David: A man after God's own heart
Part 1: The Context of Saul
The real trouble with having a biblical name is that when you grow up in the church you grow up hearing about how cool (or terrible) you namesake was. You land a name like David and wow, quite the reputation to live up to. Not that I'm recommending that anyone named Ruth goes out and weeds the garden of the man she wants to marry, but you get the idea.
I've spent a good portion of my life trying to live up to the reputation that my name has attached to it and studying his life. I'll tell you something really quick, you can study portions of the Bible your whole life and still learn new things about God and His will and love for His people.
So, I've been studying (and trying to live to the example set within that study) and why not? King David was an amazing guy who provided peace and security for his nation, he was a worship leader and is generally described by people now a days as "A man after God's own heart."
How cool would it to be described as that?
Pretty cool I think, and so I ask the question: What does that even mean?
What did it mean to David, and what does it mean to us?
That's what I'm hoping to explore as we, over the next couple of weeks, overview his life, his successes and failures.
And if we are going to study David then there can only be one place to start, and its not actually the famous story of him and Goliath's showdown.
Context for everything, and therefore to lay the groundwork for David's life we must spend some time looking at Sauls.
Onwards, to lots of reading!
1 Samuel 8:5-9
5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.
7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. ]
9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”
1 Samuel 8:19-20
19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us.
20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”
Whats wrong here?
How about "we will be like all the other nations." We want to be just like everybody else. Israel was a chosen people, and everyone around them knew it, and feared them for it, and they wanted to abandon that. What they had wasn't working anymore. Samuel was old and his sons were punks, and so instead of seeking the Lord's will for what they should do next they looked around them, took a look at the status quo, whatever the latest fad was and said "Oh, we want that! Let's do that!" Because after all, they seem cool.
And Samuel warns them: if you get a king he will do all these things. He'll take your money to buy stuff, he'll take your food to eat, he'll take your daughters to be his servants and your sons to be his soldiers. And they're like: "But kings are so coooooooolllll."
And anyway, everybody's doing it.
So Samuel goes out and with God's direction, finds them a king. Fastforward to the day of the coronation.
1 Samuel 10:22
22 So they inquired further of the LORD, “Has the man come here yet?”
And the LORD said, “Yes, he has hidden himself among the supplies.”
This seems really funny. Here is Sauls coronation, and not only that but its the first coronation in the nation of Israel, and the guest of honor is missing. He's hiding. Now, you must understand that up until this point Saul has been doing some great things, and God's blessing has been on him. It says that he went to the Prophets in Gilgash and started prophesying, and I don't know about you but that's not an everyday occurrence for me, and it says that God gave Him a new heart.
And here he is now, everyone has gathered to crown him king and he is nowhere to be found. He has run away and hidden in the supplies.
This seems really funny, but its a true tragedy. Because this really is the first time Saul is given a burden of real responsibility and he runs. Imagine what it would be like if this was a president of the united states. Imagine how you might feel if the FOX news person announced that the newly elected president was hiding in the broom closet, hoping that someone else would be sworn in in his place. What would you be thinking?
Saul was afraid, and that fear would continue to haunt him for all of his life, and lead to the downfall of his dynasty.
No comments:
Post a Comment