1 Samuel 24: 1 – 22
The danger of rest stops
24 Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.” 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3 So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.) 4 Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. 6 And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” 7 So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way. 8 David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed down. 9 And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? 10 Look, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed.’ 11 Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. 12 Let the LORD judge between you and me, and let the LORD avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. 13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you. 14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? 15 Therefore let the LORD be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.” 16 So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17 Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. 18 And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. 19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. 20 And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. 21 Therefore swear now to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.” 22 So David swore to Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
I was channel surfing and came upon this news flash -WARNING: If you are traveling by car this summer, stay alert when stopping at highway rest areas.
Meant to serve as safe grounds for a nap, snack or bathroom break, highway rest stops throughout the country sometimes become the settings for drug deals, murders and other violent crimes.
Authorities say rest areas are generally safe and regularly patrolled, but vulnerable to crime because of their location.
"If you're going to stay there for any length of time, say, for a nap, you certainly want to lock your doors.
Currently, private security officers watch over some rest stops at night while troopers try to make regular rounds at others.
Among the crimes linked to rest areas in recent years are quite a few murders. Each state has their own list of unsolved murders that happened at these locations. More commonly authorities find stolen vehicles and fugitives at rest stops.
More advice from authorities and RV travel experts, who know a thing or two about safe places to park while on the road:
Be alert!
As you pull into the rest area, take notice of its name or the closest mile marker, in case there is an emergency and you need to tell authorities where you are.
Avoid parking close to tractor-trailers, which need a lot of space to maneuver and which could also block other people from seeing your car, providing the kind of cover that criminals often seek out.
Parents traveling with young children should use family restrooms, when available, that allow adults to accompany children. At the same time, older children and adults should have someone go with them to the rest room or wait outside.
Travelers who find themselves at a quiet rest stop at night should try to flag down a security guard or a state trooper and ask them to keep an eye out as you use the facilities, especially if traveling alone. If the rest stop is particularly isolated and empty, try to avoid stopping there at night. If possible, opt to use the indoor facilities at a fast food restaurant or convenience store.
RV travelers should never open their camper door to strangers. Keep the door locked, and when someone comes knocking, talk to them through a window or from behind the camper door.
It's illegal to sleep overnight at rest stops in some states, not that authorities would recommend doing so. In other nearby states, it may not necessarily be illegal to park overnight at a rest area, but many have signs warning against it. Instead, drivers should map out campgrounds or state parks along their route where they'd be able to enter for a small fee and get some shuteye in the car.
In today’s study we find Saul seeking out a rest stop. Little did he realize that David and his men we there also. Saul did not want anyone to accompany him for safekeeping when he needed to use the rest room. The majority in the cave wanted to kill him but David, the man whom the Lord knew love Him had different intentions.
24 Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.”
As soon as Saul returned from driving back the Philistines, his spies informed him that David and his men were now in hiding in the wilderness of Engedi. This wilderness was a desolate and barren limestone desert on the western side of the Dead Sea, a desolation and barrenness only relieved by the oasis at Engedi (meaning ‘spring of the kid’) which gave the area its name. It was an area full of caves which went deep into the limestone cliffs, and a regular hiding place for bandits who could disappear into the caves without trace. Some caves were at ground level and others higher up the cliff face. These cliffs were the haunt of wild goats who could scamper along the narrow paths in a way that caused men to speak with admiration of the ‘surefootedness of a mountain goat’. The caves at ground level would sometimes be used as a shelter in bad weather for sheep, and the shepherds would build a rough wall round the entrance for the purpose, turning them into a sheep stall.
2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
It was in this barren and desolate area that Saul, with three thousand specially chosen troops, began his search for David but they discovered nothing. It began to look as though David and his men had moved on.
3 So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.)
Coming to a group of caves at ground level Saul reckoned it was safe to enter one in order to relieve himself. As king he seems to have felt that it was below his dignity to perform this function out in the open. He did not know was that he had actually chosen the very cave where David was in hiding with some of his men. These caves were very large with many recesses and side passages and were pitch black to any who entered them from the sunlight, although once men had been in them a few hours and had become attuned to the darkness, and were looking towards the mouth of the cave, they could see more clearly. Thus, Saul would have been able to see nothing, while the men in the cave, of whom he was unaware, were very much aware of his presence.
4 Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
Recognizing that the person who had entered the cave was an unguarded Saul David may well have turned to his men in the recesses of the cave and explained the situation, with the result that they came to him in the pitch blackness and whispered triumphantly in his ears that Yahweh had delivered Saul into David’s hands, ‘as He said to you’.
