“Love Your Enemies”     1Samuel 26:7-25

Pastor Thomas Kock   7^th Sunday after Epiphany     February 20, 2011

David is one of the characters in the Bible about whom we know a whole lot.  God saw fit to tell us about a whole bunch about David, what he said, what he did.  And there are parts of David’s life which are pretty well known by most of us Christians.  David defeating Goliath, for example, or the David and Bathsheba account (which we focused on last week) – those are fairly widely known.

But there are some other parts of David’s life which aren’t as well known.  We see one of those segments today, but to understand it, we really need to know the events which lead up to our text, so let’s spend some time learning about (or reviewing) the life of David.

We meet David for the first time when he’s probably a teenager.  Saul is the first king of Israel, and unfortunately he’s hardened his heart against God and His Word.  So God sends the prophet Samuel to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse, to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as the next king.  David is the youngest of Jesse’s sons; when Samuel gets there, David’s out in the fields, taking care of the sheep.  So sons 1-7 are brought before Samuel, and God says “Not him” about each one of them.  Finally Samuel has to actually ask, “Do you have any other sons” before Jesse brings David to Samuel, but when David comes, God says, “That’s the one!” David is then anointed; he will become the next king of Israel.  Wow!

But, not yet.  Saul is still king.  Eventually an “evil spirit” afflicts Saul, and they look for someone who can play the harp, so that Saul’s mind could be soothed.  David is the one whom they find, so David will begin to get to know Saul.  He seems to spend some time with Saul, but most of his time at home.

So, Saul is leading the Israelites against the Philistines, when Goliath is the big hero for the Philistines.  David’s not in the army, but he’s old enough to go to the battle and take his brothers some food and bring back word from the battle front.  Well, what’s going on is that Goliath – a HUGE man – is each day issuing a challenge: “Choose one man to fight me!  If he kills me, we’ll be your servants; if I kill him, you’ll be our servants.”  The Israelites didn’t want to take him on!  So this went on for day after day.

When David hears Goliath challenge the Israelites, David decides to fight him, and God grants David the victory.  David slings a rock at Goliath, which hits him in the forehead.  Down Goliath goes, and David grabs Goliath’s sword and cuts off his head!  Of course the Philistines are aghast; the Israelites are energized, and they attack the Philistines, and it’s this amazing victory for the Israelites!

The women of Israel composed a song about it.  Part of it went like this: “Saul has killed his thousands, and David has killed his tens of thousands.”  Oh-oh.  King Saul is not going to be happy about that!

And yet, David has just done an amazing thing, so Saul wants him in his service, wants him in his army.  So David is now pretty much in Saul’s service all the time, both as a young officer in the army, and playing his harp for Saul.  But that refrain galled Saul!  So one time when David was playing the harp for Saul, Saul threw a spear at him!  David eluded him twice.

So Saul then put David in charge of 1000 men, and sent him off to war, perhaps thinking that David would be killed in battle.  Instead, David excels.  So Saul becomes afraid of David, noticing how much the people like him, and how successful he was at everything.  He decides to take a different tack, and invites David to marry one of his daughters.  David doesn’t want to do it, but later one of Saul’s daughters, named Michal, falls in love with David, and David ends up marrying her.

David continues to excel; Saul continues to become more and more afraid of David, and to hate him.  Saul begins to look for opportunities to kill David, again calling David to him to play the harp, and again throwing his spear at David.  David escapes.  And for the next several years, David’s life will be filled with upheaval.  Saul begins to actively pursue David in an attempt to kill him, yet sometimes relents and invites David back to the palace.  So David’s living in a state of flux.  But eventually David has to completely flee. 

For several years David will be on the run.  He gathers a group of men around him, and they have to constantly move from place to place, have to be alert for where Saul is.  It had to be absolutely miserable!  For awhile David had to act like he was a madman.  He even had to go live in Philistia for a time.

Can you imagine how frustrating that must have been?  Can you imagine how draining?  He’d been a great servant to Saul!  He’d been a great officer in the army!  He was even anointed as the next king of Israel!  And he had to live … how?  Like a bandit!  On the run!  Constantly in turmoil!  And it was all because of Saul!

