NTERESTING FACTS : "THE NEW TESTAMENT IS THE VERY BEST BOOK THAT EVER WAS OR EVER WILL BE KNOWN IN THE WORLD." -- CHARLES DICKENS

 

DAILY READING : 2SAMUEL 8 - 12

 

TEXT : 2Sa 11:27  And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD. 2Sa 12:9  Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. 2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.     

 

THEME : RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

 Chapters 8 - 12 cover a number of events in the life of David, including his wars. However, most notable is his kindness to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, and David's sin with Bathsheba and Uriah her husband.

 

Concerning David's kindness to Mephibosheth, we see in him a type of mercy shown to us by Christ. Lame in both feet from the incident of his nurse dropping him when Saul [his grandfather] and Jonathan [his father] were killed in the battle at Gilboa, he was a cripple for life. He was only five years old when he met his fate, and immediately our hearts go out to him when we read of his misfortune.

 

In an attempt to show kindness to Jonathan, David takes Mephibosheth and permits him to eat at the king's table.  The picture is touching. We can visualize this man - handicapped since he was a young child, the grandson of the man who tried to take David's life, and son of David's best friend, now as close to the king as anyone else present at the supper table. Here is where we find a type of Christ in king David, and you and me in Mephibosheth.

 

Sin has crippled our feet from walking in the ways of the Lord. We were born in sin  [Psa 51:5] and have offended the King, who by His own prerogative has the authority and right to cast us from His Kingdom forever. God retains the right to judge whomever He will since He is the Creator of all Men. All souls are His. [Eze 18:4]

 

Yet, we have a friend in Jesus! Sinless, holy, harmless, and undefiled, Jesus - the Son of God the King, is nevertheless the "friend of sinners." [Lk 7:34] Like Jonathan, Jesus has knit His soul with ours and saved us from the Father's wrath. He has loved us with an endless love, and since we love Christ, the Father likewise loves us! [Jn 16:27] We are now reconciled to the King, and will sit as His banqueting table! [Rev 19:9] Though undeserving, we have been shown mercy by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, we see a type of Christ and His Church in the mercy shown to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth.

 

Still, David is a man whose sin nature brings him down at times. Without a doubt, his taking Bathsheba and setting up of her husband Uriah to be murdered is his worse crime against God. This sin of David's is so egregious that God records in His Book, it was the only matter that displeased Him. ["Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." 1Ki 15:5] Although David's numbering of Israel also displeased God, his sin with Uriah's wife is the one mentioned by God as worthy of recall.

 

The reason the adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah is so flagrantly scandalous is that David premeditated the killing of Uriah. There is reasonable doubt that his sin in taking Bathsheba and having intercourse with her was a premeditated act. However, there is no doubt about his execution [in a manner of speaking] of Uriah. It was contrived, planned and acted on. It shows David's intellect and will were both involved. He tried to cover his sin, by getting Uriah drunk in the hope he would have intercourse with Bathsheba so Uriah and all Israel would assume the child was Uriah's.  Yet, matters were made worse when David gave the order to withdraw from Uriah in battle, making his death a certainty. In this, we see an egregious sin involving David's volition. He wanted Uriah dead, and as king, received his wish. Yet, like all sin, it found David out. [Nu 32:23]

 

David would have concealed his sins, had not God moved on Nathan and revealed to him what David had done. We see David's [proper] sense of righteousness in his verdict pronounced on the rich man who stole the poor man's sheep in the story told by Nathan. However, in the thunderous proclamation of Nathan crying - "Thou art the man!" - the fear of the Lord reaches David's heart. He now knows his sin is no secret - at least from God. This is why the judgment on David is so harsh. He knew from the beginning what he did was wrong, but was willing to keep it hid from the public. He took Bathsheba to wife, so, as the saying goes- "no one would have been any the wiser." Yet, God intervened. From this, we learn an important lesson.

 

Our sin can only be secret so long before it finds us out. As mentioned before, the law of sowing and reaping affects everyone. No one escape this sacred, sacrosanct, and unbreakable law. The apostle Paul assures us through the Holy Spirit of God that some people's sins are revealed in this life, others in the next. ["Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after."{ 1Ti_5:24}] Either way, unrepented or hidden sin is a fearful secret to hold, for we know the day will come that what we have done against God and His Holy nature will come back to us in all its nauseating fury!

 

TRUTH FOR TODAY : ONLY CHRIST CAN REDEEM US FROM SIN!

 

As David took in Mephibosheth, God likewise took David in. ["And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die."{ 2Sa 12:13  }] Further, as God took David in, He takes us back to Him in Christ. The Bible is emphatic on two points - everyone has sinned ["For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"{Ro 3:23}], and Christ is the only way to be forgiven and restored to the King. ["Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."{ Act_4:12  }]

 

However the Gospel [εὐαγγέλιον - yoo-ang-ghel'-ee-on - "a good message"] is good news by definition and description[1].  As sinners by birth [like Mephibosheth] and will [like David] we deserve the punishment meted out by the King of the Universe. However, in His merciful kindness, He saved us from this fate. He loves us and frees us from the debt and penalty of sin that by definition is the breaking of His Law[s]. Therefore, all of us hear the shout of the Word of the Lord - "thou art the man!" Further, we know it, because our conscience bears witness to our misdeeds and crimes against God.  Still, we are forgiven and restored to the Father who will have us at His banqueting table in the eons to come. Forever we will be with Him though we were crippled by sin in our former life.

 

However, being given new life in Christ, we no longer sin willingly, but rather perfect holiness in the fear of God. We know our past guilt. This, then, becomes motivation for our love to God and our desire to please Him in all matters of this life. God is good, and He never changes. Man changes. God never does. He is immutable [unchangeable]. By nature He is unable to change because He is God. For this reason [i.e. God is good and unchangeable] we are not judged but rather freed from sin's effects and consequence. Albert Barnes explains.

 

"The proper name of God, "He who Is," involves His unchangeableness. For change implies imperfection; it changes to that which is either more perfect or less perfect: to somewhat which that being, who changes, is not or has not. But God has everything in Himself perfectly.  "Thou Alone, O Lord, Art what Thou Art, and Thou Art Who Art. For what is one thing in the whole and another in parts, and wherein is anything subject to change, is not altogether what Is. And what beginneth from not being, and can be conceived, as not being, and only subsisteth through another thing, returns to not-being; and what hath a ‘has been,' which now is not, and a ‘to be,' which as yet is not, that is not, properly and absolutely. But Thou Art what Thou Art. For whatever Thou Art in any time or "way," that Thou Art wholly and always; and Thou Art, Who Art properly and simply, because Thou hast neither ‘to have been' or ‘to be about to be;' but only to be present; and canst not be conceived, ever not to have been."  "There is only one simple Good, and, therefore, One Alone Unchangeable, which is God."

 

God never changes. He is merciful and kind to us as David was to Mephibosheth and God was to David. Only Christ can redeem us from sin, and has done so with His death on the cross of Calvary!

 

Rom_5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 

Rom_5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

 

Rom_8:34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

 

Rom_14:9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

 

1Co_15:3  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

 

2Co_5:14  For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.

 

The gospel differs from the law in being known entirely from revelation. It is proclaimed in all its fullness in the revelation given in the New Testament. It is also found, although obscurely, in the Old Testament. It begins with the prophecy concerning the 'seed of the woman' (Gen_3:15), and the promise concerning Abraham, in whom all the nations should be blessed (Gen_12:3; Gen_15:5) and is also indicated in Act_10:43 and in the argument in Rom 4.

 

In the New Testament the gospel never means simply a book, but rather the message which Christ and His apostles announced. In some places it is called "the gospel of God," as, for example, Rom_1:1; 1Th_2:2, 1Th_2:9; 1Ti_1:11. In others it is called "the gospel of Christ" (Mar_1:1; Rom_1:16; Rom_15:19; 1Co_9:12, 1Co_9:18; Gal_1:7). In another it is called "the gospel of the grace of God" (Act_20:24); in another "the gospel of peace" (Eph_6:15); in another "the gospel of your salvation" (Eph_1:13); and in yet another "the glorious gospel" (2Co_4:4 the King James Version). The gospel is Christ: He is the subject of it, the object of it, and the life of it. It was preached by Him (Mat_4:23; Mat_11:5; Mar_1:14; Luk_4:18 margin), by the apostles (Act_16:10; Rom_1:15; Rom_2:16; 1Co_9:16) and by the evangelists (Act_8:25).

 

We must note the clear antithesis between the law and the gospel. The distinction between the two is important because, as Luther indicates, it contains the substance of all Christian doctrine. "By the law," says he, "nothing else is meant than God's word and command, directing what to do and what to leave undone, and requiring of us obedience of works. But the gospel is such doctrine of the word of God that neither requires our works nor commands us to do anything, but announces the offered grace of the forgiveness of sin and eternal salvation. Here we do nothing, but only receive what is offered through the word." The gospel, then, is the message of God, the teaching of Christianity, the redemption in and by Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, offered to all mankind. And as the gospel is bound up in the life of Christ, His biography and the record of His works, and the proclamation of what He has to offer, are all gathered into this single word, of which no better definition can be given than that of Melanchthon: "The gospel is the gratuitous promise of the remission of sins for Christ's sake." To hold tenaciously that in this gospel we have a supernatural revelation is in perfect consistency with the spirit of scientific inquiry. The gospel, as the whole message and doctrine of salvation, and as chiefly efficacious for contrition, faith, justification, renewal and sanctification, deals with facts of revelation and experience.

 

Taken from the - International Standard Bible Encyclopedia