Daily Manna – March 2, 2016
Topic: Preparation is key
Reading: 1 Chronicles 22
Scripture: Now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto. (1Chron 22:14)
Note: David’s folly in falling for the deception of Satan to number his people so that he could also boast of his military might like the kings of the world after many years of hard battles won, bringing great spoils, prosperity and peace to Israel, attracted the wrath of God. This was because David, in performing a census, was in effect telling God that he had won all his battles through his own wisdom, strategies, power and skills in warfare, other than the enduring grace of God that brought victories in his battles.
This fruitless search for self glory by David was occasioned by the great riches and new-found status of his kingship that had now received world acknowledgement, acclamation and adulation; something way beyond the wildest imagination of the previously young shepherd boy who had now metamorphosed into a great king.
The result of God’s wrath was an accompanying judgment that saw one destroying angel put to death seventy thousand of David’s fighting men. David’s return to the Lord, in pleading for mercy from God, together with the elders of Israel, saw an immediate halt to the carnage. In the place of the slaughter was an altar erected to God in the threshing floor of Ornan.
This place of altar was to serve as the site for the building of the house of God, the temple. In preparation for the building of the temple by his son, Solomon, David planned and acquired all the resources that would be needed to get a befitting place of worship magnificent in glory to the name of the Lord.
Food for thought: Without preparation, excellence becomes a gamble.
Declaration: And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. (1Chron 22:1)
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
