Want to make God happy? Praise Him. “I will praise the name of God with a song.” Singing to God and praising makes Him happier than offering sacrifices of bulls or other stuff. Maybe He hasn’t heard me singing lately. But it really doesn’t matter what your voice sounds like, He just wants our prayers and praise. So, “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” We just give thanks to God for everything He has done for us. He gives us life and gives us eternal life. He is an awesome God.
This is an interesting account of how Saul became king. I find it interesting that God gave him a new heart. Oh, that God would just come and take away our negative side and just leave us with a good side. God isn’t happy that the people want a king, but He provides one anyway. Saul follows all of Samuel’s instructions. All that Samuel says would come true, does. It must have been very different for Saul to go through all this. Can you imagine, you are out looking for your donkeys and all of a sudden, this old dude tells you that you are going to be king? But the Lord works in different ways.
Thankfully, I’ve never had people respond to a sermon of mine the way they respond to Paul’s. They seem to listen pretty well, until he gets to the part about the Gentiles. They don’t want anything to do with that. So, Paul gets taken into the barracks and he is about to be flogged. That’s when Paul questions the guy ready to flog him about punishing a Roman citizen without a trial. Then everyone gets nervous. Roman citizen’s had rights and while this man in charge of punishing him had purchased his citizenship, Paul was born a Roman citizen, very impressive.
So, the story gets even more interesting. Paul avoids a flogging, but starts his trip to Rome.
I like this Psalm. The focus is on exactly what we’ve been trying to encourage with the Treasury, staying in God’s Word. I especially love verse two, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” I am so looking forward to reading through these lessons again next year, because I know the Lord will open up new things to see. We may read the same verses over and over, but our life is in a different place now than it was and so the readings mean different things to us. It is so amazing how God works.
It’s obvious that our Psalmist was in a good place, “My soul is consumed with longing for your just decrees at all times.” Usually our souls are consumed with sin and with earthly things. Our goal is to be consumed with the Lord, “Keep first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.” “You testimonies are my delight, they are my counselors.” You can’t go wrong if you are following the Lord. He is our delight. His ways are good.
So the story in Samuel remains simple, if Israel and their king follow the Lord, life will be fine. But if they turn away from the Lord, then life will be nasty. It’s that simple.
But the people have sinned in asking for a king, when God is their king. So, Samuel makes it rain and the people see the rain and rightly fear God and Samuel. That just means that they will follow the Lord for a while. How long? We will see.
Paul, if nothing else, is a brilliant man. For some reason the tribune takes Paul in front of the Sanhedrin – the Jewish ruling council. This means that Nicodemus would have been there also Joseph of Arimethia. Paul is standing before the same council that would have tried Jesus a few years before. He knows their theology. He knows their history. He was one of them. So, he also knows how to get them off the subject of himself and how to rattle their cages so they start a fight among themselves. And that is exactly what he does. So, they start to fight and the tribune takes Paul away and then that very night, Jesus comes to Paul and tells him that he is going to testify of Jesus in Rome.
Historically, we can’t prove that Paul was in Rome. Theologians dispute and fight over that. Personally, if Jesus says here that Paul “must testify also in Rome,” I’m going to take that as proof that Paul did testify in Rome.
If you haven’t read Acts before, this is a neat story. We will see how God works in the life of Paul and maybe remember how God works in our lives.
So I liked the Psalm yesterday, but I do not like this Psalm so much today. Maybe if I thought that I have people surrounding me to hurt and harm me I could relate to it more. I guess that’s a better way to put it, I can’t relate to the Psalm right now, today, at this moment. Maybe in another hour when people start coming into the office, I’ll feel more threatened, but I doubt it. Still, the truth of the matter is that it is the Lord who protects and delivers us. He is our refuge and salvation. He should be the first person we run to for help in any situation.
