God: David's son will build temple

An unnamed source reported in chapter 22 of I Chronicles that God told David he is ineligible to build the temple.

According to the source God told David he has "shed much blood and . . . made great wars."

In David's place, God promised a son who would be a man of "rest."

"His name shall be Solomon," God said, "for I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days."

David said a blessing for his promised son and charged him to only gain wisdom from God as he leads the people of Israel not only in building the temple but in guiding them as their king.

Before David dies he is preparing temple plans to give Solomon. He is also preparing many of the materials needed to build of the temple and has commanded the leaders of Israel to assist Solomon in the construction of the temple.

NOTE: This was written news style as if it were to be printed in a newspaper . . . I just did it for the fun of it. In my News Reporting class we had an assignment like this once where we had to take a portion of scripture and write it into a news story. It was challenging and a lot of fun. 

A Psalm

Psalms are healing. They portray a flood of emotions at times yet are uplifting as well.

"But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me. —Psalm 49:15 NKJV

Taking Ownership

I'm not sure why numbering the poeple was wrong for David to do. But it was and the cost of that mistake cost 70,000 men's lives . . . which I don't understand either. But there are some things that David said in this chapter that I thought were powerful. He realized he was wrong and so when Gad, one of his seers came to him with three options of punishment from God David said something quite profound.

"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." (21:13)

David also realized that what had been done was his fault and not the peoples' who he served. He prayed, "O LORD my God, be against me and my father's house, but not against your people that they should be plagued." (22:17)

And then the third thing that wowed me was when he was instructed to go and build an alter to God in this one guy's field. David asked the guy if he could buy it to build that alter to God. He was wanted to pay the guy the full price but the guy (Ornan) said he would just give it to David. Blessing, right? You'd think David would say 'Praise God, I don't have to buy the field!' Nope! Not at all and for good reason too. This is what he actually said.

"No, but I will surely buy it for the full prince, for I will not take what is yours for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing." (22:24)

The last part is what is key to me. How can an offering be an offering if you really aren't offering what is yours? Or a sacrifice be a sacrifice when you really aren't sacrificing in order to give it?

David was wrong, yes, but he wasn't completely dumb. To me David portrays what it is to be a great leader in this chapter because he knew where to turn: God. He knew who's fault it was and took ownership of his sin. And he also knew that God deserved (deserves) the very best with no short cuts.

Like Uncle, Like Nephew

In the last verse of chapter 20 it mentions David's nephew killing a giant who defied Israel. I guess it ran in the family. You know . . . killing arrogant giants.

Sooo . . . uh . . . what's your family known for . . . ? jk . . . haha.

Really?

OK, what the Ammonites did was pretty mean, but did both countries need to make war over it?

The Nahash king of Ammon died and his son took over. Apparently Nahash had shown kindness to David, so David being the kindhearted guy that he was sent some of his servants over with messages of comfort for Hanun, Nahash's son and the new king. However, some rather distrusting princes of Ammon told convinced Hanun that David was actually sending spies to search out the land.

So . . . brilliant Hanun goes and shaves the Israelites beards (which was a shameful thing I believe . . . not sure about the significance there) and turns each man's garment into more of a hospital robe . . . complete with an exposed gluteus maximus!

Understandably the men were pretty embarrassed.

Understandably David was pretty angry. When the Ammonites saw that they'd turned his concern in to repulsion they freaked and called on the Syrians to help them fight the Israelites. Even though the Israelites had not declared war on them or even suited up. Well, the Israelite's did suit up at the word that everyone else was ready for battle. But thankfully they called on God for help and beat both armies. And FINALLY, the Ammonites made peace. The Syrians also refused to help the Ammonites anymore after getting whipped by David's army.

So . . . the Ammonites snubbed David's kindness, then made war against him because they feared retaliation, then finally signed a peace treaty which made them his servants. If they'd just excepted his kindness they could have become allies and remained free.

Peace people, peace.

Why?

Why? Just . . . why?

Why did David (in chapter 18) hamstring most of the chariot horses when he conquered king Hadadezer of Zobah?

I sorta get that he was debilitating their army . . . but I don't get why he didn't just take the horses instead of crippling them. He took some—enough for 100 chariots. But all the rest he hamstrung.

Chapter 17

"For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, LORD, have become their God." 

—I Chronicles 17:22

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

Friday evening I was invited over to the Christiansen's house for a Bible study. There wasn't any particular study that we were going to do. It started out as just a time to share about what we had read the past week and what we might like to study in the future. Someone mentioned they would like to study Revelation and so we started then with reading the first chapter.

Revelation is a complex book with a lot of complex imagery. I read it about four years ago for the first time and haven't really spent any time there since. It honestly didn't really caption my attention because I didn't understand everything that all those Revelation seminars pull out of it. I didn't really expect much out of it Friday night either . . . but boy was I wrong! Revelation is kinda exciting . . . (all the pastors out there are probably saying 'duh' right about now . . . lol).

The one part that stood out to me the most were verses 5 and 6 where the justification and sanctification process is clearly (at least to me it was clear) presented in the first chapter. This blew me away especially since it's been only within the last year that I have fully understood the beauty of justification and sanctification.

"To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

So in the first part where it says "washed us from our sins in His own blood," that's the justification part. When we come to Christ with all our dirt and choose to follow Him, He sees us as He sees Himself: perfect. That's justification . . . being seen as perfect simply because we choose to believe in Jesus who is perfect.

But it doesn't stop there. Then comes sanctification where Jesus helps us build our characters into ones that can resist the temptation to sin. That's where we become "kings and priests." In order to work as a priest in the temple one had to go through a cleansing process above and beyond the others in the camp before they could do certain tasks (I don't know too much about this process—priest cleansings . . . only that it took place).

After reading this I was pretty excited about what else I might find in Revelation that I actually understood! haha!

Anyway . . . maybe this is far out . . . after all, I'm not a theologian . . . these are just my thoughts.

Marching on the Treetops . . . now that's cool

Every time I read the Bible for myself there are so many neat things that stand out and some just plain not cool things as well. Chapter 14 had both.

Here's a (hopefully) concise list:

Cool: David had the respect of surrounding nations.

Not Cool: David taking more wives once he got back to Jerusalem as king.

Cool: God and David talking with each other clearly and in full sentences.

Cool: God sending His angels to march ahead of David's army to "strike the camp of the Philistines." God told David he would knew that the camp was ready to be driven back to where they came from when he heard marching on top of the mulberry trees. An angel army of God no less marching in the air above the earthly army of David. Very cool! ; )

It's Not Always What We Do, But How We Do It That Matters! or And Here Lies The Promblem

I've learned over the years that it matters how things are done sometimes more than what we are doing. This was the case for David in moving the ark of the covenant—you know, the time that Uzza died. David was supposed to get Levites to move the ark by hand. But instead he moved it on a cart with oxen. When the oxen stumbled Uzza reached out to stable the ark and died instantly.

Even though David and the people were playing their musical instruments along the way to honor God, it didn't matter because like Cain, David did not do what God instructed. Moving the ark wasn't the problem. Playing their heart out on the tambourine, harp, cymbal, or other instruments before God the entire time wasn't a problem either. But not doing what God had specifically asked was a problem.

Men of War

There's a curious verse to me in I Chronicles 12 . . . well actually there were a couple I stopped to read over a few times, but specifically verse 8 caught my attention.

"Some Gadites joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for battle, who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as gazelles on the mountains."

One of the things that caught my attention were the words "could handle shield and spear." I don't know much about ancient Biblical fighting techniques or procedures, but growing up I always heard stories about how Jonathan and his armorbearer beat the Philistines or other stories were armorbearers were included. A couple posts back I wrote about Saul's armorbearer.

Why were there armorbearers? And what did it mean that these guys could handle their own shield and spear? Did only the kings and princes have armorbearers? It's a curious thing to me because it seems like this verse is saying these guys were more skilled because they could handle their weapon and their shield.

Anyone have any ideas on how battles were fought in David's day?

David's Beasts

. . . and these weren't the animals David killed, these were the men under his direction. These guys were virtually fearless and took on the enemy with the same confidence that David took on Goliath when he was a teenager.

These two examples from Chapter 11 of I Chronicles show this clearly!

When David "said with longing" that he wanted a drink of water from the well inside Bethlehem, three of his mighty men went and got it for him. Pretty amazing . . . right? Well, it would be if you knew what they went through to get that water. To get to the well those three men had to "break through the camp of the Philistines." Three men up against the entire Philistines army . . . yeah . . . . Pretty amazing that they made it to the well alive not to mention back to David again WITH the water.

