December 21, 2008

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

One of the things that I have been thinking about today is the way that the three kings worked into the story of Christmas.  They were obviously gentile kings, it is thought that they came from Persia, (modern day Iraq).  Why did God use gentiles to alert Herod that the new King was on scene?  Why did God use shepherds as the ones to welcome the King on earth when he was born?  Why didn't God use the religious system to accept the Messiah?  One of the clues to this is also rooted in the discussion of David and Saul below.  Men were so used to doing religion that they were not in a position to see when God was on the move.  It was a sad situation for the Jewish people at that time.  Tragic may be a better word because they were not able to accept or understand that the Messiah had been born.  God used grungy shepherds who were working with their flocks in the fields at night to welcome the Messiah.  He used Gentile wise men to announce to the religious people that the prophesied Messiah, King of the Jews had been born, and through them financed the first few years of the Messiah's life on earth.  The Jewish leaders were instrumental in assisting Herod in detemining if they were correct. In other words, they had a little fun with academic research. Herod tried to kill the Messiah.  Then it seems that the Messiah is forgotten.  The state of the religious people does not change because they don't seem to believe that the Messiah was there. 

Think about it like this, the people of God were comfortable in their lifestyles.  God had not worked in several hundred years outside of a predictable manner.  They learned how to do religion, not relationship with God.  Spiritually the people were sound asleep.  David and Saul abandoned God, they were sound asleep spiritually.  I would say that for the most part, the church of God is fast asleep today.  The question that lingers in my mind is if the church has become so sleepy that it is missing the Christ for the sake of the rituals that are built into religious worship.  It's worth thinking about.  I heard on the radio today people discussing science and the way that God is revealing His creative hand through it.  Unbelievers are beginning to consider the idea of a creator from the evidence in science, this is beginning to sound like the wise men testifying to the Jews that the Messiah was born. 

1 Samuel 31 (NASB95)
¹ Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ² The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua the sons of Saul. ³ The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. ⁴ Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me.” But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it. ⁵ When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him. ⁶ Thus Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together. ⁷ When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, with those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; then the Philistines came and lived in them. ⁸ It came about on the next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. ⁹ They cut off his head and stripped off his weapons, and sent them throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. ¹⁰ They put his weapons in the temple of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. ¹¹ Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, ¹² all the valiant men rose and walked all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. ¹³ They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.^[1]

While David was off recovering his losses, Saul went to battle against the Philistines.  This is a classic example of "divide and conquer" technique.  On the railroad we call this being "out of position".  David was off taking care of his own business when he knew that Israel was entering a huge battle with the Philistines.  We can understand David's priority as he sought to recover his loved ones.  However, if David had not been living a lie in the land of the Philistines, he would not have brought the trouble on himself.  The way that I see it, there were three tragedies resulting from David's deception of the Philistines.  First, there was the capture of his family.  Second, Saul was not warned or aided in the assault against the Philistines.  Third, since both leaders of the nation were living in sin, the nation fell under the hands of the enemy.  Let's look at the text.

Saul and his three sons were killed.  Saul was wounded by the archers and felt that he would not survive the battle.  His fear of the Philistines was enough that he was not willing to go as a prisoner of war.  Think about that for a moment.  If Saul was captured alive, would David have come to his rescue?  I think that he would have.  Saul demanded that his armor bearer kill him.  When he would not, Saul committed suicide.  Saul felt that it was necessary.  Look at the result of his death, Israel fled and surrendered their cities to the Philistines.  Let's consider the other option.  If Saul was taken alive, it would seem reasonable that Israel would have fought to get him back.  this is pretty clear by the fact that Jabesh-gilead went into the Philistine country to recover Saul's body. We are not told that the battle was not winnable.  We are simply told by the text that Saul and sons were killed.  Do you see the point? 

The simple fact of it all is that Saul was not following the Lord into battle.  Back in Chapter 28 Saul sought out a medium for instruction rather than waiting on the Lord for instructions.  When he went to battle, he was fighting in his own strength.  David was not seeking the Lord when he went into the land of the Philistines.  He suffered greatly and had to be chastised by the Lord by losing his entire family to the enemy.  David repented but the disaster that was put in motion by the disregard of both leaders of the nation was not reversed.  Israel paid dearly for their disobedience to the Lord.

How often do we lean on our own strength rather than seek God in prayer?  Are we opening our lives up to spiritual defeat simply because we feel that we can handle our own lives?  It's worth thinking about.

Father, as we consider Your word, direct our lives as we follow You.

In Him,

Joe Turner.