The Rise of King David: Why God Loved a 'Lawbreaker'

King David is famous for being a man after God's own heart, ruling well and putting God first despite his own faults. But how could an adulterer be called a man after God's own heart? And how could a man who does what is unlawful by eating the priest's holy bread of the temple be called a man after God's own law heart? David's life is a step by step guide for us on what to do when we are in the middle of a fiery trial that wants to consume us and everything we have. Because that was David who had a promise from a heavenly king, but an earthly king who wanted him dead. See, when God chose David to be the next king of Israel, David's rise to the throne was not easy. Easy. After being anointed by the prophet Samuel, David was relentlessly pursued throughout the wilderness by the current king of Israel, King Saul. Saul wanted David dead because he felt threatened by David's growing support, his anointing and call to kingship. But how does this man after God's own heart respond to a deluded king of Israel who's intending to murder him unexpectedly? Welcome to the rise of David. One of the first actions that David undertakes, according to the Bible, is something that many of us wouldn't expect from a man after God's own heart because he seems to break the law of God. For example, David disobeyed the current king of Israel, whilst God's word states he must obey the king. And David ate the bread of the presence of the temple of God with his men, which God's law states only priests may eat. We read in Ecclesiastes 8, 2, I say keep the king's command because of God's oath to him, be not hasty to go from his presence. All right, so the Bible encourages us to obey the command of our king. And that's exactly what David does, serving Saul as a young man. But then things suddenly shift. David stops keeping the king's command. In fact, not only that, but he also leaves the king's presence hastily. The very two things that we just read in Ecclesiastes as not being good for. We read that King Saul commanded for David to be killed. We read in 1 Samuel 19:1, and Saul Spake to Jonathan his son and to all of his servants that they should kill David. And David responds by hastily leaving the king's presence. It says, and Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with his javelin, but he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he smote the javelin into the wall. And David fled and escaped. And that night. So David left the presence of his king as a servant, and he disobeyed the king's command when his life came in danger. And this is the first thing that we can learn from David in the midst of his trials. And for our trials, if we are in a trial like David and actual dangerous circumstances arise, God allows us to pursue safety and life, even if it may appear that we are in disobedience. We see David do this again. In fact, when David and his men ate the bread of the Presence when there was no common bread available for them, we read in 1 Samuel 21:3, now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. And the priest answered, david, I have no common bread on hand. But there is only holy bread if the young men have kept themselves from women. So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there, but the bread of the Presence which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. All right, so if you know what the Torah law of God says about this situation, you should know that it is against the ladder of the law. Leviticus 24:9 says, and the bread shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due. So this bread is special. It's the Lord's. And it's only for Levitical priests to eat in a holy place. David is not a Levitical holy priest. His men are certainly not Levitical priests. And now they are eating this bread on their mission. I mean, think about this for a second. I know, like, because it's written in the Scriptures, we're like, okay, well, I guess that must be all right. But if this was to happen today, would some of us not call it blasphemous for ordinary men to eat the most holy bread from God's holy temple? But Jesus actually points to David's righteous example as his justification for picking grain on the Sabbath. We read in Matthew 12:3 Yeshua said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condem the guiltless. David was on a mission to escape King Saul, who wanted to murder him. David wanted to live. Jesus was on a mission to bring the dead to life whilst walking through a grain field and picking grain on the Sabbath, something that some may consider as work. And David leaving King Saul, some may consider as disobeying the king. But we need to understand that if obeying the law would lead to death instead of life, the purpose of the law is lost completely. For the law of God's purpose is to bring life to us. Jesus is teaching that if there is someone in real need, in danger, in real desperation, and we condemn them by using the law of God when they're just trying to get life and love, even if they broke the ladder of the law to do so, then we are condemning the guiltless, or something that the world calls today, blaming the victim. But that's Satan's job. Satan uses religion and even God's own words in a twisted manner that is ignorant of the purpose of God's words to oppress and bring death to people. While Jesus uses God's words to set free and offer mercy. For example, we see that the law of God states that what God has brought together, let man not separate. God's desire is for man and woman to come together and and become one until the day they die. Yet in the case of adultery, Christ provided an exception so that the guiltless party, the victim, would not be condemned by others and be forced to be continued to be bound in a marriage with an adulterer, despite it being God's will for man to not separate. So whilst the disciples were picking grain in their hunger on the Sabbath, or whether it's David who's fleeing the house of Saul, or whether it's a victim of adultery, divorcing, or whether it's someone who's helping a calf out of the pit on the Sabbath, which is real work. Or whether it's a child limiting contact with an abusive parent despite the command to honor parents, or whether it's someone fleeing their government authorities who just commanded all believers to be killed despite the command to submit to the governing authorities. Let these things be, and do not condemn the guiltless if they are forced to break the law in a dangerous or desperate situation for the sake of preserving the life, for life is God's will. The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy, but Christ has come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. And we have to understand, brothers and sisters, that the Bible does not provide a written exemption for Every single