David and the Mission of God

How did we get to David?

I want to start by introducing myself. Many of you I’ve had the pleasure of meeting over the last several months, but I know there are many more who I haven’t gotten the chance to meet yet. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Chad Westmaas. My wife Molly, my son Simon, and I have had the pleasure of attending converge for the past six months.

In the last few weeks Mitch and Carter have taken us through how God begins to reveal His plan and His mission for us in Genesis and Exodus. Carter talked about how we get to see God lay out his ultimate plan for humanity in Genesis 3. Despite our sin and rebellion, God has a plan to bring redemption to humanity through the offspring of Eve who will ultimately crush the head of the serpent.

Mitch brought us forward to the story of Abraham, where we see God choosing one individual with great faith to bless so that he and all of his decedents would become God’s people and would bring His blessing to the nations. And last week, Mitch took us through the Exodus, where God frees his people from oppression and sets them apart as his people.

Today, we’re going to fast forward all the way to 1st and 2nd Samuel, but before we get there, I want make sure we’re caught up on the story of God’s people up to this point. As we read throughout the Old Testament we see a pattern begin to emerge of God stepping in miraculously to save and bless his people, soon followed by those very people failing to live up to their covenant with God and suffering the consequences of that failure, only to be saved once again by God’s unfailing grace.

When Mitch left us of, God had just freed his people from slavery in Egypt and was leading them into the promised land. I hope I’m not spoiling anything for anyone, but journey from Egypt to the promised land isn’t a smooth one. When they finally do arrive after 40 years of wandering, we see throughout the book of Joshua how God is faithful to drive out all of Israel’s enemies from the land before them and establish them in a land of their own.

Joshua ends once again at a high point in the story of Israel where Israel finally possesses the land they were promised and Joshua charges them to continue to faithfully serve the Lord. Remember the pattern though. The people of God fail to follow through on Joshua’s charge, and throughout Judges we see how they again and again turn away from God, worship idols, and as it says in Judges 17 “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” And we see a pattern repeat over and over where the people abandon God, God punishes them by allowing other nations to oppress them, the people then repent and turn back to God, and God raises up a deliverer or a judge to rescue them.

Pay attention to that theme, because it’s the story of God and his people that replays throughout the Bible. God’s people are suffering because of their own sin and the oppression of others, so God raises someone up to save them, but the savior is never enough to finish the work and they always end up failing again.

So when we arrive in 1st Samuel, Israel has spent hundreds of years in this up and down pattern of nearness to God, failure to remain faithful, oppression and rescue. Their longing for the promised land where they are living in abundance with God has yet to be fulfilled, and each time God rescues them and sets them back on the right path, they rebel against him again.

1 Samuel begins by recounting how God blesses an Israelite named Hannah with a son whom she faithfully dedicated to the Lord, and who went on to be Israel’s last Judge. Samuel himself fits in the pattern of God sending someone to rescue Israel from their own sin and to bless them, but by the end of his life Israel is once again rebelling against God. They are tired of the way things have been, and they want to be like all the other nations. They want a king. I’ll read here from 1 Samuel 8: 4–8

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you.”

Now, first off, it might be easy for us to sit back in judgement of Israel here. I mean, what are they doing rejecting God like that? But if I’m honest, it’s not very hard for me to think of ways in my own life that told God the same thing. “Now God, I know you said I need to do x, y, or z, but that’s actually kind of hard, or uncomfortable, or inconvenient, and I think I might rather just live my life like everyone else is.” If I’m honest with myself, I know I’m not all that far away from Israel here sometimes.

But, coming back to the passage, why is this important in the first place? Why does it matter that Israel wants to have a king instead of a judge? Well, the problem with this is two-fold. First, Israel wants a king because they want to be like all the other nations. But if you remember God doesn’t want Israel to be like the other nations. He tells them through Moses in Exodus 19:5–6 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.””

The whole point is that Israel would a nation set apart for God as a blessing to all the other nations. And here they are rejecting that offer and telling God they would much rather be just like everyone else. And a little further on in the chapter, we get the full reason they want a king.

1 Samuel 8:19–20 “But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.””

Pause

“That our king may judge us and go out before us and fight out battles.”

