Word of Encouragement (10/24/2023)
Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. (2 Sam. 7:21-22)
David continues to praise God for what He has done for him and his house. In this section, he attributes it to God’s faithfulness to His promise. What promise is he referring to? Most likely, the promise God made through Jacob’s prophecy concerning the tribe of Judah. A part of the prophecy was the following: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Gen. 49:10). This prophecy set Judah apart as Israel’s royal tribe. This is one of the reasons that Saul’s kingship could not continue. He was chosen as the (rebellious) people’s choice to serve as a foil to God’s choice—David from the tribe of Judah, a man after God’s own heart.
To what does David attribute this promise of God? He says, “...according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness....” David confesses that the reason for God’s favor on the tribe of Judah and on David was in God’s own heart, not in Judah or David. When David reflected on the great honor the LORD bestowed on him, he could not help but make this humble confession. This is David’s expression for God’s unconditional election. This doctrine asserts that the reason for God’s choice does not lie at all in the ones chosen; it lies solely in the inscrutable will of God. Judah and David had no merit in the eyes of the most holy God good enough to deserve such a favor.
Many people find the doctrine of unconditional election distasteful and insulting. “What do you mean that I have nothing in me that makes me more deserving of God’s favor? Have you seen the horrible things that some people have done?” But the Bible does not deny that some sins are worse than others. There are varying degrees of punishment because there are varying degrees of sin. But the Bible also declares that even “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6). Why? Because they are tainted by our sinful nature—from our goal to our standard and motive of why we do what we do.
The doctrine of unconditional election also implies that people are no better in the sight of God than the people they look down on and despise. As some sins are worse than others, some sinners are worse than others. However, whatever difference there may be among people, it is negligible before the perfect purity of God’s holiness. It is like the difference between the luminosity of a light bulb and candlelight out in broad daylight.
While this doctrine may seem offensive to us, it is the most comforting and assuring doctrine. Do we want God’s love to be conditional? How reliable and constant is conditional love? If someone loves you because you are smart, what do you have to do to keep that love? And what happens when someone smarter comes along? But if God’s love for you resides in the heart of an eternal and immutable God, how secure you are in God’s sovereign love! Yes, it is terrifying to deal with a God who is absolutely sovereign. But there is nothing more assuring that to be loved by a sovereign God. When we understand this truth, how can we ever be proud and boastful? Let us praise Him in awe and humility: “Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you....”