WEBVTT

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Day 86, or March the 27th. Respectable or not

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respectable? Our thoughts today are from 2 Samuel

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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

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came out from there. His name was Shimei, son

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of Gerah. And he cursed as he came out. He pelted

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David and all the king's officials with stones.

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And now the big picture surrounding these verses.

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David's son Absalom does his best to take the

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crown from his father David, and for a while

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it looked as if he might succeed. For a short

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time he takes his father's advisors and rules

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from Jerusalem. He is a very charismatic ruler,

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and David appears to have lost his throne forever.

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Only God can re -establish David's monarchy now.

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Now today's action step. Today we meet a foul

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-mouthed man called Shimei, son of Gerah, a Benjamite.

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Not at all like another son of Gerah in Judges

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3 .15, he was a judge called Ehud, and the son

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of Gerah a Benjamite too. When the Bible says

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someone is son of, it often means descendant

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of, as with Jesus, son of David. In any event,

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these two men were almost certainly related.

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It seems good families have bad members and bad

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families have good ones. All too often, we judge

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people by their relatives or where they live.

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In the town where we have lived since 1982, there

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is a level crossing which was automated some

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years ago, much to the annoyance of the residents,

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but that's another tale. Anyway, this rail crossing

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splits the town in two, and if you live on the

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seaside of the track, you are classed as inside

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the gates, and superior to those who live outside.

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I clearly remember asking a shop assistant if

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I could take some wallpaper samples home. He

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asked if I lived inside or outside. I told him

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inside, and he said, take as many as you need,

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no problem. He was judging me by where I lived.

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We love to pigeonhole people, don't we? Try to

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concentrate today on treating everyone as an

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individual, just as God does.