Bible Study - 1 Samuel 26:1-12

21st June

1 Samuel 26:1-12. David spares Saul’s life

How strong can jealousy and hatred get? A short time before, in chapter 24, we hear about David sparing Saul’s life. On that occasion Saul expressed remorse for trying to kill David; but he could not stop himself continuing to hunt David down. In today’s reading David once again had the chance to kill him, but refused to take it.

In refusing to take Saul’s life David showed great awareness and self-control, with these implications:

• David knew that if he became king by killing Saul, then his own life would continually be in danger. Someone might try to do the same thing to him. David was not only innocent of any plot against Saul, he also went out of his way to spare his life when he could have killed him.
• David believed that God would make him king – in God’s own time. However difficult it was for David to wait, and to put up with Saul’s murderous intentions, he knew he had to wait until Saul died before he could be king.

To consider

• If someone is making our life miserable, and trying to make us feel guilty, it may be that we have done nothing wrong. The anger and hatred may be in the other person’s mind, caused by jealousy or some equally strong emotion. If we have done nothing wrong, it is important to be able to say so to ourselves and our friends.
• We may feel sure that God wants something specific for us—to get a particular job, to marry a certain person, to buy that house—but if we do it in a way that is immoral, it is likely to feel very unsatisfactory.
• Saul was fighting the wrong enemy. The real danger came from outside, not from David. Christians often fight each other rather than taking up the real challenge of bringing the Good News about Jesus to an indifferent and sometimes hostile world.

Prayer

Father, help us not to have any false sense of guilt, but to see ourselves as you see us. Help us to wait for your good time for our life plans to progress, and to take up the challenge of letting people outside the Church know about you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.