David is certain that Saul wants to murder him and shares
his concerns with Jonathan. Jonathan cannot imagine, even though he has seen
something of his father's jealousy over David, that Saul would murder David
without tipping it to Jonathan, his son.
David contrives to force Saul's hand in the matter by absenting himself
from his presence for several days. He
knows Saul's suspicious mind and that his absence will arouse Saul to question
his son. The important part of this
passage is not all the plotting about how Jonathan will communicate with David
but that Jonathan has laid down his own hopes and dreams of having his father's
throne in favor of David. He sees a time
when David is king and his enemies will be cut off from the face of the
earth. His own father is David's enemy
and he is heir to the throne but he has hopes not for himself but for David. If his father does kill David, his own path
to be king will be secure, but he acts to preserve David's life. He extracts a promise from David that David
will show kindness to Jonathan's line, a promise that David is more than
willing to make. In these covenants we
see a prototype of God's covenant with us in Jesus who was willing to lay aside
His eternal throne and come to live as one of us, and to die as one of us but
also for us that we might share His inheritance. Do we love Jesus as David and Jonathan loved
one another, as our own soul?
When Matthew is offered a chance to leave his profession, he
responds just as the others have done, leaving immediately. He also does something we should take note
of, he shares Jesus with his friends. He
gives a feast and invites all his tax collector buddies to attend. This is a scandal to the Pharisees who would
never eat with such sinners. They ask
the disciples a hard question, why is it that Jesus eats with such people. The disciples are probably wondering the same
thing at this juncture, they didn't sign up for spending time with this kind of
people. Jesus says that he didn't come
for the righteous but sinners, and the Pharisees see themselves as righteous
already. Jesus is different from John
the Baptist, a man who kept himself separate from others and whose primary
ministry was to call out sin. Jesus
fasts and immerses himself in life, His presence and His Spirit doing the work
of calling out sin. This is a new thing,
the bridegroom is here, feasting is the only option. This is an extraordinary claim to be Messiah
and everyone knows it.
Herod is a weak leader just as Saul was weak. They both craved the applause of men. Herod had Peter arrested because he knew it
would curry favor with the Jews and now Peter is gone, someone must be to
blame. He had the guard executed in
order to show his authority and so that the Jews would know he was serious
about persecuting this new movement. He
loved the acclaim of the people of Tyre and Sidon as well and this was ultimately
his downfall. He had made peace with
them at their request because they needed what he had to offer, food, which had
been cut off by the embargo he put on them.
They extolled him as an orator but they were primarily happy that they
would now be able to enjoy life and the pax Romana. He believed his own press and, like,
Nebuchadnezzar, found it to be his greatest mistake. Pride goeth before a fall indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment