David has his chance to end this madness of two kings, one
on the throne and the other anointed as successor. Saul goes into a cave to relieve himself and
it happens that David and his men are hiding there from Saul and his army of
three thousand men. David’s men urge him
to kill Saul but David only cuts off a corner of Saul’s robe. David has surely acted well towards Saul and
uses the occasion to tell Saul that he respects the fact that Saul was anointed
by God and is the king until God chooses to change that situation. Saul acknowledges David’s righteous actions
and asks for a pledge that when David becomes king he will not forget Saul’s
family, will do well to them as he has done this day and David acquiesces. David will keep this pledge and if you search
for the term David uses to describe himself here, “dead dog”, you will find it
in the fulfillment of the pledge.
This parable seems to come up in our reading more often than
any other. The sower is completely
indiscriminate in his work. If an
employer saw him doing his work so carelessly he would either instruct or fire
him. We aren’t told to be discriminating
in sowing seed, only to do the work and leave the results to God. The soil condition of my heart is
ever-changing. If you make a habit of
studying the same Scriptures again and again, writing a journal like this one
every day for several years, you will find that what you see in any given
lesson changes. My heart and mind are
influenced by many things, people, experiences, etc, and these all will impact
what I see and what I hear in my reading.
The ground of our hearts is improved simply by being in contact with
seed. We never get to perfection but we
need always to be improving if our goal is real fruitfulness.
Are we in a place in the west where we have to make the same
decision Paul did? If we substitute
Christian for Jew here I think we really are in that same place. Denominations like the AMiA and ACNA are a
testimony to that reality. We can no
longer argue the truth of the Gospel, the validity of the Bible, and the exclusivity
of the claims of Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life with those who call
themselves Christians but who deny the truth claims the church has made for two
thousand years. We have to turn our
attention to those who have not done as Saul did and harden their hearts
against the truth. Maybe if we walk away
and begin simply to preach to the “Gentiles” of the world we will find our true
joy and much fruit.
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