Samuel
These two Old Testament books of history are named after Samuel the prophet. First Samuel tells about Samuel's life and death and Saul's life and death. It documents the change in Israel from rule by judges to rule by kings. It emphasizes faithfulness to God, no matter who rules. Second Samuel begins with David's anointing as king and includes most of his reign over Israel. The theme of both books is that faithfulness to God brings success and disobedience brings disaster.
**Very visual lessons (with manipulatives)
These two Old Testament books of history are named after Samuel the prophet. First Samuel tells about Samuel's life and death and Saul's life and death. It documents the change in Israel from rule by judges to rule by kings. It emphasizes faithfulness to God, no matter who rules. Second Samuel begins with David's anointing as king and includes most of his reign over Israel. The theme of both books is that faithfulness to God brings success and disobedience brings disaster.
**Very visual lessons (with manipulatives)
Devotions in 1 Samuel
1 Samuel 2:2 - No Rock Like Our God
1 Samuel 7:12 - Ebenezer
1 Samuel 8:19-20 - BFF and Belonging
**1 Samuel 16:7b - Don't Judge a Book by its Cover
**1 Samuel 16:7 - More Than Meets the Eye (YEA lesson)
1 Samuel 18:14 - Behaving Yourself Wisely
1 Samuel 23:16 - Strengthen One Another
**1 Samuel 26:23 - Be Faithful
1 Samuel 30:24b - Staying With the Stuff
Devotions in 2 Samuel
2 Samuel 2:4a - Waiting on God
2 Samuel 6:14 - Dance!
2 Samuel 18:8 - Fighting Forests
2 Samuel 22:29 - Seek the Light
1 Samuel 2:2 - No Rock Like Our God
1 Samuel 7:12 - Ebenezer
1 Samuel 8:19-20 - BFF and Belonging
**1 Samuel 16:7b - Don't Judge a Book by its Cover
**1 Samuel 16:7 - More Than Meets the Eye (YEA lesson)
1 Samuel 18:14 - Behaving Yourself Wisely
1 Samuel 23:16 - Strengthen One Another
**1 Samuel 26:23 - Be Faithful
1 Samuel 30:24b - Staying With the Stuff
Devotions in 2 Samuel
2 Samuel 2:4a - Waiting on God
2 Samuel 6:14 - Dance!
2 Samuel 18:8 - Fighting Forests
2 Samuel 22:29 - Seek the Light
No Rock Like Our God
There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:2
We use the word rock in our language frequently, in a myriad of ways. Think of: he’s a rock. That means He’s dependable or You can count on him. You may hear: She’s got a rock on her finger. That means the diamond in her ring is enormous. And then there’s the paper, rock, scissors method of decision making. It goes like this: you count to three. On three, you either show a sign for paper (flat hand), rock (fist), or scissors (two fingers out like scissors). Paper trumps rock because it can cover a rock. Rock trumps scissors because it can smash scissors. Scissors trumps paper because it can cut paper. At any rate, it’s another example of rock in our language and culture.
Hannah (1 Samuel 1 -2) knew that the LORD is the Rock, trustworthy and dependable. She knew that there is no other god like our God. There were other gods, pagan gods, in their world, but none of them were holy like Jehovah. None of them had the power of life and death. None of them were truly God.
David knew that. In Psalm 86:8 David writes, “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.” There is no god of man’s imagination and construction which can do what our God can do. David knew that from the time he was a young man relying on God while he watched over his father’s sheep. He relied on the Rock when facing Goliath. I love the “coincidence,” the symbolism of David using a single small smooth stone from the brook to defeat Goliath. In relying on the Rock, the Living Water, David used a rock from the water.
Isaiah records a prophecy of the Rock: “therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: “Whoever believes will not be in haste.”’ ”(Isaiah 28:16) 1 Peter 2:6-8 cites this verse and then goes on to say, “So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”
Reading through the first nine books of the Old Testament gives a picture of carnal, human beings who are on the continuum of seeing our Holy God as holy, relying on Him, trusting Him, living their lives in obedience to Him (like Abraham, Ruth, Joseph, Hannah, Samuel, Joshua, David) to those who see Him as just another god, one who is winning today but might not win tomorrow (Pharaoh, the Philistines, the nations around Israel, and sometimes the Israelites themselves - like Micah - see Judges 17:5, or Rachel - see Genesis 31:19). The ones who are listed in Hebrews 11 saw God as the Rock, unmovable, unshakable, dependable, trustworthy, and constant. The others, who did not recognize God as holy, applied the paper, rock, scissors game to God. He was the God of the Hebrews, but He’s not all powerful, they might say - at least, that’s how they lived their lives.
How you live your life is indicative of your view of our God. As cited from 1 Peter, God can become a rock of offense, a stone of stumbling. People stumble over God, because they disobey His word! They don’t obey God’s commandments. They think God doesn’t care or that God doesn’t mind, that God understands. In reality, they are putting themselves above God in modifying God’s commandments, indicating by their actions that they think they are wiser and more important than God. It’s kind of like playing paper, rock, scissors with God’s word, putting God’s commandments on an equal footing with your own desires or the world’s pressures.
I have never liked paper, rock, scissors. Paper can cover rock, but that doesn’t mean paper trumps rock. The rock is still there. The paper hasn’t done anything to the rock. It has only hidden the rock. The rock smashes the scissors. The scissors cut the paper. The rock remains untouched. Similarly, humans down through history have tried to cover over God, to dismiss Him, to ignore His commandments, but He’s still the Rock. He’s still there regardless of how they try to hide him. And because He’s still there, they stumble over Him when they disobey His word.
There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
I love Hannah’s prayer when God answered her request to have a son by giving her Samuel. My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
That’s how I want to live my life - rejoicing in the Lord because He is the source of my strength. He is my salvation. I want people around me to see in my life the evidence that I serve the Holy God, the Almighty, the Rock.
Ebenezer
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” ~ 1 Samuel 7:12
I have two questions for you today: What is an Ebenezer? Do you have an Ebenezer?
The Israelites had just won a battle against the Philistines - a victory obviously given to them by God. So Samuel set up a stone - an Ebenezer - between two cities. Why? Well, Ebenezer means “rock of help.” It was to be a visual reminder anytime anyone saw it that God had given them the victory. It was a statement, a lasting statement, that God was involved in Israel’s affairs to their benefit. It was an attempt to direct the people’s hearts back to God, that they would seek Him and not look to their own devices for help and victory.
What about you? Do you look to your own devices for help and victory in the battles of life? Or do you seek God’s help, guidance, and ultimate victory?
If you’re going to seek a victory that God gives you, then there’s a condition - and you know it: you have to be doing His will. You have to be seeking Him. You have to be fighting the battles that He wants you to fight. That means He has to be sovereign in your sight. He has to be God.
Our carnal nature doesn’t want to submit to God. We want to determine our own affairs. We want our way. We want to be the god of our own life.
So what about that second question: Do you have an Ebenezer? That is, do you have a visual reminder that it is God who has brought you this far, that it is God who has given you the victories in your life, that it is God who is your Rock of Help?
We must be careful that we don’t set up an idol to worship. But it is likewise important to have a reminder that God is our God, that He is the One we seek, that He is the One who has blessed us so greatly.
So think about it. And you know, it wouldn’t hurt to name that reminder “Ebenezer.”
BFF and Belonging
But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 1 Samuel 8:19-20
Educational psychologists will tell you that there are three basic needs that everyone must have met in order to be happy, to be at peace, to be able to learn: food, shelter, belonging. Understandably, it’s hard to be ready to learn if you are belly-pinched and cold, or if you are uncomfortably hot. But the concept of belonging is just as fundamental and yet, less obviously influential. That is, the need to belong impacts all of us: infant and child, teenager and adult - regardless of how we appear to others. That’s why peer pressure is such a big issue among that age which is trying to figure out its place in the world. And yet, peer pressure affects even adults who appear to have it all together.
Peer pressure can make you do incredible things: purple, spiked hair; baggy, ripped jeans; bungee jumping; doing drugs and drinking alcohol; various daredevil stunts. Peer pressure can also push you into worshiping false gods and going against God’s will. Look at 1 Samuel 8:19-20: But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
They wanted to be like all the nations. They wanted a king like everyone else. They wanted him to judge them and to be their spokesman and to fight their battles. This sounded like a great idea to the Israelites - even when Samuel told them not to do this. They refused to obey the voice to Samuel. They had made up their mind that they wanted to be like all the other nations regardless of what anyone, including Samuel, was going to say about it!
