Wrong Motives
So David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?” Then the young man who told him said, “As I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul, leaning on his spear; and indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him. Now when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ So I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’” - 2 Samuel 1:5-8
David wanted proof that Saul and Jonathan were dead. He was not going to just take the word of a stranger. Then, he found out the stranger was an Amalekite. He identified himself, “I am your enemy. I am a type of your flesh, an Amalekite.” He had just defeated the Amalekites, because they had raided his town and taken the women, children and everything they owned.
Somehow this man had escaped David’s destruction, and he just happened to come upon the spot where the Philistines had defeated Israel. It would not be a coincidence for this man to come upon Saul and Jonathan. In all likeliness, he was going through the bodies to take anything of value and he came upon Saul and Jonathan.
He thought he would be rewarded for bringing the news to David, even though he had done wrong. When we do things with the wrong motives, we are setting ourselves up for a great disappointment. It is always best to do the right thing for the right reason, than the wrong thing for recognition.
The test by which all conduct must finally be judged is motive.
~A. W. Tozer~
Edited by Wade, June 24, 2015
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