If you’ve ever had a dog, I’m sure you’ve had that fearful moment. The moment as you’re walking your dog and another dog approaches. You ask yourself, “how is my dog going to approach and receive this dog?” With Blue it’s been a real head scratcher. Some dogs he approaches as if he’s known them for years and his only desire is to play and frolic with them for the next 12 hours straight. Instant connection. Yet with some other dogs he acts as if his only goal is to remove them from the planet. I don’t get it. There is some pre-disposed, pre-loaded thing between dogs. Something that determines how they perceive other dogs. This "thing" results in how they meet and eventually, how they relate.
Have you ever thought that people might have a little bit of this as well? I’ve noticed the way that certain people approach and greet each other, and I think there just might be some truth to this. Some kind of unwritten, unspoken physical rule at work. Maybe even instinctual. The way that we approach and receive people in our lives can be just as Blue does. Sometimes we are cautious, apprehensive, and wary of people. And sometimes we are exuberant, joyful and excited to immediately welcome them into our lives. Why the big difference? I guess you could say that for us humans it is basically how our hearts meet. It's the basis of who we are, meeting the basis of who someone else is. Some hearts join easily, and some are just so different that they resist each other like opposed magnets. In a massive understatement, we will see these two types of relationships today, all crammed into one chapter. Three different men, three different hearts and two very different relationships. Let’s look at how hearts meet in God's Word.
Chapter 18 picks up exactly where chapter 17 left off. David has just slain Goliath and is delivering the gruesome gift of Goliath’s head to king Saul. Defeating Goliath is an unbelievable feat and it has earned David instant fame. Saul invites him to the throne room and asks David to regale him with the story. As David does, I’m certain he spoke much more about God than He did about slinging that stone. God’s faithfulness, God’s power and God’s bravery flowed through David’s veins. And when God commands your heart, that’s what people hear about when you speak. Whatever is prevalent in your heart, whether good or bad, will come spewing out like a shaken up can of Coke.
“The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45
As David is gushing about the goodness of God and how he defeated Goliath through the awesome power of God, someone else is listening besides Saul. Another heart is meeting the heart of David, a heart that also belongs to God, Jonathan the son of Saul. And as David finishes telling his story to Saul, we see one of the most powerful verses in scripture concerning Godly relationships.
“As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” 1 Samuel 18:1
Believe it or not sewing has always been a very present factor in my life. My mom is an excellent seamstress, even to the point of making her own wedding dress. I grew up with forms and patterns from Cloth World scattered all over the sewing room, a ubiquitous sight alongside the old Singer sewing machine. Mom taught me all the basics and in high school I took home making. My big semester-ending sewing project was a Hawaiian shirt. (which for some reason came out way too short) Later as I started the online shirt business, I once again called upon those basic sewing skills. My record at sewing on a button was under 2 minutes including threading the needle. But as I sew, the simplicity strikes me greatly. A thin, frail piece of thread, sewn into the fabric over and over creates a bond that will not relent. The fabric will tear before the seam will give up its strength. Every time I encounter this verse, it gives me goosebumps. These two hearts, two hearts that beat for God, became knit together. And God was the thread. Two like hearts that yearned for God and in a beautiful moment, God made them as one. Even though David and Jonathan were in contention for the same throne, they would go on to make a covenant with each other that would glorify God through the ages.
Yet on the throne sat Saul, a very different heart. As he listened to David’s triumphant story, his heart met David in a very different fashion than Jonathan’s. You see, we’re told in 1 Samuel 16:13-14 that as the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David, it departed from Saul and a harmful spirit from the Lord began to torment Him. Saul had the Spirit of God, but after repeated rejection of God, it was revoked by God Himself. As Saul sat before David, his now evil heart met the Godly heart of David. And as a result, it creates one of the most dysfunctional, violent, and antagonistic relationships in scripture.
Before the chapter is even over, Saul tries to personally kill David twice by hurling a spear at him. Unsuccessful, Saul repeatedly sends David into battle, hoping the Philistine enemy will kill him. Saul then arranges a marriage with one of his daughters hoping it would “ensnare David” and cause him harm. At every turn, Saul was doing his best to kill, hurt, damage, disrepute or destroy David. And this will continue as Saul hunts David for the next 20 years, seeking only to kill the heart of his enemy.
“But when Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him, Saul was even more afraid of David. So, Saul was David's enemy continually.” 1 Samuel 18:28-29
Three different men result in two relationships that could not have been more different. Two hearts become knit together in the strength of the Lord and one heart is bent on murder, harm and evil. How is it these hearts can meet each other so differently. The answer is not the heart, but what lies within the heart.
If you have called upon Jesus to save you from your sins, you have been given a new heart. You are a new creature with new thoughts, new feelings, and new behaviors. When you relent to the new heart of God, you will operate in His love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy. God extended mercy and grace to you and now He will allow you to extend it to all that you encounter. Through the power of the Holy Spirit of God, your heart will be able to meet all other hearts in a way that will glorify God. But if you revert back to your old heart, the problems ensue. You see, our old hearts are hearts like Saul. Only seeking glory for ourselves. Seeking to be right. Seeking approval of others instead of the approval of God. Seeking sinful pleasures. Seeking to first be blessed instead of blessing others first. Our original sinful hearts enjoy battling God and battling others. If we operate in our fleshly hearts, the results are catastrophic. As we wield sour sinful hearts, we can rest assured the relationships they create will be soured as well.
Folks, today, tend to your heart. It is the foundation of all of your relationships. It can result in you being knit together with someone in God, or angrily battling with those same people. You see, we can’t blame our feuds and fights on others, it is our hearts that determine the relationship. A heart that beats for God will allow us to prevail over evil.
I pray that today, you heart will beat for God. That today, your heart will be full to overflowing with God’s love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace towards all. David’s heart was sewn together to Jonathan’s in God’s love, but David’s heart was loving and merciful to the heart of Saul, a heart that no longer knew God. And it is in this way, by offering God’s love to all, that you can truly be a light today to hearts that need the redemption of Jesus Christ.
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23
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