Wait a minute! Aren’t these the nations who were worshiping pagan gods? Aren’t these the nations who had become so wicked that God told the Israelites to not only drive them out of the land, but to completely destroy them? These are the nations that Israel wants to look like? This is the government model that Israel is rejecting God in order to assume?
From our perspective, this in incomprehensible! Why in the world would Israel reject the One True God as King in favor of a fallible, human - and therefore, corrupt - king? In contemporary terms, the answer was peer pressure and belonging. They wanted to be like everyone else, even when they were told it was a bad idea.
So what happened? Why didn’t the Israelites remain faithful to God? Why did they reject Him as king? It’s all about relationship. They didn’t have the close relationship with God; they didn’t feel like they belonged to Him. Think about it: when you feel like you belong to God, that He loves you incredibly and you love Him, that’s a powerful deterrent to doing anything which will impair that relationship. It’s a deeper relationship than the one which sees God striking you with a lightning bolt when you do the wrong thing. It’s the kind of relationship where the deterrent is you don’t want to disappoint God.
Think about your own relationship with God. Do you reverence Him as God because He is worthy of all praise? That’s a good starting point. Do you do what you do because you know there’s a judgment coming? That can be a good deterrent. Or do you do what you do out of love for God recognizing that He loved you before you were ever aware of it? That’s a great place to come to. Or do you do what you do because it grieves you to think of feeling His disappointment in your choices? That’s when you know you’re coming closer to the relationship He desires with you. Or do you do what you do because the Holy Spirit has worked in your life, changing you into the image of God so that the new creature in you would not do anything else, could not conceive of doing anything else? That’s when you know you belong to God, that He’s your best friend, your best friend forever.
The need to belong is incredibly powerful! In the song “Remind Me Who I Am,” there’s a line “In the mirror all I see is who I don’t want to be - remind me who I am.” The enemy can use those feelings of falling short of the goal to convince us that we don’t belong to God. The enemy will do whatever he can to make you believe that you don’t belong to God, that you’re not good enough, that you’ve sinned too much. The enemy will try to make you believe that God doesn’t want you, that you’re not important to Him, or conversely, that what you’re about to do won’t matter to God. But you can’t listen to the lies. The reality is that, if you have repented of your sins and accepted Jesus as your Savior, you do belong to Him. God gives us the sabbath, the holy days, and innumerable scriptures to remind us that we are His. If you don’t feel like it, you have some repair work to do in the relationship. You need some more time in prayer and Bible study, fellowship with believers, fasting and meditation. You need to submit to the Holy Spirit’s life-changing work in your life. Let God remind you who you are and that you belong to Him.
**Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
. . . the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b
Materials:
- a “gift” from Australia. When turned inside out, it becomes a koala
- two boxes with a “prize” in each, one box is wrapped; one is not.
- two spice containers: one filled with sugar, one with salt
- two hardback books: one has the center hollowed out, one is a normal book
Several years ago my friend in Australia sent me a gift. It’s a little yellow fabric box, tied with a green fabric ribbon. On the bottom side of the box is a zipper. When you unzip the box and turn it inside out, it becomes a koala. Would any of you have guessed when you first saw the box that it would become a stuffed animal, a koala? Probably not. There were not enough clues for you to know that it would be - unless you’ve seen something like this before.
So It’s really hard to judge what’s inside by just looking at the outside.
I have two boxes. One is just a plain white box. The other box is nicely wrapped with wrapping paper and it has a pretty pink bow on it. What kinds of guesses would you make by looking at the boxes? You might guess that the plain box is for a guy because guys don’t care about wrapping paper. You might guess that the box wrapped in the pretty flower paper has a gift in it that would be best enjoyed by a little girl. You can make some guesses. But you don’t know.
Even when you can see inside the container, you still don’t know for sure what’s inside. I have two spice containers. Both have a powered white substance inside. So you’ve probably made an educated guess that neither contains cinnamon or pepper or basil. But you can’t be absolutely sure what, exactly, the white substance is. You can see it, but you don’t know exactly what it’s characteristics are. What does it taste like? What does it do in water? What does it do to food? Even if I tell you that one is sugar and one is salt, you are still going to want to taste a tiny sample before sprinkling it on your food.
With the koala box, the gift boxes, and the spice containers, the only information you can gather is with your eyes. And even though your eyes are really, really important in gathering information, they can’t give you all the information there is.
That’s why God reminds us that we people can only look on the outward appearance of the people around us. We can only see what they do and what they look like. We can’t really see why they do certain things. We don’t know everything they’ve experienced that goes into who they are. Only God can look at the heart. That’s means you can’t judge them.
So, when you meet someone new, it’s a really good thing to remember that you are only looking at the outside. When your brother (or sister) does something you don’t like, it’s a really good thing to remember that you don’t know why (necessarily). When you see someone at church, it’s a really good thing to remember that you don’t know what kind of day they’ve had. It’s your job to be gentle and kind and encouraging. Don’t decide that you know why someone is doing something just based on what you see. That’s like choosing a box just because of what’s on the outside. That’s like pouring salt on your strawberries because you don’t know which is the sugar. It’s like decided you don’t want to open your gift from Australia before you even know what it is. It’s like judging a book by its cover.
I have a book here. It was one of my textbooks in college. It was an expensive textbook, but it was dated and not very useful. So I made it very useful. I cut away the insides of the pages, and now it holds candy - for people who didn’t judge the book by its cover and decide they weren’t interested in what is inside.
. . . the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b
**More Than Meets the Eye
Memory Verse: “Man looks at how someone appears on the outside. I look at what is in the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIrV)
Materials Needed: a box of treasures, several books, YEA lesson (Book 3, Lesson 8)
Have you ever picked up a box and decided you knew what was in it just by looking at the outside? How did that work out for you?
What about picking up a book and deciding what’s inside by looking at the cover? When I was a kid, I didn’t think I would like this book (Mandy by Julie [Andrews] Edwards), but when Mom read it and liked it, I gave it a try - and it became one of my favorites. I was similarly unfavorably disposed to read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster because of the word “Phantom” in the title. But it is likewise one of my favorites. And then there’s this book - a textbook that gives a synopsis of all kinds of books. It’s very valuable - right? Well, I didn’t think so. So I hollowed it out and made it a mini-safe/hiding place. No one would ever guess what’s on the inside just by looking at the cover!!
The same is true about the people. We can’t know what’s going on in their heart just by looking at the outside. Nevertheless, we sure are good at judging other people. If someone is driving too fast on the highway, what is the first thing you think? Do you wonder if they are responding to a family emergency? Or is your first thought that they are reckless and inconsiderate? If the check out clerk at the grocery store is rude, do you respond with rudeness . . . or do you think that maybe they’re having a bad day because something bad happened - like their dog just died? Have you ever met someone for the very first time and thought that there’s no way you could possibly ever like that person? Occasionally you get the opportunity to find out the you were very wrong and you really truly like that person! The crazy thing is that we build up all kinds of stories in our head about why people are doing the things they are doing - and seldom do we ever find out just how incredibly wrong we were!
I hope the next time you see someone doing something that you think is really odd (as long as it isn’t breaking God’s laws), stop and consider that their heart is a lot more difficult to see into than the box or the book. What’s going on inside could very well surprise you!
Behaving Yourself Wisely
And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him. 1 Samuel 18:14
Wouldn’t you love to have this said about you - that you had success in everything you did because the LORD was with you?! It’s like having the Midas touch: everything you touch turns to gold. But you could walk away from this verse with an erroneous impression. You could think that no matter what David did, good decisions or bad decisions, God stepped in and miraculously turned them all to good. The KJV, the NKJV, and the NIV give a different impression. Those versions all translate the phrase had success as behaved himself wisely. Look at how that changes the impression you have from the verse:
And David behaved himself wisely in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him.
This rendering emphasizes David’s reliance on God’s direction, gaining wisdom from God, before he went into a situation. David made wise choices because God was with him, which leads to an understood implication that he had success in whatever he did.
Too often Christians believe that no matter what decision they make, God will take it and work all things out for their good. That’s Romans 8:28, and yes, that’s true. God can and will work out all things for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. But that’s not quite the same thing as having success in everything you do. God can take the disasters, the illnesses and diseases, the bad choices, and He can use them to mold you into the person He wants you to be. But that’s not the same thing as making them all good immediately, ensuring that you have success in everything you do.
