The Determination of David

This morning while I was reading in my devotions I came across one of my favorite stories in the scripture.  It’s the story of David attempting to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem.  David becomes king and his first order of business was to refocus the nation of Israel.  The Ark of the Covenant is where the presence of the Lord was in the Old Testament but the Philistines stole it some years earlier in a battle with the Israelites.  One piece of advice, never steal the Ark of the Covenant, because when the Philistines stole it everyone in their town broke out in disease.  So the Ark got dropped off at some guys house and just kind of stayed there for about 30 years.

David was determined to go get the Ark of the Covenant but the problem was he put it on a “new cart”.  The problem was David failed to follow the specific instructions that God gave to Moses about how to transport the Ark.  So David didn’t listen, screwed up and a guy died because of his mistake.  David got frustrated with the whole thing and dropped the Ark off at another guys house.  About 3 months later David was told how much blessing that was poured out on this guy’s household that had the Ark left at his house.

What I love about David is that he learned from his mistake.  He screwed up the first time, made a pretty significant mistake.  But he picked himself up, went back to get the Ark and this time followed the instructions God had given Moses hundreds of years earlier.  I think failure is a part of life.  If we never learn from our mistakes, suck it up, and try it again we’ll never go on to the great things that God had for us.

Challenged,

Andy