Old Sandals

But David did not take the number of those twenty years old and under, because the Lord had said He would multiply Israel like the stars of the heavens.

Life is short.  Youth is fleeting.  If you could wish yourself twenty years of age again, would you really want to do that?  Ought we not rather to look forward to the things God has in store for us?

And all that Samuel the seer, Saul the son of Kish, Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated, every dedicated  thing,  was under the hand of Shelomith and his brethren.

A sense of history, a sense of continuity, one with the past, following in the footsteps of the saints of old: Shouldn’t this be the perspective of the church in every age?

And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.

In God’s kingdom there is always work to be done. Sign up.  Who wants to sing?  Who wants to pray?  Who wants to visit a shut-in? Who wants to mow a sick neighbor’s grass? Who wants to be an usher?  Who wants to take the kids to youth camp?

In God’s kingdom there is always work to be done. Sign up.

Then David with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to the schedule of their service.

There is enough work to go around. In fact, the Lord doesn’t need philosophers; He needs workers. Prayerers. Disciples.

It was the Levites’ duty to help the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts and in the chambers, in the purifying of all holy things and the work of the service of the house of God, both with the showbread and the fine flour for the grain offering, with the unleavened cakes and  what is baked in  the pan, with what is mixed and with all kinds of measures and sizes; to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at evening; and at every presentation of a burnt offering to the Lord on the Sabbaths and on the New Moons and on the set feasts, by number according to the ordinance governing them, regularly before the Lord.

The worship “service” in the Old Testament was very formal, very structured, very ornate. In some ways, an Eastern Orthodox service is quite similar.

And David said to Solomon: “My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house to the name of the Lord my God;  but the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight.

This verse gives some insight into the fact that our God is not a God of violence.  David was God’s man, and his life as a warrior was blessed by God.  Still, it disqualified him from building the temple of the Lord.

And 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.”  So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.  And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it.  As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.”

The Lord’s mercies are very great indeed, yet seventy thousand men fell that day, struck down by a plague that was sent from God.  Sobering…

 

So David did to all the cities of the people of Ammon.

The people of Israel were God’s covenant people.  He fought for them.  Sometimes, the angel of the LORD would fight against Israel’s enemies.  Sometimes, the LORD used a man—like David, like Joab—to execute His judgement.

And the princes of the people of Ammon said to Hanun, “Do you think that David really honors your father because he has sent comforters to you? Did his servants not come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land?”  Therefore Hanun took David’s servants, shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle, at their buttocks, and sent them away.

The Ammonites returned evil for kindness.  Such actions do not go unnoticed by the Almighty, and will not go unjudged.

And the Lord preserved David wherever he went.

If we could only grasp more fully just how involved the LORD God is in our lives.  It seems unimaginable because it exceeds our imagination. God is great—greater certainly than our ability to describe; He is even greater than our ability to conceive.