Breakfast For Your Soul

Thursday, June 17, 2010

  In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.” Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax.” David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?” Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.” “Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. Then David invited him to dinner and got him drunk. But even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again he slept at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers. Then Joab sent a battle report to David. He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king. But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? Wasn’t Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall? Why would you get so close to the wall?’ Then tell him, ‘Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.’” So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David. “The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate, the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.” “Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city!”

When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. Then she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.

2 Samuel 11

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Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that He commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
[1 Kings 15:5]

Ever Felt Like A Uriah Surrounded By Davids?

 

 

Thursday, October 29, 2009

He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

[Psalm 91:1-2]

So David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath. But the officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. “Isn’t this David, the king of the land?” they asked. “Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing,

   ‘Saul has killed his thousands,
      and David his ten thousands’?”

   David heard these comments and was very afraid of what King Achish of Gath might do to him. So he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard. Finally, King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman? We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?”
[1 Samuel 21:10-14]

“Shelter” (Psalm 91), Jumelle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwt2mSjXxBw

“Breathe Into Me”, Fred Hammond

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hpl_906fqk

“Take Me In“, Kutless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0cuOawD_I8

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Good Morning Beloved,

I ran across a seldom talked about story in the bible.  We know the players well.  David, Saul and his sons Jonathan (David’s best friend), Abinadab and Malchishua…. .  We know how jealous Saul was of David, because David was well-liked by the people and anointed by God.  What always intrigued me was that, even though this man tried to kill David many times, and had hunted him for years….David cried and mourned over him when he heard that he died.  If that had been some of us, we might not have been so generous…. (“hmmp…good enough for his tail….. that’s what he gets messing with me for nothing“)…. not you, but some people I knew once …long time ago.  Another part to this saga… here’s comes this poor Amalekite (now in case you didn’t know Israel and the Amalekites hated each other and had been fighting for years.  As a matter of fact, David was just returning from a battle against the Amalekites).  This little fellow, goes to David to tell him all about the battle, in which Saul and his sons died.  He gave David Saul’s crown and bracelet as proof.  You know what he was doing right?  He assumed that since Saul hated David and wanted him dead, that the feeling must have been mutual.  So, he tells this story of how Saul was dying and begged him to kill him, so that he would not be tortured by his enemies.  He goes on to tell David how he nobly obliged this pitiful, dying monarch and killed him.  The problem… his perception of David was wrong… dead wrong.  David said to him, “how was it that you were not afraid to put your hands on the Lord’s anointed?“…. David had the man executed on the spot…..  The other issue… it was a lie… this man lost his life, trying to win the favor of the new King (1st Samuel 31:1-5 and 2nd Samuel 1:1-15).  The whole scenario never happened… Saul asked his armor bearer to kill him, that man was too afraid, so Saul fell on his sword and killed himself.  The armor bearer then took his own life. “Misperceptions”….  Mr. Amalekite, should have left that stuff on the battle-field and high-tailed it out of there.  He should not have gone looking for David, and he definitely should not have lied.  His assumptions and his mouth got him killed.  We may not cause a death, but how many times have we made a judgment call about someone or something, only to find out later that we were wrong.  People have had their character assassinated because of what someone else thought.  Rumors can do irreputable harm.  Especially now with the world wide web, anyone can say anything about anybody and someone will believe it.  Two celebreties show up at the same function, someone takes a picture of them, and within minutes it is posted online with the caption…. “hottest new couple”.  Someone can videotape you disciplining your child, post it on YouTube and label you a child-abuser.  The bible tells us to “watch and pray”.  In these days, we need wisdom and discernment more than ever before…..ahhhhh… but God tells us that if any lack wisdom, let them ask of God and He will give it to them freely…

U Blessed!

Have A Fabulous Day!…..

We have sun today DC/Metro!  Praise God!

Regina

Friday, May 9, 2008

Good Morning Beloved,

Happy Friday!  In light of Mother’s Day, I am reflecting on the beautiful biblical story of Ruth.  There is so much we can glean from that little book.  What stands out to me is the mentorship aspect of the relationship between Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth.  Ruth as you know, was married to Naomi’s elder son. Naomi had suffered much.  She had to leave her home because of famine, and while in a strange and pagan land, her husband and both of her sons died.  There was no social services in those days.  She could have literally starved to death.  She gets word that God is blessing in her hometown and packs up to leave.  Both of her daughter-in-laws’ initially agree to go, but with very little encouragement, Orpah, goes back to her parent’s house… Ruth refuses (….”Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. 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 anything but death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.  Ruth 1:16-18).  Ruth left the comfort and security of her home, to take care of Naomi.  Little did she know that her life was being orchestrated by the God she came to trust in.  Ruth became the Great-Grandmother of King David — the lineage Jesus decided to come through. All this, through the love of one Godly woman for a young woman, who was birthed out of a heathen idol-worshiping culture, that sacrificed their children on fiery altars.  Ever wonder who taught little David to love and reverence God.  Who taught him the songs that he sang in the meadows to God…. who taught him to play instruments so skillfully…. David had a Godly inheritance instilled in him, that, to our knowledge, started with Naomi.  We are surrounded by Davids, Naomis and Ruths.  Those people who pull you aside during the day at work, or church or at the gym or on the bus.  Everyone is searching for answers.  Their answer lies in a personal relationship with God…. we may be the only bible someone has ever read…. and they study us from cover to cover.  It is a sobering thought… but there is no greater honor, than being used by God as an instrument to speak into a person’s life, and help them towards fulfilling their purpose.

Happy Mother’s Day to ALL of the mothers, I honor you.  You may not even have biological children, still I honor you, because as a daughter of Zion, you have “mothered” someone…. you know you have… friends, relatives, kids at church, folks on your job, complete strangers…..

We also honor the legacy of the great mother’s that have recently left us:

Mrs. Ruth Blount

Mrs. Jesse Coleman

Mrs. Charlotte David

U Blessed!

Have A Fabulous Day and a Great Weekend!

Regina
 

Cartoonist’s Comment:

“God will himself be their powerful comforter: As one whom his mother comforts, when he is sick or sore, or upon any account in sorrow, so will I comfort you; not only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother, that bemoans her afflicted child when it has fallen and hurt itself, that she may quiet it and make it easy, or endeavours to pacify it after she has chidden it and fallen out with it.” –Matthew Henry’s Commentary