A Man After God’s Heart?

What do you make of David? The NIV translation of 1 Samuel 13:14 has Samuel say this to King Saul: ‘… now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.’

There is much debate about this phrase ‘a man after his own heart’. Does it mean that God chose David because of his good qualities? He certainly did have many good qualities, and all subsequent kings of Israel were judged against his standard. But he also did some terrible things, not least commit adultery with Bathsheba and plot to get her husband killed. In chapter 21 he lies to a priest in order to get some food. Excusable, you might think, because of the dire straits he’s in. But in the next chapter 85 people get killed as a result. Later on in his life he seems unable to prevent his own sons from doing some terrible things themselves.

So, what do you make of David? An alternative translation of 1 Samuel 13:14 is that David is ‘a man of God’s own choice’. Instead of the kingship passing on automatically to one of Saul’s sons, God makes his own choice, and his choice is David. There are good linguistic reasons (I understand!) for this translation, but it also means that we don’t expect David to be consistently godly. Like so many people God chooses (Abraham, Moses, etc., etc.) he is a flawed individual, but someone through whom God can work for good. As far as the overall storyline of the Bible is concerned, David also paves the way for another, greater, king to come, one who was always obedient to God, even to the point of death.