Category: devotional

2 Samuel 21:1 – Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
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The young couple sat in my living room in our tiny apartment in South Korea, holding hands, smiling, and generally acting like a couple about to be married. We were only on the first or second session of pre-marital counseling. IN our first, we had addressed a true understanding of what it means to be believers. Now, we were at the point to discuss marriage. So, I posed a question to them that often takes engaged couples off guard, asking, “What would it take for you to end your marriage?”

The responses of the two fascinated me. The young man immediately piped up, declaring, “Nothing. I believe that there’s nothing that could happen, no circumstances, that would make me say that our marriage is over.”

Then came the response of his blushing fiancé. The young lady looked me in the eye and said, “Well, I guess I would end the marriage if I felt like he didn’t love me.”

As you might imagine, the couple had a bit of talking to do after that exchange. They realized that they did not mean the same thing when they were thinking of the whole “’til death do us part” thing. One of them had an “I’m in it for better or worse” mentality, while the other had more of an “I’ll stay with you so long as it feels good to me” mentality. And , before they could be married, this couple had to get to a place where they both understood that the vows they were about to make were extremely significant. And, thankfully, they both realized that, if they were going to promise to remain united until death parted them, they had to actually believe that it would take death to part them.

In Second Samuel 21, we read a very strange event. It is the account of David’s dealings with the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were a group of the promised land’s original inhabitants (part of the Hivites) who saw Israel coming. They realized that Israel was wiping out all the people who lived in the land, and so they came up with a clever ruse. The Gibeonites put on old and worn-out clothing, carried old and worn-out provisions, and tricked Joshua and the Israelites into believing that they came from a far away land. They then asked Joshua and the people to make a covenant with them, vowing not to destroy the Gibeonites. In return, the Gibeonites would become servants of the nation of Israel. Then, a couple days later, the Israelites came upon the village of the Gibeonites, right smack dab in the middle of the promised land. Israel had been tricked, but Joshua would not kill the Gibeonites because of the vow that he and Israel had made (cf. Joshua 9).

Now, in 2 Samuel 21, David is reigning as king. For three years, there is a famine in the land that is caused by drought. When David asks God why this is happening, God lets David know that the famine has been caused by the zealous but sinful actions of King Saul. You see, in his passion for Israel, King Saul, David’s predecessor, tried to get rid of the Gibeonites. Saul put several of the Gibeonites to death, and thus broke the covenant that Joshua and the leaders of Israel made with them several hundred years earlier.

Now, I’m not trying to say that this is the primary intent of God in including this event for us to see; but I do believe that we can learn something about vows and covenants from how God responded to what Saul did to the Gibeonites. God takes our vows very seriously. Just look at the circumstances. Saul had not personally made the vow with the Gibeonites. Before the vow was made, God had commanded Israel to drive out all the land’s original inhabitants, and that would have included the Gibeonites; thus the covenant was made against God’s law. The Gibeonites tricked Israel, and so they were not entering the covenant in good faith. And the leaders of Israel did not inquire of God when making the rash vow, thus displaying that the whole thing was a mistake to begin with. However, with all that said, when David was on the throne, God made sure that Israel understood that they had sinned when Saul broke their vow to the Gibeonites.

Let’s go back to marriage for a moment. How seriously do you think God takes your vows? What do you think it would take for you to have an excuse to break them? Do you think you can break your vows if you find out that making them was a mistake in the first place? Do you think you have an excuse to break your vows if you find that you did not have all the necessary information about your spouse before the wedding? Do you think you have an excuse to go back on your vows if you feel as though God is “leading you in a different direction”?

Just as I asked that young couple on my couch a few years ago when I lived in Korea, so now I ask you to think with me. When we marry, we make the most sacred of vows, entering into a binding covenant. Do we dare believe that we can take it back at our whim? Do we dare think that we can change the rules if we believe that our circumstances have changed? Do we dare say that not feeling happy or loved is somehow an excuse for a believer in Christ to turn away from the covenant he or she entered into with the phrase “As long as we both shall live”?

Right now, I want to ask those of you who are married to stop and remember just how seriously God takes your wedding vows. This is no game; it is very serious business. You vowed what you vowed before God and witnesses. Maybe it was a poor decision. Maybe you even made a sinful decision with a rebellious attitude. Maybe you were a little deceived by your spouse (do any of us have a genuine picture of what married life will be like before the marriage?). All of those things applied in the case of Israel and the Gibeonites, and God made it plain that, though the vows were rashly made with deception involved, still the vows were binding and breaking them was sin.

If you are single, I want to encourage you to think as well. Think of the significance of the promises you make. Think of the significance of looking toward marriage. Think about the ways that you might help your married friends to strengthen their marriages, helping them to keep their vows. And begin to prepare yourself for the commitment of a lifetime when God brings it your way.

And, lest we look at this as a purely legal form of obedience for the sake of obedience, let us not forget that obedience to God’s commands is always coupled with rewards. With the Israelites, there were years during which they kept their covenant promises to the Gibeonites, and this portion of the Hivites lived among Israel, exposed to the worship and glory of God (Could it be that some of them became believers because of Israel’s keeping of their rashly and sinfully made vow?). God makes it plain in text after text that those who obey his commands will receive his blessing. Do not be deceived, though it may seem hard, honoring God by keeping the vows you have made will ultimately lead to goodness and blessing for you in this life and the life to come. While this obedience may not mean that your life is as easy as you would want it to be, it most certainly means that you can better delight yourself in God and allow him to give your heart the joy it desires (cf. Psalm 37:4).

Finally, let me make a disclaimer. I understand that there are some people who will read this entry that were in the most extreme of circumstances or who know someone who is or has been in such circumstances. For such people, I have deep sympathy and concern. I believe that God has provided in the blood of Jesus Christ enough grace to cover any sin. I do not believe that God intends any Christian man or woman to submit to abuse or adultery. But that does not mean that we somehow diminish the significance of the wedding vows. The reason that I write this today is that I see very few who are willing to remind the world of the gravity of marriage, but I read many who would offer easy ways out. My goal is for our understanding and thought to be biblical, not hurtful, judgmental, or worldly. So, please, receive this with charity as a call to see the significance and seriousness of vows, and do not attempt to make it something beyond that. The call is good, and we all must work as believers to rightly live to God’s glory.

2 Samuel 11:2-3 – 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
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The story of David’s adultery is quite familiar to most who have studied the Bible. The sordid details are often the source of much examination, much reflection. I have read this passage many, many times; but, this morning, I find myself struck by something that I had not previously considered.

In verse 3, after David has initially been taken by Bathsheba’s beauty, he takes an action that seals his doom: “And David sent and inquired about the woman.” Often we hear people preach sermons about how David ought not have been home, but instead should have been out with the army. Often we hear that David should not have been looking at a bathing woman. Often we hear that the woman ought not have been bathing in a place where she knew it was possible that she could be seen. All of those are true. However, seldom have I heard it taught that David stepped into sin’s trap when he sent and inquired about the woman.

Until David sent and inquired about the woman, all he had done was seen a nameless person from a distance. Without question, David allowed his lust to be stirred, and thus had sinned against God. But when he sent and inquired about her, he took a step that led to him knowing who she was and where to find her. The inquiry empowered David to act on the passions that had been stirred within him.

Now, let’s take this out of a 3,000 year old context and place it in our lives today. We live in a world in which we are bombarded with images, entertainments, and headlines that are designed to stir our passions. No matter how hard we try, it is very unlikely that we will ever be able to so isolate ourselves as to actually not have a moment in which our eyes or ears are exposed to something titillating. But, the question is, do we turn away from such things, or do we, like David, make an inquiry?

Suppose you are out surfing the web. While innocently looking through the headlines on your favorite news site, you come across a headline about some sort of sexual impropriety. It’s a story about which you have no real interest. There is no social good to come from you learning the details. Yet, out of curiosity, you make an inquiry. You click the article. You read the lewd details of what some couple was caught doing somewhere they shouldn’t have, with someone they shouldn’t have, or in a way that caught the attention of others. What have you done? You have had the details of someone’s sin etched into your brain, into your imagination, for absolutely no good reason. Out of curiosity, you have focused your imagination on something ungodly, unwholesome, and unhelpful. You have made inquiry into something you need not know.

Not convinced? OK, make it more simple. You read an article in your news reader about lurid photos taken of some Hollywood starlet. You make an inquiry. Suddenly, splashed across your computer screen, are the very photos that you have no business seeing. No way is this simple righteous data gathering. Instead, it is an example of a believer feeding his or her flesh with the immodesty and juicy gossip upon which the world feasts.

Or, take it off the Internet. A married lady has a co-worker, a male friend. He begins to share with her that he and his wife are going through hard times. She has a choice to make. She can either offer simple encouragement, or she can make an inquiry. She can either say, “I’m so sorry to hear that. Perhaps you could talk to my husband about what’s troubling you,” or she can say, “Really, what’s happening?” With the former, she expresses that she is concerned, but she is not the right person to share the intimate troubles of this man who is not her husband. With the latter, she opens herself up to becoming personally and emotionally involved with the man, perhaps even displaying herself as a dangerous contrast to the man’s wife—the woman who is not so concerned with the man’s supposed needs.

It is the nature of our sinful flesh to think that we want to know just a little bit about something we shouldn’t. It is the nature of our eyes to tell us that we want only a peek. It is the nature of our minds to rationalize away our desires to inquire into something lewd, feeding our flesh in the process. It is the nature of our arrogance to convince ourselves that we only want to know the truth, and that we can keep ourselves from danger. It is the nature of sin to convince us that we can stop anytime we want to. But David’s example and the example of our own lives if we are honest shows us that, when we look deeply into sin, we become enticed, not merely educated.

The point here is not to call us to avoid all people and all potential exposure to the world. We cannot make such a change without leaving the world. But we can be careful, thoughtful, and godly about which issues to look into and which to leave alone. Being open and honest is good; however, looking into something that brings no benefit and only opens our minds to inappropriate thoughts and images is not righteous. There are times when the most godly thing that we can do is refuse to inquire about something about which we have no business knowing.

1 Samuel 24:3-6 – 3 And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 4 And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’ ” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.”
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“I just know deep down in my heart that this is something that God wants me to do. Besides, look at how many things have lined up to point me in this direction. It must be God’s will.” Who could be the speaker behind such words? It could be a recent reader of Experiencing God. It could be your lost neighbor who is trying to sound spiritual for your sake. It could be the teen girl who is rationalizing a relationship with a young man her parents dislike. It could be you, as you try to decide whether or not to stay in a difficult church or ministry. Or, it could be a paraphrase of David’s thoughts from the above passage before the conviction of God fell on him.

David’s Story

Here’s the setting, in case anyone does not know this story. David is hiding in a cave. King Saul, the guy who is chasing David all over the wilderness with intensions of murdering him, feels the call of nature. So, he goes into the very same cave where David is hiding to take care of business. David’s friends think David should kill Saul, as God has “clearly” put him into David’s hands. While Saul is there in a very vulnerable position, David creeps up and cuts off part of Saul’s royal robe, leaving him with something more akin to a royal mini-skirt (maybe not that bad, who knows). And David then feels the conviction of God for doing something inappropriate against God’s anointed king.

Our Application

Here’s what we need to think about: discerning God’s will. Many people in our world make decisions about how God is leading them based on the particular circumstances that are before them. Supposedly opened or closed doors in life, difficult circumstances, declines in church attendance or giving, a great or small number of people responding to evangelistic appeals, or a perfectly-worded bumper sticker are all possible ways that some Christians might decide that something is or is not God’s will for them. If things “line up just right,” we assume that God is telling us something. If things are hard and we find ourselves troubled at every turn, we assume God is leading us away from something. The problem is, such factors are very poor means for understanding the will of God.

Look at David. Everything circumstantially lined up for him to believe it was God’s will for him to kill Saul. David had already been told that he was the rightful king by Samuel. David was running for his life from Saul, and self-defense could certainly have been put into the discussion. David’s friends, those all-important others from whom we receive counsel, all told David that this was God putting Saul into David’s power. Besides, how could it possibly be that Saul would need to go potty in exactly the cave where David was hiding? No way was this a coincidence.

The problem for David is that, though all the circumstances and the counsel of his friends pointed toward it being God’s will for him to kill Saul, God was not telling David this at all. God has always wanted his people to respect their leaders, even when they are not the best (cf. Romans 13:1-ff). What David needed was not a special set of circumstances, nor was it the counsel of others, nor was it a tingly gut feeling; David needed God’s word, rightly understood and applied, in order to truly grasp what it was that God was telling him. (Yes, I know that David did not have Romans 13 to look into for himself in the cave; but I think the point holds valid.)

Knowing God’s Will

So, how do you know if something is God’s will? The answer is simple: know God’s word and obey it. As John MacArthur has so wonderfully taught before (cf. Macarthur, Found: God’s Will), we determine what God wants us to do, not through mystical methods, but through his words and his principles. IF we are loving God with all our hearts and living in obedience to his commands in all things—delighting in the Lord (cf. Psalm 37:4)—then we have freedom to act in accord with our desires since we can believe that those desires are governed by the Lord’s word and his commands. I’m not here advocating choices made out of selfishness, but choices made out of reverence for God, obedience to his clear commands, and a desire that is foremost for his glory.

Yes, I know that what I have given here is simplistic in many ways. There are many more things that need to be hashed out before one can truly feel that he or she has everything he needs to understand the will of God. Prayer is still a factor, and we do not totally discount what wise counselors tell us. However, what I want to accomplish is to turn our hearts away from mysticism. I want us to stop relying on our circumstances. I want us to stop relying solely on human wisdom. I want us to stop thinking that our decisions are to be governed by some sort of externally imposed tummy tremors. If we want to hear God’s voice, we need to read, understand, apply, and obey his word.