David's Last Task

David wanted to build the Lord a house. The house or Temple would be built by his son Solomon but David would gather all the material. Remember in our last lesson, that David bought the threshing floor and built an altar to the Lord on the land? That is the site where he wanted the Temple.

David gathered together workman for this monumental task. Stonecutters, iron workers, lumbermen, carpenters, craftsmen, and other artisans, or people to make special ornamental things. He gathered so much bronze, silver, and gold it could not be weighed. He wanted the house to be impressive, saying, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it.” (1Chronicles 22:5)

 

 

 

 

 

 

David called his son, Solomon, and reminded him that the Lord wanted to establish his kingdom through Solomon. The Lord would help Solomon and make him prosperous. David blessed Solomon, “May the Lord give you wisdom and understanding, and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the Lord your God…. Be strong of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (1Chronicles 22:12-13)

David showed Solomon all that he had prepared and told him he could add to it. He told all the people to help Solomon to build the Temple so it could hold the Ark of the Lord and all the sacred articles belonging to God. The Temple would be built for the Name of the Lord.

David knew his time on earth was limited. He had Solomon, his son, to be anointed the next king. He gathered all the priests and princes of the land. He encouraged great wise elders to be by Solomon’s side. David gathered the whole assembly and they anointed Solomon as the next king.

King David’s health began to decline. He took to his bed. There were people in the kingdom who were jealous that Solomon would be king. One was Solomon’s half-brother, Adonijah. He tried to get the people to call him king and made many burnt sacrifices. This was all done without David’s knowledge.

Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother and Nathan the prophet, went to David and told him what was happing behind his back. David arranged for Solomon to be crowned king and to ride in his own mule for all the people to see.

 

This they did, and the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” Solomon forgave his brother, Adonijah, for trying to take away his rightful throne.

David knew his time was ending and called for his son, Solomon. “I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself as a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgements, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the Lord may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons take heed to their ways, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,’ He said, ‘ you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’” (1 Kings 2:2-4)

King David reigned over Israel forty years. He rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David, Jerusalem.

Then Solomon sat on the throne of his father, David; and his kingdom was firmly established. (1 Kings 2:12) Solomon built a beautiful temple to the Lord.

 

The Lord called David a man after His own heart. David loved the Lord. He tried to do right. When he sinned he was quick to acknowledge it and repent. He wrote most of the Psalms in the Bible. Those Psalms are full of crying out to the Lord, the Lord answering, and praise to the Lord His God.

 

I hope you liked learning about David and will be able to apply to your life the things he learned from the Lord. The things David said to Solomon can be true in our lives. If we honor and obey the Lord he will help us. We don’t need to fear because the Lord is with us.

 

Please memorize these words David said to his son Solomon which he quoted from Moses in Deuteronomy 31:7 and 8 and was repeated by Joshua in Joshua1:6,7and9. 1 Chronicles 22:13b …be strong of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.

 

 Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choices

We all have choices to make in our lives. Some choices are easy, like picking what flavor of ice cream we want to eat or what to wear that day. Some choices are more difficult: Do I need to obey right now? Would it be nice if I sit next to this person who doesn’t have many friends? Should I do my chore completely or just part of it and call it good? Tell a lie? Be mean to someone or animal? How about if take something that does not belong to me?

Choices are all around us every day. We need to be wise in our choices. King David had choices to make. This lesson will have three of those choices.

The Lord is in control over all the world and universe. He didn’t make us puppets, to do only what He said, but He made us with a free will. Choices are ours to make. Choices have consequences both good and bad.

The Lord allows Satan to tempt us. In this way, our faith can grow as well as our reliance on the Lord. Satan wanted to bring harm to Israel and the Lord allowed it. Satan temped David to sin against the Lord. He played upon David’s pride and put a thought into his head. This thought was to count the mighty warriors David had in his kingdom.

Years earlier, when the Israelites were to enter the Promised Land, God had them count the people. This is called a census and was used to prepare Israel to conquer the Land.

The Lord didn’t tell David to do this nor did David ask the Lord if he should count the men. We are not sure why David did this, it could have been pride that drove him to see how many fighting men were following him. His reason caused him to ignore what he normally did. He normally asked the Lord if he should do things.

David called Joab, head of the army, to count the people. Joab told David he thought it was a bad idea. David ignored this advice and made him count the people.

The Lord was angry with David. Gad, the Lord’s prophet, came with the word of the Lord to David. Gad told David that he had three choices of punishment: a famine for three years, three months of attack from his enemies, or plague throughout the land with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.  

David saw what he had done wrong and repented. He chose to be punished with the hand of the Lord rather than the hand of men. He said, “The Lord’s mercy is very great.”

The Lord sent one of his angels to slay the people with a terrible plague. This plague, killed seventy thousand men. When the Lord saw the angel about to destroy Jerusalem, he said, “Stop! That is enough!”

David looked up and saw an angel of the Lord standing in the sky with a sword. David and the elders clothed in sackcloth fell face to the ground. David said to the Lord, “I am the one who called for the census! I am the one who has sinned and done wrong! But these people are innocent as sheep—what have they done? O Lord my God, let your anger fall against me and my family, but do not destroy your people.” (1Chronicles 21:17 NLT)

The angel of the Lord told Gad to tell David to build an altar. David was standing on another man’s property. This is where he wanted to build the altar and asked the owner, “Let me buy this threshing floor from you at full price. Then I will build an altar to the Lord there, so that He will stop the plague.” (1Chronicles 21: 22 NLT)

The man said that David could take the land and he would also give him oxen to use for the sacrifice. David said, “No, I must insist on buying it for the full price. I will not take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not present burnt offering that have cost me nothing!” (1Chronicles 21:24 NLT)

David paid 600 pieces of gold for the threshing floor. David made an altar and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. David prayed and the Lord sent fire down from heaven to consume the offering. Then the Lord spoke to the angel, who put his sword back into its sheath.

When David saw the Lord answered his prayer, he sacrificed unto the Lord again with a thankful heart.

David had choices that were hard to make. The first was whether or not to listen to Satan and his own pride. This was a bad choice. He shouldn’t have listened to Satan and he should have ask the Lord if he should do this or not. The Lord probably would have told him he didn’t need to know how many men he had.

The next decision was how he wanted his punishment. He chose to have the Lord deal with him instead of man. I think this was a wise choice. The Lord was merciful and stopped the angel before more people died.

The last choice we looked at is deciding if he should pay for the land where he wanted to make a sacrifice. He may have chosen to take the offer from the owner, and take it as a gift. That would have been easiest. But, David chose the hard way. He wanted it to cost him something. This was a great choice.

Everyone has choices, even a great biblical king like David had choices. Some of his choices we looked at were good choices some unfortunately were not. David repented and learned from his mistakes. All choices have consequences, good or bad.

We need to think before we make our choices. We should ask the Lord if this is what He would want us to do. The answer may be yes, or it may be no. If you have trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, He gave you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will then let you know if it is the right thing to do. You and I have a free will to do what we want, but remember, there are consequences to whatever we do.

Memorize:  Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding; (6) In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path.

 

 Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

Rebellion Part 2

Our last lesson had David’s son, Absalom, trying his best to take the kingdom away from his father. David was chosen by God, anointed by Samuel, and placed on the throne through circumstances that show the Lord wanted him there.

Absalom didn’t ask the Lord. He wanted the position and didn’t care how he got it. He is proud and conniving. The last lesson if you missed click here.

David loved his son and is hurt by what Absalom is doing. One of David’s friends, Hushai, helped David by giving advice to Absalom against the advice he was getting from Ahithophel. Absalom listened to Hushai, which is what the Lord wanted him to do.

Hushai sent word to David through the Priest, Zadok.  Two men, Jonathan and Ahimaaz, were to take word to David. They would get the messages from a servant girl. A young man saw them get the information and told Absalom. Absalom sent men to capture these two.

Ahimaaz and Jonathan went to a man’s house who had a well and climbed down into it. The man’s wife put a covering over the well and then scattered grain over the top. No one knew anything about this.

When Absalom’s men got there looking for the men they were told the men had left and the search revealed nothing. After the men were gone, the two men climbed out of the well and rushed to tell David to cross the river at once.

David, along with all the people that were with him, crossed over the river.
It took all night but by daybreak all were safely on the other side. In this way, Absalom did not get to sneak an attack against David and his people.

The people in the area loved David and took food and blankets to David and the people with him. The Lord was providing for David though these people.

