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During the first forty days that Moses was up on the mountain, all that people needed to do was wait patiently for his return. Patient waiting is not a human strong suit. They quit waiting and fashioned a golden calf to lead them in place of Moses. In this they mixed the worship of God with the liturgy of the pagans. God was not pleased. Today we are also in a time of waiting the return of Messiah. The old gods have similarly resurrected their liturgy and brought it into the church.

After putting down the rebellion of his son, David had the task of restoring and reuniting the kingdom. In this process he acted with his usual political skill. He refrained from acting in anger and taking vengeance upon those who sided with Absalom.

It is God's intention to restore the creation to what He originally intended it to be. His servants are to be agents in that restoration. In his parables Y'shua gives instructions as to what His servants are to be doing in while He is away. To do this the servants need access to the Master's power and authority. He has given that to us in the Torah and the Holy Spirit.

Bathsheba's grandfather, Ahithophel, advised Absalom to pursue David immediately. When that advice was not followed, the rebellion was essentially lost. Although David prevailed, the death of his son was devastating. Especially since he knew that the whole thing was his own fault.

In much of the contemporary church the Gospel is primarily seen as the way to get to heaven. That is not how those listening to the Apostles heard it; nor is it how God meant it to be understood. By spiritualizing the Gospel, the church has been robbed of the power it was intended to have.

After his adultery with Bathsheba, God cursed David saying that evil would come upon him from his own family. David's son Absalom would be the vehicle for the outworking of that curse.

In Genesis we read that "God said...and it was so.' Speech both defines everything and provides a window into a persons character. Kind, encouraging words reveal a kind person. The converse is also true. Words can build up or tear down a community which is why Scripture repeatedly tells us to watch what we say.

David's firstborn son, Amnon, raped his half sister Tamar. Tamar's brother Absalom secretly planned vengeance. As prophesied by Nathan, this began a string of tragedies within David's family.

In Scripture God defines justice. He speaks of it repeatedly and when Israel corrupts its justice system, He sends them into exile. Both English Common Law and American law are based upon the Biblical standards. As America has become a post-biblical nation, our sense of justice has been thoroughly corrupted. God's indictment of Israel in Isaiah 56 could equally apply to us today.

There is more to the story of David and Bathsheba than you were probably taught in Sunday school. This is a complex story of court politics which will have ramifications for the remainder of David's reign.

In Parsha Kedoshim we are instructed to be holy as God is holy and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are also instructed not to sow our fields with different grains and not wear mixed linen and wool. How do these seemingly unrelated ideas tie together?

Having gotten Israel united, David proceeded to subdue the surrounding nations. At his height David's realm extended from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River. With the exceptions of the Philistine enclave on the southern coast and Phoenicians in Tyre and Sidon Israel held sway over the entire extent of God's promise to Abraham.

God spoke His words to a nomadic people. Scripture recounts that as His people became prosperous and settled into cities they were pulled by the world and quickly drifted away from God. The church has undergone the same process. What was born in enthusiastic revival has gradually drifted back to the world. As an example a professor at a Christian college was recently fired for a tweet that simply spoke Biblical truth.

After the assassination of Ishbosheth David was able to unite all Israel under his reign and move his throne to Jerusalem. When he tried to bring the Ark into Jerusalem, he did not follow God's instructions as given in the Torah. This error cost Uzzah his life.

There are many theories as to why Nadav and Abihu died when they brought strange fire into the Tabernacle. Most of those theories have to do with their attitude. In reality their attitude or heart condition had nothing to do with why God responded as He did. The reason is far more fundamental and important.

With Saul's death, David was free to begin the process of becoming king. He made a number of deft political moves that first got him installed as king over Judah ruling from Hebron. In the north, Abner had installed Ish-botheth as king to replace his father Saul. Ish-bosheth, however, was not nearly so astute as was David. He alienated Abner, and so began David's moves to consolidate the nation under his reign.

When John first encounters Y'shua, he says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Consulting only the Torah, it is possible to explain why that statement was true, what it means to be "the Lamb of God" and why His sacrifice is able to redeem us.

Before his final battle with the Philistines, Saul had lost all contact with God. In desperation, he consulted a necromancer who channeled the ghost of Samuel who predicted Saul's defeat and death. David meanwhile was rejected when he tried to join the Philistine army fighting against Israel. This was quite providential because he would have had a very difficult time uniting Israel under his reign had he sided with their enemies.

In the first six chapters of Leviticus, all of the sin or guilt sacrifices are voluntary. In other words, the sinner realizes his wrong, does his best to make it right and only then will the sacrifice be accepted. In this we have a model for what it takes to truly repent and then come before God and ask for forgiveness. In the entire Bible, repentance precedes forgiveness, not the reverse.

While evading Saul, David and his men lived by raiding. In this he spared Israelites and even offered them protection from rival tribes. This forms the background for his marriage to Abigail. When her husband, the fool, refused to let David and his men share in a feast, David vowed to kill him and his men to avenge the insult. Abigail's quick action forestalled that event and when Nabal died, David married her. After David again spared Saul, he had had enough dodging and moved his operations out of Judah and into Philistia.