Archive for month: January, 2025

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 19:16-30.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

Here we see how David deals with two men who had hurt David badly while David was going through one of his most difficult seasons.  So much so that these two men both deserved death, and yet David shows them mercy.  Let’s learn how God’s mercy toward us exceeds even David’s mercy toward these two men.

2 Samuel 19:16-23 (NIV)
16  Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David.
17  With him were a thousand Benjamites, along with Ziba, the steward of Saul’s household, and his fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed to the Jordan, where the king was.
18  They crossed at the ford to take the king’s household over and to do whatever he wished. When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king

On verses 16-23:  When David was leaving Israel because his son Absalom had usurped the throne, Shimei hurled stones at David, called him a murderer and a scoundrel and told him to get out.  At that time, Abishai the brother of Joab offered to cut off Shimei’s head, but David told him not to (2 Samuel 16:5-14).  Now that David has returned to Israel and reclaimed his throne, Shimei begs David for mercy, and a similar scene takes place: Abishai suggests that Shimei should be put to death (v21), but David again has mercy on Shimei (v22-23).

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 19:1-15.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

2 Samuel 19:1-15 (NIV)
1  Joab was told, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.”
2  And for the whole army the victory that day was turned into mourning, because on that day the troops heard it said, “The king is grieving for his son.”
3  The men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle.
4  The king covered his face and cried aloud, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”

On verses 1-15:  It was a complicated situation for David.  On one hand, he had just lost his son.  On the other hand, because that son had committed the highest act of treason and was bent on killing the king, David did mobilize his troops to go to war against that son.  So while it was natural and expected for David to grieve for his son, it was complicated by the fact that Absalom was an enemy whose death, under normal circumstances, would have been a cause for rejoicing.