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Bitterness Grows Deep into Michal
When you make a choice, do you plant yourself in the Bible first or do you make it and check later?
We all know it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Michal made her decision regardless of her surroundings and annoyed her daddy who had much to much power over her.
Our Biblical Ground Work: 1 & 2 Samuel
Michal is the younger of Saul’s two daughters. Does she display the younger ones characteristics? Not at the beginning but near the end of our story you will see she does. She got away with deceiving her father and she never had to live up to any standard as her older sister would have to. Although I do have to say that she went through quite a bit because she was used, by her father, as a pawn in his game.
As soon as Saul discovered that David and Michal were in love, the games began. She was offered as reward for battle (1 Samuel 18:27) not thinking that David would succeed where he failed. David and Michal were married, but during their days together Saul was of the mind to kill David. Not knowing what love actually means, Saul was surprised his daughter would save his enemy alive (1 Samuel 19:11-17).
Saul gets angry again at David and gives Michal, his wife, to another man (1 Samuel 25:44). War breaks out between the Philistines and Israel again. Saul is killed and David begins to take ownership of his anointing but before he will take control of Israel he asks for his wife back but he is not getting the same woman back he left.
She moves into the kings castle with all his other wives, going from being the one wife of one man into the harem of wives David has collected (2 Samuel 3:13-14). As she is living in the castle, David is called to bring the Ark into the City of David. She sees him dancing and whirling and despises him in her heart. This would be the end of her life as she knew it (2 Samuel 6:16-23) because he put her away.
O no, that is not all. There was famine in the land so David went to the Lord to inquired about it. Turns out the Gibeonites wanted payment for what Saul had done to them, against their past covenant with the Israelites, and again Michal is thrown under the proverbial bus again (2 Samuel 21:1-14). How much can one queen take?
Our Biblical Life Lesson: Bitterness becomes a deep root because we don’t repent from the very first seed.
There was a lot of things that happened to Michal as you can read rom her story above. Her father taught her well about bitterness. Saul was bitter against David because he stole his accolades. That original weed of bitterness was never repented of, so all the rest of the reasons Saul hated David grew from that one bitter experience.
I can be a Bitter Batilda too. I have had some very nasty stuff happen to me but is that what the Lord wants from me. I say, “NO!” he doesn’t want that for any of His children so He leads you over some pretty big sink holes so when you are at the bottom of one you will realize how deep your bitterness root runs.
Join us in The Bible Gals Sisterhood Wednesday as we discuss the Biblical Power Tools to help you see the root and spray some Weed-X on it.
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What will it take? Part 2
I asked you last time to just ‘believe’ but and now I am asking you to go further and to know. We discussed what it will take to get you to read the Bible. Did you start? If you did I am super proud of you! Considering that God has made us all different we will have different ways of getting started and I told you my story so you would know how weird it was and how different God works in our life to mature us.
This week the question is – What will it take for you to start studying the Bible? Reading the Bible is one thing but studying it is something totally different. It takes time and effort to figure out what the Bible is talking about. It takes more than just going to the building where we congregate to study the Word. It takes more than a weekly Bible study to study the Scriptures. We are under the misguided perception that the Bible is incomplete due to missing information. There is nothing incomplete about Scripture. Let us go to Scripture to find out.
Paul tells us 2 Timothy 3:16 the Bible is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness and He said this before the New Testament ever existed. What other book is good for this? Romans 15:4 tells us that Scripture is good for encouraging us so we might have hope. What other book tells us it is there to encourage us and give us hope that also says it is profitable? Hebrews 4:12 tell us this Book is alive as well. What book, any book, can tell us the same and actually prove it? Jesus tells us Luke 8:11 that Scripture is a seed and 1 Peter 1:25 tells us the Seed will remain forever. What more do we need to tell us what a wonderful privileged it is to know the Word of God? What more do we need to decide that it is profitable to study the Scriptures because of it’s powerful characteristics.
Job 11:7 asked us if we can discover the depths of God? Why, yes we can! Daniel 2:28 reminds us there is a God in Heaven who reveals mysteries. Jesus told us in Matthew 13:11 that it is granted to us to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. The great mystery that has been hidden since the past ages has been manifested to His Saints (Col 1:26) is there for us to discover. The question still remains – what will it take for you to study the Word of God?
This week talk truth to yourself and figure out what it will take for you to want to uncover the mysteries hidden in Scripture. There are many rewards for gaining this information and one of them is listed in Proverbs 25:2. Do you want to be a king on the New Earth and go in and out of the New Jerusalem or would you rather just sit outside the gate waiting for the King of your Nation to bring you the latest news about Jesus. When Jesus returns there will be no more mystery to solve but our opportunity to search the Scriptures for this mystery will also be gone along with the reward we will get for searching out those mysteries.
One last time I ask you – what will it take for you to begin studying Scripture? Start now and you won’t have to answer this question again.