Category: 1 Samuel

Preaching about the Privy

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 23-25

Poetry: Psalm 69

New Testament: Galatians 3

1 Samuel 24 contains one of my most favorite stories in all of scripture. 

David, the prophesied King of Israel, the chosen, warrior king whom Saul rejected but whom a number of people adored, is living in a cave. And, speak of the devil, Saul walks right into that self-same cave to relieve himself. 

… Saul goes out to hunt David and goes into a cave to sit upon his “throne”.

David had Saul dead to rights.

He had caught Saul with his pants down (or his robe up) and was close enough and stealthy enough to cut his robe.

Is there any more humiliating, powerless position to be in?

So the question is : why didn’t he kill Saul and end it?

Saul has tried to pin David to the wall. 

Saul is currently tracking David’s whereabouts with 3000 men. 

Saul is doing this though all David ever did was to honor his king. 

Still, David does not end the pursuit; he allows God to be the one who brings justice. 

“May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you.” (1 Sam. 24:12)

David did not rebel against Saul, David did not hate Saul. 

David gave Saul pity on the potty,

Mercy in the men’s room,

Compassion on the commode.

You probably won’t have a king chasing you through the wilderness, but you may have enemies. People who hate you. People who want the worst for you. 

Jesus, however, teaches us to be compassionate in the way David is compassionate. 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” (Matt. 5:38-42)

Jesus gives us this command because there are times when we are being chased and we need to cut the robe… and there are times when we are the ones on the toilet. 

The times when we are the hero doing right by another and the times where we are the villain who looks like a madman. 

Jesus forgives us in all of these situations and desires that we live and love better. 

We are called to do to others what we desire done for us. (Matt. 7:12)

We are called to desire *and work for* the good, even the best, of the other. (Matt. 5:43-48) 

“Be perfect,” Jesus says after speaking of loving your enemies, “as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”

God has spared us, even as we were his enemies.  

God gave us pity, mercy, and compassion. 

God, through Jesus, teaches us to forgive ostentatiously and go beyond what is “necessary,” to not just show love but be love to our enemies. 

So the next time you find your enemy in the cave where you are hiding and they are in your hands, 

Give them the love of God… while they are in the loo. 

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. Grace, Grace, God’s Grace: Have you given your heart to the Lord, to trust in his grace, mercy, and love? God loves you, he wants to forgive your sins, and give you eternal life in his presence. However, his love calls to us rather than demanding from us. Will you trust in the God who desires the best for you, even when you were his enemy?
  2. Your own Saul: Do you have an enemy chasing you down? What does that look like in your life? Jesus asked for forgiveness for the people currently involved in killing him (Lk. 23:34); so he calls you to forgive those who are “seeking your life”. If that feels impossible, ask for the strength of the God who does the “impossible,” and he will make the impossible possible. 
  3. Be David, Not Saul: Are *you* chasing someone else down? Are you seeking someone’s life; bent on revenge, or “justice”, or “fairness”, or “making them feel like I felt”? You are called to let it go. Saul is the bad guy, the madman, and God judges against him because he is so focused on his own glory, rather than focused on what God was doing through his people and his anointed. Be David, not Saul, and let the Lord bring about his will. 
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“I’ll be there for you”

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 19 & 20

Poetry: Psalm 68

New Testament: Galatians 1

David was successful.

A consummate warrior (1 Sam. 18:7), 

a decisive leader (1 Sam. 30:21-25),

handsome enough to make the ladies swoon (1 Sam. 18:20, 25:39-42). 

But is that what makes a man successful? 

Strong arms, incisive wit, a good frame?

David would never say that those things made him great. I’m not even speaking of the most obvious reason he was successful; clearly that is because he honored the Lord his God, he worshipped God and was a man after God’s heart. The power, wisdom, and beauty of the Lord far outstrip anything David had “naturally”. 

Beyond worship, David did not live his life *alone*. It is very Western and American to think of a successful man or woman and assume they succeeded on their own, against all odds, versus the world, pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. But the world doesn’t work this way. 

Success doesn’t work this way. 

Faith doesn’t work this way. 

