Month: June 2025

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  2 Samuel 23:24-24:25
  Acts 3:1-26
  Psalm 123:1-4
  Proverbs 16:21-23

2 Samuel 23:24 — Our Bible reading plan jumps back in for the list of David’s Mighty Men. We may not all be part of David’s cohort, but we can be loyal soldiers!

2 Samuel 23:39 — Uriah the Hittite … the one that David had slain.

2 Samuel 24:1 — What was the big deal with the census? From GotQuestions.org:

In Exodus 30:12 God told Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.” It was up to God to command a census, and if David counted he should only do it at God’s command, receiving a ransom to “atone” for the counting. This is why God was angry again with Israel and is also why David was “conscience-stricken” after he counted Israel. David knew it was wrong and begged God to take away the guilt of his sin (2 Samuel 24:10).

Was this from Satan or from God? From Answers in Genesis (AiG):

All temptation is permitted by God, but not caused by God. When evil spirits tempt us, they do so by permission (Job 1:12, 2:6; Luke 22:31). Satan therefore provoked David to number the people, and God allowed him to do so. God allows those things which serve to advance His holy and perfect will.

2 Samuel 24:3 — The loyal Joab, who was ethically challenged, realized that this was a bad idea. If your “Yes-Men” say “Wait a minute” … maybe they have a point …

2 Samuel 24:24 — What is special about the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite? In 2 Samuel 5, David captures the Jebusite city, but a threshing floor is fairly common. In 2 Chronicles 3:1, Solomon builds the House of the LORD on a threshing floor. From a sermon by Charles Spurgeon:

The threshing-floor of Ornan boasted no magnificence of size or beauty of construction. There was just the rock, and I suppose a composition spread upon it of hard clay or cement, that the feet of the oxen might all the better tread out the grain. That was all it was, yet when the Temple with all its glory crowned the place, God was never more conspicuously present than on that bare, ungarnished threshing-floor. “Meet God in a barn!” one says. Why not? Does that astonish you? God met Adam in a garden, Abraham under a tree, and Noah in an ark.

Acts 3:6 — And we’re back in the Temple, about a thousand years after our Old Testament reading. Peter had no silver or gold, but what have we read in Psalms and Proverbs that is better than silver and gold?

Acts 3:12 — Once you have a crowd – PREACH! I was with a young evangelist in training and a crowd had unexpectedly gathered around him at a local park. He asked me what to do – I said, “PREACH!”

Acts 3:19 — The message is reiterated from yesterday: Repent and be converted. But now we hear the message from the Mount of Olives – Jesus is coming!

Acts 3:22 — We read in the Torah about the coming of the Prophet. Now, Peter is saying this is the Prophet!

Psalm 123:2 — Yes, Jesus is our friend and our elder brother, but He is also our Master!

Psalm 123:4 — The psalmist is repenting of sins of the heart here: pride at not being at ease and pride at not being proud (yes, that is an ironic sense of pride).

Proverbs 16:22 — Echoing Deuteronomy 30:19!

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  2 Samuel 22:1-23:23
  Acts 2:1-47
  Psalm 122:1-9
  Proverbs 16:19-20

2 Samuel 22:4 — Does this verse sound familiar? Actually, this whole chapter is very similar to Psalm 18! Psalm 18:3 says “call upon,” while 2 Samuel 22:4 says “call on.” But let’s enjoy the song based on this verse and 2 Samuel 22:47.

Note the structure of this proto-psalm:

• Attributes of the LORD (vv. 2-3)
• Deliverance of the LORD (vv. 4-7)
• Awesome power of the LORD (vv. 8-16)
• Deliverance of the LORD (vv. 17-20)
• Characteristics of a follower of the LORD (vv. 21-28)
• Enabling power of the LORD (vv. 29-46)
• Conclusion: Praise the LORD! (vv. 47-51)

2 Samuel 23:3-4 — The classic choral work “The Last Words of David” features this verse. From Diane Bish:

2 Samuel 23:5 — “Although my house be not so with God” – what a great reminder that God’s mercies are greater than our failures!

2 Samuel 23:16 — David inspired not just loyalty but love from his men.

Acts 2:21 — The culmination is not the prophecies, the visions, the dreams, the wonders, the signs, the darkened sun, or the blood moon, but that whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be saved! The message is not kept within the bounds of the Israelite kingdom; it is spread to the uttermost ends of the earth!

