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timewithgod.blog-city.com — July 2007
Back Home Again, 1 Samuel 25 Persistence
desired by God of us
I imagine that at times while he was running from Saul, David wondered just what kind of kingship this was to be. When would it happen? Instead of being "the favored candidate", David finds himself as the Lord's Anointed yet treated badly -- just like Christ.
David had done a huge favor for Nabal by providing protection for Nabal's herds, apparently without asking for payment. Now, with David's men short on supplies, he sends messengers to Nabal, hoping that he will return the favor in some way. Nabal is self-assured and cocky, however, and refuses to even acknowledge that he know David, in much the same way that unsaved persons today react to Christ. His wife, Abigail, though, has spiritual insight, knowing that David is God's Anointed, and she knows where her family's vote needs to be cast. Laden with food, she rides to David's camp and even though it wasn't her fault, she takes the blame upon herself, humbles herself, and apologizes greatly, offering the huge food shipment as proof of her willingness to help David.
Her attitude of humility amazed David. Something she said struck a chord with him as well: "The Lord will keep all His promises of good things for you. He will make you leader over Israel. Then you won't feel guilty or troubled because you killed innocent people and punished them." David knew she was right. After all, he'd been following that rule with Saul, refusing to kill him, and God was watching over David. So he agreed to forget about the whole incident.
Abigail returned home to a drunk husband and decided to wait until he sobered up to tell him that everything was saved. Yet when she did tell him, he had a stroke or heart attack or something, and died 10 days later. Hearing the news, David invited her to be his wife.
My sidebar spoke of perseverance as we wait on God. Certainly David was having to learn it. It said, "Jesus knew men inside out. He knew our tendency to give up quickly, to become inconsistent and lackadaisical. Yet He pleaded with us to persist in prayer and in all aspects of life .... He prefers persistence... He wants people who will travail and perhaps stumble a bit, but keep on going forward.
Father, now that I'm back home, I know my tendency will be to slack off in trying to determine Your will in the lives of those I met in Ukraine. Thanks for gently prodding me this morning not to rest and forget. Please work out Your will and help me to be right in the middle of it, whatever it is.
1 Samuel 26-27 Making accommodations we normally would find unacceptable
don't do it
Once again Saul decided that David was a threat and tried to hunt him down, and once again God enabled David to get close enough to Saul to kill him, yet David honored God by sparing Saul's life. Saul and David again parted company.
This constant gnawing pressure of having to evade Saul to save his own life apparently wore down David's faith, despite God's constant protection of him. David decided to get out of the line of fire for awhile, and of all places, he fled to the hometown of Goliath. The king of Gath must have decided that anyone who is an enemy of my enemy must be my friend, so he gave David the formerly-Israelite city of Ziklag. David spent the next 16 months there, raiding the people who God had early on commanded Joshua and the new settlers to remove from the land.
Unlike Saul, David killed Amalekites as God had commanded. By never taking any prisoners, he was able to deceive his host into thinking he was raiding Israelite cities. This elevated his status in the land of the Philistines.
My sidebar noted that troubles and conflicts sometimes cause us to make accommodations we normally find unacceptable. It challenges us to allow problems and obstacles to cultivate our faith.
Father, yesterday I began what will probably be a challenging, tiring, and sometimes thankless task -- administering the estate of one of my good friends. Already there are those feeling left out who are starting to complain and maneuver. Please help me to stay steadfast and not make accommodations that I would normally find unacceptable. Please let all parties see You working in this.
1 Samuel 28 When silence isn't golden
God's silence should be deafening in our spiritual ears
Armies were amassing and God wasn't answering -- not by dreams, not through the Umin and Thummin, and not through any prophet. Saul was scared. He needed someone to get through and give him an answer about the next day's battle.
I think Saul had failed to notice that God hadn't been answering him for some time. Saul had once been close to God, but the headiness of being king seemed to be the chink in his armor that Satan was using to drive a wedge between Saul and God. Now the distance resembled the Grand Canyon. How had Saul moved so far away and never noticed it?
I was told this week about a former member of our youth group who once seemed sold out to God and who for whatever reason started down a slippery path that has ended up so far away from Him that anyone who just met this person would be shocked to learn just how close the person had once been!