Ok, so Saul can relate to our Psalm (it’s actually a Psalm of David, written at a time when Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him). Here Saul has 3000 men and they are going out to fight the Philistines who have 30,000. Saul waits for seven days like he is told, but Samuel doesn’t come. So, Saul takes matters into his own hands and offers the sacrifices so that God would be pleased. The problem is that it’s not Saul’s job to offer sacrifices. It’s the priests and prophet’s job to offer sacrifices and so Saul, who hasn’t been king too long at this point, learns that his family is not going to be king over Israel forever. “The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.” Again, follow the Lord’s directions carefully or bad things happen. I am so glad I did not live back then. I would have never made it past 15 years of age.
It’s fun reading about two Saul’s. It’s amazing to see that they are two completely different people. Paul listens to the Lord perfectly and obeys His every order. Saul is a little impatient. Paul seems to have gained favor in the eyes of the tribune. At least the tribune seems to be dealing fairly with Paul, not like his former colleagues who make a oath to kill him. Those guys are going to be hungry and thirsty for a while. Never make an oath you can’t keep!!! So, the plot gets thicker and thicker as Paul is taken before Felix. He gets to sit there a while until his accusers get there. This is indeed an interesting story.
We have our good days and we have our bad days. One can never tell ahead of time if a day is going to be good or bad. But one thing we can count on, our Lord loves us. His love is steadfast and never changes. He loves us no matter what. He loves us unconditionally. So, armed with the love of our Lord, we have an answer for anyone who taunts us. Sticks and stones may brake our bones, but our Lord loves us forever. We just stay in the Word. We remember His commandments. We just keep God as our focus and we will be fine. The world can fall all around us, but we will be fine.
Saul makes another mistake. He names his first son something normal like Jonathan and then his next two sons are Ishvi and Malchi-sua? What’s that about? Give them all normal names so they don’t get teased in school. But that wasn’t the mistake Saul made. He made a huge mistake, far worse than giving his kids funky names.
Saul had been fighting left and right. He’s smart in that whenever he sees a strong man, he grabs him and keeps him close to himself. Smart move. But when the Lord says, “kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” do what He says and kill them. Don’t let the king live. Don’t let the good sheep and oxen live. If the Lord says to destroy them: destroy them.
I know this doesn’t go over well with our non-Christian friends these days. If God is such a God of love how could He order innocent children and infants murdered. These same people have no problem with abortion and mercy killing, but they get angry with God for ordering the death of these little children who would grow up and attack Israel when they got a chance. God was trying to keep Israel pure and as we have seen, that’s not an easy task. It calls for extreme measures. When it comes down to it, by definition, when you are God you get to choose who lives and who dies. When you are God and you have created everything that exists, then you get to make the rules. Those people saw how God was working with Saul and Samuel and they could have repented, but they didn’t and they were just going to cause trouble. So God orders their demise. But Saul gets in trouble for not doing as the Lord says. Not so smart.
So, Paul makes his case before Felix (I can’t help but thing of Felix the cat whenever I read this text – you can find Felix on youtube). Anyway, those against Paul make their accusations. Paul presents a pretty good defense. And Felix seems to have some sympathy for the cause of “The Way” as the Christians were known. How Felix knew about them, we don’t know, but Luke tells us that he did. So that’s a good thing. We just have to wait and see what happens when Lysias the tribune comes down and puts in his two cents worth.
Who said the Bible was boring? This is good reading.
There is great potential for me being a bad boy today. Kristen (my daughter) wants to see Harry Potter at the IMAX in 3-D. The closest place showing that is in Lincolnshire, IL. That means I have to miss closing the Thrift Shop (that’s where the bad boy part come in). So, do I miss closing the Thrift Shop or to I miss popcorn and one of the last few outings with my daughter before she goes back to college in 25 days?
I have learned over the last 48 years that I have very little control over nature. I’ve been to baseballs games that have rained out. I’ve been to many freezing cold high school football games watching football and the cheerleaders (since my daughter was one of them, I could get away with that – course, not any more). I’ve been on the golf course when it’s been sprinkling and cold and the weather has never changed upon my request. But several times in our Psalm we see, “God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting … He calls to the heavens above and to the earth.” He controls where the seas go. He controls the rising sun. He controls it all. And in return, “the heavens declare his righteousness.” This beautiful world is a sign that God exists and that He is a God of love.
Poor Saul. Here is my question. What Saul did was wrong. He makes excuses about keeping the best of the best to offer sacrifices to God. But Samuel’s response is dead on, “Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams.” So, if you want to please God, keep you money in your pocket and just do what He says. Even better, offer the sacrifice AND listen to what He says. So, while he may have an excuse for the cattle, he really doesn’t have a case for keeping the king of Agag alive. Why would he do that? Notice how Agag comes “cheerfully,” before Samuel saying, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” Wrong. “Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.” That’s another reason I wouldn’t want to be a prophet. I don’t like hacking people to pieces.
But back to my question. David sinned with that whole Bathsheba thing. He slept with her and then had her husband killed. He’s caught by Nathan the prophet and he confesses and is not only spared his own life, but he keeps on being king. Saul makes this mistake. He says to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” But he still loses the kingdom. Why?
Don’t you just hate politics? And those changes in administration. Felix leaves office and is succeeded by Porcius Festus. Wasn’t he the guy in Gunsmoke? But Felix leaves Paul in jail as a favor to the Jews. Paul is in jail for two years at this point. You’d think the Jews would forget about him by now. But that’s just not the case. And Paul knows that if he is taken to Jerusalem for trial that either it won’t be a fair trial or he will be ambushed and killed along the way. So, he has no choice but to use his Roman citizenship and appeal to Caesar. Paul is going to Rome. But it’s going to be a long journey.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing,” says John 15. And in our Psalm for today, we are likened to vines in God’s vineyard. When we lived in upstate New York, we lived in the Fingerlakes Region where there were a lot of vineyards. Whenever someone would come and visit, we’d take them to a wine tasting at a vineyard we had not been to yet. That was the best part of upstate New York. Vineyards are a lot of work, but if you ask me, it’s worth it.
And so it is with us, we are a lot of work for our Lord. His Son came to earth and bled and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He died to “Restore us, O Lord, God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved.”
God was not happy with Saul as king, but Samuel continued to grieve over God’s decision. But God orders Samuel to go and visit with Jesse, David’s father. Samuel obeys God and does as He says. It’s interesting that the people wonder if Samuel came, “peaceably.” How many prophets come with guns blazing?
We say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” God says, “the Lord sees not as man see: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” So, Jesse’s oldest son, although strong, is not what God has in mind to be king. God picks David who is “ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.” I had to look up ruddy. It means to have a healthy reddish color.
While the text never says that God arranged for David to go and work for Saul, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened. For David to just happen to know someone to who worked for Saul, would be slim. God made those arrangements.
We don’t have to worry about God taking His Spirit from us. “The Spirit of the Lord departs from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” If it weren’t written in the Bible, I would not believe that God would do something like that. But God is God and He can do what He wants. But we have been Baptized so we have been adopted by God and we have God’s promises in Scripture that He will never leave us or forsake us. We can leave Him, but He will not leave us. And maybe that’s what happened with Saul. Saul left God. Saul disobeyed God and so God makes it official by removing His Spirit from Saul. But, keep the faith, the Lord is not going to take His Holy Spirit from us.
Jesus told Paul that he would be His witness before Kings and rulers. Well, here we see it again. Paul is brought before Agrippa and Bernice. Festus doesn’t know what to write to Caesar about. So, he is going to have Paul defend himself before Festus, Agrippa and Bernice so that he may have something to write to Caesar about. We will see what that defense is later.
