01/06/2020 – Day 234 – 1 Chronicles 11 – 15 – Our place is just to obey, God produces the results!
The Jebusites , inhabitants of Jerusalem, declared to the newly crowned David, King of Israel, “You shall not come in here.” Little did they know that God was in charge. It reminds me of the six day war in 1967 where Israel, attacked from all sides from Arab nations, ended up taking back Jerusalem once again.
“The Mighty Men of David” section at the end of Chapter 11 and
The Growth of David’s Army” in Chapter 12 brings me once again to a comparison to our modern day Navy SEAL elite commandos. God had a place for these mighty warriors for this time and place to accomplish His purposes. And so is the case of use now in our world to fight on for His remnant church, vastly outnumbered as we are. My Bible footnote to 11: 17-19: ” Rather than drink in the pleasures and comforts of the Christian life, his reasonable service is to present himself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and pour his life out as a drink offering to the Lord. “
Chapter 13 describes the tragic death of Uzza at the hands of God for disobeying God’s instructions to the Levites to “never touch a holy thing, lest they die.” (See Numbers 4:15) David is crestfallen, seeing his failure of leadership here as well, resulting in a man’s death. He does learn from this tragic mistake as we see in 1 Chronicles 15:15 , the end of our reading today. He could have backed off this 2nd attempt to bring the Ark back to Jerusalem, but he faced it head on.
Finally, as bespeaks the title of this daily reading, in Chapter 14, David inquired of God twice against the Philistines, with victorious results so striking that the chapter closes with: “and the Lord brought fear of him upon all nations. David most likely inquired of God through the Priests “Urim and Thummim” on his breatplate, which was worn over the ephod.
Only the King or very high officials could consult God using the Urim and the Thummim, and then it could only be used for questions that affected the entire nation , as was the case hear. Their use did not extend beyond the Babylonian captivity. And little is left us in the way of a detailed description of the Urim and the Thummim. But they provided either a “yes” or “no” answer, just two choices, left or right.
https://bible.org/question/how-did-urim-and-thummim-function
Soli Deo Gloria!