Grace and Duty

Today in my quiet time with God, I was struck by this Bible verse involving David, ancient Israel's greatest king:

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 11:1)

[This illustration seems to capture well the boredom, languor, and lust that David gave a foothold in his life as he failed to do his duty.]

So begins the sorriest part of David’s life.

Until now, he exercised faith in pursuing God and God’s will.

But one spring, when his duty was to lead his armies in war, he decided to stay home in Jerusalem.

What led to David’s decision to stay behind?

• Was he tired of war? That would be understandable. But he still had his duty.
• Was he feeling entitled? That can happen when we reach a certain age. But we still have our duty.
• Did he feel that the armies could do well without him, that he had trained them well enough? Maybe. But it was still the duty of kings to go to battle with their armies.
• Was he tired of doing his duty, in need of what people today call “me time”? Yes, but...

Somewhere I’ve read that Martin Luther was asked how best to discern the will of God for our lives. The Scriptures give us a good picture of God’s will for all of our lives. But, Luther said, if God’s will is still unclear to us, we should ask ourselves, “What is my duty?”

God has made each of us part of families, communities, nations. We are called to love God and to love others. This will first be expressed in the networks of relationships I have with my family, community, and nation. What’s my duty to them?

When I am baptized, I become part of another community, God’s eternal family, the Church. In the Church, as Christ’s disciple, per Jesus’ new commandment, I am called also to love my fellow believer as Christ has loved me, with sacrificial love that puts the interests of others over my own.

David’s dereliction of duty, while forgiven by God, had horrible consequences.

So what happened that spring when David should have been with his army but stayed behind in his royal home?

He got up from his bed one night (2 Samuel 11:2). (Was he unable to sleep? Did he have a conscience that was pricking him? We don’t know.) While walking on the roof of his home, he caught sight of a woman bathing, Bathsheba.

David had her brought to her house. They slept together. (It’s hard for a woman to refuse a king bent on misusing his power to gain sexual favors, especially when that king has been anointed by God.)

Problem #1: Bathsheba was already married. (As was the king.)

Problem #2: Bathsheba became pregnant, while her husband, Uriah, was off to war.

The problem with the sinful avoidance of one’s duty is that, as it creates more problems unless you bring it all to God with repentance and faith, it only leads to more sinful avoidance of one’s duty.

David doesn’t want to take responsibility for his child. So, he arranges for Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, a member of the armies that David should have been leading, to get leave to go home to his wife in Jerusalem. Ostensibly, Uriah’s mission is to report to David on the battle’s progress. But David’s hope is that the soldier will go to his home, make love to his wife, and create the plausible fiction that the baby Bathsheba is carrying is Uriah’s, not David’s. Uriah doesn’t take the bait: He refuses to enjoy the comforts of home while his comrades are still sleeping in the fields by night and fighting enemies by day. (In contrast to David.)

That’s when David hatches another plan. He enlists his field commander as a co-conspirator to ensure that Uriah is killed in battle. That way, David could bring Bathsheba into his house as his wife. Clearly, that hadn’t been David’s original plan, but it would, he thought, let him save face.

The plot unfolds. Everything goes according to plan…

Until the prophet Nathan confronts David for his sin.

Unlike his predecessor, Saul, who expressed regret for his sin, mainly for getting caught, David is genuinely repentant. (Psalm 51 is his song of repentance and restoration to God.)

Nonetheless, there are times when sin has its consequences. God’s grace is such that whether the world catches us out or not, He will forgive the repentant. But our sins, even the forgiven ones, may set consequences in motion over which we have no control.

In David’s case: 

• The child he had not wanted died, bringing grief to both Bathsheba and him. 
• A second child was conceived, Solomon. Bathsheba, who probably never loved David, would scheme and connive to put Solomon on the throne, making David the object of palace intrigue. 
• Solomon would become Israel’s most powerful king, but he would also spiritually destroy Israel, introducing the worship of deities other than the world’s one true God Who had called Israel into being.

All this happened because David failed to do his duty.

None of this should be interpreted, of course, as saying that David, in failing to do his duty, was failing to earn his salvation. THAT’S NOT THE WAY GOD WORKS!

We are saved by grace through our faith in the God Who has, since the days of David, been definitively revealed in Jesus Christ. Believers are called to do their duty NOT as a means of gaining forgiveness and new life from God. We’re called to our duty of loving God, loving neighbor, and loving fellow believers IN RESPONSE TO THE FACT THAT THROUGH JESUS AND OUR FAITH IN HIM, WE ARE ALREADY SAVED FROM SIN AND DEATH!

The doing of our duty then becomes a way of expressing gratitude for unmerited grace: the gifts of forgiveness, new life, and purpose that belong to those who trust in Christ.

There have been times in the past few days when I have gotten “fussy” with God about the fulfillment of my duties. (Not so much in my work, but in my life in general.) 

