David Spares Saul Again (Part 1 of 2)

When David had the opportunity to kill his tormentor, King Saul, he chose not to. But Saul's relief didn't lead to reconciliation.

Saul just couldn't let go of his jealousy and his hostility. Why didn't David settle matters once and for all? Alistair Begg shows us the answers to those questions in Scripture today on Truth for Life. I invite you to turn with me and follow along as I read from 1 Samuel and chapter 26. The heading in our text is David Spares Saul Again. Then the Zephites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hakilah, which is on the east of Jeshiman? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hakilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshiman.

But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment while the army was encamped around him. Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite and to Joab's brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul? And Abishai said, I will go down with you. So David and Abishai went to the army by night.

And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. Then Abishai said to David, God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please, let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice. But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD's anointed and be guiltless? And David said, As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.

The LORD forbid that I should put out my hand against the LORD's anointed. But now take the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go. So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.

Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill with a great space between them. And David called to the army and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered, Who are you who calls to the king?

But David said to Abner, Are you not a man who is like you in Israel? Why, then, have you not kept watch over your LORD the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your LORD.

This thing that you have done is not good. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your LORD the LORD's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head. So David recognized David's voice and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my LORD, O king. And he said, Why does my LORD pursue after his servant? For what have I done?

What evil is on my hands? 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. Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD.

For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. Then Saul said, I have sinned. Return my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake. And David answered and said, Here is the spear, O king.

Let one of the young men come over and take it. The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the LORD gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the LORD's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD. And may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Then Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son David.

You will do many things and will succeed in them. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. Amen. So, as we come to the Bible, gracious Father, thank you for the song we've sung. We have pled the help of the Holy Spirit, and we believe now that you will illumine your Word to us so that we might be transformed into the likeness of Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen. Well, as we come to the twenty-sixth chapter, you may have found yourself saying, if you've read ahead, but haven't we already read this? And that is because it is remarkably similar to the event that is recorded for us in chapter twenty-four. In chapter twenty-four, Saul has gone into David's camp, and here in chapter twenty-six, David and his nephew Abishai go down into Saul's camp. Some liberal scholars suggest that this is just two attempts at dealing with the same story. But although the chapters are remarkably similar, they are sufficiently different to dispense with the idea that we are actually dealing with just two versions of one story. So under the heading, David spares Saul again.

We could have, I suppose, had as a heading play it against Saul—that misquote from Casablanca—because in many ways we are going down the same pathway. And despite the way things ended in chapter twenty-four—remember, in the cave in En Gedi, and the affirmations that were made there—"May the LORD reward you with all good for what you have done this day"—and that very magnanimous response of Saul to David, it would seem, when we got to the end of chapter twenty-four, that everything was now resolved, when in actual fact we turn to twenty-six and we realize that the hostility of Saul is as strong as ever, and that as the events unfold once again, David finds himself in a position to be able to make a grab for that which only God is to give. The real question is, because we had chapter twenty-five in between, has David learned anything from this incident involving Nabal? Has it changed his thinking, the fact that he's been through this before?

Does it make it easier for him to handle? Well, we've already seen that success in chapter twenty-four gave way to his wrongdoing or his potential disaster in twenty-five. And if your Bible is open like mine and you can look down to the opening verse of chapter twenty-seven, you can see how quickly victory—success—gives way to fear and, in turn, to failure. It's important that we don't lose sight of the foundational blocks upon which we're building in this series. Remember, we have made sure that we understand what is meant by the phrase that David was a man after God's own heart, that that was not a statement about the place that God had in David's heart, but rather it was the place that David had in God's heart, and that God has determined that he is his anointed and he will reign on his throne. But it would seem that the journey to the throne is certainly no cakewalk and that there are episodes in his life, more still to come, where it becomes very obvious to us as readers that although he is the king, he is only a shadow of the one to whom he points, all the way through the narrative of the Old Testament, when we see the prophet emerging, when we see the king emerging, when we see the priesthood unfolding, they are all pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, in the first five verses, this scene is set for us.

We needn't delay on it. The Ziphites, true to form—we saw them back in chapter 23. The informers, they have some interest in currying favor with Saul. And so, as before, they come to Saul, and they tell him that they know where David is. It's quite interesting that it immediately says, on the basis of this information, that Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, and he took with him his three thousand men.

