Hurt People Hurt People

1 Kings 11:14-25 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Kings 11:14-25.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

1 Kings 11:14-25 (NIV)
¹⁴  Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom.
¹⁵  Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom.
¹⁶  Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom.
¹⁷  But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father.
¹⁸  They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking men from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food.
¹⁹  Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage.
²⁰  The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children.
²¹  While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.”
²²  “What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?” Pharaoh asked. “Nothing,” Hadad replied, “but do let me go!”
²³  And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.
²⁴  He gathered men around him and became the leader of a band of rebels when David destroyed the forces [of Zobah]; the rebels went to Damascus, where they settled and took control.
²⁵  Rezon was Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel.

On verses 14-25:  In verses 14-22 we read of Hadad, an Edomite prince who, despite coming from a royal family, endured some incredible hardship.  When Hadad was just a young boy, Hadad lost his parents and his family when the Edomites were at war with the Israelites.  Hadad would flee to Egypt and be given many of the material comforts that royalty would come to expect.  Still, there was a pain in Hadad’s heart that none of those material comforts could heal, and a drive to get revenge on the country that was responsible for killing his parents.  Hadad ends up causing much trouble for Solomon, though it was not Solomon but the generation before him that had caused the losses that Hadad suffered.

The lesson I learn here is that when we don’t deal with the root of our hurts and find healing for such hurts, we will end up hurting others.  Brad Pitt in the movie Bullet Train makes a joke of the saying, but it’s true: hurt people hurt people.

If you’ve been deeply hurt, I pray that you would find healing for that hurt, that you would not allow that hurt to be the reason you continue the cycle of hurt onto others, but that you would allow God’s all-surpassing love and power work in and through your life.  In Thrive Discipleship School Level 2: Growing In My Relationship With God (click here to learn more or to pre-register), we go in depth talking about finding healing for past hurts.  I encourage you to take that course.  For the greatest way you can help others and make a positive difference in this world will often have something to do with the greatest hurts you experience in life.

Father, lest I continue the cycle of hurt onto others, please help me to identify any hurt that still affects me to this day and please help me to find healing for this hurt, that I would use the hurt not to exact more hurt on others, but that You would somehow show Your healing, restoring power through me and my story.   In Jesus’ name, AMEN!