May 28- Dysfunction Junction

May 28, 2011

Scripture Readings:
2 Samuel 13:1-39; John 17:1-26;
Psalm 119:81-96; Proverbs 16:6-7

Sometimes it's like watching a train wreck.  
You're uncomfortable, but you just can't help yourself.  
~Tony Danza

2 Samuel 13:1-39

Have you ever been on the highway and all of a sudden everything starts to slow down for no apparent reason?  As you crawl along in irritation, you wonder what could be causing the problem.  Eventually, you see the issue.  There has been a wreck and every car that goes by the accident slows down so that the passengers can rubberneck and see the disaster.  Today, reading this passage of Scripture is like rubbernecking through a trainwreck.  This is dysfunction junction on the railway of life.  David's sin has caused a train wreck of dysfunction.

Our story begins with his unbelievably handsome son, Absalom, and his very gorgeous, virginal sister named Tamar.  They are the children of a foreign woman from Geshur who is a Bedouin. Both Absalom and Tamar have a step brother named Amnon.  Remember that David, in rebellion against God's model of marriage in the Garden of Eden, has taken mulitple wives.  Amnon falls head over heals in love with Tamar.  Amnon's cousin, Jonadab, encourages Amnon to deceive David and get Tamar to bring him food alone in his bedroom. When Tamar comes into the room, Amnon rapes her and then immediately despises her. Tamar leaves, tears her virginal robes, and tells her brother Absalom what has transpired. Absalom lives with brooding anger about this incident for two years. David is also angry at the news, but does nothing to help Tamar.

Eventually, Absalom has a dinner party for all of David's sons. They arrive, get drunk, and Absalom has Amnon killed. The other sons flee on donkeys back to David's palace. There is great mourning for Amnon. Absalom flees to Geshur. Over time, David begins to miss his son Absalom.

Here we see King David reaping more of what he has sown.  David was an indulgent father, married multiple wives, including pagan/foreign women, and did not spend time training his children appropriately. David is now reaping the dysfunction that this lack of discipline in his own life has sown.

Can you identify areas in your life where you are reaping bad things because you sowed bad things?  God allows these processes in our lives.  Do you have the humility to see them?

John 17:1-26

When I was a young girl I would talk on the phone to my friends for hours.  I don't know how my parents put up with it, but they did.  Back in those days, there were no cell phones.  If you were going to talk on the phone, you had to use a land line and there would be mulitple phones in the house that had receivers someone could pick up to listen to your conversation.  As a kid, I was always worried that one of my siblings or parents had picked up the phone in the other room and were listening to my conversation.

Today, it is like we have picked up a phone receiver and are getting to listen to Jesus' intimate prayer with his Father.  Here are some of what he says to God:

• Glorify me because you have given me authority over every person on earth.
• I give eternal life to each person that You gave to me.
• Knowing the True God and Jesus Christ is the only way to get eternal life.
• I (Jesus) brought glory to You (God the Father) by doing everything You told me to do.
• Now, please bring me back into the glory that You and I shared before the world began.
• I am praying only for those who You have given to me, not for the world.
• Those You have given to me are My glory.
• Keep these ones that are mine and care for them when I leave them behind.
• While I've been on earth, I have kept them safe.
• I did not lose one of them, except the one that was destine for destruction as foretold by Scripture (Judas Iscariot).
• I have given these disciples your Word.
• Please keep them safe from the Evil One.
• Make them pure and holy by teaching them Your Word.
• I am going to send them into the world.
• I am also praying for every person that will ever believe in me because of the testimony of these original disciples.
• Keep them unified in Us.
• Make them One with Us.
• I want these that You have given me to be with Us in glory.
• I have been faithful to tell them the truth so that Your love for me can be in them and I can be in them.

Wow.  Do you get what Jesus is saying here?  Can you feel the love and intensity with which Jesus loves us.  He is a Shepherd who wants to protect his flock. He is a best friend who is praying for his best friends.  He desires our purity and holiness.  He wants us to be with him forever in glory.  Praise God. He wants us to be ONE with him and the Father. He is like a good husband, Faithful, True, Intimate, Caring, Providing...


I am breathless with his devotion.

Psalm 119:81-96

"I faint with longing for your salvation; but I have put my hope in your word."  What more can I say?

Proverbs 16:6-7

Evil is avoided by fear of the Lord.  Perhaps if you and I thought about God's awesome power, we would avoid evil more clearly.

What did you see today as you read?

Blessings,

Jubilee Gal
Kathy Fullerton
© 2011