Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 4-7.

There are several things I could write about in today’s passage, but I will only write about two of them.  The first is why David reacted so strenuously to both the Amelekite who brought him news of King Saul’s death and the two men who killed Ish-Bosheth.  We do not usually think much about his reasons because we find the actions of the two men who killed Ish-Bosheth offensive and their execution perfectly justified.  However, looking at David’s reaction in light of what he did to the Amelekite suggests there was more to it than just administering justice against murderers.  David did this to communicate that he was not going to rule the way that King Saul had done.  David intended that no one would fear the private arrival of one of his henchmen in the way that the priest Ahimelek was frightened when David showed up.  David wanted to make it clear that he would have no secret police, and that he would not only not reward people for “taking out” those they thought were his enemies, but that he would punish them.  I want to note the importance of the fact that not only did David not rule in the manner in which King Saul had ruled, but he unequivocally communicated that he was not going to do so.

I also want to write about the joy with which David worshiped the Lord as he had the ark of the covenant brought into Jerusalem.   Actually, I want to write about the way that David’s wife, Michal, the daughter of King Saul, reacted to David worshiping the Lord with exuberance.  She thought David was making a fool of himself and held him in contempt for it.  When she confronted him about it, David replied that he would become even less dignified and was willing to be humiliated in his own eyes in order to worship God.  We too should be willing to be humiliated about the way in which we worship the Lord, or, more precisely, we should not allow our fear of being humiliated temper how we worship God.  As importantly, or perhaps more importantly, let us not hold others in contempt for the way in which they worship the Lord.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.