1 Samuel 29

It was part of the mystery of God's providence that David had to hide among the Philistines for a time. That season in his life was swiftly coming to a close. The Philistines would suddenly wake up to the danger of going into battle with a man who had killed so many of their soldiers in former days. The lords of the Philistines did not trust David.

Achish trusted David, but he was actually mistaken. He believed David's reports to him about his raids against Israel. These were false reports, the words of a man who was a spy in the Lord's employ, serving behind enemy lines.

The words that had so enraged Saul were known among the leaders of the Philistines. “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” They did not trust David.

This turn of events was necessary. Saul would soon meet his end in battle. The time for David to live among the enemies of Israel was over. A new era was about to begin.

David's expulsion from the Philistine fighting force seemed to surprise even David. What had he planned to do in the heat of battle? Did he suppose that the Lord would bring victory for Israel through him and his men? It would not happen that way. As Samuel had warned Saul, Israel would be defeated.

This battle would not belong to David. Saul and Jonathan would both die, and David would face his own challenges from other troubles far from the field of battle.

Man does not know the number of his days. If we did know, it would not help us. It did not help Saul to have secret information about his coming demise.

Jesus knew when his time had come. His victory in battle would surprise all those around Him. How did He do it? He followed the Word of His Father as an obedient Son.

This is the best thing that we can do in any day of distress. What is the Word of God to us? What does the Lord require? Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. Trust Him for His provision and His grace. He will bring about His victory in His own way. We will not be disappointed when we see His glory.

1 Samuel 28

David was a man of war on the side of the Lord, the God of Israel. Yet he was also living under the wing of Israel's enemy, the Philistines, as an outcast from his own people. Yet Achish, a leader among the Philistines did not know that David remained fiercely loyal to God and to Israel. He presumed that David would serve the Philistines in their military campaigns against Israel. David did not relieve him of that wrong opinion, but reinforced it with a deliberately ambiguous statement: “You shall know what your servant can do.”

The day of military engagement between the Philistines and Israel swiftly drew near. Samuel had died. Yet Samuel was also alive in another realm. Saul, the king over Israel's fighting men, was desperate to speak with him. He knew very well that the Lord had forbidden unauthorized communications across the heaven/earth divide.

Saul was very afraid and he needed the Lord's direction. When Saul inquired of the Lord he received no answer. Therefore he chose to go against the law of the Lord in order to try to find out the secret providence of God from the deceased holy man, Samuel.

He had to work through a woman who was skilled in the ways of forbidden spiritual communications. Though Saul tried to deceive this woman about his identity, when she conjured up the spirit of Samuel, she immediately knew that the disguised man in front of her was Saul. The king reassured her that no harm would come to her, at least from him.

The message of Samuel to Saul is worth our consideration. Samuel, though he was now living in eternal realms, had a visible form and was well aware of past events and former relationships. He was also aware of what would happen to Saul in the coming battle with the Philistines. He said, “The LORD will give Israel ... into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.”

This was a startling revelation, not only concerning Israel's upcoming battle, but also regarding Saul's destiny. Was Samuel just saying that Saul would die, or was there some eternal hope for Saul in this word from heaven? David would later eulogize Saul and his righteous son, Jonathan, with these words: “In life and in death they were not divided.” Again, is this a word of hope, or just a statement that both men lived together, fought together, and died together? We leave such matters in the Lord's capable hands, but we do believe in His kind mercy to weak sinners who have called upon His Name.

Saul's life was almost over and he was utterly distressed. Psalm 4:8 speaks to our hearts about the person who is living in the trust of the Lord: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” What happens to the suffering soul who cannot find any peace?

Our peace is not in our own mental stability. Saul was a tortured man who had lost communion with God at the end of his life. Those who are weak can still place their trust in Jesus. When their strength fails, when their minds are lost in confusion, the God of all the earth knows how to rescue them from the deepest pit of anxious fear.

Exodus 11

The Lord would not send warnings forever. The time had come for a final plague. “Yet one plague more I will bring upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt.”

This plague was the one that God talked to Moses about in the beginning of His instructions regarding His Word to Pharaoh. Up to this point, Moses had not delivered God's message plainly. But now the actual moment had come.

As early as Exodus 4, God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel was His firstborn, and if the king of Egypt would not let God's firstborn go, God would kill Pharaoh's firstborn. Moses presented God's claims in a less direct way. Now the sanction of God, taking the life of Pharaoh's firstborn, could no longer be ignored.

God also told Moses that some time after this final plague, Pharaoh would finally let Israel leave Egypt. Even beyond a passive allowing of his slaves to leave the country, the king would actually push Israel out. He would drive them out completely.

Prior to that final moment, Moses had two more divine errands. First, he had to enlist all the men and women of Israel to ask their Egyptian neighbors for silver and gold jewelry. Israel would not leave the country of Egypt without gifts. The Lord would move the hearts of these adversaries to provide this blessing to the Lord's people.

This was exactly what happened. The Israelites had the boldness to make this unusual request, and the Lord granted them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Through all of these signs of divine judgment, Moses had developed a reputation among the Egyptians as a true man of power. They considered him a great man, and they gave the Lord's people what they asked for; jewelry that was to be used according to the Lord's command.

Second, God sent Moses to Pharaoh to say the last Word: “Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.”

This was a devastating announcement that should have been considered carefully by Pharaoh. The Lord had been true to every Word He had spoken. Nine plagues had been announced, and nine plagues had come and gone. Was there any reason to doubt the Lord's intention or His power?

God not only spoke of what would take place, but even of the emotional shock of this devastating judgment. There would be “a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.”

If this was what would soon take place, what would the Egyptians do to the Israelites? Would they be filled with rage? God announced beforehand that the Lord would protect His people. No matter what the hearts of the Egyptians might have been tempted to say or to do, the Lord was in charge of all these events. He said that “not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel.”

