Bible Reading Challenge Blog

The women of the church have just  finished a study on Hosea and what  I heard the take away was that no one is able to define you except the way in which the Lord defines us.  God commands one of his servants, a prophet named Hosea, to live a metaphorical life.  Go and marry a woman of whoredom because the people of Israel have been unfaithful to me.

The book of Hosea is written right after a time in the life of Israel that was pretty prosperous and very stable.  But now Assyria is starting to flex its muscle and by the time Hosea finishes his prophecies the people of Israel in 722 are taken into exile and the temple is destroyed.  So, what we find happening in Hosea is the prophet telling the people that this is about to happen.  You need to straighten up or else.  They don’t straighten up.

It is interesting when you juxtapose this Scripture with I Chronicles 21 which is its parallel Scripture.  When you look at vs.1 you see that the Lord was furious with the people and so kind of egged David on to take a census, which was not the desire of the Lord.  We read in Chronicles that it was Satan who egged David on to take the census.  These two Scriptures are identical except in the one that we have for today it is God who is angry with the Israelites.  In Chronicles it is Satan, that is the only difference.

When we pray in the Lord’s prayer: Do not lead me into temptation, we know that we have a God who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts.  When you read in James 1:13 that God does not tempt then we ought to know for sure that God is not the one who sets up scenarios hoping and waiting for us to fail.  David recognizes his sin, is given options on how he is to be punished, and decides that he will leave his future up to the Lord, and not up to people.

A plague strikes the land and God gives David a way out, which was what he was hoping would happen.  He goes down and buys a tract of land from one of his citizens in order to offer sacrifices to the Lord.  The person wants to give it to the king, after all, it is the king, but David says: “I am not going to give to the Lord anything that is free to me.”  What we give to the Lord has much to do with what we have been given by the Lord.

David goes back into time and remembers all of the military leaders that had been by his side from the time that he had fled from Saul to this present day.  You will see even in vs.39 that Uriah the Hittite is mentioned.  Remember, Uriah is the husband of Bathsheba, and yet David commanded him to the battle field in order to die.  But he still makes the list of the most respected commanders in David’s army.

We read at the beginning of this chapter that these are the last words of David.  The listing of his commanders follows David’s realization that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to speak. We see this phrase used in other contexts as well.  We hear Jesus say it when he is in his hometown synagogue of Nazareth before they kick him out.  We see  the prophet Isaiah use these  words in Isaiah 61:1 which were the precursors to Jesus’ words in Luke while he is in Nazareth.  

As Presbyterians  we  do believe that on  Sunday morning while the sermon is preached that in some way the Spirit of the Lord is upon the person who is preaching.  Calvin called the Word of God not only the written Word but also the spoken Word.  That is something that we don’t often think about when we say that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.  It really is.  But it also creates a responsibility that we may not often think about either.  

You can find these same verses  in Psalm 18.  We have said that the Psalms were primarily written by David, and I am comfortable with this as these two Scriptures correspond almost exactly.  It is a celebration of the deliverance of  David by God from the hands of the enemies of David.  The beginning of this chapter also specifies the hand of Saul which was one of David’s primary enemies, but an enemy that he did not want to raise his hand against.

There is a real sense of confidence that God will deliver in these verses.  It is a confidence that is built up over time and over the experiences of a young shepherd boy who went to battle against a giant armed only with a slingshot.  This Scripture reflects the confidence of a man who has sinned against the Lord and yet was able to be forgiven and given a second, third, fourth, and so on chance in order to fulfill God’s purposes.  

Where is our sense of confidence these days?  Where do we find ourselves when we tremble and are afraid?  Do we say: The Lord is my rock.  I call upon the Lord and I am saved from my enemies.  We should do that more often.

And you thought that Goliath was the only giant in the Bible.  Well, not so much as we saw when David slew Goliath that he was battling with the Philistines, and here in this chapter we see that the Philistines were good friends with those who were quite large in size, what the Bible calls giants.  But before we get to that Scripture we see that David tries to make right with the Gibeonites, not because he has a choice, but because it is the only way to get rain to fall on the land.

People in our country are speaking of reparations for those who just a few generations back were slaves in our country.  Every time I say that phrase it causes me to wonder how in the world were we able, as a country, to allow other people to serve as slaves, as if they have less value than other people.  Churches actually were on the forefront of supporting this.  I believe that reparations are very much in order.  If you look at what Princeton Theological Seminary did recently in order to address the topic of reparations it is pretty significant.  Here is a link if you are interested in the details.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/26/us/princeton-seminary-slavery-reparations-trnd/index.html

Once those reparations are made by David then we see in vs.10 that the rains fall down from heaven.  Now, these reparations were the lives of the family of Saul who had tried to destroy the Gibeonites in a sort of genocide.  Mephibosheth was spared, once again Jonathan’s son, so David was pleased.  The people of Israel go out to battle against the giants of the Philistines and David gets tired and it really worries his people.   They forbid him from going into battle again.

