2 SAMUEL #15: GRACE AND CONSEQUENCES

On April 25, 2025 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Sometimes it can feel like God is punishing us for our sins and failures. Thankfully, the Bible tells us that only Jesus received the righteous punishment for our sins. However, often, our sins do have natural consequences, which is one reason God wants us to stay away from sinning. At times, even though we are truly forgiven, we have to face those consequences. David, a man with a heart for God, shows us the way, and highlights the incredible grace of God’s forgiveness and ongoing presence with us.

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For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

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I felt it was important to spend an entire message talking about repentance, and David’s beautiful psalm when he finally turned back to the Lord after the affair with Bathsheba. But we sort of skipped over another part of what Nathan said to David, and it is also significant:

¹⁰ Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ ¹¹ Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. ¹² For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’”

¹³ David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.” ¹⁵ Then Nathan went to his house. (2 Samuel 12:10-15, ESV)

David was truly forgiven. But Nathan declared that even so, David’s sin would result in some terrible things. He says first that “the sword shall never depart from your house.” What he means is that David’s family, and even his descendants, will be constantly engaging in violence, war and strife.

Next he says that evil, or disaster, will rise against David from within his own house (again “house” here means family).

Nathan goes on to say that just as David secretly had an affair with someone else’s wife, a person close to David will sin sexually in public. In fact, as it turned out, two of his sons sinned in this way, as we will see.

Finally, Nathan declares that though David is forgiven, and will not be killed for his sin, the child conceived in adultery will die.

When we read all this, it sounds like God said, “I forgive you, but I’m still going to punish you.” Here’s where we must interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament.

We know that the punishment for sins fell upon Jesus Christ, not on sinners. This was true even for people like David, who lived before the time of Jesus:

²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, ²⁶ for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
²⁷ Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. ²⁸ So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. (Romans 3:23-28, NLT, italic formatting added by me for emphasis)

This text clearly says that God held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, because he was looking ahead and including them in “what he would do in this present time;” in other words, in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we cannot say that God was punishing David for his sin. But if God isn’t punishing David, what is going on here, then?

I think Nathan is revealing to David not a punishment for sin, but rather the consequences of it.

Think of it this way: If you throw a rock and break a window, the owner of the window may forgive you. But the window will still be broken. Because of the window-owner’s forgiveness, you won’t be prosecuted for vandalism. Because of that forgiveness, you won’t have to pay for the window. But forgiveness does not un-break the glass. There will still be a mess to clean up and a gaping hole in the house. Rain might come into that hole before it is fixed, and cause even greater damage to the surrounding wall. Burglars or vandals might use the broken window to enter the house and cause more problems. The forgiveness does not automatically eliminate those consequences. A burglar doesn’t say, “Look, an open window that I can use to sneak into the house! What’s that you say? The guy who broke that has been forgiven? Rats! Foiled again.” No, the burglar just goes on into the house. The fact that the window-breaker is forgiven is irrelevant to him, as it is to rain, and all sorts of other possible damage.

Or suppose I tell my young child not to touch a hot stove. The child does so. Now, she has disobeyed me. She has also burned her hand. Did I burn her hand as a punishment for disobedience? Of course not. The burn was a natural and unavoidable consequence when she chose not to obey me. In fact, the very reason for my commandment “do not touch the stove” was to keep her from suffering any burn. I will certainly forgive her for disobeying me. But that won’t change the fact that she burned her hand. Depending on how bad it is, she may carry the scar of that burn for the rest of her life.

Remember, David’s greatest failure prior to this was also due to his sin concerning his relationships with women. He had married six wives before this (2 Samuel 3:2-5), and in addition, had many concubines, who were, in effect, mistresses with official, legal standing. All this was in clear violation of what the Lord had said through Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14-17), or, to put it clearly, it was against God’s revealed word. In other words, he sinned by marrying more than one woman and by having mistresses. I think when Nathan tells David what is going to happen in his family, it is not just about Bathsheba – it is about his whole problem of lust and ignoring God’s word about marriage. You might say that the Bathsheba incident represented the tip of the iceberg of David’s sin. And so I think the “punishment” here that Nathan pronounces is simply a natural result of the way David had been sinning for many years.

David’s many sexual sins also created a severely messed up and dysfunctional family. His children did not grow up in the family structure that God intended from the first to be a blessing to human beings. As a result, David’s own children were emotionally and spiritually unhealthy, and much strife came about from that. In fact, most of the consequences that Nathan prophesied were brought about by David’s sons. Thanks to David, his own sons grew up with a twisted view of marriage and sex, which led to rape and ultimately rebellion.

You see, there are reasons for what the Lord tells us to do, and to not do. Not only does our sin trample on God’s holy character, but it also hurts us when we commit it. Very often, if we disobey God, we suffer painful consequences. So, because David ignored God’s commands about sex and marriage for years, he generated enormously negative consequences for himself and for others.

Now, what about the child dying? How is that a mere consequence of David’s sin? Honestly, I don’t have the answers, I just know Jesus, who does. He doesn’t always share them with us. But I have two thoughts.

First, infant mortality was fairly high in those days. It may be that the child was going to die anyway, and the Lord was simply predicting it, and telling David ahead of time that he wouldn’t change his mind.

Another possibility is as follows. In those days it was a very shameful thing to be born as a result of adultery. This is what we call an “illegitimate child.” The other word for such a child is “bastard.” I’m not being crude – that’s what the word means. The fact that even today that word is a very derogatory and demeaning insult shows how shameful it was in times past. I’m not saying it makes sense – it is never the child’s fault, of course. But an illegitimate child in those days would have suffered for the sins of his parents all his life. If instead that child went on to be with Jesus, it was a mercy that he didn’t live long enough to be reviled and cursed and shamed all his life.

Now, I said you can’t out-sin God’s grace. That’s true. I want you to hear that and believe it. You cannot do something that Jesus’ death on the cross did not pay for. But there are two important things to bear in mind, things that are taught by this passage.

First, David was able to receive God’s grace because he admitted he was wrong, admitted his need for forgiveness, and turned away from sin. In short, he repented. You can’t out-sin God’s grace, but God’s grace does you no good if you pretend that you don’t need it. It does you no good if you do not accept God’s judgment upon the evil of your sin, and repent of it. Grace is there and there is plenty of it, but we can only receive it through repentance and faith.

Let me be clear about repentance, as well. Repentance means you turn away from the sinful things you have been doing, and go the opposite direction, toward the Lord. While you are turned toward the Lord, you may fail and sin again, but repentance means you earnestly intend to do differently in the future, even if you can’t quite always make good on that intention. To put it another way, repentance is not merely asking for forgiveness. It is a deep commitment to stop sinning. You may still sin, but in your heart you do not want to sin, and you do not intend to keep on sinning deliberately.

Some people, who do not understand repentance, use God’s grace as an excuse to keep on sinning. They want what sin offers, and think something like this: “Well, it doesn’t matter, because God forgives me anyway. I know it’s wrong, but I want to keep on doing it, and since God forgives me anyway, I might as well keep sinning.”

Brothers and sisters, that is not repentance. That is an attitude that will eventually separate you from God’s grace. You have to choose between your sin and God’s grace. You can’t deliberately continue in both at the same time.

The apostle Paul recognized that some people might take the attitude that they can keep sinning without repentance, but he makes it very clear that this attitude shows that you have not really repented:

¹ Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? ² Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? (Romans 6:1-2, NLT)

⁷ “But,” someone might still argue, “how can God condemn me as a sinner if my dishonesty highlights his truthfulness and brings him more glory?” ⁸ And some people even slander us by claiming that we say, “The more we sin, the better it is!” Those who say such things deserve to be condemned. (Romans 3:7-8, NLT)

Again, I’m not saying that if you repent you will never sin that way again. But I am saying that when you repent, it is your genuine intention to never sin that way again. You may not achieve that intention, but even if you fail again, you continue on the path toward God and away from sin.

I’m not putting it all back on you to repent correctly. But I’m just trying to make sure everyone understands – this isn’t universalism. God offers grace to everyone, but not everyone believes they need it, and not everyone believes he offers it, or that it is sufficient. And if you believe you can have God’s grace without turning away from yourself and your sinful desires and habits, you do not know the Bible:

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17, ESV)

¹⁴ Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15, ESV)

⁴⁵ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶ and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷ and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Luke 24:45-47, ESV)

³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5:30-31, ESV)

²⁰ I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 20:20-21, ESV)

In the verses above, I have italicized the word repentance so you see my point more quickly. You do see it, right? Repentance is an essential part of the gospel. It is the beginning, and it is necessary if we are to receive God’s grace.

David, when he was confronted with sin, repented. He believed he needed forgiveness. He sought that forgiveness from God, and he received it. He was forgiven. Most of the evidence seems to indicate that after this, he went back to trusting the Lord with all of his heart. Psalm 51 certainly seems to show us that. In addition, we’ll see that when David faced the real-life consequences that Nathan predicted, he remained steadfast in faith, responding like the David of old to trouble and adversity.

So what does all this say to you?

First, read the bible. The bible serves us like Nathan the prophet served David. It shows us God’s perspective on things, it helps us to see things in a new light.

Second, this passage shows us the importance of repentance. Through Jesus, God has done everything needed to restore our relationship with him, and forgive us. But we have to believe we need it, and believe he offers it. We need to turn away from our own self-oriented life, and let our life belong fully to the Lord. Again, repentance doesn’t mean perfection. But it means your heart is turned away from sin and sinful desires, and toward God. Sins become an aberration, not simply a matter of course.

Third, do not let the consequences of your sins make you doubt God’s forgiveness. Sometimes, when we experience the difficult consequences of what we’ve done, or failed to do, it feels like God is still angry at us, like maybe we are not forgiven. That’s a trap of the devil. If you have repented in faith, you are forgiven. But sometimes, those consequences remain. The Lord will give you extra grace to face those things also, if you seek him. In fact, the next several chapters in 2 Samuel are all about the consequences of David’s sin, and how David faced them. We’ll see that it seems like David returned to being the man who leaned wholly on God in trouble and sorrow. So, if we face consequences for our sins, we too can be close to God and lean entirely on him, even if what we face is our own fault. God has indeed forgiven you. Trust him, trust his forgiveness and love, and lean on him in every situation you face in life.

Pause right now, and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

2 SAMUEL #14: REPENTANCE

On April 11, 2025 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Through David’s journey, we learn about the perniciousness of sin, the depth of God’s grace and the importance of genuine repentance. This compelling narrative not only highlights the transformative power of God’s love but also encourages us to reflect on our own lives and seek a renewed heart and spirit. Our only hope is a new, clean heart and a new, right spirit. God gives us those things because of his own amazing grace.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 14

If you are reading this, please pause, and read 2 Samuel chapter 12:1-14 first. The message in the text is pretty plain, and I am not going to go over the whole story in detail. So read the chapter, then come back and read the rest of this. Today we are going to focus mostly on Psalm 51, which David wrote soon after this incident in his life.

Remember the situation: David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and she got pregnant. He covered it up by arranging to have her husband killed in battle. David did not appear to repent.

Not long after this, the prophet Nathan came to the king. He told David about a rich man in Israel who had a great flock of sheep, goats and other animals, and a poor man who had nothing except one little lamb who was his beloved pet. The rich man had a visitor, and he was obliged to feed the visitor. But rather than take one of his own vast herd, he extorted the one beloved pet from the poor man, killed it, and fed it to his visitor, while the poor man was helpless to prevent it.

David was enraged by the injustice of what the rich man had done, and furious that such a thing would happen in Israel while he was king. He demanded to know the name of the rich man, so he could punish him for such blatant extortion and injustice.

Nathan said: “You are the man. This story is about you.”

Besides being a very powerful part of this chapter, I think Nathan’s approach tells us something about the bible. I have said before, and I stand by it, that the whole bible, including the Old Testament, is about Jesus. The first and most important purpose of the bible is to introduce us to Jesus, and to help us get to know him better. So whenever we read any part of the bible, we should ask the Holy Spirit: “Where is Jesus here? Show me Jesus.” But part of getting to know Jesus is also about getting to know the things in our own lives that either help or hurt our relationship with him. So the famous Danish theologian and philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, told people that when they read the bible, they should say, “this is about me.” And I agree with that, at least in the way that he meant. It is about Jesus first, but in a secondary way, related to that, the bible exposes our own attitudes, thoughts and ways of approaching life. In a way, the bible is to us what Nathan’s story is to David. We are supposed to read and engage. We should ask: “Where is Jesus?” But we should also ask, “Where am I in this text? What does this bible passage tell me about myself, in relationship to Jesus?”

Nathan goes on and catalogues the outrageous sins of David. But I don’t think he needed to. Almost all people have a deeply seated sense of justice. Nathan appealed to that in David through the story, and I think David was convicted as soon as Nathan said, “you are the man.”

13 David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Then Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has taken away your sin; you will not die. 14 However, because you treated the LORD with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.”

Now, the statement “I have sinned against the Lord,” seems a little inadequate, considering what David had done. I would have wanted more. But God knew what was in David’s heart. And we too, know what was in his heart at this point in time, because immediately after this, David wrote it down. You can find it in the bible in Psalm 51. This psalm was written right after Nathan confronted him about Bathsheba. The whole psalm is still today one of the most powerful expressions of repentance ever written.

I think Psalm 51 is amazing at so many levels. It is a powerful part of scripture, and contains much important truth. And yet, this amazing and helpful part of the Bible came about because of terrible sins. Therefore, one of the things this psalm shows us is that God can bring good out of any situation, even good out of our own horrible, deliberate sins. But we should also recognize that it wasn’t as if the sin is what generated this amazing part of the bible. It was David’s repentance from sin. I have said before, and I’ll say it again: this is what made David a man after God’s heart. Not that he never sinned, but that he always repented, and returned humbly to God, and gave up both sinning, and trying to justify his sins.

The important truths begin with the very first verse, in the way that David asks for forgiveness. He could have said, “Forgive me, Lord. After all, I am your chosen king.” He might have written: “Lord, if you don’t forgive me, all the amazing things you’ve done in my life up until now would be wasted.” Another possibility: “Forgive me, or the enemies of Israel will be encouraged. If you let something bad happen to me because of this sin, your people will be without a leader.”

He could also have made the claim—correctly—that compared to others, he had lived a mostly righteous life. Before this, he had followed the Lord even in spite of great suffering. He had refused to kill king Saul – twice – when he had him in his power. There was a lot of credit he could have claimed.

If David had lived in our time, he might have said, “Hey, love is love. I can’t help that Bathsheba and I fell in love. I can’t believe there is anything wrong with our love. And if only our society was more open, I wouldn’t have had to get Uriah killed.”

But instead of any of this, David asks for forgiveness on the basis of one thing alone: God’s hesed; that is, the faithful, covenant love that God has for his people. By doing so, David is saying: “I have no claim on you for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I dare to ask for forgiveness only because I know that you are a loving God. Please forgive me because of your own good and loving character.”

One of the things that is so amazing here is that it is a thousand years before Jesus. We might have expected David to offer sin-sacrifices at the tabernacle, and then consider that he had fulfilled his duty. In other words, he might have expected God to forgive him based on offering the right sacrifices. But he recognized (and he says it explicitly in verses 16-17) that sacrifices mean nothing unless his heart is in it. He knows that there is nothing he can do to earn God’s forgiveness, and no good he has done in the past is enough to “make up” for his sin. His only hope is that God will have mercy on him. No one can be righteous enough to please God. Instead, we depend entirely on God’s willingness to have mercy on us.

In verses 3-6 David expounds on this. He fully confesses his sin and brokenness, and he goes out of this way to show that he is not making excuses. There is no hope in excuses. There is no excuse. When speaking of his sin, David uses three words, translated by the ESV as: “transgression,” “iniquity,” and “sin.” Transgression describes a moral revolt against God. This is the part inside of us that rises up and says, “I know what’s right and wrong, but I want what I want, and I’m going to get it for myself even if it’s wrong.”

Iniquity describes an internal character of sinfulness. David says: “I was born in iniquity,” (verse 5). He means he was born with a flawed and sinful nature. The New Testament describes this as our flesh. We are all deeply flawed, and I don’t mean the wonderful and beautiful quirks of personality we each have. Something deep inside all of us is perversely wired to go against God, broken and twisted from birth, always oriented away from God.

Finally, David uses the word “sin.” Sin (or sins) describes the wrong, bad action. His affair was a sin. The arranged murder was a sin. But it is important to see that sins are just the tip of the iceberg. It starts with a broken and twisted internal character, and then desire that rises up in rebellion against God, and bears fruit with the actual wrong action. This reminds me of what James wrote:

¹³ And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. ¹⁴ Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. ¹⁵ These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15, NLT)

David says something interesting in verse 4: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” When we first read this, it can sound surprising. Surely David sinned against Uriah as well, by committing adultery with his wife, and then by having him killed! How is it that David says his sin is against only God? Although this sounds wrong at first, it turns out to be quite accurate, and important – perhaps even more important today than it was when David wrote it.

In the first place, think of it like this: If there was no God, there would be no such thing as sin. Atheists believe this, and if they were right about the non-existence of God, they would also be correct about the non-existence of sin. If there is no God, even the idea that it is wrong to hurt someone else is just an arbitrary, made-up human rule. If there was no God, what David did to Uriah would be a tragedy for Uriah personally, but without God, who has the authority or power to declare it was a sin? David got away with it, after all, and he was the most powerful person in the region. Without God, that’s just the way the world works, and we need to live with it. So, you see, there can be no true moral evil unless there is some true, absolute standard.

The Bible tells us that the absolute standard is God’s holy character. Therefore, all sins are ultimately and finally sins against God. They are a violation of God’s holy character, and against his design for the human beings he made. There is no way to sin against another person without sinning against God as well.

Next, ask which is worse: violating the trust of another human being, or violating God’s? As a very imperfect analogy, suppose you kill your neighbor’s dog. Obviously, this is terrible for the dog, and it was wrong for you to hurt the dog. But the heart of your sin is really against your neighbor who loves the dog and is responsible for it. Obviously any human is more important than a dog, and in the same way, God is infinitely more important than any human being.

David is not saying that he did not wrong Uriah. Instead his point is that all sin is ultimately against God, and since God is infinitely greater, his sin against God is the heart of the issue. If he had not sinned against God, he certainly would not have sinned against Uriah.

This is especially important because in our world today, many people claim that nothing is really sinful if it doesn’t “hurt someone else.” So, for example, it is claimed, pornography doesn’t hurt anyone, so it’s not wrong to view it. Of course, they are wrong about pornography not hurting anyone. Hundreds, if not thousands, of former porn stars have testified that performing porn devastated them emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes physically. Some of those same women, while they were still performers, claimed that they really enjoyed it. But later, when they owned the truth of the matter, they confessed that in fact, porn was intensely destructive to them. In addition, some of the performers are undoubtedly women who are forced or coerced into it one way or another; no better off than sex slaves. But even if everyone was truly willing to do it, and happy about it later in life, porn is still a sin against God. We can’t say “it doesn’t hurt anyone,” because even if we lived in a fantasy world where all porn performers truly wanted to do it, it would still be a sin against God.

The same arguments are made about virtually any activity engaged in by consenting adults. We claim that the only sin is when someone doesn’t consent. But David puts us straight: all sin is sin against God. Even though it appears that Bathsheba went along with it willingly (thus, there was consent), they were both sinning, because God’s holy character intends sex for marriage alone. We can’t get ourselves off the hook by saying “I didn’t hurt anyone,” or even “I didn’t coerce anyone.” No, because all sin is against God, we have no defense. David, for his part, did not pretend to have a defense. He says: “therefore you are right when you speak, and justified when you judge me.”

In verse seven, David again affirms that it must be God who cleanses him; God alone can forgive and purify, and no one can earn it. David can’t make up for what he’s done. Verses 10-12 are the heart of this hard-hitting psalm:

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalms 51:10-12, ESV)

The problem is not just our actions. Our actions come from what is inside of us. David wants an enduring solution, one that will actually stop him from sinning again. I know many well-meaning Christians who get this confused. Many people, after sinning like David, might say something like this. “OK, from now on, I’m not going to go up on my rooftop alone. I’ll always have a guy with me up there, to make sure I’m not watching women bathe. In fact, I’ll give my wife the key to my rooftop, and she can go up there anytime, to make sure I don’t have any views of women bathing on their own rooftops, and we’ll build a wall if I do. Next, I’m going to have Nathan as my accountability partner. Finally, I won’t stay home from the wars anymore, because I might get bored and so get into trouble.”

All that is reasonably good, but it misses the point. David didn’t sin because he happened to see Bathsheba naked. He sinned because from birth, his heart was filled with iniquity. He sinned because he didn’t take that inborn iniquity seriously. Now, after these terrible actions, David knows that the problem is inside. It’s a problem he, personally, cannot fix. So he asks the Lord to give him a new heart, a righteous spirit. That is the only real hope he has to stop sinning. That is the only real hope any of us have.

I have never committed adultery, nor conspired to have someone murdered. But my heart is no better than David’s. The same iniquity inside David that led him to rebel against God is inside me, also. I’m not just saying that merely as a theological truth – I know myself well enough to know, experientially, that it is true about my heart. It is good to protect ourselves against temptation. But it is not enough. We need, along with David, to ask for a brand new heart from the Lord.

God answered David’s prayer for a new and clean heart. He answered that prayer for all mankind through Jesus. When Jesus came, he made it clear that the human heart is the real problem; and that is exactly why he came to redeem us. And the power of God for redemption is so great that it was both David and Bathsheba who became physical ancestors of Jesus who brought us that salvation. If he can turn their sin around and provide, through it, salvation for all humankind, he can also renew our hearts and spirits. Like David, let’s ask him.

Let us also see how grievously David sinned, and recognize the all-sufficiency of God’s forgiveness. I suspect that prior to committing adultery, David had been drifting away from the Lord. Probably nothing dramatic, but I would guess that as life got easier and more full for him, he focused less and less on God. In time, he drifted far enough to commit the dramatic sins he did: adultery, lying, conspiracy to murder, deceiving others into conspiracy to murder. Then nine more months passed, without him returning to the Lord or repenting on his own. We know this because Nathan didn’t confront David until after the child conceived in adultery was born. All told, I would guess that it was at least a year – perhaps several – that David was really not at all on track with God.

I think this is important, because the depth and depravity of David’s sin show us the vastness of God’s forgiveness and grace. This wasn’t just a little slip. This was an attitude of lust, murder, lying and self-reliance that continued for some time. God did not forgive David because it was just a little slip-up. It wasn’t. It was at least a year or two of wandering further and further away from God. But God forgave David because of his own loving nature. He laid the sins of David upon Jesus (Romans 3: 26).

If God can forgive David – who spent at least a year (but almost certainly more) turning his back on God and did such horrible things – he will certainly also forgive us when we repent. Don’t believe the lie that you have fallen too far or been away from God for too long. His grace is bigger than that. He will also give us a clean heart and right spirit, through Jesus Christ, physical descendant of David and Bathsheba.

2 SAMUEL #12: JUSTICE FOR THOSE WHO REJECT GOD’S LOVE

On March 14, 2025 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, House Church, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

If someone rejects God, do you think God should force them to be eternally in His presence? It would mean that our choices don’t actually mean anything, that we aren’t, in fact, free. If there are no consequences for a choice, it’s not really a choice, is it? It’s meaningless to “choose” if everything will work out the same way, no matter what you choose.

Mephibosheth shows us what it looks like when we freely accept the faithful love of God. But in today’s passage, Hanun shows us what happens when we make the opposite choice and reject that love.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 12

Remember that in chapter eight, many of David’s military victories are described. Then, in chapter nine, we read about how David was kind to Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan. Now, in chapter 10, we get the details concerning how one of the wars described in chapter eight came about. Although it seems like chapter nine was an interruption in the flow of the narrative, actually, chapter nine fits perfectly with chapter ten.

In chapter nine, David reached out with the faithful love of God to Mephibosheth, who probably assumed that David was his enemy. Mephibosheth courageously responded to David’s overtures, and the result was a beautiful demonstration of God’s grace through David.

Now, in chapter ten, something similar happens. Nahash, king of Ammon, died. If you remember, it was Nahash who attacked the Israelite town of Jabesh-Gilead, shortly after Saul became king. This is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter eleven. Against all expectation, Saul attacked and defeated Nahash, and the armies of Ammon.

