No matter what you might think of Saul, what the Philistines
do to his body and the bodies of his sons is gruesome. At the same time, we must recall that David
did almost the same thing after he had slain Goliath, taking his head for a
trophy. Saul’s armor bearer, like David,
will not be responsible for killing the king, refusing Saul’s request to do so
when the battle was going against him and he knew he was going to lose and
thus, to die. Saul’s suicide is sad but
understandable, these Philistines were more violent and more willing to
annihilate than Saul had been willing to do vis a vis the Amalekites. In this we see, perhaps, why God ordered him
to utterly destroy them, leaving nothing at all that was tainted by the blood
lust and idolatry of this people. His body
is attached to the wall for the birds to eat and the people to see, but the men
of Jabesh-Gilead, the region from which Saul’s mother hailed, came, took down
the bodies and mourned the deaths of Saul and his sons. The first kingship of Israel had ended.
This was a pretty incredible day wasn’t it? Beginning with the encounter with the
Gerasene demoniac and continuing through the healing of the woman who had an
issue of blood for twelve years to the raising of the daughter of the synagogue
ruler from the dead, I would say everyone had to be living in radical amazement
at this Jesus. By the time Jesus gets to
the house of Jairus He would have been more ritually impure than was nearly possible,
having been among Gentiles, in the tombs, with a demon-possessed man, pigs were
there, and being touched by this woman. Jairus,
however, was desperate, desperate about his daughter, and willing to sacrifice
anything, even the ability to go to synagogue or temple for a season, for her
healing. Even after they are told she is
dead, Jairus is willing to believe if Jesus says so. The emissaries from the house call Jesus,
Teacher, but he has not come to trouble the Teacher, but the healer. In all these hopeless cases, Jesus alone
brings hope and healing.
James, the brother of Jesus, is the clear leader of the
church in Jerusalem at the time. It
falls to him, therefore, to judge the matter of Gentile inclusion. What he sees is that there has always been a
plan for Gentiles to be part of the covenant community, Amos’ prophecy makes
that much clear. His proposal is that
there be a few things Gentiles should observe in being part of this
community. These things would mark out
the Gentile converts from their past and their own cultures. They were to abstain from “things polluted by
idols”, that which was dedicated to other gods, from eating meat from which the
blood had not been drained, for life was in the blood, and from sexual
immorality. There were different ethical
responsibilities in the kingdom of God than in Gentile society. The other thing to remember here is that they
honestly thought the end was coming any moment so teaching the entire Law was
impracticable. If the king is returning
right away let’s keep it simple.
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