TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 4:1-11
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Earlier this year, George Bush fulfilled a 52-year-old promise he had made to himself when he parachuted from an airplane and landed at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. The former President was a World War II bomber pilot who had had to bail out of his plane over the Pacific Ocean after it was hit by enemy fire on September 2, 1944. Since that day, Bush had promised himself that one day he would sky-dive for the fun of it. And at the age of 72, he did so.

When it comes to fulfilling these sorts of promises, no real harm is done if there is a long delay between promise and fulfillment or even if the fulfillment never comes. But when it comes to the duties God is calling His people to fulfill, we can't afford to delay our obedience.

This is the spirit with which Peter comes to the final portion of his first letter. The apostle, like his brother Paul, felt a sense of urgency regarding the lateness of the hour and urged his readers to get on with the business of serving Christ.

Verse 1 brings us back to the theme of suffering. And once again, Peter draws on the example of Jesus Christ to teach believers how to respond to life's trials. We need to take the same attitude toward suffering that Christ took, which was to accept it as the will of God.

When we do this, it helps us get rid of sinful attitudes that might cause us to become bitter toward God and others, lash out at those causing our pain, or give in to sinful desires that promise to ease our suffering.

Peter's audience had already spent enough time living like pagans (v. 3). Coming to Christ meant a complete break from their old way of life, a commitment these believers needed to make real in their experience.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Critics say one proof the Bible isn't fully true is that its authors were wrong in expecting Christ's soon return.

But that criticism misses the point. Peter wasn't trying to set a date for Christ's return. He was urging his readers to live in light of Christ's sure return, which could be any day.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 4:12-19
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Sufferers from poison ivy and related ailments can now find protection and relief in a new, non-prescription lotion approved last year by the Food and Drug Administration. The key ingredient in the new lotion is a drug that blocks the oil from poison ivy's leaves and stems, preventing it from producing the characteristic itchy rash. With as many as seventy percent of all people sensitive to these toxins, this new drug promises widespread relief.

It's good to see unnecessary suffering alleviated. But for the Christian, there is no remedy that will block the trials and traumas of life from afflicting us. We've gone deep enough into 1 Peter to know not only that suffering is as inevitable for believers as for everyone else, but also that it is part of God's will for us. He wants to refine and mature us, to draw us closer to Christ.

Peter states this truth very succinctly: ""Do not be surprised"" when painful trials come your way (v. 12). Some people would look at that and say, ""Why should I become a Christian if all it's going to bring me is trouble and persecution?""

It's true that the Bible does not shrink from telling us the truth about the problems we will encounter in this world. As someone has said, clashes are inevitable because believers are going one way while the world is going in the opposite direction.

But the implication that only Christians have problems is, of course, silly. The difference is not that one suffers while the other goes free. The difference is that as Christians, we endure trials that are infused with purpose and even blessing (v. 14), while unbelievers have no such redeeming value in their troubles.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In verses 17-18, Peter asks a probing question. If disciplinary trials are necessary for God's children, what will become of those who don't know Him?

Sadly, unbelievers have nothing to look forward to but fiery judgment and eternal separation from God. We began the month by encouraging you to witness to an unsaved friend or loved one. But we can never have too much concern for the lost.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 5:1-7
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TODAY IN THE WORD
One of the most famous incidents from the Presidency of Harry Truman had nothing to do with politics or international diplomacy. A music critic who attended a 1950 performance by Truman's daughter, Margaret, criticized her singing. The feisty President told the man, ""Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens, you'll need a new nose and a lot of beef steak for black eyes!""

While Truman's fatherly defense of his daughter's singing may be admirable, that's not the kind of response we usually expect from mature leaders. Peter counseled the opposite frame of mind for those who would lead God's people: gentleness and humility should mark the person whom God calls to a shepherding ministry.

Today's text is another example of Peter's own heart and experiences shining through. Peter was trained and commissioned by the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And in his restoration after the denials, Jesus told Peter three times to feed His sheep out of love for Him (see the July 4 study).

So here was the great apostle, urging his fellow elders to lead the church with eagerness, love, and humility. Sheep must be led, not driven, if they are to stay together and not become scattered and lost.

