Saul, First King of Israel
On Predestination and Free Will
R. A. Snider for the Body of Christ

Source Text: 1st Book of Samuel, KJV
Focus: Chapters 8-15
Question: Was Saul, the first king of Israel, predestined by God to fail as a king?

Saul was not destined to fail. The quality of his character when he was first chosen to be king was one of humility, of being “small in [his] own eyes”. What he was destined to be was a king who would make Israel regret ever demanding one, but the reasons Samuel the prophet gave for this foreordained remorse had nothing to do with the long chain of bad decisions that kept Saul on the dark path of rebellion, beginning sometime in the 3rd year of his reign. It had everything to do with the grievous “taxation” the king would impose upon his people by executing his office. Call it the cost of having a king, for an earthly king must have a crown, and a...

a white plastic bag
caught in a tree branch
flight interrupted

~

I used to write a lot of haiku, many years ago when I lived in the South. I’d thought it the height of literary sophistication (until I discovered haibun some years later). Long ago, in pre-9/11 America, My high-school creative writing teacher taught us about haiku, and about the “haiku moment” from which the poem should coalesce. I don’t recall her wording, but that moment should be one of intense, unbidden focus on some sudden, often unexpected event, be it large or small, like a bird knocking itself out cold against a window, or the particular way a falling leaf lights upon the edge of a concrete sidewalk, water rushing past in the gutter, evoking some melancholy emotion about childhood lost, or similar. Trouble was that most of my haiku were pretty contrived and formulaic, scribbled from force of will and not...

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge. Real wisdom and prudence always begin with it. We must first understand that we are finite, limited, and ultimately weak in the face of the Divine and the Eternal. This is why Solomon advised, “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.” (Ecclesiastes 5.2)

These human limitations are intended to set the parameters of our individual self-worth: Be humble, not proud. Depend on God, not yourself, especially when facing things you cannot control. Once our attitude toward God is rightly oriented in holy reverence and deep respect, then we are better prepared to be governed by the love of God, and not merely the fear of Him.

They who are “wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own...

A rare political post, this. I dislike the topic because it boils my blood like no other, and I can’t be that kind of person. Nevertheless I drafted this a month or so before the election. I believe it to be a no-brainer. I also believe that most people, especially self-honest people, can see pretty clearly through every bit of the rhetoric, can see past every front, and behold the face of true motives, whether of political candidates, or bureaucratic agencies, of private special interest groups, of celebrities, of everyone. This is not to say that all such are dishonest, but We the People get awfully tired of being sold. Or played.

Beware of special interest groups who constantly squawk about equality. They are usually insincere. Their real goal is supremacy, and if they can’t achieve it by their merits, they will strive for it through duplicity and manipulation. They are not...

A speculative essay on the necessity of perdition

Prose

I am told of a rolling sea of fire, and of a great crowd, a miserable assemblage, that gathers on its shores. None of them speak, nor converse, rather all eyes among them remain fixed on the waves of that burning ocean, rapt equally in its horrid light and in their own despair, knowing that all hope of pardon or escape is utterly departed from them, and that all too soon they must ultimately be cast into its raging and eternal embrace.

While living they doubted. They questioned. They raged as children who dare authority to carry out a threat, and because judgement was not swift to fall, they raged with impunity, thinking themselves safe. “Why?” they asked among themselves, “Why should there have to be a hell? And why would a loving God send anyone there?” The same questions asked by generations without number, all asked without...

When I am an old man I want to be a gentleman,
with perfect manners, sound and articulate speech,
and refined opinions founded on solid, balanced judgment.

To be revered would be well, but I’ll settle for respected;
people are more apt to overlook your faults,
and to keep their expectations of you more reasonable.

I would possess at least half the strength of my youth,
both in body and in mind,
and twice the faith, never staggering at the Promise.

I would be as steadfast in my convictions as I was at twenty,
never wavering from the truth,
but with a lifetime of wisdom to back up the zeal.

I would not be a blow-hard, but a voice both of faith and of reason,
for these two are not mutually exclusive,
and I would continue to subject the latter to the former.

When I am an old man I want to be mindful of the finish line ahead,
and I will be certain to possess such a rapport with my Maker
...

In hating sin, a thing every Christian ought to do by reflex, we may be tempted, if we are so prone, to hate them who commit it, especially where they who sin are especially outrageous and hateful themselves. This is a trap of the devil, for the moment we fall into this sin of personal hatred, we have already ceased to love, and without love, Paul warns us, we are nothing but crashing cymbals and blaring brass. We are a racket of noise and fury and rhetoric, profiting the Lord nothing at all.

The commandment of the Lord is to love: “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And you will love your neighbor as yourself.” Likewise we are taught by Paul: “…though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”

Who loves, therefore, has a perfect heart toward the person...

The account in Judges 7 is a well-known episode in Israelite military history: A rough army of about 32,000 men rallied to Gideon’s banner to go to war against the oppressors of the day, the Midianites. However, the LORD intervened with Gideon on account of his own superior numbers; there were too many in his army for them to depend upon God for their victory. Under the LORD’s guidance, Gideon summarily dismissed 22,000 men afraid to fight, and then another 9,700 men who weren’t situationally aware enough to engage the enemy. Then with a fighting force of only 300 men, Gideon went into battle against a superior force and beheld as God provoked a miraculous victory for the Israelites.

Now we study the lessons, of which the primary is obvious: Trust. Follow the LORD’s instructions and depend upon Him for everything, especially for strength and victory in a conflict, and that victory will...

A rare political post, this. I dislike the topic intensely but allow myself to be pulled into it often enough. I believe that most people, especially self-honest people, can see pretty clearly through rhetoric, can see past every front, and behold the face of true motives, whether of political candidates, or bureaucratic agencies, of private special interest groups, of celebrities, of everyone. This is not to say that all such are dishonest, but We the People get awfully tired of being sold. Or played.
Beware of special interest groups who constantly squawk about equality. They are usually insincere. Their real goal is supremacy, and if they can’t achieve it by their merits, they will strive for it through duplicity and manipulation. They are not interested in equality or in liberty. They respect the law only where the law serves their means and ends. In all other cases they will seek to...

Hope is the whisper in the ear of the heartbroken that the future will be better, if only we do what we know to do and trust in God. This hope blossoms further when we realize that He is not a face set in stone, not an angry tyrant or an indifferent heathen idol, but a real and loving God (for the Bible makes this plain) who desires to be more than God to all men and women, but a Father as well. A Father even for the Fatherless. A hand outstretched to pick us up at every fall of disappointment. And when the heart is crushed, and the spirit is faint and has lost all strength to carry on, the God of all Heaven and Earth stands by, ready to take hold of us once we have spent our strength in thrashing about as one drowning. The Life Guard who is God can then carry us, exhausted, to shore. Only hope, Believer, for it is the Lord Himself who will lift you up, and strengthen in due time the...