From Good Things to Evil Things

It’s said that the enemy of the best is the good, or even the better. It’s easy to decide that something is good enough, even when it isn’t the best, when the price tag of “the best” is prohibitive. In a lot of circumstances, that’s absolutely true. If you’re looking to buy a computer, for example, You could spend a lot of money and get the very best, fastest, and newest computer out there, knowing that in six months it won’t be any of those things any more, or you could spend a lot less for the computer that was the very best six months ago. You may even find that the very best computer for your needs isn’t the fastest or newest anyway. If your main concern is doing word processing and a little web surfing, you don’t need the graphics capability and processor speed that someone would want for playing on-line video games 23/7.

Having said that, let me point out that God wants you to have the very best. Not necessarily the best and fastest computer, or the biggest and nicest house, or the prettiest and fastest car, because all of those things are temporal. Those things really don’t mean anything in the long run. God wants us to have the best and closest relationship with Him, He wants us to have inner peace in times of trouble, He wants us to know that we will spend eternity in a good place instead of a bad one. That’s the sort of “best” that God wants for us.

The other side of that, though, is that God wants our best. He doesn’t want us to just do good things, or even better things; He wants us to do our best. Don’t misunderstand me, our best is never good enough; that’s where grace comes in, but He does want our best. In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul is waging war against the Philistines, and the prophet Samuel was supposed to meet him, but Samuel didn’t show up within the time frame that Saul was expecting him. Saul was worried that the Philistines would attack before Samuel got there, so he offered up a sacrifice to God, to try to curry favor with the Almighty before the battle began. Obviously, Saul had some good thoughts: He didn’t want to go into battle without the Lord being on his side; He was willing to make a sacrifice to God (which puts him at least one step above a lot of people). Of course, the first concern is a little backwards; it isn’t a question of whether God is on our side, it’s a question of whether we are on God’s side. Realistically, though, Israel was God’s chosen people, God wanted the best for Israel, just as He wants the best for us, and that would only include being subjugated to the Philistines if Israel needed to be taught a lesson. As far as Saul wanting to make a sacrifice unto God, in this particular instance, that wasn’t his place. To the human mind, offering a sacrifice to God would seem to be a good thing to do, but, if it isn’t what God wanted, then it isn’t such a good thing. If Saul had simply trusted God to take care of His people, there would not have been a problem. Samuel arrived well before the battle actually started, and, even after Saul’s mistake, God delivered Israel from the Philistines, but God told Saul (through Samuel) that he would be removed from being king. If Saul had truly repented, and put forth a renewed effort to try to be the sort of man that God wanted him to be, who knows whether he might have been able to turn God, as the Ninevites did? Instead, if you continue reading, you find that Saul slowly fades from being a good king (although perhaps not the best king), to being a man that tries, not only to maintain his power, but to pass it on to his sons, as God works to take power from Saul, and give that power to someone who will give his best to God, and do his best for Israel.

We can get caught up in the same thing. We can try to do good things for God, and find that what we consider good things are not the things that God wants from us. When we find that we have misjudged what God expects of us, we can develop a bad attitude, as Saul did, or we can work to improve that relationship. Seek God, pray that He would help us to become what He called us to be, or backslide. There’s a reason that it is called “backsliding;” it is when one slides back to one’s old life, and that’s a slow process. It doesn’t happen overnight, and God will generally give one lots of chances to get right, but, the sooner one starts turning things around, the easier it is. If you are climbing a hill, and start sliding back down, the sooner you catch yourself and start back up the hill again, the easier it is, but, if one lets it get too far, eventually there is no stopping; spiritual backsliding is no different.

Friends of God

Relationships with God are interesting, to say the least. At one point, God told Miriam that He would speak to Moses directly, but that He would only speak to most prophets through their dreams. To be honest, not many people have had that kind of relationship with God. God spoke to Abraham directly, long before Moses. God also spoke to Balaam directly (and he wasn’t even a Jew). There were, a lot of faithful men in the Bible to whom God never spoke to, even in a dream. I’m sure God had His purpose for maintaining a relationship with Balaam, though.

In the New Testament, we find that God spoke to a few individuals here and there, and not all of them because they were good Christian people. God talked to Saul the Pharisee on the road to Damascus, evidently because Saul thought he had a relationship with God, and God particularly wanted Saul to have such a relationship, and because God had a laundry list of things for Saul to do as a Christian. Interestingly enough, God told Saul to go on to Damascus, to see what he needed to do, and then God told Ananias to go meet with Saul. In fact, God told Ananias that He had already told Saul that Ananias was coming. Peter, on the other hand, seems to have been one that God would only speak to in a dream.

