Grace is unfair.
Have you ever been surprised by grace? Have you ever been in a tough spot, where you believed you knew what was coming… Maybe sitting in the principal's office, or opening a letter from the IRS, or answering a phone call from foreboding phone number.
You thought you knew what was coming… You were going to get what you deserve. You’re finally caught. You’re anxious, sweaty palms, eyes dilated… And then…
Surprise!
* The Principal decides to give you another chance.
* The IRS is issuing you a refund.
* The doctor was just calling to reschedule your appointment because it’s no longer a pressing concern.
Ahh… Deep breath. What a relief. And not only that, a fresh lease on life. A new outlook. Wind in your sails.
Surprised by grace.
I’m not sure exactly how to define “grace.” I’m not looking for a churchy definition. I’m talking us sitting in a coffee shop talking about life and you ask, “What is grace?” How would I answer that…?
I might answer it as “receiving what we haven’t earned.”
Or “receiving beyond what we deserve.”
Grace is above and beyond. Grace not only surprises us; it blesses us.
We walk away changed, not only from the gifts we’re holding in our hands, but also shocked by the compassion shown to us.
When I was arrested, 14 years ago, for possession of marijuana, [ JOHN ARREST.jpg ] I remember being at the police station. It was a Friday or Saturday, and the police officer said, “Ok, we’ll see you on Monday at such-and-such court house.” And I was like, “Oh, no.. I can’t make that. Sorry, I’ll be at school.” And he was like… “Mr. Emery, you’ve been arrested. This isn’t optional. We’ll see you on Monday.”
And that’s honestly when it hit me. “Oooo… This is serious. I could get in serious trouble.” People have served jail time for less than this. The weight of the situation settled onto my shoulders.
* The funny thing is that now I’m good friends with one of the Lieutenants, so I messaged him on Facebook and asked him to run this. The most important part of this slide is that END OF APPEARANCES thing.
When Monday came around, I walked in alongside this rough-and-tumble kind of guy. He caught my attention, because he looked like he was supposed to be at the court house. I didn’t. He looked like a criminal. I didn’t. But we both had these charges against us.
And low and behold, his name was called right before mine. I watched him walk up to the stand, make his case (it was domestic abuse), and the Judge wasn’t having it. He sentenced him to 30 days in prison, they came up to him right then, put him in cuffs and walked him back through a separate door than we walked in through. This, as you can imagine, was not a good sign. I had just walked in off the streets with this guy… he was “free” 15 minutes ago, and now he’s in jail.
So then it’s my turn. And I walk up with my rent-a-lawyer, he pleads my case, the Judge rules it a CWOF, “continuance without a finding,” which results in 6 months probation, and I get to walk out with my parents and go home. No guilty plea, no conviction, nothing I have to write onto applications for work...
Not only that, but when we went to the Clerk to pay for everything, they let us know that we could pay for my 6-months probation monthly, and have to come back every month for drug testing and meeting with my probation officer, or we could pay the 6 months up front and never see them again. No probation officer, no drug testing, no nothing…
If you had the means to pay whatever it was, $500-600, they call it a day and you’re free. So that’s what we did. (Can anyone say ‘privilege'?)
Grace is unfair.
It started out really bad… So bad that after that guy in front of me I thought I was going to jail. Then I was surprised by the CWOF ruling, then surprised again by paying up-front and essentially walking out scott-free.
I can honestly say that I didn’t get what I deserved that day. I deserved less. I deserved punishment. But instead, grace. And, simply because my parents happened to have enough money—this privilege that some don’t have—my slate was wiped clean.
Beyond what I deserved… Receiving a gift that I hadn’t earned. Grace is unfair.
There are times that you get a gift, but secretly you feel like you deserve it? Any Millennials in here? Grown-ups call it entitlement… Whatever that means.
* Weddings, birthdays, Thank You cards…
* Gifts might surprise us, but then after we sort of feel like we earned it anyways.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about Ellen Show giveaways type of surprise.
There’s a moment in David’s life that I want to look at today… One in which he’s not the recipient of grace as much as he’s the participant in distributing grace.
I’m going to share a story 1 Samuel 30 (that I’m pretty sure you’re unfamiliar with), and then draw parallels to a teaching of Jesus, and then we’re going to see where we find ourselves in the middle of these stories… Ok?
