2 Samuel 1-8
The right response to a promise-keeping God (2 Samuel 8)
2 Sam 8:1-18 I must admit that the long list of David’s military conquests does not make riveting reading, since the ancient place names and people groups are unfamiliar to most of us. Yet it is an important point in…
Lessons on how to take God’s grace (2 Sam 7:18-29)
2 Sam 7:18-29 All of us, I suspect, have known times when God’s grace reached out and touched our hearts in a special way. It could have been when we first understood how Jesus died to save us, or when…
Why accepting God’s ‘no’ is a better way (2 Sam 7:1-17)
2 Sam 7:1-17 A few years after I started working, I felt the stirring for Christian ministry. An opportunity arose with a mission in the UK reaching out to international students and during my interview, my future supervisor raised the…
How to avoid the root of bitterness (2 Sam 6:12-23)
2 Sam 6:12-23 A pastor once told the story of a friend, who went into Christian ministry. While the friend’s classmates earned big salaries and became high-profile and successful people, he was involved in humble service with little pay and…
How to and how not to approach God (2 Sam 6:1-11)
2 Sam 6:1-11 A church I know through a friend decided on an extensive building project as they were running out of space for Sunday services and other group activities. Out of several proposals, the preferred option of the leadership…
The challenge of living with plenty (2 Samuel 5)
2 Sam 5:1-25 When I got married, a dear friend made me a hanging ornament that had the seven produce of the Promised Land (Deut 8:8) on it. In Deuteronomy, God’s people leave behind the desert to enter a land…
How to overcome temptations of power (2 Samuel 4)
2 Sam 4:1-12 When I was learning to drive, my driving instructor would often show me a particular manoeuvre, let me do it once, then move on to something else. It was rather unsatisfactory as I often did not feel…
God’s will through twists and turns (2 Sam 3:6-39)
2 Sam 3:6-39 When my husband and I were considering moving to New Zealand, we put out feelers about possible job openings for me in theological education, since those opportunities were likely to be scarcer. The initial inquiry led us…
God’s will through human conflict (2 Sam 2:12-3:5)
2 Sam 2:12-32; 3:1-5 One of the fascinating aspects of the Book of Samuel is how it describes human motivation and conflict that move the story forward with characterisations that portray the good and bad in individuals. Often, there is…
Waiting for God’s time and God’s way (2 Sam 2:1-11)
2 Sam 2:1-11 ‘I want patience – AND I WANT IT RIGHT NOW!’, goes the humorous saying. In our instant culture where we can order something online before midnight and get it delivered the next morning, patience is a scarce…