Today’s Temptation, Tomorrow’s Triumph
1 Samuel 24
Did you ever get in a fight when you were a kid? I mean a real fight, with fists and blood and crying. I did. More than once. Being small meant I got picked on more than once, so I became a scrapper and a bully sometimes just to protect myself. I didn’t often go looking for a fight, since most of my opponents were bigger than I was, but I didn’t try to back down from them either.
I don’t remember ever getting in trouble for fighting, especially if I was protecting myself, which happened sometimes. My dad told me never to start a fight, but if I had to fight I had permission to finish it. Hitting back seems the natural thing to do when you believe you have the power to overcome your adversary. If you don’t have the power, running away is always a good option!
The desire to hit back is usually nothing more than the desire for revenge, the perceived need to get even or settle the score. As a kid I would take revenge through my fists. As I grew older I discovered more subtle ways of getting even. That was when my mouth usually got me into trouble. And sometimes, it still does!
But what I could get away with as a kid doesn’t work well as an adult. First of all, I could go to jail for getting in a fight, and my wife says she’s not called to prison ministry. Second, the more I know about God the less He allows me to get away with. This, of course, is just another word for maturity. I may still be tempted to get even, but when I talk to God about the situation He always seems to recommend against it. Which is why He inspired Paul to write in Rom. 12:19, “Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. ‘I’ll do the judging,’ says God. ‘I’ll take care of it.’” (Rom. 12:19, The Message).
Last week we talked about how we are to behave in a cave. We saw how David cried out to God, learned to depend on His Lord and practiced praising God even when he didn’t feel like it. Then, right when he was at his lowest, God starts to bring people to him. And not the popular people, either, but the discontent, people in distress and those in debt. When you think about finding people to help you in creating a new business, or planting a new church or establishing your new reign as the king of a nation, you don’t think about going out and finding the discontent, distressed debtors in order to establish your leadership base. But these are exactly who God brings to David.
After David left the cave at Adullam, 1 Sam. 23 tells us he traveled around a bit, got into a skirmish with some Philistines and then he and his 600 men began roaming the countryside. But everywhere he went people told Saul of his location and David had to move again. Finally, just as he is about to close in on David, word comes to Saul that the Philistines were raiding Israel again. So Saul quit chasing David and returned to fight the Philistines. David then went to live in the strongholds of En-gedi.
This is where we pick up the story in 1 Sam. 24, so let’s read it.
David’s fight against the temptation of revenge produced positive three consequences we should all come to when today’s temptation is to put ourselves out in front of God’s will and get even with people. The first consequence was that David –
1. Encountered a guilty conscience (vs. 5). I say that encountering a guilty conscience is a consequence because many people never conclude that their actions or attitudes are ever wrong. Instead, they find a multitude of reasons to justify their bad behavior by pointing the finger at the one who wronged them.
Some people wonder why David would even have a guilty conscience. He didn’t kill Saul. He didn’t even make a scratch on his body. So what is he guilty of? Not telling him this men’s room was occupied? Forgetting to offering him a towel to dry off his hands before he left the cave? Making his hemline a little crooked? What was he guilty of?
Of course, that is just the way we rationalize when we make excuses for our behavior. And people do it all the time. They get too much change back from their purchase and say, “Hey, they’re a big corporation. They can afford it.” We fudge a bit on our taxes and say, “I don’t like what the government is doing so I don’t think they’ll miss this.” We have thirteen pens in our drawer that all came from work and figure since we didn’t get that raise then they can certainly do without a few pens.
The problem is there is no such thing as a small step on the road to justifying our temptation towards getting even. Even a small step in that direction is a step in the wrong direction. This is why David’s conscience started to bother him. Today he is destroying a robe. Tomorrow he is taking wardrobe. Then he’s robbing the King’s Wearhouse, which used to be called the Men’s Wearhouse until Saul took it over.
David took one small step in the wrong direction and now his conscience is bothering him, and that is good. You know you are truly seeking God when even the little things begin to bother you. At one time in your Christian walk you could do things or say things and it was okay. But the more you grew in God’s ways the less He lets you get away with. Have you discovered that to be true? If you are growing in God you should.