Absalom was bent on destroying David. David knew there was going to be a battle over the kingdom. He put his army together in three groups with three men in charge. He told them to be gentle to Absalom. David didn’t want his son killed. All the men heard this from David.

David was ready to march out with his men but his men were afraid harm would come to him and didn’t want him to go with them. David agreed and stood by the gate and watched them depart to fight.

A great battle ensued. David’s men defeated Absalom’s army with twenty thousand casualties. The forest was dense and helped in bringing the enemy down.

Here is where it gets bad. Absalom sat upon a donkey in the fight and in the dense forest he rode under the trees. Unfortunately, he didn’t duck low enough and his head of hair got caught in the branches. His donkey kept going. He was helplessly hanging there.

A soldier of David’s army saw him but left him there. He told Joab, David’s most trusted warrior and in charge of a third of the army, that he saw Absalom hanging in the tree. Joab was angry that the soldier had not killed Absalom. The soldier reminded him that David had told them to protect Absalom.

Joab took three javelins with him and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while he was alive hanging in the tree. Then, they took Absalom’s body and threw it into a pit and covered it with rocks. Joab blew the trumpet sounding the end of the battle and the enemy fled.

When David learned that his son was dead, he wept and wailed, “O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!” 2Samuel 18:33b.

David wept a great deal because his son was dead. He loved his son even though Absalom was trying to take everything away from David, his father. We should be so generous to our families, friends, neighbors, and even our enemies. We need to forgive those that hurt us—like David did to Absalom. This was a terrible time in David’s life, yet he didn’t sin. He loved and forgave. This is a lesson we all should heed. Don’t be mean to ones that hurt us. We need to forgive those that hurt us.

 

Please memorize: Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Trespass means an act of causing injury to a person, property, or rights of another, committed with force or violence.

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

 

 

 

Rebellion Part 1

There was a bad undercurrent in David’s family. David had many children. And they were not united. David’s children did not do right by each other. Ammon took advantage of his half-sister, Tamar. Absalom who was Tamar’s brother, and half-brother to Ammon found out about this. He killed Ammon and then ran away. He was rebelling against his father's authority. David heard of Ammon's death and he was very upset.

Absalom decided he wanted more than what he had. Absalom was a prince because his father, David, was king. It wasn’t enough for him to be a prince he wanted to rule the kingdom instead of his father.

David sent for Absalom but told him to live in his own house. After two years had gone by, Absalom contrived to see his father, David. Joab, David’s right hand man had a field next to Absalom’s field. Absalom caught Joab’s field on fire so Joab would come to investigate. Then Absalom told Joab to tell the king what he did and that he wanted to see the king. David said Absalom could come to see him. David had missed Absalom and he hugged and kissed him.

The next thing Absalom did was intercept people coming to see the King. He stood at the gate of the city and pulled them aside instead of letting them go in to see the king. He told them pleasant things and acted like he loved them more than king David did.

In this way, he stole the hearts of the people. Then he lied to the king so he could go to Hebron. He contrived for many men to go with him. He was getting a huge following. His goal was to take the throne away from his father, David.  Absalom had people call him king of Hebron. He was proclaiming himself to be king.

 

David heard of what Absalom was trying to do and instead of fighting against his son, he and his household left the city of Jerusalem. Many warriors and people went with David. Zadok the priest along with the other priest took the Ark of the Covenant with them as they left. While the people were leaving the city, the priest made sacrifices to the Lord. David told Zadok to take the Ark back to Jerusalem and said if the Lord is pleased with him, he will return.

David wept all the way up the Mount of Olives with ashes on his head and barefooted. He mourned because of the rebellion of his son. The people with him did likewise.

There were men along the way that were unkind to David but David would not let his men do anything to these mean spirited men.

When they got to their destination, they were exhausted but David refreshed himself and went to the Lord in prayer. Psalm 3 is that prayer.

David had a special friend who went to Absalom’s side to give different advice than Absalom would get from Ahithopel his adviser.
In this way, the Lord frustrated the good advice of Ahithopel in order to bring disaster on Absalom.

The continuing story will be in the next blog. In it we will learn of Absalom’s fate.

Memorize part of the Psalm David wrote: Psalm 3:3-5 But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.  

