzillai from Meholah.  The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the Lord.  So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.  Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season.  She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night.  When David learned what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan.  (When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.)  So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.  Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin.  After that, God ended the famine in the land.                        2 Samuel 21:1-14

And then Paul’s making sense of persecution in the light of someone else’s sin:

Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing.  We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering.  And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.  In his justice he will pay back those who persecute you.  And God will provide rest for you who are being persecuted and also for us when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven.…So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call.  May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.  Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored because of the way you live, and you will be honored along with him.            2 Thessalonians 1:3-7a, 11-12a

Because we’ve all experienced being sinful we can understand our need of grace, but we do wonder sometimes at the harshness of God’s judgment, especially why God precipitated what would lead to the execution of two of Saul’s sons, and five grandsons.  Saul was the one who sinned.  At back of our wonder over such things is a question…is that consistent with a loving God?  And faith must answer…of course. 

For You Today

One day when Christ comes to judge we will have all the answers we ever wondered about.  For this day don’t worry over what you don’t understand; if you wonder, ask again.  He’ll either give you an answer, or peace about letting it rest.  Don’t be distracted from serving Him by what you don’t know; put to use that which you do know; tell others how he saved your soul!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image:  Wikimedia Commons      Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

When You Need a Friend

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Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Saul now urged his servants and his son Jonathan to assassinate David.  But Jonathan, because of his strong affection for David, told him what his father was planning.  “Tomorrow morning,” he warned him, “you must find a hiding place out in the fields.  I’ll ask my father to go out there with me, and I’ll talk to him about you. Then I’ll tell you everything I can find out.”  The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him.  “The king must not sin against his servant David,” Jonathan said.  “He’s never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.  Have you forgotten about the time he risked his life to kill the Philistine giant and how the Lord brought a great victory to all Israel as a result?  You were certainly happy about it then.  Why should you murder an innocent man like David?  There is no reason for it at all!”  So Saul listened to Jonathan and vowed, “As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be killed.”  Afterward Jonathan called David and told him what had happened.  Then he brought David to Saul, and David served in the court as before.  1 Samuel 19:1-7^(NLT)

The proof of Jonathan’s friendship with David is found primarily in the fact that he had everything to lose by helping David, and virtually nothing to gain.  Jonathan was the king’s son, and therefore heir-apparent to the throne of Israel.  It was a dangerous game to play, helping David, when the king wanted him dead.  But Jonathan not only loved his friend David, he was bound by integrity to do the right thing.  Many years later David’s son, Solomon (perhaps remembering his father’s friend, Jonathan) would write:

A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. 

Proverbs 17:17^(NLT)

“Always loyal” is the key to friendship.  Now, that doesn’t mean always patting you on the back or being ready to follow you down an ethically-questionable pathway.  Loyalty does always mean being truthful, and to be depended upon to stand with you in the hard times and rejoice with you in the triumphs of life. 

I believe if David had in mind a coup d'état to overthrow King Saul, this story would have had a very different ending; Jonathan might have let David sink!  David may have been Jonathan’s dearest friend, but Saul was his father and the king.  When loyalties collide, friendship must take second place to truth and doing the right thing. 

Solomon also wrote:  It is wrong to punish the godly for being good…. Proverbs 17:26^(NLT)

For You Today

It’s an easy thing to imagine what you’d like a friend to be in your life…loyal, courageous, funny, helpful, strong, supportive.  All this and more roll quickly off our brain’s must have list for friends.  But we should also consider our friendship effort we give to others.  If you’ve got a Jonathan in your life, treasure the gift, and thank God.  And while you’re at it, ask God for the wisdom, generosity and faithfulness to BE a Jonathan to your friends.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com