Convo with Pastor - 1 Samuel 26:9

NOTE: I was working on these a week ahead.

And I didn't even think about Apr 22 being Good Friday.

How appropriate a verse for God to choose ...

 

"No!" David said. "Don't kill him.

For who can remain innocent after

attacking the LORD's anointed one?"

1 Samuel 26:9

 

Temptations are alluring.

 

And revenge is sweet.

 

David had opportunities for both in 1 Samuel 26. His murderous pursuer had fallen helplessly into David's hands. David could have killed the poisonous King Saul. And he could have easily justified it -- "I don't believe there are any coincidences. Therefore, the only way these circumstances could have possibly occurred was God's miraculous intervention. Therefore, God has handed Saul into my hands. Therefore, I can kill him and end Saul's obscene jealosy and murderous pursuit."

 

That would have been easy. Indeed, that's what David's comrades were encouraging him to do.

 

But sometimes 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 don't equal 5. Sometimes when God arranges an encounter, we must not be too quick to assume God's purpose for the "coincidence."

 

David's men leapt to the wrong conclusion: Kill Saul! But they should have been spiritually wise enough to know that two wrongs don't make a right.

 

David listened for God's deeper intent. While the temptation was surely alluring and while the revenge might have been momentarily sweet, David followed two higher callings: 

When God wants Saul dead, "10 surely the Lord will strike Saul down ... or he will die of old age or in battle." (In other words, I as a human do not decide life or death.)

 

David's second calling was this: "11 The Lord forbid that I should kill the one [God] has annointed." We may not always like our leaders, but there must be a limit to our anger, temptations, and revenge. Indeed, even gossip is a form of killing.

 

Today is Good Friday: "The Lord forbid that I should kill the one [God] has annointed."

 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who needs to

keep rechecking his math

(especilly if I start assigning the value of X

as "that means I can kill" ... or lie ... or cheat ...

or gossip ... or steal ... as David's men wanted to do)

---------------------------------
Who can remain innocent? Who is really innocent? None of us on earth are really. And all the little ways we kill others ... with our words, actions, or even lack of words and actions ... break God's heart too.  We need to constantly ask forgiveness for all the ways we attack others.