The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/2_samuel/4.htm

Having read the Bible from front to back before, it is hard for me to refrain from the things Jesus taught, which will be reviewed later in the Bible. And the reason it is hard is because Jesus was always in existence with God in the Godhead, Jesus was seen throughout the Old Testament, and God and Jesus are just the same, so when I see the characteristics of Jesus in the Old Testament, which are the same characteristics of God, I feel the need to point them out.

In this book, which can be quite confusing because there are many, many names thrown around, some are sons of Saul, some are grandsons of Saul, some where in Saul’s army…so you have to take your time to make sure you understand who you are reading about, what their position was, and why they are even being mentioned.

I’ll just briefly say that in this chapter, I once again noticed that David was a just man. He was human with human emotions and thoughts, but he was godly enough that he was just. And when Joab killed Abner, Saul’s son Ishbosheth, who was made King of Israel by Abner, became depressed and Israel was in chaos, so two of the men of Saul’s army killed Ishbosheth, and thinking they were doing a good deed, beheaded him and brought his head to David.

Remember the Amalekite who thought he could find favor with David by falsely claiming he had killed Saul, but ended up be given the death penalty by David? The same happened for these two that brought the head of Ishbosheth to David. He issued the death penalty to them as well.

Jesus says to “love your neighbor”, and to “love and forgive your enemy”. Trust me, that is a hard thing to do, but it wasn’t for David. David was righteous enough, and David was just enough, that he was able to fulfill that. Despite the fact that Saul had made himself an enemy of David, David mourned his death, and he effected justice on the Amalekite who professed to have kill Saul. And as we know, he truly didn’t kill Saul, he was just trying to win the favor of David. While goes to prove the old saying, “you have two ears and one mouth, use them in proportion”.

Abner appointed Ishbosheth as King of Israel, because Abner was more loyal to Saul than he was to David. Yet when Abner came to make a covenant with David, David forgave him and made a covenant.

And now two more men bring the head of Ishbosheth to David, trying to win his favor, but they didn’t realize how just and forgiving David was. David, knowing that it wasn’t Ishbosheth that tried to steal the crown, had forgiven him, and saw the death of Ishosheth as unwarranted. Forgiving your enemy is one thing, but to render justice to someone who goes against your enemy is a different thing altogether.

And as we continue, we’ll see more and more of the good character of David, and that is why he continues to be one of the top stars of the Bible.

And since we are reading the Bible (or attempting to) in chronological order, we’ll now briefly go to the books of the Chronicles.

In the Hebrew Bible, I believe, the books of the chronicles are the last two books of the Old Testament, but since we are reading their content chronologically, the stories found in Chronicles are many times the same as the stories found in 2nd Samuel and in the Books of the Kings.

I like to watch Pastor Doug Batchelor, mostly because he is more of a “teacher” than a “preacher”. But in one of his sermons, he was discussing a common doctrine that couldn’t be backed by scripture. He said he questioned 11 pastors about this doctrine, and got 11 different answers. That said, if you ask who wrote the books of Samuel and who wrote the books of the Chronicles, you’ll likely get many different answers.

For example, if you research the author of the books of Samuel, many will tell you the author was Samuel. And while this may be partly true, it cannot be totally true since Samuel died about halfway through the book. I know he was a prophet, but I doubt he was good enough to predict the future enough that he could finish the book before he died. So others will tell you that Samuel was the author of some of the book, while the rest was compiled from scrolls and other notes found documenting the events of that time period

When you research who wrote the books of the Chronicles, you will hear that Ezra is credited with writing portions of it, but the rest was compiled from of documents and scrolls.

My answer is, you have to have faith. You have to have faith that what is written in the good book actually occurred.

That said, most of the Chronicles are simply a review of what is contained in the books of Samuel and the books of the Kings, BUT, it is still important that we read and study them because while they are similar, Chronicles includes additional information which isn’t found in the other books.

As an example, I just search for books on the subject of the terror attacks of 9/11, and I was immediately directed to 17 different books. Was only one of them true and the other 16 false? No, I’m guess they were 17 different books written from 17 different perspectives. For example, one book may have been written by a survivor of the building, another may have been written by someone in an office building across the street, another written by a pedestrian a couple of blocks down the street, etc. They are accurate, just different accounts from different perspectives.

So, much of what we read in Chronicles will sound like de ja vu, but it is still important we cover it none-the-less.

Praise God!