Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 3 Listen: (6:35) Read: Revelation 13 Listen: (3:20)

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 3.9-10, 17-21

9 May God deal with Abner, be it ever so severely, if I do not do for David what the Lord promised him on oath 10 and transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish David’s throne over Israel and Judah from Dan to Beersheba.

17 Abner conferred with the elders of Israel and said, “For some time you have wanted to make David your king. 18 Now do it! For the Lord promised David, ‘By my servant David I will rescue my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies.’ ” 19 Abner also spoke to the Benjamites in person. Then he went to Hebron to tell David everything that Israel and the whole tribe of Benjamin wanted to do. 20 When Abner, who had twenty men with him, came to David at Hebron, David prepared a feast for him and his men. 21 Then Abner said to David, “Let me go at once and assemble all Israel for my lord the king, so that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may rule over all that your heart desires.” So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.

Reflection: Beware Opportunistic Power Brokers

By John Tillman

When Abner slept with Rizpah, one of Saul’s former concubines, it justifiably raised eyebrows.

Sleeping with a king’s concubines, as demonstrated during Absalom’s coup against David, was ethically and politically offensive. It insulted the king’s memory and implied taking the king’s place. Abner’s relationship with Rizpah may or may not have been consensual and may or may not have been a political move. Abner could have been attempting to have an heir, through Rizpah, to replace Ish-Bosheth.

Given this, Ish-Bosheth was not overreacting to question Abner’s intentions. When challenged, Abner reacted angrily. He claimed loyalty to “Saul’s house” but then immediately pledged to betray that loyalty.

Threatening Ish-Bosheth to his face, Abner revealed that he knew about Samuel’s prophecy that God would give the kingdom to David. (1 Samuel 15.28) Abner may have been standing there when Samuel said it, or Saul may have told him. Nevertheless, he knew Samuel’s words. This means that Abner knew David was God’s rightful king, yet threw his political acumen and influence behind Ish-Bosheth and spilled blood to challenge David’s position.

Abner left Ish-Bosheth and went from resisting God’s will to working to bring it about. However, this wasn’t a “Damascus road” experience similar to Paul’s conversion in the New Testament. Abner didn’t see God as Paul saw Jesus. He just got caught in an embarrassing scandal and sought political cover with his enemies. Abner wasn’t converted to faithfulness to God. Abner was an opportunist and a power broker. He was just being faithful to himself and nursing a grievance.

Many, like Abner, attempt to align themselves with God’s kingdom for the sake of their own grievances, whether personal or political. We live in a cultural civil war that we pray will not become an actual civil war. Recent political tides pushed culture war issues to the top of everyone’s social media timelines, news broadcasts, and article headlines.

Grievances abound. Some culture warriors (both conservative and liberal) have sought out the church to defend their politics. Let us be cautious not to mistake those seeking Jesus’ support for their politics for those submitting their lives to his rule and reign. However, even opportunistic power brokers can be converted. Just ask Paul. (Philippians 3.4-7)

Let us check our own motives and confess our own grievances and grudges. Let us welcome all who come, regardless of motivations, and seek to convert all seekers of truth to join Christ’s kingdom.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: If I were to seek my own glory, my glory would be worth nothing; in fact, my glory is conferred by the Father by the one of whom you say, “He is our God,” although you do not know him. But I know him, and if I were to say, “I do not know him,” I should be a liar…But I do know him and keep his word. — John 8.54.56

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

Read more: Our Opportunistic Opponent

Resist Satan and he will flee. But just as when Satan left Jesus in the wilderness, he is only waiting for an opportune time to return.

Our Opportunistic Opponent

Listen to: Dealing with Joab

As I look more clearly at Joab that I see that he didn’t reverence God. He reverenced David.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 2 Listen: (5:07) Read: Revelation 12 Listen: (2:58)

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 2.4-8

4 Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the tribe of Judah. When David was told that it was the men from Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul, 5 he sent messengers to them to say to them, “The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. 6 May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. 7 Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead, and the people of Judah have anointed me king over them.”

8 Meanwhile, Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-Bosheth son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. 9 He made him king over Gilead, Ashuri and Jezreel, and also over Ephraim, Benjamin and all Israel.

Reflection: Who’s The King?

By John Tillman

Who’s the king now?

Following the crushing military defeat that led to Saul and Jonathan’s deaths, many tribes must have been in disarray and at least partly under Philistine control. There was a leadership crisis.

One tribe, Benjamin, led by Abner, anointed Saul’s son, Ish-Bosheth, king. One tribe, Judah, led by Joab and other “sons of Zeruiah” anointed David king. Which was the rightful ruler?

Who anoints kings or brings them down? Scripture says God does, but it’s not that simple. Sometimes God acts directly for or against rulers, but usually God sovereignly allows humans (or uses them) to raise up and throw down kings.

Who are the “kings” we have anointed over us or our tribe? This could include governmental leaders, but think beyond political “kings.” Friends, co-workers, bosses, advisors, or family members can be our “kings.” We can set up ideologies, cultural norms, or desires as “kings” over us. Who have we raised up? Who should we throw down?

Humans often choose kings for sinful reasons of fear, pride, and vengeance. Fear demands protection, pride demands power, and vengeance demands the punishment of enemies. Even if we choose the “right” king, we can go wrong. For example, Joab served the rightful king with a sinful heart that brought betrayal, destruction, and death.

David was a better king than Saul and many other biblical kings. However, David ultimately was not the king God truly wanted. God’s anointing of David was not about David anymore than his promise to Eve was about Eve. God promised Eve a snake-crushing seed. God anointed Jesus as that snake-crusher through David. Jesus is the anointed one. David is just his flawed human forerunner.

God seems comfortable working through long lines of broken and tragic humans. We aren’t. We want pretty myths with quick answers and uncomplicated heroes or villains. This drives a tendency towards extremes. We either clean David up, pretending he was worthier than scripture testifies or call him a villain and ignore moments in which God’s heart shone through him. We do the same thing with human or other kings.

Every king is a mixed bag. We must tell the whole truth, good and bad, about them. We must root out any sinful motivations for our earthly allegiances. Whoever God raises up or casts down, we owe no king but Jesus unswerving loyalty.

Serve the rightful king in a righteous way.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Bless God in the congregation; bless the Lord, you that are of the fountain of Israel. — Psalm 68.26

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

Read more: Conflict’s Aftermath

Polarized. This word is the constant summary of our life lately. Every area seems to be weighted down in conflict.

Conflict’s Aftermath

Read more: Blocking the Way of Wickedness

We don’t always have a choice about working with or living among wicked people, but we can choose how we respond.

Blocking the Way of Wickedness

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  29-30 Listen: (6:33) Read: Revelation 9 Listen: (3:30)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  31 Listen: (2:03) Read: Revelation 10 Listen: (1:59)
Read: 2 Samuel 1 Listen: (3:54) Read: Revelation 11 Listen: (3:24)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 30.7-8, 18

7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?” “Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”

18 David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back.

Reflection: Redemption as Rescue

By John Tillman

Think about redemption for a moment… How would you explain it? Do you always explain it that way?

In recent podcasts and a video, The Bible Project explored redemption as a complex biblical theme. We use the word redemption so often that we can forget how multi-layered it is.

It’s okay to have a “go-to” redemption explanation, but sometimes we gravitate towards one explanation so exclusively that we forget the others exist. When we do this, we miss part of the wonder of God’s work of redemption just as surely as we miss part of God’s work of creation if we only describe beaches and never mountains, jungles, forests, rivers, deserts, or canyons. Therefore, it is good to remind ourselves that our “go-to” metaphors are not the only ones. Below are a few popular examples.

Redemption can be compared to a financial transaction, in which Christ takes on our debt of sin and grants us his wealth of righteousness. Redemption can be compared to a legal case in which we are judged guilty, yet Christ enters (and defeats) death’s dungeon in our place. Redemption can be compared to liberation, in which we are enslaved under an unjust government or ruler, and, like Moses, Christ sets us free. Another important metaphor for redemption is “rescue.”

1 Samuel 30 gives an excellent example of redemption as rescue. In all forms of redemption, something is transferred from the (often wrongful) possession of one party to the (rightful or preferred) possession of another. One party represents sin and death, and the other life and the family or kingdom of God. David’s family and possessions were wrongfully taken by the Amalekites and destined for slavery and death. God told David he would “succeed in the rescue.”

Redemption as rescue does not focus on the people being saved, but on God’s ability and right to take us back and on those who partner with God in this work. There is no bargaining. There is no payment. There is no sacrifice. God just snatches us out of the snare, out of death, out of sin. And no force can stop him.

The rescue metaphor is particularly useful to spur us to prayer and action. Ask God to rescue the lost. Then, put your faith into action and go get them. God alone rescues, but we respond and participate. We pray that you “succeed in the rescue!” (1 Samuel 30.18)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church

O God, come to my assistance! O Lord, make haste to help me!

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

Read more: Stories of the Redeemed

We are redeemed by a God who turns situations around. God turns rivers into deserts and deserts into flowing streams.

Stories of the Redeemed

Read more: Unobligated God

Thank God that he pays debts that he does not owe. He is a God who gives when he has no obligation.

Unobligated God

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