Points of Interest

• ‘when he rules in the fear of God’–David was a fearless king.  He faced enemies who seemed much stronger than him, constant war, insurrection, even plague; and he never flinched.  His only fear was a fear of God.  It’s not so much that he was scared of God, as that he deeply respected God.  And he valued his relationship with God.  He knew the one thing that would allow him to survive everything else was maintaining his deep connection with God.
• ‘surely he would not bring to fruition my salvation’–I wonder if David has in mind a particular episode of trouble from which God saved him, was thinking of all of his troubles as a unit, or is looking forward to a further rescue even beyond death.
• ‘thorns, which are not gathered with the hand’–you don’t grasp on to a thorn; you drop it as soon as you feel the prick.  God never dropped David.  Since God held David firmly in God’s hand his entire life, David can go to the grave with a clean conscience, knowing that God loved him and was pleased with him.

Taking it Home

• For you: David takes time at the end of his life to recount what he has learned and what his relationship with God has been like.  Take time today to reflect on the Leap of Faith and write down a summary of how it was for you.  What have you been praying for? What were highlights of things God did? What were you disappointed about? What have you learned during this time? How have you grown? Ask God to show you what he would like you to take away from this season and carry over into the next.
• For your six: Pray today that your six would one day have a story like David’s of how they came to know, trust, and love God. Ask God to show himself to your six today.  Pray that the story of Easter would be captivating, make sense, and be something that draws your six towards God.
• For our church: Thank God for what he has done in our church during the Leap of Faith.  Pray that we would grow closer to God and see God more clearly than we ever have before.  Pray that our church would have the same confidence in and joy of God’s presence as David articulated in some of his last days in Psalm 108:1-5:

“My heart is confident in you, O God;
no wonder I can sing your praises!
Wake up my soul!
Wake up, O harp and lyre!

I will waken the dawn with my song.

I will thank you, Lord, in front of all the people.

I will sing your praises among the nations.

For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.

Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Be exalted, O God above the highest heavens.

May your glory shine over all the earth.”

• For families: What has this Leap of Faith been like for your family?  What are things you have seen God do?  Look back to your posters, if you made any, at what you have been praying for, at what God has done and what you think he might be calling your family to do as a project.  What do you notice as you look back at these things?  Can you see ways that individuals in your family have grown in their relationship with God in this time?  Can you see ways you have grown? Are there things you want to make sure you take as you move into the next season of your life?  Find a way to write this down or make this concrete in some way. Spend some time sharing and wrapping up this time together.  Listen together to God and see what God has to say about this time for you as a family.

• ‘the way of all the earth’–despite Bathsheba’s kind wishes in yesterday’s passage, David will not live forever. In this regard, he’s just like everyone else. He lived life on a grander scale than most, but he’s not actually larger-than-life.
• ‘do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace’–it’s a tad disappointing that practically David’s final act is to order a string of executions. It’s chilling, like that scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone has all of his father’s old enemies killed at the very same time he’s standing as godfather to his nephew. I think it has to be done, though. Even David could not quite control Shimei or, even more, Joab. There’s no way Solomon could be safely established with those two running amok. David himself probably should have taken care of them long ago. Since he didn’t, Solomon must, to start his reign with a clean slate and a free hand.
• ‘show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead’–there’s also someone David didn’t quite have the chance to reward properly during his own lifetime.  At least it’s not just killings David is leaving to Solomon.
• ‘Then David rested with his ancestors’–I like that David’s death is described as ‘resting.’  David has had a long and busy life.  In one way or another, he’s been on the move since he was a teenager.  It’s about time he got some rest.

Taking it Home

• For you: It’s hard to know what to make of David’s death-wish list that he gives to Solomon.  It would have been so much nicer to get to the end of David’s life and find pretty picture of happily-ever after, but even to the very end everything is not so neatly wrapped up.  David has somehow learned to navigate the tides of life’s complications and still find God in the midst of problems not being entirely solved.  How do you respond to the messiness of life? What are some problems you are facing that just don’t seem to be getting solved?  Ask God for more of him in those situations.  Ask God to give you a glimpse of the bigger picture and how to navigate the challenges you are facing while not losing sight of God.  Ask God to use these situations to draw you closer to himself.  Tell God you want more of him.
• For your six: David calls Solomon into his position as king, leaving him with clear words of direction.  Ask God to call your six into what he has for them.  Pray God would clearly guide your six. Pray that God would be a part of whatever pressing decisions your six currently face.
• For our church: A large part of Solomon’s ability to have his throne firmly established was because he was following in the footsteps of his father and building upon what had happened before him.  New England has an incredible legacy of God doing great things.  Pray that our church would be a part of that and would learn from and build upon what has happened before us.  Pray that we would follow in the footsteps of great people of faith and movements of God that have happened right here.  
• For families: Parents, are there things now, in life, that you want to pass on to your kids?  Often we wait until the end of our lives or until we are under some type of pressure to think about these things.  Spend some time thinking about what you want to be passing on to your kids, both now and at the end of your life.  What are some of your hopes for them?  What are things you want to say to them or encourage in them now?  Choose a couple of these things and talk with your kids about them.  Ask your kids if there are qualities or skills they see in you that they really want to take on for themselves.  Pray together that God would help you be a family that walks faithfully before God with all your heart and soul.

Points of Interest

• ‘Call in Bathsheba’–I don’t exactly understand the ins and outs of what’s being described here.  I was under the impression that Bathsheba was already in the room.
• ‘’May my lord King David live forever!’–it’s interesting that even as they plan together for who will take over once David dies, Bathsheba offers this wish that he would live forever.
• ‘have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him’–in many ways, Adonijah has the upper hand: he is older; he has the support of the other brothers; and he has the master strategist Joab on his side.  But Solomon has two practically unbeatable advantages, in Nathan and David.  David gives Solomon his own limousine and the throne itself.  And Nathan anoints him.  Thus, it becomes immediately clear that Solomon is both David’s choice and God’s.
• ‘Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites and the Pelethites’–when Joab took command of the army after Amasa’s death, Benaiah took Joab’s old job as commander of the Kerithites, Pelethites, and other special forces.
• ‘so that the ground shook with the sound’–Solomon’s people are blowing trumpets and pipes and doing whatever else they can to express their support as loudly as possible.
• ‘all Adonijah’s guests rose in alarm and dispersed’–the spectacle works.  Adonijah’s guests are intimidated, and they all suddenly remember that they’re late for another appointment.
• ‘took hold of the horns of the altar’–Adonijah figures that no one would be willing to shed blood in such a holy place.
• ‘Solomon replied’–up until now, everyone–David, Bathsheba, Nathan, Zadok, Benaiah–has been acting on Solomon’s behalf.  This is the first time he speaks for himself.  Solomon rises to the occasion, behaving like the king he will soon be.
• ‘Adonijah came and bowed down’–he’s surrendering, and recognizing Solomon as king.

Taking it Home

• For you:  Contrasting David’s response here to his response several years earlier when Absalom tried to take the throne is impressive; if he had a therapist I’m sure she would agree that David is progressing well.  In contrast to the time with Absalom, David doesn’t react to or seem afraid of Adonijah.  He has learned that he doesn’t need to feel threatened by such situations—something I can see it might take a little while to learn.  What situations are you in that feel threatening?  What relationship or scenario causes you to suddenly feel like you need to protect your sense of self, your well-being, or your livelihood?  Ask God to give you a sense of abundance and security in those situations.  Tell God that you trust God to provide for you and to look out for your best interest.  Ask God to show you how you might respond next time a threatening situation occurs.
• For your six:  Adonijah’s poor guests get caught in the middle of a potentially fatal family feud.  I’m guessing they attended the feast because it sounded like a fun, inviting party with friends—only to find out later it was a palace coup.  Who do your six spend the most time with? Where do they go to celebrate and have a good time?  Ask God to give your six friends who are looking out for their best interest.  Pray that your six wouldn’t end up in volatile situations like Adonjiah’s guests did.
• For our church: Solomon effectively sends Adonijah to his room for a time out. His response reminds me of the World Cup when several players, but one in particular hailing from a large up-and-coming country in South America, would have these overly-dramatic outbursts on the field, at which a referee would time and again hand him a card and effectively say “Go to the sidelines and calm down.” It seems like maybe we are all prone to have some childish outbursts whether we like it or not.  Pray that God would give us an incredible amount of maturity to deal with all the ups and downs that life can bring.  Pray that God would keep our church clear-headed and focused on God.
• For families: Talk about any of the ways that you see each other growing in your relationship with God and in faith during this Leap of Faith season.  What are some things you see as a family member that others might miss?  Talk about the ways in which you see each other taking that first step toward more faith.  Pray for each other that God would walk with each of you and help you take the next steps.

