A Shocking Accusation
Read: 2 Samuel 12:1-14 You did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel. (v. 12) When our children were young, my husband would teach them Bible verses by reciting them together as a chant. One of their favorite verses was Numbers 32:23: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” No one […]
A Murderous Act
Read: 2 Samuel 11:14-27 The thing that David had done displeased the LORD. (v. 27) Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire,” James warns us in the New Testament. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” […]
An Adulterous Affair
Read: 2 Samuel 11:1-13 David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him. (v. 4) The account of David and Bathsheba is one of the most famous stories in Scripture. It’s focused on David and his actions—as well it should be, since David is a central figure in Scripture, and a forefather of Jesus. […]
A Heeded Correction
Read: 1 Samuel 25:32-44 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt. (v. 33) How do you respond when someone offers you a word of correction? Often, our first reaction is to argue or to defend ourselves from what we may perceive as an attack. But Proverbs 9:8 […]
A Compelling Plea
Read: 1 Samuel 25:23-31 The LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand. (v. 26) When I visited the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, I was impressed with the huge marble columns and the 19-foot seated statue of Abraham Lincoln. Magnificent! But it was Lincoln’s own words, inscribed on the walls, […]
A Decisive Woman
Read: 1 Samuel 25:14-22 Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master [Nabal] and against all his house. (v. 17) Who would you include in a list of biblical heroes who showed great courage and faith? No doubt the list would include Gideon, who attacked thousands of […]
A Bad-Tempered Man
Read: 1 Samuel 25:1-13 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?” (v. 10) On the very first page of Charles Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol, Dickens describes Ebenezer Scrooge as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” Dickens knew that if his story was going to engage his […]
An Embittered Woman
Read: 2 Samuel 6:12-23 [Michal] saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart. (v. 16) The book of Hebrews has good advice for Michal: “See to it that . . . no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Heb. 12:15). During a time […]
A Political Pawn
Read: 2 Samuel 3:12-21 One thing I require of you; that is, you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul’s daughter, when you come. (v. 13) It’s easy for us to feel sympathy for Michal. She was used as a political pawn by her father, to be a “snare” for David (see […]