Day 158

2 Samuel 11:1-12:31, Acts 4:1-22, Psalms 71:1-8

It was all going so well, David was up there, he was on fire for God, he was the epitome of personal piety and then he looks out from his roof, spies a woman starkers in the bath and it all goes belly up. Big style.

I did laugh a little bit with v4 when David slept with her, “for she had purified herself from her uncleanness”. Like that matters when you are about to commit adultery, cleansed and then whoa, not quite so clean anymore. We think that David has gone off the rails a little bit, well that is nothing, he then goes and kills her husband, just so he can have her. Cue my next little bit of laughter, v27 “but the thing David had done displeased the Lord”. Of all the biblical understatements that we may be able to find, this is a beauty. A little bit of spying on a lady in the bath, a touch of adultery, a child out of wedlock and then a spot of murder, yep I would guess that the Lord is not best pleased.

You will have figured by now that I am a bit of a fan of the prophets and we are now getting deep into the time of Nathan, taking over the reigns from Samuel, Nathan is another prophecy great, certainly a high scorer on Old Testament Top Trumps. It does though drop us into one of those passages that we are going to struggle with. We are in pre-crucifixion OT punishment territory here and that makes for some rather difficult reading. But the God of justice is not going to let such misdemeanours go unpunished, it is just very hard when we have to read it.

Once Bathsheba is his proper wife, they have another son and we are introduced to Solomon, the one who will build the temple and be another great ruler over the people of Israel. Out of what appears to be a hopeless situation, a marriage built not entirely on the best foundations, comes a little boy that the Lord will use to do great things, yet another of the lessons that we could learn.

In Acts, it is interesting that the Holy Spirit is often called an advocate, a word that we may associate with lawyers, because Peter and John are in a bit of legal hot water, but the Spirit ends up speaking on their behalf and, would you believe it, they are soon out of jail. I love the response that they give later on though. They get what appears to be a meek telling off, “please don’t do it again” to which they pipe up, “fat chance, who do you think we are going to listen to, you or God”.

Who do we listen to? God or the people around us? Who do we allow to do the speaking? Relying on ourselves or letting the Spirit speak within us? Let’s trust in God and see where it takes us.