I am using 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.

Yesterday, I commented on the role King David’s nephew Jonadab played in the events leading up to Absalom’s exile.  Today, I noticed that Joab, another one of King David’s nephews, played a significant role in Absalom’s return from exile and reconciliation with King David.  Once again we see the complex relationship between King David and Joab.  The passage tells us that Joab arranged for the woman from Tekoa to speak with King David because he knew how much David desired for Absalom to return.  Was that Joab’s real reason for this?  Or was he seeking to secure the return and rehabilitation of the person he perceived as the best candidate to be King David’s successor?  

Here Joab is presented as plotting to convince King David to do what he, David, desired to do.  The thing I am taking the most note of this year as I read these passages is the palace intrigue around King David.  Except it is not just palace intrigue.  As I read these passages, King David maintained a complex balance among the different power blocks within his kingdom.  We see that Joab made Absalom’s rebellion possible, but Joab did not support that rebellion.

Another thing struck me today.  As King David fled Jerusalem ahead of Absalom’s army, he went up the road to the Mount of Olives, the place where Jesus prayed the night before His Crucifixion.  The passage tells us that people worshiped God at the summit of the Mount of Olives.  And it was from the Mount of Olives that Jesus ascended into Heaven after His Resurrection.  While the primary reason that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray the night before His Crucifixion was a matter of the geography of Jerusalem, I am also sure that the symbolism of Jesus mourning His betrayal by Judas the same place the Bible records King David mourning his betrayal is not just happenstance.

I am using 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.

Today’s passage shows us how the consequences of our sins can be far reaching, even after we have confessed them and been forgiven. Generally, we look at the death of Bathsheba’s son and Absalom’s later rebellion as God’s punishment on David for his sins. However, even Amnon’s rape of Tamar was a consequence of David’s sin with Bathsheba. Or, more precisely, a consequence of King David’s attitudes about power and sexual gratification which led to his sin with Bathsheba. They may not have known that their father gave the orders which led to Uriah’s death, but David’s sons were surely aware of his affair with Bathsheba. They could do the math and would have realized that the young child for whom he grieved so deeply had to have been conceived while Uriah was alive and away at war. Amnon learned from his father’s example to take pleasure where and when he wished.

Amnon’s rape of Tamar led to Absalom’s eventual revolt against his father. Perhaps if King David had acted to hold Amnon in some way accountable for his actions things would have turned out differently. Certainly, Absalom was emboldened by the fact that all he suffered for murdering his brother Amnon was a temporary exile. However, the thing I want to focus on today is the role Jonadab, one of David’s nephews, played in this whole situation. First, Jonadab encouraged Amnon to rape Tamar. He could have encouraged Amnon to ask David to allow him to marry her, but instead he gave him advice on how Amnon could arrange to be alone with her. Then, after Absalom had killed Amnon, Jonadab was the first to bring news to King David that only Amnon had been killed. Was Jonadab merely a confidant of both brothers? Or, perhaps, he gave Amnon the advice he did in order to give Absalom an excuse to kill his brother, who stood between him and being King David’s heir? I am intrigued by the fact that David’s nephew, Jonadab was so intricately involved in court plotting. Combining this with David’s complex relationship with Joab and a few other references to King David’s family makes me think that Jesse, David’s father, was more of a mover and shaker in the tribe of Judah than we normally think of him as.

I am using 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.

I never noticed before that when David brings Mephibosheth into his court, he initiates this by looking for any of Saul’s family who might still be alive. It is in response to this that Ziba, who was a servant of King Saul tells him about Mephibosheth, who is Jonathan’s son and crippled. We know from later passages that Mephibosheth was not the only remaining descendant of King Saul, but David’s search ends with him. King David gives Mephibosheth all of Saul’s personal lands and property and orders Ziba to manage it for him. We later have reason to think this may not have been the wisest decision on King David’s part.

When King David started his war with the Ammonites he sent the army out under Joab’s command and did not lead them himself. As I read this passage, the writer did not approve of King David failing to lead the army. All of what went wrong followed from this one, seemingly minor, mistake. If David had led the army himself, he would not have committed adultery with Bathsheba, and thus would not have arranged the death of her innocent husband (who we later learn had been one of David’s most loyal servants). This provides us with an example of an important life lesson: “small” sins can lead us to commit bigger ones, which can lead to even bigger ones. If you would have suggested to King David the day after he sent the army out that in a few weeks he would be ordering Joab to arrange Uriah’s death, he would have insisted that he would never do such a thing to an adversary, let alone to a man who had served him loyally for so long. Yet, King David found himself doing something which would have horrified him just a short time before.

