1 Samuel 13:14:  “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him [to be] captain over his people, because thou hast not kept [that] which the LORD commanded thee.”

I have an IPOD hooked up to the radio in my disability bus and I take requests from my regular passengers for songs to download.  The other day someone requested: It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie, back from the forties and fifties.  I downloaded the wrong version which was by Something Smith and the Reds Head and was a sort of lampoon version of the song.  In the middle of the song one of the members of the quartet gives a testimony:

Cross my heart and I hope to die, I’ll never never ever tell another white lie,

Took a little doll out on  a date last night, next to her Gravel Gertie would  have looked alright,

Now I’m between the devil and the deep blue because I said baby  you look  good to me.

I told her I loved her and oh how I lied, now she’s getting set to be my blushing bride.

If she leads me to the altar, then I’m sunk, because I can’t tell the preacher I was drunk,

Lord have mercy on an old lost sinner,  Give me one more chance to let another guy win her,

Cross my heart and I hope to die, I’ll never  never ever tell another white lie.

When I heard this version I immediately thought of King Saul (yeah I relate everything to the Bible).  King Saul was very religious, he followed the laws of God, well, religiously. As far as we know he had only one wife and was faithful to her. He kept the Sabbath and he would not go to battle without offering a sacrifice, which was what got him in trouble as Samuel was supposed to administer the sacrifice.  For that he lost his kingdom.  Tomorrow I will talk about why Samuel said rebellion is a sin of witchcraft.  But for now I want to look at something curious.  God said he would seek a man after His heart.

Two things are curious, the man God chose was David who committed adultery, murder and tried to cover it all up with a lie. Yet, when David confessed his sin Nathan said God had already forgiven him. Unlike Saul when his sin was pointed out he said: 1 Samuel 15:24 “I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.”  That sounds like repentance to me, does it to you? Then why did God refuse to forgive this simple sin of getting a little over anxious and taking matters into his own hands yet when David comes along and commits murder, adultery and creates a scandal, God forgives him before he even ask?

The key is in I Samuel 13:14 which tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart.  One of the most common questions I was asked as an instructor in Old Testament in Bible College was what it meant that David was a man after God’s own heart.  Let’s face it, we all aspire to be like David, who would not want to be someone after God’s own heart, whatever that means.

Let me show you something interesting.  The phrase a man after God’s own heart in Hebrew is: ish kilebabo.  The word ish is man, both spiritual and physical. The ki is the preposition like or as and  lebabo is his heart.  Tell me, where is the word after? You see it?  I don’t see it.  You know why you don’t see it, because it is not there. All it says is a man with a heart like His. Translators don’t like to translate it that way because that is equating us too closely with God, so they paraphrase and say a man after God’s heart.  I used to translate it that way myself until I began my journey to discover the heart of God and when I began to enter God’s heart I started to realize that it is possible to have a heart like God’s, in fact that is what He is wanting us to have.

You see King Saul did not have a heart like God, he followed his own heart and when he realized he crossed a line that would cause him to lose his kingdom, he started to back track really quickly.  He listened close to Samuel and said: “Ok Samuel, I get the game plan now, I won’t make that mistake again, let’s put this behind us and move forward.”  But Samuel said, “Too late, it will happen again and again and again because the only heart you are interested in is your own. You do faithfully follow all the laws of God, careful you dot every Vav and put a foot on every Taw. But you do it for you own gizzard, you could care less that you broke God’s heart.”

Now let’s look at David when his sin was discovered, what did he do?  Did he plead for forgiveness to spare his throne?  Did he say, “Ok, I blew it, I learned my lesson, let’s put this behind us and more forward?”  No, what he said is found in Psalms 51:1: “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” He wasn’t worried about losing his kingdom or going to hell, his primary and main concern was losing the presence of God and the abiding love of the Holy Spirit.

You know a man may be caught cheating on his wife. The man might turn to his wife and say, “Ok, gal, I blew it, I admit it. But don’t divorce me, I mean I’ve got a good thing going here. I am a  leader in the church and the community, people respect me, I will lose all that if we divorce.  Look I promise I will be good, I won’t do it again. I mean I am a good husband, am I not? I provide well for you and the kids, you have a nice house, drive a nice car, come on, let’s put this behind us and move on.”   I don’t think he is going to go very far with that attitude, unless his wife has a similar attitude.  If her attitude is wanting a husband with a heart like hers she will respond: “I want a husband who loves  me, that is it, that is all and you ain’t it so goodbye to your precious reputation and position of power.”

If that husband falls to his knees before his wife and weeps over her broken heart and says, “Let’s forget this town, my reputation, my position of power, let’s move away, start anew and let me really learn to love you.”  The old boy just might stand a chance.  At least with God it will definitely work, because it did with David.

The old boy in Something Smith and the Red Heads hasn’t got a prayer.  What makes the story so humorous is that we all know he is repenting because he doesn’t want to pay the consequences and we don’t expect God to pull him out of that jam. Yet, what also makes it so humorous is that we are guilty of doing the same thing with God, we get ourselves in a jam and then promise all sorts of good things if God would just get us out of the mess we got ourselves into.  We don’t give one thought to the fact that the sin that got us into that mess broke His heart.

King Saul did more than just get a little over anxious and offer a sacrifice without waiting for Samuel. The Bible tells us he committed a sin of witchcraft.  How is offering a sacrifice without the prophet witchcraft?  My study partner and I are working on that one, we will let you know tomorrow what we come up with.