10/21/2010 8:48:52 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My
Worship Time Focus: David strives for unity
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: 2Samuel 19:9-15
Message of the verses: “9 ¶
All the people were quarreling throughout all the tribes of Israel,
saying, "The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us
from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled out of the land from
Absalom. 10 "However, Absalom, whom
we anointed over us, has died in battle. Now then, why are you silent about
bringing the king back?" 11 Then
King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, saying, "Speak to the
elders of Judah, saying, ’Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house,
since the word of all Israel has come to the king, even to his house? 12 ’You are my brothers; you are my bone and my
flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’ 13 "Say to Amasa, ’Are you not my bone and
my flesh? May God do so to me, and more also, if you will not be commander of
the army before me continually in place of Joab.’" 14 Thus he turned the hearts of all the men of
Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, saying, "Return, you
and all your servants." 15 The king
then returned and came as far as the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal in order
to go to meet the king, to bring the king across the Jordan.”
There
are actually two sup-points in this section which I will try and cover this
morning.
David
would make the effort to unite his kingdom even though it was divided between
those who wanted Absalom as their king and also between those of Judah and
Israel, a division that would take place after the rule of Solomon. David first part of this unity was with his
own tribe of Judah, as it says in the text that he was bone of their bone and
flesh of their flesh, meaning he as their relative, their family, and so David
begins with Judah.
This
whole problem with Absalom began at Hebron, which was in the land of Judah, and
it may have been that some of the elders of Judah had been involved in this
rebellion and therefore were not ready to bring David back as king fearing that
he would take revenge on them. Israel
was ready to bring David back, so David uses two priest to go to talk with the
elders of Judah and kind of put them to shame for not bringing David back since
he was part of their family and they were the ones who first made David king.
David
now replaces Joab as the commander of his army and perhaps this showed the
elders of Judah that David would not take revenge on them. Dr. Wiersbe points out two reasons that David
replaced Joab and the first one was actually mentioned in and earlier SD, and
that is because Joab had killed Absalom against the orders of the king. Absalom deserved to die because of what he
had done and perhaps Joab knew that David would was indulgent with his sons,
but this was no excuse to disobey his king.
The second reason was that Joab was getting too much power since he was
the one leading the army and not David.
In chapter twenty-one there is described an incident in which David was
almost killed by a giant Philistine and after he was saved by Abishai the men
told David not to be that close to the action and so this may have been the
reason that David was home and on the roof lusting after Bathsheba and not out
being involved in the battles anymore.
Joab
had some very good qualities, and yet he had some qualities that were not good
at all. Joab would later kill Amasa,
again a cold blooded murder by Joab, and then later on still Solomon would have
Joab killed in order to have the throne completely under his control.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am truly enjoying my study of the Old
Testament as I am learning many things that the Lord is using in my life. As I read about all of the killing that went
on during this time of history and all of the sinful things that the characters
of the OT had committed it reminds me of a couple of passages that are from the
NT telling what the OT is there in “living color” so to speak, and that is that
I, as a NT believer can learn from the lives of those in the OT, and that I can
even see their flaws and sinful ways in order to help me not fall into the same
traps. Another wonderful thing that I
can learn is that when these people are mentioned in the NT I don’t see any of
their sins described because they have been forgiven by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ and therefore God does not remember their sins anymore, just as He
does not remember my sins anymore. I am
very thankful for such a wonderful Savior.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue
to trust the Lord to guide my path each day and especially trust the Lord to
work things out as to whether or not we are to go to Hawaii in the near
future. I must leave it in His hands.
2. Trust
the Lord to give me the desire to do a good job as I reluctantly go back to
work at the church for a week.
3. I
put on my spiritual armor this morning.
10/21/2010 9:41:07 AM
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