Category: 1 Chronicles

God loves people that are passionate about him. But for us to have passion is not enough. God also requires our obedience.

And that’s what David learned here. David was really excited about bringing the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem where the tabernacle was.

According to David, it was neglected during Saul’s reign (1 Chronicles 13:3), and David didn’t want to make the same mistake. He really wanted God to be at the center of his kingdom.

And so as they were bringing the ark to Jerusalem, David and all the people were celebrating “with all their might,” playing all kinds of musical instruments, singing, and probably dancing as they did so.

But there was a problem. God had commanded that when the ark was moved, only the Levites were to do the moving. They were to put poles through the rings at the top of the ark, and carry it on their shoulders.

But David didn’t do this. Why, I don’t know. At a guess, he was just ignorant. He probably thought, “Well, the easiest way to move it is on a cart, so I’ll have a new one made, and put the ark on it.”

But as the ark was being moved, one of the oxen stumbled, and one of the men, Uzzah, reached out to steady the ark. But in touching the ark, he violated God’s command and was killed.

When David saw this, he became angry with God. But later he realized the problem. While he had been very passionate for God, he had also been disobedient.

He said in 1 Chronicles 15:13,

It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not inquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.

David learned an important lesson that day. Passion is great. But it must come with obedience.

It’s not enough to just have passion. We must be obedient to the things that God has commanded.

Sometimes, people wonder, “Why is Jesus the only way to heaven? There are many sincere people out there trying to do the right thing. There are many people who are passionate in their pursuit of God, and not all of them are Christians.

“Why do Christians insist that they won’t go to heaven?”

The answer is that sincerity of heart and passion are not enough. You can be totally sincere, and completely passionate. But if you don’t obey God, it’s not enough.

What is God’s command? The apostle John tells us.

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. (1 John 3:23–24)

The most important command that God has given us is to believe in the name of his Son. To trust in him for his salvation. And if we reject that command, then all our sincerity and passion won’t mean a thing.

Obedience without passion for God is not a good thing. God wants our hearts, not just our actions.

But passion without obedience is also not good. Because a lack of obedience shows a lack of trust. And like I said, God wants our hearts. Trust is a big part of that.

How about you? Do you have passion without obedience? Obedience without passion? Or do you have both?

Yes, I know we’ve skipped quite a few chapters, we’ll be getting back to them tomorrow. But Chronicles talks about this at this point and chronologically speaking, it seems appropriate to put it here.

These chapters talk about all the men that joined David while he was a fugitive from Saul, and the men that eventually helped him take the throne after Saul died.

It’s interesting to note the kind of men that joined him. In 1 Samuel 22:2, it says that those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around David and they became his army.

In other words, these were flawed men that gathered around David.

You see the flaws most of all in Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, the nephews of David. Each one of them tended to be bloodthirsty men, quick to vengeance and quick to kill.

All of the men who followed David were flawed. And yet, they had one thing in common. They all loved David and were extremely loyal to him.

You see this in the incident where they broke into the Philistine camp to get water just because David said he was thirsty.

And later, when men from the tribe of Benjamin (Saul’s tribe) came to David, they said,

We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse.

Success, success to you, and success to those who help you, for your God will help you. (1 Chronicles 12:18)

And because of that love and loyalty towards David, they were able to accomplish incredible things.

It’s the same with God and us.

We are all flawed. All of us struggle with sin. All of us have our blind spots. All of us have our weaknesses.

But if we love God, and choose to follow him with all our hearts, he can use us to do mighty things.

David had his mighty men, but God can use anyone, man or woman. All he needs is our hearts. Does he have yours?

“I just can’t seem to overcome this sin. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to gain victory over it.”

Have you ever felt like that? I know there are sins in my life that I struggle with. And it can get discouraging. Satan loves to throw potshots at us when we fall.

“What kind of Christian are you? You’re no good. Every other Christian has victory in this area. Only you struggle with this. This sin is too strong in your life. You’ll never be able to overcome it.”

That’s the kind of thing the enemy was saying to David and his army as they stood outside the walls of Jerusalem.

The Jebusites were living there at the time, and they mocked David saying,

You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off. (2 Samuel 5:6)

As they said this, the Jebusites thought to themselves,

David cannot get in here. (2 Samuel 5:6)

In the same way, when Satan gets a foothold in our lives, he thinks to himself, “I’ve got him. I’ve got her. They’ll never get rid of this sin.”

And he starts to mock us.

But what did David do? He strategized. He told his army,

Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies. (2 Samuel 5:8)

And with Joab’s help, they were able to overcome the Jebusites. (1 Chronicles 11:6)

But it wasn’t the strategy and Joab’s help alone that gave David the victory. It says later,

And [David] became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him. (2 Samuel 5:10)

In other words, the real reason for victory in David’s life was that God was with him.

Yes, he needed his strategy. Yes, he needed others’ help.

But ultimately, it was because God was with him and was helping him that David gained the victory.

It’s the same with us. When we’re struggling with sin, we need to use strategy.

If you’re struggling with lust, for example, perhaps part of your strategy will be avoiding places of temptation, even if it’s your local video store.

We also need others’ help. They can give us advice, pray for us when we struggle, and keep us accountable.

But ultimately, it’s because God’s on our side that we can gain victory. It’s not by our own strength and efforts alone. It’s God’s Holy Spirit working within us, “to will and to act according to his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

Are you struggling with sin? Are you feeling discouraged?

