Author: Pastor Bob

David really wanted to build the temple to God but God said because he was involved in so many wars, because he had killed so many people, that he was not the right person to build the temple, the house of the Lord.  Instead, God promises David that he would have a son and that son would reign over Israel and his reign would be marked by peace.  In Hebrew the word for peace is Shalom, and the son’s name was Solomon, which is Hebrew is Shelomon.  Solomon would provide peace throughout the kingdom.

An offshoot of this peace that has come about because David has consolidated the kingdom and his reign is as far as anyone could have ever imagined, is that Solomon does not have to go into battle and can focus and concentrate on building the house of the Lord, which is the temple.  David did a lot of the background work and provides vessels and other things, craftsmen etc. in order to equip the temple exactly as it ought to be.  It gets better as we move forward.

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.  

I hope you remember that King David is also attributed as having written the majority of the Psalms.  You know Psalm 23:  The Lord is my shepherd…, that was supposed to have been written by King David.  So for example you have in this chapter an extended song, what we could call psalm and you can see from where it comes.  Look at vs.8-22 and you will see a similarity in Psalm 105:1-15.  Look at vs.23-33 and you will find a similarity in Psalm 96.  Look at vs.34-36 and you will find a similarity in Psalm 106:47-48.  The entry of the ark of the covenant into its intermediate resting place, a tent, deserves some celebration and so the master of song writing, King David, trimmed no corners.  

But it just wasn’t the higher ups who were called to participate in this ceremony.  The people were called to join along.  They were encouraged in vs.36 to say: Amen.  The people at the end were encouraged to go home and David did so as well and blessed his family as he got home.  What a great day in the life of Israel.  We still don’t, and maybe we never will, see what happens to this daughter of Saul who was livid with David.  The next chapter we will find David wake up one morning and realize, you know, here I am in this nice house and God is living in a tent.  We might want to do something about that.

Finally David gets his act together and puts a crack squad together to bring up the ark of the covenant, remember this considered the presence of God, into Jerusalem so that it could have a permanent home.  Also remember, this was before the temple is built, so it is just a temporary structure for the ark until David’s son, Solomon, actually builds the ark.  But look at the team that David pulls together in order to bring the ark into the place where it actually belonged.  

He brings together the Levites to carry the ark with poles just as he had planned for them to do.  David also required that they had singers and players of instruments who were well known in their trade in order to fulfill the task of bringing the ark into Jerusalem.  We see in vs.25 that the elders and David made the journey and God actually helped the Levites and as a result they sacrificed bulls and rams in order to show their respect to God.

David put on his best white robe as did all of the other priests and people involved in carrying, singing, playing so that the ark could enter its home.  David himself was “leaping and dancing” as the ark was coming into Jerusalem.  It sounds like a party.  All is going well and you can sense a theme of celebration and joy and there is nothing that could get in the way of this plan.  Until you get to vs.29.

Talk about random.  The daughter of Saul, Michal, saw David and she absolutely despised him.  Remember, David did not kill Saul, Saul died in battle at the hands of another nation and another enemy.  But it does set the stage of the next chapter.

We find the legend of King David growing and increasing and some of his battles against the Philistines are recounted here.  Before he goes into battle against the Philistines he asks God whether he should go against them or not.  He wanted to be sure that he wasn’t doing things just on his own but rather that God would help him with it.  He prays before the first battle and God says yes, go ahead, I will give you the victory.  He prays the second time and God says no, but do it this way, and then God gives him the victory.  

After all of this it becomes pretty evident that David is indeed the King and that his power is increasing.  But notice that he recognizes that he has become King “for the sake of his people of Israel.”  As a result we read that he takes a lot more wives and has a lot more kids.  One of those children, pretty important here, is Solomon.  He’s going to be someone of importance, actually he will be the successor.  

We continue on in the life of David as King.  Most of this story is taken from II Samuel 6:2-11.  We find ourselves with the people of Israel requesting from David that the ark of the covenant be brought to the city of David so that the presence of the Lord can be felt with the people and not in some far off city near Egypt.  They brought the ark with singing and dancing and a determination to let the Lord know how pleased and thrilled they were to be able to be in His presence again, until they arrive at Chidon.  Apparently the roads in Chidon weren’t the best because the ark of the covenant was getting tossed around a bit on the backs of the oxen.  

One of the priests hoping to be a hero put his hand on the ark to steady it.  Well, that was a no-no.  God struck him dead for daring to put his hand on the ark, basically to touch God Himself.  You don’t do that in the OT, you let the ark of the covenant alone.  The folks in Raiders of the lost Ark learned their lesson the hard way, and apparently so did Uzzah who was one of the drivers of the cart and so felt responsible to secure the ark so that it would arrive in one piece.  

David was not pleased that God would strike down one of his priests especially since it seemed like a pretty innocent gesture and maybe even one that required praise as opposed to destruction.  Also, David because afraid of God on that day.  I don’t want that ark anywhere near me.  What if I happen to lean against it by mistake?  I don’t want the same fate to befall me.  So David pawned it off, not really, to a neighbor who agreed to take it and look after it for three months.  That neighbor was greatly blessed as a result.