The blessing of suffering
“Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, ‘Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile; return to your own place. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, while I go where I will? Return and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you’” (2 Samuel 15:19-20).
Suffering is painful, hurtful and hard at the time. But God, who is a potter, molds us through suffering in our lives. In particular, God breaks our stubborn hearts through suffering and melts our hearts to give us a gentle heart. In other words, God molds our hearts through suffering.
In 2 Samuel 15:19-20, we see King David speaking to Ittai the Gittite: “Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, ‘Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile; return to your own place. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, while I go where I will? Return and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you’.” We may wonder what great meaning there is with the David’s word to Ittai. Especially, since we don’t even know who Ittai is, what great meaning there can be what David said to Ittai. I've been reading this word of David to Ittai so far without noticing it at all. But today, during the Morning Prayer, the Spirit of God gave made me to notice these verses 2 Samuel 15:19-20 and gave me an insight as I was meditating on them. And the insight is that God molded the heart of David through suffering and gave him the heart of considering one soul very precious.
I want to think about the David’s suffering. We can think about his suffering in two ways:
(1) David's first suffering was when King Saul tried to kill him, the sufferings that he went through while he was running away in fear.
Why did David suffer? The reason was that when David killed the Philistine Goliath in the name of God (1 Sam. 17:45-50), the women came out from all the towns of Israel and sang, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands” (18:6-7) and from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David (v. 9). So King Saul tried to kill David, and David began to run away from Saul. From then on, David began to suffer. However, in the midst of the sufferings, God molded the David's heart and made David to consider King Saul precious (24:10; 26:21, 24) and treated him well (24:17).
(2) David’s second suffering was the sufferings that he received after he became a king of Israel and when he was running away from his own son Absalom who rebelled against him (2 Sam. 15:12, 14).
Why did King David suffer? This was because David saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, bathing (11:2-3), took her to be his own wife and killed her husband Uriah, a loyal soldier, with the sword of the sons of Amnon (12:9). At that time, King David heard of Uriah's death, and said to the general of Joab through the messenger: “Thus you shall say to Joab, 'Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another; make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it'; and so encourage him” (11:25). He didn’t consider the life of Uriah, a loyal soldier. Because of what David did, even in the sight of the Lord (v. 27), the child that was born between David and Bathsheba died (12:14, 18). Also, Amnon the son of David violated and laid with Absalom’s beautiful sister Tamar (13:1, 14) and after two full years (v. 23) Absalom killed Amnon (v. 29). In the end, because what David did, adultery and killing, in his children generation did adultery and killing too. How painful it was to David? But Absalom, who had planned to kill Amnon for about two years and who hadn’t yet seen the face of his father David for two years (14:28), conspired to rebel against David and overthrow his throne (ch. 15). So he stole away the hearts of the men of Israel (15:6). And he brought Ahithophel, David’s counselor, from his city Giloh (v. 12) to be his counselor. Ahithophel was an important figure because his advice was as if one inquired of the word of God (16:23). As a result, the Absalom’s conspiracy grew strong because the people increased continually with Absalom (15:12). The hearts of the men of Israel were with Absalom (v. 13). David, who heard this news through a messenger, he quickly ran away with all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem (v. 14). In the midst of this fleeing, King David said to Ittai, the Gittite, “Return and remain with the king .. return to your own place … Return and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you” (vv. 19-20).
As I was meditating on these words, God gave me two insights:
(1) First, when King David was in the palace, he didn’t even regard his own loyal soldier Uriah as a valuable person; but when he was running away from Absalom, he even regard the Gentile Ittai as a valuable person.
Isn’t this interesting to see that David, who regarded King Saul’s life as a valuable person, also regarded Ittai as the valuable person when he was running away from his son Absalom. When King David was living in the palace in peace without any suffering, he committed adultery with Bathsheba in the lust of the eyes and the lusts of the flesh. And as he tried to cover it up his sin, he eventually killed Bathsheba’s husband Uriah. David didn’t regard Uriah’s life precious. So he let the Gentiles to kill Uriah during the battle. As a result, God punished him and David had to run away from his one son Absalom. As he was doing so, David regarded the Gentile Ittai’s life precious. Isn’t this interesting work of the Lord? This is the blessing of suffering. Through suffering, God molded the heart of David. Through suffering, God raised David to be a man who didn’t consider a man precious to be the man who considered the man precious.
(2) Second, I think David considered King Saul’s son Jonathan’s loves more precious when he was running away from his own son Absalom after he became the king of Israel.
The reason I think this way is because when his own son Absalom was trying to kill David, Jonathan even tried to help David when his father King Saul tried to kill David and was even almost got killed by his own father Saul. So I am sure when David was being chased by Absalom, he probably longed for Jonathan's love which was more wonderful than the love of women (1:12). How precious was that love? I think David considered Jonathan's love very precious when he was running away in sufferings. I think David experienced God’s everlasting faithful love in the wilderness of suffering more in depth (15:23; Ps. 63:3). Eventually, the blessing of suffering is the experiencing and realization of God's eternal love. Even though David was driven out of the wilderness by his own son Absalom, he became aware of the lovingkindness of God in the wilderness of suffering that he didn’t understand in his kingdom palace.
May we also have blessings of suffering like David. I hope and pray that the Lord raise us to be people who regard one person as very precious through our suffering. The reason why we need this edification is because we don’t seem to value a soul nowadays. In particular, we the Church leaders say with our lips that a soul is very precious but we actually don’t consider a soul very precious with the heart of God the Father and with the affection of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:8). Especially, the more the number of the church members, the more we do not seem to value a soul. As a result, it seems that there are more people in the church who are getting hurt by the leaders. That’s why we also need the blessing of suffering that God gave to David. We desperately need a heart that values a soul. We need to realize more deeply, broadly, highly and profoundly the love of God through suffering. In particular, we must become more aware of His wonderful and amazing love of salvation in our suffering as we look upon the suffering and the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. In doing so, we will become a garden of love, and we will be able to love one soul through the full love of God. I hope and pray that this blessing of suffering is with us.