Have a great day. My parents are coming in for the weekend. David is coming down from Oshkosh to see them. I think we are touring Miller Brewery Saturday morning. Got to do something with the folks rather than just s
The one problem with the way we do worship right now is that we don’t ever get to use the order of Matins or Vespers. I love Matins and Vespers. What brings that up? The first verse of the Psalm, “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!” Right from the order of Matins. The Psalm is very appropriate for reading the David and Goliath story. I hate using the word story because it almost sounds like the story wasn’t true. But it was. It did happen. Take this Psalm, print it out, tape it to the bathroom mirror for when things aren’t going well and when people are out to get you. It’s a good prayer for bad occasions.
The David and Goliath story is so cool. I don’t know why it hasn’t been made into a movie. They could make a movie of the story of David’s life. It has everything. Intrigue. Valor. Sex. Murder. David had so much in his life. Yet, while he made mistakes, he still followed the Lord and was faithful to Him.
Still, with our lesson for today, can you imagine a man over eight feet tall challenging you to fight? He was huge for the day. And yet, we will see little David accept the challenge and win. Why? Because he trusted in the Lord.
Finally, Paul gets to plead his case in from of Agrippa. He tells a familiar story that we have heard many times of how he was a Pharisee and persecuted the church and then Jesus appeared to him and how he now follows Jesus. Not really much to say about this. We will just wait and see what happens later.
I just finished reading the lesson for today, and even though I know the story of David and Goliath, I told my husband, today’s lesson leaves us hanging, almost like a cliff-hanger. He said, “you can always turn the page and keep reading”. I know, but I like cliff-hangers; they’re exciting.
SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2009
PSALM 69:30-35
1 SAMUEL 10:1-27
ACTS 22:17-29
Want to make God happy? Praise Him. “I will praise the name of God with a song.” Singing to God and praising makes Him happier than offering sacrifices of bulls or other stuff. Maybe He hasn’t heard me singing lately. But it really doesn’t matter what your voice sounds like, He just wants our prayers and praise. So, “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” We just give thanks to God for everything He has done for us. He gives us life and gives us eternal life. He is an awesome God.
This is an interesting account of how Saul became king. I find it interesting that God gave him a new heart. Oh, that God would just come and take away our negative side and just leave us with a good side. God isn’t happy that the people want a king, but He provides one anyway. Saul follows all of Samuel’s instructions. All that Samuel says would come true, does. It must have been very different for Saul to go through all this. Can you imagine, you are out looking for your donkeys and all of a sudden, this old dude tells you that you are going to be king? But the Lord works in different ways.
Thankfully, I’ve never had people respond to a sermon of mine the way they respond to Paul’s. They seem to listen pretty well, until he gets to the part about the Gentiles. They don’t want anything to do with that. So, Paul gets taken into the barracks and he is about to be flogged. That’s when Paul questions the guy ready to flog him about punishing a Roman citizen without a trial. Then everyone gets nervous. Roman citizen’s had rights and while this man in charge of punishing him had purchased his citizenship, Paul was born a Roman citizen, very impressive.
So, the story gets even more interesting. Paul avoids a flogging, but starts his trip to Rome.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
MONDAY, JULY 27, 2009
PSALM 119:17-24
1 SAMUEL 12:1-25
ACTS 22:30-23:11
I like this Psalm. The focus is on exactly what we’ve been trying to encourage with the Treasury, staying in God’s Word. I especially love verse two, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” I am so looking forward to reading through these lessons again next year, because I know the Lord will open up new things to see. We may read the same verses over and over, but our life is in a different place now than it was and so the readings mean different things to us. It is so amazing how God works.
It’s obvious that our Psalmist was in a good place, “My soul is consumed with longing for your just decrees at all times.” Usually our souls are consumed with sin and with earthly things. Our goal is to be consumed with the Lord, “Keep first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you.” “You testimonies are my delight, they are my counselors.” You can’t go wrong if you are following the Lord. He is our delight. His ways are good.
So the story in Samuel remains simple, if Israel and their king follow the Lord, life will be fine. But if they turn away from the Lord, then life will be nasty. It’s that simple.
