Year 4, Day 334: 2 Samuel 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

Let’s talk authority two days in a row.  Today, we look at Hushai.  Hushai has the courage to stay behind in Jerusalem and thwart the advice of Ahithophel.  Why would he put himself in this position?  Quite simply, Hushai can do this because he understands who the king is and what authority flows out of the king.

No, I’m not talking about David or Absalom.  Hushai understands that God is king and God’s will shall be done.  Hushai believes that David is God’s anointed and David is worth fighting for.  So Hushai goes into the chamber of Absalom and is able to contradict Ahithophel’s advice.  He does it under the authority of a God who is in control of a particularly dark moment in the history of the kingdom.

I’d like to note here that Hushai doesn’t go about his work in today’s reading deceptively.  Everything that he says is true.  How many times did Saul pursue David with stronger numbers and how many times did God give David the upper hand?  David is not a man to pursue when he is on the run and angry.  I believe Hushai is genuinely giving Absalom good advice in this chapter; but it is godly counsel that also serves the purposes of David, too.

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Year 4, Day 333: 2 Samuel 16

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

I think this chapter contains one of my favorite stories about David.  Here is a king who has just lost his kingdom.  One of Saul’s kinsmen comes out to verbally abuse David as David goes by.  This man believes that David lost his kingdom as God’s righteous judgment upon David.  David needs to respond.

Some of David’s men come to David and offer to go kill the man and silence them.  Who could blame David if he had allowed them to do so?  Had you just been ousted by your own son and be running away with your tail tucked between your legs, wouldn’t it be easy to lash out at people who would just come and pile it on?

But look at what David does here.  I love David’s spiritual example.  David reminds himself that he is a human and cannot know God’s will.  It could be that this kinsman of Saul is actually correct.  And if he is correct, then what good will it do to go and hurt someone who is properly acting upon the will of God?  Or it could be that this man is wrong.  If he is wrong, then wouldn’t it be better to let God deal with it than to take matters into our own hands?

You see, people will always come up against us.  People will always think they know God’s will when it comes to our life.  The high spiritual road that David shows us is that we should let vengeance be to the Lord.  The Lord is the only righteous judge.  If I get caught up in some sort of vengeance and I turn out to be wrong, then I am putting God in a position to be my judge.  And let’s be honest with ourselves.  God’s already got enough on me.  I don’t need to add to the pile!

David knows where true authority comes from: the King, our God and Father.  David doesn’t need to wrest God’s authority out of his hand.  David is content letting God be king, letting God be in charge, and letting God be judge.  David will simply follow the path that God seems to be putting in front of him – even when it doesn’t make any sense such as losing the kingdom to your worldly son.  But even then, David doesn’t usurp God’s authority.  His example is very good here.

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Year 4, Day 332: 2 Samuel 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval, Ambition

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.
• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

2 Samuel 15 is all about the set-up for Absalom’s revolt.  In this revolt, we can see two of the three broad categories of sinfulness that I’ve been talking a lot about lately.  We’ve spoken often about David’s reoccurring failure in appetite – specifically sexual appetite.  Today we’ll get to examine Absalom through the lens of ambition.  But to get to Ambition, Absalom moves through approval.

Absalom wants to rule over Israel.  He wants to be king.  Absalom is completely and totally driven by ambition.  For Absalom, it’s all about him, his name in lights, and being in the seat of power.  Absalom is a driven man, willing to do anything to accomplish his goals.

In order to get to where he wants to get, however, Absalom needs to go through the lens of Approval.  But here’s the catch.  You’ll notice that it isn’t God’s approval that Absalom seeks.  He’s not really interested in whether or not God approves of his plan to become king.  No, Absalom seeks the approval of mankind.  He gets some of the leaders to follow him.  He gets the general populace to follow him.  He seeks after the approval of the people to get what he wants.  He manipulates the people by whispering into their ears the words that they want to hear.

Which, of course, leads us back to talk about Absalom’s ambition.  Notice that Absalom is seeking his own dream, not God’s dream for Absalom!  When Absalom begins to seek after the approval of the people and not the approval of God, we get our first hint that Absalom’s ambition isn’t God’s ambition for him, either.  Not once do we hear that Absalom seeks out the Lord.  In fact, Absalom even drums up some false story about needing to go worship God at Hebron in order to begin his revolt!  This is not God’s plan.  Absalom is using God to accomplish his own ambitious plan.

This is scary, but extremely common in the world today.  People all over the world are all about accomplishing their plan rather than humbling themselves and being ambition for what God desires of them.

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Year 4, Day 331: 2 Samuel 14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

In this chapter we get several horrible glances at what approval – misguided or even lack thereof – can do to relationships.  We see it in Joab.  We see it in Absalom.  We see it in David.

Let’s start with David, because he continues to be the central character.  In this story, David absolutely refuses to allow Absalom to have any means to regain approval in David’s eyes.  Remember two things.  First of all, Absalom killed David’s first-born, Amnon.  So David does have a bit of a right to be angry with Absalom.  But also remember that Absalom is also David’s son.  Even in his darkest moments, Absalom needs some hope for approval and restoration.  David blocks Absalom from this first by not welcoming Absalom into the city and then by not welcoming Absalom into the palace even when David is tricked into allowing Absalom back into the city.  David doesn’t realize the negative impact that his disapproval actually has upon Absalom.

Second, let’s look at Joab.  Joab is seeking approval of the world around him.  First of all, Joab wants Absalom to come back to Jerusalem.  This is his own desire, but we also will learn in the next chapter that Absalom was well liked by the people.  Therefore, Joab is seeking the approval of the greater community by being the person who smoothed things out and who brought back the favorite prince.  He’s not seeking God’s approval and doing God’s will; Joab is seeking his own elevation in the eyes of the people around him.

Finally, let’s look at Absalom.  In some respects Absalom is the tragic person in the story.  He appears to genuinely want restoration to David.  He tries to see his father, but his father denies him access.  He tries to talk to Joab, but even Joab won’t have anything to do with Absalom after the beloved prince is returned to Jerusalem.  So what are the effects of this young man not having access to the approval that he so desperately desires and even needs?  We’ll see the big effect tomorrow.  But for now we can see that he destroys Joab’s barley field.  Absalom wants access to Joab enough that he will get it even if through negative means.  Of course, this also leads to a cordial – but certainly not meaningful – meeting between David and Absalom.

While I certainly do not condone Absalom’s murder of his brother Amnon, I also can’t help but feel for Absalom in this passage.  The door isn’t open for forgiveness.  He has no ability to find approval in anyone’s sight.  I can really understand Absalom’s question to Joab when he asks why he wasn’t allowed to stay where he was – because he was at least accepted there!  Life in which means to approval are denied to a person is no fun at all.  Over the next three of four chapters we shall see how this unravels the kingdom around David.

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Year 4, Day 330: 2 Samuel 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: In

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

2 Samuel 13 is a great chapter to look at the failure of In.  What happens when we don’t have In?  What happens when we choose our In properly?  All of these dynamics can be seen in 2 Samuel 13.

If begins with Amnon.  Amnon lusts after his sister-in-law.  Where were the people of common sense in this story?  Where were the people who could shepherd Amnon into healthier thinking?  Instead of good and healthy friends, we hear about Jonadab, Amnon’s crafty cousin.  When Amnon could have benefited from an In relationship with someone wise or matual he instead turns to someone with the descriptor of crafty.  Amnon picked his In poorly.  This choice led him to sleep with Tamar and ultimately this choice leads to an early grave.  Wise counsel might have been able to save Amnon; his poor choice of In hurt him in the end.

What about Absalom?  Who does Absalom turn to for In?  Therein lies the problem.  Absalom doesn’t turn to anyone.  Absalom plans and schemes his half-brother’s death.  Granted, I think this had just as much to do with wanting to be first in line as king and less to do with repaying the sin.  But in either case, let’s look at what happens. 

Absalom doesn’t get bad advice – he gets no advice!  Absalom doesn’t have any In to whom he can turn.  He plots and schemes all on his own.

This leaves me asking one simple question.  Where is David?  Where is their father figure?  Where is perhaps the greatest influence of In in a young man’s life?  David is silent.  He is angered by the actions of his kids, but he is silent.  His silence only adds to the lack of In felt by Amnon and Absalom both.

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Year 4, Day 329: 2 Samuel 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Forgiveness

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

It makes sense to talk about forgiveness in the chapter after we spoke about David’s sexual appetite.  Nathan comes to David and confronts David in his sin.  David’s sin with Bathsheba is now public.  Someone I know and respect has a habit of saying, “No sin is ever done alone.”  David may have thought this sexual sin had been covered up with the death of Uriah.  But God knew the truth.  Nathan knows the truth.  David’s sin affects his community.

But here’s the thing.  As much as David is a sinner – no more so than me, by the way – David is also a man of repentance.  Look at what David says here.  David does not get angry with Nathan.  He doesn’t deny it.  He doesn’t try to rationalize his behavior.  David acknowledges his sin and repents.  When the life of his baby is in danger, David also fasts and mourns just in case God desires to not kill the baby.  David may sin with his whole heart, but David repents with his whole heart, too.  David doesn’t just confess with his lips; David lives out his repentance.

But perhaps the most admirable thing that I think we see David do is what he does after the baby dies.  Some accuse David of being cruel and heartless here towards his baby.  I consider him to be strong and courageous.  David knows that if the baby is dead then there is nothing else that can be done there.  Instead, David goes and comforts his wife.  When his new wife is comforted, David went out into the military battlefield where he should have been in the first place.  David’s repentance actually leads to changed behavior. 

David doesn’t repent and then put himself into the same place of sin.  David repents and changes his behavior as a demonstration of his repentance.  David’s sinfulness is certainly not something we should desire to imitate.  But there can be little wonder as to why God loves David when we see how David responds to his sinfulness in repentance.

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Year 4, Day 328: 2 Samuel 11

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

We’ve already spoken about David’s appetite for women.  By this point in the story we should not be surprised that when David sins the majority of time it is a sin of the appetite variety.  David sees Bathsheba.  David wants Bathsheba.  David’s men take Bathsheba.  David sins because his appetite is out of control.

But if we look at this chapter, we can see why his appetite is out of control.  This chapter begins by saying that it was the time for kings to go out to war.  Up until this point, what had made David a great military leader is that he led his troops personally.  But now that he is king he stays at home.  So here is David with all of his generals, his advisors, and the strong fighting men of the town gone.  He should be at the battle leading his men personally.  But he’s at home with minimal accountability.

He puts himself in a position where his appetite has no check to help balance him out.  His appetite gets the better of him because all the people who should have been there to help him were gone – including Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband.  He set himself up to fail.

This is an important lesson to learn.  We often set ourselves up to fail when we lose sight of our accountability.  We often sin the greatest in the moments when we are alone and the sinfulness that resides inside is left unchecked.

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Year 4, Day 327: 2 Samuel 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

This is a chapter that gives us a lot of reality in the world.  How many times do we as people try to do something nice or meaningful and have it come back to bite us?  How many times do we try and make a gesture in love and only have it come back to hurt us?  In many instances our good deeds are received well.  But all too often our well-meaning intentions aren’t received.

In fact, sometimes our well-meaning intentions actually bring about conflict!  When we see David reach out in love in this chapter, what we see come back at David is the other side lining up for war!  David simply desires to honor the death of a neighboring king with whom he had a good relationship.  The next thing he knows, the Ammonites are buying mercenary support and coming against him in war.  Sometimes life just isn’t fair when you try and do the right thing or the meaningful thing.

This is where protection comes into play.  David relies upon the protection of the Lord.  David knows that his heart was genuine and he relies upon God to bring him through this tough stretch.  God allows his armies to fight well and sent home those who come to oppose David.  We cannot control how other people receive our gestures.  But if we are genuine in our intentions, we can know that God will protect us.

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Year 4, Day 326: 2 Samuel 9

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
• Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.

This is a great chapter to look at the concept of invitation and challenge.  Clearly this is a chapter where there is an abundance of invitation.  David seeks to remember and honor Jonathon’s name.  So he seeks out and invites Jonathon’s son and literally welcomes him into his family.  By inviting Mephibosheth to eat as his table, David is inviting him into the family permanently.  You don’t get much more invitation than that.

However, the invitation comes with a bit of challenge.  As I explain in the theological commentary from three years ago, Mephibosheth was born into this world under the name Meribaal – which means “Ba’al is the advocate.”  Remember that Ba’al is the chief Canaanite god.  When this son of Jonathon comes to stay with David and becomes a part of David’s family, David changes his name.  Mephibosheth is a name that means “Scatterer of Shame.” 

So while David invites this son of Jonathon into his household, he is also giving him a challenge.  David asks him to give up any part of his life that touches Ba’al.  David asks this son of Jonathon to focus on God and live according to God’s ways.  David gives us a great model here of how challenge and invitation can be calibrated properly.

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Year 4, Day 325: 2 Samuel 8

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Calling

• Calling asks whether or not God has called the person to the particular work at this point in their life.

In this chapter we begin to hear about the expansion of the kingdom under David.  I don’t know if you have looked at one, but I would recommend trying to find a map of the kingdom of Saul versus the kingdom of David.  It’s rather impressive.  David’s kingdom grows to about ten times the size of Saul’s kingdom.

Now, this isn’t because David is ten times the leader as Saul.  It isn’t because David is ten times more powerful.  In fact, this growth has less to do with David and more to do with God.  About the only thing it has to do with David is that David was willing to follow God.

God caused the kingdom to grow.  God gave David the plan and God gave David the victories.   God was the power behind the expansion of David’s kingdom.

However, it was David’s calling.  God chose to do His work through David.  David was willing to follow and obey.  David played the role that God asked of him at the timing and planning of God.

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Year 4, Day 324: 2 Samuel 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: In, Up

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.
• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

2 Samuel 7 is a really neat perspective on Up and In.  You see, David gets an idea.  So David takes that idea to Nathan, his spiritual In.  The two of them discern together and they decide that it sounds like a good plan.  David is given the green light to go ahead and build up a temple of the Lord.

This is where Up starts to take over.  That night, God visits Nathan and corrects Nathan.  Now think about this for a second.  Nathan has to admit that he was wrong.  He has to admit that he gave David bad advice.  But none of these things matter to Nathan.  His pride doesn’t get in the way.  What is important for Nathan is to follow the will of God regardless of what human plans may have been made.

We get a great chance to see Up and In with David in response to Nathan.  When Nathan comes to David, David listens.  Again, for David it is more important for him to follow God than to follow human plans.  David is humble and obedient to God.  David listens to his spiritual In.  This is a great example of how spiritual relationships truly work.

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Year 4, Day 323: 2 Samuel 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

This chapter has always been one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.  It is such a memorable story, and it is a story where we can easily wonder what exactly happened that caused Uzzah to need to die.

The crux of this story rests with David’s inability in this instance to consult with the Lord.  David wants the Ark of the Covenant to come to Jerusalem.  But he doesn’t consult with God.  He doesn’t consult with God’s Word about how to move the Ark.  He just does what makes sense and sticks the Ark in a cart.  Because David thinks for himself and doesn’t confer with God, he puts Uzzah in a position to offend God.

However, what I love about this chapter is that after David has had some time to cool down and rethink his mistake we see an obvious change.  We see obvious spiritual growth.  David brings the Ark the rest of the way up to Jerusalem and has the priests carry it this time.  As they process, there is a grand worship for the Lord.  Much has changed about David’s approach to the Ark as we progress through this chapter.

This is a great story of challenge.  David tries to do his best, but he fails because he followed his own thinking rather than consulting God.  But he learns his lesson and grows.  He feels the challenge and makes a great decision after experiencing failure.  That is what challenge is all about.

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Year 4, Day 322: 2 Samuel 5

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Up: Up is the word we use for what we worship.  If we are following God’s will, God will occupy the Up position.  Our life, our identity, our mission, our family on mission is all derived from Up.  This is why God needs to be in our Up position.

In this passage we see David become King officially.  We get to see him take Jerusalem.  A lot of things are going right for David.  There is every reason to believe that he has his life under control.

So what do I really love about David?  David pauses to discern from the Lord.  When the Philistines come out and attack him, he could have just assumed things were going well and headed out to battle.  He could have taken things into his own hands.  But he doesn’t.  He once more demonstrates why he is a man after God’s own heart.

David stops and inquires of the Lord as to what he should do.  He doesn’t do this just once; David actually does this twice.  He inquires of the Lord twice – each time the Philistines come to attack him.  In fact, when God’s plan changes the second time, David demonstrates that he is following the Lord by be open to the change of tactics.

God is in David’s Up position.  David follows God instead of himself.  David seeks the Lord before taking a major action.  David is a man after God’s heart because he submits to God and puts God in his Up position.

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Year 4, Day 321: 2 Samuel 4

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

I seem to be talking an awful lot about the three areas of sinfulness as we have dove into 1 & 2 Samuel.  Those areas are Approval, Appetite, and Ambition.  But I think this makes sense, truthfully.  As we look into the Hebrew history from 1 Samuel to 2 Kings we are going to get a grand sense of human government sliding into sinful patterns, which leads to the human populace sliding into sinful patterns.  We should talk often about Ambition, Appetite, and Approval because that is what the majority of the Hebrew history during the time of the kings is all about!

So as we look at approval, we hear in 2 Samuel 4 that Ishbosheth is murdered by the sons of Rimmon.  They think that such an act will bring them approval from David.  They think that such an act will grant them favor in the court of the king.  They think that they can advance their own social status through such means.  But they are wrong.

See, David has his own struggles with sin.  But approval is not one of them.  David does not struggle with getting his approval from God.  David does not have any difficulty being a king who from a political frame of reference is godly.  David has no need to seek the death of his public enemies; he has the full belief that God will establish him as king on God’s own timing.

So when these sons of Rimmon come to David they are surprised to find that David is angry that his rival has been killed.  I love this about David.  David doesn’t give his approval to an ungodly act, even if he does benefit from it.  For David, the only things that we should approve are the things that are ordained of God.  What a great lesson to learn today.

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Year 4, Day 320: 2 Samuel 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

Appetite.  It’s one of humanity’s biggest issues.  I’m not talking about over-eating.  I’m talking about the consumption of things in the world that drive us to make decisions.

Ishbosheth has an appetite for power and control.  His dad is dead.  His well-known brother is dead.  He suddenly finds himself in an unexpected position of power and begins to like it.  So when Abner comes along and begins to demonstrate a little too much power, Ishbosheth’s own appetite for power is challenged.  He and Abner part ways because Ishbosheth doesn’t want any of his power to go away.

David doesn’t have an appetite for power.  That is why he has no problem accepting Abner’s allegiance when it is offered.  David wants peace among God’s people and sees Abner’s appeal for peace as a means to a good end.

However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t see David’s appetite.  While he might not have an appetite for power, he certainly seems to have an appetite for women.  We hear in this chapter that he has seven wives and is actively producing sons – and presumably daughters – through his wives.  He’s not just collecting political treaties, which daughters were often used to guarantee.  David is collecting sexual partners.

We all have an appetite for something in this world.  We will all struggle with something that captures our heart for consumption.  The question is whether or not we are able to recognize it and whether it will control our life or not.  As we continue to look at David, we will see again and again how this particular issue with his appetite will cycle through his life and reign as God’s anointed.

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Year 4, Day 319: 2 Samuel 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

2 Samuel 2 is really all about ambition.  In one sense, we have the ambition of the godly.  David is anointed as king over the Hebrew people when Saul is dead.  Most of the Hebrew people submit to the ambition of God.

However, there is also the ambition of the people of Benjamin.  These people are led by Abner.  Rather than submit to the will of God, they follow their own ambition.  They want a king on the throne that comes from their own tribe.  Thus, they set up one of Saul’s sons as king.

What happens when human ambition meets up with divine ambition?  Conflict ensues.  There is a civil war among the Hebrew people.  Conflict is the natural consequence when human will butts its head against God’s will.  Of course, the conflict doesn’t have to be external among people.  Often the conflict is internal within people, too.  We can feel conflict within ourselves when our own ambition puts forth a rival opinion over God’s will for our life.

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Year 4, Day 318: 2 Samuel 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

I can’t help but think about David’s mourning of Saul with respect to this idea of competency.  In the theological commentary from three years ago to which I linked above, I ask some hard questions.  I don’t like the answers that I would give to those questions.

If a rival of mine died, would I mourn?  If someone who has sought my destruction died, would I be upset?  If someone that truly wanted the worst for me died, would I mourn?

This is why it is so shocking to hear David mourn Saul’s death.  Wouldn’t you think David would celebrate?  First of all, this opens up the door for David to become king!  But perhaps more importantly it means David can stop running for his life.  Yet David doesn’t celebrate.  Rather, David mourns.

This is because David is a competent leader.  David isn’t focused on himself.  David is focused on the Lord’s Anointed, not David’s reputation.  David is competent because he can focus on God’s ways even when the wisdom of the world should tell him that he should really be celebrating.  With competence, we can choose the ways fo God instead of the ways of the world.

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Year 4, Day 317: 1 Samuel 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

As we finish this chapter and look at the death of Saul, I can’t help but see Saul’s life through the lens of appetite.  Saul sought his own desires.  Saul sought to feed his own inner passions.  Saul wanted to make sure that his own needs were met well before taking into account the needs of anyone else – especially God’s need.

Think about the kingdom.  Wasn’t one of the main differences between Saul and Jonathon the fact that Saul wanted to perpetuate his own lineage whereas his son Jonathon was able to accept that David was God’s anointed one?  Saul’s appetite was for his kingdom, his reign, his reputation.

Or think about what we know of Saul’s military pursuits at the end of his life.  It is David who has to save the Hebrew people from the Philistines and other Canaanites!  Saul is too busy chasing after David to do the job that he should be doing as king and protecting the nation.  Saul’s appetite for getting his own way – call it revenge, call it glory seeking, whatever – led Saul away from walking in the will of God.

Saul is a tragic story.  He is a great study in how someone can look so promising in so many ways from the start.  But he is also a classic example in the end of simply not having what it takes to stay the course and walk with God through all of life.  In the end for Saul, it is Saul’s appetite for his own passions that gets him into trouble.

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Year 4, Day 316: 1 Samuel 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

1 Samuel 30 is an interesting chapter.  David has been living among the Philistines.  He’s been raiding the other Canaanite people to sustain his life.  He’s been murdering innocent women and children in the process.  He’s been lying to the Philistine kings to cover his tracks.  But in this chapter – after his family is captured and taken from him – we get to see him begin to turn back to the Lord and inquire of Him.  When David’s life begins to fall apart, he turns back to God and put the pieces back together.  He begins to remember to get his approval from God and not from the people around him.

On the other hand, we see the people around David continue to fall into sinfulness.  When their life falls apart with David’s life, they don’t remember all that David has done for him.  They don’t think about what’s happened to David’s life, either.  They want to be done with David.  They want to take it out on David.  They want David to pay for the bad things that had happened in their life most recently – regardless of what David had helped them do in the past as they’ve all fled from Saul.  They seek their own approval.  They do what is right in their own eyes.

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Year 4, Day 315: 1 Samuel 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Competency

• Competency: Being able to accomplish what one is called to do.

Honestly, some times when I am reading through the stories of David I feel like I am trapped in the 1980’s sit-com “The Facts of Life.”  The theme song of that television show had lyrics that went something like this: “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and then you have the facts of life.”  With David I feel like it is a perpetual flip between taking the good and the bad.

Not that I have any room to gloat, mind you.  I’m sure God feels the same way about me.

But look at what David demonstrates himself to be competent about in this chapter.  David has been going out and raiding Canaanite villages and killing everyone that he finds in those villages.  He’s been killing innocent people to hide his actions from Achish.  Then David completely lies when he asks Achish, “What have I done?”  David knows full well what he has been doing and hiding from Achish.  When David asks, “What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now,” David knows full well that Achish has nothing to offer because he’s been actively covering up his tracks and hiding them from Achish.  We also hear of David’s switching allegiance.  What title does David give to Achish?  David calls him “my lord the king.”  David’s allegiance to God is on shaky ground here when he starts calling Achish his “lord the king.”

David is competent.  But in this particular instance David is competent at all the wrong things.  He is a manipulator, mover, shaker, liar, and all around deceptive influence in the world.

Again, though.  To be honest, am I any better?  I don’t lift this up to David’s shame.  I lift this up to give me an opportunity to look at myself and wonder what I am truly competent at doing, too.  I know I’m competent in my sinfulness.  I hope and pray that like David I am periodically competent in the ways of God as well.  I hope that as my incompetence is exposed that people will say of me that I am a “man after God’s own heart, too.”

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Year 4, Day 314: 1 Samuel 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

I’m going to take an usual perspective on this particular blog post.  As a set-up, I’d really encourage you to go and read the theological commentary to which I link above.  Because the content in that post will really help lay the foundation for what I have to say here.

I’ve heard many people try to talk about this witch of Endor.  Some people call her an illusionist.  Other people call her demonic.  Other people teach that she must have given Saul some sort of hallucinogenic drugs.  There are plenty of rationales about which people talk through this story.

My rationale is this: this is God’s work.

Maybe this surprises you.  How on earth could God work in an act of necromancy, right?

Let’s look at the evidence.  First of all, the witch of Endor seems surprised that it is working.  So to me, that eliminates any explanation that she was in control of the result.  The witch seems to be as surprised as anyone at what happens.  Second, let’s look at the fact that Samuel delivers an accurate and truthful message from God.  If this was some demonic event, why would God’s truth be proclaimed through it?

No, I think there is only one reasonable explanation for what happens here.  God takes over a situation that should have been fraught with sin and turns it to His own advantage in order to give Saul yet another opportunity to see himself for who he really is.  This should have been an evil experience, but God takes over and takes control.

That’s authority right there.  God has absolute authority in this world.  There is nothing that is beyond God’s ability to control.  This is one of the most unique passages in the Bible to make such a point.  But rest assured.  God is in full control.

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Year 4, Day 313: 1 Samuel 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite, Ambition

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.
• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

In this chapter we get a chance to see David making some interesting decisions.  In spite of being saved more than once from Saul’s hand, David suddenly becomes convinced that he cannot be safe any longer among the Hebrew people.  He heads towards the Philistines to make a living.

This is where he really opens himself up for sin.  While he is among the Philistines, he has to provide for himself and his soldiers.  His need for appetite causes him to go out and fend for himself.  He takes to raiding other villages.  However, because he doesn’t want word to get back to the Philistines that he is doing the raiding, he is slaughtering the villages: men, women, and children.  The physical needs of himself and his men cause David to fall into even darker sinful patterns.

Of course, ambition plays a role in this as well.  David needs to make a name for himself and show the Philistines that he will not be leaching off of them while he lives among them.  So David continues to make raids not only to support his own people but to prove himself to the ungodly people around him.  Appetite and ambition often go hand in hand as we stray from the place that God would prefer us to live.

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Year 4, Day 312: 1 Samuel 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

We’ve been able to talk a fair bit about character with respect to David lately.  David has an absolute refusal towards coming up against Saul and taking matters into his own hands.  When it comes to Saul, David refuses to end his life and take his rightful place as king.

This is an interesting contrast to what we saw yesterday with Nabal.  David seems to have no difficulty lashing out and doing harm against Nabal in what seems to be far less dire circumstances.  What is the main difference?  David continues to use the words, “The Lord’s Anointed.”  David will not go against God and God’s assigned rulers.  It is one thing for David to take matters into his own hands against people.  But from David’s perspective he will not go against God’s chosen leader.

I find this refreshing – even though I know how flawed David’s character happens to be.  As many mistakes as David makes, he will not go against the person of God’s choosing – as flawed as Saul actually is and as often as Saul will take his life.  This is character.  It takes an incredible amount of character to not attack God’s chosen leader even when the leader comes out and seeks to end your life.  David’s character and respect for his relationship with God is astounding here.

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Year 4, Day 311: 1 Samuel 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Power

• Power: This is the natural outcome when we truly get our authority from the king.  When our authority is from God, we are equipped with His power to accomplish His will.  We act on His behalf in a world that He desperately loves.

In this chapter we see three people act upon their power.  The first two, David and Nabal, give us a negative perspective of power.  David makes a reasonable request of Nabal for food because his soldiers helped protect Nabal’s flocks and shepherds in the field.  The request is reasonable, but when Nabal refuses then David takes things into his own hands.  David grabs human power and orders his men to come up and attack Nabal.  David is acting out of his own power in this story rather than acting out of God’s power.

For the record, so is Nabal.  David’s human response to Nabal is a reaction to Nabal’s human greed.  Nabal doesn’t want to share.  He believes that all that he has is his.  Since it is his, there is no reason to give anything to David.  He says so himself.  “Who is David?”  Since there is nothing in it for Nabal to give to David and his men, he acts out of his own power and refuses David’s request.

Fortunately, there is a righteous person among the men: Abigail.  Abail is discerning.  She knows that Nabal is being rash in his own demonstration of power.  She also knows that David’s rashness could come back to hurt his reputation once he becomes king.  Abail argues of out a position of God’s power, allowing God to deal with Nabal.  In this circumstance, it is Abigail who understands God’s power and how to act righteously.  Righteousness always comes when we understand that true power comes from God.

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