Endings and Beginnings

Day 57: 1 Samuel 28–31; Jeremiah 19–24; Galatians 1–3

Saul and his sons die in battle, marking the end of his reign over Israel and the beginning of David's kingship. Zedekiah and his advisers and prophets are coming to an end with the attack of the Babylonians on Jerusalem, but a righteous branch from David will rise up and reign wisely and in righteousness.  The law of Moses was a temporary guardian over Israel until the righteousness of God that come through faith appeared in the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God.

Today my daughter Amanda graduates with a bachelor's degree in elementary education. She has continually attended school for 17 years, the last four with no summer breaks.  She has come to the end of a very long journey. I am so very proud of her.  And yet, this is only the beginning of the life and career for which she has prepared herself.  Life is marked by endings that lead to beginnings.  Some we celebrate like graduations and "sweet 16" birthdays and bachelor parties.  Others we do not celebrate like imprisonment for crimes, tax day, or the deaths of beloved icons like John Lennon.  The death of John Lennon was the end of an era of freedom in music and society.  I feel the same about his death as Don McLean felt about Buddy Holly's death when he penned to the words "the day the music died."  His sense of America in the late 1950's died with the musician.  My sense of my youth and the freedom celebrated in music and society also definitively died with Lennon in a metaphorical way. In truth it had died 8 years earlier in the early 1970's.  This marked the beginning of corporate rock and pop music.  The music has never been the same, with brief exceptions. 

Who would lift our sights higher?  Who would sing our hopes and call us to better selves?  They are out there, but few are listening...only a remnant.

King Saul killed himself rather than be tortured and murdered for the sport of the Philistines.  He would not give them the pleasure and he would not suffer further disgrace.  The Philistines cut off his head and hung his body on the walls of Beth-shan.  God's separation from Saul is finalized.  The night before the battle Saul sought a medium to arouse the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel to advise him.  Samuel more or less tells him, "Dude! Why ask me what you already know? God has abandoned you because of your unfaithfulness. It's over.  You're done." Chilling words from the beyond,  Creepy stuff! Of course the story reveals just how far Saul will got hang onto his throne.  He does what he himself had outlawed in some kind of obedience to the Law of Moses.  It almost seems like He is trying to win God's favor by driving all the mediums and spiritist from the land. It is as if he is trying to get back what he used to have, the anointing of God's Spirit.  But his heart is not true.  He has killed all the priests out of jealousy over David.  Samuel is dead.  God is silent. There is no one to advise him.  So off he goes to a medium to consult the dead. Tragic man.  Tragic ending.

David is shocked to find his town of Ziklag burned and his family and possessions taken. While the Philistines are attacking Israel in mass, the Amalekites take advantage of the situation and raid their unprotected towns for plunder.  But David does what Saul cannot.  He consults the Lord.  The Lord tells him he will be victorious and regain the captives and the plunder. And so he does.

You may remember that the Amalekites are cursed by God for their attacking the Israelites as they were coming from Egypt as freed slaves. It is their very first armed conflict lead by Joshua (Ex. 17:9-15).  God means to blot them out completely.  Saul failed to do so.  David doesn't.

David is the beginning of a new kind of king, one who loves his people and looks out for them, providing like a shepherd provides for his sheep.  He sends gifts out of the plunder to elders in several cities in Judah.  This was a smart political move that prepares the way for his acceptance as the new king of Israel.  He will still have to deal with the house of Saul. He will need allies and support from the people.  The end of the Amalekites is the beginning of David's campaign to assume the throne.  It happens the same day Saul dies.

