I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
The passage tells us that David orders Joab to take a census of the people of the tribes of Israel. Joab objects asking why David wants to do this, but David insists. God is displeased with David taking the census and sends a plague on the people of Israel. When David realizes what is happening he cries out to the Lord saying that the people are innocent, the fault is all his own. When I first read this passage years ago I wondered what was wrong with David taking a census of the people of Israel. My father explained to me that David took the census so that he could know how big of an army he could muster. This showed a lack of faith in God, or at least a desire to be able to stand on his own power. David did not need to know how large of an army he could muster because God would fight on their side in any war that God called on them to fight. This makes sense to me.
After this David builds an altar to God at the point where the plague stops spreading. When he arrives at the location intending to buy it, the owner of the property offers to give it to him. David insists on buying the land and the oxen that he sacrifices. David was unwilling to give an offering to God that did not cost him anything. This is an important lesson, when we give something that cost us nothing it is not an offering to God. The federal government allows us to deduct from our taxes the value of things we give to a thrift store. Yet, for the most part, the things we donate to a thrift store are things we would otherwise throw away. We should not take credit in our minds for having made an offering to God by donating these items. They actually cost us nothing. This does not mean that we should not donate to thrift stores. We should indeed donate to thrift stores, but, in general, such donations do not count towards satisfying the movement of the Spirit to make offerings to God.
One day when Peter and John were going up to the afternoon service at the Temple, they saw a lame man being brought to the gate of the Temple so that he could beg money from those going to the Temple. As they approached the man asked them for money. This translation says that Peter and John “looked at him intently”. Other translations word it differently, but they all say in some manner that Peter and John focused their attention on the man. I believe that they were studying the man’s motivations. They were trying to determine if the man wanted to be healed. They did not give him what he was asking for, instead they gave him what he truly desired. Peter told him that he did not have money to give him, but that he would give him what he had to give. Peter then told him to stand up and walk. Peter did not stop there. Peter reached out and helped the man up. Sometimes people do not need a donation, but our help to stand up.
There is another aspect to this story as well. Among the Church there is a debate going on about the relationship between helping those in need and preaching the gospel. There are those who say that we should help the need in order to get the opportunity to preach the gospel to them. On the other side are those that say that we should allow our actions in helping those in need speak the gospel for us. In this passage, Peter and John healed the lame beggar because that was his need. But then when that drew a crowd, Peter began to preach the gospel. Peter did not heal the beggar in order to have an opportunity to preach the gospel. But when that healing led to an opportunity to preach the gospel, he took it without hesitating.
The psalmist here says that he is looking to God and asking God for mercy. The psalmist is calling on God for mercy because he is tired of being held in contempt. Those who hold us in contempt for our faith should not cause us to turn away from God. They should instead cause to cry out even more to God.
We are told in this proverb that if we want to be perceived as wise, we need to be both discrete and pleasant. If you want to persuade someone to a course of action you are more likely to do so if you speak to them pleasantly than if you do so with hostility.