1 Kings 1-4

We are out of 2 Samuel :( Now David is an old old man. He has a maidservant named Abishag to take care of him. He also has another couple of sons that want to be king. Absalom's brother, Adonijah, put himself forward and said, "I will be king." It says that David "had never interfered with him by asking, 'Why do you behave as you do?'". Adonijah snagged Joab and Abithar the priest and offered sacrifices. He invited pretty much everybody of importance - except the ones still loyal to David. Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet had a talk, and Bathsheba went to David and said, "You yourself swore to me your servant by the LORD your God, 'Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.' But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord the king, do not know about it." So David took an oath: "As surely as the LORD lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by the LORD." So he sent the loyal ones, Zadok the priest, Nathan, Benaiah the special guard, the Kerethites and the Pelethites to put Solomon on David's mule and anoint him with oil. They blew trumpets and yelled, "Long live King Solomon!" When Adonijah and his party heard, they got scared and dispersed. But it says, "Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went and took hold of the horns of the altar." I don't know exactly what that's about, but it sounds like a last ditch attempt to hold on to the Lord's favor, and safety. He wouldn't let go and said, "Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword." Solomon I think was already pretty wise! He said, "If he shows himself to be a worthy man, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground; but if evil is found in him, he will die."

Pretty soon David called Soloman and told him "his will". He told his son to walk in laws of the LORD and keep his decrees. He told him not to let Joab's head go to the grave in peace for all those murders he had commited. He told him to kill Shimei of Gera for throwing dirt and calling down curses, because he had sworn that he wouldn't do it. Then David, the awesomest guy in the whole Bible besides Jesus, died. Waaaaa!

Solomon moved fast to do what he had to do. Turns out that evil was found in Adonijah when he asked for his father's maidservant. I'm not sure why that was an act of audacity, but apparently it was, because he was killed for it. Joab ran to the tent of the LORD and grabbed the horns of the altar, just like Adonijah had done. But it helped nothing, cuz Solomon told Benaiah to kill him anyway. Shimei was commanded never to cross the Kidron Valley, but he did, and therefore was killed. But this is the most interesting part. Abithar the priest had helped Adonijah, and Solomon said, "'you deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign LORD before my father David and shared all my father's hardships.' So Solomon removed Abithar from the priesthood of the LORD, fulfilling the word the LORD had spoken at Shiloh about the house of Eli." WHOA!!!! Let's go back to 1 Samuel 2!!!

It says:

Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "The LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your house and your father;s house would minister before me forever.' But now the LORD declared: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done in Israel, in your family line there will never be an old man. Every one of you that I do not cut off from my altar will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life."

And Solomon was fulfilling it years later! Wow. God doesn't just forget things huh? And maybe Solomon didn't even know that he had fulfilled it! Wow.

There is never a promise God made that he didn't make good. And there never will be one.

Isaiah 1-6

"Stop trusting in man,
who has but a breath in his nostrils.
Of what account is he?"

I just underlined that verse today. It made me think about when I think, "Oh, I'll just see what she has to say about it, and go by that." Why am I trusting in man's opinion to tell me what to think? What does that matter at all? Why don't I just see what God has to say about it and go by THAT?

But the big thing I read today was ISAIAH'S COMMISSION!!! It says that he saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were angels, each with six wings. They were calling to each other, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." The whole earth is full of his glory. Sometimes I just think this earth is just nuts. Nothing goes right. Nobody cares about anybody else. Where's the glory? Well, yeah, there are those mountains outside, but most of the time the sight of good weather or something God made doesn't make everything ok, or even a little better. Especially when it's hot and the sun is hurting your eyes. But the whole earth is filled with his glory? That must mean the people in the earth too. I guess I should try to find God's glory, instead of just assuming that it should jump out at me.

Job 1-2 & 2 Samuel 19-21

In my daily Bible reading, it's poetry day. Job was the richest man around and feared God and shunned evil. He had tons of animals, and 7 sons and 3 daughters. One day, all the angels were having a meeting with God, and Satan showed up (probably looking like a sulky dog). God raised a brow and said, "Where have you come from?"
"From roaming through the earth and going back in forth in it."
An angel sniffed and whispered to another, "Sounds boring."
But God can't resist the urge to brag on his children:P He says, "While in your wanderings, did you see my servant Job? There's no one on earth like him." Whoa! Wouldn't it be awesome if God said that about you? "He is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

Satan scoffed. "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not protected him and his household? You have blessed him with flocks and herds. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

God shrugged. "Very well, everything he has is in your hands, but don't harm the man himself."
I thought then about when bad things happen to us. Is it Satan or God? God does allow bad things to happen to us, and it doesn't mean he's angry with us or forgotten about us - he knows everything that goes on and why!

