Latest / Abide In Me / October 29 - Speed Of Love 2026

Transcript

October 29 - Speed Of Love 2026 · Abide In Me

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you abide in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to season two of Pillars Abide in Me podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Christian.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Trish.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: This week we continue Speed of Love as we borrow from a Japanese theologian and his essay titled Three Mile an Hour God.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: God walks slowly because he is love.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: If he is not love, he would have gone much faster.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Love has its speed.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: It is an inner speed.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: It is a spiritual speed.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, at three miles an hour.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: It is the speed we walk, and therefore the speed the love of God walks.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: Love has a speed.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hear these words from 2 Samuel 11.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: It happened late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: The woman was very beautiful.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: David sent someone to inquire about the woman.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was reported, This is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So David sent messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now she was purifying herself after her period.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then she returned to her house.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: The woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent Uriah to David.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the people fared and how the war was going.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But Uriah slept at the house.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: When they told David Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, You have just come from a journey.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you not go down to your house?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uriah said to David, The Ark and Israel and Judah remain in boots, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: On the next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent him by the hand of Uriah.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: In the letter he wrote, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck down and die.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: As Joab kept watch over the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant warriors.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: The men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting, and he instructed the messenger.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Who killed Abemelech, son of Jerubul?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you go so near the wall?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then the archer shot at your servants from the wall.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: David said to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab, Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Press your attack on the city and overthrow it, and encourage him.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: When the wife of Uriah heard that her husband was dead, she made lamentation for him.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: When the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan to David.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Where is God in 2 Samuel 11?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Why didn't God send some version of the flood before torrential rains fell on Bathsheba's life?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Why didn't God show up in a pillar of cloud and fire that day before Uriah fell in battle?
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Where's the ram caught in a thicket for Bathsheba?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, in the narrative flow of 2 Samuel 11, the name of God never appears until the very end.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: The very last half sentence which merges into chapter 12.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Two things we want to notice.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: The apparent absence of God isn't the real absence of God.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: David controlling things, managing the storyline, covering his tracks, manipulating the system, putting people in harm's way.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, don't forget about the lives lost just to cover over the murder of Uriah the Hittite.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: The thing David did displeased the Lord.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: God was there, God was attentive, God was present.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, and we can't always see, but the apparent absence isn't meant to convey an actual absence.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe 2 Samuel 11, maybe Bathsheba and Uriah prefigure the one who would from a cross cry out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Why have you abandoned me?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why have you left me?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe Jesus takes on the seeming absence for all of those who know what it's like when God seems absent, and in so doing assures us of his presence.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: God in the absence, God in the silence, God in the abandonment.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: The thing David did displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe God is inviting a people, sending a people, a Nathan-like people, to not stand back quietly as injustices rage and violence happens and pain breaks lives.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the thing David did displeased the Lord and the Lord sent Nathan.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord sent a church to be present to those who experience absence, to be with those who don't dare share their story, to show up alongside those who have been ravaged and besieged.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: The thing David did displeased the Lord, and the Lord sent Nathan.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord sent the church to speak on behalf of those who can't speak, to confront those who abuse power and upsurb authority for the sake of their own gain, who manipulate systems for their own advantage using whomever and whatever they'd like to satisfy their own lusts and agendas and proclivities.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe God's apparent absence in 2 Samuel 11 isn't a real absence, but is certainly an invitation for us to show up.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: For our part as a pillar community, we'd love to be praying for you.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: So feel free to reach out to us at abide at pillarchurch.com and if you're willing, receive this blessing.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: May our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who came with grace and truth, also fill your hearts with grace and truth as you serve him in the days ahead.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And may the joy of the Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be your strength.