A MAN AFTER GODS OWN HEART

 

A MAN AFTER GODS OWN HEART

Acts 13:22  Describes how God viewed King David

1 Samuel 13:14  Saul was rejected by God and David chosen as King

It seems that God had a high praise for David because of his not failing to keep any of Gods commands all the days of his life.  There was only one thing that was an exception, the case of Uriah the Hittite.   1 Kings 15:5   Why would this one act be a stain on an otherwise perfect record?  1 Samuel 18:7 indicates that David killed many people so why would Uriahs case be any different?  

The Ten Commandments define what sin is : 1 John 3:4 

The 6th commandment states; You shall not murder .  The Hebrew word for murder here is plain and the command in Hebrew is lo tirtach,  the word for killing is , harag and the word for murder is , ratzach.  Scripture has a different word and meaning for the words kill and murder.  Strongs #H7523 “ratzach” is the unlawful killing of a human by another human. Motives for murder are based is premeditated lust and hate.  This is the attitude that King David had when he plotted Uriahs murder but his other killings were, Strongs H2026, not murder .  In both killing and murder someone dies but what separates the two are the thoughts and intents of the killer or murderer.  All murder is killing but not all killing is murder.  Jesus told us to love all people and not to seek vengeance or retaliation but did Jesus teach that we must allow ourselves, a loved one or a stranger to be murdered while we stand by and do not resist.  The golden rule of do to others what you would want them to do to you is taught to the church but the world doesn’t operate like that, so in dealing with the world follow the advice of the Apostle Paul, Romans 12:18  the words , ”if it be possible “,  proves that in some circumstances it will not be possible to live at peace with all men.  Paul continues with exhorting us not to seek revenge and to love our enemies but not a word is said about allowing an evil person to murder us. 

Scripture has the account of Abraham and his killing of the army of Chedorlaomer, not murder but killing. Genesis 14:15-20 and the priest of the most high God blessed Abraham for his actions .  Elijah killed the prophets of Baal, 1 Kings 18:40  and also King David’s tens of thousands.  All these men and others killed but they did not murder, except David in the case of Uriah.  All these will be in the kingdom of God at the return of Jesus Christ.  The argument that some things changed in the transition from Moses to Christ with respect to this matter violates that basic understanding in the law and in the Fathers of the faith and in the prophets that murder is always a sin but killing for self defense or for defense of others has precedent that carries into the new covenant and due to this fact it never became necessary to directly state that self defense was acceptable when everyone knew it was from historical precedent just as there was no need to define the soul or what death is.  In this matter the actions of the saints will be judged by Christ on the thoughts and intents of our human spirit at the time we take the action to kill.  

Speaking for myself I would hope and pray that God would never allow me to be in a situation where I would have to take a life.  However if it did come to it I also pray that God would guide my spirit so that my actions would be justified and grant me victory over evil.  Just as God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, neither do I, but that the wicked would repent and turn from their evil ways, will they, if not God will kill the wicked and so will I.

Psalm 149:1-9 , Isaiah 66:16 , 1 Thessalonians 3:13