December 18th: A Good King

2 Samuel 5:1-4

David Becomes King Over Israel

5 All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, while Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’”

3 When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, the king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. 5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.

David was born a shepherd.  He came from a family of farmers and herders and yet he had the heart of King.   What does it mean to have the heart of a king?  The highest standard of a truly great king is to be a man who serves both God and country.  David did both.  From yesterday’s reading we learned that David had complete faith and confidence in his God and was fiercely offended when anyone thought themselves greater than the God of Israel.  He led the people  with zeal and taught them to love and serve God with the same kind of unfaltering faith that he had.  He taught them to forget what it looked like and dance and worship God with everything within you. And because God was with him, the people of Israel trusted David and they followed him.  They would follow him and fight beside him because they knew David did not fight for vain glory, no David fought for the glory of God and the good of his people. 

But as good as he was, David also made mistakes and what made David a truly great king was his humility before God.  When he did the wrong thing, David admitted it to God and asked for God’s forgiveness.   When he made selfish, wrong-hearted choices, it felt uncomfortable and sad to David because he wanted to be close to God.  He didn’t want sin to cause a distance between he and the Lord.

David would rescue his people from self-importance (thinking what you want it the only thing that matters) and unite them. Under David, they would truly see themselves as God’s people unlike any other time in their history.  David loved God and country, and God and country loved David.  Is it any wonder that when our rescuer Jesus was to be born, God chose the descendants of David to be his family?  With complete faith in God and complete love for His people, Jesus would be the King of all Kings!

How will you be known in your life?  Will others know you for your love of God and love of others or does your life show that other things are more important to you?  Just like David you have the opportunity to do great things for God, but first you must swallow your pride and learn to be a humble leader.

Discussion Questions:

1. David did not have to be perfect in every way to be beloved by God.  Do you ever feel like you have to be perfect to be loved?

2. By God’s standard, to be great is to love God and love one another.  Have you done both of these things well this week?

Family Activity:  David confessed his sins before God and felt truly sorry for what he had done.  Take some time as a family to silently pray to God for forgiveness for the times today or this week that you have chosen sin over God’s way.

Prayer for the World: Pray for the Christian club among the engineering students at a local university, UGM.  Pray that their leaders would be convinced of the need to prepare all of the members to share the Good News with their unbelieving classmates and begin discipling those they win themselves.