Proverbs 3:5-6, rather, shows what happens when you seek God’s direction in your life, asking for His wisdom before you act.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
We all want to be successful in this life, and we eagerly desire to be successful from God’s definition, not necessarily man’s definition. David’s example highlights that it’s not that his relationship with God just automatically ensured his success - for David made decisions that were not Godly and they didn’t turn out so well. It’s that when David sought God’s direction and relied on God’s wisdom, he had success. Similarly, you can’t think that just because you have a relationship with God that that will ensure success in all that you do. If, however, you make decisions based on wisdom from God, then you’ll be successful in all that you do. Think about it. Seek God; behave yourself wisely.
Strengthen One Another
And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. 1 Samuel 23:16
This is such an interesting verse. Think about it: Jonathan knows that the kingship will never belong to him even if he is Saul’s heir. God has determined that David will be king. Jonathan could have been tempted to complain loudly that this was not fair; why punish the children for the sins of the father? After all, we know that God had a relationship with Jonathan too - look at the account in 1 Samuel 14. But Jonathan’s perspective is not on what he can get. He fully accepted and acknowledged that David would be king. More than just acknowledging David’s future, he was actually a very good friend to David. That’s where this verse comes in. Saul had been trying to kill David on and off for years. Despite his father’s intentions, Jonathan strengthens David. In the positive application, this word means to encourage, to make firm, to make strong. But we get a better idea of the degree of strengthening we’re talking about when we consider it in the negative applications. It’s used 12 times in Exodus when speaking of hardening Pharaoh’s heart! Pharaoh’s heart was made so firm, so hard against God’s will that it resulted in the destruction of the Egyptian economy (the loss of the slave workforce, the destruction of the spring food crop, the annihilation of many animals) and as well as, potentially, his own death, if not during the plague on the firstborn, then when the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea.
This Hebrew word, then, translated in 1 Samuel 23:16 as “strengthened” is not a slight or minor encouragement.
O.K. But so what? This is just a nice Old Testament story of friendship, right? It doesn’t have any application to us. Or does it?
I think it has a lot to do with us. I think it’s part of how we’re to occupy until He comes (and no, I’m not talking about occupying Wall Street). Consider these verses:
“I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.” Ephesians 6:22, Colossians 4:8
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
“After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.” Acts 20:1
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25
“strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22
These last two verses really highlight the necessity of encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ! This is something that should come naturally to the Christian. After all, we see encouraging behavior from Jesus - and He is the One we are to emulate. Remember the instance in John 16? Jesus tells his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (vs. 33) Then, speaking specifically to Peter, Jesus said, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).
I think Jesus would also tell us to strengthen and encourage one another. What does that look like? I think it has to do with redirecting our focus, should it waver, back to seeking God, looking to please Him, to become holy - always. Think of the physical trappings which can be a wonderful asset in encouraging someone else. But don’t become bogged down in the physical realm to the point that it becomes a distraction, i.e. the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.
So what is it that you can do today to encourage a brother or sister in Christ? Look for opportunities. Put it on your list of things to do, every day, until it becomes a part of your natural routine.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:3-4
Find ways to strengthen God’s people - not superficially, but with the kind of strengthening depicted by Jonathan towards David. After all, it’s not really about you; as Isaiah 35:4 indicates, it’s about beholding your God!
**Be Faithful
The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness . . . 1 Samuel 26:23
Materials: overhead transparency, dry erase marker, paper
Faithful means being loyal, constant, or steadfast. It means being true to the facts or the original.
So if you have a faithful friend, they will always treat you as a friend. They won’t make fun of you behind your back. They won’t act like they like you when you’re around, but talk badly about you when you’re not there. A faithful friend is loving and supportive all the time.
So if you have a faithful dog, he follows you around. He protects you. He wants to be with you. He will go to great lengths to do what pleases you. He doesn’t bite you. He isn’t enticed by other people or things. He’s your dog and everyone knows it.
If you have a movie that is faithful to the book it was based upon, it doesn’t change the storyline. It doesn’t introduce new characters. The movie turns out the same way the book ends. The movie is faithful to the original book, to the facts in the book.
God is also faithful. He is constant and steadfast. He never changes. He is good. He is love. He is patient and long-suffering. And because God is faithful, you can absolutely depend upon God to always be this way.
It should, then, come as no surprise that God rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. If you do what is right and you are steadfast in what you do, you please God - because God is righteous and faithful!
So we know what it means to have a faithful friend, or a faithful dog, or a movie faithful to a book, but what does it mean for you to be faithful - in a way that pleases God? It means that when God tells you what to do, you make sure that’s what you do. It means that when you tell people you are a Christian, that you make sure you act like a Christian should act.
If there’s a box on the table labeled “matches,” I would expect it to have matches in it. In order for it to be true to the fact of what it says, matches should be in it. If I find something other than matches in it, it was not faithful to what it said. In the same way, if you say that you are a Christian, what comes from you - your words and actions - should look Christian, according to God’s definition!
Remember, the memory verse says that God rewards everyone for his or her righteousness and faithfulness. So think of the characteristics you have that are righteous, like honesty or helpfulness. If you are consistent in those characteristics, that’s pleasing to God.
But how do you stay faithful to what God wants from you? You have choices every day. Are you going to be generous or selfish? Are you going to be loving or hateful? Are you going to tell the truth or a lie? Are you going to be obedient to your parents or disobedient?
It’s like a transparency film over the paper. If it’s not a righteous choice, a Godly choice, a choice that pleases God, it doesn’t get written on the paper. If it’s a decision that is faithful to God’s ways, then you can write it on the paper.
The reality is that sometimes we mess up. We make a wrong choice. We don’t act in a right way. We are not faithful to God. So we repent, telling God that we’re sorry, and then we try again.
It can be discouraging to find out how many times we make a wrong choice. How many times did your mom have to scold you or punish you this week for making a choice that was not right, that was not faithful to God’s ways? If you are not happy with how often you were in trouble, you can always ask God for His help in making the right choices. It’s an extra help in choosing to put the transparency over the paper so that the wrong choices can’t get through.
We have lots of choices to make in this life. Our goal is to make choices which are righteous and faithful to God, so that God will be pleased.
Staying With the Stuff
For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike. 1 Samuel 30:24b
I’m so glad this verse is in the Bible. I’m very glad that David was the kind of commander who valued all of his men. In this instance, David and his men came back from accompanying the Philistines to find their homes burned by the Amalekites and their wives and families taken captive. David inquired of God, who told them to pursue the Amalekites, that they would be victorious and rescue the captives. So David and his six hundred men started in pursuit. When they got ready to cross the brook Besor, two hundred of these men were too exhausted to continue the chase. So David left them and all the baggage (the KJV says “stuff”). This is a good decision. You can travel more quickly if you’re not slowed down by exhausted men and all the stuff you have to carry with you. But when they were successful and returned to the “stuff,” some of the four hundred men didn’t want to share the spoil with the two hundred who had stayed behind.
David and his six hundred men were working together as a team, as a unit. There are many similar teams today: baseball, churches, families. Sometimes one person, or a couple of people, seem to be pulling more weight than the others on the team. But it’s not so. Think about the Cardinals. There are an incredible number of people behind the scenes who are rarely recognized, among whom are equipment managers, the ones who make sure all the stuff is in good condition and, regardless of whether the game is home or away, that the stuff is in the right place at the right time. Think about churches. If you think the only one who works in a church is the person giving the study, you’d be sadly mistaken. But the person who keeps the church clean, the one who makes sure there’s always stuff, like plates, cups, and silverware for potluck, those are the people who are rarely recognized. Even families have to work together as a team. Just because Dad is usually the one who goes out to bring home a paycheck doesn’t mean that Mom who usually stays at home with the stuff, cleaning the house, doing laundry, and raising the kids isn’t doing an important job.
Sometimes there’s a star baseball player who seems to think that without him the team would never win another game. Sometimes a preacher seems to think that without him the church would fall apart. They think that what the “little people” do is not all that significant. That was the viewpoint of some of the four hundred who had gone with David. They felt that those two hundred who had stayed with the stuff really hadn’t contributed to the victory. The author of Samuel calls these few “wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David.” And David’s response to them shows who was really important in the victory against the Amalekites to recover their families and property. David gives full credit to God for the victory; it wasn’t what any of the four hundred had done in and of themselves, and they would do well to remember that! In fact, David’s judgment was made a statue and a rule in Israel from that day forward. For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.
Can you imagine how divisive and destructive such an attitude can be on a team? The arrogance of a central figure who doesn’t recognize the value of all the people on the team can cause demoralization to the point where they no longer function as a team. I can remember players who didn’t want to play for the Cardinals any more because they thought Mark McGuire was getting too much attention. I know people who stop attending certain churches because they think the preacher thinks of himself more highly than he ought, he thinks he’s infallible. I know families that have fallen apart because the husband did not value his wife and her contributions to the family. And I can guess at the infighting which would have occurred among the six hundred men who followed David, had David given a different answer.
