Don’t Be That Guy

 

2 Samuel 1:2-5 (KJV)

2 It came even to pass on the third day, that, behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and did obeisance. 3 And David said unto him, From whence comest thou? And he said unto him, Out of the camp of Israel am I escaped. 4 And David said unto him, How went the matter? I pray thee, tell me. And he answered, That the people are fled from the battle, and many of the people also are fallen and dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also. 5 And David said unto the young man that told him, How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead?

 

Uh Oh

 

2 Samuel 1:9-10 (KJV)

9 He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me. 10 So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he was fallen: and I took the crown that was upon his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them hither unto my lord.

 

This guy was expecting a reward. Normally someone who killed the enemy of someone else was rewarded. I am sure that this guy was expecting to be rewarded. Here the one guy standing in the way of David becoming king is dead. Surely David would reward anyone who helped him, right? Anyone who took credit for killing the new king’s enemy would get a good job in the new government, right?

 

2 Samuel 1:14-15 (KJV)

14 And David said unto him, How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed? 15 And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near, and fall upon him. And he smote him that he died.

 

Don’t Be That Guy

 

A few years ago, my family and I went to Walt Disney World in Florida. In the Magic Kingdom, they have an attraction in Tomorrowland that is a tie-in to the movie Monster Inc. called the Laugh Floor. If you have seen the movie the monsters live in a land where the laughter of children is like electricity. So, you go into the “factory floor” and the monsters tell jokes to try and make you laugh so they can store them up for power. During the show, they use a number of people from the audience as part of their gags. One gag is a character they call “That Guy.” When characters in the show says something like, “You are ugly,” the other character will say, “Well at least I’m not That Guy” and cut to a member of the audience. This occurs many times throughout the show and it is always the same person who is chosen to be “That Guy” for the show.

 

I was “That Guy.”

 

For about 20 minutes, I was the butt of many jokes and the source of much laughter, mostly from my own kids. At the end of the show one of the cast members even came up and gave me a sticker to wear the rest of the day that said, “I Was That Guy.”

 

That was a good day to be “That Guy.” In our story this morning, it was not so good to be “That Guy.” He expected to be rewarded. After all, wasn’t this was God wanted?

 

1 Samuel 15:27 (KJV) And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.

 

Now the skirt of Samuel’s mantle was where he had the ribbon of blue, the tallit.

 

Numbers 15:38-39 (KJV)

38 Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: 39 And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:

 

So around the edge of Samuel’s mantle was this ribbon of blue which served as a reminder of the commandments of the Lord. The ribbon of blue is like a wedding ring between Israelites and God. It is a symbol of the relationship between God and His people. When Saul tore the mantle, he was symbolically tearing God away from Samuel. That is why Samuel turns to Saul and says,

 

1 Samuel 15:28 (KJV) And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.

 

Saul had torn the symbol of Samuel’s relationship with God. And that is why Samuel turned that back around on Saul and tells him that it is God who is divorcing him and setting up someone else as King.

 

So, God said that he was ripping the kingdom away from Saul. Since God wanted David to be the king, it seems reasonable that all the servants of God would be justified in helping that process would it not? But the tallit served as God’s “wedding ring” and marriages are “till death do us part.” So even though God spoke that curse on Saul, it was nobody’s business except God and Saul.

 

That is why we see that David never actively tried to remove Saul from power. No matter how many times Saul threw a spear at David or chased him down in the desert, David never tried to kill Saul.

 

1 Samuel 24:2-4 (KJV)

2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats. 3 And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. 4 And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily.

 

Just as Saul had ripped away the ribbon of blue from Samuel’s mantle, so David cut away Saul’s ribbon of blue. David knew that this was a symbolic act. David was not just letting Saul know that he had been close enough to kill him; David was intentionally removing the commandments of God from Saul’s life. David was inserting himself into Saul’s marriage to God. David was separating Saul from God and he knew it.

 

1 Samuel 24:5-6 (KJV)

5 And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. 6 And he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.

 

David realized that he had made a terrible mistake. Saul and God were in a marriage of sort. If God considered the marriage viable, it was none of David’s business. If God wanted to keep Saul on the throne that was between Saul and God. Even though God had pronounced a curse on Saul, David was not allowed to help God’s plan along.

 

The young man in our opening scripture did not know this. He thought that since God had given the kingdom to David, then anyone who helped God complete that plan would be rewarded.

