I put together the pictures and links for the daily blog the night before I begin reading the passage and writing. When I did that for today’s passage, the first thing I saw was the opening sentence in Samuel. “Whatever Saul asked David to do, David did it successfully.” This challenged me. I have been feeling out of sorts over some decisions that my boss has made lately. This challenged me to do my job to the best of my ability, even though my boss has brought in an outside vendor to do the things that I do best. I will strive to serve the Lord by doing the remaining aspects of my job to the best of my ability. I will trust God that if I serve Him to the best of my ability in the place He has put me, He will either bring me renewed joy from it, or move me to a place where I will find joy from my work.
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.
Today’s passage starts out by telling us that whatever mission Saul sent David on, he was successful. As a result, Saul promoted him to a high rank in the army. When the women of various towns came out to cheer King Saul and his troops, they sang that Saul had killed his thousands and that David had killed his ten thousands. This made Saul jealous and angry. I believe that part of Saul’s jealousy and anger toward David grew out of the way he governed. Saul chose his actions in order to consolidate his power. David’s success and praise by the common people was perceived by Saul as a threat to his power.
At some point while David was playing the harp to soothe Saul’s angry spirit (we learned in yesterday’s passage that Saul would lose control of his temper from time to time for no apparent reason), Saul attempted to kill him, but David evaded the attempt. This happened twice and Saul began to fear David. Saul sent David away and appointed him commander over 1,000 men. David was even more successful in his battles now and Saul began to fear that David would take his throne.
Saul at some point decided that the best way to deal with David was to make him his son-in-law. So, Saul offered David the opportunity to marry his eldest daughter. David responded that he is not worthy to be Saul’s son-in-law and Saul gave his eldest daughter in marriage to someone else. However, Saul’s daughter Michal fell in love with David and Saul once more attempted to make David his son-in-law. This time Saul had some of his attendants work on David to convince him that he should become Saul’s son-in-law. At first David was still reticent to become Saul’s son-in-law, but Saul, through his attendants, convinced David that it was worth it. The only condition was that David needed to provide Saul with the foreskins of 100 Philistines. Saul hoped that David would get killed acquiring them. David led his men out and killed 200 Philistines and brought their foreskins to Saul (which was not politic, as it was a sort of bragging, “You thought getting 100 was difficult? Look I got 200.” So, David married Saul’s daughter Michal.
David continued to be more successful than all of Saul’s other commanders and the love of the people for David grew. Saul began to plot to kill David. At one point, Saul’s son Jonathan learned of Saul’s plots against David. Jonathan had become a good friend of David (from what little we know of Jonathan, the two appeared to be kindred spirits. I think that both Jonathan and David were the type of people I call adrenaline junkies. They appeared to both get a thrill out of dangerous endeavors and were both physically gifted enough to easily do things that would have gotten other men killed). So, when Jonathan learned of Saul’s plans to kill David he went to Saul and lobbied on David’s behalf. Saul promised Jonathan that he would not order David’s death. However, another war broke out and once more David was overwhelmingly successful and Saul resumed his attempts to have David killed. When David escaped his assassination attempts, Saul sent part of his army after David, and when that failed he led a force himself.
Jesus told those who had believed in Him that those who followed His teachings would know the truth and the truth would set them free. They responded that they were Abraham’s descendants and had never been a slave to anyone. Jesus expressed that He was aware they were the descendants of Abraham. Nevertheless some of them were trying to kill Him. Jesus continued the exchange calling those He was debating the children of the Devil.
I was working on summarizing the passage, but I realized that as I wrote the summary I was moving away from the meaning that the passage conveyed to me when I first read it. As I read this passage two phrases that Jesus used jumped out at me. Since these are phrases that are often talked about by Christians, that is no surprise. The first was (from the NIV): “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The second (also from the NIV) was: “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says.” There is some real meaning between these two statements. If we belong to God, we will hear and listen to what He says. And if we are Jesus’ disciples we will do as He taught. What Jesus taught and what we hear God say are in harmony, which allows us to judge our understanding of both. By paying attention to these messages we will learn to recognize the truth when we hear it, which will free us from slavery to sin and to those who lie to get their way.
Yes, praise the Lord.
and delight in obeying his commands.
This fits right in with the what I said the other day about the fear of the Lord. We fear the Lord because we know that if we do not do as He instructs, the results will be unpleasant. The results will not be unpleasant because God actively makes them so (although He may do that as well). They will be unpleasant in the same way that I know that if I jump into a roaring fire I will be burned. On the other hand we delight in doing His will because we know that the results will be something we like. Again, not because God actively gives us something we like (although He may do that as well), but because the inherent results of doing God’s will are something we will like, in the same way that I know that I will enjoy it when I eat ice cream (well not pistachio, I don’t really like pistachio ice cream).
Those who are constantly mocking others don’t really desire to know what it is they are mocking. It is much easier to mock something as stupid if you only know a small part about it. On the other hand, the wise are always seeking to know more. The fool is satisfied with misinformation.