However, it appears from our text today (verse 2) that Nahash had helped David during the period he was running from Saul. This was probably more from a desire to keep the country of Israel unstable and divided, and to get revenge on Saul, than from any true kindness toward David on the part of Nahash.

Even so, when Nahash died, David sent ambassadors to his son, Hanun, to offer his condolences. Just as most kings in David’s situation would have considered Mephibosheth a threat, most would also have considered Hanun an enemy. In addition, the Ammonites were among those Canaanite tribes who worshipped idols and at times led the people of Israel away from the Lord. But David reached out to Hanun in his grief, seeking to show him the faithful love of God, just as he had done with Mephibosheth. In other words, this story starts the same way as the story of Mephibosheth in chapter nine. If you remember from last time, David said he wanted to show “the faithful love of God” to someone in Saul’s family. The Hebrew word for “faithful love of God” is hesed. That same word, hesed, is used here in chapter ten. David says he wants to show hesed to Hanun, in honor of his father (verse 20.

In this case, however, the results were very different from the situation with Mephibosheth. On the advice of his councilors, Nahash seized David’s emissaries, shaved off half their beards, and cut their robes off to show their bare buttocks. He sent them back to David that way, in utter humiliation. I think even today, we can get a sense for how rude and spiteful this was. It was like giving David “the finger” and saying “screw you!” It communicated an absolute lack of respect for David. It was more or less a declaration of war.

In other words, Hanun’s response to David, and to the faithful love of God, was pretty much the exact opposite of Mephibosheth’s response. Hanun rejected the faithful love of God that was offered to him through God’s chosen instrument, David.

Remember that Jesus and his apostles taught that even the Old Testament is ultimately about Jesus. These things actually happened, but God guided their happening in such a way as to reveal to us the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27, ESV2011)

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, 15 and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2Tim 3:14-17, HCSB)

4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. (Rom 15:4, HCSB)

12 For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart. (Heb 4:12, HCSB)

So, to really understand this, we need to remember that this is still all ultimately about Jesus. It should help us get to know him better. Last week, we saw that David revealed the heart of God’s ultimate Messiah, Jesus. The heart of Jesus is to find the lost and broken and show them God’s everlasting and faithful love. David lived that out, and Mephibosheth received that love.

But there is another possible outcome. Jesus wants to show God’s faithful and everlasting love to each person. But what about the person who doesn’t want it, who won’t receive it? That is what 2 Samuel 10 is all about. It is the other side of the same coin, the second part in the same story of God’s love for people. It is the story of what happens when people reject the faithful love of God.

Now, it is true, Hanun received some bad advice from his councilors. But even so, he believed his advisors, rather than the emissaries of the kind king, and the responsibility for that belief was all on him. Yes, he had people lying to him. But he also had David’s men telling him the truth, and Hanun made a choice to believe the lies rather than the truth. The consequences were all his own fault.

Now, I don’t know what would have happened if Hanun had repented and sent messengers to David acknowledging his wrong and asking for forgiveness. But Hanun, realizing that he had done wrong, proceeded to do even more wrong. He armed for war, and called on allies to help him. He was proud and stubborn and was willing to make both soldiers and civilians pay for his own mistakes.

The consequences were severe. David sent his army to besiege the capital city. Joab and his brother Abishai commanded the armies, and they defeated the Aramean allies of Hanun, while the army of Hanun fled back inside the walled city. Then the Arameans were upset, and sent another army. David himself took charge of the army of Israel, and the Arameans were defeated a second time. They never again helped the Ammonites. We are basically finding out the details of the military campaigns described in chapter eight.

Ultimately, though it took at least a year, the Ammonites themselves were utterly defeated and their capital city destroyed. Hanun lost his crown, and probably his head; while his people were made into heavy-laborers for the Israelites (these final events are recorded in 2 Samuel 12).

Hanun demonstrates for us what happens when we reject the faithful love of God that is offered through his chosen messiah, Jesus. Mephibosheth humbly received that love, and it blessed him for his entire life. But Hanun rejected it. It took some time, but ultimately, because he rejected it, he lost everything, and ruined the lives of tens of thousands of others.

We like to talk about the love and mercy and grace of God. I know I do. And that love and mercy and grace is indeed ours if we will simply trust the good heart of Jesus. When we receive it, we are brought into a daily relationship with Jesus, just as Mephibosheth had a daily relationship with David.

But the other side of the story is this: it does not go well for those who reject the love of God offered in Jesus Christ. Yes, it’s true, people lied to Hanun about David and his intentions. And the devil will use people and circumstances to lie to us about Jesus. But ultimately the truth was there for Hanun to choose, if he would just trust David. And the truth about Jesus is there, if we will just trust him. When we refuse to do that, we are inviting destruction upon ourselves. None of our allies or misplaced hopes will be able to save us.

This isn’t just an Old Testament teaching either. The writer of Hebrews says this:

¹ God’s promise of entering his rest still stands, so we ought to tremble with fear that some of you might fail to experience it. ² For this good news—that God has prepared this rest—has been announced to us just as it was to them. But it did them no good because they didn’t share the faith of those who listened to God. ³ For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said,
“In my anger I took an oath:
‘They will never enter my place of rest,’”
even though this rest has been ready since he made the world. ⁴ We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.” ⁵ But in the other passage God said, “They will never enter my place of rest.”
⁶ So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. ⁷ So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today. God announced this through David much later in the words already quoted:
“Today when you hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:1-7, NLT)

This is pretty clear: we need to rest from our own life that centered around our own desires and selfishness, our own works and ambitions, and instead rest in God’s great love for us, surrendering to him. We enter that rest by trusting the Word, that is Jesus. If we don’t, the good news we have heard about Jesus does not help us. That’s the lesson of Hanun, king of the Ammonites. When we reject the faithful love of God, we are inviting judgment onto ourselves.

Paul writes something similar in 1 Corinthians:

1 Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. 5 But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

6 Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.

Those ancient Israelites chose not to trust God, and as a result they suffered the consequences.

Isaiah wrote:

In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength. But you would have none of it. (Isaiah 30:15)

Jesus himself mourned because the people of Jerusalem refused to receive him, and he said that as a result they would experience much suffering and sorrow. He also said this:

16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.

We usually only read verse 16. But verse 18 adds that if we reject God’s chosen messiah, we have condemned ourselves. About 75% of all Americans think there is a heaven, and they will go there when they die. 40% of people think it doesn’t even matter how you relate to God, he’ll accept everyone anyway. But the bible is clear: grace and truth and eternal life are offered through Jesus Christ alone. When you reject Jesus, you reject God, and you condemn yourself. John wrote:

11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1John 5:11-13, HCSB)

Hanun shows us the route of “not-life.” It is real. Some people do reject Jesus. Believing the lies someone told them is not an excuse for people when they also have the truth in front of them. There are consequences to rejecting God’s faithful love.

This is difficult for many people in modern Western culture. We think it’s unfair unless everyone is included, regardless of their response. But if you think about it, it makes a great deal of sense. If someone rejects God, do you think God should force them to be eternally in His presence? It would mean that our choices don’t actually mean anything, that we aren’t, in fact, free. If there are no consequences for a choice, it’s not really a choice, is it? It’s meaningless to “choose” if everything will work out the same way, no matter what you choose.

This is the part of the Christian message that most people don’t like. In fact many people say that ideas like this are judgmental, and mean and intolerant. Do a thought experiment with me. Imagine you are at the top of a cliff, and there are many bushes all around you, so you can’t see the ground under your feet. You come upon a sign that says, “Warning! Stay Back! If you walk forward from here you may die!” Is that sign mean and judgmental, or intolerant? Of course not. The message is there to protect you from making a tragic mistake. Or imagine an inviting swimming hole in a small river. Next to the water a sign says: “Do not Swim Here! Dangerous currents and undertow! High risk of Drowning!” Is that sign being cruel and bigoted? Of course not. It is an entirely appropriate warning, trying to protect you from throwing away your own life out of foolish ignorance. The truly cruel and horrible thing to do would be to let people fall of the cliff, or drown in the swimming hole, because you were afraid of offending them by posting such signs.

Listen to God’s heart-cry toward us:

¹⁰ “Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: You are saying, ‘Our sins are heavy upon us; we are wasting away! How can we survive?’ ¹¹ As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die? (Ezekiel 33:10-11, NLT)

It might surprise you to learn that Jesus spoke about hell more than any other person in the Bible. He did not want anyone to suffer eternal separation from God, and that is why he came and died for us. But he was very clear about what happens if we reject the faithful love of God offered to us through Himself. He was so clear about it, because he does not want anyone to perish:

³ This is good and pleases God our Savior. ⁴ He wants all people to be saved and to learn the truth. ⁵ There is one God. There is also one mediator between God and humans—a human, Christ Jesus. ⁶ He sacrificed himself for all people to free them from their sins. (1 Timothy 2:3-6, GW)

Jesus Christ does offer forgiveness, second, third and 233^rd chances, love, grace and peace. He offers us daily relationship with himself, and joy. But outside of Jesus, none of that is ours. It all comes only in and through Jesus. If we reject Jesus, we reject it all, and none of the other things we rely on will be able to save us. So let’s pay attention to the lesson of Hanun, and today, let us not harden our hearts. Let’s be like Mephibosheth, not Hanun.

Listen to the Holy Spirit right now.

2 SAMUEL #8: GOD’S GRACIOUS HEART TOWARD YOU

On January 31, 2025 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The text today highlights David’s sincere yet misguided intentions to build a permanent place of worship for God, and how God’s corrective guidance reveals His gracious heart. Through David’s story, we learn about the immense freedom and comfort in trusting God’s leadership, the boundless nature of His grace, and the ultimate promise of a Messiah who will save all people and reign forever. It invites us to reflect upon our own relationship with God and embrace the abundant grace He offers, even in the face of life’s uncertainties and challenges

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part

We’ve been considering what we learned about God’s holiness and worship from the time that the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel describes the event with one chapter, chapter six. However, 1 Chronicles takes two long chapters to recount the same thing (1 Chronicles 15 & 16). Mainly what we learn from 1 Chronicles is that David set up various ministries for the priests and Levites: not just the priests who offer sacrifices, but also professional worship musicians and song-writers, full time door-keepers, administrators and so on. There were probably more than 100 full time ministers taking care of the ark and of the tabernacle.

But after all, when it was all said and done, the place for all this amazing ministry was just a very old tent. The tent was put together in the days of Moses, more than four-hundred years before. Israel has a dry climate, but I have to imagine that sometime during four-hundred years, there had been mold. I’m sure there were rips and scuffs, and it is a good guess that there were a lot of patches by this point in time.

David talked to Nathan about it. He said, “Look, here I am in a palace – and God lives in a tent.” The implication, not spoken explicitly, is that it is time to build a permanent place of worship. Nathan the prophet said, “Go and do all that is on your heart, for the LORD is with you.”

But right afterwards, the Lord spoke to Nathan, and said, “No, I have a different plan.”

The first thing that struck me when I read this was the safety and freedom there is in living in daily relationship with God. God doesn’t allow our misguided good intentions to go unchecked. Both Nathan and David had their hearts in the right place. They were sincere. Both of them, however, were sincerely wrong. Even so, because they were keeping in step with the Lord, they were able to hear it when the Lord corrected them. And the Lord did correct them. He didn’t say, “Well, shucks, they got it wrong again. Oh well.” No, when they didn’t get it right away, he spoke to them again. So we can trust God’s leadership. Picture someone walking with a friend who is blind and using a cane. They come to the corner of a street where there is traffic. The friend says quietly, “stop here.” The blind person doesn’t hear it, and keeps walking. Of course the guide is going to repeat himself, more loudly, and maybe even grab onto his blind friend, to prevent him from being hurt. Do we expect any less from God?

Now, one important thing here is that Nathan and David really did want to do whatever God wanted in this situation. They weren’t insisting on their own way. So when they made the wrong choice, they were able to hear the Lord when he spoke to them about it.

Unfortunately, sometimes we are like a blind person who says to our guide, “I don’t trust you, so I won’t go where you are taking me.” We ignore Him when he says “turn here,” or “stop there.” Then, sad to say, often we blame God for the bad things that result from our unwillingness to listen to him. But when Nathan and David were open, the Lord kept them moving in the right direction, and they were able to hear it.

