Today's Reading
2 Samuel. One of the great leadership temptations is to look at our "kingdom" with pride, thinking, "This is what I built." A second temptation is to look at those resources and put our trust in them rather than in God. God stepped in with David, the man after His own heart, and disciplined him quickly. Israel, under David, was strong because of dependence on God. Placing trust in the number of warriors was the road to destruction.
Acts. Healing the lame man opened a door for Peter to speak the gospel. When I looked over his message today, I was amazed at the clarity of it. Jesus is described as crucified, risen and coming again.
Psalms. I think I have seen the attitude portrayed in this Psalm when I visit the Dominican Republic. The government there, while free, controls much about the lives of the people. The poor especially feel the oppression and would pray prayers just like this.
Proverbs. It's simple. Love wisdom and follow wise advice.
How about you today? Questions or comments?
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A couple of things:
ReplyDelete-I'm a bit confused about the OT passage. It reads that the Lord told David to take the census, but then David was punished for doing that?
-I want to be like Peter! He saw an opportunity to tell the people more about Jesus and he took that opportunity. When do opportunities arise like that for me? In my conversation with a neighbor friend? In an email conversation with one of the kids' teachers? When my son is struggling with an attitude that has seeped into all areas of his life? As I'm gathering my things to leave for the day from work and one of my co-workers is sharing a heartache? May I keep vigilant.
You know, Ranelle, I'm not sure there is an easy answer to this one. The way the passage seems to interpret the event is that God wanted to punish Israel because of His anger against them. Perhaps He saw pride in David's heart and wanted to root it out. Any of us who has had pride occasionally rooted out can recall some of the painful methods God has used to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand there is a lesson here. Let me use an example that I'm sure you have seen before. A Christian woman has a husband who doesn't pay much attention to her anymore. In the meantime, some other man is kind and listens to her so she "prays" about it and decides that God wants her to be happy. She then divorces her husband to marry the other guy because it is "God's will" for her. We both know that "God hates divorce." Jesus gave the possible scenario of when it is okay to leave a marriage: an adulterous spouse. Now this woman will live the rest of her life with the results of her decision.
God had allowed David to number the people at the beginning of his reign, obviously to encourage the young king and build his faith. Now, in his old age, David seems to be doing it out of pride: "Look what I did!" God would have nothing to do with it.
I'm sure you can imagine numerous scenarios in which we face similar temptations.