• ‘Let us look for a young virgin to serve the king’–I get the impression that there was some sort of scandal over Abishag.  Rumors persisted even to the time of the writing of this history that David had an affair with a much younger woman at the very end of his life.  The author is assuring us that Abishag was only David’s nurse; David was too weak to keep himself warm or get out of bed, for goodness’ sake.  It does seem odd, though, that even as he’s denying there’s anything to the rumors, he focuses an awful lot on how young and pretty she is.
• ‘He was also very handsome’–it seems that David has no shortage of good-looking, older sons who feel it’s their right to be king.  If there’s one thing we’ve learned through this story, it’s that it doesn’t work that way with God or with David.  You need more than a birth certificate and a nice head of hair to be the kind of king God is looking for.
• ‘His father had never rebuked him’–unfortunately, it seems that David never learned the trick of avoiding over-indulging his older sons.
• ‘But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet’–at the very end, David’s most loyal supporters are splitting up.  Many of these men have been with David all the way since the outlaw days when they were running from Saul.  All of them stuck with David during Absalom’s rebellion.  But now half of them are siding with Adonijah and half with Solomon.  Abiathar and Joab go one way, Zadok and Benaiah the other.  Each of the sons has one of David’s faithful priests and one of his best generals.
• ‘near En Rogel’–En Rogel is in Judean territory.  Just like Absalom did, Adonijah is appealing to his tribal base in his claim for the crown (Walton et al).
• ‘He invited all his brothers’–Adonijah takes Absalom’s tactic and adapts it.  Absalom also made his move with a party for all of the brothers, but he caused a panic when he killed one of them.  Adonijah instead uses the big family banquet to entice his brothers into supporting him over Solomon.  It creates the impression of all against one, instead of one against all.
• ‘Nathan asked Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother’–it’s curious that Nathan talks to Bathsheba rather than Solomon himself.  I think it must mean that Solomon is too young to be fully in charge of his own affairs.  His mother has to act as his agent.
• ‘our lord David knows nothing about it’–David is bedridden, and perhaps Joab is restricting the news that gets to him.
• ‘I will come in and add my word’–this conspiracy is too strong even for just one of Bathsheba or Nathan to counteract.  They need to work together to convince David of the seriousness of the situation.
• ‘Is this something my lord the king has done’–I don’t think that Nathan seriously suspects David’s involvement in Adonijah’s actions.  He’s trying to remind David that, bedridden as he is, he’s still the king; and he has the power to do something about what’s happening.

Taking it Home

• For you: When hearing the troublesome news, Bathsheba doesn’t get worked up into a frenzy but instead goes straight to David to discuss what’s been going on and clarify what he had said.  Bathsheba’s immediate go-to-David response seems like a helpful model for how we might approach God.  Whatever is on your mind or in front of you today, try going to God with it—to get perspective, to talk about it, to ask him to change it, or to thank him for it.  Today, try as often as you can, whatever comes your way, to go directly to God to check in with God about it.
• For your six: It’s peculiar how similar Adonijah’s banquet-throwing-to-assert-the-throne tactics are to his older brother Absalom’s.  It almost seems like in it’s in his blood—and maybe it just so happens it is in his blood.  We seem to inherit both good and bad from our families. Ask God to bless your six’s families and to protect your six from and put a stop to any unhelpful patterns that keep getting passed down from generation to generation.  Ask God that the behaviors that come naturally to your six would point them toward God.
• For our church:  David pretty diligently preparing to transfer power over to Solomon, only to have Adonijah throw a huge wrench in the plan. Ask God to help our church in both the making and executing of plans.  Pray that God would give us grace, agility, and wisdom to best respond when plans suddenly change.
• For families: Do you have any elderly family members who are nearing the end of their lives? Spend some time talking about these people.  We can often push these people aside as having little to offer.  They might have limited capacities, do things really differently, or just be difficult to hang out with. But sometimes God might want to use these people to give you bits of wisdom you might not get anywhere else.  Spend some time as a family praying for any aging family members you have.  Ask God how he sees these people. Ask if God would like you to spend time with any of these people and if there are any things God would like you to ask them in this season of their lives.  

• ‘I now give my personal treasures’–everything David has mentioned up until now has been collected from the state’s resources.  Now, David is pitching in what must be a very large portion of his own wealth.
• ‘gold of Ophir’–Ophir was particularly famous for fine gold.
• ‘They gave toward the work on the temple’–inspired by David, all the rest of the people throw themselves and their resources into the project as well.  Even David can only do so much on his own.
• ‘Wealth and honor come from you’–even while David and the others are giving so generously toward the building of the temple, David wants to remember that he is not out-giving God.  They owe everything they have to God.
• ‘Our days on earth are like a shadow’–our lives are so short and insubstantial that, like a shadow, they don’t even make an impression in the ground.
• ‘that you test the heart’–it’s not so much the dollar value of their donations that matters.  It’s their faith, their gratitude, their love of God, and their desire to accomplish something great together.
• ‘the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel’–God promised Abraham–and his son Isaac and grandson Israel–hundreds of years ago that God would make them a great nation, give them the land, and make them an overflowing blessing to the rest of the world.  Now, it looks like those promises are finally coming true.

Taking it Home

• For you:  The Israelites are so inspired by the vision of the temple that they are willing to give anything and everything to make it happen. They seem to offer up whatever they have to God.  What are things right in front of you that you can offer up to God?  It could be money, a degree, a house, a skill or talent.  Spend a moment asking if God wants you to give over any of those things to him for a purpose right now.  Tell God you want to give that thing, and ask God to use it for his good.  If you feel resistant to what God brings up, that’s okay; talk to him about that.

