At the close of this first encounter with Saul, which saw
David deliver him from certain death by his own hand, Saul says, “The Lord
delivered me into your hand, but you did not kill me. Now if a man finds
his enemy, does he send him on his way in good shape?... Now look, I
realize that you will in fact be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be
established in your hand. So now swear to me in the Lord’s name that you
will not kill my descendants after me or destroy my name from the house of my
father” (1 Samuel 24:18b-19a,20-21).
Casting our thoughts rearward, again, to the plagues and the
exodus and to Moses’ encounters with Pharaoh, we look to chapter twelve of the
book of Exodus and to the words of Pharaoh after the carrying out of the plague
of death against the firstborn. There, “Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron
in the night and said, ‘Get up, get out from among my people, both you and the
Israelites! Go, serve the Lord as you have requested!’” (12:31)
With these words, Pharaoh, like Saul, is admitting to the fact of the Lord’s
power. Pharaoh, like Saul, can see that he is being spared, though it is
certainly not beyond the power of Israel’s God, at the word of Moses, to take
his life. Pharaoh realizes that Israel must be freed, and that they will
be established as a nation, and that Moses will be their king. Pharaoh
then gives voice to a statement echoed by Saul, saying “take your flocks and
your herds, just as you have requested. But bless me also” (12:32).
Saul asked for David’s blessing and mercy upon him and his family, as did
Pharaoh to Moses.
We can stay here in Exodus, moving forward to learn that
“When it was reported to the king of Egypt that the people had fled, the heart
of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and the king and his
servants said, ‘What in the world have we done? For we have released the
people of Israel from serving us!’ Then he prepared his chariots and his
army with him… the lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and
he chased after the Israelites” (14:5-6,8a). Israel had been rescued from
foreign subjugation, but their former oppressors wanted to re-subjugate them,
turning exodus back to exile. How is this related to David? It is
related in that the sentiment of the words that Saul spoke to David, which
seemed to be words of peace and release, in recognition of the Lord’s
faithfulness to David (like those of Pharaoh to Moses), seemed to be
short-lived. A short time after the cave incident, “The Ziphites came to
Saul at Gibeah and said, ‘Isn’t David hiding on the hill of Hakilah near
Jeshimon?’” (26:1) Rather than recalling David’s mercy and the Lord’s
faithfulness to David, “Saul arose and went down to the desert of Ziph,
accompanied by three thousand select men of Israel, to look for David in the
desert of Ziph” (26:2). Following a report, Saul’s heart is turned.
This sounds remarkably like Pharaoh’s reaction to the departure of the people,
after his previous recognition of the power and faithfulness of Israel’s
God.
Pharaoh reversed his assertion and set out after Moses and
Israel, and Saul would do the same. What happens? David confirms that
Saul is pursuing him again, reversing the exodus, previously granted by Saul,
from the subjugating and exile extending pursuit, but he does not respond in
either fear or anger. Like Moses at the Red Sea, when learning that
Pharaoh and Egypt were once again in pursuit in order to subjugate and bring
Israel back to exile, David knows that the Lord is fighting his battles for
him. He says, “Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?”
(26:6b) Naturally, this was not for the purpose that his men expected,
which they hoped was to kill Saul and thereby end their exile, but rather, for
David to take another opportunity to make yet another point to Saul, and
function, yet again, as a deliverer in the eyes of Saul, Saul’s men, his own
men, and ultimately all of Israel as well.
When Saul is approached while sleeping, the man that went
with David, Abishai, said, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands”
(26:8b). Quite rightly, he speaks of God’s blessing upon His faithful
servant, David. David, however, does not necessarily focus on what God
has delivered to him, but rather, God’s delivering of him from his own exile,
and with being a deliverer, and a light, and a reflection of the glory of the
God that has anointed him to be his ambassador in this world. It appears
that David does not see deliverance coming through the striking down of his
enemy, but rather, in loving his enemy, and sparing his life again, in what is
going to be, for David, because his own exile and subjugation will continue for
the forseeable future, a costly act of sacrificial love.
“David said to Abishai, ‘Don’t kill him! Who can
extend his hand against the Lord’s chosen one and remain guiltless?’”
(26:9) Pharaoh had attempted to do this, and things had gone poorly for
him. David, of course, was not in the same position as Pharaoh (who was
not the Lord’s chosen one), as it is Saul that, as far as David is concerned,
still stands in that role. He said, “may the Lord prevent me from
extending my hand against the Lord’s chosen one!” (26:11) David continued
to rely on the faithfulness of his God, choosing to endure hardship and
suffering, rather than enter in to the establishment of his kingdom by raising
his sword against the one that was persecuting and subjugating him. He
trusted that he would eventually be lifted from his exile and set upon his
throne, with the requisite glory and honor and dominion that would be attendant
upon that enthronement. In this particular instance, we see David bearing
the image of the One from heaven.
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