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- Apr 25, 2006
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20 July 2007
2 Samuel 5 v 11-16
Hiram king of the city of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonecutters. They built a palace for David. Then David knew that the LORD really had made him king of Israel and that the LORD had made his kingdom great because the LORD loved his people Israel.
After he came from Hebron, David took for himself more slave women and wives in Jerusalem. More sons and daughters were born to David. These are the names of the sons born to David in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
I hope you have your brain switched on today . . . 'everything the Bible says is true,' right? Well it depends on what you mean by true!
In the book of Psalms in says 'the trees of the field clapped their hands'. Does that mean the Bible teaches that trees have hands? Of coursed not . . . it is poetic language trying to express the fact that creation points us to worship God. We are not meant to take it literally. The problem here is that we read 'David took for himself more slave women and wives' and this isn't poetic, but what really happened?
So here is the problem, how can David be a holy man of God when he is having sex with his numerous wives and slave women? After all Christianity traditionally teaches the place of sex is exclusively within marriage between one man and one woman. (If you thought the slave women were around to wash his socks you were wrong!). Quite a problem isn't it?
David was living according to the customs and practices of his time. For him what he was doing was perfectly normal, and only later did the religious teaching of exclusive and faithful marriage come to be understood. In just the same way many slave traders were Christians but saw nothing wrong in what they did because it was part of their culture.
We can all be blinded to our sins by our culture. Things that we are used to because we grew up with them are not always right. The language we use, our attitudes, and how we treat others all need to be tested and not taken for granted. We also need to take great care in the way we apply the Bible so we are taught by it, not using it to justify our own prejudices.
Lord Jesus show me how to live in ways that please you, show me where I fall short because I do what I am used to instead of what you call me to do. Amen
Written by David Booker
2 Samuel 5 v 11-16
Hiram king of the city of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonecutters. They built a palace for David. Then David knew that the LORD really had made him king of Israel and that the LORD had made his kingdom great because the LORD loved his people Israel.
After he came from Hebron, David took for himself more slave women and wives in Jerusalem. More sons and daughters were born to David. These are the names of the sons born to David in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
I hope you have your brain switched on today . . . 'everything the Bible says is true,' right? Well it depends on what you mean by true!
In the book of Psalms in says 'the trees of the field clapped their hands'. Does that mean the Bible teaches that trees have hands? Of coursed not . . . it is poetic language trying to express the fact that creation points us to worship God. We are not meant to take it literally. The problem here is that we read 'David took for himself more slave women and wives' and this isn't poetic, but what really happened?
So here is the problem, how can David be a holy man of God when he is having sex with his numerous wives and slave women? After all Christianity traditionally teaches the place of sex is exclusively within marriage between one man and one woman. (If you thought the slave women were around to wash his socks you were wrong!). Quite a problem isn't it?
David was living according to the customs and practices of his time. For him what he was doing was perfectly normal, and only later did the religious teaching of exclusive and faithful marriage come to be understood. In just the same way many slave traders were Christians but saw nothing wrong in what they did because it was part of their culture.
We can all be blinded to our sins by our culture. Things that we are used to because we grew up with them are not always right. The language we use, our attitudes, and how we treat others all need to be tested and not taken for granted. We also need to take great care in the way we apply the Bible so we are taught by it, not using it to justify our own prejudices.
Lord Jesus show me how to live in ways that please you, show me where I fall short because I do what I am used to instead of what you call me to do. Amen
Written by David Booker