• For your six: As the Israelites were responsive to God, they found themselves part of a plan much bigger than themselves.  Ask God to show your six the big plans he has for them, and pray that they would feel compelled toward it.
• For our church:  I love that David asks God to help the Israelites ‘keep their hearts loyal’ to him. He seems to be aware that humans our prone to forget and to be sort of wishy-washy.  Ask God to help keep our church loyal to pursuing God no matter what happens.  Just like New England will always want the Celtics to win and always want the Lakers to lose, pray that our church would have the same immediate enthusiasm and commitment to whatever God is doing—that we would always turn to what God wants and always turn away from what he doesn’t want.
• For families: Spend some time talking as a family about some of the things you give toward financially. For parents, share with your kids why these things are important to you. Often, giving can be of our time and our talents, too. Share about those things as well. Spend some time praying together about whether there are things God would want you to give toward and in what ways.

• ‘the footstool of our God’–I like this.  David knows that even his grand plans don’t amount to something worthy of being a house for God.  At best, it’s an ottoman.
• ‘he has chosen my son Solomon’–just like David, Solomon has many older brothers, perhaps more qualified than him.  But being king in this nation isn’t about being the oldest, or looking the best, or even having the right father.  Solomon will be king in the same way David became king: by God’s choice.
• ‘with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind’–this is a nice combination of David calling his son to follow in his footsteps and David letting Solomon be his own person.  Wholehearted devotion is David’s thing, and he wants it to be Solomon’s as well.  But Solomon will apply it differently from David.  David is a soldier and an artist; Solomon will be a thinker.
• ‘if you forsake him, he will reject you forever’–David is reminding Solomon not to take God or the kingship for granted.  Saul was chosen just as much as David or Solomon, but God wasn’t afraid to take the kingdom away from him.  God promised David that the house of David would last forever, but God doesn’t necessarily need Solomon to make that happen; God can find another way to put a descendant of David on the throne.
• ‘the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts’–David is completely consumed by this temple project.  He’s thought of every detail, from the smallest room to the exact weight of gold for all the furnishings.
• ‘instructions for the divisions of the priests and Levites’–the Levites are the tribe that specializes in religious service, the priests being the Levitical family particularly responsible for conducting religious ceremonies.  The temple David has in mind will vastly increase the responsibilities of the Levites.  So, having thought through every detail of the building itself, David has also taken a crack at reorganizing their job duties.
• ‘as a result of the LORD’s hand on me’–the same God who inspired David’s music and empowered him to kill a giant has also made him into an architect.
• ‘the LORD God, my God, is with you’–this job is far too big for Solomon.  But that doesn’t matter.  It’s not too big for God, and God will be right there with Solomon all the way.

Taking it Home

• For you:  What’s going on right now in your life that makes you feel afraid or discouraged? David knew that in the face of the daunting project of building the temple–not to mention running a country–Solomon needed a steady stream of encouragement.  If David were living now, he’d be sending repeated text messages to Solomon reminding him again and again to be ‘strong and courageous.’  Just as David spoke the words to Solomon, picture God saying those words directly to you: “__________, be strong and courageous”.  Take some more time to listen to God, asking God to remind you of any specific ways that he would like encourage you.
• For your six: Ask God to really know the hearts of your six.  Pray that he would give them hearts that are opened and turned toward God.  Ask God to bless all the ways, even the most covert, in which your six are actually seeking after God.
• For our church: I know the saying goes that ‘the devil is in the details,’ but this passage shows us God in the details too.  With the temple, God has even the smallest of things, from the serving-ware arrangement to the lampshades, figured out and perfectly arranged. Whether you love details or hate them, in the end you know that they matter, for good or ill. Ask God to take care of all the details of our church’s big dreams and plans.  Pray that for every great, big plan that God gives us he would equally take care of the millions of things that need to come together for it to actually happen.  For the situations where we find ourselves stuck in the details, ask God to give us a way out.  Ask God that to give our church the ability to be impossibly great at the details.
• For families: Everyone needs encouragement sometimes, and families can be great places to get that encouragement.  What feels like a big challenge to you? How can your family encourage you?  Let your family know about ways of encouraging that work well for you when you are facing a big challenge. Pray that God would make you a family that is great at seeing opportunities to encourage one other.

• ‘The house of the LORD God is to be here’–you may remember that ever since David built his own palace, he’s had building a house for God on his mind (Monday, April 4th, 2 Samuel 7).  Ever since the wanderings in the desert in the time of Moses (about 400 years earlier), God’s ‘dwelling’ has been a tent.  David wants to give God a more permanent address in Jerusalem.  When they first discussed it, God’s response to David, ‘No, thanks.  I like my tent just fine.’  At the time, God told David that the real priority was for God to build David a house–that is, a royal dynasty–not for David to build God one.  I think David feels that that job is now complete.  He has no more enemies, and there is peace on every side.  All of his external enemies have been quelled or conquered, and all of the conflict within his family and within Israel has also been resolved.  So, David turns once again to the idea of building God a house.  I get the sense that David is still much more excited about this project than God is, but this time around God doesn’t stop him.  Perhaps God senses from David a positive change in attitude.  It’s not so much that David thinks he can help God out here, but that David is so grateful for all of the ways God has helped him.  The temple is like a great, big thank you card from David to God.
• ‘gave orders to assemble the foreigners’–I don’t think this means that every single foreigner will be put to work on the temple.  After all, much of David’s family and many of his most important warriors are foreigners; it’s hard to imagine a bunch of generals, queens, and princesses picking up chisels and cutting stones.  The foreigners referred to here are probably the prisoners of war from David’s various battles; they’ll be made into a work detail for this huge public work detail David has in mind.
• ‘more cedar logs than could be counted’–it might sound funny for the king to bother himself with such small things as nails and two by fours, but actually in David’s time and place wood and iron were quite hard-to-get commodities.  It would take a lot of time, money, and diplomacy to gather enough of them for the building David has in mind.
• ‘So David made extensive preparations’–God had said quite explicitly that David would never build God a house.  David is technically abiding by their agreement, but he can’t help himself: he has to play a role in this temple.  So, while he doesn’t actually break ground on the building site, he puts everything in place for the future.
• ‘because you have shed much blood’–at least in the story we read, that’s not exactly what God said.  The earlier story we read was from the Samuel version of David’s story, and this passage is from the Chronicles version.  So, maybe the Chronicler is introducing a different conversation between God and David on the same subject, or maybe Chronicles and Samuel have a different interpretation of the same conversation.  There is some commonality between the two; in both versions, God is saying that David will be too busy fighting wars (with God’s help) to spend time building a temple.  However, there seems to be a moral edge in Chronicles that’s missing in Samuel; the intimation here seems to be that David’s hands are too bloody with which to build a temple.  Maybe God did, in fact, say this to David at another time.  Or maybe David misunderstood God’s reasoning.
• ‘He is the one who will build a house’–again, this isn’t precisely what God said, at least in Samuel.  God did indeed say that a descendant of David would build God’s house, but he didn’t say it would be David’s immediate heir.  In fact, many people, including Jesus himself, think that the ‘Son of David’ God had in mind was Jesus, not Solomon.  In that line of thinking, God never had a temple in mind.  He was essentially telling David, ‘Look, I don’t care so much about palaces and temples; I care about people.  So, I’m going to build your family up; and then someday a son of yours will build my family up.’  Nonetheless, Solomon may be a little foreshadowing of Jesus; and Solomon’s temple may be like a metaphorical architectural model for the ‘house’ Jesus will someday build.
• ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged’–David isn’t an easy act to follow.  And David wants Solomon not only to take over from him, but to exceed him, accomplishing something he never did.  That could be daunting.
• ‘ordered all the leaders of Israel to help’–this isn’t something Solomon can do on his own.  He’ll need everyone’s help to pull it off.  David is calling on them to back Solomon as solidly as they did him–in fact, even more.
• ‘Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the LORD your God’–I’m not sure exactly how excited God is about this temple idea.  But I bet that God is entirely pleased by this encouragement from David.  The truly great thing about David is that he has almost always thrown everything he has–heart, soul, body, slingshot, cedar planks, and iron nails–into seeking and following God.  Even more than the temple, that’s the legacy worth Solomon and these other leaders continuing.

Taking it Home

• For you: It took David awhile but he eventually accepted the reality that it wasn’t his job to build the temple. He didn’t give up on his dream, but he learned to check in with God to see what his part in it all was.  What are the all the roles that you are currently trying to fulfill in your life? My guess is that there are lot. Ask God to show you specifically what role he wants you to play.  Pray that he would make it clear what things are yours to do and what things are somebody else’s to look after.  Pray some of David’s word from Psalm 16:

5 LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;

you make my lot secure.

6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

surely I have a delightful inheritance.

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

even at night my heart instructs me.

8 I keep my eyes always on the LORD.

With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

• For your six:  David is able to see and encourage Solomon’s gifts and talents before Solomon has even had the chance to show them.  Take some time today to listen to God for your six. Ask God if there is anything he wants to show you about your six’s gifts, skills, and direction in life.  Find a way to share those things with your six.
• For our church: David has big dreams in mind. He thinks beyond himself and his own lifetime, and instead aims at leaving a lasting legacy on God’s behalf.  Pray that our church would just as audaciously dream beyond ourselves and 2011, and that we would leave a godly legacy in Boston, New England and, heck, why not the entire world for centuries to come?  Pray that God would use our church in remarkable ways to connect more people with God’s love and goodness than can even be imagined.
• For families: Take some time to bless the members of your family today.  Pray for each other, lay hands on one another, and practice just blessing each other with good things from God. If you see specific gifts or talents in your family members, call those talents out and bless your family members to use them for God’s purposes. Prayers of blessing can take different formats, but are often simple. For example, “I bless you with health, I bless you with the ability to love others well, etc…”

• ‘Satan rose up against Israel‘–this is a surprise appearance.  I guess now that all of David’s human enemies have been taken care of, a spiritual one appears.  Satan is a powerfully evil spiritual being who is a genius at finding and exploiting character flaws, particularly through temptation and accusation; in fact, his name means, ‘Accuser.’
• ‘incited David to take a census’–it’s a little curious that this, of all things, is Satan’s nefarious plan.  A census seems innocuous enough, boring even.  I must be missing something, though, because Joab immediately recognizes the census as a foolish and reprehensible idea.
• ‘from Beersheba to Dan’–that is, from the far south to the northern tip.
• ‘May the LORD multiply his troops a hundred times over’–Joab points out that with David, it’s never been about the number of his troops, but about God’s support.  Time and again, when he was running from Saul, when he faced Goliath, as far back as the lion and the bear in his shepherding days and as recently as Absalom’s rebellion, David has been outgunned, but with God’s help he has emerged victorious.  Perhaps that’s why the census is such a bad idea.  Having relied on God all this time, David now decides that he’d rather depend on the numbers of his army.
• ‘are they not all my lord’s subjects?’–counting them doesn’t change how many of them there are anyway.
• ‘Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering’–he doesn’t have the heart for the job and stops before he’s done.
• ‘Gad, David’s seer’–it seems like David has developed a personal staff as well as his government administration.  Zadok and Abiathar are the national priests; Ira is David’s household priest (verse 26 from yesterday’s passage). Nathan is the national prophet; Gad is David’s personal prophet.
• ‘three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, or three days of the sword of the LORD’–by taking the census, David has said he’d rather rely on his numbers than God.  God is now saying, ‘Well, let’s see how your numbers stack up against just one of the terrible things that can happen.’
• ‘Let me fall into the hands of the LORD’–just as after Uriah’s murder, even now, David trusts that God will ultimately prove merciful.
• ‘with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem’–David and his councilors come upon something truly terrifying: a huge destroying angel, with a drawn sword, apparently on his way to Jerusalem.  What they don’t know is that God has just instructed him to stop.  They catch sight of him just as he is about to sheath his sword, but it probably looks to them like he is drawing it instead.
• ‘I, the shepherd, have sinned and done wrong’–it does seem unfair that the people are paying for David’s mistake.  However, if you’ll remember from the beginning of our story, before Saul, the people didn’t have kings, but were governed directly by God.  Against God’s objections, they insisted that they wanted a king instead.  I guess an unavoidable part of the whole monarchy package is that the lives of everyone hinge on the decisions of one man.  Even with a pretty good king like David, that can sometimes come back to bite you, as it does in this instance.
• ‘let your hand fall on me and my family’–granting what I say above about the inevitable pitfalls of having a king, it’s still good to see David respond with humility, sorrow, and a desire to take the punishment for his actions on himself.  All along, through his ups and downs, David’s saving grace has been that he’s a different sort of king.  He’s generally humble before God, and he usually sees himself as the people’s servant rather than their master.  With this census, he has momentarily forgotten both of those things.  Upon seeing the suffering that results, he snaps back to his old self.
• ‘No, I insist on paying the full price’–out of deference to the king and in light of the emergency circumstances, Araunah is willing to cede his threshing floor to David as eminent domain.  But David wants to be very certain here not to take advantage of one of his subjects.  Assuming royal privilege is what has gotten into trouble in the first place, after all.
• ‘with fire from heaven’–by sending fire from heaven, God is dramatically demonstrating acceptance of David’s offering.
• ‘he put his sword back into its sheath’–I bet everyone breathed a big sigh of relief here.
• ‘at that time on the high place at Gibeon’–the tabernacle is the tent that represents God living among humans.  It’s a little surprising to hear that the tabernacle is at Gibeon.  Last we heard, the ark of the covenant was in Jerusalem; and the ark and the tabernacle should go as a set.  Did the tabernacle and the ark somehow get separated?  Is the ark on tour?  Regardless, the reason it’s significant here is that offerings are only supposed to be sacrificed on the altar found in the tabernacle.  But the official altar is too far away for David to get to it under the circumstances; you don’t want to keep an angel with drawn sword waiting.  Still, breaking the normal rules must have been a bit unsettling.  After all, last time they departed from the proper ritual, by carrying the ark on an oxcart, Uzzah ended up dead.  In this case, however, it’s the sword-wielding angel himself who suggests the new altar.

Taking it Home

• For you: One last time, we respond to the day’s reading with a psalm.  If you need them, you can look to the note at the beginning of the week for suggestions about what to do with the psalm.

Psalm 38

1 LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger

or discipline me in your wrath.

2 Your arrows have pierced me,

and your hand has come down on me.

3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;

there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.

4 My guilt has overwhelmed me

like a burden too heavy to bear.

5 My wounds fester and are loathsome

because of my sinful folly.

6 I am bowed down and brought very low;

all day long I go about mourning.

7 My back is filled with searing pain;

there is no health in my body.

8 I am feeble and utterly crushed;

I groan in anguish of heart.

9 All my longings lie open before you, Lord;

my sighing is not hidden from you.

10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me;

even the light has gone from my eyes.

11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;

my neighbors stay far away.

12 Those who want to kill me set their traps,

those who would harm me talk of my ruin;

all day long they scheme and lie.

13 I am like the deaf, who cannot hear,

like the mute, who cannot speak;

14 I have become like one who does not hear,

whose mouth can offer no reply.

15 LORD, I wait for you;

you will answer, Lord my God.

16 For I said, “Do not let them gloat

or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.”

17 For I am about to fall,

and my pain is ever with me.

18 I confess my iniquity;

I am troubled by my sin.

19 Many have become my enemies without cause

those who hate me without reason are numerous.

20 Those who repay my good with evil

lodge accusations against me,

though I seek only to do what is good.

21 LORD, do not forsake me;

do not be far from me, my God.

22 Come quickly to help me,

my Lord and my Savior.

• For your six: I’m impressed by David’s ability to stay in it.  He is kind of like a marathon runner, who just keeps at it.  In the face of his own mistakes, God’s punishment, and incredible pain and frustration, David just keeps pressing in and connecting with God…even when he might not be on the best of terms with God or at all like what God is doing.  Pray that your six would have the same endurance to push through to connection with God.  Pray for any ways that your six have been hurt by churches or people of faith or have had troubling experiences of God that make it hard for them.  Ask that God would be with them through their struggles and questions and that he would reveal himself to them.
• For our church: Pray that God would give our church the tenacity to plead before him, like David did.  Pray that collectively as a church we would lift up large concerns and boldly ask God to come through for us, for our city, and for the world.  Ask God to raise up people who feel specifically called to help lead our initiatives to pray together.
• For families: It can be easy to want to rely on how things look in this world rather than exercising faith in what God can do. Talk with your family about things you each want to see happen, things that seem impossible based on the numbers or facts of this world. Then talk about some things God has come through on in the past that have have seemed impossible. Pray together that God would give you the faith to believe for this thing you want regardless of how it might look on the outside.

• ‘he became exhausted’–David isn’t as young as he used to be.  He doesn’t have the stamina to fight a long battle anymore.  This guy Ishbi-Benob is no Goliath–his spearhead is only half as heavy as Goliath’s was–and yet David can’t handle him on his own.
• ‘These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath’–this chapter feels to me a bit like the tying up of loose ends.  David has only four remaining enemies, these sons of Rapha.  One by one, they are hunted down and defeated by the Mighty Men.  And with the defeat of the last son of Rapha, David finally has complete peace on every side.
• ‘the horn of my salvation’–the horns of an animal are a common image of strength in the Bible’s poetry.
• ‘He mounted the cherubim’–you may or may not remember from the description of the ark of the covenant (2 Samuel 6, Sunday, April 3rd) that cherubim are God’s angelic attendants. Apparently, at least for the purposes of this song, David imagines these angels as being in animal form. Not only are they God’s servants or guardians, but steeds God can ride as well.  Some people think that the people of David’s day pictured the cherubim as being like sphinxes or griffins; but we’re not really sure.

Taking it Home

• For you: Chapter 22 is like a medley of a number of David’s psalms, recounting the ways that God has worked over the course of David’s life.  If you were to compile your own list of the ways God has helped you or the different seasons you’ve had with God what would it look like? Start at the beginning of your life–or maybe even just the beginning of this week–and reflect on what God has been doing in your life. If you’re still in the middle of a season where you haven’t seen God ‘rescue you’ or don’t feel like he has brought you into a ‘spacious place,’ that’s okay; it doesn’t have to be rosy.  Use the time to be honest with God about how things are going, telling God the ways in which you really do need him to rescue you.
• For your six: The image of God reaching down from on high to take a hold of us might be one of my favorites.  It’s a comforting image of God looking out for us and a reminder that God is the one who willingly and actively pursues us.  Pray that God would increase the ways that he is reaching out to your six.  Pray that your six would see how God is working, and know that God sees them and is drawing them out of whatever deep waters they may be in.
• For our church: David recounts how God took him from a place of angst, trouble, and heartache to a place that felt spacious, abundant, and resourced.  Ask God to give our church a sense of that same abundance.  Pray that we wouldn’t feel tired, down, over-responsible, and driven, but instead that we would feel connected to the bigness of God’s love and generosity.  Pray that the decisions we make, programs we run, and initiatives we start would be based upon and would reflect God’s abundance.
• For families: Look at the poster that your family made listing  your Leap of Faith prayers (if you don’t have a poster, just talk about your prayers). Take time to praise God for the things he is doing to fulfill these prayers. Also, take time to praise God for all the other things he is doing that you maybe weren’t even praying for or expecting.

Points of Interest

• ‘a troublemaker named Sheba’–as the last chapter ends, after the collapse of Absalom’s rebellion, all of the tribes are clambering over one another trying to show that they’ve always been loyal to David.  They’re all so insistent that they start to get on one another’s nerves:

‘Let me carry the kings’ bags.’

‘No, no.  I’ll carry them.’

‘No, I insist, let me.’

Sheba uses the confusion of this moment of bad temper to start yet another rebellion.

• ‘He provided for them but had no sexual relations with them’–these ten concubines have been through a lot.  And it would just be too much, for everyone, for them to be passed back and forth between father and son.  So, David gives them a quiet retirement.
• ‘the king said to Amasa’–as part of the peace settlement after the battle with Absalom’s forces, the king makes Amasa, Absalom’s general, the commander of the army.
• ‘he took longer than the time the king had set for him’–Amasa’s weakness as a general seems to be slowness to muster.  Just as he let David get across the Jordan to a fortified position, he’s now letting Sheba get away.
• ‘Take your master’s men’–that would be Abishai’s brother Joab’s men.  In the reorganization of the military caused by Amasa’s promotion, Joab is made the commander of special forces: the Kerithites, the Pelithites, and the Mighty Men.
• ‘Amasa came to meet them’–Joab’s special forces roll out quickly and catch up with Sheba, but Amasa finally arrives with the bulk of the army before Joab’s men have a chance to engage in battle.
• ‘Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand’–Joab is what I call a complicated man: one part voice of reason, one part psychotic killer.  He often shows better military and even political judgement than David: he’s the one who brokered the earlier peace between Absalom and David; he kept his head during the whole Rabbah campaign and Uriah incident when David did not; he kept the army together and avoided a wider war during the battle with Absalom.  Again and again, he proves himself a good general and statesman.  And yet, he’ll murder a personal rival without so much as a blink of an eye.  There’s no way he’s going to let this young upstart give him orders.
• ‘whoever is for David, let him follow Joab’–regardless of what David might say about it, Joab regains command of the army.
• ‘Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth Maakah’–what at first looked like a widespread rebellion turns out to be just Sheba’s own clan.  Joab is able to quickly contain him.
• ‘Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy!’–this reminds me of a mafia godfather saying, ‘I’m a family man, a simple importer of olive oil.’  The guy who just poked the king’s son through with javelins and stabbed his rival in the gut with a hidden dagger is saying, ‘Who, me?  I’m a man of peace.’  To his credit, though, he has proven willing to avoid unnecessary bloodshed in battle.
• ‘they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikri and threw it to Joab’–he may be family and all, but in the end, the town is not willing to die for the sake of Sheba’s ill-conceived, slapdash rebellion.
• ‘Adoniram was in charge of forced labor’–the soldiers of defeated armies were often assigned hard labor as a punishment.  The point of this paragraph as a whole, by the way, seems to be that David has re-established control.  His administration is firmly in place again.

Taking it Home

• For you: As we’ve done all week, we’re responding to today’s passage with a psalm of David.  See the beginning of the week for some thoughts about how to use the psalm.

Psalm 5

1 Listen to my words, LORD,

consider my lament.

2 Hear my cry for help,

my King and my God,

for to you I pray.

3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;

in the morning I lay my requests before you

and wait expectantly.

4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;

with you, evil people are not welcome.

5 The arrogant cannot stand

in your presence.

You hate all who do wrong;

6 you destroy those who tell lies.

The bloodthirsty and deceitful

you, LORD, detest.

7 But I, by your great love,

can come into your house;

in reverence I bow down

toward your holy temple.

8 Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness

because of my enemies—

make your way straight before me.

9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;

their heart is filled with malice.

Their throat is an open grave;

with their tongues they tell lies.

10 Declare them guilty, O God!

Let their intrigues be their downfall.

Banish them for their many sins,

for they have rebelled against you.

11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad;

let them ever sing for joy.

Spread your protection over them,

that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous;

you surround them with your favor as with a shield.

• For your six: You have to think it was rather devastating for David to have Sheba turn on him just as the trouble with Absalom was ending.  ‘Who’s next?’ he must have wondered.  Ask God to comfort your six over any ways that they have been abandoned by people–whether it was recently or long ago.  Pray that they wouldn’t continue to carry that feeling of abandonment, but that God would give them a sense of belonging.  Ask God to take away any feelings of loneliness they might be experiencing and to give them a strong community of support.
• For our church: The woman from Abel Beth Maakah becomes an unlikely ally to Joab and his troops.  Ask God to give our church alliances with unlikely people, institutions, and sectors of society.  Pray that God would make the dream our church has of influencing secular culture a reality, and that he would do so through unique and creative partnerships.
• For families: Take a look at your family’s Leap of Faith poster on the project God is calling you to as a family in this time. Have you already taken any actions on this? How is it going? Ask God to show you any unlikely people that might help you take the next step toward his idea for your family. If you sense that he’s giving you a name, go talk to that person and see what they might offer.