In my short stint with Christianity, I have had cause to
review certain Bible characters and place them side by side our current walk
with God as present day Christians. The substance of reading the Bible should
spur us on to learning salient lessons from areas where these heroes of faith
failed. The Bible was written 'for correction, instruction and reproof in
righteousness', as we all know.
David. Woow. The approved of God. The man after God's own
heart. The man people love to make reference to. The divine inspiration behind
the all-important book of Psalms in the Bible. The role model of a lot of
Christians today. That's okay.
But do you want to know my role model? Anyone but David.
I want to bring this to the fore because we have a lot to
learn from the areas he fell short of God's standards. You see, a lot of the
time, we Christians groan and whine from self-inflicted trouble, expecting God
to show His omnipotence and where He doesn't, we go braying like overloaded
donkeys, at how God has failed us and all of that talk. It is true that even
the lawful captives will be delivered, according to the Bible, but also remember the admonition that says we
should suffer persecution, for righteousness, and not for being a busybody in
other men's matters, and such like circumstances.
There are times God chooses to rise for someone's help simply
because there is a divine purpose, or His sovereignty simply wills it that way. It is
NOT a standard. The fact that Jacob was a cheat does not in any way excuse a
Christian cheating in the name of the Lord. I would bring up two instances in
David's life to support my position.
David was what you would call in today's parlance, from the
'streets'. His mother was not loved, and some unconfirmed accounts claimed that
he came as a result of an adulterous affair. Some quarters believe the
statement 'In sin did my mother conceive me' in Psalms 51 was directly
referring to that fact. There was little or no domestication about him. He was
a man of the field. Little wonder he, by the grace of God, was able to defeat
the bear and the lion. But he was still wild in his ways, and it played out in
a lot of ways in his life.
It was time for war, and when kings go to war, he chose to
remain at home, for whatever reason. He saw a woman bathing, while lounging in
his penthouse. Lust took the better of him, and he was hooked. Now, the Bible
says that he inquired after who she was. I believe they must have told him this
girl was related to his razor-sharp counsellor, Ahitophel. But no, he was past
caring at this stage.
He went ahead to bed her, and when she became pregnant, he
made plans to kill her husband and actually did. All this while, Ahitophel was
watching and could do nothing about it.
This was the king we are talking about, who could challenge the king? By
the way, if Ahitopel was David's adviser, they were approximately the same age,
and for Bathsheba to be Ahitophel's granddaughter, David must have been at
least two decades older than Bathsheba. But that is besides the point, if
paedophilia isn't the issue here. After all, towards David's demise, a thirteen
year old virgin was sent to keep him warm. A 13 year old virgin! Why this
dizzying craving for women?
But a time came when Ahitophel would have his pound of
flesh. His son Absalom rebelled, and Ahitophel quickly jumped ship. Imagine
what would have happened had God decided not to answer David's plea for his
counsel not to be taken.
This obsession with the female specie was to play out in his
son Solomon, who held the world record at the time for sampling vanity and
being the 'big god' to one thousand women in his lifetime. Haba!
Another occasion worthy of mention was the encounter with
Nabal. Now the Bible described Nabal as churlish, rude and uncouth. But let us
examine objectively, and with Christian, peaceful mindset, what went down between
the both of them.
Nabal’s shepherds were herding sheep around the area where
David and his men were camped. After the day’s job, they left, only for David’s
soldiers to come to Nabal to demand sheep. Nabal, in a fit of rage, answered
them roughly, and David took up arms immediately to charge towards him, but was
accosted by his wife along the line.
The question is, what right had David to demand sheep from
Nabal? Absolutely none. There was no contractual agreement that David should
offer his men protection in exchange for sheep. So, what was the basis of David’s
anger at his refusal to avail them of his livestock, to the point of wanting to
kill him? Absolutely none. To tie maters up, the minute Nabal dropped dead,
boom! Abigail became his wife instantly.
Some of the things that happened to David were self
inflicted, others were just circumstantial, and the book of Psalms is full of
David’s cries for deliverance. Is it little wonder then that God refused him the
honour of building Him a temple, on account
of his stained hands?
There are a lot of lessons we can draw from this shining
light of God, in the person of David. Where applicable, and as much as possible, let us refrain from
doing evil and feeding our deadly cravings.
