David died at a ripe old age, rich in years and wealth and glory, and his son Solomon succeeded him as king. -- 1 Chronicles 29:28 (NAB)
King David was Israel's greatest king. He established Israel as a kingdom in a way that Saul was unable to do. He established Jerusalem as his capital city. Most importantly, he lived and died as "a man after God's own heart" -- not perfect by any means, but always repentant and returning quickly to the Lord after his sins.
Yet, in spite of all this, David was not the one to build the great Temple for, as he recounted to Solomon, the Lord told him, "You may not build a house for my name, because you have shed too much blood upon the earth in my sight." (I Chr. 22:8) The Lord chose Solomon to build the Temple and established him, in one sense, as an even greater king than David.
There are several things to be learned from this Elijah/Elisha pair, more, I'm sure, than I'm aware of, but in the next few posts I'd like to try to capture a couple of them.
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