Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / November 12, 2026 - 2 Samuel 4 & Proverbs 26:1-4

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November 12, 2026 - 2 Samuel 4 & Proverbs 26:1-4 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Thursday, November 12th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: 2 Samuel 4.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: When Ish Basheth, Saul's son, heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now Saul's son had two men who were captains of raiding bands.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: The name of the one was Baana, and the name of the other, Rakab, sons of Riman, a man of Benjamin, from Bearath, for Bearoth also is counted part of Benjamin.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Barathites fled to Getaim and have been sojourners there to this day.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame, and his name was Mephibosheth.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now the sons of Ramon, the Barathite, Rakab and Ba'anah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ish Basheth, as he was taking his noonday rest.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then Rakab and Ba'anah, his brother, escaped.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and put him to death and beheaded him.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: They took his head and went by the way of the Arabah all night, and brought the head of Ish Basheth to David at Hebron, and they said to the king, Here is the head of Ish Basheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has avenged my Lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: But David answered Rakab and Ba'an his brother, the sons of Rimon, the Barathite, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversary.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: When one told me, Behold, Saul is dead, and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklad, which was the reward I gave him for his news.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: How much more when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house, on his bed, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And David commanded his young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and feet, and hanged them besides the pool at Hebron.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs twenty-six verses one through four.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like snow in summer or rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool, like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: A whip for a horse, a bridle for a donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, for those of you keeping track, today is day two hundred and seventy-one out of three hundred and thirteen days of reading this year in the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: That in terms of a percentage is eighty-seven percent of the way done.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we are thirteen percent to go in this plan.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: We only have uh just a few more weeks left before the end of 2026, and we are looking forward to continuing things as we march on, starting in 2nd Kings at the beginning of 2027.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we begin today's podcast, we had another question come in through the app.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just as a reminder, you can download the app on the app store or the Google Play Store, and you can follow along with the reading plan.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I know some of you are purist in terms of having a physical book, so you don't necessarily need to read it on the app, but you can keep track, you can hit the little check mark and keep all the percentages.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a progress tab where you can see how much of the plan you've done, how many days you've done it in a row, uh, your current streak, days that you've read, how many notes and highlights?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that's if you do that in the app and ask questions like one that we are going to seek to answer today.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is very simply why didn't Jesus marry or have children?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the scriptures are somewhat silent on this, as in you're not going to find an exact verse, of course, that gives us the precise answer to this.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the clearest answer comes in what Jesus Himself says as he defines and characterizes his own ministry.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I must be about my father's business.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, the father sends the son uh to accomplish salvation and everything that was required, fulfilling all righteousness, everything that he did in his earthly life and ministry was aimed towards accomplishing the mission that the father had given him.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, uh, because Jesus did marry and have kids, uh, we can infer then that that was not a part of the father's plan for the mission that he gave him.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so it's not Jesus making some sort of statement that singleness is ideal or anything like that, but I do see some parallels between Jesus' life and his focus on, if you want to call it kingdom advancement, having a singular missional focus being about his father's business.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, where he basically says, I wish that you all were like myself, which in that context, he was speaking of his singleness.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why he said that was because he had a singular, undivided devotion to the Lord, and as a result, in a lot of ways, had an increased capacity to serve the Lord.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we know Paul as a prolific church planter, as a pro prolific missionary.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, of course, the book of Acts details a lot of Paul's journeys, and some of that was because he was was free from some of the obligations and responsibilities.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not implying in any way that children and families are a burden, but there is a sense, even in the scriptures.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 that the husband and the wife, the mother and the father are anxious about the things of the world.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't mean in a sinful way, but just things that occupy our our minds, our our time, our resources, and things that are good, but nevertheless can redirect our resources and our time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why Paul talks about, you know, I wish that all of you were like myself, as I am.