But the LORD Saw . . .

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Text: “And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD” (2 Samuel 11:27).

Context, Context, Context: David coveted another man’s (Uriah’s) wife, Bathsheba. He slept with her. She conceived. She bore David’s child. The child died. David’s sins continued. He set up one of his own military men to be struck down in battle, in an effort to cover his (David’s) tracks. But God saw it all. And David’s sin “displeased the LORD.”

That’s the nature of lies. The liar finds himself in need of creating even more lies and stagecraft in efforts of hiding his sin. But God sees. God sees it all. And God is not mocked. Why? Because there’s no escaping God.

Encouragement: Like we fellow sinners, David was a fallen man; he was a sinner. We need a perfect king, a righteous king. And that’s what God is showing in Scripture, namely, that all humans fall short (Romans 3:23). Hence the need for Christ, the spotless lamb of God who was made sin for us so that we sinners who repent and believe would be forgiven (2 Corinthians 5:21).

David did eventually repent, but he remained a man of war, and his family life and the kingdom’s life all suffered because of sin. Sin doesn’t just affect the individual sinner; it affects the organizations of which we are a part–be that families, churches, companies, or armies. Keep short accounts with God, dear ones. Why? Because God sees. He sees it all.

David’s Kindness

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Text:

And David said, “Is thee still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” (2 Samuel 9:1).

Context, Context, Context: David was now king. He was the one God chose. He had a heart for God. Saul had been a disaster. Saul had served as a judgment against the nation for their idolatry. The ark of the covenant had been brought back in the midst of the people. And David’s star was again on the rise. But David, unlike Saul, was not in love with himself; David loved the Lord. And David longed to show kindness.

Illustration: One of the framed quotes I have on one of my office walls is below. It’s a quote from Dickens, one of my favorite writers of whose writing I never tire. It reads, “Do all the good you can & make as little fuss about it as possible.”

That’s one of the characteristics that sets David apart as a man after God’s own heart.

Encouragement: Look at how this is an abbreviation of the gospel, dear ones. The king, the one persecuted, though he was a good man (at least in comparison to wicked Saul), showed kindness to the family of his (David’s and God’s) former enemies. Don’t miss that–the kindness of God’s king towards enemies. Sound like the gospel? It should . . . because it is.

On the Turning Away

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Text:

14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
    and do not walk in the way of the evil.
15 Avoid it; do not go on it;
    turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong;
    they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness
    and drink the wine of violence.
18 But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,
    which shines brighter and brighter until full day. (Pr 4:14-18)

Teaching: Solomon instructs his son in wisdom. The father teaches the son the ungliness of folly and the beauty of wisdom. Solomon provides the imagery of two different paths. One path is trod by the wicked. The wicked “walk in the way of evil” (v. 14b). And Solomon instructs his son plainly: “Avoid it [the path of the wicked]; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on” (v. 15). Walk the beautiful path, the path of wisdom.

Then Solomon describes the moral character of those who trod the path of evil. He tells his son that those who trod that path “cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble” (v. 16). There are some folks whose lives are restless; therefore, they meddle in other people’s lives. They stir the pot, we might say. They are nosy people. They insert themselves into our lives without invitation. They “eat the bread of wickedness,” (v. 17), Solomon writes.

That’s a pretty unsavory individual, the one who refuses to stay in his lane. He just cannot be content; therefore, he meddles. He intrudes. He is nosy. And he’s an irritant.

Encouragement: We’re to turn away from such people and walk the path of the righteous. Why? Because that path “shines brighter and brighter until full day” (v. 18b). We’re to keep our hearts “with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (v. 23).

Take a Knee

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Introduction: “Take a knee.” It’s a welcome phrase we hear sometimes as soldiers, especially when we’re physically exhausted, spent, and our gas tank is running on empty. (Yes, I’m hearing Jackson Browne’s song in my head, too, now.) Here’s the way Browne wrote about this feeling:

runnin’ on empty
(Runnin’ on) runnin’ blind
(Runnin’ on) runnin’ into the sun
But I’m runnin’ behind

Regardless of our stations in life, I would think all of us have experienced seasons when we knew that we were running on empty and that we needed to take a knee.

