David: A Man Who Served His Generation As A Person After God's Heart


	David: A Man Who Served His Generation As A Person After God's Heart One of the great names in the Bible is that of David, king of Israel. Most people know how he faced Goliath as a youth, and many appreciate the psalms he wrote. Psalm 23, the most famous psalm in the Bible, was written by him. He had his faults, and he committed some serious sins. Yet Paul the apostle tells us that David was a man who was according to God's own heart (Acts 13:22), and a man who served his own generation (Acts 13:36). We are considering in this series of messages a man who, even though he did some terrible things (and paid a great price because of it), was still able to satisfy God's heart! In fact, Paul tells us David became something nearly unique in all of human history: a man who served his generation in a manner that was after, or according to, God's own heart. The Two Things That Matter: Our Relationship With God and Our Responsibility Towards Man These are the two things that every person should care about above all else - his relationship with God and how he has lived and operated within his generation. We should be those who are according to God's heart, and thus serve our generation. We should not merely care for our own things. Too many people just plan for themselves, or else they serve their generation in a manner that is not according to God's heart. Nearly everyone has their own plans and simply seeks to make their own way. Should we not consider our livelihood? Yes we should. Yet David gave himself to live for what God Himself was really after, and trusted that God was able to take care of him. Today God is still looking for those who would care about what He is seeking. As someone alive in your generation, God wants to know if you care about what is in His heart. These are the matters that should regulate our existence. I. Having A Heart That Was "After God" Being according to God's heart is very different from doing things for God. Doing things for God has little meaning if you have no realization of what God desires. From our youth, we should be focused on what God is after. Once you find yourself confronting the practical realities of life, what will become your focus? In too many cases such things as career or family win out over the Lord. Or, in our Christian service, we may do things without having touched what is in God's heart at all. If from a young age we realize that what matters more than anything else is what is in God's heart, then our operation will be healthy, and we will be blessed. What does a proper relationship with God involve? It involves our person. When you are the right kind of person, you will be a person according to God's heart. Then, once your person is right before God, you must labor in a way that causes you to properly serve your generation. These two matters can be stated very simply, yet what is involved is very profound. In the New Testament, not even Abraham or Moses are referred to as often as David. Paul, Peter, Stephen and even the Lord Jesus all spoke of him. How could a flawed man who committed such great sins become someone so appreciated? How is it that he could be held up as someone who was according to God's heart and as a person who served his generation? In many ways Saul, the first king, seemed a better man. God, however, did not appreciate Saul, yet He cherished David. Even the meaning of David's name is "Beloved." Yet how could God love him when he failed so seriously? God Is More Concerned With Our Basic Stand Than He is With Our Failure As we read about David, we should be encouraged. May we all tell the Lord, "Lord, You know how I fail and how unworthy I feel I am, yet still I want to be a person who is according to Your heart, and serve my generation." Many of those who are young now will one day be serving the Lord. Many will become leaders, and as leaders they may damage those they lead and do or say things that will cause real problems. Let me tell you honestly, when it comes to serving the Lord, none are qualified. Therefore, we should be encouraged that the Lord could appreciate someone like David, who because his heart was right, could still be so greatly used by the Lord. The Lord considered David to be one of His greatest servants. Because of this, I hope we all would tell the Lord, "Lord, I give myself to be someone who is after Your heart, no matter how discouraging things may be. I may at times fail and suffer defeat, and I may even get caught with something very ugly, yet I still want to be known by You as someone who is after Your heart. And if I am able to be such a person to you, Lord, I want to labor to serve my generation for You also." II. Serving His Own Generation In order to understand the phrase "his own generation" (Acts 13:36), we have to consider what the situation of David's generation was. God's Three Means of Working Among His People: The Priest, The King, The Prophet God worked through three lines in the Old Testament. First of all, God worked through the priesthood. The priests were those who brought people before God and brought God's word to the people. God desired to maintain His testimony with His people through the priesthood. Many times, however, the priests failed, so the Lord had to raise up judges or kings to rule over His people. There were times, however, when neither the priesthood nor the kingship functioned properly. During those times, the Lord raised up prophets. The priesthood was to function to bring His people to Himself, the kingship existed to bring His rule to the people, and the prophets spoke for God directly. Through these three types of servants - priests, kings, and prophets - God operated among His people in the Old Testament. When all three lines were functioning as intended, as they did during the reign of David, the situation among God's people was healthy, and God had His testimony among His people. The Priesthood, Kingship, and Prophethood Today Today, if a local church or even a group of young people desires to be healthy, the same three are needed. First, there needs to be those who are really living before the Lord. If you are a person living in Christ's presence, you will be able to bring others into His presence also. This is what is represented by the priesthood. Genuine priests are those who are able to bring man to God and God to man. If there is a local church that is lacking people who are exercised in prayer, the church life will be weak. Second, there is a need of healthy leadership. There must be some who are able to execute what God desires so that the saints can go forward. This is what is represented by the kingship. The genuine kingship carries forward what God desires. If there is a lack of proper leadership within a local church, then that local church will be "messy" - there will