David and Saul

When we think of David we usually pair him.
David and Goliath
David and Bathsheba
David and the Psalms
But the interactions between David and Saul intrigue me on a number of levels.

When we first meet Saul we're told that he was " an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites". He has been sent by his father to find some missing donkeys. He meets up with Samuel, who has been warned by the Lord to watch for him, and Samuel anoints him as king somewhat privately.

Saul starts out humble...hiding amongst the baggage when he is to be introduced as king...but pretty quickly stumbles about in the early days of his reign with his most significant early failure described in 1 Samuel 15 - 16 where he fails to destroy the Amalekites as instructed.

When we first meet David we're told that we was "ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features". He has been out in the fields caring for his father's livestock. He meets up with Samuel, who has been sent by the Lord to find him, and Samuel anoints him as king somewhat privately.

Immediately following David's anointing by Samuel we find Saul described as being tormented and the solution to the problem is to find a musician to calm his spirits. Scripture tells us that David is recommended and then we have this:
"David came to Saul and entered his service/ Saul liked him very much, and David became one of his armor-bearers. Then Saul sent word to Jesse saying, "Allow David to remain in my service, for I am pleased with him." 1 Samuel 16:21-22

Now compare that with this tidbit that comes AFTER David defeats Goliath:
1 Samuel 17:55-58
"As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he said to Abner, commander of the army, 'Abner, whose son is that young man?'
Abner replied, 'As surely as you live, O king, I don't know.'
The king said, 'find out whose son that young man is.'
As soon as David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with David still holding the Philistines head.
'Whose son are you, young man?' Saul asked him.
David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.'

Saul is apparently clueless, completely missing the spiritual reality that is before his eyes...David the harp player/armor-bearer whose playing calms the kings spirits is now David the military hero. This servant of God has been in his midst and yet Saul can't seem to see beyond the momentary physical realities.

Reading through this this time I was struck by the parallels to Moses and Pharaoh.
Pharaoh's heart is hardened by a spirit from the Lord just as Saul is tormented by a spirit from the Lord.
Pharaoh is given signs pointing to the fact that Moses comes from God just as Saul should have seen the signs of David's coming from the Lord.
Pharaoh chases Moses and the people out of Egypt into the wilderness just as Saul will chase David out into the wilderness.

It seems to me that there are deeper truths to be mined from these stories of David and Saul than the stories we get on the flannel graph. (Although I love those too.) Truths about leadership and the paths that lead to it. Truths about how God establishes leaders and what happens when He takes His hand away. Truths that circumstances on the outside often belie spiritual truths on the inside.

I think I'll mark this as one of those places...yet again... that is worthy of much further digging

Judges: What a mess

I have to confess that reading this particular book of the Bible generally leaves me depressed. Some of the stories contained therein are just insane.

• Abimelech murdering seventy of his brothers
• Jephthah vowing to sacrifice "whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return"
• The Levite who surrenders his concubine to the rabble in Gibeah
• Samson's abject stupidity in dealing with Delilah

Quite frankly? This is NOT the book to use as "suggested reading" for friends and family who are young in their faith. These people are just mind bogglingly stupid!!!
I'm not sure I'd count many of these guys amongst the "heroes of the faith"...with the possible exception of Deborah.

So what is the point of Judges?

I think it is a book of proof.

The progression goes something like this:

• The end of Deuteronomy has Moses telling the Israelites what life will be like once they go into the promised land: blessing for obedience and curses for disobedience.
• The book of Joshua is about being strong and courageous and, more importantly, remembering.
• The book of Judges follows as an illustration of exactly what the warning's of Moses are all about.

In Deuteronomy 28 we read:
20 "The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to..."
28 "The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind."
34 "The sights you will see will drive you mad"

These curses aptly describe the goings on in Judges and they describe, equally as well, the sort of thing from which I want to sprint in the opposite direction.

I'll be glad when we get out of the craziness that happens during these years which come under the heading:
"In those days Israel had no king."

Gideon's Fleece

Judges 6:1 - 7:25

If one of the major themes of the book of Joshua is "remembering" then it is fair to say that one of the major themes of the book of Judges is "forgetting". Maybe better put the theme here is, "what happens when you forget."

An oft repeated phrase in this book is found right at the start if chapter 6: "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord..." As usual they then "cry out" and God "hears their cry".
In this case He comes to Gideon.

The opening interaction with Gideon is interesting. He is hiding, almost cowering, in a wine press threshing wheat when the angel of the Lord appears and says, "The Lord is with you mighty warrior." (If this was played out on film today that would probably come across with a LOAD of sarcasm behind it but that isn't the case here.) Gideon's response is indicative of the tensions between remembering and forgetting:

Judges 6:13: "But sir", Gideon replied, "if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."

So Gideon knows the stories at least, he sems to know something about what it looks like when God is "with" the Israelites but he claims to not understand why God has let them fall into the hands of Midian. Fast forward to verse 27 where Gideon is tearing down his fathers alter to Baal along with his Ahera pole. Hello?!?!? WHY has God put them into the hands of Midian? Worshipping the gods of the people of tha land? Pretty clear instructions have been given about THAT for generations. Did you perhaps forget that bit Gideon?

The back and forth that follows as Gideon puts out his famous fleece, as God winnows down the army, as Gideon and his servant enter the camp of the Midianites all serve to show God's patience. I think it is safe to say in this particular case that Gideon has grown up in a household that recalls the forms of their relationship with God without recalling the substance. He has been taught the stories but not the outcomes or spiritual truths contained within those stories. He dad and all the people of the town have been worshipping false gods perhaps alongside their own traditions...covering all their bases as it were.
God deals gently with Gideon, showing him the truth in answer to his question, "why?"

I love this story not because of the cool military victory or the "magic fleece" but because it shows God's heart towards Gideon, and man whose heart is good but who lacks understanding. It shows God's patience in teaching wisdom. It shows God's faithfulness to His people. I love the fact that if, by my actions, I "forget" what God has done in the past He still reads past those actions to the heart.

Lord, help us to remember and please be as gentle with us as you were with Gideon when we forget.

Talk about a freak show!

The book of Judges...mind boggling.

The first generation after the wandering generation forgets God. As soon as Joshua is off the scene the dive straight into the weeds. Now, is this their fault or the fault of their mothers and fathers for not teaching them correctly? I think both parties may be liable but it does make me want to closely examine how well I am doing at teaching my own kids about spiritual things.

The story from chapter 17 is a great example of just how sketchy things got almost immediately:

• We start with Micah, from the tribe of Ephraim, stealing money from his mother bu feeling guilty enough to bring it back.
• Mom is so happy she has the silver made into a idol...apparently forgetting all about that 10 commandments thing.
• Micah recruits a wandering Levite, (tribe number 2) to be his household priest, apparently as some sort of nod to religious tradition because he had previously made his son a priest.
• A group of Danite spies come by, (tribe number 3) and notice the sweet setup...idol, shrine, Levite priest...and so they enquire whether their upcoming raid will be successful.
• The spies come back through with their army after receiving a prediction of success from the priest and recruit the priest to come along with them...and while he is at it to bring the "household gods"...apprently there was a variety available.
• MIcah gets miffed when he finds himself looted, calls out the neighbors, chases down the Danites and says. "What the heck?"
• The Danites, who must see the Levite and other goodies as a good luck charm in battle, respnd by telling Micah he had better go away or one of them may lose his temper and kill Micah's family.
• The Danites go off and conquer Liash and set up Micah's rig as their new shrine to God...which persists for generations!

I truly hope that after I am gone I have managed to teach my children, and more than to have taught them but to have lived out in front of them, what it means to follow God faithfully on His terms rather than on our own. AND...that as a result of having taught, and shown, and discipled them...that they will live out their faith in amazing ways.
Please Lord let it be so.
Amen.

Joshua

The week of spring break was VERY relaxing.
With no internet access I didn't have a chance to post and several have asked so we'll do a little catching up today.

Reading through the book of Joshua is a cool story...until you get to the end where they're dividing up the land...that bit is tedious.

A couple of the highlights that struck me:

• Joshua 1:6-9, as the people are getting ready to enter the land he says , THREE TIMES, "be strong and courageous"...you think maybe he was remembering his last trip into the land forty years prior when he came back with 10 out of 12 guys who were neither strong nor courageous?
• Joshua 2:1 he sends out spies to check out the land, "So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there." This always cracks me up...the first place the spies go. Perhaps the correct translation was that he told them to "go and check out the lay of the land"? (Sorry, couldn't resist the bad pun.)
• Joshua 3 they cross the Jordan "on dry ground". They exited Egypt through the Red Sea and now enter the promised land through the Jordan both times "on dry ground". How cool is it that God provides the same symbol from one generation to the next.
• Joshua 7 Achan's failure. God's displays what looks like harsh justice in response to Achan's direct disobedience. Something He also did in response to the golden calf in Exodus. Once again His message, and His method are consistent.
• Joshua 8:26 the attack on Ai. Joshua is told by God, (vs. 18)"Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city." and then we read in vs 26: For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. Perhaps he was recalling the time he went out to battle the Amalekites in Exodus 17. When Moses stood on the top of the hill with his staff in his hands? Ex 17:11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning...
• Joshua 14:10 Caleb claims his inheritence. I love this bit where Caleb comes back and recounts that he was forty when they spied out the land, that 45 years have passed since then and that he has come to claim his piece of the land.

