A Broken Man.
My life has changed. Even during the short time that I have been writing these blogs I have noticed how my life has changed. And although the changes have sometimes been dramatic, my life has been wonderfully blessed. You see, although I no longer volunteer for any church work, my church-life is busier now than it has been for a very long time. Although I didn’t actively go out to mix with friends and socialise, I now have more friends at my local church social group than I have done in a long time.
You see, the difference is God. He is the one who makes the changes. When we come to realise that Jesus is the only one we have to look for, then looking for Him is the only thing that matters.
I was recently reading about two incidents in the life of King David. Two very, very similar incidents but two very, very different outcomes. And they are to do with King David’s mindset as a king when his armies went to war.
In King David’s earlier years he was meant to be away at war with his army but he stayed at home.
2nd Samuel 11v1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle,…… that David remained at Jerusalem.
The eventual outcomes of this event was that he ended up having an affair with a woman called Bathsheba and that a man called Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, was to be innocently set up and murdered for simply being a loyal subject.
2nd Samuel 11v14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. v15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” v16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. v17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
How very different it was for David in his later years…
2nd Samuel 17v8-9 [And Hushai said to Absalom, David’s son] "you know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, …… and will not camp with the people. v9 Behold, even now, he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place.
David was in hiding so that the enemy forces of Absalom would not go after the armies. He did not want anyone to die needlessly in the quarrel between him and his son. It was him Absalom was looking for, not them.
So David learned his lesson. But innocent men had to lose their lives in the process of David reaching this position. As well as Uriah, David’s first son to Bathsheba died at birth. David’s next son, Amnon, was a sex offender. He ended up being murdered by his brother Absalom, David’s third son. Now Absalom allowed his pride to get ahead of him and he went to war with David. The throne of Israel would rightfully come to Absalom in due course. But he decided he wanted it sooner and tried to usurp David from his throne. He ended up being slaughtered in tragic circumstances.
Before God can use any of us He first, like He did with David, has to change us. There are parts of us – old habits, old mindsets, old friendships, etc – that have to be got rid of.
Think of when Jesus called His disciples. Andrew was already a disciple of John The Baptiser. But as soon as John declared “Behold. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, Andrew changed allegiance to follow Jesus. Andrew eventually then called his brother Simon (who is called Peter) to come too.
Peter was busy working as a fisherman when Jesus called him. And he, along with the brothers James and John gave up their nets and followed Jesus.
And so many people in the centuries of church history since the Gospels have had to make similar changes. John Knox, the founder of the Church of Scotland, started out as an Anglican Priest. Charles and John Wesley came back from “The Americas” as failed missionaries before they got their respective calls to follow Jesus. And so many more people who thought they were living a good life before God had to go through some sort of trial and change before God could use them in a better way.
For this is how God works. It’s not for nothing that the bible describes God’s improvement process as unploughed fallow ground…
Jeremiah 4v3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
As useless clay…
Isaiah 64v8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Or unrefined gold…
Job 23v10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.
David had to learn the hard way that in a time of war the king must be close to his army. Christians also need to learn that in times of hardship and in times of ease we need to be close to our God. And even if it means hardship for us, God will teach us what we need to learn for His purposes to be performed.
As Paul said in his letter to the Christians at Rome…
Romans 5v3-5 …..but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, v4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, v5 and hope does not put us to shame,
And it is this confidence in God that keeps us going. This confidence is that God will finish the work that He started in us. And what more could we really want in life but to know that God will continue with us through all of our days…
1st Peter 1v3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
He’s the only one who cares and understands.
Standing somewhere in the shadows you will find Him.
And you’ll know Him by the nail prints in His hands.
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