Sermon - Lent Midweek 3, 2022 - David and Saul - 1 Samuel 18:5-16; 19:11-18; 1 Samuel 24; 1 samuel 31:1-6

David Shows Saul How He Spared His Life, Gustave Dore, 1866

There aren’t a whole lot of monarchies left in the world. But at one time rule by a king was the popular and normal method of governance. Before Israel had earthly kings like other nations, God was their king and He had appointed judges to carry out His reign. But at the request of the Israelites, since they had rejected God from being their King, He gave them earthly kings like other nations.

Although, God did warn the Israelites what earthly kings and rulers would be like: “He will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

Nevertheless, the people insisted on an earthly king anyways. So the Lord gave them a king. Thus enters Saul: “A handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.” Saul was a man who looked like a king. “Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the LORD anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the LORD and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies.”

Unfortunately, Saul wasn’t faithful to God. He didn’t trust the Lord nor heed the word of the Lord. He did what seemed right in his own eyes in spite of what God had plainly commanded him. So the Lord rejected Saul and sought out a man after His own heart who would do His will: David. 

As you heard this evening and last week, Saul and David had a very contentious relationship. When God departed from Saul and took His Holy Spirit away from Saul, “a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul.” The Lord punished Saul by sending him not a holy spirit, but a harmful spirit, what we might call a demon. The Lord rules over all things, even demons, and uses demons to carry out His divine will. So numerous times Saul in his jealous wrath sought to kill David. Saul pursued David like a hunter pursues its prey, even to the point of David fleeing to live among the Philistines for a time to escape the hands of Saul.

But even then, David didn’t raise up his hand against Saul. Even when David had opportunities to kill Saul, David spared his life. We heard one of the stories today with David and Saul in a cave, but this happened a second time when Saul and all his camp were asleep, and David stood beside sleeping Saul, yet spared his life. But why? This isn’t what you do with your enemy! Saul recognized this when he asked the rhetorical question: “If a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe?” Obviously, the answer is no! If you come upon the chance to kill your enemy who seeks your life and your family, you kill him and show no mercy. We’ve all seen it happen dozens of times in movies, the hero has the chance to kill the villain, but the hero is merciful and hesitates, so the villain gets away and does more bad stuff. You kill the bad guy right away, everyone knows this.

Well, everyone knows this except for David. So why did David respect Saul and spare his life multiple times? David respected Saul because Saul was the first anointed one who foreshadowed the greatest Anointed One: Jesus. David said to his men who urged him to kill Saul when given the chance: “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed.” David wasn’t allergic to violence and bloodshed, since he had killed probably thousands of his enemies already. But Saul wasn’t an ordinary man, Saul had been anointed by the Lord. For David to kill Saul would be for David to raise his hand against the Lord Himself, this David would not do. So He showed mercy to Saul, thereby showing respect and honor to God who had anointed Saul.

David is one after God’s own heart, and therefore David, another anointed one, also foreshadowed the Anointed One, Jesus the Christ. Jesus showed mercy to His enemies who sought His life, not only by sparing their lives, but by laying down His own life for theirs. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

From this account of David and Saul we learn that it is good to respect those whom God has placed in authority over us, even when they are deeply flawed and perhaps our enemies. Whether it’s our mayor, governor, or president, or even the rulers of foreign nations, it’s not our place as citizens to be wrathful. Like David said: “Out of the wicked come wickedness.” Instead of that, out of those who have been shown mercy, let them show mercy to others. Let us bless and not curse those who do us harm, especially those whom God has set above us as parents, pastors, rulers, and other authorities. They are God’s anointed, and He will judge between us and them. When we honor those whom God has appointed over us, we are honoring the Father who is over both them and us.

From this account we also learn especially to love the will of God, even if it’s mysterious to us at times. God could’ve continued to appoint judges and remain King over His people, but instead He anointed kings, especially He anointed king David, from whom came the Anointed One, the Christ, Jesus who is our Savior and King. God could’ve shown no mercy to Saul at all, just like He could’ve shown us no mercy, but instead He is merciful and patient, abounding in steadfast love toward us. God could’ve set up an earthly kingdom, continuing to reign over us and destroy our enemies, but instead He’s built a new kingdom of heaven for us, where He shall put all of our enemies beneath our feet, and rule over us in righteousness and justice forever. Therefore let us give thanks to God for His mysterious will which is so abundantly merciful.