“Saul” – 1 Samuel 24

Most of you know that Speedy has not always been the model citizen that he is today and I know he won’t mind if I tell about something that happened to him back before he came to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus.  It seems that one day Speedy and some of his biker buddies were out riding around and stopped in this little diner up in the panhandle.  They walked in and there was a trucker sitting at the bar eating his lunch and Speedy went over and started giving him a hard time, calling him names and just trying to provoke him and get a rise out of him.

Speedy said, “Oh, you’re a big man in that truck but without those 18 wheels around you, you’re not much of a man, are you?”  The trucker didn’t say anything.  He just kept eating.  So Speedy continued.  “All you truckers think you’re so tough, trying to run us bikers off the road all the time.  It’s a different story when we’re face to face, ain’t it?”  Speedy even kind of gave him a little shove to make his point but the trucker never said a word.  He just got up, paid for his meal and got in his truck and drove off.

When he left, Speedy said to the waitress, “He wasn’t much of a man, was he?”  She said, “No and he’s not much of a trucker either.  He just ran over six motorcycles on the way out of the parking lot.”

That’s funny, not because it’s true, but because we have all been in the trucker’s shoes haven’t we?  We have all had somebody pick on us.  All of us have had somebody do us wrong, abuse us or treat us bad even though we didn’t deserve it and we have all wanted to get even, haven’t we?  For some of us, it happens more than for others, but everybody has times in their lives when all you want to do is…get revenge.

All you have to do is Google “how to get revenge” and the websites pour in.  The internet is busting with people who are fountains of knowledge when it comes to getting revenge.  They might not can spell the word but they know how to get it, at least in their minds.  Have you ever gotten revenge on somebody and it came back to bite you?

When he was an attorney, Abraham Lincoln was once approached by a man who passionately insisted on bringing a suit for $2.50 against an impoverished debtor. Lincoln tried to discourage him, but the man was bent on revenge. When he saw that the man would not be put off, Lincoln agreed to take the case and asked for a legal fee of $10, which the plaintiff paid. Lincoln then gave half the money to the defendant, who willingly confessed to the debt and paid the $2.50! But even more amazing than Lincoln's ingenuous settlement was the fact that the irate plaintiff was satisfied with it. Daily Walk, May 22, 1992

Did you know that the Bible talks about revenge?  In fact, it has quite a bit to say about it and like only the Bible can it tells us how to completely rid ourselves of most of our enemies.  I say “most of” our enemies because there will always be somebody who doesn’t like you no matter what you do and maybe some of you deserve it but most of you don’t and yet most of us still have them.

I have heard it said that if you haven’t made any enemies by age 35, you aren’t doing something right and maybe that’s true but when we have an enemy, the question is, how do we get rid of that enemy?  Let’s look at a story from the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel.  Now, when we talk Old Testament revenge we could very well talk about not just killing your enemy but killing him, his family, his animals and his whole tribe and then making it a law that nobody ever speak his name again. So, yea, there’s that option.  But I don’t recommend that most of the time anymore.

If you really want to get rid of an enemy, take some advice from somebody who knew a thing or two about enemies and how to handle them.  We continue in our sermon series on David today with a look at what happened after he killed Goliath.  You would think that King Saul would absolutely love this guy and he did at first but he quickly became paranoid that David would take over his throne and become king of Israel – which David did – but in the process, Saul did it wrong and wound up with nothing and David did it right and wound up with everything.

Let’s read about one such instance in 1 Samuel 24.  Yes, I want to read the whole chapter but it’s not too long and reads like a story so just sit back and enjoy.

After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” ² So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.  ³ 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. ⁴ The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said^[b] 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.  ⁵ Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. ⁶ He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” ⁷ 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.  ⁸ 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. ⁹ He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? ¹⁰ This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged 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.’ ¹¹ See, my father, look at this piece of your 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 am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. ¹² 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. ¹³ As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.  ¹⁴ “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? ¹⁵ 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.”  ¹⁶ When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. ¹⁷ “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ 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. ²⁰ I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. ²¹ 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.”  ²² So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

If you were to ask David – who was a great warrior and has killed more than his share of enemies – what the best way is to get rid of an enemy, he would tell you to make the enemy…your friend.  Now, this is not how David always did it.  Sometimes David would take revenge on an enemy and wipe that person or people out.  The problem is that with that method, there is always retaliation.  Some friend or son or cousin would always come back looking to settle the score.  The problem was and still is that the score is never settled.  But when you make the enemy your friend, the only thing that dies is the score.

In looking at this story there are several things that we can learn about taking revenge and how to make enemies into friends and we will get to those in just a second but we first have to address something else.  We saw last week that God often gives us divine encounters with people so that we can use our God-given talents with them.

In this story, God has given David a divine encounter with King Saul when Saul goes into a cave to use the bathroom.  You may or may not ever have a similar encounter but whether you do or not, we can learn some things from how David reacted in this encounter.  To say that Saul is in a compromising position is putting it mildly.  There is no worse place to be than where Saul is at this point and he doesn’t even know it.

There are 600 men behind him in this cave; 600 warriors who are just waiting on David to give the word to kill Saul; 600 guys, some of whom you know are making jokes way back in the back of that cave.  We will not do that this morning.  You will have to come back tonight to make fun of Saul.  I’m just kidding.  Let’s look at some things David does to get rid of his most feared enemy.

First and foremost, David has not given Saul any reason to hate him.  He has given Saul no ammunition to use against him.  He hasn’t done anything wrong.  He has acted godly, caring and professional in every way.  Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  If it is possible!  Sometimes we all know that it is not possible but as far as you are concerned, do all you can.

Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches.”  A good name according to who?  Today’s society actually respects a person more who will fight for every last right and allows no one to ever take advantage or get anything over on him.  But God says to turn the other cheek and to walk the extra mile for the other person.  That’s a good name according to God.  Be that person and as far as it is possible, live at peace with everyone.

So, first of all, David has given Saul no reason to hate him; no reason to not get along with him.  That’s the first thing you do to get rid of an enemy.  The second thing we see from this story is that David showed Saul mercy and he showed mercy when Saul was the most vulnerable.  He had every chance to stab Saul in the back or slit his throat and end all this chasing around foolishness.

Can’t you just picture it?  David and his men see Saul and his men approaching so they run and hide in a cave so Saul won’t find them and then a few minutes later, look who walks in the cave.  Saul is just trying to get some privacy and doesn’t know how close to death he is.  David sneaks up behind him with his knife out.  In his mind is racing all the reasons why he should end all this.

Saul has taken everything, and I mean everything from him.  David has no place to live.  He is newly married to the king’s own daughter but he can’t go back to her now.  All he has is on his back and he has done nothing to deserve this and everybody knows it.  Now the one causing all this grief is right in front of him and even his own men are encouraging David to kill him. 

David reaches out ever so quietly with that razor sharp knife…and cuts a corner off the king’s robe.  Then he even feels bad about doing that because it showed disrespect to the king.  This is God’s chosen man and David knows he shouldn’t disrespect him, much less kill him.  David shows mercy to Saul, not just for Saul’s sake but for God’s sake. 

And God says to show mercy.    So, there’s that.  Luke 6:27 says, "But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.”  Do good to those who hate you.  No problem there, right?  That’s all we have to do.  Proverbs 25 says, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.”  Romans 12 says the exact same thing.  Do you know why it says to do this?  It says to do this because it disarms your enemy and a disarmed enemy is on the way to being a defeated enemy.  It goes on to say that showing your enemy mercy is like pouring hot coals on his head.

Do you want to get rid of an enemy?  Don’t give him reason to hate you but if he does…show him mercy.  Luke 6:36 says to be merciful because your Father is merciful.  If God can show us mercy, we can show others mercy and in doing so, we get rid of our enemies.

The next thing we see David do in this story and the thing that we should also try to do if possible is to communicate with our enemies.  In verse 8 we see David start to try to talk to King Saul.  He shows him respect.  He has shown him mercy and now he tries to communicate with him.

I heard about the man who was having trouble communicating with his wife and he finally came to the conclusion that she was going deaf.  So he decided to conduct a test to see how bad it was.  Without her knowing it and with her back to him, he started by whispering from across the room.  “Can you hear me?”  There was no response.  He moved a little closer and whispered again.  “Can you hear me now?”  Still no response.

