“My Lord The King!”

After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 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.

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’

1 Samuel 24:1-10

This is a story of peer pressure. David and his men were hiding in the cave as Saul entered. David’s companions suggested that God had delivered Saul to them, and they urged David to kill Saul. If David killed Saul, they thought they could stop hiding and David could become Kind. But David refused to harm Saul because he was “the LORD’s anointed.”

People in our own lives may sometimes suggest we do what seems most gratifying or practical at the moment. But there is a difference between worldly and spiritual wisdom.

One is truly wise who gains his wisdom from above.

Our Daily Bread – June 25, 2014