Walk of Rebellion

WALKING WITH GOD. No.21

1 Sam 24:4-6 Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD ’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.”

Over the years there has been a demeaning of authority in our land. Government are derided by the media, the police on occasion have been shown to be corrupt and even teachers are looked down upon. Authority is not a good word for our society, which is what might, perhaps, make the truths behind these verses sound almost strange to our modern mind. Let’s consider what had been happening.

Time has moved on from our last meditation and David has fled from Saul’s service and has a small army of his own now but is, nevertheless, on the run from Saul and his much bigger army. On this particular occasion Saul has an army of three thousand elite troops with him (24:2) and they have been chasing David and his men across the desert. David and his men are hiding in a large cave when Saul and his troops arrive outside, but being completely unaware that David is there, Saul goes into the cave to answer a call of nature and, presumably, hangs up his cloak as he goes further aside to do what he has to do. David’s men are watching out of the darkness and encourage David to creep up on Saul and kill him while he is vulnerable. David does creep up but, almost as a dare, just cuts off the bottom corner of Saul’s robe hanging up, and then creeps away. Saul finishes and leaves the cave, completely unaware that his life had nearly been taken. Now we won’t worry about what followed, only is as far as it involved David’s heart as revealed in the verses above.

Remember first, if you will, that David has been described as a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14 / Acts 13:22 ) and God is the supreme authority who sends authorities to maintain peace on the earth. As Peter said, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.” (1 Pet 2:13,14). Now going back a little in Israel ’s history, the people had asked Samuel for a king (1 Sam 8:5), and God had chosen Saul (1 Sam 9:16), and then he was chosen by lot (1 Sam 10:19 -24). He was a man who was quickly accepted by the people because he was the sort of man they wanted as a king. He had been anointed by Samuel (1 Sam 10:1) and accepted by the people. Now regardless of whether he was a good king or not, he was still the one God had chosen for the people; he is God’s authority.

Thus, after David has cut off a piece of Saul’s cloak, David is conscience-stricken for he sees this as an act of rebellion against God’s authority. We may consider this a minor thing, but the ‘man after God’s own heart’ considered this an act against the anointed authority of God. We say again, it didn’t matter whether he turned out to be a good or bad king, he was still the one who had been anointed by God to be king. Also it didn’t matter that David had subsequently been anointed to be king. The reality, as far as David was concerned, was that God had appointed Saul and God would have to remove him.

A similar situation later occurred where David could have taken Saul’s life at the encouragement of his men, but “David said to Abishai, “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. But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD ’s anointed.” (1 Sam 26:9-11). Do you see that? God may strike him down, but I won’t.

David saw his walk across the cave had been a walk of rebellion and he immediately repented of it. It had been raising his hand against the one God had anointed and he knew that only God could remove Saul. How about us? What is our attitude towards authority like? The writer to the Hebrews wrote about the church, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden.” (Heb 13:17). Listen to Peter’s strong words: “the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.” (2 Pet 2:9,10). For him, despising authority was a sign of the old sinful nature. This would have been why Paul taught, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone– for kings and all those in authority.” (1 Tim 2:1). That way we maintain a right attitude towards authority. May it be so.