Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this Friday,
When you think about leaders, especially leaders with great responsibility over many people, would this phrase be a wonderful epitaph which you would like spoken over the leaders who touch your life, your city, your nation? It speaks of King David and the early years of his reign over Israel: “King David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people.” (2 Samuel 8:15) Wow, what an honorable leadership statement!
How does that happen my friends? What leadership values, what character traits in the leader result in a leader doing what is just and right for the people under their leadership? As you look around your city whether it’s city government or health care or education or business or even the churches, how does the leadership in your city compare to that statement summarizing David’s leadership?
Let’s personalize it even further. What about you and me and our leadership performance in our families or our vocations?
Now let’s remember there was no leadership training institute in David’s day! No advanced leadership seminars being offered. In the previous more than 100 years Israel had seen failed leadership by High Priest Eli and his sons Hophni & Phinehas who had actually sent the Ark to the battlefront where it had been captured and then all three men died on the same day.
It was a dark “Ichabod” time when Israel floundered without spiritual or government leaders. (1 Samuel 4,5) Then God raised up Samuel as God’s prophet and judge and for many years Samuel’s God directed, honorable leadership brought stability and peace.
But the tribal elders rejected Samuel in his old age, and they demanded a king so they could be like other nations, remember? (1 Samuel 8:19,20) You’ll remember that king was Saul who began well but failed miserably in his 42-year reign.
David had grown up as a simple shepherd, working for his father Jesse, tending sheep and goats out in the open fields. (1 Samuel 16:11) Of course we remember shepherd boy David’s remarkable feat of killing giant Philistine Goliath with a single stone and his slingshot. After that Saul recruited David and David became a soldier and leader of soldiers. So where did David gain his God honoring character and his leadership skills?
Yesterday I left you with young King David and the prophet Nathan as they reflected on a very significant message from God regarding God’s promise of blessing on David’s kingship and God’s desire that eventually a great Temple would be built in Jerusalem for God’s Presence and the Ark of God’s Covenant with Israel. (2 Samuel 7)
The chapter which follows is a brief summary of some of David’s role as Commander in Chief of the armies of Israel in his strategy to build up a strong Israelite military defense for his people who had for so long come under frequent, vicious attacks from adversarial nations around them.
In 2 Samuel 8:11 I find this interesting statement about what David did with the plunder of those military actions: “King David dedicated these articles to the LORD, as he had done with the silver and gold from all the nations he had subdued.” Once again do you see evidence of King David’s honorable leadership character and his passion to lead others in honoring God even with the spoils of war?
I notice 2 Samuel 8 concludes with a list of those men who were part of King David’s first national leadership team in Jerusalem in those days. Joab the military commander; Jehoshaphat the keeper of records; Zadok and Ahimelek the priests; and Seraiah the secretary. The nation of Israel, while young, was emerging as a regional power then, as it is today, and young King David was becoming a significant, influential leadership figure for the entire region.
As I reflect on the nearly 1000 years of time which we have travelled thus far in our ‘Grand Narrative’ journey from Abraham to David, five very significant leaders rise to the top in my view: Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel and now David. Of them, only Moses received formal leadership training, yet all five are very significant in history.
The common denominator for all of them is their unwavering commitment to honoring God with their character and their full submission to God’s guidance for their lives and their leadership! What was true then is true today in leadership anywhere in the world, in every generation, would you agree?!
While the books of 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles often mirror each other in telling the story of Israel in those days, 2 Samuel 9 and David’s remarkable kindness to Mephibosheth, the crippled son of Jonathan, does not appear in 1 Chronicles. We looked quite closely at this story last week, so we’ll not dig deeply into it again today.
But I urge you to read it carefully, now with a fresh understanding of how David’s compassionate wisdom and his kindness to Saul’s crippled grandson is a remarkable reflection of the leadership development work God was doing in David as God prepared him for his 40 year reign over Israel as one of the most renowned leaders in all of Israel’s history. As you read, see if you can identify key character traits and leadership decisions which shaped David’s future as king!
And finally, as we read 2 Samuel 8 & 9 today let’s use these chapters as a mirror, asking God to help us see how our character, wisdom, God reliance, influence, and decision making are either nurturing or eroding our usefulness in God’s hands, as He seeks to accomplish His purposes in our day wherever we live in our world.
As always, more notes are in the Grand Narrative link below and I’ve found another wonderful worship song that seems to fit so well with what we’ve read today in 2 Samuel 8&9. And I look forward to meeting with you here again on Monday, my friends.
Today’s Scripture: 2 Samuel 8-9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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2 Samuel 9
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“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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