“David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the LORD, and the LORD answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.”
1 Chronicles 21:26 (NIV)
A leader calls on the LORD and fire comes from heaven - same result as Elijah’s result recorded in 1 Kings 18 and yet the contrast in situation is stark. In Elijah’s case the leader was innocent and the people were guilty - in David’s case the people were innocent and the leader was guilty. To drive this point home, this chapter portrays bloodthirsty Joab as more righteous than David. Not only that but in Elijah’s case the false prophets were killed, whereas in David’s case innocent people died. There is much worth mentioning in this chapter but I want to point us to the one wise thing David did as a leader - he chose for Israel to be punished by God, not by famine nor by the swords of enemies, but by God. Let us remember that the people are being killed for their leader’s sin, and yet their leader knew who the LORD is, for His mercy is great, and their leader choose to have God’s people be punished by the LORD’s hands. His mercy is great indeed! His mercy is the only ground any spiritual leader has to approach God with on behalf of himself and the people God has placed him over. David built an altar and sacrificed animals, God sent the fire and stopped the destroying angel. God had mercy because of who He is, in spite of David, and David was wise to count on God’s mercy. I can’t help but think of the blessed truth in the gospel of Christ Jesus, that God had mercy because of who He is and because of who our spiritual leader the Lord Jesus Christ is - not in spite of who our spiritual leader is. We would be wise to call on God using only the grounds of His mercy. I wonder if we will be wise enough to ask Him to punish us today, to pull our pride out of our heart?
His mercy is great!
No comments:
Post a Comment