1 Samuel 30 NLT
1 Three days later, when David and his men arrived home at their town of Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had made a raid into the Negev and Ziklag; they had crushed Ziklag and burned it to the ground. 2 They had carried off the women and children and everyone else but without killing anyone.
3 When David and his men saw the ruins and realized what had happened to their families, 4 they wept until they could weep no more. 5 David’s two wives, Ahinoam from Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal from Carmel, were among those captured.
The story starts with David and his men returning home… They’ve been sleeping on the cold ground, missing their wives and children, ready to reconnect with everyone, rest, rejuvenate… But instead, they find their wives and children missing and their homes burned to the ground.
Scripture is clear to say that they women and children were safe, but there’s no way these men would’ve known that. They just see destruction, and their imaginations run wild with the worst of scenarios… Imagine. That would be devastating. This is FEAR-BASED IMAGINATION, that Kelly taught on last week.
I can’t imagine the grief that these men were experiencing. Going off to war is psychologically devastating enough, but home is supposed to be HOME… And you’re supposed to be allowed to RETURN HOME and have it be exactly how you left it… But not for these guys.
6 David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God.
And you see what the grief does to these men. Immediately (v. 6) the men place the blame on David, the guy who led them off to battle in the first place. It’s the worst part of our human nature that immediately needs to blame someone for the wickedness and evil in the world… So they blamed David.
That was their plan. David’s men made a plan from their place of PAIN. Their grief clouded their judgment and they thought the best thing to do was to kill their leader. (Maybe not a great idea)
But David didn’t let his pain get the best of him. He grieved, but in his grief he turned to the Lord. He didn’t make a plan from a place of PAIN, he made a plan from a place of PRAYER.
8 Then David asked the Lord, “Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?”
And the Lord told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!”
9 So David and his 600 men set out, and they came to the brook Besor.
He didn’t know how it would all come together, but felt in his spirit that God said to go after them, and that they could recover their families from their enemies. A glimmer of hope. David believed that these women and children were still alive and that it was worth pursuing the Amalekites to get them back…
Do you ever have those little moments of prayer that actually shift something around inside of you? God puts some thought on your heart and that spark is slowly fanned into flame and all of a sudden you have this indescribable HOPE in the face of disaster? (((Yeah, me neither… )))
Of course you’ve experienced that! While David’s men are busy listening to grief, David is busy listening to God.
So David and his 600 men set out. And they come to Brook Besor, a river/brook that was probably 30-40 miles from Ziklag. 30 miles walking isn’t a short trip, especially when you’ve just returned from battle and you’re grief-stricken, not knowing where your families are, if they’re safe, if they’re even alive.
9 So David and his 600 men set out, and they came to the brook Besor. 10 But 200 of the men were too exhausted to cross the brook, so David continued the pursuit with 400 men.
When they get to the brook, a third of the men give up. (1/3 of the worship area) 200 of the 600 men are too exhausted to continue on. And again, at this point, I can’t blame them. They have no idea where these Amalekites are, they’re basically hiking on a whim from David’s time of prayer, hoping they’ll come across a sign.
11 Along the way they found an Egyptian man in a field and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink. 12 They also gave him part of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins, for he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights. Before long his strength returned.
13 “To whom do you belong, and where do you come from?” David asked him.
“I am an Egyptian—the slave of an Amalekite,” he replied. “My master abandoned me three days ago because I was sick. 14 We were on our way back from raiding the Kerethites in the Negev, the territory of Judah, and the land of Caleb, and we had just burned Ziklag.”
15 “Will you lead me to this band of raiders?” David asked.
The young man replied, “If you take an oath in God’s name that you will not kill me or give me back to my master, then I will guide you to them.”
And then, like only God does, there’s a sign. Something completely outside of David’s control that changes the rest of the story. A reminder that we can work as hard as we’d like in our power, but sometimes all it takes is for God to put one person in our path and it unlocks everything.
So here’s God’s big gift to David: A half-dead Egyptian.
And it’s interesting that this guy's an Egyptian, isn’t it? David and his men would’ve been well-acquainted with Egyptians, because their ancestors were slaves to them! And now here’s an Egyptian, and he’s a slave of the Amalekites. There’s so much going on here… These stories are endlessly inspiring.
God always seems to choose the least-likely people to be the heroes of the story. Without this Egyptian, it’s very unlikely that David would find these Amalekites.
David chooses to rehabilitate the Egyptian, and makes a deal with him that he won’t return him to the Amalekites, or kill him after they get what they want. He agrees, and the Egyptian leads David and his men right to them.
16 So he led David to them, and they found the Amalekites spread out across the fields, eating and drinking and dancing with joy because of the vast amount of plunder they had taken from the Philistines and the land of Judah. 17 David and his men rushed in among them and slaughtered them throughout that night and the entire next day until evening. None of the Amalekites escaped except 400 young men who fled on camels. 18 David got back everything the Amalekites had taken, and he rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: small or great, son or daughter, nor anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. 20 He also recovered all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock. “This plunder belongs to David!” they said.
This next part of the story—honestly—I have mixed feelings about. Part of me loves the vengeance. It’s the epic battle part of the story… If it were depicted in the movies it would be in slow-motion and David’s men would all have 6-pack abs and they’d be spinning and stabbing and getting back their wives and children… It works. Part of it feels good. Justice. All the bad guys die and the good guys win.
But… if we believe in a Creator God that loves all of His creation, we have to believe that God didn’t rejoice at this slaughter. These Amalekites, wicked as they were, each held within them a piece of God… They were made in God’s image too… They had wives and children and parents that were proud of them, and hopes and dreams…
This is where nuance in how we read our Bibles is important, because God didn’t tell David to kill everyone. He told David to “overtake them” … v.8 “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!”
In the ESV translation it says that God said, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.” That word “overtake” doesn’t mean slaughter. It doesn’t mean to slaughter them throughout the night, murder, stab, behead, burn to the ground or anything like it. That Hebrew word, “Nuh-sag” means to “reach, obtain, get, hold…”
But for David, that meant slaughter… Mass murder.
Like if someone said, “Go get them!” And you’ve got all this adrenaline and grief and anger swirling inside you, and you’re like, “Oh, I’ll get them! You better believe it!”
And I understand that 3,000 years ago, we were far more barbaric than even today and the likelihood of David and the Amalekite king sitting down and talking things out isn’t likely, but we need to see where God’s promises END and where our own sinfulness and desire for revenge BEGINS…
Personally, I think God’s heart broke when David’s men slaughtered the Amalekites, because God can see the dignity and beauty inside all of His Creation. He knew those men (and boys) better than anyone. He knew their hopes and dreams and that some of them didn’t really want to be there but they felt social pressure to be soldiers and that some of them had been abused and corrupted into being soldiers at far too young an age…
I’m not trying to be all Hippie about this, but this is important to how we understand some of the violence in the Old Testament. Just because someone DOES something in the Bible doesn’t mean that God’s full blessing is on it. It just means that it actually, historically, happened. And that people wanted to preserve that story for some larger reason.
If David had entered that Amalekite camp with a different approach, maybe God would’ve made good on His promise without all the violence, bloodshed, loss of life… We’ll never know. God promised that David would “overtake” the Amalekites, and he did… but the way he went about it doesn’t necessarily reflect God’s heart for humanity.
K, back to the story. David and his 400 men, “overtake” the Amalekites, killing everyone, except for a few lucky guys that escaped on camelback.
Here’s where to story gets interesting. Up to this point it’s a relatively predictable battle narrative. “You took something of ours, we’ll kill you to get it back.” … not that interesting.
This next section is the whole reason we chose this passage to talk about. This is what makes it amazing…
21 Then David returned to the brook Besor and met up with the 200 men who had been left behind because they were too exhausted to go with him. They went out to meet David and his men, and David greeted them joyfully.
David returns back to Brook Besor with all of the women and children, as well as a bunch of new riches. The men that were too exhausted to continue on greet them and everyone is celebrating… What was lost is now found. Those that were dead are now alive. All is right in the world.
Imagine those reunions… And while the women and children are unharmed, they’ve witnessed terrible things over the last few weeks… You can imagine that these women were not well-respected and all of the terrible things that were done to them.
But they’re home. These families are back together. People collapse together on the ground, rejoicing at this reunion.
22 But some evil troublemakers among David’s men said, “They didn’t go with us, so they can’t have any of the plunder we recovered. Give them their wives and children, and tell them to be gone.”
But immediately greed enters the picture. An “us vs. them” erupts in the camp. And… guess what… Entitlement shows up on the scene. “THIS IS UNFAIR!” The men that battled don’t want to share any of the riches with the men that stayed behind.
They feel like they earned it. It wasn’t grace for them. It was transactional. And they weren’t about to share it with these lazy jerks that stayed back at Brook Besor.
1 SAMUEL 30:23 But David said, “No, my brothers! Don’t be selfish with what the Lord has given us. He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the band of raiders that attacked us. 24 Who will listen when you talk like this? We share and share alike—those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment.” 25 From then on David made this a decree and regulation for Israel, and it is still followed today.
David shares everything they received with the brave and the cowards alike; with the strong and the weak; with the powerful and the exhausted; with those on the front lines and those that stayed home.
Because… Grace is unfair.
This is a story where David’s men are focused on David. They’re whole world revolves around him. He’s their leader. When something goes wrong? Blame David. When things go well! “This plunder belongs to David!” You can see how quickly his men are jerked around by their emotions, and how their earthly focus affects that. If all we’re focusing is ONLY what’s directly in front of us, we’ll be victims of our circumstances. If things directly in front of you are going well, life is good. If it’s not, it’s not.
David’s men are focused on David. David is focused on God.
And you can see how that affects their decision making.
His men wanted what was “fair” … David wanted to be gracious. Which is inherently unfair.
Reminds me of one of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 20 NLT
Jesus tells this parable of a landowner that’s hiring day laborers to help him work his vineyard. He basically hires folks, telling them he’ll pay a day’s wage, they agree and he puts them to work. He does this throughout the day. At 9am, at noon, at 3pm, at 5pm (right before the end of the day.) Then he lines them up to pay at the end of the day… And, shockingly, he pays them all the same wage. $50, $50, $50, $50…
MATTHEW 20:10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’
16 “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”
v8: “beginning with the last, up to the first” — Jesus could’ve told the story with the first hired being paid first, and it would’ve likely avoided the difficulty of the interaction. But He doesn’t do that. He wants the earlier hires to see the denarius handed to every person up to them.
It seems Jesus was interested in teaching a lesson about entitlement as well… Whenever God’s grace is received with an entitled heart, it turns into poison.
How many times have we seen God’s gifts perverted, abused, taken advantage of, ignored… But when we receive God’s grace to us with open hands… That’s where the magic is. That’s when we begin to live with gratitude. That’s when WONDER and JOY find us again.
That’s when grace is grace… That’s when grace can actually surprise us… When Grace is unfair.
All of this, of course, leaning forward towards Jesus being arrested and executed. And in that public execution, Jesus, with all of the power in all of Creation at His disposal, chose instead to break the cycle of sin and death, and instead blessed those that were killing Him.
LUKE 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Grace is unfair.
You know what “fair” would’ve been when Jesus was being executed? All those Roman soldiers drop dead, Pontius Pilate too, maybe Barabbas, certainly the Apostle Peter after denying even knowing Jesus to save his own tail…
I don’t know about you but I’m so grateful that God’s idea of justice is different than ours. Justice is getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.
God is unfair with how He works in our lives.
Some of us have a transactional view of our relationship with God. “If I do this, then you do this. If I give this, then I get this. A + B = C, every time.” But if you’ve been a follower of Jesus for more than a few years, you know that this isn’t how it works.
Sometimes my wife and I will give thousands of dollars to a cause close to God’s heart, and guess what… That money doesn’t show back up. Or maybe it’s “doing the right thing.” And you think doing the right thing will feel good. But it doesn’t. In fact, most often there’s a cost to doing the right thing.
God has no interest in keeping a transactional relationship with us. You know why? We’d owe Him a heck of a lot.
God, in His grace, dismantled that transactional faith on the Cross.
God, in His grace, showed us grace.
And that’s how we interact with Him to this very day.
Grace is unfair. And it’s not in our best interest to try to mess with it.