So Satan killed all the servants and flocks and herds and children with enemies and bad weather. But right after he found out about all this, Job praised the Lord! Wait - he WHAT??? He praised the Lord? When all this bad stuff happened to him? Yep! He praised Him in the storm!

So on the next angel meeting, Satan showed up again, and God said, "Job still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason." Hey, did you hear that? "You incited ME against him". Interesting.

Satan said, "Well, a man will do anything for his own life. But if you strike him, he will surely curse you to your face."

"Very well," God said, with a little smile. So Job was afflicted with painful sores from head to toe. His wife said, "curse God and die!" but Job said, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" So Job is still keeping his faith, though everything's falling around his ears.

In the life of David, rebellion is still brewing. Well, wait before I go into that, we should clear somebody. When David and his men came back to the castle, Mephibosheth went to meet him. Remember, the one who thought he was about to get the kingdom? He hadn't showered or shaved since David left. The king asked, "Why didn't you go with me?"
He replied, "I sent my servant Ziba to get my donkey, so I could follow you, but he betrayed me and slandered me. I know my family deserved nothing but death." So whew! Mephibosheth is still loyal.

Back to rebellion. A troublemaker named Sheba gathered all the men of Israel to follow him (but Judah stayed loyal to David). But this time David wasn't going to let them get away. He made Amasa the new army commander, probably because Joab disobeyed and killed Absalom. Amasa was sent to get some fighting men and be back in 3 days. But he took longer than 3 days. David rolled his eyes at these punky, disobedient army commanders that were always in his hair, and called Joab's brother Abishai (still not talking to Joab), gave him some men, and told him to run after Sheba's men. So Abishai and Joab took the men out, but guess who they ran into on the way there? Amasa, finally on his way back with the men. Joab had a dagger in his hand, but went up to Amasa all friendly-like and went to kiss him, then stabbed him to death. He was probably jealous, and wanted to narrow the kings options of army commander back to him. The two brothers took the men Amasa had got, and took off after Sheba. They were camping out in a fortified city, so Judah laid siege to it, and battered the wall to bring it down. But a woman called for Joab and said, "You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel! Why do you want to swallow up the LORD's inheritance?"

"Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy!" he said. I'm surprised he didn't think of what he had just done to Amasa! "A man named Sheba has rebelled against the king! Hand him over and we will leave." So the woman told everybody else, and they threw Sheba's head to the soldiers over the wall ("thank you!":P). So the army went back to the king. So then, David really was running out of options for army commander, and Joab got the job again. Interesting guy, huh? I'll be sure to stay updated on what happens to him.

2 Samuel 15-18

Say hello to David's son Absalom. Yesterday, his sister Tamar was raped by his half-brother. He killed his half-brother, then fled to Geshur for his life.

I can only suspect that Absalom was a favorite with Joab, the commander of the army, because he found a woman and told her to say this to the king: "I am a widow and my two sons got into a fight with each other, and one struck the other and killed him. Now everyone wants to kill my son, talking away the last descendant of my husband". The king told her that her son would live. Then she said, "When the king says this, does he not convict himself, for the king has not brought back his banished son?" and I love this next verse! It pops out a lot to me:

"Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him."

And that is exactly what God did went he sent Jesus to die for us! He devised the perfect plan so that we do not need to be banished from him for our sin forever.

The king knew after that that Joab had a hand in all this, and told Joab that he would bring Absalom back, but he must go to his own house and not see the king. So Absalom lived 2 years without seeing the king, then when he got sick and tired of it he sent for Joab to send him to the king. But Joab wouldn't come, so Absalom sent some guys to set Joab's barley field on fire to get his attention. Joab came after that - good and angry too! When he asked why on earth his field was ash, Absalom said that he wanted to see the king, and he might as well have stayed in Geshur if he wasn't going to be allowed. "If I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death" he said. So Joab did go to the king (he probably had a few more fields to be worried about) and told him about Absalom. So the king did send for Absalom, and the young man bowed down to the king. David kissed him, and everything was happy... for a little while.

There was no one more handsome than Absalom in the whole land, and he had a lot of hair, let's just keep that part in mind. Pretty soon, Absalom started hanging out at the city gate, listening to people's troubles and wooing them and kissing them and stealing their hearts from David. Soon Absalom went to Hebron with his gang and sent messengers to tell the tribes that he was king. Those who were happy about this joined him, until he had quite a large following. Presently and messenger told David what was happening, so David packed up and made ready to leave, to escape the sword of Absalom. But David had some spies too. He sent Hushai to pretend to join Absalom, but really he was checking out the advice of a wise advisor that had joined Absalom. But "one ill turn deserves another". Now another person had decided to take advantage of David. He had shown great kindness to Mephibosheth, the lame grandson of Jonathan. But now his servant, Ziba came to meet David. When David asked where Mephibosheth was, Ziba said, "He is staying in Jerusalem, because he thinks, 'Today the house of Isreal will give me back my grandfather's kingdom'". ARG!!!!!!!!!!! Everybody's being mean to David now!!!!!!!! So David gave Ziba all that had been Mephibosheth's. So David's party moved on, getting cussed at and dirt thrown on them.

Meanwhile, the wise advisor Ahithophel told Absalom to do one thing that was smart - send an army to take David out. But David's spy Hushai told him to do another thing that would bring him down - send all the armies. Luckily, Hushai's advice sounded better to Absalom. So the armies got ready to fight the alerted David's men. But the King had said, "Spare the young man Absalom for my sake". 20,000 men of Absalom's army was wiped out, and it said that the forest claimed more lives than the sword. Hmm... maybe the wild animals got a lot of guys, or they got lost and died, or... God called the ents?:P As for Absalom, that hair of his was his downfall. He was riding on a donkey under a tree and got caught by the hair, while the donkey kept on walking. One of David's men saw, but obeyed the king and did not kill him, but Joab threw 3 spears into his old favorite's heart. When David found out, he was very sad and mourned for Absalom. I think I would have been pretty mad still at that boy for what he had done. But David mourned for him instead of being happy that he got what he deserved.

That is what God does for us all the time. When we rebel, set ourselves up as great, and shove him out of our lives, God mourns for our lostness and doesn't laugh when we fall.

Joshua 1-5 & 2 Samuel 12-14

I've got a great read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan that mixes up the Bible into different categories for different days of the week. It's really great cuz you get a lot of variety and you're never just reading Psalms for a very long time!:P The printable plan can be found HERE.

Tuesday is History day in the Bible reading plan. So I read about Joshua. I like him. In chapter 2, he sent 2 spies to check Jericho out, and they met Rahab the prostitute. BUT the king of Jericho found out there were spies in the land, so he sent some people to flush them out (makes me wonder how he found out, and how the guys knew they were at Rahab's!). So the officials stalked up to Rahab's house, and said, "Bring out those two spying fellows that came to your house!" She had hidden them on her roof but she told the men hat they had left. After the scary officials left, she went up to the roof and told the spies, "Your God has given this land to you because everyone here is afraid of you and your God. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, whe you completely destroyed them. Everyone's courage failed because of you."

Can't you just hear that conversation? The news would broadcast that Israel had moved near their city, then everybody would go, "Hey Jim, did you hear about the Israelites coming?"

"Yeah, I did. That's awful! Did the king set up some weapons for us?"

"Wouldn't help if he did! You know what their God did to the Red Sea!"

"Heheh. Well... I-I dunno if I believe that one."

"Well, you should at least believe that Sihon and Og are wiped out! Everyone knows that!"

"Well, yeah. Who on earth could do a thing like THAT?"

"Nobody on earth. Their God is something pretty powerful!"

"Yeah, and they just have one! That's so weird!"

"Well, apparently it works! Let's face it Jim: We're in their way and their God is with them and we're dead."

"Oh, come on Frank! What do you think He'll do, knock our walls down for them?"

"Yep."

"What? Really?"

"Yep."

Anyway, the spies made a deal with Rahab that they would rescue her and her family for helping them. And because she protected the spies, she was blessed and was even in the line of Jesus! Whoa.

Today in the adventurous life of David, Nathan showed up. I think David must have at least suspected that what he had done with Bathsheeba was of questionable righteousness. So maybe he wasn't entirely pleased to hear that Nathan wanted to see him. When he saw the prophet, he was probably relieved when Nathan started talking about... sheep. His story went something like this:

"There once was a man.

A very rich man.

He had a lot of sheep.

He had a lot of land.

He thew a lot of parties

(And I don't remember this line)

Yes, there once was a very rich man.

There once was a man.

A very poor man.

He had next to nothing

just a little lamb.

But he loved it like a son

and he fed it from his hand.

Yes, there once was a very poor man.

Then one day,

there was a guest at the house of the rich man.

What did he do-

have ya guessed to feed the guest of the rich man?

He took the lamb of the poor man.

He took the lamb of the poor man.

The rich man took to feed his guest

the very very poor man's lamb."

David was infuriated (probably had forgotten all about Bathsheeba now). He said, "As surely as the LORD lives, this man deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb 4 times over!"

Then Nathan said, "YOU ARE THE MAN! You struck down Uriah the Hittite and took his wife to be your own! You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites." I thought that was interesting. Though David didn't kill him with his own hand, he killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. He still did it, and God was pointing that out. Then David acknowledged that he had sinned against the LORD, and Nathan said that the LORD would punish him by taking away the son that had just been born to him. Sure enough, the baby got sick. David fasted and prayed and spent the nights lying on the ground. But the son did die. David servants were afraid to tell him, but when he found out, he got up, showered, and ate. Everyone was confused. They asked him why he was doing this. David said, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." I've always liked that line!!!! It is so true. But soon enough - David had another son named Solomon!

2 Samuel 6-11

Reading about David, I am. He was recently made king, and today I read where he was bringing the Ark of the Covenant down from somebody's house. They put it on a new cart and brought it down with a big parade! But the party was crashed real good when the oxen slipped a little and Uzzah thought that he was going to save the Ark. He grabbed it and God struck him down. It says, "The LORD'S anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act". After that happened, David didn't want the Ark to come to him, so he just moved it to somebody else's house. That man's whole house was blessed when the Ark was in it, so David went to get it again. The parade started again, and David gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to every person in the whole crowd. They made offerings, and generally had a good time and praised God. But here's the interesting part: It says, "David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might". His wife watched from a window and despised him in her heart, then later when he came up, she rebuked him for disrobing. So, did he take off the ephod and go naked, or was the linen ephod considered underwear? Maybe he just wasn't wearing his finest royal robes, in order to humble himself before the LORD. I dunno.

A couple of chapters later, the Ammonite king died. David sent some men to show sympathy, but they were attacked and disgraced, making the king mad. Once the Ammonites knew they hadn't let the sleeping dog lie and David was after them, they hired some Aramean soldiers to help them out. David sent his whole army, and the commander said, "Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The LORD will do what is good in his sight." So cool! Israel's army split in two to fight the Ammonites on one side, the Arameans on the other. They both got routed by Israel, and the king himself came out to fight a little later. The Ammonites were defeated and became subject to David. And this is my favortite part - it says at the very end, "So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore". Heehee!

The last chapter I read was David and Bathsheeba, but I think we all know about that. It should be difficult to cleanly novelize if I decide to do that. I shall read about what the prophet Nathan had to say about it tomorrow!

Follow the Voice

Christian is in captivity. His tormentors - evil nasty creatures by the names of Doubt, Disappointment, Fear, Despair, Unforgiveness, and Hurt guard him at all times. They beat him, scar him, bring him down, never give him a chance to escape their clutches. He is in a cold, dark, iron prison cell. And he is blind - he cannot see his captors or his cell, but he can feel them. The cold stone engulfs him and the forbidding iron bars drive all hope from his heart. Day and night he sits in his distress, not knowing a way out. When things are at it's darkest, he hears a still small voice. He strains his ears - who was that? It is familiar: a voice he used to know very well, back before the hard times that drove him here, back when he could see. It calls him by name. Christian rises. He can see a Light! The voice calls, "I am your God. Follow me". He uncertainly takes a step forward. He puts a hand toward the Light, but touches the bars of the locked door. Despair and Fear jump in front of him and shove him back away from the door. Christian turns away from the Light and says, "see? The doors are shut, I can't get out."

The voice is persistent, "I have unlocked the door. You've only to throw it aside and follow me" Christian raises his brows. He puts a tentative hand on the bars. Doubt growls a warning and Christian flinches. He pushes on the door just a little, and Doubt charges him and throws him back again. Disappointment nods and pokes his memory with little reminders of past times when he escaped, only to be let down by the Light and captured again. The Father is still speaking. "Come! Walk with me!" This time Christian runs to the doors. Before he can even get to them, Unforgiveness and Hurt catch him. Fear tackles him. Disappointment pricks him. Doubt gnaws at him and Despair laughs at him. Christian calls to the Light, "I cannot get past these tormentors! Help me defeat them!" The Light shines brighter and the scourgers shriek and fall back. Christian leaps up and throws the door open, running to the Father.

Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron. ~ Psalm 107:13-16

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." ~ Matthew 7:7

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners ~ Isaiah 61:1