David was surrounded by people he admired and who admired him, men who believed in his cause and who would follow him. 1 Chronicles 11 is a list of David’s valiant warriors, his mighty men, thirty guys whose names are immortalized as warriors who went to battle with David as his greatest compatriots. 

In our reading today, what we see is the love David had for Jonathan and that Jonathan had for David. In chapter 18, Jonathan loved David as he loved himself, and gave him gifts to prove his love. The entirety of chapter 20 consists in David knowing Saul wants to kill him but wanting proof from Jonathan, and Jonathan learning that his father was murderously insane. Jonathan and David weep when they know they are going to be separated so that David is not killed by Saul in a jealous rage. They weep knowing that they may never meet again in this life. 

Jonathan is the example of the proverb:  “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Prov. 17:17)

David, to be the man God wanted him to be, needed people, especially peers he respected, to push him and to support him. David needed Jonathan. 

Jesus chose to surround himself with guys he trusted, even if they were super frustrating (“you little-faiths” is somewhere between an insult and a term of endearment). Jesus loved his disciples. He didn’t start the church as a solo act. Moreover, the disciples needed each other! Jesus didn’t just teach one disciple or 2, but had twelve close disciples/apostles and seventy-two who he sent out to teach in pairs. (Luke 10:1ff)

This message is intended for everyone (boys and girls, men and women), but I want to speak directly to the guys for a second: Fellas, you need someone to support and who supports you, a real friend. It doesn’t need to look like the loving, hugging, (kissing? gross) friendship of David and Jonathan. But in our culture, men are marked by loneliness and without real connections to other guys. Young guys especially are socially disconnected, which leads to pessimistic views about the future. In trying to find communities, we naturally turn to the internet, which can connect us superficially with people who think like us, but also is a place ripe for shallow “personal relationships,” unrealistic para-social relationships, and a possibility for bad actors to try and warp pain and loneliness into anger and resentment. 

In other words, we need to go outside, touch grass, and make some real friends. Go to church and talk to people. 

David needed it.

Jesus modeled it. 

The Disciples lived it. 

May you find your Jonathans and Davids soon. 

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. You’ve got a friend in me?: Do you have friends outside of digital spaces? Online friends are nice, but as embodied creatures, the digital cannot substitute for the reality of physical friends who are in the same room, space, worship gathering, concert hall, wherever you and your friends gather. How can you bring your digital friends together in physical spaces? How can you eliminate the nagging, lazy voice of “just stay home tonight” when your friends want to gather together? 
  2. Jesus’s Besties: Jesus, because he is the empowered son of God, could have theoretically, maybe gone through life without friends. However, his life shows us why he wouldn’t want to! Friends were necessary for his movement, and friends gave him joy. Five hundred gathered together after his death, the seventy two were sent by him, and the twelve knew him for three years or more. But closer than that were Jesus’s besties; Peter, James, and John. John himself was probably the disciple whom Jesus loved. More than many friends, do you have deep friendships? Is there anyone you would trust to hear your secrets, with whom you could share doubts, or to whom you could confess? These deep friendships are not quick choices or made overnight, but having them is essential for the kind of success Jesus wants for his disciples.
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Shocking Stories from Sunday School

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 17 & 18

Poetry: Psalm 68 (day 2 of 4)

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 13

What are the stories you remember from Sunday School lessons? What videos did you watch or what murals were painted on the wall?

Jonah.

Noah. 

Zacchaeus. 

If you take away the cartoon animals, the talking vegetables (as much as I love them), and the flannelgraph, and describe the story as experienced by the people in the moment, they become traumatizing. Horrifying. Or, at the very least, shocking. 

A man devoured by a great water beast that digests him for three days. 

The world is covered in a flood that wipes out all life, causing them to drown as torrential rain falls from blackened skies and geysers shoot from the ground in every direction. 

You have been living your whole life obeying God’s law and waiting for the coming of his Messiah, and instead of him coming to your home, he chooses to spend his time with the short, traitorous Zacchaeus and his rag-tag group of ne’er-do-wells. 

Traumatizing. Horrifying. Shocking. 

