Samuel is gone and can no longer be consulted with respect
to the Lord's will, Saul is king and he stands before the Lord now in that
capacity. He is in fear because of the
Philistines and can't get God to answer.
Sound familiar? When our prayers
aren't answered we sometimes turn to other sources of wisdom and Saul turned to
a medium although he had driven them out of the land. He was wise to do that, we are not to seek
wisdom anywhere other than the Lord in prayer.
We do not need another to hear for us if we genuinely seek after
Him. In the same way we have direct
access to God and need no man to plead our case before Him, so can we obtain
wisdom. The witch of Endor is afraid
also and fears a trick to expose her and have her taken into custody and
perhaps killed yet receives assurance that such is not the case. She summons the spirit of Samuel per the
request of this mystery man and Samuel immediately reveals to her who this man
is. This is a strange story to say the
least that it is possible to summon the dead and the woman is greatly
afraid. Saul is told that this will be
his last day, the judgment Samuel foretold will be executed against Saul and
his boys this very day. Why does Saul
seem to fast before battles so regularly?
It is a particularly unwise strategy but this time it was more likely
out of fear.
In addition to all the unclean aspects of this story: demon
possession, the land of the Gerasenes which some referred to as one of the
places where the gates of hell could be found, tombs, blood, pigs, etc., the
story is also pregnant with fear. The
man was fearsome and everyone else was fearful.
Chains couldn’t hold him and no one was strong enough to subdue
him. He screamed all night long and all
day as well. When the people came down
after the men who were keeping the pigs told them what Jesus had done and saw
the man sitting in his right mind they were more afraid of Jesus than they had
been of the man. The power of God was
made manifest in this healing and there was indeed more to fear now because the
power in Jesus was greater than the power they had previously feared. Jesus will not allow the man to join Him but
leaves him behind as a perpetual witness.
They won't be able to forget this Jesus because of this man's presence
among them as a constant reminder.
From whence will come the wisdom to decide what to do about
the Gentiles? The question is whether or
not baptism is enough or should they be circumcised. The Jewish believers think it is necessary to
circumcise these converts in keeping with the Law. They didn't see the movement as distinct from
Judaism, only the fulfillment of it. If
that is the case, shouldn't they be circumcised in order to enter the covenant
community? The question is a good one
but Peter has some experience that militates against that understanding. He saw people being grafted into the body
without circumcision. If they have the
Spirit then what would circumcision add to them? The argument is persuasive and it brings a
new understanding to the problem of what is the relationship of believers in
Christ to the Law. We are saved by grace
through faith, and our relationship to the Law is that of transgressor. That is an important notion if we are to
understand grace, we must first understand our need of it then find its source
and drink deeply. Let us seek wisdom and
grace where we know to find them. Let
our fears be dissolved in that amazing grace.
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