Compassion on your accuser
This week's scripturific goodness comes from 2 Samuel 18:32-33:
The Cushite messenger was expecting David to react like most of us would, when hearing the news of the death of our worst enemy. He was hoping for a party. Imagine that someone you raised from childhood was trying to throw you out of your own house, to steal your job and all of your posessions, and to possibly even kill you. Could you possibly still look on that person as a son? The Levitical law commanded that a son like that was to be killed before he grew up to be a menace to society.
David acts a lot like Jesus here. He saw Absalom as a son first, and a transgressor second. As we're adopted into God's kingdom as sons, that's how he sees us too. David says "If only I had died instead of him!" Jesus played that out. David refrains from enforcing the code of the law in order to give his son a chance to come back to him. God does that with us. If you're wondering what compassion looks like, this is it.
Which of the two people in this story are we most like, though? David or the Cushite messenger? If someone has been badmouthing us for years, and then something happens to them, are we glad in our hearts, or do we feel sorry for them the same as if they'd always been our friend? If someone has been an enemy of our people, or our company, or our family, or our circle of friends, and someone does something horrible to them, are we glad and relieved to be free of them, or do we feel compassion for what happened to them? The messenger was just reading the narrative written on mankind's hearts, but David understood the heart of God. We're sons first, and rebels second. Sons first, sinners second.
Be thankful enough for your father God's mercy that you will try to act like him. If someone wrongs you, don't get all happy and self-righteous if something happens to them. Don't gleefully watch them struggle with misfortune. They're sons of God just like we are, and deserve your compassion the same as if they were your own.
Absalom, for those of you who don't go and read two big books before opening this study, was David's son who betrayed him. Absalom was gathering people together to take over the kingdom, and had massed such a large army that David was forced to go into hiding. This is not the behaviour of the ideal son. Absalon would have had no problems killing David, but David wept when Absalom was killed.The king asked the Cushite, "Is the young man Absalom safe?"
The Cushite replied, "May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man."The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept. As he went, he said: "O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you—O Absalom, my son, my son!"
The Cushite messenger was expecting David to react like most of us would, when hearing the news of the death of our worst enemy. He was hoping for a party. Imagine that someone you raised from childhood was trying to throw you out of your own house, to steal your job and all of your posessions, and to possibly even kill you. Could you possibly still look on that person as a son? The Levitical law commanded that a son like that was to be killed before he grew up to be a menace to society.
David acts a lot like Jesus here. He saw Absalom as a son first, and a transgressor second. As we're adopted into God's kingdom as sons, that's how he sees us too. David says "If only I had died instead of him!" Jesus played that out. David refrains from enforcing the code of the law in order to give his son a chance to come back to him. God does that with us. If you're wondering what compassion looks like, this is it.
Which of the two people in this story are we most like, though? David or the Cushite messenger? If someone has been badmouthing us for years, and then something happens to them, are we glad in our hearts, or do we feel sorry for them the same as if they'd always been our friend? If someone has been an enemy of our people, or our company, or our family, or our circle of friends, and someone does something horrible to them, are we glad and relieved to be free of them, or do we feel compassion for what happened to them? The messenger was just reading the narrative written on mankind's hearts, but David understood the heart of God. We're sons first, and rebels second. Sons first, sinners second.
Be thankful enough for your father God's mercy that you will try to act like him. If someone wrongs you, don't get all happy and self-righteous if something happens to them. Don't gleefully watch them struggle with misfortune. They're sons of God just like we are, and deserve your compassion the same as if they were your own.
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