February 27th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Today we are at the end of 2nd Samuel – just to clarify, I want to give a quick note about the structure of these books. Back in January we looked at Hannah’s prayer and discussed how her song really gives an outline for these books. We said that the point of these books is: God will raise up and God will put down based on adherence to the Deuteronomic covenant.

From this idea you can see how the books fall into an outline:

• God prospers faithful Hannah/ Hinders Unfaithful Eli (1 Sam. 1-3)
• God hinders unfaithful Israel (1 Sam. 4-6)
• God prospers “faithful” Saul (1 Sam. 7-15)
• God hinders unfaithful Saul (1 Sam. 16-2 Sam. 1)
• God prospers faithful David (2 Sam. 2-9)
• God hinders unfaithful David (2 Sam. 10-20)

Now, chapters 21 through 24 of 2nd Samuel don’t really fit into this outline anywhere. In fact, they are not in chronological order with the rest of the books – these chapters seem to be appendices which record events and writings that fit in various places throughout David’s reign.

John MacAruthur notes in his Bible Commentary,

“There is striking literary arrangement of the sections in this division of the book. The first and last sections (21:1-14; 24:1-25) are narratives that describe two occurrences of the Lord’s anger against Israel. The second and fifth sections (21:15-22; 23:8-39) are descriptions of David’s warriors. The third and fourth sections (22:1-51; 23:1-7) record two of David’s songs.”

Today we are going to spend a little time looking at David’s song in 2 Samuel 22, which is almost identical to Psalm 18. The themes in this song go hand in hand with Hannah’s prayer in 1 Samuel 2, providing the other “bookend” for this section of Scripture. Notice how these two chapters mirror one another:

• “The LORD is my rock my fortress and my deliverer;” (2 Samuel 22:2)
• “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.” (1 Samuel 2:2)

• “…my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent men you save me.” (2 Samuel 22:3)
• “My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.” (1 Samuel 2:1)

• “You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.” (2 Samuel 22:28)
• “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3)

• “He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” (2 Samuel 22:51)
• “He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” (1 Samuel 2:10)

It is interesting that those last two verses both speak of a king who is God’s anointed(both singular). To quote MacArthur once again:

“These terms are singular and, thus, do not seem to refer to David and his descendants. Rather, they refer to the promised “seed,” the Messiah of 7:12 [the Davidic covenant.] The deliverance and ultimate triumph of David foreshadow that of the coming Messiah. At the end of his life, David looked back in faith at God’s promises and forward in hope to their fulfillment in the coming of a future king, the “anointed one.”

Before we get to personal application, just a quick note for those who have recently joined our studies. The promise of this “seed” is something we’ve been following since the beginning of our studies in Genesis. For a catch-up crash course, check out the following posts:

The Power of His Word – The initial promise in Genesis 3 and why it is trustworthy!
Redemption Unfolding – The first salvation experience! Adam and Eve trusted the promise of the coming Seed as their only way back into relationship with God!
The Battle Begins – the unfolding battle between the “seed” of the woman and the “seed” of Satan. The search for “THE Seed” continues!
The Cuddly Animals are not the Point of Noah’s Ark! – the continued search for the Seed revealed in Noah’s name!
Next Step in God’s Master Plan: Abraham – The Abrahamic Covenant, telling us that the Seed would come from the line of Abraham
The Lesson of Mount Moriah – God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac was really an issue of faith in the promises of the coming Seed!
Joseph, Judah, and the God of Mercy – God’s merciful restoration of Judah, and information that the Seed would come through Judah’s line!
What’s the deal with the talking donkey? The Seed promise reiterated by Baalam – God is faithful even when His people are not!
More clues about the Seed – The Davidic covenant, telling us that the Seed would come from the line of David.

Now, back to David. I love that phrase in MacArthur’s quote that, “At the end of his life, David looked back in faith at God’s promises and forward in hope to their fulfillment…” David definitely did not have a flawless life, as we studied in David’s Great Demise. However, at the end of His life, He is praising God for His justice and believes that God will be faithful to His promises. He started well, had a rocky “middle,” and ends in trust and faith.

When speaking of finishing well, I often think of Jacob’s statement in Genesis 45:15, “the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day…” Jacob was a great example of a guy who most definitely did not have all his ducks-in-a-row, spiritually speaking, for the majority of his life! And yet, he looked back and realized that God had shepherded him all his life to that very day.

None of us will be flawless. We will all look back on our lives and have areas of regret or failure, small or large. But when we are faithless, He is faithful. He is our shepherd throughout all our lives! I imagine that even as David surely deeply regretted his choices earlier in life, He reveled in the faithfulness of His God who loved him enough to pursue him, discipline him, and lovingly bring him back to Himself.