Peter called himself a witness of Christ's sufferings. He could have added that he was also a participant in those sufferings. He implies as much when he says he will share in Christ's glory, which according to 1 Peter 4:13 is the reward of those who share in Christ's sufferings.

The apostle then turns from leaders to young men (v. 5), those who would someday become the elders. They need to learn humility and submission while they are young, even as all of us in the body of Christ need to practice humility.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Why would we choose to drag around a load of cares when God has offered to take it from us?

1 Peter 5:7 is an offer that no believer in his or her right mind would refuse. Yet we worry all the time because many of us are more practiced at worrying than we are at trusting God with our concerns.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Peter 5:8-14
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TODAY IN THE WORD
If they had to guess, most people would probably say that older people need more sleep than younger people. Not so, according to one source. This expert says that as we grow older, we not only need fewer hours of sleep per night, but we also need fewer hours of deep sleep. People in their 60s need only half as much deep sleep as they did in their 20s.

There may be some good news for us here, because all of us are growing older every day. And according to the apostle Peter, we need to increase our level of alertness!

Peter isn't talking about physical alertness, of course; but the analogy applies. If we knew that a thief or some other intruder was coming to our house tonight, we would definitely stay awake to watch. And we would be alert if we knew a wild animal was loose in our neighborhood.

Spiritually, that is exactly what is happening. The devil is always on the prowl, but the antidote to his prowling is for us to be alert and strong, not to hide in fear. For the first time in his letter, Peter suggests in verse 9 that Satan is at the bottom of much of the suffering which Christians endure.

Does this invalidate all those references earlier in 1 Peter to trials and persecution being sent from God to refine and purify His children? Not at all.

Satan may stir up trouble against us, but God can and will overrule the enemy's evil purpose. God will give the faith to withstand Satan; and when the trial is over, God will ""restore you and make you strong."" No wonder Peter ended his exhortations with a doxology of praise!

The apostle's concluding remarks are also worth noting. Silas was a faithful co-worker of Peter's, and John Mark was a great example of someone who initially collapsed under trial (Acts 13:13; 15:36-40) but who later proved to be a faithful worker (2 Tim. 4:11).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We can assume that, given Peter's own denials, he was able to sympathize with Mark's early failure in the ministry.

Have you ever been disappointed by someone you counted on for something? You would be unusual if you said ""no."" When someone lets us down, it's tempting to mark the failure up against that person's record and keep it there.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:1-4
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TODAY IN THE WORD
In 1953 the Kansas City Power & Light Company built an all-electric ""dream home."" The model drew 60ꯠ visitors, curious to see its futuristic features: a remote coffee starter activated by a switch in the bedroom, automatic garage and kitchen lights, and a 27-inch television mounted in the wall behind a painting which could be moved by remote control. Interestingly, the local museum of history is now restoring the house.

That house was supposed to contain everything that American homeowners would ever need. What Kansas City Power & Light attempted on the human level, God has achieved on the divine level. And His blueprint will never go out of date or need restoration as a museum piece.

Peter wanted the believers under his care to know what they possessed in Christ so they could draw on His resources and grow to full maturity. The apostle's second letter contains a sense of urgency on several counts.

First, as we shall see, Peter knew that his time on earth was short. And he knew that false teachers would infiltrate the church, seeking to lead God's people astray. Their best defense was to know the truth, and Peter was writing to remind them of that. He also wanted to sketch the future.

We can give 2 Peter this very basic outline:

I. Greetings (1:1-2)

II. The Importance of Faith

(1:3-21)

III. The Danger of False Teachers (2:1-22)

IV. God's Plan for the Future (3:1-18)

After greeting his readers in typical apostolic fashion, Peter turned immediately to the heart of his message. The first truth that he wanted the recipients of his letter to know was that in Christ they had everything they needed for life and godliness.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
When it comes to a full knowledge of Christ, we have an advantage over first-century believers, even though they had Peter as their teacher.

Our advantage is the completed Word of God, available to us ""twenty-four seven,"" as teenagers say--meaning all the time, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. We often stop in the middle of the month to encourage the Today in the Word family to stay faithful with their Bible study and time with the Lord.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:5-11
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TODAY IN THE WORD
According to NASA scientists, a $105 million infrared camera installed on the Hubble Space Telescope earlier this year by space-walking astronauts is out of focus and will not last as long as expected. One of the camera's three infrared detectors is not working properly, knocked out of focus by the 225-pound block of nitrogen ice used to keep the camera operating at minus-355 degrees. Scientists hope to work around the problem and still collect most of the data they want on black holes and far-away stars and galaxies.