Jesus said that we are His friends if we do whatsoever He commands us to do. Of course, Jesus understands that we are human, and we will never be able to do everything that we are commanded. Keep in mind, though, that He can see what’s in your heart, so He knows whether you are honestly giving Him your best. He knows whether we are His friends or not. Jesus also said that He laid down His life for His friends.

It’s clear that we should want to be friends with God. Some among us are happy to be just servants of God. Certainly, you won’t hear Him say the words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” unless you have actually been a good and faithful servant. Jesus isn’t going to lie to you and call you a servant if you haven’t been one. More importantly, though, you shouldn’t want to be just a servant of God, you should want to be a friend of God. Why settle for anything less?

When the Prodigal Son came to his senses, he realized that he would be better off as a servant in his Father’s household than feeding swine (and feeling jealous of how much food the pigs got). He knew that his Father was a just individual, and took care of His servants, whereas whoever he was working for cared more about the pigs than the servants. The prodigal didn’t feel right even asking to be let back into the family again, he just hoped that his Father still cared enough for him to put him on the payroll; he would have been happy just to be a servant in the house where he grew up. The Father wouldn’t have it, though; this was His son, who was back from the dead. We have the Spirit of adoption, God wants us to be His servants, but He also wants us to be His friends, and, more than that, He wants us to be His children.

The Love of God

I was listening to the radio this past weekend, and they were talking about “love languages.” They were talking in terms of married couples, that is, husband and wife, but it occurs to me that the church is the bride of Christ, so, to some extent, this sort of thing applies to all of us. Of course, it is important that we love the Lord, but we are also commanded to love one another.
All of us have needs, but we have different ways that we treat our needs. Some people advertise their needs to anyone who will listen, while others of us try to hide our needs. I don’t think that whining is a Christian virtue, but, then again, I don’t think that one should expect God to meet every need just through prayer. Somewhere in between, there is a balance. Don’t misunderstand me, sometimes God will send someone to you because you are in need and you have prayed about it. Sometimes, though, once we have prayed, we need to allow ourselves to be led to the person that God wants to have help us. The old adage is, “God helps those who help themselves.” Sometimes it isn’t enough to pray, one has to be willing to step out in faith, although sometimes praying is all one can do. Remember that God sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch, and He sent Ananias to Saul, but He also sent Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood to Jesus.
The flip side of this is that we, as Christians, need to be alert, aware, and prayerful of the needs of others. Just because someone voices a need, it doesn’t necessarily follow that God wants us to tend to that need; He may have a different plan than the one that seems obvious. On the other hand, just because someone doesn’t ask for our help (or even specifically says that they don’t want our help), it doesn’t necessarily follow that they don’t need it (word of caution, though, if you try to help someone who has specifically asked you not to help, make sure that it’s of God, or you’re just going to make a mess). We should have the kind of love for people that God has; to see the needs, and to be ready and able to do what’s best for those around us.
Some years ago, Twila Paris came out with a song (and an album) called, “Cry For the Desert.” At first, the title didn’t make sense to me, but after I got it home, and read through the written text that came with it, I came to realize that ‘desert’ just fits in song lyrics better than, ‘people lost in the wilderness of sin,’ which is what the song is really about. If we love each other, and we love those outside the faith, then we will have compassion for them as well. That involves seeing people the way that Jesus sees them, which isn’t always easy for us to do. More recently, Brandon Heath has come out with a song that says very much the same thing called, “Give Me Your Eyes.”

