A Call To The Remnant

1Sa 20:31  For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die. 

We see here a complicated truth. What Saul says to Jonathan is actually true. Unless David dies, the kingdom of men, the kingdom of Saul, the future kingdom of Jonathan can never be truly established. There is enmity between what man wants and what God wants. They are diametrically opposed to one another. Jonathan sought to persuade his father on behalf of his beloved friend and it results in Saul now trying to kill his own son with a spear. The same spear, the same javelin, the same anger, the same rage that was all directed towards David, in a mere moment, was directed towards his own son. In the end it was never about David or Jonathan or even a kingdom, it was all about Saul. He cared more deeply about what people thought about him than he did about any other thing. Its the kingdom of self and many many men have destroyed everything around them in their worship of their own self destructive flesh.

Why is the cross so important? Why does it lie at the center of our faith? The reason? It is the one and only weapon that can take the flesh down. Jesus conquered the flesh on a cross. Jesus told His disciples that in order to follow Him, in order to be worthy of being His disciple, they must take up their cross daily. The battle against the flesh rages on. Its only means of death is a cross. Not a spear, not a javelin and not the weapons of this world. Our fight is against the flesh that raged within Saul. And on every occasion there is a lurking enemy ready to back up your flesh with very deliberate persuasive arguments as to why your flesh is correct. The sermon on the mount is the sword of God relentlessly and without mercy exposing and dispatching the real enemy. It slashes away at self preservation. It runs though self determination. It cuts asunder self promotion. It turns on its head self-ishness. All of this is useless to the man or woman who has not been born again. The dead man must be put in his grave and up from it must rise the man who is born again. Only he can walk the walk of the sermon on the mount.

Jesus says to Pilate “My kingdom is not of this world.” The kingdom of God is not established by men but rather it is established in the hearts of His saints. The Kingdom of God exists collectively and individually within us. There are forces that forever are trying to invade the Kingdom. They know what Saul knew. While there is a single “David,” that exists on the earth then the kingdom of men, the kingdom of darkness can never be established. And the tactic of the enemy has not, nor will it, change. It must eliminate the saints. It will not even be good enough to neutralize them from society and chase them into the wilderness. It will come looking for us in the wilderness. And it will look, for a time, times and a half a time to completely eradicate us. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations (Rev 13:7 ) Yet, we know, that the forces of darkness will fail. And just like Saul, the forces of darkness know it too. For the victory was already won on a day, 2000 years ago when Jesus announced “It is finished.”