2 Samuel 3:2-39
Good
morning! Today is my first time giving a
message live online. With God’s grace, I
hope it will go smoothly. We are in our
third message in a new series about the life of David as he becomes king and
unifies Israel.
We are
going to look at 2 Samuel 3. It is a
chapter with a multitude of events.
We’ve got a lot to cover, so I’m going to try to keep the intro short.
As to
the time period, it is interesting to consider how the bible gives us quite a
number of details from which the reader can grasp a decent flow and spacing of
events. At a somewhat wider view, there
is a time window of 140 years created between Judges 11:26 (300 years after the
conquest, or 340 years after the Exodus) and I Kings 6:1 (480 years after the
Exodus when the building of the temple begins in the fourth year of Solomon’s
reign as king). In this time period of
140 years, we have the events of 1 and 2 Samuel and the first five chapters of
I Kings.
Here
is my attempt at a graphical representation of approximate dates and the
relationship of the key leaders. You can
see the outline of the times of 1 and 2 Samuel. Then, in the bright red box is the timeframe
of today’s passage. It is somewhat
narrower than that, but hopefully you get an idea. We are looking at David’s life nearing the
midpoint when he was 30-35 years old.
On the
next slide, we see a map of the approximate range of the two kingdoms. Last week, we learned that the remaining son
of Saul, Ish-Bosheth, was installed as king over ten tribes of Israel in a
northern kingdom while David had become king over two tribes, Judah and Simeon,
in a southern kingdom.
In
last week’s passage, we read how David had returned from the land of the
Philistines to the territory of Judah in Israel. David asked God if he should return, and when
God answered yes, David asked to which town.
God said to go to Hebron. In 2
Samuel 2:2, it says David went there with his two wives. In total, David would live in Hebron and
reign as king over Judah for seven and a half years.
With
that, let’s take a moment and pray and then we will dig into today’s passage in 2 Samuel 3.
Lord
God, please speak to us from Your Word.
Apart from You, we are not able to understand and see what You have for
us. Open the eyes of our heart Lord, we
pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Sons were born to David in Hebron: His
firstborn was Amnon the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel; his second, Kileab the son
of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third, Absalom the son of Maakah
daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; the
fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream the son of David's
wife Eglah. These were born to David in Hebron. – 2 Samuel 3:2-5
Now in
the beginning of chapter 3, we see a list of six wives and each of their first
born sons. Four more wives have been
added to the list! The first two wives
listed are the two who returned with David from the land of the Philistines
(Ahinoam and Abigail). Ahinoam was from
Jezreel in the north of Israel among the territory of the tribe of
Issachar. Abigail was the widow of Nabal
from Carmel in the territory of Judah.
The
next wife on the list is Maacah a daughter of Talmai king of Geshur. This would seem to be a politically expedient
marriage as Geshur was an Aramean city-state northeast of the Sea of Galilee. With Ish-Bosheth king in opposition to David
and north of Judah, David would appear to have an ally in King Talmai on the
northern border of Ish-Bosheth’s territory.
With this marriage, David flanked Ish-Bosheth with an ally on the far
side of Israel from Judah.
Little
is told of the other three wives in the bible.
Their names are only mentioned in lists which describe the sons of
David. But six wives! That’s a lot!
The writer of II Samuel does not directly condemn what David has
done. However, Deuteronomy 17:17 is
clear, the king “must not take many wives, or his heart will be led
astray.” Mostly, we think of Solomon
having many wives (many, many … according to I Kings 11:3, he had 700!), and
even I Kings 11:4 tells of how Solomon’s wives turned his heart away from the
Lord.
And, I
wonder how David’s choices here may have impacted Solomon? David won’t even meet Solomon’s mother for
another ten years or so. But, Solomon
grew up in a home where his father had many wives. Perhaps Solomon would have been less likely
to be led astray in having many marriages if his father’s life more closely
followed God’s plan for marriage. This
is an area we can meditate on in our own choices. Although it true, I’m not only focused that
we would have one spouse. I would say
all of us have many eyes watching how we live.
Others, both believers and unbelievers, watch our choices to see what
children of God do. If we set poor or
ungodly examples, then others can interpret this as permissive to do wrong things.
