Sermon Tone Analysis

The Story so far

As you probably remember, we’ve been following the story of God and mankind as found in the Bible.

Today we’re looking at the anointing, the commissioning, of the second king of Israel, King David.

David is the man whose descendant is our forever king: our Lord Jesus.

But what is the background to David’s appointment?

Let’s quickly summarise.

Remember that God made a world without pain or conflict, a world where humanity had a purpose and a part to play.

But we wanted more than a part, so we tried to take control.

But we’re not God, and a human controlled world turned out to be a horrible place.

So horrible that God wiped it clean with a great flood, but humanity was still a mess, and to limit the damage we could do, God scattered us across the Earth.

Of course God didn’t want to leave matters like that, so he chose a man called Abram, and promised to bring a great nation out of him.

God kept his promise, working through that faltering family and the often brutal nations around them.

Eventually he called that new nation, Israel, out of the land they were enslaved in, Egypt, and made them his people.

He gave them a leader, Moses, a way to live that set them free from the mess of human nature--the Law of Moses—his presence in the tabernacle—a portable temple—and he gave them a land—Canaan.

But even with all this they couldn’t follow him.

They made mess after mess.

And the judges God chose to get them out of their messes often ended up making even bigger messes.

At last, the people demanded a king, like the nations around them.

God’s prophet at the time, Samuel, was annoyed that the people wanted to be like the messed up nations around them, but he listened to God and anointed the king the people wanted: Saul, an impressive, tall warrior from the tribe of Benjamin.

As Samuel had feared, though, Saul was a miserable failure.

Sure, he was a good warrior, but he was a terrible leader because he obstinately refused to obey to God’s word.

And so Samuel told Saul that God had chosen a new king, “a man after his own heart.”

And that’s where we pick up the story today.

Our story

How is David’s heart better?

Now the key to this story is obviously David’s heart, right?

After all, God’s response to Samuel’s admiration of Eliab contrasts the human obsession with physical appearance and capability with God’s delight in our hearts.

So what is it that God is looking for in a person’s heart?

In 1 Samuel 13:14 Samuel explains to Saul the contrast between Saul himself and the new king God has chosen:

So David’s heart is somehow after God’s own heart?

But what does this mean?

God is, well, God! How can a person have a heart after God’s?

Often we think this means a holy or sinless or perfect heart.

After all, God is holy and sinless, and we see that in Jesus.

But if this is what God is looking for in David, then David is a prime exemplar, a perfect example, of what rightly annoys so many people in our culture: religious hypocrisy.

After all, David is infamous for committing adultery and then murder to cover it up, but he goes wrong well before that, as we’ll see.

Is God really such a poor judge of character?

Obviously a person after God’s own heart is not a sinless person.

So what are they?

My story of realisation

Let me share a personal story that helped me realise a little of what I think a man after God’s own heart looks like.

Back in the mid nineties, I think some time after I’d been to Silicon Valley and founded a company there, I was full of brash confidence.

I was in demand at work, with companies like LG and Hyundai asking after me.

I was in demand at church, with a small group and other leadership roles.

And I had plenty of friends.

I was even growing interested in an attractive Hong Kong-Australian girl.

Then one time in a church activity, there was this other guy.

He was from Myanmar, and his English was quite difficult to understand.

I think he worked as a labourer.

And he liked to play the guitar and sing, but he wasn’t terribly good at either of them.

This one time he was singing and playing.

I could hardly tell him to shut up, so I had to listen.

And as I listened I realised something: this guy may not have been terribly gifted, but the gifts that he did have were getting used at 110% of their capacity.

I thought about myself, and realised that I was cruising, barely using the gifts God had given me.

All my contempt for my Burmese friend fell away, as I realised that his heart was totally sold out for God.

He didn’t have time to judge others or worry about whether he failed or not, because he was too busy loving God and living that out.

And so he became one of my role models, and I often think of him when I’m struggling with commitment.

What Saul is

Now back to David, who is supposed to have a heart after God’s own heart.

Unlike Saul.

It’s worth contrasting Saul with David, because that’s what God did in the verse we just read.

The question is, why was Saul rejected?

Was it because he got stuff wrong?

Obviously not, because David did, too.

It’s worth looking at what Samuel said to Saul.

In his kingmaking speech, Samuel closes with a warning to both the people and Saul.

He says:

The problem is not making mistakes, it is persisting in them.

This is not a difficult concept to grasp.

There are even sayings along the lines of:

Once is a lesson, twice is a mistake, three times is stupidity

A mere three years after Samuel’s warning speech, Saul is on a mission, and he grows impatient waiting for Samuel, and takes Samuel’s priestly role into his own hands.

When Samuel confronts him over this outrageous violation of God’s law, Saul doesn’t listen and instead justifies his decision, as if God’s law is a matter of mere convenience.

Samuel blasts Saul with the terrible consequences of his rebellion:

We don’t see Saul’s reaction to God’s rejection of his dynasty.

It’s likely he simply shrugs it off, just like he shrugs of every other word from God. “Who does God think he is, anyway?”

I can imagine him muttering.

What David is not

David is supposed to be a contrast to Saul.

And yet, like everyone in history—remember what we heard in the story so far—David fails, more than once.

After Samuel’s death and well before Saul’s, David is helped by a clever woman called Abigail.

Her foolish husband doesn’t last long, and at the end of this story we find David getting married to her, and then this:

Now you may be thinking, “So what?” Men back then had multiple wives.

Indeed they did.

However the King of God’s people Israel was held to a higher standard than any ordinary man.

In Deuteronomy Moses spends some time talking about how a future king should behave.

And, amongst other things, he says this:

The point of these restrictions on a king is that he is intended to rely completely on God, not on armies (represented by horses), treaties (sealed by marriage), or money.

Commentaries note that these two wives likely helped David become king in Hebron after Saul’s death, so David is using marriage as a political gain here, contrary to God’s law.

He disobeys this section of the Mosaic law again when he takes a census of Israel to build up his army, and God punishes the whole nation for that sin.

If you’re still thinking David wasn’t too bad, remember his sin with Bathsheeba, including his murder of Uriah.

But Tim will talk more about that in a couple of weeks.

The point is, David is not Mr Perfect!

What David is

But there must be something in David to give him a heart after God’s own heart!

What is it?

Well, let’s think about David’s triumphs.

He responds to Goliath’s pagan goading by trusting in God and using the skills he has learnt to defeat him.

He refuses to kill Saul when he has the opportunity, several times, trusting in God to give him the kingdom.

Time after time David asks God how he should fight his battles, for example, in chapter 23: