1 Kings 3:1 (New Living Translation)

Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple of the Lord and the wall around the city.

I have to put this one under the category of “what was he thinking?”

Solomon has just become King of Israel. He was chosen by God, and his father David ensured he became king in spite of strong rivals among his earthly brothers.

So what does Solomon do first?

He makes an alliance with Pharaoh and seals the deal by marring an Egyptian princess.

This makes sense – from a worldly perspective. Egypt is a neighboring political power; secure the southern border by bringing the other nation’s daughter into your capital. All is well.

And this is living by a worldly perspective. And this is from the King of God’s chosen people. Sigh.

Me? Do I do these types of things? Am I on the lookout for political allies who can help me at work, at play, in the church? Oooops.

Psalm 32:1-5 (New Living Translation)

¹ Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
² Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
³ When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.
⁴ Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.Interlude

This is the beginning of a Psalm of David.

David, who had more than a few major sins in his life, writes about confessing and not confessing. Joy comes from confessing. It is not the confessing that brings the joy, but the forgiveness of God that comes after the confessing.

Confessing rids the heart of guilt. This is because of God’s forgiveness. God is faithful to forgive.

One note here – don’t expect people to act like God. There are many people who will not forgive upon my confession of sin. Some will nod and smile and say they forgive, but they will live as if I never confessed. I know this because I have done this – nod, smile, and act like I forgive while still holding onto that sin of yours until it is convenient for me to use it against you.

Psalm 2:1-2 (New Living Translation)

¹ Why are the nations so angry?
Why do they waste their time with futile plans?
² The kings of the earth prepare for battle;
the rulers plot together
against the Lord
and against his anointed one.

Verse 1 holds a great question or two. The kings of the earth are planning for a battle against Yahweh – the creator.

Mankind is guilty of some pretty stupid things. We won’t start the list here as there isn’t enough space or time. Still, this one has to be near the top of the list of stupid things that we waste our time plotting.

Genesis 3:22-24 (New Living Translation)

²² Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”²³ So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. ²⁴ After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

In the creation (hi)story, Adam and Eve have been deceived by the serpent and have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Note God’s concern. God is “concerned” that man will eat of the Tree of Life and live forever.

Therefore, God placed cherubim to guard the entrance to the garden and a flaming sword to guard the Tree of Life.

Is the Garden of Eden still somewhere on this planet? We don’t have any record that it was removed. Hence, the idea that it still exists somewhere is plausible (at least to me). Continuing this thought, the cherubim are still guarding the entrance and the flaming sword is still guarding the Tree of Life.

We live on a large planet. We haven’t walked every single inch of it. How does the garden exist? Where is it?

I’m just asking the questions. I don’t have the answers. Still, …

2 Samuel 5:20-21

²⁰ So David went to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “The Lord did it!” David exclaimed. “He burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” So he named that place Baal-perazim (which means “the Lord who bursts through”). ²¹ The Philistines had abandoned their idols there, so David and his men confiscated them.

Here we go again. We find a case where God’s people did something that makes us wonder what was going through their heads.

David and the army defeat another enemy. David gives the glory to the LORD.

And then they confiscate the idols of the defeated enemy.

What were they going to do with these idols? These little rocks and sticks and stuff? I guess you could put them in your army’s trophy case or something. You would use them as an example of silly idolatry or something. I guess.

I don’t know. Why would anyone want to see these worthless idols? Something tells me that some time in the future the people actually worshiped these idols. How silly.

I guess we do the same today. We spend a little (or a lot) too much time with the things that the ungodly prize.

Leviticus 6:1-7 (New Living Translation)

Then the Lord said to Moses, ² “Suppose one of you sins against your associate and is unfaithful to the Lord. Suppose you cheat in a deal involving a security deposit, or you steal or commit fraud, ³ or you find lost property and lie about it, or you lie while swearing to tell the truth, or you commit any other such sin. ⁴ If you have sinned in any of these ways, you are guilty. You must give back whatever you stole, or the money you took by extortion, or the security deposit, or the lost property you found, ⁵ or anything obtained by swearing falsely. You must make restitution by paying the full price plus an additional 20 percent to the person you have harmed. On the same day you must present a guilt offering. ⁶ As a guilt offering to the Lord, you must bring to the priest your own ram with no defects, or you may buy one of equal value. ⁷ Through this process, the priest will purify you before the Lord, making you right with him, and you will be forgiven for any of these sins you have committed.”

This was the old law. In case of harm to property, the formula for punishment was simple. Note the sentence in verse 5:

You must make restitution by paying the full price plus an additional 20 percent to the person you have harmed.

The offending person repaid the value of loss and added 20%. There were no jails and all that. Payment was made and people moved on with their lives. Perhaps we could learn from these old laws.

2 Samuel 13:3 (New Living Translation)

But Amnon had a very crafty friend…

There are some opening lines of stories that guarantee the story will not end well. This is one of those opening lines. Having a “crafty” friend is not a good thing.

It is not a surprise that this story ends poorly.

In the rest of this chapter, we learn that Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar and his life ends when his half-brother Absalom murders him.

Lesson: avoid crafty friends.

2 Samuel 11:14-17 (New Living Translation)

¹⁴ So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. ¹⁵ The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” ¹⁶ So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. ¹⁷ And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.

I had not noticed this aspect of David killing Uriah so that David could have Bathsheba. Here we have it: Joab, commander of the army, helps David murder Uriah.

David asks Joab to put Uriah in a almost-certain-death situation, and Joab does it.

What was Joab thinking? He is killing one of his best soldiers!

One question that keeps coming to my mind is,

What did Joab owe David?

I could be completely wrong, but it seems that Joab owed David something. Joab was helping David kill someone in an effort to pay back a debt. What was the debt?

Let’s take a different perspective. Joab is a loyal soldier who follows orders no matter what they are. These people lived in a harsh time. It seems like they fought deadly battles every weekend. Death was normal to them, so what’s the big deal about one more dead soldier?

I don’t know about any explanations. I do know that Joab was as guilty in the death of Uriah as David.

Matthew 12:25-29 (New International Version)

²⁵ Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. ²⁶ And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive.²⁷ And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. ²⁸ But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.²⁹ For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man like Satan and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.

Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees here. Note verse 27:

And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said.

The Pharisees had their own exorcists. These exorcists cast out demons, too.

Did all these demons give up and leave earth? Are they still here? These are difficult questions for many of us as we don’t like to think about spiritual beings among us in our age of enlightenment or post-modernism or whatever age we are in this week.

Still, it happened in the time of Jesus, and Jesus was not the only one casting out demons.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 (New Living Translation)

²² But Samuel replied,