Are you willing to worship a God who you don't always understand? Are you willing to obey God even if you don't know why he asks you to do something? Those are questions we have to face up to as we come to this unexpected ending of 2nd Samuel. Because we have an event recorded here which seems utterly strange
What is it that you are gripping so tightly, that you couldn't let go, even if you wanted to? Is it the gospel? If someone came along and tried to convince you that the Bible was full of errors, or that Christianity was intolerant - has the gospel got such a hold of you that you couldn't give it up,
Eleazar struck down so many Philistines that after a while, he couldn't have let go of his sword, even if he wanted to. Would you rather die with your hand clinging to your sword? Or with your sword rusty because it’s used so rarely? Would you rather they had to put the sword in the coffin with you because they
Eleazar is a pretty obscure Bible character. And yet God noticed and highlighted what he did. Some commentators think that what verses 9 and 10 are describing are the aftermath of David killing Goliath. The picture would be that the rest of the troops in his contingent gave up pursuing the Philistines. They left him pursuing them alone. But he
We're not all called to take on the enemy on glamorous battlefields. As if there is such a thing anyway. Here in verses 11 and 12 we have a man called Shammah who takes his stand in a plot of ground full of lentils. I'm sure there are people that we're all looking forward to meeting in heaven. People from
Probably the most well-known of the events recorded in this chapter is what we read in verses 14-17. Three of the chief men overhear David, and they go and break through the Philistine camp and get water and bring it back to David. And when he realises what they've done, and that they've risked their lives to get it, he
We're not always good in the church at recognising people's service for God. The natural human reaction to not receiving any recognition for what we do, or for being criticised but never thanked, is to say: 'fine then, I'll not do it anymore'. But of course in the church, we're not actually doing what we do for other people. At
We've seen in recent weeks the stories of people who rebelled against David. What a wicked thing that was. David wasn't perfect. But he was God's anointed king. He was a man of humble origins - the son of Jesse as it says in verse 1. But, also as it says in verse 1, God had raised him on high.
The same news can have the opposite effect on different people. The King's coming is good news for his friends - but spells disaster for his enemies.Again and again the Bible divides the human race into two categories, and only two: Those who are for Christ - and those who are against him. In verse 6, those described as worthless
The other two illustrations in verse 4 fill in the picture a bit. The first is of the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning. The final picture of his reign is as rain. His 'reign' - his rule - will be like 'rain' that makes the grass sprout. Unlike other rulers who tramp people down, like a heavy boot