Saul’s fear of the Philistines and the Lord’s refusal to
give him word concerning the matter through dreams, Urim or the prophets caused
him to try and get word from a medium or witch.
We are told that Saul had done a good thing and put such people out of
the land and yet now he needed to hear something and so he sought one out. This woman reluctantly does what Saul, in
disguise, has asked of her and summons Samuel.
Why Samuel? Did Saul think he
would now be favorably disposed towards him?
If he did, he was in for a rude awakening. The woman immediately knew this was Saul and
that what was coming next was going to be unpleasant. Samuel gives the final prophetic word on Saul
and his family, it is ending soon and David is the man who will fulfill the
prophecy as the next king. Where did the
woman get the power to summon Samuel?
She had no power of her own, the Lord used this woman to do His will,
completely independent of anything she did.
The people of the land of the Gerasenes were afraid of this
man, he held them hostage even though they had put him in the tombs and chained
him. They lived in fear of him and all
day and night we are told he cried out.
If you have ever lived somewhere with a dog next door or with roosters
nearby, you know that there is no escape from the noise and when it is human,
but demonic, how much more would it be more than nuisance, a terror. What if he chose to leave the tombs and come
back, what would happen? Jesus seems to
have gone there for this man’s benefit, to relieve his torment from this legion
of demons. Why did Jesus allow the
demons to choose their next hosts, the pigs?
We aren’t told but we are told that they couldn’t do so without His
permission, they were completely in His sway.
What we do know is that the people had seen a demonstration of power
over evil, a power that they had feared and now they feared Him even more
although Jesus had shown great compassion to this man and, vicariously, to the
entire community. They, however, want
nothing to do with Him and this new power, begging Him to leave. The man begs to come with Jesus but Jesus
leaves Him behind as an enduring witness to all, they won’t be able to push
this aside with him in their midst.
There had to be a controversy over the issue of
circumcision. That had always been the
way you entered the covenant community, all the way back to Genesis 17 when it
was first instituted. In Exodus 4, as
Moses is returning to Egypt, after being commissioned by the Lord to lead the
people out of Egypt, either he is circumcised or his children are by his
wife. Jesus, himself had been
circumcised. Gentiles could only enter
the covenant through this practice. What
had changed in Jesus? Had He redefined
the mode of entry as baptism when He commanded it? Were both required? It is an honest question. Peter finds two things decisive in the final
answer: his experience and the reality that the Law hadn’t ever saved
anyone. The Law was the yoke that
circumcision placed on the neck, if you came into the community, you accepted
the Law as binding on your life which obliged you to practice sacrifices. Peter’s experience with Cornelius was that
the Spirit was given without circumcision and, in truth, without baptism. Was the grace of God in Jesus all that was
required for salvation? That is the
question that had to be decided in Jerusalem.
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