A Chapter a Day w/ Connie St. John

The book of Galatians is what is called an  “epistle,” or letter. Paul (formerly Saul) is writing it to the churches in Galatia.

He admonishes them about turning to a different gospel than the one he preached to them. Some people are throwing them into confusion. In verse 8 he says: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!”

He reminds them in verse 12: “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

In chapter 2, Paul continues his account of his journey.

He shares how he opposed Peter (also called Cephas) because Peter was trying to make the gentiles get circumcised like the Jews. He knew that Peter was wrong for trying to make the gentiles follow Jewish customs.

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David has Joab and his men take a census of all the fighting men in Israel and Judah. It’s confusing whether this done at God’s direction, but toward the middle of the chapter, we learn that God is angry at David for doing this.

David repents and he’s faced with a choice of punishment – a famine, a plague, or to be hunted by men (yet again). He goes with the plague.

He repents again and builds an altar to the Lord, and the plague ends.

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David’s last words are in this chapter. There is also an account of his mighty warriors.

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Chapter 21: 

During David’s reign, there was a famine for three successive years. When he asked the Lord why, he was told it was because of Saul’s mistreatment of the Gibeonites.

So David reached out to the Gibeonites to make amends. To avenge all the death and destruction Saul had wrought, they wanted seven men from Saul’s house to be given to them so they could put them to death. David gave them seven men, but spared Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son. The Gibeonite’s killed them.

David then recovered Saul and Jonathan’s remains and had them buried properly. Then the curse was lifted.

Later, David and his men fight against the Philistines multiple times. David went to fight with them at first but got exhausted. He nearly died but one of his men protected him. They told him to stay home after that.

Interesting note, one of the men they fought and killed was Goliath’s brother. Another had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. They killed him, too.

Chapter 22:

David sings a song of praise in this chapter.

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Once David is back at his palace, yet another man “Sheba” comes against him. He has a lot of followers and is preparing to make trouble for the King, who knows he will be worse than Absalom.

Joab is sent to find Sheba and kill him. First, Joab kills a traitor – Amasa – who was originally sent to find Sheba.

The men follow Sheba to a peaceful town called Abel Beth Maakah and surround it, preparing to destroy it. A wise woman calls down to Joab and explains the kind of town that it is. She tells him destroying it would “swallow up the Lord’s inheritance.”

Joab doesn’t want to do that. He tells her who they’re after and she says they’ll find him and “His head will be thrown to you from the wall.”

And that’s what happens.

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Joab is livid that David is mourning. He tells him off saying that he’s humiliated the men who saved him. He tells his he has to encourage his men or they will all abandon him by nightfall.

David sits at the door of his gateway and his men come and honor him. Everyone begins making a plan for David to return home.

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Absalom and his men are coming after David and his warriors. David asks that they be gentle with Absalom when they find him.

In a weird twist of fate, Absalom’s hair gets caught in a tree as he rides underneath it, and he’s left there hanging. One of David’s men reports to Joab that he saw Absalom hanging from a tree and Joab is furious that he didn’t kill him while he was vulnerable.

Joab goes and does it himself, stabbing Absalom in the stomach multiple times.

David is heart-broken when he learns of the death of his son.

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Ahithophel gives more bad advice and tells Absalom to take 12,000 men and go after David.

But another advisor, Hushai, told Absalom not to listen to Ahithophel’s advice. Hushai had another plan and Absalom decided to follow it. When Ahithophel realized his advice wasn’t followed, he hung himself.

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What a messy mess!

Meanwhile, Absalom seeks advice from a scoundrel named Ahithophel who tells him to sleep with all of his father’s concubines in public view of everybody. He says if Absalom does this “Then all Israel will hear that you have made yourself obnoxious to your father, and the hands of everyone with you will be more resolute.” (Verse 21)

For some reason, Absalom listened.

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Absalom is back in the city of David, but apparently, his ego has grown while he’s been in Jerusalem. He’s got a huge loyal following.

He conspires to take the kingdom from his father, King David, causing David to flee.

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