24 Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.” ² Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. ³ So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.) ⁴ Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵ Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. ⁶ And he said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.” ⁷ So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.

⁸ David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed down. ⁹ And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? ¹⁰ Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.’ ¹¹ Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. ¹² Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. ¹³ As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you. ¹⁴ After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? ¹⁵ Therefore let the Lord be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.”

¹⁶ So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. ¹⁷ Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. ¹⁸ And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. ¹⁹ For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. ²⁰ And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. ²¹ Therefore swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.”

²² So David swore to Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

1 Samuel 24

Dear God, this is such a great story. The theme this next week is leadership, and this story really lends itself to that. David is a great leader in this story. How?

• He resists selfishly grabbing for power. He could have taken a short cut. He could have killed Saul, your anointed king. He could have killed Jonathan’s father. I wonder how that would have played out with Jonathan. They had just committed themselves to each other and Jonathan serving under David when his time came and David not cutting off Jonathan’s family. How would that have played out if David had killed Jonathan’s father and grabbed the throne through bloodshed?
• We talked yesterday about how selfish motivation uses others to get what you want while selfless motivation builds others up and cares about the greater good as opposed to your own. David’s motivation here was selfless and not selfish.
• David had to control his men and their expectations of him. The “discontented” he had drawn to himself were probably not pleased with how he did this, and David knew it. They could have been in power. They could had been on the run from Saul’s army. This was their chance to have that pain pay off. They could have both had retribution and been in charge. David had to tell them know because he knew that, in the long run, it was for everyone’s own good.
• David set a precedent that the king’s life is sacred before God. That would serve him well later when he is king. If he had taken Saul’s life he would have set a precedent that it was okay to kill the king.
• He would have lost the moral high ground in his struggle with Saul. Up until now, he was in the right and Saul was in the wrong, and just about everyone but Doeg the Edomite knew it (and Doeg probably knew it too). But if he had killed Saul then the people would have known that David was just another power-hunger man and Saul was right to chase him and try to kill him.

Now, what else do I notice?

• Saul wept.
• Saul has a moment of conscience and regret.
• Saul admits you are on David’s side and not his.
• Saul relents to the reality that David will be king.
• Saul understands that when new regimes succeed old regimes, the surviving members of the old regime usually die so they won’t be a problem to the new king. He asks for mercy for his family when David’s day comes.

Finally, David knew better than to trust Saul’s repentance in that moment. I don’t know how his men felt about going back to the stronghold and not returning to society and civilization except that they would have preferred he kill Saul and become king. We’ll see later that David’s mistrust of Saul was not unwarranted.

Father, I have some opportunities today to be very selfish, but I reject that. I don’t want to be about me today. I want to be about loving the other people around me. I’ve been invited to an event where there are opportunities to advance my own selfish needs. They are needs I can justify as noble needs that I think you are wanting to fulfill, but they are only noble in the way that David becoming king was noble. What I mean by that is you have your timing, not mine. Your job for me is to stay within what Jesus taught me through the Sermon on the Mount. Love you and love my neighbor. Be merciful. Be loving. Care more about the other person than I care about myself. I offer this day to you, Father.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen