May 17 - May 27 War, War and more War

That's one thing that goes on a ton in the old testament is war. David fled from Naioth in Ramah from Saul. He asks Saul's son Jonathan why he wants to kill him and Jonathan won't believe it. Jonathan does finally figure out his dad does want to kill David and tells David "Go in peace, for we have sworn loyalty to each other in the Lord's name. The Lord is the witness of a bond between us and our children forever." So David leaves.
Saul continues to hunt David killing those who help him. During the chase Saul goes into a cave to relive himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that cave.
"Now's your opportunity!" David's men whispered to him. "Today the Lord is telling you, 'I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.'" So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul's robe. David's conscience began to bug him "The Lord knows I shouldn't have done that to my lord the king," he said to his men. "The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king and attack the Lord's anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him." So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.
Once Saul left the cave David came out and shouted after him asking him why he listens to the people who say he is trying to kill him. David tells him "This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn't true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back in the cave." he tells him "Look my father at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn't kill you."
David finishes speaking and Saul says to David "You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil."
Now no one is trusting anyone and of coarse Saul starts to chase David again. He even approaches him and his men in a cave while they are sleeping and Abishai, who is with David, says "Let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won't need to strike twice!"
"No!" David said. "Don't kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord's anointed one? Surely the Lord will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle. the Lord forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed! But take his spear and that jug of water beside his head, and then let's get out of here!"
David climbed the hill opposite the camp until he was at a safe distance. He shouts down again he could have killed Saul and wanted to know why he was chasing him. Saul exclaims he has sinned and will chase David no more. David knows better so he escapes to the Philistines. Then Saul will stop hinting him in Israelite territory.
David continues to conquer but only after consulting the Lord! When the Lord gives him the thumbs up and lets him know that He will be with him, David and his men attack.
A day comes when the Philistines attacked Israel. They closed in on Saul and his sons and killed three of his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malkishua. Saul was wounded severly and takes his own life by falling on his sword rather then be captured and tortured. His arm bearer does the same so Saul, his three sons, his armor bearer, and his troops all died together that same day.
David and his men hear of the death of Saul and all mourned and wept all day for Saul, his son Jonathan and the Lord's army because they had died by the sword that day.
Now that Saul is dead David and his families all moved to Judah and the men of Judah came out and crowned him king over the people of Judah. David heard that the men of Jabesh-gilead had buried Saul, he sent this message to them: "May the Lord bless you for being so loyal to your master Saul and giving him a decent burial. May the Lord be loyal to you in return and reward you with his unfailing love! And I, too, will reward you for what you have done. Now that Saul is dead, I ask you to be my strong and loyal subjects like the people of Juday, who have anointed me as their new king."
But Abner the commander of Saul's army had already proclaimed Ishbosheth, Saul's son, king of Gilead, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, the land of Sahurites, and all the rest of Israel.
So of coarse eventually there was a battle between David's men and Abner and the men of Israel. David's forces were victorious. There was a long war between those who were loyal to saul and those loyal to David. As time passed David became stronger and stronger, while Saul's dynasty became weaker and weaker.
Abner, commander of Ishbonesheth's armies, makes and agreement with David to make him king over all of Israel then heads back to his camp. Joab and his brother Abishi call Abner back and kill him becaus Abner had killed their brother Asahel at the battle of Gibeon. David is furious and says "May the family of Joab be curese in every generation with a man who has open sores or leprosy or who walks on crutches or dies by the sword or begs for food!"
David makes a vow "May God strike me and even kill me if I eat anything before sundown." This pleased the people very much. Everything the king did pleased them!
Ishbosheth loses all courage when he hears of Abner's death and became paralyzed with fear. He is then killed in his sleep by Baanah and Recab two brothers who were captiain's of his raiding parties. They cut off his head and took it to David expecting to be praised instead David has them killed for killing an innocent man in his own house.
David and his men then then head to Jerusalem to fight against the Jebusites, the original inhabitants of the land who were living there. David captures the fortress of Zion, which is now called the City of David.
David became king over all of Israel he was 30 years old and reigned for 40 years. And David became more and more powerful because the Lord God of Heaven's Armies was with him. He asks the Lord "Should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?"
The Lord replied to David, "Yes, go ahead. I will certainly hand them over to you." David conquers the Philistines. He then leads his trouops to Baalah of Judah to bring back the Ark of God. On their way the oxen stumbled and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. Then the Lord's anger was aroused against Uzzah and God struck him dead because of this. So Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God. No one was to physically touch the Ark of God.
David was angry because of Uzzahs death and instead of taking the Ark home to the City of David he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath. The Lord blessed Obed-edom's houshold and everything in it because of the Ark of God. So David went and brought it home to the City of David.
Now you may or maynot know about the story of David and Bathsheba. David is walking on the roof of his palace and noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, "She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite." David sends messangers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She becomes pregnant. David writes a letter to Joab instructing him to "Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is firecest. Then pull back so that he will be killed." So he stationed him close to the city wall and he Uriah the Hittite the wife of Bathsheba was killed.
When the period of mourning was over David sent for her and brought her to the palace, and she became one of his wives. She gave birth to a son. But the Lord was displeased with what David had done.
The Lord sends Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: "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 liek a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of th rich man. but instead of killan 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 was furious. "As surely as the Lord lives any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He musty repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity."
Nathan said to David, "You are the 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 workd 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. This is what the Lord says: Because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will go to bed with them in public view. You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly in the sight of all Israel."
Then David confessed to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord."
Nathan replied, "YA THINK?!?!?" Ok no he didn't he 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 Lord by doing this, your child will die."
And an illness came upon the child he had with Bethsheba and David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground. On the seventh day the child died. David washed himself, put on lotions, and changed his clothes and went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. After that, he returned to the palace and ate.
His advisors said. "We don't understand you, while the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the chiild is dead, you have stopped your mounring 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."
David then comforted Bethsheba and she became pregnant with a son. They named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child and sent word through Nathan the prophet that they should name him Jedidiah (which means "beloved of the Lord")

Throughout all of this reading I kept going back to why things would happen and wouldn't understand why the Lord wouldn't just raise his hand and wipe evil from the earth and we could all live in Pleasantville. I think there is a bigger picture that we couldn't even fathom! How that plan unfolds is mostly up to God. The plan will unfold as Stovall preached this past week the in our "Suffer Well" series our mistakes or bad choices will NOT change the outcome of God's will if we seek Him. I don't think God wants to be a puppet master and make us do what he wants. He created us to worship him but he gave us free will to make choices. We don't always choose wisely. When we don't there is a stirring up inside us like what happened to David when he had a chance to kill Saul. Now it's even stronger with the Holy Spirit stirring inside of us it's just a matter of if we listen or not.

It is written that the earth to Satin that's why you hear quotes of "Be in the world not of the world." And the Lord shows his power through everyday people like David and us. But as you can see by his HUGE mistake with Bethsheba there are consequences for bad choices. And the punishment seems to be right at the heart sometimes. We might think it's not fair that the son had to die because David was a meathead but David had to live with that scar on his heart for the rest of his life. I'm sure that made him even more passionate about doing the Lords will.

When people say "If there was a God then why is there shootings in schools and needless death." My thought is we fight so hard to keep God out of School and open this Pandora's box of believe whatever that He's letting us make the choice. All throughout the battles when they wouldn't seek God's direction or would want a king to rule them and fall away from God and worship idols things got messy! Then they would turn back to the Lord and God would take them back in his arms and clean thing sup. The world is messed up.....I say be in the world with God and do what you can to make it better but realize that life is just a mist in eternity and true peace comes in being part of the body of Christ....Well that's the way I see it:)