What Do We Say Of Our Enemies
Good Morning,
We can learn a great deal about people by watching how they behave, whether it be toward the law, their parents, or a friend.
When someone like Justice Thomas or Justice Kavanaugh are slandered and attacked while people searched through decades of personal history in hopes of finding a weakness, it does not reveal a problem in the person being investigated, but rather a problem in the one seeking the dirt.
Anyone who pays attention (even slightly) to politics, knows that some people can be corrupt beyond words, and no one will say anything about it; but others, who live exemplary lives, can be under the constant attack of their political adversaries.
The same scenario relates to church work as well. It would be very rare for anyone on social media or YouTube to talk about the hundreds of buses that were driven into Chicago by the ministry of First Baptist Church and Dr. Jack Hyles. For someone to talk about the poor who are loved, or the school that was provided exclusively for the bus riders, or the endless supply of food and provision given to the poor of Chicago is just not done.
In the case of Dr. Hyles, I remember one day, when he brought out the people who used to ride buses from the poor areas of Chicago, who were now on his payroll at the church or one of the three schools – there were dozens of employees, not just one or two. No one talks about that; no one brings up the rescue mission where the down-and-out could not only find a meal and a bed, but also a permanent place to live – and then they went to work shoveling snow for widows or senior citizens. Those kind of stories ought to be remembered – but evil men cannot focus on good, only on evil.
In 2 Samuel, we find the story of the days following the death of king Saul. King Saul was a great enemy of David. Twice, David was nearly killed at the dinner table by a javelin that king Saul threw. David was chased from his home, forced to put his parents in a foreign kings’s care, and lived in caves, wilderness, and alien cities just to stay alive. David refused to fight the Lord’s anointed king. He committed Saul to God. Twice, he had the opportunity to kill Saul without any effort whatsoever, but David would not do it, nor did he allow his soldiers to do it.
In 2 Samuel chapter 1, we see a man who had stumbled across king Saul nearly dead, and Saul had asked the man to finish him off so that the enemy would not be able to abuse him. Having done so, he took the crown from Saul’s head and a bracelet from his arm and brought them to David. The man probably thought he would be rewarded for the deed, so he rushed right into David’s presence. David and his men spent hours weeping and fasting. Then he ordered the man to be killed.
Notice the way David spoke about Saul in the following verses:
2 Samuel 1:19 “The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!”
vs. 23 “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives…”
Beauty, mighty, lovely, and pleasant are the words David used to describe the guy who threw a javelin at him twice. Greatness is often revealed in the way someone speaks about their enemies (as well as the dead).
We heard much of the negative about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, yet the critics and scorners chose to pick out areas of weakness rather than all of the great things that could be said about these two great men. Who could not find weakness in any person with just a little investigation?
Pay attention when people are speaking; you will learn much about the intents of their heart. When we considered those whom our children date and marry or those whom we choose to hire, notice how they speak about others and especially how they respect the dead. Their words certainly reveal much of what they are inside.
Pastor