I want you to notice something David and Israel struggled with in their day.
This is the same issue we face.
See the problem is we think we’ve got God figured out.
But if that’s the case…
Then why is there so much hate and disagreement in the world when it comes to religious beliefs?
The Jews accuse the Christians of idolatry…
The Christians accuse the Jews of missing the coming of their Messiah…
The Muslims consider both parties their enemies.
“And whoever desires
other than Islam as religion
—never will it be accepted from him,
and he, in the Hereafter,
will be among the losers.”
–Quran 3:85:
“The Hour will not be established
until you fight the Jews,
and the stone behind
which a Jew will be hiding will say:
‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding
behind me, so kill him.'”
(Sahih Muslim, Book 41,
Hadith 6985; Sahih al-Bukhari,
Book 56, Hadith 791)
And don’t even get me started on all the disagreements between the 3000 or so Christian denominations.
But here’s the thing.
We can’t all be right.
Have you ever considered how much your view of God is shaped by where and when you live?
You don’t just see God through a 21st-century lens…
You view Him through the culture you were born and raised in.
For instance, I’m American.
I was born and grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota.
However, I also lived in Europe for about two years when I was younger…
And for the past 20 years, I’ve been living in Asia (mainly Japan).
I’ve met and fellowshipped with believers from both continents.
And I’ll tell you one thing.
The way they view God and Israel is a heck of a lot different than I do as an American.
If you think about it, even in America, you’d have a different perspective depending on where you grew up.
Do you think someone who grew up in the traditional South has the same perspective as someone who grew up on the West Coast which is a lot more progressive and liberal?
Heck no, right?
Your upbringing plays a HUGE role.
Were you raised in a Jewish or Christian home?
What denomination?
That shapes things, too.
Your generation, personal experiences, and family traditions all color your mental picture of God.
The problem is we don’t stop to question this.
We just arrogantly assume our ideas about God are correct and everyone else is wrong.
That’s why I get irritated whenever I hear folks criticize the ancient Israelites for being primitive in their theological understanding.
For crying out loud man, we need to cut David and the Israelites some slack.
Who cares if their understanding of God wasn’t perfect?!
Because guess what homie?
Your understanding ain’t perfect either.
Nobody’s is.
Every single one of us has a distorted view of God…
And the only way to get it right is by going back to the one source of truth we have:
The Holy Scriptures.
Ya feel me?
Here’s something else to think about,
How we feel about God is totally irrelevant.
The Bible says our hearts are corrupt beyond belief.
Pretty much every wicked sin we witness in the Bible happened because the perpetrators followed their feelings and felt in their hearts what they were doing was right.
Whether it was Adam and Eve eating fruit from the forbidden tree…
Or the Israelites building and then worshipping a Golden Calf…
Or Ananias and Sapphira lying about how much money they got for selling their property…
The problem was they let their feelings cloud their judgment.
And we make the same mistakes today.
“It just feels so right to have sex with this woman,” we tell ourselves right before committing adultery with another man’s wife.
“I just had to get this online course,” we say to our hearts as we illegally purchase something from some shady site that specializes in ripping off hard-working course creators.
“Follow your heart”
Or…
“Let your feelings be the guide”…
These seem to be the mantras of the day.
Well, I’m here to tell ya that suggestion, which is so popular among all of the modern self-help gurus, is downright dangerous!
Let me remind you of what Jeremiah said about our hearts:
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked;
who can know it?”
-Jeremiah 17:9
Yet the good news is if we confess our helpless state and surrender to the Lord, we’re promised:
“I will give you a new heart
and put a new spirit within you;
I will take the heart of stone
out of your flesh and
give you a heart of flesh.”
-Ezekiel 36:26
So here’s your takeaway for today.
2 Samuel 7 presents us with many deep truths about God.
Some of the truths about Him feel obvious to us now, but they weren’t so clear to David, the prophet Nathan, or the Israelites back then.
Just like us, they saw God through the lens of their culture and time.
They got some things right and some things wrong.
But here’s what’s encouraging.
God was incredibly patient with them.
He gently guided them about who He is and how He works.
He used different ways to explain spiritual truths until they finally got it.
Our Lord is a master instructor.
His timing is perfect and He knows the perfect way to make things click for His people.
And He’ll do the same thing for you.
If you’ll just trust and surrender to Him.
I leave you with this sober reminder from the Book of Proverbs:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding.”
-Proverbs 3:5
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“See to it, brothers and sisters,
that none of you has a sinful,
unbelieving heart that turns
away from the living God.
But encourage one another daily,
as long as it is called ‘Today,’
so that none of you may be
hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”
-Hebrews 3:12-13
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