Today another key lesson from our 2 Samuel leadership manual; vital indeed for anyone at all whom God is going to use: the leader and grace…
God’s grace, His colossal, undeserved, lovingkindness for us, is a wonderful thing. It isn’t something we earn. No matter how much I’ve failed, God loves me enormously – so much that He gave Jesus for me! Paul calls this the `gospel of God’s grace` (Acts 20:24). But it has special relevance for leaders. Once again: the love of God is not something we need to earn, by what we do, or how successful we are, or how hard we work; it’s ours anyway!
Today in chapter 7 we watch how the glory of God’s grace is absorbed by, specifically, a leader God is using to be effective and fruitful. (Like some people who I know read this!) David is very grateful for how God is using him; but there’s a deeper understanding of God’s grace needs to come to such a person; and maybe to us…
As the chapter starts, David is at peace, reflecting on how God has given him victory over all his enemies. And suddenly it strikes him: Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, yet the ark of God’s presence is only in a tent! And he decides to rectify that. Which is a great idea, and certainly strikes the prophet Nathan that way (v3). But (a bit like that innovative cart back in 6:3) our good ideas need to be kept open to God’s correction…
So that night Nathan gets a message from God. Is David to build God a house? No. (He’s not always going to be working to do the maximum possible!- often what godly leaders need to hear is to do less, not more!) And it’s interesting how, for David’s maximum blessing and growth, God breaks the news. David was starting to develop a big plan of what he could do for God; but the thing God speaks to David about, blesses Him with as we see, is rather the vision of what God is doing for him. (V8: `I took you from following the flock… I have cut off all your enemies… I have been with you wherever you have gone`.) And then also how that grace will stretch far into the future: vv9-11: `I will make your name great… I will provide a place for my people Israel… The Lord Himself will establish a house for you!` David is in a place of fruitfulness; but just at this point God steps in to help him absorb afresh how everything good in his own story, and that of his people, is a history of grace from first to last. (Practical application: Can we make a list of the main blessings that have happened through our life, and work through it occasionally with God in thankfulness? Perhaps pin it to our wall?) Precisely at the point of fruitfulness, when the leader turns in thankfulness to think what more they can give to God, the most vital thing we need to be thinking is this: God’s grace to us is all!
As so often, 1 Chronicles offers an interesting sidelight in what it quotes God saying: David has been a warrior, and an extremely effective one; but a warrior may not be the right person to build Israel’s centre of worship (22:8). That doesn’t mean Solomon, who will do it, is a better man than David (actually it will be Solomon’s follies that lead to the lasting division of Israel). But they are people of different gifts and callings. Which means (back to 2 Sam 7:18 now), rather than planning what he was going to build for God, David can now just `sit before the Lord`, relaxed and at peace, absorbing thankfully all God’s wonderful, specific provision for him. Of course that will be the vital fuel for David’s future service. But right now, as the old Brethren writer C H Mackintosh says, `No doubt David would have appeared to many a more devoted man when seeking to build a house for the Lord, than when … apparently doing nothing… when he sat before the Lord, and losing sight of himself, allowed his soul to go out in holy adoration of God and His ways. [But] This is true worship` – so vital for a leader! Grace – means we relax with Him!
So how does David respond to this colossally loving grace of God? (And how shall we?) First reaction: `Who am I, that you have brought me this far?`(v18). Very sensible question! And its only possible answer is v22: `How great You are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like You!` Dale Ralph Davis points out the significance of v21, `For the sake of Your word… You have done this great thing`: David remembers God’s past promises, and as he does so the panorama broadens gloriously, and he sees how everything God has done through him has been part of something far bigger, God’s age-long, glorious purpose, in a small part of which He joys to make us His partners…. We can reflect and rejoice in the same!
Of course that’s not the end of the story; grace points forwards as well as back. Ten times in this chapter David calls himself God’s `servant`, and an amazing part of God’s grace is the way He lovingly leaves things for us His servants, His partners, to do. (Or in fact, not just His `servants`: `I no longer call you servants,` says Jesus significantly in John 15, `instead, I have called you friends!`) Exactly because He loves us, God wants us to play a key role in bringing in His kingdom by prayer, praying, Your kingdom come in this! God makes His gracious promises, and then He wants, indeed leaves the space, for us to claim them (`Prayer pleads God’s promises`, says Davis, adding, this concept `could revolutionize your prayer life`!): `Lord Almighty, God of Israel, You have revealed this to Your servant… So, Your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to You. Sovereign Lord, You are God! You… have promised these good things to Your servant` — and then (v29) he claims the promises – `Now be pleased to bless the house of Your servant!`
Because He loves us, God’s grace also leaves room for us to partner in bringing in His kingdom by our action. (Moving from Mary mode to Martha mode, if we think of the two sisters at Bethany!) So two of the next chapters, ch8 and ch10, are about David going very successfully to war in the power of God. But if we’re truly to be used by God, grasping His lovingkindness like in ch7 is the vital foundation. And God’s grace leaves room also for, indeed makes essential, our partnership with Him in holiness; because if we think grace means that how we live and whether we sin doesn’t really matter (which seems all too common an idea in UK Christianity), the results, God’s grace notwithstanding, will be catastrophic. And that, as we’ll see, are what chapters 11 right through 20 are about…
More about God’s colossal, undeserved love for you and me next week, from ch9; but there’s so much here for us to rest in and pray through. `Yours, Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the majesty, and the splendour; for everything in heaven and earth is Yours…. In Your hands are strength and power to exalt, and to give strength to all. Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name…!` Let’s do it!
PS Marcus Honeysett has written a valuable book on the key place of grasping grace in a leader’s life, Finding Joy: A Radical Rediscovery Of Grace. Here’s the Amazon blurb, thought-provoking in itself: `What motivates you to serve Christ? Is it a sense of nagging obligation, as you struggle to achieve a host of impossible targets? Or is it a heart full of joy? God’s grace is neither earned nor deserved; we receive grace, and with it the blessings of forgiveness, peace, hope, security, rescue, reconciliation and eternal life; God’s grace needs no additions, no subtractions! Yet it’s so easy, so tempting, like the Galatians, to slip back into a legalistic mindset. We want to build on what God has done; we want to make ourselves more attractive and acceptable. [God calls us] to live as sons and daughters of God, not as slaves… Joy should be the hallmark of our Christian service; understanding God’s grace is the foundation to releasing that joy!`