By now we should know very well that God “makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” We have seen that most recently, and most dramatically with the plague of darkness. God arranged it so that the Israelites had light, while all the land of Egypt was covered with a darkness that was so deep that it could be felt. Moses now revealed to Pharaoh that even the servants of Pharaoh would bow down to this servant of God, this man, Moses, to whom Pharaoh had displayed such profound disrespect. The people would be eager for the children of Israel to get out of Egypt. And then, at long last, the people would go.

This time it was Moses who left “in hot anger.” But why would Pharaoh not take this matter to heart prior to the great wave of death that would soon spread over the nation? The Lord told Moses why: “Pharaoh will not listen to you, that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

Are we able to take in the weight of the divine reasoning in these words? The Lord knew exactly what He was doing throughout this epic contest. He could have destroyed Pharaoh and all of Egypt in a moment. That was not His plan. He had a better idea, one that would involve a greater display of His wonders before Pharaoh. That was why the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.

The scandal of the cross, and the persecution of the church has continued over many centuries. These sinful horrors and so many other acts of providence that we do not understand are not without purpose. God's ways are good even in these events. It is the enemies of the Lord, and not God, that are deeply wicked in their hatred, their slander, and their murder. If we cannot grasp this today, a day is coming when the righteousness of the Lord and the evil of His adversaries will shine in glorious light. Until that day, we can trust Him. Remember His love for us displayed in the cross of Christ. See in that same cross His unflinching commitment to do what is right.

Pharaoh would not humble himself before God. He hardened his own heart. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart too, for His own good purposes. Pharaoh would not pay attention to the signs and wonders displayed before His eyes, and He would not let the people of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 10

God spoke to Moses again, as He had throughout this amazing series of judgment events. The Lord's servant knew what was going to happen each time he went to Pharaoh. But the Lord hardened the hearts of the king and his servants. Why? To show forth His great signs before their eyes. They had thought it safe to abuse the Hebrews, the people of the Lord. They had esteemed the God of Moses as nothing, or as just another god in a pantheistic world. But Israel's Lord was vindicating His own glorious Name.

These events would be remembered by the Israelites for many generations. Fathers would tell their sons about the mighty acts of the Lord. Their descendants would speak of the power and glory of their God. They would know that their God is the Lord of lords.

All Pharaoh needed to do was to let the Israelites go. But he would not do this. He would not humble himself before the God of Israel. God warned Pharaoh again. This time the Lord would bring a massive plague of locusts upon the land of Egypt.

When Pharaoh's servants heard the advance notice of what would take place, they spoke to their king: “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Do you not yet understand that Egypt is ruined?”

This shook Pharaoh enough for him to summon Moses and Aaron. Yet even as he appeared to give in, he spoke as one who still had options, and who still wielded authority over his lowly slaves. He questioned Moses and Aaron. “Which ones are to go?” He was not pleased with their answer. He would not permit them all to go. Suddenly, the Lord's messengers were driven away from His presence.

Through the power of God working by the outstretched hand of Moses His servant, the Lord brought a plague of locusts upon an east wind that blew upon the land day and night. In the morning the locusts were everywhere. They darkened the land of Egypt and consumed every green thing.

Pharaoh quickly called Moses and Aaron before him, again using the word sin to describe his actions: “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.” He pleaded for forgiveness and relief from this plague.

Moses turned to God again, and the Lord heard. As the locusts came, so they now went. They came in on an east wind. They left on a west wind. But then Pharaoh would not let the people go after all. God hardened Pharaoh's heart.

Next the Lord brought a miraculous darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that could be felt. This darkness lasted three days. But amazingly the people of Israel had light where they lived. Once again Pharaoh was ready to let Israel go. Yet he still imagined that he could set conditions. They had to leave their flocks and herds behind.

But Moses was insistent: “Not a hoof shall be left behind.” Once again God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and the king would not let them go. Furthermore, he was enraged with the Lord's ambassadors. He had pursued his policy of oppression against them. But they hade frustrated him with their God's Word and His deeds of judgment against Egypt. Pharaoh was not humble before the Lord of all the earth. He was angry. He hated the God of Israel. He hated the Lord's spokesmen. And he hated all the people of Israel. He spoke forth from a heart that despised the Lord: “Get away from me; take care never to see my face again, for on the day you see my face you shall die.”

So be it. This was what Moses' response to Pharaoh amounted to. You don't want the Lord's messenger? As you wish. Moses said, “As you say! I will not see your face again.”

The sovereign God of all power and authority was able to accomplish His will while still seeming to give the proud their own way. Did they hate Him and His messengers? So be it.

When the Messiah came, He was despised and rejected by men. He was hated without a cause. Even after He had performed undeniable acts of mercy, and signs of great heavenly power, His own people took counsel together against Him concerning how they might kill Him. Finally, when the Roman governor tried to release Him, they stirred up a crowd to demand His crucifixion.

With all of this hatred and lawlessness, the religious leaders who stood against Him imagined that they would be done with Jesus, and that they would never see his face again. Instead, in His death, an indestructible power was unleashed upon the earth. Down to the present moment, millions all over the globe testify to the power of the cross of Jesus Christ.

His enemies got what they wanted. They saw that Jesus was put to death. Yet the sovereign Lord of all the earth won. One day everyone will see Him, even those who pierced Him. 

Exodus 9

Water turned to blood, frogs everywhere, dust particles that become gnats, and swarming flies... signs of the judgment of Almighty God, and the Lord's distinction between Israel and Egypt; but all this was not enough. When Pharaoh received any relief from a plague, he hardened his heart, and he would not let Israel go.

The list of wonders continued, but the demand never changed: “Let my people go.” The next plague would be a divine attack on all the livestock of Egypt. The animals of the Israelites would be spared, a further sign of the Lord's distinction between His people and their oppressors. Yet Pharaoh still refused to let the people of Israel go.

