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1 Samuel 24
The Bible reading this morning is from the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 24, which in the Red Pew Bibles is on page 455.
After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, David is in the desert of En Gedi. So Saul took 3,000 able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the crags of the wild goats. He came to the sheep pens along the way. A cave was there and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave.
The men said, this is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish. Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. Afterward, David was conscience stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, for he is the anointed of the Lord. With these words, David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.
Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, my Lord, the King. When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, why do you listen when men say David is bent on harming you? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urge me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not lay my hand on my Lord, because he is the Lord's anointed.
See, my father, look at this piece of robe in my hand. I cut off the corner of your robe, but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I'm guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. As the old saying goes, from evildoers come evil deeds, so my hand will not touch you.
Against whom has the King of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing, a dead dog, a flea? May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it. May he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.
When David finished saying this, Saul asked, Is that your voice, David, my son? And he wept aloud. You are more righteous than I, he said. You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me about the good you did to me. The Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.
I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. Now swear to me by the Lord that you will not kill off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father's family. So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
Would You Knife Your Enemy?
That's just an amazing story, isn't it? Did you get it? Could you see it in your mind's eye? David and his men hiding from Saul and 3,000 able young men who've come out to kill them in a cave. And Saul, David's protagonist and the king of Israel, comes into the cave to do his business. So he's looking out at the scenery while he relieves himself and behind him is a man with a knife.
Let's pray. Father thank you for your call, for your anointing, for your provision for David, a boy really, thrust into greatness, hunted by a king, loved by the Lord.
Thank you Lord for what this reveals about his heart, a man after my own heart you said. Here we see it.
And in the same way that you were reflected in the life of David, particularly when he was under such pressure, might you be reflected in ours.
That we too might give you glory as he did and sing your praises as he did and lead people towards you as he did.
Father, be merciful to us for Christ's sake. Amen.
Wow. So the theme for today is worship and you must be wondering what on earth 1 Samuel 24 has to do with that. I gave you a little clue if you read the midweek email. Last week we talked about jealousy, this week we are talking about revenge. So this is very much about the difference, if you like, our faith makes.
And so I have to begin with a question. Would you knife your enemy if you had the chance? And I don't just mean someone who took your parking spot. I mean someone who has hurt you. And it could be with some shady dealings, it could be with their words, it could be that they made you a promise and they didn't keep it, it could be a broken marriage, it could be, gosh keep counting, it could be an abuse, a theft, a lie, it could be a murder, it could be a crime, would you knife your enemy if he got the chance?
It doesn't have to actually be a knife. David had a real knife in his hand, he was creeping, his men said go get him and he's creeping forward and Saul's busy and David's behind him. It doesn't have to be a real knife, it could just be a word. When somebody hurts me I often think about, my instinctive reaction is how to get them back. It's kind of the I'll show you moment. It's just there, you don't have to plan for that, that just happens.
Well when someone hurts you, would you get them back? That's really the question today.
And I should really ask you, when someone has hurt you, have you got them back? Okay, so let's be really real.
It may not have been a knife, but you know what I mean. Revenge and the desire to get even are very basic human emotions.
Please don't be ashamed or embarrassed if you have knifed someone, right? Don't worry, it doesn't make you special.
The Slow Burn of Revenge
What do we call it? It's like a slow burn. Like there's an offense and it hurts and you don't know what to do with that, you can't make it go away and there's this kind of festering.
It churns around. The Hebrews used to say the entrails were the seat of the emotions and if you've ever churned, you'll know exactly why they thought that.
And then maybe they do it again or maybe there's a moment when their guard is down or maybe someone else says, oh someone treated me so badly and bang. It just all comes out. It boils over, it explodes.
The world will tell you all sorts of things about revenge. So have I got this right? At 8 o'clock, let's see how you guys go.
Revenge is sweet. Revenge is sweet. That's what the world will tell you. We tell ourselves they deserved it.
I wasn't raised in a Christian home, so you'll understand the way my dad thinks. There's only two categories of people, beauties and bastards. So you're always one or the other and sometimes both.
So having said that, I can say they deserved it, the bastards. That's how we think. They had it coming. They got their comeuppance.
Well, they may have deserved it, but is it our job to stick in the knife? They may have deserved it, but is it our job to administer swift justice? And when we do, and if you're like me, you have, do you feel better afterwards? What is this thing with payback? It always has to be more, doesn't it?
