Who's the Hero?

Passage: 1 Samuel 17

Last year Malcom Gladwell published the book David and Goliath.  He used the familiar Bible story as the backdrop for his discussion of “Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”.  Gladwell pitches David as the classic underdog.  And argues that a collision of circumstances – including David’s confidence and Goliath being less formidable than he seemed – led to the shepherd boy’s victory over tremendous adversity.

The problem is that this is not the story the Bible tells.  The stakes in the battle with Goliath are not David’s honor or even the honor of his people.  What’s at stake is the honor and reputation of the one true God.  In fact this is what’s at stake in every chapter of the biblical narrative.  The story of the Bible is God’s story.  The story of the God who created and rules the universe.  Who knows and owns every human life.  And whose goal is both to make himself known to humanity and to restore humanity to right relationship with God and the rest of Creation.

The showdown between the Philistines and the Israelites is a showdown between their gods.  In the ancient world this is always the case.  When the Israelites make the battle about themselves and their objectives, they always lose.  When they enter battle in the name of the LORD – Yahweh, the one true God – it doesn’t matter if they’re armed with sticks and stones.  They win.  They win because they are acting as God’s agents.  They win because they serve God’s objectives: to reveal God’s presence and God’s power to an unbelieving world.

In case we’re tempted to think otherwise, look at what David says as he walks onto the battlefield:

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

The battle is always the Lord's.  The Lord is always the hero of the story.  If you insist on being the hero of your own story, you will lose – even when you think you’ve won.  If, on the other hand, you let God be the hero, you can’t lose.  Every battle belongs to him. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

Passage: 1 Samuel 8

One of the reasons people of faith obsess about God’s will is that we’re convinced God wants to give us nothing but happy and comfortable lives.  We assume that if we just figure out God’s will, everything will go according to what we consider “good”.  And that when things seem to go badly for us, it must be an indication that we have strayed from God’s will.  A close reading of the biblical narrative reveals that this is simply not the case.  God repeatedly permits or even actively delivers his people into circumstances that are difficult or even disastrous.  Ironically, God also sometimes gives his people exactly what they want as a way of teaching them a lesson. 

Take, for example, the Israelites’ demand for a king.  The life of God’s people has been haphazard and chaotic ever since they settled in the Promised Land.  They assume the chaos is due to an absence of unified government.  The simple solution?  Get a king.  Actually, their problem is something different – something God predicted right before they entered the Promised Land.  Deuteronomy 8 records God’s words:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

(Deuteronomy 8:10-14; 19-20)

God’s prediction comes true.  As soon as they have tasted the luxury of the Promised Land, God’s people forget God.  They become exactly like every other nation of godless pagans.  And when things unravel for them, they adopt exactly the same strategy as every other godless nation: They have kings?  We need a king, too.  The Israelites go to God’s prophet, Samuel, and demand a king.  Samuel, sensing his own failure as God’s representative, laments the request before God.  God says, “It isn’t you they’ve rejected; today they have rejected me as their king!”  Then God tells Samuel to give the people what they’ve asked for.  Samuel tells them,

“This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 

“He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 

“He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

God will give the Israelites the thing they want.  But in getting in, they will get far more than they want; and will miss what they really need: the presence and provision of almighty God, the one true King.

Like the Israelites, we run the risk of trading in the currency of God’s blessing for the currency of this world; and mistaking the stuff of this world as the stuff of God’s blessing.  The wealth and comfort and security of this world become a curse when we expect it to do what only God can.  To our detriment, God sometimes gives us exactly what we want.  But God in his mercy has also given us what we most need.  The truth is that we need a king, and receive that king in the person of Jesus Christ.  The true king has come to break the power of sin and death and hell and to set us free.  All we have to do is stop looking around for substitute sources of security.  And embrace the King on his terms.  When we do, we discover that the true King came not to take, but to give.  And that belonging to him means getting more than you dreamed possible.  

I Matter...to the Only One Who Matters

Passage: 1 Samuel 2:1-11

The story of Samuel’s birth is one of the most poignant sections of the Old Testament.  Hannah, Samuel’s mother, is one of two women married to Elkanah.  Elkanah’s other wife has born several children.  Hannah is childless.  Although Elkanah clearly loves Hannah more than his other wife, she feels abandoned and insignificant.  In desperation she cries out to the God that has seemed silent and far away:

LORD Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…(1 Samuel 1:11)

God answers Hannah’s prayer.  She gives birth, and spends a blissful year and a half raising her boy from infancy into toddlerhood.  But then it comes time to make good on her vow to God.  She brings tiny Samuel to the temple.  And leaves him.

And the heartache that must consume Hanna is in no way reflected in the song of praise that escapes her lips:

My heart rejoices in the LORD;
    in the Lord my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
    for I delight in your deliverance.

What deliverance; what delight when the child that should have made Hannah’s life complete has been taken from her? 

The deliverance is this: prior to giving birth, Hannah was convinced that she didn’t matter to God.  Her baby is incontrovertible proof that her God is with her; her God hears her prayers; and her God cherishes her.  Nothing – not even her baby – can replace that deepest longing of her heart.  Of every human heart.  So Hannah can do what every parent must eventually do anyway: entrust her child to the care of the Lord. 

In the end, every gift of God that we covet and long for and live for is just a placeholder.  Just a symbol of the thing we need most: the attention, care, and love of God.  The fundamental need with which we were all created is this: to know and be known by God.  To matter to God.  Even when our earthly desires are unmet and our flesh’s appetites are unsatisfied, we can know beyond the shadow of a doubt that we matter to God.  How?  Because God took on flesh and made his dwelling place among us.  He came to us in the person of Jesus – Yeshua, “the LORD saves”.  Jesus who is also called Christ – the Anointed One. 

Hannah concludes her song of praise with this:

The LORD will give strength to his king
    and exalt the horn of his anointed.

The irony is that in Hannah's lifetime Israel has no king.  1 Samuel follows on the heels of Judges and Ruth, whose steady refrain is, “At that time there was no king in Israel”.  So who is Hannah talking about?  The ultimate king, and deliverer of God’s people, Jesus Christ.  Because he has come, and delivered, we too can sing Hannah’s song of praise – no matter our circumstances.  

God the Leveler

Passage: Jeremiah 39

Jeremiah chronicles the days leading up to the exile of God’s people into Babylon.  Jeremiah the prophet is commissioned by God first to warn his people against continuing to flout his laws and turn their backs on God; second to state plainly the judgment that will befall them for ignoring the warnings.  God tells his people that the instrument of his judgment will be the Babylonian Empire under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar.  In fact, God goes so far as to call Nebuchadnezzar his servant:

 With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please. Now I will give all your countries into the hands of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; I will make even the wild animals subject to him.  All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson until the time for his land comes; then many nations and great kings will subjugate him. (Jeremiah 27:5-7)

The day finally comes that Nebuchadnezzar and his forces sack the city of Jerusalem and take its people captive.  And the story of the exile contains a very interesting detail:

But Nebuzaradan the commander of the [Babylonian] guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields. (Jeremiah 39:10)

One of the transgressions God repeatedly holds against his people is their failure to observe his law and take care of the poor; the displaced; the homeless and the marginalized.  When God commands his people to take care of the vulnerable and under-resourced, he adds that if they don’t take care of them, God will. 

And so God does.  God removes from his people the privilege of serving his purposes.  And gives that privilege to their enemies – the pagans whom God’s people have always condemned.  Here in a great reversal, God claims the Babylonian king as his servant, and passes his own people by in order to accomplish his purposes.  God once and for all wrests power and wealth from the hands of the powerful and wealthy.  And ensures that the poor whose cries have been ignored will receive the blessing he promised them, too. 

God offers us the privilege of serving his purposes.  Bringing the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to our neighbors and the nations.  Acting as agents of justice and shalom – leveraging our resources and influence on behalf of those who have none.  But God will not hesitate to bypass us in order to fulfill his purposes.  And God will level out the inequalities that plague humanity – whether we participate or not.  God is in the business of reconciling the world to himself.  And God is in the business of renewing creation.  What a tragedy to pass up the opportunity to join God in this great work.  Be claimed as God’s child through Jesus Christ.  Having been claimed, claim your role as his servant.  Embrace God’s work of leveling and making right.  

Go Buy a Field

Passage: Jeremiah 32

The Book of Jeremiah is full of dire warning and divine condemnation.  Through his beleaguered  prophet, God tells his people repeatedly that their idolatry and infidelity have reached a critical point.  God has insulated them from the consequences of their wild abandon as long as divinely possible; and now they will be abandoned to their inevitable downfall.  God’s people will fall into the hands of his instrument of cosmic judgment: the marauding Babylonians.

And yet, sprinkled throughout this narrative of impending doom are kernels of hope.  Jeremiah, whose prophecy comes to expression both in words and symbolic actions, buys a field.  Why?  Why, after declaring that the Babylonian scythe is poised to raze the Promised Land to stubble does Jeremiah lay claim to prime wasteland? 

Because it won’t always be wasteland.  The God who burns also plants.  The God who lays waste also renews.  Where human eyes see only irreversible devastation, the eyes of the Lord see new life.  The Lord tells his prophet,

Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’  (Jeremiah 32:14-15)

How often do we find ourselves confronted with the devastation of our short-sighted and self-serving behavior?  A failed marriage; a failed business; kids who won’t talk to us; friends who will no longer acknowledge us; a neighborhood blighted by our neglect; a city torn by our prejudice?  We survey the devastation, pull up stakes, and move on.  Because our efforts can only ever land us here – failure; brokenness; wasteland.  Could it be that what landed us here was a failure to trust in God right from the beginning?  And could it be that the God we ignored in the beginning is still right here – inviting us to turn to him; inviting us to trust him; inviting us to follow his way instead of ours?  Stop trusting strategies that have only yielded disappointment.  Start trusting the one true God – the only one who can turn wasteland into fertile ground.  

God's Will and God's Purpose

Passage: Judges 14:1-4; Acts 16:6-10

People of faith devote endless time and energy to what we call “discerning God’s will”.  At best this means seeking to faithfully invest ourselves in God’s Kingdom in the most faithful way possible.  At worst it means trying to get God to show us the quickest and easiest way to get what we want.  It’s easy to place undue emphasis on “discerning God’s will”. 

Because what we discover, as we study the Scriptures systematically, is that God works his will whether we’re on board or not.  When we’re not on board with God’s will, our lives don’t go that well.  And yet even when we faithfully shape our lives according to God’s express will for us, things don’t always go that well for us personally. 

We find this illustrated in the lives of two characters from the Bible. The first is Samson, whom God calls and equips to rescue his people from their enemies.  In spite of his miraculous calling and extraordinary strength, Samson doesn’t live a particularly godly life.  Ironically, God uses Samson’s flaws and fleshly appetites to accomplish God’s will.  For example, Samson finds a prospective mate among the pagan Philistines – a direct violation of God’s stated law.  He insists, even though his parents object.  Listen to what the narrator says:

His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

This violation of God’s law actually serves God’s purpose.  However, in the process, Samson’s own life gets pretty messed up, and he suffers tremendous heartache.  Samson’s story ends when he does the one thing God forbade him to do; his great strength is taken away; and he falls into enemy hands.  However, even here, in captivity, Samson strikes a greater blow against the enemies of God’s people than he did when he was free.  God uses Samson’s disobedience for his purposes.  But the collateral damage is Samson’s own life. 

Then we turn to Paul.  He starts his life as Saul, a man utterly opposed to Jesus Christ.  When Jesus comes to Saul and changes his heart, he states, “Saul is my chosen instrument; he will see how much he will suffer on my behalf.”  Paul devotes his life to serving God’s purposes in Jesus.  Paul constantly follows the impulses of God’s Holy Spirit.  This translates into countless adventures; countless changes of plan; and countless hardships.  If Paul were to treat his struggles as evidence that he had strayed from God’s will, he would have given up long before God’s purposes were complete in him.  Ironically, Paul’s life ends in a way similar to that of Samson.  He dies at the hands of the enemies of God’s people. 

So what’s the difference?  Why make an effort to live according to God’s stated will and God’s rules at all?  After all, God will have his way whether we obey or not.

The difference is the state of our hearts.  Samson ends his life in despair.  He kills himself while taking thousands of God’s enemies with him.  But he dies with a deeply held sense of failure and alienation from God.  Paul on the other hand dies with praise on his lips, knowing that no matter what, he is in perfect union with Jesus, his Savior and his God.  Listen to what he writes from a prison cell:

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. (Philippians 1:18-23)

God will have his way with you.  And your life will serve his purposes, whether you shape your life according to God’s rules and principles or not.  You life may seem to go smoothly at times or not so smoothly – regardless of how faithfully you follow God’s way.  Your circumstances are not a reliable indication of whether or not you are following God's will.  What we really hope for is the assurance that God is with you; you are on God’s side; and God is using all the circumstances of your life for his good purposes.  How do you find that assurance?  By shaping your life around God's explicit will, clearly expressed in his written word, the Bible.