Letting Opportunities Slip Through Our Fingers

[More thoughts about 1 Samuel 9]

There are tall and short fools.  It so happened that Saul was a tall one. Outward profile counts for little.  Israel would have to learn that when they rejected spiritual leadership and God as their king and chose instead an empty-headed man, they were guaranteeing trouble for themselves.  It took years to rebuild and reorganise Israel after Saul had ruined it.

When God sent Jesus he had no public status (his father was a carpenter and he came from a down and out town called Nazareth). People weren’t attracted to him by his handsome appearance (Isaiah 53.2 he had not form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty the we should desire him.) But Jesus had the beauty and glory of God’s love and grace and he possessed power to actually accomplish the will of God—not just LOOK regal.   Compare the British royal family—they symbolise stability and power by their big palaces and rich paraphernalia—but they don’t actually have power to do anything.

God gave Saul every opportunity to become a spiritual man and receive the grace of God being extended to him—even though he had nothing better to do than search for lost donkeys.   He gave him Samuel as a mentor. God also gave him a taste of the Holy Spirit when he allowed him to join with the prophets as they praised God and spoke his words.   God gave him signs to confirm that he was calling Saul. Saul needed to respond to these with faith.

But Saul didn’t actively receive the grace of God held out to him.  He was passive and quite unresponsive.  He let God’s blessings fall on him like a warm shower or fragrant petals—but he did not respond strongly and decisively. He never prayed like Mary prayed: “Look, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me just has you have promised.” Luke 1.38. 

Saul was told that whatever his hand found to do—when the Spirit came on him—he should get stuck in and do it.  He hung back and took no initiative.

[There is a lot to think about here. How am I actively receiving the grace and the promises of God—like a warm shower or as motivation to ACT in faith?]

DONKEYS

1 Sam 9 gives us some background information about Saul who was the kind man Israel wanted as king. He ticked the boxes for those wanting someone who looked the part:

- young

- rich

- good-looking

- a head taller than everyone else.

But some glaring weaknesses show up:

- His search for the donkeys seems aimless and indecisive.
- He seems very dependent on his servant's advice (who seems to have more initiative).
- He has the chance to talk to a prophet and yet he only thinks to ask for information about donkeys. No big, deep questions from Saul!
- He is worryingly ignorant about Samuel, worship and other matters concerning seeking God's will.

Think: How will traits like this play out if Saul becomes king? What was Israel really doing when it marginalised Samuel in favour of a shiny new king?


How could you apply this? 

Personally: What donkeys are we chasing aimlessly when we should be seeking God?  What are we doing with the opportunities to pay attention to the Word of God? What godly helpers has God put near us? 

Understanding God's Kingdom: Compare Saul with Christ (the Leader God has chosen for us). How did Jesus go about finding his Father's path in the world?

Building the Church: What does godliness look like? Cf Samuel and Saul.  What traits and gifts should the church value?

Men's Bible Study

STUDIES IN SAMUEL - preparation for teaching 

Our plan:

•          Aim to read ahead in Samuel, over the summer break. 
•      Check in to the ‘Ink’ blog each week for notes, quotes and responses. Respond in the comments section – put up any questions, links to other passages etc.  [The idea is to start exploring the passages that we will eventually teach from.]
•       February, we will begin to meet fortnightly to do two things:

                                                               i.      Share personal Bible readings, questions and prep we are doing.

                                                             ii.      Discuss the passages in Samuel for teaching to the church.

So how do we go about getting the ‘message’ intended for us in the books of Samuel?

Who are we meant to identify with when we read these Bible histories?

-        Look in the text for people with faith. They won’t be perfect and we will need the Spirit’s help to detect where they go wrong—but to the degree a person is paying attention to God’s word and trusting him or herself to God to do what he says—that is someone to identify with and compare our own lives of faith to.

How should we understand and learn from Israel—and from God’s treatment of those people?

-        Think of Israel as the Church—in the broadest sense, i.e. including those who profess to follow God and associate with the Church—even though there are question marks over whether their faith is genuine. Israel is the Old Testament ‘Church’. Since Jesus came, the Church has been expanded way beyond Israel, to include people from all nations, tribes and languages.

Where do we see Christ in the Old Testament?

-        He is the Lord who is managing Israel’s history and we learn about his character in the way he deals with Israel and the nations.

-          He is at work in people of faith inspiring them to act heroically and faithfully—so we can recognise his character to some degree in the lives of godly people (e.g Samuel).

-          The New Testament guides us as to the extent to which we can map Old Testament revelation onto Christ—so we are not flying blind and using guesswork to recognise Jesus in the Old Testament histories, symbols, events and people.

