Text: 1 Chronicles 22:6-10, 17-19 “Violence is not God’s First Choice”
If you were planning a great lifetime project and could choose between two developers of the project, would you look to someone young and inexperienced or would you prefer someone with a proven track record? Why would I risk trusting my dream undertaking to a builder who has never done anything special?
David wanted to build a great [“magnificent, famous, glorified” temple (1 Chronicles 22:5)] but he turns the construction over to his “young and inexperienced” (1 Chronicles 5:5) son, Solomon. Why would anyone do that?
David did that because God told him to do so. God wanted the temple to be defined by peace and David had been a ferocious warrior (1 Chronicles 22:8). God does not make judgments by the same standards as we do.
Even though war and enmity are not God’s preferred tools for life, God is still able to use our mistakes to achieve God’s purposes. David acknowledges that the land now belongs to God’s people because God has used David’s misguided violence (1 Chronicles 22:18).
This is not to say that God does not care how we go about our lives; it does say that God can use even our mistaken attempts. Even my brokenness can be an instrument for God’s purposes. After all, this is the God who turned a cross into an empty tomb!
I bring my mistakes to God and say, “Lord, can we start again?”
I bring my uncertain relationships to the Lord and say, “Grace-giver, give a new beginning.”
I bring my sin-cluttered journey and say, “Forgive me and move me to a new path.”
There are many great, famous moments in the life of King David, but perhaps none is more grace-packed that this one in which he releases his errors into God’s redemptive hands.
What Someone Else Has Said: In the Charles P. Frank novel Digging Through Time (iUniverse), one character says to another, “As long as this blustery weather keeps up, you best get a change of scenery. Sometimes when folks get seasick, it helps calm a queasy stomach to look off at the horizon. Why don’t you come with me?”
Prayer: As you prepare this lesson, let your prayer begin: “O Lord, move me from wrong places to places of Your purposes...”
