In Sunday’s sermon, “Thus Saul Died,” from 1 Samuel 31, Ryan highlighted a number of contrasts between Saul and David that help bring the book of 1 Samuel to its climax and conclusion. Ryan showed these across a few slides, but we thought we’d compile these fascinating contrasts for you here on the blog.

Contrasting events, Same Day

On two separate days there are a series of contrasting events that happen alongside one another. There are clear queues in the text, but it can be hard to pick up at first. Ryan pointed them out to us on two slides.

Day 1:

• Saul hears of Philistines assembling for battle against the Israelites (1 Samuel 28:4-5)
• David discovers the terror of Ziklag city raided, burned, and families taken (1 Samuel 30:1-6)
• Saul inquires of the Lord in vain just silence (1 Samuel 28:5-6)
• David inquires of the Lord and hears and is led out with God’s blessing (1 Samuel 30:7-8)
• Saul sets out to Endor for a medium (1 Samuel 28:7)
• David sets out to pursue Amalekites (1 Samuel 30:9)

Day 2:

• Saul faces Philistines and is slain (1 Samuel 31:1-5)
• David finds Amalekites and decimates them (1 Samuel 30:16-20)

The Contrast Increases toward the Close of the Book

As the book nears its close, the contrasts between David and Saul get more and more pronounced.

• David inquired of the Lord and was led (1 Samuel 30:8)
• Saul inquired, but got only silence, then judgment (1 Samuel 28:6-7)
• With no strength David strengthened himself in God (1 Samuel 30:4, 6)
• With no strength Saul was “strengthened” by a witch (1 Samuel 28:20, 22)
• David was divinely rescued by Philistines (1 Samuel  29)
• Saul was divinely judged by Philistines (1 Samuel 31:1)
• David faced God’s enemies with confidence (1 Samuel 30:9, 10)
• Saul faced God’s enemies with fear (1 Samuel 28:5, 19-20)
• Facing death, David sought the Lord for strength (1 Samuel 30:6)
• Facing death, Saul asked his servant to expedite it (1 Samuel 31:5)
• David pursued and struck down the enemy (1 Samuel 30:17)
• Saul fled, hid, and was struck down by the enemy (1 Samuel 31:1-3)
• With David, none of his 400 men died (1 Samuel  30)
• With Saul, everyone around him died (1 Samuel 31:6)
• Israel’s enemies fled before David and his people (1 Samuel 30:17)
• Israelites fled after Saul’s death (1 Samuel 30:7)
• David plundered the enemies (1 Samuel 30:20)
• The Philistines plundered Israel (1 Samuel 31:7b-10)
• David sent out good news of victory to his people (1 Samuel 30:26)
• The Philistines sent out “good news” of Saul’s death (1 Samuel 31:9)
• David led Israel in peace, care, and blessing (1 Samuel 30:24-26)
• Saul led Israel into utter chaos, shame, and exile (1 Samuel 31:7-10)

Last year John Piper posted an article, “Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children.” In the eight months or so since I’ve read this, we’ve tried to implement the nine principles that Piper offers in the parenting of our children. Each time we discipline our children (who are all under the age of 6), we ask:

1) Why am I about to discipline you? (Because I love you)

– and –

2) What would happen if I didn’t require your obedience and discipline you? (You would be on a trajectory of greater disobedience and rebellion)

In these formative years of childhood, we are trying to cultivate quick obedience from our children to their human authorities, so that when they are no longer children, they will, Lord willing and by his grace, quickly obey their heavenly authority.

I am writing this to plead with Christian parents to require obedience of their children. I am moved to write this by watching young children pay no attention to their parents’ requests, with no consequences. Parents tell a child two or three times to sit or stop and come or go, and after the third disobedience, they laughingly bribe the child. This may or may not get the behavior desired.

Last week, I saw two things that prompted this article. One was the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa, California, by police who thought he was about to shoot them with an assault rifle. It was a toy gun. What made this relevant was that the police said they told the boy two times to drop the gun. Instead he turned it on them. They fired.

I do not know the details of that situation or if Andy even heard the commands. So I can’t say for sure he was insubordinate. So my point here is not about young Lopez himself. It’s about a “what if.” What if he heard the police, and simply defied what they said? If that is true, it cost him his life. Such would be the price of disobeying proper authority.

I witnessed such a scenario in the making on a plane last week. I watched a mother preparing her son to be shot.

