Hello, and welcome to the Westside Church's special Monday Morning Coffee podcast. On this podcast, our preacher, Mark Roberts, will help you get your week started right with a look back at yesterday's sermon so that we can think through it further and better work the applications into our daily lives. Mark will then look forward into this week's Bible reading so that we can know what to expect and watch for. And he may have some extra bonus thoughts from time to time. So grab a cup of coffee as we start the week together on Monday Morning Coffee with Mark.

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the Monday Morning Coffee podcast for Monday, April the 28th. I'm Mark, and I'm in Beaumont, Texas. That's right, I'm in Beaumont. You're listening to this. I'm probably in a hotel room drinking that first cup of coffee out of my AeroPress because I'm with the Northwest Church of Christ here, and I'm preaching in a special gospel meeting. I would ask for your prayers on behalf of this gospel meeting. It's a Monday-Tuesday meeting. They've done a ton of advertising in the community. I'm speaking on how to read the book of Revelation for yourself, trying to get some interest in the Word of God instead of all that end times business where somebody comes in with their charts and timelines and graphs and pushes out all this premillennial doctrine. Let's just talk about how to read the Bible for ourselves and see what the Bible has to say. That is absolutely the best defense against the false doctrines of premillennialism. And that's what I'm here to talk about. Would appreciate your prayers over Monday and Tuesday. And since we're talking about reading the Bible for ourselves And since I wasn't at Westside yesterday, so I can't talk about the sermon, give you additional notes about that, we just need to open our Bibles to 2 Samuel, the 19th chapter. Let's do it. Pour that cup of coffee. Let's get ready. Let's get set. Let's go.

Let's go.

Our reading for Monday is 2 Samuel 19, verses 1 to 15. And this is the chapter that begins to tie up the threads of what's left of Absalom's rebellion and the problems that it just continues to cause. And that starts in the first eight verses with David's sorrow. He just can't seem to get over it. His grief goes on and on. There is lots that needs to go on here to put the kingdom back together, and he's not doing any of that. And that puts Joab front and center again. One scholar said, I think this is a great place to say a word or two about grief. There is a place for grief, yet there is a caution that needs to be sounded about that. We can't let grief immobilize us so that we neglect what God wants us to do. There's a period of mourning, and the Bible shows us that, for example, in Genesis chapter 50. People need to process and work through some things. Don't push that away. Grief is real. We don't deny that because we are Christians. God is the one who gave us emotions, and if a loved one, a friend passes away, even if they have gone to be with the Lord, we miss them. And there's going to be grief. But we want to be careful not to allow that grief to just go on forever. And particularly, we don't want to let grief for God's enemies take us over. David is mourning for the enemies of God's people, and he is not doing his job. He's not doing what God wants him to do as the king of God's people. And Joab needed to remind him of that. Maybe sometimes we need a professional counselor to help us shift our life back into drive. If we're sort of stuck in neutral or in reverse. There's a time to be sorrowful, but then there's a time to get back to life and to doing what God wants us to do. And that begins for David then in verse 9, and there is just all kinds of trouble here with the empty throne. David seems to be set here on putting the past behind and moving forward as the king over a united country, but Israel seems to be somewhat unhappy with Judah because they don't seem to be ready to accept David again, and We just see all of the seeds of division have been deeply sown in the country. Forty years from now, the country will split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, and all of this that we're reading in 2 Samuel 19 will come to mind once again. And so David gets wind of what's going on and says, hey, what's the problem here? especially since Absalom began his rebellion in Hebron, which is in Judah, and maybe people thought that the leaders of the tribe of Judah had cooperated with him. They need to display their allegiance to David, who is the right king. I'm not sure what to say in verse 13 about Joab being replaced by Amasa. The rebel general who lost the battle replaces this very loyal man. Maybe that is done for political purposes. Notice verse 14. David is always so savvy and so good at doing what is the right thing at the right time to win people back over, but there just seems to be a lot of issues going on here. In verse 15, it's kind of difficult. One writer said on this occasion only Judah was officially invited to meet the king and to bring the king over to Jordan, and that was divisive, and that seems to be what's happening here. Please notice the operative expression used in verse 10, verse 11, verse 12, and verse 15 is bring the king back. Who's bringing the king back? Who'll be first in bringing the king back? This almost sounds like siblings. I want to do it. No, I want to do I want to help mom. No, I'm going to help mom. Oh, wow. David has his hands full trying to put things back together again. It is a good place to be reminded that division and strife is easy to start, and it is hard to heal. Maybe one of the reasons why the New Testament has so many things to say about how wrong it is to divide the New Testament church. Our reading for Monday, 2 Samuel 19, 1-15. See you tomorrow. Welcome to Tuesday. Today we finish 2 Samuel 19. We'll read 2 Samuel 19 verses 16 to 43 as David continues to work through all of the problems that are now sitting on his doorstep as he tries to put the country back together again. And that begins with Shammai, the son of Gerah the Benjamite, verse 16. This is the guy who's yelling all kinds of hateful and mean things at David as he ran out of the city of Jerusalem, being chased out of there by Absalom. And we may wonder why David is so willing to forgive Shammai, and sometimes I've said some pretty hard things about Shammai being pretty dumb, because he is. Later on, we're going to see some things in 1 Kings 2 that he's just unbelievably foolish. But he shows up here with a thousand men, verse 17, and I think he is representing himself as being pro-Israel. Notice verse 20, first of all, the house of Joseph. I represent the pro-Absalom side of things, wanting to come back, wanting to be loyal again. And that may account for why David says, we're not killing anybody today. Verse 21 and 22, Abishai, put your sword away. And one writer noted, if David acts Shammai, the other Benjamites in the northern tribes might wonder, is a purge coming? Would more heads start rolling? So David meets Shammai with clemency. And again, David is just very, Very politically sharp. Really has a lot on the ball. This isn't the time to start instilling doubt and fear in anybody who maybe was on the wrong side. in this last rebellion. Let's see if we can get the kingdom back together. Then there's some word here about Mephibosheth and Ziba. This hurts my heart. I've never believed Ziba. Mephibosheth, I don't think, has any claim to the throne, and I don't think he has any thought that he could have the throne, and he ends up with half of what he had before because David just doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference, and so he just splits the difference between the two. I think Ziba took advantage of Mephibosheth, and I don't like any of this. Please notice verse 28. This is what happens to the former king's family. They just all get wiped out, and Mephibosheth is very aware of that. As bad as the Mephibosheth story is, I love Barzillai. He's such a wonderful character, and he represents what you can be to serve God even when you are older. I hope older people won't be offended if I say you're older when you're 80. He's 80, and he says, listen, I can't go enjoy the court. Take this other guy. Take Chimham. He will be able to enjoy the things of the court, but I did all I could for you here, and that's all that I can do. And I just love Barzillai a lot. I think older folks, silver saints, if you will, should study his example and to try to be like him. Instead of discouraging people, what if we tried to supply people, resupply people, encourage folks, especially those who are down and being taken advantage of by others. The chapter then ends on a down note. More trouble between Judah and Israel, verses 40 to 43. There's all these tensions between the two groups and the The text here is a little bit difficult. In verse 42, the ESV is following the Septuagint translation there, but the whole idea seems to be, is the monarchy built around the house of David, or is the monarchy an institution in Israel, and everyone should be loyal to the idea of having a king, not necessarily loyal to the idea of having King David. But there's lots of unhappy going around by the time we get to verse 43, and David's going to have to deal with all of that. A reading for Tuesdays. 2 Samuel 19, verses 16 to 43. And of course, Westsiders, I'm in Beaumont, so we can't Zoom tonight, but I'll be home tomorrow, and I'll see you in Bible class. The reading for Tuesday, 2 Samuel 19, verses 16 to 43. It is Wednesday. It is Wednesday. And the best thing about that... is I'm coming home today. I'll be home tonight, Westside, so that I can teach Bible class, have Bible talk, be able to tell you all about the meeting in Beaumont. I'm excited about being home. Today we are reading. The reading for Wednesday is 2 Samuel chapter 20. And this is not the most difficult read. In fact, it's just full of action of every kind. I think if you made a movie out of 2 Samuel chapter 20, it would do really well at the box office. And sometimes when I see the latest offering from Hollywood, Flintstones 5 or Rocky 200 I wonder, have they completely run out of ideas out there? How about shooting 2 Samuel 20? This would make an amazing movie. But it's kind of a mess, and it's not exactly the most pleasant chapter to read by any stretch of the imagination. To start with, we end up with another revolt. Who's this Sheba guy? Well, he seems to be a Benjamite. I wonder if he's a former army officer, and he seems to be playing on the idea once again that David isn't the rightful king. We need somebody of the house of Saul. Is that where he's going? And it doesn't really seem like he's intent on attacking David because He just seems like what he wants to do is rally the north to follow after him. He's trying to split the kingdom. It seems to be that the northern tribes had troubles with following a king from Judah. And we've seen already lots of dissension and troubles between the north and the south already. Along the way, we deal with David's concubines. Verse 3 seems kind of like they're almost under virtual house arrest, and some have thought that that meant David stopped using them as a harem, that he had learned his I certainly hope so. One writer said, Sin hurts so many people, doesn't it? It hurts so many people who are just innocent. Then we have some stuff here about Amasa, and I don't know what to make of this guy. Amasa, Amasa, however you want to say his name, he reminds me a little bit of General McClellan during the Civil War. If you're familiar with Civil War history, you know that McClellan had an enormous army under his command, and it was never big enough, and Lincoln could never get him to take the field and actually engage the rebels in some kind of battle. Finally, Lincoln fights And replaced him with Grant. That worked out pretty well. And in the same way, David fires Amasa here and says, we've got to do something different or this Sheba guy is going to run off with half the kingdom. But he replaces him with Abishai. I think that is significant. There's still some hard feelings about Joab. All that Joab does, he has a tendency to just randomly kill people, and he did kill Absalom. Speaking of randomly killing people, guess what Joab does to Amasa? He kills him. And the text is really uncertain here in verse 8, 9, and 10 as to how exactly Joab manages to pull this off. Most people have tried to see some kind of manner in which Joab tips forward and tips his sword out of its sheath and falls on the ground. so that Amasa isn't worried about weaponry, or maybe he hid it in the fold of his garments. The key is that his right hand is empty. His right hand is empty. So Amasa isn't worried about anything, but Joab manages to get the weapon and strike him in the stomach. What a terrible way to die. Joab really is a ruthless, cold-blooded killer. He can look someone in the eye right up close to him, face to face, and stick him. You don't want to mess with Joab. And the text moves on from here. Verse 10, that's the last we hear of Abishai. It's Joab, Joab, Joab from here on in. He is in charge. And maybe... If you're reading this and thinking, whoa, deja vu, it is deja vu. Joab killed Saul's head general, Abner, in chapter 3 and verse 27, in cold blood. And recently, he brutally killed Absalom. You don't want to mess with Joab. He doesn't ever seem to lose, but boy, his tactics leave a lot to be desired. Then we get a wise woman, verses 14 to 22. This is at Abel Beth Maka, which... which Dean and I have actually seen. You go to Israel, you can see Abel Beth Maka. I'll tell you what it looks like. It looks like a big hill. They haven't done any excavation there at all. Nothing. There are so many of these biblical sites, they have not gotten to even a small fraction of all of them. Many of them are still, it's called a tell, T-E-L-L. They're just a big hump, a big hill, and under that hill is the various layers of the city. It'd be burned and then rebuilt, burned and then rebuilt, and gradually a hill builds up. You can go see Abel Beth Maka, but it is not much to look like. And once again, we get deja vu because here's a wise woman who says, hey... Don't tear up our whole city and kill all of us. You're just looking for this one guy. We'll give him to you. And the next thing you know, his head comes over the wall. And this is the third time in the David story that a woman changes everything. A wise woman. Abigail was the first, 1 Samuel 25. The wise woman of Tekoa was the second in 2 Samuel 14. And now we have this wise woman of Abel with Maka in 2 Samuel 20. And that finally then sets us up with the notes about David's government, which rolls us back to 2 Samuel 8. The statement seems to be, we're back in power. We're getting the kingdom going again. We've got leaders. We've got officials. Notice there's no mention of David here, just Joab. Joab is the leader of the army still, even though David doesn't really want him to be. And that may say that That may say that David is back, but that he is a very weak leader now. And I think maybe as I watch Joab, verse 23, still in command of the army, that certainly seems to be the case. Our reading for Wednesday, then, is 2 Samuel chapter 20. See you tonight, West Side. Everybody else, see you tomorrow as we continue in 2 Samuel. Welcome to Thursday. Today we will read 2 Samuel, the 21st chapter. There's a couple of things that are very important for you to note here, and I'm so glad I have the podcast to talk about these things. First and foremost, chapter 21 begins an appendix to David's reign. This material is out of chronological order, and we can tell some of that because at various points here, there's material that has to go with earlier happenings. For example, there is a search for Saul's heirs that will happen here in 2 Samuel 21, and That already happened back in chapter 9. So this is not in chronological order. What we get here is the cause for a famine, verses 1 to 9, and then we get something about a very loyal wife, Rizpah, in verses 10 to 14, and then we get some things about David's mighty men. So let's talk about 2 Samuel 21 just briefly. A couple things you need to notice here. First, I wonder how long it took them to realize something was seriously wrong because if we're faithful to God, we're supposed to get good rain. Deuteronomy chapter 28, verses 1 to 14. So finally, someone said, hey, what's the deal? And it was revealed that the Gibeonites, who made a covenant with the Israelites back in Joshua chapter 9, they tricked Joshua and the Israelites, and they made a covenant of peace with them. The Gibeonites had been assaulted and destroyed by King Saul. What do we make of that? What do we make of that? I think there's a contrast here between David, who is loyal to his oaths, and Saul, who broke them. Notice verse 7, the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them. So Saul, and please notice, it's Saul and his house, verse 4, Saul and his sons