"A man after God's own heart"

[Steve M]

I gave a little 20 minute lesson recently on this subject. Thought I'd share it here.

Summary: Being a Man after God's Own Heart Takes Enormous Faith

The story of David and Goliath, abridged.

The people of Israel have come out to do war against the Philistines, and the Philistines send out one single challenger, Goliath, who says that this should all be decided in single combat.

Just send one man out to face Goliath, that's all. Let the whole battle be decided without unnecessary loss of life.

Every man of Israel looks at him, and their heart withers within them. "You want me to go up against that giant? Alone? No backup? Who will come with me? Who will save me?"

Not a man stood up to him.

A youth arrives, just a boy, and declares immediately that this is shameful. Why? Because victory is the Lord's, and would never be decided by weapons or strength of arms. He confidently strides out to meet the giant with a sling, and when the giant steps forward... he runs to meet him.

Faith in God; not just believing vaguely, at the back of his head, but being willing to put himself in a situation where if God was NOT on his side, then certain death is the only possible outcome.

Not saying 'who will come with me,' but screaming 'God will decide!'

When the Bible lists David's mighty men, three stand out, head and shoulders above the others. Of two of them, it says that they were standing with the armies when the children of Israel retreated.

But they did not.

They stood their ground, and fought. Alone againt the enemy.

And they won the day.

Scripture says 'the LORD worked a mighty victory.'

When their faith was so strong that they threw themselves into doing His will without hesitation.... He gave them the victory.

Those who ran had no part in the Lord's victory.

They could have.

But they wanted to know 'who will come with me?' They wanted assurances. They wanted a majority. They DIDN'T WANT TO STAND ALONE.

Once, Joab, David's nephew and general over his armies, was attacking a city. But the people of the city had hired Syrian mercenaries, and when he arrived, he found himself surrounded. Ammonites in front of him, Syrians behind him.

Did he surrender? Knowing he had no tactical advantage, and that they were outnumbered? Did he run?

He turned to his brother, giving him half the men, and said "If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me: but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee.

Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth him good."

I love that. Let us play the men, and the Lord do that which seems good to him.

WHAT HAPPENS?

The Syrians run away, and when they run away, the Ammonites lose all hope and THEY run away.

Rather than a terrible loss, or a difficult battle, BECAUSE Joab and his brother STAND AS MEN for the Lord, because they say 'Let the Lord decide,' the victory falls EASILY into their hand.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," Paul told us.

All things.

The lesson for us?

1) When thing seem their worst, and we find ourselves standing alone, abandoned on every side, the battle IS NOT LOST. Maybe we were outnumbered two to one, and now everybody has run away. But if it be eight hundred to one, God can still give us the victory.

2) If we run away and leave one man standing alone, God can still turn it to victory without us. And the only one missing out on the victory will be us.

[Keturah]

David has always been a great encouragement, and assurance to me of Gods mercy and Grace.
Here we see David strong in faith, and trusting in God alone.
Later on we see him failing in his walk with God, Seducing the wife of Uriah , planing his murder, and trying to cover it all up. but when confronted with the truth from the prophet, he immediately repented, and was immediately forgiven.......a man after Gods own heart.
I find comfort in his life for we so often travel the same road from mountain top to great failure, but God remains the same.
Full of Love, never failing, always ready to forgive.

We have an awesome God.

[theBelovedDisciple]

David has always been a great encouragement, and assurance to me of Gods mercy and Grace.
Here we see David strong in faith, and trusting in God alone.
Later on we see him failing in his walk with God, Seducing the wife of Uriah , planing his murder, and trying to cover it all up. but when confronted with the truth from the prophet, he immediately repented, and was immediately forgiven.......a man after Gods own heart.
I find comfort in his life for we so often travel the same road from mountain top to great failure, but God remains the same.
Full of Love, never failing, always ready to forgive.

We have an awesome God.

excellent post... We have a Wonderful God.. full of and plenteous in Mercy and Grace... He is Truly Wonderful! the Cross is a Wonderful Example! amen and amen..

and Yes He is Faithful.. and does not change.. He Remains the Same.. yesterday today and Forever!!!

[awestruckchild]

I heartily enjoyed your post Steve.

Fear comes from one thing - not trusting in and relying on God.
When we trust Him we do not see or count our weakness as being of any importance, but the only thing of importance is His strength.

If we see our weakness and it causes us fear, we are not focusing on Him but on mere temporal considerations like the size of the enemy or our lack of powerful weapons or horses.

