Thursday 6 June 2013
Tuesday 13 November 2012
David a man after Gods own heart.
To have the commendation of hearing God say that David was a man after His own heart was a remarkable statement.
At the end of this life only the commendation of God will be that which really counts.
We can have all the applause of men and still have failed to fulfil and live up to Gods highest purpose for our lives.
Conversely we can have made many mistakes (and will) have suffered many defeats and yet end our course more on fire for Gods purpose in our lives and more changed in our character and more single hearted to the purpose for which we were born if we learn our lessons well, and become overcomers this side of eternity.
David was an overcomer and did learn his lessons well.
He also possessed certain qualities in his character which commended him before the Lord, which if we can recognise what they are, we to can seek Gods face to have developed in our own lives and character.
The next quality which David possessed which made him a man after Gods own heart was that he had a heart of great generosity.
How can anyone who has truly claimed to know the Lord and been impacted by his grace not reflect his heart and nature in an attitude of generosity?
I believe that one of the most sad misrepresentations of the nature of God that we can present before men is to be mean spirited and stingy.
Davids generosity towards king Saul is something that I have written about the previous blog,but was essentially seen in his refusal to become bitter at the man who so mistreated him.
There are few places where we see this generosity expressed more sincerely than in David,s response to hearing the report of King Saul's demise.
1 Sam 1 v19 David takes up and teaches this song as a lament
"The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!
Tell it not in Gath,proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon-
Lest the daughters of the philistines rejoice,Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives,And in their death they were not divided;
They were swifter than eagles,They were stronger than lions."v 23
How could David possibly describe Saul as beautiful and beloved?(the niv says gracious)
Simply because he saw him as he once once and was called to be.He saw him with a heart of kindness and of generosity.
Make no mistake the Lord will also test every one of us as to how well we respond to those who treat us unfairly to see whether we will respond with bitterness or with generosity.
And the response we have will determine whether we will advance further on in the purpose of God for our lives.
David response of generosity was not just to king Saul but also towards his men as is evidenced in an incident recorded in 1 Sam 30.
David returns to his village to discover that his wives and children and the wives and children of all of his men have been kidnapped by an Amalekite raid and all his property taken.
David goes in pursuit of the raiding party after enquiring of Lord with 600 of his men to recover their families and goods.
In verse 9 we are told that
"David went he and six hundred men who were with him,and came to the brook Besor,where those stayed who were left behind
.But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind,who were so weary that they could not cross the brook Besor."
Later when David successfully returns from the campaign we read that,
"Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David,whom they also had made to stay at the brook Besor.
So they went out to met David and to meet the people who were with him.And when David came near the people,he greeted them.
Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said
"Because they did not go with us,we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered except for every mans wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart."
"But David said,
"My brethren you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us,who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us.
For who will heed you in this matter?But as his part is who goes down to the battle,so shall his part be who stays by the supplies;they shall share alike."
And so it was from that day forward;he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day."
The men who had stayed behind at the brook Besor were staying to guard the supplies and as such doing an invaluable job.
In reality their hearts were to go and engage in the battle but through sheer exhaustion they found themselves unable to continue.
Those here described as "wicked men " wanted on their return from the victory over the Amalakites to "punish" those who had been left behind and sought to introduce some false distinction as to who they thought merited greater reward and a greater share of the victory spoils of war.
David would have none of it.
Firstly he attributes all of the victory and their military success only to the Lord and established it as an unchangeable military law that those who stay and guard get the same as those who went to fight.
What was it that motivated David to want to honour those who could not physically go on in battle with the same reward? Generosity of heart.
David,s generosity was not limited to that of his family or his closest friends either.Rather his generosity was towards all of Israel as well.
Consider the occasion when the ark of the covenant was coming back into Jerusalem and David was filled with joy and danced before the Lord with all of his might.
The bible tells us that
"When David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
Then he distributed among all the people among the whole multitude of Israel both men and women,to everyone a loaf of bread,a piece of meat,and a cake of raisins.So all the people departed everyone to his own house.Then David returned to bless his own household."2 Sam 6 18-20
David,s heart is so filled with joy over the ark of Gods presence returning to the city of Jerusalem, Zion that he worships and offers up burnt offerings and sacrifices in reverence and thanksgiving to the Lord.
But it does not end there.He also wants to bless all the people of Israel; every adult man and woman with provisions of food and impart to them a blessing.
David did not have to this he wanted to do this.
Sometimes I think that Christians can be governed by a sense of what they feel they are obligated to do rather than to give free expression to want they want to do to bless others with giving.
We should not tithe merely because we feel we have to, but because we want to.We should not give to the widows and the poor and the orphans because we are commanded to but because we really want to.
Davids generosity of heart was not merely limited to a nation or to a king but came to to the level of the lowliest individual as well.
In closing this piece I would be remiss if I did not mention possibly the greatest single example of David,s generosity, which is that of his kindness towards Mephibosheth in 2 Sam ch 9.
David had expressed his desire to show kindness to any left of the house of Saul, not knowing of the existence of a son of Jonathan's who had been living in exile from the presence of the King all of his life and was lame in both feet.
After some enquiry Mephibosheth is brought in before the King, who does not know of his existence until now.
"Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan,the son of Saul,had come to David,he fell on his face and prostrated himself.
Then David said,"Mephibosheth?" And he answered,"Here is your servant!"
So David said to him,
"Do not fear,for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your fathers sake,and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather;and you shall eat bread at my table continually."
Then he bowed himself,and said,
"What is your servant,that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?"
David calls in Ziba and establishes the fact that all of the land that formerly belonged to Saul would now be restored to Mephibosheth, and that Ziba and his fifteen sons and twenty servants would now tend the land for him but concerning Mephibosheth,
"As for Mephibosheth said the king,"he shall eat at my table like one of the kings sons" v 11
David was in reality fulfilling a promise which he had made to Jonathan when he was still alive that he would continue to show kindness to Jonathan's family even when Jonathan was dead.
David took this oath very seriously, however he was motivated by something more than a bond of loyalty,as important as that was.
David also was driven and compelled by a love a bursting desire to do good to the descendants of Jonathan to whom he had pledged his loyalty.
Notice how David responds to Mephibosheth and you begin to gain an insight into the measure of his generosity of nature.
Mephibosheth comes to David as a broken man and David immediately pronounces restoration of all that Mephibosheth had lost of his inheritance.
Then he reinforces this restoration.
The bible says that David went and "fetched "Mephibosheth,he did not wait for him to come at some mutually convenient time.
No he diligently sought him out, and found him,in order that he might do great good to him.
Mephibosheth saw himself as totally unworthy of being the recipient of this lavish generosity that David was showing towards him in this encounter, but David paid no attention to his objection
"What is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?"
In the mind and heart of king David Mephibosheth is no more a servant than he is a dead dog, he will be treated like royalty and he will sit at the kings table. He will "sit at my table like one of the kings sons."
When we read a passage like this it is not difficult to see the strong parallels with the gospel.
We come to God through Jesus without a plea, with nothing "dead dogs" as to our ability to contribute anything of righteousness or holiness that would commend us to God.
We fall down upon our faces before the heavenly King and hear him saying "Stand up my son," or" Stand up my daughter!"
We hear him pronounce forgiveness upon our lives as he holds out his sceptre of righteousness in his hand and declare us royalty, and a brand new creation, an heir of the God of heaven and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
We listen in awe as he utters the words,
"Come and sit with me upon my throne and I overcame and sat down together with my Father upon his throne".And he bids us to come and sit down and his banqueting table through this life in the very sight of our adversaries.
What a revelation of Grace this passage gives us.
However it is perhaps more challenging to us when we now view our responsibility to give this kind of grace and show this generosity of heart towards others.
Jesus said "Freely you have received now freely give."
Some Christians are still bound by fears in this area of giving.
"What if they take advantage of me?" What if they come to look to me instead of God?" "I would give more but I just do not have the time, money, energy and so the list goes on.
The real truth is that our giving to others is a reflection of how real our love is for God.
If someone says,"I love God,"and hates his brother,he is a liar,for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen,how can he love God whom he has not seen?
And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also."1 John 4 v20
Someone might say "I do love my brother, I do them no harm and I pray (occasionally) for them.",
Listen again to what John says
By this we know love,because he laid down his life for us.And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoever has this world,s goods,and sees his brother in need,and shuts up his heart from him,how does the love of God abide in him?"
My little children,let us not love in word or in tongue,but in deed and in truth.
And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him." 1 john 3 16 19.
"By this we know love" Gods measuring standard is quite different from that of our own.
And it is clear that their can be no real love shown without some practical measure of help given.
By this we shall assure our hearts before him, we all know deep down in our consciences that real love always gives.
It is therefore a real tragedy when the body of Christ does not show this kind of generosity of spirit because it is such a witness to what the nature of God is like.
God is not a mean God therefore his children should never be mean also.
I believe that we need to "lift the bar" in our conception of the kind of generosity and kindness we are called to give to christian and non christian alike.
The world is still waiting to see what the grace of God in action really looks like.
In David we have a wonderful example of this in action, may we learn and be inspired and so do likewise.
To have the commendation of hearing God say that David was a man after His own heart was a remarkable statement.
At the end of this life only the commendation of God will be that which really counts.
We can have all the applause of men and still have failed to fulfil and live up to Gods highest purpose for our lives.
Conversely we can have made many mistakes (and will) have suffered many defeats and yet end our course more on fire for Gods purpose in our lives and more changed in our character and more single hearted to the purpose for which we were born if we learn our lessons well, and become overcomers this side of eternity.
David was an overcomer and did learn his lessons well.
He also possessed certain qualities in his character which commended him before the Lord, which if we can recognise what they are, we to can seek Gods face to have developed in our own lives and character.
The next quality which David possessed which made him a man after Gods own heart was that he had a heart of great generosity.
How can anyone who has truly claimed to know the Lord and been impacted by his grace not reflect his heart and nature in an attitude of generosity?
I believe that one of the most sad misrepresentations of the nature of God that we can present before men is to be mean spirited and stingy.
Davids generosity towards king Saul is something that I have written about the previous blog,but was essentially seen in his refusal to become bitter at the man who so mistreated him.
There are few places where we see this generosity expressed more sincerely than in David,s response to hearing the report of King Saul's demise.
1 Sam 1 v19 David takes up and teaches this song as a lament
"The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!
Tell it not in Gath,proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon-
Lest the daughters of the philistines rejoice,Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives,And in their death they were not divided;
They were swifter than eagles,They were stronger than lions."v 23
How could David possibly describe Saul as beautiful and beloved?(the niv says gracious)
Simply because he saw him as he once once and was called to be.He saw him with a heart of kindness and of generosity.
Make no mistake the Lord will also test every one of us as to how well we respond to those who treat us unfairly to see whether we will respond with bitterness or with generosity.
And the response we have will determine whether we will advance further on in the purpose of God for our lives.
David response of generosity was not just to king Saul but also towards his men as is evidenced in an incident recorded in 1 Sam 30.
David returns to his village to discover that his wives and children and the wives and children of all of his men have been kidnapped by an Amalekite raid and all his property taken.
David goes in pursuit of the raiding party after enquiring of Lord with 600 of his men to recover their families and goods.
In verse 9 we are told that
"David went he and six hundred men who were with him,and came to the brook Besor,where those stayed who were left behind
.But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred stayed behind,who were so weary that they could not cross the brook Besor."
Later when David successfully returns from the campaign we read that,
"Now David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary that they could not follow David,whom they also had made to stay at the brook Besor.
So they went out to met David and to meet the people who were with him.And when David came near the people,he greeted them.
Then all the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said
"Because they did not go with us,we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered except for every mans wife and children, that they may lead them away and depart."
"But David said,
"My brethren you shall not do so with what the Lord has given us,who has preserved us and delivered into our hand the troop that came against us.
For who will heed you in this matter?But as his part is who goes down to the battle,so shall his part be who stays by the supplies;they shall share alike."
And so it was from that day forward;he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day."
The men who had stayed behind at the brook Besor were staying to guard the supplies and as such doing an invaluable job.
In reality their hearts were to go and engage in the battle but through sheer exhaustion they found themselves unable to continue.
Those here described as "wicked men " wanted on their return from the victory over the Amalakites to "punish" those who had been left behind and sought to introduce some false distinction as to who they thought merited greater reward and a greater share of the victory spoils of war.
David would have none of it.
Firstly he attributes all of the victory and their military success only to the Lord and established it as an unchangeable military law that those who stay and guard get the same as those who went to fight.
What was it that motivated David to want to honour those who could not physically go on in battle with the same reward? Generosity of heart.
David,s generosity was not limited to that of his family or his closest friends either.Rather his generosity was towards all of Israel as well.
Consider the occasion when the ark of the covenant was coming back into Jerusalem and David was filled with joy and danced before the Lord with all of his might.
The bible tells us that
"When David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings,he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts.
Then he distributed among all the people among the whole multitude of Israel both men and women,to everyone a loaf of bread,a piece of meat,and a cake of raisins.So all the people departed everyone to his own house.Then David returned to bless his own household."2 Sam 6 18-20
David,s heart is so filled with joy over the ark of Gods presence returning to the city of Jerusalem, Zion that he worships and offers up burnt offerings and sacrifices in reverence and thanksgiving to the Lord.
But it does not end there.He also wants to bless all the people of Israel; every adult man and woman with provisions of food and impart to them a blessing.
David did not have to this he wanted to do this.
Sometimes I think that Christians can be governed by a sense of what they feel they are obligated to do rather than to give free expression to want they want to do to bless others with giving.
We should not tithe merely because we feel we have to, but because we want to.We should not give to the widows and the poor and the orphans because we are commanded to but because we really want to.
Davids generosity of heart was not merely limited to a nation or to a king but came to to the level of the lowliest individual as well.
In closing this piece I would be remiss if I did not mention possibly the greatest single example of David,s generosity, which is that of his kindness towards Mephibosheth in 2 Sam ch 9.
David had expressed his desire to show kindness to any left of the house of Saul, not knowing of the existence of a son of Jonathan's who had been living in exile from the presence of the King all of his life and was lame in both feet.
After some enquiry Mephibosheth is brought in before the King, who does not know of his existence until now.
"Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan,the son of Saul,had come to David,he fell on his face and prostrated himself.
Then David said,"Mephibosheth?" And he answered,"Here is your servant!"
So David said to him,
"Do not fear,for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your fathers sake,and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather;and you shall eat bread at my table continually."
Then he bowed himself,and said,
"What is your servant,that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?"
David calls in Ziba and establishes the fact that all of the land that formerly belonged to Saul would now be restored to Mephibosheth, and that Ziba and his fifteen sons and twenty servants would now tend the land for him but concerning Mephibosheth,
"As for Mephibosheth said the king,"he shall eat at my table like one of the kings sons" v 11
David was in reality fulfilling a promise which he had made to Jonathan when he was still alive that he would continue to show kindness to Jonathan's family even when Jonathan was dead.
David took this oath very seriously, however he was motivated by something more than a bond of loyalty,as important as that was.
David also was driven and compelled by a love a bursting desire to do good to the descendants of Jonathan to whom he had pledged his loyalty.
Notice how David responds to Mephibosheth and you begin to gain an insight into the measure of his generosity of nature.
Mephibosheth comes to David as a broken man and David immediately pronounces restoration of all that Mephibosheth had lost of his inheritance.
Then he reinforces this restoration.
The bible says that David went and "fetched "Mephibosheth,he did not wait for him to come at some mutually convenient time.
No he diligently sought him out, and found him,in order that he might do great good to him.
Mephibosheth saw himself as totally unworthy of being the recipient of this lavish generosity that David was showing towards him in this encounter, but David paid no attention to his objection
"What is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?"
In the mind and heart of king David Mephibosheth is no more a servant than he is a dead dog, he will be treated like royalty and he will sit at the kings table. He will "sit at my table like one of the kings sons."
When we read a passage like this it is not difficult to see the strong parallels with the gospel.
We come to God through Jesus without a plea, with nothing "dead dogs" as to our ability to contribute anything of righteousness or holiness that would commend us to God.
We fall down upon our faces before the heavenly King and hear him saying "Stand up my son," or" Stand up my daughter!"
We hear him pronounce forgiveness upon our lives as he holds out his sceptre of righteousness in his hand and declare us royalty, and a brand new creation, an heir of the God of heaven and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
We listen in awe as he utters the words,
"Come and sit with me upon my throne and I overcame and sat down together with my Father upon his throne".And he bids us to come and sit down and his banqueting table through this life in the very sight of our adversaries.
What a revelation of Grace this passage gives us.
However it is perhaps more challenging to us when we now view our responsibility to give this kind of grace and show this generosity of heart towards others.
Jesus said "Freely you have received now freely give."
Some Christians are still bound by fears in this area of giving.
"What if they take advantage of me?" What if they come to look to me instead of God?" "I would give more but I just do not have the time, money, energy and so the list goes on.
The real truth is that our giving to others is a reflection of how real our love is for God.
If someone says,"I love God,"and hates his brother,he is a liar,for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen,how can he love God whom he has not seen?
And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also."1 John 4 v20
Someone might say "I do love my brother, I do them no harm and I pray (occasionally) for them.",
Listen again to what John says
By this we know love,because he laid down his life for us.And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoever has this world,s goods,and sees his brother in need,and shuts up his heart from him,how does the love of God abide in him?"
My little children,let us not love in word or in tongue,but in deed and in truth.
And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him." 1 john 3 16 19.
"By this we know love" Gods measuring standard is quite different from that of our own.
And it is clear that their can be no real love shown without some practical measure of help given.
By this we shall assure our hearts before him, we all know deep down in our consciences that real love always gives.
It is therefore a real tragedy when the body of Christ does not show this kind of generosity of spirit because it is such a witness to what the nature of God is like.
God is not a mean God therefore his children should never be mean also.
I believe that we need to "lift the bar" in our conception of the kind of generosity and kindness we are called to give to christian and non christian alike.
The world is still waiting to see what the grace of God in action really looks like.
In David we have a wonderful example of this in action, may we learn and be inspired and so do likewise.
Tuesday 23 October 2012
David A man after God's own heart p5.
The fourth characteristic that David possessed that commended him towards God was the fact that he would not lift up his hand towards Saul,even when he had the opportunity to do so.
1 Samuel 24 says "I will not stretch out my hand against my lord for he is the Lord's anointed"
What precisely did David mean when he made this statement not to lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed?
He simply meant that he would not strike out at Saul or do anything to injure him or cause him hurt because he respected that Saul even in his rebellious state still belonged to the Lord.
In 1 Samuel chapter 24 we read the account of when David was fleeing for his very life with Saul in hot pursuit of him.
An occasion arises when Saul who is determinately persecuting David goes into a cave in the wilderness at En Gedi, unaware that David and his men are concealed within the cave and watching Saul's movements.
Saul is inside the cave to relieve himself and David's men whisper to David that this is surely the moment to silently strike down Saul and deliver himself of his greatest enemy.
David, enticed by his own men's council, creeps up towards Saul and silently slices off the very corner of Saul's robe, unbeknown to Saul himself.
Afterwards we are told "David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe"
And he said to his men,
"The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master,the Lord's anointed,to stretch out my hand against him,seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." 1 Sam 24 v6
David was conscience stricken that he had even cut a piece off Saul's garments, let alone tried to harm him,because he knew that he had violated Saul ,who was the Lord's ,even in his backslidden condition.
It is interesting to me that David's conscience was so tender that the very action of compromising Saul when Saul was unaware of David's intention and vulnerable to him was troubling to David.
In reality he knew that he was playing with his power over Saul saying in effect to him,
"You see I had the power of life and death in my hand but chose to let you go"
However in stretching out his hand in even a gesture to humiliate Saul, he had transgressed a sacred line to seek to take matters into his own hands with one who was the Lord's.
David restrained his men ,we are told, from taking further action to harm Saul and again two chapters later David is presented with another opportunity to take Saul's life but restrains one of his men who is accompanying him from doing so, with the same words,
"Do not destroy him;for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?"
David had grasped a truth that many Christians have sadly failed to, that we cannot lift up our hand against those who belong to the Lord neither seek to retaliate for injustices done towards us and remain innocent in the Lord's eyes.
David understood that the Lord will deal with those who were his enemies but he refused to take matters into his own hands.
"As the Lord lives,the Lord shall strike him,or his day shall come to die in battle and perish.
The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed." 1 Sam 26 v 10--11
As an interesting footnote to this it is interesting to see what David's response was when Saul finally did perish in battle on Mount Gilboa.
Far from rejoicing in the removal of the one who had persecuted him so fiercely David wept over Saul's demise and lamented that the Glory of the nation of Israel had been humbled in the fall of her princes and her king.
David was able to grieve over the bigger issue (the humbling of a nation) rather than find some cheap moment of pleasure over a personal sense of justice given him.
If anything demonstrates the heart of King David this occasion surely does.
How does this relate to us as Christians and our attitude towards those who wrong or have wronged us ?
Anyone who has been a christian for any length of time at all will have experienced at some time in their lives a wrong done against them by another.
Infact the bible clearly states that "All that would seek to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" 1 Tim
The question is how do we respond?
Will we endeavour to take matters into our own hands or will we like David refuse to lift up our hand against the Lord's anointed.?
That means that we will refuse to take any measures to retaliate against those who have wronged us but rather will entrust ourselves and the other person or persons into the Lord's hand to deal with in His way and His time, confident that he is both just and merciful and will always work to bring what is good to all involved not just us.
When David cut the corner off Saul's robe he was in effect taking advantage of Saul and exposing him to humiliation.
His heart greatly troubled him about this afterwards.
The real test for us will always come when we are presented with an opportunity to expose the shame of one who has done us wrong and humiliate them.
Regardless of how we try to justify it, if ever we expose the shame and sin of another to our own benefit then we have become guilty of humiliating that other person and cutting off the corner of their robe.
Rather should we not forgive and entrust ourselves fully into the hands of the One who judges justly.?
Many in the body of Christ seem to suffer no apparent qualms of conscience concerning their slandering or gossipping or exposing the shortcomings of another.
How is this so?
How can many today be so insensible that what they are doing is so displeasing to the Lord?
It has been said that you can take almost any major ministry today that is operating in the power of Kingdom of God and you will find at least one website devoted to attempting to undermine and expose that ministry.
The Body of Christ is plagued today with a spiritual leprosy of self-appointed watchmen and faultfinders who do not discern the illegitimacy of their so called cause.
However the Lord himself is about to deal with this in a much stronger measure.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of David's honour towards Saul was his genuine grief over Saul's death in battle.
As I said earlier David had a bigger perspective on things because he had a bigger heart.
He knew that the greater loss was for an army and a nation not simply for himself in an enemy being removed.
Perhaps the greatest test of the measure of our true spiritual maturity is how do we respond when one who has committed a wrong against us actually ends up falling into sin or falling away from the faith?
In that instance do we consider that such an event only serves to prove us right or do we secretly think well they reaped what they sowed?
Or do we like David have the largeness of heart to weep over the bigger picture?
The fact that a brother or sister has fallen brings reproach to the testimony of Christ in the earth and gives another opportunity to the real enemies of the gospel to gloat and to rejoice.
Our prayer should always be "O God restore completely that one who has fallen that your mercy may triumph over judgement in their lives."
I am convinced that the reason why David so understood the heart of God in this is because of the bigness of his own heart towards God.
God save us from those with big heads and shrivelled hearts but may the Lord grant to us all who seek it a supernaturally enlarged heart of His agape love.
The fourth characteristic that David possessed that commended him towards God was the fact that he would not lift up his hand towards Saul,even when he had the opportunity to do so.
1 Samuel 24 says "I will not stretch out my hand against my lord for he is the Lord's anointed"
What precisely did David mean when he made this statement not to lift up his hand against the Lord's anointed?
He simply meant that he would not strike out at Saul or do anything to injure him or cause him hurt because he respected that Saul even in his rebellious state still belonged to the Lord.
In 1 Samuel chapter 24 we read the account of when David was fleeing for his very life with Saul in hot pursuit of him.
An occasion arises when Saul who is determinately persecuting David goes into a cave in the wilderness at En Gedi, unaware that David and his men are concealed within the cave and watching Saul's movements.
Saul is inside the cave to relieve himself and David's men whisper to David that this is surely the moment to silently strike down Saul and deliver himself of his greatest enemy.
David, enticed by his own men's council, creeps up towards Saul and silently slices off the very corner of Saul's robe, unbeknown to Saul himself.
Afterwards we are told "David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe"
And he said to his men,
"The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master,the Lord's anointed,to stretch out my hand against him,seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." 1 Sam 24 v6
David was conscience stricken that he had even cut a piece off Saul's garments, let alone tried to harm him,because he knew that he had violated Saul ,who was the Lord's ,even in his backslidden condition.
It is interesting to me that David's conscience was so tender that the very action of compromising Saul when Saul was unaware of David's intention and vulnerable to him was troubling to David.
In reality he knew that he was playing with his power over Saul saying in effect to him,
"You see I had the power of life and death in my hand but chose to let you go"
However in stretching out his hand in even a gesture to humiliate Saul, he had transgressed a sacred line to seek to take matters into his own hands with one who was the Lord's.
David restrained his men ,we are told, from taking further action to harm Saul and again two chapters later David is presented with another opportunity to take Saul's life but restrains one of his men who is accompanying him from doing so, with the same words,
"Do not destroy him;for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless?"
David had grasped a truth that many Christians have sadly failed to, that we cannot lift up our hand against those who belong to the Lord neither seek to retaliate for injustices done towards us and remain innocent in the Lord's eyes.
David understood that the Lord will deal with those who were his enemies but he refused to take matters into his own hands.
"As the Lord lives,the Lord shall strike him,or his day shall come to die in battle and perish.
The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed." 1 Sam 26 v 10--11
As an interesting footnote to this it is interesting to see what David's response was when Saul finally did perish in battle on Mount Gilboa.
Far from rejoicing in the removal of the one who had persecuted him so fiercely David wept over Saul's demise and lamented that the Glory of the nation of Israel had been humbled in the fall of her princes and her king.
David was able to grieve over the bigger issue (the humbling of a nation) rather than find some cheap moment of pleasure over a personal sense of justice given him.
If anything demonstrates the heart of King David this occasion surely does.
How does this relate to us as Christians and our attitude towards those who wrong or have wronged us ?
Anyone who has been a christian for any length of time at all will have experienced at some time in their lives a wrong done against them by another.
Infact the bible clearly states that "All that would seek to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" 1 Tim
The question is how do we respond?
Will we endeavour to take matters into our own hands or will we like David refuse to lift up our hand against the Lord's anointed.?
That means that we will refuse to take any measures to retaliate against those who have wronged us but rather will entrust ourselves and the other person or persons into the Lord's hand to deal with in His way and His time, confident that he is both just and merciful and will always work to bring what is good to all involved not just us.
When David cut the corner off Saul's robe he was in effect taking advantage of Saul and exposing him to humiliation.
His heart greatly troubled him about this afterwards.
The real test for us will always come when we are presented with an opportunity to expose the shame of one who has done us wrong and humiliate them.
Regardless of how we try to justify it, if ever we expose the shame and sin of another to our own benefit then we have become guilty of humiliating that other person and cutting off the corner of their robe.
Rather should we not forgive and entrust ourselves fully into the hands of the One who judges justly.?
Many in the body of Christ seem to suffer no apparent qualms of conscience concerning their slandering or gossipping or exposing the shortcomings of another.
How is this so?
How can many today be so insensible that what they are doing is so displeasing to the Lord?
It has been said that you can take almost any major ministry today that is operating in the power of Kingdom of God and you will find at least one website devoted to attempting to undermine and expose that ministry.
The Body of Christ is plagued today with a spiritual leprosy of self-appointed watchmen and faultfinders who do not discern the illegitimacy of their so called cause.
However the Lord himself is about to deal with this in a much stronger measure.
Perhaps the greatest aspect of David's honour towards Saul was his genuine grief over Saul's death in battle.
As I said earlier David had a bigger perspective on things because he had a bigger heart.
He knew that the greater loss was for an army and a nation not simply for himself in an enemy being removed.
Perhaps the greatest test of the measure of our true spiritual maturity is how do we respond when one who has committed a wrong against us actually ends up falling into sin or falling away from the faith?
In that instance do we consider that such an event only serves to prove us right or do we secretly think well they reaped what they sowed?
Or do we like David have the largeness of heart to weep over the bigger picture?
The fact that a brother or sister has fallen brings reproach to the testimony of Christ in the earth and gives another opportunity to the real enemies of the gospel to gloat and to rejoice.
Our prayer should always be "O God restore completely that one who has fallen that your mercy may triumph over judgement in their lives."
I am convinced that the reason why David so understood the heart of God in this is because of the bigness of his own heart towards God.
God save us from those with big heads and shrivelled hearts but may the Lord grant to us all who seek it a supernaturally enlarged heart of His agape love.
Thursday 18 October 2012
David A man after Gods own heart. p 4
The third characteristic which marked David out as a man after Gods own heart was that unlike Saul who feared the people and listened to their voice David feared the Lord and listened to his voice.
Throughout his life David emerges as a man who always sought to know the council of the Lord even when it would have seemed simple or obvious to take a certain course set before him.
He would not take a major decision without first knowing the mind of the Lord on that matter.
In contrast Saul would act under severe pressure by caving in to the pressure of the people or rather by acting impetuously, but never had the same confidence that God would speak or fear of the Lord in his life to not commit to a course until he had first enquired of the Lord.
This one attitude which we can see so clearly evident in Davids life marks him out as a man who greatly respected the will of God and had no wish to presume that he knew it before he had sought it diligently.
In 1 Sam 15 we read of king Saul failure to carry out the Lords command to wipe out the Amalek nation because of their wickedness and because of their treatment towards Israel years before when they attacked them as they were coming out of Egypt.
Everything was to be irrevocably given over to the Lord
.Nothing was to be kept back or kept alive.
Saul however did not obey what the Lord had clearly spoken to him through Samuel but kept alive the Amalekite king Agag, and the choicest of the sheep oxen and the lambs.
Initially when Samuel confronts him with his sin he uses the excuse that the livestock were kept alive for the purposes of sacrificing to the Lord,however as Samuel reminds him
"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." 1 Sam 15 22, 23
God did not ask Saul to offer sacrifices he asked him to destroy everything, and as Samuel challenges Saul eventually he is convicted of his sin and reveals his true motive for his disobedience,
v24
"I have sinned,for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words,because I feared the people and obeyed their voice."
In contrast to this consider David response in a situation where he faced extraordinary pressures against him yet would not act until he had first enquired of the Lord.
In 1 Sam 30 we read the account of when David returned to Ziklag to discover that in his absence the Amalekites had raided his village burned it with fire and kidnapped his wives and his children, along with the wives and children of all his men.
The bible records that David and his men wept and lifted up their voices until they had no more power left to weep.
"Then David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him,because the soul of all the people was grieved,every man for his sons and daughters.
But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."1 Sam 30 vs6
Just when it seemed that things could get no worse for David he faced the prospect of his own men stoning him to death out of bitterness of soul.
David we are told immediately strengthened himself in the Lord his God, that is he looked to the Lord first to encourage him and strengthen himself.
Then we are told that
David said to Abiathar the priest,Ahimelechs son,"Please bring the ephod here to me."
And Abithar brought the ephod to David.
So David enquired of the Lord,saying
"Shall I pursue this troop?Shall I overtake them/"
And he answered him,
"Pursue,for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all."
This passage speaks volumes to us of David resolve even under the most testing of circumstances to do nothing without first enquiring of the Lord.
How easy it would have been for David as he men began to turn against him to have roused their loyalty by rashly pursuing the Amalekite band without first enquiring of the Lord.
David could have rallied the men spirits with a call to pursue but had he done so on his own initiative he would have been acting presumptuously.
Neither was this incident an isolated one in David life.
As you read through the account of Davids exploits you find the same words again and again,
"And David enquired of the Lord"
The bible states plainly that the fear of man brings a snare but those who trust in the Lord shall be safe.Prov 29, 25
Paul wrote in Galatians 1 vs 10
"For do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I still pleased men I would not be a bond servant of Christ."
Regardless of how we may seek to justify ourselves the same question needs to be asked of all who are truly followers of Christ,
"Am I seeking now to please men or God"
I have found that in every instance in my life where the Lord has spoken clearly to myself and to my wife regarding future direction there has been someone who came to contradict it.
I am a passionate supporter of the prophetic however I also have a personal concern that in immaturity many in the body of Christ have sought direction and "a word from the Lord " from another rather then developing their confidence to hear the Lord and believe what he is saying for themselves.
If I am looking at another to give me direction then I can also be knocked off course by another also.
I believe that in the comings days it is going to be imperative that we grow in our own relationship with the Lord to where we look to Him alone to speak to us and to direct us.
Should he choose to use another to underline or bring clarity to what we have heard so be it, but we have come to a place where we do not need to hear from any other person for ourselves.
There is a passage of scripture in 1 kings chapter 13 that offer us a very important insight into what I am writing about.
In this chapter we read of a nameless man of God who goes by revelation to cry out against the wicked king Jeroboam and against the altar because of the idolatry and false sacrifices.
In judgement the kings hand shrivels up as he stretches out his hand against the man of God, and in judgement the altar of God breaks in two and its ashes are poured out.
The king cries out to the man of God to pray to God that his hand would be restored, and when the man of God does so, God restored his hand whole.
In gratitude the king invites the man of God to come home with him and dine with him before his return journey, and the king promises to give to him a reward.
However the man of God responds by saying
"If you were to give me half your house,I would not go in with you;nor would I eat bread,nor drink water in this place.
For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord,saying,"You shall not eat bread,nor drink water,nor return by the same way you came."
Later however an old prophet who hears of what has occurred goes to the man of God as he was on his journey home and invites him as well to come home with him and dine with him.
The older man is so desirous to have the younger man of God return with him that he tricks him by telling a lie, claiming that an angel of God appeared to him subsequently and told him to request the younger mans presence in his house to dine with him.
The man of God complies but as they are eating the word of the Lord comes to the older prophet saying,
"Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you,but you came back,ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you,"Eat no bread and drink no water,"your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers."1 kings 13 vs 21 22.
God had clearly spoken to the younger man of God not to stay in the place where he would prophesy a word of judgement under any circumstances but to return straight home.
When the apostate king invited him to stay he easily refused but when the older prophet requested it even though he initially refused he was later was persuaded.
