2009 – Day 132.May 13 – Principles Versus Precepts

2009 – Day 132.May 13 – Principles Versus Precepts

Passages of the Day: …
1st Samuel 13: 14 … “But now [Saul] your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”
2nd Samuel 6: 9 – 13 … 9 David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” 10 So David would not move the ark of the LORD with him into the City of David; but David took it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 11 The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the LORD blessed Obed-Edom and all his household. … 12 Now it was told King David, saying, “The LORD has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with gladness. 13 And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep.
Acts 13: 21 – 22 … 21 And afterward [the time of the Judges] they [God’s people] asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’

My Journal for Today: Today, with these three passages we see why God raised up David to be the replacement King for Saul; and even in the New Testament (see Acts 13 above), he was touted as “the man” after God’s heart, … the man who would do ALL of God’s will. And Swindoll points out that such a one is a man [or woman] who will follow God’s precepts as well as to follow God’s principles.

Swindoll uses a common word picture to explain the difference between precepts and principles, comparing the following of a sign like “Speed Limit 15” as a precept; and a sign like “Drive Carefully” as a principle. Dr. Swindoll says that the 2nd Samuel 6 passage above shows that when David saw one of God’s precepts, he would conform his decisions to those of God’s precepts; and when David perceived or knew of God’s principles, he would submit and follow it as best he could.

Now, we know that David was certainly not perfect in this regard. We know, from the entirety of David’s life, especially the time he fell into sin with Bathsheba and tried to cover his sin with the murder of Uriah, that this man had the flesh to fall away from following God. But when we read God’s word in Psalms 51 and 32, we see that David, once convicted, would come back with a heart desirous of pursuing Godly righteousness.

So, Swindoll points out that Christians who are men or women after God’s own heart are rare when we look at the world. They may not be perfect; but these are the ones who keep short accounts of sin; and when they are convicted by God’s principles or precepts, they respond with confession and repentance, and they bring their lives into conformity to the way God would lead them.

That was the pattern of David’s life; and so, we have another of the pop quizzes which come from such a study. And the question from our quiz is much like the one where we opened this study of David (see my devotional for April 8, 2009). And the question for me comes up again, “Am I a man after God’s heart?”

Well, I know that I have a heart which is deceitful (see Jer. 17: 9); and I know that I’m a sinner (see Romans 3: 23). But I also know that God will always be there to pour His strength into my weakness (see Isaiah 41: 10 or 2nd Cor. 12: 9), giving me His ever sufficient grace to lift me up. So, I will continue to pursue God’s precepts and principles to my utmost, doing all I can to be “a man after God’s own heart.”
My Prayer for Today: Lord, all I can do is surrender; You have to do the rest. Amen