Monday, September 19, 2005
1 Samuel 24:17 And he said to David, "You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil."
RETURNING GOOD FOR EVIL
David and his men had been running away from King Saul and his army for many months. And then finally it happened. David and his men were hiding in a cave. Saul did not know this, and he entered the cave alone, unprotected. The Bible says he went in to attend to his needs.
David's men told him: Here's your chance. The Lord has put Saul into your hands. Kill him. But David did not harm Saul. All he did was cut off a section of Saul's robe. Afterwards he regretted doing even that saying, ". . . he is the anointed of the Lord." When David showed Saul the section of robe he had cut off, Saul said with tears, "You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil."
Now look at the Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. As David had Saul for an enemy, Jesus had the priests and Pharisees and scribes as His enemies. Just as Saul and his army pursued David, so the Jewish leaders came out after Jesus that Maundy Thursday night with a large contingent of soldiers to arrest Him and bring Him to trial. Just think what He could have done to His enemies at that point. He could have called for twelve legions of angels and His enemies would have been totally overcome, destroyed, demolished. But no, Jesus let them take Him captive, and He let them do all the other things that happened that day and the next, because it was the will of God that He suffer and die for our sins, and Jesus was perfectly obedient to that will.
Just as David did not take Saul's life when he had the chance because he wanted to do the will of God, so also Jesus did not destroy His enemies, including us, when He had the chance. We did evil, but He did good. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Hallelujah!
