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

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Today’s passage begins with what the writer says are the last words of David.  It always seemed strange to me that the last words David spoke were such a carefully crafted psalm.  Then it occurred to me that what the writer likely means is that these were the words David wrote as his last words to be spoken after his death as a reminder to the people of Israel about his faith in God, and the faith which they should have in God.  So, we are not to understand this as the very last words David spoke before he took his last breath.  Rather, we are to understand that these were the words which David composed to be read after his death.

I find the listing of David’s mighty men interesting, but I am going to skip over that today and go to the account given here about David’s census.  The writer says that God’s anger was kindled against Israel, so God put the idea into David’s mind to take a census of Israel and Judah.  Joab tried to talk David out of it, but David was king, so his word carried the day.  The passage does not tell us why God was angry with Israel, just that He was.  When David realized that he had done wrong by ordering this census to be taken, he repented of his sin and prayed to God begging forgiveness.  God sent the prophet Gad to offer David three possible consequences.  David’s answer is interesting.  Rather than explicitly choose one of the options David said, “Let us fall into the hand of the Lord,…,but let me not fall into the hand of man.”  I find it interesting that David said that considering what the writer of the Book of Hebrews wrote,“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” I think it unlikely that the writer of Hebrews was not explicitly thinking about what David said here when he wrote that.  So, while it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, it is still better than if He allows us to fall into the hands of men.  I would rather suffer what God thinks I deserve for my sins than what human beings think I deserve.

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.

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After describing the war against Sheba the writer summarizes those officials who were closest to David.  After that he lists events in no particular time order.  For example, we do not know if the incident with the Gibeonites occurred before or after Absalom’s rebellion.  The same is true of the wars against the Philistines.  We don’t know if those were before or after Absalom rebelled.  For that matter, we do not know if the incident where Abishai saved David’s life occurred before or after the incident with Bathsheba.  I bring it up because it is one of several examples throughout these accounts about the debt which David owed to his nephews Abishai and Joab.  Despite his repeated frustrations with them, Joab and Abishai served David well for most of his life.

However, I want to focus on the song of David recorded here.  I love the images David draws with his words.  They make me wish I had the talent to produce illustrations.  They evoke powerful and awe inspiring images in my mind.  The first couple of lines makes me see a castle on the side of a cliff overlooking the sea, with waves crashing against the base of the cliff.  David writes, “I call upon the Lord,…, and I am saved from my enemies.”  And then he writes, “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From His temple He heard my voice, and my cry came to His ears.”  Both of those speak of how God may seem far away, but He will respond to our cries out of His love.  Then David writes a series of lines which tell us how God’s anger over the abuse of those He loves causes earth and heaven to tremble.  How He marshals the forces of nature to come to those who rely on Him in trouble and save them.

All of that strikes me every time I read this passage, but today I saw something else, but at first it bothered me.  After those wonderful images, David writes, “The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness:…”  He says that in a couple of different ways, implying that God saved him because he was such a good man.  Which seems to run contrary to the teaching found elsewhere in the Bible that none are righteous, that all have sinned.  He then talks about how God shows His goodness in response to our goodness and shows Himself two steps ahead of those who think to outsmart Him.  Then David comes to the part which makes it make sense.  David writes that God is a shield for those who take refuge in Him and that it was God who made his way blameless.  David tells us that the righteousness which he ascribes as the reason God saved him was a gift from God Himself.  David was not righteous because he was better than others, David was not righteous because he did not sin.  David was righteous because God made him righteous.

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 18-19.

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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When David learned that Absalom had been killed, he went into a room and wept.  As his warriors returned from battle and learned that he was in mourning for Absalom, they came into the city quietly rather than rejoicing over their victory.  Joab pointed out to David that by doing so David was communicating that those who had fought for him ought to be ashamed for being happy that they had lived.  Further, Joab told David that if his men had failed to defeat Absalom, the rest of David’s sons would have been killed, as would have David’s wives.  If Absalom had won everyone else David loved would have died.  David needed to put aside his personal feelings for the good of those who had supported him.  We need to be willing to do likewise.  We need to be willing to put aside our personal feelings for the good of others.

