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YOU MENTIONED DAVID, WHO SINNED GRIEVOUSLY – WHAT MADE HIM SO SPECIAL?  WHY WAS HE CALLED THE MAN AFTER YOUR OWN HEART AFTER WHAT HE DID?

Well, for one thing, he knew how to repent from the heart, but that’s just part of the answer.  You recall how the usurper went astray, proudly forgoing the gravely important submission to authority?  David never violated the principle of authority, although we allowed him to be tested severely in that regard.

His predecessor, Saul, had failed miserably along those lines, becoming delusional and somewhat paranoid as a result.  We were closely watching this unfold, even had David in the wings to take over, having brought him into Saul’s court some time back to be groomed for the job.  Our king went more than a little bonkers, declared war against David, was intent on killing the young man who had been a loyal friend.  Circumstances were allowed so that David could have easily ended his king’s life on more than one occasion, but he wouldn’t do it.  He knew better than to harm our anointed authority.⁵⁴  That still touches my heart just to think of it.  Apart from my son and that dear centurion fellow whose servant was under the weather for a time,⁵⁵ no one understood the principle of delegated authority more than our servant, David.

54 “So Jonathan told David, saying, ‘My father Saul seeks to kill you’” (1 Samuel 19:2a).  “Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats.  So he came to the sheepfolds by the road where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs.  (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.)  Then the men of David said to him, ‘This is the day of which the Lord had said to him, “Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.”’ And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.  Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe.  And he said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.’ So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul.  And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way” (1 Samuel 24:2-7). “So David and Abishai came to the people by night; and there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head.  And Abner and the people lay all around him.  Then Abishai said to David, ‘God has delivered your enemy into your hand this day.  Now therefore, please, let me strike him at once with the spear, right to the earth; and I will not have to strike him a second time!’ But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not destroy him; for who can stretch his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?’  David said furthermore, ‘As the Lord lives, the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go out to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.  But please, take now the spear and the jug of water that are by his head and let us go’” (1 Samuel 26:7-11).

55 “Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.’  And Jesus said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ The centurion answered and said, ‘Lord , I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me.’ . . . When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!  (For) many will come from east and west (Gentiles), and sit down . . . in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the kingdom (Jews, unwilling to receive God’s delegate, Jesus) will be cast into outer darkness’” (Matthew 8:5-12a).