Waiting on the Manger: Day 5
David
David is hands down one of my favorite people in the Bible. If there were a Mount Rushmore for the most influential people in the Bible, David would easily sit atop that mountain. God Himself testified that David was “a man after [His] own heart,” an honor not bestowed on anyone else in the Bible.
David steps into the scene following the rejection of Saul. In 1 Samuel 16, the LORD asks His servant, Prophet Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel?” Then He instructs Samuel to go to Bethlehem and anoint one of the sons of Jesse.
When Samuel arrives at Jesse’s house, he sees David’s oldest brother, Eliab, and assumes, based on his appearance, that Eliab is the new king appointed by God. But God says, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the Lord does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”
God looks at our hearts. He is not seeking people who merely appear suitable and perfect from the outside. Instead, He is looking for those who are pure in heart. For this reason, Jesus admonished the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:27, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
After Samuel anoints David, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David from that day forward” (1 Samuel 16:13). In the very next chapter, David is thrust into the limelight when he encounters Goliath.
The story of David and Goliath is one of the most famous in the world, known by believers and unbelievers alike. David, a young shepherd boy, confronts a well-established warrior who stands at 6 cubits and a span—approximately 9 feet 9 inches or 297 centimeters! (1 Samuel 17:4).
Mortal enemies, the Philistines and Israelites, met on the battlefield. Goliath, the Philistine champion, taunted the Israelites for 40 days straight, defying their ranks. “Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and greatly afraid” (1 Samuel 17:10).
Let’s pause here for a moment. Saul, the king appointed by God for His people, heard the taunts of their enemy. His response was dismay and fear. To put this into context, before Saul, God appointed judges over Israel to guide and lead them. He Himself sat on the throne of Israel, leading and fighting for them. But the people demanded a king from Samuel so they could “be like all the other nations” with a king to “fight [their] battles.”
Now, here are the Israelites with the king they wanted—but instead of fighting their battles, their king is cowering in fear. Okay, fine—he was afraid, and rightfully so. But Saul was so disconnected from God that he never even thought to ask Him for help.
In contrast, when David saw the abomination of Goliath, he relied on his experience with God—a faithful Father who had delivered him in previous circumstances. David’s faith wasn’t in his own strength but in God’s. My favorite part of the David and Goliath story is when Goliath taunts David to get in his head, and David doesn’t shy away from taunting him back. David says, “I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” David didn’t fight Goliath for his own sake but in defense of the name of the LORD.
Following Goliath’s defeat, Saul quickly took David under his wing. But David’s fame soon grew and overshadowed Saul’s. Women sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands.”
Saul’s downfall was caring too much about what people thought, which ultimately led God to reject him. Saul violated God’s explicit instructions multiple times because he prioritized people’s opinions. Hearing that David was regarded more highly than him led Saul to hate David.
David became a fugitive, fleeing into the territory of the Philistines—the very people he had defeated. Saul made numerous attempts on David’s life. Yet whenever David had the opportunity to kill Saul, he always spared him, despite the urging of those around him. David spared Saul not out of obligation but out of honor for God. He reasoned that even though God had rejected Saul, Saul had once been anointed by God.
David was not a perfect person; he sinned, like any human. The difference between Saul and David was that whenever David sinned, he always came back to God in repentance. I believe this is why God regarded him as a man after His own heart. God doesn’t call us to be perfect—He knows we can’t be. But He invites us to bring Him into our mess. Unlike Adam and Eve, who sinned and hid themselves, God asks us to come to Him even in our sin.
One of David’s most famous sins was his affair with Bathsheba, another man’s wife. After impregnating her, David plotted to cover up his paternity. When that failed, he orchestrated her husband’s murder. Following the man’s death, David unapologetically took Bathsheba as his wife.
Prophet Nathan rebuked David, and he repented. Nathan told David that the child Bathsheba conceived would die. David pleaded with God, fasting for seven days while the child was sick. Yet the child died, and “David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshipped.”
From this incident, David wrote Psalm 51:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence;
take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and sustain me with a willing spirit.”
(Psalm 51:10–12) KJV
Even in his sin, David turned back to the LORD in full repentance. David knew what intimacy with the LORD meant and lamented its loss due to his actions. He modeled how a faithful child of God should live: submitted and surrendered.
God promised David that his throne would be established forever. David wrote songs about Jesus and the promise of His eternal throne:
“The LORD said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” (Psalm 110:1).
“You will not let Your Holy One see decay” (Psalm 16:10).
To David, the birth of Jesus was not only the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel but also the fulfillment of God’s personal promise to him—the eternal establishment of his throne.