Day 141: The Ruthless

Romans 11:25-36; 1 Samuel 21-22; Psalm 66

David is the ultimate actor.  He pretends to be on a mission for Saul in order to get food and a weapon.  Then he acts insane in order to escape from an outside kingdom.  Unfortunatly, his lies got many, many people killed.  He didn't realize what his actions would lead to, and I'm sure he felt incredible guilt.  There have been times when I've done something and it totally backfired on someone else and I feel terrible.  But in this case, I don't think we can blame David.  Evil and hatred had consumed Saul and Doeg had sold out to him, and they would do anything to destroy David.  That is how the devil works:  he encourages wicked people to prey on the innocent.  And I don't know why, but knowing that this really happened, hearing them plead for their lives, reading that the rest of the soldiers wouldn't touch them, but Doeg was quick to slaughter them all--I don't know, it's just really heartbreaking.  And I know that this same situation happens today.  A leader wants to get rid of some people, and while those that could help just stand by, the ruthless destory the innocent.  We need to find ways to stop evil and hatred--prayer and supporting social justice organizations are a great start.

In this passage, David also becomes the leader of a band of people who were angry or in debt.  These were the down-and-out, the broken, the hurting.  This is the same group that Jesus hung out with. This verse in 1 Samuel foreshadows Christ and his desire to spend time, not with the have-it-all-togethers or the perfect-in-every-ways, but simply those who need a Savior.

There is a passage of this psalm that talks about God testing us, putting a burden on us, traveling through fire.  To me, this means that before Christ entered the world, before we could accept Jesus' grace, the burden was heavy.  But, God did all that so that he could then bring "us to a land of plenty."