Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “The Cost of Rest”. “This week we look briefly into the life of the man after God’s own heart to find out how he discovered the true cost of God’s rest” (Quarterly for Sabbath, July 17). A good lesson on King David and the issues swirling around his highly publicized sin. By taking all week to delve into this, we focus on the hard lessons David learned. And the lessons we can learn, too.
For this week’s “thought” I’d like to focus on the quote from the quarterly shown above regarding David. Here it is in the Bible from 1 Samuel 13:14, “The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people…”. This quality of David is referenced again hundreds of years later by Luke in Acts 13:22 “… He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will’.” (Acts 13:22). So was David always such a man? And if not always, was there a time and occurrence when he was not? But if he always was such a man, what were the qualities that made him such a man? Let’s investigate a little.
When Solomon ascended the throne after his father David, God gave Solomon this counsel… “So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days” (1 Kings 3:14). An interesting commendation of David from our God who knows all things. I wonder if Solomon pondered whether God even knew his father David. For surely, David had committed a grievous sin that undermined his authority, his kingdom, even his family. So for God to tell Solomon to be the good man his father David was, must have perplexed Solomon. And yet, God is saying David was such a man, even with the full realization of the grievous sin he had done.
Another reference to this is made later in the same book of the Bible… “because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (1 Kings 15:5). This seems to contradict a little the earlier statement by God Himself. So was David’s “turn(ing) aside” something that negated David’s standing as “a man after God’s own heart”? If so, can any of us ever be such a person? Because we surely have “turned aside” many times in our lives. Or is there something else that makes a person “a man after God’s own heart”, even if we have an occasion of “turning aside”? I think there is. And I think David was always “a man after God’s own heart”, even with the “turn(ing) aside… in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (quoted above). That quality? It all depends on what you do when you “turn aside” and the full realization is seen.
When David’s predecessor, King Saul, committed a grievous sin of disobedience against God, he was severely remonstrated by Samuel. Saul’s immediate and determined response was one of self-justification and defense (read 1 Samuel 15: 1- 23 to read of the issue and Saul’s determined self-justification). Only when he saw the consequences of his rebellion and only wanted to be re-instated in as king did he say “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord” (verses 24-25). This “confession”, forced from the lips of one who only regrets the consequences of their behavior, reveals the shallowness and duplicity that is so antithetical to God and His selfless ways. Saul just attempts to be restored. It is all about Saul.
Now compare David’s reaction to Nathan’s charge against Him because of the “turn(ing) aside… in the matter of Uriah the Hittite” (read 2 Samuel 12). “So David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord’” (2 Samuel 12:13). No equivocation. No self-justification. No defense. Just admittance and confession… and a heart-felt acknowledgement of what he had done to “the Lord” and the damage done to their shared relationship. No desire for re-instatement in God’s favor or a minimization of the magnitude of the damage done. Just a full confession from a contrite heart.
In my opinion, this is the quality that separates the “wheat” from the “chaff”. NOT that the “wheat” is perfect. But when God brings the sinful selfishness to the “wheat’s” awareness, the “wheat” readily accepts the responsibility and confesses. But more. The “wheat” recognizes the magnitude of the damage done. Not to their precious little selves but to the heart of God and the damage to their shared relationship. Unlike the “chaff”, self plays little or no part in the “wheat’s” confession and repentance.
This is what I believe made David (and those of us who likewise relate to our God), a man or woman “after God’s own heart”. A spirit of love and reconciliation due to the destructiveness of our sinfulness; and not a spirit of self-justification and self-promotion. If we are more concerned with our own selves and security (like Saul) then we must run, not walk, to our God of love and confess even this truth. That we do not have this heart of love at all. And pray that we are healed from our selfishness. And then start following and walking as He has told us. As we follow and walk we are more intimately connected to Him whom we follow. And in this intimate walking, we come to love Him more and more, love our brothers and sisters more and more. And we become less and less self-focused. And anything that damages that strengthening relationship with our God will alarm us more and more. Leading us to the true repentance and confession. Like David’s and not like Saul’s.
With brotherly love,
Jim