THE KI NG ' S BUS I NE S S
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Saul was Israel’s king. God had given him to Israel; now God must re move him. David refused to take the matter into his own hands. “ The Lord shall smite him,” was his answer. David was not a New Testament saint, but he was a splendid illustration of what a saint should be under such cir cumstances. Human life is sacred, and the law concerning the taking of it is clear. Because it is sacred, a man should de fend himself. Our homes are sacred, and therefore we are justified in de fending them, and so, also, with our country. There is no maudlin senti ment here. (Luke 18:7.) “ And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry night and day unto him, though he bear long with them?” (Rom. 12:19; Psa. 37:10.) You love your children, but you pun ish them. God loves men, but He chas tises every son whom He receiveth. David exercised patience. There are some things which can be left with the Lord. (1 Cor. 4:4, 5.) David had not sought the kingdom. God had chosen him, and he could well afford to await God’s time. He had experienced the value of patience in the case of Nabal. (1 Sam. 25:32, 33.) David exercised humility. It was not an easy thing to refrain from tak ing the crown when it was within his grasp, after all the years in which he had been hunted as a hare. (2 Sam. 23:2.) In this he was like his Master. (Phil. 2:9.) There are many things in David’s life to be condemned, but here he is a hero. There is a time to fight—when we meet Goliath. There is a time to restrain, and David’s victory in this was greater than the other. (3) DAVID SCOFFS AT ABNER, vs. 13-16. David takes the spear and cruse and departs. The spear is a type of au thority, (Gen. 49:10):
David’s army, when he battled with Absalom, and rescued David from the hand of Ishbosheth. (2 Sam. 21:15-17.) He also broke through the army of the Philistines to get a drink of water for David. (2 Sam. 23:14-17.) He at one time withstood three hundred men and slew them with his spear (2 Sam. 23: 18). “ And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had the name among three.” He was a valiant man. How God needs such men! David and Abishai went down by moonlight and came to the camp and found Saul asleep and Abner, his gen eral, asleep also. Contrast David alive and awake, and Saul asleep. Our David never sleeps. (2) DAVID SPARES SAUL, vs. 8-12. The two men had penetrated to the very heart of the camp and Saul lay an easy victim. It seemed so providen tial. Self-preservation demanded that the enemy should be put to death. “ God hath delivered him,” says Abishai. Yes, He had. There he lies — an easy prey. What more natural than to slay him? How easy to read providences when they are in harmony with our wishes. Jonah was sure he could see the hand of God in favoring circumstances when he was running away from Nineveh. Here was a great temptation. “ An enemy seeking your life,— an enemy once spared,— David, the anointed king. Now is the time. Let me smite him; once will be enough.” The old law was “ an eye for an eye,” but David was not vindictive against Saul. His attitude suggests some prac tical truths: He recognized Saul as God’s anointed. (1 Chron. 16:22; Psa. 105:15). “ Saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”
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