David- After God's Own Heart?

Hey, drfuss.....

In my humble opinion, when David is referred to as a "man after God's own heart", it does not mean that he was always obedient or even necessarily faithful.

I think that a mistake that Christians make when thinking of David is envisioning a young lad, peacefully wandering amongst the sheep and innocently composing praise songs.

David had another side to him. A rash, impassioned, cruel, and self-centered side to him.

His made some very, very grave mistakes in his life...several of them....some sins that if he were alive today would rank him with the most corrupt of leaders.

But...

....when he was "called on the carpet" about his sin, he was not rebellious, but immediately repentant.

When Nathan confronted him about his sexual misconduct against Bathsheba and his assassination of Uriah, David was instantly remorseful, repentant, and grieved about his condition before God. And as best he could, even in the midst of a great big ol' MESS, he did his best to rectify the situation and powerfully poured out his heart in Psalm 51.

When Abigail confronted him about his hot temper and his unfair and cruel plans to murder innocent people simply because one man insulted him, he gratefully listened to her and praised her for pointing out his horrible agenda. And after GOD took care of the man, instead of David, David honored Abigail by marrying her.

David was not the tender innocent that we mistake him for. God, Himself, told David that as a consequence for his grievous mistakes in life that he would not be able to build the Temple as David so greatly desired to do.

But David listened to God and he listened to God's messages through other people in his life.

David praise God, greatly desired an intimate relationship with him, and cleaned up his act when confronted with his sin.

He wasn't an example of perfect ethical and moral behavior...in fact, in some instances, David is a perfect example of what NOT to do.

..but David is a prime example of falling on one's face before God with beautiful, sincere praise and gut-wrenching, sincere sorrow for his sins.

 

Well, drfuss, I've been doing some bible studying on that this morning, and here is my conclusion.....I don't know.

So...I went online to several bible commentaries, even a Jewish commentary of the old testament and I found two common lines of thinking.

David's commanding Solomon to kill these men could be one of two things:

• Joab was a murderer and the statute of limitations doesn't run out on that. Also, in Shimei's case, he was warning Solomon not to be trusting of Shimei, fearing that Shimei's loyalty to David was false. Shimei was a "King Saul" supporter and and "Absolom" supporter. He opposed David at every step and only showed loyalty after Absolom died. David feared for Solomon.
• Or some say that this was another one of David's grievous sins, ranking right up there with the murder of Uriah. David had promised this man that he would not kill him and now he commands Solomon to do so. One commentary said that his was an ugly lesson in what abuse of power could do to a person.

Frankly, I don't know which one I hold to. Here is something also to consider (what follows here is just my own opinion)..........

When people are old and dying, sometimes they get mellow and sweet and then again, sometimes they get mean and spiteful.

David did not die well. He died weak. He must have been terribly physically ill and was running fever, because the bible says he had terrible chills, that he could not get get warm. So they searched the land over for a beautiful young virgin to put in the bed with him to keep him warm and to keep him alert/conscious.

The bible says that she "ministered" to him and he did not respond to her at all.

He also died, again this is my own opinion, realizing what a terrible father he had been to his own children and trying to make up for it in charging Solomon to obey God's commandments, explaining in great detail why it was so important. Maybe he should have done that with ALL of his children at a very early age.

And he died remembering his enemies and charging his son to "take care of them". How sad. Maybe it was for Solomon's benefit, to protect him from men who would take the opportunity of David's death to oppose Solomon or maybe it was just revenge. I don't know.

But here is what I do know:

• I don't want to die trying to make up for all I was supposed have done with a final "speech" to my loved ones of "do as I say and not as I did with my life."
• I also don't want to die talking about the bad things in my life and thinking about revenge or fearful things that may happen to my family.

I think, drfuss, when it all boils down to it, we have to accept the fact that this is just how King David died.

His sad death, however, should not keep us from remembering the Godly man that he was many times over in his life and that he was a man after God's own heart even though he was just a fallible man many times, even on his deathbed.

Let's model ourselves after his beautiful Psalm 51 and Psalm 23 and so many other praises. Let's model ourselves after his obedience and repentance.

And let's simply take his grievous mistakes, even his deathbed charge for having people killed, as reminders that we are all sinful to the core and in need of daily confession and repentance.