A Seeker of God, part 4

It seems that David was longing for something he used to have access to.

Sometimes, longings like this can take possession of us - and those longings become the urgent. The urgent can become unrelenting. Because David had the urgent pressing down on him, thirsting for something that was not readily available to him, three of his mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines.

It wasn’t a command or even a request, just a vocalized longing – and three of David’s mighty men decided to give him what he was longing for. To do so, they had to break through the garrison of the Philistines, and to bring the water all the way back to the cave. It was a dangerous and difficult mission, but the courage and persistence of the mighty men made it happen.

When David was given the water, however, he refused to drink it. 1 Chronicles 11:18-19 “…But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the Lord. 19 “God forbid that I should do this!” he said. “Should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?” This is a great example of not allowing the urgent to supersede the important. Here he had the opportunity to allow the sacrifice of his mighty men to quench his desire for the urgent, but felt that it would not be honoring God if he put his needs before the needs of his mighty men. His longing put their lives in danger. 

That is often the problem with the urgent. Many times, the only way for an urgent need to be met is at the expense of someone else, or the expense of the important. When mom and dad put the urgent before the important, they literally put the spiritual priorities of their children at risk. If David had put his needs before the needs of his mighty men, he would have dishonored his God by exalting himself over them. He poured the water out, and by doing that, he visually demonstrated that the important thing in his life was his pursuit of God. The urgent can wait, the urgent must wait. 

There was however, a time when David allowed the urgent to supersede the important. As I was reading through one of my Bible readings for this past week, I came to 1 Chronicles 17. It starts off with King David expressing his desire to build a temple for the Lord. He was feeling a little guilty for living in luxury while the Ark of the Covenant was housed under a tent. But through a prophetic word, Nathan came to him and told him that David was not going to be the one to build the temple, but rather his son. 
 
 

1 Chronicles 17:11-13 “When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him…”  Who is God talking about? Who is going to build the temple? To answer that question, we are going to look at a time when David gave into the urgent and allowed the important to be set aside.

2 Samuel 11:1 “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.”  This account starts off saying it was a time when Kings go off to war - that right there is a bad sign. David should have been fighting with his men; instead, he sends Joab out to do his fighting. Basically, David was nurturing his flesh (taking care of the urgent) instead of denying it (seeking God). That’s not a good sign. 2 Samuel 11:2 “One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful…”  2 Samuel 11:4 “Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.” The urgent certainly superseded the important that night.

Obviously, David did not always do all things well. What I want us to see in this incident is how God’s mercy surpasses everything. If you know this account at all, you will remember that David had Bathsheba’s husband sent to the front lines of the battle and was killed. This allowed David to marry his pregnant girlfriend.

Continued tomorrow