Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  28 Listen: (4:04) Read:  Revelation 8 Listen: (2:15)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 28.5-7

5 When Saul saw the Philistine army, he was afraid; terror filled his heart. 6 He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets. 7 Saul then said to his attendants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.”

11 Then the woman asked, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” “Bring up Samuel,” he said. 12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, “Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!” 13 The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid. What do you see?” The woman said, “I see a ghostly figure coming up out of the earth.” 14 “What does he look like?” he asked. “An old man wearing a robe is coming up,” she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. 15 Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” “I am in great distress,” Saul said. “The Philistines are fighting against me, and God has departed from me. He no longer answers me, either by prophets or by dreams. So I have called on you to tell me what to do.” 16 Samuel said, “Why do you consult me, now that the Lord has departed from you and become your enemy? 17 The Lord has done what he predicted through me. The Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hands and given it to one of your neighbors—to David.

Reflection: Religious But Not Godly

By John Tillman

There are many interpretive theories about Endor’s medium and Samuel’s “spirit” who speaks to Saul.

Modern Westerners struggle to imagine that true witchcraft exists. We’d be more comfortable claiming the medium was a fraud and that this type of spiritual power is absent from our world.

However, accounts in the gospels and Acts show spirits operating in Christ’s day and afterward, working and speaking through humans. (Matthew 8:28-33; Mark 1.32-33; 9.38-39; 16.17; Luke 9.1; Acts 16.16-18; 19.13) We reasonably infer they did so in Saul’s day and continue in ours. Endor’s medium could have been a fraudster, but we are not let off easily by saying that her proffered services were impossible.

The more difficult question is the nature of the spirit. Did God allow Samuel’s true spirit to speak? Or did an evil spirit, perhaps the same one that tormented Saul, impersonate Samuel to torment him one last time? Whether Samuel or an evil spirit, either way, Saul’s fear once again drove him farther from God, deeper in sin, and closer to disaster.

The 20th-century atheistic prediction that religion (especially Christianity) would disappear as science advanced has proved false. Christianity is declining in the West but soaring elsewhere. And those leaving churches aren’t becoming atheists. They still seek spirituality. Many call themselves “spiritual but not religious.” The spiritualist obsessions of the 1920s (including Ouija, tarot, astrology, etc.) are roaring back in the 2020s.

Saul was a religious man, but not a godly one. He strictly enforced religious laws, putting to death those (like the medium) who violated God’s law. He worshiped fervently, enacting public sacrifices to give his troops religiously motivated morale boosts and “prophesying,” losing control of his body in worship before God. He invoked God’s name in rash, unwise vows and promises he soon broke.

Saul had plenty of religion. What he didn’t seem to have was faith. What he had most often was fear, jealousy, anger, or all three. Saul’s use of the medium showed that religion was just a tool for him. Religion was a means to what he wanted and a weapon against what he feared.

We must examine ourselves. Are we religious but not godly? Like Saul, are we enforcing God’s law, worshiping fervently, and using God’s name in vain with selfish fear? Are we in danger of treating Christ as Saul treated Samuel, calling him up to rubber-stamp our desires? Is God a means to what we want or the chief end of humanity?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Open my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. — Psalm 51.16

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Revealing Actions

There’s a truism that says, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Saul revealed who he was through his spear

Revealing Actions

Read The Bible With Us

Invite friends to join you in reading the Bible with us at a sustainable pace and immersive reflections.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  26 Listen: (4:30) Read: Revelation 6 Listen: (3:12)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 26.7-8

7 So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him. 8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.”

1 Samuel 25.29, 31

29 Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling….31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself…

Reflection: Abishai or Abigail?

By John Tillman

The incursion began at night. Using stealth, the heroes sneaked past guards, through the arrangement of tents and military equipment. They reached the highly guarded target. The moment to strike came…but the purpose of the mission was a surprise. It was not the assassination plot it first seemed. The leader had another purpose.

Incursions into enemy territory are high-risk military missions with defined and often violent goals such as destroying infrastructure or weapons, or capturing or assassinating key individuals. This is what Abishai expected when David asked him to sneak into Saul’s camp.

Saul lay unprotected. Saul’s spear stood, stuck in the ground near his head. The spear’s point was sharp and could have silently cut through Saul’s throat. Instead, David used the spear to make a point that cut Saul to the heart. Saul confessed his sin, called David “son,” and promised not to harm him.

Saul would break this promise, leading to an even closer encounter in which David would once again spare Saul’s life. (1 Samuel 24.4-12) However, David demonstrated something important—he valued the life of his enemy and avoided needless bloodshed. Where did he learn this?

