Do your duty - today, and every day. That’s easy to say, much harder to do.

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What is your duty? You know it; you don’t need to read about it. Your duty is the obligation you have to fulfil your God-given responsibilities in the best way possible. We each have duties at work, at home, at church, and beyond. Some duties are mundane, some are exciting; but usually, a duty is something that we wouldn’t do of our own accord.  

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Our duties will probably never have the same impact that King David’s had in the Bible. He was the King of Israel and Jesus’ ancestor, after all.  

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Were we to shirk our duty as David did, we would most likely never cause the same world-changing problems. A quick recap. As a shepherd boy tending his father’s flocks, David showed bravery in fending off wild animals. He was anointed by Samuel as the next king. He trusted in God and killed Goliath using only a sling. He became a powerful warrior who experienced the demands of battle and the burdens of deployment in a harsh and dangerous environment. Ultimately, he became King of Israel and Judah. He was a man “after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), and he is known for writing many of the Psalms and for praising God magnificently, in word and in deed.

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And yet, in spite of all of his highs, we know of some of his lows, too. We know he almost killed Nabal in anger, he counted his fighting men in a fit of pride, and of course, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. But right before his sin with Bathsheba, David shirked his duty as king. After David had consolidated the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, he got tired, maybe bored, of fighting. Around the middle of his reign, he had offered kindness to the new king of the Ammonites, but that king refused David’s generosity. Instead, the Ammonites allied with the Arameans to fight against Israel. David and his troops swiftly beat the Arameans, but the fighting season ended before dealing with the Ammonites.

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Usually, kings lead their armies into battle. It’s one of the first lessons of leadership – leading from the front. When the fighting season came, kings went into battle. However, in 2 Samuel 11, despite an ongoing war with the Ammonites, David stayed home. Why? He probably trusted his generals and his men, he was probably tired and exhausted from ruling, and his aging body probably didn’t want to suffer the pain of living in a tent, eating food made in the field, putting on heavy armor, sleeping on the ground or on a field cot, all while being exposed to the elements and the dangers of war. He had done his share of all these things, so why begrudge him a little peace and comfort?

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Because his duty was to be with his troops.

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His dereliction of duty set off a domino chain of events that ultimately led to death and rebellion while he was king, and rebellion long after. As a result of his sin, God allowed the baby conceived in adultery to die. But worse followed – David’s family was a mess, one son rose in rebellion, another raped his sister, and the rest of David’s reign was spent dealing with the fallout of his dereliction of duty.

I don’t think any of us will ever have the duties that King David had, but we all have duties. Maybe it’s at work; to a spouse, child, or parent; to God; at church; at school; or more. Are you faithful to your duty - with your time, your money, your thoughts, your actions, your emotions?

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I find the hardest thing about a duty is that it’s never-ending. Fulfilling my duties is a marathon, not a sprint. They won’t be over soon, and sometimes there’s no rest in sight. It requires daily dedication to complete the responsibilities we’ve been entrusted with, and it can only be done with a lot of prayer, and God’s help.  

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Then, like Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7, hopefully we can say that we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we have kept the faith.