David then appears to have crept over to where Saul was in the pitch darkness and have cut part of the hem, or possibly a tassel, off Saul’s robe. It may be that Saul had laid the robe aside while he was relieving himself, or it may have been that David did it extremely carefully so that Saul was unaware that it was happening. If Saul did feel anything he may simply have thought that his robe had momentarily caught on a rock. We must remember that he did not suspect that anyone was in the cave, and that from his point of view it was pitch black. (In so short a time he would not have had time to accommodate his vision to the darkness in the cave).
As we have seen earlier there are indications that the hem of the robe was of some significance. In the case of the king he would have a hem connected with the royal authority of the wearer so that such an act may well have been intended specifically to contribute towards the downfall of his kingdom by a kind of prophetic ‘magic’, as well as it acting to remind Saul and his men that he was rejected by God. This would explain why David felt so guilty about it afterwards.
5 Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe.
After cutting Saul’s robe David’s conscience was smitten. I don’t know about you but I have personally felt the same way David felt when I did something against a person who had hurt me. Boy was I convicted.
For in Israel this man represented Yahweh, and David was very religiously sensitive. To him what he had done was therefore like touching something which was ‘very holy’, and was forbidden to go on your own against.
6 And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.”
In many military adventures the old saying is to ‘cut the head of the snake.’ His men probably were probably continuing to urge him to take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of Saul, with the result that he felt that he had to speak to them very firmly, (tear into them’), in order to prevent them taking direct action. He forbade what they were suggesting in the Name of Yahweh on the grounds that Saul was ‘Yahweh’s anointed’, in other words, one who was holy to Yahweh and therefore untouchable. It is clear that David felt that to attack his person was to attack Yahweh. It says much for the respect that his men had for him that they did agree to restrain themselves even though they probably did not feel the same way as he did.
7 So David restrained his servants with these words and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.
The natural desire for action by his men against Saul (for they had suffered much as a result of his activities) meant that David had to speak to them very strongly. He had to use all his authority to prevent them from ‘rising against Saul’.
This brings out that one of the main purposes of this passage and its later parallel is in order to emphasize David’s total loyalty, and to demonstrate that he was in no way at fault in his approach to the kingship, taking no steps towards taking the crown until Yahweh gave it to him. He patiently awaited Yahweh’s time, and when that came he wanted to be sure that his appointment was wholly by Yahweh without his needing to resort to force of arms. But the final result was that Saul was able to leave the cave quite unaware of how close to death he had been and of the tumult that he had left behind him. His complacency did not, however, last for long.
Once Saul had left the cave David boldly revealed himself to him and pointed out to him that if he had intended hurt him he could have killed him while he was in the cave and at his mercy, at which Saul responded accepting the justice of David’s position and acknowledging that David would undoubtedly one day be king, and requested that when that should happen he would have mercy on Saul’s family.
However, while Saul goes away at that point and withdraws his men there is no full reconciliation, with the consequence that David and his men remain in their stronghold. David had clearly recognized that he could not rely on what Saul had said, and that what had happened had simply bought his men a recess in Saul’s hostility for a time.
We can imagine something of the shock that Saul must have received when he heard David calling to him and, on turning round, recognized that he had been present in the cave that he had just left. He was probably just as surprised when David humbled himself before him (safely at a distance). David was seeking to bring home to Saul his genuine loyalty and desire only to serve him. This was, as we will now learn, because he saw him as Yahweh’s anointed.
9 And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? 10 Look, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed.’
David asked Saul why he listened to the men who claimed that David was seeking to do him hurt. He was still unable to believe that the one who had previously shown him such kindness, and had even made him his son-in-law, could have turned against him of his own volition. (He was, of course, not aware of what Saul’s motive had really been in making him his son-in-law). And he pointed out to him that some of his men had urged him to kill Saul when he had been delivered into his hand, but that because of his conscience about putting out his hand against the one who was anointed by Yahweh he had refrained.
The point about the continued reference to Saul as ‘Yahweh’s anointed’ was not just that he was the generally anointed king, but that David knew from Samuel that Saul had specifically been anointed for the whole of his lifetime, after which, as a result of his disobedience, his line would then cease to rule and David would take over as the new ‘Yahweh’s anointed’. It seemed to David, therefore, presumptuous, and almost sacrilegious, to seek to hasten that event before the end of God’s allotted period. It is another reminder to us that history is in God’s hands.
11 Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it.