be no clear direction about what should be done, and this may lead to disagreement among the saints. Then, thirdly, the Lord's speaking must be present through those who are able to function as prophets, for apart from the Lord's divine speaking, the saints cannot know the Lord as the living God among them. A locality that lacks some who function as prophets will experience deadness in their gatherings. I am afraid, however, that presently very few among the young people live as priests before God. Few even gather to pray with the other saints at the designated times of prayer. Therefore, they flunk the first matter necessary for a healthy church life. Furthermore, few go to others who would benefit from their care in order to shepherd them. Therefore, they also flunk the second requirement; that of being proper shepherds and leaders. Finally, I am afraid that most also fail regarding the third necessary thing - that of exercising to speak for the Lord. Yet if any local church is short in any of these three categories, the Lord will not be able to operate to the extent He desires. Israel Under The Judges Due to the abnormal situation among the priesthood after the Israelites entered into the promised land, God raised up judges to rule His people. The first three judges - Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar - must have done a pretty good job, for the Bible records very little about them. But when we come to Gideon, the peculiar stories begin. Gideon Gideon began well. He responded to the Lord's call and led his small band of Israelites against the immense army of Midian as the Lord commanded him and gained a great victory for Israel. After this, however, he set up a worship center for an ephod he made, and led Israel to play the harlot after an idol. Samson Everyone admires Samson for his single-handed victories over the Philistines, but eventually he was seduced by a woman and ended up their captive. He did take a great number of them down with him when he pulled down their temple, but when we read his final prayer, we realize that his heart was not set on God's interest; it was set on personal revenge. He should have at least confessed about what a poor judge he had been and besought the Lord to raise up someone to do a better job than he had done! After all, his being captured and his having his eyes put out were consequences of his getting involved with something unrighteous. God, however, didn't have to use Samson to defeat all those Philistines, yet He still honored Samson as His judge just as He had all those twenty years he judged Israel. By considering Samson's reign, we should realize that God doesn't care so much for who is right or wrong. God simply has His ways, and because of this we should be at rest. If God could even use a man such as Samson, we should all feel there is hope. God Not Finding A Man After His Heart, Even Among His Judges My purpose in reviewing the time of the judges, however, is to point out that none of them seemed to exhibit any interest in what was really on God's heart. They were raised up to judge God's people, and did their job, but none of them really asked God about how they should judge, or what would truly please Him. In other words, none of them asked God, "How should I be with Your people? How can I represent You if I do not even know what is in Your heart? Therefore, reveal Your heart to me!" Being Obedient Versus Being According to God's Heart An obedient child does what he thinks he is being asked to do. If his parents have told him that he must study, he studies diligently. His grades even reflect his hard work. But does being a good student truly mean that he is the person after his father's heart? Are his high marks what his father is really after? To be obedient and to be someone who is according to your parents' heart are two different things. It was the same with the judges and God. They were surely trying to serve God the best they could, but not one served God as a person who was after His heart. Christians get involved with many good spiritual things. They may even give their lives to serve God, and become very busy. You cannot say that God is totally not happy with them, just as you cannot say that a parent is not happy with an obedient child. What we must ask ourselves, however, is whether or not the spiritual things we do are really according to God's heart! We can do something that seems so right, and yet it may not be something that is after His heart all. Oh, how we need to see this! Paul tells us that in David God found someone who was after His own heart. He had found someone who could really serve Him in his generation. A few others ruled His people and even did a competent job of it, but this was not really what God was after. You can act according to God's laws and even according to the principles God seems to demand, but if you are not someone who is after His heart, God will not be happy with you, regardless how bold, aggressive, powerful, successful, victorious, or marvelous you are, for the Lord desires someone who cares about what He cares about. What God is really looking at is not how capable you are, but whether or not you are someone who cares about what is in His heart. Therefore, do not worry about how capable you are. And if you feel you are so able, do not proclaim, "I am here, have no fear. I know how to work with this situation." Of course, we should not despise people's ability to handle things. I am afraid that many who are now liable to criticize Samson after what they have read here may spend most of their days totally forgetting the Lord. At least Samson did better than that! It is true, however, that none of the judges, not even Gideon or Samson, thought to seek what was really in God's heart as they labored as the examples God had set over His people. We also may be very busy doing things in the Lord's name, and even at His bidding, but can we say that we do these things as someone who has become charged by seeing what is in His heart? God is not after project leaders; God is after those who would seek Him and act with what He desires in view. The Failure of the Judges, the Priests, and the Prophets The judges carried out their commitment before the Lord, but among them God did not find anyone who was after His own heart. Eventually, the priests failed, the judges failed, and even the prophets failed. That was the situation among the generation David was born to. Eli, the last judge prior to Samuel, was also a priest, yet he seemed to be in some ways as blind spiritually as he became physically. What does the Bible say about this time? It says that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, and visions were not widespread (1 Sam. 3:1). Still, we are told that the lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out (1 Sam. 3:3)! Praise the Lord for this! The