The story of Goliath is similar. It’s not about a piece of broccoli with gourd brothers who sings to an asparagus and a giant pickle; it is about a young man who is ready to kill an enemy because he dares defy the army of the living God. 

The story is not funny or fun; it is awe-inspiring. 

David looks into the eyes of his enemy and says “This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.” (17:46)

What strikes me is this: we should be careful before we sanitize the Bible. 

The Bible is not a list of propositions to believe, they are stories about the past of a nation and their encounter with the living God. 

Bible stories, moreover, are not nice, or clean, or simple. 

Characters are rarely one dimensional. 

Good characters do bad things and bad characters can do good things. 

Rarely do those good or bad things fit nicely into our models of morality; David was a man of bloodshed and war and a man after God’s heart. And Jesus said “love your enemies.” That’s not clean or simple.

The Bible, this amazing library of sixty-six books that teach us about the God of the universe and his amazing interaction with people who are looking for him, is not a book that is *given* to children. Jesus does love the little children of the world, but the stories of scripture are meant to be read, understood, questioned, and applied by mature, wise disciples of Jesus. 

The Bible is a big book, and the stories of the Bible grow as we grow.

We shouldn’t lose sight of what we learned in Sunday School; but the stories of the Bible go far beyond Sunday School, and can impact all aspects of our lives. 

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. Sunday School Stories: As you read the stories of David and Saul, how often are you thinking of the “sanitized” versions from Sunday School? Of course, we shouldn’t tell toddlers about the slaughter of the Philistines, but the story of Goliath is grim; God isn’t pleased with Goliath or the Philistines. Should we shy away from the judgement of God because it makes us uncomfortable?
  2. Encountering God: When you are being honest with yourself, do you want the Bible to be simple, clean, or nice? Do you *want* the Bible simplified, or do you *want* the Bible to be the complicated, holy, challenging collection of books that it is? 
  3. A final thought: The Bible can be understood by someone who knows nothing about it. However, someone who knows nothing about the Bible also wouldn’t have WRONG ideas when reading it for the first time. Are we OK admitting that we might be bringing wrong ideas to the text when we read?
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Two Kings among the Sheep

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 15 & 16

Poetry: Psalm 68 (day 1 of 4)

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 12

We read it yesterday: “If you had obeyed…” 

Saul committed disobedience. But was the kingdom taken from Saul because of one act of disobedience? 

In 1 Samuel 15, God commands Saul, through Samuel, to kill and destroy everything of King Amalek. That is gruesome, but it is the command of God; you will kill all the people and destroy all their stuff. In warfare of the ancient world, after an enemy army was defeated you would take their survivors as slaves, their flocks as property, and their land as your own. To win a war was to become wealthy. But that is not the reason God desires the Israelites to go to war; they go to war because they are listening to the Lord, because he is creating a people for himself, not for their gain and profit. 

Saul disobeys God because he spares a man and the best animals. What our world, our culture might consider “mercy” is considered an act of disobedience. Samuel comes to Saul at Gilgal, and after the Lord told Saul to explicitly kill the sheep, the bleating carries across the hills of the region. After the Lord told Saul to explicitly kill the oxen, their lowing can be heard. Saul had set up a monument for himself (15:12) and even declares that he had completed the will of the Lord! Samuel has to clue him in that in declaring that he intended to sacrifice these animals, he was in fact disobeying God’s direct orders.  

To obey is better than sacrifice. 

To heed is better than the fat of rams. 

The Lord regretted he had made Saul king over Israel. 

However, in the town of Bethlehem, a young boy, ruddy, beautiful, and handsome, also stands among sheep. A young boy who has been slinging stones at predators, not knowing he would need to fell giants. A young boy who is learning obedience, learning hearing and obeying the word of the Lord. A boy, a man, after God’s own heart. 

David. 

Imagine you are Samuel. The last time you smelled lanolin, you had a king crying at your feet, ripping your robes, and it breaks your heart. You had anointed this tall man while he was chasing donkeys, through the desert, but he never truly learned how to be king, how to follow the commands of God. And you grieve.

And now, the boy covered in the smell of sheep walks in through the front door and the Lord speaks to your spirit “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.”

With a sense of irony you realize that you have seen the Lord change the times and the ages. 

He took the kingdom of a king, and he gave the kingdom to another. 

Two Kings among the sheep…

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. Worship and Obedience: Because it is Sunday, there is just one difficult question for you. Today will be or was a day of worship. In Christ, our sacrifice is our heart and our praise to God. (Romans 12, Hebrews 13) However, have you been obedient to God? Have you done all that he has commanded? Are there any broken relationships that need to be mended? Are there any hurts for which you should ask for forgiveness? How can you be obedient to the prompting of the spirit, or to the commands of scripture? Or are you simply “worshipping” God, content that you are giving him something subpar, something less than the obedience he demands? 
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Your Kingdom Forever

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 13 & 14

Poetry: Psalm 67

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 11

Saul fails as a King. 

Sorry for the lack of “spoiler warnings”. He doesn’t make it. 

What’s more sad and more of a shocker, is that he *could* have succeeded at being king. At building a dynasty for himself and his children. The language of 1 Samuel 13:13-14 is pretty clear. 

“You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (ESV)

The foolish action of Saul was… sacrifice. Worship. How can that be wrong? Because it was not in accord with the commands of God. Saul was not supposed to do the sacrifice; he was supposed to wait for Samuel. Saul’s impatience and his presumptuous attitude caused him to fall into sin, because he did not obey the word of the Lord. He was keeping the “outward” signs of the law (the sacrifice) but not the details (who, how, when). He wanted the armies to see the sacrifice, rather than keeping it the way God wanted. This impatience and presumption becomes worse later in the story (chapter 15). 

Saul is told that another is rising up in his kingdom. A man after God’s own heart, who would obey the word of the Lord. That is who will replace Saul. 

But notice the end of verse 13 : “For then (if you had kept his commands), the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.” I don’t think Samuel is stating his own personal opinion here nor do I think he is speaking falsely. God was willing to allow Saul to have a kingdom dynasty. He would have allowed him and his children to sit upon the throne… if Saul had obeyed. 

Far too often, we think all things are set in stone, that our days are done, that the story of our life is written. Before all time, before all actions, either God has claimed us or rejected us. 

In glorious praise and holy fear, that is not true. 

God would like to allow you to reign with Christ in God’s Kingdom. However, you have choices to make. Will you obey? Will you heed the word of the Lord? 

If you do, then all your sins can be forgiven. God will forgive, God will restore, God will empower. 

But, if you do not obey… “he would have established your kingdom”? More “he would have established you in his kingdom.”

You have choices to make. Rather a choice: will you obey the Word of the Lord.

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. The Law We Obey: 1 John 3:23 tells us the commandment that we are called to obey now. What is new about this commandment? What is ancient about this commandment? How can you live out the commandment today?
  2. The Perseverance We Have: In John 10:29, we are promised protection by the Father and that we, as sheep, are not going to be stolen away. How does this promise of protection relate to the story of Saul and the removal of his Kingdom? How does it relate to the choices we are called to make and the salvation we are called to have?
  3. Once Saved, Always Saved?: While some people find comfort in phrases like “there is nothing you did to earn your salvation, so there is nothing you could do to lose it,” is that phrase true? Can people who have “seen the light” reject the salvation of God? (Check out  Hebrews 6:4-6.) It seems obedient relationship with Christ through the power of the spirit is necessary for salvation! (1 John 5:2) Have you asked God to give you his spirit, so that you can obey the commands of Jesus?
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“But can God Love Me?”

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 11 & 12

Poetry: Psalm 67

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 10

If you’re like me, that is, *if you are human*, then you have made mistakes. Some of those mistakes are major; not just a small white lie, but sins that harm others and put us out of sync with God. Sometimes, when we make those big sins, we feel like God could never forgive us, could never love us. The words of Samuel to the Israelites from the end of 1 Samuel 12 should give us hope in those moments.