It seems like once David is back in power that he has to consolidate his forces because he has a bunch of outliers who want to seize power.  A sign of indiscipline is a group of people who think they can fill the vacuum that the king left or is leaving.  So,  David has all these nations line up asking for forgiveness and kissing his ring, except he also has the likes of Sheba who thinks he can take advantage of the times and jump into power.  David in the end pursues him and his head is thrown over a wall.

Look at vs.3 where we find David getting home and putting his concubines in a room and locking them up, as if they were widows, until they all died.  I guess this is because Absalom had followed the counselors advice and slept with them as a sign of conquest and a sign that he was the one who was in power.  David couldn’t get past that and so locked them up and they died like widows.  David, once again, was a serial sinner, but Scripture kind of presents this is as somewhat common place.  

Joab killing Amasa who delayed in getting the troops that David needed, is a pretty classic tale since we read that his entrails poured out on the ground.  Vs.12 gives us Amasa wallowing in his blood in the highway and it was creating a real pile up as people were more interested in his death than pursuing the enemies of David.  I wonder if this is where the term rubbernecking came from…

Now that David has won his victory you see all of the nations who had turned their backs on him, even the one who had cursed him and his troops out as they passed him by, all come and ask for forgiveness  and promise their allegiance to him.  What would you do?  If your family, your friends, your neighbors, those in your church, at your work, all turned their backs on you and basically said that you deserve whatever you get and we aren’t going to help you.  Somehow you crawl out of your hole and now you find yourself on top and each of those people come back to you and want to be on your good side again.  What would you do?

I’ll tell you what David did.  He said, come on back, absolutely no hard feelings.  We were all in a sensitive place and we never could know what would happen.  Now Joab scolded David because he was weeping over Absalom to the point where they were feeling that if Absalom had survived but all of his troops had perished then David may have been happier.  That isn’t great for morale.  So David goes out and publicly thanks the troops and gives them encouragement that he is not only on their side but also their leader.  

At that point all of those who turned their back on David come and greet him.  Now all those who had been with him all along ask him if it is right that the people who turned their backs on him should claim him since they were the ones who were by his side all along.  Jealousy goes a long way for those who were alongside the king for all this time.  What a great lesson in not being upset when other people get things that you don’t feel like they deserve.  Just be grateful for the blessings that come your way, and celebrate the blessings that other people receive.

This is the second time that we see David weep over his enemies, even if his enemies were the previous king, Saul, and his own son, Absalom.  He tells everyone publicly that they are to deal kindly with Absalom.   But remember Joab had a history with Absalom and it wasn’t a good one.   Joab was basically forced out and here we find him as one of the primary generals for David. 

When they find Absalom hanging from a tree, a pretty funny image as you see his donkey walking without a care and without a passenger, then 10 young men slaughter him.  This is so that no one person would be blamed for his death.  It was not just the sword of Joab that caused the death, although it probably was.  Joab had learned his lesson from those who had killed the ones chosen by the Lord and so in turn David had turned and killed those who brought the news  and who had raised their hand against the chosen ones of the Lord.

The battle ended up being a slaughter and David once again is the victor.  But his victory is a bitter one as he also ends up losing his son in the process.  But hey, he still has a multitude of sons from his many wives from which to choose.  Absalom was a trouble maker anyway as we saw.

We find ourselves with David on the run and Absalom trying to figure out how best to defeat David.  Keep in mind this is a son going after his father.  His primary counsel told the now king to pursue David right away and to take David out and then the remaining troops would come home with their tail between their legs and swear allegiance to Absalom.  He likes that advice, but asked another counselor for a second opinion.  He gave different advice.  He said to gather all of Israel and that Absalom should be the one to pursue him and  then publicly kill David so that forever the people would be tied to him.  Absalom actually like that even better.  

The one who had given the first advice and who was used to being listened to, packed up his belongings, got on a donkey, went home, and killed himself.  He no longer felt needed.  The one who gave the new king advice was actually on David’s side and so David was warned of what was going to happen next.

You can palpably feel a build up of what is going to take place and you have to know that it doesn’t bode well for Absalom.  If you didn’t know that then all you would need to do is look at vs.14 where we read that:” the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring ruin on Absalom.”  You have a sense that ruin is about to fall on Absalom as he pursues his father to grab all  the power he could.

Absalom,  David’s son, comes and takes over Jerusalem while David is fleeing Jerusalem and mocked by a someone who was allied with Saul.  While David is being cursed by this man as he makes his way toward the Jordan, Absalom takes over the the throne.  But Absalom not only takes over the throne but also takes over the counsel of David as well.  The head counselor, Ahithophel, swears his allegiance to Absalom and the new king asks for wisdom.  So, now what should I do.

Do you notice the first piece of advice that the head counselor gives the new king?  Go in and have your way with the 10 concubines that David left behind. This way the people of Israel will really know that you are in charge.  It is very interesting advice from a man of God.  In fact, we read later on that this voice, the voice of Ahithophel who just gave this tawdry advice, was seen as the voice of God.  Absalom follows his advice to a tea.