Theme: What Shall We Do?
In this week’s lessons we see how David dealt with injustice, and learn of our own need to find our refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Scripture: Psalm 11:1-7
Yesterday we concluded with the idea that when evil exists all around us, an important question that gets asked is, “What shall I do?” When the basic standards of faith and morality are eroded, what can the righteous do to combat the depravity that is so prevalent?
Let me give some illustrations. First is an illustration from David’s time. In 1 Samuel 22 we are told of a particularly vile atrocity by King Saul. David had been warned by his friend Jonathan of his father Saul’s determination to kill him, and he had therefore fled from Jerusalem without any time to prepare for the journey. His flight brought him to the city of Nob where he presented himself to the priest of the city whose name was Ahimelech. Ahimelech was surprised that David had arrived without his division of the army—Ahimelech thought he was still in Saul’s service—but David replied that he was on urgent royal business and asked for the priest’s help. Ahimelech gave him consecrated bread to eat and Goliath’s sword which had been in the priest’s custody.
A short time later Saul was told that Ahimelech had assisted David, even inquiring of the Lord for him. Saul called Ahimelech to Gibeah, where he was holding court, and accused him of treason. Ahimelech denied that he was guilty of any such thing. He said that he had honored David’s requests as he always had, believing him to be Saul’s servant. Saul would not believe him. “You will surely die, Ahimelech, you and your father’s whole family,” he said.
Saul ordered his guards to kill the priests, but they would not do it. They were afraid to lift their hands against the Lord’s anointed. Saul turned to one of his servants named Doeg who then killed eighty-five of the priests, after which he also turned on the town of Nob and had all its men, women, children, infants and animals exterminated. It was one of the darkest moments of that grim period of history. The king who was responsible for maintaining and enforcing law and order was himself destroying it. Those who lived in that time might well have asked, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what fan the righteous do?”
Here is another example, closer to us because it is from our own time. In Columbia, South America, the government of President Vigilio Vargas is under attack by the country’s notorious drug cartel. The government has been trying to enforce the country’s laws by stopping the drug traffic, and the cocaine barons have fought back by a long series of terrorist explosions at banks, businesses and newspapers, and by assassinations of important persons. Among those brutally assassinated were a Medellin police chief, several judges and Columbian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan. When the government began to extradite leaders of the cartel to the United States to stand trial on various drug charges, the cartel threatened to kill ten Columbian judges for every accused drug trafficker extradited.
Justice minister Monica de Greiff came to Washington for help, denying rumors that she would soon resign because of threats against her and her family. “The law is under siege in Columbia,” she said. “We must protect it in every way we can.”2 But two weeks later she did resign due to the mounting dangers. Columbia is in near anarchy. The righteous might well say, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Study Questions:
What examples of injustice do you see taking place in society around you?
What biblical principles are being violated?
Application: How should a Christian confront injustice? What can you do in response to different examples of injustice and unrighteousness going on around you?
2Time, September 11, 1989, p. 26.