This is tremendously comforting to me. Sometimes, we get so caught up in wanting to do the right thing that we become almost paralyzed with fear, thinking we will make the wrong choice. We think, “If I mess this up, it will be disaster. I could destroy God’s plan for my life. I could destroy my chance at happiness.” Maybe we’re looking at a job or a career move. Maybe we’re buying a house, or choosing a college or deciding what we want to be when we grow up. Maybe we’re trying to decide if we should marry someone or not. Brothers and sisters in Jesus, we can have tremendous freedom, hope and joy in these choices. If we truly want God to do what he wants in and through our lives, then ask the Lord for guidance. If you aren’t sure which way he is leading, step forward boldly and make your best choice. If you are wrong, the Lord will correct you. We don’t have to be experts at hearing from God. But we have to be open to letting him do whatever he wants. If we maintain that openness, we’ll be able to hear it if we start down a path where he doesn’t want us to go.

The fact that we really can trust the Lord to guide us is wonderfully comforting. It is part of God’s grace. But wait, there’s more!

David, good-hearted man that he was, was thinking something like this: “God chose me, the youngest son of an unremarkable family, to be king over his people. He was with me, protected me, sustained me, and finally established me as king. After that, he helped me defeat the surrounding enemies, like the Philistines. Isn’t it about time I start paying back what I owe the Lord? Isn’t it time for me to do something for him?”

And God said: “No, my grace doesn’t work like that. Not only do you not pay me back, but I will pile on with the grace and blessing. You want to build me a house? How about this: I will build you a ‘house,’ a dynasty that will last forever, and it will be used to bring immeasurable blessing to the entire human race.”

The word used for “house” is the same all the way through. It is the Hebrew word pronounced “va’yit.” This is a pretty flexible word. It is used for David’s palace, for describing a dwelling and also for a family, a line of descendants and so on. I think the Lord deliberately inspired the writer to use the same word, in order to emphasize what he was doing. He was piling on the grace.

What God promises is that David will have a descendant who will rule forever. David’s descendant will preside over the kingdom of God. This is a prophecy. Now, I have said before that prophecy is kind of like viewing a mountain range from a long way away. It looks like all the mountains are next to each other in a line across the horizon. But when you actually get into the mountains, you often find a great gap between peaks that looked like they were right next to each other when viewed from a distance. In the same way, when you read a text like this one it looks like all parts of the prophecy are supposed to take place at the same time; yet we find that parts of prophecy were fulfilled a few years after, and others hundreds of years later. Here, the prophecy is not a complete revelation of every detail. But it shows that there will be a descendant of David who reigns forever. This descendant will be chastised and punished – just as Jesus was punished for our sins. God will do something eternal through this person. There are a few things here that may refer to Solomon, and some that may refer to other kings descended from David, but clearly, the prophecy is talking mainly about Jesus.

God didn’t just say that David was his favorite choice for king. He didn’t just give him victory over a giant. He didn’t just take care of him in those years of hardship and trouble. He didn’t just protect David during battle and make him victorious – often against overwhelming odds. He didn’t just actually make David king. He didn’t just deliver David from his enemies and give him a secure place to live and rule. He also promised (and delivered generations later) that David’s name and family line would be honored forever. He promised that the messiah would be descended from David. He is showering grace after grace upon David. You can’t out-give God.

David, understandably, was overwhelmed. He went and “sat before the Lord.” And then he prayed. David says something very important in verse nineteen that seems to be lost in translation in many English versions of the bible:

“Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? ¹⁹ And now, Sovereign LORD, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving your servant a lasting dynasty! Do you deal with everyone this way, O Sovereign LORD? (2 Samuel 7:18-19, NLT)

Though I like the NLT in general, I think they could have done a better job with the final phrase. A few other versions do something similar. But in Hebrew it says, literally: “and this is torah for all mankind.”

The Hebrew word “torah” has various related meanings, as many words do. It can mean custom or rule. But the most common meaning is “instruction from God.” It is often translated “law.” During the time of Jesus, torah was one of two terms that described God’s revelation in the Bible. When a Jew said “the torah (law) and the prophets” he meant “the word of God as revealed in the bible.” So, I think the best translation is probably the HCSB, which says: “And this is a revelation for mankind, Lord GOD.”

I think David is speaking prophetically. He is saying that this promise of the descendant who will come–a messiah who will reign forever–is God’s very word for humankind. It is a law and a promise for all humanity. In fact, this promise to David was remembered, and repeated, throughout the centuries that followed, and it was always understood as a promise for a messiah who would bring God’s blessing to all human beings.

In verse 21 David says this:

21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it.

This shows us that the promise is according to God’s own heart. Some translations have “will” but “heart” is more literal. This promise reveals the generous, gracious, loving, wise heart of God.

So let’s make this personal right now. Do you believe that this extreme graciousness is according to the heart of God? Even more personal – do you believe that this great grace is the way that God deals with you?

Let me remind you about David. He lied in a moment of pressure. He blew his top when he was insulted. He ignored what God said about marriage. He was not perfect. God was not gracious to David because David deserved it. David did not deserve it. God was gracious because that is the heart of God.

So set aside any thought of “well, I don’t deserve God to treat me that way.” Of course you don’t. Neither do I. Neither did David. Do you understand and believe that if you let him, God will deal with you in the same way he dealt with David?

I would guess that a lot of us don’t experience God in this way, and sometimes we believe that we cannot. There are reasons for this.

At times, I think we don’t experience the gracious heart of God in day to day life, because we insist that God must be gracious in the particular way we want him to. We want a better income, and so if he doesn’t do that, even though he is offering us tremendous joy through relationships with dear friends, we don’t really receive that grace. We want healing, and so we spurn the grace he offers us to grow and have joy even in pain. We want our spouse to change, and so we don’t want to receive the grace the Lord offers us through that person – just as he is. When we have an attitude of entitlement: “God must provide grace in exactly the way I want it”—it is difficult to really receive.

Please understand me. I don’t think it is wrong to ask God for healing, or for an income that meets your needs, or for a good marriage. Those are all good gifts that God often wants to give. The problem comes in when the only way we will see God as gracious is if he gives us specifically what we are asking for. If he doesn’t give us the particular gifts we want, we become hurt, and we fail to see how gracious he is to us in other ways. In this issue, it doesn’t help when we compare ourselves with others. Especially in these days of social media, I think we usually believe that other people are doing better than we are. When we practice thanking God for the many good things he has given us, it becomes easier to see how gracious he really is.

At other times, we don’t recognize the gracious heart of God because we have allowed lies about God into our lives, especially through difficult events. A child dies. A spouse leaves. And we interpret those events in such a way that we begin to distrust the heart of God. The first problem creeps in when we insist on understanding everything. Why did the child have to die? I’m not saying we can’t ever honestly struggle with our pain, but I do believe that sometimes the answers to those questions are simply bigger than we can understand. When we demand that everything must make sense in a way that we can understand, it is easy to start to believe that God isn’t the good Person that the Bible tells us he is. Don’t get me wrong. If you follow this blog, you know I am an intellectual, and I’m all for using your mind. But the human mind is finite. Trying to understand an infinite God is not logical. At times, faith calls us to trust even beyond our understanding. When we can’t understand, we are faced with a choice – will we trust that God’s heart is good and gracious towards us in ways we can’t comprehend, or will we demand that the universe function according to our own personal sense of justice and goodness? This text calls us to trust that the heart of God is good and full of gracious intentions for us.

Finally, we can trust God’s goodness because of the promise he made to David. It was the promise that God himself would come to earth, and take it upon himself to heal the distance between us and God. This promise to David was not for David alone. It was a word of God, for all humankind.

Therefore, when we doubt the goodness of God, we turn to the cross. There, we can see how much he loves us. He suffered unimaginably so that our suffering could be limited to this short life on earth. If you doubt he loves you, remember this: He died for you.

Take some time to contemplate the goodness of God today.

2 SAMUEL #6: THE SHOCKING PROBLEM WITH HOLINESS

On January 2, 2025 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

This text shows us just how vast is the distance between God and us. It shows how much we need Jesus and just how much God went through in order to bring us back to him.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 6

2 Samuel #6. 2 Samuel 6:1-10

After David defeated the Philistines decisively and captured Jerusalem, he decided that he should bring the Ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, the new capital city of Israel. Remember, the Ark was a wooden box plated with gold, with carved angel’s wings over it. Inside the box were the stone tablets of the ten commandments, and possibly part the staff that Aaron, the High Priest, had used. At this point in time, the Ark would have been about four-hundred years old. If you remember, back even before Saul became the first king of Israel, the Israelites had taken the Ark into battle with them, trusting in the Ark to save them. The Lord was not pleased by this, because they were treating the Ark as if it were an idol, using it the way the pagan people around them used idols. So the Lord let them be defeated, since they were not actually trusting the Lord Himself. During the battle, the Philistines captured the Ark. After this the Lord showed his power to the Philistines, and wherever they put the Ark, trouble came upon them. Finally, they sent the Ark back to the Israelites. That story is told in 1 Samuel chapters 4-6, and we covered it in part 4 of the sermon series on 1 Samuel. The ark ended up at a place in Israel called Kiriath-jearim (also called Baalah of Judah).

Now, a few decades later, David and his elite warriors went to that place to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem. It was on the property of a man named Abinadab. His sons, Uzzah and Ahio walked beside the cart that held the Ark while David and his men celebrated along the way. And then this happened:

⁶ But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. ⁷ Then the LORD’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.
⁸ David was angry because the LORD’s anger had burst out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah (which means “to burst out against Uzzah”), as it is still called today.
⁹ David was now afraid of the LORD, and he asked, “How can I ever bring the Ark of the LORD back into my care?” ¹⁰ So David decided not to move the Ark of the LORD into the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath. ¹¹ The Ark of the LORD remained there in Obed-edom’s house for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and his entire household. (2 Samuel 6:5-11, NLT)

Here we have the two major themes of this text. First is this: God is so Holy, so different and “other” that he is inapproachable. If it means death to touch the mere representation of God’s presence, who can endure his actual presence? This was shocking and horrifying to David. It even made him angry. I think we forget that the Holiness of God is shocking, terrifying and horrifying. It may even make us angry. Why does God behave so inexplicably?

One of the things that makes the Bible unique is that it contains things like David’s response. The story isn’t only that God killed Uzzah. Part of the story is also that this event made David angry and upset. That is a comfort to me, because it kind of makes me upset, also. It shows us that it isn’t wrong for this sort of thing to get our attention, and it isn’t wrong even for it to bother us.

I don’t want us to gloss over this too quickly. Many people read these types of things in the Bible and think they are the first ones ever to be shocked by this sort of thing, or to question God about it. But here is David, shocked and angry at God in the very moment that this happened. It is shocking. If we are not shocked by this, we don’t really get the message. God’s holiness is shocking, terrifying, unfathomable. It should leave us saying, “Well then how could we ever be close to God? How could anyone ever please him?”

So, don’t feel bad if, like David, these kinds of things in the Bible upset you. That’s normal. But don’t stop with simply being upset by it. Pursue it. Ask the Lord to help you understand such things. Let’s pursue it together right now.

One thing we ought to know right away is that David, his men, and the priests were not transporting the Ark the way God had commanded through Moses. Moses was very clear about how the ark was to be moved from place to place:

¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. ¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. ¹⁵ The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. (Exodus 25:12-15, NLT)

However, David and his men put the ark in a cart. If the Ark had been carried by the poles—as God commanded—no one would have had to worry about it slipping off a cart and falling to the ground. So, in the first place, they were ignoring God’s command, which is never a wise thing to do. We won’t cover the latter part of the chapter until next time, but we see that this error was corrected when they moved the Ark again later. Verse 13 shows us that this second move was accomplished with human beings carrying the Ark by the poles, not riding in an ox-cart. In any case, it does seem that this incident would have been avoided if they had taken God’s commands seriously. When God commanded the Ark be moved this way, it was to protect people from accidentally touching it. We often don’t realize, or perhaps we just forget, that God’s commands are there to protect us.

One of the things that might bother us is that Uzzah himself was only trying to protect the Ark. He didn’t want it to fall on the ground. How can that be such a terrible thing? However, by doing this, there were two assumptions that Uzzah was making. First, he assumed that God himself was incapable of protecting the Ark. He thought it was up to him to protect God’s glory. This reveals a lack of faith. Remember the recent history: The enemies of Israel had captured the Ark, but God used it to show them his glory, and then also he made sure that the Ark was returned to Israel. In spite of that, Uzzah assumed that in this instance, God would not take care of his glory, or the Ark. In other words, he didn’t have real faith in God.

The second assumption Uzzah made is that it would be better for the Ark to touch him than to touch the ground. He thought he himself was more holy and sanctified than the very earth that was created by God. In other words he didn’t really believe in his own sinfulness, nor in God’s complete holiness.

Now, even with that explained, I still think this passage is troubling. I suspect the reason it bothers us so much is because it is about the Holiness of God, and that is not something we truly understand, or even think about much.

Sometimes I think because of the grace given in Jesus, we forget why that grace is so important and so unbelievable. We forget the huge gulf that separated human beings from God. Without Jesus, if we were simply to wrongly touch a representation of a holy God, we could be killed, like Uzzah. There was an irreconcilable gap between us and God. But since Jesus intervened, we no longer live in that situation, and we often forget how serious the problem would be without him.

One question that I hear quite often is, “Doesn’t God just accept us as we are?” Actually, no. If he could do that, there would have been no need for Jesus to sacrifice himself. Well then, can’t God do anything? Why couldn’t he have made it so that he could just accept us?

God can do anything, but the one thing he will not do is change his own nature. God is the most wonderful, glorious, amazing, loving being in all of existence. To change his nature would be to change the very nature of reality, and it would be an unbelievably terrible thing for all creation if God changed his nature. If God changed his nature, there would be no hope that human beings would ever be better than they have been. Hatred, jealousy, strife, murder, rape, torture, selfishness and so on would become eternal, with no hope of any change, ever. So, because of our sinful flesh, God instead chose to sacrifice himself in order to change our nature.

At times, we might be tempted to think, “Are we really so bad? I mean I can be a bit selfish sometimes, but am I really so awful that my very nature had to be changed?” But we often forget that the problem is deeper than our behavior. Individual sins are about what we do, and some people are pretty good at minimizing those—at least the ones that others can see. But Jesus made it clear that sin is not only about behavior, it is also about what is in our hearts. So, he said, for example, that the Law of Moses tells us not to murder. But if we have murder in our hearts, even if we don’t act on it, we are guilty.

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Never murder. Whoever murders will answer for it in court.’ ²² But I can guarantee that whoever is angry with another believer will answer for it in court. Whoever calls another believer an insulting name will answer for it in the highest court. Whoever calls another believer a fool will answer for it in hellfire. (Matthew 5:21-22, GW)

You see, sin is a disease that is passed on genetically to every human being. In some people, that disease has obvious and radical effects. In others, we don’t see much of it on the outside. But every single person carries the disease. The thing that made Hitler such a monster is inside all of us. Most of us don’t let it get so out of control, but it’s there:

²⁰ And then Jesus added, “It is what comes from inside that defiles you. ²¹ For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. ²³ All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.” (Mark 7:20-23, NLT)

Because sin is inside of every human, we would be destroyed by the presence of God. God has to change us before he can welcome us into his presence. Through Jesus, it is the power of God that does the changing, not our own work and effort. Without that work, God’s holiness would destroy us, just like it did to Uzzah.

There is nothing I can think of that really illustrates the holiness of God adequately. But let me take a few tries at it. I’ve mentioned in other sermons about the chemical reaction that occurs when pure sodium is put into water. Sodium is a soft metal, a chemical element. It literally explodes when it comes into contact with water. When you are done reading this sermon, do an internet search for pure sodium and water, and watch a few videos; they are highly entertaining. I found one in which the reaction blows up a toilet. The point is because of the laws of physics and chemistry, sodium cannot exist in its pure form in water. If you bring the two substances together, the sodium explodes. The intrinsic properties of each substance prevents them from being together.

In the same way, sin cannot continue to exist in the presence of God’s holiness. You might say that it, too, explodes. This is because of the intrinsic nature of sin, and of God’s holiness. You might say that if a sinful person touched even a representation of the one true holy God (as Uzzah did) that person would die instantly. That’s what happened in our passage today.

Here’s another illustration. Though we don’t do it any longer, for a number of years we raised goats, pigs, and chickens on our little farm. Except for when we had to bottle feed baby animals, we did not generally allow these animals in the house with us. Think about it for a minute. Why don’t we allow pigs in the kitchen? Why don’t we allow goats to stand on our table and eat with us? Why do we care if they defecate on the table while we eat?

It starts with this – we are other than these animals. They are fundamentally different than us. I think most people would be willing to agree that pigs are not humans, and that goats do not behave according to human standards. Even though goats often stand and poop into their own food trough, and that is quite natural for them, there is something in us that rebels against having a farm animal defecate on the table where we eat. We simply do not tolerate it. It revolts us. This revulsion is deep and instinctive, showing us that the differences between us and our animals are also deep and persistent. We love our animals but we can still be revolted by their behavior. We love them, but we refuse to let their behavior into our home. We must place limits on how and when those animals can be with us.

We do allow some animals in our home – dogs and cats. But part of why we allow this is because we train them to behave according to our standards. Even so, most people still don’t allow dogs or cats to eat food off the table, and certainly they aren’t allowed to defecate on it.

When our dog Mario went out and rolled in manure – as dogs like to do naturally at times – we insisted upon cleaning him up before we let him back in the house. Imagine that instead, after rolling in manure, he decided to try and clean himself up, still having no more than a dog’s understanding of the world. Dogs lick themselves a little bit, but they can’t reach most of their backs, or any of their heads, and they don’t clean themselves even as much as cats do. Mario might lick his own tail a little bit, and then think his efforts should make him acceptable to us, but there’s no way he could actually clean himself well enough to meet our standards. We had to do the work of making him clean. And we were willing to do that work, to make him clean, because we loved him and wanted him to be with us. But he couldn’t be with us while he was covered in manure. Our human nature would not tolerate it. It was unacceptable.

Why can’t we just accept the animals as they are, and allow the goats to defecate in our food, and the dog to come into the house covered in manure? Sometimes it is hard to explain why we can’t allow such things, but we can’t. We are too different. It is simply not in our nature to accept such things, while it is in the nature of the animals to do such things.

So, because we are born sinful in nature, it is natural for us to behave in ways that God simply cannot accept. Remember, though, it’s not just about what we do. Sin is inside us, even when we behave properly. God’s nature is even more different from ours than a pig’s nature is different from a human’s. Our sin is far worse to God than manure on a dog is to us. The idea of an animal pooping in our food is only a poor reflection of how revolting our sin is.

Our attempts to clean ourselves up are as pathetic as our dog Mario’s attempts. On our own, we don’t even really understand what it is to be cleansed. We need God to do the work of cleaning us up. And he is willing to do that work, because he loves us and wants us to be with him.

Once in a while, our dog would manage to sneak into the house covered in manure. On those occasions my reaction was swift and shocking. I moved quickly and loudly to keep him from transferring manure to our carpet, or to us. He couldn’t have understood me if I had tried to explain it to him reasonably, so I had to get his attention in a way that might have seemed shocking and horrifying to him.

So it is with God. His response to Uzzah is shocking and horrifying. David became afraid, and even angry, when he saw it, and said, “how can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” Meaning, “how could I ever be close to a God who is like this?”

But what the Lord did for us in Jesus is to give us a new nature. This is one of the reasons I think it is so important to realize that when we are in Jesus, (that is, when we have received him through faith) we are no longer fundamentally sinful. God cannot fellowship with fundamentally sinful beings. He has cleaned us up, changed us in ways we could not change ourselves.

Even though that was still in the future during the time of David, the Lord found ways to communicate that was his plan. And he included even those who lived before the time of Jesus in that plan:

For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. (Romans 3:25-26)

So, if God has taken care of the problem, why is this text in 2 Samuel still here for us, who have trusted in Jesus to do these things for us? Why do we need this part of the Bible?

Imagine a friend comes over to your house, and while you are doing something else, he notices a bill open on your table. He decides to pay it for you. If that was a thirty-dollar phone bill, you’d be grateful, but not wildly so. It would be really sweet of him to pay that bill, and you’d thank him, and it would be a fairly restrained thankfulness. But imagine instead, he paid your mortgage. Not your monthly payment, but the whole mortgage—all $200,000 that you still owe on your house. That would be an entirely different kind of situation, with an entirely different level of thankfulness. Texts like this one in 1 Samuel Six show us just how much God has done for us, of how overwhelmingly thankful we ought to be.

I think we can view this text with three thoughts: First, we often need to be reminded of God’s precious holiness. God has not changed. He is still as holy now as he was then. When we understand his greatness, his “other-ness” it should lead us to be in awe of him. Scripture says in several places that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (e.g. Proverbs 9:10 & 15:33; Psalm 111:10). We need to relearn that God is awesome, powerful, and that without Jesus we are incapable of interacting with him on our own terms.

Second, we need to remember how truly horrible and unacceptable our sin is. If you imagine how revolting it would be to eat food in which pigs have defecated, you are only beginning to think of how horrible our sins are to a holy God. Our sins keep us from fellowship with God. Imagine your dog covered in manure, standing on your table, pooping in your food. Would you hug that dog before getting him off the table and cleaning him up? Our sin is worse than that for God’s holy nature.

Third, we need to remember how amazing God’s grace is. He came as a human so that he could take our sin upon himself. He sacrificed himself to make us into new people who can now fellowship with God. He didn’t just pay a phone bill, he paid off our entire debt. And then on top of that, ensured that we will never owe anything again, and on top of that, he has piled blessing after blessing. When we know the size of our debt, the huge gap that was between us and God, we can begin to be appropriately thankful.

Thanks to Jesus, we can have God’s presence in our lives. He has done the work to clean us. He has changed our nature so that we are not destroyed by God’s holiness if we get close to him.

²¹ Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21, GNT)

Let’s thank him and praise him right now! Next time we will consider what all this means for worship.

ADVENT 2024 #2. AN ADVENT PRAYER

On December 6, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Advent, Podcast, psalms, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Join me this week in an approach that is different from my usual teaching. Let’s pray through Psalm 25 together.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Advent Week 2

Advent really has three main purposes. First, it helps us remember and celebrate how God came into the world as a human being, two thousand years ago. The church-term for this is “the Incarnation.” The second purpose of Advent is to help us look forward to the time when Jesus will return to the earth, bring history to its conclusion, and bring us into the New Creation. In fact, if you happen to come across this message during some other time of the year, it can still be relevant to you, because in a very real way, we are always living during advent. Since we are waiting for Jesus to return, every day and every year is, in a sense, during advent.

You might say the first purpose is about the past, and the second is about the future. But Advent is also about our present. Advent reminds us to receive Jesus into our daily lives, here and now.

Psalm 25 is one of the readings for the second Sunday in Advent this year (technically, it is part of the Sunday evening lectionary). Psalm 25 is really about the third purpose of Advent – receiving Jesus into our lives in the present. There are also themes in this psalm of waiting for God with anticipation.

Normally, I like to do what is called “expository preaching.” If you’ve heard two or more of my sermons, you’ve probably heard my expository preaching. It’s what I do about 90% of the time. This time, I feel like the Holy Spirit was asking me to step outside my comfort zone, and take a different approach. So, rather than my normal approach, I want to invite you to pray this psalm with me, and reflect upon it during this season of waiting and expectation. If you sometimes struggle to pray, I recommend praying with a psalm, like we are about to do here. If you struggle to come up with words, or know what to say when you pray, using scripture to pray could be very helpful. Since we are using the very words of the Bible, we can also know that our prayers are on track.

I encourage you to listen to the sermon this time, even if you normally read it. I’m not sure the written version captures this as well, although it may be better for some people.

I encourage you, after reading this message, to go back through the psalm yourself, and pray it your own way. Consider doing that two or three times this week as part of your prayer life.

¹ To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

Yes, Lord, I do!

² O my God, in you I trust;

let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me.

I trust you, Lord, but not as much as I should. Please help me to trust you more.
Lord, please protect my loved ones, and me, from the Evil One, and from all the forces of evil.

³ Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Thank you for this promise, Lord. Help me trust it, and cling to it.

⁴ Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
⁵ Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.

Lord, please increase my desire to know your ways. Let me live moment by moment in your truth. Give me patience to wait for you, and for your promises. I wait for your salvation to come to those I love who are not following you right now.

⁶ Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.

⁷ Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!

Even after receiving you, I continue to sin. I confess my self-centeredness, my pride, my gluttony. Please forgive me! I trust that you do so, not because I deserve it, but because of your goodness to me, and to the world, through Jesus.

⁸ Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
⁹ He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.

Help me Lord to be humble enough to be taught by you, and led by you. Help me to be humble even when I see others around me who are not, and who still seem to succeed. Teach me to live in your ways, day by day.

¹⁰ All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
¹¹ For your name’s sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.

And thank you, Lord, that you forgive me because it is according to your nature. Your forgiveness is not contingent on me in any way. I praise you for that!

¹² Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
¹³ His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.

Lord, do instruct me to choose the things that you choose. Please do let my soul abide in well-being. Help me to trust these promises even when I don’t see them.

¹⁴ The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.

Thank you, Lord! I receive this promise!

¹⁵ My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

Lord, keep my eyes fixed on you.

¹⁶ Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
¹⁷ The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.

Lord you know my troubles. My daily pain, my lack of self-discipline, my concern for my family, and the future. I lay all my troubles in front of you. Be gracious, O Lord!

¹⁸ Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.
¹⁹ Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
²⁰ Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

Yes Lord! I agree with all of this, with your Word. Forgive me, deliver me, guard me. Do all those same things for my loved ones.

²¹ May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.
²² Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles.

Thank you, Lord that your promises to Israel are also promises to all who trust in Jesus. Give us hope and patience as we wait for you this advent season. You see what a crazy and dangerous place the world is right now. Come soon, and redeem your people. Protect us as we wait. Let the uprightness and integrity of Jesus guard our hearts, minds, and bodies. AMEN.

2 SAMUEL #5. THE REAL HERO OF YOUR STORY

On November 15, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David understood that his life was part of God’s story, told for God’s purposes. He even understood that it was the Lord, not himself, who was the hero of his life-story. So, when everything that he worked so hard to gain seemed to fall apart, David continued to trust in God. Even in obvious-seeming situations, he did not assume he knew what God wanted. The Lord invites us into the same sort of relationship that David had. When we trust him, we find we can be at peace, even in difficult times.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 5

2 Samuel #5. 2 Samuel 5:12-25; 1 Chronicles 11:15-19; 1 Chronicles 14:1-17

I want to revisit something we skipped over rather quickly last time. 2 Samuel 5:12 says this:

“Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.” (italics added for emphasis)

I think this is a key to most of this chapter, and actually, to the entire life of David. David did not consider his monarchy to be his doing, or his kingdom. David did not consider his life to be about himself. The Lord was the main character in the story of David’s life. Even after he was anointed, for fifteen years David wasn’t king, because God didn’t want him to be king yet. When he finally became king, it was because God wanted him to be king. The Lord did it, for the Lord’s own glory and purposes. It wasn’t about David. It was about God.

The incidents that follow this verse confirm that David maintained this attitude, especially about his kingdom.

5:17-25 appears to describe the same event as 1 Chronicles 11:15-20, and also 1 Chronicles 14:1-17. What happened is this. When Saul was king of Israel, David was his enemy. For the Philistines, that meant that Israel was divided, and less of a threat. Plus they gained a great victory over Israel in the battle when Saul was killed. But seven years have passed. David alone was now king over a united Israel. The Philistines rightly perceived this as a threat to them, so they immediately went looking for David, to bring him to battle and kill him if possible.

The Philistines invaded by coming up a valley that led from their lands by the coast, up into the highlands that were controlled by the Israelis. They did this once before, early in the reign of Saul. The valley the Philistines used against David is called “Rephaim.” There is no place with that name anymore, but scholars feel pretty sure that the lower end of the valley comes out on the plains by modern-day Beit Shemesh – or, as it is called in Samuel, Beth Shemesh. There are two main branches in the higher part of this valley, one that begins to the north of Ancient Jerusalem, and one that starts at a point to the south of Jerusalem, just north of Bethlehem. My personal opinion from reading the text is that the Philistines were in between Jerusalem and Bethlehem (see picture below). In fact, 1 Chronicles 11 says that when they invaded up the valley of Rephaim, they took over Bethlehem and kept a garrison of soldiers there.

Some scholars feel that all this happened before David captured Jerusalem, but it isn’t clear. One reason to think it was before the capture of Jerusalem is that Jerusalem was such a fortress, David didn’t need to go to a different stronghold. However, David, being the great tactician he was, may have decided he didn’t want his troops trapped in the city where he could not effectively do battle, and so he took them down to the south of the Philistine advance. There is no way to know for sure, although the account of the battle in 1 Chronicles 14 puts it this way:

⁸ When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they mobilized all their forces to capture him. But David was told they were coming, so he marched out to meet them. (1 Chronicles 14:8, NLT)

So, whether it was before, or after Jerusalem was captured, it appears that David took his army back to one of his old haunts – the Cave of Adullam, where he had previously hidden from both Saul and the Philistines (1 Samuel 22). We don’t know exactly where the cave was (in fact it probably refers to a number of caves in the same area. But from what the Bible says, and from the existence of actual caves in the region, it was probably to the south and west of Bethlehem, and to the south of the Philistine forces in the valley.

¹⁵ Once three of the thirty leading men went down to David’s rock at the cave of Adullam when the army of the Philistines was camping in the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁶ While David was in the fortified camp, Philistine troops were in Bethlehem. (1 Chronicles 11:15-16, GW)

It seems that David went to the cave of Adullam before the Philistines got to Bethlehem. So, when David attacked, it was from an unexpected direction. Instead of meeting them head on, he attacked on their right flank.

Let’s pause here and consider a few things.

After probably fifteen years of running, hiding, eking out existence and barely surviving, David became king of Judah. After seven years as king of only one tribe, his own tribe of Judah, he finally received the fulfillment of the Lord’s call on his life. Finally, he became king of all Israel.

The confetti had hardly settled to the ground before he was invaded. In short order indeed, David was right back to hiding in caves. Maybe an economic analogy would help us understand how this could have affected David. Think of a person who spent half her life in poverty, working steadily at a plan to build wealth, but seeing few results. None of the breaks ever seemed to come her way. After years, she finally reached the upper middle class. At last, seven years after that, she made her first million. Three weeks later she was flat broke again.

It had to be an awful feeling for David to find himself back in the caves where he hid from his enemies fifteen years or more before. If he was like me, he would have spent a lot of time whining to God about how he had done everything that was asked from him, and why couldn’t he ever catch a break? If he were like me, he would explained to the Lord that he had already been here and already learned this lesson, and what was the freaking point of this kind of hardship anyway? But David was not like me. He was like I want to become. He was like the person the Holy Spirit was showing the world through him – the true Messiah.

So when David went to the cave, he continued to trust the Lord. He asked God a simple question: What do you want to do here? What are you after in this situation? Shall I go and fight these guys or not?

Before we continue the main narrative, there’s a cool story about something that happened while David was in the cave during the invasion. There is no doubt that he did experience distress – he was a human being, after all. The enemy were camped in his own home-town (Bethlehem, in case you have forgotten). It was a hot and dry day, and David said (this was as close as he got to complaining) “I wish I could get a drink from the well at Bethlehem.” I think he was expressing that he was hot and thirsty. I think he was also upset that Bethlehem – his own town – was an enemy camp. He’s basically saying: “Wouldn’t it be wonderful, right now, if we could just walk up to that beautiful cold well in Bethlehem and have a drink? Wouldn’t it be great if there were no invasion at all?”

David was a fearsome warrior, and he led a bunch of other very powerful warriors. Three of the mightiest took David at his word, and broke through the Philistine lines and brought David a drink from the well at Bethlehem. David’s response is interesting:

They brought it back to David, but he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out to the LORD. 19 David said, “I would never do such a thing in the presence of God! How can I drink the blood of these men who risked their lives? ” For they brought it at the risk of their lives. So he would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three warriors. (1 Chronicles 11:18-19)

When I first read this, I thought, “I’d be angry if I were one of those three warriors.” But actually, I think what David was saying was this: “I am not worthy of such a costly drink. I can’t claim it. Only the Lord is worthy of that kind of effort and self-sacrifice.” He was actually honoring the men more by pouring it out than by drinking it. He “poured it out to the Lord.” He was saying that the lives of these men were precious to the Lord. There was a actually a type of offering called a drink offering, where a drink (usually wine) was poured into the ground. The idea was to say, “this is God’s, not mine, and I pour it out to show that everything I drink ultimately comes from God.” So David did not consider himself worthy of that kind of sacrifice from his men, and he directed their attention to the Lord. Life wasn’t about him, it was about God. God was the one who gave them the strength and flat-out guts to do this amazing deed. He was the one who was to be honored, not David.

The hero of this entire story is the Lord. David consciously realized this, and made statements to draw attention to the Lord, rather than himself. We think of God as loving and gracious and giving and kind – like the best possible parent. And yet, he is also the best, the only true Greatest Of All Time. No NBA superstar has more game than the Holy Spirit. No downhill skier can take a mogul like God. No warrior can be more ferocious and cunning than Jesus. No writer can craft a better story, no historian can plumb more significance from events than the Father. No musician can play a concerto or improvise a lick better than the Lord. Our Triune God is not just the writer and director of the play – he himself is the star performer, and he is brilliant at all he does.

I don’t know about you, but at my age, I don’t go in for hero-worship. Actually, I never did. Human heroes always suffer from significant flaws, and we get disappointed when we really give them our admiration. But there is one Person who is worthy of our hero-worship. David understood that, and he also understood that it wasn’t him. The amazing feats we see in other people – or the amazing things we can do ourselves – are just tiny reflections of the overwhelming awesomeness of God.

So David heard that God wanted to drive the Philistines out of Israel, and David obediently attacked. The Philistines were defeated, and David named the spot, “The Lord Breaks Out” (that’s what “Baal-perazim” means). Not “I have gotten victory.” Not even, “God helped me get a victory,” or even yet, “God got victory – for me.” No – it was God’s victory for God’s purposes and God’s glory. David and his men got to be the fierce warriors that they were created to be – but it was all about the Lord and for the Lord.

The Philistines made a second try. I love the fact that David did not assume that he should do the same thing again, just because it was the same situation. Instead, once more, he asked God what he wanted to do. The Lord did want him to fight again, but he gave David a different specific battle plan, along with the promise that God would be marching out in front of him, doing the real work of winning the battle.

So what do we take away from all this? The first thing I need to get straight is this business that my life is here for God’s plan, God’s purposes and his glory. None of what I am supposed to do is about me. God is amazing and gracious, and so even while he makes use of our lives for his own purposes, he blesses us in the midst of that. David got to be the king and lead like he was made to lead; he got to fight like the warrior he was created to be.

I get to study the bible and think and use my brain and then share it with people who are willing to listen to me. I get to sit here and tap on my keyboard and express the thoughts that the Lord gives me to express. I love it – I really do. It isn’t my message, and it isn’t about me, but I get blessed when I let God do his thing with my life. You will get blessed when you let him do his thing with your life – which is almost certainly going to look different from everybody else, because God has a unique purpose for each one of us. When I say “blessed,” I don’t necessarily mean financially or physically blessed – we Americans, especially, think that’s the main kind of blessing (it’s not). But you will experience the grace and favor of God if you let him be the hero of your life’s story. You’ll appreciate the story he writes through you.

Second, I need to remember that one kind of hero-worship IS acceptable. I need to pay more attention to how skilled, talented, smart, funny, tender, fierce and truly excellent God is. He deserves my worship and admiration. He is the best – at everything.

Third, when life takes a turn for the worse – as it did for David, many times in his life – I need to remember that this is all in God’s hands. If he wanted to hide this great leader of men, this fearsome warrior, in a cave, that was his business – David was his man whether on the throne, or in a cave. If God wants to allow hardship in my life, I will certainly pray for it to be cut short, and I will certainly believe that he will bring better times too. But I will also trust in the meantime that he knows what he is doing and I am ALWAYS in his hands.

I also want to take this away from the text: God is the one who fights the battles I have to be involved in. Most people are probably not called to physical warfare, like David was (although some people certainly are). But sometimes we are called to make a stand for something that is important to God. At other times the Lord calls us to engage in some project, or to work at a certain place, or be involved with certain people, and so on. We can consider all these things “battles” for the purposes of applying this text.

There are some battles we don’t have to fight. Sometimes we go to war without asking God, and so we end up fighting for ourselves. But David went to war only when God directed him. And when he did that, it was God who fought his battles for him. So if you are in a battle that you have to be in, one that you are supposed to fight, remember, it is God who really achieves the victory. All we need to do is show up and let him use us. I take great comfort in that.

The flipside is important, too. We don’t need to fight any battles except the ones the Lord has for us. It’s a good lesson to learn from David that we should ask the Lord before just launching into some kind of endeavor. Even though it may have seemed obvious, David kept asking the Lord before engaging in battle. We might find that we have fewer battles to fight if we only engage when the Lord is telling us to.

When we realize that God is the main character in our story, the one true hero, it takes a lot of pressure off us. Our part is to respond to God, to let him work in and through our lives. But he’s the one telling the story of our lives, and he’s the one who is responsible for how it turns out. I don’t mean that there are no consequences to our actions. But I do mean that if we do our best to be faithful to him, we can be at rest about how things turn out. We can be at rest even when we fail at times to be faithful, because God’s nature does not change:

¹¹ The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
¹² if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
¹³ if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:11-13, ESV)

What is the Lord saying to you today?

2 SAMUEL #4: THE CONQUERING KING

On November 8, 2024 By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Photo by Bharath Kumar Venkatesh on Pexels.com

David was the rightful king of the Israelites. He was God’s choice for them. He had already fought for them, and he was their own flesh and blood. In the same way, Jesus is our rightful king. He is God’s choice for us. He has already conquered the devil on our behalf. For our sakes, he became human—he is our own flesh and blood. Give him permission to be king over every area of your life. If you can’t quite give him permission to take a particular area of your life, give him just a crack, and see what happens.

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2 SAMUEL #4. 2 SAMUEL 5:1-12

After Saul’s war-leader, Abner, died, his coalition fell apart. Saul’s last surviving son Ish-Bosheth was murdered, and then finally the leaders of the other 11 tribes of Israel came to David to ask him to become their king.

The material for the book of Samuel was recorded more or less as it happened by Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. It was put into order and made into this book during the time of David’s grandchildren. We don’t know who put it all together, but we do know that they were willing to show David’s faults and failings. There is another book in the Bible that describes some of the same events that are found in 2 Samuel. That book is 1 Chronicles. Whoever wrote 1 Chronicles did so more than 400 years after David’s time. The author of 1 Chronicles clearly used some of the book of Samuel, but he was interested in different things, and he had a different purpose in writing, and so sometimes we get more detail, sometimes less. From here on out in this sermon series, we will occasionally refer to chapters in 1 Chronicles to fill in details.

1 Chronicles 12:23-40 describes more about the names and tribes of other Israelites involved in making David King over the whole nation. In Chronicles, specific leaders and groups of leaders are named, showing that a large number of influential people from all twelve tribes came to make David king. Chronicles records that they feasted and celebrated joyfully.

Back to the text in 2 Samuel. These leaders gave three reasons why they wanted to finally receive David as their king. First, they said, “you are our flesh and blood.” They were saying, “you aren’t a foreigner, that we should fight you – we are all Israelites after all. Judah is part of Israel.” They were recognizing that Saul’s attitude was wrong.

Second, the leaders said to David, “you were the one who used to lead us out to battle, and bring us back safely.” They are remembering his faithful service to Saul, which perhaps David thought had gone forgotten and unrewarded. David had already been their leader in the past, though that service was not officially acknowledged up until now. As a leader, he had accomplished great victories, and brought the troops back more safely than he would have in defeat.

Finally, they were acknowledging that God himself had chosen David to be their king. They were at last submitting to God’s plan for his people. They said: The LORD also said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel and be ruler over Israel.’ ” They are acknowledging at last that God had a call on David’s life, and it was God’s will for him to be their king.

Verses 6-12 of 2 Samuel 5 tells us about Jerusalem. Up until that time, Jerusalem was controlled by a pagan tribe of people known as the Jebusites. They were a sub-tribe of Amorites – one of the non-Israelite tribes that the Israelites were supposed to conquer and drive out. However, there were steep ravines to the south, west and east of Jerusalem, and at the top of the slope, the walls began.

It was a formidable fortress. The Israelites had defeated several kings of Jerusalem and had burned the city itself once (perhaps before it had walls), but they had never managed to capture it and hold it. Now, with walls, the Jebusites are confident that no one could take it. We should understand that it was much smaller in those days. The Jebusite City of Jerusalem covered only about 12 acres on the very top of the end of the ridge. This area is now known as Mount Zion. In the following years, the city spread out greatly, and in modern times, Mt Zion is just one hill in the very large metropolis that is Jerusalem.

In spite of its reputation and history of being impossible to conquer, one of David’s first acts as king of all Israel was to attempt it. David shows here that he is smart and cunning, as well as courageous and strong. Water for the city was collected from the spring of Gihon, which was near the bottom of the Kidron valley, on the east side of the city. The fortifications around those springs (shown in the picture above) were built by David, after he conquered the city. The Jebusites did not bother to guard the spring.

There was a shaft, or tunnel, that went through the hill down to the spring, so that the Jebusites could get water without going outside the city walls. David learned of this. It is quite possible that he observed Jebusites drawing water there, back when he was worshipping God at the tabernacle, when it was kept across the Kidron valley, at Nob (now known as the Mount of Olives). In any case, he determined that the way to take the city was to infiltrate men up the water tunnel. It was a very narrow space, and the men would certainly have had to go one by one, gathering at the top before the assault. That is what David did, with his nephew Joab leading the way and killing the first enemy. By doing that, Joab cemented his position as commander of David’s armies. The city fell without any destruction to the walls, and David made it the new capital of Israel.

These are the actions of a brilliant leader. First, it was terrific military strategy to make use of the water shaft, and attack the Jebusites from within the city. Second, Jerusalem was still an impregnable fortress, an excellent choice for the seat of government in troubled times. Afterward, David built towers covering the entrance to the water shaft, so no one would take the city the same way he had.

Third, it was an extraordinary diplomatic move. David was from the tribe of Judah and up until this time, his capital was a city of Judah. Saul had been from Benjamin, and had made his hometown into the center of power. But Jerusalem did not belong to any of the tribes – it was held by the Jebusites. So when David captured it, it became a city for all Israelites. No tribe could claim it, and no tribe would be offended that it was the capital city. It belonged to no one, and yet at the same time, to everyone. It was not quite centrally located, but it was close.

By the way, some secular archaeologists dispute the existence of David (they choose to ignore the incredible documentary reliability of the Old Testament). However, a water shaft from the spring of Gihon leading up to Mount Zion was discovered in the 1860s. It doesn’t have David’s name on it, of course, but once more, the Bible told us of it before archeologists discovered it. In the 1980’s archaeologists were convinced that this shaft was dug after the time of David. But more recent work suggests that the water tunnel originally occurred naturally, long before David’s time.

The point is, the book of Samuel describes things that are actually still there. In a sense you might say that if the bible is right, there should be evidence of a water shaft in that location, and sure enough, there is not only evidence, but the actual tunnel itself.

As always, I think it is helpful when we read the Old Testament, to ask “where is Jesus here? How does this reveal Jesus to me?” Well, Jesus, is the rightful king of every Christian. That is God’s desire for us. He should be the ruler over everything in our lives. But even though David was chosen by God to be the king, he waited patiently until the people accepted that and submitted their lives to him joyfully. Even though the Lordship of Jesus is God’s will for us, we have not all submitted to that. Jesus is waiting patiently for us to submit all areas of our lives joyfully to him. Does Jesus determine how you spend your money? Does he determine how you spend your time or energy? Is it the words of Jesus that you speak to your family and friends and co-workers?

Jesus should be king over our lives for some of the same reasons that the Israelites gave for submitting to David. Jesus is fully God, yes, but he is also our flesh and blood – he is fully human, just like us. Hebrews 2:14-18 says:

14 Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through His death He might destroy the one holding the power of death — that is, the Devil — 15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death. 16 For it is clear that He does not reach out to help angels, but to help Abraham’s offspring. 17 Therefore, He had to be like His brothers in every way, so that He could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tested and has suffered, He is able to help those who are tested. (Heb 2:14-18, HCSB)

Jesus is our flesh and blood. He belongs to us and we to him. In Jesus, God became more accessible, more understandable, by taking on, forever, human nature. He has a right to be the king of humans, because he is a human. He can sympathize with us and understand our struggles.

Second, Jesus is the originator and creator of everything. He is our protector and sustainer. He has already helped us, already served us, already kept us safe. He has already suffered and died on our behalf. By virtue of how he has already served us, he deserves to be our Lord.

Finally, it is God’s desire that we surrender entirely to Jesus (Philippians 2:9-11). He is the rightful and chosen king of our lives. This is God’s desire – that we allow Jesus to live his life through us, as the owner of our lives. If you feel a little frustrated for David that it took the Israelites so long to accept what God was doing, consider accepting what God wants for your own life!

What about the conquering of Jerusalem? Does that tell us anything about Jesus and his work in our own lives?

Sometimes we really want Jesus to be king over all our lives, but there are parts of our lives that seem like they will never be changed. Maybe you think you will never be able to stop drinking. Some folks struggle with other particular sins that they feel they can never conquer. Perhaps you think, “I am a person who easily gets depressed. That’s just who I am. Nothing is going to change that.” Or, “I’m angry. That’s just my nature, and it’s never going to change.” We might feel like there are parts of our lives that Jesus simply won’t be able to conquer, places where we just can’t let him be king. Maybe you feel like that about some loved one in your life. You think “Jesus can never get into his life.”

The Jebusites thought they were invulnerable. They had an impressive fortress. But one crack, big enough to fit one man at a time, led to their downfall, and then the city belonged to the king. Jesus is a warrior like David. He is wise and cunning like David. If there is just one little crack, one place where you can say “yes” to Jesus, he can exploit it, and use it to conquer the evil in your life. He can get to people that you think are invulnerable to him.

So if you are concerned about someone else in your life, I say trust him. Ask him to do his work on your loved one. And if the problem is in your own life, I say, simply give him a “yes.” Find some way to say “yes, Jesus. I don’t think I can ever give up drinking [or whatever], but I give you permission to try and take over that part of my life.” Watch what he can do if you just give him the tiny crack of your willingness.

So, where you can, welcome Jesus as your king. Surrender your life to him, submit to him. Let it be his life from now on. And where you can’t do that, where there is a fortress around your heart, just give him a tiny crack. Just be willing for him to make the attempt.

How is the Holy Spirit speaking to you today?

SERENITY PRAYER #12: SUMMARY AND APPLICATION

On October 10, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

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This week I just want to do a brief summary of the lessons on the Serenity Prayer. We’ve talked about a lot of things, and while I don’t expect everyone to connect with everything, I also trust that at least some things have been helpful in your journey with God. As I quickly go through the lines of the prayer, I’d like to ask you to consider these questions:

What is one new or refreshed way of thinking about my life in Christ that I have seen through this study?
What is one practice, habit, or discipline in my life in Christ that I have begun to practice or would like to begin practicing after this study?
What is one area we talked about that I’d like to know more about, whether in this group, or in my own personal times of studying God’s Word?

Ok, let’s walk through the lines as we did week by week. And if your most important takeaways were different from what I summarize here, I think that may well be a good thing. We serve a God who speaks to us both as a community and as individual children.

God, grant: The character of the God we pray to shapes the way we pray and how we expect Him to answer. And we recognize our dependence on God, not just for our salvation, but for our day-to-day sanctification.

The serenity to accept the things we cannot change: Life is outside our control, and that’s not only ok, it’s actually good. We can turn to the God who is in control and trust Him as we learn to accept life on life’s terms. We also recognize the truth that we are limited beings, not gods ourselves.

The courage to change the things we can: Living faithfully means doing hard things and costly things at times. We operate in trust that God is at work, and that He will give us what we need to make the changes in ourselves that He is asking us to make. We set aside fear-based decision making and the need to blame others and bravely face what we can do something about.

The wisdom to know the difference: We look for wisdom from God, not from ourselves. That wisdom will come through His Word, through Christian community, and through our time in prayer. It will generally be found in humility and peace.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time: We don’t stay trapped in the past, or live in anxiety about the future. We try to pay attention to what God is doing in our lives right now and respond to Him in the present. We enjoy what He has given us today for our daily bread more than we focus on what we had in the past or hope to have in the future.

Accepting hardships as a pathway to peace: Hardship and suffering are part of the normal Christian life. We can fight against that reality, or we can look for ways to accept what we have and find contentment in the presence of God with us in the middle of the pain.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it to be: Jesus was able to live a holy and righteous life of perfect submission to the Father in the middle of a very broken and sinful world. If we want to navigate this world well, as He did, we need to adopt the same tools of prayer and acceptance.

Trusting that He will make all things right: Trust does not just mean agreeing with an idea, it means taking actions that show that idea. And God gets to determine what “right” looks like. If that doesn’t match our definitions, we choose to trust Him and revise our definitions.

If we surrender to His will: Choosing to follow Jesus means I die to my self and give control of my life to Him. I don’t have to like His will. I don’t have to understand His will. I choose to give up my rights to Him and obey His will.

That we may be reasonably happy in this life: There are things about living God’s way that work even in this life. They won’t give us perfect happiness, but happiness is not really our goal anyway; it is a by-product of having good and God-centered goals for our lives.

And supremely happy with Him forever: Following Jesus is ultimately not about this life anyway. It is about life in a kingdom that is coming and will last forever. We live in all these ways (because God makes it possible for us to do that) because we believe that our lives after the resurrection are going to be incredible in union with Christ. We are learning to live now in ways that will make sense then.

Before we pray the Serenity Prayer together one last time (at least in this study), let me share again the questions I asked at the beginning.

What is one new or refreshed way of thinking about my life in Christ that I have seen through this study?
What is one practice, habit, or discipline in my life in Christ that I have begun to practice or would like to begin practicing after this study?
What is one area we talked about that I’d like to know more about, whether in this group, or in my own personal times of studying God’s Word?

And now let’s pray.

God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it to be.

Trusting that He will make all things right if we surrender to His will – that we may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.

SERENITY PRAYER #10: REASONABLY HAPPY IN THIS LIFE…

On September 27, 2024 By Pastor TomIn Podcast, Religion, Serenity Prayer, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

What kind of happiness should Christians desire? How does that come into our life as we follow Jesus? What does the bible say about the happiness of those who follow Jesus?

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download Serenity Prayer Part 10

Matthew 5:1-12; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14

Imagine with me for a moment that you are talking to a friend or relative you haven’t seen in several years. It may be at a family get-together, or a friend’s wedding, or a high school class reunion. You talk for a few minutes about life, catching up on the events of the last few years, and then the other person asks you a question: “Are you happy?” How would you respond? What does it mean to be happy – even reasonably happy? This week, as we continue to meditate on the Serenity Prayer, we will take a look at that question. But first, let’s pray.

Over the last several weeks, we have been asking God for several things: serenity, courage, wisdom, the ability to be present and enjoy this moment, acceptance, trust, surrender. And now we finally get to the end result. What is it that we are hoping all these things produce in our lives? There are probably several right answers to that question, but the Serenity Prayer provides an answer connected to happiness – reasonable happiness in this life, and supreme happiness in the life to come. Next week we will talk about our happiness in the life to come, but this week we are focused on the here and now – what does it mean to live a life that is reasonably happy?

One of the first things we need to confront is one of our culture’s idols. Our culture has idolized happiness. It has become a critical – maybe the critical – way to evaluate any decision. If you do X, will it make you happy? I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t consider happiness at all, but it needs to be way down the list. Too many people have walked away from callings, responsibilities, marriages, and even God Himself because they didn’t feel like they were happy where they were. I’m not saying this to heap coals of guilt on anyone who has made those decisions in the past – I’ve made some of them myself. If that’s a part of your story, grace upon grace to you – God is faithful to forgive. But if we want to live the life that God is giving us through Jesus Christ, if we want to walk out what He has been offering us as we pray this prayer, we need to make decisions moving forward that are not primarily directed toward our happiness.

You see, happiness is actually not an aiming point. It’s not a goal. It is, instead, a byproduct of pursuing the right aims, of moving toward the right goals. If we set out to find happiness, it will almost certainly elude us. But if we set out to find the things that God is calling us to, if we set out to live the life He is offering us, then at least at times, we are going to encounter happiness along the way. Not always – as the prayer says, we are “reasonably” happy in this life. Something more and better is ahead of us, and we will talk about that next week. But in the meanwhile, we can expect to have some measure of happiness in this life – particularly if we are looking for something else.

What should we look for? Well, I am going to point us to the Beatitudes: Jesus’ first public teaching in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus’ disciples gather to listen to Him in what we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus begins by telling them what the good life looks like. In most translations, these beatitudes begin with the word “blessed.” And frankly, I generally like that, because of what I’ve already said about how misplaced our pursuit of happiness can become. But the handful of translations that choose the word “happy” to begin these statements aren’t doing a bad job either. I’m not a Greek scholar, but I’m fairly well-trained in the language, and it’s a valid choice for the Greek word makarios. But what does it mean to say that Jesus begins by speaking the blessing of happiness over His listeners?

Let me detour for just a minute here. I’ve spent this year reading through the Bible with three close friends, and one part of my intention in doing that is to listen to the whole story with fresh ears. In doing that, there are some words that I’ve recognized that I may have a more partial understanding of than I’ve thought. It is ridiculously easy for us to bring our own meanings to the text of the Bible, and so I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit to clarify the meanings of some key words based on how God is using them in telling His story. And I’d like to do that with “happy” in the Beatitudes. If we start with our definition of happiness and try to make what Jesus says fit into it, we are probably going to miss at least some of what He is saying. But what if we start by saying, “Jesus is about to teach us what really brings happiness,” and then let that shape how we understand what happiness is and means, and how it functions in our lives? I think if we do that, we may come closer to realizing that reasonable happiness in this life. Let’s read this text. (Matthew 5:1-12) As I read, I’m going to intentionally use the word “happy” in place of the familiar “blessed,” (as the Good News Translation does).

“¹Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. ²And He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
³“Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴“Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
⁵“Happy are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth.
⁶“Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
⁷“Happy are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
⁸“Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
⁹“Happy are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
¹⁰“Happy are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹“Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Obviously, we could do an entire series on the teaching of Jesus in these verses. But for our purposes, I want to focus on just two of them, and help us see how understanding what Jesus is saying about happiness in those two verses can help us understand what it will mean for us to be reasonably happy in this life, and how it may challenge our internal definitions and desires for happiness. And I believe what we discover in those two examples can probably be applied to the others as well with time, meditation on God’s Word, and prayer.

Of all the statements Jesus makes here, the one that seems most counter-intuitive if we think in terms of happiness is verse four, “Happy are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” As I tend to define it, happiness and mourning are almost polar opposites. If I am mourning, then I have lost something – or more likely, someone – that I did not want to lose. I am grieving that loss. And this is where I believe we need to begin to redefine our picture of happiness. Is Jesus calling us to be happy because we have experienced loss? No. Why does He say we can be happy? Because we will be comforted. Paul talks about this in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14,

¹³Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. ¹⁴For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

Neither Paul nor Jesus is telling us that we should not be sad (although that false message has crept into some aspects of American Christianity). What they are both telling us is that our sadness is different, and even includes a dimension of happiness, because we believe that our mourning isn’t the final answer.

There is a strong connection here to what we have talked about in the last two weeks, “Trusting that God will make all things right if we surrender to His will.” Why can our mourning bring us to happiness? Because we believe that God is able to make things right. That doesn’t mean we sit back in our loss and do nothing. Think about the three parables of loss in Luke 15. A sheep is lost, a coin is lost, a son is lost. The shepherd who lost his sheep goes looking for it in the countryside until he finds it. The woman who lost her coin turns the house upside down until she finds it. And what about the father who lost his son? Well, he doesn’t go looking. Finding people and restoring relationships with them is more complicated than chasing down a sheep or a coin. But the father was watching as he waited. Even watching and waiting can be active in the kingdom of God. And what happens in each of these parables when what has been lost is now found? They have a party! The anxiety, fear, and frustration of the search has been replaced by joy that spreads through the whole neighborhood! A part of what Jesus calls us to in this Beatitude is to believe, even as we mourn, that a party is coming. And to let that belief bring us some modicum of happiness, even as we mourn.

That blend of happiness and pain is obvious in another of the Beatitudes: “

11 Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.”

Let this sentence challenge how you (and I) have been defining happiness. If happiness is primarily a product of my circumstances, then this sentence makes no sense. I don’t enjoy being insulted, excluded, lied about, and left out – not to mention the more physical persecutions and punishments that were waiting for many of Jesus’ listeners that day. If happiness means feeling good about what is happening in my life because I’m getting what I want, then I couldn’t possibly be happy in the middle of this kind of response from people around me. But what if I have been learning to accept hardships as a pathway to peace? What if God has been teaching me how to accept with serenity the things I cannot change? Because my ability to change what someone thinks of me or how they treat me is pretty limited. If I make it my goal in life to ensure that no one says anything evil about me, then I’d be better off going down to the beach and yelling at the tide to keep it from coming in. But what if I learn to accept life on life’s terms? To surrender to God’s will that allows me to suffer in these ways, and trust that He will make it right…eventually?

And that’s what Jesus goes on to say in the next verse: “¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in this same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” How do we find happiness in the middle of persecution? One, we recognize that a day is coming when God will make this right. We are confidently hoping to enjoy the Presence of God forever (what reward could be greater?) And two, we see that we are finding our place among the people of God. This is what has always happened for people who are devoted to God and committed to Him above everything else. Whether we are going around making prophetic proclamations or not, when we live as citizens of the coming kingdom, we are setting ourselves up to be mocked, scorned, and ridiculed. And the good news is, we are in good company! The painful opposition we face is the same painful opposition the faithful people of God have almost always faced.

I believe if we took the time, we would see the same theme running through each of the Beatitudes: that we can be reasonably happy in this life because we trust that living as citizens of the heavenly kingdom is a part of our learning to live the eternal lives that God is preparing for us and preparing us for. Now, it won’t “work” in this world. We will see other people accumulate more wealth, get more honor and recognition, satisfy desires that are not kingdom-oriented, benefit from stirring up conflict, and get what they want in the short term. And at times, that will be painful for us. But we can find reasonable happiness in knowing that God is the one who will ultimately be responsible for our well-being, and we are preparing ourselves for eternal life with Him by living now in ways that really don’t work in the kingdom of this world, but will work admirably in the kingdom of heaven that has begun to break into this world, and will eventually, when Christ returns, overwhelm it.

Now, that is only going to produce reasonable happiness. We aren’t going to be ecstatic and bubbly all the time – honestly, I wonder about the well-being of people who come across that way. But we also aren’t dragging around with our faces cast to the ground, morosely hanging on until Jesus comes back. And our ability to be reasonably happy is connected to our willingness to surrender, as we talked about last week from Philippians 4. Paul was able to be reasonably happy because he had learned to accept life on life’s terms – to experience contentment in whatever circumstances God had given him as he lived out his calling in a broken, sinful world. Paul could see Jesus at work in the circumstances of his life, whether they were good or bad, and because Jesus was at work, Paul could engage his life as a child of God. The abundant life that Jesus promises us in John 10 isn’t just coming one day in the resurrection. It has already begun. And since it has already begun, we get to experience, at least in part, the joy that will one day be ours forever.

It’s probably been obvious as we go through the message today that we can’t really talk about our reasonable happiness in this life without talking about our supreme happiness in the next. They are inextricably connected – our happiness here is rooted in the happiness that is to come. And we’ll talk about that more next week.

With that said, let’s close again this week with the Serenity Prayer. I hope you’ll join with me as we pray. As I mentioned earlier, I have changed the wording to make it a communal prayer.

God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardships as a pathway to peace.

Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as we would have it to be.

Trusting that He will make all things right if we surrender to His will – that we may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever.

May God teach us to experience reasonable happiness this week as we wait for Him. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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Tag: faith

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