“Do not fear.” “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31), and we should not excuse the sins we commit. The first command given to the Israelites is to not let fear make them flee from the Lord. Instead, we should listen more closely to God than ever. If we recognize our sin, we also recognize that God’s ways are higher than our own, and  his ways are better than the ways of the world. If we flee from God, we turn toward things that cannot give us hope, cannot give us a future, cannot redeem us. As Samuel says, they cannot profit or deliver. They are futile. 

This all seems very good. “Maybe our sin wasn’t so bad”… we might say, foolishly. God does not ignore your sin because he is ignorant of it, or because he doesn’t care. Instead, “God will not abandon His people *on account of His great name*.” God has chosen a people to be his own possession. In the ancient world, it was Israel, those who were born from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, children of the promise. Today, he has also chosen a people, also those born according to a promise, but now, it is all who have a faith like Abraham’s, who trust God like Isaac, who believe and wrestle with the Lord like Jacob, those who choose to trust in the final and ultimate descendant of the Patriarchs, Jesus Christ. God has made you a part of his people when you trusted in Jesus. Now, the reality is that we are not merely performing the law, but the law of God has been enacted in the life of Jesus, and by connecting with him, we both enact the law and go beyond it to the truth Christ taught! Christ taught us the truth of God, Christ showed us the life that God wants us to live, Christ died so that we might have life. “Consider the great things the Lord has done for you.” It is now more true than ever. Our sin was nailed to the cross with Christ. It was so terrible it cost Christ everything and he willingly paid it all. 

We are called to avoid sin, and we are warned by Christ himself that if we live wicked lives, his words will judge us in the last day. But now, if we do sin, we do not need to fear because we have an advocate who loves us, who gives us a spirit who can change us from the inside out, so we might stop sinning and stop desiring to sin. That is the glory and the power of living in the age of grace, of living in the shadow of the cross. 

“As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.”

And so, this day and every day, may you be blessed as you “Seek, Grow, Love”. Far be it from me to cease praying for you!

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. Do Not Fear: We are commanded “do not fear” again and again in scripture. We are even told that perfect love drives out fear. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Moreover, Jesus did not encourage his disciples out of their fear when they were in awe and terrified when the winds and waves obey him. With all those confusing passages in mind, what is the Christian relationship with fear? What should we fear? What should we not fear?
  2. Consider the great things the Lord has done for you: Make a list throughout the day today of all the blessings that God has given you. What are the big, great amazing things, and what are the small, everyday good. Consider them all and see that the Lord is good. 
  3. Far be it from me…: Would you take the next few minutes, and pray earnestly, for those who are reading Seek Grow Love. Pray for the blessings of God to be upon them. Amen. 
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By Choice, By Prophecy, By Lot

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 9 & 10

Poetry: Psalm 66

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 9

Before David, Saul becomes king of Israel. 

How does a person become king? 

Romulus, the “first king” of Rome, supposedly built Rome with his followers and then asked for the consent of the people who lived in the city. I guess being raised by wolves is helpful in courtly duties. 

Arthur Pendragon pulls a sword from a stone, whether his horse was simply two halves of a coconut or Merlin’s owl spoke. 

T’Challa took a heart-shaped herb and fought a Panther I think? I don’t quite remember that movie. 

“Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of His other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith”, boringly, inherited it from his mother. 

At least one of those kings is fake, the historicity of two others are greatly debated, and personally, I still have my doubts about Charles. 

How does someone become king?

In 1 Samuel 8:19-20, the people cried out for a king. 

In 1 Samuel 9, Saul is chosen by Samuel. 

In 1 Samuel 10:20-24, Saul is chosen by lot. 

In 1 Samuel 11:14-15, *Saul* is chosen by the people.

So, how did he become King? 

People’s choice award? 

Pulling the short straw?

One old guy’s decision?

Saul’s reign is not because the people demanded it, or because Saul got lucky at dice (or pot shards). God is involved in the process. In 1 Samuel 9:17 is was not Samuel but GOD who chose Saul. 

