1 Samuel chapter 24 and reading
from verse 1. And it came to pass when Saul
was returned from following the Philistines, that it was told
him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. Then Saul took three thousand
chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his
men upon the rocks of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep
coats by the way, where was a cave, and Saul went in to cover his
feet, and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And
the men of David said unto him, Behold, the day of which the
Lord said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into
thine hand, that thou mayst do to him as it shall seem good
unto thee. Then David arose and cut off
the skirt of Saul's robe privily. And it came to pass afterward
that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's
skirt. And he said unto his men, The
Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the
Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing
he is the anointed of the Lord. So David stayed his servants
with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul.
But Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way. David also
arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after
Saul, saying, My lord the king! And when Saul looked behind him,
David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself.
And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying,
Behold, David seeketh thy heart? Behold, this day thine eyes have
seen how that the Lord had delivered thee today into mine hand in
the cave, and some bade me kill thee, but mine eyes spared thee. And I said, I will not put forth
mine hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Moreover,
my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand,
for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not,
know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression
in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee, yet thou
huntest my soul to take it. The Lord judge between me and
thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but mine hand shall
not be upon thee. And saith the proverb of the
ancients, wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, but mine hand
shall not be upon thee. After whom is the King of Israel
come out? After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea? The Lord, therefore, be judge,
and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause,
and deliver me out of thine hand.' And it came to pass, when David
had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said,
Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice
and wept. And he said to David, Thou art
more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas
I have rewarded thee evil. And thou hast showed this day
how thou hast dealt well with me, for as much as when the Lord
had delivered me into thine hand, thou killest me not. For if a
man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? Wherefore the
Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold, I know well
that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel
shall be established in thine hand. Swear now therefore unto
me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me,
and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swear unto Saul, and
Saul went home, but David and his men gat them up unto the
hold. May the Lord bless this reading
to us and teach us of himself in it. Perhaps some of you are
thinking, what? Is Saul still chasing after David? Is this never going to stop? And maybe you're thinking to
yourself, let's move on to something else. I've had enough of all
this chasing around the country. Wouldn't that be nice if we could
just bring our troubles to an end and move on to something
else? I suspect that that's exactly
how David and his soldiers felt, that they felt the same way,
that they wished that this chasing around would stop. But once again,
here is Saul pursuing David into the mountains and caves of En
Gedi, trying to capture and kill him. And I think that there's
a lesson right here at the start of our study today. This is the
lesson. Sometimes our problems just don't
go away. Sometimes our problems stick
around long after we wish we were rid of them. Sometimes even
when we pray about it, as David did, Even when the Lord seems
to give occasions of respite, times of peace and relief that
suggests that our troubles might be coming to an end, back they
come again, just like Saul. David you might remember, and
it was only last week so if you've got a reasonable memory you should,
David had been delivered when Saul was forced to go and fight
some Philistine invaders that had come into part of Israel
and Saul was very close to capturing David. David was on one side
of the mountain with his men, Saul was on the other and they
were closing in upon David. David was so close to being captured
and then he managed to slip out of Saul's grasp. No doubt it
was the Lord who delivered him. But here we find that the job
done on the Philistine front, when Saul had beaten the Philistine
invaders back, Saul simply returns to pursuing David. Saul is back
on the war path. I don't know how long that battle,
how long that episode lasted with the Philistines, But now
Saul was back hounding David. Back to make sure that David's
struggle continued. And perhaps you know a bit about
this. Maybe you've got a problem that won't ever actually go away. Perhaps the Lord will need to
teach you how to cope with the challenges that you face. Perhaps
you think, is this never going to stop? I wish we could move
on to something else. I've had enough of this. And
yet, there on the road is your nemesis. There on the road is
your personal Saul, with 3,000 armed men coming to get you again. Saul chased David into the mountains
where we read there was a cave into which Saul went. He probably went there to sleep. What he didn't know was that
David and some of his men were also in the cave hiding. I don't know if you've ever walked
into a large cave, but as you look into the darkness, you can't
see what's in the darkness. But when people in the darkness
look out to the entrance of the cave, they can see exactly what
is happening because they can see the figures moving in the
light and against the light coming in through the cave's entrance.
And so David knew that this was Saul who was coming into the
cave, but Saul had no idea that David and his men were hiding
there. As Saul settled down and went
to sleep, David's men told David that this was a great opportunity
to kill his enemy and end all his problems. They told David,
in fact, that God had delivered Saul into David's hand and all
that he had to do was strike. What a temptation this was to
David. In many ways it looked like a
perfect solution and yet David hesitated. In his heart he knew
that what he was contemplating was wrong. This man Saul had
been chosen by God and anointed by Samuel the prophet. He was
Israel's properly appointed king. And it would be wrong for David
to slay him in his sleep. Instead, David crept up to Saul. And in the darkness, he cut off
a piece of Saul's garment. It's called the skirt of his
robe. He cut off a piece of this skirt
that he wore around him. And we find actually in our reading
that even this act of cutting Saul's garment caused David to
feel ashamed. He hadn't killed Saul, but he
had disrespected him and he knew that it was not his place to
touch the Lord's anointed king. As Saul rose to leave the cave,
still totally unaware of David's presence there or what David
had done in cutting off part of his garment, David called
out to him. and he gave the king respect.
He testified to the king of his loyalty and he proved that loyalty
by showing Saul the severed piece of cloth and pointing out how
easily he could have taken Saul's life had he chosen to do so. He went on to humbly ask why
the King should fear him when he was loyal to the King and
he was so insignificant. In fact, he called himself a
dead dog which couldn't even bark. and just like a flea for
size. He said, I am so insignificant.
Why is the king bothering about me who wants to do no harm to
the king? And Saul genuinely seemed touched
by this powerful display of allegiance. He confessed that he was in the
wrong and that David was right. He even wept, he even shed tears. He says in verse 17, thou art
more righteous than I, for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas
I have rewarded thee evil. Thou hast showed this day how
that thou hast dealt well with me. And yet, and yet, for all
his outward expression of repentance, all the regret that he showed
and all the remorse, this apparent change of heart was to be short-lived. Saul returned to his own home
and he left off chasing David, but it was only for a little
time. and soon unable to restrain his
own dark jealousies, he would be back again seeking to kill
David and to thwart God's will and purpose. Here are a few lessons
that we can apply from this chapter. One I've kind of alluded to already. Sometimes the Lord doesn't take
away his people's troubles. Sometimes the Lord leaves these
troubles with us. He teaches us to cope with them
instead. I wonder if you remember the
account of the Apostle Paul. Paul speaks of, in the New Testament,
in the book of Corinthians, I think it is, Paul speaks of a thorn
in his flesh. We don't know what that thorn
was, but it troubled him frequently, and it seemed to hinder his ministry
and his usefulness. And three times Paul asked the
Lord to remove this trouble, and each time the Lord refused. God sovereignly acts in his people's
best interest, but that is often not in the way that we want. because we simply do not know
what is truly good for us. We think we do, we think, we
say, if this would finish, then it would be so much better for
me. If this problem would come to an end, then I would be so
much happier, I would be so much better. And yet we don't know. exactly what would happen. And that is why we speak of trusting
the Lord. We trust the Lord, and I often
speak about trusting the Lord for salvation, trusting the Lord
for forgiveness, trusting the Lord for cleansing from sin. And we trust that the work that
the Lord Jesus Christ performed on the cross has cleansed us
from our sin by the shedding of his blood. But if we trust
the Lord for salvation, We must also trust him day by day for
the problems that we face. The Lord told Paul, my grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And the apostle humbly accepted
God's will. saying, most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. If the Lord has chosen to lay
this infirmity on me, if the Lord has chosen to lay this infirmity
on me, and I know that the Lord has my best interests at heart,
Then I bow to his greater wisdom and I trust him for the help
that I need. That's one lesson that we can
perhaps gain from this passage. Here's another one. When David
showed his respect for Saul, the king, Saul, confessed his
error and acknowledged that David was blameless. and tears followed. What a scene that must have been.
Anyone watching must have thought that this was a new beginning,
a fresh start. But Saul's tears soon evaporated. and any feelings of respect for
David were temporary. Soon his anger would bubble up
again and David would again be chased for his life. And this
reminds us that true transformative repentance does not arise naturally. from within a man or a woman
or a boy or a girl or even a king. Attitudes can change. Opinions
can alter. And I'm not saying that a person
can't change their mind and go in a different direction as far
as his natural will is concerned. But hearts, hearts require an
internal spiritual work, a converting work of God. And even confession
of sin, which Saul did, and even tears of repentance, which Saul
did, are no proof of a true change. There are lots of people who
claim to have had a conversion experience and yet who after
a time revert back to their old way of life, with their old prejudices
and their old passions. Jesus once spoke a parable of
a sower who went out to sow. As he cast his seed, some fell
on different kinds of ground. Some grew up quickly, but withered
fast because of the shallow stony ground. Some got choked by the
thorns. Some got stolen by the birds. The point is this. Even when
there is an appearance of change and conversion in a person's
life, we cannot assume that all who claim to be the Lord's people
really are. And more importantly, it is each
of our responsibility to test our own faith, to see that we
are not deceived, even by our own heart. Our hearts are deceitful
and they can deceive us. Saul knew all about the Lord. He was familiar with the Lord's
people. He mixed amongst the Lord's people. He worshipped, he wept, he confessed
his sin when David called on the Lord to judge between them. And yet for all that, his soul
was dead to Christ and his heart was deceived. May the Lord save
us from our own deceitful and wicked hearts. May he shine the
true light of the gospel into our souls. And here's just a
third point quickly. David's trust in the Lord is
a fine example of faith. It seemed David had a way out
of his trouble. All he had to do was take his
knife and slay Saul. But he knew that opening that
door and choosing that route of killing Saul would be wrong. David had said, sorry, God had
said that David would be king. Samuel had anointed David. David believed God would do what
he said he would do, but he also knew that it was not his place
to grasp the throne for himself by killing Saul. And here's the
lesson. The Lord's ways and His timing
are perfect. And when we trust the Saviour
for salvation, we must also trust Him for everything else. David was a spiritual man, he
trusted Christ, he believed the will of God would be done and
he did not need to hasten God's purpose by doing wrong and by
doing questionable things. When we find forgiveness with
Christ, and trust in his blood to cleanse our sin and reconcile
us to God. When we commit our lives into
his care and his keeping, even when things seem to go wrong,
if we can trust the Lord Jesus for eternal life, and we can,
then we can trust him for today and we can trust him for tomorrow.
May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Amen.