case of danger or desperation that may lead to some of the above, we just walked through. But Christ is teaching us a principle, and we should take this principle to heart and understand what he means. If you condemn the guiltless, if they break the law in a dangerous or desperate situation, then you're condemning Christ, just like the Pharisees did when he and his disciples picked grain or on the Sabbath day. Then you condemn David, who ate the holy bread of the presence of God. For then you condemn the priests themselves who worked on the Sabbath. None of these had written exemptions in the Torah itself. Yet Christ has come to declare these situations righteous. Sometimes we are so passionate about the ladder of the law that we forget why it was given in the first place. And sometimes we're so busy condemning and judging the guiltless and victim that we forget what mercy means. As God has said, I desire mercy. And I want you to understand this mercy, for then you will be like David, a man after God's own heart. And I think that's important, that he was after God's heart, not after dead religion that focuses on rules at the cost of the weightier matters of justice, mercy and faithfulness. As Christ said, to be after God's heart, you need to understand God's heart of mercy on victims and the oppressed. And you need to mirror that mercy towards victims and the oppressed. That discernment is what made David special. And that's the first thing that we learn from the life of David. Not just that he understood the mercy of God himself, but he showed the God of mercy for others. And that's what happened next in this story of David. For as David is now fleeing from King Saul with his men in the wilderness, and he and his men, they're just focused on surviving. And that's understandable. And then something really untimely happens. Someone needs help. Suddenly David gets the call that there are people who are in dire need of him coming to save them. We read in 1 Samuel 23:1. Now they told David, behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors. Therefore, David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah. But David's men said to him, behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more than if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines. I mean, they are overwhelmed, understandably so. They're so focused on escaping the murderous King Saul and now David wants he and his men to go on this side quest to save people. I mean, they have their hands full already. But the Lord says go. And this is an important lesson for us, to not let the persecution or the trial on our life steal from us the commission from the Lord. David prayed in the midst of this overwhelming situation and he followed God no matter what he saw. It's when you feel most weak and that you're barely surviving, that God's strength is made perfect in you and God fights most fiercely through you. And this is exactly what happened with David. It's written. And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. Don't put God's commission on hold just because Satan has put a commission on your life. Satan is going to attack us all. But just because you're being attacked doesn't mean you need to be immobilized. If God has called you, then walk forward because you have nothing to do, to fear. And this is the next thing that we can learn from David, is that he truly walked in faith, that God fought for him. See, David understood that Saul could not touch him without God's approval. And that's exactly what happened. For David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Zephyr. And Saul sought him every day. But God did not give David into Saul's hand. And when Saul got closer, there was something miraculous that happened that saved David's life. We read in verse 26 that Saul went on one side of the mountain and David and his men were on the other side of the mountain, and David was hurrying to get away from from Saul. And Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. And it says then that a messenger came to Saul in that moment, saying, hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. And so David escapes. God carefully looked after David and even brought about miraculous events to let David get away. And in the same way, God is carefully looking after you when you are pursued by your enemies. And the last thing I want you to learn about David and why he was a man after God's own heart is regarding the relationship between Saul and David itself. See, Satan brought this unity between Saul and David and David. That's why their relationship crumbled. We read in 1 Samuel 24:9 that David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks your harm. We see here an interesting relationship dynamic that we will all encounter that when we think that someone is a threat to us, we can easily go on the offensive and attack them somehow. And then they get on the defensive and they react to our threats. Even if the truth is that they were never actually a threat to us. But we responded only to a lie. King Saul thought that David wanted to hurt him. And because of that idea stirring in his mind, he wanted to eliminate David as a threat. But the truth was that David never wanted to harm Saul. Rather, Satan used false assumptions, unspoken thoughts and lies to create fear in Saul and destroy the relationship. Ever before any physical conflict began, Saul was listening to the wrong voice. See, it's tempting to want to hurt someone who is threatening to us or to hurt someone before they get the chance to hurt us. But if our fear of destruction leads us to destroy our it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy where it's not the person we thought was our enemy who's destroying us, but the lie that we believed about them and their intentions. Satan has then deceived us with fear and can use us to react out of fear, to do his bidding and do what we thought someone else was conspiring against us, even if it was a lie. John 8:32 says. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. The number one destroyer of relationships between people isn't gossip, lying, murder, adultery or any of these. It starts long before that. It's when man starts listening to lies about the other person in our thoughts. When we make assumptions of people's actions and motives, false assumptions of what they are thinking or doing, not realizing we're driven by a lie. But the truth could set us free. So if you're wondering about something negative someone said, thought or did, you need to get to the truth. Ask them. Don't assume for an assumption. You let Satan fill in the unknowns. Unknowns that affect how you will treat that person the next time. They will pick up that something is then wrong. And then they may start reacting to you and you start reacting to them. And then these walls start going up. And years later you look at all of the destruction and you wonder how could it all have come to this? Just like Saul and David who were close friends and is suddenly now at a place where Saul is hunting David down to kill him. But it all started with an assumption that actually turned out to be a complete lie in the mind of Saul. But what if you are not the person having the negative thoughts or assumptions, but rather on the receiving end of someone who is See, then you still have the power to turn things around and let God heal the relationship. And I want you to see how David did it. When we look at David's response to souls delusions, we read in 1 Samuel 24:11, David, see my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients say, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. For David, it was clear that Saul was deceived, wanting to murder him. And when David had the opportunity to take Saul's life, rather, he cut a corner of Saul's robe and later presented it to him to show him that I had the opportunity to kill you, but I didn't. I mean, think about how incredible this act is. Because David is now powerful, he's anointed by God to become the king of Israel. Saul is also powerful. He is anointed by God to be the current king of Israel. Both have their own armies of men. They are both primed for war. And in this world we would say, well, you know, they would probably just fight it out and the winner will be king. That's how the world works. But David chooses not to play into Satan's hands. He doesn't attack Saul out of fear, but rather David shows Saul mercy, a robe of mercy, and relies on God to judge between them. And God did. David became the king of Israel, and Saul was eventually killed and dethroned in a war. David's mercy also, though before that, had an unexpected effect on Saul and their relationship. We read in verse 16, as soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept and said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. The mercy afforded to Saul by David is the very thing that delivered Saul from his own hatred, bitterness, and the lies that he believed about David. So one of the strongest weapons against the lies of the enemy against you is the truth that's communicated through your good conduct of showing mercy to someone. Actions do speak louder than words. And the lies, the words that Saul believed about David wanting to harm him, all came crumbling down in the moment that David proved otherwise by action, an act of mercy. And this mercy that David showed would later be extended back to David by God. When David had his latter downfall of adultery, David would repent of that adultery and God would forgive him, heal him and restore him. For just as Christ said, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. So if you've ever wondered why God would be so merciful towards David, being a king and yet an adulterer, right, having this great rule of authority, having to bear God's name as the king, and yet having this great downfall of adultery, and yet God forgave him so generously and mercifully. It was because of how David showed such mercy to Saul, who had murder in his heart towards David. And so that's why we should never underestimate the power of showing mercy to someone who treats us like an enemy or who has betrayed us in some way. For that will be a mirror of how God treats us one day when we have a downfall. For we will all make mistakes. We will all have moments in our life where we thought, what have I done? As David did, as Saul did. But it's in the moments when we are done wrong against those are the testing moments that will try us. And those are the moments that matter to set the stage for us when we make a mistake one day. And the mercy that we will or will not receive in accordance to how we've lived our life. Proverbs 25:21 says, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will Reward you. Romans 12:16 says, Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all, if possible, so far as it depends on you. Live peaceably with all, beloved. Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. David was allowed to eat of the holy bread of the presence of the temple of God, because David was a man of. Of mercy, beloved by God. And in the same way, if we are A man or a woman of mercy. How much more will God welcome us into his temple to partake of the bread of Yeshua ourselves? And so I challenge you that in this time of your life, even if you're in the fires of trial, or maybe you're an in between season, think about who has had murder in their heart towards you, who has been out to betray you. We are all going to encounter that, even from people whom we love and people whom love us. And yet God has a calling that he's placing on us in those moments. We see in Saul's persecution of David and David being forced to rely on God for protection. That was part of God's plan in preparing David for being the king of Israel one day and that throne. Because if you can rely on God when you are a nobody, a peasant, you will rely on God as a king. As Yeshua said, the one who is faithful in a very little is faithful in much. And one who is dishonest in very little is dishonest in much. The question is not if God will test us with this David test, but when. A time is coming when you will be persecuted yourself or betrayed by a best friend. And when it happens, will you respond in mercy or in vengeance, in fear or in faith, by the flesh or by the spirit? You cannot control others, just as David could not control Saul, but you can control yourself. And if you walk righteously before God, despite the fiery trials, you will have nothing to fear. Bless those who persecute you. Bless them and do not curse them. Father, I pray for all who are surrounded like David by enemies, who may feel betrayed by a best friend, as David was by Saul, who may feel like we have nowhere to run. We're always on the run and we are scared of the future and whether we will fall into the hand of a murderous man. Father, you protected David. You saved David even at the last moment. You even made provisions of mercy for him to eat of your holy temple. Because you love David and you wanted him to have life. And you saw his desperate situation. You made room for him in your temple. And I ask that you would make room for us in your temple, that your presence would be so close that we would find comfort, safety provision. Thank you, Lord, for saving us from our trials. And help us to respond the way that David did, with mercy and not out of fear, as Saul was. I praise you. I thank you in the name of Yeshua. Amen. Thank you for joining me. May the Father bless and keep you. Subscribe to this CHANNEL like this video comment on it. Let me know what you think about this incredible story. I can't wait to see you in the next one. Shalom, Sam.