Bringing God’s Justice by Keeping your Hands Clean
[8] 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.” [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?” [10] 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. [11] The LORD forbid that I should put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” [12] 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.
1 Samuel 26:8–12 Read More
I’ve never seen David depicted in art as a ninja, but you have to really respect what is going on here. There is a circle of 3,000 men camping on a mission to kill him, and he sneaks into the center of their camp while they are asleep. This is way better than when Saul accidentally came into David’s cave. Imagine everyone at the Garvin Park baptism celebration a few years ago. That wasn’t even 3,000 people but there were a lot of us! It does say that the Lord put the men into a deep sleep, but David might have included that part later in the story, we don’t know that he knew that was happening as it was going on.
Abishai is tough. He is the nephew of David and once took on 300 men, single-handedly, and killed them all with that spear. He doesn’t play tag; he kills people. This is like an action movie taking a comedic break as they whisper fight about killing Saul while he snores right below them. Abishai respects David and doesn’t sneak in a jab. He leaves, along with David, and leaves Saul snoring.
You really have to wonder what you would do in a similar circumstance. Sure, we aren’t sneaking into the camp of the army sent to kill us, but how often is there an open opportunity to slander somebody and we take the pot shot? How often does someone throw out gossip bait (Well you heard what they did last time…) and we have the option to strike or show mercy?
Striking the death blow wasn’t David’s job, responsibility, or focus. He was determined to be the man God wanted him to be. He knew that God could fix any problem, kill any opponent, win any war. David didn’t need to make himself guilty to bring about the righteousness of God. David needed to press on for righteousness. David would eventually mourn over the death of Saul, and much much later, as king, mourn at the grave of Abner.
David knew all things were in God’s hands. He did righteous things to show off God’s character, and he didn’t take vengeance or salvation into his own hands. He exposed God to all as the ultimate avenger and salvation bringer, and even people like Saul saw it and knew God was true.
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