Photo by our eldest daughter, Linda McLean She is very proud of this shot taken with her mobile phone.
We are currently looking after Ruby, our daughter's spaniel. She is cute and cuddly; she is adorable and affectionate. I have just taken her for one of her many walks in the nearby woodland. Her hearing is perfect. She can hear noises which, even with my hearing aids, I have no chance of detecting. When I reach the community woodland, I allow her off the lead and she explores the dense undergrowth feverishly. I have developed a whistling sound to which she responds - most of the time. There are too many distractions such as the variety of scents to which her natural instincts responds. So my voice or whistle is competing with distractions. Ruby is very eager to please and likes the praise she gets when she responds to a command. It's just that there are so many competing demands on her attention.
I have been looking at a Hebrew word - shama which means to hear or obey. I include 2 PDF documents on the usage of this word.
The first lesson from this study relates to our reluctance to obey the voice of the Lord. In this word study, I focused on 1 Samuel for various reasons, one of which is that I am planning to lead a discipleship group at Dawson Community Church on the Life of David. Saul, Israel's first king was displaced because of disobedience. He was given a clear instruction from the Lord to destroy the Amalekites completely but Saul was reluctant to obey fully this command. Like Ruby the working spaniel, he was distracted by the sight of the animals (the text says he 'pounced on the spoil' [1 Samuel 15:19 ESV] and he kept them alive. He also spared the Amalekite king and we could speculate as to his motives for this. It is interesting that, when he is challenged, Saul claims that he had followed the Lord's command.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” [1 Samuel 15:13 ESV]
Saul is reluctant to admit his disobedience and he claims that he had carried out the Lord's command and then blames the people for sparing the cattle and trying to imply that they were going to be sacrificed to the Lord - so it was right to keep them alive. This leads to the well-known statement which could be the subject of a Dayshare blog on its own.
And Samuel said,
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams. [1 Samuel 15:22 ESV]
Saul's disobedience had momentous consequences for Saul. Some unbelievers are cynical about God's commands suggesting that he is expecting people to jump through hoops unnecessarily. God's commands are always for our good. To get back to my analogy of the dog, when I give a command to Ruby it is always, or nearly always for her welfare and safety. There is an ominous sign placed on one of the trees which warns dog owners to keep their dogs on the lead or else they could be shot. The sign is unfriendly but the danger to livestock from out-of-control dogs is very real. But, of course, Ruby cannot read this sign and so I need to warn her not to stray from the paths or to wander from my sight. One of the elders at the church shared a story about his black Labrador dog Finn with us one Sunday. He spoke of the thrill he experienced when Finn responded to his call to stop and come back to him. God has great pleasure from our obedience. He is not whimsical or capricious - he wants the best for us. There are consequences of disobedience as we can learn from the example of Saul, Israel's first king.
I want briefly to highlight another lesson which I learned from the word study. I noticed that there were many instances in First Samuel where there was evidence of reports circulating around the area. These were the days of primitive communication but word-of-mouth is a long-standing method of mass communication. In the PDF document I label these instances as 'I heard it through the grapevine.' The listener has been made aware of some event from listening to other people's conversations. S/he has not heard the matter for himself or herself. Here is one example of this:
Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. [1 Samuel 2:22 ESV]
Notice the way the ESV translators have rendered the Hebrew word shama - 'kept hearing.' These reports of his son's misconduct are everywhere. If it is bad news, it is more likely to be circulated. We all love gossip. Sadly, these reports were true and Eli had failed to deal with his son's misconduct. They abused their privileged position as sons of the priest to take advantage of women serving in the 'temple' or tent of meeting. To Eli's credit, he did not ignore these reports but it was too late. His eyesight was poor and he had 'turned a blind eye' to their behaviour for all their lifetime. [Some other examples of this usage of the word shema - 1 Samuel 2:22-24; 1 Samuel 4:19; 1 Samuel 7:7; 1 Samuel 8:21; 1 Samuel 11:6; 1 Samuel 14:22; 1 Samuel 16:2; 1 Samuel 17:31; 1 Samuel 22:1, 6; 1 Samuel 23:10-11, 25; 1 Samuel 24:9; 1 Samuel 25:4, 7, 39; 1 Samuel 31:11]
Whenever we hear a report (good or bad), there is a call to action to some degree or another. Sometimes, we act too quickly and other times we ignore these reports because they are not what we want to hear. There is one more example which is worth considering. The context is that David is fleeing from king Saul who wants to kill him. But in chapter 24, there is an account of one of two occasions when David was presented with a golden opportunity to get his own back on Saul. But to his credit, David did not kill Saul even though he had the chance to do so. Instead, David chooses to remonstrate with Saul and to make his defence.
And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Behold, David seeks your harm’?
David is the victim of slander and character assassination. He points out that this incident has provided clear evidence that Saul had nothing to fear from David. Saul's fears were groundless and irrational but, although he admitted to David that he had been wrong, Saul was unprepared to ignore this gossip because it suited his prejudices. He saw David as a threat and so there were those who stoked the fire of jealousy and mistrust. I have been the victim of such malicious gossip at times in my life and it is hard to cope with. In the end, however, David was vindicated when he waited God's time. There is much more could be said about this aspect of what we hear.
This is only a starter in a study of this Hebrew word. I may continue with it in future blogs and the Spirit leads. For today, there are two basic lessons.
God expects complete obedience - not just our take on what God wants us to do. God wants us to trust and obey completely and not be governed by our own thinking and stubborn rebellion against God. We should never imagine that we know better. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
We hear so many reports both good and bad. We need to decide whether to ignore them or to take action. It is important that we do so prayerfully and not be influenced by prejudice, impatience, or anger.
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