I
don’t want to set a guilt trip on us.
God has forgiven our sins past, present and future at the cross. However, I don’t want us to underestimate the
seriousness of sin. We should not take
God’s grace as a license to sin. (Romans 6:1-4) What should we do if there is
an area where we feel as though we have set a wrong or particularly a sinful
example? We can first off confess our
sin to God trusting in His forgiveness. (I John 1:9) Then as appropriate, we
should confess our sin to one another. (James 5:16) What do I mean by as
appropriate?
Answering
that question, this could be a full sermon by itself. Let me briefly give a few cautions. First off, the context here is sins which we
commit in front of or against another person or other people. In such cases, whenever possible, confessions
should be made to those who we have sinned against. Also, it is important for confessions to be
honest and sufficiently specific. “I’m
sorry for everything,” is not a confession.
At the same time, while confessions can be made in the church, public
confessions should be discrete. If there
is a concern or question about what should be confessed or how to do it, it is
good to talk to the pastors or another mature believer for guidance on what is
appropriate to say to wider audiences even among the church body. Finally, when we hear another person confess,
we as witnesses have a serious responsibility to respond correctly. That most often means with loving,
intercessory prayer. We should
definitely not gossip about it even under the pretense of “sharing” the need
with others. An area where we need to
have wisdom and God can supply that.
Let’s continue with our passage in 2 Samuel 3.
During the war between the house of Saul
and the house of David, Abner had been strengthening his own position in the
house of Saul. Now Saul had had a concubine named Rizpah daughter of Aiah. And
Ish-Bosheth said to Abner, "Why did you sleep with my father's
concubine?" Abner was very angry because of what Ish-Bosheth said. So he
answered, "Am I a dog's head--on Judah's side? This very day I am loyal to
the house of your father Saul and to his family and friends. I haven't handed
you over to David. Yet now you accuse me of an offense involving this woman! May
God deal with Abner, be it ever so severely, if I do not do for David what the
LORD promised him on oath and transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and
establish David's throne over Israel and Judah from Dan to Beersheba." – 2
Samuel 3:6-10
Who is
Abner? Abner is the commander of the
armies of the northern kingdom. He
survived the battle of the Jezreel valley where Saul and three of his sons had
died. Abner is also Saul’s cousin. There is a family connection. Abner is the right hand man to King
Ish-Bosheth. In fact, apart from Abner’s
influence, it is unlikely that Ish-Bosheth could even have succeeded his father
as king. As Tim pointed out last week,
it looks like Abner is using Ish-Bosheth to maintain his own position and
power. In reality as seen later in this
chapter and particularly in verse 1 of chapter 4, Ish-Bosheth is not able to
lead without Abner.
With
that situation, it was extremely unwise for Ish-Bosheth to make an accusation
against Abner. In this case, it would
appear that the accusation was baseless.
Abner has seen all he needs to see of Ish-Bosheth. Abner has a long history with David. He had witnessed David’s defeat of Goliath
15-20 years earlier. Abner had been
spared along with King Saul when David and Abishai were able to sneak into
their camp 10-15 years earlier. As
commander of King Saul’s army, Abner never could catch David. I think that Abner had a great deal of
respect for David. He had little respect
for Ish-Bosheth, and that was just eroded by a hasty word from Ish-Bosheth.
One
take away from this passage is to recognize that words spoken in haste are
often dangerous. James 1:19 is familiar, “Everyone should be … slow to
speak.” Proverbs 10:19 says, “Sin is not
ended by multiplying words, but the prudent hold their tongues.” In this case, Ish-Bosheth’s words are perhaps
most reminiscent of James 3:8 where it says that the tongue “is a restless
evil, full of deadly poison.” If we
would be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9, James 3:17-18) and bearers of the fruit of
the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25), we are going to have to let some things go
unsaid or at a minimum reworded to bring about a godly result.
Looking
back to the beginning of this passage, we are reminded that there is war
between the house of Saul and the house of David. This war goes on for a long period of
time. We do not know exactly how long,
but it lasts at least two years.
Ish-Bosheth did not dare to say another
word to Abner, because he was afraid of him. Then Abner sent messengers on his
behalf to say to David, "Whose land is it? Make an agreement with me, and
I will help you bring all Israel over to you."
