I missed my post that was due on Thursday. Sorry... I didn't finish my Thursday reading until late in the evening when it was too late to start a post on a school night. I did have a nice evening, though. I went down to Parker (a southeast suburb of Denver) and had dinner with Ken and Perla. It was the first time I'd seen their apartment where they'd moved in early December. It's a very nice place and Perla has done a beautiful job decorating it. Ken slow-roasted some ribs all day and they were so tender and delicious!
2 Samuel 12-22:
A lot has happened in the O.T. since the last post. David is now king. 2 Sam 12 starts out with some really distasteful dirty laundry in David's family and the next few chapters recount the evil that comes from such actions. So Amnon, one of David's sons, rapes his half sister, Tamar. Tamar's brother, Avshalom, waits two years to get vengeance for Tamar and has his servants kill Amnon. Avshalom ends up estranged from his father, David, for another two years. It looks like they're going to finally reconcile but Avshalom has apparently built up a lot of resentment and ill-will toward David and decides he will take leadership of Israel from his father. And so it goes... there are two things that I noted while reading the recounting of these events. First off, I don't see Avshalom turning to God for help in overcoming this horrendous act and restoring of Tamar. I'm sure God's will would have been much more constructive than the way Avshalom went about it. Secondly, this seems to be the most vile act we've had recounted within the intimate setting of the story of any particular family. Nothing has been white-washed here - the sins of these people are set out for us to know and to see the consequences. These are real people. We are real people. The escalation from the crime to the desire for vengeance and on to the ill feelings that have been fostered throughout the years was largely the result of David's non-action. He did nothing when he heard about Amnon's rape of Tamar. As many times as we've seen David asking for God's council in regard to his rule of the people of Israel, why didn't David seek God's council in this event? I think we do the same things in our lives today. We may not be facing the same type of serious event as Amnon and Tamar, but we may find ourselves reacting the same. We pray for our church, missions in which we're involved, other folks who may be having troubles; but we handle day-to-day events from our own point of reason rather than turning to God for everything. David was seeking God's guidance on the big stuff but appears to have been making his own decisions on handling day-to-day family matters. It didn't turn out so well. Maybe we can take a lesson from that?
In the end, despite David's hard heart toward his son, Avshalom, he was very sad when Avshalom was killed.
The rest of the chapters in today's reading play out with struggles for David and eventually his re-establishment as king. The bottom line message: there's hope and a good ending with faithfulness to God. David wasn't perfect but he was a "man after God's own heart." That doesn't mean that God condoned the bad decisions that David made. But it does mean that, despite his human weaknesses and frailties, David ultimately and always recognized God's authority, his (David's) own human sinfulness and he was a repentant man. He didn't argue with God to rationalize his behavior. I want to be a woman after God's own heart. I want to always remember God's goodness in guiding me if I will only remember to turn to him first. I want to always praise God - like David did in chapter 22!
2 Samuel 12-22:
A lot has happened in the O.T. since the last post. David is now king. 2 Sam 12 starts out with some really distasteful dirty laundry in David's family and the next few chapters recount the evil that comes from such actions. So Amnon, one of David's sons, rapes his half sister, Tamar. Tamar's brother, Avshalom, waits two years to get vengeance for Tamar and has his servants kill Amnon. Avshalom ends up estranged from his father, David, for another two years. It looks like they're going to finally reconcile but Avshalom has apparently built up a lot of resentment and ill-will toward David and decides he will take leadership of Israel from his father. And so it goes... there are two things that I noted while reading the recounting of these events. First off, I don't see Avshalom turning to God for help in overcoming this horrendous act and restoring of Tamar. I'm sure God's will would have been much more constructive than the way Avshalom went about it. Secondly, this seems to be the most vile act we've had recounted within the intimate setting of the story of any particular family. Nothing has been white-washed here - the sins of these people are set out for us to know and to see the consequences. These are real people. We are real people. The escalation from the crime to the desire for vengeance and on to the ill feelings that have been fostered throughout the years was largely the result of David's non-action. He did nothing when he heard about Amnon's rape of Tamar. As many times as we've seen David asking for God's council in regard to his rule of the people of Israel, why didn't David seek God's council in this event? I think we do the same things in our lives today. We may not be facing the same type of serious event as Amnon and Tamar, but we may find ourselves reacting the same. We pray for our church, missions in which we're involved, other folks who may be having troubles; but we handle day-to-day events from our own point of reason rather than turning to God for everything. David was seeking God's guidance on the big stuff but appears to have been making his own decisions on handling day-to-day family matters. It didn't turn out so well. Maybe we can take a lesson from that?
In the end, despite David's hard heart toward his son, Avshalom, he was very sad when Avshalom was killed.
The rest of the chapters in today's reading play out with struggles for David and eventually his re-establishment as king. The bottom line message: there's hope and a good ending with faithfulness to God. David wasn't perfect but he was a "man after God's own heart." That doesn't mean that God condoned the bad decisions that David made. But it does mean that, despite his human weaknesses and frailties, David ultimately and always recognized God's authority, his (David's) own human sinfulness and he was a repentant man. He didn't argue with God to rationalize his behavior. I want to be a woman after God's own heart. I want to always remember God's goodness in guiding me if I will only remember to turn to him first. I want to always praise God - like David did in chapter 22!
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