Thursday
Evening Bible Study
June
28, 2012
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
When Saul was killed in a battle with the Philistines, the tribe of Judah
asked David to be their king. The rest of Israel, under the influence of Saul’s
general, Abner, asked Saul’s son Ishbosheth to be
their king.
There was war between the two sides.
Both Abner and Ishbosheth
die stupid, senseless deaths. David had
nothing to do with either man’s death.
Now it’s time for David to rule. David has been ruling from the city of
Hebron.
5:1-5 David rules
Israel
:1 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at
Hebron and spoke, saying, “Indeed we are your bone and your flesh.
:1 all the tribes of Israel came to David
1 & 2Chronicles parallels much
of what we read about in 1 & 2Samuel and the Kings, but with a slightly
different perspective.
The writer of Chronicles tells us that each of the tribes sends men to join
David’s army, something like 350,000 joining David (1Chr. 12).
:2 Also, in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led
Israel out and brought them in; and the Lord
said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be ruler over Israel.’ ”
:2 You shall shepherd
The shepherd boy has become the shepherd over Israel.
Sometimes we drag our feet at doing the lowly, menial things before us,
like tending the “sheep”. But sometimes
those lowly things are training for what’s up ahead.
Israel’s leaders will be referred to as “shepherds”
Ultimately all human leaders are only “under shepherds” because the
people are God’s flock.
(Ps 23:1 NKJV) The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not
want.
(Ps 100:3 NKJV) Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He
who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the
sheep of His pasture.
:3 Therefore all the elders
of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them
at Hebron before the Lord. And
they anointed David king over Israel.
:3 they anointed David
– mashach – to smear, anoint, spread a liquid.
This is the root of the word “Messiah”, the “anointed one”.
:4 David was thirty
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
:5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in
Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
:5 seven years and six months
From the time of Saul’s death, it took 7 ½ years for Israel to finally
realize that David was to be king.
Lesson
Give it time
The “anointing” of the people only mirrors what God had already done
through Samuel years earlier when David was a young man (before he killed
Goliath):
(1 Sa 16:13 NKJV) Then
Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and
the Spirit of the Lord came upon
David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
Sometimes God puts a call on our lives long before it actually takes place.
Don’t get discouraged. David had to learn a lot of lessons before he
reached this point – killing Goliath, serving Saul, running from Saul, killing
Philistines …
We think that David could have been something like twelve to fifteen years
old at the time. But David is now thirty-seven years old when he is finally
crowned king of Israel.
We might get upset at the people of Israel for taking so long to finally
realize that David was to be their king. Yet sometimes it takes time to take a
shepherd of sheep and make him a shepherd of men.
Sometimes God has to do a work in the people that are going to be led as
well.
Don’t be impatient when the things you think God has promised you don’t
happen overnight.
Pastor Chuck was in ministry for seventeen years before he
moved his family to Costa Mesa to pastor a little church of twenty-five people.
I knew that God had called me to be a pastor when I was
eighteen years old. But I didn’t become a senior pastor until I was
thirty-eight years old. Now I’m almost twenty years older and I’m still
learning.
5:6-16 Jerusalem
Conquered
:6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David,
saying, “You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel
you,” thinking, “David cannot come in here.”
:6 Jerusalem – Y@ruwshalaim
- “teaching of peace”
Play Hebron to
Jerusalem map.
This was a city that was given partly to Judah (Josh 15:8) and partly to
Benjamin (Josh 18:28).
It is twenty miles north of Hebron. With the entire nation wanting him to
be their king, David chooses to find a new capitol, since Hebron was the
traditional capitol of Judah. It seems he doesn’t want to be the King of Judah
reigning over Israel, but the King of Israel. Perhaps there is something of
reaching out to the tribe of Benjamin, Saul’s tribe, as well.
:6 Jebusites
– Canaanites, descendants of Jebus, one of the sons
of Canaan (Gen. 10:16).
These were supposed to be people that Israel was supposed to remove from
the land:
(Dt 20:17 NKJV) but you
shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and
the Perizzite and the Hivite
and the Jebusite,
just as the Lord your God has
commanded you,
These were some of the people that Israel had not yet removed. (Jos 15:63;
Jdg
1:21)
(Jos 15:63 NKJV) —63 As for the Jebusites, the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out; but the Jebusites
dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.
