The Cruelty of David

1 Samuel 27

⁷  Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months.
⁸  And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as you go to Shur, even as far as the land of Egypt.
⁹  Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish.

Note:  David, this great man of God, takes no prisoners.  How do I feel about that?

This guy is supposed to be an example to us.

I feel very uncomfortable about this, and there are several other passages like this in the Bible.  For all the sublime vision and promise of Scripture, there is much that is disturbing and hard to stomach, and this is one of them.  David, this champion of God (who later murdered a loyal subordinate in order to avoid the discovery of his affair (was Bathsheba actually complicit or was she forced?  I think it is a valid question.) is living as an outlaw, hunted by King Saul and he works for the Philistines.  He is involved in tribal raids, claiming that he is attacking Israeli tribes and he kills all the men and women in order to make sure that his Philistine boss doesn't learn that he isn't killing Israelis, but he is killing people.  He's taking no prisoners.

A little information about the tribes he attached.

I looked up some information on the tribes so attacked and found that the Geshurites (kingdom of Geshur) literally dwelt in the midst of Israel, being one the tribes that the half-tribe of Manasseh was supposed to remove from the promised land but failed.  David would actually marry a princess of this tribe, so he becomes a relative of sorts later. 

The tribe of the Girzites was a city-state on a steep hill that was strategically important.  They were also know for worshipping Baal and Ashtaroth.

Finally there was the Amalekites, who attacked Israel soon after they finished their wanderings and were cursed by God.  Read it for yourself in

            Deuteronomy 25:17-19:  "Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt.  When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.  When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.  Do not forget!"

There is a side to Scripture that depicts humanity as fallen and God as a God of justice and wrath.  It's not comfortable     

We find here the disturbing idea that there are people groups against whom the Lord works in wrath and judgment.  Ultimately there will be followers of Jesus of every nation (people group) but not every people group is in the Lord’s favor.  In fact, the world at large is under a curse and judgment (cf. Matthew 28:19; Hebrews 10:26-29).  In the Book of Romans death still reigned even before the Law through God did not hold people accountable to the Law (Romans 5:12-14).  There was, before the Law, a great separation between the God of life and this world full of death, and all of us are included in that world.  The Lord Jesus does not help us with this.  He, the Lord of all, said that we should not fear people who can destroy the body, but fear Him who can send both body and soul into hell.  That’s worse than killing whole villages (Matthew 10:28)

But it makes grace all the more precious.

Sometimes we emphasize the love of God to the extent that we ignore the justice and wrath against a sinful, fallen Creation.  They are not popular topics but if we ignore them the grace of God becomes saccharine and we fail to appreciate it.  The promise of inclusion into the Kingdom of Christ is all the more wonderful when set against a stark backdrop that the world is at enmity with God, and separated from the same.  In the midst of all this (and I am still uncomfortable with it) I find the promise of 1 Peter 2:9-10 to be all the more precious and encouraging.  It says this:

"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."

There are still parts of the Bible (which I believe is inspired from beginning to end, so I have to deal with all of it) that make my feel uncomfortable and even threatened.  I still struggle with David and similar parts of Scripture, but I find the grace of God in Jesus Christ precious beyond compare, and cherish the promises such as the one in 1 Peter all the more in my struggle.

Can You Die Before Your Time? Can You Live Too Long? 1 Samuel 26:1-25

Can You Die Before Your Time?  Can You Live Too Long?

1 Samuel 26:1-25 (NKJV)
¹  Now the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is David not hiding in the hill of Hachilah, opposite Jeshimon?"
²  Then Saul arose and went down to the Wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the Wilderness of Ziph.
³  And Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is opposite Jeshimon, by the road. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness.
⁴  David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had indeed come.
⁵  So David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Now Saul lay within the camp, with the people encamped all around him.
⁶  Then David answered, and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?" And Abishai said, "I will go down with you."
⁷  So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. And Abner and the people lay all around him.
⁸  Then Abishai said to David, "God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!"
⁹  And David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD'S anointed, and be guiltless?"
¹⁰  David said furthermore, "As the LORD lives, the LORD shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish.

-Revenge, and a Mysterious Reference to an Appointed Day

This passage speaks against the sometimes understandable desire for revenge.  David, at this time of his life, is not King of Israel but has lived as a fugitive for some years being pursued by King Saul.  Twice (this episode is the second time) he refused to avenge himself by killing Saul when the opportunity arises.  He leaves that to the Lord.  But note this phrase in verse ten:  "his day shall come to die."  It raises some questions; is there an appointed time to die?  Is it possible to die before your time?  It seems to be the case sometimes.  Is it possible to miss the appointed date of death and live too long?  I'm not sure, but there are these insights from Scripture-

-The Book of Hebrews notes that we are appointed to die once (no reference to when) and then comes the Judgment. 

            Hebrews 9:27  "And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation."

 

-Job, possibly the most ancient of episodes in the Bible, speaks of a specific time for a person to die.

            Job 14:1-6  "Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.  They spring up like flowers an wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.  Do you fix your eye on them?  Will you bring them before you for judgment?  Who can bring what is pure from the impure?  No one!  A person's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.  So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in hit time like a hired laborer."

 

-King Hezekiah, one of the more godly kings of Israel & Judah, was told by the prophet Isaiah that his time on earth was coming to a close.  The king prayed and asked for more time and the Lord granted him fifteen more years, but it was a mixed blessing.  First of all, would you want to know that you had fifteen years, and could count them down year by year as time ran out?  Also, those fifteen years saw a couple of events that would undo a lifetime of work for the king.  He received envoys from another empire, that of Babylon, and showed them the riches of Israel.  That would come to haunt them when that empire returned to invade and plunder Israel.  Also, it was during this time that his son Manasseh was born, and he was one of the most ungodly kings of this monarchy.  He undid almost everything Hezekiah had done.  I remember the prayer of an old friend, who asked that he not live longer than his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus.  There may be something to that.  Perhaps we can live too long, as well as not long enough.

 (2 King 20:1-21; 21; 2 Chronicles 32:24-26, 31; 33:1-10, 18-20;  Isaiah 38-39). 

1 Samuel 13  (New King James Translation of the Bible)

⁵  Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth Aven.
⁶  When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits.
⁷  And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
⁸  Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him.
⁹  So Saul said, "Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me." And he offered the burnt offering.
¹⁰  Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.
¹¹  And Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash,
¹²  then I said, 'The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.' Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering."
¹³  And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

Note:  Saul had reason to feel compelled, and Samuel still said that it was no excuse.  One commentary (The Spirit Filled Life Bible) noted that God was still to be sovereign, not the king, and that Saul acted contrary to that command.  With great power and spiritual strength, great responsibility and great obedience is required, and Saul's faith was tested.  Surely, though we have far more ordinary lives than this King, our faith will be tested as well.  I suspect that for many of us it already has in one way or another..  Saul understood that God was going to instruct him through Samuel, and he needed to stand his ground even with everything falling apart.  It was in obedience that his authority as king was established.  King Saul waits, but gets impatient and takes matters into his own hands.  Apparently, if he had waited a little longer, Samuel would have arrived and Saul would have received the instruction he needed from the Lord.  Because of this, his lineage will not remain on the throne of Israel. 

Now note this does not remove Saul as king, that will come later, but it does establish that his lineage will not remain.  What does that mean for Jonathan?  In the next chapter we see that he is faithful, valiant and would later be a true friend of David.  The Bible says that we are responsible for our own sins, but Saul's failure changed the destiny of Jonathan, apparently.  It is a graphic example of how our obedience or disobedience to the Lord impacts the lives of others. 

For me personally, I have to ask myself if I have the same desperation for God that Saul should have had, but didn't?  If I know that I have to wait on the Lord, am I willing to wait even when the situation is deteriorating and I feel compelled to disobey?  Saul, after all, had reasons for feeling compelled.  Am I too hasty to get to a decision or a point of action to be still and wait on the Lord? 

Hello, My beautiful wife noted regarding the recent blog that the relationship between the follower of Jesus Christ and God the Father, and that of Abram (later Abraham) and God seemed obscure.  What I meant is that the follower of Jesus is blessed with all the blessings of Abram.  I am not, to my knowledge a direct descendant of Abraham yet the righteousness conferred to him by faith is also imputed to me because of Christ.  Sorry, for the lack of explanation.  I hope this helps.
Romans 4, particularly verses 23-25.

The Opportunities Before You Today

Joshua 1:1-4 (New King James Version)
¹  After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, it came to pass that the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying:
²  "Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them--the children of Israel.
³  Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.
⁴  From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory.

Contrary to the promise to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3, there is a condition of obedience as part of this promise to Joshua.  I see a certain similarity to the unconditional promise to Abram and the covenant we have with God through Jesus Christ.  The "through Jesus Christ" is important because it is Christ, the representative human, who makes the covenant with God the Father and, unlike ancient Israel or the human race as a whole, He will never break that covenant.  Under the leadership and Lordship of Jesus we, flawed as we are, have access to God through that covenant that will never be broken. 

But God's commission to Joshua is a little different in that it is conditional.  The land was granted (and it is a very large parcel of land) on the basis of obedience, and that land had not been completely taken by the end of the Joshua's life.  I think I can compare this with the challenge to make the most of our days on earth, like the old saying, "life is a gift from God, and what we do with that life is our gift to God."  Jesus echoed this in His parable of the talents, (Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27) in which the worst response from the servants charged with investing on behalf of their master was to bury the money in the ground.  While there is some discussion as to what the "talents" represent, I think one way to look at it, and at this book, is to ask ourselves what we are doing with our days and with the opportunities before us, and would the Lord be pleased with it?  A long series of small acts of obedience to the Lord, committed over a long period of time, can amount to much.  Pray today, and ask the Lord to reveal the opportunities before you during the course of your day.

