Howdy, strangers!
I'm here to do a brief check in. A lot of things are moving, finally. My love got a full-time job and I am now apartment-hunting in earnest (execution phase and not only data-gathering phase). We're getting married in mid-summer, so the time is now to jump. As such, I'm not able to blog much right now, and, based on some plans/commitments for after the wedding, I may not be able to going forward. I am still keeping up with the daily Bible readings from "The Bible Recap," and I have been seeing new things about God, which I'll get into more in a bit.
To provide the background regarding where I am in my reading plan, as of today, I am approaching the end of King David's life. Soon Solomon will be crowned king and (unfortunately) Israel -- and Judah -- will fall back into immorality and idolatry upon immorality and idolatry. The Gospel of my Lord Jesus Christ won't enter into my reading plan until October or late September at the earliest. But the last almost-two months have been powerful for me, really since the reading plan crossed over from the book of Ruth (which occurred chronologically after the books of Joshua and then Judges) over into 1st Samuel.
I've been seeing a lot more about God's justice, which has long been a heart-cry of mine in my life for years. The last two years of my personal life have been challenging too, but with the positive recent developments, this particular phase will soon come to an end, the relief of which is finally starting to feel real. During the last two years, though, a lot of my prayer (and "prayers") have been centered around justice.
I won't be able to share everything that God has revealed to me over the last couple of months, let alone do justice what I will be able to share, but I will share the below verse:
You answered them, O Lord our God;
You were to them God-Who-Forgives,
Though You took vengeance on their deeds.
The above was from a reading just in the past week. You want God to forgive you, as do I, because His power and His greatness is overwhelming. He has the power to restore you, and He has the power to destroy you, even though the latter is not His heart. As Jesus said:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28, NKJV
You want God to choose to be forgiving. This is something I'm still working on learning. Jesus died for my sins, yes, but He also died for the sins of all my enemies, too. If He forgave them, who am I to refuse to forgive them also? At the end of the day, God alone judges. Each of my enemies will one day be judged by God, and one day I will also have such a day. And what He's going to care about is whether I loved Him, lived for Him, and obeyed Him.
God is just. One thing from the reading that stood out was the timing of different calamities in David's life while he was king. Absolom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15 and onward) didn't occur until after David's sins against Bathsheba and Uriah (2 Samuel 11). And this was part of God had told David would be the consequences for these actions:
10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ”
13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
Below is how those things played out:
First, the sword never again departed from David's house:
28 Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, “Watch now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, ‘Strike Amnon!’ then kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant.” 29 So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and each one got on his mule and fled.
30 And it came to pass, while they were on the way, that news came to David, saying, “Absalom has killed all the king’s sons, and not one of them is left!” 31 So the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the ground, and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn. 32 Then Jonadab the son of Shimeah, David’s brother, answered and said, “Let not my lord suppose they have killed all the young men, the king’s sons, for only Amnon is dead. For by the command of Absalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar. 33 Now therefore, let not my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to think that all the king’s sons are dead. For only Amnon is dead.”
Second, God raised up adversity against David's house:
10 Then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Absalom reigns in Hebron!’ ” 11 And with Absalom went two hundred men invited from Jerusalem, and they went along innocently and did not know anything. 12 Then Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, from his city—from Giloh—while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy grew strong, for the people with Absalom continually increased in number.
13 Now a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”
14 So David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
Third, God took David's wives before his eyes and gave them to his neighbor, who shall lie with them in plain view:
20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give advice as to what we should do.”
21 And Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the house; and all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.” 22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
Fourth, the child conceived in sin to David and Bathsheba (and born) died:
15 And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill. 16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. 17 So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. 18 Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died.
God is just, but He is also gentle. When David sinned against God by taking the census (he put more trust in his military numbers rather than God's might and military provision, hence numbering the troops) God gave David three options for punishment:
12 “Go and tell David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you.” ’ ” 13 So Gad came to David and told him; and he said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies, while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to Him who sent me.” 2 Samuel 24:12-13, NKJV
David chose to trust God's mercy here by choosing 3 days of pestilence:
14 And David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
15 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. 2 Samuel 24:14-15, NKJV
When David then asked why the innocent people were being killed in the pestilence, God relented and asked instead for a sacrifice:
17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 2 Samuel 24:17-18, NKJV
God relented even on the pestilence. But even in this, He made His point: unless I tell you, you do not go and count up how many military members you have; and you most certainly do not put your trust in your numbers over Me.
From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. 2 Samuel 24:15B, NKJV
God is a God of justice, not revenge. I'm kind of embarrassed to say that this time reading through David's life exposed how little I knew about David (although glad that I know more now than I did before). Even though I'd previously known all the main points about him, it became clear that he was a much worse man than even I had thought. This then makes the phrase God has used over him: a man after My own heart (Acts 13:22, NKJV) that much more radical. Yes, David was indeed a man of God (which I had known), but my goodness, how much this same man grieved God's own heart!
I'm kind of hoping the next season of life will be a lot less stressful than the last couple years have been. I did finally get an answer as to why things shaped up the way they did, things that I have felt have been directly responsible for the stress. The short version is that all the challenges of the last couple years were due to the fact that God called me on a very specific mission. Pain, warts, and all, including my sin as well as the sins of others, mission accomplished. At least, so I believe. If the answer that was recently revealed me is indeed true, then indeed mission accomplished.
I do have a bit of a backlog related to sermon notes as well as a few devotionals from my Bible app that I've been waiting to post. But with other things yet on my plate that need to take priority, I'm not sure when that will happen.
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