Jeremiah is called to confront the sinfulness of Jerusalem's king, priests and prophets.  It gets him slapped into the stocks where he is mocked and abused by all the people (Jer. 20:1-2).  He cries out,

You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived.
    You seized me and prevailed.
    I am a laughingstock all the time;
    everyone ridicules me.
For whenever I speak, I cry out—
    I proclaim: Violence and destruction!  
    because the word of the LORD has become for me
    constant disgrace and derision.
If I say: I won't mention Him
    or speak any longer in His name,
    His message becomes a fire burning in my heart,  
    shut up in my bones.
    I become tired of holding it in,
    and I cannot prevail.  (Jer. 20:7-9)

The prophet's obedience to preach God's message leads to suffering.  But it is temporary and so is Jeremiah's lament. He quickly turns his voice to praise for God's act to cleanse Jerusalem of all evildoers through Babylon.

And when the destruction is complete Jeremiah lifts the hearts of the doomed by telling them that the exiles will come back and the righteous branch of David will come.

"The days are coming"—[this is] the LORD's declaration—"when I will raise up a righteous Branch of David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. This is what He will be named: The LORD Is Our Righteousness.  (Jer. 23:5-6)

The end of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah comes to an end, marking the beginning of a restored Jerusalem 70 years later under a righteous king, a descendant of David, Zerubbabel.  As a Christian we understand Jesus of Nazareth to be the ultimate fulfilment of this prophecy.

Paul, formerly known as Saul, persecuted the church trying to destroy it just like King Saul tried to destroy David.  Then on a trip to Damascus with every intention to arrest and prosecute every Christian in that region, he met the Son of God, the son of David, the Righteous Branch.  From a blinding light Jesus called out to him, "Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (Acts. 9:1-5)  Sounds just like David standing on a hilltop calling down to King Saul, "Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done?" (1 Sam. 26:18)

This blinding mystical event becomes the end of Saul of Tarsus.  After three days He receives the Holy Spirit by the prayer of Ananias and he becomes Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. His name change happens without fanfare or explanation (Acts 13:9).  It's the change in his heart that matters.  His road to Damascus becomes marks the end of his allegiance to Jewish faith as he had been taught and the beginning of faith in Christ.

Paul writes to churches in the region of Galatia (north central Turkey) who have fallen away from the freedom they once knew in the love of God through faith in Jesus.  The old covenant has ended with the beginning of a new covenant in Jesus.  Paul is disquieted to say the least that his churches would fall backward into Jewish holiness law keeping as a means for right standing before God, when so great a salvation from sin is offered in Jesus.

For Paul the death and resurrection of Jesus changes everything.  Whatever was before is over!  Not that the law was a bad thing. It wasn't.  It did what it needed to do, make the world aware of right and wrong and our weakness.  The law makes us aware of the power of sin at work in us.  We cannot keep the law perfectly because of our weakness.  Therefore we are cursed under the law and imprisoned by our weakness which the law has made painfully clear to us.

But now that the righteous branch, the son of David, God's only Son, Jesus has come to reign, His righteousness and strength frees us from our weakness by the gift of His Spirit.  So Paul doesn't understand how the Galatians can go back into bondage under law keeping.

"I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh? Did you suffer so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing?  So then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? (Gal. 3:2-5)"

We have a hard time letting go of that which has ended.  I have a hard time letting go of John Lennon and that whole era of music.  It makes it nearly impossible for me to enjoy the music of today.  I cannot receive much new music because my heart so rejoices in what has ended.  I am like those who came and poisoned the churches of Galatia with Jewish Christian doctrines about circumcision and food restrictions and the like.  They cannot let go of rule keeping as a means of justification.  They are not fully able to live under the new reality of Jesus as King.  Moses remains the chief authority for them even under the beginnings of a new relationship with God through the reign of the once dead but alive forevermore son of David.

For through a faith that comes from hearing the good news and trusting in the love and mercy of god for salvation, we die with Christ to the old ways and weaknesses under the law of Moses and rise to life in Christ empowered by His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. Why would we want to deny this power in our lives by continuing to fail by the means of our own limited abilities? 

Galatians need a wake up call.  That's what Paul is doing.  Wake up! The law is ended along with the curse of never being able to fulfill its many commands.  Life has begun through faith in Christ, the Anointed One.