23 January 2014 - crushing defeated

23 January 2014 - crushing defeated

The LORD is the one who gives David victory.  It makes Saul jealous, since the victory seems greater than his own.  But Saul is being prideful.  Is Saul interested in what the LORD is doing to build up his kingdom or is he interesting in the vanity of his own projects? 

When he took his life in his hands and slew the Philistine,
and the LORD brought about a great victory
for all Israel through him,
you were glad to see it.

Jonathan helps Saul to realize that he is lost in his own pride.  He comes to realize that "the LORD brought about a great victory for all Israel".  It isn't about Saul and his efforts.  It about God's love for his people.  Learning this can help us to be free from fear. 

Now I know that God is with me.
In God, in whose promise I glory,
in God I trust without fear;
what can flesh do against me?

If it is all about us and what we can do we have good reason to be afraid.  We don't know what the future will hold.  We don't know if our human strength is enough or if it will last.  But if we trust in God what can flesh do against us?  This what it means to "walk before God in the light of the living."

When we are lost in our own plans, when we have a fixed and static way in which we imagine God to work, we risk crowding out God's initiative.  If we are too insistent that he continue to work in these old ways he may have to put distance between us and him.  Yes, he feeds the crowds with bread.  Yes, he cures many.  But there is something greater on the horizon.  There is something less glamorous in store.  There is a baptism with which he must be baptized (cf. Luk. 12:50).  And it is so awesome and terrible that even Peter says, "This shall never happen to you" (cf. Mat. 16:22).

He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.

We should get as close to Jesus as we can.  We should try to touch him.  This is how the hemorrhaging woman is healed when she reaches out to touch Jesus (cf. Mar. 5:29).  But we need to be careful not to crush him.  This is vitally import for us to get.  As we progress in our walk with Jesus we experience his victory in certain areas of life.  We experience victory over sin in specific ways.  Let's pause to remember how the LORD has been victorious in us.  Yet after these victories there are always new adventures and new struggles.  We can't cling to the comfort of old victories and healings so much that we refuse to embark on these new paths to which we are doubtlessly being called.

The LORD ultimately wants relationship with us.  He wants us humble and pure so that we can really know who he is.  The demons won't confuse us with their half-truths.  They tell us that he is only the LORD if he does this or that.  Death is the ultimate barrier that prevents us from seeing God as he really is.   This is why he is ultimately  revealed as LORD by his resurrection from the dead (cf. Rom. 1:4).  Sharing that victory is the ultimate priority which gives meaning to all other triumphs and healings we experience. 

For you have rescued me from death,
my feet, too, from stumbling;
that I may walk before God in the light of the living.