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

David Sins PT2

To catch the first part of our story about David’s sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah her husband, click here.

The Lord sent Nathan the prophet to speak to David. A prophet is a man who God has chosen to speak through. A prophet tells a person or group of people what God says.

Nathan recounts to David a story in 2Samuel 12:1-13 NLT. “There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor.  The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle.  The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter.  One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.”

David burned with anger against the man. “As surely as the Lord lives,” he vowed, “any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.  I gave you your master’s house and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more.  Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife.  From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own.”

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David was remorseful for his sin but there were still consequences of his sin.

Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin.  Nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the Lord by doing this, your child will die.”

David showed his sorrow over his sin by composing a psalm to the Lord. Psalm 51 is his prayer for forgiveness.

After Nathan left, the Lord struck down David’s child and he became ill. David begged the Lord to spare his son. He went to inside his house and would not eat. He spent the nights lying on the ground. His servants urged him to get up and eat but he refused. On the seventh day, the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him his son was dead for fear of what David would do.

David noticed them whispering and asked, “Is the child dead?”

“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”

David surprised them by getting up and taking a bath. He put on lotions and clean clothes. He walked to the tabernacle of the Lord to worship. Then he went to his own house and ate with them.

His advisers were amazed. “We don’t understand you,” they told him. “While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.”

 David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:21-23 NLT)

David said an insightful thing. He said that he couldn’t bring the child back to life but he would one day go to heaven and see him. He knew that all who believe in the Lord will one day go to heaven. Have you trusted Jesus as your Savior so you can go to heaven someday? To read more about that click here.

 

This verse in Psalm 51, that David wrote, is a great verse to memorize: Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David Sins Part 1

David got tired on the battlefield and was almost slain. The enemy took advantage of David’s fatigue. A Philistine had a heavy spear in his hand and almost killed David with it but David’s warrior saved David’s life. You can read about it in 2 Samuel 21:15-17.

David’s men said to him, “You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.” (2 Samuel 21:17b) This meant that they didn’t want David to die.

David was a man of action. He had been a warrior since his youth. Staying home was not the best for David. It was a time of war and he sent his commander, Joab, to fight the Ammonites and they won the battle but David remained at home.

In the cool of the evening, David wandered up on his roof top. The buildings then were flat with an entrance to the roof. There they stored things or used it for extra space like our patios or porches of today. He looked over his city and out on an adjacent roof was a beautiful woman.

He inquired about her and was told her name was Bathsheba and she was married to one of David’s soldiers named, Uriah.

David desired her and took her to his house even though she belonged to another man. This was a sin. She became pregnant and this made David do another terrible sin.

He called for Uriah from battle. Uriah ate and talked with David and then that night he slept on the floor near the door with the guards. He didn’t go home to his wife.

He said, “The ark of the Lord dwells in a tent. The other officers and soldiers sleep on the ground this night in battle. I shall not go home and sleep in a nice comfy bed.”

David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to give to him. The letter told Joab to put Uriah at the front where the fighting was the fiercest. He wanted Uriah to die!

Joab did as he was told and put Uriah in the worst place. It was near the walls of the city where the enemy’s army could shoot arrows down from the walls. There Uriah and many other men were killed.

Joab sent word to David that Uriah was dead. David was relieved. He told Joab not to be too upset about the loss of life and to overtake the city and destroy it.

Bathsheba heard about her husband’s death and mourned for him. Later, David sent for her and she became his wife and bore him a son. The thing that David did displeased the Lord.

God wants us to do right. When we sin, it hurts us as well as others. The Lord wants us to have happy lives. Sin messes up our lives. Sin hurts us and causes us to be further from the Lord. In the next lesson, we will learn what happens to David because of his sin.

 

Memorize: Deuteronomy 13:4a You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice…

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good vs. Best

Does The Ark of the Lord need a building? King David thinks so. David realized he had a beautiful place to live but the Ark of the Lord was housed in a tent. He felt he should build a permanent structure for the ark.

As we continue in the life of David, we find David wanting to do a good thing. The Ark of the Lord has always dwelt in a tent. Remember when we talked about when the tabernacle and the ark was made? If you missed it look here.

