Daily Devotional

All the valiant men arose…

There is a time for valiant men to do their job.  To arise.

When they heard, they arose.  They somehow talked to each other, and formed a plan.  They banded together after a common purpose.  They put aside other things they had already planned.  The press of circumstances was too much to ignore.

They knew they had to act.  They could not just sit at home, or simply go about their normally planned activities.  The response to the event that had occurred, the defilement of Saul and his sons, was just too much.  It required action.

I wonder why they did this?  They lost the war.  Moreover, the Lord had actually given Israel into the hand of the Philistines.  Why should they now care that these Philistines celebrated their victory, and praised their gods?  Why care that the bodies of Saul and his sons were hung up on the wall?  What made this an intolerable action which now required them to make a physical response?

I don’t fully understand it.  But there was apparently a line crossed.  A line of what?  I feel like I comprehend it in spirit.  The Philistines had made fun of Saul and his sons.  Worse, they had defiled them.  It wasn’t enough to defeat and kill them.  Now they had to arrogantly “stomp and grind” these their enemies; to act with glee; to give credit to their god; to sneer at their enemies.; to pound their chests and dance around; to taunt and act foolishly and arrogantly.
Still, why not just leave all this be, and go back and put their lives and society back together?  To just move on?

Perhaps they still had to honor “God’s anointed” and his sons.  God was not defeated!  Saul and his men had been given over to the enemy.  But it was a temporary setback.  A judgment.  But the Lord was still Lord!  He was still worthy of honor!

Perhaps there needed to be a declaration of God’s glory, and this glory had rested on Saul.  A battle was lost but life was not over.  And God was still on the throne!  There needed to be an affirmation of all this.

What are a few applications we can think about in regard to our own lives and world?

• It is important to see all things from the perspective of the Kingdom of God, and not just according to man’s culture and ideas, or our own.
• Life is primarily about our union with Christ, and secondarily about standard life activities—work, marriage, family, home, etc.
• Life is also knowing when to act valiantly, and how to act valiantly.  It is not what the common man sees or acts on.
• Efforts for the kingdom are not done in “Lone Ranger” fashion, but in banding together as brothers.
• I think God still loved Saul, despite his foolishness and weakness.  So, God still loves us, even when we struggle and fail.  We are to hold onto God’s love and faithfulness.
• The real Christian life consists in not being a Saul, but rather in being a valiant man, in cooperation with other valiant men (or women); taking risks when needed, being bold, understanding the times and issues; going into action, as needed, as God calls.
• It means understanding the issues which really matter, and building our thinking and activities around those.

May the Lord bless us all as a church, a local expression of the body of Christ, and give us wisdom how to be valiant men and women in our time and circumstances.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)
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