LOVERS OF CHRIST
LOVERS OF CHRIST
1 Samuel 13: 13-14; 1 Samuel 16: 18-21; 1 Samuel 18:1-4, 1 Samuel 18:16, 1 Samuel 18:20; 1 Kings 5: 1-6
I desire to bring these scriptures before our hearts, that we may accept their challenge as to the character of our love for Christ. I trust everyone present loves Christ in some measure and in some way; love Him because they have found attractiveness in Him. The ultimate position of those who do not love Christ is serious beyond telling. The Apostle Paul in the close of the first epistle to the Corinthians makes clear what is going to happen to those who do not love Christ. He says, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha,” that is “accursed at the coming of the Lord.” Not now, thank God, for until the Lord comes there is still room given for us to love Christ, to change our minds, as Paul himself did. There was a time when he did not love Christ, but I think we would all agree that he became one or the greatest lovers of Christ that has ever been on earth, loving Him because of attractiveness in Him. When great period is over, any who do not love Christ are coming under the curse of God.
I desired to say a few words as to these various persons who are said to have loved David so that we might be searched as to what is the character of our love, how far it will go. David’s name means “beloved”, reminding us uniquely of the Lord Jesus, who is called in Scripture “the beloved”. That word in Ephesians 1: 6 does not indicate exactly who loves Him, but He is “the beloved”. There are those who can say, “my beloved”. God Himself leading in that way, “behold my servant... my beloved”, Matthew 12: 18. And so in the first scripture read, it says, “The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart.” Even before David is formally named, Samuel, in announcing the displacement of Saul, says, “the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart.” I take it that “a man after his own heart” is a man who draws forth the love of God, calls out that love because of attractiveness. There is a character of love that is in the nature of philanthropy. One of the characters of God’s love to man is in the nature of philanthropy, but that in no way applies to Christ. Christ was the object of love as inherently attractive, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand,” John 3: 35. That is because of attractiveness on His side. I would desire that we ponder that; for in the blessed Person of Jesus there is an object for the heart of God. In one of the gospels the word from heaven is, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight.” In another, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight.” In the last case God is calling our attention to the object of His heart. I believe that if we went through Scripture and gathered up every reference to what delights God, we would see that every single feature is expressed perfectly in Christ. In the blessed Person of Jesus is God’s paradise. Scripture speaks of “the paradise of God”; His Eden, and everything that contributes to God’s paradise is resident in Jesus. Everything that pleases God, everything that delights God — a stronger word — everything that God loves, is there in Jesus. Samuel says, “The Lord hath sought him a man” and He found him: “I have found David,” and of the blessed Lord, “in thee I have found my delight.” How blessed to allow our hearts to be engaged with the One who engages the heart of God. I do not think we can conceive anything greater than One who in Manhood engages the heart of God so that God loves Him. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things to be in His hand.” Hence, if God finds attractiveness in Jesus sufficient to perfectly satisfy His heart, how right it is that we should love Him.
What follows the statement that God had sought a man after His own heart, is a frequent reference to those who love David. From that point he gradually became the object of all the people in some measure, and it is of this I wanted to speak. There is, first, the unnamed person who speaks of David to Saul. It is not formally said that he loved David, but he says, “I have seen a son of Jesse.” No one could know David without loving him; no one could know Jesus without loving Him. This knowledge is not casual knowledge but conscious knowledge. He then goes on to speak of David. “He is cunning in playing,” so able to play on his harp that he stirs the very soul of the people, such a musician is he. Then he is a “mighty valiant man”, he is a man of courage. Probably this man knew of the lion and the bear and how David went out after them. He is “a man of war”: he is a man who knows how to conduct war according to God: very few know that. David knew the character of weapons God would employ, weapons that are not carnal. He is “prudent in matters” or “skilled in speech”. How it could be said of the Lord, “Never man spake like this man.” Did anyone ever know how to use words like Jesus? What perfection in speaking marks Him! David is a comely person, or a man of good presence. You could not be in the presence of Christ without realising that you were in the presence of One who is truly great. “He shall be great.” This dear man certainly loved David. “I have seen him;” he says, and through his words David is sent for and brought to Saul, and it says, “David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly.” That is remarkable! It is there for our instruction and our warning. As the beloved of God stands in the presence of Saul, for the moment Saul’s heart is engaged. It says, “He loved him greatly.” I believe there are moments in all our histories when that was true of us, when Christ stood out great to our hearts for the moment. But this was not continued with Saul. Indeed, we are told that he became his enemy continually, and his would-be murderer. What has happened? At the outset he loves David greatly, and in the end he is his enemy and would murder him. Why? As Saul learns to know David he realises that David is to displace him, and Saul is not prepared for that. I believe one of the great exercises we are facing in this city is this matter of displacement, and the refusal to accept it converts lovers of Christ to enemies of Christ. The one we once loved greatly we may persecute, because we will not accept displacement. Once our eyes are fixed on Christ we must face this matter of the displacement of ourselves. A good part of the conflict lies there. Saul envies David. He eyes him and he envies him, and if envy is operating in our souls God only knows what we will do. I do not think there is any limit at which envy will stop. Indeed, the root of the murder of Christ was envy. I would speak to my own heart, for I have had to face this matter; we all have to. If our love for Christ is not to wane, but wax, we must face the matter of the displacement of what we are. This exercise exists in every subdivision in some form. When we realise that the Lord is with someone perhaps more distinctively than He is with us, beware lest envy arise, for who knows where it may lead us unless judged?
The next who loves David is Jonathan. A much better Christian, as we would say, than Saul. What a beginning he had. The beauty of David, the attractiveness of David, came home to Jonathan’s heart, for it says of David, “he was ruddy”, that is to say the freshness of life was there, and he was “of a beautiful countenance.” You could not look on the face of David and not be attracted. The attractiveness of David as he faces Goliath, and is prepared to jeopardise his life, moves Jonathan’s heart and it is knit with David. There was a bond formed between Jonathan and David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. I think that is stated many times in Scripture, “he loved him as his own soul.” But if we do not go beyond that we are in very great danger. I would speak humbly in this matter, but we need to love Christ more than our own soul. The impression the words leave is that Jonathan loved David to the same extent as he loved himself. That character of love will not hold us to Christ. There comes a time when David is rejected and Jonathan is to face whether he will leave his father, whether he will leave his city, whether he will leave his house, for David. The Lord allows matters to arise that test us to our very foundation as to the character of our love. Jonathan’s love for David was precious, “passing the love of women” indeed, yet it was not sufficient to cause him, for David’s sake, to break with his father, to break with his own city, and to break with his own house. When it is a matter of what is due to the Lord, our love is tested by what is natural far more than we have any conception, and how often it comes out that in fact we prefer our natural relationships than what is due to Christ. Do not let us deceive our hearts. Very few of us are better than Jonathan, and Jonathan prefers to remain where Saul is. “In their death they were not divided.” They should have been divided. They should have been divided in their life, but in their life they were not divided, and in their death they were not divided. Lover of David as Jonathan was, he was not prepared to break with Saul. And that brought him into the hands of the Philistines who slew him. If we do not face this test, then natural, human thoughts will get control of us and destroy us. If what is due to the Lord does not take precedence over our own father, over our own city, over our own house, then sooner or later we are bound to fall under the power of the Philistines and lose our real understanding of the things of God.
Then it says, “all Israel and Judah loved David.” You might think that this is an excellent situation. That is to say that all true Christians on the face of the earth love Christ surely. But nevertheless, that love is to be tested. You might say David’s position is assured for all Israel and Judah love him. But when David is in reproach and rejection, what mean these 4,000 warriors under Saul that seek to capture David and kill him. Why should a city of Judah, having received such devoted service from David, be ready to give him up to Saul? He had delivered then from the Philistines! David says, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?” and God says, “They will.” Sooner or later the test comes to every heart, what place has David really?
Then it says Michal loved David. She was given to him as wife and she loved him. That is a happy situation. In the secret of his affection, knowing his attractiveness as no one else should know it, but this love is tested. She stands first fairly well. When Saul would take David from his house and kill him, Michal protects him and finds a way out for him so that we would honour that amount of love in her heart for David, but later she is given to another. There is no reference to any resentment or conflict on her side in this sad matter. She is tested still more when David is on the throne and his enemies subdued. What will David do? David devotes himself and all that he has to God. He lays aside his external greatness and dons a linen garment and dances before God in holy joy. Michal, looking out of the window, despised him in her heart. We are tested as to whether we love Christ sufficiently to be with Him in His complete devotedness to the will and service of God so that nothing is held back from that great end. David ever had it as his object that God should have a house and be ministered to. The return of the ark sets this great matter in movement and David dances with all his might. Michal’s love is tested by this: she is not with David, she despises him in her heart and she has no children to the day of her death.
