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It is tempting for us preachers to pull the Bible apart one passage at a time. It's understandable, considering that on any given Sunday morning only one or two or maybe three passages of Scripture will be read. It is tempting to take a section of scripture-a single passage, or a small section of a larger passage, or maybe even a single verse-and to mine from it some timeless truth, and then put that section of scripture back and pull out another for next week.
It is even more tempting to do this because the text of Scripture is so very rich. In one passage, in one verse, in one word sometimes, so much truth is spoken.
And yet, I believe, if we preachers give in to that temptation, then we fail in our task. The Bible is not simply a collection of timeless truths, unrelated to one another, unrelated to us. The Bible is not simply a fact sheet about God or a primer on morality for God's people (though the Bible does include teachings about both).
The Bible has proverbs and parables, stories and songs, poetry and prose. Through it all, the Bible is a sweeping narrative of the ever-faithful God who enters into history and a people who are shaped in history by their dealings-faithful and unfaithful-with this God.
The Bible is a sweeping narrative of the stuff of life. It is not our task-it is not my task as a preacher-to mine Scripture for nuggets of information that we can apply like band-aids on the surface of our lives. Instead, the best chance for Scripture to do its life-shaping work in us is for us to step into Scripture and look around and notice that it is not just history, it is now. The God who entered into history in biblical times to reveal himself and shape a people still enters into history today to reveal himself and shape us.
This God entered into the mess of human life in biblical times-the mess of love and hate, the mess of friendships that were sometimes loyal and sometimes traitorous, the mess of family relationships that were just as dysfunctional then as they are now, the mess of politics, the mess of warfare, the mess of religion, the mess of sickness and disease, the mess of sin and brokenness, the mess of life. It was precisely in this mess that God revealed himself.
Some of us have somehow got the idea that God is big and almighty and up there…somewhere…not really here…in the mess. When we step into Scripture and look around, we find something different. We find that the God who is big and almighty doesn't stay up there…somewhere…but he comes to us and he steps into the mess…with us.
It was precisely in the mess of life that God revealed himself in biblical times. It was precisely in this mess that God shaped his people. It was precisely in this mess that God was at work bringing about the redemption of creation. It was precisely in this mess that God acted, through Jesus Christ, to bring wholeness and hope out of brokenness and despair.
God still enters into the mess of human life in our times-the mess of love and hate, the mess of friendships that sometimes build up and sometimes tear down, the mess of dysfunctional family relationships, the mess of politics, the mess of warfare, the mess of religion, the mess of sickness and disease, the mess of sin and brokenness, the mess of life. It is precisely in this mess that God continues to reveal himself. It is precisely in this mess that God shapes his people. It is precisely in this mess that God is at work bringing about the redemption of creation. It is precisely in this mess that God acts, through Jesus Christ, to bring wholeness and hope out of brokenness and despair.
The David story in the Old Testament is not simply a collection of timeless truths. The David story in 1 and 2 Samuel is a sweeping narrative of the stuff of life. Throughout this text, God enters into the mess of life to reveal himself and to shape his people. Our task-my task-is not to mine nuggets of information from the David story that we can slap onto our lives. Rather, the David story invites us to step in, so that we learn history and so that we notice that it is our story too.
The reign of King David began roughly one thousand years before the birth of Jesus. For over 400 years, descendents of David ruled over the people of God. Then Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian Empire, and the people of God were kingless again. Some of David's heirs were good kings. Some were bad kings. Through it all, God entered into the mess to reveal himself and to shape his people.
(That's one of the reasons the Old Testament is sometimes so hard to read. You really have to enter into the whole mess and read the whole sweeping narrative to begin to get a true sense of how God was revealing himself and how God was shaping his people and how God was acting. Some of the stories-just taken by themselves-leave us wondering…where is God in this?...this looks like human mess. It's in the narrative-the whole narrative-that we are invited to see God in the human mess revealing himself and shaping his people.)
