Scripture Daily

Context No. 1387 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 24:1-8: in context

1When Saul had returned from following the Philistines, he was told, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.” 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the rocks of the wild goats. 3He came to the sheep pens by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were staying in the innermost parts of the cave. 4David’s men said to him, “Behold, the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe secretly. 5Afterward, David’s heart struck him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. 6He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’s anointed.” 7So David checked his men with these words, and didn’t allow them to rise against Saul. Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. 8David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave and cried after Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and showed respect.

Saul, hunting David with three thousand men, goes alone into a cave to relieve himself, not knowing that David and his men are hiding in its depths. Here is David's chance; his men whisper that this is the day the LORD promised to give his enemy into his hand. David creeps up and cuts off a corner of Saul's robe, but even that small act strikes his conscience. The LORD forbid, he tells his men, that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD's anointed. He restrains his men and will not let them harm Saul. When Saul leaves the cave, David follows and calls out to him, bowing to the ground: my lord the king.

David is handed a clear opportunity to end his suffering by his own hand. Saul, who has hunted him relentlessly, is alone and defenseless in the cave, and David's men read it as God's provision: here is your enemy delivered to you, do as you wish. Every argument favored striking: it was self-defense, Saul meant to kill him, and God had promised David the throne Saul was clinging to. And yet David would not do it. He would not stretch out his hand against the LORD's anointed; he would not seize by violence what God had promised to give him in God's own time. His conscience was so tender that even cutting the robe troubled him. There is a hard and beautiful restraint here. David had the power, the justification, and the encouragement of his companions to take matters into his own hands, and he refused, choosing to wait for God to give him the kingdom rather than to grasp it by shedding blood. It is one thing to resist an evil we have no chance to commit; it is another to hold back when the opportunity is in our hand and everyone is urging us to take it. David trusted God enough to leave Saul unharmed and the outcome to God, refusing to do wrong even when he could have done it and called it justice. The promise of God did not need David's violence to fulfill it; it needed only his patience.

When I have the opportunity, the justification, and the encouragement of others to seize by my own hand what I could wait for God to give, can I show David's restraint, refusing to do wrong even when I could call it justice, and trust God with the outcome?

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