10/28/2010
9:34:11 AM
SPIRITUAL
DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Retribution
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2Samuel
21:5-9
Message
of the verses: “5 So they said to the king, "The man who
consumed us and who planned to exterminate us from remaining within any border
of Israel, 6 let seven men from his sons
be given to us, and we will hang them before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the
chosen of the LORD." And the king said, "I will give them."
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the
son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the LORD which was
between them, between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. 8 So the king took the two sons of Rizpah the
daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the
five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son
of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 Then he
gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the
mountain before the LORD, so that the seven of them fell together; and they
were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley
harvest.”
This is one of those passages in the
Old Testament that is very difficult for a person who lives in the New
Testament era to understand, and yet this is what was required of the Lord to
stop the famine that had been going on for three years. As New Testament believers we know of grace
and love and also mercy, which is shown in the Old Testament as well, but this
was done in order to satisfy the Law and so David had to chose seven men to die
because they were related to Saul who had done this crime, a crime of breaking
a covenant that Israel had made with the Gibeonites. David had made a covenant with Jonathan and
therefore he did not all his son Mephibosheth to be one who would die, but
chose seven others who were related to Saul.
It is not said how these men died, but
they were hanged and their bodies left for a long period of time hanging until
God sent the rains on the land. It was
against the Law of the Lord to allow someone to hang after sun down, but these
were people who were not under the Law.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I think
that what I can learn from this section is to keep my word to someone and
especially to keep my word to the Lord.
I have made two vows to the Lord, both of them in late 1980. I have vowed to read my Bible at least five
minutes a day, and to pray at least five minutes a day and the great majority
of the time I have kept that vow. I
think I have missed only six days of reading God’s Word and perhaps a dozen
days of not praying to the Lord. This is
serious to me to keep my vow to the Lord and the reason that I made it was so
that I would stay in His Word each day and to communicate to the Lord each day
through prayer. I almost made another
vow to the Lord, but a very wise man told me a story about a person who had
made a similar vow and when he did not keep that vow it drove him crazy, and
thankfully I did not make that vow to the Lord and have made no others since
then.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1.
Put
on the spiritual armor.
2.
Trust
the Lord to work out the details of our job and allow us to be truly ready to
leave for the job when it comes about.
10/28/2010
10:02:41 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment