Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He said to me, ‘It is your son Solomon who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be a son to me, and I will be a father to him.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, August 29, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
David couldn’t build the temple because he had shed blood. I wonder about this, honestly. King David spent his whole life in warfare in order to establish and protect the new nation of Israel from the many threats all around it. While I’m no fan of war, it strikes me that David was just doing what God needed him to do in order to protect God’s people. So I find it strange that God would sort of punish David by forbidding him to build the temple God had to carefully laid the plans for through the laws of Moses.
David doesn’t seem bothered by this, actually. He accepts that he isn’t the one to build the temple, and instead takes joy in the fact that his son, Solomon, will get to do it. He rejoices that Solomon has been chosen by God to be “a son to me, and I will be a father to him.”
It makes me think about the sacrifices parents make for their children, so that their children can have full, happy, useful, and fulfilling lives. I myself have had to set aside a great deal in the past in order to give my kids the support they’ve needed. Because of their disabilities, I continue to do this to some extent. It would be easy to be resentful (and, if I am honest, sometimes I am). These words of David can be an inspiration to me—I can take joy in the things my kids get to do, even if I don’t always get to do what I hoped.
What have I sacrificed in order that others might flourish? How do I feel about these sacrifices?
