I Samuel 24 - David Spares Saul's Life

I Samuel 24 

And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. So now swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father's household. (verse 20-21)

Message: David Spares Saul's Life

Time: This book is a biography of Samuel's life and career up to his death. It took place over a period of about 110 years, stretching from the closing days of the judges, when Samuel was born (ca. 1120 BC) through the death of Saul (1011 BC).

What the Lord is Saying: David has been somewhat of a fugitive thus far since chapter 18. Saul was threatened by David and therefore pursuing him to kill him but David continues to get away. David is now in the wilderness of Engedi. Engedi is further south, close to the Dead Sea. Saul is ready, taking 3,000 men. Upon arriving at a cave "Saul went in to relieve himself" or cover his feet. David is already in that cave and David's men say that the Lord is saying to David, "I am about to give your enemy into your hand." 

"Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly." David was ready and could have seized and killed Saul. But he didn't. He didn't act in the same manner that Saul was acting towards him. Instead, he just cut of a little edge of Saul's robe. Even at that, his "conscience (heart struck) bothered him." Although Saul is trying to kill him. David still knows that "he is the Lord's anointed" as the Lord through Samuel had anointed him (chapter 10). 

In verse 8, "David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself" before Saul. He knew he had an opportunity to kill Saul and he tells Saul this, but instead David says, "I will not stretch out my hand against you." He confirms, "there is no evil or rebellion (transgression) in my hands, and I have not sinned against you." Contrary to how Saul has sought to deal with David, David confirms that he has not sinned against the Lord or Saul in taking his life. David is different. "Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you." 

Saul sees the difference that David is and says, "You are more righteous than I...I have dealt wickedly with you (verse 17)." Saul says "the Lord therefore reward you with good." Saul takes a moment here and does the honorable thing. For once, he surrenders to God after he hears David having done the same. Saul doesn't initiate his allegiance to God, but it only comes after someone else has done the same. He says to David, "I know that you shall surely be king" and he asks for David's mercy and "David swore to Saul."  

Summary: David shows grace toward Saul in not killing him. Instead bows to him and Saul tells David he will be king and David swears he will not hurt Saul. 

Promise: Leave vengeance to the Lord. 

Prayer: Lord, your grace is extended to others. I thank you for this. Thank you for David's example of how we are to live in an honorable way, letting you have vengeance as you wish. 

Note: If you are interested in other studies/devotions, check out my index of Bible Study's.

My Utmost for His Highest - June 15th - Get A Move On

In the Matter of Drudgery. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; - 2 Peter 1:5

    You have inherited the Divine nature, says Peter (v.4), now screw your attention down and form habits, give diligence, concentrate. “Add” means all that character means. No man is born either naturally or supernaturally with character; he has to make character. Nor are we born with habits; we have to form habits on the basis of the new life God has put into us. We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God. Drudgery is the touchstone of character. The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we will look for big things to do. “Jesus…took a towel,…and began to wash the disciples’ feet. (see John 13:1-17)”

    There are times when there is no illumination and no thrill, but just the daily round, the common task. Routine is God’s way of saving us between our times of inspiration. Do not expect God always to give you His thrilling minutes, but learn to live in the domain of drudgery by the power of God.

    It is the “adding” that is difficult. We say we do not expect God to carry us to heaven on flowery beds of ease, and yet we act as if we did! The tiniest detail in which I obey has all the omnipotent power of the grace of God behind it. If I do my duty, not for duty’s sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.

Mom's Notes - Elizabeth and Mike's Anniversary

 - From Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest" - Classic Edition

Highlights and Underlines are courtesy of Mom from her print edition

My thoughts

Chambers continues now to speak of forming habits. We are not to be passive in our faith walk with God, but diligent. And another reminder that it is in the little things that we really flourish, so don't feel the need to find something big to do for God. Like this time in the Word each day. Nothing big about it, but we need to remain consistent in it, day by day.  

