Read: 1 Chronicles 12:19-14:17; Romans 1:1-17; Psalm 9:13-20; Proverbs 19:4-5
Once Saul was out of the way, soldiers from the different tribes started defecting and joining David’s army until his army was like the army of God. I don’t know what that means but I would guess that it means that it was powerful and had all its positions filled. Over 318,000 men arrived at Hebron armed and ready to fight to make David the king over all of Israel. (He was already the king of Judah.)
David’s first move as king was to bring back the ark of the Lord since Saul had not consulted it once during his reign. The people thought that would be a great idea too, but no one knew the law well enough to know that the ark had to be carried by poles on the shoulders of the priests. David ignorantly purchased a new cart and put the ark on it. When the cart almost stumbled, Uza put forth his hand and steadied the ark and lost his life for it. That put the fear of God on everyone so David stopped the whole process and let the ark stay right there until he could find out what went wrong. It was near Obed-Edom’s house, so David asked if he would house the ark for a while. God blessed Obed-Edom’s house because of the ark.
Everything else in David’s life was blessed. Hiram sent him cedar from Lebanon to build a house for himself. God established David’s kingdom and blessed him with 13 sons.
The Philistines found out that David had became the king of Israel and planned an attack. David sought the guidance of the Lord and He told him to attack because He would hand them over to him. The Philistines fled leaving their gods for David to burn.
The next time the Philistines attacked, David asked the Lord what to do and He told him to circle around to the back of their army and attack from behind. God caused the locusts in the mulberry trees, before the Philistines, to sound like an army. It was the sound of God’s army. They turned to run and ran right into David’s army. All the nations feared David because the Lord was on his side.
Today we start writing Paul’s book to the church at Rome. Many of Rome’s new converts had been Gentiles who had attended the synagogue and knew about the law somewhat. There was a huge conflict over who the Jews were and what their role in the new covenant looked like. The Gentiles questioned whether the Jews were the chosen race anymore and the Jews questioned whether the Gentile should be grafted in. Paul wanted to set them all straight so he wrote Romans.
Paul started out by saying how glad he is to finally make it there since he had tried for a while to get there. He was grateful for all his fellow Jews and Gentiles that helped him along the way. His goal was to bring unity among the church and unite the Gentile and the Jew as one body. The first point he made was that the only thing that makes a person righteous is his faith in Jesus.
Lord, help us to desire to live as one body even when we disagree over doctrine. Help us to carry your presence correctly and be scriptural and wise.
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