2 Samuel 10 - faith

v12 Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him. "Joab expresses both faith in God and a resolve to fight with all his strength. Faith and human effort are not incompatible with each other." ESV Study Bible

2 Samuel 9 - I am...

I am Mephibosheth. He was lame in both feet, totally helpless, totally dependent on charity, unclean when it came to worship, probably an outcast due to his disability. I am also unclean before God because of my sin, an outcast when it comes to his prescence, unable to help myself and totally dependent on his grace. The only reason I can come into God's prescence is because of Jesus. I can come confidently, not in myself and what I've done, but in who He is and what He's done.

Christianity is a crutch for the weak? If you've got a broken leg, you need a crutch. Otherwise you're just an idiot trying to walk off a broken leg. We need to recognise our wekaness and depend on His grace.

2 Samuel 8 - the lord gave

v14 - the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.

Anything I have, any success, any good thing in my life has been given to me by God.

2 Samuel 7 - only God is great

I don't think David had a bad idea when he proposed building a temple for God. Apparantly it was common for kings to "thank" their god for giving them victory by building temples etc as a way of guaranteeing future blessing. I don't necessarily think that's what David was trying to do here, but either way, that's not how God works. We don't pay Him back for anything. We don't "purchase" future blessings. With God, it's grace on top of grace. The Lord had given David victory (v1), but He doesn't want a temple built (yet) (v5), instead He will build David a "house" (v11). David is the recipient, God is the giver of grace. It's the same with us.

David's response shows his humilty. He is the top dog in Israel - famous, powerful, popular. But he is humble before God - he recognises that he is nobody before God (v18) and that, while people may call David great... in reality only God is great (v22).

2 Samuel 6 - holiness

This is a strange chapter with a lot of things that we don't understand and that make us feel uncomfortable. This is a good reason why we can be sure that the bible is not man made. If this was a man made religion, the story about Uzzah would have been removed because it seems so unfair and doesn't make God look nice!

The story about Uzzah reminds me how holy God is. He is not a domesticated pet, he is perfect, holy and powerful and I am not. They should not have been transporting the ark on a cart and Uzzah should not have touched it. Sin lead to death. The amazing thing here is not that God killed Uzzah for his sin, but that I am still here. I have sinned against God today and he did not wipe me out. That's amazing. That's his love and mercy and if I forget the holiness and wrath of God towards sin, I can't understand His love.

On the second attempt to bring the ark back. David displays worship that apparently makes him look foolish. but he recognises who the worship is for... God (v21). He is more concerned with his attitude before God than what it looks like to other people. I need to let that challenge me. I want to worship God and look cool at the same time. Sometimes (not often!) that might happen, but I need to be solely concerned with the attitude of my heart in worship and obedience to God.

2 Samuel 5 - finally...

This is it. The start of this chapter is the fulfilment of the promise that God made to David a long time ago that he would be king. It seemed a long way off when David was on the run, hiding in caves with a load of rogues. It still seemed frustraing when he reigned over 1 tribe, at war with the rest of the nation for 7 years. But now it has happened and David is king.

This ultimately relfects Jesus as the ultimate King. God's plan of salvation seems a long way off throughout the new testament, where the people probably doubted if the prophesied Messiah would ever come. But then Jesus came. And even though some are rejecting His reign at the moment, the day is coming when every knee will bow to Him.

The tribes of Israel appeal to David as King in three ways:

• They are his bone and flesh - in the same way, we are made in God's image and Jesus became bone and flesh in order to save us
• he led out and brought in Israel in the past - similarly, God has directed our path since before the foundation of the earth
• the Lord had promised to David, "You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel" - in the same way, Jesus is described as the (only truly) good shepherd, the prince of peace and the ultimate King over all his people
  

2 Samuel 4 - power

Again, we see two people, Rechab and Baanah, trying to make a bit of a power play. They were from Saul's own tribe but thought that they could get themselves in with David by knocking off Ishbosheth. They didn't, David had them killed. When we come before God, we don't manipulate him (I went to church every week last year God, so you've got to do this...), bribe him (If I give this money away God, will you give me...) or even try to please him with what we've done (I didn't tell a lie this week God, do you love me?). The only way we come before God is through Jesus death on the cross.

2 Samuel 2&3 - ambition

What can we learn from the character of Abner and Joab? Abner quotes the fact that God has promised the kingdom to David (3v9) so why has he faught on the side of Saul all these years? It seems like he is just quoting God's word when it suits him. He appears to be going over to David not because God has told him to, but because it offers him the best chance of success.

Why does Joab kill Abner? Either it is revenge for killing his brother in ch2 but David doesn't seem to think that is fair. Abner killed Joabs brother in battle after repeated warnings (ch2), where as Joab kills Abner on the sly. It could be that Joab doesn't want Abner coming in and taking his position.

Either way, I don't want to be using God's word as a means to find my own personal "success", I want to follow it when it's "in season and out of season". Also, I need to make sure that my "power" and "position" does not become something that leads my to disobey God. He has given me anything that I've got, and he could take it away in an instant.

2 samuel 2 - king?

At the start of this chapter, David becomes king of one tribe. God has promised that he will be king over all of Israel, he's spent years on the run from Saul, now Saul is dead and it seems like this will be the time for it all to happen for David. But it doesn't. He's king over one tribe and that's going to be the case for quite a while. Is this more of God's character refinement, so that when David is king over the whole kingdom, he is the king that God wants. How do I react in times when it seems like nothing's happening. Am I going to get frustrated or let God do what he is doing?

2 samuel 1 - grief

Is the Amalekite flat out lying about killing Saul? Or did he finish off Saul's attempts to kill himself (see 1 Sam 31)? Either way, he thinks that it will impress David. It doesn't. Despite all the stuff Saul has done, David views him as God's king and sees it as God's responsibility to remove him, unlike the Amalekite who thinks he can accelerate God's plan and get a nice little reward out of it himself. Am I satisfied to let God do things in his time, or do I want to move things on at my own pace?

David then mourns for Saul and David, with a lament that people were supposed to learn and sing (v18). Is there a place in our church services to allow people to express grief, difficulty, pain, doubt? How can that be done?