King David in the First Reading chooses to do as ‘he’ thinks right. He wants to number the people, i.e. take a census. On the surface it looks like a nice decision, but his actions talk differently. His actions now show his transfer of confidence, now not on God, but in the strength of a fighting force he can muster by enlisting able youth in the military. Yahweh as Father, corrects him. In David being confident in God – he welcomed God in the midst of Israel, but in being indifferent to God, he had pushed God out of Israel, and as a result, Israel no longer had the natural protection it had when God was with them – for who can come against God. But David realised his mistake and asked for forgiveness and punishment to be brought upon him and his own family. This then was going to be the New Relationship God was going to bring about with Israel. The place where the angel stops and where David built his altar, will become the future site of the Solomonic Temple. A sign of God’s Presence and Protection of His people. It was a physical sign of an eternal reality – a sacrament. But a sacrament is valid as long as it is exercised in faith. Israel failed many a times, and reaped its fruit. The Assyrian and Babylonian Exiles are prominent in this regard.

In the Gospel Reading, God is in their midst at Nazareth. Instead of getting excited about this, they were quarreling about Jesus’ roots. For them God only could come to His people, from a prominent ruler family or from a highly held individuals’ family, or directly from the sky/heaven. Jesus will rather teach, don’t look at the roots, look at the fruit. And the Nazarites chose to reject Jesus the Carpenters Son. If they had dug a little deeper, they would have realised his lineage from King David.

Knowledge is all good, so also prayer. But without wisdom from God, we may go astray from what God is leading us to. Solomon was indeed wise but in earthly things. True wisdom, I personally understand, cannot be a gift, because true wisdom can only be achieved at the feet of God, each day, like manna in the desert.