1 Samuel 15:34-35, 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 20:1-9, Ezekiel 17:22-24, Psalm 92:1-4, Psalm 92:12-15, 2 Corinthians 5:6-17, Mark 4:26-34.
(A) ANOINTING A MAN AFTER THE HEART OF GOD.
1 Samuel 15:34-35; 1 Samuel 16:1-13.
Israel had demanded a king, just so that they could be like the other nations. Samuel had protested, but the LORD allowed it. After all, they were not rejecting Samuel: they were rejecting the LORD (1 Samuel 8:4-7).
This is the same response as when the people got angry with Moses and Aaron (Exodus 16:8). We cannot chide against the LORD’s anointed leaders except it will be rebellion against Him. This, incidentally, was why later David was so reluctant to assassinate Saul when the opportunity presented itself (1 Samuel 24:6; 1 Samuel 26:11) - but that is getting ahead of our present story.
So, against his ‘better’ judgment (what? better than the LORD’s?) Samuel anointed Saul (1 Samuel 10:1). Of Saul, the LORD had said - somewhat bluntly - ‘this shall reign over my people’ (1 Samuel 9:17). Yet Saul would soon reject the word of the LORD, and the LORD would reject him from being king (1 Samuel 15:23), much to the grief of Samuel (1 Samuel 15:11) - but the LORD already had another man in mind for Samuel to go and anoint (1 Samuel 16:1).
Samuel was fearful in the going (1 Samuel 16:2). After all, Saul and he had not parted on the best of terms (1 Samuel 15:34-35). Perhaps there was nothing strange about Samuel going to make sacrifice, but the city elders in Bethlehem were also a little puzzled and alarmed (1 Samuel 16:4).
Nevertheless, as Samuel had told Saul (1 Samuel 15:22), the best path is the path of obedience. Samuel instructed the elders to sanctify themselves for the sacrifice, and personally sanctified Jesse and the seven sons he had with him for the sacrificial feast. Yet they would not sit down, said Samuel, until his secret mission was fulfilled (1 Samuel 16:11).
With hindsight, we can surmise that it had been the LORD’s purpose all along for Israel to have a king. Samuel still had to learn that the ideal king was not the tallest (1 Samuel 16:7), as had been Saul (1 Samuel 9:2), but must be ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:13-14). None of the seven sons of Jesse who passed before Samuel’s eyes was the accepted one - it must be that other one, tending the sheep out in the fields - “Bring him,” was the terse command of the Seer (1 Samuel 16:11).
How easy it is when the church finds God’s chosen man to slip back into our own criteria. The writer draws our attention to all the usual attractions: his healthy red face, his beautiful countenance (or is it ‘an eye for beauty’?), his good looks: but these are not what commend him to God - it is what is within, as we have learned (1 Samuel 16:7). “Arise, anoint him, for this is he,” said the LORD (1 Samuel 16:12).
Samuel obediently took the horn of oil and anointed the young man amid his brethren. Oil is associated with the Holy Spirit, and after the anointing the Spirit ‘rushed upon' David (named for the first time here). Significantly, considering Saul’s loss of the Spirit’s presence (1 Samuel 16:14), the Spirit remained upon David from that day forward (1 Samuel 16:13).
There is another King in Israel who can be described as ‘a man after God’s own heart’, who could say of Himself, ‘I am He’ - or just simply ‘I Am’ (John 18:5-6). This King, in His inaugural address, announced that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, because He had anointed Him to proclaim the gospel (Luke 4:18-19. This King is Jesus - known to some as ‘great David’s greater Son’ - in whose name we are gathered today.
(B) A PRAYER FOR THE KING.
Psalm 20:1-9.
Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John and instructed them to ‘watch’ with Him (cf. Matthew 26:38), and to ‘watch and pray’ (cf. Matthew 26:41). I wonder what prayers they might have made on His behalf if their sleepy heads could have stayed awake long enough? Psalm 20 is unashamedly a prayer for the king as He goes into battle, and would certainly have suited well enough the enormous spiritual battle which Jesus was now accomplishing.
When Israel had asked for a king, one of their reasons had been ‘that our king’ may ‘go out before us and fight our battles’ (cf. 1 Samuel 8:20). Now Jesus was going out before His church to fight the battle of His life on our behalf – and His own innermost disciples could not ‘watch’ with Him for just one hour (cf. Matthew 26:40)!
I have often wondered what ‘Psalms’ the Lord opened up to His disciples on the first Easter evening (cf. Luke 24:44). Peter, James and John might then have reflected that, back in Gethsemane, they could have given Jesus the kind of encouragement that is contained in PSALM 20:1-2. Retrospectively, they might have considered that Jesus had been offering Himself as a ‘burnt sacrifice’ on our behalf (PSALM 20:3).
Perhaps they could have “set up their banners” behind Jesus in the reassurance that the LORD would “fulfill” all His counsel and petitions (PSALM 20:4-5). They could have expressed their confidence in “the LORD” and “His Anointed,” and reassured themselves of the “saving strength” of the LORD (PSALM 20:6). Such prayers, such encouragements, such confidence, such assurances will always have a happy issue (PSALM 20:7-8).
His sacrifice of Himself on our behalf has been accepted, and therefore we may ‘boldly approach the throne of grace’ (cf. Hebrews 4:16) in the assurance that the LORD, and His King (Jesus) will also “hear us when we call” (PSALM 20:9).
(C) ISRAEL EXALTED.
Ezekiel 17:22-24.
The word of the LORD came ‘expressly’ to the priest Ezekiel in ‘the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity’ (cf. Ezekiel 1:2-3). Our present chapter is a ‘riddle,’ or an allegory: ‘a parable unto the house of Israel’ (EZEKIEL 17:2).
It speaks of two eagles: first of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (EZEKIEL 17:3, EZEKIEL 17:12), who took king Jehoiachin of Judah (‘the highest branch of the cedar’) and carried him off into Babylon: ‘a land of traffic’ and ‘a city of merchants’ (EZEKIEL 17:3-4). Nebuchadnezzar ‘took also of the seed of the land, and planted it’ (EZEKIEL 17:5-6), and took one ‘of the king’s seed’ – Jehoiachin’s uncle Zedekiah – and set him up as a puppet king in Jehoiachin’s place, ‘and made a covenant with him’ (EZEKIEL 17:13).
The second eagle represents the other superpower of the region, Egypt, towards which the roots of this vine of Nebuchadnezzar’s planting inclined its roots and branches (EZEKIEL 17:7, EZEKIEL 17:15). Under Zedekiah, Judah reached out to Egypt: but by breaking covenant with Babylon (EZEKIEL 17:16), Zedekiah was also breaking covenant with the LORD (EZEKIEL 17:18-19). The outcome was never going to be favourable to either king Zedekiah or the remaining people of Judah (EZEKIEL 17:20-21).
As we enter the climax of this chapter, our main reading for today, the two eagles are no longer in focus: neither are mentioned. Now it is the LORD Himself who is re-establishing the Davidic dynasty by cropping off a tender shoot from the young twigs at the top of the highest branch of the high cedar. In contrast to Babylon, ‘a city of merchants’ (cf. EZEKIEL 17:4), this shoot, He promises, He will plant in “a high and lofty mountain” (EZEKIEL 17:22).
That “shoot” corresponds to the ‘shoot from the root of Jesse’ (cf. Isaiah 11:1), and the ‘righteous Branch’ that the LORD would raise unto David (cf. Jeremiah 23:5). The mountain is no doubt Zion (EZEKIEL 17:23a; cf. Isaiah 2:2-4). And here, “the birds of the air” (EZEKIEL 17:23b) nest in the goodly cedar which the LORD has planted, opening up the kingdom of God to the Gentiles through our Lord Jesus Christ who is the seed, shoot, root and Branch of our salvation (cf. Mark 4:30-32).
So, “all the trees of the field” - all the people of the world – “shall know” that it is the LORD who has brought down the high tree, EXALTED the low tree, dried up the green tree, and has made the dry tree flourish. “I the LORD have spoken, and have done it” (EZEKIEL 17:24). The fulness of His salvation informs us who God is, and what He has done our behalf, until such time as ‘the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea’ (cf. Habakkuk 2:14).
(D) A SONG FOR THE SABBATH DAY.
Psalm 92:1-4, Psalm 92:12-15.
We open with the declaration, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD” (Psalm 92:1a). Perhaps our prayers are too often loaded down with petitions: but we should be thanking God for past benefits, even as we make our requests known to Him. Furthermore, if we are asking Him in faith believing, we can thank Him in anticipation of a favourable answer in accordance with His will.
“And to sing praises to thy name, O most high” (Psalm 92:1b). This is vocal, not silent. We can be vocal in the privacy of our own rooms, or as we go about manual labour. It is good, too, to be vocal with others (when we have opportunity).
Thus do we “show forth thy lovingkindness” EVERY morning, and “thy faithfulness” EVERY night (Psalm 92:2). Worship is not just for the sabbath day, after all. We may not have the benefit of the full Temple band (Psalm 92:3), but the sweetest praise of all comes from the contemplative heart of the believer, wherever and whenever we may lift our voice in praise to the LORD.
“For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work” (Psalm 92:4a). As the popular chorus suggests, ‘He has made me glad! He has made me glad! I will rejoice for He has made me glad.’
It is a singular work of God in the believer that makes them appreciate the multifarious “works” of Creation, Providence, and Redemption. This is what it is to “triumph in the works of thy hands” (Psalm 92:4b).
“The righteous” are compared to a palm tree, and a cedar in Lebanon: both sturdy long-living evergreens (Psalm 92:12). Just as a palm tree flourishes in the courtyard of a palace in an oasis, and a cedar stands tall no matter what, so those who are “planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God” (Psalm 92:13).
They shall be immovable, like a tree planted by a riverside (Psalm 1:3; cf. Jeremiah 17:8). “They shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing” (Psalm 92:14). Like Caleb, still as strong at the end of his course as he was at the beginning (Joshua 14:11).
Not that this righteousness is anything of our own ‘doing’: it is an imputed, imparted righteousness. It is the LORD who is “upright”: He is “my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (Psalm 92:15). Jesus is the rock of my salvation (1 Corinthians 10:4).
(E) TOWARDS A NEW CREATION.
2 Corinthians 5:6-17.
Having spoken of the impermanence of the ‘tent’ of this body, and the ‘eternity’ of our dwelling in heaven (2 Corinthians 5:1), the Apostle Paul began to mix his metaphors, yearning to be ‘clothed upon’ with ‘our habitation which is from heaven’ (2 Corinthians 5:2). ‘For we who are in this tent groan’ (cf. Romans 8:23), waiting to be ‘clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up in life’ (2 Corinthians 5:4; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:54). In the meantime, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts as a ‘down-payment’ (2 Corinthians 5:5; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:14).
In Philippians 1:23-24, Paul found himself in a strait between two possibilities:
1. To depart and be with Christ: ‘which is far better’; or
2. To remain in the flesh, which was more necessary ‘for you’ the churches he served.
Here in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, we are faced with the same tension. However, in both, the presence of the Holy Spirit gives Paul “confidence” in facing up to his own mortality. “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Whether here or there, Paul’s aim is to please the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:9). That should be our aim also. Death is not the end, so let us live every day for Jesus. “For “we must all appear before the bema of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10a).
In the wider context of 2 Corinthians 5:10a, Paul has been speaking about those who are in the ministry of the church (2 Corinthians 4:1ff). However, in the more immediate context, the “we” could be all who “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). What have “we” all done with the gifts and opportunities which God has given us?
The word “bema” speaks of an elevated place ascended by steps, a tribunal, or a throne. There is Pilate’s tribunal in Matthew 27:19; Gallio’s tribunal (before which Paul was dragged by his countrymen) in Acts 18:12; and Herod’s throne from which he delivered his fatal final oration in Acts 12:21.
What is being called into account as we each appear before the throne of Christ is “what we have done in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10b). Not that Jesus wants to condemn us: for ‘there is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION to those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). Rather it is to apply degrees of reward: as Jesus says, ‘some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty’ (Matthew 13:23).
