Day 148

1 Samuel 21:1-23:29, John 18:1-24, Proverbs 13:10-19

It is one of the age old stories that we have seen throughout our reading. David (at this point in his life) is in a close walk with the Lord and Saul is quite clearly not, and it shows.

Today David doesn’t do anything unless he has enquired of God, asking about battle, asking about whether to run or not. David knows that there is only one person who has all the answers! You may also recognise this passage from some of the words of Jesus. When the disciples had picked corn on the Sabbath Jesus pointed out that the revered David had once eaten consecrated bread that had been on the alter – well here is that passage.

Even in the face of arrest and imminent death we see Jesus still defiant. As they ask for Jesus of Nazareth he twice responds with “I am he”, echoing the “I am” phrase that we have seen before, the “I am” that is a red rag to a bull for the Jews. Jesus does not back down despite all the high powered people he is wheeled in front of, despite the fact that one of them has the cheek to strike the face of God. Yet Jesus remains firm. Sometimes, away from the height of Easter, we forget about the brutality of the cross, we forget what Jesus went through to get there and what he went through on that cross. All for our sake. In the face of all this upcoming pain, Jesus stays calm for he has a purpose to fulfil, the purchase of eternal life for all who chose to follow him.

“The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death” (Prov 13:14). Who could be wiser than God, and in his teaching, which continued to the point of death, our lives are wrestled from the snares of death, for death was defeated. “All who believe in him shall never hunger or thirst” at the fountain of life. This is the Christ we follow.