"Good," said David. "I
will make an agreement with you. But I demand one thing of you: Do not come
into my presence unless you bring Michal daughter of Saul when you come to see
me." – 2 Samuel 3:11-13
We see
the weakness of Ish-Bosheth. He was so
afraid that he could not speak even though Abner had told him exactly what he
was going to do. Another observation and
application is that Ish-Bosheth did not attempt an apology. Maybe there was no possibility of an apology
succeeding in this situation. However,
that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t seek to apologize when we speak
inappropriately or out of turn.
Abner
is a man of exceptional power and influence.
He has no doubt that he can sway all the tribes in the northern kingdom
to follow either the house of Saul or the house of David. At the same time, he wants an agreement with
David to insure his own safety and perhaps position in David’s reign over a
united kingdom.
David’s
request can be viewed in several ways.
Michal is a younger daughter of Saul.
Saul gave Michal to David as his wife.
When Saul threatened David’s life and David had to flee, Saul then gave
Michal as wife to another man as we will see in a moment.
David
may have requested Michal as a means of solidifying his position by resuming
his “title” as son-in-law to Saul. It
seems likely Ish-Bosheth was a son of one of Saul’s concubines. If true, being a chosen son-in-law may give
David a higher place in the view of some people. David may have wanted to have back the wife
of his youth. It was clear in I Samuel
that Michal had loved David. David may
have wanted to test Abner. With such a
request, he could find out how serious Abner really was. If Abner was willing to break up the second
marriage of Michal, David could see both Abner’s strength and his willingness
to acquiesce to David’s leadership.
Maybe David had more than one of these or even something else motivating
him.
In the
end, the situation is tragic as we will see.
Then David sent messengers to
Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, demanding, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I
betrothed to myself for the price of a hundred Philistine foreskins." So
Ish-Bosheth gave orders and had her taken away from her husband Paltiel son of
Laish. Her husband, however, went with her, weeping behind her all the way to
Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go back home!" So he went back. – 2
Samuel 3:14-16
David
makes his demand openly to Ish-Bosheth.
In this way, Abner does not need to act in secret in bringing about
David’s request. Ish-Bosheth immediately
complies. We don’t know if there was any
input from Abner. We do see Abner’s
command to Michal’s second husband. In 1
Samuel 25:44, we see that Paltiel is from Gallim, a town in Benjamin. Bahurim is just east of Jerusalem essentially
on the border between Benjamin and Judah.
Abner tolerated Paltiel’s weeping until he reached the edge of David’s
territory.
In the
end, it’s just another sad situation caused by Saul’s sin. Saul drove David away and broke up his
daughter’s marriage to a man she loved.
Then, he gave his daughter to another man. The bible doesn’t skip over the consequences
of evil. We see Paltiel’s tears. They are not forgotten or omitted from the
story. Even in this horrible situation,
I think we can find some comfort. God
sees. He sees our hurts. He does not forget the bad things which
happen to us.
Bad
things do happen. Evil has come into the
world as a result of sin. Christian, you
have a tremendous advantage in understanding why the world is the way it
is. It is this way that bad things can
happen … because of sin. But even in the
midst of the difficulty and grief, we can also look forward in hope. In yesterday’s GCC devotional, Doug Brown
shared this,
… in the age to come, we look forward to
complete and total healing. There will be physical healing: “and there will no
longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain”
(Revelation 21:4). There will be emotional healing: “He Himself will wipe away
every tear” (Revelation 21:4). There will be relational healing: “He will dwell
with them and they will be His people” (Revelation 21:3) There will be healing
of the cosmos: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth” and “Behold, I am
making all things new” (Revelation 21:1, 5).
And
so, even in hardship, we can look forward in hope. As I Thessalonians 4:18 reminds us, we should
comfort one another with these blessings of God which are yet to come. Okay, let’s get back to our passage.
