As I’ve been working through the story of King Saul’s decline and King David’s rise to power, I’ve noticed something: David was whacked. But whacked in a good way, I suppose.
He had been anointed by Samuel as the next king of Israel. He’s killed the giant Goliath. He’d been threatened and attacked by Saul. He was on the run, hiding from Saul, moving with a band of notorious men from place to place in the wilderness, living in caves and trying to stay one step ahead of his sworn enemy.
He had the opportunity to kill Saul twice–once when Saul was pooping in a cave where David and his men were hiding (uh, yuck) and once when he snuck (sneaked?) into Saul’s camp as the men slept. David’s best advisors and fighting men wanted to kill Saul. They even offered to do the deed. But David wouldn’t let them, and refused to strike Saul. Why?
Saul was the man God chose to lead Israel. He was God’s anointed. David couldn’t bring himself to do harm to God’s man, even though that same man was hunting him like a trophy buck.
David trusted God to work things out. When the time was right, God would bring Saul’s reign to an end and usher in the line of David. So David waited. He waited, and ran, and hid, and fought, and trusted, and hoped.
When David learned that Saul was dead, he asked the man, “How do you know he’s dead?” The man reported that he came upon a wounded Saul, realized that he couldn’t survive his injuries, so when Saul asked that the man put him out of his misery, he killed him. David’s response? “Kill him! You have condemned yourself, for you confessed that you killed the Lord’s anointed one.” Then he wrote a song to honor Saul and Jonathan, and taught it to the people of Judah.
I’m not sure how I’d react at the news that the man who was trying to kill me had just been taken out of the picture, but I don’t think I’d have the messenger killed. But David was different.
He knew the Lord. He trusted that God was working, in his own time and in his own way. That confidence didn’t lead David to sit around doing nothing, strumming his harp and writing the next big worship hit song. He was a man of action, a leader of men. He fought battles, made decisions, and led men in life. But he refused to take action against the king, the man that God had chosen, even though it made David’s life more difficult.
I want to have that kind of trust, that deep knowledge of God. I want to lead with confidence, and trust God to do what he desires, to bring his purpose for me to the front when I am ready and the time is right.
I’m not too keen on leading a band of rebels through the wilderness while God works things out, but if that’s what it takes…
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