So on one of the times when Saul is after David, they’re quite close to David.  Saul goes to sleep, as does the rest of the army.  So David and Abishai sneak down into the camp.  The Lord caused Saul and the rest of the army to sleep deeply, so David and Abishai can sneak all the way to Saul.  Abishai says to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice.”

If you were David, how would you have reacted?  I mean, Saul has made your life miserable!  For years!  Here you have the opportunity to put him to death; wouldn’t that be proper?  I mean, you’ve been anointed as the next king of Israel, and Saul’s been wicked; wouldn’t it be okay for you to put Saul to death?  Can you imagine how appealing that thought must have been to David?  I can only imagine!

But God didn’t say, “Put your enemies to death.”  Instead, He says, “Love your enemies.”  Perhaps a thought like that was going through David’s mind as he rebuffs Abishai’s suggestion: “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?  As surely as the LORD lives,” he said, “the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed.”

And so David doesn’t do what Abishai suggested.  Instead, David says, “Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.”  And that’s what they did.  They took the spear and jar; then when they were well away from the camp, they shouted out, pointing out what had happened, that they were right there, had taken the jar and spear, but hadn’t harmed them.  David invites one of the young men to come and get the spear and jar.  And all of it tweaks Saul’s conscience a bit, and he stops pursuing David for that time.  Yes, David loved his enemy.  I’m sure it wasn’t easy.  I’m sure it was challenging, but he was able to do it.

How can you and I do similar?  How can you and I show that sort of love?  God gives us one helpful thought in the answer which David gives to Abishai.  By saying, “the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.  But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed.”  David is reminding Abishai – and us – as to who’s in charge: your gracious God!  And God knows what He’s doing.  God had anointed Saul; there was a good-news reason for that.  Perhaps David didn’t know what that reason was, but God knew the blessings which would come from Saul being in the position in which he was.  And, God knew how things would play out.  David didn’t have to take things into his hands, because a gracious God would take care of all things in their due time.  David could simply show love to Saul, knowing that God would ultimately take care of the entire situation.  The same thoughts apply to you and me.  That helps us to show love to our enemies.

And yet, even knowing that, how hard that is for us humans!  How hard that is for us to love those who stand against us!  Perhaps it is most difficult for us to love those people who have hurt us, like Saul had hurt David.  It must have been really hard for David to spare Saul; I’m guessing it would have been even harder for David to love Saul.  Can you imagine that it would have been pretty hard to do?  Oh, I’m thinking!

“But, but, but!” our sinful self protests: “That person hurt me terribly!  I can hardly imagine forgiving them!  How in the world can I love them?”

In saying that, we actually make a confession of sins of sort.  In saying/thinking something like that, we’re actually making a confession that we don’t thoroughly understand Jesus’ forgiving love for us.

You see, you and I were God’s enemies by nature.  You and I stood opposed to God.  You and I deserved to be sent to hell for all of eternity, for we’d sinned against God with our thoughts, words, and actions.  WE were the enemies!

And what did God do?  God LOVED us!  God loved us … how much?  So much that He came to this earth to live and die for us!  He loved us with the ultimate love!  He went to the cross and paid for our sins, and paid for them in full!

And those sins were many!  Not only what we’ve said and done which was sinful, but the good we’ve failed to do – those sins pile up and pile up and pile up!

And … God forgives them all.  God washes them all away.  God cleanses us from every one of them.  He loves you that much.

And … He loves your enemy that much.  That person who wronged you, that person who just gets under your skin, that person who frustrates you, that person with whom you just can’t seem to get along – Jesus loved that person every bit as much as He loves you and me.  Jesus died for that person every bit as much as He died for you and for me.

And it’s finally that knowledge – combined with the truth that God’s in charge – which empowers us to love our enemies.  After all, if GOD loves our enemies, then it makes sense that we ought to, too.  I mean, to NOT love our enemies would in a sense say that we have a better idea that what God has, that our opinion is more important than God’s.  And, clearly that’s not the case!

And so we pray, “Lord, strengthen me to love my enemies.”  Note, God isn’t saying you have to become best friends with them or necessarily even like them.  But He does call us to love them.  And you can!  You will!  Why so?

Because you’ll be reflecting the love which God has shown to you.  Amen.