For Who's sake ?

David is no more, Solomon is no more and Israelites are being led by 2 kings. I couldn't help but read on to find out how many kings followed God and how many didn't. Only 7 out of 37 kings, who came after Solomon ever truly followed the Living Lord. Even with the 7 who followed the instructions of the Living Lord God, no one was like David.

God's testimony of David

• When Solomon turned from the Lord, God told Solomon "1 Kings 11:12Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son."
• When another descendant from Jeroboam was going to take leadership fo Israel God said 1 Kings 15:4 "Nevertheless, for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and by making Jerusalem strong."
• When Jehoshapat became king and did evil in the eyes of the Lord, 2 Kings 8:19 says "Nevertheless, for the sake of his servant David, the LORD was not willing to destroy Judah. He had promised to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever."
• When in fear, King Hezekiah called out to God to save Israel from Sennacherib's attack, God said 2 Kings 19:34 "I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant."
• When Isaiah had given the final word to King Hezekiah that he would die, King Hezekiah prayed with tears and God did add 15 years to his life, however about Israel's protection God said "2 Kings 20:6 "I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.' "

I learnt some very valuable lessons here-

1. God's faithfulness-God did much for Israelites for the sake His servant David. In reading this account, I am reminded of our Lord Jesus Christ, who belonged to the line of David and like God remembered David every time the Israelites did something wrong, deserving punishment, so also whenever God sees unrighteousness among us, God remembers His Son Jesus and we go unpunished so that we may be saved, because of Jesus. The thing is our Living Lord is a just God and to not punish sin would be unlike His just nature, hence God made a WAY for us so that we may escape the penalties of sin. John 3:16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God gave His Son so that we may "believe" in Him and be saved. All God wanted the Israelites to do was be faithful like David and walk like him.
2. God's patience-I wondered, how could the Israelites go on in disobedience the way they did. From having 2 kings, then to idolatry, then worshipping asherah poles, to male shrines to prostitution and whatever vile they could think of. I was getting impatient, but you know what God was very very patient with them, I wondered why and I read in 2 Peter 3:15 "Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him." It was for salvation.
3. Covered from total destruction- God constantly remembered David in His dealings with the children of Israel. Some very good prophets came by after David, yet the people were not fully willing to follow God. God constantly remembered David and for his sake, saved Israel. Isn't it the same case with us? Romans 13:14 says "Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Also Galatians 3:27 "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." So when a Just God looks at me, He sees me, yet in my weak flesh but He sees me clean, because of Lord Jesus, because we wear Jesus. He sees me clean, not because I am clean, but because He sees me through Jesus and so I escape God's wrath because Jesus bore my punishments. Hence 1 Corinthians 15:54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." This is what Jesus did for us. Overcame death for us, so that we may not die eternally.

Conclusion: Over time it is easy to forget, how we came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ in the first place. Who got us introduced to God first of all? Who intercedes for us day in and day out before our Father in heaven? How could we ever call a Living God our Father? It is not by our righteousness, but by our Lord Jesus Christ. After some time is passed on, when we get that joyous feeling that God hears our prayers, I am friends with the Eternal God, it might slip our minds how we got there in the the first place. Its because of our Lord Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-10 "8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do"

Recognize

Solomon did a some things right and a some things wrong. The things he did wrong, would cost Israelites a lot. His heart turned away from God, because of his wives from foreign nations. Also he treated the Israelites very harshly. Here's what the Israelites had to say to Solomon's son Rehoboam. " So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." Well needless to say Rehoboam turned out more worse than his father Solomon. Also in his time the Israelites split up. 16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:"What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them." So now Israel has 2 kings Rehoboam (Solomon's son) and Jeroboam (another guy who was good at his work but had rebelled against Solomon). I read from Rehoboam's life, of an account which really upset me, but taught me a big lesson. Under Rehoboam (David's grandson) the people did evil in God's eyes and started following other gods in the high places. More than that, "25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He carried off the treasures of the temple of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. " and you know what Rehoboam did??? "27 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned these to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king went to the LORD's temple, the guards bore the shields, and afterward they returned them to the guardroom. " Can you imagine that, replacing the gold items from the temple with bronze and guarding it with your life??? I can't. I was immediately reminded of the time when the Amalekites had attacked David's camp in Ziklag in 1 Samuel 30 and how David asked God and chased them down and the Bible records "18 David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else they had taken. David brought everything back."(1 Samuel 30:18-19)

Here's what I learnt

1. A lesson of stewardship -David knew what it meant to be a good steward, he had been a shepherd after all. With the sheep his father had given him he knew he had to take care of them and protect them. With God, he knew that which God had given to him belonged to God(Psalm 24:1). Above all he learnt obedience by prayer, every step of his way, to check whether God had intended that to happen in his life. He had this wonderful "habit" of verifying from God all the situations of his life and every action he needed to take at those times. The moment he knew what he had to do, he acted on it and recovered all. I wonder if Rehoboam ever paid attention when his granfather would have told him stories of the exploits he went on. Rehoboam was quick to replace everything with a cheaper substitute rather than checking and finding out what God would have him do. When pressures from the world try to overwhelm us or our family members, instead of running to take strength from God like David did, we are quick to replace that with other distractions and pay close attention to the distractions. There is a constant attack on the people of God, the evil one tries to steal our wives, our husbands, our children away from us, from our God, hence the Word of God says "Matthew 11:12 "And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize--a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]."
2. Life of passion- Whatever David did, I could feel the passion he had in his life to live it to the best for the glory of the Living God. I sometimes think of him like a hyperactive young boy wanting to do a lot of things with his dad, trying to keep a close fellowship and following God. He wasn't trying to rule a kingdom, he was just trying to live as close to God as possible. Here on, the kings who followed Solomon were trying to maintain a kingdom. They were just there to rule, to have some group of people they wanted to boss over. With David not so. He was passionate about whatever work he did, a wonderful shepherd, even when he struck Goliath he did with the passion he had for the honour of His Living God. Now this guy Rehoboam is quite the opposite. He even goes on to replace the gold of the temple with bronze!!! God's honour and His glory should not and must not be replaced by anything or anyone. In our lives too there are situations when God's honour is at stake because of us, will we replace the glory by something cheaper or fight to get back the glory of God. Even today there are families who are praying for their loved ones to turn to Jesus, lets keep fighting for this is one place where we know we have won and it is God's glory to get back that which already belongs to God (Psalm 24:1).
3. Live like a conqueror-Rehoboam was David's grandson, he surely had the blood of a mighty warrior running through his veins. If he wanted, I am sure he could have defeated that king and taken back all the gold he had taken from the temple of God. However it didn't make much even if David's blood was flowing in his veins because it majorly depended on Rehoboam whether he wanted to use that knowledge and power or not. Even so for us, when we believed in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour the Word of God says in John 1:12-13 "12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent,[c] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. " Our being the children of God was of a pure conception, not becuase of a human desire, but of God, a Holy God. There is no contamination in it, no faults in that connection of blood. So if we are children of God, the blood of our God, pure and powerful flows in our veins and its up to us what we do with that kind of a legacy, sit like losers or get up and be a conqueror like our Lord Jesus. Conquering sin, conquering souls for the Kingdom of God, conquering sickness and diseases. Its in us people of God, the blood of our Lord Jesus of an Almighty God is flowing in our very spiritual body. Oh let us not be like Rehoboam and compromise the glory of God when God has already given us all the equipment we need to have "Romans 8:37 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

