Daily Devotional for Friday, December 1

David’s Family

“And David took more wives at Jerusalem: and David begat more sons and daughters,” 1 Chronicles 14:3.

I have always been fascinated by the British royal family and their customs, rules, etiquette and titles. Growing up, most of the stories I read or watched contained some sort of king, queen or princess. In many of those stories, whether fictional or factual, kingdoms would unite through marriage, and the kingdoms were secure with a biological heir.

David was not born a king. He did not inherit a kingdom. In fact, God tells the Israelites that it was better not to have a king at all. Alas, God gave the people what they wanted and chose Saul to be the first king of Israel. When his choices began to dishonor God, a young boy named David was chosen; however, David was only recognized as the king after Saul’s death. Saul gave his daughter, Michal, to David in marriage, despite his lack of regality. David had taken two more wives before his reign in Jerusalem, but in 2 Samuel 5:13-16 and 1 Chronicles 14:3-7, we see that David continued to gain wives and concubines once he became ruler, most likely for political power. Whatever the reason, we can see that David was building his royal family (1 Chronicles 3:1-9) which would eventually lead to Jesus (Matthew 1:1-16).

Daytime television dramas have nothing on the chaos that occurred in David’s family. Bitter wives, conniving sons, adultery and murder were only a few of his consequences for not following Deuteronomy 17:17. Even though David made many mistakes along the way in how he built his family, God still used his lineage to bring forth the Savior. I am so thankful that God still uses us for His honor and glory instead of casting us aside when we fall short.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: May we humble ourselves, recognizing our shortcomings and failures and leaning on God’s forgiveness and grace to be used by Him in a mighty way.

Ashley Ridings