Here’s some sound advice from Colin Adams, with examples from 2 Samuel.
1) Try and grasp the overall point of the book.
The overall point of 2nd Samuel is that God is establishing an eternal kingdom through David. Even David’s grotesque sin will not stop the promise and grace of God.
2) Read in big chunks – narrative often tells you ‘a little, in a lot.’
Chapters 2 to 5 of 2nd Samuel are basically about God raising David to power.…
12:37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth. There were about 600,000 men on foot, plus their dependants. 12:38 A mixed multitude also went up with them, and flocks and herds—a very large number of cattle.
According to Exodus 12:37 (NIV) the number of people leaving Egypt at the time of the exodus was ‘about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.’
Now, I have no interest in domesticating the Biblical text in order to make it easier to believe. …
J.I. Packer writes:
Do you believe in divine judgment? By which I mean, do you believe in a God who acts as our Judge?
Many, it seems, do not. Speak to them of God as a Father, a friend, a helper, one who loves us despite all our weakness and folly and sin, and their faces light up; you are on their wavelength at once. But speak to them of God as Judge and they frown and shake their heads.…
In the interest of complete disclosure, I ought to say that I was raised within Methodism, a Christian tradition that tends to support total abstinence.
I am acutely aware of the devastating effects of alcoholism: a relative came close to destroying both himself and his family because of his addiction to drink. (He was enabled to give up alcohol completely – apart from a couple of temporary lapses – after he exercised saving faith in Jesus Christ.)…
The Lord is “God in the heavens above (transcendent) and on the earth beneath (immanent)” (Josh 2:11). God’s transcendence means that there is no deficiency in him that creation satisfies. Rather, God comes among us out of the abundance of who he is. He draws near because of our need (Isa 57:15), not his.
God is everywhere (Psa 139:5-12; 1 Kings 8:27), and God is here. …
With his customary incisiveness, Ian Paul has shown how easy it is for us to trim and shape the New Testament picture of Jesus so that it becomes a reflection of ourselves.
…Liberals: good news! Jesus is just like you! He criticises the Pharisees for being too religious, and imposing their religious expectations unfairly on others (Matt 23.4). He appears to have a radical programme for social change, in which the poor are rewarded and those unjustly imprisoned are released (Luke 4.18), and this is rooted in a long-term vision for the inversion of social roles in which the rich and powerful are humbled, and privilege is removed (Luke 1.52).
One of the big differences between God and ourselves is that he is self-sufficient, having no need of anything outside of himself (Acts 17:24f), whereas we have a deep need both of God and of one another (on this latter point, see 1 Cor 12:21).
Jen Wilkin asks:
If the Christian church is to adhere to (or recover) God’s good plan for men and women, then its pastoral care and witness will need some clarification and strengthening in a number of areas.
For example, we need to ask, How can we more effectively
‘Hands together, eyes shut tight.’
That’s the way generations of children were taught to pray.
Curiously, many different prayer postures are described in Scripture, but not that one.
William Hendriksen (New Testament Commentary on The Pastoral Epistles) lists the following:
“You must preach the text as it lays,” someone said to Jared Wilson.
“Indeed,” replied Jared, “and every OT text lays, as Spurgeon put it, ‘along the road to Christ.’”
In support of his assertion, Jared points to the following New Testament texts:
John 5:39 — “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me”
John 8:56 — “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.…
