As I think about King David as I study more and more about him the supply of informationa about him seems quite emmense. However today I thought about the transition of Kings or kingdoms of Saul to David. There are striking contrasts between the two and it has caught my attention to share some thoughts on this and how it can apply to us today. First off I believe that the entire bible speaks and breaths the person Jesus Christ and if we look with the intent to find Him we will. We find Saul and David are both anointed and chosen by God this fact seems to be one of their few similarities. Saul is a man of great stature and in fact is thought of as humble at the start of his reign as King, however as he grows things begin to start going to his head. He gets comfortable and starts to lose his fear of the Lord which leads to many occasion of distrust and disobedience.David on the other hand is one who remains humble throughout his story, acknowledge God for the most part as the true source of His strength and power. Essentially David acknowledged God as the true King. I like to find parallels and though I know parallels can be abstract at times I believe this parallel is pretty normal to my mind anyways. I see the kingdom of Saul as a parallel of Self Righteousness and then I see David as a Kingdom of Grace and reliance on God. With this in mind we learn some other things like David's beloved friend and Saul's son Jonathan. Jonathan was an awesome friend of David and warrior of Israel however he still died. Couldn't God have spared Jonathan? I don't believe He could. If Jonathan remained alive, David never could have stepped fully into power as the King of Israel being Jonathan was the rightful heir of the throne.From this I see even the good things of Self Righteousness can't exsist if we want to step into the Kingdom of Grace and Reliance on God, we later find that the only Descendent of Saul that survives is a young man who happens to be crippled and dependant on an attendant. How beautiful this is to me the only one is dependant just as we are all crippled and completely dependant on Christ Jesus. We must cast off our self righteousness to be clothed in the Righteousness of Christ Jesus. Just some thoughts I had, anyone else make this parallel? God Bless,Matthew
_________________Matthew Guldner
Wonderful comments.When David laments for Saul and Jonathan in 2 Sam:1, you see what a man David was. I have wept deeply many times reading this passage as David honored Saul, and called all Israel to join him.And then there is that guy (Mephibosheth), which means "dispeller of shame". Is this grace or what!? This story needs to be preached a little more I think, but Mephibosheth is really hard to say when you are talking fast.Good word here friend. It's got me meditating on things of life.Ruf
_________________Russell
I was reading in 2 Samuel today and I just can't shake the theme of chapter 1 out of my head, I have seen that Grace and reliance on God seems to be the sticking out theme of 2nd Samuel. Its a message that I think I need now, often times I feel like Saul in my craftiness trying to devise and plan to gain the Favor of God. Its all grace and reliance on Him! These are truths that I think we take for granted.
