God and Man

God pours out his grace on everyone alike, and the weak will or the strong will of human beings who fail to keep that grace decides where they stand between good and evil. The difference between resolving to live by God’s word and failing to keep that resolve is what splits the good path from the evil path. Of course, human beings do fall because of their evil nature, but you, as believers, must strive to live good lives. If you have resolved to live a life of faith, the wise thing is to ask God that his grace may fill you more fully.

It was through David that the nation had been saved, yet at a single word of praise from the women Saul resolved to kill David. He kept trying to kill him even though he knew his daughter Michal loved David, and when David won another victory by going to the Philistines and bringing back two hundred foreskins, Saul ordered all his servants to be sure to kill David. When people cannot govern their emotions, they end up going as far as taking a precious life. So we must always be careful. Saul forgot that there was a God who had made him king, and he let no one stand above him.

When his father Saul gave the order to kill David, Jonathan told David to hide in a secret place. As you look at Saul, whose emotions swung wildly, and at Jonathan, who stayed the same, you will be able to judge what kind of person sins against God. Wild swings of emotion lead to a hot temper, so we always need to train ourselves to see the world through God’s eyes. People who are calm like Jonathan look at the whole situation before they act, so they do not easily fall into sin. Jonathan urged his father not to commit the sin of murder. He pleaded that David must not be killed, because David had given himself with his whole life so that Yahweh could bring about a great salvation for Israel. For if Saul killed David, he would be taking the road to becoming God’s enemy.

Deuteronomy 19:10

10This is so that innocent blood will not be shed in the middle of your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, leaving blood guilt on you.

Jonathan knew that if his father killed David, God would not forgive him. That is why he told Saul not to shed innocent blood. Jonathan knew that God does not forgive the slander or murder of the innocent, and that he will surely call that sin to account. When you face a problem and your temper flares, you too must judge carefully whether that feeling comes from failing to control your emotions or from a heart that wants to rebuke the other person’s wickedness. And however unjust the problem you face, if you entrust even the pain to God, God will fight for you in your place to protect that good heart.

After hearing Jonathan’s earnest words, Saul swore by the name of Yahweh and promised that he would never kill David. Saul came to realize how great a wrong he was doing to God and to David, and he was truly sorry. But a human promise that comes from a heart not wholly changed is like the smell of rot coming out of a tomb. Just as no amount of whitewash on a tomb can change what is inside it, the promise of someone who has not been born again through the Word goes bad in the end.

In verse 10, Saul tried once more to kill David with his spear, but David slipped away, the spear stuck in the wall, and David fled. Saul, who had even sworn by the name of God, in the end could not overcome his temper.

Do you, too, perhaps swear by God’s name every time you face a problem? Have you not sworn by God’s name yourself that you would never sin, and then broken that oath without a second thought? You make the excuse that the flesh is weak and you could not help it, but God will surely call the sin to account. As we go through life, we make countless promises not only to people but to God as well, and we live thinking nothing of failing to keep them. We do not care how fearful a sin this is against God. That is why we act this way.

And for people, the measure of happiness is always someone other than themselves. Because they take another person’s success as their own misfortune, the gratitude, joy and happiness they had enjoyed until then collapse in an instant. In severe cases, they come to regard that person, who has nothing to do with them, as a target to attack, and they cannot control their hatred. A twisted heart cannot celebrate the other person’s success with them, and an obsession with success and a sense of being wronged torment them. When there is something to celebrate with a fellow believer beside you, celebrate it to the full, and when there is something to comfort them for, I hope you will comfort them with all your heart. God will protect those who have such a heart.

Saul threw his spear because he wanted to kill David. Of course David dodged it and was not struck by Saul’s spear, but the act was clearly murder. Among the Ten Commandments God gave, the sixth tells us not to murder. Taking a person’s life is murder, but a heart that wants to kill David, as Saul’s did, is murder too. Whether David survived or not, in God’s sight Saul had already committed the sin of murder.

In Matthew 5:28 Jesus declared that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. The Lord says that, whatever one does or does not do, harboring lust in the heart is in itself already adultery. From this word we can see that God’s law stands above human law.

If there is hatred in your heart, that hatred can grow until you commit the sin of murder. That is why God told you to throw that hatred away from the very beginning. Jesus spoke of the heart born again through him as fresh wine skins, and he told us to fill it with new wine, the word of truth. When the new wine fills it to the brim, there is no gap left for the world’s thinking to squeeze into, so that heart becomes God’s instrument. Even a king with worldly power like Saul will in the end receive God’s judgment if he does not live according to God’s will. God cannot use him as an instrument, so he has no choice but to cast him aside.

Psalm 59 records the earnest prayer David offered to God in a moment of crisis, when he had escaped Saul’s spear and was at home with Michal and Saul sent men to kill him. At that time his wife Michal let a rope down from the window and helped David escape. In this fast-moving situation, David did not rely on people but prayed, longing earnestly for God’s grace.

Psalms 59:1-2

1Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me. 2Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.

David knew that the only one who could protect him was God. David, who could see no way out wherever he looked, earnestly prayed to God not to be merciful to his enemies.

Psalms 59:4

4I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!

David said that he had done no wrong and was innocent. Look at how boldly he tells God that he has no sin. Then you can tell what kind of life he had lived until then. God knew how hard David had striven to live according to God’s will. That is why David could pray for God not to forgive his enemies but to rescue him. So it matters greatly to live a life of faith at all times. David, who prayed earnestly to God, received mercy. In the same way, all the problems of the world strike suddenly like huge waves, but those who have received mercy are always rescued by God’s great hand.

Psalms 59:16

16But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.

This confession is the faith of David. In reality the king’s servants who meant to kill him were all around him, but he believed he would be rescued by God’s grace. So he said that the next morning he would praise the Lord and sing of God’s strength. He was sure that God would be a high tower for him to flee to and a refuge. That is why, even as he looked at a reality with no way of escape, he could offer a prayer of thanks.

With Michal’s help David slipped out of the house and went to Samuel. Samuel was at Naioth in Ramah, a place something like a dormitory where Samuel stayed with the students of the prophets. Saul learned that David had gone to Samuel and sent men to Naioth. The students there were always spiritually full, because they were praying with Samuel and searching the Word. When the men Saul sent arrived at Naioth, a miracle happened: just as the students were full, Saul’s men too prophesied along with them. When Saul heard of it he sent other men, but they also prophesied, and the third group he sent likewise prophesied and could not bring David back. Enraged, Saul came to Naioth in Ramah himself, but he too became one of those prophesying before Samuel. Saul even stripped off the clothes he was wearing and prophesied naked all day.

What does Scripture mean to tell us by saying that the men Saul sent, and even Saul himself, could not say a single word to David and only prophesied? It shows that when God’s power covered them, the wicked could do nothing to the good. That Saul was on the throne at all was, after all, God’s grace. Here we discover a very important providence of God: when God allows it, anyone, wicked or good, can praise God, pray and prophesy. Saul and his men prophesied clothed in God’s grace, so if they had grasped that marvelous providence of heaven and striven to live according to God’s will, God would have worked in them with even greater grace, and David would have become their fellow worker.

When God’s grace came upon him, Saul took off his royal clothes of his own accord, prophesied God’s will, and laid down his hatred toward David. When we are clothed in God’s grace, we can let go of our greed for the world without even realizing it; but those who have not received grace and cannot let go of their greed for the world cannot give up their intent to kill, and so they fall into death. What clothes are you wearing now? Examine whether it is the mercy you have put on through God’s grace or greed for the world. If it is mercy, ask for more of it, and if it is greed, I hope you will take it off yourself.

Even Saul, a king of the world, could not do evil in front of Samuel, who served God, and could not say or do anything to curse David. The power of Samuel, who had received grace from God, stopped the wicked man’s actions. Then how do the people you meet behave when they are with you? Are they being changed, like Saul when he met Samuel? Or are you following them and changing to be like the people of the world?

God answered the prayer David offered in Psalm 59, even going so far as to bring about a situation in which Saul prophesied. Even if Saul, who had come to kill David, was changed for a moment by God’s compelling work, that faith would not be true faith. As long as Saul was held captive by grace, David was safe. That is why God gave Saul a passing grace. Through this event we can see in how many different ways God works to protect believers. We must know how precious are the grace, the Holy Spirit, faith, eternal life and salvation that believers speak of so easily.

Is it not something to be deeply thankful for, that your faith is not a grace put on for a moment to save David, as Saul’s was? May you always live by faith in the place of goodness, so as to keep this love forever. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 20:12-23

12Jonathan said to David, “By Yahweh, the God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good toward David, won’t I then send to you, and disclose it to you? 13Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace. May Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father. 14You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of Yahweh, that I not die; 15but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth.” 16So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.” 17Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 18Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19When you have stayed three days, go down quickly, and come to the place where you hid yourself when this started, and remain by the stone Ezel. 20I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark. 21Behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you. Take them;’ then come; for there is peace to you and no danger, as Yahweh lives. 22But if I say this to the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you;’ then go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away. 23Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.”