So I'm going to give you a minute to turn to your neighbour or to think quietly. Not everybody likes to turn to their neighbour and just talk about a time you attempted to take revenge.
So here you go. You've got two minutes. Just turn to your neighbour. Just tell them a time you attempted to take revenge.
You sit there quietly if you want to. I'm giving you some time. Thank you.
Sit There, Listen, Say Nothing
I've been brought before the Bishop twice now in my stellar career in the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.
First time I was dragged before the Bishop, I got the best advice I think you can ever get when you're confronted by the desire to get somebody back. It was. Sit there, listen, say nothing. Sit there, listen, say nothing.
Jack Deere, a Christian author I quite enjoy, has this to say, if you need a defense, you haven't got one. And if you don't need a defense, don't give one. Interesting, isn't it?
This may seem a very strange way to start a sermon on worship, but that's exactly what all this is about. Can you see the connection? Because if what we do here on Sunday doesn't change the way we behave on Monday, what are we doing?
David isn't playing the lyre when we come across him in 1 Samuel chapter 24. He is not fasting and praying, though he did both those things. He's not writing a psalm, though many of his psalms were written about occasions, just like the one described in our reading. He does do all those things, but today he's crouching in a cave with a knife in his hand behind his adversary, his nemesis, poised to strike. That's where we find him. As his enemy, the King of Israel, squats down to relieve himself.
I've got some pictures of caves. These are actually in the desert of En Gedi. This is in Israel, so there's a bit of water in the bottom of that one.
That's the landscape. Sorry, it doesn't have the dot on it, but you can see the Sea of Galilee up the top, come down the Dead Sea. If you just go left a bit where those hills are, you see the hills come almost to the Red Sea.
That's the crags of En Gedi and whatever the other name of it was. That's where David was hiding. We keep on going and you can see the landscape. I don't know if it's limestone or what it is, but there's a lot of caves in there.
You can just imagine there'd be great hideouts. They're high, so you can see who's coming. There's plenty of caves to go into and there's a water supply and so on.
This is where David and his band were hanging out and this is where Saul came to seek him. Can you just leave that one up? That's the view. I can imagine Saul squatting and enjoying just that view.
Here's the question again, all you worshippers. Would you knife your enemy? It's a real question. It's a real question.
If you haven't had to answer that question yet, there will come a time. Maybe you know how the story goes. You know how the Lord has chosen David and Saul just hasn't got with the program, didn't get the email.
He's as jealous as anything and he's leading the nation and himself and his family into ruin.
So I'm going to ask you a different question. Should David kill Saul? Should he? I mean, wouldn't it be best?
All these men are urging him to. They're saying, this is the time that the Lord spoke of when he said, I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with him as you wish. Go for it, David.
And it's not only once that they urge him. Chapter 26 and verse 8, they're at it again. And we read the story, it seems that indeed the Lord has provided the opportunity, the opportunity for David to do what?
What kind of opportunity is this? The Lord has provided, but I wonder what kind of opportunity it is. Is it an opportunity for David to do as his men suggest and stick him a few times?
It felt so good the first time, I'll keep going. Or maybe to do as David's heart urges him to do. To get even? To stick the knife in? To finally triumph over his enemy and take the kingship that God has prepared for him?
What do you think? Would you vote for that?
Chuck Swindoll has written a great book on King David. You can find it at Koorong. He's done lots of Bible characters. I've been using it to stimulate my thinking.
There's another great book which Margaret has written by Rebecca Manley Pippert, is that right? On King David. I read it in a week. I read it last week. She's got it back, you can borrow that off her. She said I could say that.
Chuck Swindoll says this, There's no such thing as a small step on the path to revenge and retaliation. Even a small step in that direction is a wrong step.
So I don't know how you've been hurt and I don't know how you responded to that. And maybe when you got the chance to finally get him back, having dreamed, plotted and schemed about that, when the time came you actually just lacked the guts to do it.
So it's kind of like a double disappointment. But I want to say praise the Lord. If that was you and it came to that time when you were finally going to get him and you chose not to, I want to say praise the Lord.
Because at least in one thing your conscience has guided you well. Because God has not called you to be someone who takes revenge.
What Is Worship If Sunday Doesn't Change Monday?
We find these words in Romans 12. Can you pop those ones up? I'll read them off the screen.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord.
On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. For in doing this you will heap burning coals on their head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Wow.
Sometimes we ask ourselves the question, what would Jesus do? Jesus is in the cave with a knife. What's he going to do? I mean, you know the answer. Look at the cross.
