Did you Hear That?
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Hurricane Harvey (Slide)
Hurricane Harvey (Slide)
Tragedy-We wonder-Where is God in all this?
I can tell you God, is alive and well. He is guiding the people helping. He is there when the lives are being saved. He is comforting the hurting. He is with the churches and people that are taking in the homeless. He is there when people hear the gospel in the middle of the loss, and he is there providing a way for eternal life.
While we see God in the aftermath, and clean-up and stories of survival
Seeing God working through his people in the aftermath, and hearing stories of God working in miraculous ways does still leaves other questions unanswered. We are still left with the question of why? Why does God allow this? Or, why does God bring on a disaster?
The Bible clearly gives us a picture of God that shows that he is in control of the weather.
You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.
Psalm 89:1
So when Christians are faced with God being in control, and when that is laid alongside stories of the Old Testament, people put those together and conclude that God is judging people for their sinfulness. We hear statements like all the time. 911 was judgement to our nation, the Tsunami in Indonesia was God’s judgement as was the earthquake in Japan. But is that what is happening? Were the people in Texas the recipient of God’s judgement because our nation has turned from God? Were they somehow more wicked than people living in Minnesota that escaped God’s wrath?
How do we relate to the Old Testament stories of God’s justice being delivered, and being Christians today?
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Let’s open , and wrestle with those questions.
Today, we will look at , and wrestle with those questions.
Prayer
Did you hear that?
Did you hear that?
Last week we studied , the anointing of Saul as the military leader slash King of Israel. It really depends on your perspective. During that message, I asked to search God for your directive. If you were not here last week, or you did not do that, let me go over that quickly. I encouraged everyone, to think about how you came to the Lord, and through prayer, and spending time with God to figure out the mission he has for you, then I encouraged you to put that mission into action first to the people around you.
Saul was appointed as military leader of Israel to be the boots on the ground to fight the battles for Israel. As we continue through Saul’s reign in subsequent chapters we see some fairly successful military campaigns. However, the problem is that Saul’s character flaws keep getting in the way. Instead of these missions drawing him closer to the Lord, Saul seems to continue to make choices that lead him farther from the Lord, and off the path. As a result, Saul starts losing the kingdom piece by piece.
In 1 Samuel chapter 13, Saul went out to the fight the Philistines. Samuel told Saul that before going to battle he needed to wait seven days for Samuel return. At the end of seven days Samuel would return, offer the necessary sacrifice to Yahweh, and Saul could proceed to battle.
This is a common theme in Scripture-waiting on God. Often in scripture people receive consequences because they fail to wait when God tells them to wait. Waiting is ultimately a demonstration of your trust in God for the outcome. Not waiting, is taking matters into our own hands. Up to this point Saul has not demonstrated instances where he has been solid in trusting God. So, it really isn’t that surprising that when he is told to wait 7 days for Samuel return, he doesn’t do it.
Saul see things from the point of view of a military commander, he sees the tangible concrete things of the world, not the things of God. Saul is faced with the Philistines pressing in, his men are deserting him because of inaction, and it has been 7 days and Samuel has not showed up to offer the sacrifice. Out of desperation, Saul offers the sacrifice, and just as he offers it, Samuel arrives. As a consequence of this sin God tells Saul that his offspring will not inherit the throne, and the first piece of the kingdom is torn away.
The next piece that is torn away occurs in Chapter 14. In chapter 14, Saul places an unreasonable demand on the troops. Saul has the men fast. He tells them not to eat anything until Saul executes his revenge on his enemies. Saul’s son Johnathon comes across some honey. Bet he has not heard of the oath, he is hungry and eats. The men then battle the Philistines, afterword released from the oath they begin to eat some of the plunder. But because of their great hunger they ravish the meat, and do not follow the dietary laws of the nation, and are sinning against the Lord.
Saul comes up with a solution to that problem, but there still is the matter of Johnathon breaking the oath, and eating honey. Saul decides that whoever broke his oath must die, even if it is his own son. This by the way is the sign of a troubled and dangerous leader. He has placed a manmade requirement on the people. That requirement actually caused sin against the Lord. Then he placed violation of his law above the violation of Lord’s law. This is how cult’s operate.
Anyway because of that behavior the second piece of the kingdom is taken away from Saul. Saul loses authority and popularity over the troops. The men love and respect Johnathon, so they do not follow Saul’s orders to kill him, and they rescue him. That event from is strikingly similar to today’s story, when Saul has the final piece of the kingdom torn from him.
Samuel comes to Saul with a word from the Lord.
Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord.
The original Hebrew emphasizes listening more than the NIV translation does. If we were to read it in the original language it would say, Hear the voice of the words of the Lord. Saul is supposed to listen to this very important message, so that he gets it exactly right right.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
This is a very serious message indeed. It comes to Saul from the Lord of Hosts. We heard that term before, earlier the book. It refers to God being the commander of the heavenly armies. Now the Lord of Hosts is giving his earthly commander an order. Saul is to perform a Holy War on the Amalekites. Not just any Holy war but in Hebrew it is called Herem. It means complete and total destruction. Absolutely nothing is to be spared.
According to , when Isreal left Egypt and was travelling to Sinai, the Amalekites attacked from the rear. They took the weak, and the weary of the Lord’s people. Because that was so horrible in the eyes of the Lord, he vowed that he would destroy them
Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt.
When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God.
When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!
That was then, in the Old Testament, when God called for a holy war to deliver his justice. That was a very specific time, and a very specific incident. We now live under the New Covenant. We are not entitled to go on a Holy War to deliver God’s justice. This is especially relevant today as the dialogue turns toward terrorism. Non-christians claim that passages like these show that christians are no different than terrorists. Some well meaning Christians read these passages and view it as permission to go to war against non-christians.
deut 25:17-19
The delivering of God’s justice belongs to God alone.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Jesus said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
That is what is so radical about the gospel. The Gospel has caused a shift. A shift from the God’s judgement being forcefully carried out in the physical kingdom of Israel through an earthly king. To a Spiritual battle taking place for a heavenly Kingdom. Jesus the king be sure will judge all people from His heavenly throne, but now we are not placed in the position of judge.
So Saul and the soldiers embark on this Holy War, the herem. Total destruction to the enemies of the Lord for the serious sins they committed. The Lord chose his ruthless commander Saul. A man who has no problem putting to death all the women the children and weak and powerless. He kills them all.
In normal warfare, the soldiers were paid from the plunder. They got their pay check from whatever they could loot from the people. The problem with the herem is that the soldiers don’t get paid. Either the king would have to pay them from his finances, or they would have to be totally dedicated to the cause, and 100% behind the King. The problem with Saul’s men is that they are neither. In Samuel 14, they lost respect for Saul they are going to want to be paid.
So Saul allows them to take some of the prize, the best of the cattle and sheep and donkeys. And Saul well, he will keep the King. What better prize for the King, than the King. Saul, who was willing to kill even his own son Johnathon for disobeying him, is now willing to spare the King who attacked the Lord.
Saul has a great deal of pride. So much so, he erects a monument to himself, and this victory.
Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”
We view that as ridiculous, in hindsight. Saul, you didn’t carry out the Lord’s instructions, then you erect a monument? How prideful can you be? But wait, before you judge too quickly. What if I were to tell you Saul may have had some scriptural basis for his monument.
The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.
Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.
When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.
He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”
Exodus 17:
Moses built an altar to the Lord after the victory, Saul built an altar to himself after the victory. Saul took this Holy and serious directive from the Lord, twisted it to suit His circumstances, then reveled in the material victory. He missed the point entirely! Look the Amelikites had been defeated, wasn’t that great let everyone know. Woo Hoo,. But Saul you missed the point.
He missed the point entirely! Sometimes, we think we are operating in a holy war, but really we are in it to get something out of it. Then when we see success we build a monument, and we say oh boy remember that time! Wasn’t that great.
Bad leadership that isn’t following the direction of the Lord can take even the sacred scriptures and twist them
Samuel comes to confront Saul and Saul is so far removed from the Lord at this point that He thinks he is doing good.
When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”
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Samuel knows better in fact he can hear the cattle.
But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
Saul was supposed to Listen to the Voice of the Yahweh. Instead the voice of Saul’s sin is now filling the air. He makes some excuses, The soldier’s wanted the animals, we were going to sacrifice them, it doesn’t really matter at this point, Saul is guilty, he knows it.
The Lord then rejects Saul as King of Isreal
But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”
This is indeed a tragic chapter. Saul is a horrible king, and should have the kingship ripped from him, but that is not the tragedy. Kingships come and go. They are just earthly things. The real tragedy is that Saul does not know the Lord, that is the real tragedy. Having his kingdom taken away is small compared to haviong to face the Lord on the day of his death. Saul will at the moment of his death face the same Lord was able to, with perfect justice, declare a Holy War on a nation. That is the real tragedy of this story. Saul’s heart is betrayed by a little pronoun.
The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
1 Sam
Not the Lord MY GOD, but the LORD Your GOd. And again Saul tries to confess, but he confesses to Samuel rather than God.
Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.”
1 Sam 15:
Saul doesn’t know the Lord, that is the most horrible thing in this whole chapter. And that is the real tragedy when we look at things like Hurricane Harvey.
People say, MY GOD, would never let that happen. And question God. God is God, wether you call him God or not. God is not the tragic figure in the hurricane, He is not the one at fault. The tragedy in the hurricane is not the stuff that is lost, the tragedy is those that do not know God. I don’t know if the hurricane was judgement from God or not, but I know this, One day all men will face the Lord in judgement.
I know this also Jesus said in
Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?
I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?
I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
Jesus, I give you the sin of__________.
Jesus, I give you the sin of__________.
The real tragedy is that our sin is getting in the way of our carrying out Jesus’s mission. The sin is sound we hear, that prevents us from hearing the voice of the Lord. Last week I challenged you to listen to the Lord for directions in how to reach people. For directions in who the Lord would have you reach, and how. Remember the Lord calls us each in a unique way suited to our own talents and abilities. He only made one man as ruthless as Saul to carry out the battle against the Amalekites he only made you to carry out His mission in your way.
What is the sin that stands in the way
This week I would like you to be aware of the sins that are the noise in your ears and are preventing you from reaching others. What is the sin that stands in the way of the directive. Is it Pride? Is it greed? Is it Lust? Is it hatred?
When we look at the how serious the Lord takes sin, and how serious his judgement is, we must realize how serious the mission is.
Allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart. See what has prevented you from living out His directive. Take your sin to the cross of Jesus Christ, allow him to pay the price for it, and walk in the victory of his resurrection, in Jesus name.