Where once he'd driven all the witches and mediums out of Israel, now in desperation Saul sought out one to attempt to speak to Samuel, who'd died. God permitted Samuel to make one final prophecy during a séance -- Saul and his sons would die the next day and Israel would be defeated in battle. In his message, Samuel backs into the root cause of Saul's problem: "You did not OBEY the Lord." God had specifically given Saul one task to do that became the watershed event of his life, and he'd failed miserably. He didn't kill off the Amalekites. He'd heard yet had not obeyed.
The two things of importance I see here are:
1) Staying in constant communication with God, through prayer and Scriptures, helps us to gauge whether a gap is appearing in our relationship with God and gives us multiple opportunities to close that gap;
2) We have to be cognizant of the fact that when God definitely speaks, we must obey for we could have just been presented the watershed event of our own lives.
Father, please speak louder and more often when You find me unwilling to listen or willfully disobedient. Don't let me get to the point where You have to use silence to get Your point across.
1 Samuel 29-30 Holding Fast to our Rock
He's our only sure anchor
David was pulled out of the battle by God's grace and mercy when the Philistine kings decided he would be too likely to turn on them. Returning with his men to their town, they discovered that the Amalekites had burned everything to the ground and taken all their family members as prisoners.
"David and his soldiers cried loudly until they were too weak to cry anymore," it says. That speaks so well of the dept of the loss they felt. It reminds me all too well of the bus ride from Svir Stroy to St Petersburg in 2001 and the drive from Berdyansk to Tokmak last week. Such sorrow is draining and exhausts you.
His men desired revenge and blame-casting was headed David's way. They were angry with him. "But David found strength in the Lord his God." At times like this, the only question we can ask is, "What now, Father?" It's a release of what our fleshly self is demanding and acceptance of what God is doing. David inquired of God and headed out. And as usual, God came through, restoring every lost family member and enriching not only the soldiers who fought, but also those who stayed behind and David's associates in many parts of Israel from the spoils taken from the Amalekite raiders.
I've watched God do this more than once in my life. He honors faith in the midst of calamity and pours out the blessings of heaven to reward it. His faithfulness and love are a constant we can cling to. His power is unlimited. Father, I trust You in everything that comes up in my life. Be my Strength and my Shield. Help me to show others Your loving watchcare over my boys and me.
1 Samuel 31 to 2 Samuel 1 Saul's death
God's justice
It seems strange that, after all Saul has done to try and kill David, that David should so mourn for him. Certainly I'd expect David to mourn for Jonathan, but Saul? I believe it wasn't based so much on the person as on the office. It's tough for us to get a sense of just how important the kingship of Israel would have been to the Israelites. They had begged God for a king, so that they would be like all their neighbors, but in doing so, they were rejecting God as their sovereign. That's what they'd failed to see. But as a people set apart for God from among all the nations of the earth, and with their king being God's Anointed, they viewed the killing of their king as absolute rebellion against God, I think.
In 1 Chronicles 10, a parallel account of Saul's death is given, and it lists two reasons for his death: He consulted a medium, and He did not keep the word of the Lord. God had said, "OBEY Me," and Saul had obeyed God about 90% when dealing with the Amalekites. But 90% obedience equals 100% disobedience.
Father, even today I find myself struggling with obedience to You. I certainly know what Your word commands and yet I often fall short. I don't want to presume on Your mercy and grace, but I ask once more for Your forgiveness and strength. Clean out anything in me that isn't of You.
2 Samuel 2-4 Politics and Religion
don't mix well
Politics and religion make strange bedfellows. David was asking God for direction, but it seemed like no one else was. God directed him to go to Hebron and from there he was crowned king of the single tribe of Judah. The other 11 tribes were apparently in disarray, having been invaded and occupied again by the Philistines.
My commentary suggested that it may have taken Abner, Saul's army commander, 5 years to beat them back before he could safely proclaim Saul's son Ish-Bosheth as king of the other 11 tribes.
Abner and David's army chief, Joab, met and seemingly decided to let 12 of their best young men engage each other in battle. When all 24 of them killed each other, mayhem broke out, and before a truce could be called, David lost 20 men while Ish-Bosheth had lost 360. A civil was had begun.
Abner began to realize that David was going to end up the winner, and when Ish-Bosheth perhaps falsely accused Abner of taking one of Saul's concubines to bed, Abner had had enough. He met with David and agreed to shift his allegiance and lead the 11 tribes to join David.
