A Tale of Three Kings

Kings claim the right to throw spears. Everyone knows that kings have that right. Everyone knows very, very well. How do they know? Because the king has told them so——many, many times.

David was once a student in this school, and Saul was God's chosen way to crush David.

David never got hit. Gradually, he learned a very well-kept secret. He discovered three things that prevented him from ever being hit. One, never learn anything about the fashionable, easily mastered art of spear throwing. Two, stay out of the company of all spear throwers. And three, keep your mouth tightly closed.

David the sheepherder would have grown up to become King Saul II, except that God cut away the Saul inside David's heart. That operation, by the way, took years and was a brutalizing experience that almost killed the patient.

There in those caves, drowned in the sorrow of his song and in the song of his sorrow, David became the greatest hymn writer and the greatest comforter of broken hearts this world shall ever know.

By earthly measures he was a shattered man; by heaven's measure, a broken one.

The truth was that when they did see him, they didn't recognize him. He had changed. His personality, his disposition, his total being had been altered. He talked less. He loved God more. He sang differently. They had never heard these songs before. Some were lovely beyond words, but some could freeze the blood in your veins.

Are you so certain your king is a Saul and not a David that you are willing to take the position of God and go to war against your Saul? If so, then thank God you did not live in the days of crucifixion.

"I will tell you of my king and his greatness: My king never threatened me as yours does. Your new king has begun his reign with laws, rules, regulations, and fear. The clearest memory I have of my king, when we lived in the caves, is that his was a life of submission."

Legalism is nothing but a leader's way of avoiding suffering.

"My king spoke not of submitting to him. He feared no rebellion...because he did not mind if he was dethroned!"

"As far as David's having authority, men who don't have it talk about it all the time: Submit, submit! That's all you hear. David had authority, but I don't think that fact ever occurred to him."

Dear King, Saul was a bad king. Absalom is, in some ways, a youthful incarnation of Saul. You alone are constant. You are forever the broken-hearted shepherd boy. Tell me truthfully, what do you plan?

I seek his will, not his power. I repeat, I desire his will more than I desire a position of leadership.

Thank you for not throwing spears, for not rebelling against kings, for not exposing a man in authority when he was so very vulnerable, for not dividing a kingdom, for not attacking young Absaloms who look like young Davids but are not.