Revenge and Respect!
Opening Prayer
My Redeemer, give me a heart like Yours today as I look into Your Word.
Read 1 Samuel 26:1–16
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?”
2 So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David. 3 Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had followed him there, 4 he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.
5 Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the camp, with the army encamped around him.
6 David then asked Ahimelek the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?”
“I’ll go with you,” said Abishai.
7 So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.”
9 But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? 10 As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 11 But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.”
12 So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep.
13 Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the hill some distance away; there was a wide space between them. 14 He called out to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Aren’t you going to answer me, Abner?”
Abner replied, “Who are you who calls to the king?”
15 David said, “You’re a man, aren’t you? And who is like you in Israel? Why didn’t you guard your lord the king? Someone came to destroy your lord the king. 16 What you have done is not good. As surely as the Lord lives, you and your men must die, because you did not guard your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were near his head?”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Have you ever found yourself under attack by someone who is jealous because you are more successful than he or she is?Saul continues his attack upon David. He plans to have David killed by the Philistines. He has been afraid of David for some time because of David’s successful life (1 Sam. 18:12–16). He wants to get rid of his rival and now searches for him in the desert (2). But David is aware of Saul’s movements and with Abishai as his companion he finds Saul at night, asleep inside the camp (7). This is the second time such an event has happened. The first occasion is mentioned in 1 Samuel 24:4–7. David is urged by Abishai to take Saul’s life, but David refuses to attack the Lord’s anointed. He believes that the Lord will deal with Saul in his own time and in his own way (10,11).
Many years later, writing to the Christians at Rome, Paul, aware of the Lord’s words in Deuteronomy 32:35, “It is mine to avenge, I will repay,” urged them not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). That is what David does here with Saul’s life.
Apply
Choose one small way to “overcome evil with good” today for someone whom you are dealing with.
Closing prayer
Lord, sustain me when I face personal attack and opposition, so that my action will be one of respect and not revenge.
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