Read today’s texts first: 1 Samuel 19; 1 Chronicles 7; Psalms 59; Matthew 4
MAXIMize YOUR DAY
God’s Truth sets us free but obeying the Father of Lies leads to serious consequences!”
One of the reasons I enjoy the New Hope Reading Plan is the thought given to historical chronology and coinciding themes. We see both in today’s readings. As we read about Saul’s foiled attempts at killing David and the miraculous way God spared his life, we also get to read a Psalm written by David at that exact moment. These are his thoughts, his prayers, after his wife Michal helps him escape from her father’s hit men: O my Strength, I watch for you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God. God will go before me and will let me gloat over those who slander me. But do not kill them, O Lord our shield, or my people will forget. In your might make them wander about, and bring them down. For the sins of their mouths, for the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. For the curses and lies they utter, consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more (Ps. 59:9-13).
Pride had so twisted Saul’s soul that he tried several times to kill David, the man who helped him achieve victory over his enemies, served as his personal armour bearer, played music to soothe his troubled spirit, and eventually married his own daughter. And his attempts on David’s life came after Saul had sworn an oath to his son, Jonathan, David’s best friend, that he would never harm him (19:6). So much for family first! But David’s prayers, at that moment, were answered. Because of Saul’s pride, curses, and lies, he wandered and wallowed in self-delusion until he literally fell on his own sword (31:4). Such are the eventual consequences of living a lie.
Truth, however, was clearly on David’s side. God answered his prayer for protection with an amazing series of miracles, including an outpouring of God’s Spirit so strong that even three separate hit squads and finally Saul himself found themselves overcome when they got close to David (19:18-24). In some bizarre irony, Saul found himself stripped naked and prophesying of God’s great power.
The theme continues in our NT reading as well, when Jesus stares down His enemy, Satan, in a toe-to-toe battle of wills. Satan, as usual, is telling lies (hence the nickname Jesus gave him, the Father of Lies – John 8:44), but Jesus is answering with the truth of God’s unchanging Word (4:1-11). He did so because the Son of God knows better than anyone the vastly different consequences of a life devoted to the Truth and a life perverted by lies!
“Lord, help me to always remember that Your Truth has set me free! I never want to return to the consequences that come from even entertaining the twisted words of the Father of Lies!”
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