So, what lesson do we take from this today? Stop and think about the different teams you are on - family, church, social, athletic. How do you contribute? And how do you treat the other members of your team? Those who stay with the stuff are just as important as the ones in the limelight.
Waiting On God
“And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” 2 Samuel 2:4a
anointed 4886 This word means “to rub with oil, to besmear, to anoint” - It was a formal way of inducting leaders into office, like a coronation
king 4428 This word means king, ruler, or prince. “Rulers were thought to be constituted by divine authority rather than human authority. To come before the judge was equivalent to coming before God.”
David is first anointed king by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16. David knows that this is from God; this is his destiny. However, it is not until 2 Samuel 2:4 that we actually see this fulfilled - David anointed king. Furthermore, David was not, at this time, anointed king over all of Israel, only Judah. In fact, David reigned over Judah alone for seven years and six months (2 Samuel 5:5) before he was anointed king over the remainder of Israel as well.
How do you think David viewed that? We know there was war between David’s kingdom and Saul’s kingdom (2 Samuel 3:1). We know that David had already been chosen by God years before. So how do you think David might have felt over the delay?
I suspect that David was content with what God decreed. Why do I say that? David and Jonathan were best friends. There’s an old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” We know that Jonathan did not begrudge David the throne. Rather, Jonathan gave David his personal belongings, acknowledging David’s right to them in God’s eyes. I think that Jonathan’s example is a good indication that David also was willing to wait on God for His perfect timing - even if it was 7+ years in the future before it would be realized.
What about you? Do you become impatient waiting on God? Do you think you should have the promises now? You know that saying, “All good things come to those who wait”? Do you feel like you’ve waited long enough? Do you want some good things now? But wait a minute! Don’t you have any good things right now? Can you name any blessings? I know you can! That being the case, I would exhort each of you to follow David’s example, to be content with God’s perfect timing and His will for you.
Dance!
And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 2 Samuel 6:14
One of our black labs shows joy by wagging her tail - as if it were a propeller; it goes around in a circle. She enthusiastically licks whomever she’s pleased with. She also “skitters” - that is, she leaps, crouches, scratches at the floor, and throws herself into another leap. She thoroughly delights us as we watch her antics; we often comment, “Boy! Ebony is really feeling good today!”
I think it also delights God when we show our joyfulness. Ken Davis emphasizes this in some of his comedy routines. He says it’s incongruous that a Christian can be one for 20 years and it not be obvious because of the joyfulness he exhibits. He says, “Someone ought to send a missionary to your face.” We Christians, of all people, should be the most joyful because of the awesome God we serve.
So how do we show that joy? David danced. And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 2 Samuel 6:14 This is the instance when they are bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. This is not just some piece of old furniture. This is the ark of the covenant, covered with the mercy seat. This is where the high priest makes atonement for the whole community once a year. This is where God met with Moses. This symbolically represents God’s presence with the Israelites. This is a big deal!
Another time the women danced because of the obvious presence of God is related in Exodus 15:20. The Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea. God had drowned the Egyptian army, rescuing His people from their hand in a very decisive manner!
When David struck the Philistines in 1 Samuel 18, the women sang and danced and lauded King Saul and David. There was great joy because of the deliverance Israel received.
But as Christians, we don’t just express joy when things are going well, when God has worked mightily, favorably in our lives. We also express joy because He is our God even in the midst of trials. I met a lady this week who was in a serious car accident six years ago. A simple trip to McDonald’s to get a hamburger changed her life in profound ways. She has had numerous surgeries, but will never walk again. She lives with pain every day, and it has led to divorce. Yet she told me that she is glad that the accident happened. Glad! She said she was backsliding, her word, that she wasn’t seeking God and living in a God-honoring way. She needed the wake up call. The accident and resulting pain on so many levels has caused her to seek God and learn to trust Him no matter what.
Her comments made me think of Nehemiah 8:10: . . .The joy of the LORD is your strength. You see, when we find our joy in the Lord, we are living our lives with the faith that this present pain and trial is just temporary (2 Cor. 4:17), that the day is coming when there will be no more pain or sorrow or crying or death (Revelation 21:4). We demonstrate our faith that God is using the events in our lives for our good. We learn to trust Him. We live in hope, knowing the end of the story, of Who wins in the end. And that faith and hope should make us contentedly joyful.
Really, I think we, as Christians, need to spend more time dancing.
Fighting Forests
The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. 2 Samuel 18:8
When you stop to think about it, there are many stories in our culture about scary forests. Snow White was threatened by the forest, the trees reaching out to clutch at her clothes. The dark forest terrified Little Red Riding Hood. And the creators of Prince Caspian did a fantastic job of depicting the fear the men had of the forest. But sometimes we read over the words of 2 Samuel 18:8 and don’t think about what this could have looked like. Think about it. What does it mean that “the forest devoured more people that day than the sword”? Twenty thousand men died that day. We’re not talking a Veggietales yarn where a couple of asparagus get knocked over. Twenty thousand died, and more of those died because of the forest than died due to hand-to-hand combat. I doubt that it was like Prince Caspian where the roots of the trees exploded up through the ground, wrapping around and crushing the enemy soldiers. I doubt that it was like Stars Wars where the flying motorcycles crashed into the trees when the soldiers stupidly looked back over their shoulders to see who was chasing them. I don’t think these were man-eating trees. But they could have been widow-makers, dead falls which crash down when you disturb them. It could also refer to what was in the forest: lions, quicksand, etc. I don’t know. We’re not told.
So what’s the lesson - don’t fight in a forest? No. The author of 2 Samuel records this incident to leave no doubt as to Who gave Israel the victory. Like Joshua 10, where more of the enemy were killed by hailstones than by the sword, or like Joshua 24:12 where we’re told that Sihon and Og’s armies were defeated by hornets, or like the story of Gideon, it’s abundantly clear that God gave the victory.
So what does this have to do with us? Not too many of us are fighting a war. Or are we? Ephesians 6:12 makes it abundantly clear that we are fighting an intense battle: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So what do we do? Do we fortify our position, stockpile ammunition, start a new settlement of like-minded believers. Well, maybe. But not first. First, we seek God. Ephesians 6 goes on to tell us that in order to fight this battle we have to put on the whole armor of God. We’ve got to fight on God’s side. In other words, we’ve got to seek God’s will and serve Him. Because God’s going to win. Think about it: if you’re fighting against God, you have to fight against things like forests, and hornets, and hail. Those are just some of the minors weapons in God’s arsenal. After all, the God we serve is the One who spoke the world into existence. He spoke and it was so!
Now more than ever we have to prepare for battle. We do that, we prepare for battle, by getting as close to God as we possibly can. He is our all in all. He is our strength when we are weak. He is the One who will give us the victory - if we’re in His will. God will help us to succeed if we’re fighting according to His plan and His will.
And you never know, maybe the help that He grants you will come from the trees.
Seek the Light
“For you are my lamp, O LORD, and my God lightens my darkness.” 2 Samuel 22:29
Have you ever taken a cave tour where the tour guide turned off all the lights when in the depths of the cave? It is kind of scary - knowing that there’s no way you’d ever be able to find your way out if the lights were to stay off.
I remember a scary movie that I saw when I was a kid. A group of people were riding the subway when the tunnel collapsed. The movie traces their adventures in trying to get out of the tunnel. They were looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.
Sometimes that’s what our life seems like - that is, like we’re buried and looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, to get out of our difficulties.
As I was thinking of that, one of Jack Prelutsky’s poems came to mind:
The baby bat screamed out in fright:
Turn on the dark,
I’m afraid of the light.
While that strikes our funny bone because it’s upside-down thinking, there’s an interesting lesson in his poem. Our culture, our world, our carnal nature often sees the solution to our predicament in a way that is 180º from the way that God would truly solve the problem. Think about it: the Bible is full of examples of people who acted in a way, in God’s way, that was completely upside down to what the world would expect as normal. Daniel didn’t stop praying to God under pain of being thrown to the lions - as he was! Noah built an ark and filled it with animals - even though the people around him couldn’t see any way that boat would ever float. David fought the champion of the Philistines, Goliath, with a sling and a stone, and he took four additional stones along for Goliath’s brothers. Rahab protected the spies who came to Jericho because she believed that God is real and would give the victory to the Israelites. The indestructible wall of Jericho did fall. The red cord that Rahab hung from her window was the sign to the Israelites of whom they were to spare when Jericho fell.
