Acts 13:21-22 (NKJV) 21 And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’
We have been looking at the most important thing that we need in order to walk in God’s possibilities. I am a “Word” man and, to me, the written Word of God is the key to everything. However, without a personal relationship with the God of the bible, we can never really walk in the impossible. We must know the principles of the bible. If we do not have the right relationship with the Lord those powerful principles become impersonal laws that we follow to get what we need from God. That is not what he desires for us.
In looking at this, I was drawn to two biblical figures that typify the difference between walking in the natural and walking in the supernatural. Those two characters are Saul and David.
In today’s scripture, Paul is quoting 1 Samuel 13:14 giving God’s reason for replacing Saul with David. God says very plainly, “I have found a man after my own heart who will do all my will.” David was such a man because of the hours he spent worshiping the Lord while tending his father’s sheep. In those times he found a depth of relationship with God that I do not think any other Old Testament character had. That relationship enabled him to do impossible things.
Saul was the king that the people of Israel cried out for to the prophet Samuel. Samuel told them that it was a mistake to have a natural king. God wanted to be their only King. Nevertheless, the people could not see past the natural. They wanted a king they could see with their eyes. God gave them the kind of king they wanted.
1 Samuel 10:22-24 (NKJV) 22 Therefore they inquired of the LORD further, “Has the man come here yet?” And the LORD answered, “There he is, hidden among the equipment.” 23 So they ran and brought him from there; and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. 24 And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” So all the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!”
Notice the main criterion for why Saul was the best candidate for King. He was head and shoulders taller than anyone else. He did not come forward to serve of his own volition. He was “hiding among the equipment.” He did not believe he had what was necessary to be king. He was right. The people judged him solely by his size and his looks.
As we follow his life we see that he did rule Israel. He did some good things. However, we also see that he repeatedly compromised the Word of the Lord. He failed to take responsibility for his actions and he rarely completely obeyed what God told him to do. This all comes to a head in 1 Samuel 15.
Once again he has partially obeyed God. Instead of destroying all of the enemy, he decided to keep the best of their possessions as a “sacrifice for the Lord.” He leaves the king alive when he was told to kill him. When asked about his disobedience, first he insists that he did obey and then he blames the people. He was king. It was his responsibility. Samuel finally has to tell him that God is replacing him as king.
1 Samuel 15:28-29 (NKJV) 28 So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent.”
In verse 30 we see Saul’s true character.
1 Samuel 15:30 (NKJV) 30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.”
Saul does not care about the will of God. He cares only about how he will look to the people. There is no repentance in Saul’s heart. Worse, he cares not at all for God’s heart. He does not promise to worship his God. Instead he wants Samuel to go back with him so they may worship Samuel’s God. As you follow the rest of Saul’s life you see a descent into jealousy and madness.
God replaces Saul with a king who is his direct opposite. We see how David was chosen in 1 Samuel 16. The first son of Jesse Samuel sees is the oldest, Eliab. Saul looked at him and almost made the same mistake. He declares, “Surely God’s anointed is before him.” Eliab looked the part. However, look at God’s answer.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NKJV) 7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
David was the youngest of his family. Even his own father did not consider it possible that he could be the new king. I am a musician as well as a preacher. I know about musicians. They can be a little different. David was a musician. He spent hours singing songs to no one but the sheep. He was too young, too small and he was a musician not a warrior. Yet it was in the hours he spent before the Lord that he became a man after God’s own heart.
In Acts 13, the Greek word for heart means thoughts, desires and the center of a thing. While David guarded the sheep he also learned how God thought about things. He became more and more in tune with God’s desires. And the Lord became the center of his life and he desired to be in the center of his will. That was the kind of King God wanted for his people.
David was not perfect. He made some major mistakes but the heart he developed as he spent time cultivating relationship with God, stayed with him for his whole life. Saul was still the reigning King of Israel. David had been anointed the next King. We see his heart in the fact that he never lifts a finger to replace Saul. That is in God’s hands. If anything he gives himself to make Saul a success.
Saul rewards David with threats. He eventually drives him from Jerusalem and makes him an outlaw. He is only concerned with himself. He cannot see beyond the natural possibilities. He knows what God has said but he is going to everything in his power to try and keep it from coming to pass.
What a contrast we see in David. He is willing to let God do what he said he would do. His concern is for the heart of God and the good of the people. He has multiple opportunities to kill Saul. It would seem that God has put Saul into his hands and his advisors tell him so. David’s heart will not allow him to go against God’s anointed. Instead he proclaims his loyalty to Saul.
In the end David becomes king in God’s way and in God’s time. His reign is marked by the supernatural possibilities of God working in his life and Israel’s. We will look at some examples tomorrow. Today, let this be our prayer.
“Help me to cultivate the kind of relationship that will make me a man or woman after God’s own heart so that I can see the supernatural possibilities of God in my life and in the lives of those I love. Help me to be like David and forgive me for the times I have been like Saul.”
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