David: From Evildoers Come Evil Deeds

Well as the video stated, today we are studying 1 Samuel 24 and the time that Saul was chasing David and they ended up in the same cave. And once again David shows his character and we see that David and Saul are very different.

Saul is chasing down David because he wants to kill him. He states it several times in the passages leading up to this, so we know that Saul is not just looking for David to bring him back to the army, he wants him dead.

And Saul is right there and David has a chance to end this period of running and hiding, but David chooses not to. David does not take the throne by force, even though he could have in that moment but that was not what God had planned and David knew it.

I want you to notice something about the text here, who was David listening to?

If you read chapter 23 there a three instances where David is faced with a choice.

1 Samuel 23:1–2 NIV

1 When David was told, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are looting the threshing floors,” 2 he inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” The Lord answered him, “Go, attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

David is faced with a choice and he looks to God for his answer.

His men did not want to fight…they said we’re afraid here in Judah, how much more will be afraid going to fight the Philistines?

So David asks God again...

1 Samuel 23:4 NIV

4 Once again David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, “Go down to Keilah, for I am going to give the Philistines into your hand.”

After David and his men are successful fighting the Philistines Saul finds out where David is and he wants to hunt him down. So David is trapped in the city and needs to know if he should stay and hide or run.

1 Samuel 23:10–13 NIV

10 David said, “Lord, God of Israel, your servant has heard definitely that Saul plans to come to Keilah and destroy the town on account of me. 11 Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? Lord, God of Israel, tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will.” 12 Again David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah surrender me and my men to Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will.” 13 So David and his men, about six hundred in number, left Keilah and kept moving from place to place. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he did not go there.

David wants to know what to do so who does he ask? God. When David doesn’t know what he should do, he asks God in these two seperate incidents, and in each instance he seeks God more than once.

These are big questions, but in neither instance was he asking God if he should kill the king and take his place. Doesn’t that seem like a much bigger question than if he should go and fight the Philistines or run away from Saul? I think so.

But who does David listen to?

1 Samuel 24:4 NIV

4 The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

David listens to his men and sneaks up on Saul. He doesn’t kill him though, he just cuts his robe. And it was no small thing, cutting Saul’s robe like that. The corner of the robe is significant, David did not do this randomly.

Numbers 15:37–40 NIV

37 The Lord said to Moses, 38 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. 40 Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God.

The corner of the robe represented Israel’s commitment to God to follow His commands and not chase their own desires. Now maybe you could say that David was just closer to that part of the robe, or you could say that David was calling Saul out and not only removing the part of Saul’s robe that was supposed to identify with obedience, but Saul’s robe would have been different than everyone else’s so Saul’s tassels were not only designed to represent commitment to God’s commands, but also seperate Saul from everyone else as king.

So David cuts off the part of Saul’s robe that would prove that the person he killed was Saul and not some imposter, only Saul would have those tassels. So if David walks out of that cave with that tassel and Saul was dead there would be no question that David killed Saul and was taking his place as king.

But David doesn’t do that, in fact, after he cut off the tassel he felt bad about it. And he listened to his conscience.

He may not have asked God for an answer, but he came to his senses before he made a big mistake. David is a brave and powerful warrior, how would it look for him to kill Saul while Saul was alone and vulnerable? There is no honor in that. David is a man of honor for him to kill Saul in this instance would have been cowardly and unbecoming of a king. And remember, Saul looked like a king should look, but David acted like a king should act.

Its also important to note that Saul is Israel’s first king, if David sets the precedent of killing the king to take his place, what does that tell Israel about kings? That if you want to be king, you just need to kill the guy who is on the throne and take his crown, or tassel in this instance...

It also shows that David is listening to his conscience closely. We believe that all sins are equal to God, but in our society some sins have much greater consequences than others. So when we listen to our conscience and refrain from the lesser sins (culturally speaking) we can avoid the sins that carry a more serious consequence.

Saul leaves the cave and David follows him out. He says something that I want to highlight in vs 9.

1 Samuel 24:9 NIV

9 He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’?

I love this, David says why are you listening to men? Because David almost listened to his men and killed Saul but he relented and did not kill Saul, even though his men wanted him to. He turns it around on Saul and says ‘see, I didn’t listen to my men and kill you so stop listening to your men who are telling you to kill me!’

David goes on to say this in vs 12

1 Samuel 24:12–13 NIV

12 May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. 13 As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.

David is saying lets stop listening to everyone else and let God sort out who is king and lets you and me try and get along. But he also calls out Saul, he says something like what we’ve talked about recently, your actions tell me more about what you believe than your words do.

He says people who do evil deeds are evil doers. Not a lot of room for gray here, if you do evil things you are an evil doer. David has proven his innocence to Saul and then he says that God is the judge and God will deal with the injustice that David has experienced.

This is an important lesson to learn, don’t seek vengeance for yourself, let God handle everyone else, you do what He says and leave the rest to Him.

And what can Saul say? He admits that David is a better man than he is, who else would not kill their enemy when they had the chance? If the shoe was on the other foot, Saul would not have hesitated to kill David, and Saul knew it…that is why he is so shocked that David spared his life.

Saul says some nice things about David and asks him to let his kids live after he becomes king, it was common in other cultures for the new king to get rid of the old king’s family so there would be no claim to the throne. David makes an oath, and much later on in life he fulfils his oath to Saul.

So look to God for answers, pay attention when you feel uneasy about something, and leave the details up to God…He will make it right. Don’t take justice into your own hands, leave that to God and trust that He will do it better than you ever could and don’t risk the future God has for you just to make yourself feel better in the moment.

Because David could have ended this whole season of his life right then and there. He could have gone from hiding out in a cave and roaming from town to town to living the life of a king. But it wasn’t God’s timing so, in this instance, David shows his character and chooses the more difficult path to obedience.

Jesus talks about this sort of thing in the gospels.

Matthew 7:13–14 NIV

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

There is a song by the band Switchfoot called “life it well” and the chorus goes like this:

Life is short; I wanna live it well One life, one story to tell Life is short; I wanna live it well And you're the one I'm living for Awaken all my soul Every breath that you take is a miracle Life is short; I wanna live it well, yeah

Its easy to choose to do evil, its much harder to choose to do good. Choose to do good and trust that God will take care of you.