He then produced the piece of cloth/tassel which he had cut off from the hem of Saul’s royal robe as evidence of the fact that he had been close enough to Saul to choose whether he would cut off the hem or kill him. And it demonstrated quite openly that he had chosen not to kill him. Did not that prove conclusively that there was no evil or transgression in his hand? Did it not prove that he had not sinned against Saul, even while, paradoxically and mistakenly, Saul was hunting after his life to take it? What more proof did Saul need of his genuineness?
Take notice also his reference to Saul as ‘my father’. For Saul was his father in that he had married Saul’s daughter, and he was also his ‘father’ in that he was his king. It was a further indication of David’s respect for Saul.
12 Let the LORD judge between you and me, and let the LORD avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you.
Then he called on Yahweh to act as judge between them. He wanted Saul to know that while Yahweh might choose to avenge him for what Saul was doing to him, he himself would not do so. He assured him that whatever happened in the future his hand would not come against him in treachery.
13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you.
He then cited a proverb to prove that there was no wickedness in his heart. For, he pointed out, had he been wicked he would have behaved wickedly, and would have smitten him. But all could testify that he had refrained from laying his hand on him, and he wanted him to be assured that he never would. On the other hand, let Saul consider what his (Saul’s) behavior revealed about him.
14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea?
Furthermore, he wanted King Saul to recognize who it was to whom he was doing all this. Did he not realize that it was not to anyone of great importance? What Saul as the exalted King of Israel was chasing was simply someone who was the equivalent of a dead dog, or even lower still, of a flea from the dead dog’s back. Why then was he behaving in this way towards him? Was a flea worth all this trouble? In a sense he was probing Saul as to why he was hunting him.
15 Therefore let the LORD be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.”
Finally he put his case in Yahweh’s hands. He was quite content that Yahweh would judge and give sentence between them, and see and plead David’s cause and deliver him from Saul’s hand. He was ready to leave everything in Yahweh’s hands. And the point is that these were not just smooth words. He really meant it. There can be no doubt that David’s powerful plea was a test of Saul’s heart, and that he was seeking a genuine response from Saul. He longed for Saul to truly repent and take him back again on the old terms. But in the end, it failed because Saul’s heart was shallow and finally unresponsive. All this was thus a further manifestation of Saul’s inability to truly repent.
16 So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
It will be noted that while in his response Saul made the right noises, and indeed called him ‘my son’ and wept to think of the extent of what David had done, he still made clear that he saw David as his rival and even as his enemy. He made no attempt at an offer of reconciliation. Rather there was a recognition on his part of what must always be a barrier between them, who would inherit the kingship. What David had done in showing compassion to him had even caused him to weep. But it did not cause in him a melting of their differences. He still intended to keep David at arm’s length, for he could not forgive him and to a larger extent Yahweh for being his family’s rival. So, there was no rapprochement, no happy reunion. That is why after this incident they both went their ways rather than coming together again. It was because Saul’s heart was too hardened for him to be able to accept God’s verdict, and both knew it.
17 Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil.
Saul acknowledged that David had behaved the better and was the more righteous man, because David had offered him mercy when all he would have offered David was death. David had offered good, where he would have offered evil.
18 And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
He had to admit the fact that David’s own words revealed that when he had had Saul at his mercy he had spared him, even when it must have appeared to everyone as though Yahweh had delivered him into his hands.
19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore, may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
SSaul also showed himself as equally adept at citing proverbs. ‘If a man finds his enemy, will he let him go well away?’ The expected answer would be ‘no’, and yet David had answered ‘yes’. So, he called on Yahweh to reward him with good for the mercy that he had shown to Saul that day.
20 And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.
And then he made clear why there could be no reunion between them. It was because he knew that David would take the kingship away from his own family. The kingdom, which was not to be established in his hand as Samuel had informed him, was to be established in David’s hand
21 Therefore swear now to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.”
David’s act of pure mercy towards him had moved Saul enough for him to be able to contemplate for a short while the possibility that his family would lose the kingship after his death. The sentiment would not last for long, but while it did Saul pleaded for the lives of his descendants. It was normal practice for the king of a new dynasty to slaughter all the members of a deposed king in order to ensure that none later arose to claim the succession. Saul was asking David to swear by Yahweh that if he became king he would not indulge himself in such behavior but would instead be merciful.
22 So David swore to Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
It was not difficult for David to comply with Saul’s request, because nothing was further from his mind than the slaughter of Saul’s descendants. Thus, he gladly swore to Saul that he would not deliberately harm his family.
Still moved by David’s unique kindness Saul returned to Gibeah with his troops, leaving David alone for a period, while David and his men remained in their strongpoint. Both knew that it was an uneasy truce, not a genuine reconciliation.
