Saul wants to press his advantage by plundering the
Philistines all night. The people are
already hungry and now he wants also to force them to fight all night long as
well. No one responded to his admonition,
meaning that they would not speak the truth to him with their concerns. The priest alone suggests they continue
before the Lord rather than rashly strike out.
The Lord gave no answer to Saul and he is thus convinced that the reason
is sin in the camp. Has Jonathan sinned
by eating the honey or did he simply disobey a command of which he was
ignorant? The Lord reveals through the
Urim and Thummim and the lot that Jonathan is the guilty party. The punishment Saul has decreed is death,
even if it is indeed his son. The people
finally answer this silliness and ransom Jonathan from his father. Saul is acting rashly in all things.
The parable assumes you know something, that the invitation
is a two-part invitation. Well ahead of
time the invitees are told to save the date.
The particular time of the feast is not known with certainty until the
preparations are complete. The invitees
would have said yes to saving the date but now they treat the king and his
servants with utter contempt when they come to fetch the guests. It is unthinkable that they would act this
way, particularly in murdering the servants.
These clearly refer to the prophets sent to Israel and ultimately Jesus
Himself. When therefore they are
destroyed, the king says to his servants to go and bring anyone who will come
to the feast. When he arrives he finds
one who has refused to put on the wedding garment provided. All the guest had to do was put on the
garment provided for him but he apparently refused even this simply courtesy
after he has received such grace as to be at the wedding banquet of the king's
son. We have been given grace to come to
the feast because Jesus was rejected by the Jews, we must, however, put on
Christ if we are to remain forever.
As Christians we know that our father is not rash and
capricious as Saul. We know that He will
not consign or condemn us to death for eating honey against His will. He has sent His son to die for us who were
not only sinners, but enemies. His
children can rest in His love and faithfulness.
He has died on our behalf in order that we might have peace with
Him. That rest in Christ allows us to
grow in our sufferings, become more like Him, less like Saul. Are we receiving all He has to offer us? We must put on Christ, not only for
justification but also for sanctification, become more like Him in order to
reveal Him to the world, that there is a new way of being. The wedding garment is held out for you to
put on, will you receive it?
No comments:
Post a Comment