Boy, oh boy! The Bible is just chock full of intriguing characters, isn’t it? Some are known for their shocking antics and some for their astonishing obediences. Whichever, their places have been immortalized in Scripture. Their names alone can cause a reaction as details of their lives instantly come to mind. For example, without elaborating: Cain, Noah, Jacob, Moses, Deborah, Rahab, Ruth, Samuel, Ahab, to name but a few. God has never intended for His search story for mankind to be sanitized by avoiding the mention of betrayals, adulteries, witchcraft, or even murder. It’s obvious that the very human, flawed, weak, wayward, ones are the ones he’s always sought to accomplish His purposes. Each one of these individuals helps us believe that we, too, can be embraced by God’s love and sent out to do His work.
We’re introduced to one larger than life character by the name of David. He’s a young teenager, the youngest in a family of boys, in the family of a poor man named Jesse, in the non-descript village of Bethlehem. David is the brunt of mockery by his brothers as ‘daddy’s little favorite.’ He has the unsought-after role of guarding his father’s sheep out on the hillsides. We meet him as Samuel, the Prophet, has come to anoint the next king of Israel, and David, last but not least, is anointed! We discover he’s handsome, brave and strong from fighting wild animals. He’s also matured as a poet, a musician, and a singer of his own praise compositions.
Soon, David finds himself in the courts of King Saul, takes his God-confidence and kills Goliath, becomes a mighty warrior, is crowned king of Israel, builds a palace, brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem with exuberant, undignified, joy and dancing, lusts after, and commits adultery with, Bathsheba, has her husband placed on the front line of the battlefield where he’ll be killed, marries the ‘now widow,’ repents of his gross sins, is betrayed by one of his sons, defeats his remaining enemies, bringing peace to Israel, and this whole time, is composing song after song to his Lord. Such a multi-faceted, fascinating man! So far from perfect, and yet in his heart of hearts there burned a desire to worship, to express every emotion of his being, from rage at his enemies to the most exalting praise. (And God chose to have his writings included for us in His written story).
Our own complexity, our ‘uneven’ background, shall we say, doesn’t disqualify us. On the contrary, God seems mostly drawn to folks like us. Looking forward to seeing all you beautiful, fully human, freely adopted, Spirit-filled, saints tomorrow, 10 AM, 3 PM UK. PD