Facelifts and Other Thoughts

Today I thought I would talk about plastic surgery.
I remember when I was a young girl going across the
street with my cousin to take a neighbor something
from my aunt. I don't remember what it was but
the neighbor looked like she had went face first
through a wind shield. Though we tried not to I know
we stared, open-mouthed. We stumbled back across
the street and told my aunt and she said,
"Oh she just had a face lift." It think sometimes
bitterness can creep in and change the way we look
on the outside and how we react to others.

Then I read that what makes a woman beautiful isn't what she
looks like on the outside but who she is on the inside. "Let it be
the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet
spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. " (1 Peter 3:4)

In order to counter-act the effects of bitterness, I turned to the Bible and began
a study of David. I knew that if God called David a man after His own heart there
had to be a reason and I wanted to find out that reason.


So as I was reading about David and his remarkable life, I read about his early life
and being a shepherd in the fields, killing Goliath and then there is this all of the
ups and downs of David running from Saul and some of the mistakes and victories
he had.
Finally after a long time he is finally king of Israel. I was thinking about David as
he lived in rocks and caves with his mighty men and how close there were and
how loyal they were to David and all of the trials they shared together.
But in the spring when David should have been out in the fields with his troops as
commander, he is walking around on top of his walls of his palace and he sees
Bathsheba bathing.
In 2 Samuel 11:2 has this strange sentence, "And one said, "is this not Bathsheba, the
daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" I don't know why I pondered this,
but I have a love of the genealogies in the Bible. I enjoy reading them and going
over the lists. So I started digging.

What I found was this further in 2 Samuel the whole story of Absalom and how
he betrayed his father David, but the name Ahithophael kept coming up I kept
digging.
Why did he betray David and became a confidant to Absalom?
Then it dawned on me, bitterness had come to live in Ahitophaels heart, and the Bible
says of this once great man.
(2 Samuel 16:23,) " And the advice of Ahitophael, which he gave
in those days was as if one inquired of the word of God so was all the advice of Ahithophael."

So I went to the genealogies and you know what it told me?

Eliam was Ahithophael's son, and that Eliam was the father to Bathsheba who
was the wife of Uriah the Hittite who had been one of the men loyal to David
who had lived in the caves and the rocks when they fled from Saul.
Poor, poor Ahithophael was Bathshebas grandfather.

So I wonder that day when David should have been at battle and he sees
what he sees on the roof and the one says isn't this the daughter of Eliam?
Could that person have been Ahitophael? Just something to wonder if he
was such a person of importance to David. So he sides with
Absalom and God confounds his words and the rest of the story is sad.

Ahitophael goes home on his donkey and gets his affairs
in order and then hangs himself.
But as I continue to read, I see the effects of bitterness on the lives
it seems to touch and it is a very sad thing if I ever begin
to let circumstances of life make me bitter.

I love history my favorite being Biblical history. I love finding
these little tidbits that are buried in scripture and digging always
brings these little gems. I thought I would share this today just
because I have enjoyed reading the life of David so much.
I hope you have a great Tuesday!

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men!

(Psalm. 107:6)