Lesson : The Spirit Of God Equips Us To Do The Will Of God
The lives of David and Saul make it crystal clear that if we want to do Gods will, we must be filled with the Spirit. Although Saul is filled with the Spirit and actually prophesies early in his public life, his disobedience causes the Spirit to depart from him and instead rush upon David . Without the Spirit, we are powerless to fulfill the role to which God has called us as Christians. The Spirit enables us to obey God. The Bible assures us that if we “walk by the Spirit”, we wont “gratify the desires of the flesh” . And the Spirits presence in us results in fruit which makes us effective in ministry: “love, joy, peace, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” . That is why we must pray to be filled with the Spirit .
The Hasmonean And Herodian Periods
The Hasmoneans, also known as the Maccabees, established their own monarchy in Judea following their revolt against the HellenisticSeleucid dynasty. The Hasmoneans were not considered connected to the Davidic line nor to the Tribe of Judah. The Levites had always been excluded from the Israelite monarchy, so when the Maccabees assumed the throne in order to rededicate the defiled Second Temple, a cardinal rule was broken. According to scholars within Orthodox Judaism, this is considered to have contributed to their downfall and the eventual downfall of Judea internal strife allowing for Roman occupation and the violent installation of Herod the Great as client king over the Roman province of Judea and the subsequent destruction of the Second Temple by the future Emperor Titus.
During the Hasmonean period the Davidic line was largely excluded from the royal house in Judea, but some members had risen to prominence as religious and communal leaders. One of the most notable of those was Hillel the Elder, who moved to Judea from his birthplace in Babylon. His great grandson Simeon ben Gamliel became one of the Jewish leaders during the First JewishRoman War.
These families had special rights in Narbonne, Barcelona, and Castile. They possessed real estate and received the title “Don” and de la Kblriih . Among the families of the “Sons of the Free” are the families of Abravanel and Benveniste.
Where Did David Grow Up
According to the Bible, David grew up in the rugged Judean hills around the Israelite town of Bethlehem, a few miles south of what was then the Canaanite stronghold of Jerusalem. At the time, Israel was threatened by other peoples in the region, especially the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain to the west.
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David Was A Giant Slayer
Perhaps Davids biggest claim to fame was his legendary showdown with the Philistine giant, Goliath. The Israelite and Philistine armies lined up on opposing hills, Goliath taunted the Israelites and challenged them to decide the battle with a duel: him against one of them .
Nobody wanted to take him up on the offer. But David came to the Israelite camp to play music for Saul, and he heard Goliaths taunts. He also overheard the Israelites talking about what Saul would give to the person who defeated Goliath .
Goliath wasnt just taunting the Israelites. He was defying God himself on Gods own turf. Every day Israel declined Goliaths challenge, they conceded that their God was no match for the gods of the Philistines. David wasnt going to let this go on any longer. After convincing Saul to let him challenge Goliath, David chose five stones and went out to meet him.
Goliath mocked him and cursed him. And then David famously replied:
David killed Goliath with a single stone, hurled from his sling. He beheaded Goliath and took his weapons as trophies.
The story of David and Goliath has been told so many times through literature and art that David, Goliath, and their confrontation have all become cliched symbols for underdogs, brutal antagonists, and stories of overcoming impossible odds.
David And Jonathan: A Secret Biblical Bromance
The deep, emotional relationship that bonded David and Jonathan is related in the books of Samuel. The two are said to have formed a covenant of friendship, even though their situation essentially made them rivals for the crown. But was theirs a strong platonic relationship, or an example of homosexuality in the Bible?
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Lesson : A Heart For God Prepares Us To Be Used By God
David is chosen to be king because he has what Saul does not: a heart for God. 1 Samuel 13:14 says the Lord sought out a man after his own heart” to be king, and Saul simply was not this man. When Samuel goes to anoint the new king of Israel, he assumes Davids strong and noble oldest brother must be the chosen one. However, God tells Samuel not to focus on physical prowess: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have I rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” . Davids heart for God prepares him to be used by God. Our impressive resumes arent what make us useful in Gods kingdom. The first lesson we learn from Davids life is the importance of cultivating a heart for God above all else.
