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Chronicles 22.8 (NIV) “But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars! You are not to build a house for my Name.’” |
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| God always writes the last chapter.* |
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Life doesn’t always turn out the way we think it
will. I graduated from Bible college and thought I would spend my life in “full-time
Christian ministry.” Didn’t happen. I took some wrong turns along the way but
most of my life has been lived under God’s direction. I have been blessed
beyond anything I could have dreamed up on my own - but it wasn’t the life I
expected.
David probably didn’t expect to be a man of war. He
was a shepherd, a poet, and a musician. But life (and God) took him down a
different path. He shed so much blood in his day that God would not allow him
to build the temple. He had blood on his hands – and some of it was innocent
blood - but David was following God’s direction when he led Israel into battle. Perhaps
it wasn’t entirely meant as punishment when God told David that the building of
the temple would be his son’s responsibility. Is it possible that God was
allowing David to “retire?” After all, he had fought many battles in the name
of the Lord and surely deserved to rest.
God called David, “a man after my own heart.” Wouldn’t
we like to hear that as our reward for our years of faithful service, even if
our lives don’t turn out the way we planned?
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| It’s wrong to idealize biblical characters or to excuse their faults. . . . But it is just as wrong to fail to recognize the fact that in forgiveness, God faces our sin, deals with it, and sends it to oblivion.* |
*Quote sources available upon request.
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