TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
2 Samuel 18:1-19:10
John 20:1-31
Psalm 119:153-176
Proverbs 16:14-15
Welcome to June! We’re on the verge of the halfway mark!
2 Samuel 18:2 — Notice that David paid attention to the loyalty of Ittai the Gittite. Now he’s a four-star general.
2 Samuel 18:8 — This is a curious phrase. Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible helps:
… and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured; … there were more slain in it the in the field of battle, what by one thing or another; as by falling into pits and on stumps of trees, and being entangled in the bushes, and could make but little haste, and so were overtaken by David’s men, and slain; insomuch that, as Josephus observes, there were more slain fleeing than fighting, and perhaps some might perish by wild beasts; so the Targum,
“and the beasts of the wood slew more of the people than were slain by the sword;”
and so the Syriac and Arabic versions render the words to the same purpose.
2 Samuel 18:9 — Speaking of the wood, the urbane Absalom got stuck in a tree.
2 Samuel 18:12 — The certain man learned the lesson of the Amalekite (2 Samuel 1:10) – don’t kill anyone that the king wants to protect!
2 Samuel 18:32-33 — “Is the young man Absalom safe?” David is moved by emotion for Absalom, but does he have a right to? David married many wives and even had more concubines (2 Samuel 5:13), clearly disobeying Deuteronomy 17:17. At the grave of the famous evangelist Billy Sunday, his sons are marked on his family memorial. The death years for his sons is close to Sunday’s, and some are before that of Billy himself. A biographer for D. L. Moody made a brief mention that all of D. L. Moody’s kids turned out okay as opposed to those of Sunday. Sunday’s three sons had nine marriages between them. From BereanWife.net:
George Marquis Sunday was born in 1892, William Ashley Sunday, Jr. in 1901, and Paul Thompson Sunday in 1907. These three sons were the source of untold grief and despair for their parents. They were drunkards, while their parents fought for Prohibition. They lived wild, riotous lives and embarrassed their parents. All three died before the age of 40 in tragic violent deaths. The oldest son committed suicide after being arrested for drunkenness and auto theft, one died while driving home drunk from a party, and the other crashed an airplane.
Like Billy Sunday, David accomplished much for the LORD but both regretted how their sons turned out. Is the young man Absalom safe? No, but he hasn’t been safe for a while.
2 Samuel 19:7 — While Joab wasn’t ethical, he was very practical. Thus, the moral danger of pragmatism. If pragmatism didn’t work, nobody would be enticed by it.
John 20:1 — ”Christ the LORD is risen today!“
John 20:9 — How many times had Jesus told them He would rise again? Matthew 20:19, Matthew 27:63, Mark 8:31, Mark 10:34, Luke 18:33, Luke 24:7, etc.
John 20:23 — Did the Apostles have special power to forgive sins? No!
The key to understanding the meaning of John 20:23 lies in the previous two verses: “Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” He sent them, as He is sending us, to bring the good news of the way to salvation and heaven to the whole world. Jesus was leaving the earth physically but promised God would be with them in the person of the Holy Spirit living in them. As they proclaimed the gospel, they could honestly tell people who believed in that message that their sins were forgiven, and they could honestly tell people that did not believe in the message that their sins were not forgiven and that they stand condemned in God’s eyes. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).
www.gotquestions.org/John-20-23.html
John 20:31 — The Gospel of John is not a collection of tales, inspirational stories, or morality plays. It is written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God!
Psalm 119:153 — How much of God’s Law do you have memorized? It’s a source of promises (Psalm 119:154), a treasury of mercy (Psalm 119:156), an eternal anchor (Psalm 119:160), awe-inspiring (Psalm 119:161), and the cause for rejoicing (Psalm 119:162)!
Psalm 119:165 — Need peace? Love the law!
Proverbs 16:14 — How do we pacify the wrathful King of Kings? Psalm 2:12 – submit to His Son!
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