My Utmost for His Highest - March 27th - Vision By Personal Character

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” - Revelation 4:1

An elevated mood can only come out of an elevated habit of personal character. If in the externals of your life you live up to the highest you know, God will continually say--"Friend, go up higher (Luke 14:10)." The golden rule in temptation is--Go higher. When you get higher up,  you face other temptations and characteristics. Satan uses the strategy of elevation in temptation, and God does the same, but the effect is different. When the devil puts you into an elevated place, he makes you screw your idea of holiness beyond what flesh and blood could ever bear, it is a spiritual acrobatic performance, you are just poised and dare not move; but when God elevates you by His grace into the heavenly places, instead of finding a pinnacle to cling to, you find a great table-land where it is easy to move. 

Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year and see how God has called you up higher. We have all been brought to see from a higher standpoint. Never let God give you one point of truth which you do not instantly live up to. Always work it out, keep in the light of it. 

Growth in grace (2 Peter 3:18) is measured not by the fact that you have not gone back, but that you have an insight into where you are spiritually; you have heard God say 'Come up higher," not to you personally, but to the insight of your character. 

"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do (Genesis 18:17)?" God has to hide from us what He does until by personal character we get to the place where He can reveal it. 

Oswald Chambers - From My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition

- Underlines and highlights are courtesy of Mom from her Print Edition

Ecclesiastes 7:1 - The Worth of a Good Name

Ecclesiastes 7:1
A good name is better than a good ointment, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

Message: The Worth of a Good Name

Time: Ecclesiastes: Solomon's authorship is not stated. Solomon's reign as king of Israel lasted from around 970 B.C. to around 930 B.C. The Book of Ecclesiastes was likely written towards the end of his reign, approximately 935 B.C.

What the Lord is Saying:

From TableTalk:
It takes a lifetime to build, but it can be destroyed in an instant by one bad decision. [We all see this, but especially when we are young. Derek sees this in school when he skips a class or walks out of a class or quits the soccer team or changes team. One action messes up everything. This happens at work even as it sometimes takes one mistake to change people's view of you.] A good name usually refers to a good reputation. The Bible sometimes portrays people who had a good name in public but whose private behavior invalidated their reputation. [This is a hard truth for society. The private lives of people are becoming more apparent in society with the transparency that is taking place through social media as it gives "the" media easier access to people's real thoughts. But, in general, the stars or the people that we look to that have gifts that society deems as not easily replaced often have a more transparent life and so their reputation is easier to be tarnished. This is election time right now and the goal often of competing candidates is to find something in a person's private life to make the other person appear not to be a good candidate.]

Ointment - From Smith's Bible Dictionary 
Some of the ointments have been known to retain their: fragrance for several hundred years. They were a much-coveted luxury, and often very expensive. [Because of our easy of going to a store and buying what we need I think we lose the significance of some substances. There was a time when something like an ointment took much time to be formed and therefore it was considered a luxury item. One idea here is a good ointment was something sought after, that people wanted. We all want a good name and we need to be careful in life of our actions.]

[This first verse of chapter 7 ends with "the day of death is better than the day birth." Often times it is the funeral that results in a lot of people showing up. There aren't droves of people showing up at a hospital to welcome a new baby. The baby needs time to become a person of value.] The day of death provides the dying person with a chance to reflect on his own heart, and it causes loved ones to reflect on their final destiny and their need of heart transformation if they are to experience life with God forever. 

Promise: A good name is not securely established until the day of death. 

 



 

Romans 5:3-5 - Our Christian Hope

Romans 5:3-5 - 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Message: We get to exult in our tribulations.

Time: The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans from the Greek city of Corinth in AD 57, just three years after the 16 year old Nero had ascended to the throne as Emperor of Rome. Persecution of Christians wouldn't begin until AD 64. The church was experiencing times of relative peace. From where he wrote, Corinth, was a hotbed of sexual immorality and idol worship.

What the Lord Says:

The Set Up
Verse 3 begins with, "And not only this." As if verse 2 wasn't enough. Verse 2 told me that I exult in the hope of the glory of God. In verse 1, I am told that I have peace with God. I have a peace that will always be there. It is not going anywhere. In verse 2, I have been admitted into grace; I have been given the best access card ever that will get me into grace. Grace is God's Riches at Christ's Expense. I get all the blessings of grace and this realization moves me to exult--to lift up--in hope (the certainty of the future), of the glory of God.