I have heard too many women say or imply that God cannot use them because they are broken, flawed vessels. Their sin has been too deep, their lives are too far gone, their chances were wasted. Friends, this is not true!

Do our actions have consequences? Absolutely, and David’s story is a sobering reminder of this. But God is able to redeem and work through the darkest of nights in our lives. When we are faithless, He is faithful! May God grant us the eyes to look back at our lives and see His hand of mercy and grace, look forward at the future and believe Him to be faithful to His promises, and leave a legacy of faith based on His faithfulness, not ours.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:11-14

February 23rd, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

For the last couple of weeks we have been working through some aspects of David’s great sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. In part one, we looked at the idea that David’s failure to do what he was supposed to be doing set him up for failure. In part two, we looked at the subtlety of sin and the safeguards we need to put into our lives and hearts to help keep us from falling. In part three, our discussion centered on the human tendency to blame-shift and sidestep responsibility for our sin, constantly looking for a way to cover our tracks. Finally, we looked at Nathan’s confrontation of David and the difference between David’s heart of humility and Saul’s lack of repentence.  Today I want to spend some time in Psalm 51.

(If you open your Bible to Psalm 51, you’ll notice that a note is included in a smaller font before the Psalm begins, documenting that this Psalm was written when Nathan confronted David about Bathsheba.) Please read Psalm 51 on your own and then I just have a few things for us to ponder.

Spiros Zodhiates summarizes this Psalm in the footnotes of The Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible (my personal favorite!) this way:

“This is one of the greatest passages in the entire Bible concerning confession and forgiveness… David’s repentance included:

1. a godly sorrow for his sin
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me. (vs. 2-3)

2. verbal confession
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge. (vs. 4)

3. a turning away from sin
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. (vs. 6-7)

4. forgiveness
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (vs. 9-10)

5. restoration to God’s favor
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me. (vs. 11)

6. rejoicing in salvation
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. (vs. 12)

7. a willingness to testify to others about the grace of God.”
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise. (vs. 13,15)

Remember back to Saul’s sin of wrongly offering the sacrifice before Samuel arrived? Saul appeared to think that God would accept the sacrifice, even though it was offered in sin. When Samuel confronts him, Saul gives excuses about Samuel being late and the army scattering. Notice what David says at the end of this Psalm:

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise. (vs. 16-17)

David understands: it’s not about the physical sacrifice. It’s about the heart.

So, what does this have to do with us? Most of us probably aren’t dealing with sin as “bad” as adultery and murder. What about those daily sins that creep up on us? God doesn’t want your outward show – He wants true repentance, a broken heart, a true desire for restoration, a true turning away from our sin.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I have been struggling to get myself and the kids on a consistent daily schedule. Between that post, today’s look at repentance, part one of this series, and another study I’ve been doing in my quiet time, God has pointed out a very obvious need for confession in my own life. I might not be as “bad” as David in this instance, but I am not in line with the heart of God.

I know that I have spent far too much time lately on frivolous things on the computer, which means that I have been neglecting my children and husband. I have been failing to invest the time I should in teaching my children and even just playing with them and being available to them. The giant ironing pile still looms, the playdough and paints sit untouched in the basement, and right now there is a huge bolt of fabric calling my name that I need to sew into curtains for our room. These aren’t earth shattering things, but they are things that I have been given the privilege and responsibility to do for my family. My kids notice when I am engrossed with something other than them. My husband notices when I don’t delight in caring for him as much as doing something meaningless. My heart has been divided, and I’m not doing what I need to do! Lesson learned from David: I have been tolerating compromise, and if I continue I’m setting myself up for failure.

I don’t know what your area of struggle is right now. Guaranteed, we all have one! I pray that you will join me in praying Psalm 51 along with David, and committing to give the Lord our hearts and not just an outward show. He wants it all. He is worthy of it all.

Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
Psalm 86:11

February 17th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Today we’re moving on to David’s restoration after the Bathsheba/ Uriah situation. Please read 2 Samuel 12:1-25 before we move on.

Along with the revelation of Joseph to his brothers, verse 7 is one of those verses that haunts me. If we can try to imagine being in the room, or being in David’s or Nathan’s shoes, this was one intense moment! You are the man! Far from being a chummy term of endearment from the 90′s, I imagine Nathan’s words powerfully echoing and reverberating in the palace. You are the man, David! What you did was evil in the eyes of the Lord!

