David and the Skeptic’s Objection
The superficial manner in which skepticism skims over the surface of things, is well illustrated in the use which it makes of the declaration of God, that he had found David a man after his own heart. David, says the skeptic, was guilty of egregious sins; and yet God says that he was a man after his own heart, and hence God endorses David's life as that which he approves, and shows himself well pleased with the heinous sins of which he was guilty. And the conclusion is eagerly arrived at, that herein we have a specimen of the character of the God of the Bible. Let us see how this is. Paul refers to this matter in Acts xiii, 21, 22, thus: "And afterward they desired a king; and God gave unto them Saul, the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up to them David, to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will." There is enough in this, it would seem, to lead the skeptic to pause a little before drawing his rapid conclusions, and taking it upon himself to ridicule those things, which a little thought would bring before his mind in a far different light. Perhaps it never occurred to such to inquire at what period of David's life God bore this testimony concerning him. If they would do this their objection would at once vanish. Paul, in the testimony above quoted, says it was when God raised him up to be king in Saul's stead. And that portion of his life which God by that language approved was then in the past; for God, at that time had, up to that point, found him a man after his own heart. And then he refers to him as one who would in the future, perform all his will, having reference, we understand, to his management of the kingdom, from which Saul by his disobedience to the plain command of God, had been removed to make room for him. A reference to the original scripture from which Paul quotes, will make this matter still more plain. It is found in 1 Sam. xiii, 13, 14: "And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee; for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue. The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee." Here it is plainly stated that it was even before Saul was actually dethroned that David was called a man after God's own heart. It was spoken of him while he yet possessed the purity and innocence of his youth. It was never said of him after he had been seduced into wickedness, and had committed those sins which have left their stain upon his great character. To take this testimony spoken of him in his youth, when there was no fault to be found with him, and apply it to him at the close of a life marked by some very prominent follies, and then assert that God thereby endorses those departures from right, is to either blindly or maliciously misapply the record. And if to any of our readers the skeptic should ever urge this testimony concerning David as an objection to God and his word, just remind him of the time when it was spoken, and let him ever after, on this point, keep silence.