A Heart that Is Courageous in the Ways of the Lord
A Heart that Is Courageous in the Ways
of the LORD
One pitfall in reading the Old Testament is to read it like
Aesop’s Fables, always looking for a moral to the story. This can (and has at times) some uncomfortable problems. One important key to grasping the Old Testament is to see that what is descriptive is
not necessarily prescriptive. You have to look at a scene or episode through
God’s clear directions in other places. And you look for the divine diagnosis
in the story. Nevertheless, the Old Testament stories are meant to be guides,
examples to us – as Paul repeatedly says in 1 Corinthians 10 and Romans 15.4;
and you see how their example is used in Hebrews 11.
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Two men. A father and a son. They share a family trait: (a) impatience
with dwindling, disheartening circumstance; (b) willingness to take initiative.
But in the end, there are different outcomes. One receives God’s displeasure;
the other becomes the means of the LORD’s salvation and rescue. What’s the
difference between them?
The Situation (13.1-8): The
kingdom-of-God-resistors have drawn up their vast numbers, their horrendous
hordes to stand against God’s kingdom – thousands upon thousands upon thousands
upon thousands of fearsome, frightful, fierce men of war with their newest,
cutting-edge technological weaponry (13.5). It’s an impressive scene in a knee-knocking,
gut-rending way!
Sure enough, the people of God are filled with trepidation,
consternation and apprehension. In the day of up-close-and-personal hand to
hand combat, they were overwhelmed not only in numbers, but in their perception
and in their faith. It was an impossible state of affairs! And so, in the swamping
tide of impending catastrophe, there’s a mass church-exodus (13.8). The numbers
have shrunk to make things even more unbearable. No way that 600 (13.15)
low-tech, outgunned (13.19-23), out-supplied men can stand against the multiple
thousands of highly equipped, heavily-armed, heftily- fortified soldiers! The handwriting
is on the wall!!! It’s here that the father and son respond in similar and
dissimilar ways.
Saul (13.8a, 9-15a). Apparently Samuel,
God’s spokesperson, had coached Saul to set up camp at a specific place. Samuel
gave him a 7 day window. Likely, the Prophet was orchestrating the call up of
reservists and the National Guard during that time. Saul is daily, hourly
getting more and more desperate. Then the day comes when Samuel should have
appeared. No Samuel! Yikes! The people are scattering and scampering off, and
there’s no Samuel to show that this is God’s battle that will end in God’s
victory!
In desperation Saul exposes the family trait – he takes
matters into his own hands. Something must be done, don’t you know! The
pressure is intense, the desertions are irreparable. Maybe the troops were murmuring
and muttering under their breath or to one another that Saul was running people
off, or that Saul had lost his nerve. Whatever the case, it was a most distressing
moment (13.11-12). So Saul rises up, steps out and takes action. But the action
he takes is all wrong! Instead of waiting for the arrival of God’s Spokesperson
– and thus God’s guiding, sustaining, saving Word – he soothed his conscience
by religious rebellion! For Saul, as becomes increasingly clear in the rest of
his life, religion is only about fabricating
fortune; inciting encouragement; directing destiny! Saul’s deed here
showed that he thought pragmatically – if it works just do it. Some emergencies
just made God’s Word unnecessary.
Lo, and behold; at just that moment arrives Samuel. You can
imagine the little voice in Saul’s head might just have gasped: “Doh! Busted big
boy!” And Samuel voices God’s diagnosis of Saul’s action (13.13-14). A similar
divine diagnosis is aired just 2 chapters later when Saul’s half-hearted,
half-way obedience (which is thus, disobedience) is outed by God and he
declares; “Has the LORD as great delight
in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For
rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and
idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected
you from being king” (1 Samuel 15.22-23).
Jonathan (14.1-10, 23). It’s the same scene.
The circumstances are still discouraging. The future looks bleak for God’s
people. The opposition is overwhelming! And here, Jonathan exhibits the family
trait (14.1, 6): he rises up, steps out and takes action! But there is a clear
difference. Saul tried to use God to create his fortune and success. Jonathan
believed God! Jonathan’s conviction that God can save with many or few,
produced a daring expectation (14.6!!!)! Saul’s religious rebellion showed his
unbelief. Jonathan’s daring declared brilliantly his trust in the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – a trust in the truth about God. …Jonathan had a
belief, a heart that was much like good king Jeroboam’s a few hundred years
later, “His heart was courageous in
the ways of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 17.6a).
And observe that his trust is satisfied with whatever God
decides to do! Jonathan is content with God. God can save by many or by few…but
he just might choose not to (“It may be…” v.6). God is not bound and chained by
Jonathan’s faith. He can rest on the promises of God, but he knows that God is
bigger, grander, and unchained. He is not a god of magic; he is not a god of quid pro quo (my little bit of this for his great
big that); and he is not the errand-boy god!
And what is the divine verdict on Jonathan’s decision? 14.23 –
“So the LORD saved Israel that day.” “Jonathan was right: “nothing can keep
Yahweh from saving by many or by few” (v.6b). This salvation, however, did not
begin in royal mathematics (13:15b; 14:2) but with imaginative faith, faith
that was willing to say, “Perhaps Yahweh will act for us”” (Dale Ralph Davis, “Looking
on the Heart,” 139).
These two stories, or two parts of the same story, are huge
for me. I have been stewing over them for the last several weeks. I’m a “take-action”
kind of guy – especially in the face of dwindling, discouraging, desperate
situations. I want to be the Nike Poster Boy, the “Just Do It” guy! And reading
the two chapters several weeks ago pulled me up short and made me hesitate. Not
just any old “Just-Do-It-ism” will do. I need God’s Word, and no emergency or
pride, can trump that. But also a daring-heart – a heart like good king
Jeroboam’s, “His heart was courageous in the ways of the LORD” (2 Chronicles
17.6a). Courageous in believing that God can save, rescue, deliver with a large
number, or an itty-bitty number. But also courageous enough to trust him even
if he chooses not to work for us.
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