God's message: consistent from the start!

1 Samuel has long been one of my favorite books in the Bible. Some of the stories are well known, like Samuel's call and David v. Goliath, while others are less renowned. One of my favorite chapters in the book is chapter 15, because it brings a New Testament kind of lesson into the Old Testament context.

Samuel is the spiritual leader of Israel at this point, and Saul the political king. The chapter begins with God giving a command to Saul, "Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys" (1Sam 15:3, italics mine). The campaign continues but we see that Saul captures the Amalekite king, Agag, sparing his life and his men plundered the livestock, keeping the goats, sheep, fattened calves and "everything that was good" (v. 9). OOPS! That doesn't sound like the total annihilation that God asked for.

Samuel's next move was to confront Saul. God told him what had happened and, when he went to talk to Saul about it, Saul replied, "but I did obey the Lord" (v. 20). Bringing back the king was a common sign of dominance over another nation and, as for the animals, he argued that the men chose the best of the livestock for sacrificial purposes. That's holy enough, right?

Samuel's response is one Saul probably didn't expect. He said, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offereings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams" (v. 22). The principle here is simple, bold and timeless. The very idea of sacrificial systems came about as a way to purify sinful people in the sight of the Lord. If we were to surrender ourselves to his will, there would be no need for sacrifice! Even in the Old Testament, God was setting a standard of total obedience. He is God; we are not. He gets to call the shots. It's when we get to a place of thinking that we know better that we get in trouble.

God's original plan did not involve him sacrificing his Son on the cross for our sins but rather a relationship with his creation that glorified his kingdom. The only proper response for such a "once and for all" sacrifice being made is for us to daily recognize our need for that sacrifice, bask in the cleansing that it brings and strive to grow in obedience to his will.

For my next trick, I'll make the Canaanites disappear!

As we move along in our reading plan, pay close attention to what is happening right now. This is the early history of Israel, a nation with a geographical home. The majority of Joshua (thought not all) is devoted to the defeat of many of the large cities in the region and the division of the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. In the course of Judges 1, we see Judah (one of the tribes) get a pretty good start at taking over the land completely. Remember that the Israelites were supposed to demolish all the people who inhabited the land completely, something that the other tribes did not do (second half of Judges ch.1). So we see that they start to compromise that command and the result is God metaphorically saying "I told you so." They ended up compromising their beliefs and customs along with God's command. So God allows those people to be a "thorn in Israel's side," bringing unnecessary struggles and strife into the picture. This sets the stage for all the coming Old Testament History, intensifying and leading up to the exile in Babylon.

On another note, this is where we start to see some AWESOME stories! Ehud in Judges 3 and Deborah (the prophetess) in Judges 4 are both stories worthy of scenes in Hollywood blockbusters. Keep reading!

Some Galatians Backstory

The apostle Paul is probably the most famous missionary in history. After his conversion from Christian-bashing pharisee to Christian, he set out to plant churches all throughout the Roman Empire. Many of the books in the New Testament were written by him as letters to churches or individuals (Romans through Philemon). Galatians is considered to be one of the earliest of these letters and it deals a lot with the topic of "Legalism," even though that term is not specifically used. 

In the first century AD, the Christian movement was one that turned Judaism on its head. Paul and the other apostles likely did not see this as a new religion, but more a new era in Judaism. Jews in the first century had come to a place where the Law was paramount to any other issue. A look back at history showed a pattern of hard times following Israel's refusal to follow God's law, specifically in regards to circumcision, the sabbath and festivals, and food laws. The main opponents of Paul in Galatia are known as "Judaizers." They were Jewish Christians that criticized Paul for being to soft when it came to the law. Their message was one that, while Gentiles could be saved and Jesus' message applied to them as much as anyone, they must also adopt Jewish custom (food laws, circumcision, etc.) This message of rule following was obviously in contention with Paul's message of grace. This is why he wrote the letter. 

It would be easy to vilify these Judaizers for their convictions, but we need to keep a couple of things in mind.

• Jerusalem (and more specifically, the temple there) was the center of the Jewish religion. Faithful Jews would return for festivals annually (as Joseph and Mary did when Jesus stayed in the temple in Luke 2). Obviously, the farther away you got the harder that becomes and Jerusalem almost becomes a "once in a lifetime" trip for those Jews on the outskirts of Judea and Samaria.
• We call the Jews in the greater Roman Empire and outside of Judea and Samaria the "diaspora" Jews, or Jews of the dispersion. These would have been practicing Jews, but because they did not have access to the temple to make atonement sacrifices, they would have practiced an emphasis on following the Laws of the Old Testament to stay as pure as possible. 
• Christian converts (from JUDAISM) would likely have carried over some of these law-centric views, even after accepting Christ. 
• When Paul reached out to the Genitles (non Jews) in that area, he preached that the Spirit was the only thing that mattered, that we cannot live up to the law and so we must relish in the grace given by God. The Judaizers followed behind him and tried to add requirements of circumcision, etc. to these churches (see Gal 1:6-12). 
• Paul's emphasis in Gal 1:1-5, 11-12 on his calling and commission as an apostle (or in v.13-20, where he focuses on his track record and history) makes sense because he is trying to convince Judaizers that he is not watering down the gospel.
• He is also trying to convince the Galatians that he has the higher authority over those Judaizers trying to throw them into confusion. 
• It is VERY important to notice, finally, that the Judaizers were CHRISTIANS! They believed in Christ, but because of their world-view and past history, they did not fully preach an accurate message of Christ's sacrifice. We need to be careful of teachers like this. More importantly, we need to be careful that if we are claiming Christ's message of grace and love, we are not contradicting that message by being concerned with "doing enough to earn it."

Why "The Law" Is Important

If you're following the reading plan, we have just finished the section of it known as the 'Pentateuch.' These are the first five books of the Bible, the part dealing with Moses and the part Jews call the 'Torah' (lit. "Law"). These books can be really dry if it is the first time you've read them and often seem arbitrary to the modern reader. But if 2 Tim. 3:16 is to be taken seriously, then we can assume there is some importance to them. Of course a deeper look would surely reveal theological truths, etc. about these laws. One such principle is that the laws were set in place to set Israel apart from other Ancient Near Eastern cultures.

If you've been struggling with these books I'd like to propose one principle that should shed some light on the issue. In Romans 7:7, Paul says that "I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, 'Do not covet.'" In this whole chapter, Paul explains that the law was brought for us to see that we cannot live up to God's law. This is an important realization to come to if we are to fully grasp the magnitude of Jesus' sacrifice for us.