Tag Archives: 1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

May 16, 2015 Bible Study — The Truth Will Set You Free

For today, One Year Bible Online links here. Why, yes, I do like cats. Why do you ask?

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Proverbs 15:12-14

    Those who mock others resent it when you point out that their mockery is unjustified, especially when you show them how they are the ones being stupid or foolish. You will notice that those who most enjoy mocking others avoid those who could/would teach them to understand those with a different view of the world from themselves.
    When I read the third of today’s proverbs it reminded me of the entertainment choices people make. Some people choose to spend their leisure time learning and gathering knowledge, others spend their leisure with things that distract them from thinking about anything. There is nothing wrong with limited amounts of the latter, but the wise are hungry for knowledge and will fill up their leisure time acquiring it. The fool has no interest in knowledge and will avoid like the plague any leisure activity which requires thought, let alone the acquisition of knowledge. If they spend their leisure time involved in anything which involves the acquisition of knowledge, it will be knowledge which is of no lasting value.

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Psalm 112:1-10

    Those who fear the Lord and take delight in in following His commands will be filled with joy. They are willing to lend money generously and are fair in all of their business dealings. As a result good comes their way and evil will fail its attempts to overcome them. Overall I love the message of this psalm, but struggle with writing a meditation on what it means to me.

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John 8:31-59

    This passage starts with one of Jesus’ most famous statements, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” That is a very true and important statement. However, the exchange which follows probably gives us more insight into living our lives. There is one thing which I have never heard anyone preach about when they talk about this exchange. Jesus was talking to those who believed in Him. Yet, despite this, their first reaction was to take offense at Jesus telling them that they would be set free.
    Jesus points out that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. He then points out that there are some in the crowd who want to kill Him. Rather than accept that those who were trying to kill Jesus were in the wrong, they took offense. I always find this passage difficult to digest, but not because the message is so hard. I get caught up in the dynamics of the conversation between Jesus and the people so that it distracts me from the message Jesus is preaching here. I actually run into that a lot when I read the Gospel of John.
    Those who love God and are born of God will hear and love the truth. Those who are born of Satan lie, murder and steal. Or, to put it another way, truth and love are characteristics which come from God. Lies and deception come from the devil. The more we are truthful in what we say, and treat those we meet with love, the closer we are to God. The closer we are to God, the more we will be truthful and treat those we meet with love. On the other hand, the more we use lies and deception the closer we are to the devil and the farther we are from God. The farther we are from God the more we use lies and deception.

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1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

    After his battle with Goliath David became one of Saul’s chief subordinates. Everything Saul asked him to do David did, and he did it well. David was so successful that the people began singing his praises. They began praising David as greater than Saul. Saul, rather than taking this as a compliment for his good judgment in selecting David, became jealous of David. David continued to be a faithful servant to Saul and to put all of his efforts into serving Saul’s interests. Saul felt threatened by David’s success and his reactions to that perceived threat made it more real. Despite Saul’s actions, David did nothing against Saul’s interests, except act to preserve his own life. One of the reasons Saul lost his throne was because he acted to diminish the power of any subordinate who was too successful.

May 16, 2014 Bible Study — The Truth Will Set You Free

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

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Proverbs 15:12-14

    Those who mock others avoid interaction with those who are wise enough to get their facts straight because they do not want to be corrected when they are wrong. This demonstrates their foolishness because the wise are always seeking knowledge, even when it proves that their past judgements were wrong.

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Psalm 112:1-10

    Those who fear the Lord and take delight in doing as He instructs will be blessed. Those who fear the Lord and do as he commands need fear nothing. They can confidently trust God to care for them and provide for their needs. Their success will infuriate the wicked, who will be able to do nothing to thwart them.

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John 8:31-59

    There are two complimentary points in this passage. The first is that if we are faithful to Jesus’ teachings we will know the truth and the truth will free us. Of course, it is not just knowing the truth which frees us, but telling and living it as well. As we allow the truth to take over and fill our lives we are freed from the need to remember the lies we have told and fit everything into those lies to avoid being caught out. When we tell and live the truth we are making ourselves children of God and building up our strength to live free and righteous lives.
    On the other hand, every time we tell a lie, we make ourselves children of the devil and tie ourselves into slavery to him. Those who lie frequently come to hate the truth because it reveals who they are. Lying is a sort of gateway sin which leads to all others. When we lie we begin to believe that we can reshape the world into what we want it to be. As time goes by and the world fails to conform to our lies, we commit ever greater sins until we find even murder acceptable to support the lies which we have told. Once we have begun down that path the only way to be freed is to dedicate ourselves to the truth. Let us dedicate ourselves to the faithfully following Jesus’ teachings so that we may learn, speak, and live the truth. When we do that the truth will free us from slavery to sin.

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1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

    Saul set David to many tasks and sent him on various missions. David was successful at all of them and became a hero in the eyes of the people. Once more Saul’s insecurity was revealed. Rather than rejoice in David’s successes and see them as reflecting well on him as David’s mentor, Saul became jealous of David. He feared that the people would make David king in his place. Saul’s insecurity made him a king of uncertain temper. One day, in his anger Saul attempted to kill David. David avoided the attempt and when Saul’s temper faded he sent David out as a commander of troops. David gained even more fame as his troops successfully won battles. Saul allowed his insecurity to overcome him. Rather than see David as an asset to his rule, he saw him as a threat to be eliminated. Let us not follow Saul’s path of insecurity. Rather let us follow the path laid out in today’s psalm. Let us fear the Lord and live with the confidence and trust in Him that comes from obeying His commands.

May 16, 2013 Bible Study — You Will Know the Truth and the Truth Will Set You Free

     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.

Rose bush against a wall
Rose bush against a wall

1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

     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.

Beautiful tree
Beautiful tree

John 8:31-59

     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.

Hyacinths amid mint
Hyacinths amid mint

Psalm 112:1-10

     Yes, praise the Lord.

How joyful are those who fear 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).

Tulips, narcissus and hyacinths
Tulips, narcissus and hyacinths

Proverbs 15:12-14

     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.

May 16, 2012 Bible Study

     I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

1 Samuel 18:5-19:24

     Today’s passage tells us of King Saul’s growing jealousy, fear and hatred of David. King Saul has been tapped into playing the public relations game since he became king, and everything he has done wrong has come from that. He offered the sacrifices in Samuel’s place when Samuel was late in arriving because he was afraid if he waited any longer all of his men would desert him. He kept alive some of the Amalekites’ livestock in order to throw a big bash of sacrifices because that was what the people wanted and he was afraid to go against them (at least that is what he told Samuel, I wonder if his plan wasn’t to set himself up as a priest-king as many of the other rulers in that area had done), even though God’s command had been to kill everything. And now, he hears the people saying that Saul has killed many of the enemy, but David has killed even more. The next day, Saul has one of his fits and attempts to kill David while David is playing his harp in an effort to calm Saul. After this Saul sends David out to be one of his army commanders. David has even more success and Saul’s jealousy grows.
     King Saul next tries to pump David’s ego up and get him to take excessive risks in battle by offering David his eldest daughter in marriage. All David has to do is prove himself in battle even more than he already has. The Bible does not tell us exactly what Saul asked David to accomplish in battle, perhaps it was just open-ended enough that Saul could keep upping the ante, either way it was suicidal to attempt, since the Bible does tell us that Saul intended for David to be killed by the Philistines, and David recognizes this. David does not outright refuse to do it. Instead, he says that he is unworthy to be the king’s son-in-law. King Saul tries to play upon David’s ego, but David shows that he has a realistic understanding of his abilities. King Saul then marries his daughter off to another man. In the meantime, Saul’s second daughter has fallen in love with David. King Saul sees this as another opportunity to get David killed by the Philistines, which suggests that the feeling was not entirely one-sided. This time King Saul sets David a specific task, which David exceeds.
     King Saul continues to escalate his attempts to have David killed until David has no choice but to flee for his life. In all of this, David continued to serve King Saul faithfully and to the best of his ability. He does not use this as an excuse to plot against Saul. He does not do less than his very best in serving King Saul as both a military commander and as a member of his court. It is only when King Saul orders some of his men to kill David that David flees from King Saul’s court. In all of this, David does his best to obey God and does not use Saul’s perfidy as an excuse to be dishonest or disloyal himself.