Joab

Joab was one of David’s most trusted advisors. He was the son of Zeruiah, David’s sister. There are many incidents in Scripture that show Joab to be a wise man, and yet…
The first thing that we told about Joab is that, shortly after King Saul’s death, another man, named Abner, tried to make Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, king instead of David. Joab led some of David’s men to go deal with this threat, and they met with Abner and some of Ishbosheth’s men, at the pool of Gibeon. There was a great battle there, a lot of people were killed, but the battle went worse for Abner than for Joab. Abner ran away, but Joab’s brother Asahel chased after him. The exchange between them makes it seem that Abner knew Joab, but Abner ended up killing Asahel. At the end of the day, Abner had lost 360 men, and Joab had lost twenty. Of course, one of the twenty that Joab lost was his brother, so that was a particularly difficult loss for Joab.
As the war continued, and David grew stronger and stronger, Abner came to David to try to make peace. Joab was not there when David met with Abner, and when Joab returned, the servants told him that Abner had been there, and that David had sent him away in peace. Abner became angry, and accused Abner of spying on the king, and sent servants after Abner. When Joab caught up to Abner, he killed him (more because of Asahel than because of suspicion of spying, but, there it is). Of course, David got upset with Joab for that, but apparently he somewhat understood, because Joab still had a job; in fact, 2 Samuel 8:16 says that Joab was captain over all the host.
In 2 Samuel 10, the Ammonites hired the Syrians to help them fight against Israel. David sent Joab to fight the Ammonites and the Syrians. While that was going on, David got himself into another little jam, and sent to Joab to help him out. Joab did as requested.
In 2 Samuel 14, David’s son Absolom had been exiled. Joab had a woman come into the king and describe a situation very similar to the one that led David to exile his son. After he pronounced judgment (the judgment that Joab had expected), then the woman asked the king why was Absolom still exiled? David only wanted to know one thing from her after that; he asked if Joab had put her up to it.
Unfortunately, later on, Absolom led a rebellion of his own, trying to become king in David’s place. Joab led the army that tracked Absolom down, under orders from the king not to harm Absolom. Joab realized that Absolom would always be a problem, so when he saw the king’s son, he killed him. David wasn’t happy about that, and he mourned his son. Joab spoke harshly to the king (I doubt whether anyone else could have spoken to David that way and gotten away with it), but pointed out that, if Absolom hadn’t died, he probably would have kept trying to become king until David was dead, and everyone loyal to David was dead, also.
In 2 Samuel 20, Joab pursued after a man named Sheba, and Sheba took refuge inside one of the cities of Israel. It looked like Joab was going to have to destroy the city in order to get to Sheba, but a wise woman called to Joab, and asked what he wanted. He explained who they were after, and she asked if he was prepared to destroy a city in Israel in order to get Sheba. Joab indicated that he would really rather not have to destroy a city, but he wasn’t going to leave until he had Sheba’s head. She told him to give a few minutes, and shortly thereafter, Sheba’s head came sailing over the wall.
In 2 Samuel 24, David told Joab to count the people of Israel. Joab reminded David that the number of people wasn’t important anyway, but David insisted. In fact, the Law forbade counting Israel, since God wanted Israel to trust in Him, rather than their numbers, so David got in trouble with God for this.
Then another one of David’s sons tried to usurp the throne, a man named Adonijah, but this time Joab threw in with Adonijah. The Bile doesn’t make it clear why. Perhaps simply because Joab had been too close to David for too long, and knew how many serious mistakes David had made. In any case, Joab seemed convinced that Adonijah would make a better king than David. Joab was a smart guy, but, in the end he outsmarted himself. I think sometimes we get close to someone that seems so godly and righteous, and we start seeing his or her flaws. Guess what? We all have flaws. Don’t let somebody else’s flaws cause you to outsmart yourself. The bottom line is that Joab did a lot of very smart, and very courageous things for an awfully long time, but, in the end, he was found to be fighting against the ordinances of God, because, flawed or not, David was the man that God had ordained to be king over Israel.

Being Judgmental

Simon Cowell, on American Idol, has taken a lot of flack, due to the fact that he is generally somewhat harsh with the contestants. Quite frankly, that’s his job; that’s what they pay him to do. Some of the contestants actually seem to take what he says pretty hard, and yet, they keep showing up. Does anybody get on the show without watching it first? And, realistically, even if the contestant really is very, very good, should they expect everyone to like them? Should they expect to never be criticized? Even the very best singers have gotten criticized…
There is something to be said about not being judgmental. Jesus said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) Of course, one can hardly blame Simon, as I said, he’s doing his job. No one should go on American Idol and expect to not get skewered by Simon. Likewise, in everyday life, there will be some that agree with us, and some that disagree. We shouldn’t let that interfere with doing what God has laid on our hearts. We shouldn’t entirely ignore criticism, either, because sometimes even harsh, really wrong criticism can help us to get better at whatever it is that we are doing. Sometimes we get take it very personally when someone criticizes something that we are doing. If what we are doing is for God, then we shouldn’t take it personally. Samuel took it somewhat personally when Israel demanded a king; God had to remind him that they were rejecting God, Himself, not Samuel (1 Samuel 8:6-7).
At the same time, one must be careful: Just because I know that I’m doing a work for God, and all the wrong people are criticizing me for doing what I’m doing, it doesn’t necessarily follow that what I’m doing is what God wants me to do. There was a time, in the Old Testament, that King Saul declared a fast because the army of the Philistines was upon Israel, and it didn’t look good. Saul’s son, Jonathan, didn’t get the word of the fast, he took an armorbearer and went out to scout the Philistine camp. They got close to the camp, and Jonathan fleeced the Lord, asking for a sign. The sign that he got, indicated that he and his armorbearer should attack, so they did. That must have taken a lot of faith. As you might guess, Israel won the battle, thanks to Jonathan. On the way back, though, Jonathan saw some honey dripping from a tree, and he tasted some of it. Seems only right, doesn’t it? He saved Israel, isn’t he entitled to a little honey—especially since he didn’t know that the king had declared a fast—but the people around him told him about the fast, and he basically went off on his father (not considering that maybe it was because the people were fasting that God delivered the army into Jonathan’s hand—or maybe not, perhaps what Jonathan said was essentially correct, that if the King hadn’t declared a fast, the victory might have been much greater, but he shouldn’t have criticized the king in the ears of the people like that). It ended up, that the Lord revealed that there was sin in the camp, lots were cast, and Jonathan was found to be the sinner. Even then, Jonathan thought that his sin was tasting the honey. Tasting the honey wasn’t sin, he did not know about the fast! But when he found out about the fast, instead of taking the humble side, and explaining that he didn’t know, he justified himself and tried to blame the King. Isn’t it amazing how quickly one can go from being absolutely right to being completely wrong? The Bible says to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Because just because you were yesterday, doesn’t necessarily mean that you are today.

