Month: April 2021

The flawed character of David reveals itself again, but this time in a way that is a bit puzzling.  David conducts a census, and this was not something that God wanted him to do, at all!  Did you notice how God chose to punish David?  He gave him a choice, almost like you get to pick between three really bad punishments.  1 – Famine for three years, 2 – three months of devastation from your foes, 3 – three days of pestilence by the hand of the sword of the Lord.  

David’s answer was one where he did not want to be subject to other people so he chooses the three days of pestilence at the hand of the Lord.  The angel of the Lord arrives at Jerusalem and is about to destroy the city when David intervenes and requests that he be given a chance to speak on behalf of his people.  God requires him to go to the same place where the ark of the covenant had one time been stored, the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and give an offering there.  David does and God relents and repents from the destruction of Jerusalem.  

God answers this prayer and David is left with a fear of approaching the Lord because he knows how flawed he is.  You see, we have a very different perspective, and that is that we actually approach the Lord because we are flawed.  We don’t stay away because we are flawed but we approach due to that sin specifically.  

This might seem a bit random.  But when we are talking about giants in this chapter, I have to give you a clip of one of my favorite giants, Shrek!  There are some familiar names in this account that we should be able to follow.  If you want to look at David’s defeat of Goliath you can go to I Samuel 17:4.  Here we see that Golitah’s brother is defeated by one of David’s soldiers, Elhanan, vs.5.  You probably want an answer to the question about…giants?  It really is one of those things that we cannot explain.  I know nothing about modern day giants.  I don’t know how to explain it away.  I have no reason to believe that the Bible is wrong so if it says that there were giants living thousands of years ago, okay, I’ll believe it.  Why would I not?  I can’t prove it scientifically, nor do I believe that it is important to prove it at all.

Don’t you love how this chapter begins?  Spring is the time that kings go out to battle.  Now I’m pretty sure that this doesn’t apply to my brothers and I who are going to be meeting in April to battle it out in the first annual Bronkema Olympics.  We aren’t kings, and the battle that we are doing really doesn’t have anything to do with what David and his generals were doing. 

Will you also notice that David did take people and enslave them, adding another layer to his flawed character.  You can see that in vs.3, and it says that he did this to all the nations that he conquered, and there were quite a few. 

There is a lesson to be learned in this chapter, and that is that you just can’t trust the Ammonites nor the Arameans.  It is a bit of a sad story that the Ammonites could have saved themselves a lot of grief.  So the king dies and his son doesn’t trust David, who is probably noticeably stronger and more powerful than the Ammonites.  As a result when David sends people to console the son on the death of his father, the son does something childish and immature.  He mistreats the messengers.  If he had not mistreated the messengers then none of this mess would have happened.

As a result the son, Hanun, had to hire mercenaries, who fled before the Israelites, and also lost many of his soldiers simply because he had insulted King David and his messengers.  Without that insult who knows what would have happened, but certainly not the loss of resources and the loss of life.  It really couldn’t have been worse.  Also, notice in vs.3 that it was the officials of the son who planted this seed of conspiracy in hid mind.  Time to get new counselors.  Be careful who gives you advice. 

I love this final line:  So the Arameans were not willing to help the Ammonites any more.

We read about successive victories by David which allows the kingdom to expand.  The numbers are staggering and it becomes clear that all those in the region were lining up to pay homage to David and to make sure that they didn’t get on the wrong side of David.  

I love vs.14 where we read that David reigned over all Israel and “he administered justice and equity to all his people”.  It seems like you can’t have justice without equity.   Isn’t that fascinating.  Justice and equity as necessary components to a ruler and a necessary component to a child of God.  You can render justice but not equally and that makes you a terrible ruler.  If you render justice and show favoritism to some within your reign and come down harder on others in your reign then that is a problem

Now, keep in mind that David was a terribly flawed human being: he committed adultery, he raped a woman, he …you fill in the blank.  This does not excuse him and this certainly does not create a special category of national leaders who may be terribly flawed and clearly imperfect and yet like David God has smiled upon them.  No, then it would be that those who are more flawed would be more likely to receive God’s blessings.  No, that is not the case.  What, are we to sin more to receive more of God’s grace?  Paul comes strongly on the side of no, we are not by any means.  Flawed leaders are not excused from any of their flaws.  It prevents them from serving God as they should, it doesn’t help them serve God.

I love this song, slow, thoughtful, inspiring.  But we also hear David say these words to God in vs.20.  So David begins by telling his prophet Nathan that he wants to build God a house.  He doesn’t seem to feel like it is fair that he has a nice house but the ark of the covenant has only had a tabernacle (a moveable structure) and a tent as a home.  Surely God deserves something better!

Nathan agrees with him and tells him to move forward with his plans.  But then God speaks to Nathan at night and says, you know what, I don’t want David to think about my house when I am going to bless his house forever.  So he puts the kabosh to the plan and Nathan tells David.

Notice what happens next.  David goes and thanks the Lord for blessing his house and for securing his future forever.  God promises in vs.13 that “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.  I will not take my steadfast love from him.”  There are some hints to the coming of Jesus through the family of David in these words, but at least to David he received more than he could ever hope for.  He received, as he stated that his house would be established forever.