Moses
God had created humanity to worship him, but they rebelled against Him and became evil and wicked. Things got so bad that there was only one godly family left on the whole earth who still honored Him. So God sent a flood to destroy all of mankind except for Noah and his family. Once they had been spared from the flood, they began to fulfill the original commission to populate the earth. As time passed, mankind started to decline again. God still yearned for people to worship and honor and serve him. So He called Abraham apart from the others to be His servant. Even though Abraham was childless at the time, God promised to make a mighty nation out of him. Abraham had a son, Isaac, who in turn had a son Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes of Israel. Near the end of his life, there was a terrible famine and the entire family relocated to Egypt to survive.
Four hundred years passed, and they continued to be fruitful and multiply and became a very massive people group. Everyone in Egyptian government who had been favorably predisposed towards the Israelites died off. And the leadership of their time was afraid the would become a political threat. So they were put into bondage, as slaves, and were horribly oppressed. And they began to cry out to God to deliver them.
God heard and answered their cry for His help. In addition to delivering them from Egyptian oppression and captivity, He also set up a form of government with them, where He was their ruler. God passed down His edicts and decrees through special prophets who could hear Him clearly and tell the people what He said. The first of His chosen leaders was Moses, who taught them how to live in relationship with God and gave them the Law (guidelines of how to live and worship). His second leader was Joshua, who brought Israel into their promised land. After Joshua, God ruled through a series of judges and then through His priests. Some of them were very godly and faithfully represented God. But others were self-serving and oppressive.
The last of them was Samuel, also a prophet, who had been dedicated to the Lord at his birth and grew up in the temple, mentored by Eli, the high priest. Things were OK until Samuel grew up and had sons and gave them a bit of governmental authority. His sons were unruly and unjust, and the people began to cry out for God to give them a different form of government. They wanted to be ruled by a king instead of by the priests and prophets -- e.g., ruled by man instead of by God. So God honored their request. First He gave them a king that met their criteria (Saul). That did not work out well. Then He gave them one that met His criteria (David).
We will look at the period of history where God directly governed His people. This lesson will start with Moses, God's first representative.
Moses
The bible devotes four books of the Old Testament to Moses' life. There is so much more than we could possibly cover in a lesson, so we will just look at the highlights and skim over a lot of events in his life.
Moses was born in a time when Pharaoh had ordered for all Jewish baby boys to be killed at birth. His mother recognized that he was an exceptional child and hid him for several months. But it became impossible to keep hiding him, so she half-obeyed the decree to throw the baby boys in the river -- she build a little boat and put him in it and laid the boat in the reeds. His older sister kept watch over the boat and Pharaoh's daughter came there to bath and found baby Moses and adopted him. Miriam, Moses' sister, offered to get a Hebrew woman to nurse the child until he was weaned, so Moses' mother ended up being paid to nurse her own son! (Isn't God amazing!)
Moses grew up as a prince of Egypt. But he also had a sense of identity as a Jew and perhaps a sense that he would be their deliverer. He went out incognito among the Jews and found an Egyptian abusing a Jew. So he murdered the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Shortly after that, he found two Jews fighting. When he tried to intervene, the one in the wrong asked Moses if he planned to murder him like he murdered the Egyptian. Moses realized that the murder was not a secret, so he fled for his life across the desert. When Pharaoh heard about it, he wanted Moses dead, so it was a wise thing that he'd left the country.
Moses connected up with Jethro, who was a priest to God and a shepherd. Moses married one of Jethro's daughters and became a shepherd taking care of Jethro's flocks. We can assume that Jethro and his daughters taught Moses about God. A substantial amount of time passed. Then one day Moses was out on the mountain with the herd, and he saw an interesting sight, a bush that was burning but was not consumed. He approached it for a closer look, and an angel called out to him from the fire. First the angel told him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground. Then the angel commissioned him the one to deliver Israel from bondage. And Moses did not want the job! He kept trying to explain to God why he was not qualified for it and to offer excuses of why he could not do it. He was so reluctant that God got frustrated with him, but He did not release him from the commission.
So Moses finally accepted God's commission, got a release from his father-in-law, and set off for Egypt. An angel appeared to him en route and "tried" to kill him (I am convinced the angel would have succeeded if it was really trying) because his son was uncircumcised. So his wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She was pretty angry about the whole thing and told Moses off. The family continued to Egypt. Aaron, Moses' older brother, went out to the desert to meet him and Moses filled him in on God's plan to deliver his people. Moses was a stutterer and so Aaron became his spokesperson to Pharaoh. (This was not the same Pharaoh who sentenced Moses to death for killing the Egyptian.)
Moses delivered God's message to let his people go into the wilderness to worship him, and Pharaoh refused. Moses did a few signs and wonders to show God had really sent him but Pharaoh's magicians imitated the signs: such as his staff turning into a snake when he dropped it on the ground. So God began a power encounter with Pharaoh and the Egyptian "gods" through a series of 10 plagues. Each plague was designed to show God's power over one of the Egyptian gods. The tenth and final plague was the Passover, where God sent an angel to slay the first-born child in every household in Egypt. However, the angel was instructed to pass over (or not kill) the homes with lamb's blood on the doorposts.
After that plague, Pharaoh let the Jews go. But he had a change of heart and sent an army after them to kill them and/or bring them back into captivity as slaves. The children of Israel were terrified and began complaining that God had led them out of Egypt to kill them off. However, He divided the Red Sea, and the Israelites escaped through it, walking through the water on dry land with the water towering above them on both sides but never closing in on them. The Egyptian soldiers followed the Israelites into the Red Sea. Once the last Israelite had crossed over safely, God closed the waters over the soldiers, drowning all of them and delivering His people from their enemies.
In addition to the miraculous deliverance, God Himself led His people as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He miraculously provided food and water for them, as well as keeping their shoes and clothes from wearing out. Despite all of these incredible and supernatural manifestations, the people were constant complainers and mutterers. Every time something did not go smoothly, they accused God of trying to kill them.
At one point, God invited them into a covenant with Him to become His people and He would be their God. The people discussed it and decided to take God up on His offer. God had them spend three days sanctifying themselves and then He appeared to them to ratify this covenant. It was a very dramatic and scary appearance when His presence and glory settled over Mount Sinai, complete with thunder and lightening and thick smoke, and God spoke to them in an audible voice, so loud that every man and woman and child in Israel could hear what He said. The people became terrified and asked Moses to tell God not to appear like that anymore. They did not want God speaking directly to them because they were afraid that they would die. So they asked Moses to hear from God on their behalf and then tell them what He said and they would obey Him. That is how we ended up with the concept of prophets -- people who speak for God. If the people of Israel had not made this request, God would probably still speak directly and audibly to each one of His people and there would have never been any need for prophets.
I suspect it saddened God's heart, but He honored their request. He had Moses come up on the mountain (while His manifest presence and glory was still inhabiting it) to give him the ten commandments and the law. He came back down and told the people what God said and they all agreed to keep the covenant with God and be His people and obey Him.
A week later, God called Moses up to the mountain a second time, so that He could write the law and commandments on tablets of stone. This time Moses was gone for 40 day, while God expanded the law for him in greater detail, including detailed instructions on how to build a tabernacle for God.
Do you remember that the people who had just entered into a covenant with God to worship only Him and be His people? They got restless because Moses was on the mountain so long. Their thinking was that God must have killed Moses since he'd not come down in over a month. So they asked Aaron to make a new God for them to lead them safely back to Egypt. I find it hard to understand their thinking. They had just entered into a covenant with God about six or seven weeks before, complete with all sorts of supernatural manifestations and terrifying demonstrations of God's presence. And Mount Sinai was still covered with the fire and thick smoke that indicated God's presence.
I can't imagine what possessed them to decide to change gods while God's manifest presence was still in their midst. None the less, Aaron made the idol, a golden calf, for them and they began to worship it and had a wild party in honor of their new God. God told Moses what was going on and sent him down the mountain back to the camp.
Moses knew that God was furious and wanted to destroy the entire nation. So he tried to appease God by having the Levites (who apparently had not worshipped the idol) go through the camp killing people by sword. They killed over 3,000 people in a single night. That was not enough to appease God. He sent a plague among the people and many more died.
The children of Israel continued to be very difficult. They were quick to whine and complain and they were not very good at obeying God. God brought them to the border of the promised land and then sent spies into the land. They decided the people who lived there were too mighty for them to battle, so they refused to go possess their promised land. This angered God one time too many, and He decreed that they would wander around the dessert until they died of old age, and then God would take their children in to possess the promised land.
Moses, however, developed a very deep and intimate friendship with God. He pitched a tend of meeting some distance from camp and would go there to inquire of God -- e.g., to ask Him how He wanted things managed. God's tangible presence would come on the tent when Moses went in it, and when he came out of it, his face would literally glow with God's glory. Moses had many other incredible encounters with God, meeting with Him face to face. When people rose up to challenge Moses' authority, Moses never defended himself. Instead, God defended him.
