Bryan Richardson

Right

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 37:14-28, 50:15-21 (day three)

Here comes that dreamer!

We mostly can’t be trusted with the future, though one can find exceptions. Many prophets—not all, but many—have stewarded their knowledge of the future with great skill. But they tend to have difficult lives and die early. So yeah, the future’s a hard thing to handle well. What happened when the deficient trustee of prophetic insight was a vision-casting, favorite-son-status-occupying, flashy-attire-flaunting seventeen-year-old kid? In a family already prone to scheming, that kid’s pontificating came off as one more threatening agenda. Joseph was right about the future, you know. But rightness is a most dangerous quality. The arrogance that often accompanies it will harm others. Hardship—not least his brothers’ damnable human-trafficking transaction—transformed Joseph’s arrogance into wisdom. And in God’s providence he became a life-saving steward of the future.

Faith

RE Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day three)

He said to him, “Abraham!’”

Each of Abraham’s names for God—God Most High, God Almighty, God Everlasting, among others—arose over the better part of a hundred years from difficult, often violent experiences that progressively revealed to Abraham something hitherto unknown about the character of God. All of which is to say that when God’s Moriah directive came down, it didn’t arrive in a vacuum. As shocking and fearsome as this communication was, Abraham knew the one speaking––and that’s all he knew. But by now that was enough. Indeed, the writer of Hebrews gives us a window into Abraham’s thinking: He wouldn’t put it past God to possess the ability to raise the dead. So up Moriah he went. On the basis of what (or whom) he knew, he went where he did not know. This is faith.

Beyond

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 28:3-20; 31:1-6 (day three)

Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?

The spiritual side of reality is nothing if not consistent with the material side. Except for being dead, Samuel is his same old self, delivering his same old word to Saul: No. Really, of course, Samuel is alive—just not occupying the same dimensional space as Saul anymore. But the thing that we often get a little fuzzy on is just how much these two sides of reality affect each other. We act as if the life beyond this life is a kind of fancy reset button. Turns out, though, that Jesus really knew what he was talking about: Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. In other words, this life really matters eternally. Live accordingly.

Precipice

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 25:1-34 (day three)

“May you be blessed for your good judgment.”

When all the ideas that attract your attention start to sound like counsel you would give to yourself, when searching for guidance becomes seeking permission, when your mentor becomes your cheerleader, stop. You’re about to fall off the cliff. It will happen soon. A wise man gives good advice. A wiser man recognizes good advice. Look at David’s life and start taking notes.

Now

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 24 (day three)

But David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Saul wept nostalgic tears. The golden times of David’s service in Saul’s household—those were the days. Too bad he didn’t understand: The past is a good teacher, but it’s a terrible coach. It can remind us where we’ve been, but it can’t urge us on in the direction we must go. The future’s coming, and only those who make peace with the present will live well in that future. Does that mean satisfaction with the present? Hardly. It means understanding that you start with what you’ve got, not with what you wish you had. David’s present wasn’t a good one, but it was what he had. Saul withdrew into his memories. David went up to the stronghold. That wasn’t his future, but it’s how he would get there.

Smithing

Re:Verse reading— 1 Samuel 20:1-17, 30-42 (day three)

Then they kissed each other and wept together.

Let’s face it, it’s more fun to argue about whether Jonathan and David were gay than actually to pursue the intimate friendships that will show the love of Christ to a world that’s lost its way. While we’re at it, though, let’s all beware the temptation to read back into the scriptures the controversy du jour. To identify homoerotic overtones in the friendship of these men is to ignore the ancient social conventions that made room for the kind of demonstrative affection that is alien to our thinking save in sexualized settings. They were not lovers, they were friends. We used to know what that means. And we can again. But it will take work—deeper than occasional girls’ nights out, higher than gym time with the brahs. Iron won’t sharpen itself.

Third

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 18:1-16, 19:1-7 (day three)

David eluded him twice.

Yeah, David wasn’t going to stick around for a third chance to duck. Two spears into the mentoring program, Saul’s orders opened up an opportunity to get out of there, and David was off to the front. There would be no third spear. Saul had squandered yet another season of God’s generosity. Even in the sad decline of Saul’s reign, the goodness of God allowed Saul the dignity of teaching a young and capable apprentice, an opportunity that shined a redemptive beacon in the twilight of his kingship. A chastened man would have recognized that redemptive possibility. A chastened man would have cautioned David to take a different path than he had taken. A chastened man would have provided the king-to-be with hard-won wisdom. Saul was not that man. Are you?

Clarity

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 17:1-11, 26-32, 38-51 (day three)

“What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?”

One can make a case that this question is actually rhetorical—that David is exposing these concerns as paltry diversions and absolutely beside the point: “The enemy commences with chest-pounding triumphalism against a God-delivered and God-shepherded people, and the best you can do is drool over the wanted poster?” Saul had proven himself unwilling or unable to provide any spiritual context for Israel’s predicament. Spinning fantasies of rewards and glory for some imaginary hero was all that kept Saul’s scared soldiers from deserting. David stepped into the breach, clarifying the issue: The biggest danger they faced was not the end of their self-governance, but the end of their knowledge of God. Fear Goliath, and Goliath is all you’ll find.

Risk

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 16. (day three)

“How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me.”

When the king lives in fear, no one is safe. The man who lives in fear will use every ounce of energy to stave off the dread until there’s no strength left to seek the welfare of the weak and the small. Fear is the soul’s Dead Sea. Energy flows in but nothing flows out. And nothing can live in or near a life like that. No wonder Samuel kept his distance from Saul. The whole nation was increasingly at risk of descending into anarchic madness because of the ruler’s rising fear. In those dark days, Samuel braved Saul’s deadly wrath to shepherd the David’s ascension to the throne. The hard work of courage is the only answer to the influence of fear. Pray. And rise.

Master

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 15 (day three)

“I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.”

It takes Saul three iterations of the narrative for him to speak the truth. First, Saul does his best to convince himself that the plunder is purely for noble purposes. Second, Saul attempts to redirect: The main thing got done, didn’t it? Finally, Saul arrives at the real story: “I acted out of fear.” Herein lies the reign-defining difference between David and Saul. David says, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Saul says, “What time I am afraid, I will do fear’s bidding.” It is not a sin to be afraid. It is a sin to serve fear as one’s master. Of course you’re afraid. But what are you going to do from that point?