JERUSALEM

Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 4-5

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

Jerusalem is where David’s ancestor, Abraham, built an altar on Mt. Moriah, and where God promised that He would provide a sacrifice. Not Abraham’s son, but God’s own Son became that Sacrifice. It was here that Melchizedek, King of Salem (Jerusalem means city of salem or peace) and priest of the most high God brought out to Abraham and those with him, bread and wine, signifying the establishment of our communion observance today. In today’s reading, Jerusalem becomes David’s capital city.

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Key Verse: 2 Samuel 5:4

David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I wait for Your timing in all things… in life with its outstanding opportunities, and even in death with the glorious prospect of fulfilling Your plans for me throughout all eternity. Please continue to produce “patience” in me, and may that Fruit be out there on the branch of my life, so that others can partake of Your “patience.” In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

I read this morning the designated readings, and I’ve been meditating on David’s victories over the Philistines and his taking of Jerusalem, making it his capital city. However, David did not conquer himself in the area of his human desires. He added “concubines and wives” (2 Samuel 5:13), and not satisfied with this, he seduced, as we’ll read later, another man’s wife and then arranged to put that man in a place in battle where he would surely be killed. If only David had called upon the God he knew so well. The God he wrote about so powerfully in the Psalms would surely have helped David overcome sexual sin. As we’ll read over the next days, David, his family, and the people of his kingdom paid dearly for David’s failure in this area. I’ve often stated, “Jesus changes everything.” In contrast to David’s many wives and concubines, Jesus taught one-man/one-woman marriage (Matthew 19:4-6). Years ago I read inside the cover of my dad’s Bible, in his handwriting, these words: “Sin will keep you from this Book, and this Book will keep you from sin.” That’s just one of many reasons I’m so committed to doing this blog every morning.

Yours for “patience,” and, yes, persistence in reading God’s Word every day without fail,

David