situation was not totally hopeless, for there were still shining individuals like Boaz and Ruth, David's grandparents, yet there was little if any of God's speaking among the people. A Picture of David's Generation So what was the condition of Israel at this time? Due to the shortage among the priests, the leaders, and the prophets, the people were in bad shape. When all three of these lines are dysfunctional, the situation among God's people can only go from bad to worse, which is what happened. Not only did the people fall into confusion and immorality, but they even began slaughtering one another within the land. Beginning with Judges chapter 17, we read about a series of events that illustrate how poor the situation had become. A man named Micah had stolen some money from his mother, but returned it to her, so she became so happy that she gave some of it to be made into two idols, which were set up as a kind of worship center in Micah's house. Eventually he even made an ephod (a garment for a priest), first setting up one of his own sons, and then a Levite, to act as priest! Men from the tribe of Dan then came along, stole his idols, and carried off his "priest" to the north country, where they established their own shrine. After this a woman belonging to a Levite was abused and killed by a group of Benjaminites, whereupon the Levite cut her into twelve pieces and sent the pieces throughout all Israel, and all the people gathered together as one man in Mizpeh to find out what this meant. When they heard what the men of Benjamin had done, the tribes of Israel went to war with the entire tribe of Benjamin, for the leaders would not surrender the guilty men for judgment. At first Benjamin defeated the rest of Israel, killing 22,000 and then 18,000 of the Israelites. Eventually, however, the people of Israel asked the Lord as to whether they should continue to fight, and the Lord responded that He would deliver Benjamin into their hands in the next battle, and the Israelites did defeat Benjamin, killing 25,000 of them, burning their cities, and leaving only six hundred alive who managed to escape. All the tribes had suffered in this calamity, but what happened to Benjamin was by far the most disastrous, for the entire tribe had nearly been wiped from the face of the earth. Afterwards the children of Israel sought to find a way to restore Benjamin, for not only had they gone to war with Benjamin, but they had also vowed that none among them would allow their daughters to marry a Benjaminite! Eventually they came up with a "solution": they found that one group of men had not responded to obey the summons to go to war against Benjamin, so they killed all the men and the wives of that city and told the remaining men of Benjamin that they could marry the remaining women from that town. There were not, however, quite enough women for all the men, so they told the remaining two hundred that they could hide in the vineyards during the annual feast at Shiloh and sneak up and steal themselves wives from among the daughters of Israel who came to dance. In this way, if anyone's daughters were taken, they would not be technically breaking their vow! All of this provides us with a good picture of the situation at that time. First of all, we can see how confused the situation was among God's people when it came to the worship of God. Where was the priesthood? How is it that a Levite could function as a priest, and how is it that Jehovah could be worshiped with idols? Furthermore, we can see how violent and immoral the people had become in the land through the account of the Levite and his concubine. Yet what should also strike us in these events is how one tribe could even pray to God about going up against another tribe in battle. God may have given them permission according to what they had asked, but was asking such a thing according to His heart? Was God happy with such intercession? Did He feel, "Yes, hallelujah, tomorrow you may slaughter each other some more"? This was not something that blessed God's existence! Yet how often Christians approach God with prayers like this, rather than with prayers that are after His heart! Having God's Leading Versus Being After God's Heart From this we can see that God's leading and God's heart can be two different things. The Israelites might have felt that God's word gave them assurance that they were doing what God wanted them to do, just as we might feel when we finally receive an answer to something we pray for. Afterwards we may able to say, like the Israelites, "I am only doing what God told me to do!" Yet when we asked, were we asking as someone who was after His heart? You may be able to tell others that the Lord has led you in a certain matter, but those with spiritual understanding will realize that although the Lord indeed may have told you do it, it was not truly something according to His heart. A Dark and Seemingly Hopeless Situation Not one person on the whole earth at that time seemed to have any consideration as to what God really wanted. No one was focused upon God's heart in any of this. At least, however, no one seemed to blame God for anything. Yet we have to wonder why they felt they had to honor their vow not to allow their daughters to marry any of the sons of Benjamin, even after Benjamin fell into such a predicament. Surely they did not know God's heart. It seems they just did whatever they felt bound to do. What kind of people was this that God called His own? Perhaps one might wonder why God would call such a group of senseless people. Yet even in the midst of this era of the judges, God still kept a few names who shined before Him. May the Lord cause us all to realize how much we need to be freed from all the religious things and from all the struggling going on around us to just simply and purely care for the Lord's heart. Everything around us may be dark and seemingly hopeless, but if we can at least remain pure towards God and inquire of Him what He desires, God can yet have a way to gain what He is after. The book of Judges ends with: "And the children of Benjamin did so and took wives, whom they carried off, according to their number from those who danced. And they went and returned to their inheritance, and they rebuilt the cities and dwelt in them. And the children of Israel departed from there at that time, each man to his tribe and to his family…In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:23-25). God's Economy is Blessed Whenever a David is Found So this is our introduction to David. How precious that on the earth, even in the midst of such darkness and confusion, and in spite of his own flaws and weaknesses, there arose a man who realized God was after something, and set himself to seek what it was. Because of the existence of one such person, an entire generation was able to be brought into God's blessing.