Two Reasons To Call

While my daughter had her learner’s permit one of the things I tried to teach her was a sense of direction. The experience was a little like Yoda working with Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back…I felt older and smaller and greener by the time we were done!

Her task was to find her way home from downtown Austin. She had to pretend that I wasn’t there. I could offer no feedback on her driving or her decisions. She was very brave as she drove in circles; but we weren’t going to make it home. I began to wonder what she would do. Suddenly she turned into a parking lot which we had seen a couple of times already. She pulled into a parking place and opened her cell phone. My phone started ringing and you guessed it, “Dad, I’m lost. Can you help me?” We both busted out laughing!

Do you call your Father when you’ve gotten yourself into a mess? My first thought is often “regroup and rethink in order to resolve.” Prayer isn’t necessarily my first impulse. Why don’t we turn to our Father first and fast? I think it may have a lot to do with who we think He is. Is He really merciful and gracious? Really?

In I Samuel 8:1-9 the Israelites had come to a crossroads. The need for a new leader loomed on the horizon. Samuel, the prophet God had raised up for them, was advanced in years. His sons lacked the integrity to lead in his absence. The elders of Israel had come up with a bad idea, “…appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.”

The essence of their request was blatant to God, “…they have rejected Me from being king over them.” What did their plans do to His heart? It was another rejection in a long list of rejections. It must have been a little like pouring salt in an open wound. Yet even in the midst of that rejection God was trying to help them by warning them of the consequences of their choice. He didn’t hammer them; He helped them. This is mercy and grace played out in living color.

God’s warning concludes in 8:18, “…you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” “Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” God responded, “Listen to their voice, and appoint them a king.”

Now comes a striking series of events recorded in I Samuel 9-11. Samuel, under the Lord’s direction, chose Saul as king. Saul, by means of the Spirit of God, delivered the nation from the Ammonites. Israel routed the Ammonites and Saul knew Who did the routing, “…today the Lord has accomplished deliverance in Israel.”

What’s so striking? Hebrew Scriptures have recorded this same type of deliverance over and over, right? What’s striking is that the selection of Saul and the deliverance of the nation immediately follows the nation’s rejection of the Lord. He doesn’t give them what our world says they deserve…divorce. He gives them what our world says they don’t deserve…deliverance. That’s mercy and grace, again.

It gets even more striking. If you continue to follow the story you will see that the Israelites don’t realize the error of their ways until I Samuel 12:19, after the rout of the Ammonites. “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.”

So even before they confessed their sin, our God had poured out mercy and grace on them. Before they knew what they had done! Before they offered any apology! Before they did any make-up work!

What kind of mercy and grace is this? It is nothing less than supernatural. It is bizarre. Our world would call it inappropriate. And it is changing my prayer life.

My daughter is out of the nest now. She is very much on her own and handling herself so well. It thrills my heart whenever she calls to ask for help. It doesn’t matter if she made the mess or the mess was thrust upon her. I rejoice that she chose to call me. How much more when we call our merciful and gracious Father in Heaven?