Category: Devotional

Are Our Prayers Results-Oriented?

While going through today’s reading, one verse hit me in the face with the force of a heavyweight boxer. David is praying for his son, Solomon, who will become king. David says,

Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to build this Temple, for which I have made these preparations.
1 Chronicles 29:19, NLT

Wow! Really let this sink in. Maybe you are not guilty of this, but I know I am; when I pray to God I want to see a result. I want to see a particle thing happen. Then I can check it off in my prayer journal and be satisfied that God has answered this prayer in the affirmative and move on to the next one. But David’s prayer, so simple and moving is that Solomon would not MERELY obey and accomplish, but that he would have the WHOLEHEARTED DESIRE to do so.

Is that how we pray? Do we want God to do the work/empower us to do the work, or do we want God to help us DESIRE to do the work?

God help me DESIRE more of You. Help me WANT to do what is right. Incline my heart toward Your will and Your way. Help me to long for unity with You, help me to persevere toward that Goal all of the days of my life. Help me to hunger and thirst after your heart. Help me to feel incomplete without your direction. God have Your way in me. Help me to love myself less so that I can leave more room for Your love to share with those who do not yet know You. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause.

Thank you Jesus.

Sola Scriptura

This phrase was the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation and comes from the Latin: sola meaning “alone” and the word scriptura meaning “writings” (the Scriptures, the Holy BIble). Sola scriptura declares that Scripture alone is authoritative in the life of the Christian as it pertains to matters of faith and truth. The Bible is complete, authoritative, and true.

Today I am applying it a little differently. Usually I would expound some kind of explainer or extrapolate some application from the day’s passage, but in this case, I think I will go with Scripture alone. And just allow the text to speak directly. Be encouraged, friends!

Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you for forsake you.
1 Chronicles 28:20b

What is Casting Lots Anyway?

Just a brief explainer for today.

We see casting lots pop up 25 times in the Bible. The first is God giving directions to Aaron in Leviticus 16:7-9, the final one is the nomination of Mathias in Acts 1:26, and the most secular is the dividing of Jesus’ clothes in Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24-25, Luke 23:34, and John 19:23-24. I always sort of pictured is as drawing straws, but it was literally rolling dice, and that’s how the NET Bible translates it.

If this seems random to you, I can certainly understand why, but Solomon assures us:

The dice are thrown into the lap, but their every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33, NET

1 Chronicles 23-25 | 123/365

(Not) Having All The Answers

I’ll just say it… 2 Samuel says that God told David to take a census (then punished him for it), whereas 1 Chronicles says that Satan led David to take a census and then God punished him for it. I find the theories online quite unsatisfying and I find it frustrating that I don’t have anything to put in the place of these theories. I was deep-diving into the Hebrew and looking at sentence structure and asking my wife what she thought of this or that observation. Then she said something wonderful in its simplicity. Sometimes we don’t have the answers. That’s not to say that the answer is un-findable (because I fully intend to find it and yeah, I will update you all when I do!), but rather that these secondary issues are not ones on which we need to get hung-up. The cross of Christ is primary and all these other items are grow, learn, discuss, and deepen our faith, but we don’t need to be afraid of not having a solution or a perfect understanding immediately.

If you ever find yourself unsure about something when reading the Bible… that’s okay. You don’t need to be afraid of it. God is still God. Jesus is still Jesus. And in time, with study and dedication these answers will come. At the very least we will be satisfied when we stand before the Lord with unveiled faces.

Be blessed tonight my friends.

2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21, 22 | 122/365

Recognition & Hope

Today’s reading featured two copies of a song David wrote. Despite all that’s gone on in David’s life to this point, he still lifts the name of God and recognizes all that the Lord has done for him and to deliver him. I made a non-exhaustive list who David says God is, and what David says God is bigger than. Perhaps you’ll find it as encouraging as I did.

God is my • Rock • Fortress • Saviour • Protection • Shield • Power • Safety • Refuge • Hearer • Support • Leader • Reward-giver • Restorer • Seer • Lamp • Light • Strength • Perfector • Trainer • Victory • Object of Praise

God is bigger than • Death • Destruction • Grave • Enemies • Deep Waters • Hate • The strong • Sin • Darkness • Armies • Walls • Battles • Mountains • My accusers • Those who wish me harm • My opponents

What else would you add to either of these lists?

2 Samuel 22; Psalm 18 | 121/365

Fickle Friends

Absalom is dead and his coup with him. David returns to Jerusalem, his victory undercut by the death of his son. God’s promise that David’s sin would lead to his family living (and dying) by the sword is coming to pass. And during his return to Jerusalem several men from all the tribes of Israel help him return to the palace. But 10 of the tribes are angry that Judah is helping. They insist that David send them away because “where were they before!?”. David rebukes them, but then a man named Sheba tries to lead ANOTHER revolt against David and everyone EXCEPT Judah joins with him! This coup, too, would be shut down, but it shows the dangers of fickle friends. What if David had sent away Judah, and relied on the loyalty of people who would so quickly turn on him?

We cannot allow ourselves to be swayed by popular opinion. We cannot allow ourselves to be held hostage by the opinions of those who would hold their friends over our heads. Listen to the council of a faithful friend, but always weigh it against the truth of Scripture. Most friends come and go and shouldn’t have a place of high influence. But you should absolutely find a Ruth, Jonathan, or Barnabas and be that in return.

Faithful (in every sense of the word) friends > Fickle Friends

2 Samuel 19:30-21:22; 1 Chronicles 20:4-8; Psalm 7

Attacking God’s Anointed

David had two opportunities to kill Saul, but refused to attack the Lord’s anointed. David’s position was that God would deal with Saul in His timing, and David didn’t need to insert himself into God’s will. And all this after being told by Samuel that he was God’s anointed and ALREADY the new king of Israel.

Absalom took… a different approach. He spent 4 years sowing division, built a monument to himself, rape the king’s harem on the roof of the palace and tried to wipe him out with a huge army of rebels. He ended up caught in a tree by his own luxurious hair, stabbed through the heart 3 times, and dumped into a pit. And all this based on a vendetta for David’s inaction dealing with his daughter (Absalom’s sister)’s rape.

Don’t attack the Lord’s anointed. It won’t end well for you. Even if things seem to be going good at first and you’ve got the majority on your side and everything is coming up Millhouse, eventually it will catch up with you. I’ll leave us off today with the wise word of Will Smith:

Throughout life people will make you mad
Disrespect you and treat you bad
But let God deal with the things they do
‘Cause hate in your heart will consume you, too
Will Smith, Just The Two Of Us

2 Samuel 17:15-19:30; Psalm 3, 63 | 119/365

Dealing with Nay Sayers

Today’s devo is a quick thought, something that hit my heart, but not an exegetical deep-dive. David’s son Absalom — still brooding over the injustice in the wake of his sister’s rape and his excommunication following his action in avenging that wrong — seeks to take the throne of his father by force. David, wanting to avoid a bloody battle, flees to safety in the wilderness.

No sooner has he left the boundary of Jerusalem than Shimei, a relative of Saul spots him. Shimei throws rocks, dirt, and insults at David. He is obnoxious to the point that one of David’s men requests to cut Shimei’s head off. David says no, perhaps this rebuke is from the Lord — and even if it isn’t, let God deal with him. And they continue to move on until eventually the man gave up and went home.

You will come across people like this. David knows that he did everything he could to treat Saul fairly and leave his fate to God, yet he made no attempt to defend himself. Instead David took it on the chin, allowed the man to have his impotent rage and keep moving forward¹.

Don’t spend your time thinking about the people who condemn you for things about which they are ignorant. If you are criticized; 1) hear it, 2) pray about it, and 3) evaluate it. But if it is meritless and nothing can be learned or gleaned… ignore it. Yes, those people will continue to natter away, but eventually the truth will show itself. I am fond of saying, “A person’s character will find them out”.

Trust God to take care of the stone & dirt throwers.

2 Sam 15:1-17:14 | 118/365

David would keep a LONG memory, however, as we will see in the coming chapters. ↩︎

Polygamy & Misdirected Self-Loathing

It’s often pointed out that the Old Testament seems to turn a blind eye to polygamy, even appearing to endorse it in some cases. While this is essentially true outside of the first chapters of Genesis, what we do see consistently throughout the Old Testament is unflinching examination of the consequences of plural marriage. Such is the case with today’s reading.

