1 Samuel 24:1-8: a reflection

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.

David, hunted relentlessly by King Saul, is hiding in a cave when Saul, not knowing David is there, comes into the very same cave alone. David's men see it as God's gift: here is your enemy, delivered into your hand; strike him. David creeps close and could easily kill the man who has been trying to kill him. But he does not. He only cuts off a corner of Saul's robe, and even that troubles his conscience. The LORD forbid, he says, that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD's anointed.

Notice David's restraint when vengeance was handed to him. His enemy was in his power, defenseless; his men urged him to strike; and by every ordinary reckoning, he had cause and opportunity to end the threat to his life. Yet he would not stretch out his hand against Saul, refusing to take the vengeance that was, as it were, delivered into his grasp. He left the matter to God rather than seizing the chance to harm his enemy.

That is a hard restraint, and a rare one. It is one thing to refrain from harming an enemy when we have no power to do so; it is another to refrain when the opportunity is handed to us, when we could strike and no one would blame us. But David would not take vengeance even then; he left justice to God. When the opportunity to harm someone who has wronged you falls into your hands, and everything in you and around you urges you to take it, remember David in the cave. Do not stretch out your hand to take vengeance, even when you could. Refuse the opportunity for revenge; leave justice to God, who judges rightly. The restraint that will not harm an enemy even when it easily could is hard, but it is the way of those who trust God to be their defender.

Lord, when David's enemy Saul came defenseless into the very cave where David hid, and his men urged him to strike, David would not stretch out his hand against him, refusing the vengeance handed into his grasp, and leaving the matter to you. Give me that hard restraint. It is one thing to refrain from harming an enemy when I have no power to do so; it is another to refrain when the opportunity is handed to me, when I could strike and no one would blame me. But David would not take vengeance even then; he left justice to you. When the opportunity to harm someone who has wronged me falls into my hands, and everything in me and around me urges me to take it, help me remember David in the cave. Keep me from stretching out my hand to take vengeance, even when I could. Help me refuse the opportunity for revenge, and leave justice to you, who judge rightly. Make me one who trusts you to be my defender, rather than seizing the chance to harm an enemy.