Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Living Like a Fool? | Historical Books | 2 Samuel 3:1-25

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Can God use messy people? What does it mean to be a fool? Do you need a rescuer? In today's episode, Tanya shares how 2 Samuel 3:1-25 reminds us that God loves to rescue sinful people like us. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 2 Samuel 3:1-25

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. We're really good at making messes, aren't we? We make a mess of our relationships when we use our words to hurt people. We make a mess of our homes when bitterness starts to take over where forgiveness should be. We make a mess of our careers when we want achievement more than we value integrity. And we make a mess of our finances when we buy things on impulse and end up paying for them long after we even

care that we have them. Messing up just seems to come naturally. And honestly, it's not that surprising when you read the Bible to find that the people there are also messy. They actually look a lot like us. They make choices for the wrong reasons. They hang on to pride and insecurity. They want what they want when they want it. But here's the difference. The Bible isn't just a story about people. It's a story about God and about how God keeps showing up to rescue people who don't get it right over and over again. God's story is about grace. and it's about rescue. And the incredible thing is, his solution, what the Bible calls redemption, is something we can't mess up. We don't earn it and we can't ruin it. So let's look at a messy story

in 2nd Samuel 3. This is the story of David, the man God chose to be king. And in this chapter, David makes a bunch of decisions that honestly look foolish. He is not the picture of wisdom or leadership here. And the Bible doesn't hide that. The Bible doesn't sugarcoat people's mistakes. And as much as we want to read stories about people who are heroic and victorious, the ones that tend to stick with us are the ones where we see ourselves in them. So as we're going through this, we're going to ask the question, what does it mean to be a fool? And even more personally, where does foolishness show up in our own lives? So first of all, let's just think through the definition of a fool. And I'm going to ask you these questions so that as we're going through the chapter, you can just think about

what it is like to be a fool. And then we're going to talk about who and what a fool really is at the end of the podcast. So the first question is a fool someone who builds a version of right and wrong that fits what they want. Okay, David is the guy who wrote in Psalm 14. The fool says in his heart there is no God. But in this chapter, David is living like someone who's not listening to God at all. He's kind of like rewritten the rules for what's right and wrong. And we see this because he has not two, not three, not even five, but six wives. Now, this isn't what God says is right. This isn't God's design for marriage, but this is what kings were doing. And so David decided that this was good enough for him too. So this isn't just about polygamy, but it's about the bigger issue that

David is making a decision based on what other people are doing, based on what the culture is saying is right. based on what suits him, not what honors God. And we do that too, don't we? We bend God's truth to fit what we think is right. And we justify things because they're more comfortable or they're more convenient. Where are you tempted to shape right and wrong about what you really want? Now, there are places in your life where you've started calling something okay just because it feels right. the second question about foolishness. Here it is. Is a fool, someone who plays with temptation, thinking they've got it under control?

See, David does this. He makes a deal with Abner. And Abner wasn't a good guy. Abner was on the other side. He switched loyalties to David, and it's not because he loves God. It's because he loves power. And he loves being with people who have influence. So Abner is not a trustworthy guy, but David enters into an alliance with him anyway.

And it's like David thinks, it's okay, I have this under control. I can control Abner. I can get out of this, what I want to get out of it without hurting anyone, right? Well, that's what temptation does to us. It makes us think that we're in control. It makes us think that we're managing the situation, really the situation or the sin is managing us. We say things like, it's just this time.

I can stop whenever I want. I'm still in control. I can manage this. But the reality is we can't. Is there something in your life that you're trying to manage? But deep down, you know it's managing you. Where are you underestimating the power of temptation? See, foolishness is to continue down that path,

thinking that you have it under control. Third question. Is a fool someone who doesn't notice the damage they're causing? Right? Like oblivious to the collateral damage in their wake. See, one of the hardest parts of this chapter is what David does to his wife, Michael. She was his wife a long time ago. She's now married to someone else. But David decides it's time to bring her back. Not for love necessarily. That's not the way it's painted in the scripture, not to reconcile, but it's like an image move, a power move. So he sends Abner to go get her. And then the scripture says that our current husband is walking behind her weeping as she's pulled away from her family. It's a heartbreaking scene. David doesn't seem to even notice what he's doing. He seems to be focused on the task at hand and what he wants. And he seems to miss the pain that's being caused here. And we do this too. Because we can focus on what we think we deserve or what we think we need. We can overlook how it affects the people behind us.

Have you hurt someone maybe unintentionally because you were focused on your own goals? And are you willing now to slow down and see how your choices are affecting others? See, a fool is someone who says, there is nothing there. I don't want to face that. Or what I'm doing doesn't hurt anyone else. The last question about foolishness is this. Is a fool someone who lets bitterness and resentment? take over. See, Joab was one of David's commanders, and he comes back into the scene,

and he is furious that David has welcomed Abner back into his life. And to be fair, Joab has every reason to be angry, because Abner killed his brother, right? To be fair, most of the reasons we ourselves are angry and have bitterness and resentment is because someone has done something egregious to us. But instead of taking his pain to God, Joab lets it grow, he holds on to it, and eventually he becomes the thing that he hasn't forgiven. He becomes a murderer. And Abner dies. That's what bitterness does. It turns us into the thing that we can't forgive. It simmers in us and then it breaks us. We think we're just keeping score or we think that justice is deserved, but it eats at us and it turns us into something that we don't want to be.

Are you holding on to something that's quietly turned to? into resentment. And what would it take to forgive so that you could be free from the temptation to take that into a root of bitterness? Now, let's just be clear about something. The point of all these questions is not to make us feel terrible. It's not to make you feel terrible. It's not to just heap guilt on us. But the point is to help us see how much we need Jesus. This isn't a chapter about morality. It's not a chapter about people in the Bible fixing themselves. This is a chapter about recognizing our need for God, our need for a rescuer, and turning to the only one who can rescue us. At the end of the day, the biggest mistake, the one that really defines foolishness is thinking

that we don't need a rescuer. I think that's what scripture means when it says the fool says in his heart. There is no God. It's us saying, I got this. I don't need help. I'm good enough on my own. It's not just about believing that, but it's about relying on that and letting that be our hope and our future, letting ourselves and our ability to control and fix ourselves be what we put our stake in, saying, I can fix this on my own. But we can't. The Bible doesn't show us chapters like this so that we'll just look at them and think that they're terrible or for even ourselves to think we're terrible. It shows us so that we can realize what God is doing for us and the beautiful gift that

he offers us to rescue us so that we can stake our lives on him. That's the only thing you and I absolutely need is redemption, rescuing from God. It's the only thing we actually can't mess up, right? God doesn't offer us a self-help plan. He offers us redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ. We're going to act like fools sometimes, but it's not just about making mistakes. It's about turning away from God

and thinking we can fix those mistakes on our own. So I hope as we read the Bible, we don't walk away saying things like, I can't believe God let David have six wives, or God must not care about women, or why did he allow all that war? It's okay to ask those questions, but I hope that as we ask those,

we see the thread running through all those questions that God is keeping his promise to rescue people who don't deserve it. The God is building an eternal home for people who didn't earn it. The God is loving people who are sinful, people like us. And I hope we keep turning to him again and again.