1 Samuel 24: David Spares Saul

David and Saul had a complicated relationship. Both were in competition for the throne of Israel after the prophet Samuel informed King Saul that God rejected his claim to the throne. It's Samuel that leaves Saul and goes to find David, youngest of the sons of Jesse living in Bethlehem, and anoints David as the new King of Israel. But even after that anointing, it's still Saul who sits on the throne for many years.

This chapter picks up after Saul has actively been hunting for David in order to kill him:

4 David’s men told him, “Today is the day the Lord referred to when he said, ‘I’m going to hand your enemy over to you. You will do to him whatever you think is right.’” David quietly got up and cut off the border of Saul’s robe. 

5 But afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the border of Saul’s robe.  

6 He said to his men, “It would be unthinkable for me to raise my hand against His Majesty, the Lord’s anointed king, since he is the Lord’s anointed.”  

7 So David stopped his men by saying this to them and didn’t let them attack Saul. Saul left the cave and went out onto the road.  

8 Later, David got up, left the cave, and called to Saul, “Your Majesty!” When Saul looked back, David knelt down with his face touching the ground.  
9 David asked Saul, “Why do you listen to rumors that I am trying to harm you?  
10 Today you saw how the Lord handed you over to me in the cave. Although I was told to kill you, I spared you, saying, ‘I will not raise my hand against Your Majesty because you are the Lord’s anointed.’

David had a chance to finish off his enemy and instead showed mercy to the King. Even though David was anointed by Samuel and favored by God, he could not bring himself to kill another who had been anointed by God in the past. In short, he had love for his enemy. That's an idea we wouldn't hear about again until Jesus Christ said it almost 1,000 years later.

How often do we see the misfortune of others as an opportunity for ourselves? How often do we rejoice in the plight of our enemies, or tear down those people who wronged us when they were weakest? It's human nature to seek revenge, and to revel in the consequences of the ways of the wicked. However, it's not our mandate from a heavenly perspective to return hate with hate, and we should be very careful about passing our judgement on the wicked. Only God can do that, as he did with Saul later in the battle of Gilboa where Saul was slain.

David made a very Christ-like choice before Christ even existed. That's what I find most interesting in this story. In a time where mercy was a foreign concept, David didn't press an advantage on his persecutor even though he'd been forced to retreat into a cave to survive. How long he must have waited, worried, and wondered about his future while believing in the promises of God? And when the time finally came for him to possible end it all? He showed mercy and then got mercy in return. Saul let him be, and went on to his own consequences.

May we all be so merciful. For we have been forgiven much.