Then the judgment of God touched the skin of His enemies. From the soot of the kiln the Lord produced a fine dust over the nation, a dust that turned into painful boils on people throughout the land of Egypt. There was no more repeating of these plagues by the enemies of God. Their magicians were covered with boils, publicly marked by the sores that identified them as the Lord's enemies.

Through all these horrific signs and wonders of God's wrath, there was no indication of any real change in Pharaoh. This time, instead of hearing about this from the vantage point of Pharaoh, the one who was held responsible for his own sin, we are granted a small insight into the mystery of the Lord's sovereign actions that He executes for His own great glory. “The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.” This we read and accept. We are not told that we need to be able to understand or explain the profound mystery of the interaction between the sin of Pharaoh and the sovereign power of God. It is ours to extol the glory of God in all things great and small. In this moment when so many would have been praying that Pharaoh would let the people go, the Lord expressly indicated that He hardened Pharaoh's heart.

God continued in His sovereign plan, and Pharaoh continued in his sin. Early in the morning Moses presented himself again before Pharaoh, announcing the coming plague of hail that would destroy the land of Egypt.

Again the demand of the Lord was the same: “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” The Almighty Lord was displaying himself before Egypt. The God of the Hebrews was not like the gods of Egypt or the gods of the Canaanites. There is none like Him in all the earth.

God reminded Pharaoh, through Moses and Aaron, that He was not just destroying the leader of Egypt. He could have accomplished that in a moment if that had been His only goal. But Pharaoh and the Egyptians existed for a purpose. God raised them up to show his power, so that His Name would be “proclaimed throughout all the earth.”

God made a claim that was higher than any man of power. He raised up Pharaoh for His purpose. The Lord's authority was not merely local or temporary, but worldwide and forever. But men still attempt to exalt themselves above God and His people.

Now Pharaoh would see the power of God for destruction. The hail would come upon the land of Egypt, destroying man and beast that would not take shelter according to the Lord's warning. Those who feared the Lord, even among the servants of Pharaoh, heard that Word and took action to protect themselves and their possessions. But those who were bold in their unbelief suffered great loss.

Through the hand of His servant Moses stretched out toward heaven, God sent thunder and hail. Fire ran down to the earth. How fierce would the storm have to be to destroy you and your possessions? How clear would the warning from God have to be before you paid attention? What does it take for a man to fear the Lord?

God rained hail upon the land of Egypt, not the kind of hail that had been seen before, but a very heavy hail, unprecedented for Egypt. Yet the Lord kept the hail from the land of Goshen where the people of Israel lived. The Israelites living together in community were safe, as were those who heard the warning of God with faith and took shelter.

Now Pharaoh spoke of his own sin to Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.” The king told Moses and Aaron to plead with the Lord. Pharaoh would let them go. Moses would plead to God for them, and while the flax and barley harvest had been destroyed, there would be wheat and emmer in the future. The earth is the Lord's. But Moses plainly told Pharaoh that this was not over yet. “You do not yet fear the Lord God.” When the danger had passed, Pharaoh hardened his heart. He did not fear God. He would not let the people go.

O the mystery of the wisdom and power of God in His workings with the sons of men! God hardened Pharaoh's heart with a plan for glory and judgment. Pharaoh hardened his own heart in the wickedness of his own sin and rebellion. The king of Egypt was guilty before God. God is guilty before no one. He was rescuing His people and sending judgment upon their enemies according to His great plan.

But can it be that God Himself, who is the guiltless Law-Giver by definition, would take the judgment that we lawbreakers deserve for our sin? Would He do this to rescue us from His own just judgments? This is what the Lord has done for us. We should hear His warnings and flee to Jesus for safety. We should keep our hearts tender before His Word, and thank Him for His favor to us. His eternal deliverance has brought us glorious life.

Exodus 8

The Lord is working out His mysterious sovereign will. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. See Ezekiel 18:23 and 33:11. But the Lord will vindicate His own great glory, and He will manifest His great judgments before the eyes of His people and their enemies.

God had not changed His mind about what He was doing. Israel is His firstborn son. Pharaoh needed to let Israel go. If he would not let God's son go, then God would kill Pharaoh's firstborn. On the way to that devastating judgment, God displayed His power over heaven and earth, and even over the hearts of the righteous and the wicked. And God made a distinction between His chosen people and everyone else. That was His divine prerogative.

The plagues against Egypt continued now by the command of God, through the voice of Moses, and through the hands of Aaron. Who could doubt that all of these signs came from the Almighty? Frogs everywhere. Frogs in places where no one wants to find frogs. Not only frogs in large numbers in the Nile, but frogs out of the Nile, and frogs in Egyptian houses, and in Pharaoh's bedroom, and in his bed, and in the beds of other Egyptians. Frogs in your ovens, and in the bowls where your bread dough is rising. Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and frogs covered the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh's magicians could do that too. Once again the enemies of God did not feel what they needed to feel, but they took encouragement that their own spiritual people could also bring signs of judgment upon their own land. Why was that good news? Yet they liked pretending that the God of Israel was not so special after all.

Of course, the Egyptian magicians could not take away the frogs. To get rid of the frogs, Pharaoh needed to call on Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh was so willing to get rid of the frogs that he claimed that he would let the people go. Pharaoh picked the time for frog departure, and the Lord God got the glory. There is no one like God. But once the frogs were gone, Pharaoh hardened his heart. He would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

God was not surprised by Pharaoh's stubbornness. Nor had He changed His plan to rescue Israel, to judge the Egyptians, and to glorify His own Name. Next plague: He would fill Egypt with gnats, and He would do it through Moses, who would work wonders through Aaron. Aaron struck the dust of the earth with his staff, and “all the dust of the earth became gnats in all the land of Egypt.” This sign the magicians could not do. They say, “This is the finger of God.” But Pharaoh would not listen.

After the gnats, God sent a plague of flies to Egypt. Moses met Pharaoh again at the water's edge according to God's instruction, to present the king with the Lord's continued demand. Whether frogs, gnats, or now flies, these pests were not only all over the land of Egypt; they made their way into Pharaoh's palace and into the homes of all the Egyptians. But the land of Goshen and the homes of the Israelites faced no such troubles. God made a distinction between Israel and Egypt.

Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, suggesting that he was now ready to comply with the Lord's command. Yet he wanted Israel to perform their ritual sacrifices within the land of Egypt. He would negotiate. Moses responded with fear of the Egyptians, reasoning with Pharaoh as if with a man who would have some sympathy with the predicament of the Israelites.

Pharaoh needed Moses to get rid of the flies, so he made it seem like he would let them go, only not very far away. He would not give up his authority position over his slaves. He would not accept the full force of God's claim. It was not at all clear that God's ambassadors had even made the true claim yet: “Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn son.”

There was no room for negotiation, but God's messengers were looking for some opening. And Pharaoh was still operating under the fiction that he was in charge, and not any supposed God of the Israelites.

But first things first. Get rid of these flies. Do your magic, “Plead for me.” Moses wanted to use this moment to his advantage: “Only let not Pharaoh cheat again by not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.”

Being the true representative of the Lord was not about power politics. God did not want Moses to negotiate for the release of His son Israel. But the Lord still heard the plea of His ambassador, Moses. He removed the swarms of flies. But Pharaoh hardened his heart again. He would not let the people go.

When the Mediator of the New Covenant came, He did not negotiate with the devil for our release. He spoke as One who has authority. His Word healed the blind, and stopped the roar of the waves. No questions asked.

His death settled the entire claim of the justice of God. Our salvation was not the result of peace talks with the Lord's adversaries. Heaven did not come to us as a negotiated settlement. The resurrection of Jesus was an in-your-face statement to anyone who dared to challenge the authority of the God of Israel. Jesus, the God-Man, is the God of the Jews and the Gentiles. Behold, He makes all things new!

1 Samuel 27

David was a man of the Promised Land, even though he would have to escape beyond the borders of Israel for a time in order to survive. There was nothing better for him to do at that time but to leave Israel. Nonetheless, everything that he did and everywhere that he went was in support of a larger mission that was not his own.

Living among the Philistines would be dangerous, but the Lord would preserve his life in enemy territory, and perhaps Saul would eventually despair of chasing after him. He knew that Saul would not look for him among the Philistines.

David aligned himself and his six hundred men and their households under Achish, the son of the king of Gath. This was God's wisdom to David, for Saul's response was exactly what David predicted. When Saul heard that David had fled to the Philistines, Saul no longer sought David.

David was in this strange situation for 16 months. In that time he not only gave Saul the space that he needed in order to stop chasing him, he also won the confidence of Achish. David requested and was given a city for all who were with him within Philistine territory.

It may be important for us to remember that according to the Lord's allotment of the land, none of this was Philistine territory. It all belonged to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet the Hebrews had not completed the conquest as the Lord had commanded them. When David was given Ziklag by Achish, he was taking something that the Lord had already given to Israel.

David lived among the Philistines as a man of the Lord's conquest. His true loyalty was to Israel and to Israel's God, but Achish did not understand this. According to the ethics of David's continued conquest he concealed from his enemy important details of his mission. He never attacked the Lord's people, but only those who presumed to deny the Lord's people what their God had given to His chosen people. No one was left alive to contradict the word of the Lord's warrior. Achish believed everything that David told him. Therefore he did not worry about David's loyalty, reasoning that David had made himself an enemy of his own people by conducting raids against them.

Our King had a different kind of conquest than the one that the Old Testament warriors conducted. His victory cost Him His own life and saved ours. His battle and ours is a conquest by the power of divine love that is willing to suffer and die for our enemies. Yet even the disciples of Jesus were told to be as wise as serpents at the same time that they were to be gentle as doves.

We still need to seek the Lord's wisdom as we navigate the dangerous channels of God's assault against evil. We look to our King to give us the strength to keep on going in dangerous times that may seem too strange for us to comprehend.

1 Samuel 26

David already had one opportunity to kill the man who was pursuing him with such malice, and he had refused to return evil for evil. Though he only cut off the corner of the king's robe on that occasion, his conscience accused him.

Now the man who would one day be known by all as the king of Israel had a second opportunity to end the life of his adversary. On the previous occasion, Saul's arrival in the cave where David and his men were hiding was a surprise to all. Here David intentionally sought to go to the place where the king and his men would be sleeping.

Once again, the man that David brought with him as his companion in this secret visit saw this as the time to end this struggle through the murder of Saul. David would not permit this. “Who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?” His trust was in the Lord to bring about the defeat of Saul. He would not be responsible for Saul's death.

David did take Saul's spear and jug with him while the king's men slept soundly in a deep sleep that the Lord Himself had brought upon them. David retreated to a safe distance and called out to Abner, Saul's protector, chastising him for allowing the king to be placed in danger. David called Abner to his duty insisting that the king could have been harmed. Was this a joke to humiliate Abner, or was this unusual man sincere in his zeal for the safety of the Lord's anointed?

Saul was brought to repentance one more time. David's words touched his heart, at least for that moment. David questioned the king regarding the source of his strange hatred. David only wanted to serve Saul. Was Saul's campaign against David from God or from evil men? David did not want to be chased out of the Lord's special land. Was there any way to stop this madness?

Though Saul again pledged David's safety and urged him to return, Saul and David would part ways one more time. Saul would return home, and David would remain a man without a country.

