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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I have a Thursday morning question. . . how do you measure INTEGRITY in someone? What does integrity look like in leaders, especially national leaders? Yesterday and today we’re looking at king David, one of the greatest heroes of ancient Israel, and I invite you to consider with me, his integrity through his long life!
David was a young boy, perhaps age 10 or 12 or so when Samuel visited Jesse’s home in Bethlehem, at God’s direction, to anoint the future king of Israel! Young David was called in from the fields, anointed, and evidently went he right back out to work with the sheep after his anointing! (1 Samuel 16:13) Later young David was recruited to play his harp for king Saul to comfort him in his times of torment (1 Samuel 16:14-23) and as we saw yesterday, he went out to fight Goliath with his slingshot and 5 stones. Through those young years of his life David remained amazingly humble and always honorable.
Have you ever heard the leadership phrase ‘keep your friends close, but your enemies closer’? That’s what king Saul did.
Saul grew jealous of young David and his growing popularity, and so first Saul kept David close as one of his armor-bearers, and musicians. (1 Sam. 16) Then as David grew older, Saul gave him command over some soldiers, but watched him carefully. (1 Samuel 18) Then this troubling statement: “When Saul realized the LORD was with David and his daughter Michal loved David, Saul became still more afraid of David, and Saul remained David’s enemy the rest of his days… in battle David met with more success than the rest of Saul’s officers, and his name became well known.” (1 Sam. 18:28-30)
From 1 Samuel 19-31, a period of more than 12 years, David lived a life I can’t even imagine. He knew Samuel had anointed him to be the future king, but David’s heart was honorable and loyal, first to God and second to king Saul, so he did the best he could, at whatever role or assignment was given to him, either by his father Jesse or his king, Saul. Saul’s jealousy drove Saul to try to kill David many times, and twice David had easy opportunity to kill Saul, but he refused to oppose the king. (1 Samuel 24 & 26) Why? Integrity!
God had allowed Saul to be Israel’s first king in response to the demands of the people in their rejection of God. Even though Saul had turned away from God and God had chosen young David to be the next king, David was determined to live honorably and wait for God to do the character development work in David that was needed, and God to accomplish His purposes in Israel’s leadership transition. There’s an important lesson here friends… how do we respond when leadership disappoint us, fail us, don’t behave, the way we want them to?
In David’s case he repeatedly sent word to king Saul that he would be honorable in fulfilling his leadership assignments and he urged Saul to do the same. David assured king Saul that he would never lead a rebellion against him, he would not seek Saul’s death, rather he would protect Saul and do all he could to build a better, safer, more God honoring Israel… and he urged king Saul to do the same. But to no avail. king Saul was a hard hearted, selfish, prideful, fearful man…a terrible leader. Finally, after many years, king Saul was wounded in battle and took his own life, falling on his own sword. (1 Samuel 31)
A time of great turmoil followed as various people wrestled for leadership, but it didn’t take long and the people called for David to step forward into the kingship. Samuel had been dead several years by then, so he was not present when finally David ascended to the throne. Please remember my friends, that event of Samuel anointing young David many years before, was a private moment at Jesse’s house in Bethlehem, and probably the only eye witnesses were Jesse’s family, and there is no indication anyone who saw it told anyone else.
Finally in 2 Samuel 5 David is declared king by the elders of Israel who gathered at Hebron to anoint him. “David was 30 years old when he became king, and he reigned 40 years. In Hebron David reigned over Judah 7 years, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah 33 years.” (2 Samuel 5:4,5) Do the math my friends. Perhaps 20-25 years may have elapsed from the time Samuel poured that oil on young David’s head, to the time he finally was able to settle in Jerusalem, as king over the entire nation of Israel. That’s what Patience with Integrity looks like! By the way, do you remember the town of Hebron? That’s where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah are all buried in Abrahams’ family plot! (Gen. 49:29-32) While in Palestinian held territory, you can still visit this place today!