I was sitting behind her and her son, who may have been seven years old. He was playing on his digital tablet. The flight attendant announced that all electronic devices should be turned off for take off. He didn’t turn it off. The mother didn’t require it. As the flight attendant walked by, she said he needed to turn it off and kept moving. He didn’t do it. The mother didn’t require it.

One last time, the flight attendant stood over them and said that the boy would need to give the device to his mother. He turned it off. When the flight attendant took her seat, the boy turned his device back on, and kept it on through the take off. The mother did nothing. I thought to myself, she is training him to be shot by police.

Click here to read Piper’s nine principles and how the gospel transforms obedience.

Russell Moore over at Desiring God has written about the culture of outrage that has seized cable news, social media, and even our churches. As he writes, Christians should be starkly different than our unbelieving neighbors in the ways we act and react, for we are not without hope:

We must learn to lament, because once we no longer lament we turn instead to anger, outrage, blame, and quarrelsomeness. The louder and more frantic the anger, the more we feel as though we’re really showing conviction and grit.

This is made all the more problematic when it’s easy to make a living out of perpetual rage, even if the only media outlet one has is a Twitter or Facebook feed. After all, nothing signals conviction and passion in this age more than the art of being theatrically offended.

But the gospel teaches otherwise.

The problem with carnal anger and outrage is that it is one of the easiest sins to commit, all the while convincing oneself that it’s faithfulness. After all, how many angry, divisive, perpetually outraged Christians are convinced that they are Old Testament prophets, calling down fire from heaven?

The prophets teach us that there is, in fact, a time to call down fire from heaven. But you had better make sure that God has called you to direct that fire to fall. If not, then you’re acting like a prophet all right — a prophet of Baal, screaming and raving for fire that never falls (1 Kings 18:29). No doubt, James and John believed themselves to be well within the spirit of Elijah when they wanted to call down fire from heaven on the Christ-rejecting villages of Samaria. Jesus wanted nothing to do with that spirit.

Rage itself is no sign of authority, prophetic or otherwise.

Read the rest here.

If you weren’t with us on Sunday a few weeks ago to witness—yes, I said, witness—this year’s VBS volunteer recruiting video, then you missed a profound experience. Here it is. It will make you want to sign up to  help with ten things.

[RSS and email readers, click here to view this video]

For a recap, we have openings on our many special force task units (i.e. areas of service): crafts, Bible story tellers, games, drama, singing, teachers, safety, snacks, meal-prep, clean-up, decorations, nursery.

This year’s VBS will take place between July 14-18. Click here for more information and to register your children or to volunteer.

Who thinks about sleep?

We don’t think about it when we’re sleeping, and when we’re awake we’re thinking about other things most of the time. We think about it when we need it. But who really thinks about sleep past that? If sleep was important enough for God to build into his creation, and to give us day and night for a rhythm, presumably, for sleep, then sleep is worth thinking about. It’s worth thinking about because it’s worth doing right and it’s something for which we should give praise to God through proper stewardship and enjoyment.

On the spiritual dimension of getting enough sleep, Psalm 127:2 put’s it beautifully: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” Along these lines, here are some words on the spiritual consequences of sleep from two productive men:

D.A. Carson:

Doubt may be fostered by sleep deprivation. If you keep burning the candle at both ends, sooner or later you will indulge in more and more mean cynicism—and the line between cynicism and doubt is a very thin one….If you are among those who become nasty, cynical, or even full of doubt when you are missing your sleep, you are morally obligated to try to get the sleep you need. We are whole, complicated beings; our physical existence is tied to our spiritual well-being, to our mental outlook, to our relationships with others, including our relationship with God. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is get a good night’s sleep—not pray all night, but sleep. I’m certainly not denying that there may be a place for praying all night; I’m merely insisting that in the normal course of things, spiritual discipline obligates you get the sleep your body need. (Scandalous, 147)

John Piper:

Sleep is a daily reminder from God that we are not God. Once a day God sends us to bed like patients with a sickness. The sickness is a chronic tendency to think we are in control and that our work is indispensable. To cure us of this disease God turns us into helpless sacks of sand once a day. (“A Brief Theology of Sleep“)

For more resources on sleep, check out these links, but not if it’s past your bed time:

• “Three Reasons to Get Some Sleep,” Jonathan Parnell
• “A Brief Theology of Sleep,” John Piper
• “Why We Really Sleep In,” Tony Reinke
• “50 Good Reasons to Sleep Longer,” David Murray