All the same, God held Moses to very high standards of obedience. When the people who left Egypt died off, it became time to enter the promised land. God would not allow Moses to enter the promised land with them because of one time when he lost his temper with the children of Israel while representing God to them. (That was when he struck the rock three times for water instead of doing it the way God had commanded him to do it.)
God had Moses review the law with the second generation who He was about to bring into the promised land. Then he passed leadership to Joshua. Moses was instructed to go up to the top of Mount Nebo to meet with God and die. He was obedient and when he got to the top of the mountain, God showed him all of the land that He was going to give to the children of Israel. Then God killed Moses and buried him.
The bible does not tell us how Moses died, but I like to think that he died by being allowed to see God's face. God had told him in Ex 33:20 "You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live." So I like to think that the way Moses died was by finally being allowed to see God's face and then going to heaven to be with Him forever.
Joshua and the Judges
God created the earth, and humanity (left to their own devices) became evil and had to be destroyed. God spared one godly man and his family and from them the earth was re-populated. As the population began to increase, God selected and nurtured a special people group to be His people and to worship Him. He started with a single family and for the first several generations, the family was governed by the family patriarch. But they eventually grew into a massive people group. As the population increased, it became necessary for God to set up various prophets and judges to lead and rule His people.
The first leader that God raised up was Moses. We already looked at Moses' life in the last lesson. This lesson we will look at Joshua, and then at the various judges. The next lesson will look at Samuel, Saul and David.
Joshua
Moses was a prophet God raised up from scratch to lead His people. But Joshua's story is quite different. Joshua was trained and groomed for leadership from his youth by Moses.
One of the first accounts of Joshua was as a military commander for Israelite forces. God had recently delivered them from the Egyptians. Then He brought them into the desert. Shortly after that, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Joshua was Moses' assistant. So Moses instructed him to choose some men and go fight the Amalekites. Joshua and the men he chose were not trained as soldiers -- they had been slaves and brick makers. None the less, Joshua did as Moses asked. This was the battle where God empowered the Israelites to win as long as Moses held up his hands. Even though none of these men had ever fought in a battle before, God gave them a tremendous victory.
The next account of Joshua is in Exodus 24, when God told Moses to come up on the mountain to ratify the covenant that Israel was making to be set apart as His people. First Moses did a short trip with 70 of the elders going part way up with him and standing before God at a distance. Moses came back down with God's covenant and then God instructed him to go back up for what turned out to be 40 days. On this second trip up, Moses took Joshua as his aid. They went part way up the mountain and set up a base camp just below the glory cloud that covered the mountain. After 7 days, God called to Moses and invited him into the glory cloud. The bible does not say it explicitly, but it is assumed that Joshua stayed at the base camp, and Moses when up alone. (It is possible that Joshua actually went up into the glory cloud with Moses.)
There is another account of Joshua, while he was still being mentored by Moses in Exodus 33. Moses had set up a "tent of meeting" where people could go to inquire of God. When Moses went to the tent to meet with God, God's glory cloud would descend on it and all of the people would worship God because of the glory cloud at the tent entrance. Ex 33:11 says, "The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent." In other words, Joshua had gone into full time ministry and was continually seeking God and ministering to those who came to inquire of God.
When it came time to send the 12 spies into the promised land, Joshua was one of two who brought back a good report. The other ten convinced the people to rebel against God and earned them a 40 year exile in the desert.
Joshua served as Moses' assistant for forty years, and Moses trained and mentored him in the things of God during this time. When it came time for Moses to die, he was the one that God selected as the next leader of Israel. He was commanded to lead the people into the promised land and to fight and take the land. Just before Moses died, the Lord promised Joshua, "Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land I promised them on oath, and I myself will be with you" (Deut 31:23). Just after Moses died, God told Joshua, "Moses My servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them-to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses ... No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Jos 1:2-5).
Joshua's response to God was, "Whatever You have commanded us we will do, and wherever You send us we will go" (Jos 1:16). Joshua was able to respond to God in faith and obedience because of the training and experience he had already had with God.
The book of Joshua details the various battles they fought and won, and how God empowered them to possess the promised land.
Various Judges
God brought His people into the promised land and they settled there. At first they were faithful to worship Him, but as time progressed, they began to decay spiritually. The nation of Israel went through the same pattern over and over. They would start out committed to God and under his blessings. As they prospered, they put their own agendas over God's and they backslid and fell into idolatry and worshipped other gods. Then God sent judgment and they were besieged, oppressed or taken into captivity. They would repent and cry out to God and He would raise up a judge to deliver them. Then the whole cycle would repeat.
