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NASB | Acts 13:22 "After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.' |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 13:22 "And when He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king: of him He testified and said, 'I HAVE FOUND DAVID the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART [conforming to My will and purposes], who will do all My will.' [1 Sam 13:14; Ps 89:20; Is 44:28] |
Bible Question:
Thank you for such words. Your name, combined with these words puts me in mind of a "spiritual Doctor." Would you please expound on your comment "Since Absalom had slept ...., if David had had relations with them it would have been adulterous. This seems to me, to say that, if one were to sleep with anothers wife, even if it were not with the wifes concent, for the husband of that wife to sleep with her again, would be adultry, but then we are not talking about a wife, but a concubine which, as you stated in not so many words, is no longer permissable. If 3 pluss 5 equals 8. Why does 4 pluss 4 not equal 8? But then 4 is no longer 4. It is now the square root of 16, but then, what is that square root, if not 4? I was never good at that kind of math, for I see absolutely no ryme or reason to it. Perhaps this one of those a/b equals 4 equasions. If this is the case, why can (a) and (b) not be 16 and 4? I know it could also be 200 and 50, but WHY CAN'T THE CORRECT ANSWER STILL NOT BE AS I HAVE STATED???? Whew... I'm getting a little dizzy headed with all this unnessisary brain strain... |
Bible Answer: Dear Shy, The passages in question are: So the king [David] went out, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house. (2 Samuel 15:16 ESV) Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Go in to your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened." So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. (2 Samuel 16:21-22 ESV) And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood. (2 Samuel 20:3 ESV) Absalom was attempting to assert himself as king. This was the ultimate insult to his father, David. In addition, it was a clear affront to the Lord (Leviticus 18:14). The normal response of that day would have been to kill the concubines. David recognizes their innocence by simply sequestering them. To have had relations with them again would have only compounded the sin forbidden in Leviticus 18. Don't think of a concubine in the same sense that you would think of a "loose woman" by today's standards. Concubines were held in the same high standard as a wife. We need to understand the culture and the values of David as being different from our own. As I said in my previous post, the men of that time did not have the benefit of the entire canon of Scripture that we now enjoy. For a better description of concubines than I could offer, let me quote Fausset's Bible Dictionary: "The desire of offspring in the Jew was associated with the hope of the promised Redeemer. This raised concubinage from the character of gross sensuality which ordinarily it represents, especially when a wife was barren. This in some degree palliates, though it does not justify, the concubinage of Nahor, Abraham, and Jacob. The concubine's children were adopted, as if they were the wife's own offspring; and the suggestion to the husband often came from the wife herself (Genesis 30). The children were regarded, not as illegitimate, but as a supplementary family to that of the wife. Abraham sent them away with gifts during his lifetime, so as not to interfere with the rights of Isaac, the son of the promise. "The seeming laxity of morals thus tolerated is a feature in the divine scheme arising from its progressive character. From the beginning, when man was sinless it was not so; for God made male and female that in marriage 'they TWAIN should be one flesh' Matthew 19:4-5; 19:8). But when man fell, and, in the course of developing corruption, strayed more and more from the original law, God provisionally sanctioned a code which imposed some checks on the prevalent licentiousness, and exercised His divine prerogative of overruling man's evil to ultimate good. Such a provisional state was not the best absolutely, but the best under existing circumstances. The enactment was not a license to sin, but a restraint upon existing sin, and a witness against the hardness of man's heart. "The bondmaid or captive was not to be cast away arbitrarily after lust had been gratified (Exodus 21:7-9; Deuteronomy 21:10-11); she was protected by legal restraints whereby she had a kind of secondary marriage relationship to the man. Thus, limits were set within which concubinage was tolerated until 'the times of this ignorance' which 'God winked at' (Act_17:30) passed by, and Christ restored the original pure code. "Henceforward, fornication is a sin against one's own body, and against the Lord Christ, with whom the believer is one in body and spirit (1 Corinthians 6:15-20). To take the royal concubines was regarded as tantamount to seizing on the throne." In Him, Doc |