Bible Reading Challenge Blog

You can find these same verses  in Psalm 18.  We have said that the Psalms were primarily written by David, and I am comfortable with this as these two Scriptures correspond almost exactly.  It is a celebration of the deliverance of  David by God from the hands of the enemies of David.  The beginning of this chapter also specifies the hand of Saul which was one of David’s primary enemies, but an enemy that he did not want to raise his hand against.

There is a real sense of confidence that God will deliver in these verses.  It is a confidence that is built up over time and over the experiences of a young shepherd boy who went to battle against a giant armed only with a slingshot.  This Scripture reflects the confidence of a man who has sinned against the Lord and yet was able to be forgiven and given a second, third, fourth, and so on chance in order to fulfill God’s purposes.  

Where is our sense of confidence these days?  Where do we find ourselves when we tremble and are afraid?  Do we say: The Lord is my rock.  I call upon the Lord and I am saved from my enemies.  We should do that more often.

And you thought that Goliath was the only giant in the Bible.  Well, not so much as we saw when David slew Goliath that he was battling with the Philistines, and here in this chapter we see that the Philistines were good friends with those who were quite large in size, what the Bible calls giants.  But before we get to that Scripture we see that David tries to make right with the Gibeonites, not because he has a choice, but because it is the only way to get rain to fall on the land.

People in our country are speaking of reparations for those who just a few generations back were slaves in our country.  Every time I say that phrase it causes me to wonder how in the world were we able, as a country, to allow other people to serve as slaves, as if they have less value than other people.  Churches actually were on the forefront of supporting this.  I believe that reparations are very much in order.  If you look at what Princeton Theological Seminary did recently in order to address the topic of reparations it is pretty significant.  Here is a link if you are interested in the details.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/26/us/princeton-seminary-slavery-reparations-trnd/index.html

Once those reparations are made by David then we see in vs.10 that the rains fall down from heaven.  Now, these reparations were the lives of the family of Saul who had tried to destroy the Gibeonites in a sort of genocide.  Mephibosheth was spared, once again Jonathan’s son, so David was pleased.  The people of Israel go out to battle against the giants of the Philistines and David gets tired and it really worries his people.   They forbid him from going into battle again.

It seems like once David is back in power that he has to consolidate his forces because he has a bunch of outliers who want to seize power.  A sign of indiscipline is a group of people who think they can fill the vacuum that the king left or is leaving.  So,  David has all these nations line up asking for forgiveness and kissing his ring, except he also has the likes of Sheba who thinks he can take advantage of the times and jump into power.  David in the end pursues him and his head is thrown over a wall.

Look at vs.3 where we find David getting home and putting his concubines in a room and locking them up, as if they were widows, until they all died.  I guess this is because Absalom had followed the counselors advice and slept with them as a sign of conquest and a sign that he was the one who was in power.  David couldn’t get past that and so locked them up and they died like widows.  David, once again, was a serial sinner, but Scripture kind of presents this is as somewhat common place.  

Joab killing Amasa who delayed in getting the troops that David needed, is a pretty classic tale since we read that his entrails poured out on the ground.  Vs.12 gives us Amasa wallowing in his blood in the highway and it was creating a real pile up as people were more interested in his death than pursuing the enemies of David.  I wonder if this is where the term rubbernecking came from…

Now that David has won his victory you see all of the nations who had turned their backs on him, even the one who had cursed him and his troops out as they passed him by, all come and ask for forgiveness  and promise their allegiance to him.  What would you do?  If your family, your friends, your neighbors, those in your church, at your work, all turned their backs on you and basically said that you deserve whatever you get and we aren’t going to help you.  Somehow you crawl out of your hole and now you find yourself on top and each of those people come back to you and want to be on your good side again.  What would you do?

I’ll tell you what David did.  He said, come on back, absolutely no hard feelings.  We were all in a sensitive place and we never could know what would happen.  Now Joab scolded David because he was weeping over Absalom to the point where they were feeling that if Absalom had survived but all of his troops had perished then David may have been happier.  That isn’t great for morale.  So David goes out and publicly thanks the troops and gives them encouragement that he is not only on their side but also their leader.  

At that point all of those who turned their back on David come and greet him.  Now all those who had been with him all along ask him if it is right that the people who turned their backs on him should claim him since they were the ones who were by his side all along.  Jealousy goes a long way for those who were alongside the king for all this time.  What a great lesson in not being upset when other people get things that you don’t feel like they deserve.  Just be grateful for the blessings that come your way, and celebrate the blessings that other people receive.

This is the second time that we see David weep over his enemies, even if his enemies were the previous king, Saul, and his own son, Absalom.  He tells everyone publicly that they are to deal kindly with Absalom.   But remember Joab had a history with Absalom and it wasn’t a good one.   Joab was basically forced out and here we find him as one of the primary generals for David. 

When they find Absalom hanging from a tree, a pretty funny image as you see his donkey walking without a care and without a passenger, then 10 young men slaughter him.  This is so that no one person would be blamed for his death.  It was not just the sword of Joab that caused the death, although it probably was.  Joab had learned his lesson from those who had killed the ones chosen by the Lord and so in turn David had turned and killed those who brought the news  and who had raised their hand against the chosen ones of the Lord.

The battle ended up being a slaughter and David once again is the victor.  But his victory is a bitter one as he also ends up losing his son in the process.  But hey, he still has a multitude of sons from his many wives from which to choose.  Absalom was a trouble maker anyway as we saw.

We find ourselves with David on the run and Absalom trying to figure out how best to defeat David.  Keep in mind this is a son going after his father.  His primary counsel told the now king to pursue David right away and to take David out and then the remaining troops would come home with their tail between their legs and swear allegiance to Absalom.  He likes that advice, but asked another counselor for a second opinion.  He gave different advice.  He said to gather all of Israel and that Absalom should be the one to pursue him and  then publicly kill David so that forever the people would be tied to him.  Absalom actually like that even better.  

The one who had given the first advice and who was used to being listened to, packed up his belongings, got on a donkey, went home, and killed himself.  He no longer felt needed.  The one who gave the new king advice was actually on David’s side and so David was warned of what was going to happen next.

You can palpably feel a build up of what is going to take place and you have to know that it doesn’t bode well for Absalom.  If you didn’t know that then all you would need to do is look at vs.14 where we read that:” the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring ruin on Absalom.”  You have a sense that ruin is about to fall on Absalom as he pursues his father to grab all  the power he could.

Absalom,  David’s son, comes and takes over Jerusalem while David is fleeing Jerusalem and mocked by a someone who was allied with Saul.  While David is being cursed by this man as he makes his way toward the Jordan, Absalom takes over the the throne.  But Absalom not only takes over the throne but also takes over the counsel of David as well.  The head counselor, Ahithophel, swears his allegiance to Absalom and the new king asks for wisdom.  So, now what should I do.

Do you notice the first piece of advice that the head counselor gives the new king?  Go in and have your way with the 10 concubines that David left behind. This way the people of Israel will really know that you are in charge.  It is very interesting advice from a man of God.  In fact, we read later on that this voice, the voice of Ahithophel who just gave this tawdry advice, was seen as the voice of God.  Absalom follows his advice to a tea. 

I’m a little surprised by David’s reaction to the conspiracy of Absalom.  So, once again we see that Absalom really is a trouble maker.  After 4 years he asks that he would be able to go to Hebron to worship God there.  David gives him permission.  Now, Absalom had set the stage by standing in front of the gates and greeting everyone who entered with an embrace  and a statement that he really should be made the one who judges over the affair of people.  The Scripture states that the people really liked that and really liked him.

As he made his way to Hebron he got the military behind him and David’s primary counselor on his side.  He was to sound the trumpet which was supposed to proclaim that Absalom was being crowned king.  When David hears it he flees Jerusalem afraid that the masses  would turn on him and support Absalom.  Those with David carried the ark of the covenant out of Jerusalem to go with David, but David told them to take it back to Jerusalem. 

We see a bit of a loyalty to the position which was instilled by God in David’s actions.  Remember with Saul  he refused to harm him because he was the king’s anointed.  I think in this instance he may have wondered if God had removed him from power and so didn’t want to go against God’s will.  Let’s see where this takes us.  I am not going to take any rash actions, but I am going to wait and see if God’s plans are revealed to me more fully.  Maybe I’m not supposed to be king anymore.  I don’t want to get in the way of God’s plans.

King David often seems to find himself in situations where people accuse him of wrongdoings but they do so in parable form.  Here an ally of Absalom lines up a woman to ask for a ruling from King David, which in turn would actually be a ruling against him.  David is once against convicted of his sin just as he was in regards to Bathsheba and with the census later on.  As a result Absalom is allowed to return back into the fold.  But as soon as he returns into the fold, or at least two years after he returns to the fold, he starts up trouble.

He burns the fields of the person who got him accepted by David, Joab, because he refused to answer when he called him.  As a result it actually worked!  Absalom is called before David and David kisses him as sign of being accepted.  If you look at vs.25 it is a bit curious that he is described as “beautiful… from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”  Don’t forget Absalom’s daughter Tamar.  She will come into the story a little later on.  

Absalom becomes a protagonist and Amnon becomes a villain.  We find the latter absolutely smitten by his sister and will not rest until he is able to rape her.  He does.  I’m sorry, but there is a lot of this in David’s family.  Do you notice that it just might be a genetic thing where David’s family thinks that they are somehow entitled to do anything that they want to whomever they want, including the women who say no, this is not what I want.  

I remain encouraged that we live in a time where more  and more it is not normal for women to be treated in this way.   We still do not see complementarity and there is still a double standard which does not affect the man as much as the women, but the awareness of this injustice and the ability for many people in society now to see it as such, is a huge change from where we were even 10 years ago.  But as we read this chapter we see that  women continued to be treated as property who were not able to express their own desires and wishes.  

Good for Absalom in sticking up for his sister, even if it did cause him to go into exile for 3 years.  Notice that David is more upset with the absence of Absalom than he is with the action of Absalom in killing his brother.  David was distraught because he got fake news that all of his sons were dead.  Not sure if that was done to kind of soften the news that only one of his sons were dead.  In any case we find ourselves at the end of this chapter with all of the sons intact except for Amnon.  Notice that the other kings are weeping.  I think the reason for this is that they are terrified of Absalom and want to make sure that they are protected by their father from Absalom.  No one really put together that this was a single concentrated action against one brother who had done another family member wrong.