David’s logic seems heavily influenced by Abigail’s masterfully worded speech in the previous chapter. Abigail convinced David not to exact revenge on her husband. Then Nabal died (by God’s hand), and Abigail became David’s wife. (1 Samuel 25.37) Abigail’s influence turned David from a man who would commit mass murder to avenge an insult (1 Samuel 25.21-22) into a man who would risk his own life to avoid needlessly shedding blood, even of his enemy.

Our world is just as (or even more) violent than David’s. Yet, in our day-to-day lives, most of us don’t live as close to violence as David did. We are privileged when our experiences of violence are in our entertainment choices and not in our homes, streets, or countries. However, we still think in violent metaphors and live among those with kill-or-be-killed ethics.

Examine your relationship to violence and the ethics of power. Whose mindset do we have? Abigail’s or Abishai’s? For Abishai, the opportunity to strike indicates God’s approval. For Abigail, refraining from violence is an act of faith and a mark of God’s approval.

How do we want leaders to act? What advice would we give? Pin enemies to the ground and destroy them? Or value their lives and appeal to their common humanity?

Listen to Abigail.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Look upon your covenant; the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence. — Psalm 74.19

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Our Deliverer — Guided Prayer

We can, in the day of our disaster, rely on God. Our success depends on God, not our own strength or the intervention of an ally.

Our Deliverer — Guided Prayer

Read more: Blocking the Way of Wickedness

May we be like Abigail, willing to risk our lives…standing in the way of those intent on harm and violence.

Blocking the Way of Wickedness

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  21-22 Listen: (6:35) Read: Revelation 2 Listen: (4:59)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  23 Listen: (4:18) Read: Revelation 3 Listen: (3:53)
Read: 1 Samuel 24 Listen: (3:36) Read: Revelation 4 Listen: (2:09)
Read: Samuel  25 Listen: (7:12) Read: Revelation 5 (Listen: 2:39)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 21.10-15

10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 But the servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Isn’t he the one they sing about in their dances: “ ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?” 12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?”

Reflection: The Enemy of My Enemy

By John Tillman

David, fleeing from Saul, went to the enemies of his enemy, seeking shelter and alliances.

David first fled to Achish, king of the Philistine city of Gath. Later Achish trusted David, (1 Samuel 27.12; 27.12; 29.6-9) but David’s first visit was a dangerous failure. Achish’s servants remembered David as the killer of Gath’s great hero, Goliath. Sensing their hostility, David acted the part of a madman until Achish sent him away.

David also sent his family to another of Israel’s historical enemies, Moab. David’s great-grandmother, Ruth, was from Moab, so he may have played on this family connection.

David’s world functioned through broken systems of tribalism reflected in two ancient truisms that we still deal with today. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” and “Me against my brother. My brother and I against my cousin. My cousin and I against the infidels.” David played into systems of tribalism to survive and, at times, we might be forced to do the same. When we do, we are, like David, enacting a kind of madness.

Tribalism claims to prioritize those we love more over those we love less. Some do try to dress tribalism up in Christian clothes. They claim that we must love first our family, then the church, then our tribe (by this some mean race), then our countrymen, then foreigners, etc. But this is the same brokenness no matter how you dress it. In reality, this Christianized tribalism is concentric circles of enemies who are a little bit less our enemy as they move towards the centermost circle, ourselves. Christians have vertical spiritual priorities of loving godly things above fleshly things, not horizontal priorities between fellow children of God who are equal at the foot of the cross.

Tribalism is a mold of the world we must not be conformed to. It isn’t an ideal we should pursue. Tribalism is the plural of selfishness. Tribalism is one of the barriers that Jesus, the son of David, came to dismantle.

If you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? (Matthew 5.46-48)
Which of these acted like a neighbor? (Luke 10.36-37)
Who is my brother, sister, mother? (Matthew 12.48-50)

Jesus’ teaching cuts across our concentric circles of “othering.” To follow Jesus, we love even our enemies and abandon the exclusivity of tribes for the inclusivity of the family of God.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. — Psalm 100.2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Responding to Political Violence

It seems more and more Christians are willing to whitewash politically motivated violence as necessary self-defense.

Responding to Political Violence

Read more: Betrayal and Failure

We’ve been betrayed by leaders, institutions, our faith communities, former heroes, and even friends or family.

Betrayal and Failure — Guided Prayer

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel 20 Listen: (6:42) Read: Revelation 1 Listen: (3:43)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 20.30-32

30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

32 “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” Jonathan asked his father. 33 But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.

Reflection: Revealing Actions

By John Tillman

When a spear is hurled at you, it clarifies your thoughts. Or ends them. For David and Jonathan, the hurled spear of Saul threatened their lives but revealed truth.

