2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
This morning I am led to continue my God-directed quest to learn more about covenants. To that end, I use “Theological Wordbook of the OT” edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., and Bruce Waltke along with the Scriptures. As you all know, Saul proved to be a poor king. His disobedience to God was sufficient for God to direct Samuel to anoint David as king in Saul’s place [1 SAM 16: 13]. In Israel’s monarchy, the covenant relationship between the people and their king provided a kind of limited constitutional monarchy which was unique in the world at that time. It is one thing to say that God simply “fired” Saul and replaced him with David. However, it helps us to have a better idea of how God interacts with mankind in carrying out His decisions when we look at some citations that allow us to see the process by which this was done.
There had been fighting between the forces that supported Saul and those who supported David. As David became stronger and stronger, his opponents became weaker and weaker. As the fighting continued, Saul’s uncle, Abner, became more and more powerful among Saul’s followers. One day, Ishbosheth son of Saul accused Abner of sleeping with Saul’s concubine, Rizpah. This false accusation made Abner very angry. It led him to exclaim in 2 SAM 3: 9-10, “The Lord promised David that he would take the kingdom away from Saul and his descendants and would make David king of both Israel and Judah, from one end of the country to the other. Now may God strike me dead if I don’t make this come true!” Ishbosheth was afraid of Abner and had good reason to be. Later in 2 SAM 3: 21, “Abner told David, ‘I will go now and with all Israel over to Your Majesty. They will accept you as king, and then you will get what you wanted and will rule over the whole land.’ David gave Abner his guarantee of safety and sent him on his way.” We can see God’s hand in Abner’s transferring his loyalty from Saul to David here.
2 SAM 5: 3 reveals what happened next. “So all the leaders of Israel came to King David at Hebron. He made a sacred alliance with them [a covenant]. They anointed him , and he became the king of Israel. This same event is recorded in 1 CH 11: 3 too. “So the leaders of Israel came to King David at Hebron. He made a sacred alliance with them. They anointed him, and David became king of Israel just as the Lord had promised through Samuel.” As I was reading through these passages, it occurred to me that I should reiterate DN 4: 17, so that we not only see God’s hand in human governments of the past, but can meditate on that same hand being on our present and future ones. “This is the decision of the alert and watchful angels. So then, let all people everywhere know that the Supreme God has power over human kingdoms and that He can give them to anyone He chooses-even to the least important of men.”
We can surely see this in another example that occurred before David’s time, that of Joshua. When Moses’ commission was over and he died, Joshua son of Nun had already been called by God to take Moses’s place in leadership [DT 34: 9]. God’s presence in the fall of Jericho [JS 6], in the discipline that followed Achan’s disobedience in holding back loot [JS 7] and a series of victories over the Canaanites had taken place when Joshua spoke to the people at Shechem [JS 24]. As his speech to the people and the elders of Israel began, Joshua reviewed the history of what had happened to the people that had brought them to where they were and emphasized God’s will that they should not worship idols. JS 24: 14, “’Now then,’ Joshua continued, ‘honor the Lord and serve Him sincerely and faithfully. Get rid of the gods which your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only the Lord.” In (16), the people replied, “We would never leave the Lord to serve other gods!” JS 24: 25-26, “So Joshua made a covenant for the people that day, and there at Shechem he gave them laws and rules to follow. Joshua wrote these commands in the book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up under an oak tree in the Lord’s sanctuary.” As we can see, all the elements of making a covenant are present in this story. A two-way promise commanded to be established by God was made, and a memorial to that promise was set to remind the people of it.
When we had our recent election, it was as close as any in our country’s history. No doubt there are still some hard feelings that remain in view of all the delay and difficulty before the outcome was finally deemed official. The story of how David and Joshua became the leaders they were reveals to us both God’s wisdom and His sovereign power in these matters. It is an important lesson for us to learn as we analyze the outcome of our own recent election and decide how we feel about it. There have been times, and certainly the raise of the Nazi regime in Germany leading to WW II is one of them, when we don’t agree with what has happened or understand why God would allow it. But we must remember that human beings, while created in God’s image [GN 1: 27], do not have His perspective [IS 55: 8-9]. Perhaps when we are all together in His Kingdom, we will better understand why evil governments like the Nazis were allowed to have power for a limited time and do what they did, but for now, we are called upon to trust God and believe in the ultimate righteousness of His decisions. In the meantime, we are reminded of God’s will by Paul in RO 13: 1, “Everyone must obey state authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God.”
PRAYER: O Lord, the sinful nature of humans has brought You so much disappointment and pain! Yet, You remain steadfastly patient and compassionate with Your children-something for which You deserve our eternal thanks. When Saul was such a poor steward of his responsibilities, You had the wisdom and courage to replace him with David. We can learn so much from how You interacted in that transfer of earthly power. You gave us the Psalms and showed us through David’s history provided in the Scriptures, that this man of many foibles could be brought to sweet, obedient faithfulness by Your hand and heart. Throughout mankind’s history, You have guided human events to teach us what You know we must learn to one day enjoy eternal life with You. You created Joshua to have the traits he would need to take over leadership of Israel from Moses and engender the respect of the people. That is why he was able to establish the covenant of Shechem, eliciting their promise not to engage in idolatrous worship. We need to acknowledge that Your sovereign decisions regarding our own government are to be respected and not to harbor anger toward You, because some past governments have done evil. We pray that some day You will help us to better understand why You allow evil like the Holocaust to have happened. Our task is to trust in Your ultimate righteousness and to follow Your commands. To that end, we humbly offer You our worship, adoration, loyalty, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we continue our God-directed investigation of covenants by looking at some of the information on them from M.G. Kline’s “By Oath Consigned.” Citations from the Scriptures will be used as examples to illustrate the principles Kline shares. While we can’t always understand the reasons for some of God’s actions immediately, we can come to understand enough from the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, prayer, and our own circumstances to know God’s love for us. When we question God’s decisions, we demonstrate weakness or lack of faith in Him. The Lord wants only what is best for us in the long haul. My own experience allows me to testify to that. Know that God loves each one of us and knows there will be times when we don’t understand his decisions. Take comfort in knowing the Lord is compassionate, patience, eager to teach us what we need to know, and always there for us each of us. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn