It's Not Paranoia...

The story of David found in 1 Samuel 18-20 is a story of David thing going from hero to fugitive.

In the end, David worried Saul is going to kill him goes to his friend. Jonathan wasn't sure it was that bad. I have to wonder if Jonathan might have said something like, "David, my friend, you're just being paranoid. Dad did try to kill you before, but that was when he was having one of his episodes" (FYI: these episodes consisted of a demon tormenting him, so perhaps it could be overlooked.?) However, then David said in this creative retelling, "Jonathan, my friend, it's not paranoia if they're really trying to kill you!"

Jonathan showed mercy on his friend and hatched a plan to see if Saul, Jonathan's dad, was really out to kill David. In the end, which you can read below, Saul wanted David dead. Jonathan in response helped his friend. The thing that stands out to me is how much it cost Jonathan by showing mercy to David.

Jonathan’s mercy cost him.

1. Honor (David was now the new hero)

2. Kingship

3. Relationship with His Father, the King

4, Nearly His Life

Yet Jonathan did it. 

Wow, Jonathan is a real example of what a friend and I would add a Christian should be. 

 So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon festival began, the king sat down to eat. He sat at his usual place against the wall, with Jonathan sitting opposite him and Abner beside him. But David’s place was empty. Saul didn’t say anything about it that day, for he said to himself, “Something must have made David ceremonially unclean.” But when David’s place was empty again the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse been here for the meal either yesterday or today?”

Jonathan replied, “David earnestly asked me if he could go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Please let me go, for we are having a family sacrifice. My brother demanded that I be there. So please let me get away to see my brothers.’ That’s why he isn’t here at the king’s table.”

Saul boiled with rage at Jonathan. “You stupid son of a whore!” he swore at him. “Do you think I don’t know that you want him to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother? As long as that son of Jesse is alive, you’ll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!”

“But why should he be put to death?” Jonathan asked his father. “What has he done?” Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him. So at last Jonathan realized that his father was really determined to kill David. 1 Samuel 20: 27-34 NLT 

Ask Anything and It's Yours (How silly can people be?)

What were you thinking?

 Imagine if you will that everyone in your family is sick and is going to die, but there is a cure. The cost to get them all well is far above anything you or anyone you know afford. You're desperate. Now let's suppose the richest person in the world came up and said, "I want to prove to you and everyone around you that money doesn't rule my life. So, I want to give you anything that it is possible for me to give, even if you want all the money I have."

What would you do? 

You would look at the person and say, "Thanks, but I'm pretty sure, I know what kind of person you are. I don't want anything from you."

NO! Only if you're an idiot.

Yet, this is exactly what King Ahaz does when Isaiah comes to him (Isaiah 7). God offers to give Ahaz a sign to prove God will bring deliverance to Judah. Yes, Ahaz couches the refusal in spiritual words, but in reality, he is saying I don't want any proof you are God. 

God said ask anything? 

What could he have asked? The king of Babylon to come kneel to him? His enemies offering reparations for war crimes? Everyone in his kingdom to become their equivalents of millionaires? All sickness be cleansed from the world (God did say anything)? Hair on my head rather than just on my back? Okay, the last one was more personal. 

Ahaz could have been selfish or hugely generous at this moment, but he would rather reject God than receive any proof that God is real. How sad and how crazy is that. 

The question we might want to ask ourselves is, "Are we being just as crazy?" Are we refusing to trust God and see His works, because we want to do things our own way?

God however did give a sign, and eventually, that sign when it came was Jesus. Jesus truly is God's ultimate sign. 

P.S. If you're the richest person in the world or even close. You are free to give me the offer mentioned above. I won't refuse. lol

Backwards Beatitudes

What do you really want this future leader to be like?

Happy are the self-willed for they shall build their own kingdom.

Happy are those who have no regrets, for they will be praised.

Happy are the self-confident, for they will get what they want.

Happy are those who hunger for self-fulfillment, for they will find it.

Happy are the ruthless, for they won’t let anyone hold them back.

Happy are those who are open, for they will see the value in every god.

Happy are the rebels for they will be called children of change.

Happy are you when everyone loves you, for then you will have freedom in this life.

These are the Beatitudes the world around us sings the praises of, yet deep down we know that they won’t ultimately keep you happy or fill your heart with joy.

Jesus’s beatitudes are far different, yet at the end of the day, they are far better.

Besides, let’s be honest. Do you really like that self-willed, rebel who only cares about getting what they want and don’t regret treating others badly?  

God sends all?

“I am the LORD, and there is no other. I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things.” (Isaiah 46:6b-7)

 

On the night of 14 November 1940, three hundred German bombers dropped 500 tons of explosives, 33,000 incendiary bombs, and dozens of parachute mines on the industrial city of Coventry. During the raid, 507 civilians were killed and 420 seriously injured.[i]

It had been suggested that Winston Churchill knew that the attack was going to take place but keep it a secret so the Germans wouldn’t know the Allies had cracked their secret code. New research concludes this might not have been the case. However, I have to wonder, if Churchill did know for sure and did know that evacuating the town would have let the Germans know their code would have been cracked, would he have kept the secret?