David’s son Amnon (from David’s wife Ahinoam) develops an infatuation with his half-sister Tamar (from David’s wife Maacah) and devises a plan (with the help of his cousin) to get Tamar alone so he can rape her. This plot is successful, and so Tamar is raped by her half-brother WHILE SHE WAS TRYING TO CARE FOR HIM. How twisted is that? If you subscribe to the Jean-Jacques Rousseau philosophy that humans are inherently good, I submit that history has proved otherwise and Amnon is a prime example. Despite Tamar’s protestations, appeals, and even an offer of marriage, Amnon wanted what he wanted NOW.

But where the story takes a strange twist is after he has finished assaulting his sister, he suddenly hates her more than he ever loved¹ her. She again begs him to at least care for her as the law calls for (Deut 22:28-29), but again he ignores her pleas and has his servants throw her into the street and lock the door. This begs the question; why did he hate her? He got what he wanted. Shouldn’t he be happy? Or at least indifferent? Why the anger? I contend that this is because of misdirected self-loathing.

See, sin is only appealing until you actually get it. Then it sears your conscience and it makes you hate yourself. This leads to all kinds of issues. In this case it became focused on Tamar. Somehow in Amnon’s mind it was HER fault that he had done this thing and he couldn’t stand the sight of her because she was a mirror that showed Amnon the sinful desire that permeated his heart. I’ve no doubt family gathering became awkward after that. Don’t forget that Jerusalem was essentially a government town like Washington, D.C., in the United States or Canberra, A.C.T in Australia. AND Jerusalem was only about 10 acres in size. For context, that’s a little smaller than Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York City. There’s no way these people didn’t see each other afterward.

We read that David was angry about this, but for two years no punishment came for Amnon. I mean, how could David punish Amnon for the very crime he had himself committed no so long ago? All the while Tamar’s only full sibling, Absalom, was seething with rage. This ongoing rage culminated in a successful plot to kill Amnon. This action sent David into mourning and Absalom into hiding, further tearing apart the family and this also began to bring to fruition the prophecy Nathan gave about how David’s sins with Bathsheba would cause his family to live and die by the sword.

So we can see how the polygamous lifestyle adopted by David lead to death, destruction, and heartache. When we deviate from God’s design bad things happen. We really shouldn’t act surprised. And what’s more… it may well be that God doesn’t condemn polygamy because history and experience have successfully done so over, and over, and over again.

2 Samuel 12:26-14:33; 1 Chronicles 20:2-3 | 117/365

If such a word can even be applied. The Hebrew word here demonstrates little variation in its basic meaning. The intensity of the meaning ranges from God’s infinite affection for his people to the carnal appetites of a lazy glutton (Robert Alden, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament). So it is deeply context-dependant. But given the craven nature of the desire and the act, I believe it’s clear that this veers well into the “carnal lust” interpretation and keeps quite clear of the “fatherly love” interpretation.
↩︎

Expectations Are A Window Into Your Heart

There is a LOT to discuss in today’s passage and really, this episode could be a mini sermon series unto itself. But I won’t be talking about David’s “affair” with Bathsheba (I use the word “affair” extremely loosely because let’s face it, she was nobody, she wasn’t going to say ‘no’ to the king. This has every earmark of rape). Rather I want to briefly discuss David’s interactions with Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah.

David gets Bathsheba pregnant while her husband is away at war, so he calls him back from the battle for some R&R and expects that Uriah will sleep with his wife and thus muddy the pregnancy timeline creating reasonable doubt that Uriah himself is the father. But, he doesn’t do that. In fact he doesn’t even go home. Not even after David tried to get him drunk. Not while the boys are still at the front, as was the custom at the time:

David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!”
1 Samuel 21:5, NIV

David’s weakness was women. Like I talked about before, the enemy uses whatever vector of attack is most promising. And — here is the key — David thinks Uriah will act in the same way he himself would in that circumstance. This is something we all do. We tend assume that people will act the same way we would, this is known in psychology as the False Consensus Effect. And so when we think someone will do something bad or attribute bad motives to people, we should take a beat and think about why. It could be that we are basing our thoughts and assumptions on previous behaviour (by the person in question, or some other individual from our past), but it could also be that we are getting a glimpse into our own hearts. It could be that our assumptions are causing our own worst tendencies, thoughts, and biases to bubble to the surface. Our suspicions and attributions may be exposing our own sin!

This is good news! Because once we know about a thing, we can address it. But it’s only good news if we take the time to actually consider WHY we feel any given way and ask the Lord for help in dealing with it. Otherwise we might end up heading down a dark trail that leads to terrible outcomes… which is exactly what happened to David.

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