Kingdom Era

This week in class at the Tute has been one of the less thrilling weeks. 

History is interesting, but it's not always what you want to sit thru for 4 hours, 3 days in a row.  Especially when the week before was about something super applicable like marriage.  The history that we went thru was the Kingdom Era.  Basically 1 and 2 Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles in the Bible.  Understanding the Kingdom Era is crucial to understanding the Bible.

I want to make sure and say that I did appreciate this week, even if I didn't necessarily love it.

So my assignment questions are a little boring, but ya know I have to answer them anyway.

Question 1: What have you learned about leadership from the Kingdom Era?

The thing that comes to mind right off the bat is, "how not to lead."  That is because the Kingdom of Israel was divided and rules by some awful kings for most of it's existence.

However, there were some good kings during the division, and there were also 120 years when the Kingdom was united under the rule of Saul, David, and Solomon.  Saul wasn't a righteous king.  David was a great king, and his son Solomon was a good king for about half the time. 

As far as leadership goes, David would definitely be the model.  Yes, everyone knows about what he did with Bathsheba, and he suffered some grave consequences for that.  David's life was so much more than the Bathsheba incident though.  Even before David was king he showed the leadership that a man of God should live by.  David relied on God's provision in several situations that people would normally shrink away from.  For example, David trusted that God would give victory in fights with lions and bears, and no one can forget the great underdog story of David and Goliath. 

It is important that we admire David's faith.  The whole Bible tells of people who were given power to do great things because of their faith in God.  David is one of these people who recognized that God's power was much greater than his own power.  He went to God humbly when he was facing trials.  The biggest issue that I have been working thru in my personal walk with God is my tendency to rely on myself to take care of all my needs, instead of relying on God to meet those needs.  God has been teaching me humility.  Usually He teaches me by humiliating me. I don't have to tell you how little fun it is to be humiliated. 

So God has taught me that a good leader has humility because of the knowledge that God is sovereign. 

Question 2:  What is something that you have learned from the Kingdom Era about the character of God?

Well, I think this relates to the first question.  David struggled at times with relying on his own strength for things.  Like when he took a military census and stuff like that that he knew God disproved of.  David was trying to get a gauge of how much power he had as king of the nation.

God taught David lessons by doing certain things to get his attention.  For example, God sent a plague thru Israel that killed 70,000 people after David took the census. 

This is a lesson to me that shows that God doesn't let things slide.  He teaches us lessons, and sometimes those lessons aren't easily learned.  In other words, discipline is in God's character.  I think when I am raising children this lesson will take on new meaning.

If you want to know anything about the Kingdom Era of the Bible, Holler at me.