May 2
2 Samuel 24:1-9; 1 Chronicles 21:1-6; 2 Samuel 24:10-17; 1 Chronicles 21:7-17; 2 Samuel 24:18-25; 1 Chronicles 21:18-22:19
David blew it again, this time lifted up in pride and taking a census. Like David, we too, will sin over and over again. What we notice in David is a response that reflects spiritual maturity. He accepts the fault. He rests on the mercy of God. Rather than anger, bitterness, or disillusionment in the aftermath, he immediately moves to worship and praise of God. May we all adopt this same mindset as we navigate our walk with God. One prayer from The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions on spiritual growth is: "Give me a tender, wakeful conscience that can smite and torment me when I sin. May I be consistent in conversation and conduct, the same alone as in company, in prosperity and adversity, accepting all Thy commandments as right, and hating every false way. May I never be satisfied with my present spiritual progress, but to faith add virtue, knowledge, temperance, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. May I never neglect what is necessary to constitute Christian character, and needful to complete it."
This same plot of land, separated by a millennia each time, stands as the backdrop for so much. Abraham in Genesis 22 was told by God to offer up his son, Isaac at this same location, Mount Moriah. In sheer faith in the One True God, Abraham takes the three day journey to this location. When Isaac asks his father, about what they would sacrifice, we see in his answer a look towards the ultimate fulfillment, as we read in 22:8, "And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering". Move forward 1000 years later, the plague has already resulted in the death of 70,000 men of the people of Israel. David, then seeing the Angel of the Lord (a pre-incarnate Jesus on earth) on the floor of Araunah, also Mount Moriah, we read in 2 Samuel 24:17, "Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
We then move 1000 years later, and this time we come to another sacrifice. The plague was not the same as with David, but is the same plague that affected mankind since the time of Adam straight through to our current day. That plague is sin. Like Isaac, so many years beforehand, in faith, he allowed himself to be offered up. Like David, He knew that it had to cost something, in the case of Jesus and to cleanse us from sin, it would cost Jesus His life. In the Garden of Gethsemane the night before, Jesus asked the Father if there was any other way. But Jesus was and is the only way. Abraham and David showed spiritual maturity. May we never take lightly what our Savior did for us. We will sin, for we cannot escape the flesh and the world, but as in the prayer above, may our consciences be tender, as we remember what transpired on Mount Moriah, on Calvary, our sins have been paid for in full. So when sin happens, and it will remember the promise in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit".
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: