Faith in the Fray The Word

Transcription

1 Faith in the Fray The Word Samuel 5 D.L. Deckard July 8, 202 Throughout the history of the church there have been times when God s people have faced what we might call an authority crisis. In the second and third century after Jesus ascended, there was a crisis between the pressures of Greek Philosophy, which held that physical matter was evil, and the Bible, which insisted that when God created the physical universe he declared it very good. The winds of this Greek worldview blew against the church insisting that Jesus could not have been a physical person because matter was evil. Some listen to the voice of philosophy, settling on a Jesus that only appeared to be human. Others, however, brought the question to the Holy Scriptures and allowed the voice of the Bible to be the determinative word. The church listened to the voice of God in Scripture. And in so doing preserved both the gospel and salvation. For if Jesus only appeared to be human then how could he die for us. The 6 th century also witnessed a great authority crisis. This time it was within the church. Did supreme authority rest with the pope in Rome or with the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, the Bible? A young Augustinian monk would insist that the Scripture, properly interpreted, was the supreme authority by which all other voices must be assessed and evaluated including the Vatican. That crisis touched off what we know as the Protestant reformation. I believe, we re living in a time of another authority crisis. Only this time, the alternative voice is the relativistic voice of a godless and humanistic culture. It is pressuring the church to re-define both its morality and its theology. Simple statements like that made by Jesus in John 4:6 I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me are judged to be religiously arrogant, intolerant and exclusive. Like two tectonic plates, the voice of the world and the word of God in the Bible are colliding. The question for this generation is, Which voice will we listen to. What voice will define marriage for Christians? What voice will define what love really is? What voice will determine our view of where we come from, where we re going and how we get there? These are profound matters of life that we need answers to. What voice will we look to for the answers? In Samuel 5, king Saul faces an authority crisis of sorts. He is given a very clear word from the Lord. But he will also face the dissenting voice of the people pulling him in another direction. Which will he choose? And what will be the outcome? A Word of Vengeance The story begins with a rather dark mission from the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. 2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. ( Sam 5:-3)

2 As God s representative ruler, Saul was called to execute justice on the Amalekites. Admittedly, this mission to wipe out everything men, women, children, ox, sheep, camel and donkey is offensive to the modern mind. Indeed, no matter which way you slice it; it s a gruesome instruction. Similar instructions were given to Israel when they came into the promised land, to exterminate the Canaanites within the land - everything (see Deut 7:-2). What must be kept in mind is that these instructions, however we may feel about them, are intended to carry out God s perfect justice. Notice that the instruction to wipe out the Amalekites is based upon the fact that God kept track ( I have noted ) of what the Amalekites had done to Israel earlier in its history. In Deuteronomy 25:7, Moses reflects on what the Amalekites did when he says: 7 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 8 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 9 Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget. (Deut 25:7-9) The sense is that the Amalekites played dirty war and attacked the exhausted stragglers at the back of migration. They butchered the weak amongst God s people. And God didn t forget. He wouldn t forget. Note though, that by the time God gives instructions to Saul to blot them out of history, nearly 400 years have passed. And apparently, from things said in this chapter, the Amalekites had not changed. Because, Samuel later says to the king of the Amalekites, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women ( Sam 5:33). It demonstrates that God truly is slow to anger. But the time of God s merciful patience came to an end in the time of king Saul. And as God s king, he was instructed to avenge his people. And when it came, it really was deadly. This is both a fearful thing as well as a praiseworthy thing. It s a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God to quote Hebrews (0:3). But it s praiseworthy in the sense that God does not turn a blind eye to injustice, malice, and sin. Anyone who has felt the gnawing pain of an unresolved injustice an adulterous spouse, a devastating lie, or an oppressive government is comforted at the truth that God does take notice. And he will establish justice. We may not see it in our lifetime, like the Israelites that were attacked with Moses. But it will come. God will avenge his people. Saul takes the mission as God s representative king and amasses an army of 220,000 men. They laid siege to the Amalekites and destroyed them from the land of Havilah to the land of Shur. He destroys everything as the Lord instructed him, except a few things: 8 he [Saul] took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. ( Sam 5:8-9) The point is that he took some license with God s explicit word. A Word of Grief 2

3 At this point the word of the Lord comes again to the prophet. Only this time it s a word of grief and sorrow. The Lord says, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments ( Sam 5:). The word regret has the sense of sorrow, grief, and regret. In effect, in failing to carry out the word of the Lord completely, he stopped following the Lord. He ceased to be a disciple of Yahweh. And it grieved the Lord. Here we get a glimpse into the heart of God over those who turn away from him. Somehow in the mystery of God s greatness he can rule all things for his pleasure and yet grieve over the self-destructive actions of people. Samuel too, cried to the LORD all night ( Sam 5:). God s heart grieves when people don t listen to his voice. A Word of Priority The next day, Samuel gets up early and heads out toward for a confrontation with king Saul. It s worth taking the time to read the interaction between prophet and king. 3 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD. 4 And Samuel said, What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? 5 Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction. 6 Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night. And he said to him, Speak. 7 And Samuel said, Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 8 And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. 9 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD? 20 And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 2 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king. ( Sam 5:3-23) There are several things worth noticing here. First, Saul is blind to his own disobedience. He completely justifies himself. He thought he had some wiggle room with God, some flexibility with God s Word. From what s stated in verse 24, the reason for his compromise was because he listened to another voice. In verse 24, Saul s confesses, I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice ( Sam 5:24). Furthermore, he did so under the pretenses of bringing animals back to sacrifice to the Lord. What s clear from verse 22 is that what God desires is not sacrifice but a listening heart obedience. There are two opposing voices The voice of the people versus the voice of God. The Word of Rejection Saul chose to listen to the people. And as a result he was rejected as king. Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you ( Sam 5:28). Then the prophet proceeded to do what Saul It s the same word used in Genesis 6:6-7. 3

4 failed to do. He summoned the captive king of the Amalekites and hacked him into pieces. He finished the job reserved for the king. In the end, Saul loses it all, because he fails to listen to the voice of the Lord and listens to the voice of the people. In the end he was a man-centered politician not a God-centered king. Application So what are we to do with this story? What does it have to say to us Christians 3,000 years later? Two things, I believe. First, it establishes the need for an obedient king-judge. That s, in fact, the function of this chapter. Saul s failure sets the backdrop for the next chapter in which a new kind of king is chosen a man after God s own heart, king David the ancestor of Jesus. And if that s true which it is then Saul s failure to obey serves as the backdrop for the even greater king to which David was but a shadowy prototype the only king truly worthy to be God s King. Where Saul failed, Jesus would prove himself worthy. For Jesus too heard dissenting voices. He heard the voice of the tempter say, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of Bread to which Jesus would reply, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Mat 4:3-4). Jesus lived by every word. When his best friend Peter tried to steer him away from the will of God, Jesus didn t cave in to his friendship. He said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man (Mark 8:33). In the garden he would hear his own humanity say, take this cup from me. But his heart was resolved to take the cup of wrath in our place. Jesus died perfectly keeping every word of God. And in on the cross he completed his mission (unlike Saul) and said, It is finished. Jesus was rejected that we might be accepted. On the other hand, Jesus has also been given the role of avenger and judge. He will come to judge the living and the dead and carry out God s perfect justice at the end of this age. And he will not fail to carry it out perfectly when he returns. And it will be deadly for some according to Revelation 20. For us that means that he can not only be trusted with atonement, but with justice too. All of the unresolved injuries we face in this life, will be righted by our perfectly just King. There simply is no king like him so worthy of praise and honor and worship as our Savior and Judge. That s why all of heaven worships him worthy is the Lamb that was slain! Saul, in his failure, points us to the One who is both redeeming Lamb and judging Lion. On a more general and personal level, this story also raises a simple question Whose voice will we obey? Which word will we trust? What voice will we listen to above all others? When it comes to the origin of the universe and the nature of mankind, whose voice will you listen to? When it comes to knowing who we are, where we re going, who s in control, whose voice are you going to listen to? When it comes to true versus false religion, whose voice are you going to listen to? When it comes your identity who you are in Christ who are you going to listen to People Magazine? Extra? There s only one voice that matters in the universe, and that s the voice of Christ recorded for us in this book we so undeservedly hold in our hands. To reject his voice, even in part, is to reject him. He s not interested so much in our sacrifices or overt displays of worship as he is our simple obedience. Why? Because it s the proof that we really trust him. Indeed, this obedience that delights the Lord is not an attempt to gain God s blessing. But it is a response to God s 4

5 blessing. The obedience that pleases God arises from a heart blown away by grace! Blown away by the gospel! Blown away by Christ. The result is that we listen out of love for him and trust in him. May we, like former generations, give ourselves wholly in trust to the voice of God in Scripture and not the voice of the world. 5