Good morning, I pray that God will guide my words today.
Some Pastors, including one I respect Dr. David Jeremiah, like to use alliterations when constructing their sermons. I typically don’t. Today when looking at 1 Chronicles 20-23, I stumbled upon a pattern.
We will speak of Spring, Satan, Solomon and the Son of God..
Spring
Springtime in Tucson, Arizona is not really a defined season. Our winters are so mild that we don’t see the snow ending, like in other parts of the country. We will see some cool nights and unseasonably cool days.
Our summers are brutal. We often exceed one hundred degrees. I have seen those temperatures hang on throughout the nights.
Spring is psychotic. We can have nights in the low forties followed by days in the nineties.
One of the common characteristics of spring is love. It is a time of renewal and fresh starts. Romance and hope.
For David and his men, verse 20:1 implies that it was a normal situation, that kings would go to war in the spring.
They had been cooped up all winter, getting on each other’s nerves.
Now, everything was thawed out and it was time to go fight. What a strange dichotomy. Smell the flowers, look at the green grass, make love to my wife, go kill people.
During this tumultuous time, we meet a familiar character. For the first time we hear his name.
Satan
Ellicott states, “When the adversary, the enemy of mankind, is meant, the word takes the article, which it does not here. “ (1).
In other words he is claiming this is not the person of Satan, but the wrath of God.
Benson interprets this more to be a similar situation as in the book of Job. Satan stands before God asking that David would be tempted to do evil. (2).
We know that God does not tempt us to do evil (see Jam 1:13). Therefore, I see that some evil force or being, is granted permission to tempt David to do this deed.
What is so evil about taking a census?
Taking a census is looking at your own strength instead of counting of the power of God.
It’s springtime and David is contemplating who he wants to fight. The proper way of doing this, as we have seen, would be to inquire of the Lord.
God would have said, go against the Ammonites and I will deliver them into your hands, for instance.
Instead, David is saying. Go count my troops so I can determine my odds of victory.
This is Pride, and that is a sin.
For this God’s anger is poured out and David needs to choose one of three punishments.
As a child I hated when I had to choose my punishment.
“You can get a spanking, do extra chores for a week, or go to bed without dinner.”
I would always be thinking, just do whatever you are going to do and get it over with.
Solomon
We had already learned that David, because of all the blood he shed, would not be allowed to build the Temple (see 2 Sam 7:1-17).
Now he is told his son, Solomon, would have that honor.
David is old, he knows his days are numbered. So he begins the preparation for Solomon.
Solomon, we remember, asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:9). God provided him this wisdom and more.
He is also a foreshadowing of Jesus (see 1 Chron 28:6).
The temple is a building. God does not dwell in buildings made by human hands (see Acts 17:24). He dwells in human hearts (see Eph 3:17).
This does not happen when we “invite Jesus into our hearts.” That phrase does not appear in the Bible.
What the Bible does say is that by God’s grace, through faith, He will forgive our sins (see Eph 2:8-9).
God is holy and cannot even he in a sinful heart. Before He could dwell there, atonement must be made for our sins. The “temple” that is our hearts, must be cleansed.
That atonement was made why Jesus died for us.
The cleansing happens when we have faith and confess Him as our Lord (see Rom 10:9). All of this happens because of what He did.
If He is not living in you, it is because you are resisting giving Him Lordship over your life. You are holding on to sin and your heart remains inhospitable to the Lord.
We all have demons inside us, that like Satan, tempt us to do things which displease God. These demons are driven out by prayer.
Admit that you have sin you are holding on to, and ask God to remove it. Then trust that Jesus has removed it by paying the penalty for it.
This prepares a place for Him to dwell.
1, ELLICOTT, Charles John. Ellicott’s commentary on the whole Bible, v.21: 1 Kings to Esther. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1954. Text.
2, Benson, Joseph. Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments. As read at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_chronicles/21-1.htm
