Copyright 2016-2019 Lifeword
Day by Day - 2 Samuel
Real People, Real Tragedy
Clif Johnson
(Lifeword)
Aired on Nov 26, 2024
Show Day by Day
Nov 20, 2024
Duration:
00:03:13 Minutes
Views:
9
devotionals hope trials

The Bible provides us a look at both the grim reality of life and the hope provided in Jesus.   #daybydaylw   Interested in learning more about becoming a devoted follower of Christ? Go to follow.lifeword.org!   ~~~ This morning we turn the page from 2 Samuel 12 to chapter 13, and we might hope that we are also turning the page from a miserable time in the life of David, Bathsheba, and the nation of Israel, to a time of rejoicing, but we are not. As hard as it may be to imagine, the situation in the life of David and Israel gets even worse. And this is the benefit and the struggle of preaching through books of the Bible. We are forced to deal with the text of scripture as it comes to us, week after week, just like the author designed. We must not cherry pick the Bible, only looking at and studying the parts of history, or the poetry, or the instructions that bring smiles to our faces. Our life is not made up that way. And you may think, “You are right Clif, and that is why we need to get relief when we come here. So give feed us something that is a bit more tolerable and palatable, something warm and super encouraging. Our lives are difficult enough. No sense in coming in here to hear about more misery.” But that is just it, you see?! This is what makes the Bible the best of all books. God, as He speaks through this word, does not hide the misery. He does not hide the ugly parts of life, the difficult, the dirty. Instead, our God wants our joy to be so full, and so rock-solid landed on Him, that he gives us the truth of living life in this world of sin, BUT also the hope we can have in His redeeming grace. So it’s not just ugly and hard realities of life that we see here, but also the ultimate Hope in life that He provides. So yes, this morning we deal with the ugly. And I need to warn you, it is ugly, and cruel, and brutal. I get no enjoyment from this, and neither should you. This is not a passage that we should look at and from which get some strange sense of entertainment, but rather, our eyes are being forced to the page, to see through our tears, the harshness of sin, and that sin cares for nothing else than your destruction. Let me remind you once again, these were real people, real emotions, real events, real heartbreak. This is not like Grimm’s fairy tales, an exaggerated story to teach us a moral lesson. This was real. And in the midst of this episode of tragedy, we are to see triumph in the whole of the story through Jesus’ victory and atonement of the believer’s sin.

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