We as believers can get knocked out of focus, too. The demands of daily life and the cares of this world can cause us to lose sight of the goal toward which God wants us to move: maturity in Christ.

But Peter offers an antidote to the ""nearsightedness"" that can afflict us. The formula of growth and development he gives us in today's text is designed to make us productive and effective in our knowledge of Christ (v. .

We don't have the space to explore each of these virtues in detail, but the progression is interesting. It begins with faith and ends with love, the identifying mark of Jesus' disciples (John 13:35).

As we pointed out yesterday, Peter was concerned that his readers grow strong in Christ, both for the sake of their own lives and as a guard against the false teachers who would come to deceive them. He also knew the downward pull that evil desires exert on believers and how easy it would be to fall (2 Peter 1:10) if the believers were not on their guard.

Notice that we are to possess and exhibit in ""increasing measure"" the qualities Peter mentions, suggesting steady growth (v. . These virtues are so crucial to Christian maturity that anyone whose life shows no evidence of them is left to stumble around like a blind person.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
When we see a list such as the one in 2 Peter 1, we can begin to feel guilty if we decide we're not as far along this path of growth as we should be.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 1:12-21
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Several years after World War II, Swiss theologian Karl Barth paid a visit to America. At one seminary, a student asked Dr. Barth, ""What is the greatest truth that ever crossed your mind?"" Dr. Barth, whom many consider to be the most influential theologian of the twentieth century, looked at the student and said calmly, ""Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.""

Dr. Barth was not trying to be facetious by quoting the familiar children's chorus. He was reminding his questioner that our faith is grounded in an unchanging reality: the truth of Scripture.

This is a lesson we need constantly to relearn. No believer can ever become so educated or sophisticated that he can afford to leave behind or forget the basic truths of Scripture.

Peter knew that the faith of the church rests on the rock-solid foundation of the Word. And he realized that if the believers under his charge ever left that foundation, they would be easy prey for the Scripture-twisters who were ready to deceive them.

We can almost picture this beloved apostle, knowing that his days were numbered, pouring out his heart to his people. He knew he would not be with them much longer (v. 15).

But the uppermost concern in the apostle's mind was not his own well-being, but the faith of his readers. His burden was to remind them of the truths they had been taught (vv. 12-13). He wanted them to cling tightly to the foundation of the Word.

In the process of encouraging his flock, Peter gave us a magnificent statement of the truth and infallibility of the Scriptures. He could speak from experience, for he had been with Jesus and heard the truth from His lips.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Our commitment at Moody Bible Institute and Today in the Word is faithfully to remind you--and ourselves--of God's truth, so that we will ""remember these things"" (v. 15).

We can do this because of the sure foundation we have in God's Word. Has it been awhile since you consciously thanked the Lord for the Word you hold in your hands?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 2:1-3
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TODAY IN THE WORD
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported recently that Spanish dictator Francisco Franco harbored 104 Nazi secret agents at the end of World War II, preventing the Allies from bringing them to justice as war criminals. A list of the wanted agents was presented to Spain in 1945 by the U.S., France, and Britain. But the list was shelved in the Spanish Foreign Ministry for half a century while most of the Nazis lived out their lives peaceably in Spain, enjoying the protection of Franco, a friend of Hitler's.

The specter of notorious war criminals living among ordinary citizens is unnerving. But it is no more disturbing than the thought of deceitful people living among God's flock, trying to look like sheep while hiding a wolf's heart.

That's the reality Peter describes in today's reading. He wasn't the first to warn of the danger posed by false teachers. The apostle was present the day Jesus issued the warning of today's verse. And Paul tearfully told the Ephesian elders to be on their guard against the same kind of ravenous wolves (Acts 20:28-31).

If these people came among the flock wearing their true identity on their sleeves, protecting the church against their heresies would be much easier than it is. But they are too clever for that. They work secretly, often cloaking their false teachings in just enough truth to make them palatable to the novice believer or to those who are weak in the faith.

