Author: Erin Newton

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 13 Listen: (6:39)  Read: Revelation 21 Listen: (4:34)

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 13:14–16

14 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.
15 Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”
16 “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.”
But he refused to listen to her.

Reflection: Hatred, the Underside of Lust

By Erin  Newton

“Having gratified itself, lust deepens into hatred” (Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror).

The story of Tamar does not soften its edges. There is no ambiguity of her innocence like some might foolishly try to argue in the case of Bathsheba. The power dynamic is clearly stated: Amnon is a prince and physically more powerful.

But he is ruled by his passions. His sexual desire makes him “sick” with lust. He is obsessed—no longer operating by rationality or morals. His flesh controls his narrative. He is, in fact, powerless to his most base instincts.

Tamar, the weaker person, is the pillar of strength. Unaware of the trap, she shows compassion and empathy for her “sick” brother. When the wicked plot is unmasked, she clearly refuses. “No!” She reminds him of morality. “Don’t do this wicked thing!” She offers an honorable solution of marriage.

But Amnon does not love her. Long-term commitment isn’t his goal. It is not kindness that is making his decisions. He is filled with lust, and by his strength he reacts in violence.

Phyllis Trible notes the change that occurs after the rape: “Violence in turn discloses hatred, the underside of lust.” The reaction is not uncommon. Jo Ann Hackett (Women’s Bible Commentary) says, “There is good evidence that people who force their dominance on others (rapists and sadists, for example) are fighting what they perceive as weakness in themselves and that their victims’ defeat only reminds them of their own weakness and consequently enrages them.” His weakness drove him to violence, and in the end, he still hates himself.

Tamar again is a pillar of strength and truth. She is not ruled by her emotions. When she should be angry and ashamed, she defiantly refuses his dismissal. “No!” She reminds him of what is right. He doesn’t care.

This weak man has no intention of listening to truth, especially truth embodied in Tamar.

Nothing about this story is foreign to our present circumstances. Men and women who feel inferior can be ruled by their own self-hatred and react violently. But the act of violence never solves their weakness. It merely begets more violence.

In the direct context of sexual abuse, we should be mindful of Amnon’s response. We must recognize that venom spewed against survivors is more of a reflection of a perpetrator’s heart. We must be like Tamar—bold, outspoken, and grounded in God’s truth.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God? You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God. — 1 Corinthians 6.19-20

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Not a Temptress but an Abuser

Equating sexual abuse victims to “Potiphar’s wife” is reading the passage backwards. Potiphar’s wife is the abuser.

Read more: No DARVO

How can we live in a world dominated by Sauls and Ahabs, the disciples of DARVO? How can we know what the truth is and who is telling it?

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 4-5 Listen: (7:10) Read: Revelation 14 Listen: (3:51)

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 4:10; 5:3

10 “When someone told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news!”

3 When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

Reflection: The Bad Timeline

By Erin Newton

This is the bad timeline. This phrase has been used recently regarding the never-ending “breaking news” cycle—filled with stories of war, corruption, suffering, genocide, health crises, financial turmoil, and various other events.

I get the same feeling reading through these first chapters of 2 Samuel. The book opens with the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. War breaks out between the two houses. Joab murders Abner. The sons of Rimmon murder Ish-bosheth.

Once David becomes king, another battle swiftly follows. Jerusalem is captured. David takes more women into his house as concubines and wives, granting him more children over the years. Another war breaks out with his former allies, the Philistines.

In the middle of these chapters, we have the anointing of David—a glimmer of positive news showing that God’s promise was being fulfilled.

God promised David that his rule would never end. For that to be true, David would need a royal title, land to govern, and heirs to inherit the throne. Chapters 4–5 reveal the fulfillment of such a promise. David is crowned. David secures Jerusalem as the center of Judah. David has many children who will be heirs.

But the timeline still looks bad, especially from our contemporary point of view. It is surrounded by, nearly drowned in, death and deceit and warfare. It is not really a pleasant chronology to follow. And for many of us, it’s uncomfortable.

We see God working in the life of David through events that are shrouded in evil motives. We see God working through people who have less-than-ideal resumes.

It is perplexing and frustrating. We might prefer God to work through perfect people in ways that are not covered in the corruption of sin. Let us not forget: He has.

The picture of Jesus should be set against this narrative of David. It is not a crown gained through the mafia-style killing of one’s opponent’s household. It is not a story of succumbing to the temptation, “All this I will give you … if you bow down and worship” (the devil). It is not a story of using one’s power and authority to gather women to him.

Jesus is the suffering servant, crowned with everlasting authority because he is divine. He rules over the creation he made through word alone. He gathers unto him a bride who has chosen to follow him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling;

That I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness; and on the harp I will give thanks to you, O God my God. — Psalm 43.3-4

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: David—He’s Obnoxious

We should name sin for what it is. Call it out. David was wrong. This is inexcusable. Somehow, in God’s strange working, sinners are still used in God’s plan

Read more: Abishai or Abigail?

Examine your relationship to violence and the ethics of power. Whose mindset do we have? Abigail’s or Abishai’s?

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel  27 Listen: (1:59) Read:  Revelation 7 Listen: (2:56)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 27:12

12 Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”

Reflection: David—He’s Obnoxious

By Erin Newton

Obnoxious—not a term you typically hear of David, who was a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam 13:14).

The backstory to David’s defection to the Philistines is Saul’s envious pursuit of him. He fled to Philistine territory to escape danger. While there, he had to gain the trust of Achish (by vowing to be his servant) and go to war against his own people in Judah.

He found a precarious balance by attacking cities that were deemed enemies of Judah (leaving no one alive) but lied to Achish that he had attacked Judean cities. Shockingly, the ruse worked. Achish trusted David while David remained safe from Saul.

The chapter repeats: “He did not leave a man or woman alive.” While typical of warfare in the Bible, the phrase could be hyperbole or narrative flourish. However, the motive for David was that he feared his ruse would be uncovered. “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did’” (v. 11).  

Koowon Kim (Asia Bible Commentary: 1 Samuel) notes the glaring ethical problem with this narrative: “As Christians, how can we justify what David did to the people in enemy cities, especially innocent civilians?”

In short, we can’t. David is not an ideal leader here. He did not inquire of God. He failed to trust God’s promise. He reacted rashly and to the detriment of his morality. Kim sees this behavior as a step into a dark, “vicious cycle of sin.” To save his life by his own means, not through God, he became a perpetual liar and rampant murderer.

Kim is right by saying, “This episode is humiliating for both Christians and Jews who look up to David as the paragon of messiah. So they either do not talk about it … or they rationalize it.”

But David remains, in many Christian spheres today, the role model for leaders (or even manliness). Furthermore, we face similar dilemmas as we watch contemporary Christian leaders fall into these vicious cycles of sin. They lie. They cheat. They steal. They harm. They hurt. What are we to do? Do we ignore it or rationalize it?

Better yet, we should name sin for what it is. Call it out. David was wrong. This is inexcusable. Somehow, in God’s strange working, sinners are still used in God’s plan—a fact that does not deny the reality of one’s sinful behavior.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Splendor and honor and kingly power are your by right, O Lord our God,

For you created everything that is, and by your will they were created and have their being — A Song to the Lamb

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: The Best We Can Do

May we never be enslaved to decisions of political practicality…compromise our souls to maintain convenient alliances.

Read more: Christ, the True Hero

We cannot live up to oaths such as Psalm 101. Neither could David. David would eventually bring corruption, rape, murder, and the ravages of civil war to the city which in this Psalm he pledges to protect.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 1 Samuel 19  Listen: (3:43) Read: 3 John Listen: (1:51)

Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 19:3, 13, 24

3 “I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I’ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.”

13 Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats’ hair at the head.

24 He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence.

Reflection: Spirit, Senses, and Sensibility

By Erin Newton

We are probably all aware of the story of the three pigs, each with their own means of building a house. Or the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. Or Dickens’s character Scrooge who is visited by the three ghosts of Christmas.

The triple multiplication of events, often with increasing tension, is a common storytelling trope.

We come upon such a story in 1 Samuel 19.

David functions as a passive character in this chapter, helped by three of his friends in different ways.

In the first act, David’s friend Jonathan attempts to appeal to Saul through sensibility. He tries to reason with Saul. David has been beneficial to you. You didn’t get upset when he risked his life. Saul awakens to this advice and David is spared.

In the second act, David’s wife Michal attempts to save David by fooling the senses of Saul. She bets on the obliviousness of his guards and entourage. She places a very large idol in David’s spot in bed. The original set of guards are too careless to notice. The ruse is short-lived and when she is found out, she pleads self-defense. Yet David escapes.

In the third act, David’s mentor Samuel (the prophet) seeks the Spirit of the Lord to help. The power of the Spirit is such that those who seek to kill David, when close enough to pose a threat, are overtaken and respond in words of prophecy. Not even the king himself can avoid the power of the Spirit.

This story about David’s escape is entertaining to say the least. The use of threes enables the storyteller to amplify the tension, watching David narrowly escape time and time again. The story begins with a simple friend talking sense to his father and ends with a naked king spouting the word of God like a puppet.

Through this engaging tale, we see God at work in a myriad of ways. He works through a simple friendship and ethical means of communication. He works through an idolatrous trickster and a half-hearted lie. He works through his faithful servant and through the miraculous (probably temporary) enemy-turned-converts.

We see that God is sovereign over all events—Saul cannot kill David. God is sovereign over all people—friends, spouses, soldiers, enemies, and kings cannot thwart God’s plan.

And when God works in our lives, it is likely through the Spirit, senses, and sensibility.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are they who trust in him! — Psalm 34.8

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: The Lord Who Rescues

The story is also about a God who uses unexpected methods to gain victory…God alone rescues. Be a person who responds.

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