To Whom Much Is Given . . .

The Yankees are not getting the job done in the American League Championship Series. In fact, by the time some of you read this they may have been eliminated. It’s just baseball, I know, but when the Yankees lose it’s seems worse than when other teams lose (I say this not because I’m a Yankees fan, though I am). The reason why it seems worse is because the Yankees are the Yankees, and when it comes to the Yankees expectations run high. Why are there such high expectations? Because they have an unparalleled history of winning and they consistently have one of the highest payrolls in professional baseball. Without necessarily being able to quote the verse, most people who care about it would agree with the teaching that “to whom much is given, much will be required.” And when the Yankees don’t produce, they deserve all the verbal junk that gets thrown at them.

God’s judgment of Saul (1 Samuel 28, 31) was of a similar stripe. It’s true that Saul had been plucked unasked from obscurity and made king of Israel. But before we cut Saul slack for his failings, we must keep in mind that he had been given what he needed to accomplish the job he had been assigned: the anointing of God’s Spirit and the word of God. These are tremendous resources that Saul squandered or abused. And what applies to the Yankees applies to him, “to whom much is given, much will be required.”

God holds people responsible for what he has given to them. This seems an inescapable reality when we consider the many parables of Jesus that warn of the coming accounting. Like Saul, for the many around us who have heard and pushed away the revelation of God, a just judgment awaits. Their only hope is to repent and trust that what God has revealed in the person and work of his son is sufficient to atone for their squandering what had already been revealed to them by a generous and gracious God. Much has been given; much will be required. For those who repent and believe, what is required is met in the one who was given.

Increasing Maturity

David’s sparing of Saul’s life a second time (1 Samuel 26) was by far the more extraordinary. The first demonstrated David’s willingness to allow God to judge between Saul and David, but the second demonstrated how far David’s faith was willing to run in seeing it come to pass. Recall that the first time Saul inadvertently wandered into David’s camp. The second time, David deliberately walked into Saul’s! In fact, David’s confidence in God’s vindication is evident in his interpreting the second incident as a divinely provided opportunity to demonstrate his righteousness (Cf.1 Samuel 26:23). I would suggest that David understood the encounter as (to use American evangelical parlance) “a God thing.” What we the readers know, and which apparently David did not, was that his ability to secure the trophies of his righteousness, Saul’s spear and water jug, was indeed a “God thing;” the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall upon Saul and his army.

In Saul’s camp, David demonstrated that he had learned something from the Nabal affair, the one in which he purposed to wipe out Nabal and his household in an act of vengeance until Nabals’ wife, Abigail, intervened. God would be both his vindication and his vengeance. That lesson (a “God thing” in its own right) he applied to this God-given opportunity. God will determine when Saul’s life would be over, not David. And implicit in that understanding is that Saul’s death, like Nabal’s, would prove David’s righteousness. As is seen at the end of 1 Samuel, that will prove to be the case.

Something of importance to note is the progress of David in this vengeance triptych. David’s initial pious motives in sparing Saul (1 Samuel 24) matured after being brought through the Nabal affair (1 Samuel 25) so that he can say, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish” (1 Samuel 26).  Such growth is meant to be the fruit of God’s dealings with us. Too often we ask God to reconstruct his character in the face of each new trial: Does he see what’s going on? Does he care? Will he be faithful? Let’s learn from God’s previous grace to trust him for present grace.

Mysterious, Merciful Providence

Saul was unaware of what was to take place. He was sent by his father to find lost donkeys. Yahweh, however, sent him to find Samuel (1 Samuel 9). This is the nature of providence, the term used to describe God’s continued involvement in and direction of all things. People go about doing what they do; yet it is God who stands behind them directing their steps (Cf. Proverbs 16:9).

If we trust that God is good and wise then we have reason to trust his providence.  He orders things according to his purposes so that his will, which is good and wise, comes to pass. This should be a source of comfort for this means that we are not subject to random, impersonal forces. Quite the contrary, all things, in the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, “come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.”

How are we to respond when we are subjected to what the Puritans called, “dark providences”? These are the times when difficulties -- tragedies, even -- disturb our peace. Are we to just grit our teeth and say, “Ah, the Lord’s will be done”? That’s an option, but it’s not our only option. Assuming that there is a wise and good purpose behind what is currently covering the sun, it’s our task to prayerfully experience what that purpose is. It may be that God would have us fight the darkness, and action, even bold action, may be called for. That being said, whatever his purpose, we are to trust that he is in control.

God is at work. God is always at work. Let’s pray for greater discernment that we might see the hand of the Lord in both the extraordinary and the mundane.