David and Goliath

I have touched on this before, but it occurs to me to weigh in on one of the most well-known stories in the Bible: David and Goliath. It is interesting to me that out of all of the army of Israel, there was not one man that had faith enough to stand against the giant. Of course, part of that was because it was God's plan. He wanted to show Israel that He intended to use David, but still... Also, part of it was that David had faith as a little child. None of the men in the army had that. The Bible tells us that David's father, Jesse, had eight sons, and the three eldest were in the army, but David was the youngest. It was understood, in those times, that if you were old enough to serve, then you did. Now, if David was the youngest, and only the three eldest were old enough to serve (which was thirteen, by the way), then how old was David? And how desperate was King Saul to let this youngster fight the giant?

We don't have to look too deep into this story to see that God intended for this to be an unconventional battle. First of all, David didn't carry a sword or a spear: he took a sling and five stones. Why five? I don't know; if the first one had missed, he probably wasn't going to get a chance to sling a second one. Some have suggested that it's because there are five letters in the name, "Jesus," but that wouldn't be true in Hebrew. David also refused armor; to be honest, though, the armor would have been ridiculous: I don't think that they made armor in David's size. King Saul tried to give David his own armor, which was just that much worse: Saul stood taller than the rest of Israel, David would have had a hard time just walking in Saul's armor.

It has been suggested that Goliath was probably a victim of gigantism, a disorder of the pituitary gland that, in addition to causing abnormal growth, also frequently causes the bones of the skull to come together--usually leaving a "soft spot" in the front of the head. This would certainly explain how one stone from David was able to sink into the giant's head and kill him. Some would have you to believe that somehow makes David killing Goliath less than miraculous. I would have to disagree. If Goliath had such a soft spot (and I will admit that it seems likely that he did) such a thing must not have been common knowledge: Surely Goliath could have had a helmet crafted that would have protected his vulnerability. Further, I suspect that David was really just aiming for Goliath, not some alleged soft spot, and trusting that God would guide the stone. David didn't know about the soft spot, wouldn't have known where it was if he had known about it, and probably couldn't have hit it on purpose if he had known where it was. Tell me that's not a miracle.

The lesson, of course, is that sometimes things loom large in our lives, but God has a simple solution. Sometimes His solution makes about as much sense as sending a boy into battle against a giant, armed with a toy (let's face it, a sling was not considered a weapon--ever know anybody else in the Bible to carry a sling into battle?--no, it was a kid's toy). Is God telling you to do something that just doesn't make sense? Do you trust God? Don't misunderstand me--make sure it's God, but be ready to step out in faith.

Saul and David

Saul was the first king of Israel, David was the second. Usually when people look at these two men they concentrate on the fact that when David messed up, he repented, while Saul would continually justify himself. This is true, but it occurs to me that there is more to it than that. What it really comes down to is that David had better overall character than Saul did.

For starters, lets look at the battle with the Amalekites. God told Saul to destroy Amalek, and to kill everything in Amalek. He was not to let anyone live, or even let any of the animals live. When Samuel met with Saul, after the battle, Saul had taken the king, Agag, prisoner, and had not killed the animals. Samuel confronted Saul, and Saul told him that they were going to sacrifice the animals to God. Samuel told Saul that "...to obey is better than sacrifice."

