Tag: 1 Samuel

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.

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.

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

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  27 Listen: (1:59) Read:  Revelation 7 Listen: (2:56)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 27:12

12 Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”

Reflection: David—He’s Obnoxious

By Erin Newton

Obnoxious—not a term you typically hear of David, who was a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam 13:14).

The backstory to David’s defection to the Philistines is Saul’s envious pursuit of him. He fled to Philistine territory to escape danger. While there, he had to gain the trust of Achish (by vowing to be his servant) and go to war against his own people in Judah.

He found a precarious balance by attacking cities that were deemed enemies of Judah (leaving no one alive) but lied to Achish that he had attacked Judean cities. Shockingly, the ruse worked. Achish trusted David while David remained safe from Saul.

The chapter repeats: “He did not leave a man or woman alive.” While typical of warfare in the Bible, the phrase could be hyperbole or narrative flourish. However, the motive for David was that he feared his ruse would be uncovered. “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did’” (v. 11).  

Koowon Kim (Asia Bible Commentary: 1 Samuel) notes the glaring ethical problem with this narrative: “As Christians, how can we justify what David did to the people in enemy cities, especially innocent civilians?”

In short, we can’t. David is not an ideal leader here. He did not inquire of God. He failed to trust God’s promise. He reacted rashly and to the detriment of his morality. Kim sees this behavior as a step into a dark, “vicious cycle of sin.” To save his life by his own means, not through God, he became a perpetual liar and rampant murderer.

Kim is right by saying, “This episode is humiliating for both Christians and Jews who look up to David as the paragon of messiah. So they either do not talk about it … or they rationalize it.”

But David remains, in many Christian spheres today, the role model for leaders (or even manliness). Furthermore, we face similar dilemmas as we watch contemporary Christian leaders fall into these vicious cycles of sin. They lie. They cheat. They steal. They harm. They hurt. What are we to do? Do we ignore it or rationalize it?

Better yet, we should name sin for what it is. Call it out. David was wrong. This is inexcusable. Somehow, in God’s strange working, sinners are still used in God’s plan—a fact that does not deny the reality of one’s sinful behavior.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Splendor and honor and kingly power are your by right, O Lord our God,

For you created everything that is, and by your will they were created and have their being — A Song to the Lamb

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

Read more: The Best We Can Do

May we never be enslaved to decisions of political practicality…compromise our souls to maintain convenient alliances.

Read more: Christ, the True Hero

We cannot live up to oaths such as Psalm 101. Neither could David. David would eventually bring corruption, rape, murder, and the ravages of civil war to the city which in this Psalm he pledges to protect.

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.

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.