David was a man after God’s heart. Through the prophet, Samuel, God chose David to be the King of the Israelites when he was still a young boy. David was not perfect; he had some flaws. One day, when his infantry men were out in the fields doing battle, David was chillin’ back at the palace. He took a leisurely stroll about the place and walked out on the balcony. There, he saw Bathsheba taking a bath. He just about lost his mind, because Bathsheba was a baddie, and David wanted her for himself. He was king after all, and could roll like that. In his mind, there was only one thing standing in the way of his game plan, Bathsheba had a husband.
David concocted a plan, and it was pretty dastardly. He sent for Joab, the commander of his army, and told Joab to put Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, on the frontline. He knew that Uriah would be killed there, and he would then be able to have Bathsheba for himself. David was rebuked for his wrong actions. He had great sorrow before God for the sin he had committed, and he repented. This was a terrible thing that David had done, but he asked God for forgiveness, and God granted it. Heavenly Father will do the same for us. No matter what we do, if we have an earnest heart that is honestly sorry for the wrong we’ve done, God will forgive us; and He won’t remember our sins any more. He will not throw it back in our faces down the road. He’s truly a forgiving and merciful Father.
The bible tells us that David grew into a very good leader who honored the Lord. He had a son with Bathsheba, and their son’s name was Solomon. As was the custom, when David was very old, it was time to hand over the reins to his son. In 1Kings 2:2-3 (NLT), David told Solomon, “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. 3 Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go.”
This is such a great promise. We can imagine this dialogue between a father that is passing on his legacy to his son. The father is speaking from experience, from a firsthand account of what he has witnessed in his own life. If you know that you’re about to die, and you’re handing over great responsibility to a son you’re leaving behind, you’re going to make absolutely sure that you don’t fill your son’s head with lies or speculations. You’re going to tell him the truth. You’re going to tell him things that have worked amazingly well in your life—things that you can stand on with confidence. You’re going to impart truths that will cause your son to be as or more successful than you were.
David knew the way of how things worked. Being king over the Israelites was no small thing. It was huge. They were a vast people, and at times very unruly and hard to please. David had to have a tremendous amount of help, and he leaned on Heavenly Father for it. His dependence on God yielded an understanding of how God moves and takes care of His people. So David knew that God could be depended upon, and that Heavenly Father would not disappoint him.
If you give it some thought, you’d have to come away with the notion that David could have told Solomon any number of things. He could have told him who he should appoint in a particular office, or who he should or should not wage war against. He could have told him to watch out for certain unscrupulous people, or to only choose a certain type of woman for a wife, but he didn’t waste his time with all that. He summed it up in one neat package, and gave Solomon a piece of knowledge that would yield a lifetime of success. He told him to honor God’s Word.
David grew to understand God, and they had a very good relationship. David reverenced Heavenly Father and honored His holiness. Through his own personal experiences, he had witnessed God’s faithfulness to His Word. David knew that the way to be blessed and to have a successful life was to be obedient to God’s decrees, commands, regulations, and laws. Obedience to God is the condition upon which the promise of success lies. In 1Kings 2:4 (NLT), David went on to tell Solomon, “4 If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.”
At different times of their lives, people are faithful to a number of different things. Some are faithful to their relationships or jobs, some are faithful to their addictions or vices, others are faithful to this philosophy or another. Human beings vacillate from cold to hot, from devoted to uncommitted. They are with you one day, and against you the next, but when it comes to God, there’s no wishy-washy business involved. He is 100% million percent faithful, and we never have to wonder about what He is faithful to. He’s faithful to His Word; therefore, He is faithful to us. If He says it, it must be so. We can take it to the bank. ■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. “The Faithfulness of God” written by Vince Mack. Blessing Beads and More© 2017. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.