Connection to Scripture: In 1 Samuel 30, it’s a low time in the life of David. His wives had been captured by the wicked pagans, the Amalekites. Much of the territory had been reduced to scorched earth. The invaders had taken captives. And the word on the street got back to David that he was a wanted man (1 Samuel 30:5). David was running on empty. David very much needed to take a knee.

Text and Teaching: But listen to what Scripture records about this incident and learn what it has to teach all of us who have found ourselves running on empty and in need of taking a knee: “And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God” (1 Samuel 30:6).

Encouragement: First, David was self-aware. Second, because David was self-aware, he turned to God. David knew the situation was too much for human effort to conquer. He knew where he needed to look for strength, and he did it. He strengthened himself “in the LORD his God.” There’s much wisdom here, dear ones. Some battles are too big for us. If we think they’re not, that may be a sign of our hubris. Let us be self-aware and turn to the One whose strength is all-powerful and holy and not delude ourselves into webs of entrapment woven by human vanity.

Literary Encouragement from Tennyson

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I was grading some of my students’ work recently. I had a young man allude to some of the many famous lines from literature. My student wrongly attributed them to Dickens. Dickens is certainly a master, but in the prose form, not in the poetic one.

I gently corrected the student and redirected him to the actual author, Tennyson.

And from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam,” a poem about his dear but departed friend, here’s the last section of one of Tennyson’s masterpieces:

XXVII from “In Memoriam”:

I envy not in any moods

   The captive void of noble rage,

   The linnet born within the cage,

That never knew the summer woods:

I envy not the beast that takes

   His license in the field of time,

   Unfetter’d by the sense of crime,

To whom a conscience never wakes;

Nor, what may count itself as blest,

   The heart that never plighted troth

   But stagnates in the weeds of sloth;

Nor any want-begotten rest.

I hold it true, whate’er befall;

   I feel it, when I sorrow most;

   ‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

The Import/Significance of ‘If’

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It’s a small word but it is weighty, significant, and important: If.

Grammatically, it is a subordinating conjunction. Often it is used to introduce conditional clauses and statements. “If you do your chores, then you will receive your allowance,” for example. If signifies a hinge, so to speak. The condition pivots or hinges upon a duty or obligation being met.

Segue: Proverbs 2 serves as an example of what I mean regarding this crucial word if. Focus with me for a moment upon Solomon’s words below:

1 My son, if you receive my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
    and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
    and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
    and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
    and find the knowledge of God. (Proverbs 2:1-5)

Question: Do you see how important and weighty the if is in three of those lines from Solomon’s pen?

Teaching: Look at the benefits that result from obeying the if conditions:

  • Understanding (v. 5)
  • Knowledge (v. 5)
  • Protection/a “shield” (v. 7)
  • Discretion and deliverance from evil (vv. 11-12)

Encouragement: If we hear and learn and obey God’s words to us from Solomon here, then we receive blessing from the kindness of God. But it all hinges upon satisfying the import, significance, and weight of meeting the conditions carried by this little (but not little) if.

Will They Learn?

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Will they learn?

The lessons about leadership from 1 Samuel are inescapable for people with discernment. Samuel was God’s prophet, leader, and judge for Israel. Despite his godly leadership, teaching, and life, Israel remained spiritually blind, recalcitrant, and self-centered.

1 Samuel 8 is one of the most important and instructive chapters in the entire canon of Scripture. The spiritually blind people demanded “a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5).

And just so we wouldn’t miss the point, God tells his servant Samuel not to take it personally. It was not about Samuel; it was about Israel’s persistent self-centeredness: “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8:7).

How clear is that? Crystal.

And in the very next paragraph, God tells them what Saul, the wicked king who’d serve as the means of Israel’s disasters, would do. He will make everything about himself:

  • “He will take . . .” (1 Samuel 8:11)
  • “He will appoint for himself . . .” (1 Samuel 8:12)
  • “He will take . . .” (1 Samuel 8:13)
  • “He will take . . .” (1 Samuel 8:14)
  • “He will take . . .” (1 Samuel 8:15)
  • “He will take . . .” (1 Samuel 8:16)
  • “He will take . . .” (1 Samuel 8:17)

Saul was in it to take. He didn’t care about the people. He cared only for self.

And in verses 17-18, God does a mic drop: “He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:17-18).

Will they learn? That’s a question you should ask. Because the pattern of choosing unwise, unregenerate, ungodly leaders is obvious: wreckage.

Encouragement: These historical narratives are written for our instruction, dear ones. We’re to learn how important it is to have wise, godly leaders.

Some Reflections on the Use of AI in Literature

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For many years now, I have taught literature. It is part of who I am, I suppose. I discovered a passion for reading when a teenager and that passion is unabated. I do not truck with much popular-level reading, like that which you’ll find in airport kiosks or on the tables at your town’s chain bookstores. I love the classics–most of them anyway. There are a few books considered classics that I just cannot seem to enjoy. There are some Austen books that put me to sleep. Give me Dickens and Hardy over Austen, any day.

But this is about Artificial Intelligence, not about my literary interests. Here are a few questions I’m thinking through:

  • Is AI to be welcomed in when it comes to literary analysis?
  • That is, is ‘close reading’ even possible if AI becomes the de facto medium for students’ literary analyses?
  • What happens to students’ intellectual development if and when they rely on AI to ‘do the reading’ for them?
  • Is it possible to inculcate critical thinking skills when AI is prevalent?

I was grading papers today and, after reading six or seven essays from my college kids, I discovered a pattern–almost the exact same lingo, quotes from short stories, and conclusions. Some overlap is understandable, of course. But when the pattern repeats again and again, “Houston, we have a problem.”

I concede that we should aim to learn the history of the best commentaries on the classics. I mean, if one’s reading is so ‘out there’ that it’s unhitched from the wisdom of the past, there may be good reason to be suspicious.

But what I’m seeing is just the opposite in today’s culture of AI, especially when it comes to my lane of the classics. The responses to questions I pose to students in literature classes grow more and more similar. It’s likely due to their almost complete reliance upon AI engines of their choice.

For those of us who love great literature, this is a dark cloud. It portends ominously over lands that should ideally be filled with critical thinkers. But when auto-generated responses, divorced from close personal reading, are the medium students rely upon, I cannot be confident that much learning at all is actually occurring. Just my thoughts.

Not Title but Character

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Not title but character.

Introduction: I am currently reading through some of my favorite books of the Bible. The books of 1 and 2 Samuel are about the necessity of having God as king. They are simultaneously about what happens to people when hirelings and false shepherds are at the helm. When there are godless leaders at the top of any organization, spiritual scorched earth will be the result.

When 1 Samuel opens, it begins by introducing several characters that embody the apostasy of some spiritual leaders. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were two of those men. They had the title of priests (1 Samuel 1:3). But they were wicked to the core. And God would deal with them in short order. They had the titles of spiritual leaders, but their character was wanting. God put it plainly: “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:12).

Is that unclear? They were godless priests. They were unsaved men. They hated God. They just wanted the benefits of being priests, but their hearts were not in it. They were hirelings. And God was using them as examples of corruption to teach the people that we get the leadership we deserve. If we are a wicked people, we should not be surprised that many spiritual leaders are not any different.

And yet God still had his people. Amidst all the evil, noble people emerged. Hannah is one example. Samuel is another. And on and on it goes.

Hophni and Phinehas were killed when the Philistines defeated Israel: “And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died” (1 Samuel 4:10b-11).

Encouragement: Titles don’t make the man, dear ones. What’s down in the well comes up in the bucket. Therefore, drink from wells of righteousness, and drink deeply. It’s not about titles but about character.