1 Chron. 11:1-3; 1 Sam. 16; Acts 13:21,22
No one
will dispute David’s right to be included in the
list of leaders in divine history. It was just a matter
of David’s having to come to the function
because God willed it. Everything conspired to
prevent it in the first instance and to overthrow it
later. His family despised him and even his father left
him out of account. Saul in jealousy sought his life for
years. His own son, Absalom, treacherously schemed and
acted for his dethronement. The devil himself seemed to
have determined by any and every means to undo him. That
he came to be Israel’s greatest leader says clearly
and eloquently that it was of God.
But it
was not just and only naked sovereignty. There was ground
in David upon which God could work. The sovereignty of
God does not ignore the weaknesses, errors, faults and
even evils in men. David was deeply culpable in quite
serious evils and mistakes, and no man was ever more
deeply disciplined than he. Nevertheless the divine
calling had that in the man which meant enough to God to
give ground for making a great leader of him. It is to
that ground that we give attention as we proceed to
gather the factors and features of leadership from the
Bible.
Let us
say here what we have said in other instances: we are not
embarking upon a study of the life of David. All that we
are doing here is to underline the characteristics of
leadership as seen in him, and as abidingly essential in
all who will exercise that function of influencing others
in relation to the purpose of God.
There
is one characteristic in David which explains everything,
and includes a very great deal. It is spiritual
greatness.
Spiritual greatness
David
rose to simply sublime heights of spiritual greatness and
the occasions were of the most testing nature. This we
shall see as we proceed.
Let us
first examine the spring of this spiritual greatness
which made it possible for God to refer to him as “a
man after my [God’s] heart”.
Beneath
David’s spiritual greatness there was:
(1) A great sense of
responsibility
There
could much be made of the courage and devotion springing
from that sense of responsibility in defending and
rescuing the sheep from the lion and the bear. We can
take it that in that hour when no public eye was upon
him, when there was no other motive or incentive, if God
had seen a willingness to save his own life, or forfeit
the life of a single sheep as a matter of “discretion”
or “policy”, He would never have chosen David
as the shepherd of His people Israel, and the type of
“the great shepherd of the sheep … even our
Lord Jesus”, who laid down His life for the sheep
and who said: “Whosoever would save his life shall
lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
shall find it”.
Then,
on the same principle of responsibility, with all that
has been written and said about it, not too much has been
made of the encounter with and assault upon the giant
Goliath. This was the stuff of his later concern for the
nation.
It is
all too easy to sacrifice divine interests for personal
security or gain; to throw away cheaply the things
precious to God because of an inadequate sense of
responsibility. If it can be said truly that any attitude
or conduct of ours meant loss to the people of God, then
we have forfeited all right to be regarded as a spiritual
leader.
(2) A heart wholly for the Lord
In the
instances of the lion and the bear, it is evident from
his words to Saul that it was as before the Lord. “The
Lord that delivered me...” The Lord got the glory.
In the
case of Goliath the Lord and His honour were the
motivating and activating interest. This matter of “the
heart for the Lord” carries us into too many
incidents, connections, and ways of expression to be
tabulated here, but it is not necessary. In a sense it
sums up his life and flows out in his psalms. How much that
explains God’s great patience and faithfulness! It
was a sense of responsibility for the Lord’s honour.
(3) A great concern for the House
of God
David
had come to a clear apprehension of God’s eternal
desire to have a place of dwelling in the midst of His
people. He felt so deeply that he should take
responsibility for God’s satisfaction in that matter
that he expressed himself thus:
“Lord,
remember for David all his afflictions: How he sware unto
the Lord and vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob: Surely I
will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up
into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or
slumber to mine eyelids; until I find out a place for the
Lord, a tabernacle for the Mighty One of Jacob”
(Psalm 132).
We
know of his labours and longings for the House of God; it
forms a large part of his psalms. Such abandon to what
was, and still is, so dear to the heart of God, brought
God alongside of him, and although he went through times
of rejection, persecution, discrediting and in the
episode of Absalom, exile and heartbreak, God vindicated
him eventually. Such responsibility for God’s
satisfaction is a major factor in divinely chosen
leadership.
(4) A great respect and regard for
the anointing
The
anointing was to David a very sacred thing. If it had
been given even to one who had made himself unjustifiably
David’s enemy and who had done him untold harm and
caused him unspeakable suffering, David would not put
forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed; not
though it would have been immensely to his advantage to
do so, and when that enemy was completely at his mercy.
David
may have known that the dishonouring of the anointing,
wherever it was, would return upon the head of him who
dishonoured it, but he sought no such judgment. The
anointing was a very responsible matter with David and he
would not touch it in word or deed.
(5) An honest lament over the fall
of his enemy
Perhaps
at no point did David’s spiritual greatness rise to
greater heights than in his lament over Saul’s
death. He was far from the spirit which says, “he
deserved it”; “it is God’s righteous
judgment on him”, and so on. There were no
innuendoes, no condemnations, no remembrances of Saul’s
evil deeds, no self-vindications, no gloatings and
rejoicings. Sorrow, grief, regret, and kindness almost
sobbed themselves out in that lament. In the light of all
that he had suffered at Saul’s hands only real
greatness could account for this spirit. History may put
a very different complexion on the end of Saul, and the
chroniclers make no romance of it, but for David it was a
grievous thing.
Yes,
spiritual greatness was truly characteristic of David.
(6) Disappointed ambition
We
have seen what a large place God’s house had in the
heart and life of David. But when it came to the actual
realization of his holy ambition and the building of the
house, he was forbidden, and deprived of the privilege.
In almost peremptory words God said: “thou shalt not
build the house” (1 Kings 8:19). What would a
smaller man have done? We leave the reader to answer that
question. As for David, no doubt greatly disappointed and
saddened, he rose above his personal feelings and
prepared with all his might for the house (1 Chron.
29:2), and gave a private possession in addition to all
his public funds and resources.
To see
another doing what has been our greatest desire in life
is testing of spiritual measure, but to help that other
with all our might is a proof of stature, provided of
course that the Lord has definitely marked out that other
with anointing for the work.
(7) Adjustability when mistakes
have been made
More
than once did David make a grievous and costly mistake
.We do not enumerate these failures. An outstanding
instance was the bringing of the ark up to Jerusalem on
the “new cart”, contrary to the way prescribed
in Scripture. The motive was pure and the purpose was
right. But the method was wrong and disaster overtook the
project. Uzzah lay dead. David was angry with the Lord.
But he sought in the Scriptures an explanation, and
having found it, he forsook his aggrievedness, made the
necessary adjustment and did the thing in the Lord’s
ordained way. Thus again he showed that he was
spiritually big enough to be a leader. He could confess
his mistake. He could let all Israel know where he had
been at fault. And he could act accordingly.
A very
great factor in leadership is this grace and ability to
adjust when mistakes are made. Even great men make them,
but their greatness is shown in how they deal with them.
(8) Sensitiveness to sin
This
needs only to be mentioned for very much in David’s
psalms and history to leap into mind. The most plaintive,
heart-rending, and devastating outpourings of a sorrowful
heart in all literature are to be found in some of David’s
utterances. And these are usually in relation to his sins
and failures. Such sensitiveness to wrong in oneself is
very necessary in God’s judgment.
A
forcing on when wrong should be righted is to make the
spirit hard and callous. The Spirit of God is very
sensitive. Finer susceptibilities are a mark of noble
souls and spiritual refinement.
I
think that what we have said is enough to give further
substance to the matter of leadership, and it only
remains to be re-said that leadership with God is not
official and by human appointment, but, in principle,
is always a matter of spiritual measure.