This time David did nothing to harm Saul in the least. The king's spear and jug were returned through one of Saul's men. David did not have anything to regret. He believed that in sparing Saul's life he was doing what God wanted him to do. He saw the way of wisdom with clarity, and he did not veer to the right or to the left. Others might have imagined a different path, even murdering the king in his sleep. David would not do what they suggested.

There is a way that seems right to man, but it is not the Lord's way. It is not the way of heaven. When the anointed Son of David, Jesus, came to die for our sins, his own disciples found it very difficult to understand his determination to complete his ministry by being handed over to his enemies. They could not see what Jesus saw. They did not understand the eternal purpose of the God of heaven.

We have the Spirit of Christ in us. Others may be puzzled when we do not live in ways that they consider wise or normal. But we follow a King who died for His subjects.

1 Samuel 25

We started this book with Hannah's longing for a son and the Lord's gift of Samuel. This great man anointed both Saul and David. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Samuel died. Yet we have not heard the last of this man as we shall see in a later chapter.

Israel had to move on without Samuel, and the man who would be the father of all the kings of Judah was still on the run. Along the way, this David would grow in favor with God and man. Here in 1 Samuel 25, we hear the account of how he became married to a beautiful and discerning woman, Abigail.

Abigail was the wife of Nabal, a man who was harsh and badly behaved. He did not have an eye for the Lord's true anointed, David.

The ethics of the Lord's man were easily judged by the critic. What he communicated to Nabal through his fighters sounded like extortion. If we join in Nabal's critique we will miss the point. What would Jonathan, son of Saul, have seen in this episode? What would he have done?

The Scriptures tell us what to think of Nabal. He was an arrogant fool. David and his men have protected him in a very dangerous world that we do not understand. More than that, Nabal simply had no eye for the Son of God. “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?”

Abigail was able to see in the son of Jesse a man who should be followed. She heard the true report from their working men about what David's protection had meant for them. She considered the situation rightly and took action to save lives.

Abigail was willing to take the penalty that would have been coming to her household. She brought apology, provision, and honor to David. She had listened to the word of David's goodness and his protection of their well-being and had truly believed. Her words and actions were the fruit of her belief.

Abigail restrained David from bloodshed, and called upon the Lord to make this matter right. This was holy reasoning that David could appreciate. Now David was able to see Abigail for who she was, and when Nabal soon died, he took Abigail as his wife.

It is a gift to be able to discern beyond the list of rules that have become the customs of our lives. Not every habit of our families or culture is truly the way of the Lord. To follow God requires relationship. We need eyes from God to see. We need ears from God to hear. We need the wisdom that comes from above and the humility from heaven that teaches us to bow before the Lord's Anointed. It is our great privilege to be the bride of the Son of God who shed His blood for our eternal well-being. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Exodus 7

Moses continued to express concern regarding his ability to speak. God had already solved that problem, but now He explained it again to Moses. Moses would be like God to Pharaoh. He would speak to Aaron, and Aaron would be his prophet to the king of Egypt. God had turned Moses' weakness into an advantage. Moses would display an unusual greatness by communicating to Pharaoh as God spoke through men. The Lord's message through Moses and Aaron: Pharaoh needed to let the people of Israel go.

But now, instead of this being an easy process, God was letting Moses in on some of the complexity of His great and mysterious operations among the sons of men. God would harden Pharaoh's heart. So much so, that all the great signs and wonders that the Lord performed in his sight would not be enough to induce Pharaoh to let the people go. Pharaoh would not listen to Moses. This would give the Lord an opportunity to display the wonders of His judgment.

This is what Moses and Aaron did. These two men in their eighties spoke to Pharaoh using the prophetic system that God had given them in order to convey the Word that God had for this oppressive leader. This is how they would display their authority as God's ambassadors.

Moses and Aaron would be a God-and-prophet display before Pharaoh. Moses would tell Aaron not only what to say, but also what signs to perform. He would say to Aaron, “Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.” Moses would give the command, and Aaron would perform the sign.

Pharaoh did not give in to God based on this miraculous sign. He got the Egyptian magicians to do the same thing! But then Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Pharaoh would still not be moved. His heart was hardened. He would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

Thus begin the series of plagues that the God of Israel, the great I-AM, brought upon Pharaoh's land. Moses was instructed to go out to the bank of the Nile River the next morning, and to confront Pharaoh by word and by a great sign of judgment. Moses was to instruct Aaron to strike the water, and the water of the Nile would turn into blood. Moses and Aaron did what the Lord told them to do, and in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, God used his ambassadors to perform this dreadful miracle.

There is a river in heaven. It brings life wherever it flows. A river of blood is not that river. A river of blood is a carrier of death. The fish in the Nile died. There was a stench that rose up to the nostrils of the Egyptians from this divine judgment sign.

What was the chief concern of Pharaoh's team at this moment? They were determined to win this power encounter with the servants of God. What did they do? They used their magic arts to bring about the same miracle of death. They preserved their pride by replicating a heavenly attack against their own river. Since the Egyptian magicians could replicate the sign, Pharaoh would remain in the hardness of his heart. Why should he listen to Israel's God?

Of course the Egyptians needed water, but they found a way to get what they needed by digging along the Nile. When the Lord's enemies have what they think they need, they can still insist on clinging to their foolish pride. Why did Pharaoh have to fight against God? Why do men refuse to humble themselves before the great I-AM? Would we want to dare the Lord to show far greater acts of judgment against us?

But Pharaoh's heart remained hardened. He would not listen to the Lord's representatives.

This was not a surprise. God had said to Moses that Pharaoh would not listen. But now Moses and Aaron were experiencing the hardness of the proud human heart before their eyes.

Pharaoh simply turned and went into his house. He chose not to be moved by what he had seen. He did not plead for help or relief, at least not yet. He displayed his superiority by ignoring the messengers of God and their signs. They were irrelevant. Seven days went by and there was no progress at all.

