Sat.’s Devo - God’s Mercy

Read: 2 Samuel 23;24-24:25; Acts 3:1-26; Psalm 123:1-4; Proverbs 16:21-23 David’s thirty mighty men are listed and Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba’s husband was listed last. There were seven others that are not mentioned who were his mighty warriors. God was angry with Israel for probably a multitude of reasons so he moved on the leader, David, to count the people. I don’t understand this but I wonder if God didn’t want to give them one thing they could actually point to so they could fix it. God is so merciful and he will do anything to get our attention back on the right focus. God had told them that when you count the people, they were to give a half a shekel as a ransom for their soul so that no plague would come (Ex. 30:12). David didn’t do this so when he numbered them, he was calling them into account for their sins. It was like they were all being judged with no ransom for their soul. After David counted the people, he repented of what he had done. His seer, Gad, came to see him and gave him three choices of punishment for the people: 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from their enemies, or 3 days of severe plague. He chose the plague because he would rather fall into God’s hand than his enemies. He knew that God was merciful. The plague came and lasted three days killing 70,000 of his counted people. David saw the death angel as it was approaching Jerusalem. God stopped it right at the threshing floor of Araunah. Araunah means “I shall shout for joy.” That was exactly how David felt when he saw it stop before it reached Jerusalem. He went to Araunah and asked to buy his threshing floor to build an altar to worship the Lord. Arahunah tried to give it to David, but David would not offer to the Lord what he had not paid for. He gave him 50 pieces of silver and the plague was stopped. In Acts, Peter and John are now filled with the Holy Spirit to do the things that Jesus did and see as Jesus saw. This morning as they came to the Temple, they saw the lame beggar they had seen every Sabbath beside the Temple gate. But this time, they were different so they stopped and told him to get up and walk in the name of Jesus Christ. Peter took the man by the hand and helped him up and when he did, his feet were instantly healed. He began to walk, leap and praise the Lord. He got to go into the Temple for the first time with them. The man was praised the Lord so loudly that he drew a crowd. The people recognized him as the lame beggar and were astounded. Peter saw his opportunity to preach and took it. He explained that Jesus, who they crucified resurrected and they can still believe in him. He would come back for them one day to restore all things. Before he does, he will send them a prophet from among their own people and if they reject that prophet, they will be cut off from God’s people once and for all. All the prophets from Samuel up to that day had spoke of the Messiah who came in the form of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to turn them back to God and it was not too late to repent. Lord, thank you for your mercy. Thank you for giving your son to atone for our sins.