Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 18-19.

This passage reads as if the people of Judah did not begin seeking David’s return as king after Absalom’s death until David sent messages to them suggesting it would be in their best interest.  It appears that David sent those messages after others in Israel reached out to him about him returning as king.  Then once David did return as king, the men of Judah asserted greater credit for his return than the other tribes, starting the divide which came to fruition upon Solomon’s death.  Now I want to point out that this divide actually seems to have begun on the part of the other tribes.  I find it interesting that the other tribes count themselves as ten, but Shimei, a Benjamite, counted himself as “first from the tribes of Joseph” to come and greet David upon his return.  I am not sure of the significance of this, just something I noticed.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 16-17.

There are a lot of things I could write about today: Ziba’s comments about Mephibosheth’s reaction to Absalom’s treachery, the contrasting advice of Ahithophel and Hushai, and why Absalom listened to Hushai’s intentionally bad advice rather than Ahithophel’s good advice.  I chose however to write about how King David reacted to Shimei cursing him.  Abishai, Joab’s brother and David’s nephew, wanted to execute Shimei for cursing the king, a reaction which harkens back to David’s refusal to kill King Saul when he had the opportunity.  David, on the other hand, chose to let Shimei’s offense pass.  We can learn a lot about how we should react to our enemies from what David did here.  David chose to accept Shimei’s curse as something from God which he deserved because of his sin with Bathsheba and what he did to Uriah.  At this time, David chose to humbly bow his head and accept the suffering which God chose to inflict upon him by inspiring Shimei to curse him.  David chose to bow his head and accept that perhaps God had torn the throne from him.  David did not think it appropriate to claim the prerogatives of being God’s anointed when he was fleeing Jerusalem, because perhaps God had taken that blessing from him, as He had done to Saul many years earlier.  What I have written so far does not quite capture what I am trying to say.  David models for us something we should imitate.  As he fled from Absalom, he refused to take his frustration out on those who heaped abuse on him because of his fallen estate.  Instead, he threw himself on the mercy of God, and accepted the full suffering which came with what God had inflicted on him.  When we suffer, let us strive to not take our misery out on others, but instead cry out to God for forgiveness and rescue.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 14-15.

As I started to read this passage I was thinking about the role Joab played in setting up Absalom’s coup attempt, not that Joab did that on purpose.  Or, even the way Absalom set his coup in motion.  However, as I read what the wise woman from Tekoa said to David, it really struck me.  She said, “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.”  This seems to me to be a foreshadowing of the Gospel.  God seeks that those who have been banished from His presence by sin do not remain banished.  Each and every one of us has been banished from God’s presence by sin, but God does not desire for us to remain banished from Him.  So, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us so that we might not remain banished from His presence.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 12-13.

I debated with myself a lot about what to write about today’s passage.  Part of me wants to write about Nathan’s condemnation of David for his sin with Bathsheba.  Part of me wants to write about the actions of David’s sons, Amnon and Absalom.  Both of whom were clearly spoiled.  However, I decided to write about David’s reaction to the sickness and death of his first son with Bathsheba.  When the child fell ill, David fasted and prayed with so much fervor that his attendants were afraid to tell him when the child died.  David’s prayer while the child was sick reminds me of what Jesus taught in the parable of the persistent widow.  Jesus told them that they should pray and not give up.  David prayed and did not give up, but when the child died he recognized that God had told him “No.”  At that point, David accepted God’s will and went on with his life, seeking to serve the Lord.  We should follow David’s example, praying and fasting that God relieve the suffering of those around us, but not losing faith when God chooses differently than our desires.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 8-11.

Today’s passage contains two accounts about David’s war against the Ammonites.  The first is a summary about what caused the war and summarizes the course of the war.  The second mostly presents the war as a backdrop to David’s affair with Bathsheba.  The conclusion to the war in the second account occurs in tomorrow’s passage.  One of the things which always strikes me is that David was led into temptation because he did not do what he should have been doing.  Rather than lead his army to war, David sent them off to war under Joab.  As a result, David found himself in Jerusalem with time on his hands.  If instead David had led his army into battle, he would not have been tempted by the sight of Bathsheba.  He would not have committed adultery, betraying one of his most loyal men (Uriah is listed elsewhere as being one of David’s Thirty Mighty Men).  David followed up his initial betrayal by having Uriah put into a situation where he would die in battle.  Today’s passage ends with “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”  King David is held up as a man who sought to serve the Lord with his whole heart, but even he fell into temptation because he chose not to do what he knew he should be doing.  Many tragedies occurred in his life as a result.  Yes, to some degree they were the result of God’s judgement, but some of them resulted from his sons following the bad example he gave them here.

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

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

When David was made king over all of Israel, the Philistines mustered their forces in an attempt to prevent him from consolidating his power.  As I read this passage, David initially withdrew to one of the places where he had hid from King Saul, but once the Philistines had assembled their forces he decided to attack.  However, before he attacked he sought God’s guidance.  When God told him to attack, he did so and drove the Philistines from the field of battle.  The Philistines reassembled their forces and prepared a second time to attack David.  Again, David sought God’s guidance before attacking and defeating the Philistines.  Then later when he brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, he danced with abandon to celebrate and worship God, with no concern for his dignity.  Let us seek to do the same.  Seek God’s guidance before we take action and worship Him without concern for our dignity.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 1-3.

