March 17, 2025 • 23 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, March 17th on Mark.
I've got some great coffee. Ihave all kinds of NCAA bracket
stuff piled up all aroundbecause it is March madness
time of the year. And onceagain, Dina will crush me in
the annual NCAA turn hamcontest. But hope springs
(01:15):
eternal and that's why I'mtrying yet again. I hope you're
getting your picks in hopeyou've got some coffee. Most
importantly, hope you're readyto think about yesterday's
sermon, trying to push thatinto our lives, not just to
have some talk aboutselflessness in the building.
No , we wanna live that outstarting today, and we
especially wanna give attentionto our daily Bible reading. Got
(01:37):
that coffee? Let's get ready,let's get set. Let's go. Let me
add a couple of notes toyesterday's sermon on
selflessness, both the sermonon selfishness two weeks ago
and selflessness yesterday.
Those were tough sermons to puttogether to really get down to
the root issue, to talk abouthow to combat that and how to
(02:00):
work with that. And I wanna saysome things about Jesus having
boundaries in his life. I'mafraid sometimes selfless comes
across as meaning self-care isnot important, and that's not
the case at all. Now, sometimesI am seeing more and more about
how self-care is all importantand that runs over into
(02:21):
selfishness. I have to becareful about that. But Jesus
has boundaries. In Luke chapter12 and verse 15, Jesus says
somebody on him saying, Hey, Ineed you to adjudicate this
situation with my brother aboutthe inheritance. And Jesus does
not say, oh yes, I have toserve. I have to do everything
People ask of me. Let me stopall that I'm doing, saving the
(02:41):
world and deal with this pettyproblem. No, no. Jesus doesn't
do that . He says, I , that'snot me. That's not what I'm all
about. I'm not doing that. Infact, then Jesus challenges
that man to think about therole that material possessions
are playing in his own life bytelling the story of the rich
farmer. In Mark chapter nine,James and John come and say,
Hey, we wanna sit at your rightand left hand in the kingdom.
(03:02):
They have no concept of whatthe kingdom's all about, but
again, Jesus does not say, Hey,you know what? I gotta do what
anybody asked me to do. So,okay, James and John, you get
the chairs? No, no. Jesus hassome boundaries. In Luke
chapter six, Jesus spends allnight in prayer. So he's not
always with the disciples, he'snot always teaching people. He
(03:23):
will take time for himself torefocus and to pray and to
commune with his father. InMatthew chapter 14, Jesus is in
the bottom of the boat. What'she doing? He's taking a nap. So
sometimes that picture ofselflessness means I can never
take care of me and I can neverdraw a boundary line. I can
(03:44):
never say no. We wanna becareful about that. I think
especially of the harried momwho is serving everyone and is
being used by everyone is justbeing run into the ground by
her family, she's unhappy, sheresents it, but she just keeps
letting herself be overworked.
Now, that may have started asserving and selflessness, but
(04:06):
what that has become now isjust a lazy family who's taking
advantage of their mother'skindness or her unwillingness
to have a strategicconversation about what real
selflessness is. Yes,selflessness includes
sacrifice, but Jesus didn'tneglect himself or fail to take
care of himself. Jesus does notdrop dead one day in Galilee
(04:29):
because he's dehydrated anddoesn't eat. No, Jesus takes
care of himself and he does notsay yes to every request.
Sometimes. Sometimes what'sbest for the person asking for
something is that we say no .
And Jesus did that. As I'vementioned in Luke chapter 12
and in Mark chapter nine, Jesussays Some nos that's hard to
(04:54):
hear maybe, but that's whatthey need to hear. And women, I
think this bonus note is reallyfor a lot of the ladies who
listen to the podcast, womenseem especially vulnerable to
the gospel of do more faster.
Deny yourself all of the time,be boundaryless and just run
yourself into the ground. Don'tget that confused with genuine
(05:18):
selfless lessness. I hope thathelps you as we move forward in
this week. We don't wanna beselfish , we want to be
selfless. And now we turn ourBibles to the Book of Samuel
and we begin Second Samuel,let's talk about daily Bible
reading. It is Monday andtoday's Bible reading is two
(05:55):
Samuel chapter one, verses oneto 16. May I say a word or two
about this new book of theBible that we're jumping off
into Second Samuel. Really it'snot new. There's very little
introduction necessary here. Itused to in fact be part of for
Samuel, it was all one book,but this is a good place to be
reminded. The second Samuel'snot really a biography of
(06:16):
David. There are big chunks ofDavid's life that are not
covered here and there's lotsof space spin on a couple of
important events. SecondSamuel's main purpose is to
show the establishment of themonarchy, especially since it's
in absolute tatters, since thePhilistines just crushed Saul
and ran a whole bunch of theIsraelites out of their own
territory. And second Samuelthen shows the establishment of
(06:38):
David's monarchy, his reigninghouse, particularly in regard
to the promises of secondSamuel seven, really second
Samuel's about the same thing.
First Samuel's about which isGod working through Israel, God
working through Israel'sleaders. The hero in Samuel
like the hero in all of theBible is the Lord. We need to
(07:00):
be mindful of that. Let me getsome coffee here. Hmm , that's
some Ethiopian Yuri chef andthat is wonderful coffee. So
here we have the account ofDavid receiving the news of
Saul's death and one of the keywords in chapter one is the
word fallen. It's found inverses 4 10, 12, 19 and 27, and
(07:21):
it is important verse one tonotice that o Old Testament
writers often divide majorsections of their writing with
the expression after the deathof Joshua begins after the
death of Moses. Judges beginswith after the death of Joshua.
So this is, this is a break inthe text maybe that justifies
dividing second Samuel from oneSamuel and this man, verse two
(07:44):
has come all the way fromgilboa to ziklag . That's about
80 miles and it's a littleironic to see an amite making a
beeline to prostrate himselfbefore David. What about some
of that? And then the accountverses six to 10 that he gives
is different than the accountthat the Bible gives in for
Samuel chapter 31. And ofcourse, Bible critics just go
(08:05):
crazy here as if there's no waywe could possibly reconcile
these two texts. So we need totoss the Bible in the trash can
. Newsflash not hard toreconcile. What happens here is
the amite just lies. He says hekilled Saul rather than Saul
committing suicide because hethinks David wants to hear that
and he will get a reward. Davidthen inquires about him and
(08:29):
realizes verse 13, that he hassome knowledge of the ways of
the Israelites and then Davidholds him accountable for what
he says he has done. He says hetook the life of the Lord's
anointed. As a result, his lifeis forfeited. That's our
reading on Monday , secondSamuel chapter one verses one
to 16 . Welcome to Tuesday,Tuesday's. Reading is second
(08:53):
Samuel chapter one , verses 17to 27. David's lament for Saul
and Jonathan , this is apowerful section of scripture.
I'm excited to talk about ittonight in Zoom. It is a
funeral dirge little differentthan the lament that we're
reading in the book of Psalmson Fridays. One scholar said
this Dge is characterized bythe frequent contrast of once
(09:16):
and now or past and present. Itstresses the good points and
the qualities of the dead. NoIll is spoken of the departed
one would not expect adistortion of truth, but
there's some allowance to bemade for certain amount of
poetical license, which wouldaccount for some of the things
that David says of Saul andJonathan , verse 18 has a lot
(09:36):
of translation issues. You havesome marginal notes there.
There's questions about how totranslate the front of the
verse and he said, or it shouldbe taught or this may be the
musical tune that this is to besung to. And then there's a
reference to the book of Dasher, and there are in the Bible a
number of references touninspired books. Just because
(09:58):
God used something for researchor had it written in some other
place does not mean that itshould be in your Bible and
somehow it fell out or that itconstitutes a lost book. The
Bible, we don't know very muchabout the book of Joshua or it
is quoted in Joshua chapter 10and maybe in one Kings chapter
eight. But again, we should notbe surprised that there's some
(10:18):
history written during thistime. David then talks about
gaff and chelon verse 20, andthat stands for the Philistines
as a whole. He just wishes thisnews wouldn't flood the
Philistine world and that theywould hear of Israel's
embarrassing loss. And thenverse 21, David places a curse
on the mountain of Gilboa. Itshould just be a barren place.
(10:39):
This is the place where theheroes of Israel have fallen.
And then when the middle of thepoem really verses 22 and 23
contains the purpose of thepoem, then you get David's
love, especially for Jonathan .
But but even for King Saul, dowe forget that Saul did wage
battles against the Philistinesand while David killed his
(11:01):
10,000, Saul killed histhousands. And so David says,
these were important men and wevalue them so we weep over
them. Maybe you've been to afuneral at some point in time
and a person's not so greataspects and parts of their life
are kind of glossed over. Well,that's kind of what David does
here. This is not a longrehearsal of all of Saul's
(11:24):
sins. We're not gonna haveDavid singing some of, oh, and
you failed in one Samuel 15 todo as God said, and you went
and consulted the occult andno, no, it's not time for that.
It's just time to think abouthow the mighty have fallen,
verse 25 and how much Davidloved Saul and especially how
(11:44):
much David loved Jonathan .
Regrettably, verse 26, somehave tried to make that into
some kind of homosexual passagethat's more a statement about
the people who do that thananything else in our society
today. We can't say the wordlove without thinking about
sexual things and sexuality,and that's that's caused a lot
of difficulties in our worldespecially. It creates all
(12:07):
kinds of barriers andhindrances to male friendships.
Everybody's afraid to say, Ivalue you as a friend. And
somebody might think, oh my,are they homosexual? There's
nothing in this verse about ahomosexual relationship that's
so far outside of anything thatDavid or Jonathan would've ever
even contemplated. It justsays, I needed you. I needed
(12:32):
your friendship. You were agreat help to me over verse 27,
how the mighty have fallen.
We'll talk more about thistonight with siders in our zoom
prayer and Bible study onTuesday, and that's what we do
on Tuesday nights and that'llbe a joy for us for the rest of
you, see you tomorrow on thepodcast as we journey further
(12:53):
into two Samuel, welcome toWednesday. Today we read two
Samuel chapter two , the entirechapter, and there is a lot of
geography here. This is thatplace where you need to be
familiar with the maps in theback of your Bible, be looking
at where things are. What we'llsee here is that the kingdom
gets divided in the first fourverses. The minute of Judah
(13:13):
come and they anoint David overJudah over the southern
kingdom. And of course, verseone, David checks his timing
with God first. That's soimportant, and he is anointed
in Hein, which or Hebron ,which is probably the most
important city in Judea at thistime. Jerusalem later will be
the capital. It's not now. ThenBuche V 8, 9, 10, and 11. He's
(13:37):
made the king over NorthernIsrael, but he's really just a
puppet in the hands of Abner.
Abner is Saul's cousin andAbner does not consult God. He
just does this because Abner isfor Abner, and please notice
verse eight that they go toHanem . Hannu is on the east
side of the Jordan River.
Hanham is the new capitalbecause the Philistines have
(13:59):
taken over so much territory inthe actual promised land. So
now they're on the east side ofthe Jordan River. Wow. The
Philistines really pushed Saulout of Israel, out of Israel
proper. And that leads then tothis battle beginning in verse
12, the field of sharp edges orsword edges where Abner and his
(14:22):
men meet David's men , andthere's a big battle here with
Joe AB and Abishai and Abner,and there's the killing then of
this terrible, this terriblekilling where Assael is struck
and killed. There is somediscussion about exactly how
he's killed in verse 23, but itseems like Asa hell who
(14:44):
Josephus says, could outrun ahorse. How about that is trying
to run Abner down and Abnerjust rams him with the back end
of his spear without evenstopping. He just runs up onto
his spear and that would trulybe a brutal way to die without
any question. Maybe one of thereasons we get this note is
because Joab never forgetsthis. He never forgets this
(15:07):
kind of thing, but that justsets up more fighting, more
civil war versus 24 to 32, allkinds of battling back and
forth. Really a terrible kindof thing going on because these
are Israelites fightingIsraelites and that sets up
what will happen in chapterthree. One more quick note
(15:29):
here. Asa hell was a greatwarrior. He is the first in the
list of the 31 Chronicles 11and 26. He was a commander of
the fourth of the army. This isjust terrible, and as I said,
Joab will never forget whathappened to his brother. The
reading for Wednesday is twoSamuel chapter two. It is
(15:52):
Thursday. It is Thursday, twoSamuel chapter three verses one
to 25 is the reading for today,and what an action packed
reading this is. It begins bysaying David grew stronger and
stronger, verse one, eventhough there was war between
the house of Saul and the houseof David, that's really what
this is about. David is gettingstronger by the minute.
Meanwhile, the house of Saul isdiminishing, arguing and
(16:15):
falling apart. We then get alist of David's wives and what
this says is David's involvedin polygamy. That's wrong. He
should not be doing that.
Deuteronomy 17, 17 specificallyforbids the king to multiply
wives. However, several ofthese wives have children that
become important in the storylater, and so the record here
(16:35):
helps us get ready for them andset that up. But more than
anything, it serves to showthat while Saul's house gets
weaker, David is growing instrength, power and status.
David's getting more and morewives, but verse seven ish,
Boche can't even control hisconcubines. There's a big
contrast here. It's important Ithink here to say a word about
(16:56):
concubines. Concubines are notfull wives. They are unofficial
wives and their children arenot allowed to inherit, but
they matter. To take the wifeor concubine of the former king
is to appropriate his propertyand to make a bid for the
throne. We will see more ofthat. Absalom tries that.
(17:17):
Second Samuel chapter 16 andadd , Aja tries that in one
Kings chapter two, there arepeople who don't understand why
it's such a big deal thatAbsalom goes in to David's
harem, his concubines, or whyAja asks for a woman who had
been used for David's purposesin one kings chapters one and
two. But when you ask for theroyal concubines, that is a way
(17:40):
of asking for the crown. You'retrying to act like you are the
king. And so Abner asks for aconcubine, and the result of
all of that is that he has afalling out with is Bcha .
Abner was very angry over thewords of is Bcha verse eight,
am I a dog's head of Judah?
Most commentators understandthis to mean you are treating
(18:04):
me the commander of the army asif I'm only the captain of a
pack of dogs. And remember, oh, this hurts me because I love
dogs so much, but in the OldTestament, dogs are unclean
animals and they are not viewedin a favorable light because
they are not pets. They areoften wild animals that run in
packs and cause all kinds ofproblems, rabies and so forth.
(18:25):
So Abner's had it with is Bocheand he decides he's gonna, he's
gonna defect . But the nextthing you know David is
undercutting Abner bynegotiating directly with is
Boche in verse 14. And he hassome terms. He wants a woman,
he wants his wife Michael back,and that may have to do with
the harem business that we justtalked about. Some have thought
(18:47):
it was just the savvy politicalmove because the presence of
Saul's daughter as his wifewould give David A. Strong
claim to the throne of Saul.
Maybe he just loves her. Whenwe read about them in First
Samuel chapter 18, about 10years ago, Michael loved David
a lot. She stood up for him andhid him when her dad was
(19:07):
looking to kill him. Maybethey're just in love and David
just loves this woman and wantsher back, but it certainly
shows that is Boche isweakening. He can't answer
Abner and he has to surrenderthis woman to David is Boche is
not the power. Abner's thepower. Abner is mad at ibo Shef
, the whole thing's fallingapart. The teaser in all of
(19:30):
this really the on the edge ofour seats, the cliffhanger here
is that Joab shows up, kind ofmiss some of what was going on
and he doesn't buy any of it.
At the end of our reading, hesays, what's going on here?
This Abner guy's out to getyou. He's just a spy. Remember,
there's bad blood between JoeAB and Abner, and that sets up
(19:53):
our reading for next Monday.
Tomorrow we're in the Psalms.
Our reading though for Thursdayis two Samuel three, one to 25.
Tomorrow we're in the Psalms.
It is Friday. It is Friday, andtoday we're reading Psalm 14,
the PS song about the atheist,the fool. Verse one says in his
(20:15):
heart, there is no God. Theyare corrupt. They do abominable
deeds. There is none who doesgood. The Bible doesn't pull
any punches when it comes toatheist and atheism. It's just
foolishness. It says thatclearly without any apology of
any sort, but we should noticewhere the fool is making this
proclamation. He's not sayingthere's no God on the news or
hawking a book. On the talkshows, he says that in his
(20:38):
heart, this is an innerconviction. This may or may not
have ever been publicly voiced,but this is practical atheism.
The person who says, God is notimportant in my life. He's
shutting off God. I live mylife the way I want to live.
And when you do that, thatmakes you into a fool, a person
who's living outside of realitythat will result verse one in
(21:01):
corruption and abominable deedsand not doing any good. The
Lord looks down and sees thiskind of foolishness. Verse
three, that they have becomecorrupt. A word that literally
means sour. Don't they know?
Verse four, all these evildoers who try to attack God's
people, they can't defeat God,so they attack God's people.
(21:22):
But you can't do that. Five,six, and seven says, God stands
up for his people. You can'tdefeat the Lord. You can't
defeat the Lord's people. Whata powerful message for us today
at a time when there ishostility towards people of
faith , and sometimes we feellike sometimes we feel like
(21:43):
maybe they're gonna win overthere. No, they're not. The
fools cannot defeat God. Ourreading for Friday is Psalm 14.
Well, thank you for listening.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast and reading the Bible
with me this week and thinkingmore about our sermon from
Sunday. If the podcast ishelping you, you know what to
(22:06):
do. Leave a rating or review somore people will find it and
tell somebody about it. Shareit on social media. Say I'm
reading the Bible, it's makinga big difference in my life,
and this podcast helps me toread the Bible, understand it,
and apply it well, until nextweek, then I'm Mark Roberts and
I wanna go to heaven and I wantyou to come to, I so appreciate
(22:30):
you listening to the podcast.
I'll see you on Monday with acup of coffee. Of course.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
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(23:04):
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you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday, March 17th on Mark.
I've got some great coffee. Ihave all kinds of NCAA bracket
stuff piled up all aroundbecause it is March madness
time of the year. And onceagain, Dina will crush me in
the annual NCAA turn hamcontest. But hope springs
(01:15):
eternal and that's why I'mtrying yet again. I hope you're
getting your picks in hopeyou've got some coffee. Most
importantly, hope you're readyto think about yesterday's
sermon, trying to push thatinto our lives, not just to
have some talk aboutselflessness in the building.
No , we wanna live that outstarting today, and we
especially wanna give attentionto our daily Bible reading. Got
(01:37):
that coffee? Let's get ready,let's get set. Let's go. Let me
add a couple of notes toyesterday's sermon on
selflessness, both the sermonon selfishness two weeks ago
and selflessness yesterday.
Those were tough sermons to puttogether to really get down to
the root issue, to talk abouthow to combat that and how to
(02:00):
work with that. And I wanna saysome things about Jesus having
boundaries in his life. I'mafraid sometimes selfless comes
across as meaning self-care isnot important, and that's not
the case at all. Now, sometimesI am seeing more and more about
how self-care is all importantand that runs over into
(02:21):
selfishness. I have to becareful about that. But Jesus
has boundaries. In Luke chapter12 and verse 15, Jesus says
somebody on him saying, Hey, Ineed you to adjudicate this
situation with my brother aboutthe inheritance. And Jesus does
not say, oh yes, I have toserve. I have to do everything
People ask of me. Let me stopall that I'm doing, saving the
(02:41):
world and deal with this pettyproblem. No, no. Jesus doesn't
do that . He says, I , that'snot me. That's not what I'm all
about. I'm not doing that. Infact, then Jesus challenges
that man to think about therole that material possessions
are playing in his own life bytelling the story of the rich
farmer. In Mark chapter nine,James and John come and say,
Hey, we wanna sit at your rightand left hand in the kingdom.
(03:02):
They have no concept of whatthe kingdom's all about, but
again, Jesus does not say, Hey,you know what? I gotta do what
anybody asked me to do. So,okay, James and John, you get
the chairs? No, no. Jesus hassome boundaries. In Luke
chapter six, Jesus spends allnight in prayer. So he's not
always with the disciples, he'snot always teaching people. He
(03:23):
will take time for himself torefocus and to pray and to
commune with his father. InMatthew chapter 14, Jesus is in
the bottom of the boat. What'she doing? He's taking a nap. So
sometimes that picture ofselflessness means I can never
take care of me and I can neverdraw a boundary line. I can
(03:44):
never say no. We wanna becareful about that. I think
especially of the harried momwho is serving everyone and is
being used by everyone is justbeing run into the ground by
her family, she's unhappy, sheresents it, but she just keeps
letting herself be overworked.
Now, that may have started asserving and selflessness, but
(04:06):
what that has become now isjust a lazy family who's taking
advantage of their mother'skindness or her unwillingness
to have a strategicconversation about what real
selflessness is. Yes,selflessness includes
sacrifice, but Jesus didn'tneglect himself or fail to take
care of himself. Jesus does notdrop dead one day in Galilee
(04:29):
because he's dehydrated anddoesn't eat. No, Jesus takes
care of himself and he does notsay yes to every request.
Sometimes. Sometimes what'sbest for the person asking for
something is that we say no .
And Jesus did that. As I'vementioned in Luke chapter 12
and in Mark chapter nine, Jesussays Some nos that's hard to
(04:54):
hear maybe, but that's whatthey need to hear. And women, I
think this bonus note is reallyfor a lot of the ladies who
listen to the podcast, womenseem especially vulnerable to
the gospel of do more faster.
Deny yourself all of the time,be boundaryless and just run
yourself into the ground. Don'tget that confused with genuine
(05:18):
selfless lessness. I hope thathelps you as we move forward in
this week. We don't wanna beselfish , we want to be
selfless. And now we turn ourBibles to the Book of Samuel
and we begin Second Samuel,let's talk about daily Bible
reading. It is Monday andtoday's Bible reading is two
(05:55):
Samuel chapter one, verses oneto 16. May I say a word or two
about this new book of theBible that we're jumping off
into Second Samuel. Really it'snot new. There's very little
introduction necessary here. Itused to in fact be part of for
Samuel, it was all one book,but this is a good place to be
reminded. The second Samuel'snot really a biography of
(06:16):
David. There are big chunks ofDavid's life that are not
covered here and there's lotsof space spin on a couple of
important events. SecondSamuel's main purpose is to
show the establishment of themonarchy, especially since it's
in absolute tatters, since thePhilistines just crushed Saul
and ran a whole bunch of theIsraelites out of their own
territory. And second Samuelthen shows the establishment of
(06:38):
David's monarchy, his reigninghouse, particularly in regard
to the promises of secondSamuel seven, really second
Samuel's about the same thing.
First Samuel's about which isGod working through Israel, God
working through Israel'sleaders. The hero in Samuel
like the hero in all of theBible is the Lord. We need to
(07:00):
be mindful of that. Let me getsome coffee here. Hmm , that's
some Ethiopian Yuri chef andthat is wonderful coffee. So
here we have the account ofDavid receiving the news of
Saul's death and one of the keywords in chapter one is the
word fallen. It's found inverses 4 10, 12, 19 and 27, and
(07:21):
it is important verse one tonotice that o Old Testament
writers often divide majorsections of their writing with
the expression after the deathof Joshua begins after the
death of Moses. Judges beginswith after the death of Joshua.
So this is, this is a break inthe text maybe that justifies
dividing second Samuel from oneSamuel and this man, verse two
(07:44):
has come all the way fromgilboa to ziklag . That's about
80 miles and it's a littleironic to see an amite making a
beeline to prostrate himselfbefore David. What about some
of that? And then the accountverses six to 10 that he gives
is different than the accountthat the Bible gives in for
Samuel chapter 31. And ofcourse, Bible critics just go
(08:05):
crazy here as if there's no waywe could possibly reconcile
these two texts. So we need totoss the Bible in the trash can
. Newsflash not hard toreconcile. What happens here is
the amite just lies. He says hekilled Saul rather than Saul
committing suicide because hethinks David wants to hear that
and he will get a reward. Davidthen inquires about him and
(08:29):
realizes verse 13, that he hassome knowledge of the ways of
the Israelites and then Davidholds him accountable for what
he says he has done. He says hetook the life of the Lord's
anointed. As a result, his lifeis forfeited. That's our
reading on Monday , secondSamuel chapter one verses one
to 16 . Welcome to Tuesday,Tuesday's. Reading is second
(08:53):
Samuel chapter one , verses 17to 27. David's lament for Saul
and Jonathan , this is apowerful section of scripture.
I'm excited to talk about ittonight in Zoom. It is a
funeral dirge little differentthan the lament that we're
reading in the book of Psalmson Fridays. One scholar said
this Dge is characterized bythe frequent contrast of once
(09:16):
and now or past and present. Itstresses the good points and
the qualities of the dead. NoIll is spoken of the departed
one would not expect adistortion of truth, but
there's some allowance to bemade for certain amount of
poetical license, which wouldaccount for some of the things
that David says of Saul andJonathan , verse 18 has a lot
(09:36):
of translation issues. You havesome marginal notes there.
There's questions about how totranslate the front of the
verse and he said, or it shouldbe taught or this may be the
musical tune that this is to besung to. And then there's a
reference to the book of Dasher, and there are in the Bible a
number of references touninspired books. Just because
(09:58):
God used something for researchor had it written in some other
place does not mean that itshould be in your Bible and
somehow it fell out or that itconstitutes a lost book. The
Bible, we don't know very muchabout the book of Joshua or it
is quoted in Joshua chapter 10and maybe in one Kings chapter
eight. But again, we should notbe surprised that there's some
(10:18):
history written during thistime. David then talks about
gaff and chelon verse 20, andthat stands for the Philistines
as a whole. He just wishes thisnews wouldn't flood the
Philistine world and that theywould hear of Israel's
embarrassing loss. And thenverse 21, David places a curse
on the mountain of Gilboa. Itshould just be a barren place.
(10:39):
This is the place where theheroes of Israel have fallen.
And then when the middle of thepoem really verses 22 and 23
contains the purpose of thepoem, then you get David's
love, especially for Jonathan .
But but even for King Saul, dowe forget that Saul did wage
battles against the Philistinesand while David killed his
(11:01):
10,000, Saul killed histhousands. And so David says,
these were important men and wevalue them so we weep over
them. Maybe you've been to afuneral at some point in time
and a person's not so greataspects and parts of their life
are kind of glossed over. Well,that's kind of what David does
here. This is not a longrehearsal of all of Saul's
(11:24):
sins. We're not gonna haveDavid singing some of, oh, and
you failed in one Samuel 15 todo as God said, and you went
and consulted the occult andno, no, it's not time for that.
It's just time to think abouthow the mighty have fallen,
verse 25 and how much Davidloved Saul and especially how
(11:44):
much David loved Jonathan .
