Have I Spoken a Word?

In 2 Samuel 7, King David came up with the grand idea to build the Lord a house.  Nathan, by all indications a faithful servant of God, said, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you” (2 Samuel 7:3).  David, a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), had good intentions when he proposed building the Temple and Nathan, agreeing with said good intentions, granted his blessing.  In response, God said to Nathan, “…have I ever spoken word to anyone…?” (2 Samuel 7:7).  The good intentions of both faithful men of God did not matter when God had not spoken.  What was God’s point in asking such a question? That they (the faithful) needed to adhere to the word of God rather than their own good intentions (note that neither David nor Nathan went and asked God what He wanted). 

With the age of social media came the age of “sharing” ideologies quickly.  When a 10 to 15 paragraph essay is posted (Bible passages included) and it is shared less than 3 minutes later, have we really stopped and considered the principles set forth by the author? Even if the original post is, in fact, accurate, are we truly being careful? Can we, in under 3 minutes, delve into the passages and their contexts to ensure the Scriptural validity of the post? Or are we merely being a modern day Nathan and saying “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you”?

If our approach to Scripture is to say that the Bible says this or that, but here are a whole list of reasons why we don’t have to be obedient to those passages, then are we being careful with the Bible? In the aforementioned example, David and Nathan realized their mistake and corrected it with God rather than digging in and trying to explain why what God said did not really apply.  Often with social media, we dig our heels in and continue to perform mental gymnastics to explain away what God has so clearly instructed.  Such argumentation was put forth by King Saul in 1 Samuel 15:15, 20-21; in that instance, Saul claimed to have obeyed the commandment of the Lord (which was clearly dictated in 1 Samuel 15:1-3), but then he made excuses for why King Agag and the best of the flocks had been spared.  Why? Because God did not really mean what He said! Again, what was the response? “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE LORD?” (1 Samuel 15:22, emphasis is mine).  Intentions mean nothing when they ignore what God has actually said; we are not more gracious, nor are we more intelligent than God.  In Isaiah 55:6-9, we read:

Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

As we read posts that examine (or claim to examine) the Scriptures, we need to be careful with each and every one of them (this post included).  If the poster is explaining away what the Scriptures plainly teach, then they are not teaching the word of God.  If, however, they are “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) by showing how they are applicable to us (rather than claiming that they are not), then they can be accepted.  As John wrote, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).  Although John was addressing a specific false doctrine in this instance, we would be foolish to think that we do not have to test other doctrines as well (which is a principle established throughout the New Testament, but boiled down in 1 John 4:1).  This is, in fact, part of what Paul wrote to Timothy in the previously quoted 2 Timothy 2:15.  Let us be fair-minded (see Acts 17:11) rather than simply placing our stamp of approval (such as Nathan did).

"Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?"

In our Wednesday evening Bible class, we're currently studying from 1 Samuel. One thought that came to mind today was the rebellion of Saul in 1 Samuel 15. Here are a few thoughts:

The command issued by God was not difficult to understand: "Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey" (1 Samuel 15:3). What was difficult to understand about this commandment? God detailed for Saul exactly what he was to do.

Perhaps it is a guilty conscience, but Saul greets Samuel later in the passage by saying, "I have performed the commandment of the Lord" (1 Samuel 15:13). Samuel responds in an epic way, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" (1 Samuel 15:14) Essentially, Samuel was saying that the evidence stood against Saul. And yet, Saul persists in his belief that he has completed the word of God (see 1 Samuel 15:20). Additionally, he blames the people (who were involved, of course) for the disobedience (see 1 Samuel 15:15) and even God Himself (see 1 Samuel 15:20).

How often do we do the same things today as Christians? And perhaps even for the same reasons? In 1 Samuel 15:17, Samuel said to Saul, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?" The insinuation here is that Saul was at one point humble ("little in your own eyes") and that he had now changed. This change is indicated in 1 Samuel 15:12, the latter of which reads, "Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself..." Does our own pride keep us from obeying the simple commands of God? Do we seek a way around what God has so plainly commanded? Often, in our pursuit of intellectualism, we seek something "new." Does this not spring from our own pride? As is stated in the passage, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22).

The question that should gain our immediate attention come from Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:19: "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?" Saul had the commandment of God. Was it the fault of God or the people that Saul did not obey? Or was it Saul's own fault? Saul says, "...because I feared the people and obeyed their voice" (1 Samuel 15:24). Sometimes it is all too easy to allow the unpopular positions of the Bible to be trampled because we want to be popular or to be accepted. Rather than giving in, let the question of Samuel resonate in our heads and hearts, "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?" If we have the commandments of the Lord, then adhere to them and care not whether it pleases men. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ."