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

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Today’s passage divides into three parts.  First, it tells us about David learning of the death of King Saul and his son Jonathan.  Second, it tells us about David becoming king over Judah and his war against the House of Saul.  Finally, it tells us about Abner’s attempt to bring all of Israel over to David and Joab’s murder of Abner.  People often claim a contradiction between the account of Saul’s death given here by the man who brought the news to David and the account of Saul’s death given at the end of 1 Samuel.  The problem is that there is only a contradiction if you believe that the passage here intends for you to believe that the man who brought the news was telling the truth.  As I read it, it reads to me as if this man, an Amalekite, brought the news, and told it the way he did, in order to gain favor with David.  David’s action in killing the Amalekite who brought him news of King Saul’s death, and who claimed to have delivered the death blow, is consistent with his repeated refusal to take opportunities to kill Saul while Saul was hunting him.  David received power because God delivered it into his hand, not because he sought it out.

It reads to me like the war between David and the House of Saul was more because Abner tried to set up Ish-bosheth as ruler over all of Israel, rather than because David tried to expand his power base.  While Joab’s murder of Abner prevented Abner from ending that war. it was effectively over from the time Abner came to David to negotiate peace.  We see in that ending, and in David’s reaction to Abner’s murder, how David relied on God to establish his kingship.  Our ambitions should be similar.  Our ambitions should be to do God’s will, and if God desires for us to be leaders, He will direct us into that role.

I use 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.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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I struggle to interpret the story about the woman of En-dor who summons Samuel’s spirit (ghost?) for King Saul.  The description of it actually being Samuel who was summoned runs contrary to my understanding from other parts of the Bible about what happens when a medium actually produces results (as opposed to those mediums who are just charlatans).  However, I do not want to get too caught up on that because the point of the story is that King Saul went into his final battle with the Philistines knowing, and feeling, that he had been abandoned by God.  Repeatedly throughout his life, Saul turned to God for aid when things looked bad, but he did not truly turn from his sins.  King Saul sought God’s guidance to deal with problems he could not deal with on his own, but he did not seek God’s guidance in the rest of his life.  So, God finally stopped answering his requests for guidance.  Let us not let ourselves come to that point.

In contrast to that we see what happened with David at almost the same time.  While Saul was visiting a medium to consult Samuel’s spirit about what he should do, David was coming into the Philistine camp.  David had spent his time among the Philistines making it seem like he was attacking his fellow Israelites while actually raiding other peoples in the area (which lends an interesting insight into the peoples of the area at the time).  Now, his deception has led him into a place of prominence in the Philistine order of battle with the Philistine lord under whose protection he had placed himself.  However, the other Philistine lord’s remembered how in the battle involving Goliath the Hebrews who were in their army turned against them.  Therefore they told Achish to send David away.  They did not want David in their order of battle.  This shows God working to spare David from having to go against his own people in this war.  So, while Saul was seeking God’s guidance and not finding it, God was working to put David in the right place at the right time.

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