We learn many things from these various judges. Let's briefly examine three of them:
DEBORAH
Deborah was a prophetess who lived while the nation of Israel had been in captivity by the Canaanite king Jabin for about 20 years. Deborah served as a judge -- she held court outdoors under a palm tree and many different Israelites came to her to have their disputes settled. In addition to being a judge, Deborah was a wife (married to Lappidoth) and probably a mother as well. In her role as prophetess, she relayed a message from God to Barak with military instructions to defeat the oppressing king in battle. Barak obeyed the Lord's command and defeated Jabin, winning a deliverance for Israel. However, Barak respected Deborah so much that he would not go into battle unless she went with him. The land, under Deborah's rule, had peace for 40 years after they defeated Jabin.
From Deborah, we learn that God uses women as leaders, not just men. She was a prophetess, so she served as a spiritual leader. In addition, she was a judge, so she served as a political leader. Deborah's life and ministry demonstrate that God's criteria for His leaders is not their sex -- it is their heart after Him and willingness to obey and honor Him.
GIDEON
After Deborah died, the Israelites fell back into spiritual depravity and God allowed the Midianites to conquer them and oppress them for seven years. The people repented and cried out to God for help. So God raised up a judge and leader to set them free. He choose a very unlikely candidate, Gideon. Gideon was a poor farmer's son, coming from an uninfluential family. And Gideon was not a brave man and he needed a lot of confirmations and reassurances from God to obey what God told him to do. For instance, God told Gideon to tear down his father's altar to Baal and build a proper altar to God. Gideon did obey God, but he did it secretly at night, so no one would know who did it.
God used this timid man to raise up an army and defeat the vast military forces that oppressed Israel. Gideon should serve as a big encouragement to us -- God uses every-day people who are not greatly gifted in the natural. He uses people who are not great men/women of faith -- providing they are obedient. This gives people like you and I hope that as we make ourselves available to God and commit to obey Him and do things His way, He will use us to do real kingdom work with Him.
We learn another interesting lesson from Gideon. He raised up an army to fight the enemy army, then God told him he had too many men. So Gideon sent home those who were afraid and he had 22,000 men left. Then God said that is still too many men, and he sent home all but 300 men -- and this was to face a very vast and well-equipped army. God used this tiny band of 300 to defeat the massive army. From this we learn that it is not by our might or power, but by God's. We do not need massive amounts of resources when God gives us a task to do for Him. He is able to work with what we have and empower us to do the job.
SAMSON
Samson was a Nazirite, set apart for God from birth. He was never to cut his hair, because his uncut hair was a sign of the covenant he had with God. Samson had a supernatural strength, and he fought and defeated a lot of Philistine oppressors. For instance, one time he grabbed a donkey's jawbone and used it to slay 1000 Philistine soldiers who attacked him. Samson was not a particularly godly man, he even slept with Philistine prostitutes. He was motivated for many wrong reasons. But as long as he kept his Nazirite covenant with God, God was with him and empowered him.
Later on Samson fell in love with a Philistine beauty named Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines asked her to find out the secret of Samson's strength so they could disable him. He was ruled by his hormones, not by his intellect, and she used her feminine whiles to manipulate him. So he eventually told her about the restriction not to shave his head. She shaved his hair off while he was sleeping, and God's anointing lifted off of him. He was taken captive by the Philistines, imprisoned and they even gorged out his eyes. But his hair began to grow back. Some time later, they had a festive celebration to their god Dagon and they brought Samson out of prison to entertain them. They tied him between the two supporting pillars of Dagon's temple. Samson prayed for God to hear him and empower him one more time, and the supernatural strength returned. Samson pushed against the supporting pillars and knocked the temple down, killing himself and many many Philistines.
We learn the importance of keeping our covenants with God from Samson's story. God forgave his weaknesses and even his improper motives. But when Samuel entered into willful disobedience in allowing his hair to be shaved off, God withdrew his anointing. It is very important that we do not choose to willfully disobey any restrictions God puts on us, or He may lift His anointing off of us. Willful disobedience is a very bad thing.
Samuel, Saul and David
God created the earth, and humanity (left to their own devices) became evil and had to be destroyed. God spared one godly man and his family and from them the earth was re-populated. As the population began to increase, God selected and nurtured a special people group to be His people and to worship Him. He started with a single family and for the first several generations, the family was governed by their patriarchs.
When the children of Israel grew into a massive people group, God began to appoint human leaders as His representatives as God governed His people. He started with Moses and Joshua, then went to a series of judges. After that, the leadership job fell to the priests and prophets, and leadership was passed down through bloodlines from generation to generation. Some of them were godly and great leaders. But some of them were not very good stewards of God's people -- some were self- serving and wicked.
Samuel
Samuel's mother was barren and she desperately wanted a son. She told God that if He gave her one, she would give the boy back to God to serve Him. Shortly after that she got pregnant and had Samuel. True to her word, as soon as the child was weaned, she presented him to Eli the high priest. (God allowed her to have other children after that).
Samuel grew up in the temple, raised by Eli the high priest. Eli was a good high priest and leader of the people. But he had a character flaw in how he raised his children -- he did not do a very good job of disciplining them or holding them accountable for ungodly behavior. The sons worked in the temple as priests, and they were very self serving and ungodly. They treated offerings to God with contempt. God eventually judged and killed Eli's sons for their behavior. But this was the example of fatherhood that Samuel grew up with.
Samuel himself was a godly boy and likeable boy, and God was pleased with him. God called to Samuel while he slept in the temple. Samuel did not know it was God calling him, so he went to Eli. This happened a few times and then Eli realized that God was calling the boy, and he instructed Samuel on how to respond to God. Then God spoke to Samuel and gave him a prophecy about how he was going to kill Eli's sons for their sins and kill Eli for failing to restrain them. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli what God had said, but Eli insisted. God's judgment did not fall immediately and Eli continued to train Samuel. During that time, Samuel began moving strongly as a prophet and was recognized as one by the people, even though he was very young.
When God carried out his judgment against Eli and his sons, Samuel became the high priest and leader of the Israelites. The Philistines came to attack them, and Samuel prayed and interceded and God gave them a tremendous military victory. Samuel continued to lead and judge Israel until he got old. Then he set his sons as judges over Israel. But his sons had been raised by the same model as Eli's sons, and they were ungodly and unjust and Samuel was unable to restrain them.
The people became very upset by this and asked Samuel to give them a king to lead them, like other nations have. Samuel was very upset by their request and he cried out to God. God told Samuel that they were rejecting Him, not rejecting Samuel. The people wanted to rule themselves instead of being ruled by God. Samuel tried to warn them of the dangers of having kings instead of God as their ruler. But they insisted. So God told him to give them what they asked for.
Saul
The man God chose for the job was Saul. He definitely looked the part. He was tall, handsome and very impressive looking. First Samuel anointed Saul as king by pouring oil over his head and prophesying to him. Then God anointed Saul as king by putting the Holy Spirit on him and allowing him to prophecy with a group of prophets. God even changed Saul's heart to give him a desire to be a good king. After that, Samuel presented Saul to the people as their new king. They immediately judged him by outward appearance and felt he would be a good king because he stood a head taller than anyone else in the kingdom.
Saul started out well. The Ammonites besieged one of the Jewish cities, called Jabesh. So the elders of the city tried to make a treaty with the Ammonites. But the Ammonites insisted on one incredibly unreasonable term -- that they gouge out the right eye of every man, woman and child in the city. So the residents of Jahesh put out a plea for help through all of Israel. Saul rose up in God's anointing and power and mustered an army of 300,000 and slaughtered the Ammonites. Saul was confirmed as king immediately after that.
Immediately after that, Samuel gave a farewell speech and resigned from political leadership. However he did continue to function as a prophet and a priest.
Saul reigned for 42 years. He drafted an army of 3,000 to serve as his personal guards and as a national guard. Then he got into a conflict with the Philistines, whose army was much larger than Saul's. Saul asked Samuel to come do a sacrifice and ask God to fight on their behalf. When Samuel was a bit delayed in arriving, Saul offered the sacrifice himself. Samuel arrived as Saul was finishing the offering and rebuked him. Saul tried to make himself more than God had made him. He tried to be a spiritual leader as well as a political leader, but God had not appointed him as a spiritual leader. Samuel warned him that his kingdom would not endure because he did not have a heart to obey God. Nonetheless, God did help him with his battles with the Philistines, but did not empower him to completely defeat them. There were constant battles and skirmishes.
Jonathan was Saul's son and had more faith and more of a heart for God than his father did. God responded to his faith by making him a very mighty warrior. In fact, Jonathan and his armor bearer were key in winning an important battle against the Philistines.
