Those Who Look to God Alone

1 Samuel 26:6-12

6Then David answered and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?” Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” 7So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. 8Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.” 9David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against Yahweh’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 10David said, “As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. 11Yahweh forbid that I should stretch out my hand against Yahweh’s anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.” 12So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head; and they went away: and no man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh was fallen on them.

A second chance to kill Saul came to David. But as the first time, David believed that life is in God’s hands, and so he had no intention of killing Saul. To understand the faith of David, who had the chance to kill an enemy seeking his life and yet did not kill him, I want first to look at Joseph, the son of Jacob.

Joseph was born Jacob’s eleventh son, but because of his brothers’ jealousy he was sold into Egypt. Even while living as a slave in Egypt, he did his best to live according to God’s will. He won the favor of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, came to manage everything in his house, and with honest faith increased his master’s possessions. Potiphar trusted Joseph, so he did not interfere in his work. Then one day Potiphar’s wife demanded that Joseph lie with her. From where she stood, Joseph was a slave, so she probably thought little of it. But Joseph was one who looked to God, and he could not do anything that was a sin against God, so he refused. He knew that refusing her advances would bring persecution, but he feared committing the sin of sexual immorality against God more than that. If Potiphar’s wife had become his protector, he might have had an easy life in the world. But Joseph refused, because he knew that God is the master of his life. When Joseph refused, Potiphar’s wife, stung with resentment, falsely accused him of trying to assault her and had him locked in prison. Joseph passed up the easy road and chose the road of suffering.

From here on, walk along the path of Joseph’s life. If we do, since we know the whole of Joseph’s life, we will easily see what God wants from Joseph. His mission is to be born Jacob’s son, to be hated by his brothers, to be sold into Egypt and become its prime minister, and to save his father and brothers according to God’s will. Of course, the Bible lets us see how painful that suffering must have been, but if Joseph only endures and obeys, he can save his whole family. Look at Joseph’s life. It shows us that for Joseph, obeying God, even on a road of suffering, is the way to receive great blessing quickly.

Would you go, even if it meant suffering, if it were God’s will? If you go looking at your own life the way you look at Joseph’s, you will be able to. God never drags people by force, even onto the road of blessing. He lets people decide for themselves with free will, and so he gives blessing in spirit and body only to those who decide for themselves and walk the way of Christ. But people would rather take the broader, more glittering road of the world than the road God leads them on. Because many people are going down the broad way, and they are tempted by the thought that they might succeed there, they do not want to take the narrow way.

But Joseph knew very well which road God wanted him to take. Even when his brothers sold him, he did not complain or lose heart, because God had already shown him the future in dreams; and because God had sent him ahead to Egypt in order to save his family through him, he bore it with a patient heart. Joseph was human too, so he would have felt wronged and resented his brothers. But for the sake of God’s work, the mission given through his life, and the hope of heaven, Joseph overcame by faith whatever hard circumstances he met.

When Joseph obeyed, the final place to which God would lead him was the position of prime minister, where he would save his family and the people from the drought. The position of prime minister, which people of the world cannot reach however hard they try, was where God would set Joseph. Of course, Joseph did not obey because he knew he would become prime minister; but his faith led him to receive the fruit God had prepared. Joseph did his best to carry out his mission, but God gave him a blessing that was nothing to be ashamed of even in the world. Those who, like Joseph, can see the God who rules the world are the ones who are blessed, and those who do not raise the sword of revenge against their enemies as their feelings dictate are the ones who are blessed. Even when he met his brothers, who had come to Egypt to buy grain because of the drought, Joseph did not think of revenge; instead he comforted them as they trembled with fear.

Genesis 50:19-20

19Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is today, to save many people alive.

Joseph told them that they had meant evil against him, but God had used his brothers’ evil thoughts to save the lives of all peoples, as it was that day, and that his brothers and he were only God’s instruments. Only those who know God’s will exactly can, like Joseph, keep from flaring up in anger, refrain from revenge and betrayal, and not live as they please. To say such words to brothers who tried to kill you, as Joseph did, you must know how different a life lived believing in God is from a life that looks to the world. His brothers tried to kill Joseph because he received more of their father’s love than they did, but as he was cast off and sold away, Joseph thought about why God was giving him this suffering, and remembered God, who had given him dreams beforehand. And he realized what he had to do in that situation. If the suffering you are going through is not the result of your own wrongdoing, do not forget that God’s will is surely in that problem. So when suffering comes, the first thing is not to complain, worry or lose heart, but to pray and discern how God will use you.

Joseph was human too; how could he not have felt wronged? But he had the wisdom to judge that even what his brothers did in selling him as a slave could be within God’s providence, and so, even while living as a slave, he could endure and carry out God’s will. People who think they are the masters of their own lives will try to work out every problem they meet by human will and thinking. But people who believe that God is the master of their lives first ask God his will whenever they meet a problem, and strive to live by that will.

In 1 Samuel 26:2, Saul heard that David was hiding on the hill of Hachilah, and he went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand soldiers to catch him. That he took three thousand men shows how firm his resolve was. Saul had even sworn to David, who had the chance to kill him and yet only cut off the edge of his robe, that he would never pursue him again. But he could not let go of his jealousy, and he came once more to catch David. Saul knew that killing David was not what God wanted, and yet he resolved to kill him, because he felt he could only be at ease if he killed David with his own hands. Because of the evil selfishness of human beings, revenge cannot be stopped. Saul knew it was a sin against God, but he could not quiet his anger, so he could not let David live.

