Day 150, 28th January: 1 Samuel, John and Psalms
Opposition
Claire Farley
Today’s readings
1 Samuel 26:1-28:25
John 19:1-27
Psalm 68:21-27
Ever feel like the world is against you? Facing opposition began when human beings chose to live in opposition to how God intended.
King Saul chose to lead God’s people his own way, and God opposed him, choosing David to be Israel’s next king (1 Samuel 16). Saul’s jealousy then inspires him to take 3000 of the Israelite SAS into the wilderness to kill his successor. Saul is lost in a maze of bad decisions.
When David was chosen to be king he was a young man and already ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Sam 13). His zeal for God led him to fight Goliath, and his victories were widely celebrated, provoking Saul’s jealousy and insecurity. Now David finds himself having to trust God for his future as he runs for his life in the wilderness. But Abishai suggests a way out; to kill Saul whilst he is sleeping but David sees a better way to challenge Saul’s behaviour. His wise actions and his gracious and humble words help Saul take responsibility for his own behaviour, apologise and even bless David and repent of trying to kill him. God has given David a way to challenge Saul whilst preserving his own integrity, and miraculously, peace is restored to their relationship.
Sadly David’s good decision is soon overshadowed by his lies and abuse of the Philistines. As for Saul, his desperation to remain king leads him to seek out Samuel’s spirit through a medium. The passage seems to suggest it was Samuel’s spirit speaking to Saul, but we know the devil himself can masquerade as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). God warns people not to mess with this kind of spiritual activity (Deut 18:10-13) and Saul is ‘filled with fear’ after his experience.
Jesus is facing opposition from the Jews. He knows what is coming; betrayal, injustice, abuse, agony, but he has made his choice. He knows when he should stand up for himself and when he should surrender and as we press on in reading God’s word, connecting to His heart and understanding our mission in life, we will get wiser as to how we should face the opposition that will inevitably come our way.
As the Psalm says, there will be a day when justice is done, when those who do evil will be stopped, when God is worshipped and good prevails.
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Today’s picture was taken by…
Rhona Sewell . Thanks Rhona!
If you’d like to take your own picture to potentially be featured on the blog, then get your Soul Survivor Bible in One Year, and take a picture of yourself – and your Bible – at some interesting or colourful location. Then email it to us at editor@soulsurvivor.com.
The pictures will need to be a pretty good resolution (we use 640px by 360 px so at least as big as that), landscape photos work best and if you include the day of the reading in the picture then make sure you send it to us a good few days before that reading, so we have time to include it in that day’s post! We’ll credit all photographers!
