The Principle Driven Life

If you desire to be a man or a woman after God’s own heart, then like David, you too must embrace godly principles for living, putting them in the driver’s seat of your actions and reactions, even if where they take you means personal inconvenience. Whatever it takes, whatever it means, follow your principles.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Samuel 4:9-12

But David said to Recab and Baanah, “The Lord, who saves me from all my enemies, is my witness. Someone once told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ thinking he was bringing me good news. But I seized him and killed him at Ziklag. That’s the reward I gave him for his news! How much more should I reward evil men who have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed? Shouldn’t I hold you responsible for his blood and rid the earth of you?” So David ordered his young men to kill them, and they did.

Much of the ancient Old Testament world is raw and brutal to our modern sensibilities. This chapter is no exception. Intrigue and murder along with swift and brutal justice are at every turn as we learn how the kingdom of Israel transitions from Saul to David. As the household of Saul is growing weaker after his death while the popularity of David is soaring, a couple of opportunistic fellows pull a hit job to incur David’s favor and hopefully secure a place in his future administration.

What did they do? They murdered Saul’s son, Ishbosheth, the logical heir to the kingship. Their names were Baanah and Recab, and we are told they were captains of Ishbosheth’s raiding parties. (2 Samuel 4:2) They weren’t enemies of the man they killed; supposedly, there were friends—which makes what they did even more despicable. They snuck into Ishbosheth’s bedroom while he was napping, killed him, cut off his head as proof, and took it to David, thinking they would get a big thank you from the guy who appeared to be headed to a landslide election as the next king.

Now David had every excuse to appreciate what they had done. After all, Ishbosheth stood in David’s way to the throne. Moreover, David had already been anointed by Samuel as God’s choice to be the next king. Not only that, Saul’s administration had been rejected by God, and roundly condemned. And if that weren’t enough, Saul had tried to murder David, and now Ishbosheth was likewise trying to carry out Saul’s desire to eliminate David with the use of military force. (2 Samuel 2:8-32, 3:1)

But instead of accepting the murder of his rival as a blessing, David called it out. It was murder, no matter what the justification, and it was morally wrong. And as such, those who were thinking they were doing David a favor deserved what murderers deserved—swift execution, and in the same way they had killed Saul’s son. Just as David had executed another man who thought he was doing David a favor by finishing off the wounded Saul, these two were now summarily executed.

Brutal, yes, but David was simply living by his principles. Taking the life of another outside of war and the laws that governed society was wrong, even if it was a convenience to the man who would be king. Right is always right and wrong is always wrong, and David stuck to this principle.

Now fast-forward to your life and mine. Obviously, and thankfully, we don’t live in the kind of brutal environment David did, but we are faced with the opportunity to compromise our principles in favor of convenience on a regular basis. We mustn’t! Not ever!

If you desire to be a man or a woman after God’s own heart, then like David, you too must embrace godly principles, putting them in the driver’s seat of your actions and reactions, even if where they take you means personal inconvenience.

Whatever it takes, whatever it means, follow your principles.