As an aside I want to make note of the role Joab played in King David arranging the death of Uriah. This is just another element in the complicated relationship between King David and Joab. Perhaps it also played a role in King David’s difficulty with removing Joab from being the commander of the army.

I am using 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.

I find it noteworthy that King David did not attempt to establish himself as king over all of Israel by military conquest.  It would have been fairly straightforward for him to do so.  Ishbosheth was not military commander and both David and Joab were excellent commanders.  In fact, even after the death of Ishbosheth David waited for the tribes to come to him asking him to be their king.  I bring this up because it puts King David’s reaction to the two brothers who killed Ishbosheth in context.  If we go back and think about what had been going on before Abner’s death it becomes clear that Ishbosheth had been resigned to turning the kingdom over to David.  Ishobosheth’s falling out with Abner was over Abner sleeping with one of King Saul’s concubines.  Abner was not angry because the accusation itself was false.  Rather, Abner got angry because the implication of Ishbosheth’s accusation was false.  Abner did not sleep with Saul’s concubine as a step towards claiming the throne.  However, since Ishbosheth thought that Abner slept with the concubine as a step towards claiming the throne, he clearly understood that returning his sister to David to be David’s wife was accepting David’s claim to the throne.  The two brothers who killed Ishbosheth further miscalculated in that David did not seek vengeance on Saul and his family.  Instead, he mourned their deaths.

Usually when I write about David moving the Ark to Jerusalem I write about what went wrong and what David did to get it right the second time.  However, today I want to focus on David’s willingness to make a fool of himself to worship the Lord.  I would say “willingness to embarrass himself”, except that he was not embarrassed.  Michal, David’s wife and one of King Saul’s daughters, was embarrassed by what David did, but David was not.  David was enthusiastic about his worship of the Lord and felt no need to maintain his dignity.  WE can take a lesson from King David’s response to his wife.  He was willing, even eager, to be even more foolish in praising and worshiping God, to the point where even he felt that he had humiliated himself.  Not only should we not be worried about what others think of us when we worship the Lord, we should be willing to humiliate ourselves in our own eyes in order to bring glory to God.   If it takes me being humiliated to bring someone to God, I want to be willing to be humiliated.

I am using 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.

The account of King Saul’s death given here differs from the one given at the end of 1 Samuel which we read yesterday.  However, this account is that of the messenger who brought King Saul’s crown and armband to David.  It appears to me that the messenger expected to receive a reward from David for bringing him this news.  Instead David ordered his men to kill the messenger for killing King Saul (which the messenger claimed that he had done).  I feel bad for the messenger because he claimed that he killed King Saul at Saul’s request and because he was dying anyway.  On the other hand, if David had not killed the messenger there would have been those who believed that he had arranged for the man to kill King Saul. 

David composed a memorial song for King Saul and Jonathan.  I had always thought that David composed this song because of his deep love for his friend Jonathan and included King Saul because that was politically expedient (or maybe just because King Saul died in the same battle and was Jonathan’s father).  However, reading the passage today it struck me that David genuinely had affection for and admired King Saul.  David’s song here is just a continuation of his previous actions in refusing to kill King Saul when presented with the opportunity on two occasions.  It strikes me that David may have genuinely believed that King Saul’s animosity towards him was a result of others in King Saul’s court poisoning Saul’s mind against him.

After King Saul’s death, David has himself made king of Judah, clearly with the intention of becoming king over all of Israel.  After becoming king of Judah, David invites the men of Jabesh-Gilead to accept him as king.  Because the battle at jabesh-Gilead is what led Saul to truly become king over Israel, if the men of Jabesh-Gilead accepted David’s claim it would have made it hard for anyone to challenge him.  In the meantime, Abner, the commander of King Saul’s army, made King Saul’s son, Ishbosheth, king in Saul’s place.  Ishbosheth was still alive because he had not been with King Saul’s army, which suggests that he was not a military leader of any sort. Ishbosheth could not have claimed the throne without Abner’s support because he did not have the loyalty of a group of warriors.

All of this sets the stage for the first scene in the complex relationship between King David and the commander of his army, Joab, his nephew.  King David’s power-base was the tribe of Judah, to which he belonged and among whom he had been cultivating influence since he fled from King Saul.  Ishbosheth’s power-base was, for all intents and purposes, Abner.  Abner was King Saul’s cousin and thus of the tribe of Benjamin.  As commander of King Saul’s army Abner would have acquired some standing among the other tribes.  By bringing Abner over to his side, King David would have removed Ishbosheth’s support and extended his power-base beyond the tribe of Judah.  However, Abner had killed Joab’s brother in battle, which gave Joab an excuse to kill him.  I call it an excuse because later King David attempts to make another one of his nephews commander over his army and Joab kills that man as well.   What makes me say that the relationship between King David and Joab was complex is that, except for these two occasions and when Joab supported a different son of David to succeed David as king, every mention of Joab has him acting in David’s interests or at David’s commands.  Despite this King David twice attempted to replace him as commander of his army and expressed a deep-seated animosity towards Joab and his surviving brother.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 28-31.

The Philistines mustered their armies to attack King Saul in what appears to be greater numbers than on any previous occasion.  Or perhaps King Saul was unable to muster as large of an army as he had previously.  It seems likely that David was not the only war chief whom Saul had alienated.  In any case, the King of Gath ordered David and his men to join him as they went to war.  The King of Gath was convinced that David had alienated the Israelites to such a degree that he could never return to living among them.  However, the other Philistine kings remembered how their Hebrew auxiliaries had switched sides in their first battle with King Saul and insisted that David and his men not be part of their order of battle.  David appears to have sincerely wished to join the Philistines in battle, but he may have just been putting on appearances as he did with the stories he had told the King of Gath abut attacking Judean towns.

In any case, this worked out for the best for David and his men.  When they returned to the town out of which they were based they discovered that it had been attacked and burned to the ground.  All of their property and their wives and children had been taken by the raiders.  If they had joined the Philistines in battle, the trail would have been long cold by the time they got back.  I will also note that David’s men considered stoning him for what had happened.  This suggests that they were angry because he had left none of the men behind to protect the town (a thought to revisit in a few minutes).  However, David convinced them that they could still chase down the raiders and get their families back (or perhaps they were more concerned with their goods).  David did this by having Abiathar, the priest, use the ephod to ask God if they should chase after the raiders and if they would catch them.  One could interpret this as a cunning move on David’s part, and it was, but it was also consistent with David’s reliance on God going back to his confrontation with Goliath.  David’s appeal to God’s guidance worked with his men because he had demonstrated time and again that he had faith in God and sought God’s guidance before taking action.

Now I want to touch on the thought I said I would get back to in a few minutes.  While pursuing the raiders some of the men became too tired to continue.  Reading between the lines, we can conclude that the problem was transporting their supplies.  David left his supplies and 200 men behind so that the rest could be faster in pursuing the raiders.  After they defeated the raiders and rejoined the men left behind, those who had defeated the raiders did not want to share the plunder with the men left behind.  David pointed out that that was what got them into this problem in the first place.  All of the men had wanted to join the Philistines in battle because those who stayed behind to guard their town would not have shared in the plunder.  There is one final point I want to make.  David benefited in two ways from the Philistine kings rejecting him joining them in battle.  First, he did not have to fight against his fellow Israelites, with the bad feelings that would have generated. Second, he gained plunder from the raiders which he was able to distribute to various leaders of the tribe of Judah with whom he was friendly.  This further cemented their support for him when they learned of the death of King Saul and his sons.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 25-27.

In the account of David, Nabal, and Abigail, between Abigail and Nabal, it was Abigail who recognized the reality of David’s rising power.  This account takes a little work on our part to understand what was going on here.  David and his men were in the wilderness of southern Judah.  While in that area they did a good bit of bandit suppression.  I am reading between the lines a bit to reach this conclusion, but I base doing so on what Nabal’s men said to Abigail and the account from earlier of David protecting the town of Keilah.  When sheep shearing time came around David sent messengers to Nabal requesting a voluntary contribution to support his efforts.  Nabal did not just refuse to make a contribution of support to David and his men, he insulted David by saying he was no better than a bandit. We will never really know what Nabal was thinking when he issued this insult.  However, it reads as if he thought that David’s only merit was as a subordinate of King Saul and now that he was on the outs with King Saul was no longer someone to be reckoned with.  Perhaps Nabal also thought that the power he commanded because of his wealth protected him from David.

At least one of Nabal’s servants recognized the danger inherent in Nabal’s rudeness and went to Abigail.  Abigail recognized that not only had David done Nabal, and thus her, a service by protecting their men while they tended to sheep, but he was a man to be reckoned with in his own right.  Abigail recognized that the reason David was out of favor with King Saul was because he had his own power base.  When Nabal died a short time later, David sought an alliance of marriage with Abigail, which Abigail quickly accepted.  David recognized that he needed greater wealth to support himself and his men if he was not going to become a bandit.  Abigail recognized that David was a rising power in the land and chose to ally herself with him.  The passage mentions that David married a second woman during this time period (bringing him to a total of three wives, although King Saul in the meantime had given David’s first wife to someone else as their wife).  It seems likely that this other woman whom David married also brought wealth and/or connections to David (likely both).

Meanwhile some of the other locals became unhappy with David’s rising power(perhaps because the presence of David and his men kept them from raiding their wealthy neighbors) and let King Saul know where David was.   Once again, David demonstrates that he could kill King Saul if he desired to do so.  However, David recognizes that sooner or later King Saul will succeed in trapping him.  So, he puts himself under the protection of the Philistine king of Gath.  While there, David raided the non-Israelite towns in the area but reported to the King of Gath that he had raided towns of Israel.  I had always thought that the towns David raided were part of neither the Israelite alliance nor the Philistine alliance, but reading the passage today makes me think that these towns may have been nominally allied with the Philistines.  The reason I came to that last conclusion is that David told the King of Gath that he had raided Judean towns or towns of those allied with Israel and that he killed everyone in the towns he did raid so that no one would report where he had raided to the King of Gath.  

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 18-20.

Today we see the same insecurity which led King Saul to disobey God’s commands lead him to attempt to murder David.  Further we see the same loyalty to King Saul as God’s anointed king of Israel which David later displays when he refuses to kill King Saul.  King Saul perceives David as a threat to his own power and position because of David’s popularity with the people.  Saul attempts to use the ambition he perceives David to have to get rid of him.  By offering David his eldest daughter in marriage King Saul offers David an opportunity to have a legitimate claim to the throne as his son-in-law.  Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but it seems to me that David rejected King Saul’s offer because he did not want to increase the pressure on himself to go after the throne.  Later, after King Saul married his eldest daughter off to someone who was not a potential claimant to the throne, David agrees to marry one of Saul’s younger daughters.  Perhaps my theory is mistaken and David did not wish to marry Merab, Saul’s older daughter, because he did not find her attractive while he found the younger daughter, Michal, attractive, but I believe this passage and others indicate that politics played a role.  David did not want to be a rival to Jonathan, his friend and King saul’s heir, for the throne.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 16-17.

Today’s passage contains two separate stories about how David began his progression to kingship.  While there is no good way to reconcile the two stories into one, they do not contradict each other.  In both stories, David starts out as the insignificant youngest son of Jesse.  In the first story, God tells Samuel to go and anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the successor to Saul because God had rejected Saul’s kingship.  Samuel does this secretively because Saul would have killed him, and whoever Samuel anointed, if he found out.   When Samuel sees Jesse’s oldest son, Eliab, he thinks he has the look of a king, but God tells him, “Not this one.”  This tells me that Eliab had the same characteristics which led Samuel to select Saul as Israel’s first king.   But God wanted more from the next king of Israel.

The lesson to be learned from this, which the author tells us was God’s message to Samuel,  people judge by appearances, but there are more important things than appearance.  God does not see things the way we see things, so we need to listen closely to God when making important decisions about people.  We can only see how people look, and what they do, God knows why they made the choices they made.  Which brings us to a question this passage always leaves me with: since God can see beyond appearances, why did He choose Saul as Israel’s first king?  I can see, using 20/20 hindsight, how Saul’s behaviors before he became king led him to make the tragic mistakes he made as king, surely God could see that as well?  I can think of two possible answers to why God selected Saul.  The first one is that the people of Israel needed to see for themselves why a king like Saul was a mistake.  The second is related to the first.  The people of Israel would not have united behind a king like David if they had not first united behind a king like Saul.  I do not know that either of these is correct.  Perhaps God had an entirely different reason for selecting Saul.

I was going to skip over the story of King Saul’s tormenting spirit, but I decided it was worth closer examination.  I am convinced that King Saul suffered from depression and fear because he had chosen to reject God and thus been rejected by God.    This leads me to a conclusion where I want to tread carefully.  Depression results from not putting our full faith and trust in God.  The reason I want to be careful here is because I do not want to say that Christians will not suffer from depression.  We see that King Saul’s depression came about after he repeatedly made “pragmatic” decisions which went against what God had directed him to do.  King Saul continued to trust his own judgment on the correct action to take rather than turning to God for answers.  The story tells us that music eased King Saul’s depression and fear, at least at first.  Here’s the thing, even after suffering this depression, King Saul never turned to God and sought His forgiveness.  He did not seek an answer from God to relieve his distress.  He merely found something which ameliorated his distress and went on doing whatever he thought best.  So, if you suffer depression, go ahead and find the things which will ameliorate your distress, but then cry out to God, confess your sins, and seek His guidance on what actions you should take.