For The Sake Of David

Sometimes as parents we have to watch our children spiral out of control. It is a hard thing to see. One of the most frustrating things in life for me is when I know that someone knows the right thing to do and the right way to behave, but they simply refuse to do so. I don’t know if there is many things much worse than having to witness someone we love, someone we have poured life into, turn away from God and live in disobedience to everything that His Word commands, while claiming that they and God are “just fine.” This is so hard because we know it is not just a temporary earthly issue we are facing, but their eternity is at stake.

I can’t sit back in judgment, I have both been the child that spiraled out of control and the parent that has watched a child spiral out of control. I write this today not to judge or condemn or to even offer advice, but simply to share some truth from the Word of God that might be a light shining in someone’s darkness. The light that shines in the darkness is His life because His life is the light of all men (John 1). So beloved parent what we must always be sure to do is to faithfully shine bright.

When we look in the Scriptures it was the faithfulness of Abraham that caused God to bless Jacob even though he was a man of deceit. It was the faithfulness of Abraham that had our Lord God on Jacob as the Hound of Heaven. It was the faithfulness of Abraham that led God to wrestle with Jacob until daybreak and take his hip out of joint. It was the faithfulness of Abraham that allowed God to move on his behalf and change Jacob’s name to Israel and bless him with the blessing of the promise. Jacob was blessed in spite of himself because of the faithfulness of his Grandfather, but it would take him until almost his death bed before he would realize that truth.

In the Scriptures as we read through the lives of the kings of Israel we see time and time again how God did not completely wipe out the lineage of David, no matter how horrible his sons to his great great great grandsons became, simply for the sake of David…

However, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, since He had promised him to give a lamp to him through his sons always. 

2 Kings 8:19

Just do a phrase search on “for the sake of David” and you will see how time and time again God spared what He had every right to destroy simply because of the faithfulness of the one who He used to begin it all. God remained faithful to His promise to David. He remained faithful no matter what the unfaithfulness of man. Our God remains faithful to all His promises.

We also see in the Scriptures that God remained faithful to His promise despite David’s failures. When David repented and returned to the Lord, the Lord simply picked up and carried on His promises right on through the consequences of David’s sin. The consequences of David’s choices remained, but they were not able to defer or detour the purposed work of a sovereign omnipotent holy God.

Abijam became king over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. He walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David. But for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem; because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. 

1 Kings 15:1-5

God never acted like David didn’t mess up. He never pretended that what David did never happened. He even acknowledges it in the lineage of Jesus as He refers to Bathsheba as the wife of Uriah (Matthew 1:6). Yet, David’s sin did not cancel out His previous obedience or the unconditional covenant that God had made with him. David had fallen, but God would only allow him to fall so far for so long. God never loses.

What can we learn this?

As I read through these Scriptures and as I study through the pages in Kings and Chronicles and read of the choices of the kings and queens and prophets and people, I want to learn. I want to learn to remain faithful. I want to learn to not panic when I see others spinning out of control, especially if it’s my own children. I want to know that I know that if I remain faithful to obey my God, if I choose to keep my heart wholly devoted to the Lord… my God will honor that faithfulness. Through choosing to believe what I read in His Word I also have the hope that if and when I stumble and fall, no matter the depth of the season of sin I might step knee deep into, the moment the Holy Spirit of God breaks my stubborn rebellious heart and brings me to my senses, when I repent and return, God remembers His promises to me. He always remembers… not for my sake, but for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ.

He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. (Psalm 23:3)

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; and deliver us and forgive our sins for Your name’s sake. (Psalm 79:9)

Nevertheless He saved them for the sake of His name, that He might make His power known. (Psalm 106:8)

Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death. (John 8:51)

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:27-29)

The bottom line, beloved of God, is that He never lets go.