 

He was wrong.

 

When God decides that it is time for his judgment to be meted out, you don’t want to be “that guy” who hands it out. God occasionally has judgment on His people, but He always keeps score and he always goes back to the ones who were the muscle behind His will and punishes them for touching His anointed.

 

Correction Saves Us from The Condemnation of World

 

When the Lord chastens us, he is doing so out of love, The Lord is trying desperately to save us from ourselves. He is also trying to save us from the condemnation of the world.

 

1 Corinthians 11:32 (KJV) But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

 

When we are not living per the plan of the Lord, the first one to know it is the Lord.

He corrects us like one would correct a child; to pull them away from the problem. If a child refuses to be distracted, then a harsher punishment is required. It is like that with us as well. The Lord will use gentle persuasion to divert us away from our sin. If that does not work, he will use stronger tactics.

If we continue to disobey the Lord, the world will bring His judgment upon us.

 

In John chapter 8 there is a story of a woman caught in the very act of adultery. We do not know what the Lord had done to compel her to stop. What we do know is that her sin eventually became known. The world is harsh in its judgment of those in the church. Those in the world look for examples of Christians acting as hypocrites to justify their own behavior. When they see, or hear of a Christian behaving in a way that is counter to the scriptures they say, “Aha! They are all hypocrites. That is why I don’t believe in God.”

 

In this story, we find one of the most famous lines of Jesus.

 

John 8:7 (KJV) So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

 

We do not know if she was married; if the man and she were both married, if he was single and she was married, or if he was married and she was single. All we know is that the man was not brought before Jesus like she was. I prefer to think that she was single and the man was married. That he had told her about how terrible his wife was. How he was planning to leave her. Perhaps she used these words to justify her actions to herself. She told herself that he was going to leave his wife anyway, so she was just getting a head start on the life that they would lead together.

 

If that is the case, then she had inserted herself into someone else’s marriage. The problems in that marriage were between the man and his wife. Even if his wife wanted nothing to do with him, she was wrong to put herself in the middle of that relationship.

 

As a descendant of Abraham, this woman was under the covenant of God. She had a relationship with God. When the Pharisees brought her to Jesus, they were committing the exact same act of adultery. She had a relationship with God. Since we know that Jesus is God, she had a relationship with Jesus.

Her relationship with Him was strained. By inserting themselves into the relationship between the woman and Jesus, they were committing an act of adultery.

 

The Bride of Christ

 

Those of us who follow him are called the Bride of Christ. The Bible is rife with symbolism of the church being a bride and Jesus as the bridegroom. From the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25,) to the discussion of the marriage supper of the lamb (revelation 19,) to Jesus talking about how his father’s house has many rooms.

 

John 14:2 (KJV) In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

 

In the Old Testament, it was common for a father and son to go to the house of another and pay the price for a bride. They would then return to their own house where the son would begin to build a room onto his dad’s house where he and his wife could live. Jesus is using this imagery when he says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Jesus is the groom who is going to prepare a place for us, the bride. All of us are the Bride of Christ. We are brides collectively and brides individually.

 

As brides, we each have a relationship with our husband, Jesus Christ. If we are not acting as we should, our husband is displeased with us. If we see that the Lord is unhappy with one of our sister brides, we should pray for him or her. We should encourage him or her.

 

What we should not do is try to insert ourselves into that relationship and try to tear it apart. We should not assume that we are somehow “doing the Lord’s work” if we attack one of our saints. The marriage between a man and a woman is sacred. When someone tries to tear that relationship apart we call that person an adulterer. I submit that when you try to act as God’s judgment against another saint of God, you are also an adulterer. You are interfering in the relationship between God and his bride.

 

Conclusion

 

Touching God’s anointed is a terrible thing, even by someone who is anointed.

When God threatened to destroy the Israelites in the desert, it was Moses who prayed on their behalf.

 

When Job’s wife and friends told him to curse God and die, it was Job who had to pray for God’s forgiveness.

 

When Jesus told the disciples that the temple would be destroyed it was the Romans under Titus who carried out that prophesy 40 years later. Yet those same soldiers, even though they had performed “the will of God,” were buried under the rock and ash of Pompeii just 4 years later.

 

If you see one of your brothers or sisters in a trial, pray to God for them. Don’t be like Amalekite who thought that he could gain the favor of David and of God by claiming that he had killed Saul.

 

Don’t Be That Guy.