Day 80, or March the 21st. How will you be remembered?
Our thought today is from 1 Samuel chapter 25
verse 1. Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled,
and mourned for him, and they buried him at his
home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the
desert of Paran. First, the big picture of this
verse. As David continues to be on the run from
Saul, he finds he is given a golden opportunity
to kill him, but rejects it, and then attracts
his attention when he shouts, in chapter 24,
verse 12, May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps
the Lord will punish you for what you are trying
to do to me, but I will never harm you. He really
was a faithful servant of the Lord's anointed,
and honoured him as such. In the next chapter,
David has another chance to kill Saul, but despite
encouragement from his men to finally conclude
the whole issue, David won't, because he sees
Saul as his king, not as his enemy. You would
think that David's loyalty was now beyond question.
But Saul never seems to get it, as he struggles
with the idea of David rather than Jonathan succeeding
him. Now our action step for today. When Samuel
the prophet and kingmaker dies, he doesn't even
get a whole verse announcing it in the Bible.
He is the only man in the Old Testament who has
two books that bear his name, and yet his passing
is almost overlooked. I know some folk who have
already planned their own funeral, and if that
is in order to keep it brief and point people
to Jesus, that's fine. However, if it's simply
to make sure that none of their great works or
deeds is forgotten, then they should get those
plans out and take another look at them. I would
like to think that I have lived my life so that
whoever takes my funeral will be able to tell
the truth. That seems to me a fitting tribute
for any of God's children. The last thing I want
is for my funeral to be so abounding in praise
that folk begin to ask, whose funeral was that?
I think I've come to the wrong one.