Do you know what I have struggled to understand? In the story of Sampson, he killed all of those men with the bone of a dead animal. But he had great understanding that it was God who did the fighting and winning and that it didn't really have anything to do with the temporal weapon he held. If he was in any doubt of this, he would have kept the bone instead of throwing it away, because he would have thought he could use it again to win in a fight.

Here is where I get confused though. After that, what caused him to lose and be captured and lose his sight? Was he thinking his strength was in his long hair? And if so, do I see the battle with the bone wrongly? Was he at the time of the battle, trusting in his hair and that was why he threw the bone or did he later come to think his strength was in his hair?

I've never quite seen the whole story clearly. It is one of the most distressing stories in the bible to me. I think it has something to do with Peter and the walking on the water. (That story also distresses me.)

[Steve M]

Paintingdiva, let me relate another story from David's life, from near the end, that I'm afraid may be distressing as well, but that I think ties right into what you've said here.

Near the end of his reign, David decided to have a census, to count the people. Chronicles says Satan moved him to do this.

Was this wrong? After all, God had told the people to count themselves on other occasions, so they would have a record of their size when they entered the promised land.

When David went out to face Goliath, everybody else was asking Who will come with me?

David never asked this.

It seems, later in life, he WAS asking this question. Who will come with me?

But he should have known that God was going with him. Shouldn't have had that fear that he was going alone, that he needed to know how large his army was, how strong. Joab, often not the wisest man, told him it wasn't a question he needed to ask. Joab knew who won his battles. As I recounted above, with enemies on both sides of him, Joab took the best men with him, sent the rest of the army with his brother the other way, and said 'let us play the men for our people, and let God do as He sees fit.'

I.e., if we do our part and stand strong, God is the one who decides the victory.

BUT THAT WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR DAVID ANY MORE.

Perhaps his doubt was because he knew he had angered God once already. Perhaps it was for another reason.

But his faith slipped, and it angered the Lord.

When God sent a plague, David repented, and asked the Lord to spare Israel, telling the Lord that this was the king's fault, and the punishment ought to lie squarely on him.

That's something of faith, right there. When we turn to God and realize that His punishments are corrective and for our own good, and tell Him 'send us the persecutions and afflictions that will do us the most good,' aren't we declaring our trust in Him?

Our trust that He only means us good, even in bad times? That even bad times work together for good to those that love the Lord? That good may not be in this world. It may be in the next.

To tie this all back together now, and hopefully with clarity;

When Peter was sinking under the waves, it must have felt like punishment. But in that moment he learned something about God, about the unique power Jesus has, and he learned to trust God more deeply.

[awestruckchild]

Hey Steve-

Sorry-was out of town for 2 weeks working. I was only confused and distressed about Sampson and how he seemed to have great faith in God but then lost it but now I am distressed about David too!! Thanks, Steve!

You know what I always wondered about David and the census? How it says in one place that God told him to take the census but in another place it says God was angry he did! My thought was that it might have been because he only did a census of men of fighting age instead of all the people....kind of like he presumed to know why God told him to take the census....

[Steve M]

In Kings, it says God moved against him... in Chronicles, it says Satan moved him.

That's a study in itself, right there...

[BadDog]

Thx Steve. I've just read that story recently.

I like the story from 1 Samuel 30. David with his 600 men had left Ziklag in Philistia where he was pretending to serve the Philistine king. He and his men were probably on their way home after having met with the king and having pretended to be upset that he couldn't go with the king and his princes to do battle against Israel. They were probably joking about how David had bluffed the king, when they smelled the smoke of their burning homes, arriving to discover that the Amalekites had raided their village and taken their wives and children captive...

1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

I like David's response when facing rials.

BD

[matthew7and1]

can i just say that this is an awesome thread? i mean it!!!
i consider myself having faith, but would i have enough faith to face goliath? it's a good question. one we should think of more often when doubting even the small things that occur in life!

[Steve M]

Thx Steve. I've just read that story recently.

I like the story from 1 Samuel 30. David with his 600 men had left Ziklag in Philistia where he was pretending to serve the Philistine king. He and his men were probably on their way home after having met with the king and having pretended to be upset that he couldn't go with the king and his princes to do battle against Israel. They were probably joking about how David had bluffed the king, when they smelled the smoke of their burning homes, arriving to discover that the Amalekites had raided their village and taken their wives and children captive...

1 Samuel 30:6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

I like David's response when facing rials.

BD

Great verse, BD!

I will tell you right now... this is one of the stories that I wanted to include in my sermon, but it was already over the hour and a half mark, and so I was trying to keep it down to the core stories, the ones I couldn't do without. But his whole life is filled with stories like this, where it becomes obvious where he drew his strength...... I just didn't have time to include them all!