After God’s Heart (Part 7) (2 Samuel 4:1-3, 5-8)                                                                                                 2009.01.11    Pastor Edward Cheng

What does spiritual maturity look like?  We’ve been studying the life of David, the one person described in Scripture as being “after God’s heart.”  Looking at how he distinguishes himself from others in what he says and does, maybe we can say: this is spiritual maturity.

For some, spiritual maturity is adherence to a set of rules.  But a person can follow a set of rules without anything going on inside the heart.  Even a dog can be trained to obey.  Or, spiritual maturity might be considered as knowledge to be gained.  But nonbelievers can study spiritual doctrine and know a lot about the Bible.

Or perhaps there’s a third way: a person’s spiritual maturity can be gauged by their response to stress.  Being in a good mood when everything is going well shows nothing.  When things are going wrong, a person’s real spiritual maturity emerges in how they respond. 

Turning to 2 Samuel 1:1-16, David’s response to the situation shows spiritual maturity.  For some background since the last part of the study: Saul and Jonathan have died, and another son of Saul, Ish-Bosheth, has been set up as king of the northern part of Israel (called Israel), while southern Israel (called Judah) has crowned David as king.  This leads to a power struggle and a period of war between Israel and Judah.  Now Ish-Bosheth is not really in control of Israel, and his people are not super loyal to him.  In this passage, two of Ish-Bosheth’s soldiers, Recab and Baanah, kill and behead him, and they bring the head to David.

Considering the political situation, a normal reaction would be that this is a good thing.  The kingdom of Israel can now be united, and there can be peace!  David is avenged against Saul and his family! The two killers perhaps expect to be rewarded, or at least to make David happy. Any king would be happy to hear his enemy was destroyed, and would have thanked whoever was responsible.  However, David’s response shows no compromise of his integrity.  Even though Ish-Bosheth was his enemy, and what the men did benefited David, David knows that it was unjust and evil.  Instead of rewarding Recab and Baanah, he has them executed.  Even though so many good things will come to him because of the deed, they don’t justify the evil in what Recab and Baanah did.  He shows us that responding as someone after God’s heart is more than obeying or gaining knowledge. 

It’s easy to find examples of human leaders responding in an evil and unjust way, who compromise themselves, who do evil for their own benefit.  But how quickly would we be willing to do unjust things if there’s a benefit for us, or for our family?  David’s response shows us that doing right far outweighs whatever we may gain otherwise.  He begins by saying in v. 8, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has delivered me out of all trouble…,” the word “trouble” also including the idea of need.  He says to Recab and Baanah, essentially, “Why did you think you had to take matters into your own hands when the God I believe in has delivered me out of every situation?”

 We can see two things about people who are after God’s heart:

(1)People after God’s heart remember the blessing of the Lord.  It’s still a new year, and a good time to think—has God been good to me, in 2008?  Can you remember all the instances in which God delivered you out of your trouble?  It’s a lot more difficult to remember a blessing than to ask for it.  When was the last time you encountered need and got on your knees to ask God to deliver you?  Do you remember to give thanks with the same fervor?

(2)People after God’s heart know it’s foolish to take matters into their own hands.  It’s just not necessary, and moreover it demonstrates a lack of faith in the Lord.  David probably had numerous opportunities to kill or defeat Ish-Bosheth, but instead he trusted that the Lord would deliver in the Lord’s time, knowing how in the past the Lord has saved him out of trouble, so why would He fail him now?  Has the Lord delivered us in the past? Can you think of a moment when He has turned his back on you?  No, He never abandons us.

God has never failed us.  Why try to take matters into our own hands and act unjustly?  When we encounter things this year, how we respond to them speaks about where we are with the Lord.  If God has never disappointed us before, then we know, as surely as the Lord lives, He will deliver us out of all trouble in the future.