I want to say up front that today was a challenging day for me to complete this blog. I had a lot of things that I needed to get done and was not able to dedicate the amount of time to this as I believe today’s passages deserve. I am going to need to work on how I prioritize my day so as to give my writing on here the effort it deserves.
I have been using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study for almost a year. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I started writing this blog because the only way I can get myself to read the Bible everyday is to pretend that I am teaching someone about what it says to me. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.
Samuel delivered a message to Saul in which he told Saul that God wanted him to destroy the Amalekites. Samuel told Saul that he was to destroy all of the Amalekites and all of their livestock. In response to this command from God through Samuel Saul mustered the armies of Israel. Before beginning his attack on the Amalekites, Saul sent word to the Kenites living among them warning them to move away from the Amalekites. The passage tells us that the Kenites packed up and left. Saul then attacked the Amalekites and killed all of them, except that he took their king captive. In addition, rather than destroying all of their livestock, the Israelite army spared the best of the Amalekites livestock. They only destroyed those animals which were undesirable.
After Saul’s victory, Samuel received word from God that Saul had not obeyed the command that he had been given. Samuel went looking for Saul. When Samuel found Saul the first thing Saul said to Samuel was to claim to have followed the command from God that Samuel had given him. When Saul said that, Samuel said, “If that’s true, why do I hear the sounds of livestock?” Saul responded, “Oh, we only kept the best of the livestock in order to offer them as a sacrifice to God, but we destroyed all the rest.”
Samuel pointed out to Saul that at one time Saul was humble but God made him leader and king over Israel. Now Samuel asked Saul why he had failed to obey God’s command to completely destroy the Amalekites and their livestock. Rather than at that moment confessing his sin and begging for forgiveness, Saul claimed that he had followed God’s commands and his troops had only kept the best of the livestock in order to offer them as a sacrifice to God at Gilgal. Notice the deflection of blame; Saul said that he hadn’t done anything wrong and if it was wrong not to destroy the livestock it was his men who did it, not him. And they only did it in order to offer sacrifices to God.
Samuel rejected Saul’s defense of his actions and told Saul that God had rejected him as king. And at this point we begin to see Saul’s error more clearly. Only now when Samuel refused to accept Saul’s attempts to justify his actions does Saul admit that he had done wrong. But even now, he attempted to blame others for his own shortcomings, Saul claimed that he only did it because he was afraid of the men and gave in to them. Saul asked Samuel to forgive him and come back with him to the victory celebration. Samuel initially refused and began to leave. Saul grabbed Samuel and begged him to come back. Saul asked Samuel to honor him before the elders and people of Israel. In this passage we see summed up the error that Saul made throughout his reign. Throughout his reign, Saul first consideration was the politically expedient. Saul’s remorse was not because he had sinned, but because Samuel would no longer lend him his support. Saul judged actions on the basis of what would increase his hold on power, rather than on the basis of what was the right thing to do.
Today’s passage begins with the story of the woman caught in adultery. This story is not in the oldest manuscript copies of John that we have, which suggests that it was a later addition (although not necessarily). Nevertheless the story is to my eyes consistent with the rest of the book of John. In this story, when the religious leaders brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus for Him to pass judgment, Jesus does not ask, if they caught her in adultery, where is the man she was having adultery with? No, he points out their hypocrisy in an even more personal way. When they first ask Him whether He agrees with the Mosaic Law command that she be stoned, He does not answer. Jesus merely stooped down and wrote something in the dust. They kept demanding an answer, so finally Jesus told them, “Sure, go ahead, but the one of you who has not broken the Mosaic Law goes first.” Then He stooped down and wrote something else in the dust. We don’t know what Jesus wrote in the dust, but I imagine He was writing references to the Laws of Moses. One by one those who had come to accuse the woman (and to trap Jesus) slipped away. Jesus then turned to the woman, asked her where her accusers were and then told her that He would not accuse her either. But He did not give her a free pass, He told her to go and sin no more. This very definitely applies to each of us. Jesus tells us that He does not accuse us, but He also tells us to go and sin no more. Jesus calls us to repent of our sins and turn from them.
I was not going to touch on the next section. However, I felt the need to touch on Jesus’ statement, “I am the light of the world.” He tells us that if we follow Him, we will not be walking in the darkness, rather we will be working in the light. If you want to have a clear light on how to know right from wrong, follow Jesus.
This psalm is a clear Messianic prophecy. Everyone will acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. Those who refuse to accept His Lordship willingly will be subdued by the force of God’s glory.
Today’s proverbs warn us that God despises those who think they can do wrong and then later make restitution. If we wish to be righteous, we must seek after righteousness. We cannot excuse our bad behavior by saying, “Well, yes, I know that is wrong, but I give to the Church (or whatever other ‘good’ thing we think offsets our sin).”