Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / April 18 - 2 Samuel 11

Transcript

April 18 - 2 Samuel 11 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:12
  Hello friends, it's shown here it is Thursday, it's the 18th of
• 0:18
  April. And here we are to read another
• 0:20
  chapter of God's Word together. Welcome, welcome.
• 0:22
  Great to have you company as today it all falls off the
• 0:26
  rails. And David?
• 0:29
  David falls into temptation and behaves like a bit of a
• 0:33
  butthead. And unfortunately we discover
• 0:36
  that he is only human. And this, this is very, very
• 0:40
  rare in the ancient world. When people wrote about kings,
• 0:43
  they did not write down stories of the weaknesses of the kings
• 0:47
  and their moral failings. They extolled their virtues and
• 0:50
  their power and their victories and their awesomeness.
• 0:55
  So the fact that these documents actually exist, that talk about
• 0:59
  the failings of David as a man, this shows that it's not about
• 1:04
  Samuel, this book of Second Samuel.
• 1:06
  It's not about David. It is about God.
• 1:09
  God is the primary character in this story, and it's about how
• 1:13
  God continues to bring his people back to him and sets up
• 1:17
  his kingship over his people and in the end sets up this covenant
• 1:21
  with this people that will bring us our Saviour.
• 1:26
  So it's painful to hear this story and we can shake our heads
• 1:30
  and we can be aware of the sin in our own lives and that we too
• 1:34
  are not perfect. Yet God still somehow finds a
• 1:38
  way to draw us back, correct us gently, and have us be part of
• 1:42
  His Kingdom too. So let's read it together, shall
• 1:46
  we? Let's read Second Samuel Chapter
• 1:49
  11. In the spring of the year, when
• 2:02
  kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the
• 2:05
  Israelite army to fight the Ammonites.
• 2:08
  They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of
• 2:12
  Rabba. However, David stayed behind in
• 2:15
  Jerusalem. Late one afternoon after his
• 2:18
  midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof
• 2:23
  of the palace. As he looked out over the city,
• 2:27
  he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.
• 2:31
  He sent someone to find out who she was and he was told that is
• 2:35
  Bathsheba, the daughter of Elium and the wife of Uriah the
• 2:40
  Hittite. Then David sent messengers to
• 2:43
  get her and when she came to the palace, he slept with her.
• 2:47
  She had just completed the purification rights after having
• 2:51
  her menstrual period. Then she returned home.
• 2:55
  Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent
• 2:59
  a message to David saying I'm pregnant.
• 3:02
  Then David sent word to Joab send me Uriah, the Hittite.
• 3:07
  So Joab sent him to David. When Uriah arrived, David asked
• 3:12
  him how Joab and the Army were getting along and how the war
• 3:15
  was progressing. Then he told Uriah, go on home
• 3:19
  and relax. David even sent a gift to Uriah
• 3:23
  after he had left the palace. But Uriah didn't go home.
• 3:26
  He slept that night at the palace entrance with the King's
• 3:30
  palace guard. When David heard that Uriah had
• 3:33
  not gone home, he summoned him and asked, what's the matter.
• 3:37
  Why didn't you go home last night after being away for so
• 3:40
  long? Uriah replied.
• 3:42
  The Ark and the enemies of Israel and Judah are living in
• 3:46
  tents, and Joab and my master's men are camping in the open
• 3:50
  fields. How could I go home to wine and
• 3:53
  dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do
• 3:57
  such a thing. Well, stay here today, David
• 4:00
  told him. And tomorrow you may return to
• 4:03
  the army. So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem
• 4:06
  that day and the next. Then David invited him to dinner
• 4:10
  and got him drunk. But even then he couldn't get
• 4:14
  your riot to go home to his wife again.
• 4:17
  He slept at the palace entrance with the King's palace guard.
• 4:20
  So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to
• 4:25
  Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab
• 4:29
  station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest,
• 4:33
  then pull back so that he will be killed.
• 4:36
  So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he
• 4:40
  knew the enemy's strongest men were fighting.
• 4:43
  And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight Uriah,
• 4:47
  the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite
• 4:50
  soldiers. Then Joab sent a battle report
• 4:53
  to David. He told his messenger report all
• 4:57
  the news of the battle to the king, but he might get angry and
• 5:01
  ask why did the troops go so close to the city?
• 5:04
  Didn't they know they would be shooting from the walls?
• 5:07
  Wasn't Abimelech, son of Gideon killed at Thebes by a woman who
• 5:11
  threw a millstone down on him from the wall?
• 5:14
  Why would you get so close to the wall then?
• 5:17
  Tell him you're either Hittite was killed too, so the messenger
• 5:22
  went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David.
• 5:26
  The enemy came out against us in the open fields, he said, and as
• 5:30
  we chased them back to the city gate, the arches on the wall
• 5:34
  shot arrows at us. Some of the King's men were
• 5:37
  killed, including Uriah the Hittite.
• 5:40
  Well, tell Joeb not to be discouraged, David said.
• 5:44
  The sword devours this one today, and that one to Morrow.
• 5:48
  Fight harder next time and conquer the city when you're
• 5:52
  River's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned
• 5:56
  for him. When the period of mourning was
• 5:59
  over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and
• 6:03
  she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to her son.
• 6:08
  But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.
• 6:23
  Jesus, sometimes we really do just get caught up in our own
• 6:27
  plans, have we completely lose sight of what is up and what is
• 6:32
  down. Jesus, I pray that you would
• 6:37
  continually draw us back to you, back to your ways, and not some
• 6:43
  set of rules that we need to follow, but back to you as our
• 6:47
  truth. You told us that you are the
• 6:50
  way. You are the truth and you are
• 6:53
  the life. May it always be your way that
• 6:57
  we return to your truth, that we judge everything by and your
• 7:03
  life that we long for. Thank you for the gift that you
• 7:09
  are to us, Jesus, for the full provision of everything that we
• 7:13
  would need that lives in you and you alone.
• 7:18
  We worship you, our God and our King, and it's in your name that
• 7:23
  we pray. Ah man.