David Again Let’s Saul Live

I Samuel 26:1–25
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The Ziphites had betrayed David before with serious consequences and now they do it again by telling Saul where David is hiding (v.2). Saul takes 3,000 troops and goes to find David. Within a day’s march, or two at the most, Saul and his men reached the area where David was camped. They were very tired, so they bedded down for the night with the full intentions of launching a surprise attack on David and his people the next morning.

In God’s sovereign plan, David finds out about Saul’s location and he and Abishai sneak into Saul’s camp that night. The two men tiptoe around the sleeping bodies till they find Saul sound asleep. Saul was nearly seventy years old and no doubt the long hard march had exhausted him. However, the fact that they were able to go to Saul without waking anyone can be attributed to God’s supernatural help (v.12).

Abishai wanted to kill Saul, but David stopped him because of his respect for Saul’s authority and position as God’s anointed king. Instead he took Saul’s spear and cruise of water to make obvious the fact that he intended no harm to Saul.

David leaves the camp and calls back to Saul and reminds him once again that he could have killed him. In broken sentences, Saul expresses remorse for his conduct and in good faith David returns to Saul his spear and skin of water. Then the two men part, never again to meet in this life.

Application

Who would I have been like in a situation like this - David or Abishai?  To be like David and follow God, I must realize that I can’t do wrong in order to execute justice.