But the scheming wouldn't stop. Abner had killed the brother of David's army commander, Joab, and Joab couldn't believe that David would form an alliance with Abner, so he trapped him and killed him. David publicly condemned Joab for his rash act, but decided to let God exact justice.
Abner's death left a power vacuum back in Israel, which led two men to assassinate Ish-Bosheth. Thinking they'd be rewarded, they took the king's head to David. But David rightly took no joy in the death of Saul's son and ordered the men executed for killing an innocent man.
David's messages are beginning to get a little mixed. While he consulted with God and disavowed himself from the wrongful acts of those around him, he chose not to directly punish Joab for killing Abner. He also took on four more wives, then demanded that Saul's daughter Michal be turned over to him as his wife as promised by Saul years before, much to the grief of her husband. I think we're seeing the first seeds of his slide into sin.
Father, please help me never to seek advantage by scheming, by compromising on my morals, or by tolerating sin in others. Help me to continue to consult You to seek out Your will for my life.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 5 & 6 Are You Like Michal or David? On my soapbox today
and proud of it, as David was
"As the Ark of the Lord came into the city, Saul's daughter looked out the window. When she saw David jumping and dancing in the presence of the Lord, she hated him .... David went back to bless the people in his home, but Saul's daughter Michal came out to meet him. She said, "With what honor the king of Israel acted today!".... Then David said to Michal, "I did it in the presence of the Lord. The Lord chose ME, not your father .... The Lord appointed ME .... So I will celebrate in the presence of the Lord ..."
My commentary said that David was dressed in a linen ephod, not naked, and "when Michal looked and saw him in it, acting in a manner which she considered unworthy of a king, she falsely accused him of indecently dancing in public. He answered that his dancing was an expression of his JOY in the Lord and intimated that he did not intend to stifle his enthusiasm for the things of God .... Because of her critical attitude, Michal bore no children ... This is a needed reminder that a critical spirit stifles fruitfulness."
I thought of this in light of two things: The discussions we're having about men's ministry and mission opportunities here and elsewhere, and the total absence of praise and worship music in our worship this year. My sidebar says, "A heart filled with GOD's heart is free both to glorify and to enjoy God .... When we love God with all our heart we can openly express our emotions to Him, and then to others. He wants us to be real with Him .... David's abandoned freedom to express his praise is contrasted with his wife's reserve and contempt. Her emotional energy was not guided by firm beliefs about God's sovereignty and grace. There was little in her mind about God's loving-kindness, and therefore, little capacity of emotional delight in Him.... There are Michals in all our lives, people whose minds are starved for liberating truth about God and whose emotions are stunted by malnutrition of lively belief. The conviction of God's grace results in the expression of joy ... The tragedy of religion is that it produces more Michals than Davids..."
It's not about RELIGION. It's about a relationship, and the reserve and contempt that seems to ooze from every pore of those who dislike and disdain the joy in worship that I and others like me feel when we praise God with all our emotions is INDEED a tragedy. Perhaps Michal hated David because she knew that she was not capable of feeling what he felt. It wasn't in her heart. And I wonder if our fruitfulness may be stifled by critical spirits.
Oh, Father, that they could only know what they are missing -- that they could feel when they worship, for You are worthy of so much MORE worship than You often receive.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 7 A Humbling Time This Morning
thank You for all You've done for me, God
It's tough to write this morning. After reading this chapter, I felt just the way David felt, asking "Who am I, Lord God? Why did You bring me to this point?"
Sometimes God just has to remind us of all He has done that shows His awesome love for us. I was humbled enough at the start that I got down on the cold tile floor of my study and just prostrated myself before God, as low as I could go. I thanked Him for pulling me back to Him so many years ago and for giving me my sons to boot.
Then a strange thing happened. I felt led to walk over to my PC, where the email program was up and running. No new emails, so what's this about, God?
I'm an email packrat, and I've got several folders for email I've received from different people over the years. In one folder, there were messages from nine years ago asking for prayer. I'd been so humbled and honored that this guy had asked me to pray for him that I'd saved those. In another, a reply to something I'd emailed just over seven years ago, where I'd mentioned that I felt God leading me to adopt an orphan. I didn't even remember that I'd been considering it that far back! Josh would have been 4 at that time, and Joseph was 3, and it would be over a year later before I would even travel to Russia to work in that orphanage!