In every authority, in every government, this is true. “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Rom. 13:1) It is clear that God does not approve of every leader and certainly not of their actions. God lets humans make their bad and destructive choices (including, in democracies, choosing bad leaders). Then he works with, and in spite of, those choices. God works to bring about glory for himself; he works toward the coming of the Messiah and his Kingdom. 

Saul was given an opportunity by God to be a person who would bring God’s plan into fruition. God took Saul from chasing donkeys to ruling a nation. God gave Saul every opportunity to be a ruler “after God’s own heart” and yet Saul chose to disobey. 

Kings, rulers, presidents, emperors are only ruling because God has given them the opportunity; the opportunity to obey or disobey, to listen to his voice and to his commands. The same choice he gives to each of us.

Remember, no matter who sits upon any throne, any seat, or behind any desk…

God is on his throne and in control.

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. Preempting “Godwin’s Law”: “What about Hitler?” “What about Mao?” “What about Pol Pot?” Yes those leaders were truly awful. Still, Paul wrote Roman’s to the people who were in the heart of one of the most powerful, most militaristic empires the world has ever known. Paul died by beheading in Rome, and yet he still was inspired by God to write Romans. What is the Christian response to wicked leaders? How much should we obey leaders who are acting against our values? (Maybe check Acts 5:27-32 to compare to Romans 13)
  2. The Lion from Benjamin?: From prophecy in Genesis (Gen. 49:10), it seems like a Benjaminite should never have been king. We see God chose Saul. Now a question for you to chew on for a long time, why Saul? David was a man after God’s own heart and a descendant of Judah. Was Saul always destined to failure? Why THIS choice? (There is not a clear cut reason in scripture, but having read through this chapter, what do you make of it?)
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A Tale of Two “PKs”

*Old Testament: 1 Samuel 7-8

Poetry: Psalm 66

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 8

As a preacher with kids, married to the daughter of a preacher, who was the son of a preacher, I know a fair share of PKs. You’ve heard the term, or maybe something like it : preacher’s kid, pastor’s kid. It is at once a purely descriptive term and a stereotype; his father is a pastor, so he must have problems. I think any such stereotypes are untrue; again I am married to a pastor’s daughter and have my own! But, the stereotype comes from somewhere. Often kids of prominent figures must do more than the average kid to “find themself” and feel like they are being defined by their family of origin. This can lead to precocious behavior and rebellion. I have also heard sad stories of men and women who “gave everything to the church,” to the work they were called to do, forget that their first calling was to their home, to love and raise their children first. 

The sad truth is that, whatever the reason, Samuel’s faith didn’t make it to his sons. Preacher’s kids (prophet’s kids?) through and through, they fit the unfortunate stereotype. They did not follow the ways of their father. We can’t know if Samuel did everything he could and they rebelled or Samuel was absent and they didn’t have the chance to learn. But they were dishonest and greedy. They were being set up to be the next leaders (judges) of Israel, but Israel did not want them. 

Remember the pattern of Israel through Judges. The nation of Israel is oppressed and cries out to the Lord. The Lord provides a judge to crush their enemies and guide them well. Israel thanks God but over time loses sight of his ways. They disobey God and turn away from him and he causes a nation to go in and remind them to follow him. So a nation goes in to oppress Israel and the nation of Israel cries out… and the cycle repeats. The time had come however, when the Israelites didn’t want to rely on the Lord for their deliverance. They want to have a king, a Powerful King (PK) to rule over them. 

Why? Because, though the people of Israel might think they are avoiding those who are greedy and rebellious, the greedy rebellion is happening as they speak: they are rebelling against God by asking for a Powerful King over them. How? Didn’t God want them to have a king? Maybe, in his own time and in his own way, he would bring about a king after his own heart without the elders asking for it, but it was the motive of the elders that was terrible. The elders say “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” (1 Samuel 8:5) They say “God, we don’t want to rely on you. God, we don’t want you to be our king and to speak to us through prophets. God, we want to have a king like everyone else!”

We don’t want to be special. To be different. To stick out. We want to be like everyone else. And God hears their hearts “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” Samuel warns them kings are powerful, kings are harsh… “Davids” will be the exception; “Sauls” will be the rule. But they say “There shall be a king over us, that we may be like all the nations, that our king may rule us and go out and fight our battles.”