Again he moved a little closer and repeated it without a sound from his wife.  Finally, he got right up behind her and whispered right in her ear.  “Can you hear me?”  She finally turns around and said, “For the 4^th time, yes!”

So many times we have enemies just because of a miscommunication or lack of communication and trust me, I know, you can sometimes try your best to communicate and some people are never going to listen.  Don’t let that be said of you.  If you really want to rid yourself of an enemy, you are rarely going to explain him away.  But you may very well listen him away.

David communicates respectfully.  He communicates sincerely and he communicates humbly.  None of that is easy to do.  The question is how bad do you want to get rid of this enemy?  Sometimes it’s easier to just keep on fighting than it is to make the effort to be respectful to somebody who doesn’t deserve it; to be sincere with somebody that is a smart-alec and to be humble with an arrogant person.  But that is what Romans means by “as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” 

That’s not a suggestion.  That is a command from God and not to do so is sin and you can’t expect God to bless a situation in your life when you are sinning.  That goes for any aspect of your life.  Don’t even try to pray for wisdom for some situation in your life if you have sin in your life.  Don’t expect God to show mercy if you are not showing mercy and don’t expect God to listen to you if you haven’t been listening to Him.

I hope you have noticed that everything we are to do to get rid of our enemies is just what God does with us.  He shows us mercy.  Oh my, does He show us mercy.  He communicates with us.  He has even given us His Holy Spirit to live inside of us to communicate respectfully, sincerely and humbly.  He has given us His Word to know His will.  Are you communicating with Him?

There is one more thing that we see David do in this story; one more way he makes sure, to the best of his ability that Saul will no longer be his enemy.  He not only didn’t want Saul to chase him down and try to kill him anymore.  He tried to be reconciled.  He tried to make him a friend or at least show Saul that David cared for him.  He made every effort to be reconciled.

Two little brothers had finished supper and were playing until bedtime.  Somehow one of them hit the other one with a stick and hurt him and then the war was on!  They were screaming and fighting until mama went up there to get them ready for bed.  She said, “Now Billy, before you go to bed you are going to have to forgive your brother for hitting you.” 

Billy thought about this for a while and he finally said, “Well, okay, I’ll forgive him tonight…but he better watch out in the morning!”

That’s not exactly reconciliation, is it?  Because David was merciful and he communicated respectfully, sincerely and humbly, Saul was willing to be reconciled (at least for a while).  David did everything he could to live at peace with Saul.  He hadn’t done anything wrong but he swallowed his pride and gave up his right to be mad and instead of getting even he reconciled with Saul and got rid of his enemy by making him his friend. 

See, reconciliation is more than just calling a truce.  Because David did everything right Saul was all in favor of just packing it up and going home.  He was moved by David’s acts and efforts and wanted things to be right between them.  It didn’t last but there was nothing David could do about that.  He had done everything in his power to make Saul not an enemy but a friend and God had blessed it and God continued to bless David and did not bless Saul.

Now, Matthew 10:16 says, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”  What Jesus is saying is that we are to be smart; we ought to be cautious.  It’s a mean and crazy world but if there is a relationship problem between you and somebody else, it better not be your fault.

We have David as a model for how to handle difficult people and Saul was difficult to say the least.  But we also have God Himself as a model.  David was a man after God’s own heart and this is one reason why that is said.  He modeled himself after God who wants nothing more than to have a relationship with you.  He is merciful, He communicates with us.  He even sent His own Son to the cross so we could be reconciled with Him even though some of us are pretty difficult.

David was merciful.  He communicated and he tried to reconcile but he couldn’t do that without a relationship with God and neither can you.  It’s one thing to not be reconciled with a neighbor and it’s a completely different thing to not be reconciled to the Creator of the universe, the Redeemer and the Sustainer, the Father and we do that through His Son Jesus.

Jesus said to simply believe in Him and we can be reconciled but that means to admit you are a sinner, ask and be forgiven of all your sins and give your whole life to Him, knowing that He loves you and He is in control.  Be reconciled to Him today.