Kingly restraint

I enjoy good stories! Whether the transference is real or imagined, a good storyteller captivates me. My father was an excellent storyteller. He had the right balance of detail and pleasure that you could almost see, hear and smell what was occurring. The Bible is full of so many wonderful stories and the Old Testament really built you up for the climax of Christ in the New Testament. The authors predict, recount and track many facts. Some stories are joyous; some exceed suffering and anguish, while others have a surprise ending.

One such story is the story of David. In a segment of his life, before he was king but after the incident with Goliath, Saul was out hunting David down. I think Saul may have been manic or something because he had such opposites. He would love David one minute and hate him the next. Saul’s son was David’s best friend, Jonathan and Saul’s daughter was David’s wife!

In I Samuel 23 the story begins with Saul pursuing David. It’s really a little humorous to me that David is out there running from place to place with about 600 men and yet Saul can’t find him. Paul can’t find him because God didn’t want Saul to find him. The details of this story are interesting as David goes to the city of Keilah to fight off the Philistines and save the people of Keilah. This was a walled city and when Saul found out that David and his men were there, he headed right out to try and find him. Well, God told David that Saul was coming after him so he fled to the mountains and when Saul found out that he was in the mountains, he took 3000 of his men and went after him there! (Here comes the humorous end of this story!!) Saul and David chased each other around the mountain until David and his men finally hid in a large cave. While they were hiding in the back of this deep cave, Saul walked in the cave and decided to relieve himself. What would you have done? David had 600 hundred men and they were all in that cave! Saul was in a compromising position and they could have eliminated him without any trouble at all. Did they? No they did not! David snuck up behind him and cut a piece off of Saul’s robe and then waited until Saul walked out of the cave and was a distance away before he showed himself and proved that he could have eliminated him without any trouble but chose not to. After all this time of Saul threatening David and the steady chase and David’s life being constantly challenged, it must have taken quite a large amount of restraint NOT to have killed him. But David was eager to follow the leading of God in his life. David did not always follow the right path but he was striving at this point to do just that. What do you struggle to restrain a reaction to? Is it an act of passion? Is it an act of anger? Is it a quick word or sharp look? Perhaps it is even a vengeful plan rather than waiting for God to perform His own vengeance.

David knew that he was continuing to please God in Psalm 41:11 “The Lord is pleased with me because my enemies do not triumph.”