-    You will see Christ everywhere!

Start reading from 1 Samuel 8--where we learn about the demand by Israel for a 'hero-leadership'to replace the 'Word-focused leadership' Samuel had brought (and which his sons were not able to sustain, because they fell in love with stuff and status).

Kim Jong Il and God's Signet Ring

Kings and leaders, good or bad, don’t last long. This past week has seen the fall of one of the grimmest dictators known to the modern world. Kim Jong Il portrayed himself as a little god. A short man with giant ego. He created a myth of himself as talented and powerful. He buttressed this myth with a massive military. He favoured the generals close to him, so that they supported him. He kept the people of North Korea under rigid laws. Anyone who opposed him he killed or put in dreadful prison camps. Included among those who suffered the most, are Christians. But now he has gone. God squeezed his heart and he breathed his last. Now his son will try to repeat his father’s evil.

Here are some verses from Isaiah’s prophecy about another despot, the King of Babylon. These words could apply equally to Kim Jong Il.

Isaiah 14.12-20
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?’
…You have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.

The terrible legacies of Kim Jong Il and the King of Babylon were to destroy their lands and kill their own people. Kim Jong Il – the ‘dear leader’ – was very dear – costly to the well-being of North Korea. He built weapons of mass destruction, rather than provide food for his people.

You may well be asking what this has to do with Christmas Day! It has everything to do with it. If Christmas Day is about choosing one particular day to remember the birth of Jesus Christ - then the issue of who is fit to lead people is a very relevant issue to talk about. Because the birth of Jesus Christ is about the arrival of the ONE MAN who is fit to lead humanity – to lead YOU!

Let me expose a bit more clearly why Jesus Christ, God’s chosen leader for humanity, is needed by this world. In Ezekiel, we read of God’s judgement on another wretched leader: the King of Tyre. He was a trading king – an entrepreneur who controlled people by financial systems and trade. Tyre was a city of luxury on the edge of the Mediterranean. Ezekiel’s prophecy declares that the city of Tyre will be dismantled and stone by stone thrown into the sea – overwhelmed by a mightier king (Nebuchadnezzar) was the instrument of God’s judgement on Tyre. (These are historic realities and you can go there to see the remains of the once great city submerged in the sea.) Once God had decreed its time of greedy oppression through finance and trading was finished, the city was thrown down by the Babylonians.

Listen to the word of God against the King of Tyre. Ezekiel 28. (Remember, we are finding reasons why humanity needs a better King than the ones it generates for itself.)
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD:
“Because your heart is proud,
and you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods,
in the heart of the seas,’
yet you are but a man, and no god,
though you make your heart like the heart of a god—

You have made wealth for yourself,
and have gathered gold and silver
into your treasuries;
5 by your great wisdom in your trade
you have increased your wealth,
and your heart has become proud in your wealth—
6 therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you make your heart
like the heart of a god,
7 therefore, behold, I will bring foreigners upon you,
the most ruthless of the nations;
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendour.
8 They shall thrust you down into the pit,
and you shall die the death of the slain
in the heart of the seas.
9 Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’
in the presence of those who kill you,
though you are but a man, and no god,
in the hands of those who slay you?

Thus says the Lord GOD:
“You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.

The King of Tyre was another mighty human leader found wanting - and judged. I want you to notice how in this chapter (28.12,13), the King of Tyre is spoken of as if he had been present in the Garden of Eden – as if he was the first man. Of course the King of Tyre wasn’t the first man in the Garden, Adam was. But God makes the connection between the failure of the King of Tyre and the failure of the head of the human race (Adam) who was blessed with great wealth. Adam was also a failed leader.

There is a particular thing that God says about the King of Tyre and ultimately about Adam:
You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (v12)

A signet is a ring. It is a ring with a crest or image on it. The reason the King of Tyre (and before him, Adam) is likened to a signet ring is that a king’s royal ring was used to imprint its image over and over again – sealing laws, promises and decrees. The king’s signet was the mark that was put on everything to show that it came from the king. Everyone’s daily life was ‘stamped’ with the will and the character of the king.

Kim Jong Il did this by having his image everywhere. Every home, street-corner, shop, factory, bus or museum has his picture. He portrayed himself as watching over his people. People dressed like him, spoke like him and believed in him (because if you failed to, you could disappear.) He stamped his will and nature on everything and everyone in North Korea.

So the mention of a signet ring is a way of describing the authority and influence of the wearer.There are some other Bible texts that speak of a signet ring as the mark of a king’s authority:

Jeremiah 22.24.
“As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans".

God likens the King of Judah (Israel) to a signet ring. It was planned that he should put the mark of God’s authority on Israel so that everything he did as king was stamped with God’s likeness. But he proved to be a compromised, corrupted king. So God warns that he is going to strip the ring off his finger and hand it over to his enemies. In other words, the King of Judah was about to lose the authority given to him by God and be dethroned by the King of Babylon.

Next, here is a more positive example of the signet ring representing a man in leadership who would stamp all that he did with the likeness of God:
Haggai 2.23 "On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.”

Here, God promises to a faithful Israelite prince, Zerubbabel, that he will make him like his signet ring - because he has chosen to work through him. Zerubbabel was one of those responsible for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple after the years of exile (in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah).

So, the significance of the signet ring is that it illustrates the stamp of influence a king can have upon his people. However, human kings and leaders have all failed – starting from the head of the human race, the first man, Adam. The greatest sign of their weakness is that they all die – so that even good kings cannot sustain themselves. Adam, God’s first signet ring, corrupted the image of God stamped on his life and went on to imprint his own imperfection and death on all who followed.
Instead of imprinting the perfection originally given to him by God - this premiere man, Adam, was a failure. He disobeyed God and ended up imprinting his fallen nature on everyone that followed. His oldest son, Cain, was a murderer. He passed on the stamp of his sinful nature to all of us who followed.

Human history confirms that no person is able to provide clear, truthful, death-defeating leadership. The king of Babylon, the king of Tyre, Kim Jong Il are all graphic examples of human leadership at their worst. The Christmas events also included evil leaders: Ceasar Augustus, emperor of Rome, counting all his empire – numbering them so he could control their destiny. Ironically, the smallest little tally mark on a scroll in Bethlehem would soon upturn his empire. Then there was King Herod, the evil puppet-king who killed baby boys in the hope of exterminating the possible future challenge of Jesus’ kingship.

I’ve lived through 15 NZ prime ministers in my time. They’ve done their best - some have done good and others have created havoc. However, NZ is not a better society than it was 60 odd years ago. Men and women make their promises, and the country hopes for the best, but inevitably people tire of their leaders and their failings become more and more obvious until people tire of them and vote them out – hoping that someone new might improve things. But they are all stamped with Adam’s likeness - who ruined his chance to be God’s signet.

Now, let’s consider Christmas – or, more properly, the birth of Christ.
The incarnation is God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. That is, the second person of God, the Son, took to himself a human nature (body and soul) and entered the mainstream of human life at a specific time and place. There are many reasons why it was necessary for him to express himself through a human life, but one of the main ones is: The world needs a ‘signet of perfection’ – a glorious, just, death-defying man – who can lead humanity back to God - and establish a kingdom of people stamped with his likeness, ready and able to live endlessly.
Incarnation means becoming flesh. When God’s Son became flesh, he didn’t stop being God. He took up a human life as well as his life as God. He expressed himself through the particular personhood of Jesus – son of Mary.

Jesus Christ is the new Adam. He is God’s perfect signet ring, imprinting his godly nature on all who come to him in faith through new birth. Without that imprint we remain God’s enemies.The New Testament, explains this:

Romans 5
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Death reigned. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

That passage describes two leaders and two peoples: It describes Adam, who introduced death to all who followed him – so everyone who follows is stamped by the bias towards sin. And it describes Jesus who brought righteousness and eternal life for his followers. He does that by repairing what Adam wrecked.

1 Corinthians 15.47-49
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
As long as we follow men and our own instincts, we will continue to decay back to the dust of the earth. But if we receive the Leader (Christ) whom God has given us, he will stamp us with the image of God.

Romans 8.28,29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So, God wants us to be conformed, or shaped into, the image of his Son. Stamped with his family likeness, to become brothers and sisters of Christ and children of God.

Romans 12.2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Followers of Christ will not allow the world to squeeze us into it’s mold. We are being transformed (reshaped) as our minds are stamped with the thinking of Christ. We are able to choose and follow the will of God – what is good, acceptable and perfect. This is the character of our Leader – stamped on us and shaping our influence on the world around us. THIS is the leader God send to us at the birth of Jesus.

Luke 1.67-75 (Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, prophesied about Jesus when he heard that his son would announce Jesus’ as God’s chosen Leader)
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David, (the horn denotes a leader-King)
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Jesus Christ the first compete human being was born into the world to lead us safely into God’s kingdom and, as God’s signet ring, to stamp us with his own likeness.

This is the Jesus we celebrate:
Hebrews 1.1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?
8 Of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

Make today, the one where you confess Jesus as Lord. Resist being stamped by the image of the world. Open your mind, heart and life to be indelibly marked – set apart for your Lord and King.