In the morning David wrote a letter to Joan and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. – 2 Samuel 11:14-17 ESV

Warrior;
We must realize the value of leadership and the understanding that ALL MEN fall short of the glory of God. David is King, a good man, a lover of God, and to fulfill prophecy, Jesus (The Messiah) was to be in the bloodline of David, it is considered the BLOODLINE OF THE KING The Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). In fact, it is God Himself who calls David that. Yet, as we all know, David committed some particularly egregious sins. Along with those egregious sins, he is shown to be a man who has plenty of lesser sins too. If David is the MODEL King, and the Model of the type of man and the type of Leader that we should want to attain to be, what is the message, what are we to take from this, as we look at the Man, David, in his entire catalogue of actions, what we call our lives?

Leader, the internet is full of articles about what it means to be a “Man after God’s own heart”. Here is one I found: The following words describe the heart of David as seen in his own writings: Humble – Lowborn men are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie; if weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath. (Psalm 62:9) Reverent – I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:3) Respectful – Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief. (Psalm 31:9) Trusting – The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1) Loving – I love you, O Lord, my strength. (Psalm 18:1) Devoted – You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. (Psalm 4:7) Recognition – I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. (Psalm 9:1) Faithful – Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (Psalm 23:6) Obedient – Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. (Psalm 119:34) Repentant – For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. (Psalm 25:11) David’s example is a great road map for how we are to live our life. As great as David was, look at today’s verse. David committed adultery with his servant’s wife, while he was serving the king in battle. Then he attempted to cover his tracks with trickery, and when that did not work, David had Uriah purposely killed. So David conspired to commit murder, and then committed murder and was so brazen as to make his loyal servant- Uriah, carry his death sentence himself to Joab, who would set up the murder to happen.

Conduit, not only did David have Uriah killed, he was responsible for the death of Uzzah- see 2 Samuel 6:1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. David also is responsible for getting 70,000 others killed by another act of sin. Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel. So the LORD sent a pestilence on Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. (1 Chronicles 21:1,7,14) Since we are tracking the deaths caused by David’s sin, let us also consider his sons and those who died in the battle for the kingdom when his son Absalom formed a rebellion against David and in one battle alone 20,000 were killed. By my counting we are approaching 100,000 dead, directly as a result of King David’s sin. So here is a “Good Man”, an example of who to follow, yet look at how flawed and how broken David was. You can also find people in the Bible who DID NOT follow after God, who were NOT men after God’s own heart, and God used them as well and actually Called them His servants. Cyrus: Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed. ( Isaiah 45:1) Nebuchadnezzar: Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation. (Jeremiah 25:8-9) The Bible is clear NO ONE IS GOOD, only GOD IS GOOD. The Bible tells us the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. God Himself REGRETTED creating man just 5 chapters past, IN THE BEGINNING. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. (Genesis 6:6) “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” The only perfect is GOD\JESUS. And yet, we are called to Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. We cannot expect any man to be perfect, so we must quit looking TO MEN, to Presidents, to Parents, to Pastors to be perfect, and voting for the BEST MAN, because we are all flawed. We must look to JESUS; For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:14) Those leaders that have FRUIT, that most of the time are geared toward His children, those leaders who support Christians, and support LIFE, and support Israel- as flawed as they are- they are the ones to follow! Following a man\woman who the world says is good, but yet they have policies and beliefs that God says is BAD- is not going to get you closer to God! There is only one perfect, remember that, and follow those people who are men and women AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART, not the praises of men; For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Keep your focus on Jesus!