David and Selfish Motives

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Saturday, December the seventh, twenty twenty four. It is currently nine fifty five am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. So let's begin with asking a very important question. And I'm asking this not only of you, I'm asking it of myself. What is your motivations? Is? That? Is that? What are your motivations?

0:46 Maybe that's more grammatically correct, now, what is what are your motivations? What motivates you? Now? See that's not really even a good question, because that's kind of too vague, right, that's really too vague. Not only did I not state it directly, all right, it's kind of a vague question. So so I think we would have to kind of more approach it this way. For every single thing you do, there is a motivation driving it. See. The motivation explains why you do what you do. But the motivation in many cases is hidden. In many cases, it's I don't even know if it's fully understood. So maybe I should state it not so much as a question. Maybe I should state it more as a challenge the next time you do something. I mean, you're listening to this broadcast, So we could start right there, what is your motivation for listening to this broadcast? I could ask myself what is my motivation for doing this broadcast? Now? If I'm gonna be I'm gonna try to be fully transparent here right now. This is the hard part about right is sometimes we don't even want to acknowledge what our motivation is.

2:05 We like to pretend in many cases that our motivations are always good, they're always pure, they're always right. But I believe philologically because if we understand human beings from a thiological perspective, we are all sinners with a sinful nature. That sinful nature is inside of us right. Our heart is desperately wicked, It is deceitful above all things, and we maintain that sinful nature even after salvation. Even though Christians like to try to deny that they're just they're lying to themselves. The reality is we have a sin nature. Now, just think that sin nature is inside of you. Motivations are inside of you. So your motivations, I believe, are constantly impacted by your sinful nature, meaning that a lot of times our motivations are very selfish, self seeking. They're not always God directed. God seeking God glorifying self really drives our motivation. So why are you listening? So let me let me state it this way. What is my motivation for doing this broadcast? Now? If I'm gonna be very transparent with you, if I'm gonna be very honest with you, my motivation for this broadcast really has nothing to do with a desire to teach the scriptures. I'm just being honest with you. Okay, don't get mad at me.

3:28 I'm just being honest. It doesn't really have anything to do with whether you're gonna get something from this or not get something from it. I know that sounds horrible, but I'm just being honest with you. My motivation, the primary motivation that I am sitting in front of this microphone, comes down to this. The last two broadcasts that I have done, I have been very unhappy with them. Right. I didn't like either this. I didn't like that. I just I wasn't very happy. I thought what I was attempting to do was good, but I just don't feel I pulled it off right. I felt like I came to the plate and I struck out strike one strike two strike three year out right, and then another strike one strike two strike three year. So there's two strikeouts. Well, now I want to come to the plate today and I want to hit a home run. But am I going to hit a home run? No? Because you know what my motivation is now? Well, wait a minute, Now I'm going to have to do another broadcast because I began this broadcast saying what is your motivation? Said? What are your motivations? I didn't even do things grammatically correct.

4:28 I think I was messing that up. I'd have to go back and listen to it. So now my mind is more focused on, well, how do I now make up for that mess up at the beginning. Some my motivation for doing this is I want to do a good broadcast because I wasn't happy with the last two broadcasts. That's not the right motivation to be sitting in front of a microphone doing a theology podcast. My motivation should be because I have something important to teach the people, and I'm excited about this, and I want them to be excited about this. We all need to consider this and I think we all need to learn this. But sometimes my motivation is not always pure. I know that's a shock, but it's the reality. Pastors stand behind pulpits sometimes and their motivation is just keep the people happy so that I can get the paycheck because I've got bills to pay. Right. My motivation now isn't anymore. I'm just going to preach the word of God, with or without offense to friend or foe. No, it's I've got to keep the people happy so they don't leave the church.

5:30 I'm not going to point to any specific pastor because the one thing I cannot do is I can't judge your motives, and I can't judge anybody else's motives. But I'm just saying that there's a lot of motives that are not pure of anyone. So I'm not I'm not speaking of any specific pastor. I'm just saying that there are many times pastors are standing behind pulpits not with the right motives. I'm not telling you to question their motives. What I'm telling you to do is you have to look at you your motives, and I have to look at mine. I'm just saying that so many times and I know Christians don't like to acknowledge this. Look, we're sinners and our motivations are all messed up. So today you're going to do things, What is your motivation? What is the motive behind what you're doing? Sometimes when we do the most good externally, it is being driven by the worst motivation. Sometimes the most right thing we do externally is driven by the most wrong motivation. Sometimes the wrong thing we do externally is actually driven by a right motivation. Is that not confounding and confusing motivations? And what motivates us? And what is the motive behind what we are doing? That's a very important thing because from

7:01 a philological perspective, remember, God is concerned with far more than just the external. Meaning externally, you could be doing all these things that appear to be good and right, but internally you're still You're in sin. You're in sin and sin because your motives are completely wrong. So what are your motives? What is your motivation in a particular situation? So what is your motivation when it comes to a specific thing, what are your motivations? And general speaking of them just in a general way, all of them together, I'm gonna get the I'm going to state these things grammatically correct, so then I can say, well, at least I corrected it, okay. See see my motivation, my motivation I was to see I sounded dumb at the beginning.

7:48 Now I have to try to repeat it fifteen times. See, even in the midst of talking, my motivations can change. My original motivation was I wanted to do this broadcast so I can hit a home run and I can be like, well, those last two or strikeouts. But I hit that home run on that third broadcast. Now my motivation is, Man, I messed up at the beginning. I wish I would have just stopped the broadcast and started it over. But see, the motivation to do that would not have been about God or the Bible. It would have been about my own selfish pride and my own ego. See, our motivations are constantly changing, they're constantly moving, and it's hard sometimes for us to even know what our motivation is. Now, why am I talking about motivation? Why am I talking about what our motives are? Because we have spent a lot of time and First Samuel, chapter twenty six, we have spent a lot of time in First Samuel twenty six.

8:49 And I know many of you may be saying, you know, I think it's time to move on, but I can't. I can't move on, so I'm gonna put forth. I have apotheses here. Now again, I state that is the hypothesis. I love doing this. I love coming to the text and saying, okay, guys, here's a hypothesis. What do you think? And then it challenged you to consider it and test it and contemplate. I know what I'm about to say here goes against everything you've ever heard taught about King David, about what David does in First Samuel twenty six. I know, but let me just retell the story one more time. Remember this all started we were reviewing a sermon on First Samuel twenty six. We probably only reviewed about fifteen to twenty minutes of the audio, and this has turned into like five or six hours of broadcasting about it.

9:40 But the text raises so many difficult questions. So the story is simple. Saul has been hunting down David, trying to kill him. Saul finds a place to camp out. He builds an encampment. That's where they're staying. David finds out that that's where Saul is staying. David goes, they sneak into the camp, him and another individual. They go in and they find Saul asleep with his spear right there. And the man with David is like, hey, take the spear, kill Saul and all of your problems and I'm somewhat paraphrasing, and all of this will be over. And David's like, how dare you tell me to do that. I will not kill the Lord's anointed. I'm not going to do this now. The sermon, of course, turned it basically into a morality tale, basically turned into about decisions we could make if we were faced with a decision where if we just if we did this one thing, even though it's sinful, it would stop all of our problems and all of our suffering. Would we do it? But in a rounda by way. The sermon really makes David look like the hero, the good guy, that his motives are so pure and right, and I'm going to challenge that again. Now.

10:55 First Samuel twenty six, I'll just read the basic part here. First, Samuel chapter twenty six, Verse five. David arose and came to the place where Saul had encamped, David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of the army. So you have Saul there, you have the commander of his army. There. You have about three thousand men there. So they're all encamped all around him. David answered and said to him Alek the hit tight, and to Abishai, the son of Zarui, brother of Joe, ab saying, who shall go down with me to Saul in the camp? And Abashai said, I will go down with you. So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and their Saul lay sleeping. Now, now I hadn't even thought about this in all of our discussion. Does something else just hit you right there?

11:44 It had not hit me until I just read this. Now, wait a minute, so just think about this. Wait. So David knows Saul is camping there with three thousand men. Around three thousand men. I don't know if David has the exact number, but he knows that that Saul has a lot of men. So it's like, Okay, who's gonna go down with me to the camp. Who's gonna go down with me to Saul in the camp? Now? Why is David going to Saul. Is David going to have a meeting? Now, if David is just going to have a meeting, that wouldn't he show up and just say, hey, Saul, please come out here. You know, I've got the white flag, come talk. But he doesn't. They sneak into the camp.

