March 25

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR MARCH 25, 2025: 1 SAMUEL 19, ROMANS 9, PSALM 23                                          1 SAMUEL 19 This chapter has the intense moral drama of competing loyalties. Saul asks his son Jonathan to kill his close friend David, with whom he had just entered into a covenant. What is the right thing to do?  Jonathan reasoned that by obeying his father, which of course is one of the commandments, he himself would be guilty of breaking another commandment and aiding his father to disobey it also. His wise solution was to reason with Saul who, this time, was open to reason. We might have opportunity to be peacemakers in some complex personal relationship: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9). 

David was restored as Saul’s victorious warrior and royal musician, but once again an evil spirit was “sent” from the Lord to Saul. When this first came up in chapter 16, this writer suggested what was obvious: God allowed this evil spirit to come over Saul. Given that this is the third time the text says the Lord “sent” the evil spirit, might we take the wording more literally? The classic passage that seems to contradict this view is James 1:13-15: “No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.  But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin.” In reading James closely, we see that it isn’t God or an evil spirit that causes sin, but one’s own inner lust. Thus, God could have sent the evil spirit to help expose what already existed in Saul. This sounds similar to God’s hardenings of Pharoah's heart in Exodus. Jesus also seems to double down on the danger that lurks within our hearts: “’Whoever commits murder shall be answerable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be answerable to the court “(Matt. 5:21-22). The great lesson for us might be to examine our hearts for anger or jealousy that might eventually lead to our condemnation.

When Saul acted on his jealousy, David once more escaped and fled. This led to another case of divided loyalties. David’s wife and Saul’s daughter Michal helped David escape her father and actually lied to Saul’s messengers about David whereabout. Was she justified in lying to save his life? We know when the Hebrew midwives lied to protect Moses, “God blessed the midwives because they were God-fearing women” (Ex. 1:20). We also know “by faith the [lying] prosti-- tute Rahab did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace” (Heb. 11:31). Let’s always be truthful and leave these rare cases for God to determine.There are some wild aspects to David’s life “on the run.” Michal used a “house idol,” which she shouldn’t have possessed to deceive David’s pursuers. Stranger still, God turned David’s pursuers and even Saul himself into temporary prophets to keep them from capturing David.Man could just not make up stories like this. It must God’s revealed word.                         ROMANS 9 Paul confides to us that, as a Jew himself, he desperately longs for other Jews to come into a saving relationship with God. He even says he would be willing to give up his own salvation if it would help

READINGS FOR MARCH 25, 2025 CONTINUED: ROMANS 9, PSALM 23                                     bring his fellow Jews to the Lord. Consider if Paul had this attitude, how much more does Jesus want all people to come to faith in Him. What about us? Do we have this intense sorrow for friends and family who don’t know Jesus as Savior and Lord? Paul recounts all of God’s blessings to the Jews over the years: adoption as sons, the covenants, the Mosaic Law, the temple worship, the promises to Israel, and Jesus’s human ancestry.  Paul reminds us that even though this promise was originally made to Abraham, not all of his genetic descend- ants received the promise: only Isaac not Ismael, only Jacob not Esau. This was God’s choice and, as we have learned in Job, we are not in a position to find fault with what the omniscient God decides. What is God’s choice trying to show? In verses 11, 16, 18, 23, Paul says God shows that it is not Man’s ancestry or works that matters, but God’s mercy. And to whom has God chosen to receive His mercy of salvation? Paul says God’s chooses to show mercy to those who pursue God’s righteousness through faith, not works (vs.30-32). This extends to believing Gentiles as well as to a believing remnant of Israel (vs. 24 and 27). All are invited to believe (John 3:16). All who believe will be saved and not be disappointed (33).                                                       Let’s consider two other issues that might raise some eyebrows in this chapter: 

  • Did God hate Esau (vs.13)? John 3:16 teaches God loved the world. How could he hate Esau? God’s love for the world excludes no one, Esau included. Paul is expressing God’s choice of Jacob over Esau to receive the promise, just as Jesus tells us to choose Him over all others: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own  life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). Jesus is not telling us to hate anyone, but to make Him first.
  • Why did God harden Pharaoh’s heart (vs.17-18)? He did so to show His power throughout the world. Rahab heard about God’s power all the way over in Jericho and 40 years later she placed her faith in God (Exodus 7:3, Joshua 2:10-12, Heb. 11:31). Also, before God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, it was already hard/stubborn (Exodus 7:13-14, 7:22, 8:15, 8:19, 8:32, and 9:7). God further hardened his heart in 9:12, 10;20, 10:27, and 14:4. These final hardenings enabled Israel to be given jewels by the Egyptians for the tabernacle and to completely remove the Egyptian army as a threat. In Matthew 13:12, Jesus infers that God still hardens the heart of those who reject His truth. 

PSALM 23 This exquisite Psalm is possibly the best known and most loved single chapter in the Bible. It is the text for wondrous music and a comfort to grieving families during times of loss. The beauty and comfort of this chapter is meaningless, however, if the premise of the first line is not a reality in the lives of each individual. QUESTION: IS THE LORD OUR SHEPHERD?

  • Consider Romans 10:9: “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” If we are not saved, Jesus is not our Lord, and thus not our shepherd. Instead, we have chosen to be our own shepherd.
  • Consider Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” If we are not reading the Bible, the Lord is not our shepherd. Instead, we are turning off the light God provides and choosing to stumble in the dark.
  • Consider James 1:22: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves.” If we hear but don’t obey the Bible, we are deceived; the Lord is not our shepherd.
  • Consider 1 Peter 1:25: “The word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you.” If we reject the Bible’s teachings as culturally outdated, the Lord is not our shepherd. Instead, the reigning cultural narrative is our shepherd.