Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Patrick Miller.

There's a strange cost to spending an entire lifetime distant from the realities of war.

I'm an American, and that means I've never seen a foreign military force attacking

on my homeland soil. I've never seen a civil war. The worst thing I've heard about, though I've

never really seen, are murders and violence from organized crime. I mean, I've never feared a civil

war. I've never feared raiders coming to steal my food, to burn my home, to sexually

assault my family. I've never feared criminals using violence to control me to take what's mine,

to abuse those I love. So sometimes when I read the Old Testament, I can't help but read it

with privileged eyes. But none of the original readers of these texts read it the same way.

For them, war was a near constant threat. Civil wars were commonplace. Criminals, marauding raiders,

they were just part of your life. You hoped to never experience any of these things, but most people

did at some point, many of them multiple times throughout their

lifetime. So ordinary people knew firsthand how scary it was when there was political tumult.

I mean, after Saul dies, the average Israelite knew to expect more violence and perhaps a civil

war. And not only that, they also knew to expect that criminals

would become powerful in the absence of leadership. This explains the opening of 2nd Samuel 4.

When Ishposheth, son of Saul, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel

became alarmed. Now, if you don't remember, Abner was Saul's general and he

pledged loyalty to David after Saul died. Yesterday, we read the story of how David's general, Joab,

murdered Abner. Now, this wasn't what David wanted and later David would try to make it right,

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