This week, we continued in the series, “Two Kings, Two
Thrones.” In this series we’ve been looking at how the kingdoms of David and
Saul are pictures of rule by grace and law.
In 1 Samuel 13, shortly after Saul was pronounced king, the Philistines
are camping and preparing to attack Israel land of Canaan
Fear will cause us to run and hide. It will cause us to
give up on the promises of God and go back to the wilderness. Note that the Israelites hid in “easy” areas
to hide and separated themselves, and hid in the “natural” areas they would go
in. Some even went back over the Jordan
Samuel had told Saul to go to Gilgal and wait seven days
for him to arrive. Then Samuel, the priest, would offer sacrifices. Saul, on
the seventh day (but before it was over) gets impatient and thinks Samuel isn’t
coming. The men are getting restless, and he decides to make the offerings
himself. The offerings he sets out to do are the Burnt Offering an the
Fellowship Offering. Both of these offerings had portions that are performed by
the individual making the offering and a part done by the priest.
Saul completes the Burnt Offering, and Samuel arrives
furious at Saul. The moment of his arrival is based on the mercy of God because
if Saul had completed the Fellowship Offering, he would have brought curse and
banishment on himself as well as all the men who participated. The Fellowship
Offering as laid out on Leviticus 7 states that anyone who is not ceremonially
purified cannot touch the meat from the offering. If he does, he is to be cut
off from the people – meaning cursed and banished. Samuel stops Saul from making a grave
mistake. When he questions Saul, we find that Saul was very focused on himself
and his feelings. He says “I saw” the enemy approaching, “you did not come”
(though the seventh days was not yet over), “I thought”, “I had not done”
and “I felt compelled.” He acted on the
fear he and his people had.
We have probably acted like Saul before. We get impatient
waiting on God because we want the answer NOW. God will come through when it is needed and
when He promised. What Saul, in his fear and impatience, does is what law does
– makes it about works. Saul believed the work of doing the offerings would
deliver him from the Philistines. A
major point here is that Saul was doing something that was not his to do. It
was the work of the priest. Jesus is our high priest. He made all the
sacrifices for us. We do not need to do works to obtain God’s favor in our
situations. Samuel rebukes Saul for not
obeying the command of the Lord. He was not saying commands (plural). This was
not about adherence to the Law. It was about not obeying the command to wait
seven days for Samuel to come and complete the offerings. It was because he
went into works instead of trust.
In the rebuke, Samuel states that because of this Saul
will not rule forever. His kingdom will end, and he will be replaced by one
“after God’s own heart.” We know that to be David. David was actually called a
man after God’s own heart. It was not because he fully obeyed the law either.
David was an adulterer and murderer. He had committed numerous offenses that
were punishable by death under the law. He never suffered those consequences
because, as a picture of grace, he understood what law does not. He knew to
always run TO God when he sinned. Law makes you run away from Him when you sin.
It condemns you and drives you away from God. Grace compels you to run to Him
for forgiveness and overcoming power. This
rebuke emphasizes the fact that God’s eternal kingdom is not built on law and
works.
In 2 Corinthians 3:5-6, Paul defines this difference in
rule by law and rule by grace. He begins by stating that we are only sufficient
in Christ. Many have said that we cannot be successful in life without reliance
on Christ. The world around us says otherwise. There are MANY who are quite
sufficient in this world – successful and more than able to support themselves
and their families – who never acknowledge God. This is not the sufficiency
that Paul is talking about. When we look at the context of this passage we find
he is talking about sufficiency in righteousness. No one is righteous apart
from Christ.
He continues by stating that we’ve been made sufficient
ministers of the New Covenant. We could never be sufficient ministers of the Old
Covenant because it required perfection that we cannot attain. In Christ, we
are qualified ministers (or workers in) of this New Covenant. He points out that the law kills and that the
spirit (by grace) brings life. Many have said that when Paul talks about the
passing away of the law, he is only referring to the ceremonial requirements
and the sacrifices. Obviously, we cannot all go to Jerusalem to a temple that
no longer exists and make our offerings required by the law, yet, it is said by
some that we must still keep the 10 commandments if we are to be accepted by
God.
If we go to the very next verse, he says that the law
that killed was written on stone tablets. The ONLY part of the law that was
written on stone tablets was the 10 commandments! I didn’t say it; Paul did!
Now, no one is saying the 10 commandments are bad and should be ignored, but
defining righteousness by even just those rules is death! You will always fail
and fall short.
As that passage in 2 Corinthians 3 goes on, Paul
describes how the law puts a veil on your heart that separates you from God.
Grace takes that veil away. When Moses came down of Mount
Sinai , he had a veil over his face to conceal the glow that came
on him from being in God’s presence (not face to face, but his back to him,
mind you). They thought people might be freaked out by his glow. There was also
concern that, as that glow faded, people might think that meant God’s presence
was lifting as well.
In this New Covenant, since sin cannot separate us from
God, we can always be in His presence. The glow of His glory does not fade but
instead is ever increasing. Our life should reflect the glory of God’s presence
in ever increasing ways, but that will not happen when we allow law to replace
the veil and turn us away from God.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
