David
Psalm 51:1-4 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
Welling Seventh Day Adventist Church
Theme Bible Verses for week commencing Sunday, 1 June 2025.
Theme: ‘One’ whose heart is “after God’s own heart.”
Introduction
“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, He would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler of His people because you have not kept the LORD’s command.”
1 Samuel 13:13-14.
You may ask what are the specific characteristics associated with the phrase “ man after God’s own heart.”
Let us take a look at Joel 2:12-13: “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your GOD, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.
The phrase “a man after GOD’s own heart” is said by GOD of David.”
However, are there others in the Bible who “had a heart for GOD”; like David, they were not perfect; can you and me have a heart for God, and if yes, what would that mean!?
King Josiah
2 Kings 23:1-3: The king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the LORD with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the high priests and prophets - all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD - to follow the LORD and keep His commands, statues and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
Abraham
Genesis 18:20-25: Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not I will know.” The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD. Then Abraham approached Him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing - to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” (Note: Abraham negotiated with God: if 50-45-40-30-20-10 righteous people are found in Sodom will You spare the place? God said to Abraham, “for the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” (See Genesis 18:22-25, 32).
Moses
Exodus 33:11, 17: The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
Joshua encounters the Commander of the Lord’s Army.
Joshua 5:13-15: Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus).
Matthew 26:6-10,13: While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor. Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Jesus
Matthew 3:17: And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.
God describes Jesus as His beloved Son and says that He is well pleased with Him. God's love, even for His own Son, is central to who He is. (Can “you” imagine God weeping; can we weep with Him!?) This narrative of Matthew adds heartbreak to the sacrifice God is making in offering the life of Jesus for the sins of humanity. Ezekiel 36:26: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I pray today that God will create a new heart in us ‘like unto His own heart.’ Amen.