When my daughter was little, I decorated cakes for extra money. The children often saw cakes sitting out, waiting to be picked up. On one of those occasions, I noticed that the flowers from my cake were missing. I knew immediately what must have happened, so I asked my little girl if she knew anything about the missing icing. Thinking she was in big trouble, she said, “Mommy, I didn’t mean to.” Of course, I knew that it was intentional. The reason I knew was that she fed the icing to the dog.
My daughter didn’t do this to purposely to cause a problem. She intentionally pinched off the icing so she could make the dog happy. Oh, that all intentional actions were done for the purpose of making someone happy. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Would you do something intentionally to harm another person? Do you ever get so angry at someone that you do or say something just to hurt them? Do you ever wish harm to someone because of something they have said or done to you? If so, you might need to rethink your attitude and your actions.
First, let’s look at some people in Scripture that experienced these same feelings. We’ll start with King Saul and his decision to kill David. God had rejected Saul because of his disobedience and had chosen David as the new king of Israel. David was serving in Saul’s army and had just returned from the slaughter of the Philistines. Everyone was excited about the battle; and they began to praise David by saying, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (First Samuel 18:7 ESV). Thus, the jealousy began, and Saul from that day forward deliberately tried to kill David.
King David was also guilty of purposefully causing harm. In fact, he had his soldier, Uriah, killed because he wanted his wife (Second Samuel 11). He willfully had Uriah placed in the front of a battle and had the rest of the army retreat, knowing that he would be killed.
On another occasion, David brought the son of Jonathan, Saul’s grandson, to the palace. Mephibosheth had a servant named Ziba, who had served him for many years. David returned the land that had belonged to Jonathan to Mephibosheth and instructed Ziba to take care of the land and to serve Mephibosheth. This he did until one day when he took gifts to King David and told him a lie. He accused Mephibosheth of threatening to take back the kingdom, something he had no right to have (Second Samuel 16). Because of this lie, David gave everything that belonged to Mephibosheth to Ziba.
In the book of Esther, we read about a man named Haman. Haman was set above all the officials in the king’s palace, and all the servants bowed down to him except for a Jewish man named Mordecai. This made Haman furious; and he determined that he would destroy not only Mordecai, but all the Jews. Haman convinced the king to allow him to proceed with preparations that would destroy God’s people. His hatred of Mordecai continued to grow. He became so angry that he built a gallows with plans to hang Mordecai, but Queen Esther exposed him. When the king realized what Haman had in mind, he ordered that Haman be hanged on the gallows he prepared for Mordecai.
When Stephen stood before the people in Acts 6 and proclaimed the gospel to them, “they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10). The people became angry and threw him out of the city where they stoned him to death. He was targeted because he believed in Jesus as the son of God.
There are so many other examples of those who targeted people for the purpose of harming them. What motivated them? In the cases of Saul and Ziba, it was jealousy. In the case of David, it was lust. In the case of Haman, it was power. In the case of Stephen, it was people not wanting to admit they were wrong.
It is easy for us to evaluate these situations and determine what the right thing to do would be. None of these things should have happened, but what about the people that were mistreated. What should they have done when they were targeted, purposefully harmed? Paul says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them” (Romans 12:14). He also says, “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all” (Romans 12:17). “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Romans 12:19).
We have no way of knowing how Uriah reacted when he realized what was happening to him. We do know Stephen’s response. He said, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). What a powerful example of forgiveness for purposeful pain. Could we do the same?
It is so difficult when we are mistreated by our enemies, but it is even more difficult when we are mistreated by those we thought were our friends. In the case of Mephibosheth, we see the kind of spirit we all should have. After he discovered what Ziba had done, and King David was made aware of the situation, David wanted to divide the property between Mephibosheth and Ziba. Mephibosheth told King David to just give it all to Ziba. Could you or I respond that way?
The apostle, Peter, sums it all up for us. “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing” (First Peter 3:8-9).
Sandra Oliver