Bitter King Saul of Israel once said to David: “Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.” 1 Samuel 24:17

Think about that statement!

Saul had repeatedly been trying to kill David, yet David repeatedly responded in kindness!

And THAT, David’s Jesus-like behavior, was what (here in our Text) brought Saul to some measure of sanity!

Notice the vocabulary, King Saul using the Biblical (religious) word “righteousness!” Though he lived a life basically far (estranged) from God, he (at one time) had been quite close to God!

Christian friend, no one is exempt from falling away, from backsliding on the Lord!

Next here I see a man’s enemy praising that man’s character, his godliness! Just like with Jesus, of Whom Pilate had to say … “Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.” John 19:4

Oh, to try to live that way!

And David here too, long before such injunctions were ever written on paper, obeyed: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

I may be writing today to someone who is living with an adversary. Or in some kind of adversarial condition. Though an enemy’s response can never be precisely calculated, Jesus does expect us to be peacemakers instead of warmongers.

David, at times anyway, had learned that lesson.

So must we.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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