I've been doing a lot of study and teaching about the contrasting lives of Saul and David from Biblical history.
Saul, we see rise from obscurity to the monarchy in ancient Israel as a result of God's sovereign choice. (the institution of a monarchy was to satisfy the whining of the general populous...this was not God's idea. He relented and gave the people what they wanted. You can see how well that worked out for them...)
Anyway, I digress.
Saul is a case study in someone who has an inferiority complex and uses their position and power to compensate for it. His errors in judgment and subsequent poor leadership decisions serve to be his ultimate undoing.
What do I mean...well in the interest of time, and blog space, I'll sum it up this way; when God gives specific instructions, it is apparent that He wants those instructions to be carried out to the letter. Saul repeatedly failed to do that.
Why? Well, I'm not qualified to dig in to the psychology of the decision making process of Saul, so, I'll summarize it my thoughts as to why, in a moment.
So we have Saul, the not-so-great king of Israel. Enter the scene; David, humble shepherd boy from the town of Bethlehem in Judea.
Why is David significant in this contrast of characters? Well, he is the hero to Saul's villain, if we must put it in that context.
David, was the antithesis of Saul.
- Great faith in God
- Hunger and passion for God
- David wanted to please God rather than appear great in the eyes of the people.
- David was unshakeable in his confidence in God's faithfulness and purpose for his life.
- He was humble in the midst of great success.
- He was persistent in his pursuit of God.
- He was a man of character, courage and loyalty.
- Humble...recognized that God was the true King and that he was just God's chosen representative.
That's quite a list. Though not an exhaustive list it serves to help us compare these two characters and see that Saul is essentially the opposite of each of the characteristics that David possessed.
Now, this certainly doesn't mean that David was perfect by any stretch of the imagination. He certainly had his faults and failings... He committed murder so he could be with another man's wife, disobeyed God's instructions and was an enormous failure as a father to his sons.
However, in spite of his humanity, here's the biggest difference in my mind, between Saul and David;
David was humble and teachable and accepted God's judgment and correction in his life.
Saul's arrogance and presumption that he was in complete control, led him not only to make foolish decisions; it blinded him to the reality that it was his character flaws that caused him to fail.
Saul was too quick to put his trust in himself rather than in God.
So if David was indeed a man after God's own heart and the "hero" in this comparison, what does that mean for us?
Well, if I can sum it up, in a probably too simplistic manner, all God is looking for is someone who will trust Him and act upon that trust, whose heart is completely devoted to God.
More to come from the lives of these two men...