The “fear of the Lord” in 2 Corinthians 5:11 is not so much ‘terror’ as “reverence”. Paul the minister is again speaking: “Knowing, therefore, the reverence of the Lord, we persuade men.” It is God who reveals the hidden things, bringing them to light (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:5).
Others may glory in outward things, but the Apostle commends his team as being of the right heart (2 Corinthians 5:12). Paul has said elsewhere that he ‘speaks in tongues more than you all’ (1 Corinthians 14:18), but before them he and his team are self-controlled (2 Corinthians 5:13).
This passage directly confronts us with the subject of reconciliation. It requires spiritual thinking: no longer regarding people from a worldly point of view - “according to the flesh”; and certainly not regarding Christ from a worldly point of view - “according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 5:16).
1. The cost of reconciliation is the death of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). The Cross stands as a monument to the seriousness, and dire consequences, of sin. God, who is ‘of purer eyes than to be behold evil’ (Habakkuk 1:13) cannot look upon sin, and literally turned His face away from His own only begotten Son (Psalm 22:1).
2. The method of reconciliation is the sacrifice of Christ as our representative and substitute. He died as our representative (2 Corinthians 5:14-15), doing battle with the devil through His death and resurrection, and coming out triumphant on our behalf.
3. The result of reconciliation is a new relationship with God. The old has passed away, and we are initiated into a new life in our Lord Jesus Christ. The “new creation” evidently has a cosmic dimension, but it is our privilege personally and individually to enter its newness in the here and now (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Our severed relationship with God has been repaired, and we find ourselves no longer slaves to sin, but have a new desire within our hearts to live for the One who has brought us back to life (2 Corinthians 5:15).
(F) A RIOT OF COLOUR AND BEAUTY.
Mark 4:26-34.
One year I dug a border outside my living room window. I bought some packets of seeds, dug small troughs, and scattered the seeds randomly in the little troughs before covering them over with light soil (cf. Mark 4:26). Job done.
For a while, nothing seemed to be happening. There was enough rain: but it was not until the first hint of spring sunshine that little shoots began to appear. Even then, nothing looked quite like the colourful illustrations on the seed packets.
A few weeks later we returned from our summer holiday to a riot of colour and beauty which surpassed all expectations. Something had been going on secretly while we were away. ‘It is God who gives the increase’ (1 Corinthians 3:7).
The motif of “sleeping and rising night and day” (Mark 4:27) is a way of counting the passage of time (cf. Genesis 1:13). It may also be a motif for death and resurrection. ‘The seed must die,’ taught Jesus: partly prophesying His own death, and partly demonstrating the radical change that must happen in the lives of those who desired to follow Him (John 12:23-25).
“The earth brings forth fruit of itself,” explained Jesus (Mark 4:28). This appears to be the pattern of things in nature (Genesis 1:11-13; Genesis 8:22). Yet we must not despise the ‘day of small things’ (Zechariah 4:10).
Unlike the flower gardener, for the farmer there comes a day when he must “immediately” put in the sickle “for the harvest has come” (Mark 4:29).
So it is with the kingdom of God. Jesus came into this world, ‘a babe in a manger’ (Luke 2:12). The child grew into a youth (Luke 2:40); the youth into a man (Luke 2:52). He died; He rose again; He ascended into heaven; He shall return.
He gathered around Him a team of unlikely candidates to be His apostles, His ‘sent ones’. The church began with a group of frightened men, holding their meetings behind closed doors. Who but God could have foreseen what would follow?
At Pentecost 3000 were converted (Acts 2:41), and 5000 more after the healing of the lame man (Acts 4:4). Small and despised, the church continued to grow, and will continue to grow until the harvest is come.
Explaining another parable, Jesus said, ‘the seed is the word’ (Mark 4:14). The believer hears the word and receives the word: but this is only the beginning.
Those who sow the seed must not become discouraged when there seems to be so little progress in the lives of those who have received the gospel into their heart. We were not born full grown adults, and neither are we born-again as fully matured Christians.
Our faith, which begins as small as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20), is capable of the same phenomenal growth as is demonstrated in the life of the church (Mark 4:30-32).
