Saul said,
“May you be blessed of the Lord, for you have had compassion on
me.”
1
Samuel 23:21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
This was during Saul’s
pursuit of David. He came close to the mountains where David was hiding and the
people of that land (the Ziphites) offered to deliver David to him. In some
twisted way, Saul considered this a great service done by his enemies which
even his own soldiers would not do for him. (That should have been some
indication to him.) The word compassion can be translated many ways,
predominantly as mercy or lovingkindness. In this context compassion refers
more to having pity than mercy, for they commiserated with him (as opposed to
forgoing some punishment). That may be further indication that the connection
was not godly. Needless to say, they were not successful in capturing David,
nor were they blessed.
But that does not
negate the point that those who have (true) compassion on others will be
blessed by God. When we find someone in a desperate plight, one in which we have
no need to interfere, and yet we help them, we will be blessed for Jesus said that “to
the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of
them, you did it to Me.” Our compassion is never wasted if it is
genuine.
No comments:
Post a Comment