12:28 Look at verse seven. So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and their Saul lay sleeping with the within the camp with the spears stuck in the ground by his head. Now when they start sneaking in, what is David's motivation here? If David is not going to kill Saul, then why did he bother to come all the way down and sneak into the camp at night? They see we assigned. We speak to David as if his motives are so pure. But what was his reason for coming to do this in the first place. Did he just want to come in and see I'm just gonna go Look, I'm gonna sneak into this camp, risk my life. I'm gonna risk my life, and I'm just gonna walk around the camp with all these sleeping people, and I'm not gonna kill anybody. Did he come to count couldn't there have been a different way, Like, there's a lot of questions about what's the motivation here in the first place. But they find Saul sleeping within the camp with his spear stuck in the ground by his head, and Abner and the people lay all around him. Now, so you've got the people, you've got his commander of his army, you've got Saul. They're all laying there, okay.

13:37 And then Abishi said to David, God has delivered your enemies into your hand this day. Now, therefore, please let me strike him at once with the spear right to the earth, and I will and I will not have to strike him a second time. Now you can understand why Abishai is like, let me do this, because, I mean, Abishi has to be thinking, well, why else are we here? Why did we even bother to come down to the camp. But then David's response is but David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand It gets against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless.

14:19 That there's the story. Now pastors come along, and of course they basically present this story as of course David is the good guy, right David is the hero in the story, and basically they turn it into a morality teale, which I talked about in my last live broadcast about people taking Old Testament narratives and turning them into morality tales, which I think does great damage to the text and to the Gospel and to all kinds of other things. We talked about all of that. But I think that there's maybe a different way to understand this, right, I know. Look, so here's kind of my question, kind of my hypotheses, kind of my thesis. Here is it possible? And I stress, is it possible that many pastors assigned assign the most righteous and pure motives to David for not killing Saul?

15:15 I think most pastors when they preach this is what would you do? Wouldn't you kill your enemy? We need to be like David. We need to have these pure motives and be righteous in our actions. David's motives were pure, his actions were pure. Be like David, because you know, church is just a morality tale. It's just moralism. Right. But I said, is it not possible? This is kind of my theory, this kind of my question, or I'm asking this question, is it not possible? That his motivation was more selfish and more about his own security. If we look at this story within the Old Testament context. Next, is it possible that the idea of killing God's anointed was basically seen as suicide? Hey, if we kill the Lord's anointed, we're basically killing ourselves. So maybe the motivation wasn't so pure and so righteous. Maybe it was very self serving. And we know something about David's motivation when it comes to killing because look what happened first Samuel twenty six. Hey, look what he says. David said to Abishai, do not destroy him? For who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? So David says, hey, you can't kill him. It's the Lord's anointed, and if

16:47 we do this, who will be guiltless? So is David's motive so pure because he's like, I don't want to kill anyone. I'm is it? Because when we go to the very next chapter first sample to twenty seven, the very next chapter, the events that follow David not killing Saul. Then look at first Samuel twenty seven to eight. David has now joined up with the Philistines. Okay, and then first Samuel twenty seven eight, David and his men went up and raided the gesher Rights and the Gezerites and the Amalekites, for those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old as you go to sure even as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive. But he took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkey, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Akish. He's joining the Philistines, and he's killing and slaughtering people. So David doesn't have a problem of killing people. So maybe his motive for not killing Saul isn't the way it's always been taught in church. Oh, David is so pure, David is so righteous. David is a man after God's own heart. He only now he may be a man after God's own heart, but he's not pure and righteous because he's a sinner like everyone else. But see in church talk, we reduce Bible characters to being one dimensional good guy, bad guy, save lost. We never can see

18:21 the complexity of human beings. We got to make everything black and white and human beings are a mess, and human beings are sinful. Even the people in the Bible, I know, we like to say, well, they were the righteous ones, and we got to be like them. They're just like us, sinners. And because David is a sinner, you know what, I know that his motives are not pure, just like your motives are not pure, and just like my motives are not pure. When we consider our motives, they're not pure. They're always corrupted to some level. So let's consider the possibility, based off the context the history, that maybe David's motives weren't as pure as we want to make them. All right, It's possible that maybe David's decision not to kill Saul was motivated by a combination of personal and pragmatic reasons rather than purely righteous motives.

19:34 See this tendency to assign holy, pure motives to David may reflect an oversimplification of the text or an idealization of his character. So I think what we need to do is explore maybe the complexity of David's motives, especially in the Old Testament context. All right, so let's consider this. Are you ready, Let's go through these and let's see if you now I know this is going to go against everything you've ever been taught. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. I'm creating a hypothesis that challenges sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. But sermon so many times again takes Bible narratives. Many cases, they take biblical narratives that are descriptive, they make them prescriptive, which is a major problem. And secondly, so many times they take these historical narratives and reduce them to a morality tell which is not the intended purpose. And they sometimes overlook things in the text that should just bother them, Like wait a minute, why is David even going down to the camp if he's not going to kill Saul?

20:38 What was he going down there to do? I mean, everybody's sleeping here, sneaking into the camp, what's your motivation? Was his motivation immediately thinking Oh, I'm going to kill him? And then he's like, well, maybe I better not. Maybe that shows a conflict in his motivation. Oh, there's so many questions this text brings up, But let's look at the possible selfish are pragmatic motive that may have been driving David's actions. Here, all right, I say possible, I'm saying because I cannot judge a motive, I'm just challenging our I'm Here's what I'm doing. I'm challenging the fact that so many pastors assign pure and righteous motives, and I'm just challenging that to offer up the possibility that maybe David's motives was very selfish and pragmatic. Now, while David's refusal to harmsaw is often preached and taught as an act of trust in God, there are plausible reasons to view his decision as possibly self serving. Oh no, that would be. But see that would make more sense to me. I can understand his motives are probably more self serving because my motives are more self serving. Your motives are more self serving. Let's look at some possibly

22:12 self serving motives. Possibly David was deciding not to kill Saul to avoid repercussions. You see, killing gods anointed would possibly bring dire consequences. In the Old Testament, the term anointed carried immense significance. To kill a king anointed by God was seen as an act of rebellion against God himself. So he could have been like, wait a minute, if I kill Saul, then I'm basically rebelling against God himself, and then God's gonna be against me. So I could be actually, if I kill Saul, I'm destroying myself. I'm just deding everything I want to do or be. So there could be like, hey, I can't kill Saul because that will ultimately kill me. Not that the motives are pure, are right, because in the next chapter David is slaughtering people.

23:16 But to kill the anointed, oh, now that carries some in his mind. In this context, may have felt like I could kill these people and the consequences cannot be anywhere close to what it would be to kill the Lord's anointed. David's very words in First Samuel twenty six nine through eleven, where I'm kind of paraphrasing here where he says who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? I mean, that's pretty close to what was said right. In fact, we can read it for Samuel twenty six to nine, But David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?

23:59 It's pretty close to what was said this could reflect a belief that such an act would lead to divine judgment or personal ruin. What David could be saying, hey, hey, no, no, no, no, don't do that because it's gonna be it's gonna bring me down, it's gonna destroy me. It may not be because anything about God or morality are right wrong. You could just see if we do that, I destroy me. Don't do it. And Second Samuel, chapter one, verses fourteen through sixteen, David executes to Amlekite, who claims to have killed Saul, accusing him of striking down God's anointed. See when someone claims to have killed Saul, David has that man killed. Because it's almost like Davidsen who whoa who whoa whoa whoa whoah. No, no, no, Lord, I'm I'm not I didn't do this. I had nothing to do with this, almost and again in a very self preservation mindset. So maybe David's motivation here was simply like, I'm of repercussions, I'm avoiding being destroyed, I'm avoiding any problem. I'm not going to do this. Maybe the motive wasn't so right. Secondly, he may have been doing this to secure his own reputation.

25:15 He may have been trying to maintain public perceptions. See if David. David may have recognized, at least in his motivations. Again, sometimes we are being motivated by something we don't even know. We don't even really understand. You have to spend time. This is so important your motivations. That's what drives what you do. But the motivations typically remain hidden and sometimes unknown. We sometimes don't take the time to really consider what is motivating us. And when we really do, especially from a theological perspective and from a Christian perspective, I think what we'll find is like, man, my motives are messed up here. So David may have recognized that killing Saul, even in self defense, could harm his reputation among the Israel's Israel's tribes. See. By sparing Saul, he demonstrated restraint and loyalty, and these are qualities that would win public support as he prepared to ascend to the throne. See, he may have been this may have been very calculate.