I obviously would not want to be in David’s shoes at this point, but I also do not envy Nathan one bit. Confronting the king, of all people, on such deep sin could not have been an easy task. I hate confrontation. I get sweaty just thinking about it. The couple of times that I have had to confront people led to sleepless nights and not a small amount of angst! I cannot imagine Nathan’s thoughts after he was sent by God and entered the palace that day.

The way Nathan crafts this confrontation was quite something. I find it fascinating that the story he tells involves a close attachment to sheep – surely this was a tender spot to David who spent his years as a young man out in the fields, tenderly caring for and keeping watch over his sheep. David’s understanding of God and life was powerfully influenced by his time with his sheep.

Now, notice David’s response in verse 13:

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.”

David has a much different response to confrontation than his predecessor Saul did. In 1 Samuel 13:11-12, Samuel has confronted Saul about wrongly offering a burnt offering in Samuel’s absence – Saul never takes responsibility for this. He blames it on Samuel being late for their appointment!

“What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

This is the occasion when Samuel informs Saul that God has now rejected him as king and has chosen another man after His own heart. [This was just a few chapters after Saul's annointing - he started out his reign with a bang!] In our eyes, Saul’s sin doesn’t seem as bad as David’s – Saul seemed to be seeking God’s approval and offering a sacrifice, while David committed adultery and then murdered the woman’s husband to cover his tracks. What’s going on here?

1. Saul’s sin might not sound that bad, but it revealed a presumptuous and arrogant approach to God. He decided Samuel was taking too long so he would just have to do it himself – never mind that God would not bless a wrongly offered sacrifice. Then, when he is confronted about it, he simply blame shifts and explains his actions away as the apparent best course of action. He doesn’t fear God.

2. David’s sin was deep and serious. When Nathan confronts it, however, David takes ownership of it. Tomorrow we will look more closely at Psalm 51, which is David’s song of genuine repentence and restoration written at this time in his life.

David is forgiven by God and restored in relationship with Him. But, he is not free of consequences for his actions.

But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.” (2 Samuel 12:14)

Oh, this story brings up all kinds of hairy issues! Why would God take the innocent life of a baby because of his father’s sin? What happens to children who die before the “age of accountability”?

God gives life and can take it away. I believe that God does take babies and those who are unable to comprehend sin and redemption to heaven – this is my belief based on verse 23 of this chapter. Not everyone agrees with me on this, but I believe this is the most plain answer we have in Scripture and what seems to me to be most consistent with the character of God. It is not my purpose here to try to solve age-old arguments. This is just my honest and simple response to these questions.

Now, back to David and Saul and their responses to sin. I have been thinking much about the fear of God lately. This has always been a deep issue of conviction and concern for me, and a study I have been doing (which will be reviewed in coming weeks!) has been highlighting this for me once again. We, as human beings, tend to be unbalanced in our view of God as our Father and Lord.

If we lean too heavily toward the view of God as our holy Lord and sovereign master, we can end up with and understanding of God that is detached or “out to get us.” We can become obsessed with the idea that we are unworthy worms who do not deserve God’s love, and can start to doubt that He could genuinely love us, the losers that we are. We downplay God’s love and forgiveness and highlight His anger and vengeance.

If we get overly caught up on the idea of God as our father and do not balance it with God as holy and sovereign, we can end up treating God too casually and flippantly. We glory in the fact that “He loves me,” “He delights in me,” “He will forgive me,” and develop almost an arrogant attitude of entitlement. We downplay sin and God’s holiness, and highlight His unwavering love and forgiveness.

A proper relationship to God, understanding that He is completely holy and also loving in the most pure sense of the word, creates a reverent fear of Him and also an intimacy with Him and confidence in His love. I do not understand how or why God loves me, but I believe that He does simply because He says so, and He proved it to me in Christ! However, in no way do I think I deserve His love. I am a rebellious and sinful creation, and He is the holy and transcendent God who created the universe! Keeping this balance in our view of Him keeps us from becoming too “buddy buddy” with God and expecting Him to simply overlook our sin, and it also keeps us from becoming obsessed with ourselves and our “goodness.”

Exodus 20:20 says that an appropriate fear of God will keep us from sinning!

Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Romans 6:1-2 highlights the fact that true Christians cannot become comfortable with the idea of sin and excusing it because “God will forgive.”

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Hebrews 10:26-27 explains that hardened, deliberate sin cannot exist in the heart of a true believer in Christ.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.

David feared God – he obviously had a close and intimate relationship with God, as revealed in the Psalms. However, he understood the seriousness of sin and God’s authority. When confronted with sin, he repents and accepts God’s stated consequences for his actions.

Saul does not fear God! He acts presumptuously and sins deliberately. When confronted with this sin he backtracks and explains it away. His sin might not seem as “serious” to us, but it was. Lack of fear of God and true relationship with Him was the real problem in his heart and life, and it revealed itself clearly in this situation and his response to Samuel.

