We’ve been told our entire lives to be careful who you go to for advice. Consider our social media universe, spouting ignorance like a rogue firehose. As I follow politics I watch people gain positions of trust who simply should not be there.

Jonadab was such a person. An advisor in King David’s court and David’s nephew, Jonadab was a very shrewd man. This word shrewd can also be translated crafty.

Jonadab connived a plan where Amnon, his cousin and son of the king, played sick in order to get his half-sister Tamar alone. With everyone out of the house, Amnon raped Tamar. This horrible tragedy led two years later to Amnon’s murder by his brother Absalom. The fallout cascaded for years.

At the time of Amnon’s murder, Jonadab still served as an advisor to the king. Somehow he slipped any responsibility associated with Tamar’s defilement. Crafty people find ways to deflect blame. They tend to stay in their positions long after the exposure of their true colors.

Maybe the family connections helped Jonadab hang around? Certainly his cagey personality served him. But Amnon’s malignancy ate away among the wise and godly people surrounding David.

Beware the slippery advisor—you’re not the person they most care about. In service of self, you’re just a means to an end.

2 Samuel 13 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Kyle Glenn

Cries for justice sound out constantly in our world, and rightfully so. Humankind finds new ways to harm one another with every generation. But on what basis do we appeal for justice?

Ethan the Ezrahite, a young man in David’s court, wrote of the ultimate source of justice: Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, Lord.

The ruling seat of God rests on twin foundations of righteousness and justice. Truths found in the Word of God lead us to virtue. Without the Lord, without his Scriptures, without the transcendent, upon what does one base a sense of justice and righteousness?

Marx called religion the opiate of the masses, and built a governing system on the will of the elite. Hitler built another on power, and Freud moved our ideas of justice and right living toward sexual liberation. Neither these or any other philosophies rejecting God resulted in human flourishing. Today the idea of self as center dominates, yet justice remains ever elusive.

With no ultimate standard, we devolve into base creatures, interacting with one another like snarling dogs. Choose a better way. Build on the right foundation. Walk in the light of the Lord.

Psalm 89 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Angel Luciano

Spring in all its glory finally arrived in Colorado, and I’m watching plants emerge from the soil. I forget over the winter what I planted in previous years. One of the joyous aspects of gardening are the perennials put in the ground years ago again stretching out under the sun. They shine as good consequences of past decisions.

But I think of bad consequences when I read the account of David and Bathsheba, one of the most disappointing stories in the Bible. The tragedy started with a poor decision: In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army…But David remained at home.

David devolved from there. He took another man’s wife; sent sealed orders carried by the husband to have him killed; acted pious at the death of this loyal fighter; moved Bathsheba into his palace; and camouflaged the deceit.

As a consequence of David’s actions Uriah died, Bathsheba’s baby died, and David’s reign of security died. The entire nation, later torn apart by rebellion, suffered due to the sin of its leader.

Of course, David wholeheartedly returned to the Lord. He prayed, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

The Lord heard David’s prayers of contrition and opened his arms. That’s good news for David, and great news for us. We’re never so far gone that the Lord won’t welcome us back. But still, consequences followed.

I should never forget that waves emanate from my decisions. The Lord fully forgives, but the Lord also allows the resulting consequences of our actions to walk with us into the future. Rather than the distress of selfishness, pray for the flowering of good decisions in our lives.

2 Samuel 11 & 12; Psalm 51 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Bradyn Trollip

On occasion, God chooses to cut through our defenses like a bolt of lightning. The Lord decked Paul in the middle of his journey of persecution, transforming the man and pouring gasoline on the fires of the Christian faith.

Paul described his experience to King Agrippa, his wife Bernice and Festus, the regional governor: I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, “Saul, Saul, why to you persecute me?

Brilliance of the light blinded Paul and broke his opposition to Jesus. Enveloped in darkness, Paul gained a new life mission. The Lord said: I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

May God to strike people today blind with his brilliance. We hear stories of Muslims in the North Africa and the Middle East meeting Jesus in dreams. God reveals himself in different ways to different people.

Pray for friends and family that seem too far gone—pray they break under God’s brilliance. Paul was too far gone, until a blast knocked him off his high horse. Pray for God to blind those who either actively rebel, or slump in passive indifference.

Join me in praying for the blinding of younger generations by the overwhelming light of Christ. Our world needs it now more than ever.

Acts 26 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Todd Trapani