11:2 - Leadership is not about the title you have, it is about setting an example for people to follow...about living a life that people want to emulate. Even when David was a fugitive, the people of Israel consider him to be their leader. That is powerful.
11:14 - The Chronicler wants to make it clear that the Lord is the victory in the conquests of the mighty men. They are men of valor and strength, but most importantly they are men of faith. They are able to accomplish the things they do because they trust God. Pretty good lesson for us to remember.
11:19 - I always find this very interesting. The men were willing to give their lives to get David a drink of water from his hometown (Shows that he was able to inspire incredible loyalty in his men). Yet, when they bring him the water he instantly pours it out as an offering to God. He doesn't believe that he is worthy of such devotion and honor and understands that true loyalty belongs to God - the one and only True King of the Israelites.
12:2 - Interesting note - there are only 23 ambidextrous archer/slingers mentioned here. They must have been really incredible and specialized to be mentioned so prominently. These men must have really been able to turn the tide of a battle. It is also important to note that they are related to Saul, yet they have given themselves into David's service. Once again, we see the impact of the incredible leadership of David.
12:18 - The Spirit of the Lord that dwells within us thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, is still very active before the cross. When we see the Spirit of God move in the OT, we see Him come upon people for short periods of time. Here the Spirit allows Amasai to give a prophetic speech about David. Those who are loyal to David and his descendants will be blessed by God.
13:9 - Always a hard passage to understand (We see that even David is distraught and confused by what happens), we need to see that the blame actually falls on David's leadership. The people are so caught up int he euphoria of their victory and bringing the Ark of the Lord back, that they fail to treat the Ark with the respect that it is due as the most sacred object of God. They believe that God's presence was represented by the Ark, yet instead of having it carried by priests, they throw it on top of a cart for everyone to see. The Ark was only shown tot he people once a year, and yet they have it on display and the people become familiar with it. So familiar, that Uzzah believes he can tough the Ark even though that goes against Israelite law. His death is a harsh reminder to the Israelite people and David, about the holiness of the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment