Right Response to Ugly authority (1 Samuel 26:8-11)

1 Samuel 26:8-11

8 Then said Abishai 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.” 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?” 10 And 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. 11 The 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.”

 

1 Samuel 26:21-22

 

21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” 22 And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it.

 

            All of us, at one time or another, have been under leadership that we did not particularly enjoy.  Perhaps you have been less-than-pleased with the results of a local or national election.  Perhaps you have worked for a boss who is just a tyrant.  Perhaps you are in a class with a teacher who is simply impossible to please.  How should you respond?

 

            Though God chose to anoint David as King of Israel, King Saul kept occupying that position for several years.  Saul mistreated David, falsely accusing David of ambition and trying to kill him on more than one occasion.  In two instances, as Saul was hunting David down in the wilderness, David found himself with the advantage over Saul.  David could have killed King Saul, but chose not to do so.

 

            Why did David not destroy Saul?  David was not averse to killing an enemy.  As a soldier, David had shed much blood.  However, David refused to stretch out his hand against Saul, because Saul, so long as he lived, was the Lord’s anointed king over Israel.  David, though Saul was not at all sane, would not destroy the man whom God had placed on Israel’s throne.

 

            Now, it is also interesting, looking at verses 21 and 22 above, that David did not put himself in a position to be harmed by Saul.  When Saul wept before David in much the same way an abusive husband often weeps after an outburst, David did not trust Saul or put himself back under Saul’s roof.  Nor did David lash out at Saul or otherwise try to harm him.  Instead, David merely pointed out that he was not going to harm Saul, and went on his way.

 

            So, what about you and me in our world?  Perhaps God would remind us today that he has indeed anointed those who are in authority over us.  Whether these be our pastors, our governors, our bosses, or our president, God has, for God’s own reasons, given these individuals their positions of power.  Perhaps we love what they do.  Perhaps we do not like them at all.  But God would teach us from David’s example never to lash out to do these men or women harm.  No one can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and find himself blameless in the process.  This does not mean that we have to trust these people.  Nor does it mean that we give them carte blanche to break the commands of our Lord.  It certainly does not mean that we allow ourselves to be abused by them.  However, like David, we must learn to live within the system if possible, to prayerfully ask God to change what needs to be changed, and to trust that our Lord will accomplish his will for his glory in and through our leadership.

 

            Obviously, there can arise a thousand moral questions from this little pondering of our response to authorities.  I cannot address every possibility here.  But I think it is good for the people of God to consider if we respond to our authorities—good or bad—in the way that would honor God as David did?  Do we show them the respect that is commanded in Romans 13; or how about the prayer?  If we trust that God is sovereign and if we believe his word is true, we are to respond to the men and women he places in authority over us with the kind of humility we see in David and which Paul spells out in Romans 13.