I could further go into the setting up of the twelve stones of remembrance when the people cross the Jordan, the pile of stones over the body of the king of Ai, the alter of uncut stone on Mount Ebal, the alter built by the eastern tribes on he borders of Canaan, the stone under the oak at Shechem.

This whole book is about two things:
1. Remember who God is and what he has done
and as a result
2. Be strong and courageous

It might have been simpler to write just that, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as interesting.

Protestant Guilt

I grew up in one of those homes that religiously attended church every Sunday.
No sleeping in for my brothers and I to finish the weekend. We'd be rousted and up early, dressed in less than comfortable clothes, the hair on one side of our heads, or the top, or the back plastered down with a combination of water, mom-spit and comb in an attempt to tame an unruly case of bedhead.
We could do the flannel graph version of David and Goliath almost from memory by the time we were five and had penciled many a pew inspired masterpiece on the back of visitor cards before we were old enough to read all of the words on the other side.
I can still clearly remember sitting in second grade Sunday school class when our teacher imparted wisdom to us that was much like this:

"There are some things that you do that are bad. We call those things 'sin'. The Bible tells us that sin gets in the way between us and God...it separates us from God. The Bible also tells us that the good things we do will never be good enough to get us back close to God."...and from there she went on the explain the need for Jesus to die on the cross.
Of course I had heard this before but this time I actually got it. I understood this gospel thing! And so I prayed, very deliberately, the prayer.
Then, being a curious and somewhat precocious seven year old, I asked, "Ummm...What now?"
"Well, " she enthusiastically informed me, " now you need to be sure to read your Bible and attend Sunday school, pray everyday, and sing songs to God." ('Worship' is a foreign concept to seven year olds and they sometimes think you're talking about war ships which takes the conversation in an entirely wrong direction.)
The teacher was still beaming as she handed each of us who had prayed a brand new crispy-paged bible. I made my way back to my tiny seat smiling the half-smile of being caught up in the moment and as I sat down...
I was completely lost.
If half of what I did was bad then of course I would end up doing these things bad half the time...and feel guilty.
and
If half of what I did was good, but not good enough, then I'd never be able to do these things good enough...and feel guilty.

Was I now doomed to a life of cyclical guilt?

At this point allow me to meekly confess that I did NOT think all of that when I sat down in my small wooden Sunday school chair. In truth it has taken me years of study and striving to come to this conclusion.

And now I get it.

This "list of things to do" creates what I have come to recognize as Protestant guilt.
It's quite different from Catholic guilt.
Catholics have original guilt, they're born with it.
We Protestants earn our guilt. We have the seeds of it bestowed upon us as part and parcel of the Protestant work-ethic; seeds which are nurtured by well meaning Sunday school teachers armed with vacation bible school curricula.
It is coaxed into full bloom by various evangelism methodologies and somewhere between 25 and 50 days of either purpose, prayer, or spiritual adventure.

Interestingly original guilt can be cleansed through weekly ritual.
Protestant guilt is sticky stuff that clings and hangs around for years infusing its tendrils into the soul at an almost subatomic level.

For those suffering from Protestant guilt I offer this ancient prescription:

• Stop shoulding on yourself.
• Spend 30 days just hanging out with God listening.
• See where He takes you.

Listen close though. When it comes to the mightiest truths, He tends to whisper.

(If you need further assistance might I suggest renting the film, "Evan Almighty" and imagine hanging out with Morgan Freeman's character.)

Confessions of a former youth pastor

Deuteronomy 23:1 - 26:19

We used to do an annual breakfast event with our youth groups, just kind of a family time to talk about the year gone by and the year to come.

As part of that event I would give kids seemingly random scripture references, have them look up the passage, read aloud, and provide interpretation of what they'd read. Several of the verses in this section of Deuteronomy were amongst my favorites. Imagine a middle school kid asked to read out loud and then provide the meaning of the following:

Deut 23:1
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Deut 23:10-11
If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the camp and stay there. But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.

Deut 23:12-14
Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As a part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement. For the Lord your God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you...
(I had a kid once say, "This means God doesn't want to step in your poop.")

Deut 25:9-10
...his brothers widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line." That man's line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

Deut 25:11
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes up to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

I suppose if I believed in purgatory I would have earned several extra years there...but it did have the effect of making the kids more interested in reading the old testament!!