“And David said, “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”” (ESV – Read the chapter)
It is episodes like this one that garnered David the title “man after God’s own heart.” What David does here is perfectly in line with the way God operates toward us. We would do well to follow in his footsteps, if not in detail, then at least in intent. Read the rest…
“And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Have you ever gotten so wrapped up in a moment that you forgot about yourself and were totally and purely enjoying it? Have you ever gotten so excited about something that you forget about all the masks and behavior filters you usually wear that you let yourself show all of the excitement you actually felt? It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is unfailingly an interesting experience. Read the rest…
“And I was gentle today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are more severe than I. The Lord repay the evildoer according to his wickedness!” (ESV – Read the chapter)
David handled the whole affair of Abner’s death in a way that was politically very smart. But, morally speaking, things aren’t quite so cut and dried. In our image-obsessed culture today, this story should really resonate. Today, the optics of our responding to injustice is often thought to be more important than its actual substance. But for David and also for us, God’s concern is just the opposite. If the substance isn’t there, the optics are irrelevant. Read the rest…
“While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
In what follows here we see an almost Game of Thrones style transition of power from Saul to David. The two houses are at war, there’s trouble within one house, jealousy leads to accusations that may or may not be false but which lead to permanent rifts, there are sides being swapped, old wounds being nursed, long-simmering hatreds being acted upon, and the list goes on from there. The question it leads me to ask is what on earth is this kind of stuff doing in the Bible?!? Read the rest…
“And sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam of Jezreel; and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This is one of those detail notes that is easy to ignore but which appears fairly often in the history books of the Old Testament. It’s a list of names, half of which you can’t pronounce unless you really stop and think carefully through all the letters. Generally speaking, once we’ve gotten past reading Hop on Pop, we don’t like having to sound out unfamiliar words, so we skip them and don’t think about it any further. And while, to be honest, we can do this with many of the genealogy lists we find, this one is worth giving a bit more of our attention. Rest the rest…
The Nexus 