Two year Bible reading program.

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:12 Understanding to grow in Reading of David's mighty warriors causes us to consider what legacy we will leave for Christ. Their readiness to engage in great exploits for their king and do his will without question are a model. No doubt Jesus will have smaller things for most of us, but surely our devotion to him should be no less. The book ends, however, with more of David's failure. It is pride that leads him to count his men, showing a lack of acknowledment that it is God who had given him all he had. And in case we might think it unjust for God to send a plague on Israel because if it, 24v1 tells us the whole event was shaped to bring judgment on the nation for its own sins. God stops ...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:10-11 Understanding to grow in The right and natural response to salvation is praise - praise to God, and praise of God to others. This is what connsumes David in seeing all the Lord has done for him. He praises God for keeping his promise to establish David as king. And although David fell hugely, because of his repentance he can acknowledge that God has established him because he feared the Lord and so lived righteously. How much more God's action for Jesus. He was utterly righteous. Obeying his Father even to death, he was therefore delivered in resurrection and given the highest place at which every knee will bow (Phil 2v5-11). But because we are in him, the foreshadowing of Christ in Davi...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:9 Understanding to grow in This section recounts a sort of mopping up of what remained undone before David's rule was properly established. The turning away of all but Judah to follow Sheba shows how fickle people can be. It's not sufficient to confess faith in God's king, only to turn away when things get hard or something entices. That's false faith. What God looks for is an allegiance to Christ that never wavers, come what may. As before, we should remember the deaths come in judgment, but are not necessarily carried out in the right manner. The need for atonement because of Saul's sin towards the Gibeonites shows that God's justice for sin must be satisfied, even if it ...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:8 Understanding to grow in The Christian life is inevitably one in which the new self created to be like Christ vies with the old self of sin and self-centredness. So it was with David. Self-absorption is seen in his being so caught up in his understandable grief that he neglects those who have risked their lives for him. It's a warning when we suffer, that it doesn't exempt us from our responsibilities nor from the need to consider others. However, Christ-likeness is also seen in David, as he show immense grace and forgiveness to those who had previously abandoned him. And we should too, towards those who fail us, especially when we suffer. But there is a shadow of Jesus' reign here t...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:6-7 Understanding to grow in In the end judgment will fall on those who stand against Christ, just as Absalom and those who followed him receive it. But also to note is how Hushai is able to furstrate the plans of Absalom to David's advantage. As noted yesterday, we can do good even whilst employed within an ungodly culture. Yet here we see that some of that doing good involves frustrating Satan's plans, by using our influence to oppose practices that are wrong and encourage those that align with Christ's will. As you read note how David's enemies receive their cumeuppance. 2 Samuel 16:15-18:18 Finish this reading by pausing to ask yourself: 1) What’s the main thing it teache...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:5 Understanding to grow in In many senses this is David's calvary. He is betrayed by his own son. Others turn against him and curse him. But he submits his fate to God. Yet despite all this, there are those who remain faithful and continue to serve. Similarly, whatever people's responses to Christ, we choose to stick with him. It's an important lesson as our culture is so rapidly post or anti-Christian. No matter how many oppose Christ, we say "as for me and my house, we serve the Lord" (Jos 24v15). And as we involve ourselves in society as some of David's men involved themselves with his son, we may be able to use our influence for good. As you read note the different wa...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:4 Understanding to grow in It's a rather shakey imitation of the Lord. The Lord "devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished" (14v14). In the gospel he goes to the greatest lengths of giving his own son to make forgiveness and reconciliation possible. David, however is much more reluctant, needing the plotting and proding of Joab. And Absalom is hardly repentant, but rather vain and moody. So these events don't only pattern the gospel in their imperfect way, they also teach something of life in a fallen world. As was the case with Bathsheba, sin leads to sin. The lust of Amnon leads to manipulation and rape, and then vengeance and murder from his half-brother,...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:3 Understanding to grow in There are so many lessons here. Those who seem more godly cannot be complacent. David lapses into sin partly because he is not busying himself with what he should be doing (11v1). He sees what he wants and rather than running like Joseph he uses his power to take Bathsheba. His covetousness leads to adultery, the theft of another man's wife. And sin leads to sin. To cover it up, he engages in deception and murder of a good man, not to mention the other soldiers who die in the process. David therefore breaks each of the last five commandments. He "despised the word of the Lord" (12v9) which is to "despise" God (12v10). Critical to note, is that whe...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:2 Understanding to grow in This is grace. Keeping his promise to Jonathan (1 Sam 20v15-17, 42) David not only accepts his son, but has him eat at his own table. We think little about how Christ regards our children and families. But he is our friend as well as our king, and just as he is greater than David, so his love for them must be even more intense. He blesses children brought to him and counts them clean and holy (Mk 10v13-15, 1 Cor 7v13). But continuance in Christ's favour does depend on people receiving it by acknowledging him. Where David sought to be kind to the son of the Ammonite king, it was thrown back in his face bringing down his judgment. Where those we love turn from Christ w...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 18:1 Understanding to grow in An important event. God has been travelling through the desert in a tent - the tabernacle. Now the people are established in the land, David desires to build a permanent house - the temple. That will actually be something David's son does. And here, God's response is to say that he himself doesn't need a house, but will build a house for David and give Israel rest under him. By house, he means a dynasty of kings, whom he will discipline when they do wrong, but from whom David's kingdom will endure forever. It looks to God's goal in all history, when we will enjoy everlasting rest from all struggle and insecurity under Jesus, David's greatest desce...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 17:27 Understanding to grow in This is a faily bloody passage. But two things stand out: First, the importance of transferring allegiance to God's anointed king. Although his motives were mixed, Abner recognizes God has promised the kingdom to David and that it is therefore futile to stand against him. We might initially be reluctant in giving our full allegiance to Jesus, but we must do so nevertheless. And as we get to know him, any reluctance will soon start to disappear. Second, the graciousness of God's anointed king. Unlike Jesus, David has many flaws and here doesn't act in a wholly upright manner. However, he is ready to make peace with his enemies when they transfer their allegia...

BEGIN WITH PRAYER "Lord open my eyes and my heart." Read slowly so that you take in. And as you do, turn your heart to God, thanking him for the good you discover and praying his will home for you, your family, your church and the world. Wisdom to chew on Proverbs 17:26 Understanding to grow in 2 Samuel records David's reign around 1000BC. It begins showing how God's choice of David divided Israel just as Christ did. Despite David's continued warmth towards Saul seen in his concern over his death, Saul's followers fight against David's. In allegiance to Christ we are to take a stand on his truth when those from amongst his people the church turn against it and so against him. Nevertheless, we are to do this reluctantly and desiring peace just as Joab did when finally able to cease hostilities. But what we are to be sure of is that we are on the side of Christ, and we don't side with those even within the church who in reality oppose his...