With the Philistines out of the picture for a while, God instructed Saul to punish the Amalekites for attacking Israel when they came out of Egypt. Saul had very specific instructions: total annihilation. He was instructed to kill all the people -- men, women and children, and also destroy all their livestock -- cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys. Saul fought and defeated the Amalekites as God had commanded. But he did not kill their king and he did not kill most of the livestock. Samuel met him and prophetically rebuked him for his disobedience, telling him "Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king" (1 Sam 15:23). Saul had become pretty "full of himself" by this time, and he had just built a monument to himself. When Samuel pronounced judgment on him, he was more concerned with outward appearances than with pleasing God. He asked Samuel to accompany him back for a worship celebration with the nation's elders. Samuel complied, but after that, Saul never saw him again.
At that point, God's spirit left Saul and he became demonized. He would go into a terrible state when the demons tormented him, and his advisors hired David to play the harp to sooth Saul when he had these attacks. At first Saul liked David a lot, but over time he became demonically jealous of him and wanted to kill him.
David
God sent Samuel to anoint David as king shortly after He rejected Saul. However, there was a long period of time between when David was anointed and when he actually became king. In fact, he served as Saul's harp player shortly after he was anointed king.
The Philistines massed to attack Judah and Saul went to war with them. David did not accompany Saul to the battle -- he returned home. After a while his father sent him to the front lines to bring some supplies to his older brothers, who were soldiers. While he was there, he heard Goliath, a giant over 9 feet tall, challenge Saul's army. David was not old enough to fight as a soldier in the army, but he was angry at Goliath's challenge and at the fact that no soldier would take the challenge. So he offered to fight him. He told Saul how God had delivered a lion and a bear into his hands when he defended his flock. So Saul agreed to let him try.
David went out to meet Goliath with only a slingshot. Goliath was insulted that the Israelites sent a boy to fight him and scoffed at David. David's reply was "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty ... this day the Lord will hand you over to me ... And the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands" (1 Sam 17:45-47). God did precisely what David predicted. David shot the giant in the head with the slingshot and killed him. Then David cut off his head and the Philistines ran away Saul's army chased them and killed many of them.
After that, David and Jonathan became best friends, and David joined the army. God was with David and made him a very successful soldier, even better than Saul was. Saul got jealous of David because of this. But since David was so popular, he decided to make him a political ally and gave him his daughter to marry. Over time, Saul's jealousy got worse and he tried to kill David multiple times. David was forced to flee for his life, and Saul pursued him on a few occasions.
While Saul had no regard for God's wishes or his anointing, David had a tremendous regard for it. One time when Saul was chasing David, he slept in the very cave that David and his men were hiding in. David's men urged David to kill Saul while he slept. But David refused, saying he would not slay the Lord's anointed. Saul was self-promoting, but David allowed God to promote him. Saul and Jonathan were eventually killed in a battle and David was made king over Judah. It took longer for him to be king over Israel because the officials from Saul's regime set up one of Saul's sons as king and there was a power-struggle type war that lasted seven and a half years to see who would become king. David finally won.
David became king of Judah at age 40 and king of all Israel at age 47. David was a strong military leader, who fought and won a lot of battles. He was also a prophetic minstrel and had a heart for God -- so much so that God called David "A man after My own heart." But David was not a very good father. He had a short stretch when he lusted after and took another man's wife and got her pregnant. Then he had the man murdered to cover his indiscretion and married the widow. God sent a prophet to rebuke David and he repented and was forgiven. However, the baby died and he was cursed with "a sword in his own household. There were an amazing amount of family tensions, including one of his sons raping his sister and another of his sons raising up in rebellion against him to try and overthrow him.
David had it in his heart to build a temple to God, but God would not allow him to do so because he was "a bloody man" -- e.g., he had killed a lot of people. So David amassed the building materials for the temple and instructed his son and heir to build the temple. David was a good king who had a heart after God and ruled His people well. He did make some mistakes as a ruler, such as the time when he took a census and angered God and God sent a plague to kill many in Israel. David realized his mistake and threw himself on God's mercy and pleaded for the nation and God relented and stopped the plague.
When David was very old, he made Solomon king as his successor. Then David charged Solomon to be a godly king, and to build the temple and to always honor and obey God.
David and Saul make for an interesting contrast. Saul embodied man's criteria and standards, and David embodied God's. We find that the people who look like the most qualified candidates for leadership often are not the best ones. The biggest criteria is not one's appearance or skills or credentials, but their heart after God and their commitment to obey Him.
[Previous Article] [Next Article]