occasional flesh flashes where we do some severely wrong things.
Once David was reproved, the way he responded to his sin by both his attitude and actions, revealed God’s heart. In our church world today, I think we’re too judgmental of people’s actions. We need to take them into account. We can’t just separate a person from their actions, because actions are an indication of what’s inside a person. But there’s more to it than that. It’s a heart issue.
Comparative Morality
There’s no record in Scripture of Saul ever committing adultery. He was never reproved over sexual immorality of any kind. It’s possible that there could have been some of this type of sin in his life, but if there was any, it wasn’t an issue. And it certainly wasn’t why God rejected him.
Before Absalom rebelled against David, there is no record in Scripture of him committing any sexual sin. As a matter of fact, he was quite offended by the rape of his sister Tamar, who was raped by their mutual half-brother Amnon. Absalom was so incensed over this that he took Tamar into his own house and raised her. He even had a daughter whom he named Tamar, apparently in honor of his sister. Ultimately, Absalom murdered Amnon for what he had done to Tamar. By the way Absalom responded to the sexual abuse of his sister, we can deduce that he certainly held high moral standards, at least in respect to treatment of his sister.
So out of these three kings—Saul, David, and Absalom—David is the only one recorded in Scripture as having committed adultery (though as part of Absalom’s rebellion against his father, he did commit adultery with David’s wives in public). David took another man’s wife and then had her husband killed. So in a sense, Saul and Absalom were more moral than David in many ways.
That’s a relative statement, however, because Saul killed all but one of the sons of a priest—eighty-five men in total (1 Samuel 22:11-21). That was out and out murder! These men were ministers. They were unarmed. Even though I disagree with his conclusion, Saul reasoned that they had committed treason. So you could look at Saul’s actions as the rightful execution of a group of people who were plotting treason. This was not the case in actuality, but in Saul’s deranged frame of mind brought on by his insecurities, I believe Saul justified it as such. What he did wasn’t right, but it wasn’t any worse than what David did when he had Uriah killed to try to cover up his sin with Bathsheba.
Absalom murdered his half-brother Amnon because he had raped his sister Tamar. Although this could be viewed as justice or revenge, it doesn’t justify what Absalom did.
As far as actions are concerned, David wasn’t any better than Saul or Absalom. Therefore, we can conclude that it’s not just our actions that reveal whether or not we have a heart after God. It must go deeper than that.
Consider the Heart
What really set David apart was the attitude of his heart. Integrity begins with an attitude. It doesn’t end with it, and that’s not all there is to it, but it has to go that deep. David had failures just the same as Saul and Absalom. In some ways, his failures were even worse. But the Word still calls him a man after God’s own heart.
Today we tend to judge people only by their actions without looking beyond to their heart. Actions are important, but people are more than just physical bodies who act. There are emotional and spiritual parts on the inside of us that drive us to do things. We have to take that into account as well.
I’ve had certain employees who just had a bad attitude. Their hearts, not just their actions, were wrong. Because of that, they didn’t give me a good day’s work. They talked about me behind my back and sowed discord among the other employees. When I see behavior such as that, I’ll consider their actions but I’ll also go beyond and look at their heart. I’ll ask, “Are they vindictive or malicious in
Once David was reproved, the way he responded to his sin by both his attitude and actions, revealed God’s heart. In our church world today, I think we’re too judgmental of people’s actions. We need to take them into account. We can’t just separate a person from their actions, because actions are an indication of what’s inside a person. But there’s more to it than that. It’s a heart issue.
Comparative Morality
There’s no record in Scripture of Saul ever committing adultery. He was never reproved over sexual immorality of any kind. It’s possible that there could have been some of this type of sin in his life, but if there was any, it wasn’t an issue. And it certainly wasn’t why God rejected him.
Before Absalom rebelled against David, there is no record in Scripture of him committing any sexual sin. As a matter of fact, he was quite offended by the rape of his sister Tamar, who was raped by their mutual half-brother Amnon. Absalom was so incensed over this that he took Tamar into his own house and raised her. He even had a daughter whom he named Tamar, apparently in honor of his sister. Ultimately, Absalom murdered Amnon for what he had done to Tamar. By the way Absalom responded to the sexual abuse of his sister, we can deduce that he certainly held high moral standards, at least in respect to treatment of his sister.
So out of these three kings—Saul, David, and Absalom—David is the only one recorded in Scripture as having committed adultery (though as part of Absalom’s rebellion against his father, he did commit adultery with David’s wives in public). David took another man’s wife and then had her husband killed. So in a sense, Saul and Absalom were more moral than David in many ways.
That’s a relative statement, however, because Saul killed all but one of the sons of a priest—eighty-five men in total (1 Samuel 22:11-21). That was out and out murder! These men were ministers. They were unarmed. Even though I disagree with his conclusion, Saul reasoned that they had committed treason. So you could look at Saul’s actions as the rightful execution of a group of people who were plotting treason. This was not the case in actuality, but in Saul’s deranged frame of mind brought on by his insecurities, I believe Saul justified it as such. What he did wasn’t right, but it wasn’t any worse than what David did when he had Uriah killed to try to cover up his sin with Bathsheba.
Absalom murdered his half-brother Amnon because he had raped his sister Tamar. Although this could be viewed as justice or revenge, it doesn’t justify what Absalom did.
As far as actions are concerned, David wasn’t any better than Saul or Absalom. Therefore, we can conclude that it’s not just our actions that reveal whether or not we have a heart after God. It must go deeper than that.
Consider the Heart
What really set David apart was the attitude of his heart. Integrity begins with an attitude. It doesn’t end with it, and that’s not all there is to it, but it has to go that deep. David had failures just the same as Saul and Absalom. In some ways, his failures were even worse. But the Word still calls him a man after God’s own heart.
Today we tend to judge people only by their actions without looking beyond to their heart. Actions are important, but people are more than just physical bodies who act. There are emotional and spiritual parts on the inside of us that drive us to do things. We have to take that into account as well.
I’ve had certain employees who just had a bad attitude. Their hearts, not just their actions, were wrong. Because of that, they didn’t give me a good day’s work. They talked about me behind my back and sowed discord among the other employees. When I see behavior such as that, I’ll consider their actions but I’ll also go beyond and look at their heart. I’ll ask, “Are they vindictive or malicious in
Similar Books
