Taking Effective Action

1 Samuel 13:6-14 (let me know if you'd rather have the passage text here)

All the leadership books would have gotten this one wrong.

Saul is the leader of Israel's army, getting ready for battle. Samuel promised to come and make a sacrifice to God before the battle, but he is late. Saul's men are losing morale and deserting. So Saul makes the sacrifice himself. Saul decides to take charge, get the job done, help his men.

But he got it wrong.

It's easy for me to be an armchair 'King of Israel' and say, "Yeah, he should not have trusted in the sacrifce. He should have trusted God!" But if Saul had a weakness for religion, I have a weakness for taking action.

I've heard religion defined as "man's attempt to reach God". When I say that Saul had a weakness for religion, I mean that he put his trust more in what he did for God then what God promised to do for him. He feared facing his enemies without the sacrifice, when he should have been afraid of facing them without God. He confused his religion with his God.

Over the past couple of years, Helen and I have been in a big question about future directions. Where to live, what to do, what job, what ministry, what people, what places? We've been looking for clear leading from God, but I'm still waiting. I want to go out and make it happen, to take decisive action. The waiting is getting to my nerves. It's becoming harder to peacefully trust.

Perhaps I'm like Saul. I have to let go of my expectation of what that leading from God will be like. If Saul had concentrated on trusting God, instead of trusting his religious observances, maybe he wouldn't have taken premature action, "by now God would have set a firm and lasting foundation under your kingly rule over Israel", says Samuel.

Saul was not remembering how God used Gideon's 300 men to save Israel from Midian. Saul had at least twice that many when he panicked and made the sacrifice himself. Saul saw disaster in the men slipping away. Perhaps God saw an opportunity. By having Samuel be late, perhaps God was looking to thin the ranks so that the victory would bring greater glory to Saul's God.

God is not interested in showing the effectiveness of Saul's sacrifice. He is very interested in showing the faithfulness of Saul's God.
- posted by Jor @ 10:44 AM -

 
Foolishness

I'm overhearing my wife homeschooling my children in the next room. They are having a problem with their mood today. I guess some of it is physical. We had a busy Sunday with a couple of late nights this weekend. But the way they are working it out is foolishness. They are gripped by stories about how the future will be bad. They have too much schoolwork (same amount as ever), they don't have enough time (that hasn't changed either), the schoolwork is too hard (once they are clear of their bad mood they get it done quickly). Gentle answers aren't turning aside their wrath. Foolishness has gripped them.

My devotion reading today has been in 1 Sam 11-12 and 1 Cor 11. In Samuel, Israel is foolishly demanding to be led by a king instead of by God because they think that will save them from a fierce enemy that is threatening them. Paul is lecturing the church in Corinth about the foolish way they have embraced pseudo-apostles, preachers who are trying to enslave them to the Law again.

Both Samuel's and Paul's harangue of foolish believers is messy, produces a bad mood, and sounds a bit like foolishness itself. Samuel starts by asking if he has cheated the Israelites, he has to clear the air and stop the grumbling. No one comes forth with an accusation, but the fact that Samuel had to do it to get everyone to stop grumbling is foolishness. Same with Paul and the Corinthians. For Paul to have to speak like a fool to them (as he admits himself in the text) is a further indictment. Both were good leaders who knew that the only way out was through.

"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly lest, he be wise in his own eyes." Prov 26:4,5

This means to me that if you have no commitment to the fool, stay clear and don't even answer him. But if you are committed to helping him, you must show him his folly by answering him in it.

Samuel's "foolishness" brought clarity, Paul's "foolishness" brought clarity. My own foolishness doesn't look like foolishness. I'm gripped by it, I've justified it, rationalized it. Then I hear someone like a Samuel, or Paul speaking my foolishness--or the reasonable consequences of it--and the foolishness becomes apparent to me. They reflect the foolishness back to me and I can see it for foolishness and I am no longer wise in my own eyes.

Foolishness sucks, and produces a bad mood for me (and those around me). But once I'm in it, as either cause or cure, the only way out is through. I need to repent for my foolishness, and the sin at the bottom of it: unbelief, unforgiveness, pride, envy, greed.

Forgiveness and grace produce wonderful moods of peace, love and joy. The Kingdom of God is near you!
- posted by Jor @ 12:36 PM -