This week I’ve been rather taken with reading of the exploits of God’s people and especially his leaders through the Old Testament books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
I got into these books well before getting acquainted to the gospels. Well before I began following Jesus, the stories about Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon and the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel had me riveted and fascinated.
Going back especially to the story of David, I kept shaking my head at how God could call this dude a man after his own heart.
One minute he’s looking after sheep, the next he’s cutting off a giant’s head, then he’s lauded by the women for killing tens of thousands, then he’s on the run as a fugitive, only to return as the King. As if that’s not enough he has more episodes with women than a collection of romantic tales, and the most fateful one involves him shattering almost every one of the Ten Commandments into smithereens.
I read of a guy who has to go on the run again because of the consequences of his own actions. When he’s reinstated, he later blunders again by taking a census. His last days are spent needing a woman to sleep with him to keep him warm as yet another family feud threatens to steal a march on the planned succession.
I have not even mentioned the songs he wrote, the children he buried, the amount of times he cried, the amount of times he rejoiced. The man was brilliant. The man was a mess. And this was a man after God’s heart.
When reading of just this guy and considering how highly regarded He is of God, it says much for the character of God. It also says much for what we as men (oh and women too) are capable. Acts of great brilliance. Acts of grotesque depravity. In it all, God desires us to have a heart after Him.
In Jesus we see the perfect display of humanity, and as we pursue that, we likewise can take a celebratory rather than condemnatory view of people. Not ignoring their sins, but knowing that if they experience the amazing grace of Jesus, their lives can be transformed to be more like His.
This can await us as we acknowledge that people like King David only go to show that what we read there and then is only a reflection of what we experience in our own souls in the here and now.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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