Week 84, Day 2: Solomon given wisdom
Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 3:1-28
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
If you had one wish to be granted, what would it be? Man has dreamed of such an occassion as reflected in his many stories and tales. But here we have the account of where God actually granted such a request to king Solomon. What did Solomon ask for? An understanding heart to judge the people of Israel. What a great thing to ask for! Give me understanding so that I can discern between good and evil. Contrast this with what man often dreams of and you see a stark contrast. What Solomon sought for shows that he started out with a pure desire to serve God well. He desired to serve God and follow in David’s footsteps.
What we would have asked for puts in the spotlight what our priorities are. What would you have asked for? Would you have sought for something that would have aided your service to God or would you have sought for pleasure and temporary glory.
Question: Why do you think Solomon married Pharoah’s daughter? What does this reflect about Solomon’s judgement at times?
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Week 84, Day 1: David’s last instructions
Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 2:1-46
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
Before David dies he gives Solomon some “loose strings” to take care of. David had several people that had wronged him or deserved punishment and yet David had not done anything about it for various reasons. He now tasks Solomon with taking care of these matters. I find this interesting from the standpoint of all the things Solomon must have had to deal with fairly quickly. Soon he will be ordering men to be slain as a punishment for their actions. Quite a leap to go from one of the king’s sons to being the one calling the shots and even putting men to death.
The two people David tells him to take care of are Joab for his murder of innocent men and of Shimei the Benjaminite for his severe cursing of David. Solomon quickly takes care of these things and does so in a wise way. He does not let Joab talk his way out or use the altar as a way of escaping justice. And he set Shimei in a situation where he knows the terms for living and allows him to violate them so that there is a cause for putting him to death.
Question: What was so bad about Adonijah asking for Abishag for a wife?
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Week 83, Day 5: Adonijah’s Rebellion
Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 1:1-53
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
In today’s reading, Adonijah, one of David’s sons, made an attempt to usurp the throne of David. In his efforts, he drew Joab and Abiathar (both men who had been very loyal to David) away from David and Solomon. Adonijah went so far as to make sacrifices, call the people together to celebrate, and have them cry out “Long live king Adonijah!” This was, however, in direct contrast to the will of God, who had chosen Solomon to be the next king (1 Chronicles 28:5). It was evident that Adonijah knew this to be the case as well, based on what he would tell his mother, Bathsheba in 1 Kings 2:15. He was upset that he had lost the kingdom, and that God had chosen Solomon instead!
Adonijah’s action is reminiscent of Saul’s actions toward the end of his life. Saul knew that God had taken the kingdom from him, and given it to one who was better than he, and yet he continually tried to get around God’s will! He thought if he could just kill David then God’s plan would have to be changed. Adonijah seemed to think that if he could just get all the people on his side, he could change the will of God. He thought, through the implementation of his own selfish desires, that he could force God to do his will! Of course, God’s will was accomplished in the end, with Solomon established by David as the next king over Israel, and Adonijah would soon get his just rewards.
Adonijah’s actions are not unlike those of many people today. It is easy to look into the pages of the word of God and find what His will for us is. And yet, the practice of many is to try and circumvent the will of God. Because of selfish desires or ambitions, too many people try to force God to conform to their wills. This can be seen in the sheer number of denominations that have formed with different doctrines developed to organize the local group, some national or international group, and to define the work of those bodies. Instead of focusing on what we want, the church should be focused upon what God wants, and conform itself (through the individuals that comprise it) to the prescribed commands of scripture! If we act like Adonijah, we will end up with the same spiritual consequence.
Question: When it comes to serving God, are we selfless, or selfish?
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Week 83, Day 4: True Sacrifice
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 24:1-25
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
Our reading today has a wonderful object lesson in the concept of sacrifice. David angered God by numbering the fighting men of Israel without His permission or command. As a result, God sent 3 options for David’s punishment. David chose to suffer the wrath of God in a plague for 3 days. As the destroying Angel approached the city of Jerusalem, David went out to the threshing floor of Araunah to offer a sacrifice to Jehovah to stop the plague. Araunah offered to give David all that was needed for the sacrifice, including the wood from the threshing implements and the yokes for the oxen, as well as the oxen themselves for the sacrifice. One of the most powerful verses concerning sacrifice is found in this context. David’s response to Araunah was:
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:24)
David refused to make an offering to God which did not cost him anything. This is a part of sacrifice! Unfortunately, many people today do not want to offer anything to God that costs them something. They are willing to serve God as long as it doesn’t get in the way of anything else that they want to do. They will not sacrifice money, time or effort for God–they expect God to give into their wishes and desires! God requires sacrifice on our part, and it is going to cost us something. Romans 12:1-2 tells us that God demands that we make ourselves a living sacrifice. That is gong to cost us. It will cost us money. It will cost us time. It may cost us friends. It may cost us family. If we are not willing to pay the price of making an offering to God, then we cannot (and will not) be His children. If we are unwilling to offer things which cost us something, we are not really offering Him a sacrifice!
Question: When was the last time your offering to God actually cost you something?
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Week 83, Day 3: The Census
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 23:1-25
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
We are told at the beginning of this chapter that the anger of God burned against Israel. We are not told why this was or if this was against anyone specifically in Israel. But the wording of the passage leads me to conclude that David was incited in some way to make the decision to take the census. What was wrong with taking a census of the people? God had always promised Israel that He would fight for them and deliver them from all enemies. So why would there be a need to number the people unless it is just for some reason of pride. “Look at how my nation has grown”. “Israel is now so powereful that we have 1 million fighting men”. Man would want to know such things as a source of boasting and confidence in himself. Israel needed to have confidence in God.
