Bible in a Year – Day 100: I Hate You…Nevermind
Apr 9th
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 19, 20 & 21
It’s amazing what a little turnaround will do. David had a turn of good fortune when Absalom was ensnared by his own hair. Sure, David grieved his son’s death, but it also meant that he could once again claim the crown of Israel. With that good fortune came a lot of friends. Suddenly, the guy who had thrown rocks at him was begging for mercy. Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, who had stayed behind before, is now claiming that he intended to support David all along, but had a servant who deceived him.
David is now everyone’s best friend. It’s amazing what will happen when you have a little power, a little authority – a little control over the situation. Now that David is king again, people are stumbling over themselves to let him know how highly they think of him. It had to have been extremely frustrating for David.
I’m reminded of the story of Jesus who, toward the end of his life, rode into town on a donkey while being praise by the people of the town. Those same people, just a few days later, would call for his crucifixion. It seems that even Jesus, the Son of God, couldn’t escape the power of “group think.” Far lesser individuals have been the victims of this kind of problem throughout history.
For you and I, we may experience this phenomenon with our jobs, our church families or even our biological families. When one person or a group of people like us, then everybody likes us. But when we’re on the “poo poo list,” we see all of our support vanish. It is in that moment that we wonder if there is anyone in the world who just loves us without thinking of their own interests.
There is. His name is Yahweh. He’s the one who we can be sure doesn’t have ulterior motives. He’s the one that will be there when everyone else has abandoned us. Even if we feel like we don’t have a friend in the world, we have him. And he’s a good one to have!
Bible in a Year – Day 99: Frenemies
Apr 8th
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 16, 17 & 18
Man, life’s rough for a semi-ousted king. You never know who your friends are! Here’s David confronted with the idea that Mephibosheth, the man you’ve welcomed into your home and treated as part of your own family, is now awaiting the day that you will meet your doom and the family of your old nemesis will be restored to power (regardless of the facts that suggest that Saul would not be coming to power).
Then, you’re faced with this guy Shimei who has seemingly been harboring this hatred of you throughout your reign as king. And he takes the opportunity of your potential ouster to yell curses at you, throw stones at you and kick dirt on you. I can just imagine the scene as David and his men are trying to progress in their travels and here is Shimei up on the hill yelling and throwing stuff at you.
Then, you’ve got these spies that you think are on your side, but you can’t really be sure.
All of this culminates in you sending your top military man to make sure that your son’s army is defeated, but that your son is kept safe. That, of course, doesn’t work out because, for some unknown reason, your guys still haven’t figured out that if you didn’t want to kill Saul and didn’t want to kill his son, you wouldn’t want to kill your own son!
And so it was for David. He had achieved his victory, but it was bittersweet. He could have his kingdom back, but his son was gone forever. For David, that grief was nearly too much to bear. As we finished our reading today, we see a father weeping for his son, rather than a king celebrating victory over his enemy. David always seemed to be a man first and a king second.
Bible in a Year – Day 98: Like Father, Like Son
Apr 7th
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 13, 14 & 15
Sin is contagious. I don’t know all the details of how it works, but I know that sin begets sin. We’ve already seen this in the families of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Now we look a little further down the line and see the same issues befalling David and his sons. It is amazing how often, in that ancient world and in ours, that the sins of the son mirror the sins of the father.
In this case, you have Amnon, overcome by lust, just as his father was. And while Amnon’s lust isn’t for a married woman, his situation is arguably as bad or worse. He is infatuated with his own sister (or half-sister) Tamar. And, just like his father, his lust leads him into a series of actions including deception, rape and then hatred of his sister (something that she certainly didn’t deserve.)
As a result of those events, another of David’s sons, Absalom, has his own issues to deal with. Again, the sins of the son mirror those of his father as Absalom devised a ruse to have his brother killed. David then – the lust-ridden, deceptive murderer – has sons who are lust-ridden, deceptive and murderous.
Not only that, but now his household is beginning to look a little like his mentor, Saul’s house. After a period of exile (and another deception devised by Joab) Absalom returns home, only to attempt to divide the kingdom of David and to take control as king of Hebron. It’s a mess and David knows that it all started with him.
Now, remember, David was a wise man, a strong king. He walked closely with God. And yet, through a series of events, he found himself and his sons spiraling fast. The question I always ask myself is this: If it could happen to him, why couldn’t it happen to me? The answer, of course, is that it could happen to me…or to you.
That is why we can’t let our guard down. We can’t become complacent or lazy. We can’t become selfish. We have to constantly be on guard against our own selfish, destructive desire. If we are, and if we avoid falling into the traps along the way, I’m sure that our kids and grandkids will thank us for it (and it might save them some therapy bills!)