David was not the first king of Israel. Saul was the first king. David and Saul were not related to one another. David was a shepherd boy from the tribe of Judah. Saul was a farmer from the tribe of Benjamin. Both David and Saul were anointed into their kingship by the hand of the prophet Samuel, the last of the judges. Both David and Saul were anointed in private circumstances that only later were affirmed in public ascension to leadership. Saul's royal line ended with him; none of his heirs were ever king. David's line continues forever in Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the son of David.
The passage for today, 1 Samuel 13:5-14, tells the story of Saul's rejection as king-God's rejection of Saul. It is actually the first of two accounts. The other rejection story is told in chapter 15. The shepherd boy David is anointed in chapter 16. Another 15 years or so go by before Saul dies and David becomes king.
Life is like that sometimes. God is like that sometimes. The really significant turning points in our lives-the ones that shape who we are and who we will become and what it will all mean-often take place in private, outside of the awareness of the people around us. Sometimes even we are unaware of the significance of these events until later, much later. We might have thought it was just a bump in the road. We didn't even know God was in it. And then, years later, we look back and know that everything changed in that moment and God was indeed there.
That's how it is with the anointing of David. It is here-in chapters 13-16 of 1 Samuel-that Saul's kingship really ends and David's kingship really begins. History just doesn't take note of it for another 15 years or so.
It was the beginning of the Iron Age. Developments in technology brought with them shifts in culture, in warfare, in commerce. In the part of the world where the Israelites were living, the Philistines had a monopoly on iron implements. Their army was equipped with all the most modern iron weapons of war. The nations around them did not have this technology. Israel did not have this technology.
In the battles and the tension between Israel and Philistia, this imbalance of technology was part of the dynamic. There was something of an uneasy balance of power during most of Samuel's time as a judge. In Samuel's old age the balance of power became uneven and the Philistines started getting dangerous.
That's part of the dynamic that led Israel to demand a king. They looked around and noticed that the world was changing. "God, it's been great having you as our king all these years, but our enemies have new technology. We need a king here with us to fight our battles for us. We need a king here with us to defend us from the Philistines. God, give us a king."
That request, that demand, that Israel lifted up to God was an anxiety-driven request. Their eyes were turned from the faithfulness of God who had been with them since Moses led them out of Egypt. Their eyes were turned to the nations around them, and they grew anxious.
They decided they needed a king. And God granted them a king-Saul. Even then, I believe God, in his providence, had already chosen David to be Saul's successor. Nevertheless, Saul was anointed king. Saul remained king throughout his life. David was anointed by Samuel sometime during the middle of Saul's reign, but he did not ascend to the throne until after Saul's death.
Part of the reason that we are stepping back today into Saul's story is that David's story begins in the middle of Saul's story. We can't really join up with David and spend some time with him without spending a little time with Saul first.
Second Reading…1 Samuel 13:5-14.
This text begs the question: what did Saul do? What did Saul do that was so bad?
It's tempting to cast Saul in the role of villain here, next to the hero David, but the text doesn't make it that simple.
Saul ruled over Israel for several decades. As kings go, he wasn't a bad king. As men go, he wasn't a bad man.
It isn't like David was perfect-either as a king or as a man.
It's tempting to delve into this text and draw out some nugget of information about what Saul did wrong and then add that nugget to our list of "things to avoid." There might be some of that here, but the text doesn't make it that simple.
Some commentators have suggested that what Saul did was act outside his religious authority. He was the king. Samuel was the priest. It was inappropriate for the king to offer sacrifice. What Saul did was get the technicalities of worship wrong. We can add that to our list of things to avoid: don't do worship wrong; don't do what priests do unless you're a priest.
I don't think this interpretation really works.
For one thing, as the kingship of Israel developed, kings took a bit of a religious role. David himself, later on, frequently acted in a religious leadership role, and it didn't get David in trouble with God.
For another thing, God has made clear in other parts of the Bible that it is not the technicalities of worship that he is most concerned with, but justice and righteousness and what's in our hearts. "It's not your sacrifices that I want. You do not please me by going through the motions. Right worship is justice and righteousness. Right worship is lifting up the oppressed and taking care of widows."
