Gifts that Keep on Giving

You know, sometimes we give a gift, it is consumed and then it is gone. Other gifts keep on giving for a long time to come. I have a friend whose wife gave him a gym membership for his birthday. In order to help motivate him, she also gave me a membership so that I could work out with him for the next couple of months. I'm not sure if it is a gift that I am thankful for or not - I am, but I hurt today in ways that I haven't hurt for a few years now - lol.

In today's reading 1 Samuel 18, Saul asked David for a gift in exchange for the hand of his Daughter in marriage - 100 Philistine foreskins (if you don't know what a foreskin is - ask your parents:) - David, wanting to impress his new father-in-law went above and beyond the call of duty and supplied him with 200 foreskins. How in the world do you wrap that? yuckk!!

Anyway, I had a few thoughts from today's reading. First of all, the more that Saul saw that God was with David, the more Saul decided to stand against David. His request for 100 Philistine foreskins was a veiled attempt to get David killed. He tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, not once but twice. I can't decide what was going through David's mind to allow Saul to get that close to him a second time - personally, I would have been gone after the first attempt.

It is interesting to me that when we are walking apart from the Lord, when we see Him at work, very rarely does it draw us closer to him. I seems like when we are apart from God and see God at work, something within us rises up and decides that we are going to oppose God, or at least His work around us. To me that is proof of our depravity and sinful nature in all of it's glory.

The other thing that I found interesting was verse 10 that mentions a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. How does that work? That seems to be so contradictory to a lot of what I have thought about God in the past. I mean we like to think of God as good, and kind, and caring, and loving - AND HE HIS but consider:

²² Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible : New Living Translation., "Text Edition"--Spine., 2nd ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), Ro 11:22.

God is severe with those who choose to disobey and walk apart from Him. If we turn our backs on Him, He will turn His back on us.

Also consider

In the same way, you younger men must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, serve each other in humility, for

“God opposes the proud

but favors the humble.”^*

^* Prov 3:34 (Greek version).

Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible : New Living Translation., "Text Edition"--Spine., 2nd ed. (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), 1 Pe 5:5.

When we choose to live apart from God as Saul did, it is the ultimate sign of a prideful, arrogant spirit. When we live that way - God will turn his face against us. I personally choose to live my life with God's favor rather than as an enemy of God. How about you?