1 Samuel 13:13-14 (NASB) 13Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14"But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you."
I Samuel 16:1, 7b, 10-13a (NIV) 1 The LORD said to Samuel … Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king." 7b The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these." 11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?"
"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." 12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers
David was a mixture of sinner and saint like many of us. So what was different about him? David seemed to have a God-given perspective that gave David a certain passion about his life and yet also a certain detachment, a certain turning of his will over to the care of God in such a way that he was accepting of the good and the bad. David was not immune to human frailty, faults, and fallenness. But he knew what to do when he fell. When he went against God’s good and gracious will, he fell, literally. He fell prostrate on the ground in recognition and in sincere sorrow for what he had done. David could see where he was wrong, and knew what to do about it. Do we?
The key to David’s heart seems to be the covenant God made with him. It was an awareness of and his understanding of this God-given commitment that made David a man after God’s own heart. In David, God is willing to trust one who is not all that trustworthy. And so it was that Jesus, the son of David, also entrusted His life, His love, and His work to twelve faulty people and continues to entrust His life, His love and His work to frail and faulty people like you and me.
David sinned grievously, but he had no arrogant pride. When possessed by pride we get beaten up in life but remain unbroken. We can feel God’s cooling breeze of commitment in the grand moments of life, but the wind of the Spirit, the great, grand and glorious good news of God’s commitment to us is primarily a gift to the broken and contrite heart.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 6, 1997
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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