Psalm 18:1-20; 1 Samuel 16:14-17:11; Acts 10:17-33; Luke 24:36-53
So what does it mean that an evil spirit from the Lord came to torment Saul? Does God also command evil spirits? Isn’t that a contradiction to what we understand about God? In the Old Testament this form comes up several times so we need to understand what is going on with the statement. We don’t see the dualism of good and bad, God and satan, as clearly in the Old Testament as we do beginning with Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament. God’s providence in all things is assumed and whether He sent the evil spirit or permitted it is considered to be providential. When His Spirit departed from Saul, the man was vulnerable and he was also king of Israel, so wouldn’t this be an opportune time and person for a demonic attack? Saul has been rejected by God as king but not replaced, Saul will have to somehow vacate the spot in order for David to take it up. Is it David’s musical abilities that are at work in calming Saul or is it spiritual warfare? Saul’s reaction to Goliath’s taunts is further evidence that the Spirit of the Lord has departed, would the Lord’s anointed tremble in fear here?
Even though they had heard from the women and the disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, even though they had seen the empty tomb and the grave clothes, they still didn’t believe. When Jesus appeared their first conclusion was not that Jesus was before them, but that a spirit had appeared to them. Even after He showed them His hands and feet they “disbelieved for joy.” My point is that they didn’t make up a resurrection, they weren’t gullible and they didn’t have delusions, they were no more prepared to believe in a miraculous resurrection from the dead than modern, scientifically-oriented people. Science hasn’t advanced men’s understanding of death in 2000 years, people have always known death is final and these men saw Jesus die and had no doubts that He was truly dead. The power of the Spirit, however, is the spirit of life. After the proof of physical resurrection, eating the fish, He proved from Scripture that this must be and then they began to believe. Belief begat joy.
Peter applied the vision of clean and unclean meat to people to begin his little speech. He reminds them that Jews can’t associate in this way with Gentiles but God has shown him that this is no longer the case, he has transcended those distinctions. Now that this is out of the way, he wants to know why they sent for him. Cornelius has had his own visitation, not simply a vision but a visitation from a man in bright clothing. Peter surely remembered having seen Jesus in bright clothing on the mount of Transfiguration and the report of the women concerning their encounter at the tomb. Now, these Gentiles want to hear whatever Peter has to say. I wonder if Peter knew what to say as it doesn’t seem as though God had given him a particular message for the occasion.
Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.
No comments:
Post a Comment