E-pistle for March 4, 2016
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E-Pistle
FreeWay Foundation March 4, 2016
David again spares saul's life
(I Samuel 26:1-25)
Dr. Curt Scarborough
I. Concentration: on the events of this chapter
1. For the second time, the Ziphites revealed to Saul where
David was hiding (I Samuel 23:19), but David also had
spies dispatched throughout the wilderness, vv. 1-4.
2. David observed where Saul, his army commander, Abner,
and their troops made camp; David and his nephew, Abishai,
sneaked into the king's camp while everyone was asleep;
Abishai wanted to kill Saul, but David ordered that only his
spear and canteen be taken, vv. 5-12.
3. Later from across the valley, David called to Abner, chiding
him for his failure to guard the king; Saul recognized David's
voice and admitted that he had been a sinful fool in trying to
capture him, vv. 13-21.
4. David returned Saul's property by a messenger; David and
Saul went their separate ways . . . neither trusting the other,
vv. 22-25.
II. Meditation: on the events of this chapter
1. Saul wanted to kill David, not because he feared for his own
life, but because he wanted to prevent David from becoming
the king as Samuel had prophesied.
2. Saul's entire troop of soldiers had fallen asleep . . . a miracle
from the Lord (v. 12), which allowed David to come and go
unobserved; this miracle preserved David's life and provided
Saul another chance to repent.
3. David repeated his conviction against doing anything to harm
God's king . . . he believed that only the Lord has the right to
judge and discipline His anointed leaders.
4. David was spiritually perceptive enough to know that Saul's
"repentance and confession" were false . . . merely a ploy to
entrap him.
III. Revelation: on the spiritual insights observed here
1. Man cannot thwart the sovereign will of Almighty God.
2. Sometimes God's mighty power is revealed in what he does
not allow to happen . . . here God prevented Saul's troops from
waking up!
3. Vengeance belongs to the Lord God alone, Deuteronomy 32:35;
Romans 12:19-20.
4. God's people should "test the spirits" because some people
speak lies in the name of the Lord, I John 4:1.
IV. Applications: as a Christian, I need to . . .
1. Believe and accept the word of God as the absolute truth,
Matthew 24:35.
2. Trust the Lord to take care of me in His own way,
Hebrews 13:5-6.
3. Love, bless, do good to, and pray for my enemies,
Matthew 5:44.
4. Ask for spiritual discernment; it is a gift from the Holy Spirit,
I Corinthians 12:10.
is it nothing to all you who pass by?
(Lamentations 1:1-22)
Dr. Curt Scarborough
I. Concentration: on the author and background of this book
1. Although the author is not named, most Old Testament scholars
claim that Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah,
II Chronicles 35:25.
2. Second Kings and Second Chronicles describe the moral decline
of Judah, closing with the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning
of the temple, the capture of King Zedekiah, and the carrying
into exile all but the poorest Jews by the Babylonians.
3. Laments are cries of mourning and grief; they are heartfelt
expressions of deep sorrow.
4. Lamentations contains five poems; the first four are acrostics
with each stanza beginning with a successive letter of the
Hebrew alphabet; the 3rd chapter has 66 verses (3 verses per
stanza); the 5th chapter has 22 verses (as do chapters 1, 2, and 4)
but it is not an acrostic.
II. Meditation: on some key ideas of this chapter
1. Jerusalem (often depicted as a woman by the prophets) here is
reduced to being a widow; she used to be a princess but now
she is a slave, v. 1.
2. Her collapse was awesome, and she had no comforter because
"she did not consider her destiny," v. 9 . . . she blindly chose her
own future doom according to God's law of cause and effect;
sin brings punishment.
3. Twice the prophet-poet has Jerusalem speak in this chapter:
"O Lord behold my affliction," v. 9, and, "Is it nothing to you,
all you who pass by?" v. 11.
4. Poetic metaphors portraying suffering in this chapter include fire,
a net, a yoke, and a winepress, vv. 13-15.
III. Revelation: on the themes about suffering seen in Lamentations
1. The Jew's suffering was a result of their sin,
1:5; 2:14; 3:42; 4:13; 5:16.
2. Their suffering came from God, rather than from men, and their
suffering could and should direct them toward God,
1:13, 15; 2:1, 4: 3:1, 37-38.
3. Suffering and prayer need to be linked together, with the prayer
to God always containing a ray of hope,
3:21-24, 31-32, 58-66.
4. They were to submit to their suffering with patience, realizing
that the suffering would end when God's will had been accomplished,
3:26-32.
IV. Applications: as a Christian, I need to realize that . . .
1. Sin brings God's discipline, often in the form of suffering,
Hebrews 12:5-11.
2. Suffering is God's method of teaching me valuable spiritual lessons.
3. My prayers for help always should contain hope, for God loves me!
4. Suffering produces the Christian grace of patience, James 1:3.
"Whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's,
and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected."
--Mark Twain
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