After dodging Saul’s spear multiple times, David fled. Eventually finding Jonathan, David accused Saul of plotting to kill him. Jonathan did not believe David’s accusation. (He previously convinced Saul to spare David.) David’s explanation to Jonathan is remarkably similar to the explanations many abuse survivors have given to their incredulous friends: “Of course, he doesn’t act that way when he’s with you. He’s hiding this from you.” Even though Jonathan doubted the conspiracy, he set out to test what David had said and took steps to protect his friend.

It is hard to believe people you love are wicked. We have trouble imagining it. We all know our family, friends, coworkers, and faith leaders are flawed and imperfect, but it is difficult to accept that they might be involved in truly awful things. When we hear accusations, we might react exactly as Jonathan did to David: “Never!” (1 Samuel 20.2) Like Jonathan, we might think we would have noticed if our well-loved leader or friend was guilty. But the truth is, it is easy for us to be blinded.

Jonathan, guided by love rather than fear, chose to put David’s accusation to a test. He must have been holding out hope that he would discover that nothing was wrong. Saul’s hurled spear made everything clear. Saul was exactly what David accused him of being. Jonathan was loyal to his father, a hero in his own right, and devoted to his father and family. But suddenly he was attacked and labeled as an enemy.

Have you ever experienced a sudden attack from an unexpected source? Have you ever asked the wrong question and had your head bitten off? Have you ever questioned a leader and been labeled a disloyal troublemaker?

There’s a truism that says, “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Saul revealed who he was through his spear that tried to take life. Jonathan revealed who he was with his arrows used to save life.

When difficult challenges, situations, or problems arise, whether for yourself or those you love, what you choose to do reveals who you are. Christian action should reveal the identity of Jesus. When you are pressed, will Jesus be revealed in your actions? Or something else?

Divine Hours Prayer: Psalm 69.1

Save me, O God, for the waters have risen up to my neck. — Psalm 69.1

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Facing Ugly Truths

May we respond with more wisdom, but may we always speak and act to bring justice to the vulnerable.

Facing Ugly Truths

Read more: Tribe Over Truth

I have stood in that precarious place, watching and waiting to see how people—people I trusted with my story—would respond.

Tribe Over Truth

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  18 Listen: (4:30) Read: 2 John Listen: (​​1:50)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 18.1, 12

1 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.

12 Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with David but had departed from Saul.

Reflection: Love Versus Fear

By John Tillman

The writer of Samuel consistently contrasts Jonathan and his father, Saul. One such contrast, greatly emphasized in 1 Samuel 18, is love versus fear.

Jonathan saw David’s success and loved him. Saul saw David’s success and feared him. Love made Jonathan generous. Fear made Saul jealous. Love made Jonathan loyal. Fear made Saul deceptive. Love made Jonathan understanding. Fear made Saul controlling.

Fear drove Saul to keep David close to watch him, and send him out on dangerous missions, hoping that he would fall in battle. (Later, David used this same method to kill Uriah, showing how far he fell from where he started.) Love drove Jonathan to dress David in his own royal attire and weapons and to support David even when it endangered his own life and future.

The person with the most to lose if David became king was not Saul. It was Jonathan. Yet, Jonathan’s reaction to David’s ascendant path is one of joy and Saul’s one of dread.

Perhaps Jonathan sensed that the kingship would not pass to him. After all, judgeships did not  pass to offspring. Even though Saul was called king instead of judge, and Saul and Samuel assumed dynastic succession, Jonathan may not have. In this way, gifting David his robes may have meant tacitly accepting David’s coming kingship.

We should seek and aspire to be Jonathans not Sauls. Saul-like, fearful leaders will try to infect you with their fear. Overcome fear with love. However, love is not just feel-good sappiness. Love is serious. Love doesn’t agree with everyone, approve of everything, or allow anything and everything people do or demand.

Fear shifts with the wind. Love has standards, rules, moral truths, and unshakeable faith and determination. Fear denies flaws and obscures truth. Love apologizes and risks confrontation. Fear blames others and resorts to brutality. Love takes responsibility and endures hardships willingly. Fear feigns brave ferocity. Love will not retreat from spears, torches, swords, or even a cross.

A better model than Jonathan for your fearless love is Jesus, who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but given up. He traded kingly sonship for lowly servitude, and surrendered cosmic authority passing through death and the grave for us. (Philippians 2.6-8)

We need to seek and be leaders who are driven by love and not by fear. Jesus loves us fearlessly. Return and share fearless love.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as I have power to lay it down, so I have power to take it up again; and this is the command I have received from my Father.” — John 10.17-18

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: A Sympathetic Villain Origin Story

Saul had everything he needed to be a great and heroic leader…However, this was a villain’s origin story.

A Sympathetic Villain Origin Story

Read more: The Godly Impatience of Jonathan

Even under a wicked king, his father, Jonathan was faithful, brave, and honorable…May we have a godly impatience like Jonathan.

The Godly Impatience of Jonathan