Acts 2:38 — Peter is preaching from Joel and David and leading the call to repent! What is Peter saying about baptism? It’s the result of the remission of sins, not the antecedent. From GotQuestions.org:

One example of how this preposition is used in other Scriptures is seen in Matthew 12:41 where the word eis communicates the “result” of an action. In this case it is said that the people of Nineveh “repented at the preaching of Jonah” (the word translated “at” is the same Greek word eis). Clearly, the meaning of this passage is that they repented “because of’” or “as the result of” Jonah’s preaching. In the same way, it would be possible that Acts 2:38 is indeed communicating the fact that they were to be baptized “as the result of” or “because” they already had believed and in doing so had already received forgiveness of their sins (John 1:12; John 3:14-18; John 5:24; John 11:25-26; Acts 10:43; Acts 13:39; Acts 16:31; Acts 26:18; Romans 10:9; Ephesians 1:12-14). This interpretation of the passage is also consistent with the message recorded in Peter’s next two sermons to unbelievers where he associates the forgiveness of sins with the act of repentance and faith in Christ without even mentioning baptism (Acts 3:17-26; Acts 4:8-12).

Psalm 122:1 — The choral work based on this verse was the processional march of the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton:

Psalm 122:6 — Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

Proverbs 16:20 — How can you find happiness?

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  2 Samuel 20:14-21:22
  Acts 1:1-26
  Psalm 121:1-8
  Proverbs 16:18

View of Tell Abil el-Qameḥ (Israel)

2 Samuel 20:15 — Abel of Beth-maachah is located on the present-day border of Israel and Lebanon, about four miles from where the Tel Dan Stele was found. Sheba fled to the farthest northern reach of the kingdom.

2 Samuel 20:21 — While Israel was forbidden from multiplying chariots, in their geographically dangerous spot that is the cross-section of Assyria, Egypt, Philistines, and who knows who else coming between Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in their agriculturally precarious position of being greatly dependent on the rainfall, God did allow them to have walled cities (Leviticus 25:29, Joshua 19:35-38, 2 Chronicles 11:5-12). During the Divided Kingdom, Jezebel would be thrown down off the wall (2 Kings 9:33).

2 Samuel 21:1 — Many commentators say that this event did not directly follow the preceding chapter. The Believer’s Bible Commentary says:

The remainder of 2 Samuel is really an appendix highlighting various incidents in the reign of David, though not in chronological order. (The chronological order continues again in 1 Kings 1.)

William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 345.

It is interesting that it took 3 years for David to recognize a supernatural cause of the famine. We see from many other places that famine was sent as a judgment (Nave’s Topical Index).

By the way, remember the Gibeonites from Joshua 9:15? This was roughly 400 years ago, yet God still was allowing the consequences of a rash vow from 400 years ago to cause a famine.

David was hoping for a lesser sentence than that prescribed under the previous Noahic Dispensation of Government (Genesis 9:6). The Noahic Covenant demanded bloodshed as did the current Mosaic Dispensation of Law (Leviticus 24:17). God had previously stated that sin was punished to the third and fourth generation (Exodus 34:6-7, Deuteronomy 5:9, Numbers 14:18, Leviticus 26:39). But how do we reconcile that with Deuteronomy 24:16 which says children shall not be put to death because of their father’s sin? John Piper says that “the sins of the fathers are punished in the children through becoming the sins of the children.” But why did God bless Israel (2 Samuel 21:14) for giving seven sons to be slain for a foolish oath taken 400 years ago?

Now what does the history of Israel demonstrate? It demonstrates that when God deals with Israel, He deals with them as a nation. When the fathers, the ones in control, the adults are bad, everybody gets the punishment.

From Stand to Reason (www.str.org)

The mother who abuses her body with cocaine may give birth to a “crack baby,” who will suffer its entire life for the sin of the mother. Sons may suffer like Saul’s sons did. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren may experience the hurt from an ancestor’s sin. The whole world is suffering from Adam’s sin. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20)!

It took the death of seven sons to assuage (not propitiate) the wrath of God for the sins of one man. Saul did not die for this sin even though he should have, he died for the witch’s sin that he took upon himself. One thousand years later, one sinless Son would die to propitiate the wrath of God for the sins of the whole world!

2 Samuel 21:21 — We read about Jonathan’s subtle (shrewd or crafty) brother Jonadab (2 Samuel 13:3, 2 Samuel 13:32), but now we have the complete opposite – an honorable nephew of David carrying on the family legacy of slaying giants!

Acts 1:8 — From Earl Martin:

Acts 1:22 — In addition to the twelve apostles, there were at least two other witnesses from the baptism of John to the ascension of Christ who were constant companions. Yes, indeed there are “many infallible proofs” of the resurrection of Jesus.

Psalm 121:1-8 — The song “My Help” is based virtually word for word from this Psalm:

Proverbs 16:18 — One of the most misquoted verses of the Bible. Pride does not go before a fall … pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit goes before a fall.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

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Image Credit: Tel Abel Beth Maacah Excavations, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons