Did you read it?
Did you notice verses 1 and 2 are NOT questions?!
What do you make of that? That they are not questions, I mean?
Did you see that it takes practicing verse 5 for verses 6 and 7 to be activated in our lives?
Okay. I’m done.
Did you know that 1 Chronicles 17 and 2 Samuel 7 are companion chapters?
I didn’t until today, specifically.
Today, as I began to read I said to myself, wait this reads like what I read a few days ago.
So, I checked, and yes 1 Chronicles 17 and 2 Samuel 7 mirror each other.
Even though the information mirrors one another, the account was fresh today.
A different portion lifted off the page today.
Here, let me share it with you.
I encourage you to either pick up your own copy of Scripture or use this LINK and read verses 16 – 27. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
David got the news, you are not going to build a House for Me.
He took it in stride and went to sit before the LORD.
And he began to talk to the LORD.
He said to Him what my daughters and I have said often.
16 Then David went in, sat before Adonai and said, “Who am I, Adonai, God, and what is my family, that has caused you to bring me this far? source
And as I kept reading:
19 Adonai, it is for your servant’s sake and in accordance with your own heart that you have done all this greatness and revealed all these great things. source
Have you ever read anything so beautiful?
IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS VERY OWN HEART — and for the sake of His servant, HE has done these things.
Is GOD good to you?
Now you know why — simply because He is GOD and He wants to and because He is GOD, He can NEVER want to do less than GOOD for you.
As I close, please be sure to read verses 16-27.
You don’t want to miss the beauty, the wonder, and the awe.
In particular — let us shout this not only with our voices but our deeds:
20 Adonai, there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you — everything we have heard confirms that. source
What a chapter.
Most of it is way over my head in learning but I do get a couple of things pretty well, I think.
Two years.
Two years Jerusalem was under siege by the king of Babylon.
It was a successful tactic. Nebuchadnezzar starved them out.
Henious.
But before you get too violent toward Neb, know this — had Israel/Judah repented of her idolatry, captivity would not have happened.
Lesson: repent of all idolatry immediately. Idolatry will surely put the worshipper in chains and eventually bring eternal death.
If you want a glimpse of how brutal this got check out what happened to king Zedekiah, particularly in verses 6 and 7. But prior to that, you will read he fled the City and oh when they caught him.
Then there is verse 12. See what you think.
12 But the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers. source
Do you wonder why? I do.
Did he leave them as a tiny bit of compassion or were they so insignificant (he thought) that they could be of no help or harm to Babylon?
And then as we read on there is Gedaliah.
A voice of reason.
Hear what he said.
24 And Gedaliah swore to them and their men and said to them, “Do not be afraid of the servants of the Chaldeans; live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you.” source
Was he saying, perhaps not but if not he should have?
Repent. Trust GOD, take the punishment we have earned, live in the land, obey the king (as long as we are not commanded to worship him) and things will go well with us.
Guess what?
There’s a BUT in the next verse.
A big one!
25 But in midautumn of that year, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family, went to Mizpah with ten men and killed Gedaliah. He also killed all the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah. source
Lesson: Truth is not popular.
Speak it anyway.
Yes. It might get you to Heaven swiftly but isn’t it true of a real Christian – to live is Christ and to die is gain?
