Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Samuel 12:29-31 (New International Version)

²⁹ So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. ³⁰ He took the crown from the head of their king —its weight was a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones—and it was placed on David’s head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city ³¹ and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. He did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

David conquers a kingdom. He took the crown from the conquered king and put it on his own head. Why did he do that?  Okay, maybe it was a image type of thing – wearing the king’s crown showed that he had won the victory and all that. But still.

God led David to victory. The conquered kingdom was worthless. The conquered king was worthless. The crown, well you know – worthless. Why put a worthless hat on your head after God led you to victory? Doesn’t make much sense, so why do we continue to do this today?

Consider what we do. We conquer our appetite and lose weight; we celebrate with a meal. We raise money to feed the poor; we celebrate by going on a cruise. Why do we do those things? I guess they are part of the human condition. We lust after things. Well, we don’t use the word “lust.” We use other words that don’t sound so bad, but we conquer something and run back to it or something like it. Why do we do these things?

God has a lot of patience with us. He has had a lot of patience with us going back to David and before David. Thanks God.