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he wanted just a singular undivided devotion, which is why in that same chapter he says, uh, those of you who have wives, I want you to live as though you have none, uh, which is a startling statement to say, but he wasn't saying neglect your wife or pretend like you don't have one.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was saying just keep an undivided devotion on Christ and the ministry that he's given you, of making disciples.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, that starts in your home and irradiates outward from there.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So just some parallels of Jesus being focused in his earthly mission and ministry, heading towards the cross.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he says himself, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I came to serve and not to be served and to give my life as a ransom for many.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: He he gives a lot of purpose statements throughout the gospels, and all of those are heading towards the cross to accomplish salvation.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so, very simply, why didn't he marry and have children?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because it wasn't included in the Father's will or the father's plan in sending the Son to accomplish salvation.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really all we have.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: We do see that there is both in Jesus and in Paul, there is a reality of just undivided, singular focus that someone might have as a single individual to advance the kingdom of Christ Christ in a unique way.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, Jesus being the ultimate example of unique, as in he's the only savior who did what he did and was able to do what he did.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, uh we we see some of those parallels between Jesus and Paul, and um it's not some some sort of condemnation of marriage and family and kids, but just uh not included in the father's will for the son.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we transition to 2 Samuel 4 today, we continue to see the reverberations of just the state of the kingdom of Israel, which at this point is still divided.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of there's a king of Israel, David's considered the king of Judah, and there's kind of some civil war happening.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: People are choosing sides, people are trying to switch sides, and lives are being taken, blood is being shed in the process.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And today we've got a really tragic story of some people that in their own minds thought they were doing something good.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: People that we see in verse five, the sons of Ramon, the Barathite, Rakab and Ba'anah, they basically make this plan that in their minds is good.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, of course, uh Ish Basheth, which is mentioned multiple times here in the chapter, he is a son of Saul.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so the sons of Ramon, the Barathite, Rakab and Ba'anah, they're thinking to themselves, we're gonna show our loyalty to David, we're gonna show our loyalty to the true heir of the crown.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, I don't know exactly what they were thinking, but of course the text does tell us that they think it's something good and positive, and they sneak into Ish Bashet's house while he's sleeping under the false pretense that they're just trying to get grain and perhaps some provision for themselves, and they murder him in his sleep.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's grotesque, they behead him, it's awful, and they're feeling pretty good about themselves, and they go and they tell David Hey David, guess what?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what we did?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Even it it says here um that they essentially uh attributed this to the Lord's work in verse eight.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: David, here's the head of Ish Basheth, the son of Saul, he's your enemy who sought your life.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: David, this is a good thing.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord has avenged my Lord, the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: So they're literally essentially uh attributing their actions as some court some sort of victory that the Lord has blessed, that the Lord has provided them uh over David's enemies, or one of David's enemies perceived the son of Saul.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so Tyler, you you you made some mention of this in in your notes.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: What's concerning about their language, how they attribute their actions to the Lord?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why would that be concerning?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what are some ways that we might do that today?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's dangerous because we don't we don't want to presume what it is that pleases the Lord, uh, that would be honoring to the Lord outside of what we see about his character and his his explicit commands in scripture.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And these these guys might not be remembering the the servant of Saul uh earlier in the book of 2 Samuel.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: They might not have the information or maybe have forgotten what had taken place in the first chapter of 2 Samuel, where David has uh a man killed for for killing the Lord's anointed.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And and we look at the way that David has a high reverence for uh the king of Israel, whether or not that king is his enemy or not.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: But if if a man is is leading the people of Israel, whether it's from Saul's house or otherwise, uh David has a high regard and high reverence for this uh for this position of leadership.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: So David has these guys killed, and and he makes a spectacle of them as a great warning and a judgment for for going out and doing something like this in in the name of the Lord.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to have a great caution and we have to be uh w wise as we're reading the scriptures to learn from these people who are ascribing um work on behalf of the Lord when really it didn't please the Lord, didn't please David at all.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Wasn't from the Lord, and that's just a general principle that we can extract from this.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: People do this all the time in big ways and small ways, and it's not always with ill intent, and it's not always as grotesque as going to someone's house and beheading them, but we can attribute things to God inappropriately, and so we we just want to make sure.