And the Mule He Rode In On

And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. – 2 Samuel 18:9 (KJV)

This may be confusing verse if you don’t know much about Absalom who was one of the sons of David. The context is that Absalom had rebelled against his father as king and was well on his way to taking over the kingdom until he ran into this particular oak tree. Having driven David and his followers out of Jerusalem, the rebellious prince paused to gather a greater army before pursuing his father’s group of loyalists. This gave David enough respite to organize resistance and send out his personal bodyguard along with a determined group of hardened fighters to meet Absalom’s forces. The battle took place in rough terrain, and the advantage fell to David’s men. When Absalom became entangled in the thicket and was killed subsequently, the rebellion was ended.

Absalom had pursued a political strategy contrary to his father’s reign for a number of years. The seeds were sown when an older half-brother, Amnon, raped his half-sister, Tamar. Tamar was apparently a full sister to Absalom who was angered that their father did not punish Amnon for his incestuous atrocity. To this point, we find Absalom a sympathetic character. Even when he deceptively carries out the vengeful murder of Amnon, we remain understanding, but Absalom was not content with the blood of his half-brother. After returning from exile, Absalom plots and plays a clever political game to enhance his own popularity while fueling discontent with his father’s rule among the people of Israel.

In addition to exposing Absalom’s vengefulness and political ambitions, the Bible says that he was quite a handsome man with a great deal of very thick, beautiful hair. His physical appearance seems to have played a part in furthering his popularity as well. One might suspect that Absalom was at least a bit of a narcissist, possibly somewhat vain, having a high opinion of himself. Though David was deeply flawed, he remained always a man after God’s own heart. Where David was God-centered, Absalom was self-centered. Despite all the advantages of his position in life, of his intelligence, and of his good looks, Absalom’s life is marked by an absence of trust in the Lord, and, as a consequence, by an absence of peace and fulfillment.

Some of us have a hard time with the idea that justice can embrace mercy. For some things it seems there should be no mercy. Like Absalom, I often see particularly heinous crimes perpetrated and think that there isn’t anything cruel or unusual enough to even it up. The arguments of those who reject God are rife with this sense that God should not allow suffering or injustice. The rejection of Christ is often fueled by the same indignation that led Absalom to rebel against and reject the authority of his father, David, the man who loved him most in the world, who would have extended mercy, compassion, and forgiveness even to him – for his own crimes.

Absalom represents the good man who thinks that usurping the place of God is no big deal. He sees the mercy and grace of God but misunderstands, misinterprets it as indifference and injustice. It is up to man, he thinks, to take matters into his own hands and set this right, based on his own opinions, his own standards, and his own ideals of righteousness and good. This may work for a period of time, but there always comes a reckoning – not necessarily in an overt or direct judgment of God, but quite commonly in a loss of control over one’s life.

Having denied God and acted toward the Lord in rebellion and indifference, man is able to rise no higher. He cannot reach heaven, but he also finds the material mule that he depended on is now indifferent to him. Narcissistic self-regard has tangled him up, tied him to the circumstances of a limited human life. The mule moves on. Man hangs in painful helplessness, ensnared by the very thing in which he gloried -- the strength and power of the human mind with its many thoughts.

Unable to break free to return to the thoughtless animal life of earth, and even less able to rise above circumstances and draw close to God, the rebel becomes easy prey for Satan’s deadly schemes just as Absalom was an easy mark for Joab’s spear as he hung suspended from the oak. In the end the exaltation of man concludes in the death of all that is truly and uniquely human. The glory of man is cast into a nameless pit and buried in ignominy.

Cutting the Devil Down to Size

Vindicate me, God, and defend my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and unjust man. For You are the God of my refuge. Why have You rejected me? Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?

Send Your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to Your dwelling place. Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the lyre, O God, my God.

Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God. – Psalm 43

Since there has been some talk of angels on One Cosmos the last few days, I suppose it started me thinking.

Like the Psalmist, I have trouble with trouble. If, like me, you believe in God, then you probably have found yourself wondering, at least momentarily, if God has rejected you. I take things personally. If something goes wrong, I blame myself first. What did I do wrong? Where did I miss it? But it isn’t always my fault. Sometimes it can’t be. So I look around for someone to blame. Maybe it’s my wife’s fault. And so I go down the list.

We are told plainly that we do not fight against mere flesh and blood enemies. The Bible has no problem saying that there is an adversary of the Divine, an accuser of the brethren. We shouldn’t use the devil as an excuse, but we should recognize his presence and resist his efforts. In The Screwtape Letters Lewis warns of the two ways to err regarding the demonic. We can become morbidly obsessed with the devil, which is clearly wrong. It is, however, equally erroneous to dismiss demonic influence entirely.

The devil is real. You can call him an archetype; you can say it is a function of the human psyche; you can call it a mind parasite. It is real, and it is an adversarial force bent on destruction. No less an authority than Jesus Christ said that the devil was a liar and the father of lies. He compared him to a thief, coming to steal, kill and destroy. In fact, Jesus spoke about the devil and demons frequently. He told us that the devil not only deceives us but even attacks us physically.

The poet and artist William Blake did not believe that the soul and the body were really separate. He thought the body was a manifestation or emanation of the soul. The philosopher Anaxagoras said, “Appearances are a glimpse of what is hidden.” What happens, what we see in the physical realm is intimately related to what goes on in the spiritual. If that is the case, it is not surprising to find a physical disease or disability result from the enemy’s attack on the soul.

When we find ourselves laboring in darkness and oppression, what should we do? First we should call out to God. Come into the light and understand that in Christ we are released from all Satan’s accusations and indictments. Jesus paid it all. While I must deal with the consequences of my sin, there is no additional redemption in me suffering for my sins. I am no more delivered because I wallow in sorrow and suffer under demonic attack than if I stand upon my salvation in Christ and fight the devil. That is the whole point of Ephesians 6 as Paul tells us to deploy the shield of faith lest we be pierced by the fiery darts of the adversary.

I may chose to endure suffering and hardship, or I may make a sacrifice to benefit another person, but I should give no ground to the devil. God has not rejected us any more than He has rejected Christ the Son. We need not “go about in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression”. Instead, light and truth can lead us into God presence where we find genuine acceptance and joy. The writer of Psalm 43 touches on one, possibly the primary way to throw back the assault of the enemy, and fully enter God presence: praise.

To me, that has always sounded like pure cornball flakiness. Yet, the longest book in the Bible is the book of Psalms. David, called the man after God’s own heart, with all his faults, was above all a man of praise, a singer of psalms. Before Jesus went up to pray on Gethsemane on the night of His betrayal, He and the disciples sang a hymn. In heaven, the redeemed will sing a new song.

Hey, it’s worth a try.

Hallelujah!

The Flesh is a Strange Armor

Then Saul had his own military clothes put on David. He put a bronze helmet on David’s head and had him put on armor. David strapped his sword over the military clothes and tried to walk but he was not used to them. “I can’t walk in these,” David said to Saul. “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off. Instead, he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the wadi and put them in his pouch, in his shepherd’s bag. Then, with his sling in his hand, he approached the Philistine. -- 1 Samuel 17:38-40

Leading up to this point, the Israelite king Saul had disobeyed God and been rejected. The Lord had sent the prophet Samuel to anoint a successor and He had selected the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, David. As it typically fell to the youngest son to look after a family’s flock of sheep, David was the shepherd. Generally it was not too demanding an occupation but there were many predators in those days and so the shepherd had to defend his flock. The shepherd’s staff was not only helpful in herding, it served as a weapon as well. In addition to his staff, however, David had perfected his prowess with the sling.

Saul’s army was camped on one side of a wadi and the Philistine army was on the other side. The Philistines had a champion, Goliath, who was somewhere around nine feet tall and made quite an impression. He came daily and challenged the Israelites to send someone out for single combat against him. No one was willing to go. It is worth noting that Saul himself was the tallest man in Israel yet chose not to meet the giant on the battlefield.

David is sent up to the encampment by his father with food for his older brothers and the leader of their regiment. While there he witnesses the Philistine’s challenge and asks why somebody doesn’t go out and kill the big guy. He keeps asking questions and irritating those around him until he is finally taken to see Saul. When Saul has doubts about David’s fitness to take on the giant, David assures him that he has killed both lions and bears in defense of his flock – not, by the way, with his sling. “If it reared up against me, I would grab it by its fur, strike it down and kill it.” (1 Samuel 17:35). Saul finally agrees to allow David to take up the challenge and even offers the youth his own armor and equipment.

David goes along with trying on the king’s outfit but finds it strange. In some translations he says, “I haven’t proven them.” He had proven the sling and the staff. He had confidence in his own tools and equipment but not in the strange armor of Saul. Moreover David’s trust and confidence were not, ultimately, in his weaponry but in his God. It was God, he said, that delivered him from the lion and the bear.

When I face a challenge it is tempting to say that I’m not really up to it; it is beyond me. I look at my meager abilities and think they are insufficient. David had to face an armored giant with spear and sword. David had a stick and a handful of rocks.

I need to remind myself, and sometimes those around me, that I have faced difficult situations before this. David rehearsed his victories over dangerous predators. He knew that he had gotten through those trials, and he had learned that God was with him.

Smaller trials and tests ready us for bigger trials and tests. They give us confidence. Lao-tzu speaks of the fighting rooster that does not even look at his opponent. That is the champion, so supremely confident that nothing can break his calm. So, too, David paid no attention to the giant; he did not dwell on his size, his strength, or his skills. He kept his attention on God.

Rather than look at the giant and what it against me, I will look to God. Instead of being worried about what I am lacking, I will remind myself that those who trust in the Lord lack nothing they need. What God has given me, I will use. I will not be seduced by the world’s strange armor. I have no need of it and it is unproven. I will carry into this battle what I know is mine and I will go in the power of God.

Finally, David did pick up fresh ammunition. He chose five smooth stones from the bottom of that dry gulch. He placed them in his shepherd’s bag, all five apparently. When he approached the giant, he put his hand in the bag and drew out one to load his sling. It is a little like the priest drawing the sacred lots, the Urim and Thummim, to determine God’s will.

We make our best preparations based on our experience. The Lord expects us to do that. But in the end we allow the Lord to choose the stone that will fly perfectly true.