The Troubling Grace of God
Notes
Transcript
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
Last week we saw Israel choose a king of their own choosing
- seeking their own glory and power.
Their own riches - not God’s
They, and we reject ,God our king when we do that,
You fools says Jesus in that parable in Luke 21.
PRAY
PRAY
Heavenly Father,
PLease humble us enouh to see the foolishness of seeking our own riches or kings before or above you.
This week, in this passage of your word,
please reassure us with your incredible grace,
For you are the God or justice and mercy,
Speak to us, restore and rescue us - depspite ourselevs we pray,
Amen
Give us a King like all the other nations’.
A king who can fight our battles!
was the Israelite call in chapter 8 to God.
But this king - any king other than a kIng of God’s choosing,
he will be demanding,
greedy
and come at great cost to the very poeple who have chosen him.
You fools.
They are
Turning their backs on the true God/King who saves
in exchange for a weak man hiding amoung the supplies
when called forward publically to be king!
We know what sort of King - Saul is going to be.
a disaster of a king,
someone who is initally weak,
a king shy to take power,
but who over time finds that the power goes to his head
and to eventually become an arrogant and demanding king of his people.
We’re surely expecting now in this chapter for
the peolpe to start regretting their decision,
initially becasue they see a king of weakness and inaction,
but ultimately regretting their decision because they will find this
‘royal’ to be a burden on their famliies,
economy and even military endevours!
pause
So, to read chpater 11 - a chapter of great rescue, salvation, power and boldness from the new King Saul might at first seem very odd.
Almost contrary to what God has been setting this sequence of events up for...
so we better look closely at what is going on...
Because what we will find is a God of incredible power even through an unwilling man,
And a God of incredible grace towards his people even despite a people who have rejected Him.
If you like, chapter 11 is a picture of what life would be like
with the true God chosen king Israel is rejecting.
Look how good it could have been ‘says chapter 11’
I’ve called this sermon the
1 - The troubling grace of God
1 - The troubling grace of God
Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.”
But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”
We take a step away it seems from the unravelling events of
Samuel and Saul to see the wider political situation of Israel
- still with enemies on everyside.
It’s not a supprsie of course
- this is to some extent why the people are asking God for a King who can fight their battles.
So we hover over the nothern territories of Israel
here’s a map
It’s on your handouts - and will give you some idea of all the events in this chapter
We see the enemy king of the Ammonites (not the fossiled kind) (Geology joke)
moving into to invade Jabesh Gilaed.
Nahash is a powerful king - known for his right eye removal techniques to humiliate his enemies.
In this case the people plead for a treaty,
but the condition is still that all their right eyes are gouged out.
It’s not just going to be a humiliation on that town,
but all of Israel will be disgraced if it’s cities cannot be properly defended!
Look how weak the Israelites are consedered to be by the Ammonites:
The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days so we can send messengers throughout Israel; if no one comes to rescue us, we will surrender to you.”
I mean, what sort of enemy gives a town 7 days
to muster some kind of defense
unless they are utterly convinced that they have no hope whatever they do!
perhaps the messengers sent out from Jabesh,
knew the newly annointed King Saul was in Gibeah just north of Jerusalmn.
Or he was simply taking the message to every town he could in hope of help.
But the Israeliets there seem no more confident in any meanful rescue taking place
than the Ammonites are in them suceeding in a rescue plan!
When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and reported these terms to the people, they all wept aloud.
The Israelites are weak, and they know it.
This new king was found hiding in the supplies when he was called forward to be crowned,
and now where is?
He’s not in town,
and the people are weeping.
Just then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, “What is wrong with everyone? Why are they weeping?” Then they repeated to him what the men of Jabesh had said.
Despite being King now, not much has changed for Saul
- he’s returned to farm the feilds at home
- returning behind the ox
There isn’t much to go on,
but I’m sure we’re to have been expecting the next action of a newly apointed King to be significant.
He was given the ‘rightes and duties of a king’ in chapter 10 -
but he doesn’t appear to be doing his duties or enjoying his rights!
Perhpas he should be asisgning leaders, rulers,
Have a tailor make up some new clothes,
organise some tax collectors to start raising Royal funds?
The fact he returns to the feilds to farm,
may or may not have been a sign of weakness,
or perhaps even humility,
but what is clear is that left to his own devises
- a farm boy is what Saul would remian,
and would remain most confortably.
For it’s deliberate that we have no personal reaction demonstrated by Saul,
He is as weak as a ‘saving king’
as the nation is weak that he is supposed to be saving!
And the author makes this clear in the next line:
When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger.
What we now know is that whatever happens next is not in the strength or inginuity of mankind,
or even the king,
but it is the soverign power and will of God.
The Spirit of God has arrived and empowered Saul!
And so now he reacts apporoprietly!
God’s people and God’s own name is at stake
- and so God is about to demonstrtae his style of kingship,
and he’s going to do so through this hiding farmer, King Saul!
The Spirit empowered Saul’s first act
is to mobilise every able bodied man in the nation who can respond quick enough to meet at the battle preperation ground in Bezek.
He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one. When Saul mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel numbered three hundred thousand and those of Judah thirty thousand.
What seems odd at first
is actually a terrifying reminder of an event that took place in this same town.
IN one of the most horrific events in the bible,
a Levite is travelling home when he shelters for the night in Gebeah.
The Levite is taken into a home,
but comes under threat of sexual violence from the locals.
The Levite offers his concubine to the crowd in his place and she dies from the abuse.
The Levite then cuts her body into 12 peices (like the ox here)
and sends her body parts to the far corners of the nation
as a call to bring justice.
In the aftermath,
the men of Israel band together as “one man” (Judg 20:11) (the same words used here)
to bring justice on the wicked men of Gibeah.
That entire story in Judges serves to underscore its opening sentence which says:
“In those days Israel had no king” (Judg 19:1a NIV).
But now of course they do have a king
Good or bad - they have a King,
And for now atleast - God has empowered Him
So this Ox is sliced into 12 and sent out as a reminder (from God’s Spirit) that there is now a king
- and to not serve him in bringing justice to the nations will not be tollerated.
Notice though it is still the Lord at work that causes the weak people to respond.
v7b
Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one.
Too many are squeemish to think about God’s judgement and terror roday -
but Judgement is as good a motivator here as a reminder that they now have a king - that must be obeyed.
The stick of God’s judgement and the carrot of God’s Spirit empowered King will remian moitvators throughout scripture right into the NT for us.
The warnings about backsliding in Hebrews along side a picture of supreme Jesus our king is a good example for us.
As we’ve seen already in Samuel a healthy Fear of the Lord,
coupled with an assurance of his grace and forgoveness is what we all need!
And that’s what the nation gets in Israel.
And they respond - as one!
It is extraodinary that this hiding Farmer Saul
in the space of a few days and ‘before the internet was even drempt of,’
is able to acheive verse 8...
When Saul mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel numbered three hundred thousand and those of Judah thirty thousand.
You can see the staging ground Bezek on the map:
And of course all this is only possible becasue God’s spirirt is at work in incredible power and grace!
SO now, Come back to Jabesh Gilead with me and put yourselevs in their shoes as we get to v9
They told the messengers who had come, “Say to the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘By the time the sun is hot tomorrow, you will be rescued.’ ” When the messengers went and reported this to the men of Jabesh, they were elated. They said to the Ammonites, “Tomorrow we will surrender to you, and you can do to us whatever you like.”
Quite the impossible has happened,
clearley the Ammonites never expected it,
a miraculous rescue is coming,
and it’s only possible theough the power and extraordinary grace of God’s Spirit.
The next day Saul separated his men into three divisions; during the last watch of the night they broke into the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them until the heat of the day. Those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
It’s a glorious rescue and victory.
It is without complication,
Swift and final.
God though his Spirit acting through his King has saved His people from evil.
Israel cannot afford to miss the point:
Salvation came not because Israel had a king of their choosing but because the king had God’s Spirit;
it is not their institution of kingship but the power of the Spirit that brings deliverance.
pause
Back to the fool in Luke who follows his own king - what a hope he still has!
Of course if he still rejects God’s kingdom in exchange of his own - a fool he remians.
But what is equally true is that God may choose to save and demonstrtae his grace
on whoever he so chooses - whatever they have done!
God - and God alone is therefore to be glorified for salavtion!
And even Saul hasn’t missed tyhis point!
The people then said to Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Turn these men over to us so that we may put them to death.”
But Saul said, “No one will be put to death today, for this day the Lord has rescued Israel.”
The Lord has indeed rescued them.
The very Lord they have rejected.
Such is the Power and grace of the Lord to save whom he so desires to bring himself glory!
It’s almost a ‘trouberling grace’ isn’t it
The poeple have rejected God as King - chosen their own -
and yet they get precisily what they want anyway! - Salavtion!
BUt perhaps that is the very great joy for us all.
This is exactly the type of grace and power we
ALL benefit from through no ‘goodness’ of our own.
Through no heroic personal effort,
thorugh no worldly scheme
or man made plan.
We are all dead and lost in our sin and rejection of God.
We all deserve judgement at the hands of our just and holy God.
We all fall short of his standards,
we all call for other kings in our life,
ones we would like,
rather than the good king Jesus himslef.
It’s easy to mock the Israelites for rejecting God,
It’s trouberling to see God show grace and power on their behalf nonetheless,
it’s easy to think we’re better.
PAuse
But we’re no different in our experience of God’s grace says Paul in Ephesians 2.
I’ll read it now, but
I’d like us all to read this everyday this week -
Print it out, put it by the kettle,
Slot it into your prayer diary,
put a bookmark on that page of your bible when you read it each day.
For it is glourious truth,
It elevates our gloruious Lord,
It puts us in our right place and yet raises those who believe to a place we could never imagine!
It is the goodnews of God’s eternal chosen King Jesus:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
There is only one propoer responce to God’s undeserved, even troubling, grace, And that’s to party!
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship.” So all the people went to Gilgal and made Saul king in the presence of the Lord. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.
We would do well to renew our celebration and commitment to Jesus our king who saves
So as we read Eph 2 each day this week - we can follow it with celebrationo!
Pray