Cat and Mouse

1 Samuel 26:1-25

¹Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?” ²So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. ³And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, ⁴David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. ⁵Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him. ⁶Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” ⁷So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. ⁸Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” ⁹But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?” ¹⁰And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. ¹¹The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” ¹²So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. ¹³Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them.

Back in 1963, my mom enjoyed a TV show called The Fugitive about a man who is wrongly accused of killing his wife. He then goes on the run to try and prove his innocence by finding the person who actually committed the crime. As I was reading the continuing saga of David and Saul, I couldn’t help but think of this falsely accused man. David has done nothing to Saul, and yet Saul continues the chase. By this time in the story, they two men have been at this cat and mouse game for almost 10 years. But this is the last interaction these two men will have.

David has one last opportunity to kill Saul and still doesn’t take it. While Saul bring 3,000 men to capture David, all it takes is God’s provision of a little deep sleep and David’s stealth to create a moment of intrigue. Again, one of David’s men encourages him to take Saul’s life, evening volunteering to do the deep himself. David again denies that opportunity and Saul is allowed to live. David leaves the length of Saul’s life in God’s hands where it belongs.

There are two brilliant examples of obedience to God’s commands in this late-night expedition. First we find David upholding Saul’s anointing as the king, done at God’s command. Second, we see David protecting the sanctity of human life. Both reasons are good ones. And I cannot escape making comparisons to the world we live in today. There is little or no respect for those in authority over us and human life has become a cheap commodity.

Yesterday, I saw a video of police officers in New York City being doused by buckets of water, thrown on them as they were making a lawful arrest. It was humiliating to even watch. I can’t imagine what it was like for those officers to experience. But they remained calm and did not retaliate. I admired their restraint. That level of disrespect is rampant in our culture and can only lead to bad things. David has sparred Saul something far worse than a bucket of water, but the underlying motive was the same. We feel quite free to kill innocent unborn babies in this culture under the moniker “my body, my choice”. This is simply culturally sanctioned murder. Millions of human lives have been thrown in the dust bin and God is not pleased.

David shows us what it means to leave God’s business in His hands. I’m certain his flesh would rather have seen Saul die in that moment so that the chase could be over. But instead, he leaves it in God’s hands. He’d already seen how God handled Nabal. Maybe we could benefit from a look back and see how God handled our troubles and let Him continue to do that for us as well.