The Walk Between Verses 4 & 5
When studying the Old Testament you read all about this tension & animosity between King Saul, the 1st King of Israel, and David, eventually King David, the 2nd King of Israel. Saul was the King God chose, even though through His prophet Samuel, God warned the people they didn’t want a King. Eventually Saul did exactly what God knew he would do, & God was forced to pick their next king. So He chose David, however David spent a long time under Saul’s leadership before he took the throne. In that time we read that Saul tried to kill David many times, & atleast twice, David spared Saul’s life when he had the opportunity to take it.
Everytime Saul’s life was spared, David reminded himself, & those with him, that Saul was the Lord’s anointed, & that God could remove Saul if He wanted to. Because God hadn’t done that, David wasn’t going to be the one to kill Saul. He waited to do things in God’s time, not in his own. What a lesson for us there. We often need to wait on God’s timing. We sometimes get so frustrated when God works on His timetable, simply because it is not our timetable & we are then no longer in control of the situation. However, that is not the focus of this writing today.
In 1 Samuel 24, we read that David & a dedicated group of his soldiers are on the run from King Saul. Saul is hunting David down with 3,000 soldiers, which seems a little overkill to me. However, we read that David & his men are hiding in the depths of a cave, & it is in that cave that they have no clue that King Saul comes to the mouth of the cave & goes in there to relieve himself….. Now, the middle schooler in me wants to tell you all that he went into that cave to go to the bathroom… The ESV says he went to relive himself, so he must have gone in to go to the bathroom, right? Well maybe, maybe not, however the original word use in that writing is that he went in to cover his feet. So while “to relieve himself” to us may mean going to the bathroom, it most likely meant a nap for King Saul in that time.
David’s men are ecstatic that Saul is vulnerable in that cave. In their mind, this is God’s doing! They tell David how God has clearly delivered Saul into their hands (1 Samuel 24:4). So the men convince David to go & kill King Saul, or so they thought. These men have been loyal to David & have been on the run from King Saul, not only putting their lives, but I’m sure their families lives in danger too… They are ready to be done running, so they twist the situation to convince David to go & kill Saul. Imagine their surprise, when David returns to them, having not killed King Saul, freeing these men from running for their lives, but instead, he brings back a corner of Saul’s robe! So what happened in that time?
Everytime Saul’s life was spared, David reminded himself, & those with him, that Saul was the Lord’s anointed, & that God could remove Saul if He wanted to. Because God hadn’t done that, David wasn’t going to be the one to kill Saul. He waited to do things in God’s time, not in his own. What a lesson for us there. We often need to wait on God’s timing. We sometimes get so frustrated when God works on His timetable, simply because it is not our timetable & we are then no longer in control of the situation. However, that is not the focus of this writing today.
In 1 Samuel 24, we read that David & a dedicated group of his soldiers are on the run from King Saul. Saul is hunting David down with 3,000 soldiers, which seems a little overkill to me. However, we read that David & his men are hiding in the depths of a cave, & it is in that cave that they have no clue that King Saul comes to the mouth of the cave & goes in there to relieve himself….. Now, the middle schooler in me wants to tell you all that he went into that cave to go to the bathroom… The ESV says he went to relive himself, so he must have gone in to go to the bathroom, right? Well maybe, maybe not, however the original word use in that writing is that he went in to cover his feet. So while “to relieve himself” to us may mean going to the bathroom, it most likely meant a nap for King Saul in that time.
David’s men are ecstatic that Saul is vulnerable in that cave. In their mind, this is God’s doing! They tell David how God has clearly delivered Saul into their hands (1 Samuel 24:4). So the men convince David to go & kill King Saul, or so they thought. These men have been loyal to David & have been on the run from King Saul, not only putting their lives, but I’m sure their families lives in danger too… They are ready to be done running, so they twist the situation to convince David to go & kill Saul. Imagine their surprise, when David returns to them, having not killed King Saul, freeing these men from running for their lives, but instead, he brings back a corner of Saul’s robe! So what happened in that time?
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