13 June 2011

Psalm 80; 1 Samuel 1:1-20; Acts 1:1-14; Luke 20:9-19

The story of Samuel’s birth tells us that great things are in store for this man. The story begins by seeming to be about Hannah as the focus is on this woman these first twenty verses. She is married to a man who has another wife in addition to her and that woman has been blessed with children while Hannah has been barren. The husband, Elkanah, seems to be an observant and religious Israelite and a decent, loving husband to Hannah. Hannah, though, was tormented by her rival wife for her inability to conceive. Finally, Hannah asks the Lord for a child, not for herself but to end this torment. She will give the child to the Lord. As she prays in the temple, the priest believes her to be drunk because he can’t hear her prayers, confronts her, is told the reality of the situation and pronounces blessing on her. Here at the beginning we see Eli, the priest, is a man who is unable to accurately size up a situation, a problem he has also with respect to his sons.

The parable of the wicked tenants is the one parable Jesus told where no one went away confused, scratching their heads. It was clear that He was telling this about the present leaders of the Jews and that judgment was coming. The parable clearly is about Jerusalem and the people and their rejection of the prophets and that ultimately the Son is sent and the people reject Him and kill Him and the man will destroy them and give the vineyard to others. The response of the people, “Surely not!” reveals that they have understood the application and we are explicitly told that the scribes and Pharisees know it is about them. The leadership of God’s people demands us to be righteous and also that we acknowledge that we are servants of the one who owns all things, He will not share His glory with another.

We live in the in-between era, between the comings of Jesus. The first coming was for salvation, to give the world a chance to repent and receive life and the second is judgment. God allowed us an opportunity to see true righteousness, true mercy, true grace and true love and a chance to decide for ourselves based on clear evidence whether we would know and choose Him. (I recognize that we can’t, without God’s Spirit, choose Him.) We have no excuse, can’t claim we didn’t know, we are responsible and have proven that we can’t judge between good and evil even after eating from the tree. Good was simply obedience to the command of God all along, knowledge of good and evil was one-sided, we suddenly knew evil when we first sinned against the Lord and have chosen evil ever since. We aren’t, however, to spend our lives gazing into heaven after Him, waiting for Him to come, it has always been the case that we have work to do and the Master expects to find us busy with His work when He returns.

Holy, holy, holy! All saints adore thee,

casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;

cherubim and seraphim falling down before thee,

which wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.