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July 13

Reading 1 - 1Samuel 26 & 27

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ch.26 v.12 - We may wonder who was right. This is where the wisdom and godly heart of David comes to the fore. A deep sleep from God had come on the people who were with Saul (who, incidentally, again came with 3000 men against David's 600). I think most of us would have assumed as Abishai did that God had delivered Saul into our hands by this act. But David knew another principle which would override this thinking - that Saul was the Lord's anointed. So, when God seems to arrange circumstances to facilitate a move we might wish to make, we must also consider 'Is this a right thing to do?'. Our heart must be right, as David's was.
Peter Cresswell
27:1-7 - It is ironic that this 16 months of peace in David's life was in the camp of the enemy - the only way, it seems, to escape the wicked desires of Saul against him.
Peter Cresswell

26 v.19 - There are a number of occasions when the LORD stirred up individuals. [1 Samuel 26:19 1 Kings 11:14 2 Chronicles 21:16 36:22 Ezra 1:1 Haggai 1:14] Rather than wondering how He does that we should appreciate that, in the case of faithful men who respond to His word, He is willing to work to encourage those who first respond to him, As we read elsewhere 'draw night to God and he will draw nigh to thee'. [James 4:8]

27 v.1 - David's flight to the Philistines through fear of Saul is a re run of an earlier incident [1 Samuel 21:10] when for fear of Saul David fled to Achish, king of Gath. Rather than reprove David in our own heart on this matter we do well to realise, like David, we often fall into the same problem that we think that we have dealt with.
Peter Forbes

1 Samuel 26:16-20 The way that David spoke to Saul produced the response (1 Samuel 26:21) 'I have sinned …' This is clearly a case of the soft answer turning away wrath (Proverbs 15:1)

27:6 That Achish gave David Ziklag speaks volumes about the situation in the days of Saul. Ziklag was in the territory of Judah (Joshua 15:1, 31). And should not have been Achish's to give to David.
Peter Forbes

26:7-11 Abishai was a blood thirsty man with little regard to the things of God. It was he, at a later date, who would have removed Shimei's head also (2 Samuel 16:9)

ch 27 - David's melancholy fear of death at the hand of Saul is typical of one who is depressed by long periods of uncertainty. We should not think of David's flight from Saul as a short adventure. It must have lasted some 12 - 15 years. All that time David feared for his life. He was always under great stress. When we realise this we will appreciate the more the strength of David's character in that he refused to take Saul's life on more than one occasion.
Peter Forbes

ch 26 -GOD'S TIMING
"I would not lay a hand on the LORD's anointed."
David had been hunted down by Saul over and over, yet God gave Saul into David's hands twice. This time they were sleeping when David and Abashai got right up to Saul and took Saul's spear and water jug. Yet David, even though he was the next anointed king would not kill King Saul because of his respect for god. Saul was the LORD's anointed and was to remain that way until God was ready to remove him - not David.
In the book of Daniel we read that "God changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them," and that, "the most high rules in the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes."
David and Daniel both knew that God is in control of all his dealings with us. Therefore let us make sure that we don't go trying to change the course of history by our own will before God's time. God knows what is best to happen, when and how to do it. If we try to hurry things up we may find that the results are a disaster. David knew that Saul would be removed at the right time. We too can be confident will be right in our lives too.
Robert Prins

Reading 2 - Jeremiah 3

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v.1 - Until you read the rest of the chapter there is a little confusion over the meaning of this first verse. It reads in english as though God is reprimanding Israel for returning to him, when they would not do the same among themselves, but in fact (and v.12 makes this clear) the is requesting them to return to him, even though they have been off with other gods and committed, as it were, spiritual adultery, and offering them forgiveness. It is the beginning of a theme that leads to the regathering of Israel being prophesied later in the book - ch.23:8, 31:8
Peter Cresswell
v.8 makes a sad point. It seems that human nature refuses to learn from the experience of others. Judah stodd by and watched as God 'divorced' Israel, but then went and did just the same things. We are just the same. We can be sure that the faults that we find most annoying in others are the ones we also possess, but when it is ourselves, we just don't see it until God causes us to be chastened into a recognition. Let us make the best of these opportunities God gives us.
Peter Cresswell
v.3 - The withholding of the showers is a curse and punishment from God. It was a fulfilment of Deuteronomy 28:23 and as such was designed to bring about repentance. This appeal can be see repeated in Amos 4:6,8,9,10,11 marking that God expected Israel to respond to His chastening hand. How do we respond to His chastening?
Peter Forbes
:6-7 Judah had seen that Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrian and that they had been delivered through the faith of Hezekiah, yet they still did not learn. How often do we disregard the sings we are given?
Peter Forbes
:13 We noticed that :3 quotes the curses of Leviticus 26. 'Only acknowledge thine iniquity' is another quotation from Leviticus 26:40. There are numerous quotations from Leviticus 26 / Deuteronomy 28 in Jeremiah's prophecy. Many of them will be highlighted in your marginal references. We will not draw attention to all of them.
Peter Forbes
RIGHT AND WRONG

