The people rightly fear the Philistine army, they are vastly
outnumbered and the Philistines were a might army. Samuel has indicated he would be there in
seven days but when he is delayed, Saul decides he can take matters into his own
hands regarding the offering of sacrifice to seek God’s favor. The problem is that while he is king he is
not also priest, he lacks authority and standing to offer sacrifices. He has acted presumptuously in this matter
and Samuel says that Saul’s kingdom shall not continue, it will end with him,
not pass to his son in dynastic fashion.
Saul’s excuses make sense but to say that he forced himself to do this
is a bit of a stretch but that will prove to be Saul’s pattern. Do you see the parallels or at least
similarities in this story to the episode of the golden calf in Exodus 32? The people fear Moses isn’t coming back and
therefore take religious matters into their own hands, the conversation between
Moses and Aaron is very similar to this exchange between Samuel and Saul. We can’t step over our boundaries and presume
upon the office of another.
Pilate can find no guilt in Jesus, the charges they have
made have no merit. Herod found no guilt
in Him either. Pilate, therefore,
proposes to punish and release Jesus to appease the crowd and to teach Him a
lesson. The leaders, however, are
determined that Jesus be crucified. They
have worked behind the scenes to whip up the crowd who find Him guilty of the
crimes and demand vociferously that Jesus be crucified. Pilate ultimately realizes that they will not
be pacified with simply punishing Jesus and releasing Him. It is amazing that releasing an
insurrectionist and murderer would be a preferable outcome. This man actually did mislead and incite the
people against Rome while Jesus was an innocent man. Human nature being what it is, and mob
psychology taking over for rational thought, it is no surprise that Pilate took
the path of least resistance in order to keep peace.
The Ethiopian eunuch was probably on his way home from a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the festival or festivals. He has purchased the scroll of Isaiah,
ironically the same scroll from which Jesus announced His ministry in the
synagogue at Nazareth in Luke 4. He is
stumped by what he reads about this man who comes to trial and is silent,
refusing to offer a defense of himself.
Philip is taken by some means to where the man is traveling and, running
alongside the chariot, offers to help with interpretation. The man finds in Jesus what he longs for and
is baptized there. The kingdom is now
expanding further through this God fearing Ethiopian and in both cases so far
where the Gospel is preached to “outsiders”, Samaria and here, it is another
deacon, Philip, who is responsible. I
wonder what happened to this man with regards the Holy Spirit. In all things, God is sovereign, His will is
being done, with or without man taking initiative, sometimes the initiative is
all His own.
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