1 Samuel 17:9-11

1 Samuel 17:9-11 

English Standard Version 

  The story of David and Goliath is always told from the perspective of David as the hero, but we forget that Saul was involved as well.  Saul was still king of Israel, and while David was dismayed that Goliath would insult Israel and their God, Saul was merely afraid.  As much as David succeeded, Saul failed, because he opted for fear rather than boldness.  Saul had seen what God could do, and yet he didn't trust in that, because he looked at himself rather than God, and because his eyes were focused on the wrong place, Saul was afraid.  Saul's fear paralyzed him, which created an opening for David, a man of faith after God's own heart, to choose action because he trusted in God.

  The warning here for us is to keep our eyes focused on God.  When we let our hearts hear the melodies of God's power and love, we are in tune with God and then are not afraid of the things that threaten us.  When we let our lives bend according to God's will, we find strength we didn't know we had, because it isn't our own -- it belongs to God, and God will sustain and support us.  When we rely on God, the words of Goliath do not cause us to fear, because we know who holds the heavens and earth.

1 Samuel 15:10-11

1 Samuel 15:10-11 

English Standard Version 

  There are situations that are simply tragic.  The people wanted a king, and so God reluctantly agreed to give them a king, despite warning them that it wouldn't end well.  Here we are, not much later, and it's not ending well.  Saul doesn't follow the commandments of God, and the people are suffering because of it.  What I appreciate is Samuel's devotion.  Samuel is the prophet, and he serves as the intermediary between the people and God.  Samuel sees the pain unfolding, and he weeps for the people, and he weeps for the brokenness in the people and in their relationship.  Samuel sees where things are going, and he weeps.

  When we see the heartbreak in the world, may we care enough to do the same.  It's easy to be callous, to stop seeing the ways the world is broken, to not notice how much pain there is.  We all have enough on our plate, we don't want to take on the suffering of others.

  But that's not the kind of life we are called into.  We're called to be in relationships with people around us, and to let the things of the world break our hearts the same way they break God's heart.  May we continue to care deeply about the people in the world, that we care enough to be involved, to pray for solutions, and to work for peace.

Psalm 33:1-5

Psalm 33:1-5 

English Standard Version 

  I do believe that God delights in creation -- we get that sense in Genesis, when God rests when it is complete, and we find that again in Job, when God is speaking of the wondrous things that God has made.  In Revelation, when creation has been renewed, there is an amazing claim that there will not need to be any light, for God himself will be the light of the people.  

  The reality of sin is working against God's order in creation, and we all have a choice as to where we want to direct the attention of our hearts.  We can choose to praise God and meditate on God's good works, or we can pursue false idols or a life of materialism.  The challenging thing about the choice is that it's rarely crystal clear -- I don't think people wake up and decide they're going to pursue an idol.  We drift into it, making choices unconsciously, doing what is easy or goes along with the mainstream.

  When we praise God, we make the intentional choice to focus on God's faithfulness, on God's righteousness, on God's justice.  In doing so, we let the steadfast love of God fill us, and then it flows through us into the lives of those around us, and we join with God in working towards the new creation.

In the Heart of the Sea

   Well, I finished Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea, the true story of the Essex, the ship that inspired Moby Dick.  It was... hard to read. It's hard to imagine what the whaling life was like -- captains and the crew would leave for two year voyages around Cape Horn to search for whales in the Pacific Ocean before returning to their Nantucket base.  And reading about the process for killing and disassembling a whale is somewhat stomach churning, even if I've read about it in other books.  I always end up feeling sorry for the whale.  

  Ultimately, what makes this so hard to read is the trial endured by the cast members after a whale rams the Essex and it sinks far from land.  They are initially divided up into 3 whaleboats, and the captain makes the wrong decision to sail for South America rather than Tahiti.  They were worried about rumors of cannibals in the Marquesas Islands, and Philbrick does a good job explaining how this incorrect information likely led to the death of several crewmembers who probably would have survived had they sailed west to the Islands rather than making the long journey east.  The harrowing accounts of life in a whaleboat for months with few resources and increasingly desperate crewmembers is sad and tragic.  

  Here's hoping for some lighter material in the next few books!