April 4-5

I had a thought this morning as I was reading my blog to see where I needed to start todays. Usually when I have one of these thoughts, I will Google it to see if other people are thinking along these lines and I came up empty. So take this one for what it is worth...I suddenly saw Jonathan as a type of Holy Spirit (in the Bible, "type" is a special kind of symbol, one that represents something else). He constantly interceded for David as the Holy Spirit does for us, he was a friend that 'stuck closer than a brother', he had 'royalty' rights himself but never sought them, he often protected David and saved his life......  Just a thought.

A little side note, when David asks for the ephod to be brought to him (remember that this is the fancy breastplate thing worn by the priests) and inquires of the urim and thummin, it is thought that there was a pocket in the breastplate with two stones, a white one for 'yes' and a black one for 'no'.
April 4-
David, who lives among his enemies in the royal Philistine city of Gath, returns to find everything he owns gone. David is heartbroken and faces his own type of "Gathsemane" (gath means 'wine press' in both words). There is even talk of his own men stoning him becasue each one was so bitter in spirit because of having lost everything (1 Sam 30:6) BUT David had a different reaction than his men. Although distressed, DAVID encouraged himself in the LORD (1 Sam 30:7). David goes on to win the victory, just a Christ did after Gathsemane, and everything that was stolen from him was returned. In this case, it is easy how we are symbols of the wives and children and everything that was stolen by Satan, but Jesus has snatched us back from the enemy.
April 5- Saul is the perfect picture of a backsliding, waxing and waning, hot and cold Christian. He repents for a while, he acknowledges God for a while and then goes right back to his old ways. He obviously must have banished all mediums and witches at some point, but here he is consulting one. My sister often asks me if mediums etc are 'real'. They obviously have some power of spirits (which are demonic spirits in the guise of 'good spirits') but check out the witch of Endor, she just about has a heart attack when the REAL Samuel comes forth! Interesting that he says that tommorow Saul and sons will be with him. Does that mean Saul went to heaven? I would certainly think that Jonathan did. The "google" jury is split. I tend to think he did. He once had the spirit of the Lord...I feel that is a close to 'salvation' as you get in the OT. But like I said, he was certainly not a good follower, at least not a consistant one. We'll have to look him up in heaven and check it out.
     I still cannot really believe that I was at the exact place where the bodies of Saul and his son hung on the city wall. The Roman city of Scythopolis was built later (and then destroyed by an earthquake and mudslide) but this area is still known as Beit She'an (Beth Shan). If there is ever a biblical mandate against assisted suicided, I think this tells the story. Though Saul probably could not have lived after falling on his own sword and asked to be killed, the man who did it is killed himself for even thinking of doing such a thing. And though Saul has persued David's life for many years, he mourns his death. Not just the death of his friend Jonathan as one would expect, but he mourns for Saul. In his song he asks that the news not be broadcast in enemy territiory. There is no "Ah ha, now I can finally be king". Lots and lots of lessons we can learn from David, the man who God said was man after God's own heart.

The hill above is where the bodies of Saul and his sons would have hung. Apparently a common, though barbaric practice in ancient times. Valient men of Jabesh Gilead journey all night to reverse this terrible humiliation and give the men a more proper burial.