The Living Bible (135 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
The following spring (spring was the season when wars usually began) Joab led the Israeli army in successful attacks against the cities and villages of the people of Ammon. After destroying them, he laid siege to Rabbah and conquered it. Meanwhile, David had stayed in Jerusalem.
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When David arrived on the scene, he removed the crown from the head of King Milcom
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of Rabbah and placed it upon his own head. It was made of gold inlaid with gems and weighed seventy-five pounds! David also took great amounts of plunder from the city.
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He drove the people from the city and set them to work with saws,
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iron picks, and axes, as was his custom with all the conquered Ammonite peoples. Then David and all his army returned to Jerusalem.
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The next war was against the Philistines again, at Gezer. But Sibbecai, a man from Hushath, killed one of the sons of the giant, Sippai, and so the Philistines surrendered.
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During another war with the Philistines, Elhanan (the son of Jair) killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the giant; the handle of his spear was like a weaver’s beam!
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During another battle, at Gath, a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (his father was also a giant) defied and taunted Israel; but he was killed by David’s nephew Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimea.
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These giants were descendants of the giants of Gath, and they were killed by David and his soldiers.
Then Satan brought disaster upon Israel, for he made David decide to take a census.
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“Take a complete census throughout the land
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and bring me the totals,” he told Joab and the other leaders.
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But Joab objected. “If the Lord were to multiply his people a hundred times, would they not all be yours? So why are you asking us to do this? Why must you cause Israel to sin?”
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But the king won the argument, and Joab did as he was told; he traveled all through Israel and returned to Jerusalem.
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The total population figure which he gave came to 1,100,000 men of military age in Israel and 470,000 in Judah.
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But he didn’t include the tribes of Levi and Benjamin in his figures because he was so distressed at what the king had made him do.
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And God, too, was displeased with the census and punished Israel for it.
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But David said to God, “I am the one who has sinned. Please forgive me, for I realize now how wrong I was to do this.”
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Then the Lord said to Gad, David’s personal prophet,
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“Go and tell David, ‘The Lord has offered you three choices. Which will you choose?
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You may have three years of famine, or three months of destruction by the enemies of Israel, or three days of deadly plague as the Angel of the Lord brings destruction to the land. Think it over and let me know what answer to return to the one who sent me.’”
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“This is a terrible decision to make,” David replied, “but let me fall into the hands of the Lord rather than into the power of men, for God’s mercies are very great.”
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So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel and 70,000 men died as a result.
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During the plague God sent an Angel to destroy Jerusalem; but then he felt such compassion that he changed his mind and commanded the destroying Angel, “Stop! It is enough!” (The Angel of the Lord was standing at the time by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.)
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When David saw the Angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, pointing toward Jerusalem, he and the elders of Israel clothed themselves in sackcloth and fell to the ground before the Lord.
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And David said to God, “I am the one who sinned by ordering the census. But what have these sheep done? O Lord my God, destroy me and my family, but do not destroy your people.”
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Then the Angel of the Lord told Gad to instruct David to build an altar to the Lord at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
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So David went to see Ornan, who was threshing wheat at the time. Ornan saw the Angel as he turned, and his four sons ran and hid.
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Then Ornan saw the king approaching. So he left the threshing floor and bowed to the ground before King David.
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David said to Ornan, “Let me buy this threshing floor from you at its full price; then I will build an altar to the Lord and the plague will stop.”
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“Take it, my lord, and use it as you wish,” Ornan said to David. “Take the oxen, too, for burnt offerings; use the threshing instruments for wood for the fire and use the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all to you.”
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“No,” the king replied, “I will buy it for the full price; I cannot take what is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not offer a burnt offering that has cost me nothing!”
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So David paid Ornan $4,300 in gold
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and built an altar to the Lord there, and sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings upon it; and he called out to the Lord, who answered by sending down fire from heaven to burn up the offering on the altar.
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Then the Lord commanded the Angel to put back his sword into its sheath;
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and when David saw that the Lord had answered his plea, he sacrificed to him again.
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The Tabernacle and altar made by Moses in the wilderness were on the hill of Gibeon,
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but David didn’t have time to go there to plead before the Lord, for he was terrified by the drawn sword of the Angel of Jehovah.
Then David said, “Right here at Ornan’s threshing floor is the place where I’ll build the Temple of the Lord and construct the altar for Israel’s burnt offering!”
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David now drafted all the resident aliens in Israel to prepare blocks of squared stone for the Temple.
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They also manufactured iron into the great quantity of nails needed for the doors in the gates and for the clamps; and they smelted so much bronze that it was too much to weigh.
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The men of Tyre and Sidon brought great rafts of cedar logs to David.
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“Solomon my son is young and tender,” David said, “and the Temple of the Lord must be a marvelous structure, famous and glorious throughout the world; so I will begin the preparations for it now.”
So David collected the construction materials before his death.
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He now commanded his son Solomon to build a Temple for the Lord God of Israel.
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“I wanted to build it myself,” David told him,
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“but the Lord said not to do it. ‘You have killed too many men in great wars,’ he told me. ‘You have reddened the ground before me with blood: so you are not to build my Temple.
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But I will give you a son,’ he told me, ‘who will be a man of peace, for I will give him peace with his enemies in the surrounding lands. His name shall be Solomon (meaning “Peaceful”), and I will give peace and quietness to Israel during his reign.
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He shall build my Temple, and he shall be as my own son and I will be his father; and I will cause his sons and his descendants to reign over every generation of Israel.’
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“So now, my son, may the Lord be with you and prosper you as you do what he told you to do and build the Temple of the Lord.
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And may the Lord give you the good judgment to follow all his laws when he makes you king of Israel.
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For if you carefully obey the rules and regulations that he gave to Israel through Moses, you will prosper. Be strong and courageous, fearless and enthusiastic!
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“By hard work I have collected several billion dollars worth of gold bullion, millions in silver,
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and so much iron and bronze that I haven’t even weighed it; I have also gathered timber and stone for the walls. This is at least a beginning, something with which to start.
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And you have many skilled stonemasons and carpenters and craftsmen of every kind.
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They are expert gold and silver smiths and bronze and iron workers. So get to work, and may the Lord be with you!”
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Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to assist his son in this project.
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“The Lord your God is with you,” he declared. “He has given you peace with the surrounding nations, for I have conquered them in the name of the Lord and for his people.
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Now try with every fiber of your being to obey the Lord your God, and you will soon be bringing the Ark and the other holy articles of worship into the Temple of the Lord!”