Embracing Humility
Notes
Transcript
The Heart of a True Servant: Embracing Humility
The Heart of a True Servant: Embracing Humility
A. Rapport for the Time
B. Reading of the Text
C. Review of the Text
D. Relevance of the Text
1. Sacrificial Bonds of Friendship
1. Sacrificial Bonds of Friendship
1 Samuel 18:1-3
1 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house.
3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.
These verses make you take pause to think that Jonathan loved David as his own soul. We would say Jonathan loved him as much as he loved himself. Who can you say that of today? Do you have a friendship like that with anyone. The example given to us by Jonathan is amazing in these verse. But honestly it becomes even more amazing when we come to realize all that is at stake for Jonathon with David.
Jonathon loved David not in a way that anyone could say this was a gay relationship. The love in these verses is: Hebrew--’aheb The love has nothing to do with what the OT usually uses as To know. Instead this is an intense personal affection. That comes together in a covenant between Jonathan and David.
1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart Yahweh’s Servant Is so Provocative (18:1–9)
“So Jonathan—along with David—cut a covenant because he loved him as himself.” If we press the verb, the bond was inaugurated by severing an animal and by both parties passing between the pieces as if to say, “If I am unfaithful to my word in this covenant, may I end up in pieces as this animal.”
17 And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
2 And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself.
26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.
Jonathan loved David like himself and was willing to make a covenant with David and we will want to hold on to that information as we go through the rest of the book of 1 Samuel.
Vs. 2 seems like a side not but it really allows us to understand the mind of Saul at this point. King Saul is determined not to let David from his sight and this verse is just a warning of what will happen starting in vs. 6
T.S.
2. Selfless Acts of Honor
2. Selfless Acts of Honor
1 Samuel 18:4-5
4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.
5 And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.
After making a covenant with David now Jonathan goes even further we need to recognize that Jonathan from the worlds perspective has the rights to the throne after his father Saul someday steps away. But from the moment we met Jonathan we have seen his faith in the Lord in Action.
6 When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”
9 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.”
10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”
Jonathan and his Armor bearer would bring about the defeat of the Philistines this day relying upon not themselves but the power of the God they served.
The clothes of Jonathan signify the person and the position. The picture of Jonathan giving all that he has to David is that he sees David as the next King not himself. This makes zero humanly sense. Why would a person who is out for themselves give us their path to power that not one would every fight them about? Kingdoms have been split and will be split over a fight for power once a King passes away. Humanly speaking now one give us power unless they are forced to do so or simply weak and know it.
1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart Yahweh’s Servant Is so Provocative (18:1–9)
“This deed on his part was an act of faith. Only faith makes us willing to be the lesser. Faith causes us to surrender the rights we pretend to have over against the Christ, who is truly Israel’s king.”
Jonathan is giving us an example of how we are to live in our relationship with God. Your ego should never stand in the way of you serving God. What ego should you and I have as children of the King? We have zero to brag about when it comes to standing before God.
Jonathan gives us an example of humility but our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was the best example.
Foot washing
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
humility of Christ
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,
2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The cross or our Lord
Paul--I will boast
17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Gospel
As a christian we recognize our sinfulness before a great God and boast in what he has accomplished for us alone. We have no grandiose story of how great we are but we do have one about our savior.
Jonathan is putting on display that his life is not his own. He is out for his own objectives but instead declares the faith that he sees in his Lord. And in this moment what he sees in the life of David that God has done with him. He doesn’t want to miss out of what God is doing in front him by worrying about his own ego and personal desires.
T.S.
3. Struggles with Jealousy
3. Struggles with Jealousy
1 Samuel 18:6-9
6 As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.
7 And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.”
8 And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”
9 And Saul eyed David from that day on.
defined Jealousy--The sinful perversion is based on the belief that one is entitled to something to which one has no natural right.
28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary II. Human Jealousy
The Wisdom Literature warns of the dangers of jealousy and its almost inevitable connection with sinful self-indulgence (e.g.,
34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
20 For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
