This is the final part in our three-day look at the David and Goliath story. We’ve seen how the battle was really about defending God’s honour. David was the only one zealous enough to want to defend it, and confident enough in God’s power to attempt it.
Today, we look at the final part of the story – only a few verses – to see how it fits into the bigger sweep of what God was doing.
Yesterday we began our look at the well-known story of David and Goliath. We saw that it was primarily a challenge to God’s honour and reputation. Yet David was the only one to really see it that way; the only one who was zealous for God’s honour.
17:26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
Read 1 Sam 17:26-54, the next instalment of the story.
So far in 1 Samuel we’ve seen Israel ask for a king like the other nations had, so they could be like everyone else. So God granted their request, and gave them Saul. Indeed, he was the kind of king they asked for, being more concerned about what other people thought than what God commanded. So the kingdom would be taken from Saul and given to a different king – the kind of king God had in mind. In the intervening chapter (1 Sam 16), Samuel anoints David as king. Whereas Saul was the obvious candidate from a human perspective – tall, handsome, the eldest son – God’s choice was the least likely. David was from the smallest tribe, the smallest clan, the youngest in the family. And to top it all off, according to some readings he was a ranga! (For international readers: Aussie slang for a redhead. OK, so the word the KJV translates “ruddy” probably doesn’t mean “red-head”, but many ancients took it that way.)
This is the story of how David began his ascent to the throne, by acting in a very different way to Saul. Read 1 Sam 17:1-26, the first part of the well-known story of David and Goliath. Although it probably should be called the story of David and God’s honour.
Today is the final part of a three-part look at the rise and fall of King Saul. If you’re joining us now, you’d be best starting with the first in the series. Yesterday, we saw Saul listening to the people rather than God, and suffering the consequences. Yet God was gracious, allowing him to remain king. He gives him a second chance.
But what does Saul do with it? We’ll skip over a bit of the story and move to chapter 15, where Saul gets another chance to prove himself with God. Will this time be different?
15:2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them.’Today is part two of a three-part look at the rise and fall of King Saul. If you’re joining us now, you’d be best starting with yesterday’s post. Because we left Saul, the reluctant king, victorious in war against the Ammonites; and the people of Israel being graciously given a second chance by God, despite their choosing a human king over God.
The next scene is pivotal (Read 1 Sam 13, or follow the highlights below). The Israelite army assembles at Gilgal to offer a sacrifice. They want to do this in order to gain God’s favour before they went out to battle the Philistines. Verse 7 tells us that the men were ‘quaking in fear’ at the Philistines, so they needed reassurance that God would be with them:
13:7b Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.Having spent three days looking at 1 Samuel 8 (on how Israel wanted a king like the nations around them), we’ll speed up a bit as we see how having a king like the nations around played out in the life of Saul. You can read all of 1 Sam 9-12 if you like, or follow my edited highlights, below.
In chapter 9 we’re introduced to a man named Kish, who had a son, who was Israel’s future king. He just didn’t know it yet:
9:2 He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.The desire to be like everyone else will enslave us, but God will let it if that’s what we really want.
That’s what we’ve learned so far in 1 Samuel 8. Israel wanted a king like the nations around her, despite God’s warning that it would enslave them. But as we saw in Solomon’s lifetime (1 Kings 4, 10), that’s what happened. God had something far better on offer – himself as their king – but Israel chose to be like the other nations instead.
In our final look at this chapter, we look at the final part of the sentence: God will let it enslave us, if that’s what we really want.
Yesterday, we began a series in 1 Samuel. We saw that our three day journey through 1 Sam 8 can be summarised in one sentence: The desire to be like everyone else will enslave us, but God will let it if that’s what we really want.
Yesterday we looked at the first part of this sentence, starting with Israel’s desire for a king like all the other nations had. It was a slap in the face to God’s kingship, and tragic, since they had something far better on offer than a human king like everyone else. But Israel, like we often are, was ruled by her desire to be like everyone else.
Today, we look at how that desire can enslave us.
Today, we begin a new series through 1 Samuel 8-17, looking at the beginning of the monarchy in Israel: the rise and fall of Saul, and the start of David’s ascendancy. Although it may seem like a world far removed from our own, you might be surprised at some of the similarities. C.S. Lewis’s incisive comment on the human condition is as applicable now as it was in his day, and even back in ancient Israel:
‘We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.’Yesterday we began our quick look at Psalm 24, an entrance liturgy which Israel sang as she entered God’s presence. We, too, can use it to focus our minds on the God in whose presence we always are. He is firstly the Creator God, who is worthy of worship because he created the world, and everything in it (v1-2).
The second part of the psalm begins in verse 3. It functions as a “song of ascent” in which worshippers ascend Zion, God’s holy mountain. It’s in the form of a ritual question-and-answer between worshippers and priest, and talks of the requirements of entering into God’s presence.
timmacbride.com 