A river of blood should get our attention. Poets speak of the death and destruction that men bring upon one another in war using images like this. But what would it be like to see a real river of blood right before our eyes? Would we pay attention?

God's solution to the sin of mankind must be something more than a spectacular miracle. It must be more than a sign that pagans can reproduce. It was not the requested miracle of Jesus coming down from the cross that would have caused the enemies of Jesus to see Him as the Son of God.

What eventually cut people to the heart was the realization that the man who was willing to shed His blood for them was the great I-AM who had become man for this purpose. From His wounds a river of blood has touched even us, but it is a river of blood that has brought life. Jesus died not to perform a magic trick. He did not come to display some spectacle for our eyes. He became man to perform a humble and pure act of dying love in obedience to the Father.

When this message is received by the power of the Holy Spirit, it can break the proudest heart. God is able to make the greatest power pitifully weak. He is also able to make lowly weakness extremely powerful.

Exodus 6

The previous chapter of Exodus ended with discouragement and doubt. The people of Israel were turning against Moses, and Moses was questioning the plan of God. God spoke into this situation that seemed hopeless to men. His Word turns our gaze away from powers of dictators and toward the authority of heaven's King.

God said, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.” This would not happen immediately, but it most certainly would happen.

The Lord reminded Moses of His commitment to the people of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and His revelation of Himself to Moses as the great “I-AM.” He also renewed His ancient promise to give the land of Canaan to His people. This great God of history is also the God of the future. He had heard the cry of His people and He was working decisively according to His plans. Even during a time when the world seems to be falling apart all around you, perhaps especially during those times, you need to hear the sure Word of God again. You need to trust. You need to believe.

God had a message for His suffering people. They were being played by Pharaoh. But Pharaoh was not the biggest player in the game. He was not the Lord of heaven and earth. God would bring the people out of Egypt. He would do this in a way that showed His “outstretched arm.” He would establish the descendents of Jacob as His people, and He would be their God. This would be a moment to remember. Pharaoh may have been quite the man of oppression, but I-AM is the Lord.

Moses told all this to the people, but they did not listen. They were broken. They could not hear the Word of God with faith.

So God moved. He knows our weakness, and He still loves us. He used Moses, who himself continued to doubt that Pharaoh would ever listen to him. This Moses, from the tribe of Levi, the man the people of Israel would not listen to, the man who considered his inability to speak as a fatal flaw; God would use this Moses to speak to Pharaoh, and to lead the oppressed people of Israel out of Egypt.

The tribes of Israel were still intact after all those years in Egypt. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and the rest had leaders and followers. But God picked this one man, the son of Amram and his wife Jochebed, the brother of Aaron and Miriam, the boy that was rescued out of the waters. He would be the man that God would call to this important and difficult post.

“Bring out the people of Israel from the land of Egypt by their hosts.” That was God's Word. It was impossible for man, but the Lord would show forth His great power. This Moses and Aaron would speak again to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing out the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt.

Yet when the time came for this man Moses to act, would he follow what the Lord told him to do?

God said to Him, “I am the Lord.” Would Moses continue to argue with the God of His fathers, the God of the burning bush?

God said to him, “Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.”

So far this had not gone very well on two levels. Moses had not delivered the precise message of God to Pharaoh. He did not say that Israel was God's special son. He did not tell Pharaoh what would happen to Pharaoh's own son if the king dared to resist Israel's God. He had instead appealed to Pharaoh's sympathy for the Israelites who might be hurt by their God if they did not obey His command to worship them in the wilderness. Moses did not glorify God in the Lord's particular love for Israel. This was a disappointing start.

Furthermore, the reaction of Pharaoh had been so strategic and so fiercely evil that not only did the people falter in their faith, but even Moses continued to look for a way out of his divine calling. He said, “I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?”

God knows our weakness. He hears our cries. He loves His church. He will step in with mighty acts of deliverance when we have run out of strength.

How can we be sure of this? The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. See Romans 11:29. When we doubt the determination of God, when we cannot hear His voice, when we hear only our own uncircumcised lips, we need to remember Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant. He heard the call of God upon His life, and He obeyed. He obeyed even when obedience insisted on a cross.

It is from that cross that we are reminded of our own sad failure. But it is also from that cross that we remember the Lord's perfect atoning sacrifice. God knows the full situation. He is committed. He will not be stopped. He will rescue His people according to His Word.

Exodus 5

How does the Lord work in the lives of the people He loves? Can we count on the fact that He will make our path easy once we start to acknowledge His presence and power? The elders and people of Israel had seen the signs that God was sending Moses and they believed. But afterward, when Moses and Aaron went to confront Pharaoh with the Word of the Lord, life did not become easier for God's people, but much harder.

God's Word to Pharaoh through Moses must have seemed like a great affront to that great man. The specific words that the Lord had spoken in the prior chapter were even more direct. God had said, “Let my son (Israel) go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.” But here Moses and Aaron said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.” Were God's messengers easing into their role as ambassadors? Pharaoh's response was clear: “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”

Now what? Moses and Aaron sounded like they were planning a worship experience in the wilderness. Were they leaving the impression that they would return to Egypt after they had completed their brief time away?

Whether they were leaning on their own understanding too much here, or were simply saying what God had told them to say in this first stage of engagement with Pharaoh, we can say this with confidence: They did not get the response that they wanted. Moses and Aaron went on to express concern for their own safety, rather than speaking about what would happen to Pharaoh's son. “Please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”

The king was not in a charitable mood. Moses and Aaron were getting in the way of his work plans for the Israelites. He blamed Moses and Aaron: “You make them rest from their burdens!” That same day he made the burdens of the Israelites much more severe. Where was the Lord in all this? Of course, He had warned Moses from the beginning that Pharaoh would not let the people go. But He had not told them the part about conditions getting worse before the Israelites received deliverance from their captors. Now they had to continue to produce the same number of bricks, but they had to gather the raw material, straw, themselves. They were also being accused of laziness. And why? Because of these men Moses and Aaron. That was the way that Pharaoh would deal with people that tried to stop his oppression of his slaves. He did not fear the God of the Hebrews. “Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.” He would aim to make the people turn against the ambassadors of God.