As I read today’s passage I thought about the easy familiarity which Abner, who had commanded King Saul’s army, had with Asahel, brother of Joab, commander of David’s army.  Abner was King Saul’s cousin, and the man responsible for putting Saul’s surviving son on the throne of all of Israel aside from the tribe of Judah (and possibly Simeon, since Simeon’s original territory was within the territory of Judah).  While Asahel, and his brothers Joab and Abishai, were David’s nephews.  I want to note that since David was the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons, he may have been only a couple of years older than his nephews (I have a first cousin who is the same age as her niece).  Getting back to my main point.  Abner, as Saul’s cousin would have almost certainly grown up in the same town as Saul did, Gibeah in Benjamin, while David and his nephews grew up in Bethlehem of Judah.  It turns out that Gibeah and Bethlehem were only 12 miles apart, or about four to five hours on foot, and an hour or so by horse drawn wagon.  Which means there would have been social interaction between Bethlehem and Gibeah.  So, Abner and Joab (and David) would have known each other since they were children.  Perhaps not well, but at least aware of each other, such that when they became elite fighting men of Israel (which both were)  they would have interacted socially on many occasions.  All of this puts the relationship between David and Abner into perspective.

This also gives me a new perspective on why King Saul asked who David’s father was after David had defeated Goliath: Saul may have recognized David as someone he had seen around and wanted to know which family he was from.  I mean, we already knew that Saul wanted to know what family David was from, but the new perspective is that Saul knew David’s family.  To explain what I mean: I grew up in a close knit community spread out over a large geographic area.  Many people knew my father’s family, and for that matter, my father was well-known in that community.  In addition, my brothers and I look a lot like each other, but many of our cousins also bear a strong resemblance to us.  As a result, when I would meet people from the community for the first time they would often ask who my father was.  Or, if they knew one of his brothers, or cousins, better than they knew my father, they would ask if I was one of their sons.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 23-24.

I am not sure when relative to the other things which happened during David’s reign the things in today’s passage occurred.  It begins by recounting David’s last words.  I will state that I am unsure if we are meant to understand these to be the last words he spoke before he died, or a statement David desired to be repeated after his death about his life.  The passage goes on to recount some of the exploits of David’s mightiest warriors and then lists the name of those warriors.  Finally, the passage contains the account of David’s census and the plague which followed.  It tells us that this plague led to David building an altar where Solomon would later build the temple.  Interestingly, it contains what at first appear to be two different accounts about how the plague ended.  First, it says that as the angel delivering the plague was about to strike Jerusalem God commanded it to stop.  Second, it says that Gad told David to build an altar at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place where it first said the angel was when God commanded it to stop.  In the second part it tells us that God stopped the plague after David offered sacrifices there.  After giving it some thought, I think we are supposed to see these two things as being together.  David built the altar at the place he saw the angel and offered sacrifices which led God to stop it from continuing to spread the plague, and God stopped the plague at that place so that David would know where to build the altar.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 20-22.

Today’s passage contains a psalm of David which has some great imagery.  First David describes God as his rock, his fortress, and his deliverer.  He extends that description by saying that God is the one in whom he takes refuge.  The way David words this makes clear that each of these is intended to be an alternative description of the same characteristic, where each word is incomplete.  A rock is solid and impenetrable, but enemies can go around it and get at you from behind.  You can go inside a fortress, so your enemies cannot come at you from any direction, but a fortress has weak points which an enemy can exploit.  By combining the idea of rock and fortress, David communicates that God is an impenetrable fortress with no weaknesses for an enemy to exploit.  Then there is the word, deliverer.  Deliverer indicates that God comes to us when we are in danger and delivers us from our enemies, or whatever danger threatens us.  So, God is an impenetrable safe haven which will come to us and protect us from danger of any sort.  There is one final point to this word picture David draws.  He says that he takes refuge in God.  That means that he actively seeks God’s protection.  That indicates that sometimes we need to actively seek God’s protection.  While God will come to where we are in danger, we must seek his protection.  Just as we can choose to leave a physical fortress, we can choose to leave God’s protection.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Samuel 18-19.

The first thing which I thought about as I read today was where the passage tells us, after recounting Absalom’s death, that Absalom had built a monument for himself.  We are told that he built this because he thought that it would preserve his name even though he had no sons.  Yet back in chapter fourteen it says that Absalom had three sons and a daughter.  I have read several commentaries which suggest that even though Absalom’s monument was not mentioned until after his death it was probable built before the birth of his children.

After the death of Absalom the men of Israel debated whether or not they should call David back as king.  David reached out to the tribe of Judah, which called him back to be their king before the rest of Israel made up their minds what to do.  Along with the men of Judah, Shimei led the tribe of Benjamin to bring David back to be king.  The same Shimei who had cursed David as he fled from Absalom.  Ziba, who was the steward of Saul’s household and who had brought David supplies when he was fleeing Absalom, accompanied Shimei and the other men of Benjamin to greet David and escort him back to Jerusalem.  Then we learn that Mephibosheth also came to greet David at the Jordan as he returned.  What makes this interesting is that Ziba said that Mephibosheth had remained in Jerusalem as Absalom advanced because he hoped to be made king, yet here we are told that Mephibosheth had acted similar to a man in mourning since the moment David had left Jerusalem.  David who, when Ziba brought him supplies, had given Ziba all of the properties he had earlier given to Mephibosheth, with Ziba to manage them for Mephibosheth, now splits those properties between Mephibosheth and Ziba.  As best I can understand the situation when Ziba first came to David as he fled, David chose to reward Ziba for his support and punish Mephibosheth for his perceived betrayal.  Here, David retracted the punishment of Mephibosheth, but maintained the reward without acknowledging that Ziba had lied to him.

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