We are going to look at David’s life and see what we can learn from him. We are, however, not going to go through his life chronologically, but rather take random acts of his to learn from. The Lord called David a man after His own heart and the reason for this is that David was not concerned about his own image when the Lord needed to be exalted. He never defended himself when he was ridiculed, despised and mocked because of his faith. He actually suffered a lot for his faith and we will learn about it as we go along in this series.
As we study this we need to look at ourselves and make a decision whether we fit into the category of being men and women after God’s own heart and if not, what we can do to make sure we become like that.
In 2 Samuel 6 David arranged for the ark to be brought back. Uzzah tried to help by stabilising the ark when the oxen stumbled and because He touched the ark irreverently, the Lord struck him down. This caused David to really fear the Lord.
“David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, ‘The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.’ So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing,” (verses 9-12).
To David the Lord was very real and he didn’t want to get on His wrong side. At first he was scared that the wrath of the Lord would come on the City of David because of what had happened to Uzzah, but when he saw that Obed-Edom was blessed because of the presence of the Lord, he wanted the presence of the Lord and the resulting blessing for the city. The reason why Uzzah died is because the ark was not transported according to the prescribed procedure. When David collected the ark to bring it to the city, he made sure it was done properly: “When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf,” (verse 13).
“David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart,” (verses 14-16).
David was the king of Israel. People looked up to him and as a king he was supposed to maintain a certain status. According to our human perception there are certain things that kings and queens don’t do. They should always behave appropriately with the necessary majesty as to not be despised by the people. But David didn’t care what people thought, for he was doing it for the Lord. The only person that mattered at that moment was the Lord and what He thought of David’s heart. We read that at least one person despised David – Michal, Saul’s daughter, because people’s opinions were important to her.
Who would despise you when you go all out for the Lord? How would pleasing the Lord through your humility affect your friendships with people of stature? When you dance and praise the Lord in church, maybe kneeling down, who would look down on you? Why are we concerned about what people think and make excuses for our worship?
The Lord’s opinion is what counts and He can look after those who wonder about us. We just need to praise Him with all our heart.
Lord, I would like to die to my embarrassment and please you.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
Please pass this on if you think others may benefit by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment