2 Samuel 8
So David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people (2 Samuel 8:15).
There are two things I notice about this chapter of David.
God gives victory to David (2 Samuel 8:6,14).
David reigns with justice (2 Samuel 8:15).
Most of the chapter illustrates David’s victories as king; he defeats the Philistines, Moab, Hadadezer the son of Rehob, and then some. God continues to give him victory as He has so graciously given him favor over the years leading up to David’s reign. This ‘being given victory’ thing could likely result in David sinfully falling into the trap of pride but instead he humbly reigns giving justice and equity to all his people.
Reading this chapter I am reminded of God’s loving character. I am reminded of the beautiful baby that was born in a humble stable some hundreds of years later. I am reminded of the redemption story in which God gave us Jesus to obtain victory over death. And like David, Jesus reigns with justice and equity for all his people.
Isaiah 30:18 says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!” God has always exemplified justice. As sin entered into the world so too did just judgment and separation from a holy God (Ecclesiastes 3:17, Hebrews 10:30, Psalm 37:27-29). God knew we would fail Him, yet He created us anyway. God knew from before the beginning of time his plan to redeem the world through the work of his Son in human form, a cross, and an empty tomb. Through David’s story the righteous and gracious character of God is given and the foreshadow of Jesus is painted.
When you put your trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you were voluntarily accepting his gift of victory over death. On a much greater scale it’s as if God is giving us the get out of jail free card in Monopoly, so that even though we don’t deserve it or shouldn’t be able to afford it, we pass over that prison and enter into His presence.
God asks the church to live into this victory. To live each day remembering the gift of salvation and that Jesus defeated sin and death on our behalf! What a victory we have in Jesus! God also asks us to walk with justice and equity for all people for He tells us in Isaiah 1:17, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” And again in Psalm 106:3 He tells us, “Blessed are those who act justly, who always do what is right.”
If God is asking us to be like Jesus then He is asking us to walk in victory and to exude justice and equity. If we study Jesus’s life and pray to look more like Him then we will be reminded that we are given victory wherever we go and to give justice and equity to all people just as David also did.
When is it easy for you to forget that you have been given victory over death by the creator of the world?
What or who do you have a hard time giving justice and equity to as Jesus does?