Pharaoh did one other thing. He abused the foreman that had charge over the Israelites. He beat them and made unreasonable demands against them. This is the way an oppressor demoralizes those under his power. The goal was to move the foremen to turn against Moses and Aaron, leading all of the people with them in their attack. Pharaoh would not be their common enemy. God's ambassadors, Moses and Aaron, would be the ones that the Hebrews wanted to kill. Pharaoh would make it clear that the reason that these new demands were being pressed upon the people was the message that he received from Moses and Aaron. He would try to turn the people against the Word of God and against the messengers of that Word. If Moses and Aaron thought that they could ease into this role of speaking for God, it surely had not worked. Pharaoh spread this madness: “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”

The reaction of the foremen was just what Pharaoh would have wanted. They turned on Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Moses turned to God in great distress. The foremen blamed Moses, and Moses blamed God.

He questioned the Lord. “Why have you done evil to this people?” That was a very complicated question. It was true that the madness of Pharaoh was evil. It was also true that God was sovereign over Pharaoh. But it was too early to decide that God had done evil to His people. God had heard their cries, and He was delivering them out of bondage. The actions of the Lord would be clearer when Joshua led them into The Promised Land. We must not judge the goodness of God to His church based on our present moment of trial.

The second question was more personal. “Why did you ever send me?” Moses was confused by the Lord's providence and distressed with the trouble and division that had come through His speech to Pharaoh.

The Redeemer of Jews and Gentiles has come. He faced great suffering. The first results of His great teaching and miracles were not particularly encouraging, The faithful church that follows Him can still expect tribulation even to this day. But one day our Joshua will bring us into The Promised Land above. That will be a good time to rightly assess the Lord's plans. Until that day, we follow the path of a crucified and risen King. What He tells us to preach, we proclaim before all men. We follow Him in the way of the cross. Our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that is ahead of us in heaven.

Exodus 4

Moses was deeply concerned that the Lord had made a mistake. As he considered his own gifts and abilities he was sure that he was not the right man for the job of confronting Pharaoh and delivering the people of Israel out of their bondage.

He was honest enough before the Lord to express his specific concern. His objection had to do with the unbelief of the people. He said, “They will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’”

God uses what we have and adds His power and purpose to the task before us. He asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” What do you have in your hand? The Lord uses His people in the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. Every member within the body of Christ is there for a reason. No one is safely ignored. See Ephesians 4:16.

God was able to use that staff of Moses to do great things. That was not because Moses was inherently a worker of miracles. It was because God can take the ordinary and use it to produce the extraordinary.

The staff would become a serpent, and then a staff again, “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” If that was not enough, Moses' hand would become leprous, and then it would be clean again. God was the Lord of life and death. If those two signs were not enough for the people of Israel, God would use Moses to pour water from the Nile on the dry ground, and the Lord would turn that water into blood. God was answering their cry for help. He would bring judgment upon the land of Egypt, and He would rescue them.

Moses continued to insist upon his own inadequacy. He was not eloquent. But what about God? Wasn't God adequate? God the Creator of every human being can use people for His purposes as He sees fit. He is the Lord. He said to Moses, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Amazingly, Moses still objected. He said, “Please send someone else.” He was strongly resisting God, and the Lord was very angry with him. Yet God did not turn away from Moses. He accommodated the weakness of the man he had chosen. Another man, Aaron, would make up for what Moses lacked. Moses would be like God, and Aaron would be his prophet, his mouth.

Moses would take his leave now from the land of Midian and his father-in-law. He was sent off in peace by Jethro, and received the Lord's assurance that the people who had been seeking his life in Egypt were now dead.

Moses went with his wife and his two sons. He had his small family, riding on a donkey, and his staff, which was now called “the staff of God.” He was going to present himself to the hundreds of thousands of Hebrews in Egypt as God's man for this moment. He would demonstrate the signs of divine approval before them. And he would go before one of the most powerful leaders in the world and demand, in the name of God, that this man and nation let the Lord's people go, that they might worship their great God, I-AM. He went with the Lord's instruction to show the miracles of God to Pharaoh, but with God's certainty that Pharaoh would not let the people go.

God told Moses what to say to Pharaoh: “Thus says the Lord.” The message would come through the voice of a man, but it was the Word of God. “Israel is my firstborn son.” God is the Father of His people. Who will dare to challenge Him by abusing His son? “Let my son go that he may serve me.” Israel, the son of God, had a job to do. He needed to serve his Father. “If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.” This was the sober warning that God would speak to Pharaoh.

But Moses and His family had to first arrive in Egypt alive. Along the way, the Lord met Moses, and we are told that He “sought to put him to death.” Deliverance came through Zipporah. She knew what the issue was. Someone was uncircumcised. God had given this ordinance centuries before to Abraham, and the Lord was ready to kill Moses for neglecting to mark his son according to that command. Zipporah cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with the blood of this foreskin. He was marked with blood, and he would live.

Meanwhile, the Lord directed Aaron to the mountain of God, where he met Moses according to God's command. Aaron heard the Word of God through Moses and saw the signs that authenticated the message. Then Aaron and Moses met with all the elders of Israel. They heard the Word, saw the signs, believed, and worshiped the Lord.

Moses, the man through whom God gave the Law to Israel, could not win life with God through law. He resisted the call of God upon His life, making the Lord very angry. The pathway of life for Moses went through the blood of the cut-off skin. That ceremony was an old law, but it was also a sign of grace. Through the blood of our Redeemer, Jesus, who was cut off for our sake, we have found deliverance and life. The road to heaven goes through the cross.

