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2 Samuel 24:13-14 The Lord's mercy is great - Day 271

Dear faithful readers,

As we come into the home stretch of our trip through the Word, we start to see the completion of the one of  four strands of our reading. (once through OT, Psalms, Proverbs and NT twice).  We are 80% through OT histories and have just reached the high point of national prominence.  It is all down hill from here.

So here are some thoughts about the end of David's reign.

Blessings,

Jeff

We have reached the end of Samuel, the history of transition from judges to kings.  And it ends with David, the best purely human king Israel ever has, doing what seems right in his own eyes and bringing judgment on himself and the nation. 

I think this is a good point to reflect on this period in Israel's history.

The desire to have a king so that they would be like all the other nations (1 Sam 8:4) turns out not to be the solution to all their problems.  While there have been many great victories over their enemies, there have also been defeats and serious sins by Saul and David.

God's consolation to Samuel, that they have not rejected you, but rejected God from being their king (1 Sam 8:7) proves to be true.  As we saw the other day, David was the lamp of Israel, not the Lord.  David has written many psalms declaring God as his personal refuge and the refuge for all the people, but there is still idol worship.

God's warning about what the king would be like (1 Sam 8:10-15) have not yet come to true, but many have.   

While history is made up of many individual events, it isn't the individual events that are most important.  The "one book, one story, one God" is what is important.  There are many individual books, but they are all part of one story.  There are many characters but God is at center stage in all events.  We must not loose sight of the forest for the trees.


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