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we'll say like the the Lord led me to do this, or the Lord brought me to this place, or uh, I think the the Lord is doing it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like we we just want to be very, very cautious.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that we can't ever say those things, but we just need to make make sure that we don't attribute something to God that uh he had no part in, and that's what we see the people in this story do.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: They say, The Lord has avenged my Lord.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So they go and they murder a guy, they take off his head, and they say, Look what the Lord has done.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: But look at David's response in verse nine.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: David answered, As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversary, when one told me, and then he kind of recounts what you just said, hey, remember someone uh someone came back heralding good news that Saul was dead and David took care of them, and and how much more?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now that you've done this, you've killed an innocent, righteous man.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: And in verse 12, David commanded his young men and they killed them and cut off their heads and feet and hanged them beside the pool at Hebron.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: But they took the head of Ish Basheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, Ish Basheth gets kind of uh an honor.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh he's honored in the way that this all concludes.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the people that took his life thinking that they were doing a favor for David under the banner of God's will, they're they're ultimately uh brought to justice because uh of their actions.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we just need to be very careful.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the things may not be as extreme as we're seeing here in 2 Samuel 4, but we can certainly attribute things to God that God had nothing to do with.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we just want to be very careful.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen this both in just a kind of a benign way, meaning people will talk about God's will and God did this and God led me here.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also seen it where people want to excuse their sin as if God is some kind of co-author or co-signer uh to their wickedness.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we we want to just be very careful.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we want to make sure that we honor the Lord even with what we assign to him as something that he perhaps did uh or perhaps did not do.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we should be very reverential in the way that we speak of God, the things that we say God is doing, will do, has done, and just be cautious.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a good example of some people that did something and even thought perhaps they were doing it for the Lord, whatever their intentions might have been.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh David essentially is like, nope, this is not from God.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is not honoring to him.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: You did something wicked, and now you're you're ultimately gonna face justice.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it seems like foolishness, the the actions of uh these two men in 2 Samuel chapter 4 and the first four verses of Proverbs chapter 26 have to do with foolishness.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we look at the fool.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: The fool is explicitly stated and named in in three of the four verses today.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So it draws our attention to what we are to do with a fool, uh, how how we are to show them honor or lack thereof, and what to do in correction or discipline a fool.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look at uh verse three for just a moment here.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh a whip for the horse, uh, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And um, there's there's discipline, there's um there is correction, there is judgment that comes um that that is fitting for those who are making foolish choices, who are living a life uh of foolishness um in in regard to what God has instructed.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: And we think about even the the people that that enforce justice, that enforce this correction, whether we're in um in biblical times, in as we're reading these proverbs, or in modern day, there's there's ways that we interact with people that make foolish decisions, large or small, starting starting in the home.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and when our our children are are living in in our own home, we have an opportunity to correct them so that uh they don't become, Lord willing, people that are mature adults and are still living in a way um that does not honor the Lord, that are submitting themselves to him and are living foolishly.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: So we we want to make sure that we are looking and not honoring the fool.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's what verse fool, uh verse fool, verse one is all about.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's something that's fitting, there's something that is appropriate uh for the fool, and it's not honor.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's not uh a place of authority, it's not a place of of good status.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Just like snow is not present in summer, though there are outliers, you might be thinking, well, Tyler, what about that one time?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course not.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um this like rain is not in the harvest time, so honor is not fitting for a fool.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: So um honor is due to to those who are who are right rightly fitting for honor, uh those who are submitting their lives uh to God, that are responsible, respectable, uh God-fearing people.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the people that we want to honor and and give um give credit where it is where it is due, of course.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you so much for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bob Reading Podcast.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church, South Valley, visit Compass Bible SV.org.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your pet.