So…how do you sharpen your friends’ face?

That’s a silly question, but comes from a very popular scripture verse. It’s about accountability, strength and protecting power. It’s nearly impossible to have one without the other and even more difficult to keep any if you lose one. Early in Israel’s Game of Thrones, we find out that Israel subcontracted their military effectiveness to the enemy. How’s that? They gave their swords and spears to the Philistines.

No metalworker was to be found anywhere in Israelite territory because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not make swords and spears.” So every Israelite had to go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles. The cost was two- thirds of a shekel for plowshares and mattocks, but one- third of a shekel for sharpening axes and for setting goads. So on the day of the battle, no swords or spears were to be found in the possession of any of the troops with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and his son Jonathan had them [1 Sam 13:19-22; CEB].

Crazy, right? Giving your iron to the enemy you are about to fight?

And yet, we do it all the time. When I think of the high price of a dull blade and giving your power away, I immediately think of President Clinton and Lewinskygate (and, yes, the Presidency is still a game of thrones — or oak chairs). President Clinton did the one thing that made his legacy nearly irrelevant: he cheated. He cheated on his wife, his family and his country. This was salacious sexposition. Sexposition is a new term coined by TV Critic Myles McNutt who blogs at cultural-learnings.com. Sexposition is using sex to tell a story, to reveal plot points. In the Game of Thrones cable series, the creators use sex scenes to further the story along. Sex tells a story. And Lewinskygate sure did tell a story. Unfortunately, it didn’t tell the story that the President wanted to tell. But that’s the challenge, isn’t it?
How do we live a story that we are proud to tell?

The proverbs tell us: As iron sharpens iron, so friends sharpen each other’s faces [Prov 27:17; CEB].

The Hebrew text has some interesting distinctions. The word ‘sharpens’ comes form the Hebrew ‘yachad.’ even though you may not routinely use Hebrew, this is a great word to hold onto. ‘Yachad‘ is a word used for ‘community.’ The Qumran Community used the word to communicate…wait for it…wait for it…brotherhood. This proverb could be reworded to read, “As the sword sharpens sword, also a man gets up in the faces of his neighbors and forms a brotherhood.” In other words, brotherhood, the formation of community is hard work, akin to preparing for battle (see comment below). It is sword on sword, there is an opposing force that makes you better.

The point is: Community, brotherhood, is the iron that defends a man’s honor.

Honor is important. Men of God cannot afford the luxury of dull blades, nor can we subcontract the sharpening of them. That is to give power away to someone or something that will not do with it what you want.

And yet we do it all the time. How?

Take pornography.

Men seek pornography to make us feel manlier. To feel desired. To feel something. We marry our eyes to two dimensional images that appear to do those things, but in reality, they are only Philistine sword thieves that make sure we are useless in battle: in the battle of relationships, in battle of love and intimacy, in the battle of full life in Christ.

It’s not a secret sin. There is no secret.

Remember this from a couple of days ago?

Wow! Nothing is less secret than scandal. Not even if you happen to be the Secret Service. Take a moment and think about the implications here. The Secret Service wasn’t secret. What will the consequences be? What story does this tell? What’s the “sexposition?” What will we call the secret service now?

Your secrets aren’t safe [1 Sam 16:7].

Men of God have a choice, form community that gets in your face about things that are important, about things that shape and protect honor; things that add iron to the blood — OR — make anemic choices by yourself . That’s sooo boring.

In the Game of Thrones, you want to be armed with more than a dull blade…the cost is just too high.

Embrace the grace.
Tomorrow is a brand new day!

King Saul, Israel’s new thousand pound gorilla du jour, armed his soldiers to take on the Philistine hordes. The problem: the hordes were legion! The scripture describes their number like this: “Thirty thousand chariots, six thousand calvary and as many soldiers as there is sand on the seashore [1 Sam 13:5].” Saul had only brought two thousand men to the party.

Apparently, Saul was supposed to wait seven days before engaging the Philistines after, and only after, Samuel had joined his army to present an offering to the Lord.

What would you do? You have a problem, you are outnumbered, inexperienced, the clock is ticking, the results of waiting might be disastrous…and all you have to do is wait. Your life, your company, is entirely dependent on someone else’s calendar. Do you stay smart? Do what you are supposed to do?

Or make up new rules and hedge your bets?

In A Storm of Swords, the third book in the Game of Thrones series, Samwell Tarly is at the end of his rope, and what he thinks to do is to pray. His prayer goes like this:

“Old gods, hear my prayer. The Seven were my father’s gods but I said my words to you when I joined the Watch. Help us now. I fear we might be lost. We’re hungry too, and so cold. I don’t know what gods I believe in now, but . . . please, if you’re there, help us. Gilly has a little son.” That was all that he could think to say. The dusk was deepening, the leaves of the weirwood rustling softly, waving like a thousand blood-red hands. Whether Jon’s gods had heard him or not he could not say.”

There is a fearful moment of faith that upsets everyone.

Saul doesn’t.

As his soldiers begin to desert, he pushes the schedule up and leads the full sacrifice by himself. Samuel gets there just as he is finishing up. At this, his monarchy is ruined. “So I took control of myself, and offered up the entirely burned offering [1 Sam 13:12].”

Samuel responds, “You idiot!” OK, maybe he didn’t do that, but he did say, “How stupid of you to have broken the commands the Lord your God gave you? The Lord would have established your rule over Israel forever, but now your rule won’t last [vv.13-14]”

So what was the big deal? Why did Saul lose his empire for doing what Samuel was going to do anyway? Doesn’t God have a sense of humor? I thought the whole sacrifice thing pleased God.

Reality is, it wasn’t the sacrifice that concerned God. It was Saul’s ability to trust; his ability to be obedient under mortal threat. God wanted to give Saul an opportunity to be faithful. Turns out, faithfulness isn’t Saul’s spiritual gift. Like the great pop theologian Thomas Petty says, “The waiting is the hardest part.”

Instead of waiting on Samuel, Saul hedges his bets. Who knows what god he thought he was sacrificing to. Maybe, he was having an ‘I don’t believe in a God, per se, but in a force that commands the army of Israel’ moment and sacrificed to that. In 1947, C.S. Lewis said these brilliant words that I wish that I had known about before today

“. . . When [people] try to get rid of manlike, or, as they are called, ‘anthropomorphic,’ images, they merely succeed in substituting images of some other kinds. ‘I don’t believe in a personal God,’ says one, ‘but I do believe in a great spiritual force.’ What he has not noticed is that the word ‘force’ has let in all sorts of images about winds and tides and electricity and gravitation. ‘I don’t believe in a personal God,’ says another, ‘but I do believe we are all parts of one great Being which moves and works through us all’—not noticing that he has merely exchanged the image of a fatherly and royal-looking man for the image of some widely extended gas or fluid.”

Genius, right?

By hedging his bets, Saul loses favor with the God of Israel and loses the crown of Israel.

It’s about faith and Israel’s king doesn’t have it.