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Biblical People

Biblical People: David (1)

David, the shepherd boy turned king, shows up in Scripture more than any other Old Testament character. Even the New Testament mentions him often. He appears in twenty-eight of the Bible’s sixty-six books, with more than nine hundred mentions. 

It’s enough content for an entire book, with much we can learn from David and much God can teach us.

David, however, is best known for two events in his life: one a triumph and the other a failure.

The first story comes from early in his life when he kills the huge warrior Goliath. He takes down this giant of a man using only a slingshot and a single stone. But the projectile doesn’t kill Goliath, it only knocks him out.

David runs to the fallen Philistine hero and pulls out the man’s own sword. David uses it to kill him and then cut off his head.

David’s time spent protecting his father’s sheep from wild animals prepared him for this moment, but his faith in God gave him the victory.

The other well-known incident in David’s life is when he commits adultery with the beautiful Bathsheba. 

He sees her. He wants her. He takes her. It doesn’t matter that he already has several wives, and she already has a husband. 

She gets pregnant. 

To cover the pregnancy, David calls back her husband, Uriah, from the front lines and tries twice to reunite him with his wife for the night. When this strategy fails, David sends Uriah back to the front lines along with a message for the commander.

The communiqué is a plan to ensure Uriah’s death. 

The plan succeeds. David marries Bathsheba, but their baby dies.

From a moral perspective, this is the lowest point in David’s life. He commits adultery and murder. Yet David repents to restore his relationship with God.

A third element of David’s life, however, stands out as even more noteworthy. When Samuel confronts King Saul for his disobedience, Samuel confirms that Saul’s kingdom will end, and another will replace him.

Samuel says that God has sought a man after his own heart and appointed him to rule the people. This man is David.

Much later, Paul confirms this fact when speaking to the people in Pisidian Antioch, stating that God said, “I’ve found David, a man after my own heart. He’ll do everything I want him to do.”

Twice, the Bible refers to David as a man after God’s own heart. This may be the highest honor anyone could ever receive.

Are we a person after God’s own heart? What might we do to move closer to this outcome?

[Read David’s story in 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 24. Discover more in Acts 13:22.]


Learn about more biblical characters in Old Testament Sinners and Saints, available in e-book, paperback, and hardcover. Get your copy today.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Books of the Bible

Psalm 151

Psalm 151 is an additional Psalm, not found in most Bibles. Ascribed to David the text praises God for selecting him to become king and allowing him to defeat the Philistine warrior, likely Goliath, (see 1 Samuel 17 for the complete story).

Psalm 151 is an Apocrypha book and not included in all versions of the Bible.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV), Common English Bible (CEB), Eastern Orthodox, and Ethiopian Bibles all include Psalm 151.

The Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures, which was widely used in Jesus’s day, also contains Psalm 151.

For more information, see why “Christians Should Consider the Entire Bible.”

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

A Personal Note From God

When Moses went up the mountain to get the 10 Commandments (the second time), God said “I will write on [the tablets] the words…” Imagine that, God providing written communication for Moses.

But it’s not just Moses, a few centuries later David said, “I have in writing from the hand of the Lord…” God wrote the instructions for David about building the temple, with “all the details,” so there’d be no confusion.

Wouldn’t it be great if God would write things down for us?

Wait, he did — and we can read it every day.

As we approach a new year, I encourage you to read what God said every day. Consider it a New Year’s Resolution, one with eternal ramifications.

Check back next week for the 2013 Bible reading plans.

[Exodus 34:1 and 1 Chronicles 28:19]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

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Bible

Influencing Future Generations

Despite King David’s many failings, God refers to him as “a man after my own heart.”

A few generations prior, Ruth makes a bold statement of commitment to her mother-in-law and by extension to the God that mom serves.  Ruth declares,

“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”

Oh, by the way, Ruth is King David’s great grandmother”

Is there a connection?  I think so.

Ruth’s sold out, over-the-top commitment to both mom and mom’s God is likely passed on to son Obed, grandson Jesse, and great grandson David.  Whether or not great grandmother Ruth is still alive to see David, we do not know.  But her influence is evident.

What are we passing on to our children, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren?  Will our actions today influence successive generations?  I hope so.

[See Acts 13:22 and Ruth 1:16-17.]

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.

Categories
Bible

Pouring Out the Drink Offering

During a time of war, there is a curious story of King David.  He mentions that he is thirsty for water from a specific well.  Three of his mighty warriors break through enemy lines, draw water from that well, and return to David with it.

However, instead of drinking it with gratitude, David pours it out on the ground as an offering to God.  [1 Chronicles 11:17-19 and 2 Samuel 23:13-17]

Apparently, he felt that the risk the men took was so great that he was not worthy to taste the water, offering it to God instead.

This action may have parallels to the Old Testament instruction to give a “drink offering” to God.  The drink offering was a libation of wine that was poured over the altar or used with meat offerings as part of the Jewish worship rituals.

Instructions for its use occur over 45 times in the Jewish law, with 19 other references in the Old Testament.

Since Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament worship practices, it is not surprising for there to only be two mentions of drink offerings in the New Testament.  Both were made by Paul, referring to his willingly pouring out his life as a drink-offering to God.  [Philippians 2:17 and 2 Timothy 4:6]

It is important to understand that while the Old Testament believers presented their drink offerings ritualistically out of obligation and compulsion, Paul — being freed from the law by Jesus — willing and gladly presented his own life as a drink-offering to God.

It was his intentional act of sacrifice and service.

A lifelong student of the Bible, Peter DeHaan, PhD, wrote the 1,000-page website ABibleADay.com to encourage people to explore the Bible. His main blog and many books urge Christians to push past the status quo and reconsider how they practice their faith in every area of their lives.