It is Good for My Soul....

2 Chronicles 13-14

If we see in both of these chapters, we can see that there is so much good news waiting for those who seek for God. At first we’ll see a lot of bad news come to us and trying to surround us just like what armies of Jeroboam did to armies of Abijah. They come from behind and the front.

13:13 But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambush was behind them.
13:14 And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind: and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.

Seems there’s no way out, isn’t it? But, look what people of Judah did to overcome it? They yelled to God and ask for help. And what just happened?

13:15 Then the men of Judah gave a shout: and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
13:16 And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand.
13:17 And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.

See? Can u imagine at that time what would it be in the Jerobeam side? Scared. There’s no hope, there’s no help. Even if they shouted to God, God wouldn’t help them for they have left Him and looked for another God. Can you see what the worth of seeking God is? Can you see the benefit of all this? In Jeremiah 29: 11-13 we can read how God really take care of His people who wholeheartedly seek for Him.

29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, said the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Now why there are so many bad news like unlimited waves rolling and rolling into us that seek Him? Who love Him wholeheartedly? Read Romans 8:28

8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

It’s good for our soul. It’s the challenge God want us to face and win. The key to win it is dependence only on God to face it. Admit Him in our life and love Him will bring your life fly higher and higher. Amen.

Solomon and the Chronicle of Moriah

2 Chronicles 3

3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Genesis 22

22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

Can you see what I bold in this chapter? Yes, Moriah. Those places are the same. If you know why I bold that place, look unto this chapter.

1 Chronicles 21

21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
21:2 And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
21:3 And Joab answered, The LORD makes his people an hundred times so many more as they be: but, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then doth my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel?
21:4 Nevertheless the king's words prevailed against Joab. Wherefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.
21:5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword: and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword.
21:6 But Levi and Benjamin counted he not among them: for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
21:7 And God was displeased with this thing; therefore he smote Israel.
21:8 And David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
21:9 And the LORD spoke unto Gad, David's seer, saying,
21:10 Go and tell David, saying, thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
21:11 So Gad came to David, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Choose thee
21:12 Either three years' famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtake thee; or else three days the sword of the LORD, even the pestilence, in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now therefore advise thyself what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
21:13 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
21:14 So the LORD sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
21:15 And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, it is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
21:17 And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued.
21:18 Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
21:19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the LORD.
21:20 And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21:21 And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shall grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.
21:23 And Ornan said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat offering; I give it all.
21:24 And king David said to Ornan, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price: for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt offerings without cost.
21:25 So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.
21:26 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt offering.
21:27 And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.
21:28 At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
21:29 For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.
21:30 But David could not go before it to enquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

See? God stopped in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite which was in the Land of Moriah when trying to kill Israel. Why? At first I ask why? Why God stopped there? The answer is because it was the place where Abraham was trying sacrificing Isaac, his son, to show God that he loves God more than his son. God remembered Abraham dedication so he stopped the punishment. Awesome, isn’t it? God still remember what His son, Abraham, has done. It appears that God really love his creation, and when He chooses us, His son, it’s not a dice game, or lucky shot. There is a plan in it. Believe in God. Amen.