“Then David too got up and went outside the cave, where he called after Sha’ul, ‘My lord the king!’ When Sha’ul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself. David said to Sha’ul, ‘Why do you listen to people who say, ‘David is out to harm you?’ Here, today you have seen with your own eyes that Adonai put you in my power there in the cave. Some of my men said I should kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I won’t raise my hand against my lord, because he is Adonai’s anointed.’”-1 Samuel 24:9-12
Following on the heels of yesterday’s conversation, nothing could have been more normal and culturally appropriate than for a man to kill his enemy if given the chance.
The fact that David did NOT slay Saul and even ordered his men not to touch the evil and deranged king…
This went against all the norms and conventions of the day.
So imagine how Saul must have felt when David revealed himself and waved the cut-off piece of the king’s hem in the air.
Saul’s jaw must’ve dropped to the floor.
He instantly knew he should’ve been a dead man had it not been for David’s mercy.
Yesterday, I talked about how God can and will work through different cultures to bring about His Will depending on which nation He deals with.
However, today we have a different takeaway.
And it’s that God will also completely overturn cultural norms to bring about His Will.
He’s been doing this from the very beginning.
For example, recall Jacob’s “cross-handed blessing” that Jacob bestowed on Joseph’s two sons Ephraim and Manasseh.
He bucked the traditions of the times by putting the younger son Ephraim over the older son Manasseh.
This same pattern occurs repeatedly with Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, and Esau.
Israel has always stood out like a sore thumb among the goyim.
They were a nation that didn’t practice child sacrifice.
Sexual deviancy was NOT part of their worship practices.
And they believed in holding to a standard of faith, as David did when he refused to kill King Saul.
Here’s another way to look at the validity of your faith…
If there ain’t much difference between how you live your life and how the world operates…
Some serious self-examination is in order, my friend.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“I have given them your word,
and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
— just as I myself do not belong to the world.
I don’t ask you to take them out of the world,
but to protect them from the Evil One.
They do not belong to the world,
just as I do not belong to the world.
Set them apart for holiness
by means of the truth — your word is truth.
Just as you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world.
On their behalf I am setting
myself apart for holiness,
so that they too may be set apart
for holiness by means of the truth.”
-John 17:14-19
After that magnanimous non-act no one would have expected David to steal Uriah’s wife and have him killed. I guess David didn’t know himself that well. And yes he repented and God forgave him but he lost his mind and was never the same after that. And yet God holds him up as a man after God’s own heart. God is very forgiving but He allows us to reap what we sow so His name is not mocked.
The world serves as a measuring device for the faithful: if the world likes it, God probably doesn’t.
Yup.
True. We may be forgiven but we’ll pay the consequences. I’ve experienced this in my own life.