Ish-bosheth accuses Abner of lying with his father Saul's
former concubine. Such an action would
be tantamount to a claim to the throne of Saul.
Absalom does the same with David's concubines in laying claim to the
throne. Whether Ish-bosheth is paranoid
or had reason to accuse Abner isn't said but the result is that Abner's
allegiance is swung to David. Ish-bosheth, we are told, feared Abner, so it
is certainly possible he was concerned that Abner would seize the throne. David's one condition for accepting Abner as
an ally was the return of Michal, Saul's daughter, David's wife, to him which
he is able to do when David also makes demand to Ish-bosheth. In this same period Abner is able to sway the
leaders of all the families, even Saul's own family of Benjamin, to David and
to promise David he will soon rule over the entire nation.
The disciples return to tell Jesus all they have seen and
done on their mission trip. The crowds following
are so large now that there is no way to get apart together to discuss and
celebrate the success of the mission. Instead
a few thousand people follow them to the desolate place where they go to rest and
now they must be fed. Even with all they
had seen and done they were unprepared for Jesus to be able to feed this
multitude, they didn't have enough faith to believe such things. Healings yes but how do you make food out of
nothing at all? Amazingly, all these
people have plenty to eat and twelve basketsful were taken up with
leftovers. They may not be able to do
such things, but Jesus is more than able.
Paul is in some way prevented by the Holy Spirit from
speaking the Gospel in Asia. In a dream,
however, he sees a man of Macedonia (what would have distinguished this man as
from Macedonia I wonder?) beckoning him to come. How odd it must have been, then, to arrive
there and remain in the city of Philippi for some days and finding no believers,
even Jews there. There was no synagogue
there (it requires ten Jewish men in a place to have a synagogue) so they went
to the river on the Sabbath supposing there was a place of prayer there. This would have been a place where the women
might gather and, sure enough, they met some women, including Lydia who was not
Jewish but a believer. Instead of a man
of Macedonia, they met a woman of Macedonia.
We must always be prepared to go where He sends us and accept whatever
and whoever He sends to us. As the poet
William Cowper wrote, " God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to
perform…"
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