How balanced is your view of God? This is a serious issue that will affect your spiritual walk and daily life in a profound way. How do you respond to sin? Do you hate it and long for holiness? Are you comfortable with your sin and good at explaining it away? Do you struggle with believing that God loves you, getting too stuck on a fearful view of Him to believe Him? Do you flippantly approach Him and expect Him to overlook your shortcomings, getting too stuck on an intimate view of Him to see Him in His holy glory?

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
1 John 3:4-6

February 12th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Today I want to camp on 2 Samuel 11:5-15. Please read that on your own since it’s too long to quote.

The plot continues to thicken in David’s situation. Notice that when Bathsheba sends word to David that she is pregnant (clearly by him because her husband has been with the army all this time), he moves swiftly to try to cover his tracks.

Uriah’s character through this story is a fascinating contrast to David. Uriah comes to David and fills him in on the battle, as David requested. However, when David sends him home, he doesn’t go! David is obviously frustrated as Uriah is interfering with his plan to make it appear that Bathsheba’s baby was a result of this mid-battle visit. Notice Uriah’s response in verse 11:

Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

Oh, that had to sting! Not only is his plan backfiring, but Uriah is much more righteous than David all around in this situation. His concern is with the safety of David’s army and the ark of the covenant, so he will not selfishly go home and enjoy his house and his wife. [Remember back to part one of this study - David, as king, should have been more concerned about those things in the first place! Not only did he neglect that responsibility, but then enjoyed the company of someone else's wife in their absence!]

We can be brief with the rest of the story – David tries a second time; he gets Uriah drunk thinking that he would then go home, but Uriah still stays with the palace servants. David is now desperate and sends Uriah back to the field with a sealed letter commanding his own “accidental” death.

Isn’t it amazing how predictable we are as sinful humans? When we’re caught in sin, we instantly look for our escape. It started back in the garden with Adam and Eve’s blame shifting, and it continues today when I catch my three year old desperately trying to distract her little brother so he doesn’t cry after she pushes him onto the floor!

In part two, we looked at the subtlety of sin and the safeguards we need to put into our lives and hearts to help keep us from falling. This idea of shifting blame, covering our tracks, and looking for a way out is critical – I think this is such an ingrained pattern in our sinful human nature that we often deceive ourselves. We can so skillfully shift the blame that we convince even our own minds that we are innocent.

Notice what James 1:22-25 says about self-deception:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

According to James, we can easily deceive ourselves even while listening to the Word!! If we are familiar with the Word of God and are exposed to its Truth but fail to put it into practice, it can quickly become a spiritual blind spot. At our house, my husband and I tend to put shoes and other odds-and-ends that need to go upstairs on the bottom steps. Sometimes I have to gingerly pick my way through the piles, and yet don’t do anything about it! It is a habit of neglect. I’m used to the piles, and it doesn’t occur to me that the fact that I’m having to step around them is supposed to be a signal to do something about it!

The two years I taught high school Bible at a Christian school were some of the most draining and challenging I have ever had. It was stunning to me to see the spiritual hardness in many of these kids. I shed many a tear at my desk (and in front of a couple of my classes!) pleading for God to soften their hearts. For two years I watched kids walk in and out of the door of my classroom who had heard Biblical Truth their whole lives. The vast majority of them were involved in youth group and had spent most, if not all, of their school years in private Christian school. They thought they had heard it all, and it was such a habit for them to gingerly step around the “piles” in their spiritual walk that it didn’t occur to them that everything in their lives was a disaster because they had failed to obey.

What a scary thought this is to me! It is so easy to deceive ourselves, even as we are surrounded by Truth. How many of us are going to church each week, maybe even reading some Scripture passages or devotionals here or there, listening to some Christian music on the radio, and never realizing that our lives are completely out of whack spiritually? We’re skillful blame shifters, or we’re just completely consumed with avoiding consequences! (Have you ever been praying in your car and then get distracted by fear of the police officer along the side of the road and hope that he doesn’t notice you were speeding? It doesn’t occur to us that it was a inherent contradiction to pray to the Lord and disobey authority at the same time – we just don’t want to get a ticket! Ok, I’ll stop stepping on toes.)

James tells us to look intently into the Word, and then do what it says. The more practiced we become at hearing the Truth and failing to obey, the more hardened we become.

I am concluding today’s post with the same Scripture I used at the end of part two. It is a passage I pray frequently – only God can reveal to us the depth of our own self-deception and sinfulness.

Who can discern his errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then will I be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Psalm 19:12-14