NL-Day158 2 Samuel 2; Psalm 107:23-43; Romans 11:17-36

2SAMUEL 2:
David heard of Israel’s terrible defeat and of Saul and Jonathan's deaths, and he exacted the death sentence from the lying messenger. David and his men mourned for the deaths of  Saul and Jonathan, and David composed a funeral song for them.

PSALM 107b:
Yesterday I commented on how quickly our culture forgets about God. After a natural disaster, it becomes popular in the media to talk about praying for the victims. But God is not even mentioned, and soon any pretense of awe or fear of God is dropped. But Psalm 107 speaks of people who see God’s hand at work and make lasting changes. The poem ends with this summary:

NLT The godly will see these things and be glad,
while the wicked are struck silent.
43 Those who are wise will take all this to heart;
they will see in our history the faithful love of the LORD.

ROMANS 11b:
Paul comes to the end of a long parenthesis at the end of this chapter. He ends with a conclusion just before a doxology:

NLT 33 Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!
34 For who can know the LORD’s thoughts?
Who knows enough to give him advice?
35 And who has given him so much
that he needs to pay it back?

NLT Translation notes:
Rom 11:11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the [non-Jews//Gentiles]. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves.
12 Now if the [non-Jews//Gentiles] were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
13 I am saying all this especially for you [non-Jews//Gentiles]. God has appointed me as [an//the] apostle to the [non-Jews//Gentiles]. I stress this,
14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you [non-Jews//Gentiles] have, so I might save some of them.
16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering [to God] is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you [non-Jews//Gentiles], who were [like] branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree.
21 For if God did not spare the original branches, he won’tf spare you either [if you turn from your belief].
25 I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters,g so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of [non-Jews//Gentiles] comes to Christ.
28 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you [non-Jews//Gentiles]. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
30 Once, you [non-Jews//Gentiles] were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead.
31 Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will [some day/eventually] share in God’s mercy.

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.