David compares God to thunder! In 2 Samuel 22 we get a sample of David’s music before we even reach what he is most famous for: the book of Psalms. This song in Samuel is a beautiful example of what David did best. He turned his experiences with God into lyrics, in this case, thanking God for His...

There is no easy way out of a rebellion. In David and Absalom’s case of familial and political rebellion, there was ultimately a lot of bloodshed. In today’s reading of 2 Samuel 20, we see the failed rebellion of Sheba who had set himself against the dynasty of David. Now that David had won his t...

What a mess! David’s son Absalom created a conspiracy against his father the king, and the people supported him. It had been eleven years after Amnon’s terrible crime of assaulting Tamar. Absalom had killed Amnon for it, and now David had been persuaded to welcome Absalom back. There was no real ...

Many of the problems in King David’s life were not from external enemies, they came from within his own family. The major rebellion of his reign, one that saw him abandon his throne for a time came from his son Absalom. But before Absalom rebelled, another of David’s sons Amnon had rebelled in a ...

When I think about my youth, I can really sympathize with David’s moving of the Ark of the Covenant. I remember being so passionate and full of energy that I put everything I had into following God. The problem was that I followed God my way, how I thought it should be done. God has mercy with us...

When David found himself rejected by Saul king of Israel, he had to leave Israelite territory for his own safety. David headed to the land of Israel’s enemies: the Philistines. He and his men were allowed to settle there, but when the Philistines went to fight against Israel, they did not trust D...

When King Saul died on Mount Gilboa, things had changed dramatically for David. He prayed and asked God what his next move should be. After the recent events of his life: rejection by Saul, rejection by the Philistines, the near loss of everything at Ziklag, David had learned that nothing happens...

The LORD God gave Solomon wisdom to govern and many other blessings that Solomon did not ask for. Yet, as we will read, Solomon’s life was a divided one. His wisdom was so renowned that influential men and women from all over the world came to Israel to hear him. But for all this wisdom the autho...

Solomon failed as a godly king. He was wise because God gave him wisdom. He was wealthy because God gave him wealth. But how did he spend that wisdom and wealth? He had hundreds of wives and concubines and had set up systems of idolatry within Israel so that they could worship their national gods...

Too often we assume that we know what the Bible teaches, and what history it records. When we carefully read the Bible, these assumptions get corrected and we better understand who God is through what He has done. In our study today, we are looking at the reign of Northern Israel’s King Baasha, a...

None of us are completely immune to fear. Fear is an amazing motivator. In today’s reading, we will see that even the most proficient prophet of God had times of fear. Elijah was a true prophet of God working in the idolatrous and rebellious nation of Northern Israel. Through him God did awesome ...

Though Judah and Israel were separate countries whose religious practices were different from each another, they still had many cultural and religious similarities. This is because they maintained their tribal connection, they were still the twelve tribes of Jacob, aka Israel. In our reading we f...

The prophet Elijah was taken into heaven! It was a fitting end to an amazing earthly life. Elijah’s name means, “my God is Yahweh”. We remember him as having one of the most dramatic prophetic ministries in the Bible. Near the end of his ministry, we learn more about the man who would become Elij...

Political leaders come to power in a variety of ways. Ancient Israel was a monarchy. This means that the king would either be born or would take the throne by force. If he was born, he would be trained to take the place of his father one day. If he was a usurper king, that means he would take the...

As we read through the books of Kings a pattern develops of labelling the kings good or bad. This evaluation was based off how faithfully the king followed the LORD during his reign. It’s interesting because the same sort of evaluation will apply to us: The particulars may look different for our ...

God’s judgment on Israel had begun during the reign of King Solomon. Solomon was wise, but he wasn’t moral. He knew about God, but did not obey Him. Solomon had introduced pagan worship into Israel, and the kingdom had split into two. The larger nation of Israel seems to have gone further away fr...

When there was a failure of leadership in ancient Judah, it was devastating. When the leadership did not obey, honour, and praise God, there was a clear pathway to spiritual devastation. Hezekiah spent his life and reign reforming Judah and preparing them for the Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah knew ...

The Bible says that the demise of Jerusalem began in the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his army against Jerusalem, and the city would be conquered over the next few years. By the eleventh year of King Zedekiah...

As the Jewish exiles returned to Judah and Jerusalem, there was to be a concentrated effort to rebuild the Temple. This explains why in the list of returned exiles in 1 Chronicles 9, there is a high percentage of priests, Levites, and Temple gatekeepers. The idea was that the future success of Is...

The Ark was constructed on God’s instructions to Moses and the Israelites after they had been rescued from Egypt. It had once been captured by the enemies of Israel, the Philistines. They had felt God’s judgment for having the Ark and had sent it back to Israel. After mishandling the Ark themselv...

After the first disastrous attempt at moving the Ark of the Covenant, David or the priests must have read the Law of Moses about how to move it. He had finally done his homework. This was what God wanted him to do in the first place. How easy it is for our emotions to prompt us to skip our due di...

One of King David’s main missions was to help usher in times of peace for Israel. He is credited with defeating many of Israel’s enemies. In 1 Chronicles 19, we read about how he dealt with the nation of Ammon. David was at peace with Ammon, but after their king died and the king’s son reigned in...