Regrettably, verse 26, somehave tried to make that into
some kind of homosexual passagethat's more a statement about
the people who do that thananything else in our society
today. We can't say the wordlove without thinking about
sexual things and sexuality,and that's that's caused a lot
of difficulties in our worldespecially. It creates all
(12:07):
kinds of barriers andhindrances to male friendships.
Everybody's afraid to say, Ivalue you as a friend. And
somebody might think, oh my,are they homosexual? There's
nothing in this verse about ahomosexual relationship that's
so far outside of anything thatDavid or Jonathan would've ever
even contemplated. It justsays, I needed you. I needed
(12:32):
your friendship. You were agreat help to me over verse 27,
how the mighty have fallen.
We'll talk more about thistonight with siders in our zoom
prayer and Bible study onTuesday, and that's what we do
on Tuesday nights and that'llbe a joy for us for the rest of
you, see you tomorrow on thepodcast as we journey further
(12:53):
into two Samuel, welcome toWednesday. Today we read two
Samuel chapter two , the entirechapter, and there is a lot of
geography here. This is thatplace where you need to be
familiar with the maps in theback of your Bible, be looking
at where things are. What we'llsee here is that the kingdom
gets divided in the first fourverses. The minute of Judah
(13:13):
come and they anoint David overJudah over the southern
kingdom. And of course, verseone, David checks his timing
with God first. That's soimportant, and he is anointed
in Hein, which or Hebron ,which is probably the most
important city in Judea at thistime. Jerusalem later will be
the capital. It's not now. ThenBuche V 8, 9, 10, and 11. He's
(13:37):
made the king over NorthernIsrael, but he's really just a
puppet in the hands of Abner.
Abner is Saul's cousin andAbner does not consult God. He
just does this because Abner isfor Abner, and please notice
verse eight that they go toHanem . Hannu is on the east
side of the Jordan River.
Hanham is the new capitalbecause the Philistines have
(13:59):
taken over so much territory inthe actual promised land. So
now they're on the east side ofthe Jordan River. Wow. The
Philistines really pushed Saulout of Israel, out of Israel
proper. And that leads then tothis battle beginning in verse
12, the field of sharp edges orsword edges where Abner and his
(14:22):
men meet David's men , andthere's a big battle here with
Joe AB and Abishai and Abner,and there's the killing then of
this terrible, this terriblekilling where Assael is struck
and killed. There is somediscussion about exactly how
he's killed in verse 23, but itseems like Asa hell who
(14:44):
Josephus says, could outrun ahorse. How about that is trying
to run Abner down and Abnerjust rams him with the back end
of his spear without evenstopping. He just runs up onto
his spear and that would trulybe a brutal way to die without
any question. Maybe one of thereasons we get this note is
because Joab never forgetsthis. He never forgets this
(15:07):
kind of thing, but that justsets up more fighting, more
civil war versus 24 to 32, allkinds of battling back and
forth. Really a terrible kindof thing going on because these
are Israelites fightingIsraelites and that sets up
what will happen in chapterthree. One more quick note
(15:29):
here. Asa hell was a greatwarrior. He is the first in the
list of the 31 Chronicles 11and 26. He was a commander of
the fourth of the army. This isjust terrible, and as I said,
Joab will never forget whathappened to his brother. The
reading for Wednesday is twoSamuel chapter two. It is
(15:52):
Thursday. It is Thursday, twoSamuel chapter three verses one
to 25 is the reading for today,and what an action packed
reading this is. It begins bysaying David grew stronger and
stronger, verse one, eventhough there was war between
the house of Saul and the houseof David, that's really what
this is about. David is gettingstronger by the minute.
Meanwhile, the house of Saul isdiminishing, arguing and
(16:15):
falling apart. We then get alist of David's wives and what
this says is David's involvedin polygamy. That's wrong. He
should not be doing that.
Deuteronomy 17, 17 specificallyforbids the king to multiply
wives. However, several ofthese wives have children that
become important in the storylater, and so the record here
(16:35):
helps us get ready for them andset that up. But more than
anything, it serves to showthat while Saul's house gets
weaker, David is growing instrength, power and status.
David's getting more and morewives, but verse seven ish,
Boche can't even control hisconcubines. There's a big
contrast here. It's important Ithink here to say a word about
(16:56):
concubines. Concubines are notfull wives. They are unofficial
wives and their children arenot allowed to inherit, but
they matter. To take the wifeor concubine of the former king
is to appropriate his propertyand to make a bid for the
throne. We will see more ofthat. Absalom tries that.
