King Saul's Vengeance on the Borg

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 14:13-30 or 1 Samuel 14 (the whole story)

In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard comes face to face with the Borg, the enemy who had enslaved him, taken control of his body and subjugated his mind, bending it to their control. At one point, the rest of his command crew recommend abandoning the Enterprise and setting the self-destruct, both because the ship has been infested by the Borg and because destroying the ship will eliminate the current Borg threat to Earth. Picard gives a fiery speech about drawing a line and refusing to allow the Borg to go any further. Picard advocates taking the fight to the Borg and refusing to allow the ship to be destroyed.  Only after a relative stranger intervenes does Picard realize that he isn't focused on defeating the Borg or keeping them from harming Earth but on hurting them, on taking revenge for the hurt they caused him. Upon making this realization, Picard grudgingly  abandons his quest for revenge and finally decides to do what is best for his crew.

There is a similar revenge-motivated story in 1 Samuel where the main character doesn't learn his lesson. Saul has led the Israelites into battle against the Philistines. Saul is so intent on destroying the Philistines that he 'bound the people under an oath, saying, “Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!” So none of the troops tasted food' (1 Samuel 14:24, NIV). Saul's son, Jonathan, unaware of the oath his father has placed on the people takes a small taste of honey after going on his own covert mission in which he routed the Philistines in their own camp. Saul finds out about Jonathan's taste of honey when God refuses to answer whether or not they should pursue the Philistines and finish the slaughter. Even upon discovering that the offender is his own son, Saul insists on carrying out the curse and killing Jonathan. Only the intervention of the people saves Jonathan from his father's oath.

As you read the story, you discover that Jonathan (even though he agreed to let his father kill him) thought that Saul's oath was reckless and that it prevented the soldiers from being at their best, and Jonathan was right. Saul didn't place the people under that oath because it would help them defeat their enemies but because he hoped it would motivate them to slaughter the Philistines faster. Why? Read Saul's words again, “Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!”  Saul was only concerned about having revenge on his enemies, not the oppressors of his people, not the people who had enslaved his fellow Israelites, not even the people who had mocked God. Saul put the people into a harmful situation because he thought it served his own selfish purposes. Saul was focused only on himself and revenge against his enemies and cared nothing for his people.

How often do we do the same thing? As leaders, teachers, supervisors, employers, parents? How often do we put the people for whom we are responsible in impossible situations to fit our own selfish desires? How often are we so focused on what we want that we destroy any chance at healthy relationships because the people around us can tell that we are making rash, selfish decisions?

The irony is, as in both cases above, if the leaders had focused as much on what was good for their people as their own desires, they would have gotten what they wanted. Picard would have defeated the Borg faster. Saul's people would have had enough strength to pursue the Philistines, and they wouldn't have been held up, trying to figure out who had violated the vow.

Ultimately, focusing on ourselves and what we want to the detriment of everything else leaves us in a position where the people who depend on us get hurt, and we rarely get what we want.  If you are responsible for someone, or even if you only exert a small amount of influence, take care of your people and do what is right for them. It will go better for you as well.

King David and the Last Crusade

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 19:18-24 or 1 Samuel 19:1-24 (the whole story)

One of my favorite movies is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Aside from the awesomeness of having Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in the same movie, the Last Crusade does a good job reminding people that Jesus was a carpenter and not some rich guy who lived in a palace surrounded by luxury. Sean Connery's character, Dr. Jones the elder, is an academic who is appalled when his son uses violence to free him from his prison and shocked when Indy has to engage in impromptu acts of "daring do" in order to save them. A turning point for Dr. Jones the elder comes when he and Indy, on the run from the Nazis, are exposed on a beach with a jet bearing down on their position. Indy is out of ideas. Suddenly, the elder Dr. Jones pulls out his umbrella and begins stirring up a flock of gulls on the beach. The birds take to the sky, blocking the jet pilot's vision and ultimately causing the jet to crash into the side of a mountain.  Indy looks at his dad in shock while the older gentleman quotes Charlemagne: "Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky."

The Bible is full of very interesting escape situations like that scene on the beach, scenes where rescue comes in some very unexpected forms.  In 1 Samuel 19, King Saul begins his quest to kill David before the young man can ascend to his throne. David's wife, Saul's daughter Michal, helps David escape in the middle of the night, and David flees to Ramah where Samuel is living. When Saul finds out about it, Saul sends men to capture David. "But when they arrived and saw Samuel and the other prophets prophesying the Spirit of God came upon Saul's men and they also began to prophesy" (1 Samuel 19: 20, NLT).  When Saul heard what had happened, Saul sent another set of troops who were also stopped by a fit of prophesying. Finally, Saul himself went to get David and Saul, too, was overcome by the Spirit of God and began prophesying, allowing David to escape.

This particular story isn't as well known as the time when David spared Saul's life in the cave or the time when David snuck into Saul's camp and took Saul's spear to demonstrate that, while he had the opportunity to kill Saul, David had no desire to kill Saul and was no threat to him. This particular story isn't as suspenseful as either of those two. David isn't the hero of the story. In fact, David appears almost helpless. Whereas the other two accounts are tense and exciting, this account is almost comical. David is saved because the Spirit of God causes Saul and his men to have an uncontrollable fit of prophesying. I mean, that's not the most exciting story I've ever heard.

But, in spite of its comedy and its less dramatic elements, I like this story more than the other two. You see, in this story, there is no moral choice for David to make. There is no false resolution where Saul pretends to change his mind in order to save his reputation. God stops Saul from killing David. Period. And he does it by causing Saul and his men to prophesy?

Sometimes, when we find ourselves in really tough situations, when we are scared more than we have ever been, when we are out of options and see no way of escape, God can use the most unexpected and extraordinary things to rescue us. God doesn't need an act of bravery or heroics.  God doesn't have to use powerful weapons or great feats of skill. God can use anything or nothing at all and still accomplish God's purposes.  God can provide a means of escape out of the weakest, most insignificant events or circumstances.

When we find ourselves in impossible situations, when it feels like there is no way out and nothing left that we can do, just remember that God can save us with absolutely nothing. Sometimes, God does exactly that just to remind us that He is God. God can rescue us whether we have any strength or not, whether we can help ourselves or not. Impossible situations are never impossible with God. 

Moral and Ethical Subroutines

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 28:3-18

In the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, there is a very interesting contrast between one of the Enterprise crew members and a Starfleet Admiral. Data, the android second officer of the Enterprise is injured and his moral and ethical subroutines kick-in. In essence, these subroutines cause Data to have a hyper-sensitivity to right and wrong so that no one can take advantage of him in his injured state. Another crew member described his condition as, in essence, being able only to act on the difference between right and wrong. Data is foiled against a Starfleet Admiral who, because he thinks it is necessary for the survival of the Federation, violates the Federation's most sacred law. I don't know that the writers set up this comparison on purpose but they effectively posed the question, "When circumstances get tough, do you abandon your morals for the sake of survival or cling to them even more?"

Toward the end of 1 Samuel, we see a similar choice made by King Saul. Saul and the prophet Samuel have not gotten along well since early in the king's reign. Now Samuel has died and the king is facing a significant battle against the Philistines and is terrified at his prospects. In the middle of the story, the narrator informs us that Saul had gotten rid of all of the mediums and spiritists in the land. Now, whatever Saul's reasons were for doing so, removing those who practiced the occult from the land  was the right thing to do according to the law of Moses. But facing this important battle against the Philistines, Saul's nerves are rattled. Saul has tried consulting the Lord about what to do but God is not answering. Even with Samuel's hostility toward the king, Saul would gladly have consulted with Samuel but the prophet is dead. So, Saul decides he has only one option: Saul disguises himself and tracks down a medium so that she can speak to Samuel in the grave and ask the prophet what to do. When Samuel actually appears, Saul complains, "The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He doesn't answer me anymore, either through the prophets or in dreams. So I've called on you to tell me what I should do" (1 Samuel 28:15, HCSB). Samuel essentially responds by asking what Saul expects Samuel to do if God has abandoned him.

Saul's reign was never one marked by righteousness. In many ways, removing the mediums and spiritists from the land was the moral highlight of Saul's reign. But when things got tough, Saul abandoned the single moral achievement of his reign and turned to the very occult he tried to remove from the land.  Saul did not lose his kingship because of this decision but this kind of decision reinforced the reasons for why God had already chosen to remove Saul as king.

When things get tough in our own lives, how often does doing the right thing become a casualty of survival? Money is tight at home and so we hold back our tithe or decide its ok to "borrow" something from the office or "modify" our tax return. We realize that a personal mistake could harm our relationship with our spouse or with our parents so we choose to lie and hide the truth rather than deal with it. We discover we simply don't have enough time to do all the things we need to so we steal time from our family, hoping that they will forgive us down the road. We fear that our status at the workplace may suffer if people find out about our faith, so we choose not to tell people about the hope that we have in Christ. When times get tough, doing the right thing gets tossed out the window.

What tough decisions are you facing today? Are you considering abandoning what is right because you are more likely to get through your circumstances without suffering? Are you considering cheating, just this once, because you know that doing the right thing might cost you or make things very uncomfortable for you? Character isn't measured by how often we do the right thing, but by how often we do the right thing when it might hurt us to do so.

When Saul got scared, he abandoned what was right and he died anyway. What about you? When things get tough, will you compromise, hoping it will make things better? Or will you choose to do the right thing and trust God with the consequences?  When circumstances scare you, will you abandon biblical morals for the sake of survival or cling to them even more?

Interrupting Jesus' Crucifixion

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 13:7-14

When I was in college, I was part of a drama ministry team called Love Company. We travelled around to various churches, schools, prisons, and any other places that would have us, presenting the Gospel through drama and theater. One of the skits we did was a very powerful reenactment of Jesus ' crucifixion in which Jesus literally takes someone's place on the cross and then, once he has risen, offers forgiveness to his executioner. There was one particular performance where I, as one of the guards escorting Jesus to the cross, had just exited the stage, and it occurred to me that I did not remember anyone grabbing a necessary prop for the next segment of the skit. I was off-stage and would have had to make my way back onstage in full sight of everyone, disrupting the skit in order to, ostensibly, "save" the skit. I had my hand on the door, ready to move but finally decided to wait and see what happened. After all, I was a newbie. We had people in the group and onstage who had been doing this for several years. So I waited and listened. No one had forgotten that key prop. I just hadn't seen the person grab it. But if I had let my uncertainty reign and my impatience rule me and tried to take care of things myself, I would likely have ruined the moment and hindered what the Holy Spirit was doing.

In 1 Samuel 13, King Saul was waiting on the eve of a massive battle. He had been wanting for Samuel to arrive to seek the Lord's blessing with a sacrifice. But as the window for Samuel's arrival drew to a close, Saul noticed his men getting restless and slipping away, and he grew impatient. Time was almost up and Samuel hadn't arrived yet. So Saul took it upon himself to do what only the anointed priest should do, and Saul offered the sacrifice himself. But just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering Samuel arrived (1 Samuel 17:10, NLT). When Samuel realized that Saul had taken it upon himself to offer the burnt offering, rather than waiting for him,  Samuel told him, "But now your kingdom must end...because you have not kept the Lord's command" (1 Samuel 13:14, NLT). The sad thing is, if Saul had only waited a few more hours, everything would have been fine. After all, Samuel arrived just as he was finishing the sacrifice. But Saul allowed his uncertainty and impatience to rule him, and he was unable to trust either God to honor him for his obedience or Samuel to show up when he was supposed to. As a result, he lost the blessing of God and, ultimately, his kingdom.

How often do we suffer the same fate that Saul did? How often is time running short and we allow our impatience to prod us into acting before it is time? How often do was see people not acting when we think they should and assume they are not going to do what is right or to keep their word? How often do we allow our fear and uncertainty to prompt us to take action when, if we just trusted God a little longer, we would be able to see that God has taken care of everything, that all of the props are where they are supposed to be? How often do we assume that, because we haven't seen what God is doing in the people around us, that God is not doing anything in those people at all? How often do we allow our uncertainty and our fear to prompt us to take action instead of trusting God and waiting just a little bit longer?

Impatience, when it is born of fear and uncertainty, is a signal that we do not really trust God. But God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7, ESV). If we want the blessing of God on our lives rather than the judgment of God, we must resist the urge to act like Saul. We must exercise self-control, power, and love and not allow our fear and impatience to drive us to sin.