Chapter 24 of First Samuel is a powerful, dramatic chapter. David is given a golden opportunity to take revenge on King Saul who was so jealous of David that he was pursuing him with an army of 3,000 elite troops enlisted from the whole nation of Israel. There is a distinct shortage of public toilets in the desert of Engedi around 1,000 BC. And so Saul sees a cave and decides this will serve as a toilet. He is unaware that his enemy is hidden in the deep recesses of this dark cave. David's men urge him to take this God-given chance to rid himself of this crazy king who was determined to destroy him from the face of the earth.
There is a powerful lesson for Christians in the 21st century from David's conduct in this chapter. He steadfastly refuses to be persuaded by the argument of his men and will not harm Saul in any way. Admittedly, he does cut off a piece of his robe (and this may symbolise his right to be king) but he will not harm Saul - because he is the Lord's anointed. Of course, David was also anointed by Samuel as Israel's king and God had determined that Saul had forfeited his right to be king of Israel. However, David is not prepared to take matters into his own hands and he is prepared to wait for God to bring about Saul's demise and David's succession. Are we as tolerant with those who treat us badly? David was acting like a New Testament Christian. He was implementing the teaching of the Messiah, David's greater Son who taught his followers to love their enemies.
Here are the materials for a deeper study. It might be easier to use a tablet or a desktop computer although I have used my mobile phone for these PDFs and videos and they are still readable.
This presentation has been adapted from a PowerPoint but the buttons are still functioning to take you around the presentation.
Chapter 26 has a similar incident but, in my opinion, this is a different incident. Some cynical commentators suggest that the book of First Samuel has come from different sources. I feel that they are missing the point but we will look at that when we come to Lesson 23.
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