"...I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you." (Judges 8:23) God never intended for His people, the Israelites, to be ruled by earthly kings. By His own redemptive power, at work through their leaders and elders, God delivered the Israelites from slavery and brought them together in covenant relationship with Him. He established them in the land He had promised to give them, in order to bless them and ultimately to bless all people through them (see previous blog posts in this Lenten series). But after their leaders and elders passed on, the Israelites forgot about God - forgot all that He had done for them and all that He intended to do through them. The people of God's Kingdom forgot about their king. "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." (Judges 21:25) And what they saw fit to do was to disobey God's commandments, the covenant rules He had given them so that they might experience His blessing in their lives. They tried to obtain blessings from the false gods of neighboring nations. Because they turned away from the only One who could truly bless and protect them, the Israelites were invaded and oppressed by these other nations. Then, in their suffering, they turned back to God, who had proven (again and again) His power to redeem and restore them, and His love and good intentions for them. In response, God raised up Judges for His people, temporary leaders that He worked through to deliver them from their oppressors and restore them in covenant relationship with Him. Sadly, this cycle repeated itself...again and again and again. "Rule over us - you, your son and your grandson - because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian," the Israelites asked one of their Judges, Gideon. He refused, and pointed them instead back to the One who had truly saved them - God, their King (Judges 8:22). "...they have rejected me as their king," God explained to one of Israel's last Judges, Samuel (1 Samuel 8:7). The Israelites had asked Samuel to appoint a human king over them: "...such as all the other nations have...to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8:5, 20) After God warned His people, through Samuel, about everything that a king would take from them, He gave them what they wanted (1 Samuel 8:10-18). Now of all the kings that ruled over Israel, David stands out. God called David "a man after his own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14). As soon as I read this I began wondering, 'what does David's story reveal to us about God's heart?' David's story is long and tumultuous, spanning several books of the Bible. It's rich with inspiring examples of how David recognized and trusted in God's power to deliver both the Israelite people from their enemies and David himself from his own personal trials (1 & 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles). David had a passion for telling others about the strength of God's commitment to His people. He remembered God in all of his words and actions: when he engaged in battle (with Goliath for example), when he fled persecution (by Israel's 1st king, Saul), when he served as Israel's ruler in Jerusalem, and...when he repented of what was perhaps his most grievous sin. Who hasn't heard about Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12), the beautiful woman that David spied bathing on a rooftop, and then slept with while her husband, Uriah, was out fighting the king's wars for him? When David discovered that Bathsheba was pregnant by him, he tried to cover up his adulterous act by arranging for Uriah to be killed in battle, after which David took her to be his own wife. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David, by telling the king a story to open his eyes wide to what he had done (see 2 Samuel 12:1-7 for that story). In his confession of guilt to Nathan, David owned up to his sin and remembered God: "I have sinned against the Lord," David replied. Yes, David had sinned against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, against his own family, and against all of Israel who had looked to him to rule justly - and David knew all of that - but in his confession David acknowledged that he had sinned against God. He had disobeyed God, had turned away from Him and had gone looking for blessings somewhere else, just as his ancestors had done in the time of the Judges. David had rejected his King, and had done as he saw fit.  He had forgotten about the most important relationship in his life. Do you see how, in remembering God, David was recognizing and trusting in God's power to deliver him, even from his own grievous sin? David's remembering empowered him to fit and fix his sin story into God's larger Redemption Story. Do you think that's what makes David a man after God's own heart, his willingness and desire to be part of this larger Story, even if, for David, that meant facing and owning up to his sin and its consequences? "The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die," the prophet Nathan assured David. In His great love and mercy, God forgave David. But as a consequence of his sin, the son born to David and Bathsheba did die. Here is where we see how David's sin story fits so amazingly into God's Redemption Story:  God's own Son, Jesus Christ, a descendant of David, would also die - for the sins of all people. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not die but have eternal life." (John 3:16)  That's Jesus' Story! Jesus was born into the world to redeem us - to take the sins of all people upon himself, by suffering and dying for them on the Cross so that we can be forgiven by God and live! That's what we remember on Good Friday - all that God has done for us in Jesus, our King. It's what we recognize and put our trust in. It's what enables us to face and own up to even our most grievous of sin stories, and what empowers us to fit and fix them into God's larger Redemption Story! The Redemption Story doesn't end there. God raised His Son Jesus to life again! And because of Jesus' glorious Resurrection, all who believe in him as their Savior and Lord - their King - now also have new life, and are restored in loving relationship with their Creator forever! That's the Easter Story!