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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for collecting daily manna), make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Friday, August 3, 2018
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Subjecta:David Counts the Fighting Men Bible Verse:2 Samuel 24:1-14 "Once again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the Lord told him. So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Take a census of all the tribes of Israel—from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south—so I may know how many people there are.” But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God let you live to see a hundred times as many people as there are now! But why, my lord the king, do you want to do this?” But the king insisted that they take the census, so Joab and the commanders of the army went out to count the people of Israel. First they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the town in the valley, in the direction of Gad. Then they went on to Jazer, then to Gilead in the land of Tahtim-hodshi and to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon. Then they came to the fortress of Tyre, and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went south to Judah as far as Beersheba. Having gone through the entire land for nine months and twenty days, they returned to Jerusalem. Joab reported the number of people to the king. There were 800,000 capable warriors in Israel who could handle a sword, and 500,000 in Judah. But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him. And he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt, Lord, for doing this foolish thing.” Ikon of Joshua, Russian The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s seer. This was the message: “Go and say to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will give you three choices. Choose one of these punishments, and I will inflict it on you.’” So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose three years of famine throughout your land, three months of fleeing from your enemies, or three days of severe plague throughout your land? Think this over and decide what answer I should give the Lord who sent me.” “I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied to Gad. “But let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great. Do not let me fall into human hands.” " Message:
It may seem peculiar that God would be angry at David taking a census, which seems to us like a perfectly normal thing. In the Hebrew culture of the day, however, one was allowed to count only what one owned and it was clearly God, not David, who “owned” Israel. David's calling for a census is irreverent and presumptuous, as Joab recognizes.
We saw the stirrings of pridefulness in the previous chapter, when David’s hymn to God sounds, in places, like a boast. So his pride has carried him away. He has forgotten that the victory belongs to Jehovah, not to David.
The first verse is unfortunately obscure, in that the “he” who incited David to this action was not God, but Satan. This is clarified in 1 Chronicles 21:1, “Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”
Imagine the puzzlement we would face, if we did not have a better-preserved parallel verse in 1 Chronicles. People sometimes find it difficult to understand how thin a thread connects us to God’s Word, which was given to humanity 2,000 to 4,000 years ago and has not always been perfectly preserved. When we find a passage, especially in the Old Testament (but even in the New) that does not seem to make sense, we must always count it as one possibility that a word or two has been lost in time.
Meditation : . Prayer : Finally, may I go forth filled with the joy and confidence of your Spirit; and may everything I do this day, in word or deed, be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father........Amen |
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