It seems the Philistines will never be conquered. The first thing to remember is that they are
children from Ham, the son of Noah, through Ham’s son Canaan. They had been around forever. The Philistines were one of the people groups
to whom Abram told Sarai to pretend she was his sister. Isaac had problems with the Philistines over
wells. The Philistines are one of the tribes
the Israelites failed to conquer when they entered the land. David should never have had to fight these
people, they should have been conquered long ago but weren’t. The failure to finish the work remained a
problem in Israel. They were a constant
thorn in the flesh of the nation. This
isn’t the final chapter of the battle either.
This particular victory, however, set the ark free to move to Jerusalem,
the way was opened. It would have been a
glorious thing to see this procession which became something more somber when
Uzzah was struck down for reaching out his hand to steady the ark. The problem began with putting the ark on a
cart. It was designed to be carried by
the priests via poles inserted into sockets along the bottom of the ark. The entire scene is one of joyfulness but
without the proper respect and reverence for the ark, they are not following
God’s way but, rather, their own way.
Does that have anything to say about worship in our world today?
Remember the first crisis of the people in the exodus after
they crossed the Red Sea? It was three
days later and they had neither food nor water.
The manna had not yet begun to fall and the people began to
grumble. Here, the people aren’t
grumbling but they have been following Jesus for three days and He announces
that He has compassion on them and fears that when they return they will faint
on the way. Water doesn’t seem to be a
problem because Mark, in his typical fashion, tells us that when Jesus
dismissed them He immediately got into a boat with the disciples. Following Him brings us sometimes into places
where He needs to have compassion on us, He cares for our needs when we are
devoted to Him.
Why was Paul provoked because the city of Athens was full of
idols? Why would it matter to him?
Provoked is a good translation but the meaning of that word is that he was
stirred to action and we certainly see that in his response, reasoning about
Jesus in both synagogue and marketplace to the point where local philosophers
decided to take him up and invite him to speak.
He stirred up the locals by preaching constantly among them. When he came to the Areopagus to speak, he
began by pointing to the idolatry and speaking of the altar to the “unknown God.” None of the other gods was comparable to the
God whom Paul proclaimed, his God was not an analog of some other god. He is greater than all the gods, even than
the sum of the gods. Likewise, He is not
humanity writ large, we are also not little gods though we imperfectly bear His
image. We were created with and for a purpose
and for times and places. He is not only
transcendent, He is immanent. These paradoxes
were too much for some and appealing to others.
The talk wasn’t a great success but it was a beginning. We can’t do hit and run evangelism in the
world today when there are so many people worshipping so many gods, all of whom
claim equal right to worship. We must be
patient in our approach. God’s way is
the way of patience, Jesus endured much and spent time with people.
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