Why?
Because he believed that if the older prophet had heard God it released him from his obligation to fulfil what he had been instructed to do, even though he had not heard God saying to him to stay he was persuaded by what another told him God had supposedly said.
This younger man of God had been used to perform a powerful sign and wonder in Israel but his instructions were not conditional; his mission was not accomplished until he had safely returned home.
The older prophet had not heard God overriding this younger mans instructions because God had not changed his mind about what he had asked the man of God to do.
Therefore even though the older prophet was deceitful the responsibility was upon the younger man of God to have refused the older prophets request since he had not heard God saying that for himself.
This is a profound lesson for us also, we cannot rely upon another to do our hearing for us, we must know what God is saying for ourselves.
No matter how great the man or woman of God might be God does not speak to another what he wishes us to hear for ourselves.
David is a great model of one who respected and reverenced God to the degree that he never presumed to know God will until he enquired of the Lord himself.
His fear of displeasing the Lord was greater then his fear of men and in that we surely can learn and do likewise.
The third characteristic which marked David out as a man after Gods own heart was that unlike Saul who feared the people and listened to their voice David feared the Lord and listened to his voice.
Throughout his life David emerges as a man who always sought to know the council of the Lord even when it would have seemed simple or obvious to take a certain course set before him.
He would not take a major decision without first knowing the mind of the Lord on that matter.
In contrast Saul would act under severe pressure by caving in to the pressure of the people or rather by acting impetuously, but never had the same confidence that God would speak or fear of the Lord in his life to not commit to a course until he had first enquired of the Lord.
This one attitude which we can see so clearly evident in Davids life marks him out as a man who greatly respected the will of God and had no wish to presume that he knew it before he had sought it diligently.
In 1 Sam 15 we read of king Saul failure to carry out the Lords command to wipe out the Amalek nation because of their wickedness and because of their treatment towards Israel years before when they attacked them as they were coming out of Egypt.
Everything was to be irrevocably given over to the Lord
.Nothing was to be kept back or kept alive.
Saul however did not obey what the Lord had clearly spoken to him through Samuel but kept alive the Amalekite king Agag, and the choicest of the sheep oxen and the lambs.
Initially when Samuel confronts him with his sin he uses the excuse that the livestock were kept alive for the purposes of sacrificing to the Lord,however as Samuel reminds him
"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." 1 Sam 15 22, 23
God did not ask Saul to offer sacrifices he asked him to destroy everything, and as Samuel challenges Saul eventually he is convicted of his sin and reveals his true motive for his disobedience,
v24
"I have sinned,for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words,because I feared the people and obeyed their voice."
In contrast to this consider David response in a situation where he faced extraordinary pressures against him yet would not act until he had first enquired of the Lord.
In 1 Sam 30 we read the account of when David returned to Ziklag to discover that in his absence the Amalekites had raided his village burned it with fire and kidnapped his wives and his children, along with the wives and children of all his men.
The bible records that David and his men wept and lifted up their voices until they had no more power left to weep.
"Then David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him,because the soul of all the people was grieved,every man for his sons and daughters.
But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God."1 Sam 30 vs6
Just when it seemed that things could get no worse for David he faced the prospect of his own men stoning him to death out of bitterness of soul.
David we are told immediately strengthened himself in the Lord his God, that is he looked to the Lord first to encourage him and strengthen himself.
Then we are told that
David said to Abiathar the priest,Ahimelechs son,"Please bring the ephod here to me."
And Abithar brought the ephod to David.
So David enquired of the Lord,saying
"Shall I pursue this troop?Shall I overtake them/"
And he answered him,
"Pursue,for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all."
This passage speaks volumes to us of David resolve even under the most testing of circumstances to do nothing without first enquiring of the Lord.
How easy it would have been for David as he men began to turn against him to have roused their loyalty by rashly pursuing the Amalekite band without first enquiring of the Lord.
David could have rallied the men spirits with a call to pursue but had he done so on his own initiative he would have been acting presumptuously.
Neither was this incident an isolated one in David life.
As you read through the account of Davids exploits you find the same words again and again,
"And David enquired of the Lord"
The bible states plainly that the fear of man brings a snare but those who trust in the Lord shall be safe.Prov 29, 25
Paul wrote in Galatians 1 vs 10
"For do I now persuade men or God?
Or do I seek to please men?
For if I still pleased men I would not be a bond servant of Christ."
Regardless of how we may seek to justify ourselves the same question needs to be asked of all who are truly followers of Christ,
"Am I seeking now to please men or God"
I have found that in every instance in my life where the Lord has spoken clearly to myself and to my wife regarding future direction there has been someone who came to contradict it.
I am a passionate supporter of the prophetic however I also have a personal concern that in immaturity many in the body of Christ have sought direction and "a word from the Lord " from another rather then developing their confidence to hear the Lord and believe what he is saying for themselves.
If I am looking at another to give me direction then I can also be knocked off course by another also.
I believe that in the comings days it is going to be imperative that we grow in our own relationship with the Lord to where we look to Him alone to speak to us and to direct us.
Should he choose to use another to underline or bring clarity to what we have heard so be it, but we have come to a place where we do not need to hear from any other person for ourselves.
There is a passage of scripture in 1 kings chapter 13 that offer us a very important insight into what I am writing about.
In this chapter we read of a nameless man of God who goes by revelation to cry out against the wicked king Jeroboam and against the altar because of the idolatry and false sacrifices.
In judgement the kings hand shrivels up as he stretches out his hand against the man of God, and in judgement the altar of God breaks in two and its ashes are poured out.
The king cries out to the man of God to pray to God that his hand would be restored, and when the man of God does so, God restored his hand whole.
In gratitude the king invites the man of God to come home with him and dine with him before his return journey, and the king promises to give to him a reward.
However the man of God responds by saying
"If you were to give me half your house,I would not go in with you;nor would I eat bread,nor drink water in this place.
For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord,saying,"You shall not eat bread,nor drink water,nor return by the same way you came."
Later however an old prophet who hears of what has occurred goes to the man of God as he was on his journey home and invites him as well to come home with him and dine with him.
The older man is so desirous to have the younger man of God return with him that he tricks him by telling a lie, claiming that an angel of God appeared to him subsequently and told him to request the younger mans presence in his house to dine with him.
The man of God complies but as they are eating the word of the Lord comes to the older prophet saying,
"Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you,but you came back,ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the Lord said to you,"Eat no bread and drink no water,"your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers."1 kings 13 vs 21 22.
God had clearly spoken to the younger man of God not to stay in the place where he would prophesy a word of judgement under any circumstances but to return straight home.
When the apostate king invited him to stay he easily refused but when the older prophet requested it even though he initially refused he was later was persuaded.
Why?
Because he believed that if the older prophet had heard God it released him from his obligation to fulfil what he had been instructed to do, even though he had not heard God saying to him to stay he was persuaded by what another told him God had supposedly said.
This younger man of God had been used to perform a powerful sign and wonder in Israel but his instructions were not conditional; his mission was not accomplished until he had safely returned home.
The older prophet had not heard God overriding this younger mans instructions because God had not changed his mind about what he had asked the man of God to do.
Therefore even though the older prophet was deceitful the responsibility was upon the younger man of God to have refused the older prophets request since he had not heard God saying that for himself.
This is a profound lesson for us also, we cannot rely upon another to do our hearing for us, we must know what God is saying for ourselves.
No matter how great the man or woman of God might be God does not speak to another what he wishes us to hear for ourselves.
David is a great model of one who respected and reverenced God to the degree that he never presumed to know God will until he enquired of the Lord himself.
His fear of displeasing the Lord was greater then his fear of men and in that we surely can learn and do likewise.
Tuesday 9 October 2012
David A man after Gods own heart p3.
The second quality which David possessed that caught the attention of God was that right through out his lifetime he never failed to stay small in his own eyes.
It is easy when a person is in fact in very humble circumstances or has no prominence or any great authority to stay humble in their own estimation.
However it is when they are exalted to places of great authority and responsibility that the real test comes.
After Nathan the prophet went to David and delivered to him the powerful promises in 2 Samuel 7 it is interesting to note Davids immediate response.
David had been told that his throne and kingdom would endure forever a promise that spoke of fulfilment in the coming messiah;he was promised unending mercy for himself and for his family deliverance from all his enemies and a great name.
And yet his response was to go into the house of God and pray,
"Who am I O Lord?And what is my house that you have brought me this far?
And yet this was a very small thing in your sight,O Lord God;and you have also spoken of your servants house for a great while to come .Is this the manner of man,O Lord God?
Now what more can David say to you ?
For you Lord God know your servant.
For your words sake,and according to your own heart,you have done all these great things,to make your servant know them.
Therefore you are great,O Lord God. 2 Sam 7 18-22.
David was very little enamoured with himself he saw all of Gods dealing with him as fulfilling Gods word and Gods heart toward him, to demonstrate Gods greatness not his own.
Contrast that response with that of king Saul in 1 Sam 15 when Saul failed to carry out the Lords instructions to destroy everything of the Amalekites and Samuel subsequently confronted him,
"When you were little in your own eyes,were you not head of the tribes of Israel?
And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?
The implication in this is all to clear;There was a time when Saul like David had been taken from a place of obscurity and raised up as king over Gods flock.
However unlike David who never lost that heart of genuine humility before the Lord Saul had long forsaken seeing himself as little in his own eyes and let his power go to his head.
The history of the church is littered with examples of men who fell because they once started with a real sense of their dependency upon God and become too big in their own eyes.
Jesus said in Luke 17 v 10 that we after we have done everything which we were commanded to do should say,
"I am an unprofitable servant, I am simply doing my duty."
We need to continually say this because we need to continually believe this.
Likewise Paul in his letter to the Philippians says that we should
" consider others better than ourselves "
Romans 12 v 3 For I say through the grace given to me to everyone which is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
God is not fooled by our pretences it is not so much what we say but that which we truly believe and think in our innermost heart.
I consider that pride is perhaps the greatest and most deceitful of all sins simply because it is so hard to detect in ourselves.
That is why it is a wise person who looks to God to uproot it and not to their own devices for self deliverance.
A wise prayer to pray often is "Search my heart and test my anxious thoughts O God
See if their is any offensive way in me and lead me in paths of everlasting truth."
Keep me back and restrain me O God from sins of presumption (which is pride )
Considering the level of entrustment that God granted to King David it makes his humility before the Lord all the more great.
We would be wise to imitate it.
As we have looked at the first two qualities in David that constituted his having a heart after God it is fitting to be reminded of what the prophet Micah says to us
"With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams
or ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you,O man what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6 v6---8
The second quality which David possessed that caught the attention of God was that right through out his lifetime he never failed to stay small in his own eyes.
It is easy when a person is in fact in very humble circumstances or has no prominence or any great authority to stay humble in their own estimation.
However it is when they are exalted to places of great authority and responsibility that the real test comes.
After Nathan the prophet went to David and delivered to him the powerful promises in 2 Samuel 7 it is interesting to note Davids immediate response.
David had been told that his throne and kingdom would endure forever a promise that spoke of fulfilment in the coming messiah;he was promised unending mercy for himself and for his family deliverance from all his enemies and a great name.
And yet his response was to go into the house of God and pray,
"Who am I O Lord?And what is my house that you have brought me this far?
And yet this was a very small thing in your sight,O Lord God;and you have also spoken of your servants house for a great while to come .Is this the manner of man,O Lord God?
Now what more can David say to you ?
For you Lord God know your servant.
For your words sake,and according to your own heart,you have done all these great things,to make your servant know them.
Therefore you are great,O Lord God. 2 Sam 7 18-22.
David was very little enamoured with himself he saw all of Gods dealing with him as fulfilling Gods word and Gods heart toward him, to demonstrate Gods greatness not his own.
Contrast that response with that of king Saul in 1 Sam 15 when Saul failed to carry out the Lords instructions to destroy everything of the Amalekites and Samuel subsequently confronted him,
"When you were little in your own eyes,were you not head of the tribes of Israel?
And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?
The implication in this is all to clear;There was a time when Saul like David had been taken from a place of obscurity and raised up as king over Gods flock.
However unlike David who never lost that heart of genuine humility before the Lord Saul had long forsaken seeing himself as little in his own eyes and let his power go to his head.
The history of the church is littered with examples of men who fell because they once started with a real sense of their dependency upon God and become too big in their own eyes.
Jesus said in Luke 17 v 10 that we after we have done everything which we were commanded to do should say,
"I am an unprofitable servant, I am simply doing my duty."
We need to continually say this because we need to continually believe this.
Likewise Paul in his letter to the Philippians says that we should
" consider others better than ourselves "
Romans 12 v 3 For I say through the grace given to me to everyone which is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
God is not fooled by our pretences it is not so much what we say but that which we truly believe and think in our innermost heart.
I consider that pride is perhaps the greatest and most deceitful of all sins simply because it is so hard to detect in ourselves.
That is why it is a wise person who looks to God to uproot it and not to their own devices for self deliverance.
A wise prayer to pray often is "Search my heart and test my anxious thoughts O God
See if their is any offensive way in me and lead me in paths of everlasting truth."
Keep me back and restrain me O God from sins of presumption (which is pride )
Considering the level of entrustment that God granted to King David it makes his humility before the Lord all the more great.
We would be wise to imitate it.
As we have looked at the first two qualities in David that constituted his having a heart after God it is fitting to be reminded of what the prophet Micah says to us
"With what shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams
or ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you,O man what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6 v6---8
David a man after Gods own heart part 2
In the last blog I ended by saying that I believe that there are at least seven qualities that David possessed that qualified him to be called a man after Gods own heart, and that put him in a position to be entrusted with so much.
God is no respecter of persons what he gave to David he will work in our lives if will discern what those qualities are and seek Gods face for those qualities to be given us also in a greater measure.
The first of the seven is that David had an extraordinary grasp upon the mercy of God.
For David every aspect of his relationship with the Lord was rooted in the awareness of the present powerful reality of the hand of Gods mercy towards him.
