2 Samuel 15:7 (KJV) Forty Years and No Footnote

2 Samuel 15:7 (KJV)

And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the LORD, in Hebron.

Forty years from what point?

Some say:

• Absalom was forty years old, or
• Forty years from Samuel’s anointing of David, or
• Forty years from when Israel first had a king.

Gill writes, “…these, and other attempts made to account for this passage, are not entirely satisfactory; and therefore one may be tempted to conclude there must be a mistake in the copy…”

The human mind, even that of the saved, is so filled with the corrupt nature of the flesh that it feels it must be satisfied. It must have answers, or else the Word of God must have errors.

I cannot say for certain what the forty years represent. The Bible, though it clearly tells us it was after forty years, does not give us the reference point. Does that mean the passage has an error? Not at all, if we are confident in the nature of our God to preserve His Word. All this means something to those of us who understand that God’s ways and God’s thoughts are higher than ours.

God’s Word is right.
Our corrupt minds just haven’t got the answer yet.

Years ago it occurred to me that the Word of God is so profound we will have all of eternity to spend digging out the treasures found within. So what if I can’t dig them all out right now?

#TrustTheWord #KJVConfidence #GodsWordPreserved #FaithOverSpeculation #HigherThanOurThoughts

Forty Years and No Footnote: Learning to Rest in God’s Preserved Word

Looking for clear Bible answers when a passage raises questions? 📖
2 Samuel 15:7 reminds us that God’s Word is right—even when every detail isn’t explained. Faith doesn’t rest on footnotes; it rests on a faithful God.

💬 Comment below:
How do you respond when Scripture gives truth without explanation?

👉 For daily Bible devotionals, clear teaching, and confidence in the preserved Word of God, visit marvinmckenzie.org🌐
🔔 Follow for more Scripture-centered answers and encouragement.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Samuel 15:7 (KJV) Forty Years and No Footnote

2 Samuel 14:28 (KJV) Hard Truths

2 Samuel 14:28 (KJV)

So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face.

David takes a lot of flack from Bible students concerning his parenting, and I would be the last to say he did it well. The situations with Amnon and Tamar, then Absalom and Amnon, and now Absalom again—this is truly a royal mess.

We often feel justified in criticizing David because Scripture gives us insight that much of this family grief flowed from his sin with Bathsheba—and it was a grievous sin indeed. Let it not be once named among us, and yet it very often is.

Here is the application I would like us to consider.

None of us is perfect. All of us sin. And for all of us, our sins affect our families. Our children learn from us—for better or for worse—how to become who they will be. They have their own personalities and their own propensities to sin, but all of that is compounded by what they see in us.

When they are young, we can often contain things. But sooner or later they grow up and move on, and then all of it—their whims and wishes, their nature and tendencies, their joys and loves, their similarities to us (good or bad)—comes into the light.

And frankly, sometimes we just do not know how to respond.

We are their parents. People, like Joab, often think we ought to have a response. But sometimes what to do, what to say, or how to react is beyond us.

I do not know whether David handled the situation with Absalom rightly or wrongly. He certainly could not have condoned Absalom’s behavior. But I do note this—David never stopped loving his son.

As a parent of adult children, and as a parent whose children now have adult children, all I really know to do is this: keep loving them all. And though sometimes we do not know exactly how to respond, never—never—stop loving them or praying for them.

#ParentalHeart #FamilyConsequences #NeverStopLoving #BiblicalParenting #PrayForYourChildren

Hard Truths: The Pain of Parenting Adult Children

Looking for Bible answers when family situations are hard and confusing? God’s Word speaks honestly about broken homes, wayward children, and a parent’s faithful love. Scripture doesn’t give us every detail—but it gives us truth, hope, and direction. 📖✨

👉 Question for you: What Bible verse has helped you keep loving and praying when you didn’t know what to do? Share it in the comments below.

If you’re searching for clear, biblical teaching, practical devotionals, and encouragement rooted in the Word of God, visit marvinmckenzie.org 🌐
There you’ll find Bible studies, articles, and resources designed to help believers think biblically and live faithfully. 🙏📘

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Samuel 14:28 (KJV) Hard Truths

Romans 14:20 (KJV) How Careless Opinions Harm Christian Unity

Romans 14:20 (KJV)

For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.

Albert Barnes writes of the phrase “For meat”:
“By your obstinate, pertinacious attachment to your own opinions about the distinctions of meat and drinks, do not pursue such a course as to lead a brother into sin, and ruin his soul. Here is a new argument presented why Christians should pursue a course of charity.”

Please allow me to isolate this one phrase of his: “by your obstinate and pertinacious attachment to your own opinions…”

May I say that it is evil—worthless, wrong, injurious—to allow our opinions about anything to offend others.

It is impossible to live in this world without offenses, and the Bible clearly teaches that we are to forgive them all, all of the time. (I leave you to study the concept of forgiveness; most of us misunderstand it entirely.) But still, “woe unto the man by whom the offence cometh.”

As difficult as it may be to forgive when offended, it is far more difficult to avoid being guilty of the evil of offending others with our opinions.

Now there’s a sin to confess to God every day!

#Romans1420 #ChristianCharity #OffenseAndLove #GuardYourOpinions #WalkInGrace

How Careless Opinions Harm Christian Unity — A Biblical Warning

What does the Bible really teach about offense, opinions, and Christian charity? Romans 14:20 gives us a sober warning we all need to hear. 📖⚠️

Have you ever realized after the fact that something you said—though true—may have caused unnecessary offense? 🤔
👉 How do you try to guard your words and opinions as a believer? Share your thoughts in the comments.

If you’re searching for clear Bible answers, practical teaching, and encouragement rooted in Scripture, I invite you to visit marvinmckenzie.org 🌐
You’ll find Bible studies, articles, and resources designed to help you walk in truth and charity.

Let’s build, not destroy, the work of God. 🧱❤️

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Romans 14:20 (KJV) How Careless Opinions Harm Christian Unity

2 Samuel 12:7 “Thou Art the Man”

2 Samuel 12:7

And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;

I had an experience just this week that speaks to this passage and makes it very personal. I won’t go into details—the Lord knows them—but this week I did something blatantly, even I would say premeditatedly, wrong. I think most people would consider it a small thing, but once the Lord convicted me of it, it became huge in my soul—painful, even paralyzing for a little while.

Once I realized what I had done, and the extent to which I went to do it, the grief I experienced was overwhelming. It was as if God pointed His finger into my heart and said, “Thou art the man.”

There is no doubt that David knew what he had done was wrong.

• He knew taking Bathsheba was wrong.
• He knew taking the life of Uriah was wrong.
• He knew all the manipulation he used to cover his sin was wrong.

And yet, when Nathan approached him with the story of the man and his lamb, David was blinded—perhaps numb—to his guilt. Until the man of God, the Word of God, made it plain: “Thou art the man.”

What was true of David, and what is true of me, is true of us all:

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
“There is none righteous, no, not one.”

I’m not trying to diminish my own sin, but to present a very present truth. Thou art the man—whoever it is reading this just now—you are the man.

• Are you female? Thou art the man.
• Are you a child? Thou art the man.
• Are you a preacher? Thou art the man.
• Have you been a faithful Christian for many years? Thou art the man.

God used Nathan to bring David to his senses in this matter, and Psalm 51 records for us the result.

Psalm 51:1–19 (KJV)
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

• Don’t hide.
• Don’t ignore.

And don’t live in guilt.

• Confront the sin.
• Confess the sin.

And trust God to cleanse you from the unrighteousness of the sin.

#ThouArtTheMan #WhenGodConvicts #BrokenAndContrite #ConfessionAndRestoration #SearchMeOGod

“Thou Art the Man”: When God’s Word Confronts Personal Sin

📖 Looking for Bible answers—not opinions?
God’s Word still speaks clearly to the heart, just as it did when Nathan said to David, “Thou art the man.” Conviction isn’t meant to crush us—it’s meant to restore us.

❓ Has there ever been a moment when God’s Word convicted you personally and changed your direction?
Share in the comments—your testimony may help someone else.

👉 If you’re searching for clear Bible teaching, honest answers, and Scripture-centered truth, visit marvinmckenzie.org for studies, videos, and resources grounded in God’s Word.

📘 Don’t ignore conviction.
🙏 Don’t hide from truth.
✨ Let God’s Word do its perfect work.

➡️ Visit marvinmckenzie.org today and keep searching the Scriptures.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 7000 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

2 Samuel 12:7 “Thou Art the Man”