“A MAN AFTER GOD’S HEART”

Scripture reading:  1 Samuel 13:11-16

Text:  2 Samuel 24

          Perhaps no greater epitaph could ever be written over a man’s life than that which the Holy Spirit recorded about King David, “… after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep …” (Acts 13:36).

          Just a brief look at the life of David reveals his strong human nature. He made plenty of mistakes – yet he would go to any length to correct his errors and find the pathway to God.

          One mistake mentioned in 2 Samuel 24 is his numbering Israel.  David’s actions greatly displeased the Lord and he was given three choices for punishment:  seven years of famine, three months to flee before his enemies or three days of pestilence in the land.

          It didn’t take David long to make up his mind, “…let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man” (2 Samuel 24:14).

          When devastation stalked the land, thousands died.  With the angel of the Lord about to destroy Jerusalem, David prayed, “… Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they done!  let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father’s house” (verse 17).

          The prophet Gad gave David direction to raise up an altar unto the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah.  When David told the Jebusite of God’s direction, he offered the threshing floor, the oxen for sacrifice and the available wood.  Araunah would give it all freely.

          In the face of God’s judgment, David replied he would not sacrifice something to the Lord which cost him nothing.  He was not looking for the easy or cheap way out.  The cost was totally unimportant.  He only wanted everything right in the sight of God.

          As he grew older, a burning desire consumed David to build a house for God – yet the Almighty declared he was a “man of war” and that his son would build the house.  Undeterred, David set out to collect the material, draw the blueprints, and arrange for offerings.  Something in the heart of this man responded to the will of God like few others.

          Even after his terrible sin with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband, Uriah, and the death of the child he and Bathsheba had conceived, David would not leave his relationship with God.  Instead, after seven days of prayer and fasting, he bathed, changed his clothes and went to the house of God to worship.

          When Jesus walked upon earth, He quoted from David’s prophecies more than any other prophet.  In fact, He Himself was considered to be from the house and lineage of David.

          It is no small wonder that heaven permanently stamped on the Bible’s pages the record of David, “… a man after his own heart …” 1 Samuel 13:14).