Fat and happy. "In
the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab… But
David remained at Jerusalem." Kings
go out to battle but David sent Joab. He
should have been at the battle but he was home enjoying his wealth. That Bathsheba was purifying herself from
uncleanness tells us that she was not pregnant by her husband, the uncleanness
relates to her monthly cycle. David attempts
to get her husband, Uriah the Hittite, to go home and lie with his wife but
Uriah sleeps at the king's gate. When David
questions him on the matter his response is, “The ark and Israel and Judah
dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in
the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with
my wife?" This all condemns
David. The ark and the people dwell in
booths, Joab and the soldiers are camping in the open field and because of that
Uriah won't consider sleeping indoors, enjoying comfort and luxury and sex with
his wife, all of which David is doing and has done. David covers his sin by ordering Joab to send
Uriah forward in battle where he will be murdered. The righteous man died because of David's
sin.
The Transfiguration sets Jesus apart from everything and
everyone else in this life. Only Jesus
shone forth the glory of God from within.
Moses had a shining face from being with the Lord but that was a
reflection of God's glory, not the indwelling glory. What James, John and Peter see is the
shekinah glory of God shining through Jesus as though He were the temple or
tabernacle. Ultimately, Jesus stands
alone as the beloved Son to whom they are commanded to listen. They remain confused about the resurrection
from the dead, the Son of Man isn't supposed to come until after Elijah has
returned. Jesus compares John the
Baptist to Elijah and says he has already come and they have killed him. They are thinking too literally about
Elijah. John was, like Uriah, a
righteous man and he was rejected and killed.
The sons of Sceva are practicing as exorcists and come upon
what they believe is the magic word, "Jesus." They see Paul use the name of Jesus and
demons flee so they take his word and use it referentially not
reverentially. The demons know both Paul
and Jesus but not these idiots and so there is no power in their use of the
Name. This has to be one of the funniest
scenes in the Bible to think of the man rounding on them, beating them and the
group fleeing naked from him. The power
of Jesus is given to those who believe in Him and use His Name rightly. We must be covered in the blood of Jesus if
we are to use that power and then only when He tells us to do so. His righteousness is not simply in the proper
configuration of the letters of His Name, it is in belief in the Name, the Lord
saves, and that He is the salvation of the world. The Name decoupled from understanding and
belief in the man who bore the name is as nothing. Righteousness inheres in the person not the
letters.
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