Interestingly, the word hope in the Bible means a cord - it’s not an intangible feeling. It is a certainty, a blessed assurance of the action of God. That assurance of salvation for Rahab was emphasized by the color red. A Christian today cannot escape the red being symbolic of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
And that’s another upside down example: that the God of the Universe would send His Son to die for the sins of mankind, even though He was completely without sin. That’s the phrase in “My Savior Loves, My Savior Lives” which is so striking: “You count it strange, so once did I, before I knew my Savior.” It is so strange to those who don’t believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation!
Jesus Christ, however, is the Light of the World. That’s one part of this verse in 2 Samuel 22:29. The word “light” is also used in a Messianic sense: that God would light David’s darkness is a way of giving him the promise of descendants! So in a double sense, Jesus Christ fulfills that idea of being the light!
There are a lot of upside down ideas in our world, but you can trust that Jesus is the true light that came into the world. He is the light at the end of the tunnel. He is the solution, the only solution, to our difficulties, to our life! So seek the Light! May God bless you.
There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:2
We use the word rock in our language frequently, in a myriad of ways. Think of: he’s a rock. That means He’s dependable or You can count on him. You may hear: She’s got a rock on her finger. That means the diamond in her ring is enormous. And then there’s the paper, rock, scissors method of decision making. It goes like this: you count to three. On three, you either show a sign for paper (flat hand), rock (fist), or scissors (two fingers out like scissors). Paper trumps rock because it can cover a rock. Rock trumps scissors because it can smash scissors. Scissors trumps paper because it can cut paper. At any rate, it’s another example of rock in our language and culture.
Hannah (1 Samuel 1 -2) knew that the LORD is the Rock, trustworthy and dependable. She knew that there is no other god like our God. There were other gods, pagan gods, in their world, but none of them were holy like Jehovah. None of them had the power of life and death. None of them were truly God.
David knew that. In Psalm 86:8 David writes, “There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.” There is no god of man’s imagination and construction which can do what our God can do. David knew that from the time he was a young man relying on God while he watched over his father’s sheep. He relied on the Rock when facing Goliath. I love the “coincidence,” the symbolism of David using a single small smooth stone from the brook to defeat Goliath. In relying on the Rock, the Living Water, David used a rock from the water.
Isaiah records a prophecy of the Rock: “therefore thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: “Whoever believes will not be in haste.”’ ”(Isaiah 28:16) 1 Peter 2:6-8 cites this verse and then goes on to say, “So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.”
Reading through the first nine books of the Old Testament gives a picture of carnal, human beings who are on the continuum of seeing our Holy God as holy, relying on Him, trusting Him, living their lives in obedience to Him (like Abraham, Ruth, Joseph, Hannah, Samuel, Joshua, David) to those who see Him as just another god, one who is winning today but might not win tomorrow (Pharaoh, the Philistines, the nations around Israel, and sometimes the Israelites themselves - like Micah - see Judges 17:5, or Rachel - see Genesis 31:19). The ones who are listed in Hebrews 11 saw God as the Rock, unmovable, unshakable, dependable, trustworthy, and constant. The others, who did not recognize God as holy, applied the paper, rock, scissors game to God. He was the God of the Hebrews, but He’s not all powerful, they might say - at least, that’s how they lived their lives.
How you live your life is indicative of your view of our God. As cited from 1 Peter, God can become a rock of offense, a stone of stumbling. People stumble over God, because they disobey His word! They don’t obey God’s commandments. They think God doesn’t care or that God doesn’t mind, that God understands. In reality, they are putting themselves above God in modifying God’s commandments, indicating by their actions that they think they are wiser and more important than God. It’s kind of like playing paper, rock, scissors with God’s word, putting God’s commandments on an equal footing with your own desires or the world’s pressures.
I have never liked paper, rock, scissors. Paper can cover rock, but that doesn’t mean paper trumps rock. The rock is still there. The paper hasn’t done anything to the rock. It has only hidden the rock. The rock smashes the scissors. The scissors cut the paper. The rock remains untouched. Similarly, humans down through history have tried to cover over God, to dismiss Him, to ignore His commandments, but He’s still the Rock. He’s still there regardless of how they try to hide him. And because He’s still there, they stumble over Him when they disobey His word.
There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
I love Hannah’s prayer when God answered her request to have a son by giving her Samuel. My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
That’s how I want to live my life - rejoicing in the Lord because He is the source of my strength. He is my salvation. I want people around me to see in my life the evidence that I serve the Holy God, the Almighty, the Rock.
Ebenezer
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” ~ 1 Samuel 7:12
I have two questions for you today: What is an Ebenezer? Do you have an Ebenezer?
The Israelites had just won a battle against the Philistines - a victory obviously given to them by God. So Samuel set up a stone - an Ebenezer - between two cities. Why? Well, Ebenezer means “rock of help.” It was to be a visual reminder anytime anyone saw it that God had given them the victory. It was a statement, a lasting statement, that God was involved in Israel’s affairs to their benefit. It was an attempt to direct the people’s hearts back to God, that they would seek Him and not look to their own devices for help and victory.
What about you? Do you look to your own devices for help and victory in the battles of life? Or do you seek God’s help, guidance, and ultimate victory?
If you’re going to seek a victory that God gives you, then there’s a condition - and you know it: you have to be doing His will. You have to be seeking Him. You have to be fighting the battles that He wants you to fight. That means He has to be sovereign in your sight. He has to be God.
Our carnal nature doesn’t want to submit to God. We want to determine our own affairs. We want our way. We want to be the god of our own life.
So what about that second question: Do you have an Ebenezer? That is, do you have a visual reminder that it is God who has brought you this far, that it is God who has given you the victories in your life, that it is God who is your Rock of Help?
We must be careful that we don’t set up an idol to worship. But it is likewise important to have a reminder that God is our God, that He is the One we seek, that He is the One who has blessed us so greatly.
So think about it. And you know, it wouldn’t hurt to name that reminder “Ebenezer.”
BFF and Belonging
But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 1 Samuel 8:19-20
Educational psychologists will tell you that there are three basic needs that everyone must have met in order to be happy, to be at peace, to be able to learn: food, shelter, belonging. Understandably, it’s hard to be ready to learn if you are belly-pinched and cold, or if you are uncomfortably hot. But the concept of belonging is just as fundamental and yet, less obviously influential. That is, the need to belong impacts all of us: infant and child, teenager and adult - regardless of how we appear to others. That’s why peer pressure is such a big issue among that age which is trying to figure out its place in the world. And yet, peer pressure affects even adults who appear to have it all together.
Peer pressure can make you do incredible things: purple, spiked hair; baggy, ripped jeans; bungee jumping; doing drugs and drinking alcohol; various daredevil stunts. Peer pressure can also push you into worshiping false gods and going against God’s will. Look at 1 Samuel 8:19-20: But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
They wanted to be like all the nations. They wanted a king like everyone else. They wanted him to judge them and to be their spokesman and to fight their battles. This sounded like a great idea to the Israelites - even when Samuel told them not to do this. They refused to obey the voice to Samuel. They had made up their mind that they wanted to be like all the other nations regardless of what anyone, including Samuel, was going to say about it!
Wait a minute! Aren’t these the nations who were worshiping pagan gods? Aren’t these the nations who had become so wicked that God told the Israelites to not only drive them out of the land, but to completely destroy them? These are the nations that Israel wants to look like? This is the government model that Israel is rejecting God in order to assume?
From our perspective, this in incomprehensible! Why in the world would Israel reject the One True God as King in favor of a fallible, human - and therefore, corrupt - king? In contemporary terms, the answer was peer pressure and belonging. They wanted to be like everyone else, even when they were told it was a bad idea.
So what happened? Why didn’t the Israelites remain faithful to God? Why did they reject Him as king? It’s all about relationship. They didn’t have the close relationship with God; they didn’t feel like they belonged to Him. Think about it: when you feel like you belong to God, that He loves you incredibly and you love Him, that’s a powerful deterrent to doing anything which will impair that relationship. It’s a deeper relationship than the one which sees God striking you with a lightning bolt when you do the wrong thing. It’s the kind of relationship where the deterrent is you don’t want to disappoint God.
Think about your own relationship with God. Do you reverence Him as God because He is worthy of all praise? That’s a good starting point. Do you do what you do because you know there’s a judgment coming? That can be a good deterrent. Or do you do what you do out of love for God recognizing that He loved you before you were ever aware of it? That’s a great place to come to. Or do you do what you do because it grieves you to think of feeling His disappointment in your choices? That’s when you know you’re coming closer to the relationship He desires with you. Or do you do what you do because the Holy Spirit has worked in your life, changing you into the image of God so that the new creature in you would not do anything else, could not conceive of doing anything else? That’s when you know you belong to God, that He’s your best friend, your best friend forever.
