- Feb 5, 2002
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The prophet went to the palace to see the king, and told him that a rich man, who had lots of sheep, had taken a poor man’s pet lamb to feed a visitor. The man, said the prophet, laying it on, had only the one lamb, which grew up with his children and ate from his plate, and was like a daughter to him.
The enraged king declared that the rich man should die. He saw himself, I’m guessing, as the good man with the power to punish the wicked and to get justice for their victims. It’s a great feeling.
Then the prophet said, “You are the man.” He’d played the king very nicely. The king had ordered a man killed so he could take his wife for his own. He had done something even more evil than the rich man whose death he demanded. And, to his credit, he knew it. He took his punishment, which did not include the death that would have been a just punishment by his own standards.
The king was King David, a morally conflicted man if there ever was one, and the story’s recorded in the second book of Samuel. It’s a very useful lesson in all sorts of ways. Here I want to use it as a lesson for dealing with the hatred people feel for each other, which seems to spread and spread, and which many of us feel ourselves.
Continued below.
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The enraged king declared that the rich man should die. He saw himself, I’m guessing, as the good man with the power to punish the wicked and to get justice for their victims. It’s a great feeling.
Then the prophet said, “You are the man.” He’d played the king very nicely. The king had ordered a man killed so he could take his wife for his own. He had done something even more evil than the rich man whose death he demanded. And, to his credit, he knew it. He took his punishment, which did not include the death that would have been a just punishment by his own standards.
The king was King David, a morally conflicted man if there ever was one, and the story’s recorded in the second book of Samuel. It’s a very useful lesson in all sorts of ways. Here I want to use it as a lesson for dealing with the hatred people feel for each other, which seems to spread and spread, and which many of us feel ourselves.
The hateful
Continued below.
David Mills: Why do so many people hate and what do we do with them?
The prophet went to the palace to see the king, and told him that a rich man, who had lots of sheep, had taken a poor man’s pet lamb to feed a visitor....
www.post-gazette.com
