Title: A Truly Bad Story? / Topic: Me vs. God (God wins!)

Today’s Reading: 2 Samuel 21; 2 Samuel 22; 2 Samuel 23; 1 Thessalonians 1

Scripture: 2 Samuel 21:1-14
1 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." ...
3 David asked the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? How shall I make amends so that you will bless the LORD's inheritance?" ...
5 They answered the king... 6 "let seven of [Saul's] male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul..." So the king said, "I will give them to you." ...
9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before the LORD. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest...
14 ...After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.

Observation: I must admit something. I truly hate this story. (Can I say that?) Here is my take on it: Seven innocent people are killed to neutralize the bad karma brought about by the actions of one of their relatives and, because of this mass killing, God says, "Well done. Now I'll answer your prayers." The whole thing is horrible. I don't get it at all.

Application: The application is simple. God is God and I am not. The fact that I don't get it doesn't make the story bad or God bad. It just means that I am missing something in my understanding. It must be that there are underlying issues and truths that are beyond me. But because I have made myself subject to the scriptures (and not the other way around), I simply have to put my confusion on the shelf and wait for further illumination from God. Someday I will understand why this happened and how it fits into God's good nature. Until then, I must wait and not let my own sense of right and wrong invalidate God. As the scripture says, "Let God be true and every man be a liar." I must remain in submission to God and his word, even when my mind doesn't understand every detail. To do otherwise is to elevate my mind above God and his word.

Prayer: Lord, open my understanding so that I can understand you better. Thank you for teaching me to exercise my will over my emotions and to keep myself moving forward based on faith and not on feelings. Keep me moving forward, Lord.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.