Reading the Bible Through

2 Samuel 24 - 1 Kings 2   24:1, Lots of things I don't understand here. Why was the anger of the Lord kindled against Israel this time? Does the Lord incite people to do wrong in the Lord's eyes? That seems terrible. How did Joab know this was wrong? What convicted David's heart?  Then David basically has to chose his own punishment. I am always troubled by the number of people that died because of that. As I sit here typing this, I guess it would make David's census invalid. As I read on, it looks like David maybe thought the pestilence would be against his family not all the people of Israel.  So ends 2 Samuel.  Bathsheba goes to King David to report that Adonijah has made himself king. Nathan the prophet comes in to back up her story. Than David says to call Bathsheba to him. Where was she in the meantime?  What is the significance of Adonijah grabbing the horns of the altar? How do we keep God's testimonies? I don't understand what that means.  1 Kings ...

2 Samuel 10 - 14   10:5 How were David's men able to stay at Jericho? It had been destroyed by Joshua.  David doesn't go out to battle when kings do so. He sees Bathsheba bathing which lead to David getting her pregnant. David then tries, twice, to get Bathsheba's husband, Uriah,  to have sex with her so that David's philandering wouldn't be found out. (How often we try to wiggle our way out of things!)When this doesn't work, David sends Uriah back to the front with a note to Joab that says to be sure to get Uriah killed. Why does Joab do it? Yet, David is a man after God's own heart.  Tamar tries to talk Ammon out of raping her by telling him to ask their father's permission to marry each other. I really think back in maybe Leviticus or Numbers, somewhere that we have already read, it said that a man should not marry his sister or his half-sister. Why would David have permitted this? Was Tamar just trying to get away perhaps? Ammon's friend didn...