The One Year Bible - Day 148

Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar. On the back of the previous story where David has pretty much done the same thing, we read that Amnon is not forgiven, never humbles himself and ends up murdered in revenge by his half brother Absalom. Can we deduce that he ended up punished because he did not repent? We cannot really say, we all know people that have suffered more or less because of their sin but there is obviously no specific cause and effect, some people simply suffer more than others.

The One Year Bible - Day 147

Do you ever wonder what it was like for someone like Nathan to bring God's prophecy to David? Despite us knowing that David was a Godly man, the king was still to be feared. He was a warrior and no stranger to killing and here was God asking Nathan to rebuke him. It is easy for us to say that "when God sends you, you go" but it must have been incredibly hard and yet he did what he had to do. At the time when David had stopped fearing the Lord, there was someone else who hadn't.
The question is, what would have happened if Nathan would have bottled out? Would David have become proud and even more sinful? Would the history of God's people been much worse?
We must deal with difficult situation as they arise and God directs us to. The dealing might be very painful but the alternative is unthinkable.

The One Year Bible - Day 146

David and Bathsheba, a very famous passage involving the sin of one of the Bible's most Godly men. When we step back from the impulse to simply judge David because he committed "such a great sin", we need to remember how powerful he was, how much temptation he would have been under constantly and we remind ourselves that we all have a weakness in one or more areas. Perhaps we are weak with money or the lust for power or attraction to women generally or specifically?
We do see in detail however the way that sin plays out in our lives. Right from the outset, the passage tells us that David should have been out at war but he stayed at home, "the devil finds work for idle hands"! Then, was the initial temptation when David sees Bathsheba. At this point, he could have averted his eyes and walked away but the temptation leads to curiosity and he asked his servants to find out who she was. When he found out she was married, he definitely should have backed off but he sleeps with her straight away and she becomes pregnant. He has now crossed a line and as is so common when we do wrong, we are slow to make ourselves right and spend more effort trying to cover it up. Despite his best efforts to try and get Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba so everyone can think the baby was his, it doesn't work and again, rather than David coming clean, he decides to take the ultimate step in what he thinks will put paid to the sin - he arranges for Uriah to be killed which would release Bathsheba from her marriage and allow her to marry David. Of course, he thinks he has gotten away with it until the prophet Nathan comes and passes judgement on what David has done at which point the full effect of his sin is made known and the son born to Bathsheba dies. Interestingly, Bathsheba is also the mother of Solomon who we read later on has the opportunity to build the Temple and is very much a man after God's heart so we should still be gobsmacked at how God has not only forgiven David his massive sin, but also makes things alright again.

The One Year Bible - Day 145

2 Samuel 7 is prophetic on two levels, God is telling Nathan both about Solomon who will build the temple and also Jesus who will build a 'temple' both are David's descendents. The temple that Solomon made was a physical building, the one Jesus created was the church! The living and breathing temple of God where His presence lives and can be taken by each believer to millions of places at the same time. Oh how we pine for Jesus to be here when His power and presence has been given to us by the Holy Spirit as if we were millions of Jesus' Sometimes we need to stop looking at what we are not and consider who He has made us in Christ!

The One Year Bible - Day 144

We read about God bringing about the reunion of Israel under King David but under the unfortunate human hands of Recab and Baanah who had decided that Ishbosheth needed to be murdered. They ended up executed but still you wonder what might have been if they had not intervened. Somehow in scripture there is a way in which God's will occurs even if carried out by the hands of humans (whether knowingly or not). There is a part of me that thinks they shouldn't have killed Ishbosheth but then another part where I can see God knowing that His will was done to reunite his people. Sadly later, we read that Judah and Israel separate again and we wonder whether it should have happened another way.
We are then reminded that even after 'success' we must not run headlong into new experiences without staying in check with God. David asks God about conquering the Philistines rather than just going ahead with it.
We then read about the Ark again (remember this represents God's presence) which has been in exile in some far flung corner of Israel. We read again about both its holiness and also its blessing as an object for the Israelites. We can understand David's anger that Uzzah died but we must remember that God is holy and is not to be toyed with. God had told them how to carry the ark and it was on poles carried by priests. The fact that they had used a cart and this resulting in an Ox stumbling should be no surprise. We need to constantly remind ourselves not to treat His presence with contempt otherwise He will simply go somewhere else.

The One Year Bible - Day 143

Notice today we have witnessed the start of the divided kingdom. In a shortish space of time we have gone from being the people of God to the peoples of God and we see the Spirit of denomination. Why? Well God had anointed David to be the king but some people could not accept that and decided to set up the nation of Israel while David stayed in Judah (Judah is the tribe of kings). The first act of celebration for this new partition? War.
It says a lot about denomination or party spirit that we spend more time fighting than we do working together. So massively sad and also anger inspiring. All these great leaders we look up to across all these world denominations and they still struggle to work together because of (mostly) minor differences in doctrine that honestly are really not that important.
You also read about the sad death of Asahel who obviously didn't learn when to stop pursuing, another lesson for us today. We can get an idea in our head so strongly that we pursue it to the point of death.

The One Year Bible - Day 142

An Amalekite (another foreigner) comes to tell David of Saul's death and ends up killed. Why? Because he killed Saul since Saul's suicide was apparently not successful. David still considers this treason. It is along the lines of, "Well he was finished anyway so I helped it along". Compare this to his armour bearer from yesterday who feared God and would not kill the king.
Our challenge is again not to try and help God do God's work. The ONLY thing we are called to do concerns ourself and own behaviour and character. God might well call us to do things involving others but this should only be those we are in authority over and only when God tells us to.
Authority is what keeps our house in order, lack of authority leads to Anarchy which leads to getting nothing much done!