Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem(8/12/17)[Prayer]

The Holy Scriptures | 8/12/17 | left that other site

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple

2 Samuel 24

David Enrolls the Fighting Men

24 Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

2 So the king said to Joab and the army commanders[a] with him, “Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are.”

3 But Joab replied to the king, “May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

5 After crossing the Jordan, they camped near Aroer, south of the town in the gorge, and then went through Gad and on to Jazer. 6 They went to Gilead and the region of Tahtim Hodshi, and on to Dan Jaan and around toward Sidon. 7 Then they went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the towns of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to Beersheba in the Negev of Judah.

8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

9 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to the king: In Israel there were eight hundred thousand able-bodied men who could handle a sword, and in Judah five hundred thousand.

10 David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[b] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

15 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,[c] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

David Builds an Altar

18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23 Your Majesty, Araunah[d] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels[e] of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Samuel 24:2 Septuagint (see also verse 4 and 1 Chron. 21:2); Hebrew Joab the army commander
2. 2 Samuel 24:13 Septuagint (see also 1 Chron. 21:12); Hebrew seven
3. 2 Samuel 24:17 Dead Sea Scrolls and Septuagint; Masoretic Text does not have the shepherd.
4. 2 Samuel 24:23 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts King Araunah
5. 2 Samuel 24:24 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams

New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

Oh LORD, Our God,
How Blessed is Your Holy Name!
You Alone Are Worthy of Praise,
For You Alone Are The One True God.
Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent,
Teach us To Stand Firm,
And Always look To You For Our Sustenance.
keep us From Doing Whatever Seems Right In Our own Eyes,
Instead of looking to You For Our Answers.

We Pray For the Leaders of Our Own Beloved USA
May They Receive Wisdom from You
to do the Right Thing.

We Pray For The Swift and Sure Coming of Messiah,
Blessed Be He,
To Establish His Kingdom,
and Make All Things Right.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.



Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

This chapter is a familiar one, as I post it frequently in the other fora when discussing the present-day conflict over the Temple Mount. There are several other instances in the Scripture that involve the purchase of Land, and they all have something in common with our own modern practices of Real Estate transactions. A Real Estate transaction, in order to be legal, must have these elements:

1. The Name of the Seller

2. The Name of the Buyer

3. A Description of the Property

4. The Amount Paid.

Subsequently, the Transaction needs to be REGISTERED somewhere with the Authorities. In our culture we go to City Hall where the Registry of Deeds is kept. In David's case, it was recorded in the records of his kingdom, and is here in Scripture, for all to see.

Amazingly enough, Abraham's purchase of the Cave of Machpelia, Jeremiah's purchase of a field to show he had faith that the People would return to their Land, and even Judas's "Potters' Field" have all the elements of a modern Real Estate transaction. There is NO question about the ownership of the Temple Mount.

Just my Two Cents.

Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

God Bless America!

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.



This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[2sheds]

Amen!

[Maudeen]

Agreeing in prayer. . .I seem to get a little confused on the census thing and the punishment.

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, 2sheds, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

God Bless America!

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.



This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[Ezekiel]

14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

This is one of my favorite verses. No matter how severe was the punishment from the Lord, it was exeedingly merciful compared to what the hand of man would have accomplished.

So with 70,000 deaths being the wise, merciful option, who can begin to imagine what the enemy would have done?!

It tends to put things into perspective -- how much worse things could be if God's mercy were not an option.

It's a weird little story, though. What got into David that he demanded a direct head count, an obvious big no-no? Was he suddenly channeling his inner data junkie, or what? (Hmmm, thinking.)

In any case, the whole mess caused a very important real estate transaction to take place.

[etabeta]

Adding my prayers. God bless.

[SisterK]

The “excessive” punishment for taking the census is also a puzzle to me.
That David was not totally resting in joy of his blessings?

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I think the clue to you question is the very first verse in the Chapter. The LORD was wrathful against Israel, and then used David to punish them. We know what the big sin of Israel was...running after the false gods of the Land they were inhabiting. Even David’s assistant knew that “Counting the Fighting Men” was a sin against Faith in God’s Provision and Guidance, and David soon realizes that HE is responsible for the sin of his people, since he is the Shepherd, and should have known better.