Jesus himself said, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. That's the thing about David. We've got to hear this. He's a man after God's own heart.
And Jesus has it all there for us. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. What's in your heart? What's in your heart?
Because you can see it in your behavior when you are under pressure and you have a knife.
Bill Hybels famously asked the question, who are you when no one else is looking? Great little book about Christian integrity. Who are you when no one else is looking?
This is exactly what we have before us today. And really the question that is being asked is, David, who are you?
And he asks that question of us when we are under pressure. Does he not?
When Samuel delivered God's verdict on Saul's kingship, he used these words, Saul to obey is better than sacrifice.
So I don't know how you think about worship and we're kind of working that today. So hopefully you'll learn something about that.
But for the Israelites, sacrifice was kind of like the worship thing they did. But God says in his word, to obey is better than sacrifice.
This might mean that God is far more pleased with those who do what he wants in the first place rather than those who have to come to him to make it up afterwards. It might mean that.
But I think it's actually talking about the heart rather than something we might do.
What is worship? There's your homework. What is worship if it's not a whole of life activity? What is worship if Sunday doesn't make any difference to Monday?
What good is it to come Sunday and sing Love Your Neighbour and then knife them the other six days of the week? What good is that? Surely worship is about taking God with you wherever you go and involving him in everything you do. Surely worship is about being his person all the time. Do you think?
David did. That's what David thought. Look at the Psalms. Wherever David finds himself. He's in a cave. He wrote two Psalms about that. I read them to you last week. The little bits at the top that you skip over, just read them.
David when he was running and ended up in Gath. You know the 23rd Psalm, the Lord's my shepherd. You know what that's about. But so often in the Psalms, sorry I don't know the number, but there's 150 Psalms. I reckon David wrote about half of them. He's in all sorts of places.
Rachel reflected that for us this morning. One of the Psalms starts, Out of the depths, O Lord. So you know where he is, don't you? He's in a hole. And yet he still finds that's an opportunity to praise the Lord, to worship, to sing to God, to lead God's people back into his presence.
In triumph, in despair, in worship, in rebellion, when he's king in the land and when he's minding the sheep. David involved God in it all. Maybe that's why God said about David, He's a man after my own heart.
And he didn't knife Saul. He did not do that. He only sort of snips off a corner of his robe.
Goodness knows what this guy is thinking, right? His men have told him to go kill him. His enemy's helpless. All their lives are in danger.
David does the commando thing and gets there. He gets there with this knife and then decides to cut off the corner of the king's robe, a tassel or something, right?
Wow, even then he says he's conscience stricken. I shouldn't have insulted the Lord's anointed. Wow, David, what is going on in your head?
It's one thing to be tempted to do the wrong thing, but it's quite another to do it. Can I say that to you today?
So you should never hate anybody. That's going to be bad for you and it's going to be bad for them.
But when someone hurts you and you take offense, that's not a sin. It's not a sin to be offended. It's not a sin to turn over what they said or or what they did or how it worked out over and over and over in your mind.
It's not a sin to wake up in the middle of the night, you know, distressed, worried, exhausted. That's not a sin. That's just being human.
But the sin is when you act on that, when you let that drive your behavior, when you stick in the knife.
Both David and Saul saw their peril and were grieved. That's a great reading.
Okay, David knew what was going on and he'd snipped off a corner of the king's robe and he was like he was beating himself up about that. And right at the end when David appears with the corner of said robe and says, Saul, Saul, people are saying all things about me but look, you know, I could have killed you but I didn't.
Saul sees the truth about David, doesn't he? He says, David, is that you my son? He's absolutely smitten because he knows he's wrong.
David continues to bring those feelings, that emotion, that experience, the urges that he has about Saul before God and with God's help he's able to overcome. He doesn't knife him.
Saul gave way and was destroyed. That thing we talked about last week, jealousy, that was kind of the theme for Saul's life and he couldn't get on top of it. He wouldn't bring it to God. He tried to handle it himself and it destroyed him, his family and his kingdom.
Not a Good Person, God's Person
If you call yourself a Christian today, if you are a worshiper today, that means you have come to Jesus and received his forgiveness. That's what a Christian is. You've asked him to make you new and if you've come to Jesus and received his forgiveness then your desire will be to please him, will it not? And not yourself.
So I can bet that David, for all he was worth, wanted to stick the knife into Saul and not once. Well that would have been a good feeling. Right? And it feels good to get people back when they hurt us. That feels good.
But who are you going to please? Who are you going to please? You or God? A worshiper pleases God.
When your conscience stings you or the Holy Spirit rebukes you, if you are a worshiper you will listen and try to obey. You will ask God's help for a worshiper desires first to please their Lord and trusts that his way will be best for them in the end.
Right now I'm going to feel good by sticking in the knife but I've got to trust that God's way is better in the end. Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians 7. Can we have the next one?
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
And when we look at Saul and when we look at David you've got both kinds on display.
David was able to see God in his situation and refrain from taking revenge and in the end was vindicated. Saul saw the wrong of his ways but just couldn't change. He wouldn't include God in that conversation and in the end was destroyed.
Look carefully at all Paul's letters and you will see this same kind of pattern. You will see that the beginning of his letters usually about the first half is about the Christian life and who God is and you know how it all works and the second half is about now what should we do about that?
His letters are about worship. Here's the truth about God. This is how it should change our behavior. Here's the truth about God. This is how it should change your beliefs.
If you study the life of David it kind of makes the same point but in a different way. With David it's his heart that is true and totally committed to God and it's the pressure of the circumstances around him and that pressure was so great that shows us his quality.
That shows us how a person fully committed to God should live even in spite of the circumstances. So worship is more than a song or a sermon or an offering or a ministry or a church or a prayer.
If we get stuck on those things we make the same mistake the Pharisees did who reduce God to a rule and their worship to a legality. No, worship is about the heart.
Worship is about your core commitment. Worship is about your reason, the cause you live for, your driver. That's what worship is about.
You see in the end worship is not something you do, it's someone you are. David was a worshiper and you could see it in his actions. That's why he was a man after God's own heart.
Listen very carefully. Worship is not about being a good person. I hear that all the time at funerals. Just depends whatever standard you use, they're a great person. Yeah, I'm sure they were.
But worship is not about being a good person. Worship is about being God's person.
So when you're in the back of a cave with a knife and your enemy is there in front of you, helpless, you've got to ask, what does God want you to do?
Not what you want to do. You've got to be God's person at that point.
And when you are insulted or overlooked at work, you've got to ask yourself, what does it mean to be God's person in this place?
We need help with this. We need help with this. God knows it and that's why he gives us his Holy Spirit to guide and direct us.
Otherwise, the flesh just takes over and we stick it in.
When you take revenge, you are indistinguishable from the society around about you and your witness is negated. Who can tell you're a Christian? What difference does it make?
The trouble for us is that we live in a world that takes revenge and people will take their revenge on you. But to be a Christian, to be a worshipper, to be a disciple of Jesus, you can't do that. That way is not open to you.
That way is open to God. He is a better judge than you will ever be.
Reza's Letter: The Difference Faith Makes
During the week, I wrote in the weekly email about jealousy and revenge and I received the most encouraging reply from one of our number, Reza, who is here. And he's going to come and tell you what he told me. He's going to tell you in Farsi, but you'll see the English on the screen. Thank you.
Good morning, this is Reza. Thank you, Kev, about your question. It's so good. Excuse me, I'll continue in Persian.
Reza shared the following in Persian. This is the English translation that was displayed on the screen as he spoke.
Dear Kev, thank you for your thoughtful message. This week's question is very meaningful to me because I have experienced situations in my life where I have felt deeply hurt, treated unfairly, and sometimes even angry about what happened.
There have been moments when I have asked myself why certain things happened to me and whether the people who caused this pain should be held accountable. Naturally, there have been times when I have wanted to see justice done, and perhaps even wanted those people to experience what they had caused me to experience.
But as I read 1 Samuel 24, I see an important difference between justice and revenge. David had a real opportunity to hurt Saul, but he chose not to take revenge. He trusted God and left the matter in God's hands.
This is something I am still learning in my own life. Forgiveness does not mean that what happened was right, nor does it mean that we should ignore injustice. For me, it means choosing not to allow anger, hatred and the desire for revenge to control my heart.
Since becoming a Christian, I have been learning that faith is not only about what I believe, but also about how I respond when I am hurt. Sometimes this is very difficult. I need God's help to forgive, to remain calm, and to trust that God sees what I cannot see.
Romans 12:19 has become especially meaningful to me: "Do not take revenge, but leave room for God's wrath."
I think this is one of the areas where I can truly see the difference Christianity can make in my life. I cannot always control what happens to me, but with God's help, I can choose how I respond.
Thank you for encouraging us to think about these difficult but important questions.
God bless you, Reza.
