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

Today’s passage contains a list of David’s mighty warriors and their most notable accomplishments.  This compilation makes sense of why Absalom listened to Hushai’s advice.  Surely Absalom had heard these stories, and more, growing up.  In fact, he would have grown up hearing the stories about what a great war leader his father was, leading a group of great warriors.  However, after writing that I realized the significance both of that being recorded here, and of Joab’s objection to David’s census.  Since God had provided David with such mighty warriors, he did not need numbers.  David wanted a census taken so that he knew how large of an army he could muster.  Yet, over the course of his military career, God had provided him with warriors who demonstrated that, as long as he did God’s will, he did not need numbers to obtain victory.

When David received the results of the census, he realized that he had done wrong by not putting his trust fully in God and cried out to God for forgiveness.  I want to note that throughout the story of David there are multiple occasions when he did wrong, but when he realized his sin, he confessed it and turned once more to God.  That is what made David a man of God.  On this occasion, the prophet Gad gave David a choice between three options for punishment.  David’s answer was to beg God not to allow him to fall into the hands of his human enemies.  He threw himself upon God’s mercy, accepting whatever punishment God chose to mete out to him.  Then when David saw God’s punishment falling on his people, he begged God to spare them and allow himself and his family to bear the brunt of that punishment.

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.

We see in today’s passage the political problems which King David faced reaching full bloom.  At the end of yesterday’s passage we saw the tribe of Judah claiming precedence over the other tribes because of their closer relationship with King David.  Today’s passage begins with Sheba son of Bikri trying to take advantage of both this dispute between the tribes and King David’s weakness following Absalom’s attempt to usurp the throne.  My reading of the situation is that King David attempted to strengthen his hold over the tribe of Judah by making Amasa commander of his army in order to compensate for his weakened support from other tribes.  When Amasa took too long to raise the levy of troops from Judah, King David sent the men he had out under Abishai, Joab’s brother.  Nevertheless, Joab went along, and, after killing Amasa, took command of the army.  It seems to me that at least part of the reason Joab killed Amasa was because Amasa had supported Absalom’s rebellion.

I love the imagery in the psalm of David recorded here. It brings to my mind the climactic scene of an action movie.  The “victim” has been brought low by their enemies and cry out to the protagonist, who rises from their place of power and comes out to rescue the “victim” from the villain.  When you see that scene in an action movie, you cannot help but think about the villain, “Oops, you didn’t want to do that.”  And that is the image which David tells us those who put their trust in God should keep in mind when the waters of life rise around them.  Do not put your trust in your own ability.  Instead put your trust in God and faithfully follow His commands.

When I wrote the above, I felt like the water was rising around me.  I was crying out to God in desperation because of events in my life.  Shortly after I finished writing it, I received communications, through two different media, that revealed to me that my concerns were unfounded. God is good.

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.

King David’s reaction to Ziba has always made me wonder.  I may go into more detail when we get to David’s return to Jerusalem, but for now, his question about Mephibosheth comes just after he had told Hushai to not accompany him because he would be a burden.  Yet here David is wondering why Mephibosheth did not join him in his flight.  It seems to me that there is a connection here between King David’s reaction to Ziba and his interaction with Shimei.  Shimei, Ziba, and Mephibosheth are all from the tribe of Benjamin and connected with the clan of King Saul.  The Bible never really goes into it, but we can see a vague outline of the power politics of Ancient Israel which King David was balancing in these individuals.

Every time I read this I am impressed by how Hushai undermines Ahithophel’s good advice by appealing to Absalom’s ego and insecurity at the same time.  First Hushai plays up Absalom’s fear of his father’s military prowess, then he hints to Absalom the glory he would receive by being the field commander in charge when King David is defeated.

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.

Joab’s role in getting King David to revoke Absalom’s banishment always baffles me.  This is one of several times when Joab confronts David to get him to do what Joab believes to be in David’s, and the country’s, best interest.  Yet, there are also numerous stories where David expressed anger that he lacked the ability to get rid of Joab and his brother.  The best I can figure is that Joab and his brother did things which they believed needed to be done which David felt should not be done. In any case, every time I read this story it strikes me that King David was a poor father.  He only brought Absalom back from exile when Joab pushed him on it.  Then once Absalom had returned, David basically ignored him until Joab once more pushed him on the issue.  The best sense I can make of this story is that King David and Joab both at this point viewed Absalom as the heir apparent, intending that he would become king when David died.

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 usually try to stay away from writing about the “obvious” lessons in a passage, but David’s reaction to the illness and death of his son born from his adulterous affair with Bathsheba stuck with me today.  Actually, David’s entire reaction to be confronted about his affair with Bathsheba sticks with me.  First, when confronted about what he did with Bathsheba and to Uriah the Hittite, he did not try to make excuses for his affair with Bathsheba, or make a blustery defense of arranging Uriah’s death.  Instead, David humbly confesses that he had sinned against God.  Then when the son of that affair got sick, David fasted and laid on the ground wearing only sackcloth.  He did this for seven days, refusing to eat or do anything else.  On the seventh day, when he learned that the child had died, he got up, cleaned himself, dressed, and ate.  When asked why he acted this way, David answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ ²³ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again?”  The point here is that all too often we wait until after it is too late to express our desire to be with our loved ones, or to seek God’s intervention.  Instead, we should follow David’s example and throw ourselves on God’s mercy before bad things happen.  The lesson I see here for me is this: I foresee bad things coming for many people, now is the time for me to fast and pray for God to change the course of judgement I see Him sending.  Perhaps, He will change His mind, perhaps He will show me how to get people to turn to Him and change the path they are on.

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.

Early in the discussion here about David’s conquests the passage mentions that he conquered the Moabites and killed 2/3rds of them (the way the passage describes how he decided who to kill and who to let live seems odd and I may be misreading how it would have worked out).  The thing about this which strikes me is that David had taken his parents to the king of Moab for protection when he was fleeing from King Saul.  In addition, his great grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite. Yet, here he is described as killing the majority of them.  I suspect we are missing this a part of the story here.

I find it interesting that when King David asked after a descendant of King Saul whom he could be kind to in honor of Jonathan, Jonathan’s son was described as living in a town whose name could be translated as “Nowhere”.  Which makes me wonder if the name given was intended to indicate the actual town name, or to indicate that King David took Jonathan’s son from Nowheresville (as we would express it today) to the royal palace. In fact, that is the point of this story, whether Lo Debar was an actual place, or just “Nowheresville”,  this story is here to tell us that King David took Jonathan’s son from the obscurity to which his crippled state condemned him to the heights of society, all out of David’s love for Jonathan.

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