The Limits of Man
Today we meet a David who is thoroughly human. Perhaps the David we meet today is what we ourselves are like now. For we are like David, who tries to live by faith yet in the end cannot let go of the world’s way of thinking, and so tears down his own faith. This human weakness is why we need God’s absolute help. The David we know is a prophet and the king of Israel, who hears God’s voice and does his best to accomplish God’s will. As I watched this David fail to overcome his hardship and defy God, I thought it was just like us when we make excuses and fail to obey.
Because people are weak, when they fail to keep their faith whole, in the end their hearts waver, fear rises, and they betray God. The only question is who holds on to faith with how strong and courageous a heart; it seems there is no one whose faith never wavers to the very end.
People live in a world woven of relationships, events and circumstances, each making a space of their own. In that space some will be lonely, some will be struggling and hurting, and some will feel as happy as if they were in heaven. All these lives may have been given because of our own decisions, or they may have been given regardless of our choice. In such a complicated world, people are walking their own paths. Within it, believers carry the great task of keeping their faith.
People think we are walking a path God has fixed for us, but listen to Jeremiah and you will find that it is not so.
Jeremiah 32:19
19great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings;
God does not drag a life along by force; he gives to everyone according to the ways they choose and the deeds they do. He sees the good fruit a good person bears and gives that person more grace and blessing. The wicked choose the wicked way and do wicked deeds, and that is why God disciplines them. Your life is not dragged along the way God has fixed it; according to the kind of fruit you bear, God sometimes helps you and sometimes rebukes you. The shape of one’s life is what one has made of it. If we live good lives spiritually, God will grant many blessings. Whatever circumstances and people you meet, strive to bear good fruit.
The David we meet today shows us that without God’s help, human beings can only end up on the way of sin and death. Until now David had been fleeing from Saul, who was trying to kill him, and he survived because God’s absolute protection was over him. For at every desperate moment God helped him, raising a more urgent matter for Saul so that Saul had to turn back instead of pursuing David. Because David believed in this God who protected him, he endured with great patience so as not to take revenge on Saul. He even got a promise from Saul that Saul would never pursue him again.
But David had a problem bigger than Saul: the three thousand people who followed him. David, who had to provide them with food, clothing and shelter, must have felt the limits of life on the run. And the people who had trusted David and chosen hardship with him probably felt frustrated, too, as they watched David refuse to kill Saul even when he had the chance, not knowing when their life as fugitives would end. They were probably disappointed, too, at what they saw: killing Saul would have ended it all, but David spared him again and again, calling it God’s command, and still Saul forgot even to be grateful and came after him to kill him again.
Think how frightened they must have been when Saul broke his promise and came with three thousand chosen troops, and their complaining makes sense. Still, if the soldiers had had no families, they would have obeyed David whatever he decided. But the compulsion to protect their own families shook even their faith in David.
Three thousand people were too many for David to persuade simply by telling them that God had commanded them not to leave Israel. If three thousand people clamored at David, asking how much longer they would have to keep living on the run like this, David, too, would grow less sure of what he was doing. Even a leader cannot ignore the people beside him when they press their own opinions hard. And if there are many of them, they are all the harder to deal with. But David had to trust God’s promise rather than people.
Perhaps Saul, too, wanted to stop each time David spared him. But if the people beside him kept telling him where David was hiding, and urged him on by saying that only by killing David could his son Jonathan become king, he would have pursued David out of fear of them, if nothing else. That is why, depending on whom we are with now, we may keep our faith, or we may throw away our convictions and our promise to God. Who is beside you now? Are they people who help your faith grow? And are you living a life that helps the faith of those beside you? This is extremely important. For although you can live your life by your own will, along the way you may be brought down by people regardless of your will, as David is now.
In 1 Samuel 22:5 God had commanded David through the prophet Gad to stay in Judah, yet David decided that the best way to calm these people’s fears was to take refuge in the land of the Philistines. I tried to understand David’s heart: why would a man like him, who obeyed God’s word so absolutely that he would not kill even his enemy Saul, disobey and go to the Philistines? His human thoughts about how to get out of this hard situation were bigger than his faith to carry out God’s command. That is why he defied God’s command even though it had been given.
David is so influenced by the people beside him that he now thinks the land of the Philistines is safer — the very land he had barely escaped by drooling and acting mad before King Achish. Had David been alone, he would never have made such a decision. Even David, who had given his very life to living by the Word in order to keep his faith, in the end chose disobedience because of the people beside him. What a sad reality this is.
I have thought about what would have happened if David had sent all the people away, as Jesus did. If he had told them that he had to obey God’s command, so anyone who would go against his will was free to leave, David would have stayed in Judah. But David must have abandoned God because he worried how they would live if he sent them away and whether Saul would torment them, and because he thought they could not live without him. In the end he could not entrust his whole life to God, and he could not wait for God’s time.
You, too, may make such a decision because of the people beside you. Because of you, I, your pastor, may misjudge something, and because of me, you may stray from the path of truth. That is why we must live relying on God alone. Keep it firmly in mind that, like the soldiers, the head of a household of faith may abandon God for the sake of the family’s safety. It is wise to rely on God, who protects even where we cannot see, because there is a limit to how far people can protect their own families by themselves.
Because of people, David had no choice but to attack his own faith himself. Just as Adam attacked his own faith and fell because of Satan, David struggled between faith and disobedience but in the end covered the light with darkness. David probably knew that defying God’s command would be like the collapse of the defensive line Satan had not been able to cross, and that he would have no strength to fend off the attacks of Satan that would pour down on him. Because he was a man of outstanding spiritual stature, David’s struggle must have been very severe.
That is usually what people are like: once they put out the fire of faith, from then on they cannot control their own actions, and they do not even realize what wrong they are doing. That is why we must never act in defiance of God. Because of one wrong judgment, David was driven into the perilous position of having to attack his own people, Israel. This happened because David himself tore down his own faith.
Yet look: even though David had sinned, God helped him so that he would not go to a place from which there was no turning back. When King Achish called David, who had taken refuge with him, and told him to join the war against Israel, God moved the hearts of Achish’s officials, and they objected that David could not be sent out to battle, since he might betray them. God rescued David at a truly critical moment. Because human beings see only the present, they can make foolish decisions. David received God’s grace so richly and yet in the end defied God’s command for his own ease. Seeing that, we must understand that anyone can betray God.
Unlike David in his decision, the apostle Paul confesses in 1 Corinthians 15:31 what kind of faith he lives by.
1 Corinthians 15:31
31I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
You probably know in what harsh conditions the apostle Paul preached the gospel. When he confessed that he died daily, he meant that living while keeping one’s faith was that hard. Because the people and circumstances we meet are different every time, a judgment or decision made in a moment can tear down the faith we have built up with such struggle. So Paul would have lived as one who had died with Jesus on the cross, throwing away the greed and cravings of the world and judging by the Word alone. Being human, the apostle Paul surely had moments when he regretted it, wondering why he had given up his good family background, his education and his family to go through such hardship. He must have been shaken and discouraged, too, when he saw people like Demas, for whose salvation he had labored, betray him.
Paul says that without the hope of the resurrection and heaven, it would have been hard for him to endure. And he urged believers always to wake up, to act righteously and not to sin, because people with evil hearts corrupt their own faith and the faith of others. The apostle Paul asks this because a person’s life can change depending on the faith and character of the people they walk with. That is why he urged them not to be deceived by such people.
There is certainly a difference between the faith of the apostle Paul and the faith of David. Both men knew that because God is alive, the truth does not change, and that he surely works when people obey his word; yet Paul obeyed and David failed to obey. Ironically, though, David, who had abandoned God, returned to the palace by God’s grace and finished a splendid life as king, while the apostle Paul, even though he lived by God’s word, was taken to Rome and put to death. In the end, what truly matters in life is the faith we lived by. For it is by the fruit we bore in the world that we receive judgment and blessing from God. That does not mean David went to hell. I am using a single event to tell you how hard it is to keep faith.
So you must act carefully every day, so as not to say or do anything that tears down the faith and happiness of the people beside you. For a word or deed tossed out without thought can be pain like death to the other person. We see people who take their own lives after reading other people’s comments. I understand how hard it must have been for them, but my heart aches at how unhappy the choice of suicide is. For, thinking about it coolly, the consequence of that choice is that person’s own responsibility. God will in the end hold those who drove them to death responsible for their words. But the one who could not overcome the situation and took their own life, whatever the reason, will have been judged, because they cut off at their own will the life God gave. That is why suicide is a sin that must never be committed.
