A Man After God’s Own Heart.

Today, I’d like us to consider 2 men. I won’t tell you their names yet, but I’ll present the facts of their lives and characters as they are presented to us in God’s word. One thing they both have in common is that they were chosen by God to be kings. Another is that they start out humble and totally relying upon the Lord, but sadly, there the similarities end.

Our first man becomes a little prideful and impatient. His crimes include the unlawful offering of sacrifices to the Lord. This wasn’t part of his remit as king, and he was told to wait for the arrival of God’s appointed prophet, but his people were impatient to go off to war, and when the prophet didn’t come quickly enough, he chose to offer the sacrifices himself. On another occasion, he disobeyed God’s order to destroy his enemies and all their possessions. He went out and defeated them, but kept their king alive, and claimed he spared some of the sheep and cattle so he could sacrifice them to the Lord, most likely as a thank offering for their marvellous victory.

Now, let’s take a look at our second king. His greatest crime was to force himself upon another man’s wife after spying on her as she bathed upon the rooftop, at a time when he should have been out fighting with his armies instead of lazing about at home. Then, to make things worse, the woman became pregnant, and the king chose to cover up his crime by arranging to have the woman’s husband killed, so he could marry her and bring up his child. Worst of all, he made the husband unwittingly carry his own death warrant to the commander of the army. This husband was a loyal humble man, who came to a senseless cruel end, all because a more powerful man was trying to cover over his sin.

If you were called to stand as judge over both these men, which would you say had committed the worst crime? I believe we would choose the second man. We might excuse the pride and impatience of the first. We would make excuses for him. He was just a little over-eager. He didn’t really do anything that bad. But to try and cover up your misdemeanour by having an innocent man killed! Surely that’s the lowest of the low! And to make that man carry the paper on which was written his own death warrant! Incredible! What a nerve!

Many of you may have already guessed that the 2 men of which I have been writing are King Saul, and King David. We can read both their stories in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, and obviously, there is a lot more to their lives than I have been able to write here, so please take the time to read the accounts carefully. I think though that we can agree that if their crimes were listed on paper, David’s would come out as the worst. Yet, it is David, and not Saul, whom God called a man after his own heart. (1Samuel 13: 14, and Acts 13: 22.)

In our modern world, pride and impatience are not looked upon as they ought to be. They are sometimes even applauded. We make excuses for them. So, today, we would probably have done the same for Saul. On the other hand, we would point the finger at David, and probably insist he be punished severely for his crime. It’s fair to say that God did punish him. When David attempted to just carry on with life as though nothing had happened, god sent a prophet to confront him with his sin, and David became a broken man, repenting from his heart and falling upon God’s mercy. (Read Psalm 51.) In the end, the child who was conceived during David’s rebellious act died, but because of his total repentance and humility before god, the Lord blessed him and Bathsheba with another son, who would become Israel’s next king. God brought good out of this terrible mess, just as he so often does in our lives.

What can we learn from David and Saul? Why did God reject Saul, yet still called David a man after his own heart, even after his sin? What did David have that Saul didn’t? I believe it’s all in the attitude. If you read the rest of Saul’s story, you will find that after each misdemeanour, he seems to become harder and harder, and goes further away from God. Instead of repenting, and allowing God to restore him, he continues to make excuses and push his own agenda, where as David not only learns from his mistakes, but allows them to draw him closer to his Lord as he repents and asks for mercy.

As you read their stories, you always get the sense that overall, David is looking out for God’s interests, where as Saul is looking out for his own. We continually read of David seeking the Lord, sensing that if something isn’t going right, then maybe God isn’t pleased, and so on. After Saul is rejected by God, he never seems to beg for restoration. At the end of his life, we even find him seeking guidance from a witch. His sin and rebellion hardens his heart, and things go from bad to worse. As the Lord tells Samuel in 1Samuel 16: 7: “For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

I’m sure we meet many people like Saul and David, and being human, I’m also pretty sure we make our own judgements. We excuse the sin of one, yet point the finger at the other, even though they repent and beg for our forgiveness. We laugh at a little pride, not fully understanding how dangerous it can become, yet the man who needs our love and prayers is cast aside, because his sin just seems far too black. All the while, the Lord is looking at their hearts, and ours. Maybe we should ask him to enable us to look beyond outward appearances, and see others as he does. God can do so much in the life of a repentant sinner, no matter how high the sin may rank upon our human scales, but he can do very little in the life of a person consumed by pride, impatience, and self. These things squeeze God out of our lives, to the point where our attitudes become the exact opposite of the humility of John the Baptist, who said of Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (john 3: 30.)

Let’s all remember, both in our own lives, and in our dealings with others, that God is most interested in what’s going on in the inside. There is no sin he can’t forgive, so long as the repentance is sincere, and from the heart. Repentance actually draws us closer to God, where as pride pushes us away. Also, when we sin, and we surely all will, I believe we have 2 choices. If we repent, it will lead to restoration, but if we choose to rebel, make excuses for ourselves, and become puffed up with pride, our relationship with our Saviour will be fractured, and we will move into a life of even deeper sin. Let’s be sure to ask Jesus to continually soften our hearts, and keep us on our knees. We need to keep short accounts with him, so sin is dealt with, if we want to be a woman or man after God’s own heart.