(Jdg 1:21 NKJV) —21 But the children of Benjamin did not
drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem; so the Jebusites dwell with the
children of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
Up to this point, this is still one of the cities that has not been
fully claimed for Israel.
:6 the blind and the lame
The Jebusites think their city is so safe from
attack that they taunt David by saying that the weakest people could keep David
out.
:7 Nevertheless David took
the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).
:8 Now David said on that day, “Whoever climbs up
by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites
(the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul), he shall be
chief and captain.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame shall not
come into the house.”
:7 Zion … City of David
Zion – Tsiyown – “sunny” or “parched place”.
The name of this hill becomes synonymous with Jerusalem.
Jerusalem will become David’s capitol city.
There are two cities called the “city of David”, the other city is
Bethlehem.
:8 the water shaft
In the cities of ancient Israel, a chief concern is always water. In
Jerusalem, there is one main spring, the Gihon. Unfortunately, the Gihon was
located outside the ancient city of Jerusalem.
Years after
David, King Hezekiah would dig a long tunnel through solid rock in order to
bring the water directly into the city and keep the city’s water supply safe
during the siege of the Assyrians.
In David’s day,
the Canaanites had built some sort of covered passageway to get to the spring
when the city was under siege. There is a shaft (“Warren’s Shaft”) in the
passageway as you go to Hezekiah’s tunnel, and some think this might have been
the shaft that David’s men climbed up through to get into the city. Others
aren’t sure this is the same shaft.
Play “Hezekiah
Tunnel Shaft”
Chronicles
tells us who accepted David’s challenge:
(1 Ch 11:6
NKJV) Now David
said, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites first shall be
chief and captain.” And Joab the son of Zeruiah went
up first, and became chief.
Some have suggested that Joab had been demoted after killing Abner. With
the taking of Jerusalem, Joab once again becomes the top general in David’s
army.
:8 the lame and the blind … hated
(2 Sa 5:8 NLT) On the day of the attack, David
said to his troops, “I hate those ‘lame’ and ‘blind’ Jebusites.
Whoever attacks them should strike by going into the city through the water
tunnel.” That is the origin of the saying, “The blind and the lame may not
enter the house.”
Apparently there was a saying going around at the time about the lame and
the blind. It came from the taunt that the Jebusites
made towards David.
David’s “hatred” wasn’t about the handicapped, but about those pesky Jebusites.
:9 Then David dwelt in the
stronghold, and called it the City of David. And David built all around from
the Millo and inward.
:9 Millo –
millow’ – “rampart” or “mound; a part of the
fortifications of Jerusalem
Play “Jerusalem
sized” map video
Jerusalem has grown greatly since David’s day. This is Jerusalem today. In
Jesus’ day it was a bit smaller. Yet in David’s day, the city was just located
along the side of one hill in the Kidron Valley.
Show picture
with outline of David’s Jerusalem.
:10 So David went on and
became great, and the Lord God of
hosts was with him.
:11 Then Hiram king of Tyre
sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters and masons. And they
built David a house.
:11 Hiram king of Tyre
Hiram was king of the city of Tyre, the chief
city of the Phoenicians, a sea-faring people. Tyre is
north of Israel in modern Lebanon.
Hiram would later help Solomon build the temple (1Ki. 5:1)
(1 Ki 5:1 NKJV) —1 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent his
servants to Solomon, because he heard that they had anointed him king in place
of his father, for Hiram had always loved David.
:11 house – bayith – house.
The idea is that David
now has a “king’s house”, something like a “palace”. For kings in those days, it was considered essential for a
king to build his own royal palace to authenticate his kingdom.
There is an area
excavated on the northern portion of the ancient City of David that is referred
to as the palace of the kings of Judah, the house of David. It dates back to
the time of Zedekiah the last king of Judah, but may be the location of David’s
house as well.
Play “City of
David” clip.
:12 So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over
Israel, and that He had exalted His kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.
:12 David knew
It seems that there was something about the building of the “house” where
it finally sunk into David’s heart that he was actually the king.
:12 for the sake of His people
Israel
Lesson
Others
This ought to be the attitude of the godly leader. It’s not about “me”, it’s about “others”.