But, just think. If that whole debacle hadn’t occurred, David would never have seen the Angel up on the Temple Mount, and Solomon would never have built his Temple on that precise spot.

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Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Maudeen, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

God Bless America!

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.



This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

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Check out comment #9, where we talk a little more about the census and the punishment.

Normally this isn’t a discussion thread, but this is such a difficult and puzzling incident that I invite you all to join in.

“That David was not totally resting in joy of his blessings?”

That is one possible explanation, but I think that there was more to it than that.

[left that other site]

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Etabeta, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

God Bless America!

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.



This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[left that other site]

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, SisterK, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

God Bless America!

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.



This Symbol Represents Christians in The Middle East, who desperately need our Prayers.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

[left that other site]

It took something really cataclysmic to signal to the world that the Temple Mount was WHERE God wanted His Temple to be. As such, the monstrous plague, the appearance of the angel, The sacrifice of David, The Purchase and Sale of the Property, and the Title Deed, were significant enough to still be reverberating to this day.

I have been there, and there IS something about it.

[chuckles]

David was counting his soldiers instead of resting in the power of the Lord. God wanted David to know that the Lord was fighting and wining Israels battles for them. We need to understand that if the Lord is with you, you can't lose. If the Lord is against you, you can't win, even with nuclear weapons.

What men tend to do is think of something and then ask God to bless it. God wants us to follow Him and the Blessings will follow whoever is with God. When Gideon had his battle, notice how God whittled down the 30k army to just a few, so no one would doubt that the Lord won the battle. There are stories about how the singers were put in front of armies and the soldiers never had to raise a sword as long as the singers worshiped.

God is truly in control, but for some reason we must be reminded periodically that we can do nothing without Him. We are still on Plan "A" and there is no plane "B". Everything will happen according to Scripture exactly when it is supposed to.

This is a good time to remember Leviticus 23, where God laid out HIS days to have rehearsals of appointed times every year to follow what He was doing in history. Jesus died on Passover, was buried on Unleavened Bread, was raised on First Fruits, and the Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost. All of this was set in Leviticus, but carried out at the appointed time. We have Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles not yet fulfilled. The "day no one knows" is Trumpets and the only time the Jews blow the "Last Trump" is on Trumpets, so we can look forward to being Raptured on some Feast of Trumpets in the future. This year it's on Sept 21st and 22nd. 10 days later is Atonement, but this particular Trumpets to Atonement stretch will be 7 years because Scripture says if it weren't shortened, no flesh could survive. Immediately after Judgement Day, we have Tabernacles where Jesus comes to rule and reign from the throne of David in Jerusalem. He will rule and reign for 1000 years which is the 8th Day in Prophesy. If Jesus died on Passover, exactly at the hour the Lamb's throat was cut in the Temple, after thousands of years of observing Passover the same day every year, would it not make sense to be watching for the Rapture on some Feast of Trumpets in the future? God told Noah to enter the Ark 7 days before the rain. Not one drop of God's Judgement fell on Noah's head. Lot was removed from Sodom 3 days before fire fell on Sodom. God's Bride will be removed from the destruction coming to the whole Earth before the first seal is cut in Revelation. We are NOT the children of wrath. The Bible states in many places that we need to be WATCHING for Him to come for His Bride. Stop thinking that God will just return for His marriage at some random time that no one can know. God has purchased His Bride and will return for her on a certain prearranged date. How can a Bride be ready if she doesn't know the date and look forward to His coming? He will come as a thief in the night to those that aren't watching for His return.

