Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - In God We Trust? | David in 22 | 2 Samuel 5:11-13

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through the story of David's life found in First and Second Samuel. As a teenager, I always had a sense of right and wrong, you know, like most people. The problem for me was that I almost always found myself doing the wrong things. And so I tell myself this lie, kind of. I'd say, well, I know I need to get my act together, and I will get my act together when I get to

Starting point is 00:00:38 college. And then I got to college. And I said, I'll get my act together when I get my first job, when I get married, when I buy a house, when I have kids. We all love to project our most virtuous days ahead of us. I used to do college ministry, and I was always shocked how many parents encouraged their kids to party in college. The underlying philosophy seemed to be that we've all got a little bit of crazy in us and we need to get it out before real life starts, because our most virtuous days lie ahead. But if you think about it, it's actually kind of a bizarre assumption because no one builds great structures on crumbling foundations. And the genuine pressures of adult life, paying bills, a stressful job, a challenging marriage, demanding

Starting point is 00:01:27 kids, those pressures don't often lead to virtue. More often, often, they tend to lead to compromise. We might end up mastering the art of putting on faces and looking better than we actually are. Age has the power to corrupt. And this is especially the case if we're successful, if we have money, prestige, influence, and power. The Hebrew Bible is really sober about this reality. There's actually multiple stories of kings who start off really well, but they end up making small compromises, tiny little fractures that eventually develop into massive fissures. In 2 Samuel 5, the entire nation of Israel anoints David as their king. All the remaining contenders for Saul's throne are dead. And the northern tribes see that they're in a pretty precarious

Starting point is 00:02:20 position without a king to reunite them. And so in response to this, you know, huge, momentous occasion, David moves his capital. He conquers Jerusalem, and then he calls Jerusalem the city of David. And this is actually a very astute political maneuver. By relocating his headquarters to Jerusalem, he's actually moving the locus of his power just north of Judah. And this communicates that, hey, I'm not just Judah's king anymore. Now I'm the king of all of Israel. And establishing a new city allows him to get out from underneath the thumb of Judah's tribal leadership. And at the same time, get out from underneath Israel's thumb. Jerusalem, it becomes the city of David, the city where David's interests reign. So smack in the middle of these stories about conquest.

Starting point is 00:03:09 We read three short verses that on the surface, they sound super mundane, like nothing's happening here. But something really significant is happening. These three little verses, they show fractures. They show these tiny little moments where David's making these tiny little compromise. that over time as he ages are going to become fissures that not only swallow up David in the long run, but even David's own children, his son, Solomon. Let's read them. 2 Samuel 511. Now Hiram, King of Tyre, sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stone masons, and they built a palace for David. So let's just pause there. Cedar, stone, these are some of the nice things you could build a house with in those days. These are signs and symbols of incredible wealth.

Starting point is 00:04:03 Verse 12. Then, once he saw this amazing palace and all the money he had, then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people. Next little story. After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him. Okay, so let's talk about it. each of these two little stories. In this first story, we read David's financial arrangements with Hiram, and what he's hiring Hiram to do is to help him build a palace. And this marks David's first foray, the first time we've seen this, his first foray into the politics of capital and wealth. Now, the book of Deuteronomy actually warns against kings accumulating a lot of wealth. And while

Starting point is 00:04:51 David doesn't explicitly break any of those commands, we know that his son Solomon, will. In fact, his son, Solomon, is not just going to break the commands of Deuteronomy, but he will do it precisely under the tutelage of Hiram, the king that David is making deals with right now, right here in verse 11. So we should ask the question, why? Why does Deuteronomy warn against accumulating wealth? Well, it's because of the temptation to trust money instead of God. The temptation to see what you have and think to yourself, wow, I'm smart. You know, I've got this figured out. We're doing pretty well. I've done a pretty good job of this. I can really manage my whole life, can't I? We stopped trusting in the God who gave us everything.

Starting point is 00:05:38 We stopped trusting in God for our practical needs all together because we have wealth, because we think we know what's best how to do things. In the second story, we see David dealing in the politics of sex and sexual exploitation. In the ancient world, kings they made treaties via marriages. So the trading away of women, that was just good politics in those days. But it stood in direct opposition to God's express will. Israelite kings were not supposed to collect wives. They weren't supposed to sexually exploit women. Instead of trusting the politics of sex, they were supposed to trust Yahweh to be the one who can protect them. In these short verses, we see two tiny little fractures crack open in David's life.

Starting point is 00:06:29 And as David ages, the pressures of life, they press these little fractures into massive fissures that are not only going to swallow up David, they will swallow up his sons. They'll swallow up his children. We see it in the life of David when he sexually exploits Bathsheba. We see it in the life of his son Solomon when he creates a harem of over 900 women.

Starting point is 00:06:53 Money and sex. Small fractures, small little compromises at first. Not much has changed today, has it? Sex and money are still the great powers corrupting good men and good women. How many people have created a harem of 10,000 people through internet pornography? How many people have sacrificed their families on the altar of money? How many of us have given up on trusting in God for the real kind of practical things that we need in life? because we trust the twin gods of power instead.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Mammon and Aphrodite, money, and sex. It's ironic to me at least that our currency here in the United States says, in God we trust. We all know the truth. We trust in money to keep us safe. We trust in sex to keep us happy. We trust in both to give us a feeling of control and power in our lives. And so often the choice to rely on this,

Starting point is 00:07:54 those things? It starts with small choices, little compromises with greed and with lust. Are there fractures forming in your life right now? Have you made peace with the sins of power? Peace with sexual immorality, peace with greed and consumerism? Jesus said we can't serve both God and money. He came to set us free from serving money, from serving sex. He came to heal the fractures that have started in our life before they become full-blown fissures, before they eat us alive. Now here's the deal. I don't care how bad it is for you right now. It is not too late. Even if you think that the fissure has opened up and that it's already swallowed you alive, it hasn't. Jesus can still rescue you. Jesus can still forgive you.

Starting point is 00:08:47 Jesus died to take the full penalty of your sins, every last one of them. And he rose. He rose again to give you new life. So stop telling yourself that you're going to get it right someday. Stop telling yourself, I'll get right with God when. I'll get right with God in the future. Turn to him now before it's too late, before those fractures open up and swallow you alive. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - In God We Trust? | David in 22 | 2 Samuel 5:11-13

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