What Does Covenant Look Like? Pt4
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 109
2 Samuel 9:1
Then David said, “Is there yet anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
Years have passed since David has been on the run from Saul. It has taken him about 15 years to overcome his enemies and take his place on the throne. When David regains power, the first question he asks is, “Can I build a house for God?” We see the second question he asks in this verse.
David does not omit Saul. He could have just asked about Jonathan’s house, but he went back and talked about Saul. He served Saul, honored Saul, loved Saul, refused to kill Saul, yet Saul showed nothing but ingratitude towards David and was very jealous of him. Saul had spiritual blindness when he looked at David.
God delights to promote other people through us. He delights when we defer and honor others among us…even when those people have not been so kind to us.
David’s question reveals a lot about his heart. A person’s questions are often more revealing than the answers they give. We should be known for having great questions.
Is there anyone from the house of Saul? There is no cancel culture in the Bible. There is no cancel culture in great people’s lives. There is no cancel culture in great cultures. Our lives are dotted with flawed people who God still uses. Our history and our circumstances are full of people who had great understanding and revelation in one area, but were devoid of it in another area. That’s why we need one another.
George Washington was a great man. There were many great, sacrificial things about him. Yet he was a slave owner. How could that be? Washington was incredible, yet he had a major flaw. You can’t take American history and pretend like George Washington didn’t do something great. Instead, we need to look at it and see that there was a great man who had a tremendous blind spot…what about me?
When you take real history out of our lives and cancel it, it takes away the fear of the Lord to do the right thing.
John Wesley was a great theologian. He shook nations. But when it came to church government, he had such an incredible flaw. He wanted his followers to stay faithful and loyal to the Church of England, a state-run church. That is a pretty major theological error for someone who had such unbelievable revelation.
If we take flawed people out of history and don’t learn from them, it creates the assumption that if someone is right in one area, they are right in all areas. I meet people like this all the time. God uses them in one area, they read their own press clippings, and they think that they are beyond reproof. They make the bad theological deduction that if God used them so greatly in one area, how could they be wrong in another area? How? Because you are human. You are flawed. You don’t know everything. Because God didn’t make you just as an individual person, but made you to be part of the body of Christ.
King David had unbelievable leadership skills. He was a warrior. He was a man’s man. He knew how to get into the presence of God. In spite of that, he had serious flaws. If we take those flaws out of the Bible, if we cancel that culture, we do not learn.
COVENANT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND HONOR, EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN HURT.
David somehow had the grace and faith to talk about Saul. David had a great relationship with Jonathan. He understood that if there was no Saul, then there would have been no Jonathan.
“Honor your mother and father.” Scripture doesn’t say agree with them. Some of us have had mothers and fathers who didn’t always do great things or maybe did harm to us or other people. Yet we wouldn’t be here without them.
Give honor to whom honor is due, even when they are not honorable. Why would it be a command if it was conditional?
This is a covenant reality. This is how God relates to His Church. He does not throw us overboard. He continues to redeem us.
What good questions are you asking? How is your honor meter? Are you able to show honor to people who have hurt you? Are you able to understand that even though there are very flawed people out there, some of them have still done great things and we need to learn from them so that we don’t assume that because we have accomplished something, we are beyond failure?
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
