The Cat and the Mouse, Part 2

The one author wrote 60 years ago, emotion that does not lead to action only leads deeper into rebellion.

But notice the contrast. Here David cuts a little piece of the king's robe off and is smitten with guilt. His conscience troubles him. That one little act and Saul is going to refuse to repent of his pride and his envy and premeditated attempts over and over and over again to kill David. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.

We're glad you've joined us. Stephen is continuing through his series on the life of King David, a series called The Singer. King Saul pursued David relentlessly in his jealous rage. He wanted David dead. And all the while, God was pursuing Saul out of his great love.

He wanted Saul to respond in repentance. Today we're studying the section of scripture that describes this and learning some important principles for us. Stephen began this message on Friday, but we didn't have time to complete it. So this is part two of the message called The Cat and the Mouse.

In order to help you sense some of the despair, let me retell an illustration from John Phillips' commentary on this particular passage. John Phillips now with the Lord wrote about one pastor's home in one of the Soviet-occupied countries just after World War II. A Lutheran pastor and his family served in a church there. The Lutheran pastor had an attractive single daughter who worked in the office of a government agency, a communist government agency.

Eventually the Communist Party secretary, her boss, gave her a choice. Either she became his mistress or her father would be arrested on trumped-up charges. The church closed.

The ministry ended. Under constant pressure and in growing fear for her father's life, without her parents ever knowing, she tragically gave in. Within a few months, she discovered that she was going to have a child in anguish, guilt, and despair. She hung herself. She left a note in her pocket explaining what had brought her to utter despair in taking her life. A party leader found her body and the note inside her pocket and he confronted his superior with the note. The official denied it, took the letter, and then privately tore it up. He then secretly forged another letter supposedly from this young lady, slipped it into her pocket, and when she was found by officials, the note said that she had been molested by her father and could no longer stand the shame. The police arrested the father.

The church was closed. He was sent to prison where he was often beaten by the other prisoners who hated such criminals. All the while, this pastor, his wife and family, the church grieved with these surprising, unexpected, unexplained events.

Several years later, that Soviet official responsible for death of that young girl was arrested for embezzlement and placed into the same prison and into the same cell. He confessed to this pastor the truth. For the first time, they now knew the story. And to this man's utter amazement, this father forgave him, claiming that the purposes of God would fully be accomplished and understood one day. Take how you feel right now and apply it to this man, David. Because we know the end of the story, we just skip over and go, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's being chased. He's lost his wife, his prospects, his hope.

In fact, as he's on the run, he will write one of his famous songs relative to what's happening in this context we're studying today. And he will say, oh God, save me by thy name. Vindicate me by your might. For strangers have risen against me. Ruthless men seek my life. Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the upholder of my life. In other words, God, if you don't hold me up, I'm not going to make it one more day.

It's only at this moment that something unbelievable happens. In fact, 600 of David's men will unanimously agree it can only mean one thing, that God has given David the opportunity to settle the score, to strike back, to get even. Look at verse 2. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats' rocks. Now, let me just say a few words here. Saul has now chosen 3,000 elite troops.

These are the best. These are especially skilled warriors. David has slipped away, not this time.

He's going to chase them down and he's going to crush them. Now, David would have been able to see miles away, he would have seen Saul, and they chose a cave. Verse 3 references the sheep folds. What this is referring to is how shepherds would place walls of stone around cave entrances to create a buffer and protection for sheep that they would bring into the cave.

David has chosen one of those caves. Now, look at verse 3. And Saul came to the sheep folds, by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Your translation may read, he covered his feet.

It's a euphemism for going to the bathroom. I think this is earthy, it's simple, but I think God has given us this fact to let us know that Saul at this moment is totally vulnerable to an attack. He has no idea that 600 pairs of eyes are watching him sit there in that Texaco gas station reading his newspaper.

He's so preoccupied and he doesn't hear the whispering somewhere deep in that cave. And here's what they're whispering, verse 4, and the man of David said to him, here's the day of which the Lord has said to you. I mean, this is it, David. Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand. David, the fact that Saul has chosen to use this cave without any guard around him, this is proof from God.

Strike him down. God has set this up. Can you imagine their excitement as they see David slip through the dimness of this cave with Goliath's sword in his hand? Verse 4 of the middle part. David arose and stealthily cut off a corner. You would expect it to say a head, a corner of Saul's robe, not his head, a piece of his robe. You could translate this, David cut off the wing, probably some emblem in his train that signified his royal authority because immediately David feels guilty that he's gone too far. In fact, verse 5 says, his heart struck him. That is his conscience convicted him. You cut a piece of cloth away. Besides, that's your royal robe he's wearing.

Learn it from David here. One of the marks of growing in grace is a sensitive conscience. Even the smallest offense, a minor reaction, that first self-centered thought, it becomes to you too heavy a weight to carry for very long before confessing.

That's a good thing. This is David's chance to get even and he feels guilty now at even touching the king's robe and cutting some of it off because he knew he did it in a spirit of defiance. Verse 6, he said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord the Lord's anointed. To even put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men, he pressed his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul.

