Band of brothers

BIBLE STUDY

Colonel David Guy begins a four-part study entitled Touched By God’s Hand

THE furore over Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow’s book, The Grand Design, which declares that we do not need God to explain the origin of the Universe, has led me to think again about the basic reason why we believe in God.

It is not because of any theories about Creation, but because of a presence that sometimes – not all the time, perhaps not often – becomes part of our awareness, and to which we feel we must make a response.

People describe this experience in various ways: ‘God has spoken’ is one. ‘I felt his presence’ is another.

One of the earliest occurrences in the Bible when God is said to have touched people is found in the story of Saul, the first king of Israel.

The people had asked for a king to lead them into battle. After some initial resistance, the prophet Samuel was led to present Saul as the chosen man. Not everyone was impressed. He was young, unknown and belonged to an unimportant tribe. Some growled: ‘How can this fellow save us?’ (1 Samuel 10:27 all quotations from New International Version unless stated otherwise) and did not volunteer for service. To them this was an entirely secular development and they waited to see how the new king would turn out.

But others sensed that the emergence of this hitherto unknown champion was not the result of human choice. Something told them that God was involved, and before Saul had proved himself as a leader there went with him ‘valiant men whose hearts God had touched’ (1 Samuel 10:26).

The New Revised Standard Version calls them ‘warriors’. They were laymen responding to the unseen voice or the touch of God on their lives.

The King James Version says ‘a band of men’ – and it is worth stressing the plurality of the statement. Each young man had his own experience of God, but this moment of being in touch with the Divine did not separate him from the others. Rather, it drew each individual into fellowship with those who had met the same God. Genuine religious experience does not make for loneliness but for comradeship; each has his or her own different experience of God but the reality and effect are the same – for it is the one God who has acted in the lives of the many.

Once, while listening to cadets’ testimonies, I reflected that each one had a different story to tell – for human beings are individuals and each begins his or her response-journey from a different place. All, however, concluded with reconciliation, liberation and peace.

We all have the same saviour and so there is a family likeness in all our experiences.

What happened to Saul’s heroic band of brothers in the years that followed? They shared his early victories but were they disillusioned by his subsequent decline into despondency and suspicion? How did they view his turning against David when the young champion became so popular that Saul felt threatened? (See 1 Samuel 18:6–11.) Were they involved when Saul neglected the defence of his kingdom to hunt David in the wilderness? (See 1 Samuel 24.)

They could not have been unaware of Saul’s decline; how did this affect their faith?

If we serve the Lord, particularly if we preach the gospel or have a gift for evangelism, people may look at us and think: ‘Through that man/woman, God once touched me.’ If, like Saul, we allow personal jealousy and gloomy negativity to spoil our service, we may make it harder for others to continue in faith.

We follow a leader who appeared to fail, just like Saul. But unlike Saul – unlike every other human being – he was totally consistent in obedience to his Father. Consequently, he was shown by the Resurrection to be accepted by his Father and declared to be the powerful Son of God – the true victor. And his ultimate triumph meant life and liberty for others, not only for himself.

Through that same Lord Jesus, let us continually claim the grace of God by which we may follow in his steps – not to repeat his once-for-all achievement but to allow it to reshape our lives.

Next week we will look at the touch of God on the prophets and the mysterious and tragic figure of Job

• Colonel Guy lives in retirement in West Wickham