Walk in the Spirit February 2020

9
Wednesday 5th February 2020
2 Samuel:24/2,9-17
Psalm:31/1-2,5-7
(32/1-2, 5-7)
Mark:6/1-6
The First Proclamation
So the king said to Joab and the
commanders of the army, who were
with him, "Go through all the tribes
of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and
take a census of the people, so that I
may know how many there are."
Joab reported to the king the
number of those who had been recorded:
in Israel there were eight
hundred thousand soldiers able to
draw the sword, and those of Judah
were five hundred thousand.
But afterward, David was stricken
to the heart because he had
numbered the people. David said to
the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in
what I have done. But now, O Lord,
I pray you, take away the guilt of
your servant, for I have done very
foolishly." When David rose in the
morning, the word of the Lord came
to the prophet Gad, David's seer,
saying, "Go and say to David, Thus
says the Lord: Three things I offer
you, choose one of them, and I will do
it to you.".... Gad came to David ....
and said unto him. Shall seven years
of famine come unto thee in thy land?
or wilt thou flee three months before
thine enemies, while they pursue
thee? or that there be three days'
pestilence in thy land? ... David said
unto Gad, I am in a great strait'; let
us fall now into the hand of the Lord;
for his mercies are great; and let me
not fall into the hand of man. So the
Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel ....
and there died of the people ... seventy
thousand men ....
Gaze on Jesus
Awaken us O Holy Spirit! Indeed
let us become aware of the great injury
we do to ourselves and Your blessed
creation when we sin!
It is well, when a man has sinned,
if he has a heart within to smite him for
it. Indeed if we have a heart (if we are
not benumbed by selfish thoughts and
beliefs and create isolationist existence)
we will feel smitten when we sin.
When we turn back and confess our
sins, we must faithfully pray that God
would forgive and in His pardoning
mercy take away the sin which we
cast away by sincere repentance. If we
harbour pride within, it is just in God
to take from us what we are proud of,
or make bitter to us, and make it our
punishment. Today's scriptural situation
must be such a punishment, for though it
was David's sin that opened the sluice,
the sins of the people (pride in their
might) all contributed to the flood. In
this difficulty, David chose a judgment
which came immediately from God,
whose mercies he knew to be very great,
rather than from men, who would have
triumphed in the miseries of Israel, and
have been thereby hardened in their
idolatry. In choosing the pestilence, he
and his family were equally at risk as
the poorest Israelite; and he would continue
to experience the Divine rebuke
for a shorter time, however severe it
was. The rapid effects of the pestilence
shows how easily God can bring down
the proudest and how reliant we are on
Divine patience and mercy.
Prayer Starter
O for a heart and mind that admits
our ability to respond freely in Love .....
"Abba Father! Abba Mother!"