A Seeker of God, part 5

Look at how this chapter ends: 2 Samuel 11:27 “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.” God was not happy with what David did. 

Rarely will putting the urgent before the important produce anything that pleases the Lord. However, our God is a merciful God. And the thing that caught my attention was the verse we read yesterday, from 1 Chronicles 17, where God prophesied, through Nathan, that David’s son would build the temple. That son was Solomon, the (second) son who was born to him from Bathsheba. The child that Bathsheba had after becoming pregnant by David while still married to Uriah died. In an effort to comfort Bathsheba, David promises her that the next child born to her, would be the one to follow him as King. 
 

When I read in 1 Chronicles 17, that God promised David that a son born to him would build the temple and not David, I was just struck at the mercy of God on display here. Even though God knew the end form the beginning, and even though God knew that David would commit adultery with Bathsheba and arrange to have her husband killed, even in light of all that God knew, He comforts David by saying, “Though the thing you did was not pleasing to Me, I will still bless your life through your son.” 

Why? Why would God still want to bless David? I think the reason for that is this: the heart of the seeker of God always comes back to its pursuit of God Himself. Even though God would not have condoned David’s sin with Bathsheba, HE knew the heart of the king would always return to Him. 

Right after Nathan tells David that he would not build the temple, David focuses on the important: his pursuit of God. 1 Chronicles 17:15-18 “Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. 16 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord….” The first thing David does is to go to prayer. And instead of complaining that he is not going to be able to build the temple he says, “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 17 And as if this were not enough in your sight, my God, you have spoken about the future of the house of your servant. You, Lord God, have looked on me as though I were the most exalted of men.” 

Can you imagine David’s humility? God just told him that he will not have the honor of building the temple and all David says is that God must be looking upon me as the most exalted of men.  “18 What more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant…” You know your servant. God knew the heart of David. He knew that he was a seeker of Him. He even knew that after he had sinned with Bathsheba, David would repent and return to his pursuit of Him. That is the unspoken thing about God telling David that he would use his son. 

God knew David’s heart; He knew that he would repent. God can always count on the seeker to repent. Those who only seek things from God tend to get mad when life does not go their way. Since all they are seeking are things,  when they don’t get things, they get mad. 
 

When God is what you want, when He is what you seek, then the things in your life do not control your life, they are just blessings. When God is what you want, rarely, does the urgent supersede the important. When God told David he was not getting the privilege of building the temple – he went to prayer and said, “Lord, thank you for honoring me the way that You have. You have treated me like I’m the most blessed man on earth.” Oh, to be a seeker of God! END