Reading through David’s life in 2 Samuel impressed upon me again just how Uninvented it is. Until the early ‘90s, many biblical scholars and assorted critics claimed David never existed because there had been no archaeological confirmation that he did. Archaeology finally confirmed David’s existence, but even though archaeology is the Bible’s best friend and confirms its historicity, we don’t need it to confirm it is indeed historical. The more you study David’s life in the wide scope of redemptive history, the more apparent it becomes sinful human beings could not made it up. One could write an entire book under the rubric of Uninvented on the life of David. That David’s life deserves a book-length treatment means a measly little blog post could never do it justice, but I’ll try.
On the surface David seems an unlikely candidate to be God’s chosen instrument to lead his people Israel. I recently wrote about him being the youngest of eight brothers to be chosen by God, and how counter cultural that was in the ancient world, but what seems more counter intuitive is God proclaiming him a “man after his own heart.” When the Lord rejected Saul as Israel’s first king because he had disobeyed him, through Samuel he said the man he sought would be “a man after his own heart” to be “ruler over his people.” When the Lord told Samuel who the replacement for Saul would be, he told him:
Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.
The Apostle Paul confirms the narrative in the New Covenant context saying:
22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’
23 “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.
But when you read about David’s life, on the surface it’s difficult to see how this adulterous murderer who was a terrible father could be a “man after God’s own heart.” What makes it impossible to make up, to be a story that came out of mere human imagination, is that it goes counter to everything we naturally see as “religious,” as does Christianity properly understood.
Sinful human beings apart from the grace of God see religion as morally attaining the acceptance of God. If we live up to his moral standards, God will accept us, if we don’t, he will reject us. It’s a simple, and intuitive, moral calculation, and it has nothing to do with Christianity. While Christians throughout history have turned Christianity into moralism, that doesn’t make Christianity moralism.
As shocking as this statement will be to most people, Christianity is not about becoming a more moral and better person. Any old religion can do that! Christianity, rather, is about God saving his people from their sins, which is why Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, came to earth, and why he was given his name. If we could gain acceptance before God by being more moral (i.e., by the law), than Jesus came to earth and died for nothing.
It’s only in a gospel context that David’s life and kingship makes any sense at all. As a made-up story, it makes none.
The reason is that if I have moral aspirations to be a better person, David is the last person I would choose. None of us could relate to being a warrior king in the ancient world, but it was necessary for God to establish the nation of Israel in a world where only might made right. But that’s not what makes David impossible to imagine as fiction; it’s his moral failings, and that are massive. I’ll briefly explain what I mean, but when I consider his life, and God declaring him “a man after his own heart,” from a human perspective I can’t wrap my brain around that. It makes absolutely no sense! Rather, you would think God would be embarrassed by the guy. Uh oh, I imagine God saying, I made a big mistake!
The is the story of David and Bathsheba, which every Christian knows, is a great example. It starts out this way.
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.
Hmm, why didn’t David go? We’re not told, but it gave him the opportunity to commit adultery, and then this “man after God’s own heart” has the husband killed to keep it quiet. Nice move. But what indicates to us why God chose David is his response when confronted with what he’s done:
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
No justifying, no dissembling, no escaping responsibility, just acknowledging he has sinned, “against the Lord.” What? Wait a second. Didn’t he in effect rape Bathsheba, and have her husband killed? Didn’t he kinda sin against them? In fact, in Psalm 51, David’s great lament about this series of events, he says:
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Of course David sinned agains Bathsheba and her husband, Uriah the Hittite, but it is only God who makes sin sinful.
Knowing this is why David was “a man after God’s own heart”; he knew salvation from our sin was from God’s mercy and grace alone. He knew we are sinners who can’t save ourselves. That you don’t make up!
The gospel makes absolutely no sense to sinners who are intent on making God accept us based on what we do or don’t do. We, by sinful nature, want God in our debt, not we in his. Christianity is the only religion in the history of the world that introduced mankind to the gospel (good news) of God’s grace, that the only way to have a relationship with our Creator is his completely unmerited favor. That can’t come from mere human imagination, nor King David who proclaims it.
I was going to deal with a couple other issues, but that will have to be in the next post, or two.
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