2012-08-10
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Jonathan [Saul’s son], his father, and his brothers were killed in the battle at Gilboa, while Jonathan was still a young man [1 SAM 31: 1-6]. That is why David was left without his dear friend, but it didn’t change the status of the covenant of friendship that was made between these two men. As the story of 2 SAM unfolds, we will see that David’s family and Saul’s remained impacted by it long after Jonathan and Saul were gone. One who doesn’t understand the nature of a covenant before God might ask why. The answer can be expressed simply as when one enters in a covenant before God, his entire identity is altered; he has a new “covenant identity.”
We’ll get back to the Bible shortly, but let me write about the only life upon which I’m an expert-my own. I am convinced that we should rewrite our own testimonies about every five years, because we fulfill different roles at different times of our lives and discover new things the Lord reveals about ourselves. My references to my own life so far have brought readers up to the point where I was age 25 and accepted Christ as my Savior. A lot has happened since then: 12 years of membership in the Mormon church, including the last few years when I began studying the OT and NT in depth and noting the discrepancies between Mormon doctrine in Biblical truth; the birth of my son, Hilary [now 40 years ago]; a divorce from my abusive first husband; meeting my present husband [now 37 years ago]; my marriage to Peter almost 36 years ago; our temporary loss of custody of Hilary [from ages 5-11]; our move first to southern CA, then to GA; membership in the Presbyterian church; my call to the ministry at age 39; return of Hilary to our home in GA; his high school and college years; his marriage; our transfer to MN in ’92; our conversion to the Lutheran church and my continuing years of service to Woodbury Lutheran Church; our becoming grandparents; Peter’s retirement; and my hopes for the future. That’s a lot of living, and it isn’t over yet. Space here doesn’t exist for the details, but with this long series of experiences my covenant identity was established and God continues to paint in the details of this complex, amazing picture. I love to watch TV programs like “Who Do You Think You Are?” and “Finding Your Roots.” The reason is that people don’t always have the same background one would think on cursory inspection. I believe who a person is can be answered by what God paints on one’s individual “covenant identity” portrait. When I look back on my life, God has taken me from a spiritually empty traditional Jew to His servant, a Messianic Jew, who has made Him the center of her life, presently serving at WLC. He has brought me from being a little girl filled with self-doubts and feeling worthless to a mature wife, mother, and grandmother, who is confident in her Lord Yeshua [Christ]. It’s been a long road. God has been in charge of it the whole way, even when I didn’t know it. Paul expressed how I feel so much better than I can, in 1 COR 2: 3-5. “So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear, and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God’s Spirit. Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” Yes, Dear Ones, you and I are clay in the Potter’s hands [JER 18: 6]!
David realized he was a sinner, surely at that fateful visit with the prophet, Nathan, which changed the course of his spiritual life [2 SAM 12: 1-13]. This was after he had arranged the murder of Uriah and had bedded Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba [2 SAM 11: 1-27]. We can see that David understood his sinner-status in PS 41: 4, “I said, ‘I have sinned against You. Lord, be merciful to me and heal me. Be merciful and restore my health.’” Just before this request, David had written, in PS 41: 1-2a, something I have come to believe. “Blessed is He who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life…” Later in PS 51, David wrote one of the most beautiful confessions we have in the Scriptures. PS 51: 1-2, 10-12, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgression. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin…Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me…” When we have a hard time, as I have in the past, finding the right words to say in expressing contrition, God welcomes us to use David’s. Every true believer, surely including me, knows we are still sinners, people who are God’s “works in progress,” being perfected in the process of sanctification. PS 86: 5 reveals the heart the Lord has for the genuinely contrite. “For You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on You.” That’s been my experience, and it surely was David’s. We know this because of the advent of the Davidic covenant directly from God. 2 SAM 7: 12-13 [God speaking], “When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring [Solomon] to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His Kingdom forever.” What God is saying here is that a Descendant [Seed] of the royal house of David will reign forever, and that Descendant is Jesus Christ [see GA 3: 16, which tells us this promise was made to Abraham too]. I’m led to end with ZEPH 3: 17, “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty Savior, He will take delight in you with gladness; with His love, He will calm all fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”
PRAYER: O Lord, once again we are here before Your mighty throne to acknowledge Your compassionate, forgiving heart, Your great power, justice, and will to bring good to the earth. PS 16: 2, “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord, apart from You I have no good thing.’” We are more grateful for Your goodness than our words can express. We acknowledge that You are supreme and sovereign over our lives and our hearts. We thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit and opening our hearts to Him. We admit we are sinners in need of You to live righteously [MT 5: 3]. Let us express our contrition using PS 19: 12-13. “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me.” Dearest Abba, it is hard to face our sins, painful to uncover the ones hidden from us. And yet, You know we can face this pain and that You created us to be able to better prepare ourselves, with Your powerful help, in opening our hearts to the leadership of Your Spirit. Inch by inch, You walk with us along the path of sanctification, guiding us along the way. PS 143: 10, “You are my God; teach me to do Your will. Be good to me and guide me on a safe path.” We wholeheartedly accept the message of JN 15: 5, “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” We thank and praise You, O God, for all that You are and all that You do for us. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I’m led to continue writing about our covenant identity. One of the huge changes that came as a result of my new covenant identity was the eventual recognition that God is present with me every minute of every day. I can’t tell you what a great blessing this is to know. This is not just because I serve Him full-time or I’m more special than anyone else, for I am not. But it’s something He does with every person in a covenant relationship with Him. Of course, this doesn’t mesh with the physical impossibility of a human to be with another 24/7. Even our human spouses can’t do that. But God isn’t limited by physical phenomena, the laws Newtonian physics or Einsteinan relativity. He is supernatural, omnipresent, and all-powerful. I have something of the same relief that He is in control that I have that it isn’t necessary for us to make all the world’s final decisions. IS 46: 9-10, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” Since we know all goodness comes from our God; that statement isn’t scary; it’s comforting! God loves us and teaches us what we need to know [2 TIM 3: 16-17]. PS 119: 24, 93, “Your instructions give me pleasure; they are my advisors…I will never neglect Your precepts, because in them you have preserved my life.” Moreover, our loving God, in giving us a covenant identity, rejuvenates our lives. COL 1: 12-14, “For He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Let me end with PS 34: 8, “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that takes refuge in Him.” Praise and thanks be to the Lord!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15