Temptation Is Not Sin Yielding To Temptation Is
With that background, Paul exhorted believers not to make the same choices the Israelites madenot to provoke Gods discipline by willfully sinning. None of us is above Gods discipline if we engage in sin. We must look for and take the way of escape God provides in every situation where temptation is found . To think our temptation is unique is to believe a lie. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man . There are no new temptations in life.
The apostle James argued that if temptation becomes serious, it is because we have allowed it to do so. Our own desires entice us away from God and desire gives birth to sin . God doesnt tempt us, but He may allow temptation to enter our lives in order to give us opportunities to make obedient and mature choices.
Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and He took the same means of escape that is available to usobedience to Gods Word . Temptation is not sin yielding to temptation is. There is always a righteous choice to be made if we are willing to seek it.
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Dialogues Of Friends Or Lovers
This devotion between Jonathan and David has been interpreted by some in recent decades to suggest a homosexual relationship. This discussion has become more heated recently because of the major controversy which has arisen both within and outside the Church over whether homosexuality is permissible according to the Bible. The preponderance of the evidence shows that although David and Jonathan were close, their intimacy was not unusual for heterosexual male friends in that culture – leaving insufficient reasons to suggest any sort of romantic relationship between them.
However, one of the main arguments used in favor of romance between them is the strong language used to describe their relationship. The Biblical text says that their souls were knit together and that Jonathan loved David as his own soul . Furthermore, David tells Jonathan on their final departure that his relationship with Jonathan was better than that of a woman .
David and Jonathan .
Although this sounds odd to Westerners, it would not have been out of place in dialogue between heterosexual male friends in the ancient Near East, where stronger language and exaggeration tend to be used in describing intimate non-romantic and non-sexual relationships. A modern example would be pictures of male Middle Eastern leaders kissing each other on the cheek. This is not a sign of romantic involvement between them but rather the equivalent to a warm handshake.
David and Jonathan in St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.
God’s Training Ground For David
Davids father had sent him off to the fields to watch over the family flock. He spent hours alone tending sheep. He learned the meaning of surviving in the wild. He slept out under the cover of darkness. He learned to endure the change of seasons and weather the elements. Surely, loneliness was his constant companion.
No doubt, he had many conversations with God while he was living alone in solitude. We can see proof of this in his writings in the Psalms.
David also lived in complete obscurity.
Men and women of God, servant-leaders in the making, are first unknown, unseen unappreciated, and applauded. In the relentless demands of obscurity, character is built. Strange as it may seem, those who first accept the silence of obscurity are best qualified to handle the applause of popularity.
Chuck Swindoll describes one of Gods favorite methods of training as monotony: Thats being faithful in the menial, insignificant, routine, regular, unexciting, uneventful, daily tasks of life. Life without a breakwithout the wine and roses. Just dull, plain L-I-F-E. Just constant, unchanging, endless hours of tired monotony as you learn to be a man or woman of Godwith nobody else around, when nobody else notices, when nobody even cares. Thats how we learn to king it.
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Is It All Just A Modern Misunderstanding
As homosexuality becomes more mainstream in Western culture, there have been increasingly more attempts to neutralize divides between Christianity and the modern West on this issue by saying that the Bible does not actually condemn same-sex romantic relationships, only certain instances – such as those involved in pagan rituals or pederasty.
Unfortunately for those who want to say that the Bible does not forbid homosexuality, the arguments for positively portrayed same-sex romantic relationships in the Bible tend to be based on a misunderstanding of the cultural context or otherwise anachronistic.
It is possible that the Biblical position on homosexuality is more complex than previously thought, but those who want to argue this case must do it with rigorous quality research and a good understanding of the cultural, social, and linguistic background of Biblical text.
Biblical Prince Jonathan and David embrace. Manuscript illustration of La Somme le roy, ca. 1300 AD.
Top Image: David and Jonathan. Source: Public Domain
What Is The Key Of David
Question:the key of David
Answer: The key of David appears only twice in the Bible. The first time it appears is in Revelation where it states, “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write . . . who holds the KEY OF DAVID” . The speaker is the resurrected Jesus, whom John sees in a vision, and the message is to the church at Philadelphia. The possession of this key by Christ is used as proof that the Being addressing the church is God, “the Holy One, the One Who is true.”
The second occurence of the key of David is in the book of Isaiah the prophet where it states, “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open, and none shall shut and he shall shut, and none shall open” .
Unfortunately, Scripture does not directly answer your question regarding the key of David. There is a lot of conjecture and supposition on this subject but one should understand that the Bible does not specifically identify this object.
The one thing that made David unique was the promise God made to him. The Eternal, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, prophesied of one of his descendents who would bring salvation and confirm His covenant with all .
A key was often worn on the shoulder of those who possessed official authority and power . This symbolism is reiterated in the New Testament as well.
This evidence points to a key representing, at least figuratively, the possession of power and has nothing whatsoever to do with Biblical prophecy.
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The Epigraphical & Archeological Evidence For King David
As with his successor, King Solomon, little evidence has been uncovered to prove the historical existence of King David however, recently discovered direct and indirect evidence provides greater substantiation for David’s life and kingship . In 1993 CE, Avraham Biran discovered the Tel Dan Inscription on a broken stele in northern Israel. The inscription commemorates the victory of an Aramean king over its southern neighbors, and specifically references both the king of Israel, and the king of the House of David. This is perhaps the earliest, direct, historical evidence for the Davidic Dynasty in Israel although the Mesha Stele, discovered by Bedouins in the 1800s CE who lived by the Jordan and Arnon rivers, also mentions “the House of David,” written in Moabite around a century after the supposed reign of King David.
Adapted from God in the Details: A Biblical Survey of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures .
King David’s Great Sin
Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battleBut Davidstayed in Jerusalem.
Davids choice to stay back was poor leadership and wasnt his usual practice. His decision was bad judgment on his part and set the stage for his devastating fall into iniquity.
Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the kings house, and from the roof he saw a beautiful woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful in appearance.
He looked. He inquired. He sent for her.
The woman conceived and sent and told David, and said, I am pregnant.
David conspired to have her husband killed in the field of battle so that he could take Bathsheba as his wife.
Nathan the prophet rebuked David severely. Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD also has taken away your sin you shall not die.’
Sadly, David and Bathsheba lost the child that she bore to David. Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the LORDs sake.
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Aftermath Of The Battle With Goliath
The legendary battle between the overgrown Philistine warrior Goliath and the humble shepherd boy David is an archetype which has resonance well beyond the Old Testament account. Whenever a lower division football club thwarts a premier squad in a giant-slaying encounter it is celebrated as a ‘David and Goliath’ event. The defiant courage of the underdog appeals to our deep-seated emotional need to witness the powerless turning the tables, for once, on the powerful.
But for Christians and Jews the story of David is far more than an implausible folk-legend. The Old Testament recounts not only David’s heroic deeds as a young boy but chronicles his whole eventful life as the first King of Israel to really unite the nation. After Jesus, his is the most complete biography in the Bible and is packed with schismic political events, epic battles and great personal drama.
Samuel 1 and 2 document David’s testing time on the run from the mentally unhinged King Saul, his pitched battles with the heathen Philistines, his triumphant taking of Jerusalem as his capital, the adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the rebellion of his son Absalom. And if that wasn’t enough, Christians believe that 1000 years later, as prophesised, Jesus was born into the house of David.
From here he united the 12 tribally disparate regions in Judea and Israel to form a united nation of Israel. David consolidated his territory by beating back neighbouring tribes and providing strong leadership.
Were David And Jonathon Married
Another line of evidence that has been brought up by proponents of this hypothesis of a romantic relationship between David and Jonathan, such as the scholar Jeremy Townsley, is that there is a passage which says that when Saul gave his daughters hand in marriage to David, he said for a second time that David would be his son-in-law.
Townsley interprets this as saying that David was already in a same-sex marriage with Jonathan, since David only had a relationship with two of Sauls children, his daughter Michal and Jonathan. A closer analysis of the original language in the text, however, shows that Saul is saying that David will become his son-in-law because of his second daughter not that he will become his son-in-law a second time, which makes a second marriage explanation unnecessary.
Another issue with this argument is that had David and Jonathan been married, either Jonathan would become a member of Davids house or David would have become a member of Jonathans house. Neither would have been what King Saul would have wanted.
He wanted a king who was a member of his lineage to be on the throne of Israel. Something which would not be possible in the case of Jonathan becoming king if he was already in the house of David. Also, he would not have wanted David to be a member of his house since he considered David his mortal enemy. A marriage between David and Jonathan would have been very problematic politically and it was therefore unlikely.
Saul tries to kill David.
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