A Chaser of Strays

Day 52:  1 Samuel 6-10; Isaiah 55-60; 2 Corinthians 1-3


The Ark of the Covenant is returned by the Philistines with an offering of gold representations of the mice infestation and the "tumor" plague (phallus failures).  The people of Bethshemesh take the ark and celebrate, but they fail to treat Yahweh as holy and look inside the ark.  Remember Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark?  Bad idea!  70 men die out of 50,000 in the gathering. The people realize they cannot stand before the Holy One.  So the ark is kept isolated on a house on a hill for 20 years (1 Sam. 6:19-7:1).  It stays there until Samuel the prophet is old enough to begin judging Israel.  He leads them in reconsecration and brings the ark to Mizpah for offerings and sacrifices and covenant recommittal.

The Philistines attack, the people pray to God and God throws the Philistine army into confusion.  The Israelites have returned to the Lord and the Lord has given His aid.  This lasts until Samuel ages and is getting on in years.  His sons are not righteous like he is.  They take brides and pervert justice.  They ask Samuel to choose a king for them so they can be "the same as all the other nations." 

In that statement we see the nature of stiff-necked Israel.  They were called out of all the other nations and set apart for Yahweh to be His holy people.  Their difference is the very purpose of their existence.  The Lord is their king.  God tells Samuel that they haven't rejected Samuel, but God as their king.  God lets them have their king after warning them the burden a king will lay on the people in taxes and taking their livestock, sons and daughters and slaves or property into the king's service (1 Sam 8:5, 7, 11-18).

Saul, the Benjaminite from accursed Gibeah is chosen as king.  The Lord told Samuel he was the one to anoint to rule over Israel and save them from the Philistines (1 Sam 9:15-17).  The occasion on which The Lord arranges a meeting between the seer and the son of an influential man named Kish is the straying of Kish's donkeys.  Is this the Bible's way of pointing to the kind of ruler Saul will be? 

We will learn that Saul will have a tedious hold on the kingship as he fears losing the confidence of the people more than losing the anointing of God.  And the people stray like stubborn donkeys from God's right ways.  Saul is no different.  He will stray too and not be careful to keep the covenant.  His lack of confidence is memorialized in his hiding among the supplies (or baggage as the NIV translates).  Saul knows that Benjamin is least in the tribes because of their devastation in the great sin of Gibeah against the Ephraimite Levite and his concubine from Bethlehem.

It is no coincidence that Bethlehem and Gibeah are featured in the Judges story of the Levite and his concubine.  Because the first king of Israel will come from Gibeah in Benjamin and the successor from Bethlehem.  King David is called from tending sheep to shepherd Israel.  But Saul is a chaser of stubborn and straying donkeys!

Isaiah calls out to encourage the straying Israelites to come home, back to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon.  God reaches the end of His hostility toward their rebellion and calls them back home.

Pay attention and come to Me;
    listen, so that you will live.
    I will make an everlasting covenant with you,  
    the promises assured to David. (Isa. 55:3)

And He gives a vision of the restored Israel drawing the other nations to Jerusalem.

"You will summon a nation you do not know,
    and nations who do not know you will run to you.
    For the LORD your God,
    even the Holy One of Israel,
    has glorified you." (Isa. 55:5)

His temple will be open to foreigners and eunuchs who previously were barred from worship because they were considered unclean.  All who love the Lord and keep His Sabbaths will be welcome and their offerings accepted.

It's not the righteousness of the exiles that brings this call to come home.  It is God's faithful compassion.  He chooses to heal them and bring them home. 

The LORD saw that there was no justice,
    and He was offended.
He saw that there was no man—
    He was amazed that there was no one interceding;
    so His own arm brought salvation,
    and His own righteousness supported Him.  (Isa. 59:15b-16)

The vision of a restored Israel in Isaiah 60 is echoed later in John's Revelation where there is no longer a need for sun or moon for God is their light and the days of sorrow are over (Isa. 60:19-20).

The King of Israel is God, but the people need a mediator.  Moses mediated the Law.  David mediates justice.  And Jesus mediates mercy, justice and covenant faithfulness. Christ is the "YES" to all God's promises (2 Cor. 1:20).

Paul tries to call his straying church in Corinth to return to acknowledging his ministry among them as authoritative.  In his absence others have usurped his guiding power.  Many have repented as a result of his first letter, but some still resist his voice.  Paul was upset and confrontational in the first letter at times because of the sexual immorality and prideful divisions among them.  Now he reaches out and tries to heal.  Paul wants them to understand what he wrote was out of his abundant love for them (2 Cor. 2:4).  Paul wants the church to realise that they are missing the boat by going back into pagan practice or Jewish holiness customs.  What God is doing in Jesus is greater that words of the law chiseled in stone, greater than the radiance of Moses' face.  So he chases after the straying Christians and tries to turn donkeys into lambs for God.

Lord,  I know how stubborn and dim I can be.  Thank you for chasing after me and bringing me home through Your love in Jesus Christ.  Make me worthy of His name.  I pray today for all who labor to shepherd Your church.  Give them grace for the task that all nations might come home to You.  Amen