I’ve murmured and whined. 

For this, I repent. And I ask God the Father, in the name of Jesus, to help me do my duty “...heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…” (Colossians 3:23). 

Because, in the end, in all my duties and relationships, whatever good I do, I really do it for the God I know in Christ. 

• The God Who loved me enough to go to the cross, 
• loved me enough to offer me salvation as a free gift, 
• loves me enough to stand by me always (Matthew 28:20)

God loves me in spite of who I am and what I often do. That should be reason enough for me to do my duty.

God, forgive me when in my fussy selfishness, Your grace doesn’t seem reason enough to do my duty to You and to others. And when I “lose my mind,” forgetting what I know of You and Your grace, restore me to reason and gratitude to You, Lord.

Today, Lord, my prayer is David’s on being confronted for his sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah: 

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 

Make me willing this day, Lord, to do my duty. (Psalm 51:10-12) In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. I'm also a sinner and, by God's grace in Christ, a saint.]

Being With You Is All That Matters

This is the journal entry from my quiet time with God today.

Look: “David asked him, ‘Why weren’t you afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?’” (2 Samuel 1:14)

The question is asked by David of the Amalekite who had brought news of Saul’s death to him. Saul, resentful of David, had marshaled armies to kill David for a long time. You might expect David to feel relief, even happiness, at the death of his tormentor. But he’s not.

In the course of conversation, David asks the Amalekite how he knows that Saul is dead. It turns out that the man had seen Saul on the battlefield, near death. Saul begged the man to take his life. While Saul’s feelings are understandable, this request is typical of him: Saul had a lifelong pattern of finding “easy ways” to avert responsibility without reference to the will of God. In fact, his entire sorry kingship was the result of just this impulse. Now, Saul, rather than facing death at the hands of enemies or his already severe wounds, begged this Amalekite to give him a way out. Saul feared humiliation more than he feared dying. The Amalekite complied with Saul’s request.

David was horrified that the man who stood before him had the temerity “to destroy the Lord’s anointed.” Saul had long fallen prey to the idea that he was bigger than the office to which he had been called, that this office belonged to him to be wielded in ways that pleased or made things easy for him. Whenever people denigrate their callings by viewing them as their entitlements, they make their egos larger and their souls smaller. And they make their egos larger precisely because they are filled with feelings of inferiority. This is why Israel’s last great judge told Saul after God had become vexed with Saul’s flights of egotism born of inferiority: “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel…” (1 Samuel 15:17)  

Saul had been called and anointed by God to be Israel’s first king. Had he relied on God, respected his calling and been humble about his person, all would likely have gone well for Saul and for Israel.

But Saul reversed things: He denigrated his calling and been arrogant and self-seeking for himself and his own glory, constantly replacing his own faulty, impatient judgments for the will of God, sought in God’s Word and in prayer.

To the last, Saul sought to have his own way, which is why he begged an Amalekite to kill him. He wanted the man to violate the sixth commandment: “You shall not murder.”

David, by contrast, had respect for the office to which Saul had been anointed. (Although as David’s life unfolded, he wasn’t always respectful of his calling.) Samuel, in fact, had already, before Saul’s death, anointed David to be his successor.

For this and other reasons, Saul had tried many times to kill David. And David, had many chances to kill Saul, an easy way out that would have enjoyed the support of many in Israel. But each time he had the chance to kill Saul, David refused. He would not destroy or harm God’s anointed one; he wouldn’t usurp the office of king from Saul. He wouldn’t take what God intended to give to him.

And David was horrified that this Amalekite would show such contempt for the will of God, which had made Saul king, by murdering the Lord’s anointed one.

Listen: There are lots of lessons here. But one of them is to patiently seek to do God’s will, to not force our will on circumstances in the search for closure or convenience or to avoid the difficult. God says through the prophet Isaiah: “...they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

That’s true. But in the waiting, we’ll also experience the temptation to despair, the temptation to give up, the temptation to seek human closure rather than divine solution. The adversity and pain that sometimes happens in the waiting can be the road by which God refines us, makes us new, teaches us dependence, integrity, and most of all, faith.

The apostle Peter talks about how God works in the lives of Christians through adversity near the beginning of his first-century letter to the churches in Asia Minor:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:3-7)

David was renewed in his faith and in his life by God through the strength God provides to those willing to admit that they don’t know it all, control it all, understand it all.

When things are unendurable, believers in the God we know in Jesus own the reality of their vulnerability and give up on trying to draw strength from within themselves, drawing it instead from God. God gives us His endurance.

Paul wrote “...for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:13). When I can own my weakness and my need of Christ, He fills me with His strength.

For Saul, there was nothing worse than being judged as weak or unsuccessful by the world. He loathed to see his poll numbers go down, his generalship deemed weak or inadequate.

In this, he wrecked his life and showed himself to be a fool because wisdom and strength only come from God. Proverbs 3:5-6, one of my favorite memory verses from the Bible, says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Saul didn’t trust God and he did lean on his own understanding. He didn’t submit to God and he took a crooked path away from God and the life that only God can give.

David was always at his best when he was dependent on God. Like all of us, he could be a fool (that adultery and murder thing was a disaster). But he also knew what to do when, like Saul, his life got off track. His confessions of sin and professions of faith, spoken by a man broken by his willfulness still move me:

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:10-12)

Respond: Forgive me, God, for the sake of Jesus, for wanting to take easy ways. I don’t seek to suffer, of course; that would be masochism. But I do seek not to avoid adversity, challenge, difficulty, or opposition. I do seek to trust in You when things aren’t perfect, when the going gets tough. I do seek to thank You and honor You even in the midst of tough times.

Forgive me too, for wanting to deny my vulnerability, for pretending invincibility. I know that these pretenses act as walls that keep Your grace, power, guidance, and wisdom from penetrating my life. When I’m busy building up my own walls of invincibility, I can’t be the clay that’s molded by its Maker.

Help me to remember how essential it is to sacrifice my broken spirit to You, as David wrote: “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17) Help me to lose my pride and so gain Your power in my life, even in the face of death.

And if my spirit isn’t broken by the realization of my sin, imperfection, and mortality, break me, smash me in pieces; it’s only in being broken by You that I can be made new. It’s only by volunteering for last place that I’m qualified to take the place You assign to me.

Forgive me for being inclined in my thinking and in my speech, to lift myself up. James says: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 1:7). Help me to rely on You to lift me or place me wherever You want me to be, because wherever You put me is where I should be. Help me to embrace the ambition of Psalm 84:10: “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”

Being with You, Lord, and having You with me is all that matters. That’s where the grace is. That’s where the strength is. That’s where the life is.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen

Building on Christ Isn't Easy

Christ tells us that wise people build their lives on Him.

That makes sense. Christ is, after all, God in the flesh. God alone can give life. And God designed us in His image, meaning that He clearly has a better idea about how to live optimally than we do.

He also went to a cross and rose from the dead to eliminate the power of sin over our lives. When we trust in Christ, building our lives on Him, He gives us life with God that lasts for eternity. We can also enjoy His presence with us in the midst of the pain of this imperfect world.

But as deeply as I believe these truths, they aren't easy to live out. Not. At. All.

The world says, "Follow your heart," "Trust your instincts," or "Think it through." Sometimes, I believe those messages myself. And there are places for our hearts, instincts, and brains, of course. The God we know in Christ gave these gifts to us too.

Yet, we need to be wary of our hearts, instincts, and thoughts. The reason is simple: The Bible insists that our whole beings are born captive to sin and death. Left to our own devices, sin darkens and distorts everything we think and feel and sense. "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death," Proverbs 14:2 says.

This is why Jesus tells us to build our lives on Him, to follow Him, to trust in Him. Our Creator and Savior needs to be our true north, the One Who can lead us into life with God, away from death and separation from God.

Life is hard.

And often it seems that we could make our lives a little easier by using other foundations--our own impulses, the standards of the world, the stuff of the world. Maybe our lives would be easier if we built our lives on those things. In fact, it almost certainly would. "To get along," my cynical grandfather used to advise me, "you have to go along." "Eat, drink, and be merry," the unimaginative lot who think the world must end with a ride in the hearse tell us.

But, given the witness that Jesus rose from the dead, how much good will our getting along and going along do us when we face the Lord Who called us to lives of significance when He said, "Follow Me"?

One of the reasons we crave easier lives in this world is that we know, deep in our psyches, that life lived under the shadows of sin, death, alienation, and darkness isn't what we were made for. We know that we're meant for more than simply slogging along in a world that can be "nasty, brutish, and short." We're meant for full, abundant, joyous life with God that never ends.

To get that kind of life in eternity and to gain those wonderful foretastes of it that God offers to those who believe in Christ through things like His Word, the sacraments, and the fellowship of the Church, means saying no to the things God says are harmful to our souls (you can find those in the ten commandments, among other places in the Bible) and say yes to His freeing love.

True confession: Sometimes I suspect that I know better than God. Many times. Lots of times. I struggle with God a lot. (In the Old Testament, Jacob wrestled with God. Compared to me though, Jacob is a nobody in the wrestling with God biz. I'm a WWF superstar.) The path God seems to have marked out for me isn't always my first choice. But God has called me to trust that He actually knows more than I do and that though His ways aren't my ways, His ways lead to real life. My ways, by contrast, lead to death.

In my heart of hearts, it's life with God that I want.

God, uncloud my heart. Clear away the garbage of self-will and of death and help me to build my life on You.

"Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." (Psalm 51:10-12)