Psalm 50; 1 Samuel 28:3-20; Acts 15:1-11; Mark 5:1-20
This is a strange story about Samuel consulting with a medium for a word from the Lord on what is to come with regards to the Philistines. He has done the right thing and banished spiritists from the land and yet now when the Lord is silent, he seeks one out as a source of information. We have no idea whether the Samuel we see here is Samuel himself from the dead or whether it is an apparition. We have no idea how this woman was able to conjure him and it certainly cannot be a story that ascribes real power over a godly man such as Samuel after his death. At any rate, Samuel or an apparition of Samuel, appears to the woman and apparently imparts the information that the customer here is the king who has banished her and her ilk from the kingdom. In the end, Samuel repeats the judgment he has already spoken against Saul and its basis as the final word on this current threat. How do we deal with God’s silence? Do we seek information or comfort from sources other than the Lord?
Jesus leaves Israel and heads to the Decapolis for some unknown reason. It seems, based on the story, that it was for the purpose of healing this man in the tombs and delivering him from his demonic prison. There is no history for this man, how he came to be possessed, if he and his family were Jews who had settled here in the country of the Gerasenes, nothing. We simply know that Jesus went to him, delivered him from the demons and then commissioned him as a witness to Jesus’ power. To this point Jesus has rebuked the demonic forces He has encountered and forbidden them to speak of Him but here He does not and engages in conversation with the demons. He asks them to name themselves, giving Him power over them to command them by name and the response is that there is not a single demon here but many. There is no familiarity between Jesus and these spirits, only a command that will result in their destruction. In the end, these people have a demonstration of Jesus’ power much like the disciples had seen on the boat when Jesus commanded the wind and waves. They were not likely soon to forget what they had seen.
The early church has to make a decision whether they are a continuation of Judaism or something new, in continuity with Judaism as Jesus was indeed the Messiah of the Jews, but superseding the law. Paul has not required his Gentile converts to accept circumcision and the law of Moses, the old covenant, to enter the new covenant. The apostles have to decide how the old and new covenants are related. Both are covenants of grace in that sin is presumed as is forgiveness. Both are with the same God. Does the new covenant imply the old covenant and the law but simply provide, via the Holy Spirit, the means to keep the law or is something else at work? Ultimately the apostles, upon hearing Peter’s testimony concerning what he heard and saw at Cornelius’ house, must decide if new means new. Jesus has fulfilled the law and canceled the penalty of the law. To accept the law is ultimately to accept the sacrificial system but Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all and no other sacrifice need be made for sin. The apostles need the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus whom God has raised from the dead, to speak to and through them here in wisdom.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
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