A Man After God's Own Heart?

We are going to be looking into some of the aspects of King David’s life over the next 6 weeks. I chose to call this series, “A Man After God’s Own Heart?” That question is prompted from the words that God spoke to the prophet Samuel when he was sent to anoint a new king of Israel.

“A man after my own heart” has become an English idiom.  It refers to one with whom we have an affinity.  A bond.  A kindred spirit.  It is an endearing expression that speaks to someone who shares similar tastes.

Bible students quickly relate to the statement regarding King David.  When Saul disobeyed God, the prophet Samuel told him that God was removing him from the throne and replacing him with another King.  He said, “The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart.”  Paul also referenced it in Acts 13:22.

Acts 13:22 NIV

22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

So, what comes to mind when you hear the name of King David?

The anointing by Samuel? He was not even considered a possibility by his own father, as the sons were brought out for the prophet to anoint one of them, but Jesse had to send for David when the prophet said that none of the older brothers was the one.

David and Goliath - we know that as a young man, David had the faith to be the one that faced the giant and with his slingshot he took down the champion of the Philistines.

A great musician & poet who played for King Saul, and wrote many of the Psalms.

A great warrior, leader, & man of God.

The first thing that comes to mind when you think of David is probably not the passage we are going to turn to this morning:

2 SAMUEL 11:1-27: In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”

16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.

18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”

22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”

25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”

26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

The New International Version. (2011). (2 Sa 11:1–27). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

The scripture writer here is a master of understatement! He tells us about this incredible, horrible story about the King of Israel. If we were to classify sins into different categories, and divide them by the degree of sin--this would be near the worst. And then, the writer in verse 27 says: that it displeased the Lord.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds kind of soft to me! After all, God had called David—He had Samuel anoint David as the King—it was from God that David got his power—It was God who gave him the strength to conquer in battle, and in life. I would think that God would be furious at David! It would serve David right if God were to strike him dead on the spot! As the king of Israel, whatever he did reflected on God! Wasn’t he after all--”a man after God’s own heart?”

We don’t live in David’s day, of course, nor will any of us ever be a king, but the subtle temptations of the devil work the same with you and me as they did with Dave. If David had been asked the day before all of this began if he would ever do such a thing, I’m fairly certain that he would have said, no way! But he did!

What led to David’s downfall can easily lead to our own downfall if we aren’t careful. You might say, “I would never kill a man,” but David never set out to kill Uriah—it just happened as a result of earlier choices.

Back in 1993, there was an accident in Ohio’s Amish country that outraged the entire area in which we lived. There was a group of Amish children walking along the road. Where they were headed I don’t know, but not too far from where these children were walking a man made a decision to get behind the wheel of his car after having had too much to drink. You have probably figured out the rest of the story. He was driving along recklessly, when he slammed in to the group of children that were walking beside the road & killed 5 of the children. He did not set out that evening to kill 5 children, but the end result was the same—due to sin in his life, 5 young Amish lives were snuffed out!

David’s sin started out with a lack of good judgment.

When kings go off to war—David stayed home! He was in a place where he should not have been at a time when he should not have been there! If David had been where he ought to have been none of this would have ever happened.

Temptation often comes when we are where we should not be at a time when we shouldn’t be there!

We think that we are so strong and able to handle certain temptations, and so we watch the tv show, or go to the movie, download the video, or go to the place where we know temptation will arise - allowing ourselves to be in a position where we know that temptation will be strong.

Sometimes it is not in what we do, but in what we don’t do.

We stop reading our Bible & spending time with the Lord in personal devotion time.

We slack off on church attendance where we can be spurred on in our faith and spur others on in theirs.

Maybe finances are tight, and so you decide to steal the tithe from God and keep it for yourself.

There was a downhill slide.

I don’t believe that David set out to do anything wrong that day.

He was just taking a stroll on his roof, looking out over his kingdom. When he accidentally saw Bathsheba it wasn’t a sin, but he allowed it to become a sin when he began to desire her, and then when he sent for her.

One sin led to another, and after committing adultery, he ends up killing Uriah.

Sin brings about more sin.

Have you ever known someone who was a habitual liar? A habitual liar seems to never even know when they have told the truth. Keeping the lies straight must be a full-time job. One lie leads to another lie that leads to another lie, and so on.

That is the way that it is with sin. One sin brings about another, that leads to another, and so on.

None of us ever get beyond the possibility of sin.

David covered his tracks pretty well—he thought that he was beyond reproach.

This reads like our headlines where athletes, stars, and politicians think they can get away with anything, and it often seems like they do, but be sure of this - their sins will find them out!

Often times in churches like ours, where we stress holiness lifestyles, we get a false sense of security. We somehow have gotten the idea that because I have given my all to Jesus that I cannot sin anymore. I am not sure where that way of thinking originated, but it certainly is not from the Word of God. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “but when you think that you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.” We must always be on the guard.

We must flee temptation.

The absolutely incredible thing to me about this story is that it doesn’t end with God being displeased with David. Instead, David is remembered as one of the great Kings of Israel—one who served God. Is that justice? No—that is grace! God offered David a second chance! The beauty of the good news is that there is another chance! God hasn’t given up on you, even if you have given up on yourself. There are not many times in life that we can have a second chance. If you get fired from a job, it is not likely that you’ll get hired back. If you are a golfer, and you are putting for par, but miss—your friends are not likely to say, oh, just skip that putt and try again. If you jump out of an airplane without a parachute, you won’t be able to have a second chance.

Maybe you’re here this morning, or you are watching on one of our livestreams, and you need more than a second chance - maybe you need a fourth or fifth chance. Jesus is standing with His arms wide open to give you another chance this morning.