Welcome

In our first study we considered the impact of one decision in David’s life which we are not even told specifically he took – the decision to make a covenant with Jonathan. This time we will look at one of the most well-known and significant decisions of David’s life that we are told about. In II Samuel 11 we get the terrible and shocking incidents with Bathsheba and then Uriah her husband. Without dwelling on the incident too much, v 2:

“Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.”

David desires this woman and takes her, v 4:

Readings: 1 Kings 4-5; Jeremiah 31; Mark 5

1 Kings 5

How we deal with others always has a lasting impact. In 1 Kings 5:12, Solomon was able to prepare the material for the building of the temple by cooperating with Hiram because of his God-given wisdom. David set a good example to Hiram and future generations benefited.

Jeremiah 31

Actions have consequences, don’t they? The law of cause and effect is something we learn from an early age. If we are good, we tend to get a reward, if we are bad then we get something more unpleasant. While some actions have very rapid consequences there are other times when the consequence of the choices we make, take more time to unravel.

We will be spending two studies looking at David and focusing on two decisions or actions he took and the consequences of those actions, some of which were instant while others took longer to emerge.

Readings: 2 Samuel 20-21; Jeremiah 24; Romans 12

There are many different parts to our fellowship. When we were baptised, we were baptised into Jesus, and from then on, our fellowship was with the Father, and with His Son. This changed our life, especially in the way we do things for each other. Because we are disciples of Jesus, and in fellowship with other believers, we should be texting or phoning each other and meeting up when we can.

Can we rely on anything or anyone in our world today?

One thing we can have confidence in is the Bible,  GOD’s word, for we read in the New Testament in the letter to the Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

In our unpredictable world, do we have confidence in our world leaders that they can solve all the worlds’ problems? Certainly one or two of them think they can. Can we have confidence that the wars, climate change, diseases (to mention only a few of the world’s problems) will be eradicated?  Can we also trust what they say they will do?

We finished last time having looked at the creation record and the pattern which was established of six days of work followed by a Sabbath of rest; or, more pertinently, a Sabbath that had a different focus. We observed that at the end of the six days, the culmination of the Almighty’s creative work, was a being who was made in His image and after His likeness. To this one, God gave dominion, or lordship, over all other living things. We can readily see that this privilege has been all too frequently abused over the millennia since creation. Instead of recognizing the need to nurture and care for that which had been entrusted to him, he has abused it instead.

Readings: 2 Samuel 13; Jeremiah 17; Matthew 28

The prophecy of Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible and covers more than forty years of Jeremiah’s life.  He served under five Kings; one good King, Josiah, and the last four evil Kings who ruled over Judah before the Kingdom fell to the Babylonians and the people were taken into captivity.

Thus far, in the previous two segments of this study, we have seen how the Lord Jesus responded to the Pharisees, following their accusation that his disciples had contravened the Sabbath law by picking and eating grain as they as they walked through a field. We have shown how, by using an unlikely justification, he reasoned that they had completely missed the point of what the Sabbath is about. We concluded last time having considered one the Sabbath miracles.

We are probably aware that John records just seven of the miracles of Jesus, which he refers to as signs. Two of these were performed on the Sabbath. What is perhaps less well known is that, of the thirty-seven miracles recorded across the Gospel records, the number that were performed on the Sabbath (the seventh day) was also seven. This is no mere coincidence.

Readings: 2 Samuel 4-5; Jeremiah 10; Matthew 21

We read in scripture that the Lord Jesus taught the people as one, “having authority” (Matthew 7:29). Not with the authority of a domineering manner, but the authority of an intense earnestness and clear grasp of the message he meant to convey.

I do not think there was a need for him to shout; as the Prophet Isaiah says when referring to Messiah, “He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street” (Isaiah 42:2).

We have been considering the occasion when the disciples of the Lord Jesus were satisfying their hunger, on a Sabbath day, by plucking ears of corn in the field they were passing through. Last time we saw that, when confronted by criticism from some of the Pharisees, the Lord Jesus did not challenge their questionable reading of the law, choosing instead to call their attention to the actions of their great king, David, when he took the shewbread. We suggested this may well have been their reading for the day in the synagogue; and we must infer, from the Teacher’s use of this passage, that there was no rabbinical condemnation of David’s action. Jesus reminds them that it was not lawful for anyone but the priests to eat it.