2 Samuel 20; Psalm 118; John 2

June 19: Like Adam’s rebellion against God, Absalom’s rebellion couldn’t be put down by just the death of the rebel. Sin cost everyone; yet God’s enduring mercy kept manifesting itself to David, as He had promised, until ultimately his greater Son completely satisfied the debt we all owed because we could not do so.

2 Samuel 20: Absalom’s death seems to have defused a a chaotic situation before it could really cause too much destruction. How can you continue a rebellion when the rebellious heir has been extinguished? Sheba shows us how: find a way to express the core thought of every dissatisfied person in Israel. It ends with Amasa slain by Joab’s treachery and a city in Israel barely escaping destruction through the giving up of Sheba as he takes sanctuary there.

Psalm 118:1-16: What does it really mean to say the LORD’s mercy endures forever? This Psalm begins by urging the reader/worshiper to give the LORD thanks for His goodness and everlasting mercy. Then it begins with the whole nation, comes down to the priests, then everyone who fears the LORD. If a person sins against his neighbor, you might hope that enough time will pass that he will forget. God has no such limitation and lives in eternity. As Eli the priest put it, when he found his sons committing sacrilege in the priest’s office: “If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall intreat for him?” (1 Samuel 2:25) Hebrews 10:14 reassures us: “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” This is what the Psalm means when it goes on to say that the LORD, who is his strength and song, has become his salvation (Yeshua). (Psalm 118:14)

John 2: Why did Jesus make water into wine at the wedding at Cana? Jesus’ mother was already there, and Jesus and all his disciples were “called”  - so the couple must have been close to Mary, like perhaps she was an aunt. Mary’s knowing manner “Whatsoever he saith unto you do it” speaks both of authority in the wedding administration and the wordless understanding that Jesus had decided to do what she wanted without her having to directly ask. We’re told it “manifested forth His glory” and that “his disciples believed on Him.” (v. 11) Is it because it was a wedding gift? One way to describe God’s first gift to man would be to say that it was also, essentially, a wedding gift, in that God made Eve for Adam to marry. The second half of the chapter shows Jesus acting in an administrative way over His temple; so I think, as subtle as it may be, I’m not too far off in saying this chapter follows the first chapter, which identified Jesus as God by simply declaring Who He is, in doing it again by identifying Jesus as God through what He does.