Deeper Commentary
1Sa 24:1 When Saul had returned from pursuing the Philistines he was
told, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi-
Saul had a network of spies watching David (1 Sam. 18:20,24; 19:11,19;
23:7,13,25; 24:1; 27:4). In the type of Christ, this looks ahead to Mk. 3:2;
Lk. 6:7; 14:1; 20:20; Jn. 11:57.
1Sa 24:2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel-
They were not all Benjamites. They were doubtless chosen for their
loyalty to Saul, even if that loyalty had been bought. That David could
later weld the kingdom together was only achieved by his great grace and
forgiveness.
And went
to seek David and his men-
Saul "sought" David, implying a great level of mental effort (1 Sam.
19:10; 23:14,15,25; 24:2; 25:26,29; 26:2,20; 27:1,4; 2 Sam. 4:8). In the
type of Christ, the Jews sought to kill the Lord (Mt. 21:46; Mk. 11:18;
12:12; 14:1,11,55; Lk. 19:47; 20:19; 22:2,6; Jn.5:16,18; 7:1,11,25,30;
8:37,40; 10:39; 11:8,56; 18:4,7,8).
On the rocks of the wild goats-
LXX "in front of Saddaeem"; GNB "east of Wild Goat Rocks". Even in
these desperate straits, David still had time to reflect that as "the high
hills are a refuge for the wild goats" so Yahweh would be for him (s.w.
Ps. 104:18). Goats were unclean and a symbol of the rejected. And yet
Yahweh is a refuge even for the unclean. This was how David appears to
have felt. Or we could note that Saul and his men were scampering
over the rocks like goats, whereas David and his men were near the sheep
pens, in a cave as if they were sheep (:3). The separation between sheep
and goats is therefore being made clear.
1Sa 24:3 He 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 hiding in the
innermost parts of the cave-
David and his men were temporarily living [“hiding”
is a poor translation] in the cave, and must’ve watched Saul and his men
drawing near. And then, Saul walks away from the men and starts walking
right towards them. They withdraw deeper into the cave. As when being
chased ever higher up the conical hill in 1 Sam. 23:26, it must have
seemed that the end had now come. Saul puts his cloak
down and goes further into the cave, to relieve himself and maybe have a
rest; presumably he wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to be alone. He
was after all an elderly man now, if indeed he reigned a literal 40 years
(Acts 13:21).
It must’ve been so very weird; there was enough time for David to discuss with his men whether to kill him or not. But by the nature of the situation, the discussion lasted only a few seconds; for in the time it takes a man to go to the toilet, David cut off the skirt of Saul's robe. There are times when in a few seconds we end up acting according to our true inner convictions. This was clearly no coincidence; it was all too weird. Likewise the way circumstances repeated in 1 Sam. 26 was so strange. Again David stands over the weak Saul, again his men urge him to murder him, giving the same reasoning as before, and again David resists. And again David calls to Saul and demonstrates his sincerity and integrity. Our lives aren’t random chance; circumstances repeat in order to give us the opportunity to learn from mistakes, i.e. to not make the same mistake again; or even when we respond properly, the circumstance can repeat in essence so that we have our right choice reinforced by repeated experience. Just as a teacher makes students repeat exercises so that they ‘get the point’. This gives extra point to David’s warning of Saul in 1 Sam. 26:19- that if Saul were doing what he was doing against David just because other men had stirred him up to it, then this was especially culpable. For David twice had been stirred up by his men to slay Saul, and had not done so.
Saul had 3000 warriors with him, and David and his few men were trapped in a cave. But Saul had a call of nature, the need to defecate, a moment when man is totally isolated, alone and vulnerable. It was at that point that God was trying to teach Saul something of His grace. And in essence, this is His style of teaching to this day. Saul would have removed his kingly robe to defecate and left it on the cave floor whilst he went to defecate. And it was then, as Saul was alone, vulnerable and defecating, that David cut off a corner of the kingly robe. Saul would have later reflected upon this.
1Sa 24:4 The men of David said to him, Look, the day of which Yahweh said
to you, ‘I will deliver your enemy into your hand and you can do to him
whatever you wish’. Then David got up and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe
secretly-
There is no such oracle recorded; this doesn’t mean it wasn’t said e.g.
by Gad or some other prophet. In this case, we might focus upon the phrase
“That you may do to him as it shall seem good unto you”. There are times
when there is no moral right or wrong in a situation; but what matters is
the motive behind the decision we reach. God Himself slew Saul, so perhaps
it wouldn’t have been a sin for David to have killed him; for David had
never been told specifically that he was not to kill Saul just because
Samuel had anointed him. But this was the position David came to in his
conscience, and he therefore had to uphold it. We so often hanker after a
right/wrong, black or white, this is a sin or it isn’t. But often the
choices are left to us to exercise our conscience, so that the choice is
made by us, from the heart, rather than as a matter of legalistic
obedience. David had to do what ‘seemed good unto him’. In 2 Sam. 18:4
there’s a sad contrast with David’s resoluteness here – for he uses the
same Hebrew words in saying that “whatever seems good unto you I will do” at the time of Absalom’s rebellion. We are called to do what seems good unto us rather than what seems good to those around us.
There are times when we can assume too quickly what God's word or will is. Perhaps David's men assumed that surely God meant them to kill Saul at this point, and went on to assume that this was the word of the Lord. We think of Nathan too quickly telling David that his plan for a temple was indeed God's will. Or the disciples warning Paul, through the Holy Spirit, that he would suffer at Jerusalem- but then telling him that therefore he should not go there. When Paul had had revelation that he should in fact go to Jerusalem. The simple lesson is that we do need to pray and meditate before assuming we have Divine direction in a matter. And it is that process which leads to intimacy with Him.
Another reading would be that God hadn’t said this at all (1 Sam. 24:6 Heb. could be read as a denial that God had said this), but David’s men urged him to see providence at work, as if to say ‘This is the day that God is saying to you, that you can now kill Saul’. Trying to work out what providence is telling us is quite a challenge.
There are some who claim to have 'had a word from the Lord' when
as in this case, it is their imagination and flawed interpretation of
circumstance. Even those within the ecclesia can urge us against our conscience, and David is presented as standing alone in his decision making. This is very hard when we’re surrounded by those who have stood with us in hard times, our friends and faithful supporters. We risk alienating them by our insistence upon following our conscience and the principle of respecting the value and meaning of persons, even if they are our abusers and enemies.
The skirt was the hem of blue which was to remind the Israelite of their dedication to Yahweh’s holiness. Num. 15:38,39 decreed that this was to be done so that they remembered to keep all the commandments of Yahweh; but Saul is noted for not having done this (1 Sam. 15:22-28). David forgave Saul but didn’t naively blind his eyes to Saul’s unspirituality; and he didn’t trust Saul again. Forgiveness isn’t the same as reconciliation. Often people needlessly beat themselves up that they've not forgiven because they don't trust. It could be argued from the ambiguous Hebrew of that Samuel had torn Saul's kingly robe earlier- to show that his kingdom had been torn from him. David was clearly aware of this and was seeking to remind Saul of God's word. His intention was that Saul would humble himself before God's word and let David be king. We can imagine David approaching Saul with a knife in his hand. His thoughts were surely struggling within him as to whether to stab Saul to death, or use the knife to just teach Saul a lesson and appeal to him. And to David's credit, his better thinking triumphed.
1Sa 24:5 Afterwards David’s conscience smote him, because he had cut off a
piece of Saul’s robe-
David's heart smote him- but David hadn’t done anything wrong.
Indeed it could be argued that
what he did was right and commendable in spiritual terms.
Conscience isn’t ultimately reliable (1 Cor. 4:4); we will be judged in the light of God’s word, and not whether we have felt OK or not about our actions in life. His sensitive conscience appears again in 2 Sam. 24:10, where again his heart smote him for doing something which wasn’t wrong in itself, i.e. to number Israel. His conscience was aware, perhaps, that we can do things which aren’t wrong in themselves but which were performed with a wrong attitude. And this is no bad example for us to take.
Perhaps we have another example when he said that he had caused
the death of all the priests at Nob. The blame for that was surely more
with Saul and Doeg than with David. I don't think that David is being
presented as unusual in this; after all, we have more information about
David than about any other OT character. Such fluctuations in the accuracy
of conscience are normal to any man.
The only other time we read of David’s heart smiting him is in Ps. 102:4, where he speaks of himself as a lonely bird in the wilderness, chased by his enemies, but with a heart so smitten that he feels like dying: “My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread” (Ps. 102:4). It would appear that David’s heart didn’t just smite him for that moment; but it was an ongoing feeling he had during that period of his wilderness life. This was the power of false guilt for David. The lesson here is that we shouldn’t just let our conscience smite us, do something about it at the time, and then forget all about the issue. Believing and feeling God’s forgiveness may take a period of time; and the receipt of that forgiveness shouldn’t necessarily take away our sense of failure, just as it doesn’t within human relationships.
David's extreme respect for Saul is shown in the fact that Yahweh had explicitly told him that he would deliver Saul into David's hand, and David was free to do as he wished to him; but because of his genuine respect for Saul, David didn't take the liberty of killing him; indeed, he even felt guilty at cutting off the blue ribbon from Saul's coat (1 Sam. 24:4,5). Such was David's respect for Saul. It’s shown again in the way that David fairly evidently wanted to fight against Saul with the men of Achish, evidently wanting to turn against them and fight for Saul- as they correctly guessed (1 Sam. 29:8). This would have been suicidal. For Saul wanted to kill him, and the Philistines also would have tried to kill David as a result of this. He would have had no place to run. But even to the point of political suicide and the serious risking of his own life, David so loved his enemy. This true love leads to and is related to true respect. This kind of respect is sadly lacking in our society, and has rubbed off upon our relationships within families and ecclesias. David's love for his enemy was perhaps shown in the way that cutting off the skirt of the robe, ripping Saul's kingly garment, showing him grace, was all angled towards leading Saul to repentance. And that is what we must wish for our worst enemies, sincerely and from the heart.
1Sa 24:6 He said to his men, Yahweh forbid that I should do such a thing
to my lord, Yahweh’s anointed, to lift my hand against him, since he is
Yahweh’s anointed-
We are all anointed in that we are in Christ, the anointed (2 Cor.
1:21). The same radical respect which David showed, we should show to each
other. David’s attitude seems to have influenced Saul’s men, for his
armour bearer refused to slay Saul (1 Chron. 10:4,5). But David's attitude
towards Saul was actually an encouragement to himself. For he too was
Yahweh's anointed, and no hand could be lifted against him unless Yahweh
allowed it. The same phrase "lift up the hand against" in the context of
murder is used of how Saul's guards refused to kill the priests of Nob (1
Sam. 22:17). For they too were anointed as priests. Yahweh's anointed
referred to His priests as well as His kings.
Often David calls Saul his lord or master, describing himself as Saul's servant (1 Sam. 17:32,34,36; 20:8; 24:6; 26:16,19; 29:3,4; 30:15). This was no formal "Sincerely your brother and fellow-servant". This was a real conscious putting of himself down, as the Lord Jesus felt he was a worm rather than a man (Ps. 22:6). If only we would concentrate upon our own status and show some true respect for others on account of their being in the ecclesia, having even been anointed spiritually at their baptism (2 Cor. 1:21) as Saul was.
David has a clear belief that the man anointed by God is not to be slain. But he himself was God's anointed king. His respect of Saul's anointing was therefore the guarantee that he himself would not be slain, as God's anointed. We could wonder whether David's extreme emphasis upon not killing or harming Yahweh' anointed was because he hoped that this would be a guarantee that he too, as Yahweh's anointed, would not be harmed or slain. We are left to ponder such motives in Biblical characters, because we must likewise ponder our own motives. In 1 Sam. 26, David mocks Abner for not guarding Saul, Yahweh's anointed, and proclaims him worthy of death; but Abner had been struck by a deep sleep from Yahweh so he was innocent really of this. Likewise when the Amalekite comes to David with the news that he had slain Saul in his death throes, David has the man killed because he had killed Yahweh's anointed. This appears extreme. David certainly had no value for human life by behaving like this. So... we ponder whether his extreme position about "Yahweh's anointed" was purely motivated. As suggested above, he may possibly have been thinking that if he displayed respect for Yahweh's anointed, then Yahweh would not allow him to be slain- as he too was Yahweh's anointed. And possibly he was seeking to inculcate in Israel a respect for Yahweh's anointed, in order to safeguard himself [as also Yahweh's anointed] from ever being murdered by his own people. Human motivation is rarely pure. Perhaps this is why we have the idea of our very conscience being cleansed in Christ. And there is nothing like meeting the crucified Lord Jesus at the memorial meeting to elicit self examination of motives.
1Sa 24:7 So David restrained his men with these words, and didn’t allow
them to attack Saul. Saul got up out of the cave and went on his way-
David could easily have reasoned that if his men killed Saul, then
he had not done it. But his ethics and spirituality were far higher than
that. He realized his men were under his control, and so he restrained
them. "Restrained" or "rebuked" is Heb. ‘to tear apart’. David had to really ‘lay into’ his men
to stop them killing Saul. By going the way of grace, he ended up falling
out with his own friends and supporters. This frequently happens when we
seek to live by grace in reality; it can be a very lonely path. It’s clear
from Abishai’s attitude in 1 Sam. 26:8 that David failed to totally convince his
men to share his attitude to Saul. For David's grace towards Saul was a
hard act to follow.
David had restrained or withheld his own men from murdering Saul, but Abigail perceives that over and above his own mental effort to do this, Yahweh had confirmed David in it (1 Sam. 25:26 "since Yahweh has withheld you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand"). And she sees her appeasement of David as likewise controlled by Yahweh to preserve David as innocent from avenging himself, so that he could indeed become king.
1Sa 24:8 David also got up afterwards and went out of the cave, and called
after Saul, My lord the king! When Saul looked behind him, David bowed
with his face to the earth and showed respect-
David's respect to Saul simply because he was the anointed king is
really remarkable. He could easily have reasoned that Saul had twice been
told by Samuel that his kingship had been removed and transferred to
David, and therefore it was questionable whether Saul really was the
anointed of Yahweh; for David had been anointed king in his place. But
grace always falls on the side of giving a man the benefit of the doubt.
And in practice, David's grace, like all grace, was motivated by a simple
love of Saul as a person. We are all anointed in that we are in Christ,
the anointed (2 Cor. 1:21). The same radical respect which David showed,
we should show to each other.
1Sa 24:9 David said to Saul, Why do you listen when men say ‘David is
trying to harm you?’-
We get the impression from the record that it was Saul who was
creating this false accusation, as part of his paranoid mindset that had
jumped from one conspiracy theory to another. It was Saul who was
influencing men to think like that. But David had clearly chosen his words
carefully for this brief speech. He seeks to give Saul the benefit of the
doubt, as grace does (see on :8), and to make it as easy as possible for
Saul to repent. He sets us a stellar example for behaviour in
interpersonal conflict.
Part of the reason for Saul's obsessive conspiracy theories about David may have been that there were a group of Benjamites who wanted David dead. Because they didn't want the kingdom to go to a man from Judah. They fed Saul theories about David seeking his life. We noted earlier that Saul listened to the voices of many people rather than of God through Samuel- and here we have an example.
1Sa 24:10 Look, today your eyes have seen how Yahweh had delivered you
into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I
said, I will not lift up my hand against my lord, for he is Yahweh’s
anointed-
David is seeking to build psychological bridges with Saul. He is
supposing for a moment that Saul only hated him because he listened to
what others said about David (:9), and David is saying that he too had
people in his life who told him to kill Saul, but he refused to listen to
them. As discussed on :8, David could have reasoned that Saul was no
longer Yahweh's anointed and the anointing had passed to him. And indeed
it had. But by stressing that Saul is Yahweh's anointed, he may
be following the position of Samuel, that despite all his rejection by
God, Saul could still pull round and be Yahweh's anointed king. Grace
includes this element of determined hopefulness for the repentance even of
those who appear far gone.
"I spared you" reflects the fact that had David killed Saul, it would in a way have been legitimate. David was faced not so much with a choice between obedience and disobedience, but between showing a high level of grace and, on the other hand, doing what was politically expedient and legitimate. And it is in these choices that spiritual maturity is shown.
1Sa 24:11 Moreover, my father-
Seeking to remind Saul of how he had asked Jesse to let David come
and live at the court and effectively become his son.
Look, here is a piece of your robe in my
hand; by the fact that I cut it off and didn’t kill you, you can know and
see that I have no desire to hurt you and have not sinned against you-
"I have not sinned" was to later become "I have sinned" when
confronted by his sin with Bathsheba. This is the same phrase as David later uses when he confesses his sins
regarding Bathsheba, in Ps. 51:3: "For I acknowledge my transgressions".
This very phrase is here used by David in insisting that
he did not acknowledge any
transgression in him whilst in exile from Saul. What he said and felt then
may have been relatively true, compared to the unspirituality of Saul and
the false accusations against him. But perhaps there was an element of the
overly self righteous in his words, and the sin with Bathsheba made him
realize this. When we experience abuse, false accusation and
downright evil from others, this can result in our failure to realize that
we too our sinners. We become fixated upon the sin of the other. David it
seems fell into this trap.
Though you hunt me to take my life-
Despite all his radical grace toward Saul, David was not naive and he
refused to slip into denial of the obvious misbehaviour of the object of
his grace. Saul was trying to kill David; he was lifting up his hand
against David as Yahweh's anointed, whereas David didn't do so.
1Sa 24:12 May Yahweh judge between me and you, and may Yahweh avenge the
wrong you have done me; but my hand shall not be against you-
Despite the amazing grace shown, David cannot resist this reference
to inevitable judgment which faced Saul for his behaviour.
David at this
time was meditating deeply upon the Mosaic law, as Ps. 119 makes clear.
Perhaps a critical verse for him was Lev. 19:18: "You shall not avenge...
but love your neighbour as yourself". God had already termed David and
Saul neighbours (1 Sam. 15:28). Perhaps David took a cue from those words,
and started thinking of Saul as his neighbour. And then his mind went to
Lev. 15:18; if Saul was his neighbour, he was to love him as himself, and
not take vengeance.
1Sa 24:13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes
forth wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you’-
Alluded to in Ps. 5:4,
where the same word for "wickedness" is used: "For
You are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness, evil can’t live with You".
Despite showing such wonderful grace to Saul, David did not justify his
wickedness but names it for what it is. Grace is not naivety.
1Sa 24:14 Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you
pursue? A dead dog? A flea?-
This reflects the broken down psychological state of David. He felt
himself as good as dead, powerless, tiny and insignificant as a flea. 1
Sam. 17:43 LXX adds "David said, Nay, but worse than a dog". This would reflect
his deep humility, which we also see in his later reflections in Ps. 8 and
Ps. 144 that he was most unworthy to have attained the victory. We note
that here in 1 Sam. 24:14 he also likens himself to a dog. He had a low
self image.
"A flea" is literally, one flea. Saul and 3000 of Israel's warriors were chasing one flea. This is how low David felt, and likewise "a dead dog" is a figure of a man who has run out of highway and is no longer what he once was. David's self perception was very low at this point. On one hand, he felt that he need not slay Saul as God would take care of this and be true to His word to him. But at one and the same time, he felt so low in his self image. And so it is oftentimes with man in Christ. This is not hypocrisy, nor necessarily weakness of faith. It is what it is to be human. And our creator "remembers that we are dust".
1Sa 24:15 May Yahweh therefore be the judge and give sentence between me
and you; may He plead my cause and deliver me out of your hand-
See on Ps. 119 (introduction). Solomon alludes here in Prov. 3:30
"Don’t strive with a man without cause if he has done you no harm".
To strive or plead a cause is the very phrase used of the opposition
of Saul (1 Sam. 24:15) and Nabal to David (1 Sam. 25:39); and in both
cases, David had done them "no harm", the phrase used of David's innocence
before Nabal (1 Sam. 25:21,28) and Saul (1 Sam. 24:11). Clearly Solomon
has these incidents in view, and again his statements of truth have a
subtext of justifying his father David, with whom he was psychologically
obsessed.
That Ps.119 was written at this time is evident. It mentioned David as a young man devoting himself to the word rather than riches(:72)- the riches which could have been his if he mentally surrendered to Saul, or if he killed Saul and took the kingdom. He often laments how he is in exile from Yahweh's word (:43,46,54), which would have been on account of his being away from the sanctuary at Gibeah. He pleads the promise of the word that he would be preserved from Saul's persecution (v.41,58), and several times mentions Saul's attempts on his life (v.87,95,109,110). The following verses are evidently relevant to this period: 61,63,67,79,84 (= 1 Sam. 27:1),95,98 (= 1 Sam. 18:14,15),110 (cp. the 'snaring' with Michal),119 (the emphasis is on 'You will destroy the wicked like Saul- one day),125 (David is often called Saul's servant),150,154 (= 1 Sam. 24:15),157,161,165,176. Therefore in the face of such hatred and pain, feeling he must be careful of every step he took, emotionally and physically, David could rejoice: "I will walk at liberty (AVmg. 'at large'): for I seek thy precepts".
Legal language is disproportionately common in the Bible. The idea of a
Divine, heavenly court is common. God is the judge who upholds the weak,
those who are condemned by human judgment (1 Sam. 24:15; Ps. 9:4; 43:1;
140:12; Lam. 3:58; Mic. 7:9); He is even portrayed as the one appealing
for justice (Ps. 74:22). If God is the only and ultimate judge, then
His judgment is all that ultimately matters, and in this sense human
'sentences' or judgment from the court of human opinion are reversed by
Him (Prov. 22:22,23). Yet the pain of being judged by those around us is
highly significant to us mortals; and time and again, Scripture is
reminding us that we should not pay deep attention to this, because God's
judgment is what ultimately matters; and the Divine court is sitting in
session right now, at the very same time as those around us are judging us
with their meaningless human judgments. This, then, is the ultimate answer
to the pain of being slandered and defamed, being misunderstood and
misrepresented, or feeling that persecution by worldly powers is not
noticed by God.
1Sa 24:16 When David had finished saying this to Saul, Saul said, Is this
your voice, my son David? Saul wept aloud-
The shame with Saul is that he did have a conscience and a spiritual
side. He thereby becomes an even stronger warning to us all; for obsessive
jealousy can enmesh any of us if we allow it to. We wonder why Saul
queries whether this is really David's voice. Perhaps there was a
considerable distance between them; or David's voice was strained by
emotion; or Saul so wished this was all a dream and this hadn't really
happened. Again, each of these options has absolute credibility and
reflects that this record is true and accurate as to what really happened
and was said. It is no cunningly devised fable.
1Sa 24:17 He said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have
been good to me, whereas I have done evil to you-
God's goodness to David was what empowered him to do good to Saul.
'Doing good' is the word used in Ps. 13:6 "I will sing to Yahweh,
because He has been good to me", written by David reflecting upon the pain
of Saul's persecution of him. Like us, our faith that God will finally
come through for us in the future
should give us joy now. This faith in God finally 'being good' to
David led him to be the same to Saul- the word is used of how
David was
'good' rather than evil to Saul, not slaying him when he had the
opportunity (1 Sam. 24:17). Just as we deserve to die, but
experience God's grace.
1Sa 24:18 You have declared this day how you have been good to me, because
when Yahweh had delivered me into your hand, you didn’t kill me-
David doing good to Saul is alluded to by him in Ps. 119:65: "Do good
to Your servant according to Your word, Yahweh".
The doing good would specifically refer to the fulfilment of the
prophetic word that David would be king and Saul's persecution would end.
"Do good" is the phrase used of how David did good to Saul by not killing
him, but rather trusting in God's word about Saul's destruction. And on
that basis, David in Ps. 119:65 appeals for God to do him good, by ending
Saul's persecution and establishing David as king.
It seems God would have given Saul into David’s hand when “a deep
sleep from the Lord” fell upon Saul at the very time David intended to
kill him (1 Sam. 26:12). Saul himself realized that the Lord had delivered
him into David’s hand to kill him (1 Sam. 24:18). God thus confirmed David
in his intentions- and yet at the last minute, it seems, David chose an
even higher level; of love and deep respect for this spiritually sick man.
1Sa 24:19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed?
Therefore may Yahweh reward you with good for what you have done to me
today-
Saul knew of courses that Yahweh's reward for David would be that he
would be made king in Saul's place (:20). Saul recognizes that David's
grace is absolutely and radically different to all secular wisdom and ways
of behaviour. Saul was out seeking to find David; and David had found
Saul. "Unharmed" is literally "the good way". It is the term used of how
Samuel taught Israel "the good way" despite their choice of Saul (1 Sam.
12:23; also 1 Kings 8:36). David alludes to this when he says that God
teaches even sinners the good way (Ps. 25:8). This was relevant to the
exiles, whom God also sought to teach the good way (Jer. 6:16). The idea
is that even at this late stage, by preserving Saul's life, David was
hopeful that he would still go in the good way. And Saul perceived this.
1Sa 24:20 Now I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of
Israel will be established in your hands-
Saul is alluding to Samuel’s words of rejection to him, “But
now your kingdom shall not be established” (1 Sam. 13:14). Saul now at
this point perfectly understood God's word to him. But he relapsed into
his other narratives and continued to persecute David. The truth of Samuel's words about David replacing Saul now became
apparent to Saul- when he perceived how gracious David was. This was to be
the lead characteristic of a king, a man with God's own gracious heart.
Yet Saul's understanding was just theoretical, for he continues trying to
murder David. Again we see how understanding God's word in crystal clarity
is not of itself enough; it must be acted upon, and not just held in the
mind for a few brief moments when the penny drops and we see everything
clearly.
1Sa 24:21 Swear now therefore to me by Yahweh, that you will not cut off
my seed after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s
house-
It was usual for a new king to destroy the family of the king he had
usurped, and there are Biblical examples of this. Jonathan was likewise
concerned about this. We note that Saul sees swearing by Yahweh as a
binding oath, but earlier he had sworn by Yahweh to Jonathan that he would
not kill David- and totally disregarded it. He must surely have been aware
of this big paradox. We may wonder why David having the upper hand as he
did at this point, didn't ask Saul to swear by Yahweh not to kill him. He
was aware Saul had earlier made such an oath and broken it. Perhaps in
love he didn't want to lead Saul yet further into sin, for he knew that
Saul was likely to break such an oath. We can apply that principle too in
our dealings with those in spiritual weakness.
1Sa 24:22 David gave his oath to Saul. Saul went home, but David and his
men went up to the stronghold-
This continues the theme developed in the descriptions of David's meetings
with Jonathan; one returns to their house, whilst David goes out into the
scrubland again. Forgiveness is not the same as trust being restored. We
must forgive, but we are not obligated to trust until that trust has been
credibly restored.
It was usual for a new king to destroy the family of the previous dynasty. Through the incident with the Gibeonites in 2 Sam. 21, God took care of this. For there was a famine that was blamed upon Saul having slain the Gibeonites, and God judged that the bloodguilt rested upon Saul's descendants and they had to be executed: "There was famine during the reign of David, year after year for three years. David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord replied, “It is because of the bloodguilt of Saul and his house, for he put some Gibeonites to death” (2 Sam. 21:1). We ponder how there was bloodguilt on Saul's descendants. Saul's sins were not to be visited upon his descendants (Ex. 18:2; Dt. 24:16; Jer. 31:29) and Num. 35:33 is clear that Saul personally was responsible: “Blood pollutes the land and the land can have no expiation for blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it". When asked what can make amends, the Gibeonites naturally ask for the blood of Saul's family. But this is apparently in line with what Yahweh Himself had told David here. It seems rather politically convenient for David that here we have the destruction of the potential claimants to his throne. That is what David humanly would have wanted, but grace and his honouring of his promise to Saul stopped him from killing the descendants of his enemy, the previous king. Usually a new king destroyed the family of the previous dynasty. But God through the incident of the Gibeonites works to ensure that this happens anyway, as some kind of reward for David's attempt to live by grace and integrity in the matter.
We note that the two occasions when David spares Saul's life by grace are in 1 Sam. 24 and 26. In between them is the Nabal / Abigail story in 1 Sam. 25, where David is wildly eager to murder Nabal and his family and then is calmed down by Abigail. We see here how David, as every man, may reach peaks of grace and wisdom, and yet in between them act ungraciously. This is psychologically credible, and reflects the struggle of every man to live on a level of high grace to others. But we wonder whether David's grace to Saul was possibly only achieved by psychologically transferring his anger onto another, in this case Nabal, and madly seeking to murder him rather than Saul. David resisted taking revenge upon Saul, but he over eagerly seeks to take revenge on Nabal- a man who unlike Saul was not seeking to chase and destroy him. In this case, Abigail becomes David's alter ego, the voice of his own better conscience speaking through another. David relents and repents of his desire to murder Nabal, and God then slays Nabal. But that is just what Saul did, relenting for a moment of his desire to kill David, and then being removed by God in God's good time. And God works thus oftentimes with man, putting our better side and better inner voice into the mouth of another... in my own case, often the mouth of my wife.
We reflect that Saul also had spared a king [Agag] whom he should have killed. And had lost the kingdom because of it. Now Saul is in Agag's position. For all time we see that the same action can be performed by men with totally different motives, just as David later acted as a priest when Uzziah was condemned for doing so.
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