Remember that God’s on your side. Use strategy to fight sin. Ask people for help.

But also remember that it’s only by God’s grace and help that we can ultimately overcome.

I hate waiting. I hate lines at stores. I hate waiting at crosswalks. I hate waiting at the doctor’s office.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be David.

According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, David was probably ten when Samuel anointed him as the next king of Israel.

If that’s true, David waited at least 20 years before he was anointed king of Judah and 27 years before he was anointed king of all Israel.

That’s a lot of waiting. But even worse was everything he had to go through during that time. Becoming a national hero, only to become a fugitive a short time later, with just a hair’s breadth between life and death.

And yet, despite all the ups and downs, despite whatever doubts he may have experienced in that time, he never stopped waiting on God.

He had at least two chances to make things happen. Twice, he could have killed Saul and claimed the throne. But twice, he chose to wait on God and his timing.

How could he do that? I can barely make myself wait at a stoplight.

I think the key was he trusted that God was someone who kept his promises.

And because God keeps his promises, we don’t have to try to force the issue. We just have to keep doing the things he asks, and he will get us to the place he wants us to be.

That’s something Saul couldn’t do. Instead of waiting for Samuel, and waiting on God’s deliverance when the Philistines attacked, he tried to force the issue by offering sacrifices himself. And in doing so, he sinned.

Instead of waiting on God’s blessing, he tried to bring blessing on himself by keeping plunder that God had ordered destroyed. And as a result of these two incidents, God rejected him as king.

How about you? What are you waiting for in your life? A job? A wife? A husband?

Remember that God has promised to provide everything you need. Remember that God promises you a good future.

So don’t disobey God thinking you have to force things to happen. Keep waiting on him. Keep trusting him. And keep doing the things he asks, and he will keep his promises to you.

As David wrote later,

The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love…

We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.

May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you. (Psalm 33:18; 20–22)

Just a little footnote here. Or headnote, perhaps, since this is at the top. 🙂

As you may have noticed, from time to time, I’ve been trying to chronologicalize passages in the Bible. So if a psalm fits in with a certain time period, I’ve put it in where it was appropriate.

I believe I once put a passage from Judges in the Joshua section because it was referring to the same event.

Starting from this point, I’ll be doing a lot of that, mixing in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles because they are all referring to the same events, or they fit into that time period.

I may miss a few events in the chronology from time to time, so in those cases, I’ll get back to it later.

Anyhows, end of “headnote.”

And so we come to the end of Saul’s story. And it is a gruesome end. He kills himself rather than let his enemy kill him in battle.

Then his head is cut off and displayed in the temple of one pagan god, his armor is hung in the temple of another pagan god, and his body is hung on the wall of one of the Philistine cities along with the bodies of his sons.

Why did this happen? The writer of Chronicles gives us the answer.

Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord.

So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse. (1 Chronicles 10:13–14)

Saul was definitely not a good king. But there was one people that remembered some of the good he had done, the people of Jabesh Gilead.

I never realized this until now, but these were the same people that Saul had rescued before he formally took his position as king of Israel. (Until then, he had been anointed by Samuel but just hung around working on his farm.)

But when he heard that the people of Jabesh Gilead were under attack, he rallied all of Israel and they rescued the city. The people of Jabesh Gilead never forgot that.

And so when they heard about what had happened to Saul and his sons, they courageously went and took the bodies down and properly buried them.

The people of Jabesh Gilead had to know that Saul was not a good king. They had to know about how he had unjustly chased after David and even left Israel vulnerable at times in his obsession to kill David (1 Samuel 23).

They had to know too that he had unjustly killed the priests who had helped David.

And yet, they chose to reflect not on these things, but on the good that Saul had done. So they put their lives at risk to take down his body and those of his sons and gave them a proper burial.

And it kind of makes me think. How do I reflect on the people in my life? Do I remember the good about them or the bad?

Usually I reflect on the good, but there are times when I reflect on the bad. There remains a bitter root there that I haven’t quite dug up yet. And it affects the way I see them in my mind, and it affects the way I treat them even now.

I suppose the people of Jabesh Gilead had it a little easier with Saul. They knew of the evil he had done, but he hadn’t done anything to personally hurt them.

But for me, there have been people who have hurt me personally.

And while I have to some degree forgiven them, there still remains that root that causes me to reflect on the bad in them.

But if I really think about it, there was good in them too. I can remember some good things that they did, for others, and even for me.

And as I look at these passages, it makes me think, “These are the things I need to focus on. Not the bad. But the good.”

That said, it’s not easy.

Now reflecting on the good does not mean that we completely forget the bad, nor does it mean that we should leave ourselves vulnerable to them hurting us again.

David was a perfect example of this. When he heard that Saul had died, he wept for him. He even wrote a song honoring him.

But while Saul was alive, he would not put himself in a position where Saul could hurt him.

David chose to reflect on the good in Saul. He chose to forgive the evil. But all the while, he kept himself safe. And that’s the kind of balance we need to strike as well.

Are there people who have hurt you? Your father? Your mother? Your coworkers? The people at church?

How do you reflect on them? Do you think of them only in terms of the wrongs they have done to you? Or do you choose to focus more on the good?

It seems to me that that is how God sees us. When he looks at us, he could focus on the evil in us.

But because of Jesus and the blood he shed to cover our sin, he chooses to focus on the good instead.

May we show the same mercy to the people who have hurt us as we think about and remember them.