The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/2_samuel/2.htm

David is still being true to God, and now asks God if he should go to Judah, and God told him “yes”. Judah, that land given to Jacob’s son Judah, is where Jews descended from, the rest I suppose, were Hebrews who became Israeli’s. So David goes to Judah, and the people of Judah appoint him King of Judah in Hebron.

Abner however, the commander of Saul’s army, installed Saul’s son Ishbosheth, as King over the rest of Israel. Notice that I used the word “installed” rather than anointed, because Abner had no power to anointed anyone. And Abner certainly didn’t turn to God before making this decision; he had learned well from watching Saul do his own thing, but he didn’t learn the consequences of it.

David had already been anointed King of Israel by God’s prophet, Samuel. Anointing was an official religious ceremony conducted before God, like a religious marriage ceremony. I’ve not pondered the situations much, so I’m just talking off the top of my head, but according to man’s law, you can become legally married to someone simply by going before an installed judge, and when I say that, I’m not talking about a judge appointed by God, but rather a judge appointed by man, to oversee man’s law. But to have a marriage acknowledged by God, the ceremony must be performed before an ordained minister.

And you can get a religious marriage that isn’t legally valid according to man’s law, because we’re a democracy and not a theocracy, and it’s enough to make once scratch their head until it bleeds. Just understand for now, that David was anointed King and installed King by God, while Ishbosheth was simply installed by man.

And here we still see God giving man free-will to choose, and man choosing wrong. The world was evil, so God planned a flood and gave everyone the ability to repent and climb aboard the ark, be he also gave them free-will, and all but 8 people chose wrong. God hoped the flood would be a lesson to man, but man is hard headed and hard hearted, and stubborn as hell. And despite God’s teachings, despite the prophets God sent to guide people to doing right, despite giving the people a king like they wanted to rule over them, they still can’t seem to choose the right path.

And now these cousins, all descends of Jacob, are fighting each other. The land has become divided, Judah is following God and as such, has accepted David as God’s chosen, but the rest of Israel are drifting away from God and doing what they seem is best.

Scripture doesn’t say, so we have to make assumptions. I can assume many things; I can assumed that Abner wasn’t in the loop and wasn’t aware that David had been anointed, because scripture says that Samuel had to anointed David undercover because he feared Saul. But I can also assume that Saul, who suspected David to be the anointed one and was why he was trying to kill David, must have confided in Abner, so Abner was being loyal to Saul by installing his son as King of Israel to succeed Saul. Then again, perhaps Saul was trying to keep his “crazy” under wrap, so he didn’t confide his suspicions in Abner. But that seems unlikely as Jonathon even knew that Saul hated David and was trying to kill him.

Finally, maybe we’re not supposed to know, because it truly doesn’t matter. Maybe the whole purpose of this story is once again, to show us right from wrong, to show us the right path and the wrong path, to show us the importance of seeking guidance from God as to His Will as opposed to simply handling things our own way.

And now Israel and Judah have split and are fighting each other because Israel did not confide in God, which makes us recognize how divided our world has become because we don’t confide in God. And because we don’t rely on God to live our lives, we open the door for Satan to come in. It’s like being in a room with two doors; one leads to God, the other to Satan. We need to shut the door to Satan to prevent him from entering our lives, but keep the door open to God where we can confer with him constantly. Yet most of us shut the door to God, and leave the other door open which allows Satan to slip in.

Some of the people who were loyal to Ishmael or Esau have now created the Muslim religion, and follow their own Messiah, Muhammad. They still worship the same God of Abraham Christians do, they just don’t accept Jesus. Then there is the Orthodox Jews, who like the Pharisees, do not accept Jesus as their Messiah. Then there are religions that don’t even acknowledge the God of Abraham, and follow Buddah or Hindu.

And finally, even with Christians, we have divided ourselves because of different beliefs, different opinions, different interpretations of the Bible, to the point there are over 14,000 different Christian denominations. How, if we all proclaim to follow Christ, have we managed to convince ourselves that there are over 14,000 different ways to follow one Messiah.

That’s because our loyalties are misguided. It’s because we strive to have simply lives, and we want to take the easy path rather than the path God has chosen for us. We want happy lives, selfish lives, so we choose those things that we believe make us happy (even though those things come from Satan and are very short-lived).

I think was can over-think scripture to death. No, not all scripture should be taken literally; I recommend you take your newborn males to a physician for circumcision and don’t take them out into your back yard and sharpen the edge of a rock and do it yourself. There are some things in the Bible that were done because of the times and because of technology. But sometimes I think we overlook the trees because of the forest, that our lesson in life is simply…follow God. Reject pride of self and accept that God knows best. Have faith that God will not lead us astray, that God will only lead us to good endings, regardless of how we see things from our own perspective.

And to understand that our judgment, like Moses, can be clouded by stress, or clouded by mental illness like Saul, or clouded by envy like Cain.

And that is why when people get confused, and they don’t know where to turn, and they question why they were born and what the “meaning of life” is, all they have to do is open God’s Word and read, because your purpose in life as well as your guide to eternal life is found within those pages.

Sorry for rambling.