Tues.’s Devo - Stay in the Battle

Read: 1 Chron. 19:1-21:30, Ro. 2:25-3:8, Ps. 11:1-7, Pr. 19:10-12 Have you ever reached out to do something nice to someone and they took it wrong. What you meant as a blessing became an offense that caused you trouble. That is exactly what happened to David. He wanted to honor his old friend, Nahash, king of the Ammonites by sending gifts to his son. The son saw it as a ploy to spy out his land and it ended in a battle. David won, but it all seemed meaningless. Chapter twenty starts with the line, “at the time when kings go off to war”. For David that was an omen for bad things to come. David didn’t go to war so he sat around thinking about his kingdom and decided he wanted to know how many men were in his army. Pride had settled it. (We were made to be warriors. When we aren’t fighting, we get complacent, like David, which leads to sin.) Even though his commander, Joab, thought it was a bad idea, David overruled his advice. God didn’t like what was happening to David’s heart so he gave him three options for his foolish counting. David chose to fall under God’s hand and a plague came across the land that killed seventy thousand men. God’s angel finally stopped it at the very place the temple would one day stand - the threshing floor of Araunah. In Romans, Paul uses circumcision as an example of the things we do to be righteous before God. He explains that if we do good things but our heart is not right then our works are in vain. Our good works should spring from our hearts to please God, not our obligations or need to impress. David said he could not offer a sacrifice to God that didn’t cost him something. David’s heart was right. Lord, may our hearts be tender toward You and our works spring from our love for You.