were involved in this terrible matter of putting the Gibeonites to death. And so those men must pay for their crimes. And sometimes people get tricked here and think that David hung a bunch of innocent people. But Numbers chapter 35, beginning in verse 30, shows you cannot buy your way out of murder. Life is sacred and justice must be done. And if David did the wrong thing here, it still wouldn't reign. So David keeps his oath. Saul did not. And this is just one more note against Saul. I think about Saul who was unwilling to destroy the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 when God told him to do so, and then he destroyed the Gibeonites who he was not supposed to destroy. Saul, what are you doing? There's a marvelous little note then about Rizpah and how she is loyal. She was Saul's concubine, chapter 3 and verse 7, and she cares for these bodies. And we do not know how long this went on, but this is grisly and difficult work. And finally, David says, we We need to take care of this and bury them all together. Apparently... Apparently with some honor, showing some respect here, but we just need to put this behind us. And the story does seem to answer anyone who had any questions about David's treatment of the house of Saul. He did this because they violated God's will, and this is what David needed to do to do what's right. So then beginning in verse 15, we begin to read about some of David's mighty men and how powerful they are and the kind of things that they can accomplish and the kind of things that they can do. It is an important read. because David is the mightiest of these warriors. I've said it before, and I'm going to say it again. If you have this image in your mind of David being this little shrimpy, effeminate little boy, he's the little shepherd boy, so sweet and so kind, you need to seriously rethink that. These guys are powerful warriors who can kill hundreds of Philistines at any one time, and they wouldn't follow somebody like that. They follow somebody who's bigger than them. And that's who David most certainly is. By the way, there's not a contradiction in verse 19. 1 Chronicles chapter 20 clears this up by saying that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath, not Goliath himself. So that brings us to the close of 2 Samuel chapter 21. Let's get ready to move into the Psalms tomorrow. The reading for Thursday is 2 Samuel 21. Welcome to Friday. Welcome to Friday. And today, we are in the Psalms, of course, reading Psalm 17. The reading for Friday is Psalm 17. I wish I could tie this Psalm to a specific place in David's life, but David has so many enemies and so many people out to get him all through his life, it's hard to choose just one particular period of time. Maybe this fits the rebellion of Absalom, the rebellion of Sheba. Maybe it's the time when Saul's chasing him around, or Goliath. Just lots going on in David's life all the time. And David meets the This is a cry for help. This is a lament. It also comes with it a prayer of innocence. Please be careful here. This is not, let's make a deal with God. This is saying that I should be vindicated because I stand with the Lord. This isn't about, I'm so perfect, I'm so righteous. It is, I'm standing with you, God, and I need your help. Notice verse 1, David is always so concerned about his integrity, about what is right. Prayer requires sincerity, not hypocrisy. And we get a little bit of this in verse 3, when in the night hours, when we are in a time of trial, what do we do? We go over our actions, over our deeds, over our words in our head. We take self-inventory. And then there's a prayer based on the attack of the enemy, beginning in verses 6 to 12, where the psalmist asks for God to hear him, to reveal himself in deliverance, and to protect him. And the God's nature to help. and hear. That's who God is. God is good. You may have a translation in verse 10 that uses the word fat, but that is a reference probably to the heart. It's a difficult Hebrew expression there. It appears to be a reference to narcissism and self-love. The NIV has callous hearts. The ESV has they close their hearts. And the psalm then closes verse 14 with a very difficult expression that's translated in a number of different ways. Literally, it is. Here's the actual Hebrew. Your hidden will be full there. Belly sons will have plenty and leave the remains to children. So that's a hard thing to put together. How does this go? The ESV has the sense of it continuing the judgment on evildoers, but the NIV changes it to you still the hunger of those you cherish. Their sons will have plenty. They store up wealth for their children. It was a very complicated question. That kind of high-end Hebrew, that's way past anything that I can work with. Just have to make some decisions based on the context and read some different translations and see what conclusions we can draw. Probably more importantly is verse 15. The wicked will be made to bow down, but the righteous will exult in the presence of God. And I think the thing to notice here is that the psalm began with the psalmist praying that God would see right things. Now... Now the psalmist prays to see God. What a beautiful psalm. I love the idea, for example, in verse 8, keep me as the apple of your eye. This is a wonderful lament psalm, and it helps us. The reading for Friday, Psalm 17. That concludes the podcast for the week. Thanks so much for listening. I do appreciate every listener. So until next week, when we'll open our Bibles together again, I'm Mark Roberts. I want to go to heaven. I want you to come too. I'll see you Monday with a cup of coffee.

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