2 Samuel 7:1-8:18, John 14:15-31, Psalm 119:33-48, Proverbs 15:33
Today is the 25th day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today, as we gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. Our next step leads us back into the book of second Samuel, where we are getting to know David and getting the opportunity to kind of contrast David with Israel’s first King Saul, who has died in battle with the Philistines. So, let’s pick up the story, we’re reading from the New English Translation this week, second Samuel chapters 7 and 8.
Commentary:
Okay so, in the book of second Samuel today, we see that David is firmly planted and established as the King of Israel, not just the King of Judah. And over the last couple of days, we’ve read of the different kind of, maneuvering and intrigue that’s involved in…in this happening and indeed it’s David’s character, it’s his responses to things that are happening in this tumultuous time that gets the people’s attention, they’re watching him. So, for example, David and his men were sent away from the battle with the Philistines, they were supposed to be Philistines in the battle but they were sent back to Ziklag right, and Ziklag was burned down by the Amalekites and they had to chase them down and get all their stuff back. When they get back to Ziklag, a man comes into the camp with news and the news tells about Israel’s defeat at the hand of the Philistines and the death of Saul and his sons and the man bringing the news claimed to have been the one to kill King Saul, after he had been mortally wounded. Well, David had already established his position on, never raising his hand against God’s anointed and this person was claiming to have done just that. And so, the person who is expecting to be rewarded and maybe elevated in David’s kingdom, well, his life comes to an end. And David goes to Hebron within the lands of the tribe of Judah. He is made king over the Judains, the people of the tribe of Judah. And incidentally, just as a little aside, this is where the term Jew comes from, Judah, someone from the tribe of Judah because, as we will see, as we continue our journey, that’s pretty much all that’s left. Back to David, David is the King of Judah. He has a bit of a military, he has a military commander named Joab. The house of Saul, also has a military commander, his name is Abner. Abner, is backing Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth as the king of Israel. They meet together, there a battle begins Joab’s brother, Asahel. So, Joab is the military commander for David. David, his brother, Asahel is chasing Abner who is the military commander for Israel. Abner ends up killing Asahel in battle then later, Joab assassinates Abner for killing his brother in peacetime. And we can be like, well, doesn't…hasn’t that stuff happened all along. Like, what’s the big deal? The big deal is how David responds. David grieves and mourns and fasts and weeps over Abner, who was a military hero, protecting the king of Israel. The people are watching this because it would make sense for David to have Abner assassinated in order to completely disrupt anything but Ish-bosheth, who is Saul’s son, laying claim to the throne, but the way David reacts to this loss, is that, it’s a loss, it wasn’t an assassination, it wasn’t a hit. It’s a loss for the people and they see this in David and it’s drawing them to David. And like in yesterday’s reading we read of a man Recab and his brother Baanah who assassinated Ish-bosheth and brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David, thinking that they might be elevated in David’s kingdom by getting rid of his enemy, the only one standing in the way of the throne. But again, David’s character about not raising your hand against the anointed of God, let like allowing God to work these things out. The people, once again, see like, David didn’t have anything to do with the assassination of Abner or Ish-bosheth, he didn’t have anything to do with it. And the people that were involved in it were punished so Recab and Baanah were punished by death for killing Ish-bosheth, which brings the people together. A covenant is made. David becomes king, he conquers Jebuse the Jebusites the city of Jerusalem makes it the city of David and then in today’s reading, God comes before David making a covenant with him and David’s response again is that of utter humility, like who am I, who is my family. How did I get here, what is going on, why would the most high God look down upon me to make this happen? Then we see David dancing before the ark of the covenant coming back into Jerusalem. And one of David’s wives Saul’s daughter, Michael she despises, and David says that he’ll act like a fool for God and any day. Basically, all make a fool of myself to dance before the Lord. This is just in sharp contrast to what we saw in Saul, who was hiding in the baggage at his coronation and always try to puff himself up, always afraid of his imaging, was always trying to get the respect of the people by being sort of the tough guy. Where is David is trying to be as humble as possible. And that humility is what is drawing the hearts of the people to clearly make him their leader. And we’re just getting started in the story of David, but that is kind of the transition between the house of Saul and then David fully becoming the king of Israel, which he is. And we will watch that unfold in the coming days.
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word. Thank You for the kindness of Your word. The gift of Your word that allows us to look back at ancient stories, but to find those stories to be very, very relevant to humanity in the way that human beings think and do things. And we see character shining through right now in the life of King David and may we learn much because we all need to be people of integrity, people of character. So, come Holy Spirit into this we pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
This will posted later this evening.