"when someone told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news! How much more—when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed—should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you!'" vv.10-11
Read chapter 4
Doing evil to try to please. That's what we've seen in the last couple chapters of men trying to win favor from David by killing his enemy thinking they'll be rewarded somehow. David saw the motive that prompted the lie the Amalikite told him of killing Saul and reminds these two men that killed Saul's son Isbosheth of that outcome and that he sees their motive too. "This conduct of David toward these murderers of Ish-bosheth is well worth our attention; it is a proof of his integrity and piety, and of his detestation of treachery and cruelty. And we may learn from hence, that we ought not only to do no hurt to our enemies, but that we ought not even to rejoice at the hurt which may happen to them without our contributing any thing to it, nor to countenance injustice and vice in any degree, how great advantage so ever we may reap from them" (Benson Commentary).
When have you seen or done evil for a supposed reward or to win favor of someone only to turn out to hurt themselves or yourself?
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