26:30 If I if I don't kill Saul, then I look loyal, I look like I have restraint, I look and this helps my public perception. This helps my This helps me politically as I try to ascend to the throne. The people will look at me in a positive light and be and they may show their loyalty to me because I've demonstrated such loyalty and restraint. His motivation, I hate to say, it could have been very political. So he could have been doing this to avoid a divine repercussion or divine judgment or God destroying him. Secondly, he could have been doing this simply to secure his own reputation, to build his own reputation in the minds of the people of all of Israel, because he's going to ascend the throne and the last thing you want is everyone hating you. He could have been doing this to simply avoid political fallout. See, killing Saul might have led to a civil war, as Saul still commanded loyalty from many Israelites, David's decision to spare him could have been a calculated move to ensure a smoother transition of power. He's not look, if I kill Saul and then I try to code to the throne, it's going to be a civil war.

27:48 This may have been calculated, This may have been strategic. His motivations may not have been so pure. But yet in preaching, we reduce David to this one dimensional character and we're like, oh, look how righteous he was. Look how maybe his motivation wasn't so pure? Why you see? How can you say that in the very next chapter he is slaughtering men, women, and children. In the very next chapter, he's joining the Philistines. In the very next chapter, what's motivating him to join the Philistines? Wait? Oh yeah, self preservation maybe the very thing that motivated him not to kill Saul. So there are possible selfish and pragmatic motives for what David did or did not do, and he could have not killed Saul to avoid repercussions, to secure his reputation, and to avoid political fallout. Now, let's consider the cultural and philological context of God's anointed, because I think if we really understand this, this may make some sense. The sacredness of the anointing and the Old Testament, being anointed signified divine selection for a special role such as king or priest. The anointing carried theological weight as the individual was seen us under God's direct authority and protection.

29:16 To attack God's anointed was to challenge God's sovereignty. Well, if David is going to be trusting God for him to one day take the throne, well, he wants God on his side to strike down the anointed, would then have God possibly turn on David. So David could have been very much because of that context, it would make perfect sense like no, no, no, we can't kill the Lord's anointed. We can't, or I'm going to basically be destroying myself. So the sacredness of the anointing would greatly then lead to some those possible selfish reasons why David did or didn't do what he could have done. Another concept here about the anointing was divine retribution for violating sacred offices. The Old Testament often portrays severe consequences for those who oppose God's anointed and numbers. Chapter sixteen, Cora and his followers rebel against Moses, whom God had chosen, and they're destroyed. Yusaiah touches the ark of the Covenant without authorization and dies. This incident demonstrates the seriousness of disregarding what God has set apart. So you've got Old Testament ideas that, hey, don't mess with the anointed, don't even if it's an object that's been anointed by God, don't touch it without proper authorization. Well, then if you can't even touch an object that God is anointed without possibly dying, then you know, then David would have been like, well, then there's no way I'm going to kill a person

30:47 whom God has anointed. You could see that there would be motivation here that would not necessarily be pure. It'd be like, I will be basically destroying myself. David may have genuinely feared that killing Saul would provoke God's wrath upon him, not just Saul's followers. His statement in First Samuel twenty six to ten, as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle in Paris suggest that David preferred to leave Saul's fate in God's hand rather than risk divine judgment by acting himself. And we see that in One Samuel twenty six ten, I'm going to trust God to take care of this. But look at how David feels about his decision in chapter twenty seven, verse one, and David said, in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines, and Saul will despair of me to seek me anymore in any part of Israel.

31:54 So I shall escape out of his hand as soon as he can. You can almost see that the motivation is not so pure. He doesn't kill Saul and immediately is like, man, now I'm going to die. Now Saul's going to kill me. It's almost like I know I should have killed him, but I couldn't kill him because then that could bring God against me. Okay, now what do I do? This is not even about trusting God that much, because the media is like, okay, forget, God's not even gonna protect me. I've got to protect myself. I'm running. I'm going to the Philistines. Next thing you know, he joins the Philistines and he's slaughtering people, meaning that his reason for not killing Saul wasn't because oh, I'm trusting God. If he was trusting God, then he would why the massive change in chapter twenty seven. He wasn't killing Saul because of these selfish reasons, Because of the stillological context. He understood the sacredness of the anointing, he understood.

32:55 Retribution for violating the anointing he understood and was probably concerned with the fear of personal judgment. And then you kind of consider David's contrasting behavior and on Samuel twenty seven David Slaughter's entire populations, leaving neither man nor woman alive. This shows that David was capable of extreme violence when it served his interest, particularly as securing resources and preventing intelligence from reading akish. This stands and start contrast to his restraint and sparing Saul, suggesting his actions in first Samuel twenty six may have been motivated by factors other than moral conviction. You think this is all pragmatic here, I know, we want to reduce this to a morality tale.

