1.King David's plague

introduction

        King David's plague story is found in 2 Samuel 24 and also in 1 Chronicles 21.
​       I always heard that phrase, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,” with regard to nutrition and other kinds of well-being. The phrase comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19. I was relieved when I learned of the original, deeper meaning: God's very presence dwells with us as the same God once dwelled in the Jerusalem Temple. God's act of dwelling puts us in proximity to God's holiness--which, in turn, demands holiness from us.
​     The in-dwelling of God’s Spirit was one of the momentous discoveries of the first generations of Christians. Beginning on the first Pentecost (Acts 2), and continuing through the book of Acts, people received the Holy Spirit—including people you wouldn’t expect to, like Roman soldiers and other people peripheral to traditional faith. For instance, Paul scolds the Galatians so sharply because they (a Gentile church in central Asia Minor) had been blessed with God’s Spirit but were second-guessing God by attempting to follow Jewish practices.
​      ​    This plague story leads us in a roundabout way to the wonderful spiritual presence of God for which we are daily thankful.