no hate

What was it about David’s faith that let him see things as God sees them?

Read this, from 2 Samuel 4: 9-12: “David answered Rekab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, when someone told me, “Saul is dead,” and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news! How much more—when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed—should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you!’
“So David gave an order to his men, and they killed them.”

Rehab and Baanah were a couple of bandit leaders who thought to curry favor with David by killing the son of Saul, his old enemy. David reacted the same way he did when a messenger thought to win his regard with news of Saul’s death, even claiming to have done the deed when he hadn’t: he had them killed.

The death of David’s enemies didn’t cheer him, and murder even of a enemy angered him. Rather than gloating satisfaction or revenge, David wanted only what honored God.

I get it, a little bit. I remember being upset at America’s response to the death of Osama bin Laden. Though necessary, possibly even good, even such a man’s death is no cause for celebration. Rather, this was a time when Satan eroded our humanity even as he brought ruin to a man who bought his lies.

God alone has the power of life and death. He alone decides who is past redemption. David saw that, and put his own agenda second to God’s to the extent of mourning when God mourned, even things that might help him. I hope someday to have such faith.