I had mentioned in yesterday’s study that what Ziba told David about Mephibosheth when David was fleeing Jerusalem was not consistent with what Mephibosheth said upon David’s return.  I misspoke partially when I said that we are not given any basis to know who was telling the true story.  In today’s passage the writer tells us that Mephibosheth had not taken care of himself from the time David had fled Jerusalem until he returned.  That suggests that Mephibosheth was genuinely distraught by Absalom’s coup and the danger which David was in.

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.

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 am always struck by Ziba’s conversation with David.  I know from having read this passage and those which follows repeatedly that when David returns after defeating Absalom Mephibosheth denies what Ziba says about him here.  We are never given any basis to figure out which one lied and which one told the truth.  Which brings me to my thought, why did ZIba say what he did about Mephibosheth?  Did Mephibosheth actually say what Ziba claimed he said?  Or, was ZIba merely taking advantage of the situation to ingratiate himself to David?  If the latter, why did he not instead attempt to ingratiate himself with Absalom?  Perhaps, Mephibosheth did something which Ziba misinterpreted to meaning what he said to David.  I will note that Ziba’s contribution was important to David’s eventual success against Absalom.  Without the food and donkey’s which Ziba brought, David’s forces would have been weakened and slowed down.  If they had been slowed down, Absalom’s forces may have overtaken them.

I sort of feel sorry for Abishai, David’s nephew.  He was offended by Shimei cursing the king, the Lord’s anointed.  I think he was applying here the lesson he had learned from his experience when he accompanied David into King Saul’s camp while Saul was hunting David.  On that occasion, David refused to allow him to kill King Saul because King Saul was God’s anointed.  Here, Abishai thought Shimei deserved to die for cursing God’s anointed.  David was angry with Abishai because Abishai thought the solution to every problem was to kill someone (oversimplifying a bit by saying that).  David knew that God was having Shimei curse him for a reason.  So, he remained humble and did not allow Abishai to kill him.  Perhaps, David’s problem with Abishai and Joab was that they tempted him to lose his humility and vent his anger.

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.

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 am going to start writing about when David was fleeing from Absalom.  As he was fleeing the city the passage tells us that David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives weeping, barefoot, and with his head covered.  David went up to the Mount of Olives in mourning.  Additionally, it tells us that God was worshiped on the summit of the Mount of Olives.  As I read that I made the connection to Jesus going there to pray after the Last Supper.  I had always thought that Jesus went there because it was a place where he could pray in relative privacy while He was in Jerusalem.  I had never made the connection with God being worshiped there historically by the Jews, nor with the Old Testament prophecies which referred to the Mount of Olives.   In Ezekiel, the the Mount of Olives was where the glory of the Lord stood when it left the temple and the city shortly before Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians. And in Zechariah, the Mount of Olives was where the Messiah would stand to fight  the nations when they battle against Jerusalem.  Here, in today’s passage.  David weeping and mourning foreshadows Jesus doing likewise the night before His crucifixion.

When I began writing I was not sure if I was going to write about anything else, but I have decided I do want to touch on another element of today’s passage.  When I read today’s passage, I wonder whether the unintentional role Joab played in enabling Absalom’s rebellion factored into David’s hostility toward Joab and his brother.  If not for Joab, David would not have brought Absalom back from exile.  Further, if Absalom had not convinced Joab to go to David on his behalf, Absalom would not have been able to charm the people of Israel to support his claim to the throne.  Joab did both of these things because he knew that David mourned his estrangement from Absalom.  However, I wonder if Joab was also thinking about the succession, about what would happen when David could no longer rule.  If perhaps Joab thought that Absalom would make a good king to follow David, or perhaps just supported him as the next king because he was David’s oldest living son.  One final point just occurred to me, although I know I have thought about it before.  I wonder if Absalom plotted his rebellion against David because he blamed his father for Amnon raping his sister Tamar, or perhaps just resented David for not punishing Amnon for it?

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