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DAVID AND SAUL: THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW

As we rapidly approach another election cycle, and people in America are considering their options for the next candidates to lead the nation, my thoughts go to the Old Testament story of Samuel and Israel’s desire for a king. For centuries the Israelites were under the oversight of judges who offered guidance to the nation in matters of military engagement.  They also resolved disputes between the people and upheld the civil laws of Israel.  These were men (and women, in the case of Deborah) who were chosen by God and anointed to resist the oppression of their neighbor kingdoms and lead their people in the right ways of the LORD.  Samuel the Prophet was the transition between the time of the judges and the time of the prophets and kings.  He was the last judge of Israel and the first of a string of major prophets of the Lord who gave spiritual guidance to Israel.  It was Samuel, too, who God sent to anoint Israel's first king.  He also was tr...
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JONATHAN AND HIS ARMOR BEARER

“And the Philistines gathered themselves together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore in multitude: and they came up, and pitched in Michmash, eastward from Bethaven.   When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits.  And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.  As for Saul [the King of Israel], he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.” (1 Samuel 13:5-7).   King Saul found himself in difficult straits.   An innumerable host of Philistines had gathered their forces at a place called Michmash in the highlands north of Jerusalem.   Much of Saul’s army was frightened because of the overwhelming odds and went to hide themselves in the caves, hills and pits around the...
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BREAD OF HEAVEN

The Lord taught  His disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”  It is true that this refers to our daily provision of food, but more importantly, I believe God was referring to His Word that He speaks daily to us.  Just as man cannot survive for long without natural food, neither can he survive spiritually without the Word of God.  Our natural life subsists on one kind of food, but our spiritual life subsists on another kind of food altogether.  Jesus told the devil during His temptation in the wilderness, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”  He also refers to Himself as the “Bread of Life” in John 6.  Therefore, this daily bread is the portion of Himself that He reveals to us through His Word to make us strong spiritually.  After all, Jesus is the Word made flesh.  Without a daily dose of the Word, we will grow weak and undernourished as Christians.   You see...
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