Realizations Upon Reading

Mary and Elisabeth-  © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mary, Elisabeth and the Line of David

The Gospel According to St Matthew starts with the genealogy from Abraham through Joseph. These are names of people whose stories are in the bible and we know their stories. A few stories in here stand out to me, the first is the realization after reading this chapter many times over the years that this is the line of Joseph. It is a amazing line going back to Abraham, and while Joseph is not blood related to Jesus he is still his father. He raised Jesus, taught him his trade.  Reading this genealogy also made me wonder about Mary's line I don't recall that Marys line was ever discussed but I would hazard a guess that to be married to Joseph her line goes back to Abraham as well.  We know from Luke that Mary and Elisabeth were cousins, hence John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus. There are great lessons in obedience and faith that we can discuss involving Mary, Joseph, Elisabeth and Zacharias.  Zacharias is especially interesting in his crisis of faith after speaking directly to the angel Gabriel! 

All Things Work to the Glory of God

As interesting as the discussion of Zacharias and faith is, a second realization occurred to me while reading the genealogy of Joseph, and its the thought that has consumed me since reading it.

Matthew 1:6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

We have all heard this story - David saw Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) became enamored of her, lies with her, and arranges for her husband to be killed in battle. The child of this union is King Solomon who built the Temple, who is known as the wisest king, who furthered the line and went down to Joseph. 

The scriptures don't tell us a whole lot about Mary and Joseph, but this line (Matt 1:19) is so telling the more you think of it 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

Joseph would be within his legal rights to take this public, to state how he had been wronged by his bride to be. But even before the angel appeared to him he was noted as a just man and did not want to take the issue public, after the angel appeared to him he took Mary as his wife, and knew her not until she gave birth. Then he raised that child as his own.

Our Heavenly Father took Davids sins of adultery, lust, and murder and used them to bring forth King Solomon, the Temple of Jerusalem, and the man who raised the Son of God as his own. To me that is proof of all things working to the glory of God.

King David and the Lessons of Atonement

King David and the Lessons of Atonement

King David lived a righteous life for most of his life, however only one man lived a perfect life and that man was a decedent of David, not David himself. David had been home from the wars for over a year and one day while on the roof of his house sees a beautiful woman bathing in her own house. Asking after her he finds out that she is the wife of one of his soldiers. David has her brought to him and "lays with her".  There is no record of her attempting to refuse him, so we do not know how much responsibility  she bears in this. Bath-sheba becomes pregnant and David sends for her husband Uriah who after reporting to David won't even go home because the others are still in the field. David sends him back to battle and orders him sent to the fiercest fighting that he should be killed in battle, and he is. After the period of mourning he takes Bath-sheba as his wife. It is after this that the prophet Nathan comes to David, and brings him to his senses with the story of the rich man and the poor man.

When Nathan brought David to his senses, David confessed his wrong doings and admitted his sin, Nathan told him that the consequence would be the death of the child conceived in sin,  he prayed and fasted for 7 days that the child would be saved. After the death of the child he rose and bathed and comforted Bath-sheba and ate. The sin is past, no matter how it came to be he and Bath-sheba are married now and the sin is forgiven.
David followed a path that is no different than what we do in atonement today. 1) Have a godly sorrow for the sin - David was angry at the injustice and wanted the man punished
2) Abandon the sin completely - make restitution as far as possible - The Lord decreed the death of the child conceived before David and Bath-sheba were married would be the restitution. David pleaded for the child's life for 7 days but that was the restitution. A man's life cannot be restored.
3) Confess to the proper authority. - King David was the highest authority, the Lord already knew as did Nathan the prophet.
David spent 7 days in prayer and fasting becoming right with God and attempting to save the life of his child. When the Lord took the child he went to his wife and comforted her and they went on with life. The final step, when forgiveness is granted you go forward and do your best to stay on the correct path. David was given his son Solomon. 

Dance Before the Lord

Continuing Contemplation on King David

This week in my communication class we set aside our text book and concentrated on the topic of Spiritual Communication. As children of our Heavenly Father we have a relationship with Him and any relationship must be maintained with communication. Prayer is how we speak to our Father, the Scriptures are a written record of His word and the Spirit, the Priesthood and the Prophets are lines of communication that He has established back to us. 

King David, from what I understand, lived in a time of oral teaching. The commandments written in stone, carried in the Ark were the only writings of Gods word the rest were taught and prayer and prophets who carried His word were vitally important. The Holy Spirit was still a occasional gift, He was not the Comforter that came to all after Jesus left. David followed the Lord with less tools that we have at our disposal and did so building a nation and waging war to strengthen Israel.  What an immense task, what a strong relationship David had with the Lord. Strong enough that when David asked to build a Temple to honor the Lord and was refused he did not argue, he did not sulk, he praised the Lord for His blessings upon his line and continued.

King David was not perfect but his relationship with the Lord and how he treated Saul and his family are wonderful examples, his relationship with the Lord is even a better one. The Lord was his Master and being in the presence of his Master made him so happy that he danced. Let us all be joyful and dance before the Lord.

King David

King David

What do you think about when you think about Kind David? Goliath? Bathsheba? Those are two things about him for sure. CNN is airing a series of specials called Jesus: Faith, Fact Forgery examining the historical trails of Jesus life and this week they talked about Judas Iscariot, one of they points they brought up was that when you paint a mans life with one or two strokes you are not seeing him as the Savior did. Jesus saw much more in Judas or he would not have been an Apostle. Many of the historians believe he might have been one of the first Apostles chosen and he was the treasurer for the Apostles. 

King David is no different. Yes he slew Goliath, yes there is Bathsheba - that fall is in not in our reading this week.  Lets look at what else King David did.

After the death of Saul, David was anointed King over the house of Judah, Gilead, Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin and all Israel, but he wasn't the only king. Saul son  Ishbosheth was also proclaimed king. It was the Game of Thrones. After several years of both of them ruling Ishbosheth was assassinated and David went to great lengths to show he was not involved in an attack on Saul's family. He continued to rule and during his 40 year reign defeated the Philistines, brought the Ark of the Covenant to the City of David, strengthened the boarders of Israel, by bringing Syria, Moab and Euphrates into line, found Jonathon's son Mephibosheth and gave him control over the land that his grandfather Saul had controlled as well as inviting him to always dine from his table. King David spent 40 years securing the peace and safety of Israel by defeating their enemies through war and he did it in an honorable manner following the Lord. Israel under David's rule was at the height of its power and the only thing denied to David was building the Temple.

David asked the Lord if he could build Him a Temple and the Lords answer is that his (Davids) line would be blessed, that they would be remembered, but that David had seen too much war and bloodshed to build the Temple and David accepted the answer and obeyed. Even blessing the Lord for His blessing on his line.

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