karma

A few weeks ago my pastor-friend Joe brought up an interesting event in the Bible. So happens that I've been reading thru this section in my daily time in the Word. It centers around King David of the Old Testament. The king before him, a guy named Saul fell out of favor with God and so God had his prophet go out and anoint David as the new king over Israel. So you get this weird situation where there is technically a new king but the old king is still here (remind me to tell you sometime about how this connects with our understanding of the end times that Jesus has brought into existence NOW and NOT YET)

Anyway, Saul starts coming unglued because he knows that God's favor has left him and he gets very jealous of David because he can see that God is with David in mighty ways. So Saul tries to kill David, a bunch of times. There are chapters of this cat and mouse game starting in 1 Samuel 18 .

But the strange part is that David won't retaliate against Saul. David gets the chance to kill Saul a few times, and it would seem that David would have the right. He's been anointed the new king, God is with him, Saul is trying to kill him (self-defense). But David refuses each time to do anything against "the LORD's anointed" It gets even crazier IMO when Saul tries to kill himself and fails to do it all the way and begs a bystander to help him finish the job. The bystander does so because Saul is mortally wounded, is suffering greatly, and is about to be overtaken by his enemies. It's a mercy killing if there ever was one, but when this bystander comes and tells David that Saul is dead and explains how it happened. David has the bystander killed! Why? because this guy showed great disrespect and rebellion by ending the life of "the LORD'S anointed."

It all seems so weird. After all, David is also God's anointed, he's more of God's anointed than Saul is, because God's Spirit has departed Saul and rests on David. All this got me wondering if David was a believer in karma.

not in a weird way. But it seems that perhaps David was motivated by the fact that if HE mistreated the anointed, that he might be mistreated as the anointed. David had one of the most peaceable reigns (internally) of any king of Israel. I kind of wonder if that's because David set such a strong example for respect and reverence for the one God put in command.

All this is to say that David could be on to something... maybe it's true that "what goes around comes around" and "what you sow is what'll you reap." for some reason this reminds me specifically of families. One thing i've been thinking about is the idea that if you want your kids to treat you well when you're old, then be very careful how you treat your elderly parents. (sort of a variation on that great Harry Chapin song, Cat's in the Cradle). I guess my thought is that David had the right to take Saul's life, but he didn't exercise that right. He seemed to recognize that it would start a pattern of disprect and bloodshed for his reign and the reign of others. David had the foresight that many of us (myself included) lack. That how he lived and the choices he made really did have a "butterfly effect" that would set a tone for a long way into the future. That's true in families, in life decisions, in priorities... you feelin' it? or have i confused and bored you?