God has told His followers everything they need to know to be His, but they have to care enough to read His instructions. Salvation is NOT the same thing as Rapture. We can die to self in the baptismal, or we can physically die under the sword of the Beast. Either way, we are saved if you confess Jesus as savior. If you choose to die to self and serve Jesus in the baptismal, then you will be delivered from the trials of this world at the appointed time. The only people that avoid the Tribulation coming to the whole world is the Church at Philadelphia. Do you love Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself? If you do, you will be delivered. Remember Jesus knows our hearts. Many will take the mark, when the sword is over their child's head. Remember when Jesus was in the garden sweating drops of blood? He submitted His Will to the Fathers and gained the whole world. You must do the same. We see churches today taking the mark of the Beast already. Abortion is murder, yet it is accepted in many churches. Sodomy is an abomination and defiles the Earth, yet it is accepted in many denominations today. Do we know of any pew sitters that are committing fornication and adultery today, yet we say nothing? We need to think hard when we say we will not take the mark of Satan, when in certain areas, we already have. Many of us know a homosexual and our hearts are broken to know what will happen to them, but God tells us they will NOT see the Kingdom of Heaven. We must choose them, or God. Jesus tells us to not be double minded. We must hate even our family members if they come between us and Jesus. God placed life and death, blessing and cursing, before us. He had to tell us to choose blessing and life because He knew we were weak and fallen. Choose Life. Choose Jesus,....in everything.

[Ezekiel]

Thanks. The Lord used David, but I wondered what weird thing tripped him off to do that in the first place. It’s not like David was wanting to bring judgment down.

Maybe he was the type to obsess over numbers, and in his zeal got totally fixated on something and carried away. Yikes, I could see something like that happening!

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Both you and i know what it’s like to get “carried away with numbers” LOL! :-)

[Ezekiel]

I really got to thinking about this numbers-crunching idea (uh oh!).

I haven't had time to look into specific verses, but was going on memory on where David was talking numbers.

The first thing that popped into my mind was the incident when David was fleeing from Saul, and he asked the priest about the showbread (" five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever")

The reason I thought of this is because this incident referenced repeatedly in the NT, but also that there were five loaves here:

Mat 14

16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
18 He said, Bring them hither to me.
19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

Matthew 16

8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

It relates in that there has always been much speculation about these passages, with people endlessly crunching the numbers to find hidden codes or whatever, like with the 153 fish.

Nothing wrong with that per se, but if in doing so, folks lose sight of the big picture...

So you've got all these numbers and Jesus appears to be tossing out some teaser about the meaning of the numbers.

9 Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
10 Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

Q: How many baskets?

A: A lot!!! Way more than the volume of the original few loaves.

How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven...

Dead doctrine is like dead leaven, it goes nowhere. No satisfaction. Endless standing in the bread lines, hoping for a little reprieve from the hunger pangs. Keeps everybody dependent and at the mercy of the Establishment bakers.

You don't feed thousands of people so full that you even end up with multiple baskets of leftovers from bread that doesn't rise to the heavens like the stuff Jesus was handing out.

Meanwhile, people are still out there reading up on the theories and crunching those same numbers, adding them up over and over and over but never getting any real solution or satisfaction.

If it goes nowhere, the key is to drop it like the rock that it is, and move on to something that gives rise to more insight. If it's worthwhile, it will return again another time, without the stress and strain.

David's numbering brought death. He should have dropped it when he had the chance. That's why I wondered if he got fixated on some fruitless number-crunching and lost all perspective.

There's my rant (and introspection!) for the day. :)

(In my own defense the numerical patterns do keep going and going, up and up, expanding in scope, which is why I am drawn in, not that I am minded to go in circles like a dog chasing its tail.)

[Maudeen]

I guess I read the 1st verse wrong. I thought the Lord wanted him to take a headcount.

Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

[Ezekiel]

Here's a slightly different translation:

And again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, count Israel and Judah:<<<

It's why I was wondering what was the particular trigger.

Like when God "hardened" Pharaoh's heart, well yes He did but not like Pharaoh was an otherwise stellar character. Hardened, as in circumstances played upon his natural inclinations. Uppity slaves making demands, of all the nerve, then Moses would call back the plagues even though Pharaoh kept changing his mind - what a dupe, that Moses.

Hence I was looking more at what *circumstances* + David's personality worked together to drive David to demand this census.

Perhaps some situation where the men were slinking out of their army duties, the numbers of those mustering being way off from what the population should have indicated, and David the type to have none of that, and...

Perfect storm. David knew better, but...

(Just for an example)

2. For the king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people: