Apparently, Rechab and Baanah had not heard the story of
what happened to the man who chose to tell David he had killed Saul. Either that or they thought that this time
would be different since Ish-bosheth hadn’t been the Lord’s anointed. David, however, had a covenant with Jonathan
and this was his brother they had killed, usurper and pretender to the throne
or not. They surely thought their treachery
would stand them in good stead with the new king, perhaps winning them favor
and places of honor in his kingdom.
Instead, it cost them their lives.
It was not a good idea to underestimate David’s loyalty. David was trying to do things the right way,
trusting the Lord, while everyone else was trying to do things the old way, the
way of the world, taking matters into their own hands. It is always a temptation to do things the
old way.
Why did the Pharisees practice such elaborate rituals
concerning washings? Their understanding
of the world was dualistic. The world,
everything out there, defiled a person who was, otherwise, clean. The world was defiled and defiling so
whatever contact there was with the world needed to be cleansed properly. They found it unconscionable that Jesus and
the disciples didn’t follow these same rituals.
Jesus accused them of missing the point entirely, they strained at gnats
and swallowed camels. The focus on what
was a fairly insignificant part of the Law, and a misunderstanding of it and
its implications generally, caused them to obviate the greater parts of the
Law. Jesus’ response referred
specifically to the Ten Commandments, honor your father and mother. We need that same perspective in our time,
when we have concluded the opposite of the Pharisees, that all sin is the same
or equal. Clearly the law never makes
such an assertion, there are varying punishments and sacrifices depending on
the sin. All sin is sin but all is not
equal. The real issue isn’t defilement
from without, it is from the heart itself.
The real discipline isn’t washing hands, that starts with the
presumption I am clean, Jesus rebuts the presumption, you aren’t clean at all,
look at your heart. Jesus’ immersion in
the physical world of sin and death and defilement tells us how to live.
As I write this, the Supreme Court decision making gay
marriage the law of the land in the United States has just been announced and
Christians are reacting all over the internet to the news with hand wringing
and loud denunciations and fear of having our religious liberties taken away
from us. Paul and Silas were beaten with
rods and thrown into prison for exercising their religious liberties. What was their reaction? “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and
suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison
were shaken.” Who could ever have
imagined that the man of Macedonia would turn out to be the jailer? He was prepared to run himself through rather
than let his employers do so more cruelly when suddenly he learned that God was
up to something more, something to give him life rather than death. Paul and Silas didn’t hatch a plan, they
worshiped and trusted God that He had a plan.
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