THE LORD SPOKE (April 25)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: I Samuel 15-16

The prophet Samuel tells Saul, "Listen now to the message from the Lord (15:1)."

This was why I chose the title for this blog/email. I thought about calling it "The Lord Spoke to Me" but it's not about me. I need to seek the Lord every day and journaling is a good way to stay on track. It's also a good way to look back and see where I've been and what the Lord is doing in my life. But, it was with some trepidation that I decided to share it with others. It would be too easy to look at the text for what I think others need to hear, to get professional at it, to not be using this time to listen to the Lord for myself. So, sorry if this doesn't fit you right now. Tuck it away and maybe it will at a later day.

"Stop...let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night (15:16)." Those are the three goals I have in writing these daily reflections. I want them to be (1) personal - "to me", (2) fresh - "last night" - in my case, this morning, and (3) applicable- "let me tell you". Saul, much like Peter had to be told, "[Shut up, for a change, and] listen to him!" (Mat. 17:5).

Did you notice Saul's self-revealing blooper in attempting to defend himself? Three times in talking to Samuel he says, "the Lord your God" (vs. 13, 21, 30). One would hope that he would say, "the Lord my God". Samuel pointedly asks him, "Why did you not obey the Lord?" (vs. 19). After all, the Lord had spoken to him at the beginning and anointed him and given him a mission (vs. 17). His insincere, "I have sinned" (vs. 24), is boldly confronted by the faithful prophet (vs. 26) and a second attempt with even worse motivation (vs. 30) brings the crushing conclusion of the chapter: "the Lord was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel" (vs. 35).

This is a depressing chapter but there is relief coming just around the corner. Be sure not to miss the connection between 11:6 and 16:13.


New Testament: Acts 26

Walter Kaiser has called it “promise theology”. It’s found repeatedly in both Testaments as one of the key themes of Scripture. It’s significant that when Paul presents his defense he turns his whole case on the question of God’s promise. Three times Paul refers to hope - both his and that of all Jews - in that Promise. In fact, it has become the hope of all those who believe, both Jew and Gentile.

It is because of my hope in what God has promised our fathers that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. (Acts 26:6-7)

This is the “root” that Paul speaks of in Romans 11. The Abrahamic Covenant is the foundational Promise that God made first with Abraham and his descendants. Abraham’s physical descendants who do not believe are cut off from that root. We, Gentile believers, have been grafted in so that hope in the Promise has become our hope. We “share in the nourishing sap from the olive root” (Rom. 11:17) because we’ve been grafted in. That’s also the significance of Paul’s concluding statement in that passage. Those Jews who come to faith...

If they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. (Rom. 11:23)

Paul’s argument before Agrippa turned on his trust in God’s promise. He emphasizes that yet more clearly near the end of his discourse when he says, “I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen” (Acts 26:22). That Promise regarded the Christ who would suffer and die and then rise from the dead. Resurrection was the issue! Paul began his defense with that question, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). Indeed,

If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. (I Cor. 15:14,17)