NKJV 365 / Inspiration

NKJV 365 Day Reading Plan

Day 182 of 365 Inspiration Incest. Deceit. One daughter raped. One son dead. Another with blood on his hands. A palace in turmoil. Again it was time for David to step up. Display his Goliath-killing courage, Saul-pardoning mercy, Brook-Besor leadership. David's family needed to see the best of David. But they saw none of David. He didn't intervene or respond. He wept. But wept in solitude. Absalom interpreted the silence as anger and fled Jerusalem to hide in his grandfather's house. David made no attempt to see his son. For three years they lived in two separate cities. Absalom returned to Jerusalem, but David still refused to see him. Absalom married and had four children. "Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, but did not see the king's face" (2 Samuel 14:28). Such shunning could not have been easy. Jerusalem was a small town. Avoiding Absalom demanded daily plotting and spying. But David succeeded in neglecting his son. More accurately, he neglected all his children. A passage from later in his life exposes his parenting philosophy. One of his sons, Adonijah, staged a coup. He assembled chariots and horsemen and personal bodyguards to take the throne. Did David object? Are you kidding? "His father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, 'Why have you done so?'" (1 Kings 1:6). . . . When it came to his family, David blew it. (From Facing Your Giantsby Max Lucado) Taken from The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible 1 Kings 1:11-20 NASB 11 Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, "Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know it?  12 So now come, please let me give you counsel and save your life and the life of your son Solomon. 13 Go at once to King David and say to him, 'Have you not, my lord, O king, sworn to your maidservant, saying, "Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne"? Why then has Adonijah become king?' 14 "Behold, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words." 15 So Bathsheba went in to the king in the bedroom. Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king. 16 Then Bathsheba bowed and prostrated herself before the king. And the king said, "What do you wish?" 17 She said to him, "My lord, you swore to your maidservant by the L ord your God, saying, 'Surely your son Solomon shall be king after me and he shall sit on my throne.' 18 Now, behold, Adonijah is king; and now, my lord the king, you do not know it.  19 He has sacrificed oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king and Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of the army, but he has not invited Solomon your servant. 20 As for you now, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.