Question: Why do you think God waited until after the census was taken to punish Israel? Why not just stop the census before it was completed?
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Week 83, Day 2: A song of salvation
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 22:1-51
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
David sang a song to the Lord praising Him for delivering him from his enemies. I often enjoy reading these because they give us an additional glimpse at the mindset of certain people. Speaches, prayers, and songs often open up a window for us to look in and see who this person was. David was a man of great faith. Here he acknowledges and thanks God for being his rock and fortress. Such pronouncements also enable us to see how David describes things in his own words. He calls God the horn of my salvation. This is certainly not a phrase that we would use regularly today. So we get a glimpse of terminology they used but most importantly we see how much David praised God for the good He had done. David says that God recompensed him according to the cleanness of his hands and according to his righteousness. God delivered David from the hands of mightier foes because David was a righteous man who served God faithfully.
Question: If you were to write you own “song of praise” to God, what would it center around and what would it say? This might be a good exercise for all of us to try. Put into writting your praise for God. And then compare this to the kind of things David had to say.
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Week 83, Day 1: Gibeonites
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 21:1-22
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
We now come to a time where God is punishing Israel through a famine. This famine last three years before David inquires of God regarding why this is happening. Firstly, it should not have taken three years before David realized that something was amiss. In man’s eyes famines come but considering the promises God gave to Israel, they would have plentiful crops and their flocks would increase greatly. The normal illnesses and difficulties would not come upon them. The land they inherited was a land flowing with milk and honey and the Lord promised that they would have wonderful bounty in the land. This promise was contingent upon Israel’s obedience. IF they served God faithfully these kind of rich blessings would be given to them. What many miss today when speaking about Israel is how the blessings hinged upon their faithfulness. So here they have a famine in the land, why? It should not have taken three years before David realized that he needed to inquire of God regarding this.
The answer for why there is a famine centers around something that happened many years earlier. When Saul was king he had attacked the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were the group of people who approached Israel when they first came into the promise land. They tricked the elders of Israel into entering into a covenant with them by dressing like they had come from a far away journey. Even though the covenant was made by trickery and they were indeed a tribe of the Canaanites who were to have been wiped out, Israel had still entered into a covenant before God that was to be honored. No king on a whim should cast aside such a vow made by Israel. So now Israel was suffering because of this wrong done and because it had never been corrected. This is interesting to see how God expected Israel to “make it right”. Justice demanded that the aggressor be punished for violating the covenant.
Question: What can we learn about how seriously God takes a covenant from this account? How should we then view our marriage vows?
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Week 82, Day 5: The end of Sheba
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 20:1-26
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
When David came back to reclaim his right to be king a man of Benjamin had led a rebellion opposing him. This man did not last long after that point. David recognized that if Sheba was not killed quickly then he would do much damage to David’s reign. So he sent his men after three days time to go pursue Sheba. Sheba’s rebellion must not of had a very strong following because when David’s men come, Sheba is killed by the people of the town. This instance makes me think of when David was in Keilah in 1 Sam 23. David had just delivered this city from the hand of the Philistines and Saul finds out that David is there. Saul is coming to attack David while he is in the city. David inquires of God whether the people of the city will deliver him over to Saul and the Lord says yes. David, even with his mighty men with him was not going to be able to hide in the city he had delivered. So Sheba may have had some following but when faced with a seige the people quickly turned him over to them.
Question: How do you think David should handle when Joab did to Amasa?
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Week 82, Day 4: David brought back
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 19:1-43
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
After Absalom is killed David mourns for his son. This could be understandable to greive the loss of your son but this son had just tried to kill you. David’s reaction is not good. He disheartened his men and made them feel so low that they came back into the city as if they had been the ones to lose the battle. David’s reaction puts him in danger of driving people away from him. Joab, the commander of his army, is the one who comes to rebuke him. This seems to reflect the close relationshihp that Joab had with David and yet their relationship is not all good. Joab is the one who had killed his son. It would also seem that word must have gotten back to David who killed Absalom because David states that he is going to appoint Amasa as the new commander of his army.
We also have a glimpse at conflict between the norther tribes of Israel and with Judah. This is the brewing of trouble to come later for Rehoboam.
Question: What does David’s reaction to Absalom’s death reflect about some parents?
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Week 82, Day 3: Absalom is killed
Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 18:1-33
Some thoughts from today’s reading…
We are not told how many men Absalom had in his army verses how many men David had in his. Absalom’s army is defeated and flees before David’s. We are told that the forest where they fought devoured more men than did the sword. This is interesting to me because I wonder what about the forest killed the men. Wild beast had been sent against God’s enemies before and will be in the future. Perhaps something abou the terrain inside the forest was so dangerous as well. 20,000 fell of Absalom’s army. So this was a pretty large battle.
We had been told in chapter 14 about Absalom’s hair. He cut his hair once a year because it had grown so much as to be heavy on him. This information now bears more in our understanding for we see Absalom getting caught in a tree. I can imagine him riding quickly to try to escape the slaughter and going through a thick part of the forest. And then he finds himself in a most embarrasing situation. Here is the man who was trying to be king, stuck in a tree by his hair. I have wondered at times whether Absalom didn’t carry some kind of weapon to try and cut himself free. But this situation becomes his doom as Joab kills him there.
Question: Was Joab right by disobeying the king and going ahead and killing Absalom?
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