David sings the praises of the Lord, calling Him his fortress and singing of how God protected him and destroyed his enemies. The song is presented as the last words of David, but David goes on to do other things afterword, so maybe David just wanted to make sure to get his legacy written down before it was too late.
The best of David’s fighting men were also mentioned honorably and some of their exploits told so they would not be forgotten either.
David takes a census of all the fighting men in Israel and Judah (which are different enough to warrant separate mentioning now I guess) at God’s behest, but after it’s done, David goes to the Lord apologizing and begging mercy for what he’s done. I have no idea what David is supposed to have done wrong in this passage, but it warrants a plague from God. He goes pretty easy on them all told, he let David chose from among famine, military conquest, or sickness. David chooses the disease, but then is guilt-stricken when people start dying for his own sin and he runs off to build an altar and pray to God.
Another thing that I don’t understand in this passage is David’s burnt offering. It’s been the case so far that only priests can make burnt offering, and maybe prophets once in a while. Being king is pretty clearly a political position and does not give you any special rights with God. When Saul tried to make a burnt offering because Samuel was running late that time, God and Samuel were both furious with him for it. Maybe when it says David made a burnt offering it actually means that David just prayed and had his priests make a burnt offering. It’s a pretty minor point today I suppose, since we don’t make these offerings anymore and anyone can petition God personally, but people have died over this before in the old testament.
No comments:
Post a Comment