Good morning Friends.
This morning we're starting our journey through 2 Samuel. And I will be completely honest with you today, I had a hard time with these first two chapters already. It's not a hard read and its easy to understand. But
this takes loving your enemies to a whole other level. And it challenged me.
Saul had spent years trying to kill David. He chased him through the wilderness, threw spears at him, turned armies against him, and made David's life incredibly difficult. If anyone had earned the right to say, Finally justice was served it was David.
But that's not what David did.
He didn't celebrate. When he heard that Saul and Jonathan had died, David tore his clothes. He wept. He fasted. He mourned.
Weeping for Jonathan i get. But Saul...Nope that's not an easy one to swallow. It really does take loving your enemies to a whole other level.
Jesus would later tell us to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44) But David lived it before Jesus ever spoke those words in the Sermon on the Mount.
David didn't rejoice in Saul's downfall. He didn't throw a party because the man who hurt him was finally gone. He refused to let years of rejection and mistreatment harden his heart.
I had to sit with that for a bit today. Forgive my enemies, I can do that. Praying for them, yeah I can do that, it's a bit harder. But every bit of me wants to rejoice when they finally get what they deserve. But that's not what David did and that's not what God would have us do.
Loving people who love us is easy. Loving people who misunderstand us, betray us, wound us, or try to silence us....That's where our hearts are truly tested. David understood that bitterness would cost him more than Saul ever had. He refused to become what had hurt him.
So what do we do when God asks us to keep our hearts tender toward people who haven't been tender with us?
Loving your enemies doesn't always mean inviting them back into your inner circle. It doesn't mean pretending they didn't hurt you. It doesn't mean removing healthy boundaries.
But it does mean refusing to celebrate their destruction.
It means laying down revenge.
It means trusting God to be both just and merciful.
It means choosing to grieve instead of gloat.
The greatest evidence that God has healed our hearts isn't that we no longer remember what happened but that we no longer wish harm on the people who hurt us.
Anyone can love a Jonathan.
But David teaches us that the Spirit of God can enable us to love even a Saul.
Love Pastor Mandy
Ark of Hope Ministry
Daily reading 2 Samuel 1-2
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