May I never dull of giving thanks to God for what He has given me. When I think about it, I don't comprehend it. I know me and I look at me and don't know why God would give this to me and not others. I look at others, I see them and can't figure out why He would choose me. But, I stand forever amazed and grateful and pray that I would not just hold this new life to myself, but would share it with others. Prayer needs to be a daily habit in my life and often I find so many other things to fill my life. But God wants me to pray and teaches me to pray in His word and so prayer needs to be a bigger part of my life. Thank you God for moving us as a family to pray, but I still have so much more free time to spend praying. I pray right now that I wouldn't lose sight of this.

Exult in Tribulations
Now I move to verse 3 and see the words "and not only this." You mean, there is more. The word exult is to boast in a position I now possess. The dictionary says exult is to show or feel a lively triumphant joy. And Paul is showing me that I get to and will exult in tribulations. Say what? Yes, show or feel a lively triumphant joy in my tribulations. Boast in the fact that I possess now tribulations. I still can't comprehend this. I've learned this before. I've studied James and seen that I am to count it joy when I experience trials and now here I see I can exult in tribulations. But, I rarely do this. I run from tribulations. And yet tribulations often drive me to my knees to pray. Think about it. Often, I don't pray as I should and yet when a tribulation comes I run to my knees to pray about it. So, obviously, having the tribulation is a positive for it got my focus more securely on the need to pray. God should never be my last priority, but He should always be my first priority.

It is one thing to submit to and endure tribulations without complaint, but it is quite another thing to embrace tribulations with exult. Everyone wants to live a problem free life and yet what Paul is stating here is the contrary thought that we can boast in the fact we have a tribulation.

I think of all those people I converse with online and prayer requests are there due to them wanting to get out of, as quickly as possible, a trial in their life. But, what if God has them right where he wants them? Maybe their perspective is to look through the tribulation to see what God can do with it. But, it is not that their is joy in having a tribulation, but it moves us to greater dependence and expecting God's deliverance from it. Hodge states, "The Christian feels that suffering themselves are an offering and a blessing." And this is a consistent them in the Bible. Matthew states, "Blessed are those that mourn." Ecclesiastes states, "Sorrow is better than laughter for when a face is sad, a heart may be happy." 

Tribulation is the Greek word thlipsis. It is not a mile discomfort, but a great difficulty. It is derived from the word which means to crush or break together with the idea of breaking. According to the ancient law of England, those who willfully refused to plead guilty, had heavy weights pressed on their breasts, and were pressed and crushed to death. Thlipsis is uses 45 times in the New Testament. It has the idea of squeezing grapes in order to extract the sweet juice.

Tribulation breeds patience
Patience seems to be the one trait that all people struggle with the most. Our culture, of late, has bent itself more and more on the notion that immediate gratification is the norm. Movies are a great example of this. Often my children will sit down to watch an old movie with me and the story will move slowly. There will be dialogue and discussion. It will slowly build up to a climax. I contrast this to the action adventure movies they often watch where their is excitement at every turn. There are fights and explosions constantly. The push to video games is a push to enjoy things more immediately. Learning often needs patience and many are not patient. Books are not being read anymore because they take too long. We'd rather have a quick summary. I don't think that it is that learning is despised as much as there is a desire to get on with the things in life we state we enjoy and entertain us. All of these things and more I feel are breeding impatience in people.

And yet, from these verses we see that tribulation breeds or brings about patience. It has been said that the best way to learn patience is to go through a difficult situation. Can you imagine praying that a person would experience toil so that they may learn patience? "Oh Lord, would you send a trial into this person's life?" That prayer would never be prayed. A person would be laughed out of church for praying this.

Tribulation brings about perseverance
At the end of verse 3, it states that tribulation brings about perseverance. Perseverance is to abide or remain under a discipline. Or subjecting myself to something that I would naturally rebel. In tribulation, I experience pressures, but perseverance is to not focus on the pressures, but to focus beyond them. It is the realization that out of evil God brings good.

