Anyone who thinks the Bible is an airy fairy book, not grounded in earthy reality
obviously has not read about Saul going to the toilet in 1 Samuel 24. One American version of the Bible tried to sanitise this
by translating 'Saul went to the bathroom'
thereby getting itself the nickname 'the bathroom bible'.
There wasn't a bathroom in that cave in the desert
but Saul thought it was a nice private place to relieve himself.
How wrong he was: David and his men were hiding at the back of the cave.
This has all the makings of a tragicomedy and a squalid black one,
the story of a king who was a sitting or even a squatting target
put to death in a degrading way.
but David's actions elevate it: it becomes a story of nobility
as he refuses to take advantage of one whose life is sacred to him.
Humanly speaking, it was David's big chance: Saul had 3000 against his 600:
but suddenly the probabilities were reversed
All David had to do was to strike from behind kill his enemy and become king.
His men urge him to take his big moment but he refuses to take advantage.
In fact he is even conscience stricken about cutting off a corner of Saul's
cloak.
Why?
David was guided by a conviction that you don't lay hands on the Lord's anointed King.
His conviction overrode the convenience of the moment
and any thoughts of vengeance against a man who bore him a deadly hatred.
You could say that David spared the man who would have speared him through.
More than once Saul flung his spear at David but missed.
And David turned down two opportunities to kill Saul.
Against the promptings of his men, David regarded his enemy's life as sacred.
In c 26 he has another opportunity to kill Saul when he is vulnerable, fast asleep
His companion pleads for the order to finish Saul off.
How convenient for David to be able to say 'It wasn't me, it was someone else.'
26.9 But David said "Don't destroy him!
Who can lay a hand on the LORD's anointed and be guiltless?
As surely as the LORD lives," he said, "the LORD himself will strike him;
either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.'
Do you see how David reflects here Paul's wisdom at the end of Romans 12?
19 Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God's wrath,
for it is written: 'it is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord.
20 On the contrary:
'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty give him something to drink.
In doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
21 Do not be overcome with evil but over come evil with good.
David demonstrates here the idea of reacting in the opposite spirit
you receive abuse, you pay a compliment
you are hit on one cheek, you offer the other one
Someone bears down on you in anger, you offer a soft answer
People often regard that as soft, weak, talk
but I wonder.
All the murders and assaults we hear about each weekend
stabbings, burnings shootings how much of that could have been avoided
if people reacted in the opposite spirit,
if like David they could go by conviction of what was right
rather than convenience of getting their advantage or paying someone back?
David's commitment to the principle that Saul is not be killed
is seen even after Saul does die tragically on Mount Gilboa.
A man makes a falsely claim to have killed Saul, expecting a reward.
His reward is that David asks:
'Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed?'
(2 Samuel 1.16) and has him killed.
That shows that David was not averse to killing
but his enemy Saul is in a special category
He has respect for the Lord's anointed
ad trust in God to fulfil his promise that he shall one day be king.
Imagine the lonely times after those decisions not to kill Saul?
Imagine the criticism from close friends and advisers
the wonderings in his own heart as he suffered years of exclusion and hardship.
What kept him going over against the well meaning talk of his friends
and any personal anxiety about the future?
Surely the answer lies in his close walk with God, he trusted God
as he says in the Psalm 57 we read today
(written 'when he had fed from Saul into the cave'
'in you my soul takes refuge''
or in the words of the song by Robin Mark
'My heart will sing to you because of your great love
a love so rich, so pure, a love beyond compare;
the wilderness, the barren place,
become a blessing in the warmth of your embrace.
When earthly wisdom dims the light of knowing you,
or if my search for understanding clouds your way,
to you I fly, m,y hiding place,
where revelation is beholding face to face.'
Have we got that level of simple and deep trust
that will be guided by what God thinks rather than what other people suggest
Are we people of conviction or convenience?
Can we sustain today the Christian conviction that life is sacred?
Not just Saul's as anointed king in the Old Testament
but all human life as people created by God for whom Jesus died
and who have the potential to be temples for the Holy Spirit.
Paul writing about sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6
sets out principles that apply beyond sexual matters.
He is stating clearly that we are not self owned, we are to belong to Christ
and we have a high and holy calling which should make us respect
our own and other people's bodies and whole beings19-20
'Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own. You were bought with a price
Therefore honour God with your body'
That means honouring the bodies, the lives of other people.
it means seeing them and the situations in which you meet them
as God sees them
from the point of view of what is eternally true and right
and not from mere human short term convenience.
We live in times when alongside a decreasing devotion to the Lord
goes a decreasing respect for human life.
We see it in the increasing acceptability of abortion
at the beginnings of human life and as life is ending,
an increasing culture of euthanasia, so called 'mercy killing'.
Yes there can be difficult cases:
abortion may have to be permitted as the lesser of two evils
to save the life of the mother;
there are times when decisions about treatment are difficult
and prolonging human life may be argued to be pointlessly cruel.
But do you see what is happening?
Unlike David, we leave the Lord out of the calculation.
The final authority is taken to be human,
the individuals themselves or those close to them.
We are no longer God directed or God centred as David was
We are self guided and self centred.
People use plausible, reasonable arguments
but leave God out and the long term end result is something inhuman
Who is in charge? Who is our authority? Me? You? Other People? God?
Do we ask: What do you think Lord or what do others think?
David had respect for one anointed person
following David's greater son and successor
we are to respect all for whom Jesus died.
The Lord's Supper is a way for us to draw nearer in love and trust to God
and to reassess how we live our lives
how we relate to God in Christ and in him to each other.
Here we remember how much Jesus has done for us
how much he means to us
how much therefore other people should mean to us also
as those for whom he died
and in whom his spirit may live.
May God our Father & Creator guide & keep you
May Christ who will come to judge all people be your Saviour and Lord
May the Holy Spirit make a real difference to all our lives
that people shall see lives changed by Christ
and know him who is the way the truth and the life.
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