1 Samuel 26:1-12 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 26:1-12. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
1 Samuel 26:1-2 (NIV)
1 The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?”
2 So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand chosen men of Israel, to search there for David.
On verses 1-2: Previously in chapter 24 Saul had an emotional encounter with David and with God where his sinfulness was exposed and Saul seemed to be repentant. Yet here in chapter 26 we find Saul returning to his old ways, hunting David down again. How did Saul’s bad habit restart? Verses 1-2 give us a clue: The Ziphites, who had previously committed to helping Saul hunt down David (1 Samuel 23:19), were still acting as informants to Saul, telling Saul where David was hiding. In other words, Saul was still allowing the wrong people to influence his thoughts and had not taken a stand against old destructive habits in his life.
What can we learn from this? I can have an emotional encounter with God — at church, at a conference, listening to a speaker, while praying or being prayed for — but if I don’t take a stand against old, destructive habits in my life or if I continue to let the wrong crowd influence my thinking, I will eventually return to my old ways, like a dog returning to its vomit (Proverbs 26:11).
1 Samuel 26:3-6 (NIV)
3 Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the desert. When he saw that Saul had followed him there,
4 he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.
5 Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the camp, with the army encamped around him.
6 David then asked Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?” “I’ll go with you,” said Abishai.
On verses 3-6: After making some inquiries and learning that Saul had indeed gone into the desert to look for David (v3-5), David asks for someone to go down into Saul’s camp with him. Abishai volunteers to go (v6). David was wise enough not to go into enemy territory alone. Likewise, especially when you are stepping out to face difficult or uncertain circumstances, don’t try to go it alone. Like David, be humble and wise to ask for support.
1 Samuel 26:7-12 (NIV)
7 So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.
8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice.”
9 But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?
10 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.
11 But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.”
12 So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the LORD had put them into a deep sleep.
On verses 7-12: David and Abishai head down into Saul’s camp, undetected by any of Saul’s men. They find Saul asleep and unarmed (v7). Abishai asks David for permission to kill Saul (v8), but David refuses. David trusts that the Lord Himself would deal with Saul and that David would not have to lay a hand on him (v9-11). Instead of killing Saul, David takes Saul’s spear and water jug as proof that he could have killed Saul but decided once again to spare his life (v12).
What can we learn from this?
1. Instead of taking matters into your own hands and doing evil, like David we want to trust God to accomplish His purpose for our lives His way.
2. Notice that David didn’t stop and pray about what to do when he saw Saul sleeping and vulnerable. And he didn’t have to. That’s because God had already taught David an important principle of not taking matters into David’s own hands, but trusting God to do it His way. So when another situation presented itself where David could choose whether or not to kill Saul, David, by his convictions, already knew what was the right thing to do. Likewise, as you grow in your relationship with Christ, there are certain lessons that God teaches you that He wants to become convictions and values by which you can live and immediately apply to different situations you face, such that you don’t need to keep asking God afresh what to do because God has already shown you what you should do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray. We want to be praying continually and depending on God continually. But in certain situations, it actually takes more faith, maturity and dependence on God not to ask God again for direction and to simply stand on the word God has already spoken to you than to ask God for direction as if God has never spoken to you or taught you what you should do.
Father, I pray that I would not be influenced by the wrong crowd, but rather that I would grow in my understanding of the kind of person You want me to be and the kind of life You want me to live. I pray that I would not take matters into my own hands by doing evil, but trust You that You will work out Your best will for my life in Your way and Your time. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