I’m not a Churchill scholar but considering how many other times he had to sacrifice the lives of others to win the war, I would have said he probably would have. Think about it, D-Day was a victory, but it was also in many places a blood bath. I personally talked to a soldier who climbed the cliffs at Omaha Beach. He and two others were the only ones in his platoon to survive. Churchill and the Allies did all they could to prepare for the battle, but all the commanders knew they would lose a lot of men, and if something went wrong maybe even most of them. As it was 133,000 men invaded, with over 10,000 casualties.[ii]  Yet, they knew if the war was going to be won, they had to take the fight to the enemy.

Was it worth it? Yes, it was to the free world but to the families who lost one or more sons that day it was, to say the very least, horribly painful. In the end, God will judge the hearts of those involved, but to most of history, it seemed like the right call.

What does that have to do with the scripture I quoted?

We often want to protect God and remind people that God might allow things, but he doesn’t do them. However, God here and in other places doesn’t back down. He knows he has the power to stop bad things from happening so in one way he is responsible, but clearly, He believes the cost is worth it. That is uncomfortable. Emotionally speaking it seems cruel to say it. Just as it would have been cruel for me to say to that veteran, “it was worth, however, letting you watch your buddies die though.” Just to clarify, I didn’t say much during that discussion with that vet, I let him grieve.  In one very real way, to win the war, it was worth the loss, but on the day, I was talking to that vet, it didn’t feel like it to him.

God isn’t afraid to take responsibility. Yet, there are times in the scriptures he allows men and women to cry out in accusation, to question, and also to just be silent and allow the person to grieve. Jesus did weep with his friends at the death of Lazarus even though he knew the end of that story. In the time of pain, the knowledge that God could have stopped it doesn’t help. Yet, when we can think and reason clearly, we can trust that if God is allowing it there is a reason, even if we don’t like it at the time.

When it comes to dealing with people in grief, my advice is to listen to Paul and “weep with those who weep”[iii] and don’t try to give excuses or try and justify God. Just grieve with those who grieve and silently trust God has a plan.  

 

 

 

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[i] https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/myths/coventry-what-really-happened/

[ii] https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/research/online-documents/world-war-ii-d-day-invasion-normandy

[iii] Romans 12:15

God is our Helper, not our Genie.

 God is our refuge and strength,

always ready to help in times of trouble.

So we will not fear when earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! 

Ps. 46:1-3 NTL (emphasis added)

 

I was considering what constitutes help. A thief may consider help someone looking out for the cops. A person feeling the effects of withdrawal help might look like someone with a needle. To a firefighter help might be the person who tells them exactly where the trapped person is in the building. To a jury help may be the witness who gives them the right facts so they can render a just verdict. Help to a confused person might be just the right words to clear up the fog of confusion over an issue. Help for someone who doesn’t want to accept a truth might be a fake or misleading article.

 

Help really can mean a lot of different things. The difference as far as we might be as far as we are concerned is selfish and/or altruistic. In the example above the thief wants purely selfish help. The firefighter wants altruistic help. The juror wants help, that may actually be both, it helps him and justice.

 

God’s help isn’t greater because it always serves a greater good. We may not like the help God is offering right now, but ultimately Christians will. So believers, you don't need to be afraid. 

Jesus the Failure?

It might be funny to think that Jesus thought, He was a failure. Us? Sure, we mess up and there are times all of us feel as if what we do is meaningless. Consider these words from Isaiah:

 

He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.”

I replied, “But my work seems so useless!

I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose.

Yet I leave it all in the LORD’s hand;

I will trust God for my reward.” Isaiah 49:3-4

 

These prophetic words are speaking to God's coming Messiah. Yet when we see Jesus, most can't imagine Jesus saying that His work seems useless. However, when Jesus is on the cross and cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." I clearly see it. At that moment, the Holy Spirit wasn't giving Jesus the supernatural ability to know things others couldn't know. He was facing agony and death alone. Yet we also see Him saying, "Into your hands, I commit my spirit." These verses show Jesus fulfilling these words but also walking as we often walk.

There are times when all of us feel as if what we are doing is ultimately going to be utterly useless. The truth is without God, they will be. Yet for those who trust God, we can leave all we do in God's hands, and He will reward us for our faithfulness even if no one else will. We might be tempted to laugh at the idea of an uncertain Jesus, but what He went through tell us we're not alone. Jesus knows what it feels like too.

Disgusting Miracles?

 

“After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.” John 9:6

 

Throughout the Bible, God uses unusual ways to get things done; crows to deliver food to Elijah, then later a widow woman with next to nothing to eat, a donkey to correct a Balaam, 300 to defeat a multitude, etc. There are a lot of them, some of them funny but most ironic is some way. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:27, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

Jesus takes it to a new extreme. Sometimes, it’s a little disgusting. You might find it humorous, or at least humorous that I get a little queasy thinking about it.

Consider this: “After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue” (Mark 7:33). Jesus stuck his fingers in the guy’s ears (didn’t wash them before or after, either), then spits (I’m assuming on his fingers). Finally, he touches the man’s tongue with fingers that were just in his ears and spit on. Yuk (for me at least).

Yes, I know there are reasons Jesus did what he did and that he was using the miracle as a parable but it is still unsettling for this guy’s weak stomach.

At the end of the day, I still trust God and if Jesus has to spit on me to be blessed then I need to be willing to accept it.