Thirdly, when we keep in mind all the missteps David made during his reign, for Saul to lose his legacy over the question of who put the fire to the cow seems out of balance.
Other commentators have said that it's really deeper than that. It's not really the technical issue of worship practice. It's the issue of disobedience.
That's closer to the mark. There was an understanding between Saul and Samuel that the command of the Lord was that Saul would wait until Samuel arrived. It was expected to take seven days. Regardless, Saul was to wait until Samuel arrived. Then the appropriate sacrifices would be offered and the defense of Israel would carry on. Saul did not wait.
When Samuel arrived, he called Saul on his act of disobedience. "You acted foolishly, Saul. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you."
What Saul did certainly involves the issue of disobedience. It would be tempting to stop here and add this nugget to our list: pay attention to the Lord's commands-follow them. That's a good teaching. If you are making a list, go ahead and include that.
But the text doesn't let us off the hook with just that.
Remember-it's not like David was perfect.
As king, David was guilty of major sexual sin. He was rebuked. He repented. He was forgiven. He remained the king from whom all of Israel's kings would descend.
As king, David was guilty of murder. He was rebuked. There were consequences. He remained the king from whom all of Israel's kings would descend.
It's not just that Saul sinned. It's not just that Saul stepped out of the path the Lord had set before him. Later, David would do the same, and worse. If God made it a condition of our anointing for any particular purpose that we never, ever disobey…that we never, ever step off the path…he would be running way short of people to anoint for particular purposes.
So what did Saul do?
I think it has to do with the mess of history. I think it reveals the key difference between Saul and David. One was not smarter than the other. One was not stronger than the other. One was not wiser than the other. One was not better or more righteous than the other. One was more anxious than the other.
In his anxiety, one of them turned his eyes from the Lord to the circumstances. Then, having turned his eyes from the Lord to the circumstances, he turned the practice of religion from the goal of glorifying God to the goal of managing people.
The difference was anxiety. Saul was more anxious than David.
In his anxiety Saul's eyes turned from the Lord to the circumstances around him. Turning his eyes to the circumstances around him, Saul refocused worship into a way to deal with his anxiety about circumstances, into a way to manage his men. This is a big shift from worship focused on God, worship as a way to keep our eyes focused on God.
(The second rejection event occurs in 1 Samuel 15. This is another instance of disobedience on Saul's part, and it's another example of misapplication of religious practice. Again, Saul engages in religious practice more for the purpose of managing his soldiers than for the purpose of glorifying God.)
Recall the situation here in chapter 13. Saul's army can see the Philistines approaching with their high technology weapons and their powerful army. Saul's men are scared. They are getting restless. Some have already deserted. The ones that are still there are looking over their shoulders, and whispering with one another, and getting really jittery.
Saul is waiting for Samuel. He's waiting, and waiting, and waiting, because that was the plan. He sees his soldiers getting more and more nervous. He's looking at his watch, and he's waiting for Samuel.
Saul decides that a really good way to motivate his troops, to build up their courage, to refocus their attention so that they aren't looking in the direction of the approaching Philistines, is to have a worship service.
Saul explained to Samuel: "When I saw that the men were scattering and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling…(you see it really wasn't my fault; the men needed something; you weren't here when you were supposed to be here; I had to do something)…I thought, 'now the Philistines will come down against me and I have not sought the Lord's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering…(you see, Samuel, I was really trying to be good; I was trying to bring God in)."
Samuel responds to Saul, "You acted foolishly. You did not obey the command the Lord gave you. Now your kingdom will not endure. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people."
If there is a key difference between David and Saul, this is it: David lived a life wrapped up in God…not so concerned about religion, very concerned about God. Saul lost track of God and grew more concerned with religion. When Saul was in trouble, he resorted to religion. When David was in trouble, he cried out to God.
Saul was out. David was in. Because the Lord looks at the heart.
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