2 Samuel 8:1-12- Using What We Have for God
It’s easy to do the right thing for the wrong motives. So what about David in this chapter? He’s winning these great victories, but maybe it’s just his own reputation that he cares about? There are little hints here that that’s not the case. In v4 David takes 1700 horsemen. What does he do to them? He hamstrings all the horses apart from 100. Why would he do something like that? There may be a number of reasons. But one is the command of Deuteronomy 17:16 where God says that the king ‘must not acquire many horses for himself’. Why? Because of the tendency to trust in them rather than God and forget that, as Psalm 33:17 puts it: ‘A horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue’.
What does David do down in v10 with all the silver, gold and bronze that King Toi sends him? He dedicates it to the LORD, together with the silver and the gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued. Again he was following Deuteronomy 17, where kings are told not to acquire for themselves silver and gold. 1st Chronicles 18 tells us that Solomon used it to build the temple. The bronze was used for the bronze sea and the pillars and the vessels of bronze. 1st Kings 7 tells us that the rest of it – the silver, gold and the vessels which David had dedicated to the Lord – were put by Solomon in the Temple’s treasuries. There’s an application here to us. Rather than using the gifts that God gives us to try and build our kingdom, we’re to use them in the service of his kingdom. How terrible to take gifts and abilities God gives us, and use them for our own ends, rather than his! Yet how easy it is to do. But we’re to be different. We’re to take what God gives us and devote it to him — our time, talents, gifts and abilities, and our material blessings.
Notice as well that David doesn’t see the fruit of his labours in his lifetime. Are we willing to serve God if we don’t see immediate fruit for what we’re doing? Are we prepared to serve God for the good of future generations, even if we won’t live to see it? David’s concern for the cause of God on earth is a concern that goes way beyond his own death.
Questions
- How does David follow God’s instructions for kings?
- How can we use what we have for Christ?
Prayer Points
- Pray that we would use all we have been given for the Lord.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.