Sunday, October 16, 2016

Year 6, Day 289: 1 Chronicles 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here


Discipleship Focus: Obedience

  • Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

I’ve mentioned before that I think one of the best attributes of David is his ability to repent.  He lives life according to the passion of his heart. He isn’t afraid to make mistakes, knowing that if God corrects him he can genuinely change and repent of his wrongdoing.  This doesn’t mean that David lives as he pleases and uses God’s forgiveness as a crutch.  It means that David is trying to live a life according to God’s ways and he can do it with passion because when he makes a mistake he knows that God will be with him to correct it.

We see this really clearly in this passage.  As David is setting up Jerusalem, he builds his palace.  But then it dawns on him that his house is better – from a worldly perspective – than the house of the Lord.  He decides that this isn’t right, and he creates a plan to build a house or God.  However, this is where we see David’s repentance.  The last time David had a plan, Uzzah died because David didn’t consult the Lord and the priests regarding how the ark should be moved.  David shows the change in his heart because this time he stops and takes time to consult Nathan, the priest of the Lord, about his plan.

Notice that God ultimately tells David “No.”  But look at David’s response.  David doesn’t pout.  David doesn’t get mad.  Because David’s repentance is genuine, he can accept the will of the Lord and not be offended.  David is concerned more with obedience to God that he is concerned about getting his own way.  That’s what obedience is all about.

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