Image from wikipedia.org

Throughout the Old Testament there are little glimpses and pictures of Jesus, some being more specific than others. It is almost like a dot-to-dot puzzle is slowly being mapped out, and little by little we find more information about the One who was to come. In the Garden, Adam and Eve heard the first echo of what was to come. Abraham later learned more particulars – the Promised One would come through his family and would bless the whole world. In 2 Samuel 7:11-12, David has a bit more of the picture filled in.

“‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you:
When your days are over and you rest with your fathers,
I will raise up your offspring to succeed you,
who will come from your own body,
and I will establish his kingdom.
He is the one who will build a house for my Name,
and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.’”

As the prophet Nathan speaks these words, they apply both to Solomon and the other “seeds” from David’s line who would reign from David’s household, and also to Jesus Christ, the promised Seed. While bits and pieces apply to human “seeds” in between, the full completion of God’s promises to David doesn’t occur in anyone BUT Jesus Christ.

Years later the prophet Isaiah would pen a prophecy that today we probably all can sing (at least in the shower!) thanks to Handel:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

Isaiah 9:6-7

Looking ahead to Luke 1:32-33, notice what the angel Gabriel says to Mary:

“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Wonder why so much emphasis is placed on Jesus’ genealogy in the book of Matthew? The fact that Jesus was a physical descendent of David was critical to these promises and prophecies. He would build a spiritual house for God’s name (1 Peter 2:5), and He will reign forever!

At this point in Biblical history, God’s people are still very much in the dark about how God’s plan will unfold. They have clues – they’ve know about the Seed since Genesis 3, and now they know He will be a king from the line of David. However, they still have no idea how grand the plan of God really would be: God the Son, in flesh, offering Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of man, reigning over the earth, and obliterating the separation between God and the people He loved enough to die for.

Feel like your own life is a dot-to-dot? Like God has begun something, moved in your life in certain ways, and now you are stuck in the waiting room? You may not see all of the future pieces, but we serve a God unbound by time and human limitations. His plans and purposes are eternal. One of the stunning things to me about seeing the bigger story in Scripture is how God’s plan is consistent from the very beginning to the very end. God does not have “Plan B” – He is always perfectly carrying out Plan A!

The God who holds eternity in His hands is big enough to trust with your life. Trust Him.

The day came when Israel asked for a king. It opened a new chapter in Israel’s history full of ups and downs, obedience and apostasy.

Of course, the first two kings of Israel are two of the best known: Saul and David.

Saul was physically impressive and appealed to the people’s desire for a king who looked the part. They wanted someone who looked good in a crown. So, God gave them a man who looked good from the exterior.

“They ran and brought him out, and as he stood among the people he was a head taller than any of the others. Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the man the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” Then the people shouted, “Long live the king!”” - 1 Samuel 10:23-24

Unfortunately, Saul’s heart was not as impressive as his stature. Early on in his reign, Saul was commanded to carry out God’s judgment against the Amalekites, completely wiping them and their animals out. Saul chose to disobey, sparing the Amalekite king and the best of the cattle and sheep to sacrifice to God. He refused to see that sacrificing something as an act of worship that one only has because of disobedience is not pleasing to the Lord at all. Unfortunately, his next actions made the situation even more glaringly sinful.

“Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”” – 1 Samuel 15:12

Saul blatantly disobeys, then displays his sense of entitlement by setting up a monument in his own honor, feeling downright self-righteous about what he has done. When Samuel goes down to confront him, Saul’s response is stunning to me.

Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. …Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?”

“But I did obey the LORD,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the LORD assigned me…” – 1 Samuel 15:17-20

“But I did obey…” Amazing. God’s response to Saul is swift and non-negotiable – he was rejected as king, and David is anointed. It would be years before David would sit on the throne of Israel, and Saul spends much of his time and energy hunting David like an animal, jealous of God’s hand on his life and clinging desperately to the throne – seeing it as his throne.

Years later, David has his own sin issues. Serious sin issues. From our perspective, David’s sins of adultery and murder seem far more serious than Saul keeping back some animals in order to sacrifice them later. Why does God reject Saul but call David a “man after His own heart”? (1 Samuel 13:14) When David is confronted with his deep sin, his response is nothing like Saul’s arrogant justification of his actions. One simple verse contains David’s humble response: “I have sinned against the LORD.” – 2 Samuel 12:13

Saul settled himself firmly on the throne, claiming it as his own. He disregards God’s clear instructions, and when confronted justifies himself and refuses to agree with God about the seriousness of his actions. David sits lightly on the throne – as you read through the accounts of his reign, his responses are often puzzling and surprising to people because he never seems to feel entitled to anything by his position. While he reigns as a human king, chosen and anointed by the Lord, he never forgets: he is not really the king. God is King. God is the only one entitled to rule and reign. And when David is confronted with the truth of what he had done, his response is immediate repentance and confession.

When I think of all the roles in my life – wife, mother, ministry leader, teacher, etc – am I sitting lightly? Do I feel entitled to these positions, entitled to honor and recognition? Entitled to do what I want to do and say what I want to say? Do I justify and defend my actions, self-righteously refusing to see when I have sinned against God?

I fear that we often are much more like Saul in our mentality than we are like David. How much division in our churches is caused by a feeling of ownership, entitlement, self-righteous importance in our ministries? How often do we feel that others owe us respect and honor that really belongs to God? How often are we confronted with our sin and we respond defensively, or with denial, or in anger? How often do we spend our time jealously eying those we see as a threat rather than acknowledging that whatever influence, leadership, position, authority that has been entrusted to us belongs solely to God Himself?

Sit lightly, my friends. We are the limited and flawed servants – only our God is holy and wholly worthy.

We’re continuing our One Summer, One Story series – a fast-paced overview of the “big story” of the Bible! Missed anything? Find all the past posts here. Just a reminder, also, that we have two different “blog ministry projects” going on right now – please consider joining us for Got Milk? and the SOS Project – because although the problems are overwhelming, our God really IS BIGGER!

Sometimes following God doesn’t make sense.

Often, following God doesn’t make sense!

“Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy. Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.” – Francis Chan, Crazy Love

This morning I was reading in my one year chronological Bible from 1 Chronicles and 1 Samuel – the story of Saul’s early days as king- and his extremely rapid fall from God’s favor. Familiar ground, these accounts. But today as I read them, and then read them again with the footnotes in my MacArthur ESV Study Bible, I was struck again by how Saul’s entire life exhibited a lack of faith… but a lot of “common sense!”

In 1 Samuel 13, Saul faced quite a dire situation. He had gathered the Israelites to battle the Philistines. They were far outnumbered, as God’s people almost always are; the Philistines had “troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.” The Israelites saw this with their human eyes and did a very human thing – they ran for their lives. “When the men of Isarel saw that they were in trouble… the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.” (1 Samuel 13:5-7)

The next chapter tells us that a mere six hundred men remained with Saul. Oh, and by the way… Saul and Jonathan were the only two men among the entire Israelite army who had swords, and they faced a well equipped Philistine army with iron chariots and weapons. Little detail.

Samuel had commanded Saul to wait seven days for him to come and offer sacrifices and seek the Lord’s protection over His people. Seven days. Seven days of watching the Philistine forces gather, strengthen, sharpen more weapons than the Israelites even had people. Seven days of watching the Israelite forces turn tail and run, hiding in terror, even deserting to other regions.

So, Saul did what his common sense called for. He offered the burnt offerings himself. His lack of faith and disobedience turned those sacrifices from a humble act of worship into an empty religious ceremony devoid of faith, a stench instead of a pleasing aroma to our holy God.

In the next chapter, we find Jonathan exhibiting far more faith than his father (“nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few” 1 Samuel 14:6), when he and his armor bearer cross over to the Philistine outpost and attack them. God is clearly with them – sending panic and terror through the Philistine forces.

Meanwhile, Saul’s forces see the chaos erupting among their enemies and don’t know what caused it. Saul talks with Ahijah, the priest who was with them and wearing an ephod (this garment of the priests’ contained the Urim and Thummim which they used to discern God’s will). As I read through MacArthur’s notes, suddenly this verse stood out in vivid color:

Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said the priest, ‘withdraw your hand.’ (1 Sam. 14:19)

Apparently it was taking too long to inquire of the Lord – so Saul commanded the priest to stop. With his human eyes Saul sees this situation around him, and instead of seeing God’s obvious hand in giving their enemies over to His people, instead of trusting that God can save “by many or by few,” instead of fearing God enough to ask Him for direction… he uses his common sense and decides that they must act now.

In verse 36, the situation is described clearly:

Then Saul said, ‘Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light; let us not leave a man of them.’ And they said, ‘Do whatever seems good to you.’ But the priest said, ‘Let us draw near to God here.’

Saul is problem solving, depending on his own wisdom. The people are depending on Saul’s wisdom. This one lone priest seems to be the only one who is urging the people to ask God for HIS wisdom.

This account is convicting to me on so many levels.

• How often does God give us direction for what He wants us to do, and then I want to take off blindly, rushing after what I think God has called us to, relying on my own intellect and human wisdom because inquiring of God and waiting for His clear direction seems too time consuming?
• How often do I look around me with human eyes, see dire circumstances, and panic, crumble, want to run away and hide rather than listen for God’s direction and stand courageously against all odds – knowing that my God can save “by many or by few”?
• How often do I “fake” faith? How often do I offer God a token prayer, a nod of acknowledgment, and then plunge ahead with my own plans? How often do I turn opportunities for real worship and trust into shallow and empty religious ceremony because I refuse to be still and wait for God’s timing?
• How often do I rely on my own common sense rather than acting in faith?

I don’t want to be known for my common sense. I want to be known as the crazy one who throws myself into God with reckless abandon – one who lives by faith and not by sight.

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” -Hebrews 11:6

There’s been a lot of uproar lately about President Barack Obama. My own political opinions aside, I am deeply concerned about the way believers are handling their political differences. My friends, we must Fear God and honor the King. This is where belief in God’s sovereignty gets real – consider carefully how we speak and act. “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.” [This was originally published on January 20, 2009.]

Last week we started our study of 1st and 2nd Samuel with a look at Hannah and then at Hannah’s prayer, which provides the framework for the rest of the books.

Today, in light of the inauguration, it seemed appropriate to pause on that and discuss the “if, then…” applications of all of this.

True understanding of the sovereignty of God over rulers, as discussed in our look at Hannah’s prayer, raises the topic of the “S” word – Submission. (In God’s timing, we discussed the discipline of submission in our ABF on Sunday!) Submission seems to be an uncomfortable word across the board – I remember vividly teaching a section on submission when I was a high school Bible teacher, watching the older students squirm in their seats as I asked them about submission to things like speed limits or school rules that they disagreed with. I daily watch my young daughter wrestle with the inherent rebellion in her soul – at almost three years old she hates to submit. Throw out the word submission in any women’s Bible study and you get eyes cast down at their shoes, looks of angst, internal tension. Add to our innate hatred of submission as human beings the ingrained understanding of the right of independence as Americans, that “conquer the world” mentality, and the pop culture ideal that all authority is meant to be mocked, and what we’ve got is a big mess.

It seems appropriate to spend some time looking at Romans 13:1-2.

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”

Submission, no doubt, is much harder when you disagree with your authorities. Any child, wife, employee, etc. clearly understands that. I do not agree with Barack Obama. I did not vote for him, I do not like his political views. Nevertheless, I have been clearly commanded in Scripture to submit to his authority and give him the respect he is due as the president of our country. On what grounds? He has been put in that position by God Himself. If God is truly sovereign, if God is my ultimate King, and He has placed this human being in power over me… rebellion against this human leader is rebellion against God. Period. [Obviously there's always the caveat of "unless you're commanded to do something directly against the Word of God... I'm assuming we all understand that.]

1 Peter 2:12-17 further elaborates on this issue:

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

It’s interesting to me that Peter’s argument for submission to authorities revolves around the public testimony of the believers and the glory of God. Although I agree that as citizens of the United States of America Christians have the privilege and responsibility to engage in the political arena, I fear that in many ways our well-intentioned efforts to fight for the good have turned into fights against people. Whether real or simply perceived, Christians are seen as arrogant, ignorant, prejudiced, partisan, hateful… the list could go on. How does Peter instruct these believers to “silence the ignorant talk of foolish men”? By doing good. By submission to authorities. By showing proper respect for everyone.

So, let’s get practical. What does it mean to fear God and honor the king? I’m sure you could add volumes to this, but this is just a teaser to get our thoughts going. Showing honor is more than obedience. Showing honor to Barack Obama is more than me paying my taxes and living as a law-abiding citizen. (although, it certainly does mean that.) Honor for someone comes out in my attitudes and in my words. Am I honoring the president of our country if I slander him, repeat fallacious statements, or seek to incite others against him personally? Clearly, no. This is not unfounded reverence for him or blind acceptance of what he does. I can disagree strongly and still honor him in the way I discuss the way my views vary with his. However, a true fear of God and understanding of His sovereignty necessitates that I respect the leaders placed over me in my life.

Truthfully, this is much more convicting on a local level for me. There are leaders in my daily life that I strongly, hotly disagree with. I may feel at times that I am being treated unjustly. As I interact in these situations and even seek to address these deep issues, it must, MUST be done in a respectful way. For if God is sovereign, it is no accident that they are over me.

So, whatever your feelings were as you watched or listened to the inauguration today, remember this: We serve a sovereign God who sets kings up and takes them down, and nothing is out of His control. Barack Obama is officially our president, and it’s time to live out our faith in authenticity before those with whom we disagree.

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4

*Picture from wikipedia.org