Conclusion: Lets not make the mistake that Rehoboam made, lets not let other things steal the glory that belongs to our Living God. More than that lets not replace God's glory with ours. Above all remember we are more than conquerors, the blood of our Living God flows through us, since we are born into the Kingdom of God and have the status of being the children of God according to John 1:12 so lets be conquerors like our Lord Jesus and take back what the devil is trying to take from us, be it our families who dont know the Lord yet, or the possessions that which God has given us to be stewards of (house, car, office work). Lets be passionate about the tasks assigned to us. Its not merely enough that we are kings and princes of our Living Lord, we've a relationship to keep with our Living Lord with passion like David did, to successfully live like kings and priests of our Living God. It wouldnt be that David came and spoke vain words about Goliath if he didn't have th passion to defend the honour of the Living God. Daily, the evil one tries to bring up problems which mock us, and if we truly know how great and mighty our God is and how dare this filthy devil tries to mock at us, we will give the Word of God right back at his face. Thats what wins, thats what makes us true heirs, we have the royal and Holy blood of our Living Father in our lives, lets quit being wimps.

Seriously Faithful

I had a wonderful time studying David's life, and the way he "clung" to God it'll be difficult to continue with the Word of God without mentioning him. More than that this man leaves lasting impressions in the lives of people who come after him. I have now moved on to the Book of 1st Kings and I am amazed at the faithfulness that God is showing, to the promises He had made to David.

David has now passed away and Solomon has taken David's place. He has a done a good job of building the temple, asking the right thing, wisdom to rule God's people. However in the long run, Solomon fails to remain faithful to God. The Bible says in 1 Kings 11 that Solomon had a weakness for women and because of this, "4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been."(1 Kings 11:4) So much so that "9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD's command." (1 Kings 11:9-10). Though God could have removed Solomon from the throne immediately, as he did Saul, God does not remove Solomon and you know why? The Bible says "11 So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." God did not remove Solomon for the sake of David’s faithfulness. Later on Ahijah the prophet met Jeroboam ( a man faithful to his duties, though he rebelled against Solomon) “and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes. 32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 33 I will do this because they have [d] forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon's father, did.” Then Ahijah continued saying “34 " 'But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my commands and statutes. 35 I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you ten tribes. 36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. 37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 39 I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.' "

God talked about David so many times, and kept reminding his descendants how faithful David was and that He would do everything for the sake of the promise God had made to David.

Lessons I learnt

1. Faithfulness to God goes a long way-David’s faithfulness to God sowed the seed for his children’s lives. Our God is a God who remembers His promises to His children from generations to generations, kept David in mind and dealt with them keeping David in mind. Our faith is more powerful than we can imagine. It goes beyond our lives, right upto the lives of our children and our children’s children.
2. Does God really have to bribe us to follow him?-Another big lesson I learnt from David’s life is that, David was not asking God for more money, more kingdoms, more people, more followers etc. All I remember from his life is, he did what he was asked to do. Even when he had to go for battle he would ask God if he should go for it or not. David just followed God. When he fumbled or made a mistake, he asked for forgiveness and went right back on track after God. Doesn’t the Word of God say in Matthew 6:33 "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." I guess this is the biggest lesson I learnt from David’s life. David followed God and God blessed him in whatever he did. Isn’t that the same thing that happened to Joseph, though he went through trials and slavery and punishment for someone else’s fault, God blessed him in whatever he did and finally he came out a winner and all things were added unto him. When Abraham decided to follow God and trust him, he left Ur and later on we see he became rich and famous, just because he had faith in God.
   
   Conclusion-There are two very important lessons I learnt from this, how important our faith and faithfulness is, not only to us but also to our children. The other important thought I was thinking is, if a father had to pay his son or daughter to spend time with him, how cruel that would be. How sad that situation would be. Isn’t that the kind of attitude we’ve got for God today. Going to Him (our Father in heaven) only in time of need and in times of trouble and when we want something. It is true that God is our help in times of trouble, but then what about when the times are good, what’s our relationship with our Living Father then?? Let’s look at our relationship with our Lord very closely and see what our real attitude is towards our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Do we keep looking at God’s hand for all the things we can get or do we want to see His face and enjoy being His children, obedient in bringing a smile upon His face?