Well, now we're on to the life of David in our Bible reading programme. And it's a bit of a whistle stop tour. But one of the interesting things about David is that he has a clear promise of what God is going to do, from when Samuel anoints him as King; but getting there is long, drawn out, dangerous and at times looks highly unlikely.
And when you come to 2 Samuel 5 it still takes 7 years for the full promise to be realised. And David has to fight for it. Last week, as Moses and the people of Israel came out of Egypt they were told, "The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still" (Exodus 14:14). Now David has to take the initiative and fight himself to see what God has promised come to pass. Conclusion: you can't read one bit of the Bible and draw a "simple" principle from it that will apply in every situation. Conclusion (2): God deals with us as individuals and expects us to work through with Him how to handle the specifics of the situations we face. In other words, we mustn't treat the Bible as if it's a book of off-the-shelf answers for all situations. God's Word is far more bespoke and made to measure....more costly to us, perhaps, and requiring more patience, but vastly more precious too.
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