David is of course the most celebrated of all the kings of ancient Israel. Jerusalem is often called “the city of David”, in part because he led the first Israeli conquering of that city in a remarkable way recorded in 2 Samuel 5. The city then was known as ‘Jebus’ and occupied by the Jebusites. (1 Chron. 11:4-9) Listen to this statement: “David conquered and took up residence in the fortress of Jebus and so it was called the City of David. He built up the city around it…and David became more and more powerful because the LORD Almighty was with him.” There is still a special section of modern day Jerusalem identified as that original “city of David”. The star in the Israeli flag is called the “star of David”. David’s tomb in Jerusalem is still one of the most visited of all historic sites in the Holy Land. I think more chapters in the Bible may tell the story of David than anyone else except maybe Jesus. (1 Samuel 16 – 31; all 24 chapters of 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles 11-29)
There are many contrasts between the failed leadership of king Saul and the generally successful leadership of king David, but in closing today let’s focus on one. How a leader deals with personal failure is very important, isn’t it? Sadly in our day we too often see failure coverup or denial or blame of someone else. King Saul made excuses and brushed his failure off as insignificant. (1 Samuel 15) He longed for the applause of people far more than the approval and guidance of God in his leadership, and it cost him everything…his relationship with God, his leadership role as king, and the respect of the people that he led.
David longed far more for the approval of God rather than the applause of people, and he resisted anything that would draw him away from God or cause him to defame God. But there was one dreadful event which became a turning point for David’s life. You probably know of David’s great sin of adultery with Bathsheba, and the murder plot for her husband Uriah, one of David’s trusted warriors. That sad story occurs in 2 Samuel 11 & 12. It’s important we understand WHY David failed. . .pride and refusal to listen to the warning either of his own conscience or the warnings of the Holy Spirit through other people.
You’ll remember this amazing part of the anointing of Samuel when David was young: “…from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.” (1 Sam. 16:13) So David’s sin with Bathsheba is exactly what Paul wrote about to us Christians in Ephesians 4:27,30 “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit and do not give the devil a foothold.” And David’s cover up of his sin of adultery with the sin of murder on the battlefield is further evidence that he succumbed to pride, he resisted the warnings, and later the conviction of the Holy Spirit. He yielded to the temptations and he sinned, repeatedly. Then in fear, he plotted murder to cover up adultery. Then in shame, he pretended and denied…for a very long time, and king David found himself growing cold spiritually, hard hearted and his leadership began to fail.
Finally, the fact that nearly 1 full year passed from that terrible time of sin before Nathan came to confront king David, the child from that adultery was already born, and it indicates to us that despite David’s love for God and his desire to honor God, his heart became hard and his leadership wisdom badly distorted. God had removed His hand of blessing from David’s life, and in his rebellion David was in a deep, downward spiral of leadership failure!
But when confronted by Nathan, David did what is too rare in our day. . .David responded to God’s confrontation and conviction, and David both confessed and repented with deep remorse and sincerity. (2 Samuel 12) Psalm 51 & 32 are David’s writings in that season of brokenness, and they’ve been used of the Holy Spirit to help millions of people in similar rebellion against God over the years, including many leaders. .
You may recall that while God forgave David in response to David’s true repentance, God taught king David, and all of us, a really important lesson: Sin bears consequences which repentance does not undo! The child born in that adultery died. Most of the rest of David’s family who were royal princes, turned very dysfunctional and disqualified themselves from future leadership roles. The remainder of David’s years as king were difficult as his family was embroiled in mistrust and infighting, and the royal court distrusted David’s integrity and leadership. David was even deceived by Satan into bad leadership decisions which cost many lives (1 Chronicles 21). Look closely my friends, at your life and especially those in leadership in your country. How is sin handled? What are consequences of sin? What does God want us to understand as we consider important leadership decisions in this election year?
In the midst of all this grief and leadership disappointment, the closing years of David life were marked by one great achievement which we’ll consider tomorrow: David prepared his son Solomon to follow him as king, and David prepared the drawings and the resources for one of the greatest construction projects of all time . . . the fabulous Temple of Jehovah God in Jerusalem. Do you grasp an important lesson here my friends? Despite failure and the unchangeable consequences of sin, God can bring great glory to Himself and accomplish significant things through a repentant heart that enables God to restore a person and rebuild their legacy.
Now ponder that a while. . . Is God saying something to your heart?
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: 1 Samuel 15; 2 Samuel 5. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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