But despite the various guises adopted by false teachers, Peter gives us three sure ways to identify them. First, in some form they deny the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Second, their true motive is greed, which will become obvious the longer they are among us. Third, they will always find a willing and gullible audience for their message.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Our subject today and tomorrow certainly is not so enjoyable as studying the good things God has for us, but it is necessary for our spiritual well-being.

One region of the world particularly vulnerable to the teachings of cults today is the former Communist world. In the nations of Eastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union, all sorts of false religious groups are reported to be making great inroads.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 2:4-9
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Even as banks in Switzerland deal with the controversy surrounding assets deposited by victims of the Nazi Holocaust, another World War II-era controversy has surfaced in France. Charges were made recently that the French government held onto some of the French artworks found in postwar Germany which were brought back to France. These works were never returned to their rightful owners, so the French government has begun putting these works on display in an effort to allow their owners to identify and claim them.

Matching pieces of art with their owners after half a century may seem a difficult task at first. But imagine one particular owner spotting a painting that was once a beloved possession of his or of his family. In that case, picking out what is his among all the pieces would be no problem at all.

That's something like what Peter is talking about in today's verses. God will pick out His beloved children from among those who will be judged. The urgency and seriousness in Peter's heart can be measured by the fact that in the original language verses 4-9 are a single sentence!

Peter's point is that even though false teachers may be able to hide among the flock of God by ""wearing sheepskins,"" God knows exactly who His sheep are and who the impostors are.

The apostle offers three examples from biblical history to illustrate his argument. These examples emphasize God's precision in judging and saving, and each is more precise than the one before it. For example, the angels who sinned made up one third of the angelic host (Rev. 12:4). Yet even though the number of angels is vast, we can be sure that not one angel was mistakenly judged or spared.

From countless numbers of angels, Peter moves to just eight human beings, the family of Noah. Again, God had no difficulty at all in identifying and claiming His own out of the sea of humanity. And God was just as able to spare one man, Lot, out of the thousands in Sodom.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
We're often told that we are not to judge others, based on Matthew 7:1-5.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 2:10-22
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TODAY IN THE WORD
A few months ago researchers who had made repeated dives to the wreckage of the Titanic challenged the accepted theory that an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the side of the ship. The ship's bow is mired in mud, but the team ""looked"" at the hull using sound waves. They concluded that the damage is ""astonishingly small,"" just six small gashes along the starboard hull. Unfortunately, the openings were made at the worst possible place, along six watertight holds.

Even a small amount of damage in a crucial place can bring down a huge ship. In the same way, it doesn't take many ""wolves in sheeps' clothing"" in a church to inflict incredible damage.

This was the apostle Peter's concern as he wrote to the churches in the Asia Minor provinces (1 Pet. 1:1). These churches were being invaded by men whose method was to slip in secretly among the people of God and sow the seeds of their ""destructive heresies"" (2 Peter 2:1).

As verse 20 makes clear, these men pretended to be respectable members of the church. But their true character revealed them to be anything but true believers.

In these verses Peter pulls off the disguises of those who would mislead and exploit God's people. He shows them to be contemptuous of authority (v. 10), arrogant and blasphemous toward divine things (vv. 11-12a), people who follow their sensual, animalistic desires (v. 12b).

Peter reveals these men to be what one commentator calls ""chronic sinners"" (vv. 13-14). They are also greedy for gold (vv. 15-16), like the greedy prophet Balaam who was hired to curse Israel for money.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Three days of dealing with false teachers and their judgment ought to make all of us thankful for the faithful people who lead and serve in our churches.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 3:1-7
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Bowing to the wishes of the state's Christian governor, the Arkansas legislature has removed the phrase ""acts of God"" from legislation referring to tornadoes and other similar tragedies. Governor Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, said the phrase offended his conscience; and he refused to sign a disaster relief bill for last spring's deadly string of tornadoes until the phrase was removed. The legislators finally agreed, changing the bill's language to blame the destructive storms on ""natural causes.""

It is understandable why the governor wanted to separate in the public's mind God's name from destructive and seemingly random storms. As someone else has pointed out, no one credits as ""acts of God"" the good things that happen to people every day!

According to Peter, the only thing keeping this world from immediate judgment is the goodness and patient mercy of God (see 2 Peter 3: 9). But God's patience with ""ungodly men,"" including the false teachers described in chapter 2, will one day come to an end (v. 7). The present universe is being reserved for His judgment.

Once again in chapter 3 we see Peter's burden to plant the Word in his readers' hearts. He was soon to leave them, according to tradition to die by upside-down crucifixion. His heart's desire was that these believers he loved would not be shaken from their faith and confidence in God.

Another group of ""evil men"" who might shake their faith was the scoffers. The danger was that if the believers started listening to and believing the scoffers, they might be tempted to abandon godly living and to live like the pagans.

That would be a tragic mistake, Peter says, because the scoffers were deliberately ignoring the fact that God judged the people of Noah's day for their wickedness. More than that, as Peter reminds his readers, God has a day of judgment marked out for this present world.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Today's passage sounds rather modern. The descendants of those first-century scoffers are among us today.

In many ways, our modern heresies are even more destructive. Instead of simply denying any reality to the spiritual world, today's New Agers and other cultists are offering people self-gratifying, bizarre, and even deadly false paths for achieving immortality or ""tapping into the divine.""

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 3:8-13
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Last April's mission of the space shuttle Columbia was a costly venture for NASA. The four-day mission had been scheduled to last more than two weeks before mechanical problems set in. The astronauts aboard the shuttle, flying at two-thirds power and working by flashlight, worked hard trying to squeeze in as many of the planned experiments as possible. As one astronaut said, ""You can't cram sixteen days of work into four days, but we're doing our best.""

Although earth's best technology can go awry and force a crew to return earlier than planned, no such malfunction will mar the return of our Lord. He will come at the precise moment set by the Father. Our response as believers is to anticipate that day with eagerness and order our lives accordingly.

This is the message Peter wanted to get across to the believers of his day and to us. The Lord's return is as sure as the promises of God. The problem with the scoffers is that they are using the wrong counting system. The eternal God doesn't count the passing of days and years as we do, so a few thousand years are nothing to Him.

The real tragedy of those who deny Christ's return is that they are trampling on His longsuffering patience with them. Verse 9 reminds us that God takes no pleasure in judging the unsaved. Only those who refuse His grace and insult Christ by relying on their own merits will experience God's righteous judgment.

But as great as God's mercy is toward this sinful planet, it will terminate one day in the future and the world will undergo terrifying judgment.

Since everything we see will some day melt like wax in the hot sun, we need to make sure we don't become too attached to the goods of this life. Peter asks the question we should ask ourselves every day: ""What kind of people ought [we] to be?"" (v. 11).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The best way we can await the return of Christ is by serving faithfully where He has placed us in His kingdom.

With that in mind, take a look at your schedule from today through the rest of the week. Does your daily agenda reflect the agenda of God's kingdom? As believers, even our ordinary daily routines can be done--in fact, should be done--as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 2 Peter 3:14-18
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TODAY IN THE WORD
Judging from the results of an unusual ""survey,"" it appears that few people are still obeying one of mother's soundest pieces of advice: ""Wash your hands."" An epidemiologist in Minnesota who observed that hand-washing had become a lost art in America had people do some informal ""research"" in public places across the country. The result verified the doctor's suspicions that few people wash their hands, thus compounding the risk of spreading disease.

Peter knew all about the importance and symbolism of washing. On the night of Jesus' betrayal, Peter refused to let Jesus wash his feet--until Jesus told him that unless he agreed, he had no part with Jesus (John 13:1-10). Then Peter asked for a full bath!

Jesus revealed that He was talking about spiritual cleansing, a cleansing that Peter had already received through his salvation. Now here is the apostle some 30 or more years later, urging his readers to keep themselves ""spotless"" before God.

We have learned what God expects of His people as we await His Son's return. ""Spotless, blameless and at peace"" is another way of describing a holy, godly life (2 Peter 3:11).

Peter knew that the believers under his care would be subjected to vicious enemy attacks in the person of false teachers and that he would not be around to help them. He also knew that these deceitful workers were determined to wreck the life and witness of as many true believers as possible.

