Even though Samuel was rightfully angry with Saul, even
though he was a huge disappointment as king and Samuel knew the Lord had
rejected the man, even though he had been angry at the idea of a king right
from the start and knew what kind of king the Lord would give the nation, he
still grieved over Saul. The Lord has to
call him out of this depression or grief and call him to anoint another as king
in Saul’s stead. The first one hadn’t
gone well so I wonder what Samuel was thinking as he headed to Bethlehem in
obedience to God’s call. I wonder also
did he assume that there would be a quick transition from Saul to this new
king. Would the Lord simply take Saul’s
life away in battle and the new king ascend the throne in short order? He couldn’t have imagined that the man who he
would anoint would spend somewhere around fifteen years as the king in waiting
for the Lord to remove Saul. Sometimes
we have to be incredibly patient in believing we have done what we were called
to do before we see it fulfilled.
Sometimes you just have to wait three days! These disciples were devastated and had no
room left in their lives for joy. Their
entire way of understanding the world had been turned upside down twice; first
by Jesus and then by the crucifixion.
They had come to believe that He was the Messiah and would rule over the
nation as David’s heir and now, once all your hopes had been put in that
belief, how do you recover from His death?
How do you trust yourself not to be led astray again? The one thing they knew was that Jesus was
gone, their grief, their knowledge of His death, and their understanding of
death as final would certainly have been impediments to “seeing” Jesus with
them along the road to Emmaus. There
seems to be, however, something more supernatural going on than this. It is in the breaking of the bread that their
eyes were opened to recognize Him. Had
they been there when He blessed, broke and gave bread to the five thousand and
suddenly saw Him again in that action?
We’ll never know how it worked but once their eyes were open they were
filled with joy.
Cornelius was a seeker in the most authentic sense of that
term. He was a man who feared God and
prayed continually. He hadn’t taken the
decisive step of circumcision but he was a man who followed the commands of
God. Like everyone in Scripture who sees
an angel, what was Cornelius’ reaction to seeing one in his vision? Terror.
He will do anything he’s told to do after seeing this creature, and all
he is asked to do is summon Simon called Peter from Joppa where he is staying
with another man named Simon who is a tanner.
Nothing else, just that, whoever this Simon called Peter fellow may be
and for whatever purpose. Peter is given
a vision of his own that is equally unintelligible. They are preparing something for him to eat,
perhaps this vision related to lunch. He
must surely have wondered what in the world that was all about, probably the
same way David felt when Samuel anointed him king. Sometimes we need to wait for understanding.
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