4.26 1 Chronicles 19-21

1 Chronicles 19-21.

Transcript

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Hello, friends and neighbors. Welcome to the Sunny Side of Life Bible in a year experience. Join me each day as I read the Bible from start to finish. I'm reading from the Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation, published by Tyndale House Publishers. I pray this daily reading will bless you as much as it does me. So let's get started. April 26th, 1 Chronicles chapters 19 through 21. Sometime after this, King Nahash of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun became king. David said, I am going to show loyalty to Hanoun because his father Nahash was always loyal to me. So David sent messengers to express sympathy to Hanoun about his father's death. But when David's ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon, the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? No. David has sent them to spy out the land so they can come in and conquer it. So Hanun seized David's ambassadors and shaved them, cut off their robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame. When David heard what had happened to the men, he sent messengers to tell them, Stay at Jericho until your beards grow out, and then come back, for they felt deep shame because of their appearance. When the people of Ammon realized how seriously they had angered David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent seventy five thousand pounds of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram the Hiram, Aram Mahaka, and Zobah. They also hired thirty two thousand chariots and secured the support of the king of Makkah and his army. These forces camped at Medeba, where they were joined by the Ammonite troops that Hanun had recruited from his own towns. When David heard about this, he sent Joab and all his warriors to fight them. The Ammonite troops came out and drew up their battle lines at the entrance of the city, while the other kings positioned themselves to fight in the open fields. When Joab saw that he would have to fight on both the front and the rear, he chose some of Israel's elite troops and placed them under his personal command to fight the Arameans in the fields. He left the rest of the army under the command of his brother Abishai, who was to attack the Ammonites. If the Arameans are too strong for me, then come over and help me, Joab told his brother, and if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you. Be courageous, let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. May the Lord's will be done. Then Joab and his troops attacked. The Arameans began to run away, and when the Ammonites saw the Arameans running, they also ran from Abishai and retreated into the city. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem. The Arameans now realized that they were no match for Israel, so they sent messengers and summoned additional Aramean troops from the other side of the Euphrates River. These troops were under the command of Shobak, the commander of Hadadezer's forces. When David heard what was happening, he mobilized all Israel, crossed the Jordan River, and positioned his troops in battle formation. Then David engaged the Arameans in battle, and they fought against him. But again the Arameans fled from the Israelites. This time David's forces killed seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers, including Shobak, the commander of their army. When Hadadezer's allies saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they surrendered to David and became his subjects. After that, the Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites. In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, Joab led the Israelite army in successful attacks against the land of the Ammonites. In the process he laid siege to the city of Rabbah, attacking and destroying it. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem. Then David went to Rabba and removed the crown from the king's head, and it was placed on his own head. The crown was made of gold and set with gems, and he found that it weighed seventy five pounds. David took a vast amount of plunder from the city. He also made slaves of the people of Rabbah and forced them to labor with saws, iron picks, and iron axes. That is how David dealt with the people of all the Ammonite towns. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem. After this war broke out with the Philistines at Gizer. As they fought, Sibekai from Husha killed Saf, a descendant of the giants, and so the Philistines were subdued. During another battle with the Philistines, Alhanan, son of Jair, killed Lami, the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of Lami's spear was as thick as a weaver's beam. In another battle with the Philistines at Gath they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants. But when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shemiah. These Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them. Satan rose up against Israel, and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, take a census of all the people of Israel, from Beersheba in the south to Dan in the north, and bring me a report, so I may know how many there are. But Joab replied, May the Lord increase the number of his people a hundred times over. But why, my lord, the king, do you want to do this? Are they not all your servants? Why must you cause Israel to sin? But the king insisted that they take the census. So Joab travelled throughout Israel to count the people. Then he returned to Jerusalem and reported the number of people to David. There were one million one hundred thousand warriors in all Israel who could handle a sword, and four hundred seventy thousand in Judah. But Joab did not include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in the census because he was so distressed at what the king had made him do. God was very displeased with the census, and he punished Israel for it. Then David said to God, I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt for doing this foolish thing. Then the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, this was the message. Go and say to David, This is what the Lord says, I will give you three choices. Choose one of these punishments, and I will inflict it on you. So Gad came to David and said, These are the choices the Lord has given you. You may choose three years of famine, three months of destruction by the sword of your enemies, or three days of severe plague, as the angel of the Lord brings devastation throughout the land of Israel. Decide what answer I should give the Lord who sent me. I am in a desperate situation, David replied to Gad. But let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great. Do not let me fall into human hands. So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand people died as a result. And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But just as the angel was preparing to destroy it, the Lord relented and said to the death angel, Stop. That is enough. At that moment the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Arauna, the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, reaching out over Jerusalem. So David and the leaders of Israel put on burlap to show their deep distress and fell face down on the ground. And David said to God, I am the one who called for the census, I am the one who has sinned and done wrong. But these people are as 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. Then the angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arauna, the Jebusite. So David went up to do what the Lord had commanded him through Gad. Arauna, who was busy threshing wheat at the time, turned and saw the angel there. His four sons who were with him ran away and hid. When Arauna saw David approaching, he left his threshing floor and bowed before David, with his face to the ground. David said to Arauna, let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price. Then I will build an altar to the Lord there, so that he will stop the plague. Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish, Arauna said to David. I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, and the threshing boards for the wood to build a fire on the altar, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you. But King David replied to Arauna, No, I 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 offerings that have cost me nothing. So David gave Arauna six hundred pieces of gold in payment for the threshing floor. David built an altar there to the Lord and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings, and when David prayed, the Lord answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn up the offering on the altar. Then the Lord spoke to the angel, who put the sword back into its sheath. Then David saw that the Lord had answered his prayer. He offered sacrifices there at Arauna's threshing floor. At that time the tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering that Moses had made in the wilderness were located at the place of worship in Gibeon. But David was not able to go there to inquire of God because he was terrified by the drawn sword of the angel of the Lord. That's it for today, friends. Feel free to read ahead on your own. Before I go, let's share the Lord's Prayer together. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and power, the glory forever. Amen.