King David, Princess Elle

The other day I was reading my Bible. King David gets a big head and decides to number all his people, so he can see how powerful he is. His advisers warn him against this, thinking God might not like it. He does it anyway, but then feels immediately convicted because he knows he was numbering the troops out of pride in his own strength. So he apologizes to God, and God gives him 3 options for his punishment:

1.) You can either have 3 years of famine (some places in the Bible say 7)

2.) You can be pursued by your enemies for 3 months

3.) Or you can have a bout of pestilence fall on Israel for 3 days

I would have taken one of the first two I think, but not David. He says to the prophet, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” That's insane to me! He trusts in the grace of God more than in his own abilities to flee from his enemies. Essentially, it's a reversal of his previous stance, which is especially interesting because if ANYONE has the ability to elude his enemies, it's a guy who spent half his life on the run. But David knows the heart of God so well that he says, who knows, maybe the Lord will have compassion on us, despite the fact that I earned his retribution. Let us throw ourselves on His great mercy.

So true to His word, God sends an angel (I suspect it's the Angel of Death from Exodus) to go wipe out portions of Israel with a plague for 3 days. 70,000 people were killed. But here's my favorite part: "When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now relax your hand!”

That's amazing to me because all throughout the Old Testament, you see a God of judgment and justice. But King David knew the heart of God SO well even before the grace of the cross entered the picture, that he foresaw God doing exactly what he did... saying to the Angel of Death, "ENOUGH! Relax your hand!"

I learn more from the Old Testament than the New Testament because it seems less pedagogical and didactic and more subtle in its approach. So here's what I take away from this story: It is a good thing to throw yourself upon the mercy of the Lord; it is a good thing to know the Lord's heart.

Last summer, after a breakup, I thought, "I'm done messing around! I'm going to find the guy I'm supposed to marry this year, before I get any older. All you really have to do is make up your mind to do it!" Online dating seemed surefire if one really committed to it. After all, the statistics about how many relationships begin online were splashed all over TV commercials, and I had personally met lots of people who met their spouse that way. So I joined some dating websites and determined to spend serious time each day reading and responding to emails from men until I found a keeper. No more of this distracted clicking through profiles while I watched "The Big Bang Theory." I was going to treat finding a mate like preparing for a job interview or training for a marathon. All the people from eharmony and match.com promised me that they could and would find me a spouse. "Fine! I trust you! Do it! I'll do everything in my power to cooperate," I said.

But they did not. I went out on a few dates, but was stood up more often than not. And when I told one very nice, attractive doctor that I didn't really see a future for us and didn't want to waste anymore of his time, he bit my head off. That's about the time I began thinking of King David, throwing himself upon the goodness of the Lord instead of depending on men to determine his plight. I thought, maybe David had the right idea, saying "Who knows? Maybe the Lord will have mercy." So after 7 months online, I cancelled my memberships and asked God to be merciful and handle my situation Himself. I work at a school where I know everyone on staff. I work at a store where the only men are gay. And I no longer have a profile online. So if I'm going to find a life partner now, it's going to have to be because of the mercy of the Lord.