Isn't it interesting, ladies and gentlemen, how the same event can bring two entirely different interpretations? Six hundred men saw this as God's will and opportunity to get back, to take the throne of Saul and that kingdom. And one man sees this as God's will to spare Saul's life. This is God's will for you to kill him.

This is God's will for me to show grace. As Saul gets up and leaves the cave, he is oblivious to the fact that the obsession of his murderous envy and hatred has just saved his skin. Now, keep in mind before we get to the next verse that David is not going to harm the king, but he is going to confront the king.

He might not be able to change Saul's heart, but he will deliver the facts and challenge Saul's obsession. Look at verse 8. Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my lord the king.

When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks your harm? In other words, Saul, people are talking, but you're listening to the wrong people.

And by the way, they don't want you to lose your crown because they'll lose their own place, their own power and that's what they really care about. So David effectively begins by saying, stop listening to the wrong gossip, the wrong people. Verse 11, see my father, by the way, a touching reminder, Saul, you're my father-in-law. Look, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, by that you ought to know and see that there's no wrong or treason in my hands.

I've not sinned against you though you hunt my life to take it. Philip Keller wrote on this confrontation colorfully these words, can you see David there at some safe distance away? Can you see him suddenly hold up his arm to display the train of Saul's royal robe, see it fluttering in the wind, one end cut away by the razor sharp sword of Goliath.

Here was proof. He wasn't just saying to Saul he was loyal, he was acting like it. And the result, by the way, is somewhat unbelievable.

It's wonderful, it's short lived, but it's wonderful. Saul begins to cry. Look at verse 16, the middle part, Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, you are more righteous than I for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.

And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. Saul was overwhelmed. The truth of this encounter, this close encounter with death, fully realizing what had just happened, it shakes him to the core. Here stands the king of Israel weeping. I would agree with Keller who adds this could have been the pivotal moment in Saul's life and story. He was moved. Who go on and say to David, I recognize your nobility.

I recognize God is indeed going to place you on the throne. He admits his evil heart. He cries hot tears. He admits to the evidence.

But he's going to march back home unrepentant, short lived. That's remorse, by the way. Repentance lasts. Remorse, tears, sorrow, admission, and then let me get back to life as it was. One author wrote 60 years ago, emotion that does not lead to action only leads deeper into rebellion.

Let me say that again. Emotion that does not lead to action only leads deeper into rebellion. And you cannot help, by the way, but notice the contrast. Here David cuts a little piece of the king's robe off and is smitten with guilt. His conscience troubles him. That one little act and Saul is going to refuse to repent of his pride and his envy and premeditated attempts over and over and over again to kill David. And David knows Saul well enough now to know that those tears probably won't last.

Rather than laying down their arms and joining Saul and those 3,000 elite troops and heading back home, he stays in Edgedi. I want you to keep your Bibles open. We're not finished, but I want to give you two lasting impressions from David's reactions, two things that we can certainly learn, and there are many, but I'm going to whittle it down to two. First, every believer should expect to be chaste, maybe like a mouse, chaste, baited, cornered, treated unfairly, unjustly, unkindly. But to look for ways as a Christian to get even is to stem the flow of grace in your heart and your life. In fact, you become the victim over and over and over and over again as you replay that injustice or unkindness.

I can't imagine what you might be going through today, what your biography looks like. But I want to encourage you not only to look to David's example, but to the Son of David, Jesus Christ. Look at the grace of Christ, treated with the ultimate betrayal, injustice, pain. Look at his grace, enduring the cross, accepting the shame when he could have struck back with just one command.

And he could strike back today and he doesn't. Look at the grace of Christ. Every believer, every one of us want to be like Christ, right? I mean, it's probably the number one thing on your prayer list. Oh, Lord, make me more like you, right?

Wait, I don't know about those nails, betrayals, injustice. I don't know about a cross. When we say we want to be like Christ, I fear what we're saying is, Lord, we want to be like you in your perfections, not in your sufferings. So Paul would write that wonderful testimonial and he would say, oh, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, amen to that, oh, but that I might share in his sufferings.

Philippians 3, 10. Beloved, expect to be chased. Expect to be hounded. You are being made like David and the Son of David. Secondly, surprise those who mistreat you by refusing to get even. It'll be a shock.

That doesn't mean by the way that you become everybody's doormat. In fact, David's going to say to Saul several times, look at verse 12, may the Lord judge between you and me. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. In other words, I'm entrusting this situation to God and God is going to judge between you and me and determine who is truly rebelling against his will. By the way, David goes even further and he says, and Saul happened to know who's rebelling against God's will. Verse 15, the Lord will plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.

He's telling him the truth. I'm not going to retaliate. I'm not going to strike back. I'm entrusting it to God. And by the way, you're in sin, Saul. I'm going to leave the ultimate vindication of my reputation, he says, in the hands of God. God will take care of it. The record of history will straighten out the innuendos and the criticisms and the lies that you endure, perhaps have endured even this week. Learn from David here, he says, I'm leaving it in the hands of God. A wonderful lesson, truth from David, that though he knows Saul is wrong, he leaves it to God to make it right. I hesitate telling you the story simply because it was one of those occasions when I did the right thing.

I'd rather tell you stories about pulling the levers and shutting off electricity than creating an impression that I have something figured out. But whenever I come to this text, I think of this event. It occurred early in our marriage when we arrived in Detroit, Michigan, where I enrolled for my studies in seminary, first degree of studies. We eventually moved into the most inexpensive place we could find. It was an old two-story house near the Fisher Body Plant. If you're from that area, what that means is you get up every morning with a thin layer of soot over your car that would belch all night from those industrial smokestacks across the river.

This would have been considered something like the slums, although it was just an old neighborhood. It wasn't the best, but the landlord was a believer. We met him at church. And in order to help us, he said, look, I'll let you two live there for $150 a month.

It's a great deal. More money for books. So we moved in. His mother would occupy the upstairs renovated apartment for her. We would live downstairs.

And that became our challenge. His mother was an unbeliever, an alcoholic, extremely angry and bitter that his son, daughter-in-law, grandchildren had moved out and we had moved in. And we didn't know that until we had unpacked. Our landlord himself had no idea she would respond in the way she did. She would come in late at night or early in the morning hours from some nightclub and stomp all the way up those bare wooden floors that led directly over our bedroom. She began to accuse us of stealing things from her. She would often accuse me with vicious profanity. Nothing we tried to do helped. Marsha tried harder than I did.

But no matter how kind or generous or helpful, nothing worked. On one occasion we bought an old upright piano, moved it in, but whenever I played it, no matter what hour of the day or evening, she would stamp her feet on the floor, which was our ceiling, until I stopped. This went on for about a year and a half. Finally, seminary graduation was just around the corner and I was happy to graduate for more than one reason. We were preparing to leave.

Just a few days, we would be gone. One of those last afternoons, I walked out of the back porch down into the little backyard towards Shed. She was standing on the balcony above me, looking out over the backyard. In fact, she was sweeping. She saw me as I walked through the backyard and she stopped and began to curse and swear, accusing me this time of stealing her garden hose. And then she launched into her tirade that I was a hypocrite and I wasn't really going to be a preacher and I was a blankety, blankety, blankety, although she didn't reference blankets.

She used different words. I just kept walking. And then she said, I can still feel it, and do you know what you are? And I stopped. And I turned around. And the first time I'd ever responded, I looked up at her and I said, and do you know what you are? She stopped sweeping. Out of the corner of my eye, the neighbor on her back porch stopped to listen.

Birds stopped in midair to listen. I was listening. And by the grace of God, I just settled down and I lowered my voice and I said, you are a very unhappy woman. I walked away.

It took 30 minutes for my blood pressure to stop pounding in my ears. Nothing had worked. We had failed. Frankly, we couldn't wait to move away. When we moved to Dallas to enter that seminary for another degree, I got a call a couple of months later, a surprising phone call, and it was from Ron, our former landlord. And he said, Stephen, you're not going to believe it. I didn't even guess. She killed the next tenants.

I don't know. She said, after you moved away, she agreed to go with us to church. She'd never agreed, even when we lived there.

Even when the grandkids said please come. She went. Today, he said, I was able to lead my mother to faith in Christ. Then after that, he said, we sat around talking about the new tenants for downstairs, what we ought to get. And she said, would you please get some people to live down there like Stephen and Marsha? He said, I knew you'd like to hear that.

After I recovered from fainting, I thanked him. And Marsha and I rejoice. Beloved, let me suggest to you that you surprise others, maybe every so often we'll get it right by refusing to get even. Surprise them, but surprise yourself.

It's worth it. Surprised by the grace of God to us, we should never get over that. Surprised by the grace of God flowing through us. Nothing perhaps more painful and yet more fulfilling. Perhaps you've come in here and you're really, right now, you're living in a cave in En Gedi.

You've got a chance perhaps to strike back, get even, settle the score. May I urge you to resist the urge to get even and like David and like the son of David, leave a lasting impression of the grace of God. Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Steven Davey. Steven is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. You can learn more about us if you visit our website, which is wisdomonline.org. Once you go there, you'll be able to access the complete archive of Steven's Bible teaching ministry. We also post each day's broadcast. So if you ever miss one of these lessons, you can go to our website and keep caught up with our daily Bible teaching ministry. The archive of Steven's teaching is available on that site free of charge. We also have a special resource available this month.

Like many other parents, King David experienced the death of a baby. Steven wrote a booklet on that passage of scripture that provides biblical comfort to any parent who has experienced that. The booklet is called Do Babies Really Go to Heaven When They Die? And the ebook is available this month as a free download. You can access it anytime at wisdomonline.org. There's a link right on the homepage. Well, thanks again for joining us today. We're so glad you were with us and I hope you'll be with us for our next Bible lesson tomorrow, right here on Wisdom for the Heart.