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Sanctus Real We Need Each Other

Scripture
“Once again he Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted. Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his rescue and killed the Philistine. After that, David’s men declared, “You are not going out to battle again! Why should we risk snuffing out the light of Israel?” These four Philistines were descended from the giants of Gath but they were killed by David and his warriors.” (2 Samuel 21:15-17).

Observation
David had started his warrior life with a fight with a giant, and he ended his battle career in a fight with a giant. In some ways the second giant battle was more significant than David’s first. The first showed what kind of a man David was. The second showed what kind of men he had.

Several interesting things happened.

First his cousin Abishai rescued David when he was whooped. There are men, a few men in life, who will fight along side of a leader but it isn’t until a crisis moment that their real value is known. Abishai saved David’s life and such an act of bravery and loyalty is the greatest gift a leader can receive.

Second the leaders around David matured to the point hat it wasn’t necessary for them to have the King leading the charge as a PR stunt. They were made of better stuff. A change had come and they adapted well to that. They would step up to the battle line even if he was not there and still fight as if he were.

Third, because David had the humility to rest on the strength of his loyal leadership team they finished a job that had waited a lifetime to complete. All of Goliath’s brothers were killed. David had selected five smooth stones. One killed Goliath, the rest were intended for his brothers. But it was not David who finished that job. It was his mighty men. The excellence of his leadership was proved not in the battles he fought and won but the loyal leaders who were released to fight and win.

Application

Who can a leader trust? Many at the beginning of the journey swear loyalty. But many wander off to follow their own interests. Others will betray. Some will turn on the leader and become his fiercest enemies. Who can a leader trust? Those who are still fighting for him at the end are the warriors he can trust. I want to be that kind of man.

Prayer

Father, help me to be like Abishai… like one of the men around David who proved faithfulness not with words but in action. Amen.

Scripture
“Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.” Nathan then said to David, “You are the man! Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 12:5-7, 13).

Observation
Nathan used a bunker buster that day in King David’s court.

Bunker busters were one of the stars of the Gulf War. Basically a canon barrel packed with TNT, dropped head first from an airplane, these missiles can pierce bedrock and concrete to knock out an enemy hide out.

Nathan dropped a bunker buster into David’s life that day.

Kingship had encrusted David’s heart with a concrete shell. Underneath the reinforcement, there was still the tender flesh of a poor shepherd boy. But over the years of hardship and significance, David had developed a callous around his tender heart.

This toughened barrier encases us as we grow older and more important too. David had become comfortable with his office. He had worked his way to the top the hard way. He now could delegate to others what he himself once did. He could enjoy the luxuries his hard work had earned him. He could make the rules and bend the rules and no one would ask questions. He was a king without a press corps, how convenient was that! People said nice things about him and believed the best about him and he believed it himself. He had learned the skill of the poker face and the politician’s smile so that few knew what was really happening on the inside.

David was very much like any middle aged successful businessman. Life was complicated and ethics were complex. What is most remarkable is not just that David could keep the whole Uriah and Bathsheba affair under wraps, but that he could keep the guilt from touching his sensitive secret sensors. The highest price of deceiving others is self-deception, for eventually the cost of lying is that we believe our own lies, no longer hear the voice of God or the guilt that can change our heart.

Enter Nathan and the bunker buster. Nathan tells a tear jerking story of an evil villain, a poor family and a pet lamb that the bad guy roasted on his Webber. It was about as infuriating as the thought of making sushi out of Nemo. (Sorry if that is a little too graphic. I’m just trying to help you to grasp how Nathan’s story made David feel.)

David was a shepherd before he was a king. Shepherds in Israel did not primarily raise sheep to eat but for milk and wool. Each member of the flock had names like Fluffy, Curly, Skippy, and so on. The story of a pet lamb on the spit touched something that David had long forgotten.

There is in every human heart a season of time we were tender to the voice of God. For David it was his shepherd days, where he sang songs to the Lord in the open field. For you maybe it was your mother’s prayers at bedtime, or laying under the stars, or that gifted Sunday School teacher, or someplace God spoke to you before you learned how to be so caught up in the cares of life that you became careless.

As one reads the story of David, Bathsheba and Uriah it reads like a police report. “The accused stalked the victim, perpetrated consensual conjugal activity, followed with covert assassination of a military officer through the abuse of political office.” To David the whole Bathsheeba and Uriah affair was like a parking fine. It was no big deal to him. A good lawyer would solve the whole thing.

But Nathan brought in the bunker buster. Before Nathan ever brought the words of accusation he first wanted to expose David’s tender heart. In the same way the Lord will work with us to peel away the leather layers of indifference to reach the days when we said yes to the Lord and then asked where he was taking us.

If Nathan had strutted into the throne room with the evidence, David probably would have found a way to eliminate the prophet. Instead Nathan wisely opened the heart and then gave the judgment. In the same way the Lord works with us. He has a way of peeling back the layers of our insensitivity and helping us to see our adult actions with a child’s heart again. What was grey now looks black and white. The triggers that can open a human heart to repent can seem odd on the surface, but like Nathan’s story they take us back quickly to simple times.

Application
The more complicated life becomes the more simple we need to make the access to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Whenever we feel smug we need to dig down through the layers to expose our heart to the Lord. We don’t need a bunker buster to do the work. In fact we really don’t want a bunker buster. We can be as Jesus called us, to come to him as a little child with a tender conscience. The longer I follow Jesus the more I need to appropriate this word.

Prayer
Father, I offer today to you not just Philip McCallum the man but deep inside the little boy nicknamed Flipper who ran to you as soon as you came to me. Life gets complicated but it is not that complex. It is you, it is me and there is what I’m doing with my life. Keep my heart tender to respond before Nathan shows up at my door. Amen.