Pious Lutheran

David Staring at Bathsheba Bathing,  James Tissot, 1836-1902 David is often portrayed as a great hero of the faith, a righteous man, a man after God’s own heart. David slays giants, is a model of friendship, shows mercy to his enemies, and writes sublime poetry and music. Which is why the whole account of David and Bathsheba is shocking! David sins big time. But even in sinning, David is a good example of repentance, showing God’s surprising grace. All of chapter 11 shows David’s many sins. Right from the get go David is sinning: “ In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle , David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ” David’s a mighty warrior, a strong and accomplished fighter, yet he remained in his palace, lounging about on his couch. When David had gotten Bathsheba pregnant, he tried to get her husband Uriah to come home and sleep with her, so that Uriah m...

Israel Fed and Given Drink in the Wilderness,  Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld When things aren’t going as expected and you’re having a bad day, what’s your general demeanor, attitude, and behavior? Typically we’re not full of smiles and joviality, instead we’re grumpy and sour, we lash out at others, we fill our minds and mouths with grumbling and complaining. In this state of mind we follow the path of least resistance, and it’s easier to tear others down than it is to think constructively.  We see the Israelites doing this in our text today: “ And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” ” They were having a bad day, their stomachs were growling, and they didn’t know ...

David Shows Saul How He Spared His Life,  Gustave Dore, 1866 There aren’t a whole lot of monarchies left in the world. But at one time rule by a king was the popular and normal method of governance. Before Israel had earthly kings like other nations, God was their king and He had appointed judges to carry out His reign. But at the request of the Israelites, since they had rejected God from being their King, He gave them earthly kings like other nations. Although, God did warn the Israelites what earthly kings and rulers would be like: “ He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards a...

Jesus Heals a Mute Possessed Man,  James Tissot, 1894 I’m sure you’ve noticed it, but things have been changing dramatically over the past couple years. It’s not so much that things just started changing, rather it seems as if people are starting to wake up and notice the stuff around them, as if the veil has been partially removed and we can see things for what they are. Part of what’s going on here has to do with what St. Paul says about darkness and light: “ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. ” It seems crazy that we could become confused or deceived about distinguishing between darkness and light, afterall there’s hardly greater polar opposites than darkness and light. Nevertheless, that’s what’s happened. This world ruled by Satan is darkness, and God’...

David and Jonathan, Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, 1505 Some of the events in David’s life are well known, such as our reading from last week with his battle against Goliath, and one of our future readings: his affair with Bathsheba. Today’s account of David’s friendship with Jonathan, however, is less well known. If anything this account is more confused in recent years since our sex obcessed world has made the ludicrous assertion that theirs was a homosexual relationship. It’s a sad commentary on our civilization that when we hear that two men love each other we think of sodomy before we think of friendship. David and Jonathan weren’t engaged in disgusting behavior, they were quite simply friends. It seems as if our current civilization has forgotten what friends even are, and for that reason before we go much further we should make a few basic comments on friendship. Often when we think of friendship, at least as an adult, we think immediately of marriage. While husbands and ...

Christ and the Canaanite Woman , Annibale Carracci, 16th Cent. Does demon possession still happen? Reading the Gospels there’s no shortage of demonic possession. Even into the New Testament era, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, there are still accounts of Christians exorcizing demons. So what about today? Are all of the accounts of demon possession in the Bible worth reading about or are they just interesting stories of the past with no application to our modern world? The truth is demons do continue to afflict and possess people. We just tend to have a very narrow view of demonic possession, mainly informed by sensational movies and TV shows. We expect demon possession to be characterized by spinning heads, superhuman strength, speaking in strange languages, and berzerk manic behavior. There’s some of that in the Bible, with the man possessed by a legion of demons living naked among the dead with superhuman strength, or the child possessed by a demon who cast himself into fire and ...

David and Goliath,  Osmar Schindler, 1888 War has been on the minds of many lately. Of particular interest is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Seems like we can’t talk about hardly anything else. But frankly, it’s not really worth all of the attention and worry that we’re giving it. There’s nothing we can do to change any part of the conflict, both because none of us have the necessary information on the situation and because none of us have any authority over this situation. Worrying and fighting about this conflict makes about as much sense as worrying and fighting about the weather, we just can’t do anything about it. Anxiety over a situation entirely out of our hands only makes us depressed, angry, and bitter. What’s more, when we’re distracted with anxiety over such a situation, we don’t have the energy left to focus on the problems right in front of us which we actually do have the power to change. To illustrate, I can’t fix the conflict in Ukraine, but I can work on ...