I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
There are two examples here of David failing to discipline his sons, more importantly, both of these situations arose because David had failed to discipline his sons previously. The first part is where David’s son Amnon rapes his half-sister, Tamar. The account records that David was very angry when he heard of this, but it does not recount him disciplining Amnon in any way. Moreover, if David had taught his sons that they would suffer the consequences of their misbehavior it is unlikely that Amnon would have committed this horrible act. This first story leads to the second. Absalom was Tamar’s full brother and was infuriated at Amnon’s treatment of his sister. Because David failed to adequately discipline Amnon (and had previously failed to properly discipline Absalom, by my reading), Absalom felt that it was up to him to obtain justice for his sister. Absalom plots and arranges to have his half-brother Amnon killed. David further compounds the problem by failing to punish Absalom by forcing him to remain in exile after killing his brother. We can understand a father wishing to be reconciled with his son, even after that son had killed one of the father’s other sons, but nevertheless some sort of long term consequences were in order and David failed to levy them on his son. We will discover in later passages that this leads to further heartache. David failed to discipline his sons and to raise them to be godly men. He literally let them get away with murder.
Here Jesus prays for the disciples, but not just for the disciples. He says that His prayer is for those who will believe in Him because of the message that the disciples will preach. In this prayer Jesus asks God to grant those who believe in His name unity. Certainly the factions that we Christians often divide into goes against God’s will. Unfortunately, too many of those who strive to avoid conflict among Christians, also, fail to hold their brothers and sisters accountable for sin. There is a fine line we are called to tread. On the one hand, we are to be united in our faith and love of God. On the other hand, we are called to confront our brothers and sisters when they sin. There is no easy resolution to this dilemma since both are things which Jesus Himself taught. Too many Christians choose between Church discipline and Church unity. When we practice Church discipline we must remember to, also, work for Church unity. But when we strive for Church unity, we must remember to maintain Church discipline. There is no easy way to point out how to do this in practice, but if we each remember that first and foremost we are to love one another and strive for God’s guidance in our actions we can find our way through this.
Today’s reading contains two more stanzas of Psalm 119. Previously when I have read Psalm 119 (either the whole thing or parts) I have been overwhelmed by the length of this psalm and missed the beauty of it. I have never before noticed its emphasis on the importance and benefits of following God’s commands, although I am sure that it has been pointed out to me. Once again, the psalm in today’s reading fills me with joy.
you established the earth, and it endures.”
The God who was faithful to those who believed His word in New Testament times and was faithful to my father’s generation, is faithful to my generation and will be faithful to the generations which will follow me.
The first proverb today has a pair of double meanings to me. It says that sin is atoned for through love and faithfulness. Primarily, my sin has been atoned for through the love and faithfulness of Jesus Christ, but there is a responsive element where God calls on us to love and be faithful to Him in order to claim that atonement. This is one of those things where it is difficult for me to express what this means to me without it sounding like somehow my actions lead to the atonement of my sin. That is not at all what I believe. I believe that my love and faithfulness comes as my response to God’s action in providing atonement for my sin. And as for my faithfulness, it is only possible for me to be faithful in as much as God provides me with the strength and grace to achieve that goal. The second half of the first proverb, like the first half, has a kind of double meaning. If we have appropriate fear of the Lord, we will avoid taking evil actions. But, in addition, if we live our lives with fear of the Lord, we will avoid entering into situations where we will experience evil.