SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: A convicted king
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 2Sam. 24:10-14; 1Chron. 21:7-13
Message of the verses: 10 ¶ Now David’s heart troubled him after he had
numbered the people. So David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in
what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of Your
servant, for I have acted very foolishly." 11 When David arose in the morning, the word of
the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, 12 "Go and speak to David, ’Thus the LORD
says, "I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them,
which I will do to you."’" 13
So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven
years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before
your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in
your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent
me." 14 Then David said to Gad,
"I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His
mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man."
“ 7 ¶
God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel. 8 David said to God, "I have sinned
greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity
of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly." 9 The LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,
10 "Go and speak to David, saying,
’Thus says the LORD, "I offer you three things; choose for yourself one of
them, which I will do to you."’" 11
So Gad came to David and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, ’Take
for yourself 12 either three years of
famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes, while the sword of
your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, even
pestilence in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the
territory of Israel.’ Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall return to
Him who sent me." 13 David said to
Gad, ‘I am in great distress; please let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for
His mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.’”
This
is a very sad section of Scripture; sad because this did not need to happen,
for it was the sin of David’s will even though he has been warned by others not
to do this. God puts the sin of pride as
number one in the sins He hates. Pride
is all about one’s self while humility is realizing that one needs help, and
the best place to find that help is form the Lord. Pride is all about me while humility is all
about the need for help, help from the Lord.
David
sin with Bathsheba was a sin of the flesh, and it came upon David in a rapid
moment, while the sin of numbering the people was a sin of the spirit, as David
had much time to think about this and could have stopped it even after it was
started, for it took nine months to do this and even then it was not totally
done. 2Cor. 7:1 says the following: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved,
let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the
fear of God.”
The
sin of numbering the people was therefore a worse sin than the sin with
Bathsheba, for there were 70,000 people killed through the pestilence because
of numbering the people, while there were four of David’s sons killed after the
sin with Bathsheba.
God
gave David a choice as to how the punishment should come and all of these were
written in the Law and were punishments for breaking God’s Law. There is a difference of four years of famine
between what is written in 2Samuel and 1Chronicles and Dr. Wiersbe believes
that this was because there was a time period between the two visits of Gad and
therefore God changed the time. Why was
there a choice from God? “Because
David’s disobedience was a sin of the will, a deliberate choice on David’s
part, so God allowed him to make another choice and name the punishment.”
Dr.
Wiersbe ends his commentary on this section with these words: “In Jewish law, the unintentional sin of the
high priest was equivalent to the sin of the entire congregation (Lev. 4:1-3,
13-14), so how much more would the penalties apply to a king who had sinned
intentionally! Knowing the mercy of the
Lord, David wisely choice pestilence for his punishment.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I would suppose that pride had a great deal
with the sin of me losing our investment as I think back on it. David was forgiven by the Lord as I was, but
there were still consequences to follow, and these consequences, at times, are
a hard pill to swallow, and at other times a time of learning that may have
never come without this lesson. I am
thankful for the mercies of the Lord, for without them I would never see
Him.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Continue to trust the Lord to lead me and to guide
me, to direct my path each and every day.
2.
To put on the spiritual armor.
3.
Like David, to fall into the hand of the
Lord, for His mercies are great.
4.
Continue to trust the Lord with the results of the
test that have not yet be given to me. I
do not want to be prideful over these results as I have had this trouble
before, but to follow number three’s advice.
11/13/2010 11:04:47 AM
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