Fickleness versus faithfulness

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 20:2,

"So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bikri."

Dictionary.com defines the term "fickle" as, "likely to change, especially due to caprice, irresolution, or instability; casually changeable... not constant or loyal in affections."

David was ruling from Jerusalem, his son, Absalom ran him out of town and many Israelites then followed Absalom. Absalom was killed and David returned so the folks return to David. Now Sheba rebels against David and Israelites leave David to follow him. Israel was a fickle people.

Unstable, unsteady, inconsistent, vacillating and capricious. These are all words that describe the nation of Israel. Here it is documented in their lack of loyalty and fidelity to David. Elsewhere in the Scriptures, the fickle nature of the Israelites toward the Lord is often documented.

In speaking of the propensity of the Israelites to abandon the Lord and chase after lifeless idols, the Lord says, "'But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers— would you now return to me?' declares the Lord." Jeremiah 3:1. In calling on his people to return to him the Lord says, "Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Return to me,' declares the Lord Almighty, 'and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty." Zechariah 1:3. A similar call of God to his people is seen in Malachi 3:7, "'Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,' says the Lord Almighty."

The fickle nature of Israel toward their God-appointed king points to the fickle nature of the Israelites toward their God. And, it is not just Israel. All mankind is cursed with a sinful nature that predisposes us toward a lack of faithfulness and loyalty to our Creator, inherited from man's fall in the garden of Eden.

One of the wonderful "gifts" the Holy Spirit brings into our lives when we embrace Jesus Christ in faith is faithfulness itself, as the Spirit desires within us what is contrary to that old sinful nature, Galatians 5:17 and 22.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

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David provides a glimpse of God's mercy - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 19:23,

"So the king said to Shimei, 'You shall not die.' And the king promised him on oath."

In Shimei's own words he had done wrong to King David. "May my lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. For I your servant know that I have sinned..." Verses 19 and 20. As David fled Jerusalem at the approach of is son, Absalom, we read of Shimei cursing David as he fled. "As he cursed, Shimei said, 'Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel! The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has given the kingdom into the hands of your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a murderer!'" 16:7-8.

Following Absalom being put to death by David's military, David returned to Jerusalem to take back the throne. En route, Shimei prostrated himself before David and begged for his mercy at having cursed David. In the passage above, we read of David forgiving Shimei and promising him on oath that he would not put him to death.

Shimei did not deserve David's forgiveness. At one of the lowest points in his life, David had to endure the hostility of Shimei.

In some ways I am reminded of an undeserved forgiveness by God for our hostility toward him. We are all born with sinful rebellious hearts and live in an estrangement and, often, a hostility toward God. We have all sinned against God.

Yet, God forgives us just as David forgave Shimei. As Shimei, we don't deserve God's forgiveness either. However, out of God's heart of mercy he does just that and, just as David provided reassurance to Shimei, God confirms his promise to forgive us with his oath, "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. Hebrews 6:17-20.

Those of us who have embraced Jesus Christ in faith enjoy God's mercy, God's forgiveness, as well as his oath to do for us all he has promised. Just as Shimei was promised his physical life in this age, we are promised eternal life in the next to enjoy all the Son of God inherits from our heavenly Father!

How can it Get any better than that?!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

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The Lord can work in wild ways - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 18:9,

"Now Absalom happened to meet David's men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going."

2 Samuel 17:14b tells us, "For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom." The Lord decided it was the end of the line for David's son Absalom, who had attempted to seize the throne from David. Absalom did not have the Lord's approval to overthrow the king of his people and so the Lord determined to have his life ended.

The account above, with Absalom getting hooked by the branches of an oak tree until Joab could come and end his life is a reflection of the surprising tactics the Lord may use at any given time. What an odd thing to happen! And, it clearly was not happenstance that Absalom was swinging in the wind till Joab showed up.

I am reminded that the Lord may work, he may accomplish whatever he desires in ways I might never expect. I suspect that all of the wizards of theology who purport to know and understand just how it is God always works have a few things to learn themselves. Just sayin'...

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

How to understand how God works in the world today - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 17:21-22,

"After they had gone, the two climbed out of the well and went to inform King David. They said to him, 'Set out and cross the river at once; Ahithophel has advised such and such against you.' So David and all the people with him set out and crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, no one was left who had not crossed the Jordan."

Here are a couple of verses that speak to the intrigue, the activity, the tactics employed by David, his spies, his men, as they maneuvered in their efforts to evade Absalom and eventually defeat him to return to Jerusalem. The throne was David's but his son, Absalom had taken Jerusalem, causing David and his men to flee.

The Lord was not absent in all of this activity. In verse 14 we read, "For the Lord had determined to frustrate the good advice of Ahithophel in order to bring disaster on Absalom."

If the Lord had determined to take out Absalom, why didn't he simply smite him dead? Why all the activity? Why all the drama? Why the need for all the intrigue and maneuvering by David and his men?

As we read the Scriptures it is very apparent that our Creator God has absolute control over his creation and all that takes place within it. He is supremely transcendent in his sovereignty over mankind. He could have done all kinds of things to accomplish the return of David to his throne and yet, he chose to make it happen by the unfolding of what David and his men did in response to Absalom and his men. If you were caught up in the action of the day, you might not even recognize how the Lord was involved behind the scenes.

We are told in Romans 15:4, "everything that was written in the past was written to teach us..." When we pray today for the Lord's involvement, it appears to me that if we learn how the Lord has done things in the past, as examples, we may be better equipped to confront our challenges today as we approach the Lord and ask for his help. He just may be doing things we are not seeing if we have not learned how he operates. We learn how he does things today as we read what he has done in the past so that we might be informed, equipped and encouraged. This is a big reason why we have the Scriptures available to us today. 

May all of us have a tremendous appreciation for the treasure-storehouse of wisdom and insight that books like 1 and 2 Samuel provide us!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

David encounters two men sent from the Lord - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 16:1, 5-7 ,

"When David had gone a short distance beyond the summit, there was Ziba,the steward of Mephibosheth, waiting to meet him. He had a string of donkeys saddled and loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred cakes of raisins, a hundred cakes of figs and a skin of wine.... As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, 'Get out, get out, you murderer, you scoundrel!'"

In a defining time in David's life, the time he had to flee his beloved Jerusalem as his son, Absalom, attempted his overthrow, David encounters two men. Ziba and Shimei. Ziba was a steward of Saul's grandson, Mephibosheth, and Shimei was from the same clan as Saul.

When David encountered Ziba, Ziba had brought David refreshment, supplies and support. When David encountered Shimei, Shimei cursed him. It is not difficult to see in the account that the Lord had sent both men for each to have an encounter with David that day. One to encourage, and one to challenge, to test, to stretch in a very painful way.

David acknowledges that Shimei had been sent his way as he told his troops, "Leave him [Shimei] alone; let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today." Verses 11-12.

I am mindful that this is just the way the Lord works in our lives. He sends things our way that stretch us, that bring about maturity in us, that grow us spiritually and other ways. In Revelation 3:19 Jesus says, "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent." In Proverbs 3:11-12 we read, "My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." And in Hebrews 12:7, "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?"

Yet at the very same time the Lord will provide us encouragement and refreshment, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity." It is my conviction that when I need it in the midst of some struggle, the Lord is always faithful to raise up someone to encourage, to strengthen as Ziba did in David's life. As I look back on the hardships I have faced in my life, I recognize those the Lord sent my way to provide the encouragement, the refreshing, the strengthening I needed at the time. Our faithful Father is like that. It is what he does.

I am fully convinced that the Lord does not leave any of us, his children, to simply meander through life in the spiritual poverty we show up in his family with. He works in our lives. He brings those times of difficulties to stretch us and he also provides us those who will minister to our needs at those times, refreshing us.

Good to keep in mind as we face what the Lord may bring our way, just as he did when he brought Ziba and Shimei into David's life on that day.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

Are we convinced all is good from our heavenly Father? - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 15:25-26,

"If I find favor in the Lord's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. But if he says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him."

As David fled Jerusalem when his son, Absalom, was en route to the city to seize it from his father David, as well as the throne, he spoke these words to Zadok the priest.

It is clear that David, a man of faith, placed his fortunes, his future, his life, in the Lord's hands. As his comment to Zadok makes clear, he was willing to embrace whatever it was the Lord might have for him, whether good or bad from the perspective of this life. David knew that ultimately, no matter what came his way, the hand of the Lord would ensure it was for good in the end.

Whatever the Lord has for any one of us who embrace him in faith is ultimately for our good. We may struggle to see the good of it when things come our way, but there is nothing the Lord is unaware of and there is nothing but his good intentions for each of us. I am reminded of Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Here is an example of wonderful believers who understood these things during the time of the writer of Hebrews, "Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions." Hebrews 10:32- 34.

Am I ready to embrace whatever comes my way as ultimately for the good from my heavenly Father who loves me?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com

The wonder of the heart of our merciful God! - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in 2 Samuel 14:1,

"Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king's [David's] heart longed for Absalom."

Joab was the commander of King David's armed forces and Absalom was David's son. Absalom had killed another son of David, Absalom's half-brother, Amnon, who had raped Absalom's sister Tamar. Having killed Amnon, Absalom had fled from David.

Joab knew David well and knew that David missed his son, Absalom, who was guilty before David. A plan was devised to bring about the return of Absalom because of David's longing for him. Due to his crime, Absalom was estranged from David and for the return of Absalom, David's character and nature would have to be assuaged. The eventual outcome of the hatched plan is given in verse 33, "Then the king [David] summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom."

The one driving force that brought about this reconciliation (at this time) was David's longing for Absalom. Without attempting to make too strong of a parallel of this story to God's story of redemption for mankind, I can't help but be reminded that were it not for God's longing for us, just as David for his estranged son, we would have no opportunity for reconciliation with God. We would be without hope in this lost and fallen world, doomed to an eternity I shudder to think about.

The hope that we have for an eternal life of eternal pleasures at God's right hand, Psalm 16:11, is entirely because of God's longing for us all. I am reminded of what Paul had to say in Romans 9:16, "It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy."

How astonishing that mercy, given our sinful condition we created for ourselves! How remarkable that God would love us such that he would extend his mercy toward us! How amazing is God's heart that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ to pay for our sins that his mercy could be expressed to us!

How wonderful the heart of our God!!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com