Light in the Darkness
Notes
Transcript
The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, “Do you come peaceably?” And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 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.” Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.”
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And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.
As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
In the Name of Jesus, dearly beloved:
This week we will enter the Holy Season of Lent. We are 50 days outside of Easter this week and so the title of this Sunday is Quinquagesima. In the Gospel, Jesus exposes to the disciples why they are going to Jerusalem. He speaks of His impending death and resurrection. On the way He heals a blind man who calls out to Jesus for healing despite being told to shut up, and Jesus grants Him sight. In our Epistle we have the great “corrective chapter” in the Bible. While many like its prosaic expose on love and want to use it at weddings, and while secularists love this passage of the Bible because it doesn’t mention the name “Jesus” once, it is wholly inappropriate to use at weddings unless you want to be yelled at. Because that is what Paul is doing. In this chapter he scolds the wayward church at Corinth because they were flaunting their spiritual gifts to those who didn’t have the same ones. Paul, speaking of God’s love, not romantic love, chides them because they were demanding their own way, they were not patient or kind, they were rude and self-centered. This is the chapter where the Holy Spirit through Paul says, “enough!” Both of these texts could be excellent choices for today’s sermon.
-Encountered a blind man
But today we want to focus on the Old Testament Lesson and, hopefully, tie all of these texts together.
This chapter deals with the calling and anointing of David as the King of Israel, to replace wicked King Saul who, at the time of our text, is very much alive and jealous of his position.
-Expectancy
On this Last Sunday in Pre-Lent we are approximately 50 days away from Easter today. As we prepare to enter Holy Lent this week, the readings reflect the Cross looming closer and closer for Jesus. In our text Jesus and the disciples are about to enter into Jerusalem. Jesus is frank with the disciples about what is going to happen there. Then, on the way, Jesus meets a blind man and restores his sight. Today’s theme is light- Jesus is the light of the world, and His light gives us sight.
The Story
The Story
King Saul was an evil man. In the Lord commanded Saul to go against Amalek who had opposed the Children of Israel. He commanded that Saul totally wipe out these people including men, women, children, and infants. It also included all of the animals. God’s judgment was total and He was using King Saul as an agent of his vengeance. Saul took 210,000 troops with him to destroy all who were there. Except Saul did not follow God’s command. He told a group of people known as the “Kenites” to leave before the killing started, cutting them a break because in the past they were kind to the people of Israel. Strike one. After they left Saul destroyed the Amalekites. But he took the king of the Amalekites, Agag, captive, and plundered the land bringing back their “sheep and oxen, and fattened calves and lambs, and all that was good and would not destroy them.” Strikes two and three.
Saul angered the Lord. He had disobeyed “direct orders” from God.
God called to Samuel and said “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and cried all night.”
Samuel was going through the agony of having to confront Saul, whom despite his sin, he loved. Confrontation is never easy when it is demanded on someone you love. But there was no escape in this for Samuel, he couldn’t just sweep it under the rug.
When Samuel met up with Saul he spoke the Lord’s rebuke. “Though you are little in your won eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.” “Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord:? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”
Saul disagreed: “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” He let the people do this because he feared them. Life is tough at the top!
Saul realizes his sin
After being further confronted by Samuel, Saul conceded and said “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” Ah.... Political Correctness is nothing new!
The shortened version of this is that Samuel executes Agog, the captured king. He no longer sees Saul again until the day of his death.
The dynamics here are quite interesting.
Just as the Lord gives Samuel the ability to proclaim His word, He empowers you with His Word and Spirit and will provide.
First, there is a God, and He has given us plain and simple commands. He calls us to do them. How often do we make excuses when we don’t? How often do we cast the blame on others? “It’s not my fault” better not roll off of your lips. That the world has abdicated all authority does not mean it does not exist, nor does it understand that there will be a time when we are called to stand before the Judge of all and give an account of our failure to obey his commands. On our own we would be like Saul. Not a leg to stand on.
Second, sometimes the Lord puts us in very uncomfortable situations as he did with Samuel. Samuel passed on God’s command, Saul did not follow it, and now Saul was going to pay for it. But God uses Samuel, Saul’s friend, to deliver that message. Samuel struggles with it, yet obeys. It would have been easy for him to just overlook it, but then the Lord would demand Samuel’s life. Sometimes the Lord uses us in situations that make us uncomfortable. Sometimes its confronting a loved one. Sometimes it happens when sharing the Gospel with those hostile to it. Sometimes it is doing something for someone to help them that you really don’t want to do. Yet the Lord singles you out like He singled out Samuel.
Just as the Lord gives Samuel the ability to proclaim His word, He empowers you with His Word and Spirit and will provide.
Saul, this first King of Israel, is removed from office. God had someone else in mind.
The New King
The New King
This is where our text picks up. Samuel is sent to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem. God tells Samuel that there he will anoint the new king. But the Lord does not immediately reveal who that king is.
Samuel enters Bethlehem. Seeing this prophet was disconcerting to the elders of Israel when they saw him approaching. Prophets had a knack of bringing bad news to people. But Samuel assures them that he comes in peace. He goes to Jesse as commanded by the Lord, consecrating him and his household and invites them to the sacrifice he makes to the Lord.
One of Jesse’s sons is to be the next King of Israel. Samuel lays eyes on Eliab— a strong, warrior looking type. Immediately Jesse concludes that he must be the one that the Lord has chosen.
But looks can be deceiving. The Lord tells Samuel “Do not look on his appearance or 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.”
Think about that for a moment. What does the Lord see when He looks at your heart? A hardened heart? An angry heart? A hurting heart? Or a heart that has been cleansed with the blood of Christ full of praise and adoration and fearless? Outward acts, if not motivated by a pure heart that belongs to God mean nothing to God. On Ash Wednesday we will be reminded of this in several ways. “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” “Where your heart is there is your treasure also.” Is Jesus your priceless treasure?
Eliab is out. His heart was not right.
The same holds true for Abinadab, and Shammah. In all seven sons pass before Samuel. Jesse thought for sure that one of them would be chosen. He didn’t even consider young David out in the field. He doesn’t mention David, for that matter, until Samuel asks. “Are all your sons here?” “There remains yet the youngest, but behold he is keeping the sheep.” Samuel demanded that he be brought to him. God commands Samuel to anoint David on the spot in the midst of his brothers.
As David is anointed the Spirit of the Lord— the Holy Spirit— is given to him to empower him to take the office.
God doesn’t choose the way that we do.
God doesn’t choose the way that we do.
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians
Imagine if the Lord judged by appearance. Those who do good, and excel at doing good would move to the head of the class. But the Pharisees did good— Jesus even tells us that if our righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet their hearts were far from them.
God would take the strong above the weak. But Agog was a strong king, and the Lord had Samuel execute him.
So why do we try to offer up our holiness to God? Why the act?
The message of Lent is that the Lord does not look at our external acts, the Lord judges our hearts. And so the message of Lent is clear: “Rend your hearts and not your garments.” It doesn’t matter how good your deeds are, how obedient you are to the Lord’s Commandments, or how much you love your neighbor, if your heart is not right with the Lord, nothing you do is right. At that point all of our good works become as filthy rags.
This Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, a portion of the Gospel is this:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:
God does not look on the outside; God judges the heart.
Scary news for some. But for those baptized into Christ, who cling to Him in Faith, the only thing God will see when He looks at your heart is Jesus and His Righteousness. And when then is present, the outward works blossom.
God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are..
Do you know what this means? God meets us in our depravity and chose us.
For on the Cross Jesus became low, and despised, and died, and by His death brings to life you and me. God chose you in Christ to lift you up. And He puts Jesus on your head, and in your ears, and upon your heart. Where your treasure is in Christ, there will your heart be also.
Jesus, priceless treasure, source of purist pleasure, truest friend to me.
Jesus, priceless treasure, source of purist pleasure, truest friend to me.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.