The sins of Israel and Judah do not make pleasant reading. But worse than the parade of sins that is put forward in this chapter, is the fact that the people did not seem to realize that they were sinning at all. The conscience of the people seems to have been so unused that they had almost forgotten that they had one. We read that God said to them, "Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame." (Verse 3) And he says that they call God their Father and Friend, and ask him why he is angry with them, while at the same time doing all the evil that they can.

This is a real warning to us. If Israel and Judah, God's special people, could get so far into the habit of doing evil, and at the same time not recognize that they were doing evil, then we, as Gentiles, can easily fall into the same trap. It all depends on where we get our standards of good and evil from. If we say we are better than the world around us, that does not necessarily mean that we have reached God's standards - or are even near them. The only place we can truly measure our standards from is by the Word of God. We should not blindly trust our church leaders who tell us what to think and how to behave: Get it first hand from God's word yourself. Let Him open your eyes to what is really right and wrong.
Robert Prins

Reading 3 - Matthew 14

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v.29-32 - Surely this little scene is enacted to demonstrate for each one of us the power of God and the way in which that power is focused on care for those that love Him. We all lose faith and have to be saved from death - which would certainly have been Peter's end if Jesus had not caught him - and so we demonstrate out love by passing, as Peter did here, through water to be saved by the work of Jesus. At the end of it all, when we reach our desired end - in this case the boat, in our case the kingdom - there is a great calm - a stark contrast to the rocky life we have lived until that point - and there we can worship in spirit and in truth. Psa.138:7, Isa.63:12.
Peter Cresswell
v.2 - 12 We should remember that this section of Matthew is in parenthesis. It provides, by way of explanation, the reason for Herod's disquiet. John had been beheaded before this point in the record.
v.4 Whilst Herod was not a Jew, he was an Edomite, John castigates him for breaking the Law of Moses. As ruler of the land he should have been setting an example for the people to follow. Maybe the whole matter of Herod's marital behaviour provided the local event which cause such questioning about divorce during the ministry of Jesus. [Matthew 5:31 19:3 7 Mark 10:2 4 Luke 16:18]
Peter Forbes
14:15 Whereas here Jesus' disciples made to 'send the multitude away' Jesus prevents such a response when He fed the 5,000 (15:32).
Peter Forbes
The feeding of the 5,000 took place at Passover time (John 6:4-14) Piecing together different gospel records of the same event can add information.
Peter Forbes
v31 "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?". Jesus had said exactly the same thing in similar circumstances earlier, when the disciples were afraid that the boat was going to sink as Jesus slept (Matt 8v26). This rebuke of Jesus seems a little harsh this time, because Peter had walked on water after all! Peter seems to have got the message from the earlier incident and had developed real faith in Christ. But why did Peter do what he did? What did the walking out to Jesus avail him? Everything Jesus did was for the furtherance of his ministry, and according to his Father's will. Jesus didn't do anything for selfish motives. We can see this by considering why he was unwilling to provide bread for himself by miraculous means (4v4), but in this chapter is willing to do exactly that, because it was for others (v19-29).

Jesus walking on the water was so that he could reach them in time to comfort them and help them. He remembered how scared they had been the last time that the sea had been so rough. Peter had no reason to miraculously walk on the water, apart from trying to prove the strength of his own faith to his master. Did Peter have pride before a fall? Maybe this is why Jesus rebukes him.
Robin de Jongh