For the King and His Kingdom

The Ozarks are ablaze with the glory of fall. I have been all over the world and I know I've never lived in such a beautiful place. Our busy season of eighty degree days and crisp nights is reaching a frenetic pace. Between working twenty hours a week, my internship with the youth group of First Baptist Branson, twenty hours a week of class, small group Bible study, and untold hours of studying for tests, writing papers, and completing projects, I am surprised I'm awake enough to write at this moment. Apparently, the city of Branson keeps a similar rushing through life pace in its holiday preparations. The Christmas tree on the Branson Landing went up in early October. The holidays known as Halloween and Chrismas receive only a passing mention, if acknowledged at all.

This week we had a wonderful teacher come for three days to teach about the United Kingdom Era of the Old Testament. We traveled through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, which tell the story of 120 years of a united Israel under the rule of Saul, David and Solomon. For years, I've gotten lost in the details of this period of biblical history because I only knew the more famous episodes. It was so good to have a teacher paint a clear picture not only of the text itself, but the lessons to be learned from the lives of these three men and the prophet Samuel who advised them.

When the time of the judges over Israel had ended, the people begged God for a “real king.” Of course, God wanted to be their king, they should have been under His authority alone. I think it's interesting how many times God allows us to have things that we ask for that really aren't best for us. The king the people chose, Saul, was chosen because of his good looks and charisma, not his heart. Despite everything Saul had going for him- his wealth, his heritage, his position among the people, and an anointing from God- a litany of bad decision making led him down a destructive path to his downfall.

Following the humiliating rejection of Saul, God chose the great man after his own heart, the humble and courageous David, son of Jesse to be king. David has always been an interesting person, becaue where he succeeded, he shone beyond belief, and where he failed, he caused chaos. Even the smallest decision of someone as influential as David can have an incredible impact. The thing I love best about David is his humility. When he sins, he always repents and reconciles to God correctly. He would probably agree with Paul in calling himself “the foremost” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). That's what makes him so relatable and our God so much more real to me- He forgives astronomical sin when we are truly repentant and turn toward him.

Yet sin is never without consequences, and the bloodshed on David's hands during his reign prevented him from being able to complete the longed for temple of God. That was for his son Solomon, whose reign produced some of the best architecture of all time. Solomon was an interesting character. His half heart for God made him strong in many areas and weak in others.. Solomon was truly the wealthiest man of all time- he puts the Bill Gates' and the Warren Buffets of today to shame. Not only this, he had full access to the resources of wisdom from the God of the universe. How could he have failed? We can see the crux of Saul's demise in a part of the law given to Moses in Deuteronomy 17,

“You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.” Deuteronomy 17:15-17

Saul was destoryed by his wealth, the wives he accumulated and the worldliness with which he lived. Imagine what an impact for the kingdom of God Saul might have made if he had been as fully devoted to God as his father David was! Yet still he left us with the treasures of three books of scripture- the Proverbs about wisdom, Ecclesiastes that speaks of meaning, and Song of Solomon that uniquely portrays romance and marital love from a godly perspective. After Solomon's death, the kingdom of Israel was divided between the North and South under the poor leadership of Solomon's son Rehoboam (who, like Saul, was far more concerned with what the foolish general populace thought than listening to wise counsel.).

What can we learn about the character of God from these men? I believe that everything that happened to the people of God in the past is relevant to us today because it serves as an example. (1 Corinthians 10:6, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”) The sin we are burdened by has not changed. The God we serve, who overcame our sin has not changed either. Here are a few lessons the chronicles of the United Kingdom teach us about God.

1. God honors those who honor him. He brings blessings for obedience and judgment for disobedience.
   God blessed the times that all three kings obeyed. He also judged them for their disobedience. He blessed Saul, then rejected him when he considered what the people said to be more important than what He said. He blessed David, but there were consequences for his moral failure, such as the death of his first born son with Bathsheba. He blessed Solomon with great wisdom, yet told him at the end of his life that the kingdom would be ripped from the hands of his son because his wealth and wives were more important to him than anything else.
2. It is not a person's position that gives them influence, but their character as it is informed by God's direction.
   David's position in life was not one of wealth, he was a lowly shepherd boy, last among many sons and would have received very little inheritance from his father Jesse. Yet God looked at the character of his heart and saw what He desired. (1 Samuel 16:7)
3. Sometimes God will give you what you ask for, even though it's not what you need to show you it won't satisfy.
   God gave the people of Israel a king in Saul, perhaps in part to show them how worthless a mere man really was in comparison to the One True King.
4. You cannot live in disobedience and justify what you do before God. We see this in the story of Saul in 1 Samuel 15, when he is asked to destroy the godless Amaelikites completely, yet only obeys partially, arguing that he was going to sacrifice the best of their livestock. How often do we only partially obey what God asks and then expect him to bless us?
5. When we focus on God, our circumstances shrink. When we pray we must fix our gaze on God and glance at our request. God should not receive a courtesy call out in our prayers
   We see this prominently in the life of David- when he met the eyes of a ten foot tall warrior who had the entire Israeli army cowering in fear, he didn't see impossibility, he saw someone who was defying God who needed to be brought low. When he gathered with the disenchanted and desperate in the cave at Adullam as he fled from Saul, he fixed his eyes on God, asking for deliverance.

I can hardly believe we're ending our seventh week in school, with just six short months to go until graduation day. What a blessed season of life it has been. What a true blessing it is to spend hours a day, poring over the mysteries of the word of God. Pray for me, friends, that I might learn the truth so well in these days that I can teach it with confidence, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to anyone I encounter.