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Day 86, or March 27. Respectable or not respectable?

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Our thoughts today are from 2 Samuel chapter 16, verses 5 and 6. As King David approached

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Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out from there. His name was Shimei,

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son of Gerah, and he cursed as he came out, he pelted David and all the king's officials

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with stones.

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And now the big picture surrounding these verses. David's son Absalom does his best

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to take the crown from his father David, and for a while it looked as if he might succeed.

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For a short time he takes his father's advisers and rules from Jerusalem. He is a very charismatic

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ruler, and David appears to have lost his throne forever. Only God can reestablish David's

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monarchy now.

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Now today's action step. Today we meet a foul-mouthed man called Shimei, son of Gerah, a Benjamite.

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Not at all like another son of Gerah in Judges chapter 3, verse 15, he was a judge called

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Ehud, and the son of Gerah, a Benjamite too.

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When the Bible says someone is son of, it often means descendant of, as with Jesus,

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son of David. In any event, these two men were almost certainly related. It seems good

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families have bad members and bad families have good ones. All too often we judge people

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by their relatives or where they live. In the town where we have lived since 1982 there

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is a level crossing which was automated some years ago, much to the annoyance of the residents,

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but that's another tale. Anyway, this rail crossing splits the town in two, and if you

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live on the seaside of the track you are classed as inside the gates, and superior to those

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who live outside. I clearly remember asking a shop assistant if I could take some wallpaper

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samples home. He asked if I lived inside or outside. I told him inside, and he said, take

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as many as you need, no problem. He was judging me by where I lived. We love to pigeonhole

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people, don't we? Try to concentrate today on treating everyone as an individual, just

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as God does.