Psalm 5 vs 7 says
"But as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy,
In fear of you I will worship towards your Holy temple."
David understood I believe that his freedom to approach Gods awesome presence, His ability to freely worship before God, his confidence to hear Gods voice; his victory in battle his exaltation among men, his kingship and his prosperity all derived from the weight and abundance of Gods mercy towards him.
How easy it is to lose sight of this.
In the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee you will recall how it says,
"Two men went up to the temple to pray,one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank you that I am not like other men,extortioners,unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week;I give tithes of all that I possess."
And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven,but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other,for everyone who exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted.2 Luke 18 9-14
Notice that it says that the Pharisee stood and prayed with himself.God certainly was not listening to his boastful self proclamations.
The Pharisee was truly called by God to walk with a life of greater separation however he had long ago begun to place his confidence in his consecration rather than in the Mercy of God as the only justifiable grounds of approach to God.
Consider in the parable of the prodigal son the response of the older brother to his returning wayward brother,the bible says that "He was angry and would not go in"
Rather than rejoice in the giving of mercy to his brother who was lost and on a road to destruction he simply ran of a list of all the loyal and obedient acts of service that he had rendered to his father in service of him.
I am sure that the older brother wanted his younger brother to pay somewhat of a penalty for his wasting the families goods. He probably thought along the lines of,
"He should be made to see the grievousness of his actions and if we simply pass over the seriousness of his debt what message does that convey to him.?Why he will probably take advantage of us again."
What the older brother failed to see is how remarkably like the Pharisee and the tax collector he had become.
All he could do was to rattle off his good deeds of loyal service to his father.
The tradegy of the older brother was that he had no conception of Gods mercy he did not feel the need for any from his own father so why should his younger brother receive it so abundantly.
It probably even seemed to him like a form of weakness;in contrast letting his brother know how serious his crime was that was considered to be strength in his eyes.
Today within the church there are scores of Christians who manifest this same attitude of "The older brother"
I know of a minister whom God has used to restore many in the ministry who have fallen and help to get them back on their feet
For his efforts he has received an enormous amount of hate mail and even the loss of some of his friendships.
Why we may ask is this?
For the same same reason that the older brother could not rejoice in his younger brothers restoration, because those who manifest this spirit are driven not by a love of Gods mercy towards them but by a motivation of service and duty before God.
Therefore they cannot take great delight in Gods mercy when it is poured out on those who are undeserving.
Which of us we may ask is deserving?
David understood just how much of Gods mercy was extended towards him and he lent with all of his weight upon it because he knew that it would stand good.
When David said "I have trusted in your mercy" the word trusted says more than we think.
The Hebrew word for Trust speaks of our placing all of our desire confidence and future hope in the object in which we have place our trust.
For David that was the abundence of the mercy of God.
This is also why Jesus commended David for understanding the nature of Gods mercy when he went in the tent of meeting and took the shewbread to eat which was unlawful.
To another person it would have got them killed on the spot had they been acting presumptiously however David was not.
Rather he had grasped that the mercy of God was bigger than all the sacrifices of men.
He had seen that God delighted in giving mercy more than in receiving sacrifice.
We would do well to remember likewise.
We can learn much in our day by emaulting David heart after God the first glimpse of which is a heart of unbridled mercy.
In the last blog I ended by saying that I believe that there are at least seven qualities that David possessed that qualified him to be called a man after Gods own heart, and that put him in a position to be entrusted with so much.
God is no respecter of persons what he gave to David he will work in our lives if will discern what those qualities are and seek Gods face for those qualities to be given us also in a greater measure.
The first of the seven is that David had an extraordinary grasp upon the mercy of God.
For David every aspect of his relationship with the Lord was rooted in the awareness of the present powerful reality of the hand of Gods mercy towards him.
Psalm 5 vs 7 says
"But as for me I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy,
In fear of you I will worship towards your Holy temple."
David understood I believe that his freedom to approach Gods awesome presence, His ability to freely worship before God, his confidence to hear Gods voice; his victory in battle his exaltation among men, his kingship and his prosperity all derived from the weight and abundance of Gods mercy towards him.
How easy it is to lose sight of this.
In the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee you will recall how it says,
"Two men went up to the temple to pray,one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank you that I am not like other men,extortioners,unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice a week;I give tithes of all that I possess."
And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven,but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other,for everyone who exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted.2 Luke 18 9-14
Notice that it says that the Pharisee stood and prayed with himself.God certainly was not listening to his boastful self proclamations.
The Pharisee was truly called by God to walk with a life of greater separation however he had long ago begun to place his confidence in his consecration rather than in the Mercy of God as the only justifiable grounds of approach to God.
Consider in the parable of the prodigal son the response of the older brother to his returning wayward brother,the bible says that "He was angry and would not go in"
Rather than rejoice in the giving of mercy to his brother who was lost and on a road to destruction he simply ran of a list of all the loyal and obedient acts of service that he had rendered to his father in service of him.
I am sure that the older brother wanted his younger brother to pay somewhat of a penalty for his wasting the families goods. He probably thought along the lines of,
"He should be made to see the grievousness of his actions and if we simply pass over the seriousness of his debt what message does that convey to him.?Why he will probably take advantage of us again."
What the older brother failed to see is how remarkably like the Pharisee and the tax collector he had become.
All he could do was to rattle off his good deeds of loyal service to his father.
The tradegy of the older brother was that he had no conception of Gods mercy he did not feel the need for any from his own father so why should his younger brother receive it so abundantly.
It probably even seemed to him like a form of weakness;in contrast letting his brother know how serious his crime was that was considered to be strength in his eyes.
Today within the church there are scores of Christians who manifest this same attitude of "The older brother"
I know of a minister whom God has used to restore many in the ministry who have fallen and help to get them back on their feet
For his efforts he has received an enormous amount of hate mail and even the loss of some of his friendships.
Why we may ask is this?
For the same same reason that the older brother could not rejoice in his younger brothers restoration, because those who manifest this spirit are driven not by a love of Gods mercy towards them but by a motivation of service and duty before God.
Therefore they cannot take great delight in Gods mercy when it is poured out on those who are undeserving.
Which of us we may ask is deserving?
David understood just how much of Gods mercy was extended towards him and he lent with all of his weight upon it because he knew that it would stand good.
When David said "I have trusted in your mercy" the word trusted says more than we think.
The Hebrew word for Trust speaks of our placing all of our desire confidence and future hope in the object in which we have place our trust.
For David that was the abundence of the mercy of God.
This is also why Jesus commended David for understanding the nature of Gods mercy when he went in the tent of meeting and took the shewbread to eat which was unlawful.
To another person it would have got them killed on the spot had they been acting presumptiously however David was not.
Rather he had grasped that the mercy of God was bigger than all the sacrifices of men.
He had seen that God delighted in giving mercy more than in receiving sacrifice.
We would do well to remember likewise.
We can learn much in our day by emaulting David heart after God the first glimpse of which is a heart of unbridled mercy.
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