Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 2 Samuel 8-9, 1 Chronicles 18.
In these chapters we have reached the pinnacle of David's success.
When we look back at the life of David we see God's blessing in the young boy, followed by 10 years of misery with Saul hunting him like a dog, followed by many years of success, and even God himself proclaiming that through David will come an everlasting kingdom.
Yet...here comes chapters 11-20.
Beginning with Bathsheba, we are going to witness another period of extreme pain and suffering in the life of David. Actually, the rest of David's life will be filled with pain and suffering.
Have you ever wondered why?
God has blessed this man beyond any of our wildest dreams, yet he is going to enter into a series of sins, and we will witness even great fighting in David's family.
What was in this man that caused all this grief? What was David's thorn in the side?
Perhaps too many wives and concubines? God told him not to have so many wives, yet he had many.
Consider our natures. We fight and claw our ways to reach the pinnacle, and oft times, when we get there, we find only trouble.
Underneath all this success, did David become comfortable and begin to idolize its trappings?
While we are standing on the pinnacle of David's life, it would behoove us all to do a great deal of reflection on where David's life is about to head, and ask God what we might learn from this vantage point for our own lives.
Put on your seat belts, it is going to get very turbulent from here on out.