The “gifting” that God gives us are
not for ourselves, but for the sake of others.
(1 Co 12:7
NLT) A spiritual gift is given to each of us
so we can help each other.
We need to be thinking of others
more than ourselves.
(Php 2:3–4
NLT) —3 Don’t be
selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better
than yourselves. 4 Don’t
look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
Illustration
We ought to learn to serve
others and not expect to be “served”.
Jesus said,
(Mt
20:25–28 NLT) —25
But Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers
in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority
over those under them. 26 But among you it
will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant,
27 and whoever wants to
be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a
ransom for many.”
:13 And David took more
concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron. Also more
sons and daughters were born to David.
:13 more concubines and wives
David already has seven wives (six mentioned in 2Sam. 3:2-5 plus Michal, his
first wife). Now he takes more wives.
We talked last week about the practice of kings and multiple wives – as a
way of forming political alliances with neighboring countries. It wasn’t just about sex.
We saw before that God has a law concerning kings and wives:
(Dt 17:17 NKJV) Neither
shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away…
:14 Now these are the
names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua,
Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
:15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,
:16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
:14 Solomon
Even though you could make a case of David doing things wrong because of
the many wives, God will bring good out of it.
David’s great sin would be with Bathsheba in Jerusalem.
Yet Bathsheba would one day give birth to a son, Solomon, who would rule in
David’s place and build the temple.
5:17-25 Philistine
Wars
:17 Now when the Philistines heard that they had
anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for
David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
:17 all the Philistines went up
I wonder if this included David’s Philistine “buddy”, Ahimelech, the king
of Gath?
:18 The Philistines also went and deployed
themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.
:18 Rephaim
– rapha’ – giants, Rephaim
We’ll see in a minute where this is.
It’s interesting that the Philistines (where Goliath was from) are gathering in the valley
of the “giants”.
:19 So David inquired of the
Lord, saying, “Shall I go up
against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my
hand?” And the Lord said to David,
“Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.”
:20 So David went to Baal Perazim,
and David defeated them there; and he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a
breakthrough of water.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.
:20 Baal Perazim
–Ba‘al P@‘ratsiym –
“lord of the breakthrough”
Play Rephaim battle map.
While David is being established in Jerusalem, the Philistines are
gathering their armies from their coastal cities and preparing for war.
They march up into the hills into the Valley of Rephaim,
which is southwest of Jerusalem.
David gathers his army north of the valley and attacks.
:21 And they left their
images there, and David and his men carried them away.
:22 Then the Philistines went up once again and
deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.
Josephus records
(Antiquities, 7:2:75) that when the Philistines came back the second time, they
had an army three times the size of their original army.
:23 Therefore David inquired of the Lord, and He said, “You shall not go
up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry
trees.
:24 And it shall be, when you hear the sound of
marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For
then the Lord will go out before
you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”
:25 And David did so, as the Lord commanded him; and he drove back
the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.
:25 Geba
… Gezer
Gezer had recently added to their city limits, but David was only able to
push the Philistines back to the old city, or as far
as the “Old Gezer” … ;-)
Play Geba Gezer map
From where the last battle was, Geba and Gezer
are to the north of Jerusalem.
It looks as if the Philistines were trying to get to David any way they
could.
:24 when you hear the sound of …
Lesson
Fresh Directions
It’s important to remember that if we are going to be led by the Lord,
there are going to be times when He simply does things differently.
David faced two battles, and both battles worked differently.
Yet God was involved in both battles.
(Is 43:19
NKJV) Behold, I
will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall
you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And
rivers in the desert.
It’s important that we learn to face our battles like David did – always
asking God for directions.
What if God wanted to do something new in your life?
Will you be aware of it?
Jesus said,
(Jn 3:8 NKJV) The wind blows where it wishes,
and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it
goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The Spirit will work the way He wants to work. The real issue is whether or not I’m going to
be open enough to the work of the Spirit to follow where He’s going.
6:1-23 The Ark
comes to Jerusalem
:1 Again David gathered all the choice men
of Israel, thirty thousand.
:2 And David arose and went with all the people who were with him
from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of
God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord
of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim.
:2 Baale
Judah – “the lords of
Judah”.
A place in Judah
named for the Baalim, also known as Kirjath-jearim, Kirjath-baal.
This is where the Ark had ended up after going through its Philistine visit.
:2 the ark of God
– this is the Ark of the Covenant, the gold covered box built by Moses to house
the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them.
The Ark was to be a picture of God’s throne in heaven.
:2 bring up from there the ark …
When David gathers the people, he gives them his reason for wanting to move
the Ark:
(1 Ch 13:3 NKJV) and let us
bring the ark of our God back to us, for we have not inquired at it since the
days of Saul.”
It’s sad to think that this is the nation of God’s chosen people, yet they
had not taken advantage of the things that God had given to them. They had not cultivated a close relationship
with the Lord.
That would be kind of like a Christian not reading their Bible.
We have the most amazing book in the universe and don’t pick it up?
:3 So they set the ark of
God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab,
which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove
the new cart.
:3 drove the new cart
Houston, we have a problem.
They are moving the Ark in the wrong way.
God designed
the Ark to be carried on the shoulders of the priests (Num. 7:6-9), not placed on an
ox cart.
(Nu 7:9 NKJV) …because
theirs was the service of the holy things, which they carried on
their shoulders.
The idea of
transporting the Ark on an oxcart came from the Philistines.
About fifty years earlier, the Philistines had fought against Israel and
had captured the Ark of the Covenant in battle.
When they found out that they really didn’t like what happened to them
when the Ark was in Philistine hands, they decided to return the Ark back to
Israel. They returned it by putting it
on an oxcart,
:4 And they brought it out
of the house of Abinadab, which was on the
hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went
before the ark.
:5 Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of
fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on
tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.
:6 And when they came to Nachon’s threshing
floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the
ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.
It happens somewhere along the road to Jerusalem. You are going up the hill to get to
Jerusalem.
:7 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and
God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.
:7 God struck him
For the simple act of touch the Ark to try and keep it from falling off the
cart, God puts Uzzah to death.
Actually, the root problem isn’t that Uzzah
touched the Ark, the root problem is that they were transporting the Ark
improperly, which led to Uzzah touching it.
Lesson
Holiness
Holiness is that quality
about God describing His absolute purity, glory, power, and absence of sin.
From time to time God
needs to remind His people that He is not like us.
Lev.9:22 - 10:3 Nadab and Abihu
were killed instantly by God’s holiness when the Tabernacle was first set up
because they weren’t doing things right.
We see it in the
establishment of the early church – Ananias and Sapphira.
They
were struck dead because they thought they could get away with lying and
pretending to be something they weren’t. (Acts 5)
There is a big difference
between what we think of as “pure” and what God thinks of as “pure”
We can only know God
because of what Jesus did on the cross, but God still wants us to learn to live
holy lives here...
(1 Pe 1:14–16 NKJV) —14 as obedient children, not
conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who
called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is
written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
:8 And David became angry
because of the Lord’s outbreak
against Uzzah; and he called the name of the place
Perez Uzzah to this day.
:9 David was afraid of the Lord that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?”
David is afraid that horrible things might happen if he brings the Ark to
Jerusalem.
:10 So David would not move the ark of the Lord with him into the City of David;
but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom
the Gittite.
:10 Obed-Edom
– ‘Obed ‘Edowm – “servant of Edom”.
Apparently this
man had lived at one time in the Philistine city of Gath, hence a “Gittite”.
My guess is
that he’s a Levite based on the things spoken of him in 1Chronicles.
We will see this man and his family play an important role in the Temple.
Apparently the experience he will have taking care of the Ark will set him
up for helping in the Temple.
:11 The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three
months. And the Lord blessed
Obed-Edom and all his household.
:11 the Lord blessed Obed-Edom
Just how did God bless Obed-Edom?
How could David tell that God had blessed him?
(1 Ch
26:4–5 NLT) —4 The sons
of Obed-edom, also gatekeepers, were Shemaiah (the oldest), Jehozabad
(the second), Joah (the third), Sacar
(the fourth), Nethanel (the fifth), 5 Ammiel (the
sixth), Issachar (the seventh), and Peullethai (the
eighth). God had richly blessed Obed-edom.
I hope this isn’t too much of a stretch for you, but I think that Obed-Edom
was considered “blessed” because he had a lot of kids.
I wonder if Obededom’s wife (or wives) didn’t
become pregnant while the Ark was at his house.
Maybe the same happened with the daughter-in-laws as well.
Lesson
Children are a blessing
Sometimes if we’re not careful, we can get to thinking that our children
are just “in the way”. Children aren’t
supposed to be thought of as a “hindrance”, they are a blessing!
(Ps 127
NKJV) — A Song of
Ascents. Of Solomon. 1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in
vain who build it; Unless the Lord
guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late,
To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep. 3 Behold, children
are a heritage from the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward. 4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. 5 Happy is
the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall
not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.
:12 Now it was told King
David, saying, “The Lord has
blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of
the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of
Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness.
David can tell that God is doing something at Obed-Edom’s house. And he wants what Obed-Edom’s got.
Can people tell that God is doing something at your house? Do they want
Jesus because of what’s going on in your life?
:12 brought up the ark
David hadn’t understood what had happened when Uzzah
was killed. He thought he was doing a
good thing, having the Ark in his capitol.
But he didn’t realize that he was doing it the wrong way.
The writer of Chronicles gives us a hint that while the Ark sat at
Obed-Edom’s house, somebody must have decided to search the Scriptures to find
out what went wrong. They realized they
needed to have the priests carry the Ark (1Ch. 15:12-13)
Later, David will report to the priests:
(1 Ch 15:12–13 NLT) —12 He said to them, “You are the leaders
of the Levite families. You must purify yourselves and all your fellow Levites,
so you can bring the Ark of the Lord,
the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. 13 Because you Levites did not carry the
Ark the first time, the anger of the Lord
our God burst out against us. We failed to ask God how to move it properly.”
Now they’ll do it right.
:13 And so it
was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord
had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.
This wasn’t required by God, perhaps David is just
trying to be extra careful.
:14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and
David was wearing a linen ephod.
:15 So David and all the house of Israel brought
up the ark of the Lord with
shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
:16 Now as the ark of the Lord
came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window
and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart.
Michal was David’s first wife. She
was the daughter of King Saul. She knew
how a king was supposed to behave, and in her eyes, David was making a fool of
himself.
:17 So they brought the ark of the Lord, and set it in its place in the
midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then David offered burnt
offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
:17 the tabernacle
This is not the “Tabernacle” that Moses had set up to originally house the
Ark. David sets up his own tent to be a
house for the Ark. Moses’ Tabernacle is
still in existence, but it is at Gibeon (1Chr. 16:39; 21:29;
2Chr. 1:3) and would
remain there at least through Solomon’s reign.
:18 And when David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace
offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
:19 Then he distributed among all the people,
among the whole multitude of Israel, both the women and the men, to everyone a
loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. So all the people
departed, everyone to his house.
:20 Then David returned to bless his household.
And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious
was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids
of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
:21 So David said to Michal, “It was before
the Lord, who chose me instead of
your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore I will
play music before the Lord.
:22 And I will be even more undignified than this,
and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maidservants of whom you have
spoken, by them I will be held in honor.”
:21 It was before the Lord
David wasn’t dancing to make Michal admire him. He was dancing out of love and worship to His
God.
Lesson
Worship God
I think that sometimes we are way too concerned about what others are
thinking when we worship at church.
I know that at some churches, people get way out of hand. I’m not advocating that we go cart wheeling
down the aisles of the church, waving ribbons and stuff. I do believe that we ought to do all things
“decently and in order” (1Cor.
14:40).
But if I were to “evaluate” our times of worship, I would have to say that
we tend to err on the side of being too cautious. I think we’re a little too afraid of what
Michal thinks.
I think we ought to be more concerned about what God thinks. I think we ought to be a tad more like David.
:23 Therefore Michal the
daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
:23 had no children
The implication might be that David and Michal were no longer intimate from
that time on. It could be that she was
simply unable to have children from this time.
Lesson
Bitterness blocks the blessing
At the house of Obed-Edom, the family was blessed with children because of
God’s presence with the Ark.
Yet at David’s house, the bitterness of Michal is choking out the blessing
from her life.
She seems more concerned about what other people think than what God
thinks. She is more concerned about
maintaining her image as the “Queen” before her servants than she is about
being a worshipper of God.