Friday, September 01, 2006

Here's my thoughts today.... I know they are all so totally random and I am may land somewhere on them sometime, but not yet ;)

I am reading in 2 Sam 24 and 1 Chron 21.... This is the story where David sins by taking a census.... 2 Samuel says God was angry with Israel and caused David do it 1 Chron says that Satan caused David to do it.... Interesting... Anyway....

So David takes the census, even though Joab asks him not to, than David's conscience bothers him and he repents.... So Gad comes to David and gives him the 3 options of punishment that God is giving him. God will do whatever David chooses.....

1. 3 years of famine
2.3 months of fleeing enemies
3. 3 days of severe plague in the land.

David chooses #3 because he says he doesn't want to fall into enemy hands, but God's as God's mercy is great

So God sends a death angel and apparently this angel is visible at least to David and Araunah.
70,000 people are killed and than God relents and tells the angel to stop...So the angel is apparently hovering over Araunah's threshing floor. In the mean time David sees the death angel and feels remorse.... Saying that he is the guilty one and to send God's anger on himself and his family.... But God apparently makes a way of escape for David in instructing him to make a sacrifice. So David sacrifices, by buying Araunah's threshing floor (even though, Araunah wants to give it all to David) and than the angel puts his sword back into the sheath... David keeps sacrificing there and eventually decides to build the temple there, even though the tabernacle was currently in the wilderness at the hill of Gibeon... "Because he was terrified by the drawn sword of the angel of the LORD"

any way, this story is so fascinating to me with the whole angel of death, I have been pondering that a bit :) also wondering about
--God's mercy in this and judgment
--God/Satan causing David to sin
-- God punishing Israel, wonder what they were being punished for this time (lack of love for God likely )
--David's repentance is interesting, did he fully repent originally, or not fully till he saw what the death angel was doing
--Why was David terrified of the drawn sword of the angel if it was sheathed.... Was he remembering it and was it so terrifying that he couldn't get it out of his head


I know this is long... But there are so many what's 'going on's' in this ...

mostly I wonder what can be learned of God in this passage.... There seems like there is so much that I could be missing

I do love how God chose to stop at Araunah's threshing floor, you have to believe that he was SOOOOO grateful that God spared him ....And of course he wants to give David his threshing floor and all that would be required to stop the plague!! But David doesn't want to offer God something that costs him nothing.... And how cool for Araunah that the temple gets built on what used to be his property ;)

anyway, guess I could go on and on ....But I won't
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1 comment:

lisatatj said...

THis is from my friend Jennifer....i liked it alot Anyway, the passage about the Lord asking David which of three yucky things he preferred struck me (that just stuck out at me and the whole rest of the passage about the altar and all that I'll have to get there later). But here's what came to my pitiful little, dark, depraved mind. I thought, hmmm ya know life usually has some yucky stuff with it. The very fact that God was allowing him to choose his yucky stuff was sort of funny to me (dark and depraved). This is what I thought, this is probably nowhere near what was going on , but just where my brain whirled to when I read it, yucky stuff is gonna be there, so just decide now...what's your attitude gonna be. Sometimes, it really feels like I can't choose my attitude or even if I want to choose my attitude I can't. I read an interesting verse probably in 1 Cor cause I hang out there a lot. It says, "God has mercy on who he chooses to have mercy and hardens who he chooses to harden."

Got me thinking. Maybe there are times when God actually uses my sinful heart. Maybe he allows me to be hardened sometimes. Not saying that He necessarily wants me that way. But maybe knows that my feeble attempts at attitude change maybe less fruitful than a temporary hardening. Because it's not all about ME. (what a concept). Maybe hardness of heart can serve an eternal purpose in someone around me. Maybe it refines others. I don't know. It's never something that I choose, usually I try to avoid it, but there are times when it just doesn't happen and that sinful attitude doesn't budge. Don't know. Just a thought. So maybe God was saying to David. Look I am God...stuff happens...you can't avoid it (David being someone who quite often ran from things which is kinda weird since he slain a giant w/a rock). I think God probably just loved David and wanted him to see God in all circumstances. Even if he got to choose which one.

It seems as though maybe 2 Chron also touches on that. They had forsaken God. When things get easy, we forget who made them easy. And God in His mercy, may allow us to yearn for him by allowing us to just do our own thing until we remember to need Him.

I think so much about the Old testament or even when Jesus was here performing miracles. The thing that was probably missing was the longing. It showed up here and there people who wanted to just be near him, but we have a LONGING bc we have to really be determined to see HIM, we have no opportunity to see him in the flesh performing miracles...we get to LONG to catch a glimpse of something great we know is from him. And mostly we get to LONG to be in his presence one day

September 05, 2006 9:57 AM

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