“Doing Right Wrongly” – FBC Morning Light (5/18/2023)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading in 2 Samuel 5 and 6, Acts chapter 10, and the 98th, or the 99th psalm today. I want to look at a couple things in our passages in 2 Samuel. One of them has to do with greatness.

You know, we have paraded before us all kinds of people who the world considers to be great, and people who have made themselves great in some way or another, either great because of their financial assets and what they've been able to accumulate, great because of their being movie stars, great because of their performance on the athletic field or the basketball court or something of that nature.

These are people who have made themselves great, and some of those people handle that kind of greatness with great grace. I have seen a few, precious few, of such individuals who give testimony to their reliance and dependence upon others who have contributed to where they've gotten in life.

Sometimes they give glory to their parents, sometimes to maybe a teacher or a set of teachers, sometimes to a spouse, and sometimes to God. But here's the thing, any effort of selfish ambition to make myself great is ultimately going to lead to some kind of failure or another.

Greatness Comes From the Lord, Not Self-Exaltation

What we see in 2 Samuel 5 is just the opposite of that. We see a man who became great because the Lord made him great, because the Lord was with him. And I'm talking about David, and specifically verse 10.

It talks about how David came to take over the reign of all Israel, and he eventually was able to conquer Jebus that became Jerusalem, called it the City of David. And verse 10 says, so David went on and became great, and the Lord of hosts was with him.

Why did David become great? Was it because of what he wanted for himself? No, it's because the Lord was with him. So many times we read about David seeking the Lord's direction in which way he should go, and the Lord gave him that direction.

The result was, he was successful, and the Lord blessed him. The Lord made him great. So what's really important for us is to achieve greatness as God defines it, as God defines it for us individually.

And that'll look different for every one of us. But the key is that we want greatness that comes from God's presence with us, and none other. No other form, no other kind of greatness. The other thing I want to point out is chapter 6 with David's efforts, and here's a case of failure, where he wasn't so great, where he tried to bring the Ark of the Covenant to the spot he set for it in Jerusalem.

Doing a Good Thing in the Wrong Way

And when he did, he had the priest set the Ark on a cart, and carried it on his cart. He had the Ark on a cart, carried, hauled by a couple of oxen. And the Ark hit a bump in the road, must have been one of those Chicago potholes, and the Ark started to tip, and Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark, and God struck him dead.

And the whole reason for that, I'm not going to get into how severe the judgment was, I think one of our problems with having a problem with that is we don't understand the holiness of God. We really don't understand the holiness of God.

But God gave some specific instructions on how the Ark was to be transported. David violated those, whether he knew about them or not, not the point. He didn't find out, the priest didn't correct him, and anyway, it was failure.

The Lord was not with him in that transporting of the Ark. Now here's the deal, here's the question to consider. When I do a good thing in a wrong way, which is going to fail at some level, how do I respond?

When that failure comes, how do I respond? Do I get mad at God? Do I start blaming others? What do I do? Here's how David responded. It says in verse 8 that David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against Uzzah.

David didn't have a good grasp of the holiness of God either at that point, and he got angry at God for breaking out against Uzzah. Well, what should he have done? How should he have responded? Well, he should have responded with some introspection.

What did I do wrong? Where did I go wrong? Why has God done this? Why has he done this? The problem has to be with me, the problem has to be with us, not God. I think that's the response we need to take under such circumstances.

If I'm doing a good thing in a wrong way and it comes to failure, then I need to blame myself, and I need to not get angry with God. So Father, I pray from these couple of lessons in 2 Samuel chapter 5 and 6 that you would teach us, you would teach us today.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.