With his last breath, so to speak, Peter made one final plea for his flock to stand strong and keep their eyes on Christ. He also reminded them that his ""dear brother Paul"" was saying the same thing to the churches under his care--even though Peter apparently found some of Paul's letters hard to understand (v. 16).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
How can we live spotless and blameless lives when we walk around all day in a sin-polluted world? The same way the apostles in the Upper Room with Jesus became clean after walking the dusty roads of Jerusalem.

The disciples had their feet washed, a perfect picture of our confession of sin and cleansing by the Lord (1 John 1:9). They didn't need to take a bath again--that is, they didn't need to be saved again--but to be cleansed of their daily grime.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 1:1-8
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TODAY IN THE WORD
When the time came for the fierce Mongol leader Genghis Khan to choose a successor who would rule his kingdom, he chose Ogodei, one of his four principal sons. Even though Ogodei was not the bravest warrior in the family, he knew how to use his authority and how to handle his willful brothers. Under Ogodei, who ruled from 1229-1241, the Mongol Empire reached as far west as it ever would.

Although in this case the matter was handled smoothly, royal successions are often filled with conflict. For example, today's reading pits Solomon, David's choice, against the renegade, Adonijah. David had consolidated his domain, and by the end of his life the royal throne in Jerusalem was a valuable prize.

Even with three of his sons dead--Amnon, Absalom and the baby conceived with Bathsheba--David still had plenty of surviving sons to vie for his throne (see 2 Samuel 3:1-5).

In today's Bible reading, Adonijah launched a bold plot to take the throne, but the winner would be Solomon. If it is wrong and dangerous to plot against a neighbor, Adonijah was to learn that it is even more dangerous to plot against a brother.

The reign of Solomon, arguably the richest and wisest man who ever lived, will be the focus of our devotional studies this month. Solomon was the last king to rule over a united Israel. We want to trace his reign from the heights of its power and splendor to a low point in Israel's history, the division of the kingdom into two competing monarchies. Our study this month will cover this story in 1 Kings 1:1-12:24.

Along the way, we will learn some valuable lessons about human nature, sin, and the greatness and grace of God. Solomon could have written a book about these subjects--and in fact he did pen Ecclesiastes and much of Proverbs. In the historical narrative of his reign, we will see extremes of tragedy and triumph, sin and success, foolishness and wisdom, faithlessness and worship.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Verse 6 helps our understanding of this story. Evidently David was an indulgent father with Adonijah, as he was with Absalom. And many people paid a price for David's neglect in this area.

The lesson for parents is obvious. We need to discipline our children now, while there is time to shape their character. Proverbs 29:15 warns, ""A child left to himself disgraces his mother.""

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: 1 Kings 1:9-21
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TODAY IN THE WORD
The Greek philosopher Aristippus spent some time in the court of Dionysius, who ruled the Greek city-state of Syracuse. At one point, Aristippus requested a favor for a friend, but Dionysius refused. So Aristippus pleaded with the ruler, humbling himself at Dionysius' feet until the favor was granted.

Rulers can often be moved by persistence and humility. Only a heartless tyrant can resist a repeated plea for a favor, justice or mercy. And David was no tyrant. He was an old, weak monarch; but he was still God's anointed king, the leader of Israel. In today's reading, Bathsheba approached David as the king he was. While Adonijah was off making plans to be the next king, Bathsheba came to her husband with a request.

The issue at stake wasn't a small one. Bathsheba was pleading for David to ""go public"" with his promise to crown Solomon as his successor. She had been jarred into action by the prophet Nathan, who told her that Adonijah was throwing a feast for his other brothers and the officials of Judah whose loyalty he wanted to buy (vv. 11-14).

This was life-and-death news, because Adonijah's guest list did not include Bathsheba or Solomon. In the culture of that day, this omission was very significant. That Adonijah had not extended an invitation to Bathsheba or to Solomon meant that he was under no obligation to protect them once he gained power. In other words, they were unnecessary and unwanted in Adonijah's plans.

That's why Nathan urged Bathsheba, ""Save your own life and the life of your son Solomon"" by going to David (v. 12). Ancient rulers routinely eliminated their rivals as indeed Solomon himself did later (see 1 Kings 2:13-46).


TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The account of Bathsheba bowing before David with her request is a good picture of our approach to God.

We must come to Him as our King, bowing before His greatness and majesty. We are not coming before a tyrant, but a loving Father whose ears and heart are tuned to our requests.