Christian Living

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© 2004 "The Self-Justifiers"
By Josprel
[email protected]

The Self-Justifiers
by
Josprel

"Rationalizing our disobedience to God makes excuse givers of us all," may sound like the paraphrase of an old cliché, but it is no less true. King Saul was such a person. God selected him as Israel's first king when the nation demanded it be as other nations with kings. In thus acquiescing to Israel's demand, God expressed His permissive, rather than His perfect will in the matter.

It is heart-rending for a person to be in God's permissive rather than His perfect will. One pastor surprised this writer by admitting he had followed God's permissive will for his life. God had given him a definite call to the mission field and worked things out for him to go by providing financial support, and by moving on the mission board to appoint him immediately upon his graduation from seminary, without the mandated two-year experience as a pastor. However, he was engaged to a girl who refused to marry him if he entered missionary ministry. No amount of persuasion could change her mind, so he changed his. In spite of the strivings of the Holy Spirit for him to obey, he rejected his true call and became a pastor, instead.

In His mercy, God permitted him some success. As the pastor told me the story, his voice manifested profound sadness. "I realize God has forgiven me," he said, "but I can't help wondering how many souls never heard the Gospel because of my disobedience. I don't think anyone replaced me where I was appointed to serve."

It's easy for us to exhibit a spirit of false humility by implying we are expendable to God - by saying there always is someone else God can use in our stead. The excuse "won't wash" with God. Moses learned this at the "burning bush" when, after making every excuse he could think of for not answering God's call for him to lead Israel out of Egypt, he told God, "O my Lord, send, I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." Transposed into our vernacular, he actually decisively was telling God, "O my Lord, send someone else" (Exodus 4:13). God's reaction indicates Moses' rejection of the commission was rude and forceful. "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses . . ." (verse 14). It is improbable God considered Moses expendable, but it is evident Moses thought of himself as replaceable.

As stated above, "Rationalizing our disobedience to God makes excuse givers of us all." Both Moses and King Saul rationalized their disobedience. Their motives were different - the disobedience of Moses was motivated by fear, while King Saul's was motivated by arrogance - but the disobedience of both was rooted in the same inclination prompting all of us to make excuses for our disobedience. The disobedience of Moses was in offering excuses to not accept God's commission to lead Israel from Egypt. He refused to do what God called him to do. The disobedience of Saul was in his not totally destroying the spoils of Israel's war with the nation of Amalek. He did what he was commanded to not do.

According to the Book of First Samuel, chapter fifteen, the Lord sent the Prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as Israel's first king. Through Samuel, God immediately gave him a commission to declare war on the nation of Amalek. "Thus saith the Lord of Host, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid in wait for him [Israel] in the way, when he [Israel] came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have . . . But Saul and the people spared Agag [the king of Amalek], and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly " (1st Samuel 15: 2-3).

But God had commanded all the spoils of the war with Amalek be destroyed, not just what was "vile and refuse." It is dangerous to attempt to second-guess God and rationalize one's disobedience to Him. This tendency in Saul initiated his rejection by God. Rather than destroy all the spoils of war and then wait patiently for the coming of the Prophet Samuel as instructed, he did things his own way. He therefore forfeited the permanency of his family's reign on the throne of Israel (1st Samuel 13:13-14).

Read the history of King Saul and contrast it to King David's. David, who also was not a perfect man, was yet considered "a man after his [the Lord's] own heart" (1st Samuel 13:14). The phrase appears inappropriate when one considers David's conduct in the light of his relationship to Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, one of his most loyal military officers. David's conduct in this situation marks him as a conniving, adulterous, wife stealing, murderer, who manipulated the assassination of Uriah in order to hide his own adultery with the officer's wife. When we compare the guilt of David to Saul's, David's guilt appears much weightier. How, then, could Samuel refer to him as "a man after his [the Lord's] own heart?"

The question is answered when one notes how Saul excused his willful disobedience, while David admitted his sin and acknowledged God's justice in punishing him. God sent the Prophet Nathan to confront King David with his crime. In doing so, Nathan told David the story of a rich man with many flocks and a poor man who owned only one ewe lamb, kept as a family pet. One day, a traveler visited the rich man. To prepare a meal for the traveler, rather than take an animal from his own flocks, the rich man took the poor man's lamb, dressed it and served it as a meal (2nd Samuel 12: 1-5).

The story aroused David's hypocritical, self-righteous indignation! "And David's "anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: . . . because he had no pity" (verses 5-6).

"Thou art the man," Nathan accused the king (verse 9).

Through Nathan, God pronounced His sentence on the man after His own heart. God did not spare him! The punishment was heavy and grievous! One may find it recorded in 2 Samuel 12: 7-23. David did not justify his sins and - contrary to Saul - he accepted God's judgment upon him without making excuses.

Because the history of the disobedience of Saul and David is not pleasant reading, some may tend to disregard it as inappropriate, negative teaching with no positive encouragement to a relationship with God. However, among the outstanding Old Testament teachings is this account of how to react after God disciplines His children for disobedience.

"Then David arose from the earth, [He had been in a prolonged fasting prayer for God to spare the life of the child conceived as a result his adultery with Bathsheba] and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped . . ." (2 Samuel 12: 20).

Worship after punishment! How many Christians think to do this? According to His own purposes, God chose not to grant David's request for the life of the child. Nonetheless, David accepted God's will without question and entered the house of the Lord and worshipped. He thus acknowledged the justice of God's dealings with him.

This is why David was a man after God's own heart.

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