Numbers 5:11-31 (NKJV)
¹¹  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
¹²  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'If any man's wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,
¹³  and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught--
¹⁴  if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself--
¹⁵  then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance.
¹⁶  'And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD.
¹⁷  The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water.
¹⁸  Then the priest shall stand the woman before the LORD, uncover the woman's head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse.
¹⁹  And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, "If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse.
²⁰  But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you"--
²¹  then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman--"the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell;
²²  and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and make your belly swell and your thigh rot." Then the woman shall say, "Amen, so be it."
²³  'Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water.
²⁴  And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.
²⁵  Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman's hand, shall wave the offering before the LORD, and bring it to the altar;
²⁶  and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.
²⁷  When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people.
²⁸  But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children.
²⁹  'This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband's authority, goes astray and defiles herself,
³⁰  or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her.
³¹  Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.' "

Some Comments About an Uncomfortable Passage of Scripture

Cultural disconnect

This is one of those passages with which I feel uncomfortable, like it should be here, or at least be re-written to be more culturally acceptable.  There’s another passage like that in Genesis, in which the angels visit Lot and his family and, during the night, the home is accosted by man intend on raping the guests.  Lot tries to appease them by offering his daughter, but fortunately the angels intervene, strike all of them with blindness and then start making arrangements for Lot and his family to leave the city before judgment falls.  Now I can understand Lot trying to protect his guests, but the thought of him offering his daughters appalls me.  I can’t imagine any loving father saying such a thing.  The Bible shows examples of the cultural mores of the time, and reports them without necessarily indicating God’s approval.  This may be one of those passages.  This passage, here in Numbers 5, is another one.

            Why just the wife

In this passage (Numbers 5:11-31) the Lord instructs Moses regarding cases of jealousy, in which the husband suspects his wife of infidelity but cannot prove it.  My first response to this is, “but what if it is the wife who suspects her husband?  Does this ceremony work in reverse?”  I think I once read somewhere that rabbinic commentary on the passage indicated that was indeed the case, but the fact that it only mentions the husband’s jealous bothers me.

            What about the other man?

The spirit of jealousy comes upon the husband and the only way to deal with it is to have the wife take a sacred oath before God, with the priest giving an offering and invoking a curse that will result in devastating sickness if she is guilty, but will also exonerate her if innocent.  What about the other man?  If she is guilty and stricken and made a curse among her people, what of the other party in the adultery?  The passage does not answer that question.

What can we take from this?

In ancient times such cases were settled by some sort of trial by ordeal, in which the accused is placed in a life-threatening situation and if she survives, then that is an indication that God, or the gods, have intervened because she is innocent.  For example, if the accused wife does not know how to swim, throw her into the middle of a lake or large river and if she somehow makes it to shore, then maybe she is innocent after all.  Numbers offers a different approach in that the interested parties were to take the matter before the Lord, and let Him deal with it.  But in such times and settings in which women were treated as property, a jealous husband may simply take matters in to his own hands and kill her.  With this passage the husband, the person in power, does not have the right to take matters into his own hands.  Here, the Bible demands that the person in power use restraint.

            Oaths are serious business, as are curses.

Another thing we can take from this passage is that promises, oaths, and yes, curses are taken seriously in the Bible, though to my knowledge only God invokes a curse. (Note, by the way, John 3:17)  It is not something people should be doing.  There are other passages in which promises or oaths are expected to be honored, even if a great personal cost. (consider the unfortunate case of the Israeli general Jephthah and his daughter; Judges 11.  The case does not mean that the Bible tells us to kill our children).

            Compare this with the Spiritual Gift of Discernment

Another take away is to compare this ceremony as a prayer for the revelation of truth and justice, and in that regard it bears some similarity to the Spiritual Gift of Discernment in the New Testament.  With that gift the Holy Spirit has a way of revealing truth that has not been shared by other means, including matters of truth and justice.

            God has a way of exposing sin

Finally, this passage enforces the Bible assertion that God has a way of dealing with sin, even if the perpetrator avoids detection from people.  Psalms 90:8 says, “You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.”  We can fool other people; we can never fool the Lord.  Ponder who you are in secret carefully, because God can bring it to light.

Even Everyday Life is Sacred
Numbers 3:3

    These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he consecrated to minister as priests.

"Consecrated" means literally "He filled their hands".

            "Anointed" means to be rubbed, or smeared.  The anointed has been marked for special use, with the gifts and powers needed to fulfill the call. (consider 1 John 2:27)  Consecration could be the corresponding life, symbolically given to them in that their hands are filled with the time, experience and work that is part of their calling.  It is similar to the idea of one's destiny being symbolized by the filling of one's cup, and idea that should be remembered when we take Holy Communion.

            Setting aside that relationship between laity and clergy and looking at this in terms of the life of a Christian being a sort of priesthood; it seems that the consecration is their duties as priests, but also the notion that everyday life, which often consists of duties, is sacred and part of what "fills our hands".  We are not part of the family or the priesthood of Aaron, but if as Christians we are, in a way, anointed and consecrated then can we not look at the prayer and work of our days as sacred, the stuff that was "placed in our hands"?  That could be a motivation to follow the command that we do everything, even the everyday work, as if we are working directly for Christ Himself  (Colossians 3:23).

1 John 2:27  But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

Colossians 3:23  And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.