But the people have sinned in asking for a king, when God is their king. So, Samuel makes it rain and the people see the rain and rightly fear God and Samuel. That just means that they will follow the Lord for a while. How long? We will see.
Paul, if nothing else, is a brilliant man. For some reason the tribune takes Paul in front of the Sanhedrin – the Jewish ruling council. This means that Nicodemus would have been there also Joseph of Arimethia. Paul is standing before the same council that would have tried Jesus a few years before. He knows their theology. He knows their history. He was one of them. So, he also knows how to get them off the subject of himself and how to rattle their cages so they start a fight among themselves. And that is exactly what he does. So, they start to fight and the tribune takes Paul away and then that very night, Jesus comes to Paul and tells him that he is going to testify of Jesus in Rome.
Historically, we can’t prove that Paul was in Rome. Theologians dispute and fight over that. Personally, if Jesus says here that Paul “must testify also in Rome,” I’m going to take that as proof that Paul did testify in Rome.
If you haven’t read Acts before, this is a neat story. We will see how God works in the life of Paul and maybe remember how God works in our lives.
Have a blessed week.
TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2009
PSALM 59:1-5
1 SAMUEL 13:1-18
ACTS 23:12-35
So I liked the Psalm yesterday, but I do not like this Psalm so much today. Maybe if I thought that I have people surrounding me to hurt and harm me I could relate to it more. I guess that’s a better way to put it, I can’t relate to the Psalm right now, today, at this moment. Maybe in another hour when people start coming into the office, I’ll feel more threatened, but I doubt it. Still, the truth of the matter is that it is the Lord who protects and delivers us. He is our refuge and salvation. He should be the first person we run to for help in any situation.
Ok, so Saul can relate to our Psalm (it’s actually a Psalm of David, written at a time when Saul had sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him). Here Saul has 3000 men and they are going out to fight the Philistines who have 30,000. Saul waits for seven days like he is told, but Samuel doesn’t come. So, Saul takes matters into his own hands and offers the sacrifices so that God would be pleased. The problem is that it’s not Saul’s job to offer sacrifices. It’s the priests and prophet’s job to offer sacrifices and so Saul, who hasn’t been king too long at this point, learns that his family is not going to be king over Israel forever. “The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.” Again, follow the Lord’s directions carefully or bad things happen. I am so glad I did not live back then. I would have never made it past 15 years of age.
It’s fun reading about two Saul’s. It’s amazing to see that they are two completely different people. Paul listens to the Lord perfectly and obeys His every order. Saul is a little impatient. Paul seems to have gained favor in the eyes of the tribune. At least the tribune seems to be dealing fairly with Paul, not like his former colleagues who make a oath to kill him. Those guys are going to be hungry and thirsty for a while. Never make an oath you can’t keep!!! So, the plot gets thicker and thicker as Paul is taken before Felix. He gets to sit there a while until his accusers get there. This is indeed an interesting story.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29, 2009
PSALM 119:41-48
1 SAMUEL 14:47-15:9
ACTS 24:1-23
We have our good days and we have our bad days. One can never tell ahead of time if a day is going to be good or bad. But one thing we can count on, our Lord loves us. His love is steadfast and never changes. He loves us no matter what. He loves us unconditionally. So, armed with the love of our Lord, we have an answer for anyone who taunts us. Sticks and stones may brake our bones, but our Lord loves us forever. We just stay in the Word. We remember His commandments. We just keep God as our focus and we will be fine. The world can fall all around us, but we will be fine.
Saul makes another mistake. He names his first son something normal like Jonathan and then his next two sons are Ishvi and Malchi-sua? What’s that about? Give them all normal names so they don’t get teased in school. But that wasn’t the mistake Saul made. He made a huge mistake, far worse than giving his kids funky names.
Saul had been fighting left and right. He’s smart in that whenever he sees a strong man, he grabs him and keeps him close to himself. Smart move. But when the Lord says, “kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” do what He says and kill them. Don’t let the king live. Don’t let the good sheep and oxen live. If the Lord says to destroy them: destroy them.
I know this doesn’t go over well with our non-Christian friends these days. If God is such a God of love how could He order innocent children and infants murdered. These same people have no problem with abortion and mercy killing, but they get angry with God for ordering the death of these little children who would grow up and attack Israel when they got a chance. God was trying to keep Israel pure and as we have seen, that’s not an easy task. It calls for extreme measures. When it comes down to it, by definition, when you are God you get to choose who lives and who dies. When you are God and you have created everything that exists, then you get to make the rules. Those people saw how God was working with Saul and Samuel and they could have repented, but they didn’t and they were just going to cause trouble. So God orders their demise. But Saul gets in trouble for not doing as the Lord says. Not so smart.
So, Paul makes his case before Felix (I can’t help but thing of Felix the cat whenever I read this text – you can find Felix on youtube). Anyway, those against Paul make their accusations. Paul presents a pretty good defense. And Felix seems to have some sympathy for the cause of “The Way” as the Christians were known. How Felix knew about them, we don’t know, but Luke tells us that he did. So that’s a good thing. We just have to wait and see what happens when Lysias the tribune comes down and puts in his two cents worth.
Who said the Bible was boring? This is good reading.
THURSDAY, JULY 30, 2009
PSALM 50:1-6
1 SAMUEL 15:10-35
ACTS 24:24-25:12
There is great potential for me being a bad boy today. Kristen (my daughter) wants to see Harry Potter at the IMAX in 3-D. The closest place showing that is in Lincolnshire, IL. That means I have to miss closing the Thrift Shop (that’s where the bad boy part come in). So, do I miss closing the Thrift Shop or to I miss popcorn and one of the last few outings with my daughter before she goes back to college in 25 days?
I have learned over the last 48 years that I have very little control over nature. I’ve been to baseballs games that have rained out. I’ve been to many freezing cold high school football games watching football and the cheerleaders (since my daughter was one of them, I could get away with that – course, not any more). I’ve been on the golf course when it’s been sprinkling and cold and the weather has never changed upon my request. But several times in our Psalm we see, “God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth, from the rising of the sun to its setting … He calls to the heavens above and to the earth.” He controls where the seas go. He controls the rising sun. He controls it all. And in return, “the heavens declare his righteousness.” This beautiful world is a sign that God exists and that He is a God of love.
Poor Saul. Here is my question. What Saul did was wrong. He makes excuses about keeping the best of the best to offer sacrifices to God. But Samuel’s response is dead on, “Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams.” So, if you want to please God, keep you money in your pocket and just do what He says. Even better, offer the sacrifice AND listen to what He says. So, while he may have an excuse for the cattle, he really doesn’t have a case for keeping the king of Agag alive. Why would he do that? Notice how Agag comes “cheerfully,” before Samuel saying, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” Wrong. “Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.” That’s another reason I wouldn’t want to be a prophet. I don’t like hacking people to pieces.
But back to my question. David sinned with that whole Bathsheba thing. He slept with her and then had her husband killed. He’s caught by Nathan the prophet and he confesses and is not only spared his own life, but he keeps on being king. Saul makes this mistake. He says to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” But he still loses the kingdom. Why?
Don’t you just hate politics? And those changes in administration. Felix leaves office and is succeeded by Porcius Festus. Wasn’t he the guy in Gunsmoke? But Felix leaves Paul in jail as a favor to the Jews. Paul is in jail for two years at this point. You’d think the Jews would forget about him by now. But that’s just not the case. And Paul knows that if he is taken to Jerusalem for trial that either it won’t be a fair trial or he will be ambushed and killed along the way. So, he has no choice but to use his Roman citizenship and appeal to Caesar. Paul is going to Rome. But it’s going to be a long journey.
