May 9, Day 129

Today's Reading

2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles. I was flooded with thoughts this morning as I read these passages.  I will discuss a few of them here, but hope they may leave you with some questions or discussion yourself...

"David also conquered the land of Moab. He made the people lie down on the ground in a row, and he measured them off in groups with a length of rope. He measured off two groups to be executed for every one group to be spared. The Moabites who were spared became David’s subjects and paid him tribute money." 2 Samuel 8:2 (NLT)I can almost hear some readers decrying David's brutality here.  Our worldview is so tainted by "tolerance" that we can't imagine David's worldview.  Even though his great-grandmother Ruth was from Moab, she had distanced herself from her people and their gods (see Ruth 1:14-17).  The Moabites were pagan enemies of God and of His people Israel.  It was an act of mercy to allow 1/3 of them to live.  Tomorrow you will read Psalm 50, which includes "3 Our God approaches, and he is not silent. Fire devours everything in his way, and a great storm rages around him. 4 He calls on the heavens above and earth below to witness the judgment of his people." Psalm 50:3-4 (NLT) We often conveniently forget the judgment of God.

Today we read about victory over Gath, the home of the Philistine (modern-day Palestinian) giant Goliath,  Zobah and Hamath (modern-day Syria) and Edom (these descendants of Esau lost their identity as a people group by the time of Christ).

I can only imagine what was going through David's head when he found out that Mephibosheth was alive.  This was the son of his best friend Jonathan.  How many memories this must have brought to David!

Those of you with a critical eye will note the distinction between 2 Samuel 8:7 ("Tebah and Berothai") and 1 Chronicles 18:8 ("Tebah and Cun").  Why the difference, if these were the same towns?  I haven't found clarity on this one, with a brief amount of research.  However, we OFTEN call the same town by different names (think "NYC" and "Big Apple") so that's possibly what happened here.