Another one of David's men named Benaiah "killed two lion-like heroes of Moab," went into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion which was in it (the amazing part to me is the snow . . . there was no easy climbing out of that with the added slipperiness of the snow), and killed an Egyptian of "great height, five cubits tall." Now get this, the Egyptian had a spear, and a long one at that, our man Benaiah only had a staff! What happens next is even more amazing them Benaiah attacking the guy with that staff. He goes down to where this Egyptian is, wrestles the very long and heavy spear out of his hand and kills the Egyptian with his own spear!

I wonder how a pastor would preach on this chapter or the topic of David's mighty men in general. I think I would like to hear that sermon and see how the pastor would take the lesson. Let me know if there is one out there and where I can find it.

The Key To Life . . .

There wasn't one bit of genealogy in chapter 10 this morning. Instead it was the horrible story of how Saul and his sons died in battle.

Saul's sons had been killed (including David's best friend Jonathan) by the Philistines in a battle. Saul knew they were going to come after him next and begged his armorbearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it . . . " 10:4. But the armorbearer refused because he feared killing the king I suppose. The Bible here only says he wouldn't do it because he was "greatly afraid."I mean, his job was to protect the king not harm him. So Saul killed himself by falling on his sword and afterward the armorbearer followed suit and fell on his own sword also.

It was such a tragic death . . . the whole battle. I Chronicles doesn't really go into details here about it but I've heard the story before and the bit of info that's written here is not pretty. Here was a great man who fell from greatness because he chose to stop trusting in God.

It was like those guys a few chapters (and blog posts) back who called on God in the heat of battle and trusted him and were saved, but after the battle they started worshiping the gods of the people God had just conquered for them and He then allowed them to be taken captive. They stopped trusting in God.

So the key to life . . . trust God.

The Singers and the Royals

Today's reading in I Chronicles 9 didn't bring about too much excitement. But there were a couple small things that caught my attention. 

I thought it was really interesting that the singers in the temple were paid to just sing day and night (I hope they were on a shifts system!). They didn't have any other duties.

It's also interesting to note that King Saul's great-grandmother Maacah's name is thought to have meant royal according to my little concordance.

Girl Power

Reading through I Chronicles, I'm not expecting many women to be listed. It's just a fact that the men are the one's usually mentioned. However, chapter 7 has at least four women listed and others alluded to. Now I know four doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me . . . it's a lot.

And the women in this chapter weren't all just baring sons for their husbands, they are mentioned as out there accomplishing things on their own. 

One woman was particularly stunning in what she accomplished. Sheerah (daughter of Beriah) built Lower and Upper Beth Horon and Uzzen Sheerah, towns that are mentioned other places in the Bibles. I found this interesting page about her accomplishment at WomenInChrist.org. Apparently even King Solomon took time to keep up these cities during his reign.

I Like My Food, Mushi

That's right. I like my food, Reader. (Watch the comma.) I like my food to NOT be mushy, but I wasn't saying the opposite of that in the title. Instead I was declaring to Mushi that I like the food I eat. Actually my breakfast was rather mushy this morning . . . oh well.

As most of you will already guess by now, Mushi is the name of another person from the book of I Chronicles. I'm not at home this morning and don't have my amazing little concordance so I looked the name up online and this is what all-babynames.com told me this name meant: he that touches, that withdraws or takes away.

OK . . . not really sure what that's supposed to mean . . . but it's not "bad" . . . I think. 

In other random facts about the chapter, I found the names of two friends: Izhar, which means revelation declaration; and Caleb, which means faithful. (Both of these meanings are also according to all-babynames.com.)

Because the War Was God's

When the sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh went to war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab, they won. Why: "Because the war was God's" (5:22).

They realized in the midst of battle that they couldn't win it with their own strength alone and called on God to help them. Because they trusted in Him, He came to their rescue.

If only the story ended there. But it didn't . . . sadly enough.

"They were mighty men of valor, famous men, and heads of their fathers' houses. And they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom god had destroyed before them" (5:24, 25).

So God allowed them to be conquered and carried away as captives.

It's a hard story to swallow because it's incredibly sad. Imagine, God saving these people and then having them forget Him for the gods of the people He just conquered for them. That's pretty much committing adultery with the enemy your husband just rescued you from.

I can't even begin to imagine the pain that caused God. To see His people run after something He knew would cause them pain right after He delivered them from it—at their own request!

I think I like reading about names better . . .

All (Kinda) Found In Real Life

The names listed below are all names, or slight variations of names, I've heard before (all found in I Chronicles 4).

Carmi: a vine-dresser

Tekoa: sound of  trumpet

Ophrah: fawn

Naam: pleasentness

One of my canvassing buddies married a woman name Carme; there's a girl at my school named Tekoa;  Just remove the first 'h' in Ophrah and you've got the Queen of talk-show TV (it's a well-known fact that Oprah is a misspelling of Orpah from the book of Ruth; and Naam is another friend's wife's maiden name.

By the way, I have heard Anani used as a name before . . . because I know an Anani! . . . granted she's three-years-old (I think) and I don't see her often and when I use to I never pronounced her name correctly. (Thanks, Mrs. Parker for reminding me about her.)

Sounds Normal Enough

I'm still reading through the genealogy of I Chronicles. And I'm actually kinda enjoying it. I love names and meanings so it's probably just the right place for me. 

Today I read a name that I could see actually using: Anani. It has a nice exotic flavor to it yet is still easy enough to pronounce. I feel like I've heard it used as a name before too, but not sure on that.

Anani is found in I Chronicles 3:24 and was the son of Elioenai. Anani is also a shortened form of Ananiah which means whom Jehovah covers. Interesting to note that Anan, a name similar to Anani means cloud which is what God covered the Israelites with by day after they left Egypt.

Anani's father's name, Elioenai, means unto Jehovah my eyes are turned.

Now that sounds more like a descent family to join, rather than the guy we read about yesterday—Madmannah, the dunghill guy. Which I was also told (thanks, Pr. Eric) is the name of a city in Joshua 15:31.

What's In A Name?

Reading through I Chronicles might sound utterly boring with all it's genealogies. But quite frankly . . . it's not too bad. 

Some of these names really crack me up! For example Madmannah. While his name doesn't mean he was a literal mad man, it has a far worse meaning: dunghill. Yeah, about that. Either way I think it's safe to say he should be kept away from.

His name can be found in I Chronicles 2:49, if you're wondering.

And the Sons of ________ Were . . .

I've read I & II Samuel, I've read I & II Kings . . . and now I'm starting I Chronicles.

Unlike the start with Ezra, I'm really looking forward to this book even if the first few chapters are "so-and-so begat so-and-so."

To make the genealogy a bit more interesting I'm going to look up what some of the names mean . . . however I can't do what I did in Nehemiah. That took foooooreeeevvveer!!! But was helpful.

For Nehemiah I wrote the meanings next to the names.

However, my favorite name in all the names found in chapter 1 of Chronicles means destruction. : \ I don't think I'm going to list the name. We'll just leave it at that.

A Psalm

I read a Psalm this morning. Perhaps because I woke up late (because I went to bed late--because I was cleaning! oh well. haha) and have to go to work soon (I start my new job today).

But other than that, it's been a rough week for the project I'm working on. Lots of emotions. Lots of ignoring of feelings and just working.

I read Psalm 70. I'll be honest . . . I just flipped open my Bible and there it was. I'd read it before . . . I assume . . . because there was a verse highlighted in purple colored pencil (my Bible is purple so I highlight in purple).

It was a good Psalm and talked about deliverance from the enemy. We all need that. I'm not sure how relevant it was to my life at the moment. But it's definitely relevant to life at this moment within the large sphere that I am part of.

The verse I highlighted is especially relevant to me outer sphere at this moment (and all of us really).

"But I am poor and needy;
Make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not delay."

Verse 5 (there was only one chapter).

The Desire of All Nations

I'm not really sure what this passage means, perhaps Jesus is talking about Himself as a temple but I just really like it. It's written in a really up-beat way . . . if that makes sense. haha.

"'. . . I will shake all nations and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,' says the LORD of hosts. 'The silver is MIne, and the gold is Mine,' says the LORD of hosts. 'The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,' says the LORD of hosts. 'And in this place I will give peace,' says the LORD of hosts."