Well, why is it interesting? Well, because again, at the end of 24, he seemed to be somewhat reconciled to the circumstances. He knows now that David is actually going to be the king. But apparently, this was all it took to coax him back into this same evil pursuit. He can't restrain his impulse to destroy his rival, because jealousy is a powerful force. And when they come and they say, We know where David is, they are appealing to this latent hostility in him.

And it only takes a little spark. And once again, there he goes. You remember what James says, where you find jealousy and selfish ambition, you will find disorder and evil of every kind. Now, as you look at that little scene setting in the first five verses, you will notice that for him to amass his troops again, the three thousand, his movements could not then be disguised. And I think that's the significance of what we're told, that although they told Saul that he would find David here, David actually was in the wilderness.

David was in a position to see this large force emerging. He then sends his men, verse 4, on a reconnaissance mission to confirm the fact that this is none other than Saul, and clearly he's back up to his old tricks. That's the first five verses. Then, in verses 6 and following, we discover that the camp of Saul is infiltrated. You remember in Ecclesiastes, in a passage that is often used in a wedding service, two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work.

If one falls down, the other one can pick him up. And so David decides he's going to go down into the camp, but he's not just going to do it by himself. And so we're told that opportunity knocks for this man, Ahimelech the Hittite.

And if you've never heard of him before, relax, because you will never hear of him again. And this is his only visit into the Bible. He's one of the band of disaffected adventure seekers, these free-booters and wanderers that make up this band of followers of David himself.

We would have known more about him if he had chosen to accept the invitation. But as it falls, we discover that Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, whom we will meet again, is one of David's nephews, and he volunteers for the opportunity. They're going to make a nighttime visit. If you know your Bible well enough, you will read this, and you will say, This has hints of another nighttime visit in the previous book, or in the record, not in Ruth but in Judges, where, you will recall, that Gideon and his servant Purah go down into the camp of the Midianites during the night in the assurance that the LORD has given the camp into their hands. I'll leave you to read that story on your own.

It's in Judges chapter 7. And we know what happened there. Now, we also know what had already happened in chapter 24 here, when David had gone into the cave.

You remember? I hope you do—that he found Saul, as it were, in the bathroom. And now we come into chapter 26, and he's going to find him in the bedroom. And there's an amazing picture here, an understandable picture. They went down to do this reconnaissance, because they had already identified where the encampment was and also where Saul could be found within that encampment. And the picture that is given us here is a sort of tranquil picture, isn't it? Verse 7, So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner his commander, and the army lay around him. We have these amazing pictures of Saul and his spear.

It keeps coming back as a picture of his supposed strength. You remember back in chapter 22 and verse 6, there Saul is sitting under the tamarisk tree, and the spear is in his hand. Well, here he is sleeping with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and he doesn't realize how close he is to having the spear being stuck in his head rather than stuck in the ground.

David is very familiar with the spear, because we know that he dodged it on a couple of occasions. And as soon as Abishai comes on this, he reacts in a very similar way to what the people had said in 24. Remember, when Saul had come into the cave and David's followers said, Oh, this is the Lord's doing, it's obvious he has been brought in here so that you can bump him off.

Well, on this occasion, Abishai takes it in a different direction. He doesn't suggest to Saul that he does it, but rather that he will do it himself. Verse 8. God has given your enemy into your hand this day. So let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.

It won't take me two shots to deal with this. Now, I wonder if there was a pause between his volunteering and David's responding in verse 9. Did he pause for a moment and begin to say to himself, Well, you know, there is some value in this. After all, he has come against me again with a massive force.

He had suggested to me that he wasn't going to do this anymore. He might have said, You know, it can't be coincidence that we found his camp. And then he would say to himself, It is peculiar, at least, that he is lying here apparently comatose. And after all, I am the one anointed to be the king.

Perhaps we should seize this moment. It would be surprising if these thoughts were not somewhere in his thinking. But you will notice verse 9, But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD's anointed and be guiltless?

Notice and notice carefully. What determines his response to the suggestion of Abishai is not his circumstances, which are set up to do just such a deed, but rather his conviction. His conviction.

He is a man of conviction. Think Daniel. Think Joseph.

Think Eric Liddell. Do not destroy him. It is wrong. It is wrong. He doesn't say, Don't destroy him, because I still have a forlorn hope that he might change and become a better person.

No. Do not destroy him. You see, here's a matter that ought to be apparent to us. Sometimes, in a trivial way, when temptation comes—let's say that you're trying your best not to eat poorly, and you've gone out and you've had a magnificent meal at a friend's house, and they come around with the most enticing dessert you've ever seen in your entire life—but out of a deep sense of conviction, you say, Oh, no, no, it would be wrong for me to do this in light of what I'm doing. And then you sit back in your chair, and you feel smug as other people succumb to the temptation. And then the almost inevitable happens. The hostess comes again and says, Will you not change your mind? And in that moment, in the full flush of the success of having said no once, the temptation is even greater, it seems to me, to say yes the second time. In other words, I'll reward myself for having got through the first five minutes. Why don't I just succumb in the next five? Now, you see, that could have happened here easily. David said to himself, Well, I was successful in twenty-four, so I perhaps could be free now in chapter twenty-six. But no, this isn't situational ethics.

This isn't. He said, No, it's wrong to do. And furthermore, notice, he says, as the Lord lives, God can be trusted to deal with Saul. Now, we ask the question, Do you think he learned anything from the incident with Nabal?

Yes, I think he did. Because remember, God deals with Nabal without the intervention of David. You remember that he was struck, and he died, that he became stone dead when he received the information that came from Abigail his wife. And so now, applying the same logic, David says, Here's what may well happen. There's a number of ways in which God may choose to take him out.

He may strike him—that's along the lines of what happened to Nabal. He may die of natural causes—that is, or his day will come to die. Or he may go down into the battle and perish.

Well, of course, that was exactly what was going to happen. But notice verse 11, The LORD forbid that I should put out my hand against the LORD's anointed. We are not, Abishai, going to take his life. But what we are going to take, we're going to take his spear, and we're going to take his water jar. And then notice verse 12 says, So David took the spear and the jar of water. Well, I wonder what happened.

Maybe it's this. Maybe he says, Now you go and get the spear and the jar of water. And they say, No, no, wait a minute.

Let me take them. I'm worried about what you might do if you get a hold of that spear, given your earlier request. So Abishai doesn't protest. He doesn't ask what David plans to do with the two articles. And then we discover why it is that they've been able to go through this whole exercise and no one saw, no one knew, no one woke up—because they were all asleep. I get that, but that is some kind of sleep. Yes, but it was a special kind of sleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them. There's no discovery that ever comes in the world that is unknown to God. He was a master of anesthetics long before we discovered the capacity for anesthesia. The deep sleep that makes Saul vulnerable is the sleep that keeps David safe.

If God be for us, who can be against us? You're listening to Truth for Life, that is Alistair Begg. We'll hear more about David and Saul tomorrow. All of us, like David, face trials in life. One of the greatest helps for me in hard times is being able to recall scripture to refocus my heart and my mind. You may have friends who are able to recite Bible verses with ease, and you might wonder, How did they do that?

You might wish that you could do the same. Memorizing passages of scripture isn't as hard as you think, and we have a little booklet that will help you learn how you can do it. It's titled How to Memorize Scripture for Life.

It's a short guide. In it, you'll discover practical strategies for making scripture memorization, both rewarding and lasting practice. You'll learn how you can choose verses that are meaningful to you, how to develop visual cues for remembering, even how to follow a specific daily routine that leads to retention.

Ask for your copy of the booklet How to Memorize Scripture for Life. When you give a donation to Truth for Life, go to truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can call us at 888-588-7884. Well today we are wrapping up the Basics Conference for Pastors and Church Leaders hosted by Alistair. If you've been praying for this event, let me offer a sincere thank you. Our mission here at Truth for Life is to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance, and one of the aims of that mission is to see local churches strengthened.

That's what this conference is hoping to do. Please keep these men in your prayers in the coming weeks. Ask God to help them preach His Word and shepherd His people faithfully and courageously. Again thanks for your prayers, and thanks for studying the Bible with us. Tomorrow we'll find out why David was able to respond righteously, even when King Saul behaved foolishly. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.