Getting out of Egypt through God's use of Moses was part of the Lord's plan. That plan would eventually lead to Jesus, the Messiah, to His death and resurrection, to your salvation, and to your service and calling in the kingdom of God. What do you have in your hand? God can use it now.

1 Samuel 24

Saul was against David, but David was not against Saul. How was this possible? What kind of spirit was in this man that allowed him to show deference to Saul as the Lord's anointed?

When David had the opportunity to end the madness by killing this king of malice, he would not allow his friends to take Saul's life. This restraint moved even Saul. The son of Kish had a moment of sanity as he considered that David was unwilling to raise his hand against the first king of Israel.

It was David's determination that the Lord Himself would judge between him and Saul. David entrusted his life and the future of the kingdom to God.

David did not desire Saul's life, but He did seek vindication from God. He knew the man who was against him well enough to realize that he could not entrust himself to Saul. Though this ruler had moments of repentance, Saul could not be counted on to spare David's life as David had spared Saul's life.

Saul wept when he heard David's voice. Nothing dries faster than a tear in the eye of a man with a twisted mind.

Saul's words that day in praise of David were prophetic. He said, “I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.” That day would come before long, but there would be more suffering for David at the direction of Saul before David was recognized by all Israel as the king.

At least for this day, Saul saw his need for David's blessing. He sought David's promise of protection for his offspring when the day of his reign would come. David swore this to Saul.

Saul went home, but David did not follow him there. He and his men would live like fugitives in the wilderness for some time yet.

Psalms 42 and 43 both contain this chorus: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”

Our hope is not built on any ruler's moments of sanity or on the charity of those who may one day turn against us and take their stand against Jesus and His church. We have a firmer rock upon which we stand.

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' Name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

1 Samuel 23

David was a man on the run, a man without a home. Yet he found His resting place in the Word of the Lord. When the Lord told him to rescue the city of Keilah from the Philistines, he obeyed.

That was fine for David, but how would he be able to lead others who did not have an ear for the Lord's voice or a heart for God's ways? Yet the Lord enabled David's strange band of men to follow this leader to victory.

Saul heard that David had come to Keilah, and he made a plan to trap him there and to destroy him. But David had something that Saul did not have, the voice of the Lord. He soon knew that Saul would come to Keilah to get him and that the people of the town would not protect him. These conclusions were not his own. The Lord revealed these facts to him, and David escaped before Saul arrived.

David's numbers grew. He lived in the wilderness. Though Saul was vigilant in his pursuit of the man that he supposed to be his enemy, God was David's help. He would not give David into Saul's hand.

King Saul was a formidable adversary, but he did not inspire every man's confidence. His own son Jonathan continued to believe in David. He visited David and strengthened his hand in God. What a gift of God to have a friend who will stay closer to you than a brother, a man who will strengthen your faith with his own as he looks to God to be your Deliverer!

Jonathan's faith was strong in the Lord and in God's true anointed, David. He expected great things from the Lord, trusting that Saul his father would not be able to destroy him, and that the two men would be together throughout David's reign. This was not to be, at least not in this life. Yet this lack of predictive perfection does not change the marvel of this good man's faith. He saw in David the man that God had chosen to lead Israel, and he could not imagine himself anywhere other than at his side as his companion and friend.

Meanwhile Saul was speaking in the Lord's name to David's enemies as if they would be doing a most holy service to hand over David to be killed. God knows how to save His anointed. The one whom He holds in the palm of His hand He can also hide in the shadow of a mountain. He can bring news to an adversary that creates a Rock of Escape for the man He loves.

There is no God like Jehovah. These life experiences of David prepare us for the Lord's protection of His Son until the time of the cross had come. But after that cross and resurrection, the Lord of David, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has continued to watch over those who are called by His Name. As one of David's psalms says, “Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.”

1 Samuel 22

David did not ask to be king of Israel. But it was the will of the Lord.

The journey he was on now was one from which he could not escape. He would not be entirely alone. Suddenly he was surrounded by a surprisingly large number of outcasts and misfits. And here we are today, telling the Lord through tears that we will serve Him to the end by the grace that He supplies. Such as we are, we are His team.

Any who would be associated with David would receive the death sentence that was upon his head. He knew this, and set about to protect his father and mother in the country of Moab. He was not above seeking refuge in odd places, and he would hide those he loved wherever he could find safe haven.

If there were any doubt in the minds of the people near Saul regarding the danger of being in league with David, that doubt would be removed by the fate of the priests at Nob. Doeg the Edomite would show himself to be an evil partner of Saul's in his betrayal of those who had given bread and a sword to David and had inquired of the Lord on his behalf. Because of these kindnesses in response to David's desperate war-time deception, all the priests of the city would be put to the sword according to Saul's command. Though the leader of the priests insisted that David was faithful to Saul, the enraged king would have none of it. Eighty-five priests would die as well as their families and their animals.

Only one son of the priests would survive, Abiathar, who would escape to David and would remain with him throughout his life. David took upon himself the responsibility for Doeg's murderous betrayal. His words strike a tender chord in a time of great distress: “Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping.”

These words are for us today who have taken refuge in the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth. The world hated him. They will hate us also. But this Jesus is the Christ. He is Lord over all, and He will have the victory.

We may feel broken as we contemplate the ugly wrath of evil men and angels against the church. The truth of the Lord's protection for us remains the same for us today as it was for the one surviving priest of the city of Nob.

We should stay with Jesus, even if everyone else decides Him to be an imposter or a failure. Where else can we go? He has the words of life. There is no point in our being afraid. God is able to keep all who have put their trust in His Son. With Him we shall be in safekeeping, for He is the Lord of heaven and earth.