Immediately

 January 1, 2023

Today is the day of New Year’s Resolutions, and tomorrow we’ll begin procrastinating keeping them before ultimately breaking them in a week or two. Most of the time it’s probably not that important, but occasionally…

In the early days of his reign when David was king, it seemed he could do no wrong. Then came his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband; from that time on, David’s reign was one disaster after another. The worst was perhaps when his son Absalom plotted to overthrow the kingdom, but this was followed by others, one of which was a man named Sheba. There had always been a divide between the southern and the northern parts of the kingdom. David managed to unite them, but it was tenuous at best. Absalom’s rebellion was the chink in David’s armor, displaying the tribal and geographical weakness the northerner Sheba would exploit as he called for the northern tribes to rebel. 

To meet this threat, David ordered Amasa, one of his commanders, to assemble the army to meet the threat. Here we pick up the story.

“The king said to Amasa, “Assemble the men of Judah for me within three days, and be present here yourself.” So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah. But he delayed longer than the set time which David had appointed him.” —II Samuel 20:4-5 

There it is—delay, procrastination, failure to carry out orders as instructed. Before the story ends, Amasa is dead, murdered by Joab, David’s top general, who understood military necessity and the chain of command.

This brings us up to date, and the Scripture reading for today. Our men’s Bible study will begin studying through the New Testament in one year, beginning tomorrow. We are starting with the Gospel of Mark, and one of the most significant words in Mark’s gospel is “immediately.” Thirty six times Mark uses this word to describe how people responded to Jesus and his message. It would also be good if we could use this word to describe our response to Jesus. And it wouldn’t be a bad New Year’s resolution if we resolved to follow Jesus immediately, whatever he said, wherever he leads.