The difficulties in our lives,
The obstacles we face,
Give God the opportunity,
To show His power and grace.

Do I accept God's dealings with me as being good? Do I desire to get out of a tribulation as quickly as possible or do I trust God through it, asking for His timing in the deliverance? Do I have confidence in God that He will deliver me or do I try to find my own ways of getting out of the trial?

Perseverance, proven character
In verse 4, Proven character is the Greek word dokime and in secular Greek it was used to describe metals that had been tested and determined to be pure. How do we know that our faith is real? Take it through a trial and see what comes out on the other side.

I know of many people that I thought were formerly of the faith of Christianity, but are not now. I wonder if what happened in their lives is trials came there way or questions about their faith came and rather than enduring them and coming out stronger on the other side, they instead punted their faith.

People punt so many things in their life that were once a commitment. Marriage is something that seems to have really been hurt over the last 50 years. It seems that marriage often happens for the wrong reasons. I remember counseling a man a couple of years ago and his marriage was barely hanging on, it wasn't surviving the trials, and when I discovered how the marriage began, he told me that they were attracted to one another and had sex quickly, the wife got pregnant and they got married. It started on a shaky foundation. It was a marriage by name, but when trials came it got weak. I'm not saying God couldn't save it and purify it, but without two people submitting to the Lord, at all, it failed.

Proven character, hope
In these verses, it has gone from tribulation, joy, patience, perseverance, proven character, and now it comes to hope. In our faith, we can almost welcome tribulation because we know it is going to cause us to depend on God. And through it, it will breed patience in our life. And I can work it out in my life because I can persevere or focus not on the pressures that I am experiencing, but the result that will come. And through this process I can know that, by depending on the Lord, I will be shown as the real thing. And this gives me hope.

When I know that I am pure and know that I can make it through trials, it confirms that I am child of God. Getting through the trials gives me that hope and assurance that God is there and in control. It anchors me in my faith.

I talk to so many people online that state, "I don't feel like a Christian. Things aren't working out in my life." That a testimony right there that a person has believed something different from the Gospel of the Bible. It is not to make life easy, but to move us to depend on our Lord and thereby confirm our faith and our future in Christ.

Do I accept everything that comes into my life as coming from the Lord? Do I give thanks (Ro1:20)?  And not only accept it, but rejoice in it?

Hope does not disappoint
Hope is the desire for some future good with the expectation of obtaining it. Psalm 40:1 has always been a favorite verse to me (Mostly because U2 introduced me to it in the song "40" on the War album). It states, "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined to me and heard my cry." The Lord did not disappoint. He was there. And He came through. That passage later says, "He put a new song in my mouth."

I am a Christian. I know this. God has taken me through trials. And has confirmed Him in me. And this confirmation does not disappoint. In future times, it continues to show me that He is actually what I need.

Faith, Hope, and (now) Love
Here in verse 5, Paul culminates the look at tribulations to show us that they are there because God loves us. His love is being poured out on us and the testimony we have of that love is tribulation.

We want the patience of Job. But, we don't want the trials that Job faced. And yet, Job is a great testimony of how much God loved him. That's amazing. God pours out his love on us in the form of tribulations. God showed us His great love for us by sending His Son. And now God showers us and waters us more, pouring His love out to us. In verse 1, it was peace. verse 2, it was joy and now God confirms His love through training us to be patient, to confirm His love, our hope in the future, because God is there for us.

Through the Holy Spirit
So much is made of the Holy Spirit and the sensationalism of Him, to bring about riches and abundance and healing in our lives. And yet here, the Holy Spirit is working through tribulations. Through pressures. God's love is poured out into our lives through the Holy Spirit. This is the first mention of the Holy Spirit by Paul. And it comes on the heals of Paul showing us what the believer has received in being justified. He has received the Holy Spirit. He didn't have to ask for him or pray for him, he received it upon being justified.

Promise: The Holy Spirit entered my life because I was born of God. And He has the best in store for me.