The need to belong is incredibly powerful! In the song “Remind Me Who I Am,” there’s a line “In the mirror all I see is who I don’t want to be - remind me who I am.” The enemy can use those feelings of falling short of the goal to convince us that we don’t belong to God. The enemy will do whatever he can to make you believe that you don’t belong to God, that you’re not good enough, that you’ve sinned too much. The enemy will try to make you believe that God doesn’t want you, that you’re not important to Him, or conversely, that what you’re about to do won’t matter to God. But you can’t listen to the lies. The reality is that, if you have repented of your sins and accepted Jesus as your Savior, you do belong to Him. God gives us the sabbath, the holy days, and innumerable scriptures to remind us that we are His. If you don’t feel like it, you have some repair work to do in the relationship. You need some more time in prayer and Bible study, fellowship with believers, fasting and meditation. You need to submit to the Holy Spirit’s life-changing work in your life. Let God remind you who you are and that you belong to Him.
**Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
. . . the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b
Materials:
- a “gift” from Australia. When turned inside out, it becomes a koala
- two boxes with a “prize” in each, one box is wrapped; one is not.
- two spice containers: one filled with sugar, one with salt
- two hardback books: one has the center hollowed out, one is a normal book
Several years ago my friend in Australia sent me a gift. It’s a little yellow fabric box, tied with a green fabric ribbon. On the bottom side of the box is a zipper. When you unzip the box and turn it inside out, it becomes a koala. Would any of you have guessed when you first saw the box that it would become a stuffed animal, a koala? Probably not. There were not enough clues for you to know that it would be - unless you’ve seen something like this before.
So It’s really hard to judge what’s inside by just looking at the outside.
I have two boxes. One is just a plain white box. The other box is nicely wrapped with wrapping paper and it has a pretty pink bow on it. What kinds of guesses would you make by looking at the boxes? You might guess that the plain box is for a guy because guys don’t care about wrapping paper. You might guess that the box wrapped in the pretty flower paper has a gift in it that would be best enjoyed by a little girl. You can make some guesses. But you don’t know.
Even when you can see inside the container, you still don’t know for sure what’s inside. I have two spice containers. Both have a powered white substance inside. So you’ve probably made an educated guess that neither contains cinnamon or pepper or basil. But you can’t be absolutely sure what, exactly, the white substance is. You can see it, but you don’t know exactly what it’s characteristics are. What does it taste like? What does it do in water? What does it do to food? Even if I tell you that one is sugar and one is salt, you are still going to want to taste a tiny sample before sprinkling it on your food.
With the koala box, the gift boxes, and the spice containers, the only information you can gather is with your eyes. And even though your eyes are really, really important in gathering information, they can’t give you all the information there is.
That’s why God reminds us that we people can only look on the outward appearance of the people around us. We can only see what they do and what they look like. We can’t really see why they do certain things. We don’t know everything they’ve experienced that goes into who they are. Only God can look at the heart. That’s means you can’t judge them.
- You can’t say, “He looks really mean.” Maybe he had a flat tire on the way to church.
- You can’t say, “She doesn’t like me.” Maybe she’s frowning because she has a blister on her toe and her shoes hurt her feet.
- You can’t say, “He doesn’t care anything about what I say.” Maybe he walked past you when you were talking to him because he can’t hear you.
So, when you meet someone new, it’s a really good thing to remember that you are only looking at the outside. When your brother (or sister) does something you don’t like, it’s a really good thing to remember that you don’t know why (necessarily). When you see someone at church, it’s a really good thing to remember that you don’t know what kind of day they’ve had. It’s your job to be gentle and kind and encouraging. Don’t decide that you know why someone is doing something just based on what you see. That’s like choosing a box just because of what’s on the outside. That’s like pouring salt on your strawberries because you don’t know which is the sugar. It’s like decided you don’t want to open your gift from Australia before you even know what it is. It’s like judging a book by its cover.
I have a book here. It was one of my textbooks in college. It was an expensive textbook, but it was dated and not very useful. So I made it very useful. I cut away the insides of the pages, and now it holds candy - for people who didn’t judge the book by its cover and decide they weren’t interested in what is inside.
. . . the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b
**More Than Meets the Eye
Memory Verse: “Man looks at how someone appears on the outside. I look at what is in the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIrV)
Materials Needed: a box of treasures, several books, YEA lesson (Book 3, Lesson 8)
Have you ever picked up a box and decided you knew what was in it just by looking at the outside? How did that work out for you?
What about picking up a book and deciding what’s inside by looking at the cover? When I was a kid, I didn’t think I would like this book (Mandy by Julie [Andrews] Edwards), but when Mom read it and liked it, I gave it a try - and it became one of my favorites. I was similarly unfavorably disposed to read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster because of the word “Phantom” in the title. But it is likewise one of my favorites. And then there’s this book - a textbook that gives a synopsis of all kinds of books. It’s very valuable - right? Well, I didn’t think so. So I hollowed it out and made it a mini-safe/hiding place. No one would ever guess what’s on the inside just by looking at the cover!!
The same is true about the people. We can’t know what’s going on in their heart just by looking at the outside. Nevertheless, we sure are good at judging other people. If someone is driving too fast on the highway, what is the first thing you think? Do you wonder if they are responding to a family emergency? Or is your first thought that they are reckless and inconsiderate? If the check out clerk at the grocery store is rude, do you respond with rudeness . . . or do you think that maybe they’re having a bad day because something bad happened - like their dog just died? Have you ever met someone for the very first time and thought that there’s no way you could possibly ever like that person? Occasionally you get the opportunity to find out the you were very wrong and you really truly like that person! The crazy thing is that we build up all kinds of stories in our head about why people are doing the things they are doing - and seldom do we ever find out just how incredibly wrong we were!
I hope the next time you see someone doing something that you think is really odd (as long as it isn’t breaking God’s laws), stop and consider that their heart is a lot more difficult to see into than the box or the book. What’s going on inside could very well surprise you!
Behaving Yourself Wisely
And David had success in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him. 1 Samuel 18:14
Wouldn’t you love to have this said about you - that you had success in everything you did because the LORD was with you?! It’s like having the Midas touch: everything you touch turns to gold. But you could walk away from this verse with an erroneous impression. You could think that no matter what David did, good decisions or bad decisions, God stepped in and miraculously turned them all to good. The KJV, the NKJV, and the NIV give a different impression. Those versions all translate the phrase had success as behaved himself wisely. Look at how that changes the impression you have from the verse:
And David behaved himself wisely in all his undertakings, for the LORD was with him.
This rendering emphasizes David’s reliance on God’s direction, gaining wisdom from God, before he went into a situation. David made wise choices because God was with him, which leads to an understood implication that he had success in whatever he did.
Too often Christians believe that no matter what decision they make, God will take it and work all things out for their good. That’s Romans 8:28, and yes, that’s true. God can and will work out all things for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. But that’s not quite the same thing as having success in everything you do. God can take the disasters, the illnesses and diseases, the bad choices, and He can use them to mold you into the person He wants you to be. But that’s not the same thing as making them all good immediately, ensuring that you have success in everything you do.
Proverbs 3:5-6, rather, shows what happens when you seek God’s direction in your life, asking for His wisdom before you act.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
We all want to be successful in this life, and we eagerly desire to be successful from God’s definition, not necessarily man’s definition. David’s example highlights that it’s not that his relationship with God just automatically ensured his success - for David made decisions that were not Godly and they didn’t turn out so well. It’s that when David sought God’s direction and relied on God’s wisdom, he had success. Similarly, you can’t think that just because you have a relationship with God that that will ensure success in all that you do. If, however, you make decisions based on wisdom from God, then you’ll be successful in all that you do. Think about it. Seek God; behave yourself wisely.
Strengthen One Another
And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. 1 Samuel 23:16
This is such an interesting verse. Think about it: Jonathan knows that the kingship will never belong to him even if he is Saul’s heir. God has determined that David will be king. Jonathan could have been tempted to complain loudly that this was not fair; why punish the children for the sins of the father? After all, we know that God had a relationship with Jonathan too - look at the account in 1 Samuel 14. But Jonathan’s perspective is not on what he can get. He fully accepted and acknowledged that David would be king. More than just acknowledging David’s future, he was actually a very good friend to David. That’s where this verse comes in. Saul had been trying to kill David on and off for years. Despite his father’s intentions, Jonathan strengthens David. In the positive application, this word means to encourage, to make firm, to make strong. But we get a better idea of the degree of strengthening we’re talking about when we consider it in the negative applications. It’s used 12 times in Exodus when speaking of hardening Pharaoh’s heart! Pharaoh’s heart was made so firm, so hard against God’s will that it resulted in the destruction of the Egyptian economy (the loss of the slave workforce, the destruction of the spring food crop, the annihilation of many animals) and as well as, potentially, his own death, if not during the plague on the firstborn, then when the Egyptian army was drowned in the Red Sea.
This Hebrew word, then, translated in 1 Samuel 23:16 as “strengthened” is not a slight or minor encouragement.
O.K. But so what? This is just a nice Old Testament story of friendship, right? It doesn’t have any application to us. Or does it?
I think it has a lot to do with us. I think it’s part of how we’re to occupy until He comes (and no, I’m not talking about occupying Wall Street). Consider these verses:
“I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.” Ephesians 6:22, Colossians 4:8
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
“After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia.” Acts 20:1
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25
“strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22
These last two verses really highlight the necessity of encouraging our brothers and sisters in Christ! This is something that should come naturally to the Christian. After all, we see encouraging behavior from Jesus - and He is the One we are to emulate. Remember the instance in John 16? Jesus tells his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (vs. 33) Then, speaking specifically to Peter, Jesus said, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:32).
I think Jesus would also tell us to strengthen and encourage one another. What does that look like? I think it has to do with redirecting our focus, should it waver, back to seeking God, looking to please Him, to become holy - always. Think of the physical trappings which can be a wonderful asset in encouraging someone else. But don’t become bogged down in the physical realm to the point that it becomes a distraction, i.e. the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.
So what is it that you can do today to encourage a brother or sister in Christ? Look for opportunities. Put it on your list of things to do, every day, until it becomes a part of your natural routine.
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:3-4
Find ways to strengthen God’s people - not superficially, but with the kind of strengthening depicted by Jonathan towards David. After all, it’s not really about you; as Isaiah 35:4 indicates, it’s about beholding your God!
**Be Faithful
The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness . . . 1 Samuel 26:23
Materials: overhead transparency, dry erase marker, paper
Faithful means being loyal, constant, or steadfast. It means being true to the facts or the original.
So if you have a faithful friend, they will always treat you as a friend. They won’t make fun of you behind your back. They won’t act like they like you when you’re around, but talk badly about you when you’re not there. A faithful friend is loving and supportive all the time.
So if you have a faithful dog, he follows you around. He protects you. He wants to be with you. He will go to great lengths to do what pleases you. He doesn’t bite you. He isn’t enticed by other people or things. He’s your dog and everyone knows it.
If you have a movie that is faithful to the book it was based upon, it doesn’t change the storyline. It doesn’t introduce new characters. The movie turns out the same way the book ends. The movie is faithful to the original book, to the facts in the book.
God is also faithful. He is constant and steadfast. He never changes. He is good. He is love. He is patient and long-suffering. And because God is faithful, you can absolutely depend upon God to always be this way.
It should, then, come as no surprise that God rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. If you do what is right and you are steadfast in what you do, you please God - because God is righteous and faithful!
So we know what it means to have a faithful friend, or a faithful dog, or a movie faithful to a book, but what does it mean for you to be faithful - in a way that pleases God? It means that when God tells you what to do, you make sure that’s what you do. It means that when you tell people you are a Christian, that you make sure you act like a Christian should act.
If there’s a box on the table labeled “matches,” I would expect it to have matches in it. In order for it to be true to the fact of what it says, matches should be in it. If I find something other than matches in it, it was not faithful to what it said. In the same way, if you say that you are a Christian, what comes from you - your words and actions - should look Christian, according to God’s definition!
Remember, the memory verse says that God rewards everyone for his or her righteousness and faithfulness. So think of the characteristics you have that are righteous, like honesty or helpfulness. If you are consistent in those characteristics, that’s pleasing to God.
But how do you stay faithful to what God wants from you? You have choices every day. Are you going to be generous or selfish? Are you going to be loving or hateful? Are you going to tell the truth or a lie? Are you going to be obedient to your parents or disobedient?
It’s like a transparency film over the paper. If it’s not a righteous choice, a Godly choice, a choice that pleases God, it doesn’t get written on the paper. If it’s a decision that is faithful to God’s ways, then you can write it on the paper.
The reality is that sometimes we mess up. We make a wrong choice. We don’t act in a right way. We are not faithful to God. So we repent, telling God that we’re sorry, and then we try again.
It can be discouraging to find out how many times we make a wrong choice. How many times did your mom have to scold you or punish you this week for making a choice that was not right, that was not faithful to God’s ways? If you are not happy with how often you were in trouble, you can always ask God for His help in making the right choices. It’s an extra help in choosing to put the transparency over the paper so that the wrong choices can’t get through.
We have lots of choices to make in this life. Our goal is to make choices which are righteous and faithful to God, so that God will be pleased.
Staying With the Stuff
For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike. 1 Samuel 30:24b
I’m so glad this verse is in the Bible. I’m very glad that David was the kind of commander who valued all of his men. In this instance, David and his men came back from accompanying the Philistines to find their homes burned by the Amalekites and their wives and families taken captive. David inquired of God, who told them to pursue the Amalekites, that they would be victorious and rescue the captives. So David and his six hundred men started in pursuit. When they got ready to cross the brook Besor, two hundred of these men were too exhausted to continue the chase. So David left them and all the baggage (the KJV says “stuff”). This is a good decision. You can travel more quickly if you’re not slowed down by exhausted men and all the stuff you have to carry with you. But when they were successful and returned to the “stuff,” some of the four hundred men didn’t want to share the spoil with the two hundred who had stayed behind.
David and his six hundred men were working together as a team, as a unit. There are many similar teams today: baseball, churches, families. Sometimes one person, or a couple of people, seem to be pulling more weight than the others on the team. But it’s not so. Think about the Cardinals. There are an incredible number of people behind the scenes who are rarely recognized, among whom are equipment managers, the ones who make sure all the stuff is in good condition and, regardless of whether the game is home or away, that the stuff is in the right place at the right time. Think about churches. If you think the only one who works in a church is the person giving the study, you’d be sadly mistaken. But the person who keeps the church clean, the one who makes sure there’s always stuff, like plates, cups, and silverware for potluck, those are the people who are rarely recognized. Even families have to work together as a team. Just because Dad is usually the one who goes out to bring home a paycheck doesn’t mean that Mom who usually stays at home with the stuff, cleaning the house, doing laundry, and raising the kids isn’t doing an important job.
Sometimes there’s a star baseball player who seems to think that without him the team would never win another game. Sometimes a preacher seems to think that without him the church would fall apart. They think that what the “little people” do is not all that significant. That was the viewpoint of some of the four hundred who had gone with David. They felt that those two hundred who had stayed with the stuff really hadn’t contributed to the victory. The author of Samuel calls these few “wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David.” And David’s response to them shows who was really important in the victory against the Amalekites to recover their families and property. David gives full credit to God for the victory; it wasn’t what any of the four hundred had done in and of themselves, and they would do well to remember that! In fact, David’s judgment was made a statue and a rule in Israel from that day forward. For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.
Can you imagine how divisive and destructive such an attitude can be on a team? The arrogance of a central figure who doesn’t recognize the value of all the people on the team can cause demoralization to the point where they no longer function as a team. I can remember players who didn’t want to play for the Cardinals any more because they thought Mark McGuire was getting too much attention. I know people who stop attending certain churches because they think the preacher thinks of himself more highly than he ought, he thinks he’s infallible. I know families that have fallen apart because the husband did not value his wife and her contributions to the family. And I can guess at the infighting which would have occurred among the six hundred men who followed David, had David given a different answer.
So, what lesson do we take from this today? Stop and think about the different teams you are on - family, church, social, athletic. How do you contribute? And how do you treat the other members of your team? Those who stay with the stuff are just as important as the ones in the limelight.
Waiting On God
“And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” 2 Samuel 2:4a
anointed 4886 This word means “to rub with oil, to besmear, to anoint” - It was a formal way of inducting leaders into office, like a coronation
king 4428 This word means king, ruler, or prince. “Rulers were thought to be constituted by divine authority rather than human authority. To come before the judge was equivalent to coming before God.”
David is first anointed king by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16. David knows that this is from God; this is his destiny. However, it is not until 2 Samuel 2:4 that we actually see this fulfilled - David anointed king. Furthermore, David was not, at this time, anointed king over all of Israel, only Judah. In fact, David reigned over Judah alone for seven years and six months (2 Samuel 5:5) before he was anointed king over the remainder of Israel as well.
How do you think David viewed that? We know there was war between David’s kingdom and Saul’s kingdom (2 Samuel 3:1). We know that David had already been chosen by God years before. So how do you think David might have felt over the delay?
I suspect that David was content with what God decreed. Why do I say that? David and Jonathan were best friends. There’s an old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” We know that Jonathan did not begrudge David the throne. Rather, Jonathan gave David his personal belongings, acknowledging David’s right to them in God’s eyes. I think that Jonathan’s example is a good indication that David also was willing to wait on God for His perfect timing - even if it was 7+ years in the future before it would be realized.
What about you? Do you become impatient waiting on God? Do you think you should have the promises now? You know that saying, “All good things come to those who wait”? Do you feel like you’ve waited long enough? Do you want some good things now? But wait a minute! Don’t you have any good things right now? Can you name any blessings? I know you can! That being the case, I would exhort each of you to follow David’s example, to be content with God’s perfect timing and His will for you.
Dance!
And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 2 Samuel 6:14
One of our black labs shows joy by wagging her tail - as if it were a propeller; it goes around in a circle. She enthusiastically licks whomever she’s pleased with. She also “skitters” - that is, she leaps, crouches, scratches at the floor, and throws herself into another leap. She thoroughly delights us as we watch her antics; we often comment, “Boy! Ebony is really feeling good today!”
I think it also delights God when we show our joyfulness. Ken Davis emphasizes this in some of his comedy routines. He says it’s incongruous that a Christian can be one for 20 years and it not be obvious because of the joyfulness he exhibits. He says, “Someone ought to send a missionary to your face.” We Christians, of all people, should be the most joyful because of the awesome God we serve.
So how do we show that joy? David danced. And David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. 2 Samuel 6:14 This is the instance when they are bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. This is not just some piece of old furniture. This is the ark of the covenant, covered with the mercy seat. This is where the high priest makes atonement for the whole community once a year. This is where God met with Moses. This symbolically represents God’s presence with the Israelites. This is a big deal!
Another time the women danced because of the obvious presence of God is related in Exodus 15:20. The Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea. God had drowned the Egyptian army, rescuing His people from their hand in a very decisive manner!
When David struck the Philistines in 1 Samuel 18, the women sang and danced and lauded King Saul and David. There was great joy because of the deliverance Israel received.
But as Christians, we don’t just express joy when things are going well, when God has worked mightily, favorably in our lives. We also express joy because He is our God even in the midst of trials. I met a lady this week who was in a serious car accident six years ago. A simple trip to McDonald’s to get a hamburger changed her life in profound ways. She has had numerous surgeries, but will never walk again. She lives with pain every day, and it has led to divorce. Yet she told me that she is glad that the accident happened. Glad! She said she was backsliding, her word, that she wasn’t seeking God and living in a God-honoring way. She needed the wake up call. The accident and resulting pain on so many levels has caused her to seek God and learn to trust Him no matter what.
Her comments made me think of Nehemiah 8:10: . . .The joy of the LORD is your strength. You see, when we find our joy in the Lord, we are living our lives with the faith that this present pain and trial is just temporary (2 Cor. 4:17), that the day is coming when there will be no more pain or sorrow or crying or death (Revelation 21:4). We demonstrate our faith that God is using the events in our lives for our good. We learn to trust Him. We live in hope, knowing the end of the story, of Who wins in the end. And that faith and hope should make us contentedly joyful.
Really, I think we, as Christians, need to spend more time dancing.
Fighting Forests
The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. 2 Samuel 18:8
When you stop to think about it, there are many stories in our culture about scary forests. Snow White was threatened by the forest, the trees reaching out to clutch at her clothes. The dark forest terrified Little Red Riding Hood. And the creators of Prince Caspian did a fantastic job of depicting the fear the men had of the forest. But sometimes we read over the words of 2 Samuel 18:8 and don’t think about what this could have looked like. Think about it. What does it mean that “the forest devoured more people that day than the sword”? Twenty thousand men died that day. We’re not talking a Veggietales yarn where a couple of asparagus get knocked over. Twenty thousand died, and more of those died because of the forest than died due to hand-to-hand combat. I doubt that it was like Prince Caspian where the roots of the trees exploded up through the ground, wrapping around and crushing the enemy soldiers. I doubt that it was like Stars Wars where the flying motorcycles crashed into the trees when the soldiers stupidly looked back over their shoulders to see who was chasing them. I don’t think these were man-eating trees. But they could have been widow-makers, dead falls which crash down when you disturb them. It could also refer to what was in the forest: lions, quicksand, etc. I don’t know. We’re not told.
So what’s the lesson - don’t fight in a forest? No. The author of 2 Samuel records this incident to leave no doubt as to Who gave Israel the victory. Like Joshua 10, where more of the enemy were killed by hailstones than by the sword, or like Joshua 24:12 where we’re told that Sihon and Og’s armies were defeated by hornets, or like the story of Gideon, it’s abundantly clear that God gave the victory.
So what does this have to do with us? Not too many of us are fighting a war. Or are we? Ephesians 6:12 makes it abundantly clear that we are fighting an intense battle: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So what do we do? Do we fortify our position, stockpile ammunition, start a new settlement of like-minded believers. Well, maybe. But not first. First, we seek God. Ephesians 6 goes on to tell us that in order to fight this battle we have to put on the whole armor of God. We’ve got to fight on God’s side. In other words, we’ve got to seek God’s will and serve Him. Because God’s going to win. Think about it: if you’re fighting against God, you have to fight against things like forests, and hornets, and hail. Those are just some of the minors weapons in God’s arsenal. After all, the God we serve is the One who spoke the world into existence. He spoke and it was so!
Now more than ever we have to prepare for battle. We do that, we prepare for battle, by getting as close to God as we possibly can. He is our all in all. He is our strength when we are weak. He is the One who will give us the victory - if we’re in His will. God will help us to succeed if we’re fighting according to His plan and His will.
And you never know, maybe the help that He grants you will come from the trees.
Seek the Light
“For you are my lamp, O LORD, and my God lightens my darkness.” 2 Samuel 22:29
Have you ever taken a cave tour where the tour guide turned off all the lights when in the depths of the cave? It is kind of scary - knowing that there’s no way you’d ever be able to find your way out if the lights were to stay off.
I remember a scary movie that I saw when I was a kid. A group of people were riding the subway when the tunnel collapsed. The movie traces their adventures in trying to get out of the tunnel. They were looking for the light at the end of the tunnel.
Sometimes that’s what our life seems like - that is, like we’re buried and looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, to get out of our difficulties.
As I was thinking of that, one of Jack Prelutsky’s poems came to mind:
The baby bat screamed out in fright:
Turn on the dark,
I’m afraid of the light.
While that strikes our funny bone because it’s upside-down thinking, there’s an interesting lesson in his poem. Our culture, our world, our carnal nature often sees the solution to our predicament in a way that is 180º from the way that God would truly solve the problem. Think about it: the Bible is full of examples of people who acted in a way, in God’s way, that was completely upside down to what the world would expect as normal. Daniel didn’t stop praying to God under pain of being thrown to the lions - as he was! Noah built an ark and filled it with animals - even though the people around him couldn’t see any way that boat would ever float. David fought the champion of the Philistines, Goliath, with a sling and a stone, and he took four additional stones along for Goliath’s brothers. Rahab protected the spies who came to Jericho because she believed that God is real and would give the victory to the Israelites. The indestructible wall of Jericho did fall. The red cord that Rahab hung from her window was the sign to the Israelites of whom they were to spare when Jericho fell.
Interestingly, the word hope in the Bible means a cord - it’s not an intangible feeling. It is a certainty, a blessed assurance of the action of God. That assurance of salvation for Rahab was emphasized by the color red. A Christian today cannot escape the red being symbolic of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
And that’s another upside down example: that the God of the Universe would send His Son to die for the sins of mankind, even though He was completely without sin. That’s the phrase in “My Savior Loves, My Savior Lives” which is so striking: “You count it strange, so once did I, before I knew my Savior.” It is so strange to those who don’t believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation!
Jesus Christ, however, is the Light of the World. That’s one part of this verse in 2 Samuel 22:29. The word “light” is also used in a Messianic sense: that God would light David’s darkness is a way of giving him the promise of descendants! So in a double sense, Jesus Christ fulfills that idea of being the light!
There are a lot of upside down ideas in our world, but you can trust that Jesus is the true light that came into the world. He is the light at the end of the tunnel. He is the solution, the only solution, to our difficulties, to our life! So seek the Light! May God bless you.