33:44 This is a man who is sinful and his actions are motivated by a lot of pragmatism and self preservation and self seeking and being strategic. David's willing to kill indiscriminately and on Samuel twenty seven highlights his pragmatic and survival oriented mindset. It raises the possibility that his restraint and for Samuel twenty six was less about pure motives and more about self preservation and political calculation. Oh, I know that's horrible to say. No, it's reality. So when we consider this story, we have to consider the possible selfish or pragmatic motives for David. We have to, and his motives could have been to avoid repercussions, to secure his reputation, and to avoid political follout. We also have to consider the cultural and philological context of God's anointed, the sacredness of the anointing, the divine retribution for violating basically the anointing, and obviously this would lead to fear of personal judgment. We have to then contrast David's behavior, and we see his ruthless action in First Samuel twenty seven, which then stands and start contrast to all the purity that we give him in First Samuel twenty six, which causes us to question all of this, and we have to see that basically David is acting, he's following pragmatism

35:17 over principle. So is there a way to reconcile David's actions and First Samuel twenty six and twenty seven, Well, we could basically acknowledge David is portrayed in scripture as a deeply flawed individual whose actions are a mixture of faith, fear, and pragmatism. His refusal to kill Saul may reflect genuine trust in God's sovereignty, but it is likely interwoven with self serving motives. Now, I don't know if it shows genuine trust in God, because by the time he's done in twenty six, he's already going, I'm going to die, God, Saul's going to kill me. I'm going to go join the Philistines. That doesn't show that he was trusting God.

35:58 That means to me, then it would be fair to at least offer the hypotheses that his motivation in twenty six was more like, hmm, if I kill the Anointed, I'm gonna die, all right. So I can't do that. Man, Now I'm going to die. That's not trusting God. I know everybody wants to make twenty six about whoh look, it's David's trust in God. I know. I have a hard time with that. I have a hard time with that all right. Day when a good example of his all of his self serving motives and everything else David's sin with Bathsheba, he demonstrates his moral failure. Yet yet he has still called a man after God's own heart.

36:42 You know why he's still called a man after God's own heart because he believed in God and that is counted unto him as righteousness, says the whole. Remember, Paul uses David as an example in Romans to teach justification by faith alone, that we are declared righteous by faith alone, not by what we do. David is declared a man after God's own heart because he believed. Abraham was declared to be righteous because he believed both men were deeply flawed and sinful. I know that blows everyone's mind, but that's the way. That's why, as non Catholics we believe in a salvation based off imputed righteousness. David is a complex character, and when we reduce him to a one dimensional morality, Telle, we really blind people to the complexity and scripture. Now, what are some of the implications from now, I've got more notes here I'm skipping. But what are some of the implications for my suggested interpretation that his motivation here isn't so good? Well? I think it helps us avoid basically reducing biblical figures to one dimensional ideals.

38:06 We like to idolize them, we like to turn them into a moral ideal. Hey, David, is this example of this moral idea, and then we're going to teach it that way. Preachers and readers should resist the urge to assign purely righteous motives to biblical characters like David. We've got to stop that. We got to stop in our preaching opening the text and basically assigning, Oh, this man is pure, this man is righteous, this is how we should be. Because their motivations are not always so pure and righteous. We got to start turning them into examples of moral ideals and let them be human beings with flesh and blood and a sinful nature. We should acknowledge the complexity of human motives and the overarching work of God in history. We also have to so we have to avoid reducing them to a one dimensional moral ideal.

39:07 We have to let them be human beings. Second, we have to recognize the tension between faith and self interest. David's actions demonstrate the tension between trust in God and self preservation. This tension reflects the human condition and provides a realistic picture of faith under pressure. We've got to be willing to acknowledge that sometimes we trust in God, sometimes we are doing things out of self preservation. See the way the pastor and that sermon that we reviewed was like, hey, David could have solved all of his problems by taking the spear and killing Saul. But the reality is no. Maybe the reason he didn't take the spear and killed Saul is because he knew that would really be the beginning of his problems, because now he would think God is going to destroy him. God's going to kill him, It's going to create a civil war, it's this is going to destroy my political spirit. No. Now, actually the best thing to do for self preservation is to not not the sword the spear. I keep saying sword.

40:09 I don't know why. The idea is he could have taken the spear and did this, but he did not. He chose not to. And maybe the reason he chose not to is because he felt that was the way to resolve his problems to at least some level long term. See, this is not such a black and white decision here. The sermon was like, hey, David could have taken the spear killed Saul. It would have been a sin, but it would have solved all of his problems. But I think David was like, no, by not using the spear. This is the best way. Now, There's gonna be short term issues, but I avoid the long term consequences of maybe God trying to destroy me a civil war, and well, having all these people hate me when I'm trying to ascend to the throne. It could have been much more motivated by a very selfish reason, which means whether he would have used the spear or not use the spear, selfish, sinful motivations were involved. Because while we're gonna send no matter which way we go, or see that destroys that entire sermon. We got to see that there's a tension between faith and self interest. We never look I don't care how much you want to pretend. Christians never simply operate from a position of faith or or from a position of self interest. We are conflicted and we are contradictory, and where we kind of go back and forth between the two. And I think what we have to remind

41:43 ourselves is that, well, all these people are sinners in need of God's grace. So David's decision to not kill Saul and for Semuel twenty six most likely stemmed from a combination motives, including fear of divine judgment, political calculation, maybe some trust in God. I kind of throw that one completely out. His actions and First Samuel twenty seven reveal his capacity for pragmatism and violence, challenging the notion that David always acted with pure motives. Understanding David as a complex and flawed character underscores the Bible's focus on God's grace and sovereignty rather than human righteousness, as the foundation of his redemptive plan. David's motives for not killing Saul are probably not as pure as we want them to be. And guess what, you probably did a lot of good things this week. Maybe you did from a human perspective. Maybe you did some nice things for someone, You said some nice words. I believe in many cases you did those for sinful, selfish motivation. I've said this countless times. I know nobody really likes this, but here's the reality. We tend to love people for the most

43:15 selfish reasons imaginable. We love because we are loved. We love so that we will get love. We will love so because of what we get from it. And then when things don't go our way and we're no longer happy, or we're no longer content. Then we're no longer in love, because love, in many cases is simply something we do in order to receive something, in order to get something. Love in many cases is simply the outworking of our own internal selfish motivations. I love because of what I get from I get a good feeling, I get a warm I get a warm. This I get I get this, I get that, I get this, intimacy, I get this, I get this support, I get this encouragement. And you get things you love because you get things what We are constantly motivated by the most selfish things. We look at David like, oh man, a man after God's own heart.

44:26 He didn't kill Saul. I think the motivations here are conflicted, they're messed up, and they're probably not as godly as we want them to be. So in the sermon we reviewed, let me go back and try to state it clearly. The sermon put forth this idea that Saul, that David walked into the camp, saw Saul sleeping there, saw the spear that's a lot of Essa's saw the spear, and then he was faced with a choice, take the spear, kill Saul, right, commit a sin. But all my problems go away? Would you would you commit a sin to make all of your problems go away? Well, that reduces this into a morality tale. The only problem is that's that's not how the story really should be told. David saw Saul sleeping there with the spear next to his head, and David had to make a calculated Well, if I kill Saul, I may make my immediate problem go away.

45:28 But then, hmmm, well then I killed the anointed, so God may destroy me. That's not probably not good. Could spark a civil war while I'm trying to, you know, ascend to the throne. It could turn people against me. It could turn the perception completely against me. That this could be a desire. I don't know if I can do that. David's motivations me whether by using the spear he could have been committing a sin, but by not using the spear he still could have been committing sin because he could have been doing it for the most soish, self seeking, self preservation, pragmatic reasons on the planet. This is why we can't. It's we like within Christianity, we so want to. We I think our understanding of sin is so flawed. See I want you to see the reality here. By using the spear, David would have been committing the sin. By not using the spear, we say David didn't commit a sin, but he's still could have been committing fifty sins with his motivations and his reasons for not using the spear. And we know that his motivations could not been that pure because in the very next chapter he's like, oh, we know it's not motivated by trust in God, because the very next chapter he's like, oh no, now Saul's going to kill me. What do I do? What do I do? He doesn't say God's gonna protect me. God's good. No, He's like, what, i gotta get out of town, and I'm gonna go to the Philistines, the very enemies of Israel, and I'm going to join them, and then I'm gonna slaughter people on their behalf. Oh well, what a what a great idea. See,

