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What the Torah Taught David About the Love of God
by Cate Russell-Cole It's not easy to keep your faith level high while experiencing this kind of chaotic stress: "O LORD, how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, O LORD my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. Don't let my enemies gloat, saying, "We have defeated him!" Don't let them rejoice at my downfall. But I trust in Your unfailing love. I will rejoice because You have rescued me. I will sing to the LORD because He is good to me." Psalm 13 Like all of us, David struggled with his relationship with the Lord when the heat was turned up. Through a haze of stress and fear, he wondered where the Lord had gotten to. At times, as was the culture of the era, he took God's silence as possible rejection and fretted over what would become of him. Had he been judged as so sinful that God had walked away? Thankfully, his problems always end with God's hoped for deliverance arriving, and a deeper, richer understanding of God's love and character. David didn't have the entire Old Testament and the New Testament to teach him what we know about God. All he had was the written laws of Moses and the stories of Isra'el's history (Torah), yet he had an incredible, dynamic faith that has stood the test of time as a powerful example to others. So without Jesus as the prime example, how did he know about the full character of God? I have made the mistake of thinking of the Torah as a historical reference. Until I began to write this article, I hadn't properly looked at what those books tell us about the character of God. I prefer to read about the love and gentleness of Jesus, rather than about battles and plagues. I enjoy reading Paul's letters: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39. As I began to search for clues about God's character in the Torah, I Googled Scriptures about the love of God. The Open Bible.info gave me a list of 59, with only one coming from the Torah. [Ref. Exodus 19:5] With the exception of a few Psalms, which were written by David so they don't count, the rest of the love Scriptures came into being well after David's time. They are the ones I am familiar with and rely on, so no wonder I hadn't dug back further.[https://www.openbible.info/topics/gods_love_for_us] The answer is God's loving kindness has been repeatedly, clearly displayed since Genesis 1. The Torah is as rich in references to God's amazing love as the New Testament. Here are some examples: - Despite the catastrophe, God physically looked after Adam and Eve after they had sinned. [Ref. Genesis 3:21] - Noah was saved from the flood and God made a covenant with him, because God's people are too important to be left behind. [Ref. Genesis chapters 6-9] - Abraham was a friend of God. He was saved from being childless and "God had blessed him in every way," by the time he was an old man. [Ref. Genesis 12-24] - God dried tears and generously provided basic needs in life for his people, such as wives and He reversed barrenness in faithful women such as Rebecca, in Genesis 25. God's kindness to a grieving Hagar is another beautiful picture of compassion combined with a practical solution. [Ref. Genesis 21] - The deliverance and blessing of Joseph speaks volumes about God's kindness and guard, not to mention his plan for us as individuals. No matter how awful life got, he never left Joseph down on his luck for long. [Ref. Genesis 37-50] - In *Exodus, God delivered Isra'el from Egypt because He heard their pain. In the wilderness they were supplied with every spiritual and physical need, despite their rebellion, and they were promised that God would delight in them. [Ref. Deuteronomy 30:9-10] This includes food, water, healing, **conquering their enemies miraculously multiple times, being physically present with them and more. Even the ten commandments are loving safety guidelines for a people who'd been subject only to pagan gods and rituals, and needed to learn how to live better lives. [Ref. Exodus 20] Deuteronomy 4:31: "For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath." - In Leviticus 26:1-13 God promises to live among His people and walk among them. He isn't in Heaven looking down, He lived and moved alongside man. At this time in history, every other nation was trying to placate their gods, who they were terrified of. - Moses' close friendship with God is a beautiful example of God's willingness to form a bond with His people. This is highlighted in Exodus 33:33:12-23. In Exodus 34:5-7, God describes Himself to Moses including, "I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations." - God's patience is shown in the book of Judges again and again, and again, as Isra'el repeatedly rebels. In Deuteronomy 28, God sets out the curses of disobedience and gives the people five massive, staged warnings to turn back to Him; then even when they have completely rejected God and have been torn away from their birthright, He says, "But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the LORD their God. For their sakes I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of all the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD." Leviticus 26:44-45 and Deuteronomy 4:29-31 "But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey Him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which He confirmed to them by oath." As I said above, this is not an exhaustive list. How can David have known all these stories and not known the love of God? He can't and he didn't. "Remember, O LORD, your compassion and unfailing love, which you have shown from long ages past." Psalm 25:6 "Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle's! ...He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west." Psalm 103:1-5 and 10-12 That Psalm repeats the entire message of the Torah, which is that God was in an active, covenant relationship with His people which He will never discard. That relationship is still not complete and never will be. God will always fight for and provide for His people with a fierce, jealous love and David knew he was wanted, treasured, provided for and sought after; the problems with his walk with God only showed up... when his judgement was smothered by pain. So next time you feel discouraged, or like God has abandoned you, don't beat yourself up over your lack of faith. We all go through it, including spiritual giants like David. Fear and grief take over and dominate our thoughts, and we don't reason straight. However, like David, we will also get through it. He always has been there for His people and He is not about to leave us now, no matter what... Notes: *Exodus 19:1-6: "On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypton that very daythey came to the Desert of Sinai. After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain. Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites." **The battles God fought for Isra'el, up until David's time, which would have served as an example to him. - Crossing the Red Sea - Exodus 14 - Victory over the Amalekites - Exodus 17:8-16 - Promise to fight for the people - Exodus 23:27-31 and Deuteronomy 7:7-8 - Jordan River dry crossing - Joshua 3:15-16 - Fall of Jericho - Joshua 6:20-21 - Ai - Joshua 8 - Amonites - Joshua 10:11 - North captured for Isra'el - Joshua 11:16-20, especially verse 23 - South captured for Isra'el - Joshua 10:40-42 - Deborah and Barak - Judges 4:14-15 - Gideon - Judges 7 - Samson - Judges 16, especially verse 30 - Ark of the Covenant against the Philistines - 1 Samuel 7 - Saul's first battle, against King Nahash of Ammon - 1 Samuel 11 - Jonathan against the Philistines - 1 Samuel 14 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For more information on King David, please have a meander through the King David Project Facebook page, our web site and our blog, "Masada Rain." The blog houses many useful resources on studying, David plus bits and pieces of information which don't neatly fit into article form. Please ignore dates and use the search feature to find what you want. The web site has resources on David's family tree, life and the Psalms. All content is creative commons and non-profit. Sharing of the project's work would be deeply appreciated. Masada Rain Blog: https://masadarain.wordpress.com The project web site: http://cateartios.wix.com/kingdavidproject Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fromdespairtodeliverance "From Despair to Deliverance: the King David Project," is a non-profit ministry, that seeks to make the life of King David easy to understand and relevant, so that believers gain inspiration and comfort from the life of King David. The project is run by Cate Russell-Cole, a Christian writer from Brisbane, Australia. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This article by Cate Russell-Cole is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) Written in Australian English. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |