Today's daily lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 24 verses 2 through 6
2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wildgoats' Rocks. 3 And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. 4 And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. 5 And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. 6 He said to his men, e“The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed.”
Well here's a pretty embarrassing story. King Saul is after his on-time servant turned political rival David and chases him to a place with the lovely name of Wildgoats' Rocks. Not knowing that David is hiding in one of the rock caves, the king goes inside to relieve himself (the actual Hebrew says, "cover his feet" but we know what the euphemism means). As Saul is in there with his feet covered, David has a chance to kill him but instead only cuts a corner of the king's robe. And afterward David feels terrible, for having done something vile against the LORD's anointed. Even though Saul is trying to kill David, David knows he ought to treat Saul with respect and with deference -- for the sake of the king's office alone.
I read this and I think, though we don't necessarily look at our government officials as anointed by God, nevertheless we ought to treat them with greater respect than we do. As a society, we have come to tolerate all kinds of ugliness in our political campaigns. I know it's been worse before, but you would think a civilized democracy in the 21st century would not look on the election cycle as open season on politicians. Unfortunately, this goes all the way down to city offices; we speak and act in a very ugly way about mayors, city councilpersons and our chiefs of police. And the average cop on the beat or school teacher in the classroom gets even less respect for the position they hold.
It's time for an era of greater civility, decorum, and respect. And it begins with me -- who I talk about, how I talk about them, and what I choose to share about them on Facebook.
Even if our government officials aren't all class acts, I can be; and I should be.
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