So David says to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this to my lord the king and attack the LORD’S anointed one, for the LORD himself has chosen him” (vs. 6). And although the Lord had anointed David to be the next king, God hadn’t yet removed Saul, which still made Saul, and not David, the king, and David knew it, even if his men thought otherwise.
As an aside, I want you to notice that not everything that is presented to you as “the Lord’s will” is actually the Lord’s will. As David’s men realize that Saul walked right into the cave they were sitting in, they whispered, “Today the LORD is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish’” (vs.4). It seemed almost too good to be true, but the Lord wasn’t telling David anything but to obey His Word, which if I remember said something about “Do not murder” (Ex. 20:13). I encourage you to wisely and carefully weigh anyone who says, “Today the Lord is telling you . . .” I’ve found if the Lord speaks through other people, it is most often to confirm something that He is already indicated to me. Fortunately, David was wise enough not to take their advice. Instead, David creeps forward and cuts off the hem of Saul’s garment which was cast aside while he attended to Nature’s urgent calling. But when it was all over, David felt guilty about what he had done. Let me explain why.
There is a scene in the WWII series Band of Brothers where Capt. Sobel attempts to walk past Maj. Winters without saluting him. Capt. Sobel was probably a bit disturbed that Maj. Winters was promoted ahead of him and tried to ignore him. But Maj. Winters says to Sobel, “You salute the rank, not the man.” Capt. Sobel replies, “Yes, sir!” and snaps off a salute. That attitude is drilled into every soldier. You salute the rank, not the person. Even if you don’t like them. Even if they’re drunk and singing love songs to the moon while wearing a lampshade on their head, you salute them because of their rank.
That is what David was doing here. He was showing respect for the fact that Saul was still king and God had yet to remove him. No matter how unfair Saul had been, David still owed him the respect due to him because of his position.
Question: How have you been challenged to respect the authority and position of a superior when you didn’t respect the person?
The next consequence of David’s temptation with vengeance was he –
2. Declared a righteous principle (vs. 7). Are we all in agreement that Saul was a terrible leader? Now, can we all agree that God didn’t appoint David to make Saul behave? God anointed David to be the next king. He didn’t appoint David to be judge, jury and executioner. Even though we’ve all encountered people we’d like “make behave” and if not we’d like to judge and condemn them, God doesn’t let anyone of us hold that position.
Let’s take a look at a very familiar passage. “16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). First, notice in verse 16 that it was God’s love that gave the world His only Son on a Cross so we could have eternal life. Not His hatred. Not His vengeance. Not His desire to get even. His love. Then in verse 17 it says that the mission of Jesus was not to condemn the world but to save it. If that is true, why are we so quick to condemn people we don’t like and so slow to love them? Christ was quick to love you when you were at your worse, so besides pride and our own sense of puff-up worth, what stops us from loving those who are against us? There will be a judgment one day, but no one here is qualified to be that judge, because unless you are willing to die for someone, you are not qualified to judge them.
To add insult to our already wounded pride, Paul goes and teaches us to “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Rom 12:14). Why would Paul say this? Because he knew our first choice would be to curse, not to bless. But David establishes the principle that judgment is God’s job. Furthermore, David didn’t keep this principle to himself. Look at verse 7. “So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.” It appears that not everyone in the cave was happy with David’s decision. So what if David was too chicken to kill the king? There were plenty of guys in the room willing to man-up to the job. But David “restrained” them. Some translations say he persuaded or rebuked his men. The literal translation of the word means to part, slit, cleave, tear in two. It is the same word used in Judges 14:6 that describes Samson as “he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands.” In other words, David tore his men apart with his words, giving them what we’d call today a good ‘ol fashioned tongue-lashing! And you don’t give 600 men a tongue-lashing if the conversation is sweet and innocent. I’m sure it was loud and heated. But David stood on his principles even when the men who were following him strongly disagreed with him.
David’s influence at this moment was going to carry on into his time as king. These men saw a man who wasn’t perfect, but they knew they weren’t going to get kicked out if they made an honest mistake. Charles Swindoll writes, “Who knows whom you could persuade if you walked with God? Few things are more infectious than a godly lifestyle. The people you rub shoulders with every day need that kind of challenge. Not prudish. Not preachy. Just crackerjack clean living. Just honest-to-goodness, bone-deep, non-hypocritical integrity. Authentic obedience to God.”
Question: Tell us about a time you had to stand on God’s principles when everyone else was against you.
3. Placed his confidence in God (vs. 12, 15). The only reason David could be so persuasive was because his confidence was not in his sword but in his Lord. In verse 12 David says, “The LORD will decide between us. Perhaps the LORD will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.” David is saying, Maybe the Lord will punish my enemies and maybe He won’t. But if He does or if He doesn’t, I have determined that I will not.
David’s son Solomon wrote, “When the ways of people please the LORD, he makes even their enemies live at peace with them” (Prov. 16:7). However, you need to notice that the words “smooth,” “easy” and “every time” are not included in this proverb. I can’t help but think this is a principle that David taught to Solomon – a principle that guided David through this difficult time.
Let’s return to the story. After Saul finishes his business in the cave he heads back to the 3,000 troops he assembled to find David. David gives Saul some time to move away from the cave and then he goes outside and shouts, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? This very day you can see with you own eyes it isn’t true. For the LORD placed you at my mercy back there in the cave.” Do you see what David is doing? He is telling Saul the truth. He went straight to the source of his trouble. Let that sink in. David didn’t tell his counselor. David didn’t wait until he could get the story into the Jerusalem Post. He didn’t post it on Facebook or send it out on Twitter, which I’m sure just astounds today’s social media addicted society. David first confronted the person who mattered the most.
Now look at Saul’s response. In verses 18-19 he says, “Yes, you have been amazingly kind to me today, for when the LORD put me in a place where you could have killed me, you didn’t do it. Who else would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the LORD reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today.” This is the perfect example of Solomon’s proverb that when a person’s ways please the Lord, he causes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Having said that, we could all site examples where we tried to tell someone the truth as God knows it and they didn’t want anything to do with it. You cannot change other people. However, that doesn’t take away our responsibility to do the right thing. They may go to their grave believing the lies they were told, but we will stand before the Lord with a clear conscience.
I believe another principle that David was living by is one we see in Rom. 12:18, where Paul tells us, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Paul was smart enough in this sentence to teach us two things. First he says “if it is possible.” Paul knew it wouldn’t always be possible to live peaceably with everyone. Not everyone wants peace. Some people use their anger over the past as current justification for their unforgiveness and bitterness. Second, Paul says “as far as it depends on you.” We must all do our best to make peace in spite of the reaction we receive. This leads us back to the clear conscience I was talking about. When you know you’ve done your responsibility before God, you can live with a clear conscience. You will still feel the sting of those who reject your offer of peace, but you will be able to stand straight before the Lord.
Finally, let’s look at the “Tomorrow’s Triumph” part of this sermon’s title, and for that we need to turn to 2 Sam. 16:5-14. Later in David’s life he has a sad experience where he has to run from his son Absalom, who had rebelled against him. As he was returning to Jerusalem, a man named Shimei, from the same clan of Saul’s family, came out and cursed David saying, “The LORD is paying you back for all the bloodshed in Saul’s clan. You stole his throne, and now the LORD has given it to your son Absalom. At last you will taste some of your own medicine, for you are a murderer!” (vs. 8). But David didn’t shed blood in Saul’s household. Even though he had the chance to do so more than once, his conscience was clear. However, if he had acted in a way that was out of God’s will the accusations would have been true. By not acting in vengeance on the day Saul was presented to him, David could one day forgive the curses of a man whose affections were rightly with his own family.
The practice of love in your life liberates spiritual power as nothing else can. We can preach all the sermons we want, or go door to door with tracts and give away Bibles and send money overseas, but nothing attracts people to God like a heart that is dedicated to loving and forgiving everyone – including our enemies. That is why Calvary has such magnificence; that is what at Jesus’ cry, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), millions of hearts have been melted by the love of God reveled to them in those heartfelt words.
Each of us will face times when we will want to take revenge. We will want to strike back, either literally with our fists or verbally with our mouth. But today’s temptation for vengeance will be tomorrow’s triumph as we face God knowing we treated everyone with the love God has for them evidenced by His sacrifice at Calvary.
Question: Have you ever had to place your confidence in God when your “enemy” didn’t want peace?
