The Real Meaning of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/1_chronicles/22.htm

A radio station I used to listen to on my way to work had a short blurb each morning called “Shower Thoughts”, and it was always something that was dark humor (just like mine) or something really wacky. For example, one was “If you take a donut hole, and put it in the hole of a donut, you’ll have a whole donut.” Anyway, that just came to mind while I was reading this chapter of 1 Chronicles 22; there were so many thoughts going through my head, and I’m and getting so old, I have no idea which thoughts are rational and which ones aren’t.

To begin with some refresher, we know King David had children named Absalom, Amnon, and Tamar, and Amnon raped Tamar and Absalom killed Amnon. David also had a son with Bathsheba named Soloman, and though he wasn’t the first born, he was the one that God determined will inherit the throne from David.

We also know that from the days of Moses and the great exodus from Egypt, that an Ark of the Covenant was built containing the Commandments, and that a portable temple was built for worship and to house the Ark. and after all of these centuries, David decided to build a brick and mortar temple so the Ark had a permanent residence. But God told David that Solomon would build the temple, so in this chapter, David is gathering all of the materials necessary so they would be ready for Solomon when he became king. Here is where the shower thoughts come in, even though I wasn’t in the shower when they came to mind.

King David was very special. He was not without sin, but he was a Godly man. He had great faith and for the most part, was close to God. So why didn’t God want David to build the temple? Scripture says it was because David had been in many wars and had shed much blood. But why would that be an obstacle to David building the temple; didn’t God order the pagans killed?

Here is where my doubts creep in. From what we’ve studied and been taught, God was giving the promised land for the children of Israel to inhabit. He actually promised it to Abraham, but it wasn’t until the exodus and the rising of Joshua as a leader before the actual moving in took place. But did God actually say to “kill all of the pagans”? Or is this a part of man’s interpretation that leads us to believe in an angry and punishing God? If God actually instructed that all the pagans in Canaan be killed, then why would He not want David to build a temple because of the “blood David had shed”? Interesting.

Once again, I question the perceptions of the authors of the Bible, perhaps even getting the wrong impression of God’s commands. After all, the highest Jewish leaders at the time of Christ were well respected, although sinners, and led the Jews, yet their perception of the Messiah was one who rode in on a white horse, sword in hand, ready to slaughter the Romans. But that was not the intention of Jesus. His intention was to come to earth and to teach everyone the real meaning of God’s Word.

So did the leaders like Moses, and Joshua, Saul and David, have the wrong perception of God’s word? Perhap God, like Jesus, told them to “go in and push the Canaanites out of the land”, which if I’m not mistaken, is an actual scripture somewhere in the Bible, and they took it upon themselves to go in and slaughter the pagans. Perhaps they were like Christians today, or the Puritans of the past, that think they are so right about God Word that they were willing to do anything and everything to make sure that everyone was Godly? It wouldn’t be the last time that Christians went on a crusade to kill the pagans. I remember, partly, a story told by Dr. Tim Jennings, MD, I believe it was a country in South America, where Christian raiders began killing everyone whom they thought to be non-Christian. The only part of the story I’m sure about, was that he said these raiders interrupted a church service in progress and began killing members of the congregation, and here is the worst part, during this slaughter, some of the raiders actually stopped killing, knelt in prayer to God, then stood up and killed some more. I can’t believe God authorized this, much less found it reasonable.

I know my thoughts are non-traditional; I know they are thought provoking, and I know they may be controversial. It’s just that I am confidence that our Creator, our God in Heaven, is a loving, merciful, and compassionate God, and I’ve always had a problem thinking that God commanded the children of Israel to go into the promised land and to “kill everyone”. Something more I have to ponder, I guess. But it just doesn’t make sense for God to tell everyone to kill the pagans, then to tell David that He didn’t want David to build a temple because of the blood he had shed.

Pray for me that God shows me the truth. The more I read the Bible on it’s own without the help of theologians, the more I begin to question the God they’ve made Him out to be. It’s like the meme I once saw, “If we want to get to know the God that created us, we have to forget the God that man created.”

God help us all, time is short.

Amen.