Bible in a Year – Day 97: Idle Hands
Apr 6th
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 8, 9, 10, 11 & 12
Each of us is a complicated mess. In every person you meet, there is some good and some bad, something holy and something evil. That may sound a little extreme, but consider David. Here is a guy who has proven himself to be not only an upstanding citizen, but also a loyal follower of God and a man who honors others.
Sure, he’s killed many people, but all at the instruction of and for the honor of God. The armies that David fought against were those who opposed God’s people. This time, however, things are different. That little spark of evil that resides in David is fueled by lust for a beautiful woman. That lust not only leads to an inappropriate relationship with this married woman, but, ultimately, leads to a contract murder of one of his own men.
This is a guy who, not long before, had embraced the disabled (and culturally outcast) son of his former enemy. He had no problem following the instructions and wisdom of God, even at the expense of his own convenience or reputation. What could have possibly happened then to cause David to fall so hard, so fast?
I think we can take a clue from verse 1 of chapter 11 (emphasis mine):
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 11:1)
This was a time when kings typically went off to war. David, however, chose not to go off to war himself. Instead, he sent Joab, the commander of the army out on his own. David stayed in Jerusalem. Now, that doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the seeds of evil rarely do. What David had actually done was to become somewhat lazy or complacent. He had in mind to become “fat and happy” as king, rather than doing the job he was supposed to do. Now, he may have never put it in those terms, but his actions here (and forthcoming) speak for themselves.
So, while David’s army is out fighting, this newly lazy, complacent king has a lot of time on his hands – time, evidently for more carnal pursuits. He becomes a bit of a peeping Tom and spies a pretty lady on a rooftop taking a bath. Now, for a king with plenty of wives and concubines, adding one more wouldn’t have been a big deal. And so, David set his mind to do just that. There was only one problem: Bathsheba, the beautiful woman on the roof was already married.
And this is how evil takes root. You see, David probably didn’t know that Bathsheba was married when he first saw her, or when he sent for her. And by the time he discovered this little fact, his lust had already taken over. He had imagined himself being with her. It was a done deal in his mind. And so, he would ultimately be with her, setting of a chain reaction of events that would leave two people, Bathsheba’s husband and later, her son, dead.
How could all of this have been avoided? Well, David could have gone off to war like he was supposed to. Or, he could have occupied himself with something other than gazing out his window. Or, he could have avoided the temptation of watching the woman bathe (he could be forgiven for accidentally stumbling upon the scene if he had simply averted his eyes). He could have resisted the urge to send for Bathsheba, resisted the temptation to sleep with her, and on and on. But as you see, the temptation gets harder and to resist the further into the mess we go. And that’s how people find themselves ensnared in all kinds of moral failure.
It has been said that idle hands are the devil’s playground. In the life of David, that seems to be true. His entire, disastrous, affair with Bathsheba may have been avoided if David had simply chosen to not be lazy and to simply lead his troops in battle as he had done so many times before.
Bible in a Year – Day 96: Wisdom & Foolishness
Apr 5th
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 4, 5, 6, & 7
There is a theme – a thread – that runs the full length of the Bible: The wisdom of humans is foolishness to God; the wisdom of God, foolishness to humans. In this passage, we see a couple of episodes that illustrate this point.
First, we find a couple of brothers who, seeking to become some kind of heroes, sneak up on one of Saul’s sons and kill him in his sleep. Of course, in their human “wisdom,” they thought that killing the son of the king’s sworn enemy would put them in pretty good standing with David. However, David maintains his God-oriented perspective on the entire situation. He has no desire for Saul’s son to be killed, because Saul was God’s chosen leader for a time and because his son was absolutely innocent of any of Saul’s wrongdoings.
David here is exercising the kind of Godly wisdom that is considered foolishness by those around him. On the other hand, a few verses later, we find David engaged in the seemingly foolish act of dancing and leaping through the streets as the ark of the covenant is returned to Jerusalem. In this instance, it is David’s wife, Michal, who advises him against such foolishness.
David’s response was, once again, one of Godly wisdom:
“It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” (2 Samuel 6:21-22)
David fully understands that human wisdom would dictate both vengeance on his enemies and a level of dignified behavior indicative of his new role as king. Yet, in his wisdom – wisdom given by God – David understands the triteness of human ego and vanity. Killing Saul’s son didn’t do anything to honor God. Walking with head held high and playing the role of a distinguished gentleman wouldn’t have expressed the worshipful exuberance in David’s heart. He understood that personal desire and concern about perception were trivial matters in God’s kingdom.
As I sit here today in the midst of all of the political back and forth that’s taking place in our country, I wonder what would happen if our own leaders – on both sides – would stop to understand these same truths. What would happen if they stopped worrying so much about how they appear and more about how they are – how they lead, how they live their lives and how they honor their God?
Of course, that begs the question, what would happen if you and I did the same?
