Be Like Jesus This is Wrong: A Second Look at David

David is probably my favorite character in the Bible. It sounds cliché, David is everyone's favorite character, you would expect me to choose someone completely random just to be different, but no, I choose David. The reason is because David is the most real character in the Bible. The story of David was written by someone who actually knew him. It describes his character in all of its shades and the result is the story of a man. David is not some ethereal being made up by the fancies of some fiction writer. Many of the stories in the Bible, let's be honest, are embellished. In fact, many of the stories of David are probably embellished; but David is, more than likely, the least embellished character of all, because not only do we have the stories that other people wrote about David, but we have David himself who writes about his own experiences and developments of character. David lays himself bare to the world.

First off, David was a man of extreme passion. David felt like no one else. David was in tune to his emotions. As you read through the Psalms, you often read of David weeping and crying. You could say that David was in tune with his feminine side. He was intensely religious. I believe he developed one of the very first true deep friendships with God ever written of in the Bible. His relationship was deep, abiding and honest. David's relationship with his friend Jonathan was all ushy gushy lovey dovey. David was soft. Yet then, you pick up with David where the Bible starts and what do you find? David, a young man, in a fit of rage he grabs a lion by its beard and kills it with his bare hands! The guy was intense! He had a reputation long before he slew Goliath. David was a violent man. What kind of man does it take to face down a lion and rip its throat out with your hand? David had such a fierce reputation that when Saul first heard about David, several years before Goliath, Saul's servant said, "Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him." (1 Samuel 16:18) David, before he ever fought in a battle, was known as a valiant man of war. David was already known by Israel for his violence, long before they looked to him to be king.

Then we arrive at the story of Goliath Itself. That same David, the one in tune with his emotions. The one that he-men today would call a sissy and weak, that man, enraged that someone would so despise the armies of The Lord that they would taunt them without fear, he grabs 5 stones from a brook and he faces down the giant unafraid, confident that he would kill him. David takes his stones and he knocks Goliath flat out He then runs up, grabs the sword of Goliath and cuts his head off with it and walks back to the camp of Israel carrying the head of this man who dared defy Israel. Your idea of a sweet singer living a peaceful life on the green, rolling hills of Israel should be shattered at this point. David was an extreme individual. The Bible glorifies his actions, but David is not the little shepherd boy that so many people like to think of him as.

I know what you are thinking, "David only did that because the Spirit of God was on him and he was possessed by God." I call the bluff. David did those thing simply because that is how David was. David was a man of action and extremes. His emotions were pure and strong. The fact of the matter is, David did not kill because God chose him to kill, God chose David because David could kill. Look at what happened when Saul thought to kill David by promising his daughter's hand in marriage if only David would go out and kill 100 philistines. This was a suicide mission meant to kill David and his men, instead, David goes out, slaughters 200 philistine soldiers, he cuts off their penises and brings them back to Saul as proof that he was worthy of Saul's daughter. Does that shock you? Have you been lulled to sleep by the fancy translations that make it sound less gruesome than it was? David did not do this for the glory of God, he did this for love. David was a man on a different caliber, what kind of man today would take such trophies from battle? Imagine the most skilled Special Forces operative, imagine the most violent marine you can think of, and you might come close to what David was. Now imagine that man who also loves poetry, with a love for nature and a relationship with God. What a combination! It is no wonder at all why the women of Israel would come out to sing the praises of David when he would return from battle. David was every woman’s dream.

What I love most about David though, is not all these aspects of his character. He was an amazing man; no doubt about it, but what is most amazing is what David reveals about who God is and what God desires of us. What I love most about David is what God himself has to say about him. "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will." (Acts 13:22) David, a man of violence, full of purpose driven anger and extremes of passion, this man who killed thousands upon thousands, who committed adultery and murder, this same man was considered by God to be a man after His own heart. Does this mean that God is like David? Is God violent, does God have extremes of passion that lead him to act on impulse? No, David was a man after God's own heart in spite of his character, not because of it.  The story of David says something incredible for us today. God desires you, as you are, with the character that you have developed. He desires you to be his friend. He does not desire that you change who you are, he desires that you develop a relationship with Him.

What a powerful outcome it is, when an individual establishes a relationship with Jesus without trying to be something they are not. God took David as he was, he did not change David to be something that David wasn't. God established a relationship with David and used his own passions to do the work God had called him to do. Character, rightly directed, is a powerful thing. Did David make mistakes? Yes, huge mistakes. If David lived today, he would be executed for war crimes and murder. David was not a tame man, but his emotions in the hands of God worked a powerful result.  God does not desire you to be like your pastor. God does not desire you to become just like your bible worker. God does not desire you to be just like mother Teresa, God does not wish you to be like David, God does not desire you to be like Jesus. What God desires you to be, is like yourself. God desires you, and He desires a relationship with what that is in its entirety. God has never desired to change humanity to be mere automatons that are a copy of something else. God loves individuality. Why does God love individuality? It is because no matter what type of person you are, you are an aspect of the character of who God is. God's character is so multidimensional that in order for us to understand who He is, we must understand who we are and have relationships with other people to understand who they are. Every one and everything reveals aspects of God that we would not know any other way.

I am not saying that we shouldn't strive to be like Jesus, but we must understand, Jesus was a man, with a specific character type, with specific circumstances that developed who He was. You will never be exactly like Jesus because you are a separate human being with a different personality and a different set of circumstances. None of this alters your value, or lessens your worth to God. Your personality is no greater, and no less than that of Jesus, for all personalities or relevant to God. You must have all of the personalities in order to even begin to grasp the character of God, if of course God could be said to have such a thing as a character.

Are you a violent person? God desires a friendship with you. Are you emotional and soft? God desires a relationship with you. Are you indifferent? God desires a relationship with you. Do you enjoy adventure? Do you love business and making money? Are you in love with nature? Do you love power and leadership? Do you have extremes of emotions? Is risk something you love? Are you a timid person, afraid of even driving on the highway? No matter what type of person you are, God desires you. Everyone has value in the kingdom of God. God took a violent young man, a man ruled by his emotions and passions, he took that man and He did something amazing. He did not change David; he did not take away his violence, or remove his extremes of emotions. Through the relationship that David built with God, David channeled his character to spread the knowledge of God to everyone.

I love David because in David I see the glory of God. In David I see myself, in David I see every individual who has ever lived. In David we gain a deep understanding of what God wants from us. He wants to be your friend. He meets you where you are. He does not change who you are, you do not have to lose your identity in order to follow Jesus. I will end with my favorite Bible verse written by the son of David. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." (Ecclesiastes 11:9) Live your life, explore who you are, find out what makes you happy and discover your individuality. But remember, that no matter what you are, God desires a relationship with you. Everything you do will affect that relationship one way or another. Will you allow your personality to truly change the fate of the world, as David did, or will your character be wasted by a world that does not value it? The world professes to value individuality, yet in reality there is only one thing that truly values you, that is the source of your personality, God himself.