Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 14

Helpful thoughts:

• This chapter is troubling.  It’s hard to tell at times what is going right and what is going wrong…  Manipulation and selfish interest are being sought in the name of mercy and reconciliation.
• While there are many similarities in the woman’s fictitious story, there were embellishments when compared to David’s situation.  One being that Absalom was not David’s only way to carry on the family name.
• Absalom showed his lack of repentance by setting Joab’s field on fire to force action.
  • Absalom demanded either restoration or death.  Godly sorrow does not produce demands (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
  • Joab had stuck his neck out previously for Absalom and now had skin in the game.  Absalom selfishly took advantage of that.
  • David extended forgiveness and reconciliation to Absalom perhaps not knowing that he wasn’t truly repentant (Luke 17:3).

Questions to consider:

1. What happens to relationships when everyone is seeking to protect and serve themselves?  How about when we seek to protect and serve one another?
2. How are restoration and reconciliation connected to forgiveness?  If a person refuses to admit wrong-doing and is unwilling to make right what was wrong (Wherever possible), should they be reconciled and restored?  Why is it right to have a heart of forgiveness (A readiness to extend forgiveness), but to wait until restoration and reconciliation are sought to grant it?  When does God forgive us and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness (1 John 1:9)?
3. Are there sins you need to turn from and confess?  Are there others who have confessed to you that you need to forgive?  How should/can God’s forgiveness of you encourage you to be ready to forgive others (Matthew 18:21-35)?

Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 13

Helpful thoughts:

• Lust is confused with love and it “torments.”  Love produces joy.  Love is a sacrifice of self for others.  Lust is a sacrifice of others for myself.
  • Amnon later hated Tamar simply because she refused to help him realize his desires and now posed a threat to his good image (Even though he was in the wrong)!
    • Tamar on the other hand tore her clothes because was now no longer available for marriage as a virgin daughter of the king, she wore ashes in mourning, she mourned the death of the life she hoped to live.  She had become an idolatrous sacrifice.
• Tamar appealed to her half-brother in four ways:
  • This was against the law.
  • She would be shamed.
  • Amnon would be shamed.
  • She even offered herself in marriage.  This was still illegal (Leviticus 18:9-11) but preferable to her in the desperation of the moment.
• After having Amnon killed, Absalom fled to Geshur, the homeland of his mother, where his grandfather was king.
  • The violence in the household of David (2 Samuel 12:10) has begun.

Questions to consider:

1. Why might David have failed to execute justice on Amnon?  What emotions or thoughts would have accompanied his anger in this situation (Verse 21)?
2. What part does Jonadab play in this narrative (Verses 3-5, 32-33)?  How dangerous is “craftiness” which smooths over what should be abhorrent to us and surely is before our holy, righteous, just God?
3. How has God shown His love for us through Christ?  How does the gospel message give us a pattern for love in all our relationships, certainly including the relationship of marriage, and even in intimacy?

Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 12

Helpful thoughts:

• “And the Lord sent Nathan to David” is an incredibly grace-filled sentence.  What David did greatly displeased the Lord, and then the Lord responded by sending a prophet to open David’s eyes to his sin and lead him to repentance!
  • We are prone to want to get away with our sin.  We deserve to be eternally damned for our sin.  God provides forgiveness and restoration through Christ!
  • Hebrews 12:11 – For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
• Stealing livestock was not punishable by death in the law.  Adultery and murder were.  David unwittingly condemned himself to death.  He deserved the death penalty.  God showed him mercy.
  • The fourfold restoration that David demanded would return to him.  Through the violence God promised in David’s household, three other sons would also later die (Bathsheba’s firstborn, and Amnon, Absalom, Adonijah).
• This passage along with others gives us confidence that God graciously saves infants who die before they could respond in faith.
• God showed grace to David after his confession.
  • Solomon was born and beloved by the Lord!
  • Joab was loyal and did not take glory for himself.
  • Israel continued to be victorious in battle.

Questions to consider:

1. Does mercy and grace mean that nothing bad is going to happen?  How much “good” did David deserve?  Does forgiveness mean there will be no consequences?  Do we get to control our consequences?
2. Who was/is the giver of every single good gift in David’s life (And ours) (James 1:16-17)?
3. We could argue that Solomon should never have been born.  Yet, God chose him before the foundation of the world, sovereignly made him the king of Israel, and loved him.  How should we treat children who do not come into this world through righteous means?  Can people repent and love others in a way that honors God when their first interactions dishonored God?  Our sin makes a mess of our lives, who is the only one who can redeem them?

Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 11

Helpful thoughts:

• David should have been out with his army.  He wasn’t busy doing what he was supposed to be doing.
• David in his right mind was concocting ways to sin and try to get away with it.  Uriah the Hittite showed more honor even after he was made to be drunk.
  • When David told Uriah to go home and “wash his feet,” this was a polite way to encourage him to go home and go to bed with his wife.  The gift David sent with Uriah would have been intended to give them a fancy date night.  David was only trying to cover his sin.
• Information about Bathsheba:
  • She was not a random woman in Jerusalem.  Uriah and her father, Eliam, were two of David’s mighty men (2 Samuel 23:34, 39).  Her grandfather was one of David’s counselors (2 Samuel 15:12).
  • The language in verse 4, “and she came to him,” is a way to state that Bathsheba was willing.  What we don’t know is what her motivations were for being willing.  David put her in a terrible position either way.  As a leader, he should have been fighting for the purity of the people, not inviting/using them to sin.
  • The information about her purification from uncleanness confirms that the child was David’s.  She had just completed her cycle.
• Joab trusted David’s orders…Uriah was the one who had been trustworthy.  The man who was just died in an attempt to cover the sin of the unjust.  This is not the kind of sacrifice that brings forgiveness and reconciliation with the holy God.

Questions to consider:

1. Of all the people David sinned against, who was the most significant? (End of verse 27)
2. How did David’s pride and sinful desires cause him to view other people?  What kind of man did he assume Uriah was going to be when he came home?  How did he treat people like Joab to accomplish his desires? Was Uriah the only soldier who died in that battle (Verse 17)?  Did David lament the loss of lives?
3. How can sins of omission (Not doing what we should do) lead to sins of commission (Doing what we shouldn’t)?  How can you love the Lord and your neighbor today?

Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 10

Helpful thoughts:

• Shaving beards and cutting off these garments were things you did to humiliate prisoners of war who were now under your authority.  It might seem a bit much to start a war over beards and clothes, but this was more than that.  It was an act of aggression.
  • David was angered by this, but he didn’t ready an army until he heard there was one ready for battle against him.
• Joab reminded Israel’s army that the result of the battle was ultimately up to the Lord.
  • Their courage was to come from their faith and loyalty to God and for the good of others (The people of Israel).
• We are never told how many soldiers from Israel were there for these battles.  It doesn’t matter…God did what was good to Him.

Questions to consider:

1. What are the strengths of Joab’s “pep talk” to the soldiers?  What was to be their motivation?  In whom did they trust?
2. Why is it better to say, “May the Lord do what seems good to Him.” instead of “God is going to give us this victory!”  How is this especially true if one is fighting a war today in a nation that is not Old Testament Israel?
3. What promises do we have from God as citizens of the Kingdom of God?  Even though we are not promised ease and victory from the world’s perspective, what truths can we rest in?  (Romans 8:31-39)

Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 9

Helpful thoughts:

• For a new king to bless the genealogical line of the previous king is rare.  David’s kindness helped ensure Saul’s lineage would continue and even remain prominent in the kingdom.
  • David’s decree also gave Ziba and his family their old jobs back.  This was a great day for them as well!
• Mica’s (Or Micah’s) descendants are listed in 1 Chronicles 8:35-38, 9:41-44.
• Mephibosheth’s response to David in verse 8 is not much different than David’s response to God’s gracious act in 7:18.

Questions to consider:

1. How would God’s promise to David in chapter 7 give him confidence to show this level of kindness to the descendants of Saul?  What did David have to believe about God and His promises?
2. How would this compare to a verse like 1 John 4:19?  How should God’s love for us shown through the Gospel impact the way we think about and treat other people?
3. How would Mephibosheth’s physical condition have contributed to his gratitude toward David?  What do we see lame people doing in the rest of Scripture?  How does a right view of where we stand before a holy God increase our thankfulness and love for Christ?

Today’s passage: 2 Samuel 8

Helpful thoughts:

• The kingdom of Israel extended to the north, south, east and west during David’s reign.
• When Toi sent his son to bless David and bring gifts, this was an act of voluntary submission.  Toi could not defeat Hedadezer, therefore he was happy to become loyal to David peacefully.
• Psalm 60 was written along with these events from 2 Samuel 8.
• Verse 15 is a picture of what will be done with complete perfection only when Christ rules and reigns.
• David’s sons did not serve as priests in the same way Zadok and Ahimelech did.  They were “ministers” in the king’s court.  Think “ministers” in the political sense, not the spiritual.  (See 1 Chronicles 18:17 for the translation of the parallel passage)

Questions to consider:

1. How would people look at David’s actions today?  If someone did today what David accomplished in this chapter, what would the world think?  Would it be right or wrong?  What makes David and the nation of Israel in the OT different than any king or political leader today?
2. What does it mean that David ruled over all Israel with justice and equity for all his people?  What makes this task so hard to fulfill in this world as it is?  Why will Jesus be the only one who can truly fulfill the task?
3. How will the kingdom of God under King Jesus look different perhaps than the kingdom of Israel under David?  Where will the people come from?  What will be the core foundation of our allegiance?  What will be our bond of unity?  In what ways should that bond already be shared in all Christ followers now?