Welcome back everyone. We are definitely getting close to wrapping up these two books. We will finish the entire study on Friday of next week. Keep up the pace, keep giving your thoughts, and I believe it will be rewarding as we finish.
Today's reading is from 2 Samuel 14-15
Chapter 14:
Poor King David is always being deceived by others to show him the flaws of his own actions. Every time someone wants to make a point to them, they play on his sense of justice and then slam him. I really surprised that this type of deception did not cause David to be angered and lash out at those deceiving him. He truly did have a repentant heart, because that is the only reason why I can imagine he did not lash out.
Chapter 15:
I believe David's moral failures have caused him to become weak in his leadership. He essentially allows this uprising from his son to happen and flees. Can you imagine this happening only a short-time ago? I can't. I remember the powerful warrior nature of David. The problem that has happened, as had happened to previous people we have read about, David's children are acting like Eli's children and Samuel's children. Men of God who did not raise children of God. It is sad to see. I think the line in this chapter that sums it all up is when it says Absalom "stole the hearts of the men of Israel." At one time, nobody would have left the command and rule of David, but I believe sin has weakened his leadership.
What stood out to you from these passages?
Erik, great thoughts...
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest take away is that in David's sin...we actually see a personality that is less like who we have seen of David...
Interesting that people are afraid of becoming less them upon allowing Christ to move in their life...it seems that upon the moment of David choosing to sin...he became less him and more of the world...and was nowhere the greater person we saw in previous chapters that was mighty and strong & firm!
I like Joab. He gets left out of most studies, but he was a good man and has done several things throughout these chapters that stood out to me. Even when David was doing wrong and was not with the army, Joab invited him to come out and take the city so it would be given to David not him. That's loyalty. And here he goes through all this trouble to get David to reconcile with his son. Maybe if David had been more present in Absalom's life, he wouldn't have tried to do it himself and .
ReplyDeleteGreat point on the sin's impact on David. Our natures are in constant battle. Once saved, we are more like our true self when we are following closely to Christ and we are more like our former selves when we are giving into sin. I pray God would help me have more days living as the new me and less days like the old me.
The real David would have whipped his sons' tail for acting the way he did, not run from him. Sin is so destructive, yet feels natural and enjoyable. May we always be on the lookout for it entering our lives.
I think you're right Pastor Erik he had to have had a repentant and humble heart. Especially being a King. He could have said "forget you I'm a king I don't have to listen to this" But he knew that truth shows no partiality. Weather its truth from a king or Truth from a servant its still truth.
ReplyDeleteI was also thinking about the way that they keep bringing things up to David by parables along with you Pastor Erik. It's funny how they speak something and then reveal that this whole time you were listening to what I was saying I was talking about you."Smack"! I bet that felt like that Captain Ds' commercial where the guy gets hit in the face with the huge fish tail.
At least one thing I think that may have come out of the way it was brought to David was that it kept him humble. I think it balanced him. That God is a God of justice but mercy is also part of the equation.
I think that it's interesting in
14:14 when the woman says that God devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him.
Isn't that good news for all of us? :)
One other thing stuck out to me and that is when his son was finally able to return that instead of humbling himself and taking ownership of what he had done and acknowledging that he was wrong he started talking to people as they went by him saying I would do it like this or I would do it better than who is in charge now. It sounds like a church split to me. Lord help us not to be deceived into thinking that this isn't happening today. What a great inferno can be started with one spark. One person. Thats why the bible talks about not back bitting. He had his own agenda and was laying the foundation to bring it about. Later on of course he does not prevail and all that is left is pain and damage in his wake. j
Self centered people tend to lose the sense of a balanced nature. David lost sight of being God centered and his life became off balanced. Thus everything around him begin to spin out of control..who would have ever thought that David would run away from the Kingdom.
ReplyDeleteThere is a little of the wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove in the latter end...setting spies in the midst was interesting. Some times,,,we might all be spies for the Kingdom...we are in places no one ever would think we should be, but God places us there and when the time is right...we can move at His direction !!