And the Lord is with Him

Israel for the longest time was ruled by judges who liaise between them and God Himself. After a while they cried out to God persistently and forced Him to give them a king like all the other nations. God gave them King Saul. After a few acts of disobedience God rejected Saul and instructed the prophet Samuel to anoint David to be king after Saul. David was anointed as a teen and took the throne about fifteen years later.

1 Samuel 16:14 says “Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him”. His servants came up with a solution: find someone who could play the lyre so that when the evil spirit attacked Saul he would play and Saul would feel better. Saul agreed to the plan and commissioned his servants to find such a one. At that one of the servants said “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the Lord is with him.”

Now, we normally do not wear tee-shirts proclaiming we are Christians or the Lord is with us. I bet David did not own any such tees or frocks either. There are a number of ways the servant could have known the Lord was with David: he had had interactions with David or he had observed David or he had heard about David. When people meet us do they meet the Lord? When they talk to us, do they hear the Lord? When they see us, do they see the Lord? Can both friends and acquaintances testify about us that indeed the Lord is with us? We are expected to be different and not feel ashamed about our difference, after all we are in the world but not of the world.

David had been anointed king before being brought into the palace to play for Saul. We could say that the anointing set him apart and he stood out among all the lyre players of his time. It may well be. The good news is we also as born again Christians have the Holy Spirit in us and that should set us apart from the rest. Some of us have too much of the world in us and sometimes I wonder whether we as Christians are working on being transformed or working on conforming to the world. If we talk like the unbelievers, act like them, dress like them, then what sets us apart? We are called to stand out and not to blend in.

May the Lord give us grace to daily learn to be more like Christ instead of looking more like the world with each passing day. He did not shed His blood only for us to keep running after the world.

Blessings.

Love,
Lady Monica.