Abner conferred with the elders of
Israel and said, "For some time you have wanted to make David your king. Now
do it! For the LORD promised David, 'By my servant David I will rescue my
people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their
enemies.'" Abner also spoke to the Benjamites in person. – 2 Samuel
3:17-19a
Abner
takes action to build a coalition of support even before going to David. Based on what Abner said, it would appear
that many of the tribes in the north were already “trending” toward David. As to the Lord’s promise, we already saw in
verses 9 and 10 when Abner spoke to Ish-Bosheth, he said, “May God deal with
[me], be it ever so severely, if I do not do for David what the LORD promised
him on oath and transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish
David's throne over Israel and Judah.”
It really does make you think that Abner is a shrewd man but perhaps not
particularly God-fearing. It appears
Abner is using the promises of God as a motivational tool to get what he wants
rather than truly believing in God and having a relationship with Him.
We
should be alert to God’s call and seek to be in relationship with Him. Lately, we’ve heard talk about the importance
of our physical temperature. Our
physical body temperature is certainly important, and so is our spiritual
temperature. How are we doing? Are we warm toward God or cold? Do we spend more time seeking to know about
God and to know about His promises or do we spend our time seeking to
know God, to seek Him, to be in relationship with Him?
This
week, Elijah pulled out an old boom box of mine. It’s generous to call it a boom box. It’s pretty small, but it does kind of have
that look about it with speakers prominently situated on the two ends. He had seen a boom box featured in the new
Pixar movie Onward a couple of weeks
ago. When I say it’s old, it’s more than
30 years old. My parents gave it to me
one Christmas when I was 14 or so. It’s
been through a lot, including but not limited to being dropped at least a dozen
times, having fallen off a window sill onto a concrete floor, literally sat
through a thunderstorm in the summer of either 1988 or 89 on a small sandbar
getting saturated to the point where I had to disassemble it and dry it out
with a hair dryer, not to mention it has endured countless corroded batteries
including the six that I had to pry out of it this week when Elijah brought it
to me from the basement.
Following
getting the radio going, Elijah proceeds to dig out an old cassette tape with
an episode of Adventures in Odyssey on it, and he wants to listen to that. If you’re not familiar with it, Adventures in
Odyssey is a serialized radio program targeted at kids. They are founded in a Christian worldview and
are good to listen to at any age.
(Note: I haven’t gone to check
myself, but I have heard that you can stream some Focus on the Family content
online for free during the COVID-crisis including Adventures in Odyssey.) Anyway, in the mid-90’s I recorded a number
of Adventures in Odyssey episodes off the radio for Melissa when we were in
college before we got married. I had
this stereo that could be preset to record something at a certain time. The episodes are only 30 minutes and fit
nicely on one side of a 60 minute cassette tape. I would set it up to record them while I was
working in the summers when we were apart and then I would mail them to
her. Most of you may have no idea what I
am talking about, you might have to find an older person to explain this again
after church.
So
here are Elijah and I, we’ve got this cut-down version of a boom box which has
been profoundly abused to the point that there’s not even a door on the tape
deck. So, we stick the tape in and push
play. With a little bit of adjustment,
we actually get a clear playback, and Elijah listens to an episode. Since it was recorded off the radio, there
were “commercial breaks” except they weren’t really commercials. Most of the time they were other
encouragements. On this particular tape
that Elijah picked out of the blue, there is a brief message from Joni
Eareckson Tada from the Wonder Bible that talks about John 1. She explained how Jesus is the Word of
God. Jesus is both God and a message to
us from God. Jesus is good news, the
best news.
If you
aren’t familiar with Joni, she is a dear believer in Christ. She also suffered a broken neck in a diving
accident more than 50 years ago now. She
has lived as a quadriplegic since 1967.
Her message on that old recording was short and simple. I also heard her saying recently that none of
us can do life on the run. We need to
spend time with God no matter what our life is like. We shouldn’t be like Abner, fitting God into
our own plans. Instead, we should seek
to be like Joni and draw near to God through worship and prayer. Through her suffering, Joni has also
experienced profound joy so much so that she routinely bursts out in song. I’ve put a link in the transcript to a 2012
interview she did if you’d like to get to know her better.
You
can also be in prayer for Joni. I also
heard at the end of 2019 that she had been experiencing breathing difficulties
as result of cancer treatments she was undergoing. Let’s get back to 2 Samuel 3 …
Then he went to Hebron to tell David
everything that Israel and the whole tribe of Benjamin wanted to do. When
Abner, who had twenty men with him, came to David at Hebron, David prepared a
feast for him and his men. Then Abner said to David, "Let me go at once
and assemble all Israel for my lord the king, so that they may make a covenant
with you, and that you may rule over all that your heart desires." So
David sent Abner away, and he went in peace. – 2 Samuel 3:19b-21
Abner
is truly a man of action. He comes to
David with the job already done. Here is
a positive example we can draw from Abner.
He already has the agreement to make David king of all Israel. He even met with the tribe of Benjamin in
person. This seems like a good place to
end the story, right? Israel will be
united and have peace and be ruled by David, a man after God’s own heart. Unfortunately, there are 18 more verses in
our chapter, and they are not all good.
Just then David's men and Joab returned
from a raid and brought with them a great deal of plunder. But Abner was no
longer with David in Hebron, because David had sent him away, and he had gone
in peace. When Joab and all the soldiers with him arrived, he was told that
Abner son of Ner had come to the king and that the king had sent him away and
that he had gone in peace. So Joab went to the king and said, "What have
you done? Look, Abner came to you. Why did you let him go? Now he is gone! You
know Abner son of Ner; he came to deceive you and observe your movements and
find out everything you are doing." – 2 Samuel 3:22-25
Joab
speaks to David as if he is primarily concerned about David’s security. We will see in a moment that this is not
truly what Joab is concerned with.
Joab’s
tone to the king is emotional and feels like he is talking down to David as an
inferior. This is not how a subordinate
should address his leader even when it is the commander of the armies as Joab
was.
What
goes unsaid here is of the utmost importance.
We do not see any reaction from David.
Perhaps he is thinking that Joab just needs a moment to blow off some
steam. Maybe David is thinking that he
will talk to Joab about it later, if at all.
Joab
is in the middle of a rash and foolish moment.
David is not in an easy position.
Saying something at such a time is not simple. Proverbs 26:4-5 explains the challenge
well. Verse 4 says, “Do not answer a
fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.” Then, verse 5 says, “Answer a fool according
to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” It takes wisdom and God’s Spirit working to
successfully speak into these moments.
It’s like I Thessalonians 5:17, we need to pray continually. That should include praying all the time to
say and do the right things.
Let’s
go on …
Joab then left David and sent messengers
after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern at Sirah. But David did
not know it. Now when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into an
inner chamber, as if to speak with him privately. And there, to avenge the
blood of his brother Asahel, Joab stabbed him in the stomach, and he died. – 2 Samuel
3:26-27
No we
know Joab’s real motive. Abner had
killed Joab’s brother in chapter 2 during a battle. Even in the heat of Asahel’s pursuit, Abner
had warned Asahel multiple times to break off, but Asahel wouldn’t do it. Maybe Abner didn’t have to kill Asahel. Maybe Abner could have incapacitated Asahel
instead. But this was a time of
war. That day when Asahel was killed was
a day when Abner’s forces had suffered greatly, losing 360 men compared to
Joab’s forces losing 19. Regardless,
Joab wanted revenge, found his opportunity and took it.
It is
important to note that Joab’s act against Abner was not in a battle. Joab’s action of revenge is far different
than Abner’s act against Asahel. Abner
did not know Joab was going to attack him.
Abner believed they were in a truce.
Joab murdered Abner. This is
important to recognize as we look at David’s reaction.
Later, when David heard about this, he
said, "I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the LORD concerning
the blood of Abner son of Ner. May his blood fall on the head of Joab and on
his whole family! May Joab's family never be without someone who has a running
sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks
food." (Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner because he had killed
their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.) – 2 Samuel 3:28-30
David
is at a critical point in becoming king over Israel. Some writers have suggested that David takes
this step of cursing Joab because he wants to appease the tribal leaders of the
north. And yet, Joab has sinned
greatly. Not only Joab, but we see here
in verse 30 that Abishai was in some way an accomplice to this crime against
Abner.
As we
have seen, sin often has consequences which carry on into the future. This is true of Saul and David and us. It is only God’s grace that can break the
power of sin and set people free from it.
