What Is Sedition and Why Be Careful With It

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 15:1-16.  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 15:1-16 (NIV)
1  In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him.
2  He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, “What town are you from?” He would answer, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.”
3  Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.”

On verses 1-16: Here we see Absalom beginning to subtly, secretly campaign for himself to be king in place of his father David.  Absalom would get up early and stand by the road that people would take to go see his father King David.  On their way to seeing King David, they would pass by Absalom, who would greet them, ask them to share their troubles with him, and tell them that they have a valid claim but that the king was too busy to hear them.

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Don’t Give Others the “Half & Half”

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 14:21-33.  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 14:23-33 (NIV)
23  Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.
24  But the king said, “He must go to his own house; he must not see my face.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king.
25  In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him.

On verses 23-33:  After some dramatic persuasion orchestrated by Joab, King David finally agrees to bring his son Absalom back from exile.  But although Absalom is now back living in Jerusalem, King David insists that Absalom must not see his face (v24).  So Absalom lives two years in Jerusalem without seeing David’s face, on top of the 3 years he was exiled in Geshur.  That’s 5 years without seeing his dad’s face or hearing his dad’s voice. 

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God Is Reaching For You

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 14:1-20.  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 14:1-20 (NIV)
1  Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart longed for Absalom.
2  So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead.

On verses 1-20:  David’s military commander Joab notices how David’s heart longs for his exiled son Absalom, and yet David refuses to bring Absalom back (v1).   So Joab decides to do something about it.   Joab hires a talented actress from Tekoa to enter David’s presence.  She pretends that she is a widow grieving because her only two sons got into a fight, one killed the other, and now her whole clan demands that her remaining son be executed. 

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Time Doesn’t Heal All Hurts, But Jesus Can

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 13:23-39.  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 13:23-35 (NIV)
23  Two years later, when Absalom’s sheepshearers were at Baal Hazor near the border of Ephraim, he invited all the king’s sons to come there.
24  Absalom went to the king and said, “Your servant has had shearers come. Will the king and his officials please join me?”
25  “No, my son,” the king replied. “All of us should not go; we would only be a burden to you.” Although Absalom urged him, he still refused to go, but gave him his blessing.
26  Then Absalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon come with us.” The king asked him, “Why should he go with you?”

On verses 23-35:  Sometimes you’ll hear people say, “Time heals all wounds.”  It doesn’t.  We see that in Absalom’s case.  Two years had passed since Amnon raped Absalom’s sister Tamar.  During those two years, Absalom’s bitterness toward Amnon did not subside; rather Absalom held onto the grudge which eventually led him to mastermind Amnon’s murder. 

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The Difference Between Love and Lust

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 13:1-22.  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 13:1 (NIV)
1 In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David. 

On verse 1:  Verse 1 says that David’s son Amnon fell in love with her beautiful half sister Tamar.  But make no mistake about it.  What Amnon had for Tamar was not love but lust.  We’ll see the difference between love and lust clearly through this passage.

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Surrendering to God Sets You Free

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 12:15-31.  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 12:15 (NIV)
15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.

On verse 15:  Whenever a person has a miscarriage, or a child gets sick and dies prematurely, does that mean that God is actively giving the baby a sickness and punishing a child for their parent’s sins?  No.  Remember that in the Old Testament, the mindset of people was that everything — both good and bad — comes from God.  In a way they’re correct insofar as without God there wouldn’t be anything.  But when you read the New Testament, rather than emphasizing that everything good and bad comes directly from God, Jesus and the New Testament writers make a couple distinctions.  First, everything good is from God (James 1:17).  Second, when it comes to things that we consider bad, like sickness, sin, the death of a baby, an evil spirit or someone going to hell, these are not things that God wants. 

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God Is For You, Not Against You

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 12:1-14.  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 12:1 (NIV)
1 The LORD sent Nathan to David…

On verse 1a:  Nathan the prophet was David’s friend and pastor.  Previously it was through Nathan that God spoke some powerful and encouraging promises to David about his future (2 Samuel 7:4-17).  Now Nathan was to confront David to speak the truth in love regarding David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband. 

I like what Pastor Jon Courson puts it:
“God didn’t send an enemy of David to talk to him about his sin. He sent a friend. This is most often the way of the Lord. When He has a word of correction to bring us, inevitably it will be by someone who has a heart for us. Conversely, unless your heart is filled with compassion for the person you are about to correct, it is probably not your responsibility to correct him.” [1]

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God Sees It All and He’ll Use It All

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 11:14-27.  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 11:14-27 (NIV)
14  In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
15  In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16  So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.

On verses 14-27:  David has been unable to get Uriah to sleep with his wife Bathsheba whom David had made pregnant.  So David comes up with an even more sinister and coldblooded plan: murder Uriah.  David writes a letter to his general Joab instructing Joab to place Uriah on the frontlines of battle and then withdraw from Uriah so that he will be easily killed (v15).  And guess who David gets to send that letter to Joab? 

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What To Do With This Chance?

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 11:1-13.  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 11:1-4 (NIV)
1  In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2  One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
3  and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4  Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home.
 
On verses 1-4:  Notice the factors that led to David’s fall into adultery:

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Be Quick To Admit When You’re Wrong

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 2 Samuel 10:1-19.  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 10:1-4 (NIV)
1  In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king.
2  David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites,

On verses 1-4:  In 2 Samuel 9, David showed God’s kindness to Mephibosheth, and Mephibosheth is both humbled and overwhelmed.  Now here in 2 Samuel 10, David shows kindness to Hanun leader of the Ammonites when his father died.  But rather than responding with gratitude, in return Hanun, influenced by his skeptical nobles, treats David poorly.  Hanun publicly humiliates the messengers whom David had sent to pay his family respect. 

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