What is it that God has been doing for Israel for hundreds of years at this point if not that. You see, when Israel asked for a king, what they really wanted was to replace God with a human.

Pause

So what does God do? Well, he honors their request. He tells Samuel to set a king over them, and in His grace, he even blesses that king, whose name was Saul, saying that, “[he] shall reign over the people of the LORD and [he] will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies.”

What we see here is such evidence of the story that God continues to weave throughout the history of his people. Israel has just rejected God and asked for a king to replace him, and instead of cursing Israel, he chooses for them the exact kind of king they wanted. Scripture tells us that Saul was the tallest and most handsome man in all of Israel. And he blesses Israel through Saul, despite Saul being a product of their rebellion.

The story of God’s relationship with His people is that He has promised to be relentlessly faithful, constantly blessing them and acting for their good, even when they do nothing to deserve it.

But the blessing of Saul is short lived. Saul is disobedient to God, and God rejects him as king of Israel and promises to anoint another.

And at this point, David enters the story. Israel got the kind of king they wanted, but not God is going to choose a new kind of king. And this king isn’t going to be anything like what people think he should be. Samuel goes to the house of a man Jesse, and Jesse presents his sons to Samuel to see if God has chosen them.

1 Samuel 16:6–7 ESV

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

And so, each an every one of Jesse’s sons was brought before Samuel, and one by one they were rejected, because they didn’t have the heart that God was looking for. Until finally, the only son left was David, who had been forgotten out with the sheep. David had the heart that God was looking for, even if he didn’t have the qualities on the outside that the world would think makes him fit for being king.

I want to zoom out for a second here, so we can reflect on what God is doing in this grand story that we’ve been talking about. From the moment of creation God has been on a mission to live in right relationship with His people. And when sin enters the world He chooses a group of people to live differently from the rest of the world in intimacy with him, and over and over again they screw it up. But still, God never relents in His mission to save His people, to live with them, and to bless the world through them.

But the fact of the matter is, the kind of Kingdom that God wants to live in with his people is the kind of kingdom that’s totally different than what we would often choose for ourselves. Many commentators have actually said that God’s kingdom is an upside down kingdom. The things that He values and the way the kingdom of God works is in many ways the opposite of what feels natural in our human nature. One of the primary differences is that we as humans want to be the rulers of our own kingdoms. Just like Israel wanted a human king that looked good in their eyes to fill the role that God was supposed to fill, how often do we want to do things our own way because it seems right in our eyes.

I feel a lot of sympathy for my mom, because when I was a child I was never satisfied with following instructions just because my parents told me to do something. I had to understand why I had to do whatever they had asked, and if it didn’t make sense I would argue about it until it did, or until I got my way. It never made sense to me that I had to clean my room. I’m the only one who lives in it, why in the world should my mom care what it looks like. I remember vividly telling her that if she didn’t like how it looked she could just close the door and she wouldn’t have to see it. I don’t think I won that particular argument, but the truth is, I have that same heart today. I want to be able to understand why something is the way that it is, and if it doesn’t make sense to me I find it so difficult to just comply. The truth is, I feel much more comfortable when I’m sitting on the throne of my life. I’m no different from how Israel was.

And this is human nature, right? It’s the same conflict that’s happened since the garden of Eden. We want to decide what is right in our own eyes because we ultimately don’t trust God. But thankfully, God knows this about us, and scripture continues to point us to God’s solution to this problem. We cannot rule ourselves in obedience to God on our own. We can’t save ourselves from our desire to be the rulers of our own life. We need God to do that on our behalf. We need savior and a king who will be for us what we could never be for ourselves.

And David is a signpost pointing to that future king. We see if from the very beginning of his story. He’s not the tallest, he’s not the strongest, he’s not the one that Israel would have picked for themselves, but he is the one who God picked. And from the moment of his selection the author of 1 Samuel tells us that, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward.” David was a king who’s heart was after God and who had the Spirit of God living in him, and it empowered him to be a different kind of king.

So what made David different? What set him apart from Saul whom God had rejected? Well, there are many things that set David apart from Saul, but as I was preparing for this message I came across an article in The Gospel Coalition by an author named Kevin DeYoung that focused on two aspects of Davids character that I think are the most telling. He writes that, “David was a great man because he was willing to overlook others’ sin but unwilling to overlook his own.”

Neither of these are traits usually ascribed to kings or rulers. It’s not very often that the leaders of countries are known for readily admitting to their mistakes or for graciously forgiving others. In fact, it’s usually the opposite, especially in the ancient world. Great kings in the ancient world would often be thought to be God’s themselves, incapable of failure or fault. And far from forgiving their enemies, a strong king was supposed to conquer those who opposed them. But while David was certainly a King who fought many battles for Israel, he shows time and again that his heart is different from what we would normally think of in a king. Although David was pursued and threatened by Saul for years, on two different occasions he shows mercy and spares his life. When Saul is finally killed, David doesn’t rejoice at his victory, he weeps over Saul’s death. And throughout his reign, David shows that he is quick to be kind a patient with those who he doesn’t need to be.

And when confronted with his sin, instead of justifying himself or raging against Nathan the prophet who revealed his sin, he laments and repents of his failure. When Saul was confronted with his disobedience, he tried to justify his decision, but David didn’t. He was a different kind of king.

There are whole sermon series that are preached on the life of David. There is so much that we can learn from his example and from how God used him. But I want to highlight a couple of things in his story that I think are relevant for us today.

The first, is that what God values in His kingdom often looks nothing like what the world values.

Saul was handsome, and tall, and strong, but his heart was not soft towards God in the way that David’s was. When God was looking for a king to replace Saul, he didn’t choose the most qualified, or the best looking, or the person with the most going for him, he chose a boy who was watching his father’s sheep, and who had a heart that loved the Lord.

Second, what made David great was not what he accomplished, but how obedient and receptive his heart was to God.

When God says that David is a man after his own heart, I don’t think it’s because of what David will accomplish for the Lord, I think it’s because God knows that David loves Him. Remember what Jesus said when asked about the greatest commandment in Matthew 22, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” What is in our heart towards God and towards our neighbor is far more important than any degree, any accolade, any worldly accomplishment that others might praise.

It’s important to remember though, that as great of a king as David was, the story doesn’t end with him. In fact, partly due to David’s sin, after his death the kingdom of Israel collapses and splits in two. Once again continuing the cycle of Israel falling short of what they need to be, suffering under the weight of their sin and oppression, and needing to be rescued. Even though David was a man after God’s own heart, he wasn’t the one who would finally fulfill the promise Carter talked to us about a few weeks ago in Genesis 3. That one day Eve’s offspring would finally crush the head of the serpent. David was not that man, but he points us to that man.

Although Israel’s desire for a king was sinful, because they wanted to replace God with that king, God’s ultimate plan is that his people would have a king. But just like David, the king that he meant for them would look nothing like what we expected. Remember, God’s kingdom is an upside down kingdom. So his king is going to be the opposite of all the things we might think of when we think of kings.

He won’t be wealthy, he won’t be attractive, he won’t use his power to abuse, or control, or manipulate others to do what he wants. He won’t be a king who spends time with the powerful, or influential, or important people of his day. Instead, he will be a humble servant, born into a poor family, who spends his life with the most forgotten and rejected people he can find, and who ultimately will die a humiliating death at the hands of his enemies because he refuses to use his power for his own gain.

David is this signpost thousands of years before Jesus is ever born that God’s plan for his people is that they would have a king who is truly after his own heart, but who will finally succeed in living the life that no one in all of human history could live.

I know many times when we read Scripture we look for things that we can take away and put into action. Especially in the Old Testament, I think we often read these stories looking for examples of what to do and what not to do. But I don’t think that’s the most important take away here. I think the real heart of this story has nothing to do what David did or didn’t do, it’s actually about what God is doing.

From the moment humanity first rebelled against God he has been on a mission to restore that broken relationship and to make a way for us to live in harmony with him again. And if the story of David shows us anything, it’s that there’s no way that we can be the kind of king we need to truly save us.

And I think when we truly see how commited God has always been to saving us from ourselves, our response can really only be gratitude. And from that gratitude for God’s eternally faithful love towards us, we can join along in His story of sharing that blessing with all the nations.

Let’s pray.