Saul, after denials and shifting blame multiple times when
confronted by Samuel, finally gets it right.
“I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and
your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore,
please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” Whether he feared the people is questionable
and it is still a way of not taking full responsibility but he’s on the right
road. Samuel’s response is that he will
not return with Saul. Saul grasps for Samuel because he knows that if the
prophet will not return with him all is lost as far as his kingship is
concerned and in doing so, tears Samuel’s garment which becomes the prophetic
word that Saul is going to lose the kingdom.
In verses 11, 29, and 35 we see what looks like a contradiction in the
use of the word regret. We are told
first the Lord regretted having made Saul king.
Then Samuel says, “the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for
he is not a man, that he should have regret.” Finally we are told the Lord
regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. John Piper has written a really nice piece on
this paradox here. At the end of the day, Saul is still king but
he knows he is rejected by God in that role.
Why does God leave him in place as king for about two decades?
“On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.” Do you think they rested in any way we think
of rest? They rested “according to the
commandment” which means that they didn’t do the work they were so longing to
do, they were obedient to the commandment of God concerning the Sabbath even
though they were completely broken in spirit.
Their act of obedience is a beautiful thing when you consider the pain
they were suffering, the disappointment they must have felt with God, their
hope was gone, all they believed seemed to have been a lie, and the people of
that same God were the ones who had shouted “Crucify Him!” The work of preparing the spices went for
naught but no one cared, the work of God had resumed.
Peter’s healing of Aeneas is funny, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ
heals you; rise and make your bed.” The
man has been bed ridden for eight years and the first thing Peter does is
command him to make his bed! I guess
he’s rested long enough, it’s time to get to work. Jesus did that, telling the man at the pool
of Bethesda to take up his mat and walk.
There is an atmosphere around the apostles at this time that looks like
when Jesus was with them. The disciples
in Joppa hear that Peter is there and rush to him to raise their friend and
mentor, Lydia, from the dead, attempting to impress him with the work she has
done on his arrival at her house. It
seems very like the scene when the crowd implored Jesus to come and do
something for the centurion’s child because of all he had done for the
nation. The apostles have inherited the
mantle of leadership from Jesus and they are doing what He Himself would do if
He were still among them. The kingdom is
breaking in through obedience.
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