Today’s
Scripture Reading (February 25, 2019): 1 Samuel 11
Sylvain Reynard in his book “Gabriel Redemption”
makes this comment. “God wants to rescue us, not
destroy us. You don't have to be afraid of being happy, thinking that he wants
to take that happiness away from you.
That's not who he is." I agree with Sylvain. Destroying us is not part of
the essential character of God. Everything that he does, he does to make our
lives better; he wants to rescue us from our desires and the things that carry
us toward our destruction. I can say with
honesty that the things that I regret in my life would never have been given
life if I was only listening a little
closer to the voice of God.
I also recognize that this is not
everyone’s experience. We are all broken, and we are all broken differently. And the things that haunt us are
different. One of the things that are broken
in our lives is our ability to trust, even when the object of that trust is
God. And so it sometimes takes us a little time to get to the point where we
can believe that God is out to rescue us, not to hurt us.
We have commented that the theme of
the era of the Judges is summed up with the comment “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw
fit” (Judges 21:25). But, now Israel had a king.
The problem was that while they believed that a king would change the nation,
no one was sure exactly how. And while Saul was
made King, the people were not entirely behind him. Like a political
campaign, there were likely other contenders, and
some really believed that Samuel had
gotten it wrong. They wanted their person crowned over the nation and not this
kid from the tribe of Benjamin.
So Jabesh Gilead, a city in Israel,
is threatened by an Ammonite King named Nahash. They try to make peace with
him, but that peace only comes with dishonor. To make peace with the Ammonite
King would cost everyone in the city an eye. Naturally, the inhabitants of
Jabesh Gilead were reluctant to give an eye to the Ammonite King. But the
question that plagued them was simply this; did they have a choice? Did the
presence of a King in Israel change anything in the reality of life in Israel?
Or was the reality the same as it always had been. In those days, Israel had a
king; and everyone still did as they saw fit.
So the elders of the city struck a
deal. Give us seven days to think this over. We will send a message to the
King. If someone comes, we will fight. But if no one comes, then we will
surrender our city and our eyes to the King of the Ammonites. It is better to
lose our eyes rather than our lives.
This was Saul’s first test. Would he walk away from the
inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead? Or was he
willing to come and rescue? The inhabitants of the city had no idea what to
expect. And so, they waited for seven days to see if maybe things had changed,
and hoped that maybe rescue would come.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: 1 Samuel 12
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