March 12, 2023 - 1 Samuel 20-24

Saul continued to scheme and try to kill David. This whole narrative is just a convoluted weaving of so much that is good and bad in human beings. David and Jonathan’s friendship. David’s loyalty to Saul. Saul’s attempts to kill David. Jealousy. Saul’s harsh words against his own son, Jonathan. Saul killing the priests at Nob because they assisted David. And through it all, God moves events toward his ultimate aim, the sending of a Redeemer and the redemption of a people.

Job got it right: “Job answered the Lord and said: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted’” (Job 42:1-2). The psalmist declared, “He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations” (Palm. 105:7-9); that is, God remembers and assuredly fulfills his covenant. Paul reminded the Ephesians, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11-12). History, the biblical narratives, and our own lives are filled with failures and doubt but God’s purposes are not impeded in any way. That’s good to know, isn’t it!

It is a thing most wonderful,

almost too wonderful to be,

that God's own Son should come from heav’n,

and die to save a child like me.

I cannot tell how He could love

a child so weak and full of sin;

His love must be most wonderful

if He could die my love to win. -- William Walsham How (1891)