Today’s Scripture Reading (September
19, 2013): 1 Chronicles 18
Russell
Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks won their football game on Sunday Night. The
game was a little bit of a surprise. For one, the margin of victory was higher
than anyone expected it to be. The Seahawks were playing against the San
Francisco 49ers, and to be honest it is really a coin flip on which of these
teams are currently favored to win the NFC and represent that conference in the
Super Bowl (right now the team favored to be their opponent in February is the
Denver Broncos – an old rival of the Seahawks from their AFC days.) But one
game does not a season make, and there is a lot of football left to be played
so it is still very much of an open question as to which of the teams are going
to be still standing in February when all of the rest of the league is done.
But the
second reason why the result from the Sunday Night Football game (I’ve been
waiting all week for Sunday Night) is a surprise is that Russell Wilson (the Seattle
quarterback) had what was probably his worst (or at least one of his worst)
football games of his young NFL career. There have been games when Wilson has
stood on his head and has completed plays for the Seahawks almost seeming to
win the game by himself, but this was not one of those games. For the Seahawks
to win, a lot of other things had to go right for the team.
David is
recognized as the premiere king of Israel. He established the borders of the
nation and secured those borders in a way that had never been done before. The
neighboring nations were subdued and ended up providing a buffer zone between
Israel and her enemies. It was the height of Israel as a kingdom and the time
that Israel would nostalgically remember through the centuries that would
follow. But the author of Chronicles wants to stress that it was not just that
David was an incredible leader. All of the success that David enjoyed was
because of the team that was gathered around him, and because God allowed it.
We have
mentioned that Chronicles was most likely written as Israel was getting ready
to return home after their exile in Babylon. The book was written as a word of
encouragement to a nation that thought that their time on the world stage was
over – that all of their best days were now behind them. And the writer wants
to remind the returning exiles that all that David had done was because of God.
David had some good days, but he also had a lot of bad days. But David’s
reality was that even on the bad days, God saw him through.
Bad days are
a normal part of life. But the secret of surviving the bad days is being a part
of a team or a community (in Christian circles we recognize this as the role of
the church) and, like David, depending on God’s blessing for the victory. Those
are the elements that are needed for true success – no matter what the problems
are that you might be facing today.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Chronicles 19
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