It’s great to read 1 Samuel. It contains so many practical encouragements!
We’ve watched how Israel chose against God’s style of leadership; and so Saul became King; and he looked terrific. But in the things that matter you can’t judge just by how people look; Saul ended up a tyrant. But here’s the first great encouragement today: God always has a fresh start available for us. God respects our freedom, and we can really mess things up; but with Him we can always start afresh. So God gives David to Israel; and God moulds him and uses him to lead Israel to the point where they were ready to build the temple that is the old testament’s centrepiece.
But there’s something bigger going on here: Jesus is called the son of David, and as we read David’s story we see how he (sometimes, not always) symbolises Jesus. Like in David’s time, when Jesus came there was another King, Herod, in power in Israel; humanly competent but not what was needed, because human leadership is never quite enough for our needs. So like with David, when Jesus came Herod’s kingdom continued, just like the old system continues even today; but God started bringing in another system, and another King. Not taking over, not yet – we live with two kingdoms today. But God is creating a new system, a new Kingdom, built around the Son of David. And like with David, the new King and the new Kingdom may be rejected, even persecuted, but they will triumph and put everything right at last!
So now we have two stories about this. Chapter 22: David’s relationship with Saul has broken down, and he’s hunted and persecuted. But he doesn’t rebel, even though he’s actually the anointed King. So what happens? `David escaped to the cave of Adullam. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered round him, and he became their commander.` David builds a pilot project, an alternative community – just like Jesus. It’s moving; he takes the most unpromising material, misfits, malcontents, discontented and damaged people, and they become the foundation for the kingdom that’s coming. They’re not immediately perfect, they can still be mean to each other (30:22). But I want to say, God I praise You that You do this, I praise You that You’re doing it with me, bringing out Your glory in each of us, turning us misfits into living foundation stones for Your kingdom. Isn’t that great?
God uses us to help each other in this. It’s easy to criticise each other; but first we need to see each other by faith, see by faith what God is making out of each of us. In nearly all his epistles, Paul consciously gives thanks for the people he’s writing to (a habit worth developing, by the way) – even though sometimes (Corinth, Galatia) that must have taken plenty of faith. So what God is doing in ch22 is enabling the misfits and malcontents to spend time with the rejected King, learn the songs of the rejected King (that’s the Psalms), learn the tactics of the rejected King. We too are a community of misfits and muddled people, spending time with the rejected King, learning His songs, learning His ways in Bible feeding and practical holiness. And so God equips us to reign with Him in the new kingdom that is surely coming…
In the second story we watch David’s men learning the tactics of the rejected King. David doesn’t supplant Saul; instead he does what happens in ch24. King Saul needs the toilet (v3), and he goes alone into a cave – and it’s where David and his armed men are hiding. David’s men say he now has the chance to kill Saul, to do to him `as you wish` (v4). What God has done here, as so often, valuing our freedom as He does, is create the opportunity for choice. And what David chooses is to creep up silently and cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. Saul leaves the cave not knowing what’s happened. (Maybe his bodyguards snigger at the hole in his “trousers”?!) Then David calls out tactfully and points out that he has shown himself to be no rebel, when he could have killed Saul.
Through this time of waiting, David’s men are learning the ways of new kingdom. The new kingdom doesn’t come by violence. It was the same with Jesus. When Jesus was seized He knew full well that twelve legions of angels could have intervened and destroyed His enemies. But He didn’t go that way (as Peter notes – with some surprise? – in 1 Peter 2); Jesus went the way of trusting God, the way of faith not force. That’s the way of the new kingdom.
All very easy to say. And David didn’t have the supernatural power of God’s Spirit in the way we have Him, to help him live this way; and he failed later. If we aren’t yet a serious follower of Jesus, we won’t manage to live this way either. We need to want Him; surrender to Him; feed on Him in prayer, Bible feeding and worship. It’s not always easy to restrain ourselves, forgive, drop grudges, turn the other cheek. But this is the way of the Christ of the cross. At the cross, says French sociologist Ellul, God absorbed the evil out of the world as with a sponge; and His people are called likewise to break the cycles of evil by going the way He taught – forgiving, refusing to retaliate, outdoing evil with generosity; `forgiving, just as God forgave you’ (cf Eph 4:32); letting go of the evil, handing its punishment over to God (Rom 12:14,17-21). It may be you this week who faces this challenge, in the workplace, the family, the church; it may be me.
God says to us, this is the way of Jesus. And in the long run, as Jesus makes clear in his manifesto the sermon on the mount, it works. `A soft answer turns away anger` (Prov 15:1); often, even if not always. ‘You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth”`, says Jesus. `But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also… If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles… Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.’ This is not unlimited: there is sometimes a third mile we are not called to go; and if demands are made of the time, money or authority God has given us to steward, there can be issues to consider of wise deployment of that time or money, not because they are ours but because they’re God’s. But Jesus wants us to know that He calls us this way because in the long run it works, as it did in 1 Samuel 24. It was complex for David too – he doesn’t finish his apparent reconciliation with Saul by going back with him, because he knows what Saul’s still capable of (ch26). But in the end this is the Christlike way to live, and He will help us do it…
So what does God give us in these chapters? The vision of misfits and malcontents transformed into a mighty army. And the vision of the ways of the new kingdom: ways very different from those of the old system that dominates our world, but the only ones that ultimately bring healing rather than conflict – and that one day will triumph. Only by God the Spirit’s power can we live this way, but that’s our calling, and His promise. Let’s grasp it this coming week, and bring just a bit more of God’s kingdom of heaven into our world. And our reward in eternity will be certain!
