GOD’S WORD FOR NOVEMBER 30 ~ ~ Jeremiah 11:3 ~ ~ “and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant”
Continuing with the book by Dr. Michael Youssef, entitled, How to Read the Bible.
Chapter 6—David and Solomon: Foreshadowing God’s Kingdom
Sub-Section: The Ascendance of David
During the battle with the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, King Saul saw that the battle was lost. First, the Philistines killed three of his sons, then grievously wounded Saul himself. When Saul’s armor bearer refused an order to kill him as an act of mercy, Saul fell on his own sword and died by suicide.
Afterward, David (who had married Saul’s daughter Michal) contended with Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth for the throne. David prevailed and ascended to the throne of the unified kingdom of Israel and Judah.
Under David’s able leadership, the nation of Israel was saved, the people experienced peace and prosperity, and the kingdom rose to unprecedented heights of glory. His reign fully justified the chants of praise: “Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands” (1Samuel 18:7) (this chant, which the people shouted earlier, was the spark of Saul’s hatred and jealousy for David, and the reason he was so determined to kill David before the people would make him king instead of Saul).
King David’s policies transformed Israel from a beleaguered fiefdom into a dominant military power. As a warrior-king, David led his people from one victory to the next. He unified the bickering tribes and conquered Jerusalem, which contained the fortress of Zion,. He made Jerusalem the capital of the mighty Israelite empire that stretched from the Gulf of Aqaba in the south to central Syria in the north, Kings came from all over the world, eager to make peace treaties with the mighty King David,.
In 2 Samuel 8, we see such statements are “the Moabites became subject to David and brought him tribute,” the Arameans became subject to him and brought him tribute,” and stories of silver, gold, and bronze that David plundered from “Edom and Moab, the Ammonites and the Philistines, and Amalek” and on and on., David clearly believed that Israel’s enemies should finance its economy, and that the Israelite people should be prosperous and lightly taxed, In the Psalms, David wrote of his people,
“You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. (Psalms 128:2)
Though David began his reign as a warrior-king, never hesitating to fend off foreign threats so that his people might live in peace, he didn’t see war as the way to achieve national prosperity. In Psalm 144, he revealed that he was eager to build a strong peacetime economy by faithfully obeying God:
“From the deadly sword deliver me; rescue me from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful. Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. Blessed is the people of whom this is true; blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. (Psalm 144:11-15)
Under the leadership of King David, and later his son, King Solomon, Israel achieved unrivaled heights of power and prestige, The Bible tells us that ships brought cargoes of gold, precious stones, and construction-grade timber from Ophir, much of which was used to build the great Temple in Jerusalem. Israel traded with merchants and Arabian kings, and King Slomon hosted a state visit from the Queen of Sheba. The wealth of the Davidic State was unlike anything the world had ever seen (see 1 Kings 10:11-29)
The people were proud to be subjects of the kingdom. To them, the power and splendor of Israel must have seemed like the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). They probably thought they were living in the Kingdom of God. However, though God had blessed and defended the nation, Israel was not the Biblical Kingdom of God. It was an earthly kingdom ruled by fallible human leaders.
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Ephesians 1:6
To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Psalm 36:5
Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds.
Psalm 147:3
He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds.
Matthew 6:34
Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. …
II Corinthians 1:3 &4
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort: Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God