And The Clock Winds Down

1 Samuel 28, 29, 30 & 31, 1 Chronicles 10

These four chapters bring 1^st Samuel to its conclusion.  And it filled my second journal.   The end of a book and a writing always leading to some moments of reflection.   Reflections on being on this journey for 103 days but being 30 or 40 days behind.  Behind but still moving forward.   I love that.   Always feeling this blessed thread in my hand and in my heart and in my soul.   

Thinking about God’s Story and about God’s People.

And reflecting how this affects my story and our story.  

Realizing more and more that we are not unaffected by it.  

Realizing that so many of the heroes in the Bible were also just ordinary people.

Realizing that so many of the ordinary people in our story are extraordinary.  Heroes. 

The clock unwinds all the way for Saul.

And David continues to wait for his moment.

Waiting on God’s timing for the Plan to unfold.

Is that what it looks like when you are in a battle for your life and you need only to be still?  Obedient and steadfast in the waiting.  Obedient to God’s Call and nudges and promptings.  Waiting and relying on God to bring about His outcome? 

Achish sends David back to Ziklag and David is spared from having to fight alongside the Philistines and engage the Israelites in battle.  The very battle in which Saul loses his life. Saul and his sons. 

Meanwhile David returns to Ziklag and finds it raided and plundered by the Amalekites.  All the women and children taken.  Including David’s wives and children.  David and the men with him pursue, fight, defeat enemies, and recover all that was taken. 

David finishes what Saul started so long ago.  Saul’s end, is David’s beginning.  

This is the day that Saul and his sons die.   Just as the apparition of Samuel said to Saul via the witch at Endor.  Saul went there seeking Samuel and God’s will.

Too little.

Too late.

1 Samuel 28: 16 “Why do you consult me

now that the LORD has turned away from you

and become your enemy?

17 The LORD has done what He predicted through me. 

The LORD has torn the kingdom

out of your hands

and has given it to one of your neighbours – to David.

18 Because you did not obey the LORD

or carry out his fierce wrath against the Amalekites,

the LORD has done this to you today. 

19 The LORD

will hand over

both Israel and you

to the Philistines,

and tomorrow you and your sons

will be with me. 

The LORD will also hand over the army of Israel to the Philistines. “

And it happened exactly the way Samuel prophesied from beyond the grave. 

Saul collapsed. 

Terrified and exhausted.

A king faced with knowing

He has one day left to live

With no choice about how he would spend it.

Utterly defeated

And empty handed.  

A chapter closes. 
 And tomorrow a new day.

I like beginnings so much more than endings.