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By: David Bothof You may listen to this devotion in audio form via podcast here.
When David was told that it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul, he sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead to say to them, "The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this.”
- 2 Samuel 2:4b-6
Many people, if made to walk in David’s shoes, would have wanted to see Saul’s body rot on that Philistine city wall. Saul had paid back David’s loyalty and devotion to him with jealousy and hatred. David had spent years of his life fleeing from Saul’s murderous rage. He had to live with the fact that Saul had slaughtered entire villages simply for feeding him and his men when they were hungry. Therefore, after surviving multiple assasination attempts and living for years as a hunted fugitive, no one would have been surprised if David had taken a little pleasure at the thought of his nemesis being humiliated in death.
But instead, in this passage we see why God calls David “a man after my own heart.” His heart desired God. And in his desire for God, he desired to do God’s will and reject his selfish nature. A selfish nature would have lamented a life situation he didn’t ask for or deserve. A selfish nature would have killed king Saul in the cave when he had the chance. And after Saul died, a selfish nature would have tried to get revenge on the people who had supported king Saul. But not David. Not only does he never seek revenge, in this passage he blesses those who helped preserve the honor of the king God had anointed, even though that king had been his greatest nemesis.
And David’s humility and desire to seek after God is especially poignant when juxtaposed against the backdrop of who king Saul had been. Everything Saul had done was for Saul, even the good things. He hadn’t wanted a relationship with God. He had only wanted to do things he thought would impress God to earn his favor while rejecting a personal relationship with him. That was why he kept all the animals after a battle in order to sacrifice them to God despite God’s direct order to kill every living thing. He didn’t have enough of a relationship with God to notice the sin of disobedience in that action. He was blinded by his desire to “gain favor with God” for his own benefit. And in the end, Saul’s lack of desire for God allows other selfish desires to creep into his heart instead, filling the void with jealousy, paranoia, self-preservation, hatred, and envy. He wanted to preserve his own family legacy and life so badly, he wasted a good portion of the end of his life desperately trying to kill a man who, ironically, would have given his own life in order to help him preserve that very thing.
So in this tale of two hearts, David’s act of kindness toward the people of Jabesh Gilead demonstrates that if we seek after God, God will fill our hearts with a desire to do selfless things… things like blessing those who honored your life nemesis because he was God’s chosen king rather than seek revenge against them. And the mention of King Saul’s burial, which hints at his downward spiral and tragic end, is a reminder that if we don’t seek after God, and instead seek after our own desires, our hearts will fill with selfish things like jealousy, envy, paranoia, and rage.
God, help us to seek after you and to pursue a relationship with you so that you will fill our hearts with good things… with selfless things.