47:07 you can use the spear and commit a sin. You can refrain from using the spear and do it for selfish sinful motivation, which means you're still sinning. Do you realize you can do sinful things externally and you can refrain from doing sinful things externally, but you're still sinning internally, based off motivation, based off reason, based off desire, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, which means, if we are even remotely honest with ourselves, are good and our whether it's our bad or whether it's our good, it's all nothing but filthy rags before the holiness of God. Therefore, that's why we need and imputed righteousness, and our salvation can never be based off what we do, and can't even be judged or tested by what we do. It has to always it's security, hope, and fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

48:09 If we just look at this in any reasonable way, the story is not is not as I know. I know that destroy Sunday school lessons. I know. I know this stops David from just being reduced to a little one dimensional you know flannel graph thing that you show in Sunday school classroom back in the day. I know I don't people'll probably don't use those anymore. But whatever, it doesn't. It doesn't work for a nice little Veggie Tells story. I know it doesn't work for you know, a nice little episode of whatever your favorite little Christian television show is It doesn't work that way. It's convoluted, complicated because there's human beings involved, and they're all sinners.

48:53 That's why Paul said, the things I want to do I don't. The things I don't want to do I do. Why Because that is the reality of the Christian in life. We sin and we can wrap it up and religious garb and say all the right things, but our motivations are all messed up. If you hear that sound in the background, the rain is coming down here in West Texas today. So I started this with asking a grammatically incorrect question about your motivations. But today you're gonna do things. You're gonna say things to your spouse, say things to your kids, you're gonna do things. You're gonna go to church tomorrow. What really are your motivations? And each specific thing you have to stop and consider what your motivations are, and sometimes you just gotta be honest. I'm doing this, but my motivation here is so self seeking, so self serving, it is not even funny. I started this broadcast by acknowledging my own selfishness. I'm doing this broadcast because I haven't been happy with the last two. I was doing this to make myself feel better. I wasn't even doing this about you or about God. I was doing it for my own And now I'm kind I feel like I didn't even do this one really well. I think I should have worked a little bit more on this one.

50:15 So I'm not even really happy with this one. So my now my motivation to do this really I didn't fulfill that motivation. So then there's a high chance my next message maybe again motivated by selfish reasons as well. I know that's shocking, but I'm telling you we do things for wrong motives all the time. I'm not justifying wrong motives, right, I'm not justifying it. I'm acknowledging the reality of it. What is your motivation for any specific thing you're going to do today? What are your motivations in general? Now? What we like to say, if we talk church, church and ease, right, if we talk the church language, Oh, my motivation is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. My motivation is God's glory. It's God's honor.

51:20 That's what motivates me. We know to talk a big game sometimes, if we're honest, our motivation is me ego, pride, self preservation, getting what I want, getting what I need, feeling better, making my ego better, getting this, getting that. Sometimes sometimes you just cannot be honest with yourself. Oh, I'm doing this because I care. I'm doing this because I want to be a good friend. You're doing it because you are a self seeking and you want self pleasure and you want self exaltation. That's why you do what you do. I think even our best motives are always corrupted to some level, because motivation arises from within, and what is inside the house sinful nature, and that sinful nature twists and corrupts everything. It infects every part of us. And that infection, I know pastors will say, no, when you become a Christian, you know, you know, old things pass away, all things have become news. It's just that's true positionally, is not true practically it's true. Practically, then you would be sinless. Motivation can tell you that

52:51 even when your actions are not sinful, your motivations may be. Maybe David did not commit the sin of using the spear, not the sword, the spear, but maybe his motivations were selfish, pragmatic, political, and just as sinful as if he were used a spear. I know that just destroyed all the sermons on first Samuel twenty six and for Samuel twenty seven, but I think it's a more realistic Appruss Now I stated by saying, this is my hypothesis. Now you can disregard it, and that's perfectly okay. My job is just to try to challenge us to think better. Don't reduce the Bible to a morality tale. Don't reduce these Bible characters to some idealized moral principle. Right, there's just hey, we're going to reduce these men to some moral ideal No, these are human beings, flesh and blood, and they're just as complicated and complex as we are. Now, I'm going to go do things today, and I bet you my motives will probably be wrong all day. I know you're disappointed in me.

54:19 I know I'm disappointed in myself. Oh oh wait, when you walk by the mirror, look in that mirror, because you'll see someone Your motives are probably not so pure either. That's why we all need a savior who's perfect, holy, died, and his righteousness is imputed to me by faith alone. Doesn't make me righteous, but it makes me right, righteous positionally not practically, and I thank God for that. Everyone have a great day, God bless