Please read the whole chapter and feel free to post a reply even before you read my thoughts. If you don't have a Bible with you, you can follow this link to the passage: 1 Samuel 14
There is a lot going on in this chapter. Jonathon defeats the Philistines, Saul makes a terrible decision about the people eating food, and the chapter ends by summarizing Saul's family and kingship. In the midst of all this action it's easy to forget that God is active in all things. I didn't see God speak to anyone, not even His prophet is in this section. Jonathon attributes his victory to God and Saul builds an altar, but nowhere do we get a clear word on whether God approves of these actions.
This is often how I feel about our lives. That we are busy with much and missing how God wants us to see it all. Notice I'm not just talking about stopping to smell the roses, or taking on some sort of monasticism. Rather, I believe God is inviting us to see His action in our lives, to see that His Word speaks to us. That our time with God in prayer, reading, work and life is a time to hear Him speak, to have relationship with Him.
In our reading today it would be easy for us to miss God's activity, but Jonathon's words are helpful for us here: "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few." It seems like a small thing but it speaks of God's activity. It is a comfort to us when we feel overwhelmed by our task or our numbers. It is a comfort, teaching us to recognize that God is working through the extraordinary and the mundane.
I know somewhere in Leviticus or Deuteronomy is the passage that explains how to redeem someone from a blood oath, but I will need to look it up before I comment further on that. The biggest thing to me is how it is evident that both God and the people have rejected Saul. Jonathan's two man campaign routs the Philistines, while Saul's 600 can only make a stalemate. God refuses to answer Saul's question, and the people overturn Saul's blood oath by redeeming Jonathan. At the end of this chapter, we are given a wrap up on Saul's victories, something that is usually given when a King dies. It may be that the writer began counting the years of David's reign from this point, Saul's final victory.
ReplyDeleteIn 1 Samuel 14 we read about Saul's deteriorating leadership skills. But Saul's poor display of leadership isn't the result of character flaws. It is the result of his decaying spiritual character. In my life, what I do is a direct result of my spiritual condition. Yikes! Good, or not-so, I believe that everything I do (or, don't do), reflects my spiritual condition. The importance of spiritual character can not be ignored in leadership and in living life purposefully.
ReplyDelete