“Then you saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, “Cut down the tree and destroy it. But leave the stump and the roots in the ground, bound with a band of iron and bronze and surrounded by tender grass. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven. Let him live with the animals of the field for seven periods of time.” Daniel 4:23
The principle of the stump is that God has a purpose for us as long as we are alive. As long as we live, God always puts a band of His grace provision around our lives. This opens greater opportunities to serve him even after a serious fall. In this verse we see God’s grace. God’s grace is so amazing. As we read and study God’s Word, we see should love and grace. Grace is more than we deserve and greater than we can imagine. To look at grace we need to look at King David.
David is chosen to be king because he has what Saul did not have, a heart for God. David’s heart for God prepares him to be used by God. Our impressive resumes aren’t what make us useful in God’s kingdom. We need to cultivate a heart for God above all else. David had the power to capture imaginations and inspire emotions. His family tragedies and national triumphs, his unparalleled fear of God combined with moral failure, the obvious ways that God works in his life combined with his manly courage. David’s life teaches us not to take the glorious reality of God’s mercy for granted. In Hebrew the name David means “beloved.” David is the only person in the Bible whose epitaph reads “a man after God’s own heart. “But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” (Acts 13:22) David is such a picture of God’s grace. Even with David’s failures God allowed him to be in the line of Jesus Christ. In my life I know a great deal about God’s grace. I have failed God so many times. I am like Paul; I want to follow God’s leading and do His will, but I get off track. Then God in His grace calls me back to where I need to be.