I’ll let you know how Harry Potter was.
FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2009
PSALM 80:14-19
1 SAMUEL 16:1-23
ACTS 25:13-27
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing,” says John 15. And in our Psalm for today, we are likened to vines in God’s vineyard. When we lived in upstate New York, we lived in the Fingerlakes Region where there were a lot of vineyards. Whenever someone would come and visit, we’d take them to a wine tasting at a vineyard we had not been to yet. That was the best part of upstate New York. Vineyards are a lot of work, but if you ask me, it’s worth it.
And so it is with us, we are a lot of work for our Lord. His Son came to earth and bled and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He died to “Restore us, O Lord, God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved.”
God was not happy with Saul as king, but Samuel continued to grieve over God’s decision. But God orders Samuel to go and visit with Jesse, David’s father. Samuel obeys God and does as He says. It’s interesting that the people wonder if Samuel came, “peaceably.” How many prophets come with guns blazing?
We say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” God says, “the Lord sees not as man see: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” So, Jesse’s oldest son, although strong, is not what God has in mind to be king. God picks David who is “ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.” I had to look up ruddy. It means to have a healthy reddish color.
While the text never says that God arranged for David to go and work for Saul, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened. For David to just happen to know someone to who worked for Saul, would be slim. God made those arrangements.
We don’t have to worry about God taking His Spirit from us. “The Spirit of the Lord departs from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” If it weren’t written in the Bible, I would not believe that God would do something like that. But God is God and He can do what He wants. But we have been Baptized so we have been adopted by God and we have God’s promises in Scripture that He will never leave us or forsake us. We can leave Him, but He will not leave us. And maybe that’s what happened with Saul. Saul left God. Saul disobeyed God and so God makes it official by removing His Spirit from Saul. But, keep the faith, the Lord is not going to take His Holy Spirit from us.
Jesus told Paul that he would be His witness before Kings and rulers. Well, here we see it again. Paul is brought before Agrippa and Bernice. Festus doesn’t know what to write to Caesar about. So, he is going to have Paul defend himself before Festus, Agrippa and Bernice so that he may have something to write to Caesar about. We will see what that defense is later.
Have a great day. My parents are coming in for the weekend. David is coming down from Oshkosh to see them. I think we are touring Miller Brewery Saturday morning. Got to do something with the folks rather than just s
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2009
PSALM 70
1 SAMUEL 17:1-19
ACTS 26:1-23
The one problem with the way we do worship right now is that we don’t ever get to use the order of Matins or Vespers. I love Matins and Vespers. What brings that up? The first verse of the Psalm, “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! O Lord, make haste to help me!” Right from the order of Matins. The Psalm is very appropriate for reading the David and Goliath story. I hate using the word story because it almost sounds like the story wasn’t true. But it was. It did happen. Take this Psalm, print it out, tape it to the bathroom mirror for when things aren’t going well and when people are out to get you. It’s a good prayer for bad occasions.
The David and Goliath story is so cool. I don’t know why it hasn’t been made into a movie. They could make a movie of the story of David’s life. It has everything. Intrigue. Valor. Sex. Murder. David had so much in his life. Yet, while he made mistakes, he still followed the Lord and was faithful to Him.
Still, with our lesson for today, can you imagine a man over eight feet tall challenging you to fight? He was huge for the day. And yet, we will see little David accept the challenge and win. Why? Because he trusted in the Lord.
Finally, Paul gets to plead his case in from of Agrippa. He tells a familiar story that we have heard many times of how he was a Pharisee and persecuted the church and then Jesus appeared to him and how he now follows Jesus. Not really much to say about this. We will just wait and see what happens later.
I just finished reading the lesson for today, and even though I know the story of David and Goliath, I told my husband, today’s lesson leaves us hanging, almost like a cliff-hanger. He said, “you can always turn the page and keep reading”. I know, but I like cliff-hangers; they’re exciting.