I found prayers coming back for me through emails -- for strength and help during my first term as interim youth minister 9 years ago; for courage as my mom battled breast cancer around that same time; mutual prayers for Richard Brown -- a guy in our youth group struggling with his life in the Navy; and notes later about how God worked through our prayers to get him out of the Navy!
It was all so overwhelming that it just brought me to tears. We make ourselves available to God, and look what He is able to do! He doesn't want our ability, only our availability.
Last night at youth, God had already started driving this point home. We had a guest speaker -- a teenager from Alaska speaking about WorldChangers and other mission trips he'd been on. As he described the miserable conditions of homeless kids in Alabama, it took me back to my boys and many of the things they've endured in their lives already, and how incredibly God has preserved and protected and blessed them. How even more so their testimony will honor Him someday!
As David prayed in this chapter, so I find myself praying: "Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true. And You have promised these good things to me, Your servant. Please bless my family. Let it continue before You always."
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 8-10 The Importance Of Going Out
staying engaged where God is at work
Knowing what's coming up in chapter 11 seemed to help me key in on two sentences repeated verbatim in chapter 8: "The Lord gave David victory everywhere he WENT."
David expanded Israel's borders by defeating rebellious neighbors who fought against him. Victory after victory are recorded in chapters 8 to 10. It was in the "going out" that David was victorious. God wanted to spread Israel's influence over a wide area. It would result in glory for Him.
It's going to be in the "staying-home" that David will experience defeat. Too often I think we find ourselves so overwhelmed by the demands on our time that we end up wanting to be cloistered at home to simply enjoy some peace and quiet. The last thing we need, though, is to disengage from where God is working.
I thought back to Wednesday night's youth meeting at the Rodgers' house. All week long I'd been dealing with a computer auditor at the bank and working on an estate I have to settle. I dutifully showed up for youth, but didn't get into the middle of all the fun happening in the pool. I found my eyes closing at times as I watched Russ in the middle of the fray. Both of my boys were out there, and I should have been, too. I missed a golden opportunity to spend time with them as well as with guys in our youth group.
Father, I know there will be times when I will be tired, but as I look back, You've always used our youth group to re-energize me. Help me not to check-out at any event we're having. Instead, prod me to get up and get involved. Our kids don't need or want spectators so much as they need and want us to be actively involved in their lives.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 Samuel 11 The Fall
useless
David was in the wrong place for the wrong reason at the wrong time. He'd set himself up for failure by his prideful decisions. When he saw Bathsheba from the roof of his palace, he should have turned his head and not looked again, but he was fascinated with her. By this time, he was already hooked.
He took another fatal step when he ordered his servants to find out who she was, and in doing so, he began to tick up the number of people who knew he was suffering from lust. Did he wait until she'd finished bathing and was dressed before he called his servants? Did they knock on her door and say, "Were you just bathing? The king wondered who you were..."
Then the second knock came. David had discovered that she was married, and that should have stopped him cold. But not even the fact that her husband was what amounted to an early-day Marine swayed him! David had allowed his private thoughts to simmer, stew, and boil until they manifested themselves in action.
When he had her brought to his palace, the servants knew what was going on. Had a man from her family accompanied her, he might have saved her honor and David's reputation. Yet just the act of bringing a married woman to the palace while her husband was away at war would have made today's headlines in Washington.
I can just imagine how angry and disappointed God felt as He watched all this -- the "man after His own heart" acting most ungodly. It was justice that led Him to make sure Bathsheba became pregnant. God could have done the opposite, but the sin wouldn't have remained hidden. Too many people already knew. Instead, true to Himself, God shined His light of truth upon the whole situation so that the sin would be brought into the open and dealt with, for that is the only way healing can occur. We cannot lie to God, and we cannot hide things from Him. David should have known that.
Father, I know I've felt the worst when I, too, failed to own up to You for my sins. It leaves us in misery when we do, unable to find rest, feeling dirty and useless, and knowing that we've disappointed You. And if, like David, we think we can get away with it, we're sadly mistaken. Father, Your word was written to keep us from having to experience the guilt and the dirtiness of sin. So help me to spend daily time in Your word. Help me to hide Your words in my heart, that I may not sin against You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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