Jul 22ndDevotion Acts 13:20b-22 What Is Unbearable

Acts 13:20b-22 – “After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. 21 Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

“After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet.”  Stephen, in Acts 7, when seized, was able to speak to the Sanhedrin and common Jews who were present.  He began to express the common ancestry between his accusers and himself.  He first mentioned “our father Abraham.”  The Sanhedrin and he shared a common ancestry.    Stephen was witnessing to the Jews as he laid out the common ancestry and also the rebellious nature of the people against their faithful God.  Paul also laid out a history of Israel.  He was illustrating to his audience that He also is Jew.

Samuel lived from about 1070 B.C. to 1012 B.C.  The time frame referred to as “After this” is from the time of the deliverance from Egypt and establishing the Hebrews in the Promised Land to time of Samuel the Prophet.

“Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.”  The great prophet Samuel, after the people rejected having God as their King and had asked to have a man as their king, under the guidance of God, chose Saul as the king and he ruled for forty years.  He was later removed from being king for disobeying God.  His disobedience was later tragically a part of his death as a specter from his disobedience came back to haunt him.

“After removing Saul, he made David their king.”  King David who wrote much of the books of Psalms was the king who was the successor to Saul.

“God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’”  David was Israel’s greatest King.  If one, anybody, is going to have someone give a definitive representative statement of their life, there can be no higher witness than God.  Wonderfully God said of David that he was a man after God’s own heart and that he would do everything that God wanted him to do.  God said this about him so we know it is true.  Yet we know of David’s sin.  David’s sin and his love, loyalty and obedience to God seem to be contradictory.  After all, the Word says that those who love God will obey Him (1 John 5:3, 1 Samuel 15:22, Jeremiah 7:22-23).  Yet, David not only sinned, but He sinned big.  But understanding of God’s statement about David is contained within God’s testimony of Him.  It was David’s heart.  David’s greatest desire was to live in the presence of God and could not bear not being in the presence of God.  After his great sin with Bathsheba and against Uriah, after the Lord exposed His sin, David repented and pleaded with God “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.  12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (Psalm 51:10-12).  David sought God’s mercy and to be restored and renewed by God.  He did not say that he would, by his own will and ability, depart from the evil in his life, but he sought God to “create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  He knew that the nature of his flesh would desire to do evil and that only God could change him to live better for God, and to keep him living for God.  David’s greatest fear was to be separated from God.  He could give up his natural life (he was a mighty warrior), but the thought of not having close fellowship with God was an unbearable one.  Yes David, a very imperfect man was loved by God as God knew that in spite of his sins, he desperately wanted the love and fellowship of God more than anything else. 

For us it is the same.  The thought of living even the smallest moment outside of the love of God is terrifying.  Sure, we are afraid of hell, but that is not the essence of the matter.  Living for even the briefest moment outside of the presence and love of God is the worst thing that could happen to us.  Not just because of the thought of punishment but because of not having the presence of His Holy Spirit within in.  How empty and cold would that be?  It makes us shudder!  I cannot remember what it was like before having Jesus as my Savior and Lord, and nor do I want to.  It is the same for all who truly love Him.  Let us be like King David, whom some day we will meet, and love God with all that we are.  Let us be forever transformed by His love to become more like Him.  May we never wake without Him on our minds and may we go to sleep with thoughts of Him, and His peace, being with us.  Family, I pray that always His peace and joy be the calm and exhilaration of our hearts.  Love, peace and joy to all of you, today and forever!  His love, His peace and His joy.  Praise God!  Love God!  Praise God!

Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!

Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. 

Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.