“2 Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee. 3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 4 Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:” (1Ch 17:2-4 AV)
What the Spirit wants us
to see is how the Father dealt with a prophet who assumed His will but was not
correct. In the purity and humility of
his heart, David expressed the desire to build a permanent temple for the ark
of the covenant. Until this time, Israel
used a tent. The tabernacle was a
portable structure carried about as Israel fled Egypt and wandered in the wilderness. When they entered Canaan, the tabernacle, for
the most part, lay packed up and
unused. Once the land was conquered and
the nation began to settle in, then the tabernacle was set up. Yet, David’s heart was to build a temple that
would rival the houses of worship seen in neighboring nations. The king genuinely wanted to give back a
portion of what God has bestowed upon him.
When sharing his heart with Nathan the prophet, the prophet told David
to go ahead and God is with him. Now,
note what happened that night. God spoke
to Nathan and told him to go back and tell David no. He was not to build that house. His son, Solomon would. Of particular note is what God did not say to
Nathan.
Grace is a requirement for
anyone who is called to lead. There are
times when those under our authority mess up.
It happens all the time. However,
grace steps in and decides if it is prudent to correct, or more prudent to let
it slide. The LORD has placed me in all
sorts of supervisory positions all my life.
Starting with Boy Scouts, He has asked me to oversee others as we try to
accomplish a task. The LORD had me work
as a manager of a Pizzeria. Then He gave
me a job as a commercial property superintendent where I oversaw a staff. There was the factory job where I worked in
various coordinator positions. One of
the tools in the tool shed is allowing those under you to make mistakes. Even if it reflects on you, sometimes the
greater lessons are learned by experience.
There are other times when actions by a subordinate may appear to
challenge your authority even though it was not meant that way. For example, one of the tasks my department
was tasked with was unloading railcars.
There was a specific procedure for doing so and there was a window of
time when that chore was scheduled to be accomplished. If a subordinate failed to complete that task,
it would be easy for the lead operator to question the subordinate’s willingness
to follow direction. However, it just
might be that something of a greater priority came into play. Knowing when to show grace is one of the
greatest tools a leader can have.
Technically, Nathan did
nothing wrong. He did not speak in the name
of the LORD. He merely presumed upon the
will of God and told his king building the temple would be blessed. God would have been justified in rebuking Nathan
for presuming to answer for Him. But He
didn’t. Why? Because in the whole scope of things, it wasn’t
that big of a deal. In fact, it wasn’t a
thing at all. God let it slide. Nathan’s mistake was extremely minor and it
was not a matter of malice or rebellion.
It was an honest mistake based on his own judgment. Nathan’s heart was in the right place. He was serving God and serving his king the
best way he knew how. One might even say
his response to David showed initiative.
The fact he could see the value in David’s desire and saw no obvious problem
with it showed good judgment. For all these
reasons, the LORD chose not to make a fuss over Nathan’s presumption. When it comes to leading, we have to know
when grace is the better part of valor.
In so doing, we will grow in Christlikeness.
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