The following article is an opinion piece and reflects the views of only the author and not those of AllOnGeorgia.
A man goes to the doctor and says, “Doc, everything on me hurts. It’s unbearable, please help me.” The doctor instructs his patient to touch his knee. “Ouch!”. The doctor tells him to touch his forehead. “Oh Doc! The pain is excruciating.” The doctor then tells the man to touch his elbow. “I can’t stand it. It hurts!” the man yelled. “You idiot, you have a dislocated finger!”, the doctor exclaimed.
Finding the source of the pain is sometimes a problem. We experience pain, but our figurative dislocated finger points anywhere, except the source of the pain. Pointing the finger, shifting the blame and finding loopholes may feel better at the time, but in the end the pain is still there in the same place, left untreated.
King Saul had a seriously dislocated finger that seemed to always point in the direction of David. He could feel his kingship slipping away, but instead of looking at why the promises of God for his life were dwindling, he blamed David for all his problems. He spent all his energy trying to mastermind a way to control David or get rid of him altogether.
Saul was chosen by God as Israel’s first King. He looked Kingly and grew into acting Kingly too. Over time though, being King went to his head. See, the King of Israel was supposed to look completely different than all the other worldly kings. King Saul got his orders directly from God, through the prophet Samuel.
Saul’s pride led him to build monuments to himself and begin to pick and choose bits and pieces of God’s commands that he wanted to follow. The Lord said, “I regret that I made Saul King, for he has turned away from following me and has not carried out my instructions.” 1 Samuel 15:11. Saul teaches us that partial obedience is disobedience.
From that point on egocentric Saul did everything he could to point the finger at anything and everything other than himself, including his own children. It drove him to utter madness up until his last day on earth. If you are familiar with the successive King, David, he made some ungodly mistakes too. But there was one significant difference, David was repentant.
When David had a royal mess-up, he pointed the finger only at himself. He focused on what part he played in the disobedience and asked for God’s forgiveness. I used to have a tough time with David because of the whole Bathsheba affair and David having her husband killed to cover it up. It was hard for me to accept that God would revere David as a man after His own heart after such offenses.
Not only does God call David a man after his own heart, but he made the baby born out of that affair with Bathsheba the next King. King Solomon was the wisest and wealthiest King. God loved David so much that he chose for his own son Jesus to be son of David, descended from his throne. The more I have studied David, the more I see why God loved him so dearly.
When we are willing to look at our own sin and our own disobedience, God can work with that. Humility makes an impression on our Lord; prideful pointing of the finger indicates to the Lord that you would rather handle things on your own. God’s Word is packed with page after page of people just like me and you who mess up, big time. Each one of those mess ups require us to be introspective, repentant and filled with humility.
“Humble yourself before the Lord and he will exalt you.” James 4:10. King David was a walking example of this verse. Will you humble yourself and look inside yourself like David did when you become entangled in sin? That is a man or woman after God’s own heart.
By: Nadolyn Lee
Nadolyn has served in church ministry in the areas of music, children and youth for over thirty years. She is creator of ‘Dirt Road Believer’ YouTube channel where she produces Christian devotions every Tuesday and Thursday. Her home is in Summerville, GA with her husband and four children.