Now David once had occasion to sacrifice some animals to God, but the animals in question weren't his. Fortunately, the animals belonged to a man named Araunah that was friendly towards David. Friendly enough that he would have been happy to give the animals to David, but David refused. He would not sacrifice what wasn't his. He would not have expected God to honor such a sacrifice.

Let's look also at the battle with Goliath. I think most of us know the story: The Philistines set themselves in array against Israel, but then the Philistine champion, Goliath, offered to fight, one on one, any of the Israelites to settle the matter. The Israelites were intimidated; Goliath was six cubits tall--about nine feet. Now, common sense would dictate that the biggest Israelite would fight the giant. Instead, of course, the smallest Israelite on the battlefield ended up going against Goliath, without traditional weapons. David (who wasn't even old enough to be in the army) took a sling and five stones and only needed one. So, who was the biggest Israelite on the battlefield? Saul was.

Let's consider also the conflict that arose when Saul realized that God intended for David to be the second king of Israel, instead of one of Saul's sons. Saul tried to kill David, but God protected David. David had opportunity to kill Saul, and refused to do it. Now, when David, later on in life, found that Uriah the Hittite was standing in the way of what David wanted, he had Uriah killed. The difference, though, is that David repented quickly for having Uriah killed; Saul never really repented of trying to kill David.

You don't have to look to hard at these two men's lives to realize the difference in the strength of character and the faith in God that they had (or didn't have). And I have to admit, sometimes I feel more like Saul than like David. Particularly with regard to Araunah. If I needed something, and somebody offers me exactly what I need, and they seem happy to give it to me, I'm probably not going to argue with them, no matter what it is that I need that whatever-it-is for. I'm not sure that I have that kind of integrity.

Some would question how the Bible can say that David was a man after God's own heart, when he murdered Uriah the Hittite. God knows that none of us are perfect--He didn't create us that way. Most of the time, though, David had the strength of character, integrity, and faithfulness towards God that God has towards us.

Tough Choices

In the Book of Acts, it tells us that Saul the Pharisee was out rounding up Christians to be imprisoned or killed, when God knocked him down and blinded him. Realizing that only God could do that to him, but not understanding why God would (he was, after all, a loyal Pharisee, doing what he believed God wanted him to do), he cried out to God. Saul quickly learned that he was very much on the wrong path, but, God told him that He would send a man named Ananias to set Saul straight. Then, the Bible tells us, God told Ananias to go to Judas' house to share with Saul (not Judas Iscariot, of course, but that can't have been encouraging to Ananias). Ananias reacted pretty much the way most of us would: "Um, God? I don't know if this guy Saul has been operating behind your back, but he's been running around throwing Christians into jail, and having us killed... Wouldn't you rather that I go to Nineveh?" Ananias went to Judas' house expecting, at the very least, a tough sell. But he knew that God had spoken to his heart, and he knew what he had to do (and he wasn't sure that he wouldn't wind up in the belly of a whale if he tried to run away from it). He had every reason to believe that he was going to wind up in prison if he did what God was telling him to do, but he made up his mind that he'd rather be a Joseph than a Jonah. Some part of his mind must have contemplated an escape, even knowing that there is no escape from God.

When Ananias got to Judas' house, though, Saul was blind and badly shaken (I guess losing your eyesight can do that to you). Saul knew that God had sent Ananias, and was ready to listen to whatever Ananias said. I imagine that if Ananias had told Saul to sign over all his worldly possessions and cut off his right arm, Saul would have done it gladly. Ananias preached the gospel to Saul, and Saul accepted it. After that, Saul was known as Paul.

The point is that Ananias had to have felt that he was in a no-win situation. He chose to do the right thing, because he trusted in God, but he didn't see the big picture, and he didn't see the good that would come from what he had been asked to do (yes, God told him that Saul was a 'chosen vessel,' but that doesn't really tell the story of what Apostle Paul went on to do). It can't have been easy for him to go to meet with Saul. Once he got there, everything went smoothly, but he didn't know that it would until he got there. Yes, I understand that the passage makes it sounds like he just waltzed in, placed his hands on Saul, said, "Jesus sent me here to heal you and send you out to preach the gospel!" Think about that for minute. How many people do you know with that kind of faith? Now, I will grant you, it may very well be that Ananias psyched himself up to the point where he was able to appear to be completely unconcerned, but, human nature being what it is, I'll bet that he was still shaking on the inside.

God honored Ananias' faith, and He wants to honor our faith, but sometimes we are going to have to make some tough choices.