2 Samuel 23:3-4 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: “When one rules over people in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings grass from the earth.’

When I consider the state of governments in our nation and in the rest of the world, I must say: I think the world is in store for some dark days.

Just the way I am, I can’t leave it at that.  If America is a state in which the people and our elected representatives hold supreme power, don’t we all play a part in bringing light into this world?

2 Samuel 14:14 We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and He devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.

Our words and actions, and sometimes even our in-actions cannot be undone. Oh how I wish I could have hit “Rewind” and redo some ghastly mistakes. Sometimes immediately after it happened!

Luckily God isn’t sitting on His throne with some kind of big zapper, and blast me into the netherworld. (Though I might have deserved it if He did). Even more luckily for me, God doesn’t give us our just deserts without first offering us a way out. This seems to happen over and over and over.

I guess instead of woefully wishing I could “Rewind” my inadequacies and iniquities, I should pay forward the Grace, Mercy and Compassion the Lord has so freely given me.

2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the King’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

David has solidified his position as king. He has defeated his enemies at every turn. While his army is off fighting another war, David remains behind.  One evening he is walking on the roof of the palace and he spies Bathsheba, who is the wife of Uriah, one of his men. She is bathing.  He finds out who she is and eventually they have an affair.

David sends Uriah off on an unnecessary suicide mission and takes Bathsheba as his wife.

God is none too happy with this and serious problems ensue. As a result, great calamity falls on David and his House.

The important point of this verse is: David should not have been hanging out on his roof checking out the villagers.  He should have been with his army.  David may have had some issues before he spied Bathsheba, but sin did not rear its ugly head until David allowed himself to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When we go where we shouldn’t have gone, it becomes a small step to do what we shouldn’t have done.

2 Samuel 7:3 Nathan replied to the king. “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.”

Sometimes it seems like God expects us to follow a rather big “Do” list and an even bigger “Do Not” List.  Of course this could not be further from the truth.

I want to say that our standing with God isn’t so much with lists as it is with relationship.  But to tell you the truth, sometimes I think that “Relationship” has almost become a buzzword of the fashionably pious.

Of course, it is about “Relationship”!  But everybody has a relationship with God.  Some good, some not so good, some relationships even deny His existence.  What matters is the type of relationship we have with God.  I believe what we need is “kinship”.

My dictionary defines “kinship” this way:                             1. Connection by blood, marriage, or adoption; family relationship. 2. Relationship by nature or character.

Synonyms are: affinity, sympathy, rapport, harmony, understanding, empathy, closeness, bond, compatibility, similarity, likeness, correspondence, concordance.

We attempt to get closer to God; God draws us closer to Him. As kinship with God develops, it brings affinity, rapport, likeness, and correspondence with God. God is with us and that opens up whole new avenues of thoughts and desires.

Ah, to be in such a position: “Go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.”

2 Samuel 6:20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal, daughter of Saul, came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

At the point of this verse, this is the story thus far:
For some time Saul has hunted David and his men. Twice, David is in the position to kill Saul, but lets him go. Each time Saul backs off, but only for a short time. Then the Philistine’s attack and Saul is killed in battle. Eventually, David becomes King of all Israel.

Once David is King, the Philistines renew their attacks. After David defeats the Philistines, he decides to move the Ark of the Covenant. (This was a chest that contained the tablets the Ten Commandments were written on, and perhaps a few other important items from the time of the Exodus).

There is great rejoicing as the Ark is brought into Jerusalem. David goes before the procession and dances with all his might. Michal, his wife, watches him from a window. Then she accosts David in the above verse.

To paraphrase David’s response, “First, I was not dancing in front of slave girls. I was dancing before the Lord God Almighty. And second, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

As a result of this encounter, David does not bless his house. Michal would be barren, and the best days of her life would be behind her.

As with Michal, sometimes our own ideas, whether they are judgmental attitudes, unfounded prejudices, or we simply try to put God in a box; get in the way of our own blessings