David loves the Lord God and wants to do things to please Him. He decides that a house for the Lord would be a good thing to build. I think David had a plan for a huge magnificent building. He may have started drawing up the plans. David was wise and before he began what he thought was a good thing to do, he spoke with God’s prophet.

He told the prophet Nathan of his plan, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under tent curtains.” 

Then Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.” (1Chronicles 17:1-2)

The Lord had  a different intent. The word of God came to Nathan that night and told him to tell David what He had in mind. The Lord said He never asked for a building made with hands. The Lord has dwelt in a tent that was designed by Himself. Through the years, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, even when they were in the land with the judges shepherding His people, He didn’t ask for a building to be made.

The Lord gave a special promise to David. First, He reminded David how He had made David prosper. David’s name is great throughout the Land.

Then God told David that He will one day have a permanent building that David’s son would build. “Your son shall build Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be my son; and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever.” (1 Chronicles 17: 12-14)

David’s son who was not born yet would be the next king and build the house of the Lord. David would gather all the materials but would not start construction. It was a good thing David wanted to do, but the best thing was for him to gather the materials and let his son take on the challenge. The Lord had his purpose for doing it this way. It was the best way.

Sometime in your life you will want to do something good for the Lord but the Lord will have you do something different. The way the Lord wants for you will be the best thing for you to do. We need to make sure that we do the best for the Lord not just what seems good for us to do. To choose what is best over what is good takes a lot of prayer and seeking God’s will in our life.

Don’t settle for doing a good thing when you can do the best thing.

David was excited to see what the Lord was going to do. He praised the Lord and you can read his praise in 1 Chronicles 17:16-27. There are familiar words that have been put into songs to the Lord: O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You… 1 Chronicles 17:20a.

That is a wonderful praise verse. Please memorize it: 1 Chronicles 17:20a. O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

Keep Your Promises

You may remember that David’s best friend, Jonathan, died in the same battle King Saul died in. Many years before, David and Jonathan made promises to each other that they would take care of each other’s families.

David asked if there was any person alive from Saul or Jonathan’s family. A man told David that there remained a son of Jonathan named Mephibosheth. That is a very long name. I’m sure his family and nursemaid called him Mephy or something similar for short.

Let me tell you his story.

The land of Israel saw unrest when Saul died. Most of the people wanted David to be king but some wanted one of Saul’s remaining sons. The country was divided. The north took Ish-Bosheth (another long name) and the south took David, each to be king over their territory. This worked for a short time until some fierce men took the life of Ish-Bosheth.

The news traveled fast and came to a woman who was taking care of Mephibosheth. She was afraid that those bad men would be after Mephibosheth.

 

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I imagine it may have happened like this:

“Hurry, we must hide far away!” said Mephy’s babysitter.

Mephy shimmied on his stomach and reached under his bed. In his right hand he clutched a horse and wagon, with his other hand he reached for more toys. “I need to take my camel and lion!” 

“We don’t have much time! They could be here any moment! Come on!”

His nursemaid grabbed him by the back of his tunic, pulled him to a sitting position, and then picked him up. “Humph, you are growing too fast! I shall still carry you because we mustn’t dawdle.” She picked up the edge of her dress and the bag containing clothes and a loaf of bread.

Mephy was startled because she had never acted like this before. He was angry and frightened and started to cry. “Put me down! I want my toys!” He kicked his legs.

She clinched her teeth and repositioned him. “Stop wiggling. We need to move fast.”

They were up in the nursery overlooking the court yard. The way down was a knotted rope that Mephy used sometimes, which was much more fun, and a circular stairway. She always used the stairs. They had been constructed years before out of flat rocks.

She was normally careful because some stones were a little loose. This time however, she was in a tizzy. She flew down the stairs. All of a sudden she lost hold of her skirt. The skirt whipped around her raised foot and caught it. This caused her to careen down head first. “

“Oh! Aah!” the nurse wailed. Neither one of them could slow the accent. The screams and crash was terrible. At the bottom of the stairs was a tangled mess of arms and legs going every which way.

A few servants heard the commotion and rushed to their aid. The fallen were motionless. the servants gingerly unwrapped them and carried them to an adjoining room. There they laid them on a pallet. The pallet was a bed for one of the servants and had a rough wool blanket.

Soon, the nurse woke. She had a terrible bump on her head and a raging headache. “What happened?”

“You took a tumble down the stairs.”

“Mephy?”

Mephy’s ankles were in sad shape. “He will need some attention. It’s a good thing he isn’t aware at the moment,” said the big man who carried her in.

The nursemaid sat up and saw at once that Mephy’s ankles were badly broken. “Bring me strips of cloth and some planed wood from the carpenter’s shop. We need to set these right away.”

She made splints for Mephy legs. The big man carried Mephy to a neighboring village to hide from the bad guys. The nurse took good care of Mephy by giving him herbs she ground into a powder. She mixed them with water for him to drink for the pain. There were no doctors or hospitals then. She did the best she could but from then on he was lame. We don’t know if he used crutches or crawled around. Maybe he was carried wherever he went. He may have just had a severe limp.

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 We aren't sure how Mephibosheth was injured. We only know that his nurse dropped him when fleeing and he became lame in both feet. David brought Mephibosheth to live in his house and cared for him. Mephibosheth ate at David’s table and David gave him land to own. David assigned a special person to look after the land and grow crops for Mephibosheth.

 

David kept his oath or promise to Jonathan.

Have you made a promise to someone? A promise is something we must keep. If you don’t know if you can keep the promise, don’t make the promise. It would be better to not promise than to break the promise. An oath or vow, are other names for a promise.

Please memorize this verse: Numbers 30:2 If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Joyfyul Best

The last time we looked at David’s life he had just became king and tried to bring the Ark of the Covenant back. This failed and one man died. You can read about it here.

David at this point in his life trusts God completely and makes a habit of asking the Lord what he should do. Remember the Philistines? They are the ones who had Goliath as their main weapon. They have been creating havoc and raided towns during Saul’s reign.

The Philistines are at it again, only this time, David is king and he inquires of the Lord. “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?”

The Lord said, “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand.” (1Chronicles 14:10)

David was pleased the Lord let David defeat them. The Philistines brought their idols with them and David had them burned.

More Philistines raided the valley. David inquired of the Lord again and this time the Lord gave David a strategy. The plan was to circle around behind them. There a clump of Mulberry trees shielded them from the Philistines.

The Lord said to David, “When you hear marching in the top of the trees, move out into battle.” (1 Chronicles 13:14)

Wow, do you know what that means? God’s army marched down from heaven to go before David and help him win that battle! Angels fought for David!

Cool, I wish I could have seen that! How about you? David wrote a Psalm of deliverance, Psalm 18.

David’s fame spread throughout the land and the Lord made the other nations fear him.

Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” (2Samuel 6:12)

This time, David retrieved the ark the correct way. He had learned his lesson about obeying the rules God laid out to move the ark. David did more than was required of him to move the ark. Not only did he have the Levites carry the ark but after the first 6 steps they stopped and sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep to the Lord. They played trumpets to the Lord. David was so happy to be getting the ark. He danced and played music before the Lord all the way to the city.

Everything was going great. The ark was coming home to the place David had set up for it. He was obeying the Lord in how to move the ark. It was a happy occasion and David danced with all his might before the Lord. But sadly, there was one problem.

Michal, David’s wife who was Saul’s daughter, looked out the window and saw David leaping and whirling before the Lord and she despised him. She didn’t understand David nor his motives.

David had the Levites carry the ark to the Tabernacle that David had prepared and there they offered more sacrifices to the Lord. David blessed the people and gave every one of them presents of bread, a cake of dates, and a cake of raisins. The whole house of Israel was happy to have brought up the ark. David wrote a Psalm of praise, Psalm 105.

It took a lot of planning to get the ark back. David needed to find the priestly line of Levites and get them ready to take care of the ark. He needed to have craftsmen make the tabernacle to house the ark and hold sacrifices there.

When we do a job we need to investigate how it should be done and do it to the best of our ability. We should also do it with gladness. All jobs big and small should be done this way. David learned to do it correctly. If the task at hand is not one we particularly want to do we still should do a decent job. Also, we need to have a good attitude.

Next time you have a job whether it’s doing chores, homework, taking care of pets, making cookies, or whatever it may be, do a terrific job and have fun.

 

Memorize: Psalm 98:4-6 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises. 5) Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm, 6) with trumpets and the sound of the horn; shout joyfully before the Lord, the King.

 

Verses in NKJV unless otherwise stated