I come now to the one that I trust we all will accept as a model. It says, “Hiram was ever a lover of David,” or “always loved David.” The inference is that from the time David appeared publicly, Hiram had his eye and his heart on him, and there was never a moment that he ceased to love him. Very much like Abigail, who stands out in blessed contrast to Michal, though Abigail for the moment was bound to Nabal. But she says of him, “Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” Of David she says, “my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.” The inference is that every day of David was observed by Abigail. How we love to go over every day of Jesus as He was here fighting the battles of the Lord. She says iniquity was not found in him one of those days, showing that she was a lover of David before she was formally his wife. Hiram is such a person. The Spirit of God says he “always loved David.” He would take account of David going out from his father to meet the champion of the Philistines, the middle man of the devil. That word “champion” means middle man, the devil has his middle man to bring man under his control, but God’s middle man, God’s mediator, comes out and faces this champion — Hiram loved him then. Who would not? When David is in rejection through Saul, the implication is that Hiram still loved him, for he always loved him. When David comes to the throne, and proceeds to put his enemies under his feet. Hiram still loves him. When the apostate Absalom arises, and displaces David from the hearts of Israel, he did not steal Hiram’s heart, for Hiram “always loved David.” When David returns to his place in Israel and begins to prepare for the great service of God, making instruments for His praise, also made such preparations for the building of the temple. Hiram still loved David. The last days call for those who love Christ. Hiram is the man that can provide material for a dwelling for David personally. Before he provides material for the house of God, he provided for David’s house. In truth, Christ cannot dwell except where He is loved. It is only those who always love Him that furnish Him with a dwelling, and it is to such persons that Solomon turns to provide material for the house of God. In 2 Chronicles 2: 8 Solomon says, “Send me also cedar trees, fir trees and algum or sandal-wood trees.” This man, who “always loved David”, could provide these materials for the house of God: no one else could.
Cedar-wood is kingly greatness, suitable for the presence of God: no one is morally great unless they love Christ, and love Him always. Such a man can provide cedar. The next is fir, that is perennial freshness. “I am like a green fir tree,” Hosea 14: 8. Nobody is like a green fir tree unless they love Christ always. Hiram could provide sandalwood, the fragrant wood that provides an odour in the house. Meet a brother or sister who loves Christ in all conditions, what an odour he or she brings in. Christ is not here, you might say, but His assembly is here and in truth the place His assembly has in our hearts is the place He has. “Why persecutest thou me?” All that Saul was doing to the assembly he was doing to Christ. What the Lord is seeking for, I am sure, is persons who love the assembly because it is Christ. You could not say that a person loved a man who hated his wife. We are tested as to the character of our love for Christ by our attitude towards the saints, the assembly of God.
One trusts these scriptures will speak to us as to our love for Christ. How wide the range of persons who are said to have loved David and yet how few loved him as Hiram did. Saul did not always love David. Jonathan did not always love David. Jonathan went out to meet David and they wept together, but it says, “Jonathan went into the city,” David did not, “he departed,” there were those who were with David, who remained with him. You could not say that all Israel and Judah “always loved David,” for some of them took part in his persecution. You certainly cannot say Michal “always loved David”, for she at one point despised him in her heart. “Hiram always loved David”; he discovered something of the inherent attractiveness of David. He represents the character of person that provides substance for the assembly, the kind of person that brings the true cedarwood, brings the true fir trees, brings the true sandalwood to build up the assembly for Christ and for God. The greatest lover of Christ was Paul. He says, “I rejoice in sufferings for you, and I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly”, Colossians 1: 24. What he suffered for the assembly, who can tell? But it was because he always loved Christ. I commend Hiram to us as the model for every heart so that always, whether in rejection, whether in conflict, whether in glory, whether as trodden under foot in apostasy as in Christendom now, let us always love Christ, and Therefore always love His assembly.