Today the church gives us an
exhortation on how Christ's flock is to conduct itself and an oblique allusion
to the Ascension.
2 Samuel, Chapter 1,
Verse 14
David said to him, “How is it that you were
not afraid to put forth your hand to
desecrate the LORD’s anointed?
The lesson here is, do not be a person who seeks to gain from another’s
misfortune.
·
As
2 Samuel begins, Saul and Jonathan have just died fighting the
Philistines—David almost fought for the Philistines, but ended up
getting excused at the last second, and headed off to fight the Amalekites.
·
Saul
had committed suicide after seeing his defeat was inevitable (with, as it turns
out, a little help), and Jonathan was killed in the battle.
·
A
survivor from Saul's army finds David and tells him the news. It turns out the
survivor was an Amalekite who (at Saul's request) helped Saul finish dying,
giving him a fatal sword thrust, before bringing Saul's crown and armlet to
David.
·
However,
David is offended that this guy had the guts to help kill the Lord's anointed,
so he has one of his own men kill the Amalekite.
Singing
the Blues
·
Then,
David sings the blues. In a song, he laments the deaths of Saul and Jonathan,
singing, "How the mighty have fallen!"
·
He
hails them both, paying tribute to their strength and good qualities, and
telling the rest of Israel to weep for them in mourning.
·
He
also says that Jonathan's love for him was "wonderful, passing the love of
a woman," before repeating again, "How the mighty have fallen."
Honor God’s Anointed[2]
It appears that the
Amalekite was trying to get a reward for killing the enemy of David (Saul).
Everyone in the nation knew that Saul and David were at odds and that Saul was
trying to kill David. When he stumbled onto the body of Saul he thought that he
had hit the jackpot. Instead of telling the truth about what he found he lied
to David with the hope of getting gain. David was faultless in killing him
because the man told David that he had killed the Lords anointed. In David’s
eye that was a serious crime and the man brought it on himself. Notice and
verse 14 of second Samuel he says "How wast thou not afraid to stretch
forth thine hand to destroy the Lords anointed?" and in verse 16,
"And David said unto him, thy blood be on thy upon thy head; for thy mouth
hath testified against thee, saying I have slain the Lords anointed." Even
though he did not kill Saul he lied in hopes of being rewarded and he was, just
not in the way he thought though. The wages of sin is death.
Third Sunday after Easter[3]
In what does the perfection of the Christian life consist? In the
perfection of love (Col. iii. 14). The more a man separates himself from the
world, and unites himself with God, the more perfect he will be. We can attain
to the perfection of the Christian life by means of certain excellent practices
known as the evangelical counsels which Jesus Christ lays before us, and to which
He calls us, without directly commanding us to adopt them. So that the difference
between the commandments and the evangelical counsels consists in this: that the
commandments bind us by an indispensable obligation, but the evangelical counsels
do not. The evangelical counsels are:
1. Voluntary poverty.
2. Perpetual chastity.
3. Entire obedience under a spiritual
director.
By voluntary poverty is understood
a free-will renunciation of the riches and goods of this world in order to follow
Jesus Christ in His poverty. By perpetual chastity we understand a free-will, life-long
abstinence, not only from everything that is contrary to purity, but also abstinence
from marriage, in order to live only for God and His holy service in virginal
purity. By entire obedience we are to understand a voluntary renunciation of one’s
own will in order to follow the will and command of a superior whom one chooses
for himself. In practicing the evangelical counsels there are three points to be
observed, in order that they may serve, or help to eternal salvation:
1. They must be practiced with a pure intention,
seeking thereby nothing else than to please God and to praise His holy name.
2. with great humility, in no way giving
ourselves preference over others.
3. By great fidelity in observing not
only what one has vowed, but also what is commanded. Also, one should live
diligently and strictly according to the commandments; otherwise the practicing
of the evangelical counsels will be of no avail.
Comments
Post a Comment