Then David said to Joab and all the
people with him, "Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and walk in
mourning in front of Abner." King David himself walked behind the bier. They
buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner's tomb. All the people
wept also. The king sang this lament for Abner: "Should Abner have died as
the lawless die? Your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered. You
fell as one falls before the wicked." And all the people wept over him
again. Then they all came and urged David to eat something while it was still
day; but David took an oath, saying, "May God deal with me, be it ever so
severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!" – 2 Samuel
3:31-35
Joab
was not punished according to his crime at this moment. However, there is a kind of discipline here
that Joab must join in mourning. Rather
than celebrate, Joab must at least outwardly acknowledge the wrongfulness of
Abner’s death. David was serious in his
mourning and even fasted on the day of the funeral.
All the people took note and were
pleased; indeed, everything the king did pleased them. So on that day all the
people there and all Israel knew that the king had no part in the murder of
Abner son of Ner. – 2 Samuel 3:36-37
The
people of Judah and particularly the people of the northern tribes all saw
David’s reaction to Abner’s death. They
believed that David was genuinely grieved.
That is because David was genuinely grieved.
Then the king said to his men, "Do
you not realize that a commander and a great man has fallen in Israel this day?
And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak, and these sons of Zeruiah
are too strong for me. May the LORD repay the evildoer according to his evil
deeds!" – 2 Samuel 3:38-39
David
does speak to his men about this situation.
Were they acting inappropriately?
We just don’t know. David clearly
states that Abner was an honorable man saying further that Abner was a leader
and in fact a great one. This is in
keeping with what we saw before in Abner’s ability to influence and direct the
tribes of Israel.
David
may not have felt secure enough to sentence Joab and possibly Abishai to death
at that time. We don’t know. He does though give vengeance over to the
Lord. We too should rest in the Lord.
I want
to close with another story related to that old boom box. It didn’t feel quite right listening to
contemporary music on it, so instead I was listening to some classic rock. On Friday, I heard Jim Croce singing “Bad,
Bad Leroy Brown.” I have no idea when I
last heard that song.
If you
don’t know the song, it’s about Leroy Brown.
The majority of the song sets up how tough and strong and bad Leroy
is. He’s from the worst part of town. He’s 6 foot 4. All the men call him “Sir.” He’s badder than old King Kong and he’s
meaner than a junkyard dog. Leroy’s also
an ostentatious show off wearing fancy clothes, driving fancy cars, wearing
expensive jewelry. He carries a gun in
his pocket and a razor in his shoe. And
it just keeps going. But then, the song
comes to the part where Leroy approaches a girl named Doris. Doris you see is a married woman. And that’s when Leroy Brown learns a lesson
about messing with the wife of a jealous man.
We get one more chorus about how bad Leroy is, but then comes the final
verse. “Well the two men took to
fighting and when they pulled them off the floor, Leroy looked like a jigsaw
puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.”
I
don’t know why that song resonates with me and makes me think about Revelation,
but it does. There is an evil one out
there. It’s not Leroy Brown either. I’m talking about Satan. He is the accuser. He is a liar.
He wants us to be afraid. He
wants us to lose hope and be discouraged.
But, his doom is sure. The
resurrection of Jesus proves that Satan has been defeated. When I listen to Leroy Brown, I think of
Satan trying to be all slick and showy, looking like he’s tough and in
control. But you see, you and I are a
part of the bride of Christ. That’s what
the church is. It’s the bride of
Christ. And when Satan messes with us,
he is messing with the betrothed of Christ.
Jesus is not going to put up with it.
God is described repeatedly as jealous.
We might think that jealously can never be good. But just as there is a righteous anger, there
is a righteous jealousy. God has
purchased us by His blood, and we belong to Him. Satan cannot take us from God. We are His precious possession. God is not jealous of us. God is jealous for us. We are His.
And
so, I envision Satan that old serpent when the angel seizes him in Revelation
20 to throw him into the Abyss looking just like Leroy Brown did, “like a
jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.”
That day is coming when God will set all things right and every knee
will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord.
One
more verse, and then I’m done. I John
4:16 says, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His
love.” God loves you so much that He
gave His Son for you. Trust in Him. Let’s pray.
Lord
Jesus, thank You for loving us to the cross.
May we have confidence in You in all things. Glorify Your Name we pray. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment