Mixed Motives

            David’s response to Saul and Jonathan’s deaths is mixed.  He executes the Amalekite messenger and he grieves deeply for Saul and Jonathan.  Those things are matters the text makes clear.  On the other hand, David’s motivations are ambiguous.  Some have suggested that David’s reluctance to slay Saul, ‘the Lord’s anointed,’ is self-serving.  After all, David himself is the Lord’s anointed, and he doesn’t want to set a dangerous precedent.  It wouldn’t do him any good if people had it in their heads that they could assassinate the king with impunity.  He needed to demonstrate that killing the king was an act against the Lord Himself.

            There may certainly be a streak of self-service in David, but the story of Samuel is an overwhelmingly positive portrait of David.  On the positive side, David is pretty clearly motivated by grief.  He had loved Jonathan as a brother, and, despite all the trouble between them, he seems to have carried a genuine affection for Saul with him, too.  His lament at the end of 2 Samuel 2 is one of the great poems of world literature and expresses his deep grief over the loss of his friend, his king, and the fortunes of his nation along with the king.

            Finally, and probably most importantly, we ought not lose sight of the fact that David is motivated by his own trust in the Lord and in his ways.  He’s been described as a man after God’s own heart.  So, his grief over the Lord’s anointed is not just self-serving or personal, but it is also a reflection of God’s own grief over the fact that Saul had rebelled against Him.  (God’s hope seems to spring eternal.  No matter how often the representatives of Israel fail to live up to his expectation, He always seems to hope that the next one will rise to the occasion.)

            On that last point, it’s important to see that God’s hope is focused not in the progression of failures.  God’s hope is focused in the One to whom all of Israel led—Jesus.  So, God’s is not just a sunny optimism about humanity’s better nature.  Instead, His hope moves determinedly forward to the Faithful Israelite.  In the same way, Christian hope is not just sunny optimism, but a determination to see the world in light of Jesus’ resurrection and all that that means for the future of the world.

            On other point of application:  if David’s motives are ambiguous, we probably shouldn’t be surprised if we can’t figure out why exactly we do the things that we do.  Sometimes we act out of self-preservation.  Sometimes we act out personal emotional engagement.  Sometimes we act out of faith in the Lord.  And most often we act out of all three at once.  So, for example, I have a hard time criticizing other pastors—first, because I know that if I criticize, I open myself to criticism; second, because I fear the further undermining of the Office; finally, because I know that I am called to speak for the building up of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

From Humble Origins

            David was the eighth son.  While 1 Samuel doesn’t make any big deal about that fact, there is the general biblical convention that 7 is the perfect number.  David is one son too many.  Even his father doesn’t count him when the prophet calls for the boys.  In fact, all the seven older brothers looked like good candidates—tall and handsome.  Of course, we know how well those criteria worked out with Saul!

            But ‘the Lord sees not as man sees:  man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’  What a gift that would be!  To see things as they really are instead of seeing them by the light of the fallen world!

            We see things by the world’s measures:  is the company profitable?  How profitable?  Is the girl pretty?  How pretty?  The world is always surprised when its measurements fail, too.  Consider Bernie Madoff.  There’s a success story—on the outside, at least.  But when reality strikes and we discover it was all a house of cards and a scam, we ask, “Why didn’t we see this coming?”  We don’t see it coming because we measure the wrong things.  What the Lord values are faithfulness, integrity, humility (the list could go on).

            So here’s David, of so little consequence that his dad doesn’t even bother to bring him in from the fields.  But his heart is ‘like the Lord’s.’  When he faces Goliath, he doesn’t rely on the usual trappings of power—armor and swords, he relies on name of the Lord.  And the Lord blesses the work of his hands.

            In this David becomes a type, a foreshadowing of Jesus.  Isaiah prophesies regarding the coming Messiah, “He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked” (NIV Isaiah 11:3-4).  In the most unexpected way—as a crucified criminal—Jesus looks like he is of no account; but in becoming of no account, he does exactly the thing that the Father wanted.

God's Purpose among Questionable Characters

            Saul’s such a great choice for a king.  After all, as Kenny Mayne often comments on SportsCenter, “He’s tall.”  Also, his dad’s rich.  He must be a good choice.

            On the other hand, he takes direction from a servant, he’s from Gibeah—infamous from the end of Judges—and, when the lot falls to him, they find him hiding among the baggage.  (In Saul’s defense, there is a long history of avoiding office among God’s people:  Moses famously tries to talk God out of it; St. Augustine (early 5^th century) was corralled into priesthood almost against his will and very reluctantly became bishop.  I’ve often commented that if my primary concern was my own spiritual well-being, I would have avoided the Ministry.)  Then, having been anointed, he returns to his home.

            The monarchy is off to a grand start, and to make it worse, Samuel goes all Richard Nixon on the people of Israel:  “You won’t have old Samuel to kick around anymore!”

            Reading Israel’s history makes life in the church a little easier.  After all, it’s pretty clear that there’s no golden age for Israel.  They’re as much God’s problem as the means for His solution.  The same thing holds in the church.  At any given time, it is populated by reluctant leaders, questionable choices, and prickly personalities.  But, through all that, the Church is still called to be the instrument by which the Lord shares His good news with the world.

We Want a King!

            1 Samuel 8 is a fascinating chapter.  First off, it’s fun to speculate about the character of Samuel.  Samuel is presented as this great paragon of faithfulness.  He is committed to the Lord’s service by his faithful mother.  He listens to God’s words.  God does not ‘let any of Samuel’s words fall to the ground’ (3:19).  He subdues the Philistines and Amorites.  He judges Israel ‘all the days of his life’ (7:15).  But, he tries to establish a dynasty, setting up his sons after him.  In this he is no better than old Eli, and you could make the case that he’s worse:  Eli, at least, was a priest; his sons were supposed to follow him!  Further, Samuel gets all bent out of shape when Israel asks for a king, and it’s hard to tell exactly why.  The Lord reminds him, “It’s me they’ve rejected, not you,” and one gets the impression that Samuel’s pique is more about the rejection of his sons than about the request for a king.  When he recounts all the abuses a king will bring—high taxes, forced labor, military conscription—he seems a little too eager, as if he’s trying to say, “You’ll see.  My boys aren’t so bad!”  All of that may be unfair to Samuel, but it’s fun to speculate about. . . .

            What’s more important is that 1 Samuel 8 records Israel’s demand for a king.  The Lord nails it.  “It’s me they’ve rejected.”  After all, the way that Israel was constituted at Sinai, the Lord was to have been their king.  And one of the huge underlying points of the Sinaitic laws was that Israel was to be God’s specially chosen people, living out of step with the world, but living as a shining example of what it means to be in the right relationship with the Lord.  So, the “like the other nations” bit is a rejection of their own unique place in God’s purposes.  We have seen the pressure throughout Joshua and Judges to be like the other nations; here Israel completely caves in and embraces it.

            If you’ve ever heard me talk about the problems of Israel, if you’ve ever heard me preach about Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God over against the way that Israel perceived what that phrase meant, you’ll know that this request for a king sets Israel on a path that will influence and distract that for the next thousand years until Jesus finally demonstrates in His suffering and death what it really means to be Israel!

I won't be posting anything today or tomorrow.  Other responsibilites need attention.  I'll get back on Monday.

Not as Beat as You Think

            Here’s an insight from The Lutheran Study Bible:  when the idol of Dagon falls face down before the ark of the Lord and his head and hands are lying cut off—this is a lot more than a little oopsie with the furniture.  Falling facedown before the ark suggests that Dagon had submitted himself before one who was more powerful, namely, Yahweh of Israel.  When the next morning his head and hands are cut off—not broken off, mind you, cut off—we are looking at the military defeat of the Philistine god.  (Dismemberment was absolute proof of death, and David cut off the head of Goliath.)  So whether the Philistines prefer to think that their god was whupped by the God of Israel or whether they prefer to think that he voluntarily kowtowed to Him, the point is rather the same:  your god doesn’t stand much of a chance, so don’t read too much into having captured Yahweh’s ark.

            As a matter of fact, the Philistines wouldn’t have defeated Israel with the Lord’s allowance.  He’s the one who raises up and casts down; He’s the one who disciplines His people like a father.  And to prove the point, he afflicts the people in 3 of the 5 Philistine cities.  The message seems clear:  you didn’t win; I taught a lesson.

            I find it helpful in times of trouble to remember that ultimately God’s enemies don’t win.  He may allow them the upper hand—sometimes for a lot longer than I’m comfortable with.  (Maybe that’s the case because I’m a slow study.)  But ultimately they don’t win.  I think that’s a big part of the Easter message:  you can kill the Son of God, but death can’t hold him; and if death can’t hold him, it can’t hold me, either.  I know it’s hard to live with that confidence in ultimate, end-time victory.  We would naturally appreciate the occasional taste of victory, but even in the absence of that, we are called to live as ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom. 8).

Without Glory

            Three interesting bits in today’s reading.  First, completely unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but 1 Samuel 4 gives us the origin of the name “Ichabod.”  (You remember Ichabod Crane, from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, right?)  Literally, the name means “No glory,” i-chabod.  The capture of the ark is one of the real low points in Israel’s history.  The ark is the seat of God’s glory, His gracious presence.  So, the capture of the ark literally means that the glory of god has left Israel.  Not to mention that such an ignominious defeat at the hands of the Philistines stole even Israel’s human glory!

            Second, a comment might be necessary about the Philistines and how they knew about Israel’s history from several centuries prior.  The best guess is that the Philistines were a sort of combination of Semitic people who had originally lived on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and generally Greek peoples who had migrated in the 13^th and 12^th centuries BC.  So, they would have had historical, cultural memory of the Conquest by Israel, and they would have had the more advanced technology of a people who entered the Iron Age ahead of the Israelites.

            Third, and probably most important, is one little word—“it.”  In verse 3, the Israelites say that “it,” that is, the ark, will save them.  Not the Lord, whose ark it is and whose presence the ark represents, but the ark itself.  Pretty clearly Israel has fallen into superstition and idolatry.  The ark has become for them a talisman, a good luck charm.  Truly the glory has left Israel!

Samuel as Type of Christ

            Luke clearly had the beginning of Samuel in the back of his mind when he wrote his Gospel.  Consider the way that Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-56) echoes Hannah’s song.  Here are two woman, each of whom experiences a miraculous pregnancy, each of whom bear a son uniquely dedicated to the Lord, and each of whom sing about the saving power of God and the way that brings a reversal of fortunes—filling the hungry, sending the rich away empty; bringing down princes, raising the lowly.  Consider that Samuel serves the Lord from youth at the tabernacle and that Luke alone records the stories about Jesus’ circumcision and about his 12-year old encounter in the temple.  Consider that Samuel grows with the Lord with him and that Jesus grows in wisdom and stature with God and men.

            What’s Luke up to?  I’d suggest that he wants us to see Jesus fulfilling the story of Israel.  In Samuel’s day, you have chaos, disorder, Israel almost completely ‘off-mission.’  In Samuel’s day, you have a dearth of visions from God.  In Samuel’s day you have corrupt leadership.  Over the course of Samuel’s book, Israel will eventually discover her one great king, David, the shepherd-king, who has a heart like God’s (1 Samuel 13:14).  In Jesus’ day, all those conditions pertain, too:  corrupt leadership centered in the temple, Israel living ‘off-mission,’ a long time (400 years) since there was a writing prophet.  And as the Gospel progresses, we’ll discover the one great king, Jesus, the shepherd king, who will lay down His life for the sheep.  And He won’t just restore Israel’s earthly fortunes, He will fulfill her purposes for the whole world, beginning the establishment of the merciful reign of God over the earth.  1 Samuel 1-3 are important foreshadowings of the work of the Messiah.

Misunderstood Hannah

            Poor, misunderstood Hannah!  Her husband comes across as a bit of an oaf.  He knows that she grieves her lack of children.  He even gives her a double portion of the sacrifice to make up for it.  But there’s never a word that he rebukes or reprimands Penninah for continually mocking Hannah, and he makes a comment that just completely doesn’t fit his context:  “Aren’t I worth more to you than 10 sons?”  Look, that sentiment flies in the modern world, in which we value children differently than in the ancient world.  (Sometimes moderns talk about children as if they’re an accessory—not the outfit itself, but just something to make the outfit look better.)  Of course Hannah’s going to say, “No, you’re not better than 10 sons.  Get over yourself.”

            Then, there’s the other woman, Penninah, who has lots of children and loves to rub Hannah’s nose in it.  The whole thing is clearly reminiscent of Rachel and Leah.  One wonders if perhaps the same dynamic is at work, if Elkanah favors Hannah more than Penninah.  Given the way the story unfolds—that the child of the barren woman becomes a great figure for the deliverance of Israel—it seems we’re supposed to have Jacob’s story in mind.

            And, there’s the priest, Eli.  In the ancient world, you prayed out loud, not silently.  In the same way, you read out loud, not to yourself.  (This is exactly opposite of how we typically do it in the modern world.)  So, because Hannah is weeping and praying silently, Eli accuses her of drunkenness.

            But all Hannah wants is the Lord’s affirmation of her that comes with a child.  She is even willing (and does!) give the child back.

            In that way, I suppose, Hannah isn’t all that different from us.  I think that of all the things we value, unconditional affirmation is one of the top ones.  For Christians, that affirmation is found on the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which are the Triune God’s great declaration, “This is how much I value you.”