-Devotion by Jeremy Martin (TN)
In our 2 Samuel 15-16 reading today, we see the prophecies of Nathan (2 Sam 12) in response to David’s worst sin back a few chapters (in 2 Sam 11) being fulfilled. David’s own son rebels and David and his household have to flee. If you read closely in the scriptures here, you can pick out the intrigue and political strategies of the day, and then Absalom moves in to Jerusalem, and takes his father’s own concubines on the roof of his house, in the sight of all Israel (2 Sam 16:22). This is in direct fulfillment of the prophecy in 2 Sam 12:11-12, when God promises “Indeed, you have done this thing secretly, but I will do it before all of Israel…“.
As David is fleeing, a fellow named Shimei comes out “cursing continuously” and throwing stones at the group. This sounds quirky and odd until you read on and understand that David’s Mighty Men were with him, the elite group of fighters who were the ancient equivalent of the special forces, and then it starts to sound almost suicidal. These guys were “the best of the best”, and many of them attained their position specifically by performing insanely brave and heroic acts against overwhelming odds (and surviving). Tired of life, much? This sounds like a great idea to fix that.
Some of his mighty men predictably ask to go take Shimei’s head (2 Sam 16:9), but David replies “Hey, maybe God told him to curse me and if He did, who could say differently? Let him curse me, maybe God will have mercy” (Paraphrased, but accurately represented from 2 Sam 16:10-12). I really think that this humble acceptance of God’s sovereignty is what sets David apart, and why God favored him so much. He acknowledged his sin, acknowledged that almighty God had authority, and accepted that God’s punishment to him would be just.
This humble acceptance of God’s sovereignty is also beautifully echoed in our reading of Psalms 56 particularly in v3 and 4 where it states: “When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?“. There’s a great song called “You Are My Hiding Place” written by Michael J. Ledner and later sung by a group named “Selah” that this Psalm evokes in my mind, and I’ve sung it before when I was feeling alone and scared, you should take a moment to look it up if you’re not familiar. It actually combined verses from Ps 32, Ps 56, and 2 Cor 12 and is a hauntingly beautiful song.
In our reading in 1 Corinthians 2 today there’s a concept that’s pretty important, and understanding it fully helps us to understand and interpret scripture better. The word for “spirit” in Hebrew is “ruach” (roo-ah-ck, with the k being a glottal “kh”) and this term carries a broad range of meanings, primarily translating to wind, breath, or spirit depending on the context, and is used about 400 times in the Old Testament. In Greek, the word for spirit is “pneuma”, and much like in the Hebrew, this term carries a broad range of meanings including wind, breath, and the vital principle that animates the body.
Interestingly, in Greek the word for spirit is inherently neutral gender (so if you read He in the New Testament when speaking of the spirit, that is a biased translation: it could also read she or it, and more accurately, it). In Hebrew, the word for spirit is inherently female, but you shouldn’t get too caught up in that because the grammatical gender is distinct from personal or essential gender, so it doesn’t really imply femininity, it’s like in America when we say “She’s a grand old flag” we’re not implying that our flags are women.
Any time you see spirit capitalized in your bible, that’s also an interpretational bias because Hebrew doesn’t have capital (or lowercase) letters and the New Testament (in Greek) was WRITTENINALLCAPITALLETTERSWITHOUTSPACESORPUNCTUATION (like that, which made translation into English a hoot, I have no doubt). This is information that’s important if you want to do an accurate job of being a textual critic which is “a scholar who examines ancient manuscripts, translations, and citations to reconstruct the original wording of a text” and not just somebody who’s critical of books like it sounds. English was NOT the original language that our scriptures were written in and as a result of some inherent bias on the part of translators through the centuries, sometimes liberties have been taken.
Very late in the 4th century, it became habitual to start capitilizing spirit in certain contexts when translating, and even assigning an autonomous personality to it. We can see pretty plainly in our reading today that this is most likely inaccurate. In 1 Cor 2:11 it says “For who among men knows the depths of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the depths of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” (LSB). By the way, do you see the capital S in spirit right there? That is a translationally inaccurate bias in my version.
The spirit here is not a seperate entity, but an integral part of the person. You can’t really separate the two, the one just is part of the other. It’s…life, or breath, or wind, or “the Force”, or whatever you want to call it: not an autonomous creepy thing that lives inside you, but a description of the part of YOU that isn’t quite physical. It states in the above scripture that the spirit of God is the same, it’s not a seperate entity from God, it’s an inseparable part of Him. We are told in John 4:24 that God is spirit. Do we understand it completely? Probably not, but not understanding something doesn’t give license to start assigning roles to it. I don’t get quantum physics, but I don’t start calling it Susan either, that’s just silly. I’ve been told that the “spirit of God” is just “God in action”, and that may be. Regardless of your understanding though, it shows clearly in 1 Cor 2:11 that God’s spirit is not a separate individual but His own spirit, just like a man’s spirit is his.
It is the spirit of God that animates and sustains all life, according to Job 34:14-15. The very breath that we have, the ruach that gives us life, God breathed in to the first man upon creation. When the spirit of God comes upon a man in power, that man can then do miraculous things; prophecies, speaking in tongues, healing. To attain a deeper immersion in the spirit of God should be the goal of every one who seeks to please God, and we know that it is one of the requirements to be a believer according to Acts 2: 38. It should be our goal, second only to the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, because when we receive the spirit of God we are aligned with God, and alignment with God brings LIFE and citizenship in the Kingdom.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- When you are afraid, do you trust in God or allow your fear to direct you?
- How many times in your recollection has God been not only just but merciful towards you?
- What instances of the holy spirit have you personally experienced? (these can range from simple to miraculous, but try to remember all of them that you’ve experienced)
- How can we align our spirit with God’s spirit, how can we receive the gift of the holy spirit in more fullness?
PRAYER
Father God, Lord God Most High, please lead us. Grant us Your spirit to teach us, to whisper in our ears when we should take a certain path, to warn us when we are in error, and to lead us to You. Father fogive us when we fall short, and lift us up again with Your mighty hand, and bring us to You. Have mercy, Father. Thank you for all of the blessings that You have given, for life, breath, and all things. I am alive today because of the breath You breathed in to me. Thank you, in Jesus name, Amen.
Seek Grow Love 