2 Samuel 8

Bible Passage:  2 Samuel 8

For the past few days/weeks, I have been thinking about David and discussing with some brethren about his character, which can be sometimes quite controversial. Usually we will think of David in the positive light, because the Bible recorded two very positive statements about him – first is that he is a man after God’s heart, and second is that David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

I thought to myself, if there was such a line about Jacob, maybe people will criticize him less. (I think is quite a good thing to have the whole church read the Bible at the same pace as it generates discussions of Bible characters and stories.

So today we read about David going around conquering and triumphing.  It is a chapter about victory by the man of God!

I am never good at commenting about war history because I have bad memory with the names of tribes/people/nation and what exactly they did; I get mixed up sometimes. But when I was researching on some of the names mentioned in this chapter, it did bring to attention two groups of people.

One group is the Philistines, whom we all know have always been fighting against Israel, but also not that long ago, was who David went to reside with when he was fleeing from Saul. It makes me wonder if he would come face to face in battle with the Achish he called as his lord previously.

The other group is the Moabites, which is where his great-grandmother, Ruth, came from.

How David felt when he attacked them, I will never know. I only know that he did a great job as a king of Israel, to follow God’s commands to fight the enemies of God’s people and to conquer the promised land. What is most important on the battlefield is to have God’s presence, and here we read that God preserved David everywhere he went.

And now every time I read about battles, I think about the spiritual battles we are fighting.

Especially now we are gong out to knock doors of strangers on a somewhat regular basis, I feel the stress of spiritual battle getting stronger (a good thing); we are in a warfare with ourselves as well as obstacles set up by the Devil and men.

We have to battle to get out of our comfort zones, battle people’s negative comments on the work, battle the feeling of disappointment sometimes, battle with ourselves or co-workers losing steam or zeal.

The greatest enemy is ultimately oneself.

Because this work is not about results but about practising the command of God and our faith.

There was a new believer who tries to share her faith who told another that she feels she does not know how to preach and always fail (to make the person she preached with accept invitation to church). But the person replied to her that every time she opens her mouth to speak for God, it is a success already.

I think this is so very true about preaching. It is not about results, but our effort that counts. And I believe that if we persist in keeping God’s commandment, we will experience God’s preservation and presence.

May we go forward with the faith to conquer(ourselves) and conquer(all other obstacles)!