2 Samuel 24; Psalm 119; John 4

 June 23: It’s ironic that the Old Testament accounts of God look so vengeful to people today and their own ways so enlightened and merciful. The truth is that we’re living in a time of greatly reduced sympathy for others. The rule of man apart from God’s input ends up endorsing selfishness and hedonism. These pursuits don’t end in happiness for the pursuer and inevitably result in a wake of wounded people following a person, as they take advantage of one another.

2 Samuel 24: Does 1 Chronicles 27:23 give more insight into exactly what sin David committed in numbering the people? Was he “checking up on God” to see how well He was keeping what David saw as His end of the bargain? Joab seems to understand that his heart isn’t in the right place, (2 Samuel 24:3). Yet even in this incidence of impulsiveness, David changes course and acts wisely again in confessing and repenting and throwing himself on God’s mercy.

Psalm 119:17-32: How does God’s Word “transform” us “by the renewing of our minds”? (Romans 12:2) Obviously a prerequisite to that occurring is our commitment to reading it, but there’s more to this practice than simply taking it in. The Psalmist models the heart-attitude for us:

1. Ask for insight, (v. 18)
2. Acknowledge alienation from the world and liability to missing direction, (v. 19)
3. Grow your desire for His rule: imagine how things would be on earth if He reigned directly according to His Word, (v. 20)
4. Distance yourself from the kind of pride that would lead you to pick and choose what to obey, (v. 21)
5. Ask for favor, (v. 22)
6. Meditate on what God shows you, (v. 23)
7. Take delight and instruction from what God shows you, (v. 24)
8. When you feel depression or apathy, ask for His quickening, (v. 25)
9. Commit to public praise, (v. 27)
10. Confess instances of weakness and ask for strength, (v. 28)
11. There’s a passive aspect toward God: “yield yourselves unto God” (Romans 6:13, v. 28, 32)
12. And an active aspect as well: “resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” (James 4:7, v. 29-32)

John 4:1-26: The Jews would typically go around Samaria in their travels, but Jesus “…must needs go through Samaria” (John 4:4). Since He included Samaria with Judea in Acts 1:8, is that an indication that He considered these genetically half-Jews with a corrupted version of Judaism “the lost sheep of the house of Israel?” (Matthew 15:24). It seems so. Yet when she raised the controversy about worship, He plainly told her: "Ye worship ye know not what” (John 4:22). Although the accepted the five books of Moses, they rejected the rest of the canon and were considered a cult by the Jews. They worshiped in their own temple in Mt. Gerizim and had attempted to desecrate the Jerusalem Temple. When the Pharisees called Jesus a “Samaritan” in John 8:48, it was another way of making an insinuation about His parentage.