May 29: If there’s a unifying theme in these three passages, it’s our tendency to miss God’s intentions in what He gives us. Like the people’s expectations of a heroic, selfless King were dashed in Saul, like David’s expectations of a bonded relationship with the King’s family were dashed in Merab’s being given to another man, and even Michal’s love for David failing, the people of Israel now pine for a Messiah who will rebuild their Temple. He’ll come in his own name and be received, but he’ll be a deceiver who will sit in that temple and claim to be God. God’s people expected to obtain righteousness through obedience to the Law, yet it only made sin that much more attractive and condemning to them. By contrast, I need to fear and serve God from an earnest and sincere heart, and desire Him more than my expectations of what He can bring, paying careful attention to what He promises and the conditions He attaches. May He give me eyes to see clearly.
1 Samuel 18-19: David was modest in his statement that he was unworthy of a king’s daughter, so Saul wanted to reinforce that self-effacement and gave her to another man after promising her to David. Yet Michal’s love for David “pleased him” (1 Samuel 18:20). Why? Because “she may be a snare to him; and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him” (v. 21). He used her as bait to what he saw as a trap David couldn’t possibly escape. David’s poverty was a way of shaming him into undertaking a very risky endeavor that would be the equivalent of a princess’ dowry. Was Saul looking beyond this? I don’t think so; surely he didn’t think David could perform it—yet there was also something about Michal’s character that was problematic and possibly meant to be a snare to David as well. (2 Samuel 6:16; 1 Chronicles 15:29)
Psalm 102: Is the Psalmist in this song speaking as the nation of Israel, awaiting the return of Messiah and the rebuilding of the Temple? Will it be the cry of the generation that sees the return? “The time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come”? (v. 13) At any rate, it is a prediction of building up Zion and a return in glory. (v. 16)
Romans 6:19-23, Romans 7: Paul’s reasoning continues that we should yield ourselves to God continues. Just as we were buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life with Him, the Law was like a marriage contract, which is only nullified by the death of the spouse. Therefore, since Christ had the sentence of death passed upon Him, though he was innocent, we’re nevertheless set free from that Law, though we had been guilty. Set free to sin all we want? That’s not the point: the real miracle is that we’re now set free to fulfill the righteousness the Law pointed to - the commandments were only symptoms of someone liable to this death that has been carried out. The rest of the chapter shows how the law’s commandments work to surface knowledge of sin to us.
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