“May Adonai judge between you and me, and may Adonai avenge me on you! But I will not lay a hand on you — “-1 Samuel 24:12
There is some very Oriental thought being expressed in the interaction between David and Saul from verse 12 of 1st Samuel 24.
David is calling on the God of Israel to be the SHOPHET or Judge between him and Saul.
A judge was one who also administered punishments.
David is saying that if Saul has done anything wrong to him, he is happy to let God be the judge.
David added he wouldn’t try to get revenge on Saul, even if God determines Saul was in the wrong (which He already had if you think about it).
Now here’s what’s interesting.
If you’re not familiar with Eastern culture, you’re probably not gonna catch this.
But David was expressing forgiveness WITHOUT directly saying it.
Again, there’s some major Oriental thought at play here.
David was allowing Saul to save face and not feel embarrassed.
See, if David directly told Saul that he forgave him, this meant David had just judged the King of Israel.
However, in those days, it wasn’t right for a son to judge his father, but a father could judge his son.
That’s why David called upon God as the perfect intermediary to judge between them.
Let’s move on to the next thing David said:
“…as the old saying has it,
‘Out of the wicked
comes wickedness,
but I will not lay a hand on you.’”
Wherever this ancient saying came from, it wasn’t scriptural.
Nevertheless, the point was well understood.
At the end of the day, it’s your actions that show what’s truly in your heart.
If David was truly a wicked man, Saul would have been a dead man.
The fact he wasn’t was proof positive that David wasn’t the evil adversary Saul was making him out to be.
To further drive this point home, David adds…
“Whom are you chasing?
A dead dog!
A single flea!”
Alrighty, so the Oriental mindset is being expressed to the max here.
I imagine David was down on his knees in a prostrate position when these words came out of his mouth.
David is asking Saul why he would waste his time on someone as insignificant as him.
He is just a “dead dog”, a “single flea.”
Why in the world would he ever consider a puny insect like him a threat?
So what takeaway can we get out of all of this?
I think today’s lesson comes from the part when David said to Saul “Out of wickedness comes wickedness.”
The logic behind this statement was if you wanna know what kind of tree you’re dealing with, look at its fruit.
David argued his fruit was NOT reflective of evil intent toward Saul but quite the opposite.
That’s your lesson for today.
At the end of the day, if you wanna know what’s really in a person’s heart…
Don’t look at what he or she says…
Look at what he or she DOES…
Because that’s the best and most reliable indicator of where someone’s heart is at.
One may claim to be a believer…
But if they never study Scripture…
Or make any effort to fellowship with other believers…
Or don’t exhibit any of the qualities or attributes of a spirit-led believer…
Does that person really have faith?
Ya feel me?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“For as the body
without the spirit is dead,
so faith without
works is dead also“
-James 2:26
Amen and Amen!
Amen back to you Gimel!
Hope everything’s good.
Be blessed.
I learned a long time ago that people don’t mean what they say, they mean what they do.
And Jimmy knew that when he said faith without works, i.e., the voluntary actions that demonstrate the true strength of one’s faith, is useless.
Yup. The same hypothesis is applied in the marketing world as well.
Don’t pay attention to what people say they’ll buy.
Pay attention to what they ACTUALLY buy.
“For where you wallet is, that’s where your heart is also.”