Bible Reading Challenge Blog

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.  

There was joy in Israel.  This is the closest that we get to a narrative in all of the chapter so far.  I know that it has seemed a very cold rendition of the families and the numbers who composed Israel, but there is always more to a story than just the names behind them.  The names represent families and we all know that families contain stories.  David was approached by all sorts of different families who wanted to show their support to him when Saul was seeking his life.  There were others who sided with the Philistines who were also going after Saul, but at that point David had to back out, or was asked to back out, because he could not be seen as going after his own king.  Not really what God wanted him to do.

Even while he was amassing his troops, and this is really what this account is about, David amassing his troops, there was still joy in Israel.  You will find in vs.38-40 an account of the feasts that they were having and yet all the while in theory they were ready for battle.  David apparently knew how to entertain and he drew to him people who were both good soldiers and good entertainers.  All of Israel was of a single mind to make David King.  All of Israel minus Saul and his men, I suppose.

We move from King Saul and the last days of his life to King David and his throne and the warriors who helped him achieve that throne.  There were three warriors in particular who are lifted up as significant.  They were front and center as David took over the crown and they helped to conquer Jerusalem that then became called the city of David.  It was ruled by the Jebusites who weren’t super pleased that David wanted to have it since, after all, it was theirs.  But David conquered the city and took it anyway.

You will find a listing of a whole number of other warriors who were important for David in order to maintain his kingdom.  You should see a familiar name in vs.41: “Uriah, the Hittite”.  Who remembers who this was?  This was the husband of Bathsheba whom David seduced and raped and then sent him to the battle front in order that he would be killed.  Of course, none of that is mentioned in these verses, but interestingly his name does not disappear, even if there is no mention of that incident, of that tragedy in Chronicles.  

David is portrayed as a man of the people as he complains that he can’t have the water from his home town, Bethlehem, remember that is where Mary and Joseph go for the census because they are from the house of David.  Then when these three soldiers go and get water from the well from Bethlehem he refuses to drink it because it was not right for him to put his men in danger just in order to have his desires met.  The deed was done, but he felt it was important to give an object lesson.

We now find inserted in this long list of genealogy the scene of the death of Saul which we can also find in I Samuel 31:1-13.  Feel free to read that for context.  It is interesting that of all the events that take place in the life of Saul, he chooses the very last event of his life, which is when he takes his own life.  I also find it interesting that we find a reason for why Aaul died in vs.13 and following.  The reasons are the following: 1.  He was unfaithful and 2. he consulted a medium.

The author goes on to say that “the Lord put him to death.”  It wasn’t the Philistines, even though they were the invading army, but rather the hand of God which caused Saul to see a hopelessness which he felt required him to take his life.  If you remember from I Samuel 11 Jabesh-gilead is where Paul is acclaimed king after he rescued this city from the Ammonites.  Now they are putting his head on display as a trophy.  We should never be surprised by history, it is fickle.

While in the previous chapters you have the list of genealogies which addresses the 11 tribes, you have here the list that addresses the priests which comes out of the family of Levi, and so were called the Levites.  I love how you see in vs.33 even a description of the families that provided the singers for the temple services were listed as well.  This is a whole list of those who were directly involved in the life of the temple, or what we would call the church.  But only if you were from a certain family could you participate in these services.

This does call to mind a very Protestant approach to clergy which is encapsulated with the phrase: “priesthood of all believers”.  This was John Calvin’s phrase and it parts ways with some denominations that believe in a succession that creates clergy.  Meaning that from Peter on down only certain people are called to be God’s emissaries.  We believe, conversely, that God has called upon all people to be “priests”.  By this term “priests” we mean that all people are given the power and the right to read and interpret Scripture and to hear and understand the voice of God.  

While there have been many who might hold pastors/priests who are ordained by the church to carry out their function in higher esteem as if they were somehow “closer” to God, that is anathema to our Protestant sensibilities.  A pastor is able to converse with God in no more ways than a farmer, or an accountant, or a police officer, or a teacher, or a…you fill in the blank.  That is what makes our church family so strong is that we don’t believe that one person in the church somehow has the monopoly on who is communicating with God.  We all are.