Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”
—1 Samuel 15:15
Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him.
—1 Samuel 20:32-33a
Nathan said to David, “You are the man! ....” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
—2 Samuel 12:7a, 13a
“Come now, let us reason together”, says the Lord:
—Isaiah 1:18a
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand
—Philippians 4:5
Paul asked the Galatian believers, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?“
A person's responses to questions or discussions—not to mention disagreements or corrections—reveal that person's heart and character.
Saul boasted about doing what he had been commanded. When Samuel asked him about the sounds of the animals, Saul began pointing fingers—“they” and “the people” spared the animals, but “we” obeyed. He even used sacrifice as a cover story. As his paranoia grew, he became jealous of the praise David received, he fantasized that the priests of Nob conspired against him and ordered their murder, and even tried to kill his own son.
When Nathan confronted David with the Lord's judgment on David's actions with Bathsheba and Uriah, the first words out of David's mouth were, “I have sinned...” And that is the context of David's song of confession that pleads for the Lord to make him clean like snow.
Snow, as a symbol of a cleansed condition, appears again in the word of the Lord through Isaiah. After rebuking the sinful and corrupt nation and its rulers for their violence, injustice, and indifference to the helpless, the message calls for reason leading to cleansing and obedience.
Paul pleaded with the Philippian believers to be reasonable. He not only asked those in conflict to “agree in the Lord”, he asked for another to help them.
And the snow is not just a veneer covering up the corruption underneath. It is the character of hearts and minds guarded by the peace of God in Christ Jesus.
Snow
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
—Psalm 51:7
Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse,
and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you;
reprove a wise man, and he will love you.
—Proverbs 9:7-8
Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”
—1 Samuel 15:15
Then Jonathan answered Saul his father, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” But Saul hurled his spear at him to strike him.
—1 Samuel 20:32-33a
Nathan said to David, “You are the man! ....” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
—2 Samuel 12:7a, 13a
“Come now, let us reason together”, says the Lord:
—Isaiah 1:18a
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand
—Philippians 4:5
Paul asked the Galatian believers, “Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?“
A person's responses to questions or discussions—not to mention disagreements or corrections—reveal that person's heart and character.
Saul boasted about doing what he had been commanded. When Samuel asked him about the sounds of the animals, Saul began pointing fingers—“they” and “the people” spared the animals, but “we” obeyed. He even used sacrifice as a cover story. As his paranoia grew, he became jealous of the praise David received, he fantasized that the priests of Nob conspired against him and ordered their murder, and even tried to kill his own son.
When Nathan confronted David with the Lord's judgment on David's actions with Bathsheba and Uriah, the first words out of David's mouth were, “I have sinned...” And that is the context of David's song of confession that pleads for the Lord to make him clean like snow.
Snow, as a symbol of a cleansed condition, appears again in the word of the Lord through Isaiah. After rebuking the sinful and corrupt nation and its rulers for their violence, injustice, and indifference to the helpless, the message calls for reason leading to cleansing and obedience.
Paul pleaded with the Philippian believers to be reasonable. He not only asked those in conflict to “agree in the Lord”, he asked for another to help them.
And the snow is not just a veneer covering up the corruption underneath. It is the character of hearts and minds guarded by the peace of God in Christ Jesus.