(17:17):
Second Samuel chapter 16 andadd , Aja tries that in one
Kings chapter two, there arepeople who don't understand why
it's such a big deal thatAbsalom goes in to David's
harem, his concubines, or whyAja asks for a woman who had
been used for David's purposesin one kings chapters one and
two. But when you ask for theroyal concubines, that is a way
(17:40):
of asking for the crown. You'retrying to act like you are the
king. And so Abner asks for aconcubine, and the result of
all of that is that he has afalling out with is Bcha .
Abner was very angry over thewords of is Bcha verse eight,
am I a dog's head of Judah?
Most commentators understandthis to mean you are treating
(18:04):
me the commander of the army asif I'm only the captain of a
pack of dogs. And remember, oh, this hurts me because I love
dogs so much, but in the OldTestament, dogs are unclean
animals and they are not viewedin a favorable light because
they are not pets. They areoften wild animals that run in
packs and cause all kinds ofproblems, rabies and so forth.
(18:25):
So Abner's had it with is Bocheand he decides he's gonna, he's
gonna defect . But the nextthing you know David is
undercutting Abner bynegotiating directly with is
Boche in verse 14. And he hassome terms. He wants a woman,
he wants his wife Michael back,and that may have to do with
the harem business that we justtalked about. Some have thought
(18:47):
it was just the savvy politicalmove because the presence of
Saul's daughter as his wifewould give David A. Strong
claim to the throne of Saul.
Maybe he just loves her. Whenwe read about them in First
Samuel chapter 18, about 10years ago, Michael loved David
a lot. She stood up for him andhid him when her dad was
(19:07):
looking to kill him. Maybethey're just in love and David
just loves this woman and wantsher back, but it certainly
shows that is Boche isweakening. He can't answer
Abner and he has to surrenderthis woman to David is Boche is
not the power. Abner's thepower. Abner is mad at ibo Shef
, the whole thing's fallingapart. The teaser in all of
(19:30):
this really the on the edge ofour seats, the cliffhanger here
is that Joab shows up, kind ofmiss some of what was going on
and he doesn't buy any of it.
At the end of our reading, hesays, what's going on here?
This Abner guy's out to getyou. He's just a spy. Remember,
there's bad blood between JoeAB and Abner, and that sets up
(19:53):
our reading for next Monday.
Tomorrow we're in the Psalms.
Our reading though for Thursdayis two Samuel three, one to 25.
Tomorrow we're in the Psalms.
It is Friday. It is Friday, andtoday we're reading Psalm 14,
the PS song about the atheist,the fool. Verse one says in his
(20:15):
heart, there is no God. Theyare corrupt. They do abominable
deeds. There is none who doesgood. The Bible doesn't pull
any punches when it comes toatheist and atheism. It's just
foolishness. It says thatclearly without any apology of
any sort, but we should noticewhere the fool is making this
proclamation. He's not sayingthere's no God on the news or
hawking a book. On the talkshows, he says that in his
(20:38):
heart, this is an innerconviction. This may or may not
have ever been publicly voiced,but this is practical atheism.
The person who says, God is notimportant in my life. He's
shutting off God. I live mylife the way I want to live.
And when you do that, thatmakes you into a fool, a person
who's living outside of realitythat will result verse one in
(21:01):
corruption and abominable deedsand not doing any good. The
Lord looks down and sees thiskind of foolishness. Verse
three, that they have becomecorrupt. A word that literally
means sour. Don't they know?
Verse four, all these evildoers who try to attack God's
people, they can't defeat God,so they attack God's people.
(21:22):
But you can't do that. Five,six, and seven says, God stands
up for his people. You can'tdefeat the Lord. You can't
defeat the Lord's people. Whata powerful message for us today
at a time when there ishostility towards people of
faith , and sometimes we feellike sometimes we feel like
(21:43):
maybe they're gonna win overthere. No, they're not. The
fools cannot defeat God. Ourreading for Friday is Psalm 14.
Well, thank you for listening.
Thank you for listening to thepodcast and reading the Bible
with me this week and thinkingmore about our sermon from
Sunday. If the podcast ishelping you, you know what to
(22:06):
do. Leave a rating or review somore people will find it and
tell somebody about it. Shareit on social media. Say I'm
reading the Bible, it's makinga big difference in my life,
and this podcast helps me toread the Bible, understand it,
and apply it well, until nextweek, then I'm Mark Roberts and
I wanna go to heaven and I wantyou to come to, I so appreciate
(22:30):
you listening to the podcast.
I'll see you on Monday with acup of coffee. Of course.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
(23:04):
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
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