1 Sam. 17-18
I love David’s fearlessness and his confidence in God, the living God. He had no doubt that no man who defied God as Goliath had would stand. All that was needed was for somebody…anybody…to be willing to stand against him on God’s behalf. David knew God was with him, and so he stood in that gap.
What I don’t understand is Eliab’s anger toward him. Why would he get so mad simply because David was asking around? I can only think that it must have been shame at his own unwillingness to take that stand. There must have been a part of him that would rather not be “shown up” by his little brother than for Israel to be freed from fear of the Philistines (that pride thing again…). And so he accuses David of having evil in his heart, when really the evil was in Eliab’s – some things never change (projection, anyone?). But David did not let that deter him, either.
I also love the humility of both Jonathan and David in this passage. David, because he knew that Samuel had anointed him as God’s chosen, yet he was content to wait until God put him in that position rather than trying to claim any right to it on his own. He did not even consider himself worthy to become Saul’s son-in-law and brought Saul double the bride-price required of him. And Jonathan because he was heir to the throne but was content to lose that position to David. Instead of resenting David, in fact, they became fast friends. Their souls were “knit together”, the Bible says – I love that and have been blessed to have such a friendship with someone so that I understand what it means.
Luke 20:27-47
Jesus gives us a glimpse of the timeless nature of God in this passage. Luke 20:38 says, “Now He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.” For all live to Him…It seems to me that death isn’t really death, but merely a passage into something like another dimension; a passage out of our time-bound realm. In our time-bound realm, Christ comes after David, and is thus a son of David. But outside of time, Christ is above all.
It’s mind-blowing, but trying to remove time from the equation when thinking about God and various Biblical doctrines dramatically changes the perspective. I think there are so many things that we fight and argue over simply because we do not take the timelessness of God into consideration and are not willing to be content with the fact that there are many things we simply cannot understand as long as we remain bound by time.