John 8:31-59

     This passage has always bothered me a little bit, because it seems like Jesus is antagonizing the crowd, escalating the confrontation with each exchange. However, this time and I read and re-read this passage, I realized that the confrontation starts with the crowd, not Jesus. Jesus starts by saying that if they want to follow Him, they need to be faithful to His teachings and that as a result they will know the truth and the truth will free them. The crowd responds by saying, “What are you talking about? We are descendants of Abraham and do not need to be freed from anything.” This is the key point of the whole passage. If we want to follow Jesus, we need to admit that we need Him and His salvation. Jesus goes on to explain that if we sin, we are slaves to sin and thus need to be freed from sin. In order to receive the salvation that Jesus is offering we must admit that we need it and our powerless on our own to free ourselves. Sin is an addiction, or addiction is a sin, but in either case, in order to be free of them, the first thing we must do is admit that they have power over us. Until we admit that sin has power over us, we will be unable to accept God’s ability to free us from it and we are completely unable to free ourselves from it. The best we can do on our own is to substitute one sin for another, it is only through submission to God that we can be freed from sin. That is, it is only through the power of God that we can stop committing acts of sin which bring harm to ourselves and those around us.
     I can illustrate this from my own life. Years ago I smoked marijuana and occasionally did other drugs. I was always very careful to avoid becoming physically addicted to any of these drugs and used them in extreme moderation. But marijuana was “safe” because it was not physically addictive, so I didn’t need to be so careful. Then my life changed and I started to feel God’s call to be more involved with the Church and serving God. But I felt that as long as I was smoking pot, which I knew was wrong, (if for no other reason than it was illegal), I would be a hypocrite to be more active. So I decided I would stop smoking pot. Only, it wasn’t that easy. I tried for a couple of years to quit, all the while the feeling that I should be more actively serving God grew, as did the feeling that I would be a hypocrite to do so while smoking pot. Then the Lord spoke to me, “You know what I want you to do. Do it! Leave the marijuana to Me.” So I did. I started attending a congregation where I couldn’t just come in for the service and slip out without talking to anyone. A congregation where people had known me my whole life and had expectations of me. I got involved with a couple of Christian Singles’ groups and talked about what i thought it meant to follow Christ. I stopped trying to quit smoking pot. Six months later, I realized it had been six months since I had smoked pot. It was really that easy. I didn’t stop hanging out with the friends that I smoked pot with. I just didn’t spend as much time with them because I was busy doing other things most of the time. I didn’t have to stop spending time with my friends that I smoked pot with because they smoked pot. I just spent less time with them because I was spending more time with people who were helping me grow in my faith. It wasn’t that hard to say, “No thanks, not tonight,” when they passed the pot around, when I only had to do it once in a while (since I was busy spending time with other people rather than with them) rather than 4 or 5 times a week. On the other hand, it was hard. I had to admit to my fellow Christians that I smoked pot, that I lacked the willpower to give it up. I had to admit that for as strongly as I felt about the importance of following God and doing His will, I was unable to stop doing something that I knew He didn’t want me to do. Then one day I realized that God had taken the power of that sin over me away.
     When I started writing that story, I wondered what I was doing. I write these blogs for me, so that I can work on my daily devotions and study God’s Word. I knew that story and what it means. Except that as I wrote it I started to realize that I had forgotten. Oh, I hadn’t forgotten the story. I had forgotten the point. Once again I find myself fighting a habitual sin and once again I am trying to defeat it by the strength of my willpower. That isn’t how it works. God says, “I have things I want you to do. Stop trying to overcome sin. Just do My will and I will take care of the rest.” Unfortunately, this time I am not as sure of what things God wants me to do as the last time, but I know a few things and I just need to start pulling that thread and I am sure that God will show me the rest. This blog was part of that. God has been calling me to do this for over a year and I never got to it. Now I don’t know how I started my day without it.

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Psalm 112:1-10

     This psalm has so much in it, I don’t know where to start to unpack it. I will start where the psalmist does. I will praise the Lord. He tells us that those who fear the Lord will be joyful and follow His commands with delight. If you are trying to follow God and you are not full of joy, you are doing it wrong. Then we need to be generous. We need to be fair in all of our business dealings. No squeezing every transaction for every penny, just fair. Confidently trust the Lord to care for us. I am sure there are many things this psalm has to say to us. But today it says to me that we should not allow the world around us to convince us that we have to “Look out for number One first.” That is not God’s way for us. God’s way for us is to look out for those in need. This does not mean that we delegate the task for caring for those in need to the government. It means that we look for those around us who have needs that we can fill and then we do our best to fill those needs.

Proverbs 15:12-14

     Two of these proverbs tell us how to recognize the wise. The second of the two is easier to talk about. It tells us how to tell if we are behaving wisely. “A wise person is hungry for knowledge…” What sort of stuff do we fill our leisure time with? What TV shows do we watch? What books do we read? What Internet sites do we visit? What do we do with our time? Do we seek out knowledge? Or are we like the fool? “…while the fool feeds on trash.” I think we all know the sorts of things that we can fill our leisure time that falls into that last category. Understand that what qualifies as trash is not the same for everyone, but if you can’t think of how it feeds you knowledge and/or you think of it as trash, maybe you shouldn’t be spending your time with it.
     The other one tells us how to tell if someone is a wise source. “Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise.” If someone is criticizing another or making fun of something, but they refuse to talk with those who support who or what they are criticizing, we can know that the criticism is poorly founded or all together unfounded. For that matter, we can use this to measure our own criticism of something or someone. Are we willing to talk about our criticism with those who are supportive of that person or practice? If the answer is No, then our criticism is probably something we should keep to ourselves even if it is, perhaps, not just plain wrong.