This time too, a chance to kill Saul came to David. When David went into Saul’s camp with Abishai alone, Saul and all his soldiers were asleep. Seeing this, Abishai told David that this was a golden opportunity from God and said he would strike Saul with the spear and kill him. But David, just as the last time, stopped him, telling him never to do it, because striking Yahweh’s anointed would be a sin against God. Look how good chances to kill his enemy keep coming to David. It seems chances do not come only when one’s forces are stronger. David went into the enemy camp with Abishai, just the two of them, knowing nothing; but because God, who had put Saul and all his soldiers to sleep, is there, David always has opportunities. If only you seek out God’s will and live praying according to it, God will make the opportunities for you.

In verse 10 David prophesied that Saul would surely die, either struck by Yahweh in judgment or on the battlefield. Just as David came upon such golden opportunities without trying to take revenge, he knew that God would judge Saul even if David did not kill him himself. As this prophecy said, in 1 Samuel 31 Saul was struck by arrows and died, with his sons, in the war against the Philistines. Saul, who had pursued David so relentlessly, died in the end in the war with the Philistines, together with his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.

Look at Saul’s death, and you see how fleeting life truly is. For he tried to kill David, a man of God, to keep his throne, but he himself was rejected by the God who had given him that throne and died by arrows shot by Philistine soldiers. If David, whom God protected, had led the vanguard in the war against the Philistines, Israel and Saul would not have been defeated. Such is life: we cannot see even an inch ahead. David could foresee Saul’s death because he knew God’s heart that well, and knew well the ways in which God works.

Chances to kill Saul kept coming, as in this situation where Abishai urged David to kill him. Perhaps this was less God handing him good opportunities than God’s great desire that David would see through Satan’s test, which was luring him into the sin of murder, and grow into a person of greater stature. When people get a chance to gain wealth or power, rather than carefully thinking again, they think God has blessed them. But if you think a little more deeply, you can tell whether this matter will lead you away from God or become a chance to draw closer to him.

The chances for David to take revenge with his own hand that keep coming now may be not a blessing but a scheme of Satan, meant to make him defy God’s will and sin so that he would drift away from God. It is the same reason that people who have much power and wealth fail to seek God. As Jesus said, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God; when people have many possessions, their longing disappears, and so they do not plead for God’s grace. But if they serve more humbly when life is comfortable, that blessing will last forever.

There are people like David who serve God well even though they are kings, but most would try to use God to protect their property. As Abishai’s behavior alone shows, those who do not know God’s deep will act on foolish judgments whenever a good chance for revenge comes. Look at those who said in the cave that God had given David the chance to kill Saul, and at Abishai, who now proposes to kill Saul on the spot. In them, the human wish to solve the problem right away came before God’s will. But David keeps enduring and restraining himself, so as not to stray from the road on which God is leading him.

Here the Bible sets Saul in the middle and, through the actions of David and Abishai, shows you which choice is wise. Abishai had the kind of faith that sees every chance to get ahead in the world as God’s blessing. That is why, watching David fail to act when God had given him the chance to kill Saul, Abishai may have thought him incompetent, or someone who could not recognize an opportunity. People like Abishai find it hard to grow spiritually. For though they may have an eye for opportunity, they lack the spiritual eyes to see that behind the opportunity the road divides into good and evil.

If David had not stopped him, Abishai would have killed Saul. This incident alone shows that simply by being with a brother in faith like David, who had matured well in character, Abishai received the blessing of escaping God’s judgment. You too probably think your own judgments and decisions are right. But if you meditate more carefully on God’s will, you will be able to see how different human thinking is from God’s will.

David and Abishai came back with only Saul’s jar of water and his spear. Taking Saul’s jar of water and spear announced that they could easily have killed him, so in that alone Saul was defeated. After David came out with the spear and the jar of water, he called out to Saul. He said that if Saul’s pursuit of him was something God had allowed because David had sinned, he himself would become the offering for that sin. He knew that Saul was pursuing him with an evil heart, but if God had allowed it, then of course he would become the offering himself. That is how well David knew God.

Once, when David left the city fleeing from Absalom, who had rebelled, Shimei said unspeakable things to him, but David forgave Shimei, saying that it was God who was making him hear those words. Because he believed that God had brought him every person he met and every word he heard, he could leave his enemy Saul to God instead of killing him. Later Shimei was put to death by Solomon for the sin of betraying David.

In verse 24 David told Saul that just as he had spared the king’s life, he hoped Yahweh would respect his life and deliver him out of all oppression. This is David’s faith. He could easily kill Saul by force, but he earnestly hopes that God, seeing him live a good life even while suffering for God’s sake, will judge Saul himself.

How are you using the time you have been given? And how do you judge and decide about the opportunities that come to you every day? Did you make those judgments and decisions knowing God’s will? If you do not know God’s will, pray as David did. Consider whether you may be acting and speaking as you think best because your own feelings matter more to you than God. For such behavior is evidence that, like Abishai, you have not put off the old self and are living by the bad habits of the past. Every life, whether it does good or evil, lives out its appointed time. If you look not only at this short life but at the eternal world you will meet after death, you will know how to deal with the problem in front of you.

I hope that, like Joseph and David, you will be able to look at life broadly, highly and deeply, as God does, rather than only at what is happening right before your eyes. Those who live with such wisdom have nothing to fear, even with enemies beside them who betray and persecute them, because they are under God’s absolute protection. For God’s grace surrounds you like a high city wall.

May you always look at the world in bright light and live as one whose hope is set on heaven. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.

1 Samuel 27:1-7, 28:1-2

1David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand.” 2David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. 4Saul was told that David had fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. 5David said to Achish, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 6Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. 7The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. 1In those days, the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the army, you and your men.” 2David said to Achish, “Therefore you will know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you my bodyguard forever.”