1 Samuel 26.19 19 Now therefore let my lord the king hear
the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me,
may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the
Lord, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the
heritage of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ (ESV)
Again, Saul is consumed with capturing and killing David.
Fact: Saul knows his kingdom ends with him (1 Samuel 15.24-26). Fact: Saul
knows David has been anointed by Samuel as the next king (1 Samuel 16.1-13).
Fact: Saul becomes insane (1 Samuel 16.14). Fact: Saul becomes insanely jealous
of David (1 Samuel 18.616). Fact: Saul’s son Jonathan (the heir apparent) knows
Saul has lost the kingdom and David will be the next king (1 Samuel 23.17).
David is a threat to Saul and Saul knows his days are numbered (1 Samuel 26).
In 1 Samuel 26, Saul was again chasing David to kill him,
but we notice David’s tone has changed from the last attempt: David demands justice before the Lord. David
impeached Saul’s motives by asking, “What have I done!?” In other words, what is my crime? And then David presented
his defense: “If this is God, then I
ought to be able to offer a sacrifice for atonement. But if this is men, I’m
not buying it because they are unjustly trying to take away my share of God’s
inheritance as an Israelite. They are chasing me away from worship of the true
God to worship other gods who are not true!” David’s defense was his belief
in what God was doing for Israel as a people. Saul didn’t seem to believe that;
he was what we would call, secular.
I have a choice: I can go spiritual or I can go secular. Simply
put, to go spiritual is to accept God’s Lordship in my life and live by His
grace and love. As Paul said in in 2 Corinthians 12, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave
me. But [God] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my
weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of
Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (Vv. 8-10) Paul went
spiritual.
David said (in essence) “You can kill me if you think you need to, but my defense is my
conscience before God!” David went spiritual – he laid himself before the
Lord and made it clear that if he was going to die, he wasn’t going to die as a
foreigner, but as a fellow Israelite; and they’d have to accept the
consequences from God. Murdering “threats” was against their law.
The next time I get miffed at my fellow Christian I have
a choice: going spiritual or going secular. Do I take my motives and inner
thoughts to the Throne of Grace where they have as equal access as I do, or do
I go all secular and act as if there is no God? Because that is what it boils down to! David knew where he stood as a
believer and he challenged the king to do the same. What I do with what happens
to me shows where my heart is with the Lord and others, and what I truly
believe about both. David believed and rather than kill Saul, he appealed to
the truth and challenged his king to do the same. I need to learn from David
and not do the ‘Saul’…
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