What I am saying is that when a person attacks their own faith because of someone beside them and falls into misery, it is in the end their own responsibility. For it is not the attacker who becomes miserable, but the one who accepted the attack and brought themselves down. Whether to defy God and leave the country like David, or to preach the gospel by faith to the end like the apostle Paul — each person must bear that responsibility themselves. Whatever situation you find yourself in, I hope you will keep your faith. And I hope that faith will lead to good deeds, so that you help yourself, and of course the people beside you, to walk the path of truth. For once we abandon faith, we know our own sin, as David did, and so we think it is safer to go into darkness.
When Saul, who had been chasing David, saw that David had fled to the land of the Philistines and gave up the pursuit, the people of the world who saw it would say that David’s decision was right. But the standard for everything in the world is God’s word. God’s command telling David that he must stay in the land of Israel certainly had a reason. David was going to be the king of Israel, and for one who was to be king, it was very important to be with the people in that land. That is why God told him to stay in Israel. But for the sake of immediate bodily comfort, David led his people off and took refuge in the land of the Philistines.
The number of the days that David settled and lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months. During that time David attacked and defeated the foreign peoples who troubled Israel. And he lied to King Achish, telling him that he had attacked Israel. If Achish found out that he had been attacking enemies for Israel’s sake, things would get very complicated, so he lied. From what David is doing now, it looks as though he loves Israel so much that he defeats its enemies even while he is outside the country.
But look at the reality: after attacking the enemy he had to say he had attacked Israel, and because of that lie he ended up at a crossroads, facing the choice of attacking Israel together with the Philistines. Then you see how important the first choice is. He attacked the enemy for Israel’s sake, but because before that he had defied God’s word, he had no power to solve the problems that kept arising. When we are under God’s protection, God blocks every problem that is coming next; but once that fence is gone, solving one problem only creates another. This is the hard world in which those without wisdom live. David had always prayed to God, asked God’s will and put it into action; yet the choice he made to appease the complaints and moods of the people beside him drove him into an even tighter corner.
In chapter 28 David received King Achish’s proposal to attack Israel together, but fortunately the Philistine commanders did not trust David and objected, and so he narrowly avoided war with Israel. Though David had disobeyed, God kept him from committing a great sin. He had barely gotten past the war with Israel when, this time, the Amalekites carried off his wives and his people as captives. Only after suffering the pain of being plundered by the Amalekites did David realize that he was a weak being who could not live without God’s help. Having returned to God’s embrace, David became a great king who established a united kingdom, yet even he had this kind of human foolishness. Looking at David, we ought to live even more carefully and prudently.
I once heard that in the 10,000-meter speed skating race there are several stretches as hard as death, just as in life. But one skater said that since this is a pain everyone goes through, the gold medal is decided by who endures that dead point better. In other words, who will smile and who will cry after the race is decided by who has trained more to get past that dead point. I thought it was exactly like the lives of believers who must keep their faith, and of the people of the world. Everyone faces trials of faith and the hardships of the world. Because these are dead points everyone goes through alike, we may smile or we may cry when we meet God, depending on who gets through them wisely with greater faith.
What choice will you make? Now that you have met God, if you overcome wisely and sensibly the problems everyone meets while living in the world, God will open the way of blessing for you. For believers who have lived wisely and with understanding in this world, eternal heaven awaits, in addition to the blessings they receive in the world.
May you live more wisely still, bear good fruit, and receive and enjoy God’s blessing. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 28:8-19
8Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Then he said, “Please consult for me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomever I shall name to you.” 9The woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” 10Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, “As Yahweh lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.” 11Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up to you?” He said, “Bring Samuel up for me.” 12When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” 13The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid! What do you see?” The woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” 14He said to her, “What does he look like?” She said, “An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe.” Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and showed respect. 15Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?” Saul answered, “I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and answers me no more, by prophets, or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.” 16Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since Yahweh has departed from you and has become your adversary? 17Yahweh has done to you as he spoke by me. Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David. 18Because you didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore Yahweh has done this thing to you today. 19Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”