Why talk about prophet’s kids and powerful kings? Both are a rejection of the best God has for us; the sons of Samuel rejected the words of their father and lived lives that were corrupt and evil and despised. They had the opportunity to lead the people of Israel, to be remembered as a judge over God’s people, and they squandered it. But the elders fared no better. Rather than asking for a word from the Lord, they want to get away from God being their only king and have a king like everyone else, to be like everyone else. 

May you today accept that you are called to be different, and accept Jesus Christ as the King who rules over you, to make you different, unique, and not like everyone else.

May you not rebel against the good things taught to you by your parents or parents in the faith. When you learn true thing about the Lord, from whatever source, may you honor it, and not reject the good things that come to you from those who came before. 

May rebellion and rejecting God be far from *us* today. 

The Lord help us, judge us and lead us. Amen.

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions

  1. Faithful Kids: Who were your parents in the faith? Was it your mom and dad? An aunt or uncle? A friend or pastor or youth worker? What did they teach you that stuck with you? If they are still alive, do they know the impact they had on you? Reach out and let them know how their life impacted your own!
  2. Not like Everyone Else: How many times have you wished to be like everyone else? That your clothes, your hair, your face, your nose, didn’t make you stick out? That the way you walked or talked or believed didn’t make you weird? The message from scripture is to embrace the weird way Jesus calls us to because normal doesn’t seem to be working! It’s weird to have a full life, a hopeful life, a passionate life. That’s weird… and it’s what Jesus offers!
  3. A Good King: Jesus has the right and ability to take everything, but I have found that the more I give to Jesus, the more he gives back to me. I give him my home for his use, but I have been given the home of every believer who shows hospitality. I give him my money for his use, but I know that if I need support, I will find It. I give him my very life, and he gives me a life worth living. Will you let the good king have all that he demands? Will you be ready to receive the blessings that he will give in return?
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“My God is Bigger than Your God!”

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 5-6

Poetry: Psalm 65

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 7

Did you know Marduk had fifty names? 

It’s OK if you don’t, because most people wouldn’t because we don’t normally know the number of names of ancient gods of dead civilizations. 

But Marduk had fifty!

Two of my kids have four names, and sometimes that feels like three too many!

Why did he have that many?

Because scholars rarely agree on anything, there are many different reasons for this, but there was a common idea in the ancient world that what happened in the physical world was merely an echo of what was happening in the spiritual world. When Babylon took over other cities, they would claim that the god of Babylon, that is, Marduk, had defeated the god or gods of the city or tribe they just defeated. Marduk got a lot of name because Babylon overcame many enemies and they merged together the defeated gods with the great god so that he supplanted even their chief deity by the end of the poem of creation of the Babylonians. 

The school-yard-like taunt between the ancient nations was “My god is bigger than your god!”

This is where we make it to our story today. The Philistines worship a god named Dagon/Dagan, and so when they defeat the Israelites, they wheel the Ark into the temple of Dagon. Because he is bigger, better and stronger than YHWH; right? At least, that’s what the Philistines think. But the destroyed, worshipping statue of their god boasts different things. 

The Old Testament is full of imagery of the great power of God over other “gods.” In the Exodus, God is powerful over the Egyptian deities; he turns off Ra and brings low Pharaoh, among others. In the exile, God is shown to be powerful over his foes in both the last part of Job (where YHWH is subtlety compared to many gods) and in the return from exile, where his people walk free in the year he declared he would bring them back. Here in 1 Samuel, Dagan “worships” God by falling prostrate before him, and the Philistines, while trying to taunt and control God, decide the ark is more trouble than it’s worth.

Some ancient gods have no reality at all; the power of other gods seem to come from demons. (1 Corinthians 10:20) But no matter their reality, their falsehood, their existence or the lack thereof, 

Our God is greater. 

Our God is better. 

“My God is better than your god!” And he actually is!

-Jake Ballard

Reflection Questions:

  1. Marduk. Enlil. Baal. Zeus. Jupiter. There are many gods of the ancient world that claim the title of top God. How can we know there can be only one true God? How would you talk to a friend who is open to the existence of multiple gods or even multiple pantheons of gods? How would you tailor your message to speak to them.
  2. We shouldn’t ignore the two different plagues. Why did the Philistines have a plague affect them? Why did the people of Beth Shemesh have a plague affect them? What do these two plagues teach us about God?
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God on Call?

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 3-4

Poetry: Psalm 64

New Testament: 2 Corinthians 6

I want to be very clear from the outset: YHWH, the God who created everything, who spoke the universe into existence, who watches the explosions of supernovas and the random dance of  each of the electrons in the subatomic particles, THIS God is *on your side*. YHWH (usually written as LORD in the Bible) is a *someone* who has relationships, not just a power or a force; he loves you and wants to be with you in the Kingdom, the eternal life after death on the Earth made new. To that end, God gave us his son Jesus of Nazareth, to die in our place and for our sins so that we could be forgiven and live eternally. God did not have to do that but he did because he is on our side, even when we haven’t been on his. 

BUT…

God is not “on call”. 

Have you ever wondered why witchcraft was banned in Israel? (Ex. 22:17, Lev. 19:26) Part of it is that God wanted the Israelites to have a clean break with everything that was in the land of Canaan before them. But there was an ancient belief that by practicing witchcraft, humans could control the supernatural. When God revealed that he is the only God, then witchcraft was a presumption that humans can control God, that we can make demands on the Almighty. This was still the assumption of the culture all the way to the time of the early church (see Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8:9-24).

Read 1 Samuel 4:2-4 again. The Israelites are defeated by the Philistines. At that point, they probably should have prayed to know the will of the Lord. They could have sacrificed and cast the urim and thummim to discern the wise solution. But what they actually did was to try and control God. “Let’s take the Ark, and it will deliver us!” Or, said another way, “God certainly won’t let us lose if we carry his Ark into battle; he’ll have to let us win!” They don’t look to the God who would deliver them; they were looking to the tools that were used to remind them of God. 

We don’t have the Ark today; maybe it was melted down by the Babylonians, or maybe it was taken to Ethiopia, or maybe it’s on Oak Island. No one knows, and it doesn’t really matter. We don’t want to fall into the same trap that the Israelites did. We shouldn’t presume that God will do what we desire, even though he is on our side. 

Today, we don’t march with the ark, but we think of God in wrong ways. Some of the WRONG ways to think about God are:

  • God is a loving grandfather, who dotes upon his grandkids and makes sure to sneak them candy or a crisp $5 bill when mom and dad aren’t looking. The grandkids may not ask, but they do expect. 
  • God is a genie, who will grant our wishes when we believe hard enough and pray long enough. 
  • God is a vending machine; we put in the “belief” and “prayer” coins and God spits out the requested deliverance. At this point, God has lost all personality.  

What happens to those who presume to demand God show up when and how they desire? Death, destruction, pain, and despair. (1 Samuel 4 is a depressing chapter!)

But there is a better word for you. God is on your side, and you approach him as a father that has the best plans for you, even though that may be painful work to make you full and complete. You must approach him as God, believing that he will work all things for good and knowing that the ultimate good of the universe is His glory and our worship, not our happiness or comfort.  You must approach him as God, that hears and responds to the prayers of his people, but not beholden to us to work like a machine at his request. 

May we honor the God who is not controlled by us, but is on our side!

Questions

  1. If you do not know the saving power and love of God, seek that out today. God REALLY is on your side. He loves you deeply, he wants the best for you, and he knows what you need better than even you do. Will you trust in him to bring you to life and salvation?
  2. How have you treated God in ways other than God deserves to be treated? Have you thought of God as your grandfather, or your genie, or your vending machine? Maybe some other way that you make demands of God? If you have, how can you repent, and trust in God without demanding anything of him?
  3. “God’s ultimate goal is his glory, not your happiness.” This is one of the hardest truths to accept when pride and the flesh is still being worked out of us. How can we give God the glory and worship he deserves, and not get hung up on our own desires, preferences, and pleasures?

Jake Ballard

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