FBC Daily Devotional – October 27, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning, good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week, the middle of the last week of the month of October and autumn is flying by.

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This year is flying by. Well, I hope your week's going well. And today I want us to look at this episode in David's life in 2

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Samuel 15 and 16 that is It's got to be heart -wrenching.

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I mean you how you can't really read this passage without your heart breaking Can you?

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I mean, here's David the king fleeing the capital city

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Jerusalem fleeing the throne the palace in Exile and he's running from his own son his own son

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Has usurped the throne from him But the thing about it is

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David seems pretty calm about it all. I mean surely his heart is broken and he's grieving over it all

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But you don't see him responding to this situation in anger and Fury Whatever ways, you know, we might be inclined to respond to it.

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He seems to be handling it all very calmly With his mind engaged thoughtfully and There are a couple of instances in this departure from Jerusalem that indicate his clear thinking about it all and In that thinking you see him submissive to the providence of God and It is helpful.

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I think he for us as New Testament Christians. It's us. It's helpful for us to live in an awareness of the providential dealings of the

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Lord we saw a couple of days ago the the statement in Proverbs that The the

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Lord the steps of a man are ordered by the Lord the Lord establishes the steps.

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That's his providence Well here we see God's providential direction David resting in it and submitting to it in two key instances one of them is

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When Zadok the priest brings the Ark of the Covenant out of Jerusalem to bring it along with David into exile and David says no, he says to Zadok.

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No Take the Ark back put it back where it belongs and then he says this

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He says if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord He will bring me back and show me both it both the

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Ark and his dwelling place But if he says this if the

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Lord says this if the Lord says I have no delight in you speaking of David Then David replies

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Here I am Let him do to me as seems good to him Now that's a pretty

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Significant statement to be making I Mean if the Lord doesn't delight in me, okay, here

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I am Let him do to me as he sees fit now what's behind that?

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How can David come to such a conclusion? Because David is very well aware of his own sinfulness

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He knows full well Why he is in exile? He knows why

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Absalom has rebelled and usurped the throne from him It's not it's not just simply because Absalom thinks he could be a better king

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Absalom thinks he can be a better king because as a consequence of David's sin with Bathsheba and the death of Uriah and the

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Lord told David that as a Consequence of that sin you're gonna have trouble in your own household so David knows that this is a fulfillment of that Statement of you know prophetic consequence.

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You're gonna have trouble in your own household And because he knows that's the case He's able to be submissive to this situation so I think there's a lesson here for us regarding how to handle mercy and appeal for grace as Even as New Testament Christians, we are so grateful that God is gracious and he is merciful.

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He is merciful and Yet that's not something we can presume upon We can pray for it.

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We can plead for it We can thank God that he is merciful that we never get all that we deserve but at the same time

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There are some things that can come into our lives that are a consequence of sin

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That instead of getting angry with God for not being merciful to us We should respond with this kind of submissive heart that David expresses here here

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I am Let him do to me as seems good to him the other instant incident is with this guy shimmy

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I who is Up on the top of a ridge and he's throwing rocks and dust down on David and his men and he's he's mocking

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David and you know telling David you're a man of blood you're a man of blood and all this kind of stuff and shimmy

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I was accusing David of being You know having the blood of Saul on his hands, but that you know,

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David knows that's not the case But David also knows he does have the blood of Uriah on his hands

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So when one of David's men says let me go kill that guy it for doing this David says no

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Nope, I'm not gonna let you do it. He says David says no He says if God told him to curse let him curse

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Let him curse in other words what David is expressing here is again, the understanding that I I may be receiving here the very thing

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I deserve God has put it in this guy's heart and mind to respond this way to me then

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This is what this is what I deserve. I'm gonna take it. I'm going to accept it and he moves on he moves on Now that's it takes a lot of grace to have that kind of submission

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But I think it's a grace that we need to pursue Sometimes we can respond very quickly and hastily

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Towards someone who wants to treat us bad Verbally, you know, I'm not talking about physical assault and that kind of thing

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But you know just you know, we don't we don't get the treatment that we think we deserve and when we don't we can we can respond pretty pretty harshly

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I Think it would be wise for us sometimes to ponder and stop and ask ourselves

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Is it possible that God has put this in that person's mouth or his? Heart at this particular time because he wants to teach me a lesson or two

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He wants me to experience some consequence of some of my own behavior

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Well, David understood it and he came to that point of submission That's a challenge to me and maybe it is to you as well

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So father, I pray I pray that we would we would have a good understanding of your hand of Providence in our lives not only when the good things come but even when difficult things come our way and I pray that we would be truly submissive in our hearts to that Providence we wouldn't respond with anger and and and wrath and Responding kind verbally to other people and so forth when we're angry

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But help us to stop and ponder and think Why might why might the

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Lord be bringing this into my life at this particular time? Give us that wisdom we pray and we ask it in Jesus name.

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Amen All right. Well, have a good rest of your Wednesday. I trust the