Thoughts on the Bible Readings (1 Samuel 28, Jeremiah 4, Matthew 15) for July 14th

1 Samuel 28 is the lowest point in Saul's life. In chapter 10 we see a promising beginning for a humble young man who God caused to be surrounded by a band of spiritually talented men. From there he slid lower and lower in the failure of removing all of the Amalekites and then to the slaughter of the Gibeonites. Yahweh refused to answer Saul and so in his extremity with a massive Philistine army having invaded the land he turns to a witch, or a medium, as some translations say.

Saul travelled at night accompanied by members of his army to Endor to hear of his fate from a woman whose life was in danger from her king who had removed from Israel "all those with familiar spirits". The first interchange of words between Saul and the woman illustrates how these types of people are able to delude others and gain their confidence. A very tall man in the company of other men comes to her home not far from the site of the coming battle. This man assures her, that even though the king has determined to destroy mediums, he can guarantee her safety. He then asks her to stir up the spirit of Samuel. The woman says "You have deceived me - you're Saul". Who else could it be? She delivers a disturbing message to the king. Did she summon Samuel from the dead? Certainly not!

Why would God allow this when he had refused to answer Saul? Also there is no communication with the unconscious dead. Notice that Saul asks her what she has seen. And her answers are vague, and many in Israel would have described Samuel in this way. She also relates information that many in Israel knew very well. The woman tells Saul that he and his sons would die in battle tomorrow. Anyone could see that this was the most likely outcome for an unequal battle. Finally the woman implores Saul and his men to eat before departing for the battle.

In Jeremiah 4 verse 1-2 the LORD asks Israel to return to Him and promises that if they do this the Gentiles will embrace their God: Isaiah 65:16-19. Verses 3-4 says that repentance is a matter of a heart that has been touched by God and has nothing to do with outward appearances. And without anyone truly seeking the Almighty our God will bring justice to every hypocrite. Verses 5-8 reveal that the day of settling for the nation would come in His bringing judgment from the Babylonians in the north. The Babylonians are depicted as a ravenous lion ready to sweep upon the prey - Judah. Verses 9-13 speak of how Judah's hearts will tremble from the king down to the commoner. Verses 14-18 tell the nation to change its ways, since their doings have caused this coming doom. Verses 19-31 give a word picture of the destruction that the Babylonians have brought upon guilty Judah. Jeremiah is anguished by his contemplation of this scene of devastation. The prophet likens the pain of Judah to a woman in hard  labour.

Matthew 15 describes the lengths to which Jewish traditions could be taken to subvert Divine precepts and the Word of the LORD. The 5th commandment, described as the first with promise (Ephesians 6 verses 1-3), was bypassed by a legal ruse known as Corban. It allowed the wealthy to avoid all responsibility to their parents by declaring with an oath that an individual's entire wealth belonged to God. Whilst ,at the same time, ensuring that the wealthy enjoyed unfettered access to everything "promised" to the Temple. Just like the times of Jeremiah the chosen people gave mere lip service to their Creator and substituted this for this is what the truth demanded by our Sovereign demands from all disciples.

The record tells of a discussion about the true source of defilement of people - that is their own fleshly minds  - and not any external thing. These matters reveal Pharisaism as an example of the blind leadership of the blind. The faith of the Canaanite woman, whose daughter Jesus healed, was astonishing to our Lord. This incredible incident is like the faith of the Roman centurion in Matthew 8. This woman's belief and accepting of the power of Jesus to heal and his authority caused our Lord Jesus to marvel.

This faithful woman acknowledged that privileges rightly rested upon the covenant people of Israel. She also requested that Jesus graciously give her crumbs that fell from the chosen people's table by heading her daughter. The chapter tells us that Jesus performed many miracles for the Gentiles. This caused many of them to ascribe praise to the God of Israel. The chapter concludes by telling us that our Lord Jesus fed 4,000 gentiles. This was despite his own Apostles' reticence to show any compassion to those people who were after all Gentile dogs. Our Lord never shared such prejudices. Christ was always expansive in his love of all and freely distributed the gospel's bounties.