Hi all,
When King Saul was to be replaced, the Lord sent the prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse and his sons. Samuel says: “The Lord has sought for Himself, a man after His own heart…” I Samuel 13: 14
Today, we will look at the ability of the Lord to see the good in us
God is love. Love is kind, believes the best, and hopes for the best. The Father daily believes in us and makes the choice to keep working in us and with us in order to mature us in Him. I John 4: 7-8, I Corinthians 13: 4-8
I knew a pastor with an explosive temper kept well concealed behind the scene, but known by most of the staff. I asked the Lord: “Why don’t you judge him?” His reply was swift and a lesson that has stayed with me: “But look at all the good he is doing!” The Lord sees us in the big picture, realizing our flesh will go the way of the earth, and the real us is our spirit and soul.
In Acts 13: 22 Paul recites Jewish history, saying of this event: “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do my will.” In Pslam 89:20 the Lord says: “I have found David my servant, with my holy oil I have anointed him.” Both the Hebrew and Greek words for ‘found’ mean ‘to discover after searching’. God was actively searching for someone who was ‘after my own heart.’
There are at least 2 ways to understand ‘a man after my own heart.’
A grandmother might see some of herself in a granddaughter and comment, “A girl after my own heart.” When she says that she is seeing herself in her granddaughter; the same interests, traits, personality, perhaps skill or talent.
In this we can say the Lord saw some of Himself in David’s heart. Isn’t that the way it is with us now? The Lord sees some of Himself in us, for He created us, so it must be so. A mother of 4 daughters once told me that when her daughters argued, she had a hard time deciding who was right, for there was a little of her in all 4 of the girls, so she saw all 4 points of view. So it is with the Father – He is in us, created us, so He sees Himself in our hearts. That’s one understanding of what He saw in David. He saw some of Himself in him. (Paul alludes to this in II Corinthians 3: 18, and James in 1: 22-25)
Another understanding of ‘a girl after my own heart’ would be the granddaughter is pursuing interests close to her grandmother’s heart – her interests, skills, talents and such. She is running after her heart, she is seeking her heart, she is wanting in her heart to do and be all the things that are in her grandmother’s heart. This is the first understanding of I Samuel 13: 14. David was a young man running after God, seeking Him, to do His will in his life.
David was only 10-15 years old when he was anointed to be king. (I Samuel 16:13, II Samuel 5:4)
Let that sink in. He was as young as 10 years old when he was anointed to be king, though many suggest age 15. Though anointed to be king, it would be another 15 or more years before he took the throne. Remember my previous teaching that the Lord is the I AM and when He speaks, it seems like it is NOW, for He all things to Him are ‘now’. But to us, what is now to Him, may take decades or a lifetime before it happens. David was a young pre-teen or young teen when the Lord says he was a ‘man after my own heart.’ But it was 15+ years before he became king.
We also understand David was 16-19 years old when he killed Goliath. We know this because the battle was early in Saul’s reign and army service began at age 20. David wasn’t in the army, though 3 of his older brothers were. When David wanted to fight Goliath, Saul told him in I Samuel 17:33 he was just a boy and to go back home. The Hebrew word for ‘boy’ is ‘na’ar’, means ‘youth’ or ‘child’.
Remember – at age 16-19 when fighting Goliath, David said he had already killed a lion and a bear! As a teen, did you have a time with the Lord ‘in the wilderness’ and killed your own metaphorical lions and bears, to emerge victorious in Christ? Did you have a time with the Lord when you were 10-19 years old like David did? He was singing and writing lyrics and songs as a pre-teen and teen. Many of us had these times with the Lord in our pre-teen and/or teen years. But then for many, life happened….
Life happened to David too. David was a very flawed man, but in his heart, he was all about God and His will
But consider that David lusted for Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. He took her while Uriah was on a deployment with the army. He then ordered Uriah to be put at the front of the line so he would be killed.
God saw his heart and called him to be king knowing full and well all of David’s future sins.
In I Samuel 24: 1-6 David and his men are hiding from Saul in a cave. It just so happens Saul enters the cave to relieve himself, and David cuts off the hem of his cloak. His conscience convicts him and he apologizes to Saul once he is a safe distance away. The cutting of the hem of the garment is a funeral practice to this day in some Jewish funerals. It is the cutting of the tassels which represent God’s Word. It is a practice of telling the dead person they are free, no longer bound by the Law of Moses. David performed this on King Saul’s garment; a not so subtle message ‘you are a dead man’.
Besides Bathsheba, David had a weakness for women. He had 6 wives and more concubines, with 11 sons mentioned or named. He became comfortable in his kingship, and the resultant mixed family situation resulted in his sons Absalom and Adonijah rebelling against him. David also sinned by taking a census of Israel, gathering data on the size of an army he could raise, instead of relying on the Lord.
God called him, knowing his future sins. It is the same with us.
One of the elements of David’s heart I admire is how he responded when confronted about his tryst with Bathsheba. In II Samuel 12, Nathan the prophet is sent to David about his sin with Bathsheba. In v13 David responds: “I have sinned against the Lord.” He could have said he sinned against Bathsheba, or that he sinned against Uriah. But David’s heart was to cut to the core: I have sinned against the Lord.
He didn’t blame lust, didn’t make excuses, he cut right to the core – he sinned against God. He immediately wrote Psalm 51 as a result of this confrontation and admission of his sin. Among the things he calls to God about is this in v10: Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.
We, too, get caught in sin and cry out for a clean heart, a right spirit. The Hebrew of that verse includes: “Create a steadfast (clean) heart.” Steadfast, determined to walk with God in wholeness. It is that humble heart that hungers for His ways that He seeks, and has found in us, His people.
Amazing grace!
We’ll wrap this up next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
