1 Samuel, Chapter 26 - While the King Slept | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom, friends. Welcome back to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of Samuel. First book of Samuel, chapter [music] 26. Brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com, www, of course. Anyway, I want you to picture something with me, Jeremy. Everybody out there, picture this. It's the dead of night in the wilderness of Ziph, the Judean desert, the the kind of darkness we know so well out here, right? Where the only light is the stars and the only sound is the wind moving through the hills. And that's a loud wind very often. You know, if you visit us out here at the farm, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you haven't, I hope you get to visit us soon. Anyways, down in the camp below, 3,000 soldiers lie asleep around their king. And in the very center, his spear stuck into the ground beside his head, lies Saul, the anointed king of Israel, the man who's been hunting David like an animal for what feels like a very long time. And David is standing right over him. And he has a choice. One thrust of that spear and it's finished. The persecution ends. The throne is his. The very throne God has already promised him through Shmuel the prophet. Every human instinct, every reasonable calculation, every loyal soldier beside him is screaming, "Do it!" And David does not. And David does not do it. Chapter 26 is the second time David holds Saul's life in his hands and refuses to take it. And it may be one of the most important leadership chapters for understanding what kind of king and what kind of nation God is actually really trying to build here with us. You know, so the chapter opens with betrayal. The people of Ziph, Judeans, men from David's own tribe, come to Shaul and inform on him. They tell the king exactly where David is hiding in the hills. And Shaul, who only chapters ago was weeping, confessing that David was more righteous than he was, he would never harm him, immediately gathers 3,000 elite soldiers and goes right back out to the hunt. And I believe that if we're really going to understand the depth of what's happening here, we have to sit with that detail. Because Saul's confession in the last chapter was not fake. His tears were not meaningless, at least I don't believe they were. In that moment, I believe he really did see the truth. He really did know that David was righteous. He really did understand that the kingdom was destined to pass into David's hands. And yet, the moment he's given another opportunity to pursue him, he does it. He doesn't pause. He doesn't say, "Wait, maybe I already learned this lesson." He slips right back into the same old pattern. And that tells us something so tragic about Saul. He has flashes of clarity, right? Moments of real remorse, even moments of spiritual honesty, but they don't transform him. They don't become lasting change. The light breaks through for a moment, and then the old fear, the old jealousy, the old insecurity, the old neural wiring patterns of thinking just take over again. The pattern will not break. So, David sees the camp from the heights, and he asks his men, "Who will go down with me into the camp tonight?" It's a dangerous mission. Abishai volunteers. I'm sure there were other volunteers, but Abishai volunteers and David takes him. And the two of them descend in total darkness right into the heart of 3,000 sleeping soldiers. And then comes a verse that also helps us grasp the the depth of what's really happening here. Verse 12. Kee tardemah sham nafalah aleihem, for a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. A a tardemah. A tardemah. A divine a divinely sent deep sleep. It's the very same word, the very same supernatural sleep that fell upon Adam when Eve was formed and upon Abraham at the covenant covenant between the pieces at the breach between the tarim. Right, this is no ordinary sleep. The text is telling us plainly this opportunity was orchestrated. Hashem himself laid the king bare and helped us before King David. And that is exactly what makes this test so challenging. Hindsight is 20/20. We know how things turned out, but at the time I can imagine that's quite a test because Avishai understands the moment perfectly. He leans in and says to David verse 8, Right, God has delivered your enemy into your hands today. Let me pin him to the ground with a single thrust of the spear. I will not have to strike him twice. "I won't even need a second blow." Avishai said, "The whole thing will be over." You know, Ari, I just want to hold on for a second cuz we're going so deep into the story now. I just want to ask a really fundamental question and try to give an answer. I mean, why is David being tested twice like this? I mean, it's almost the same exact story as in the cave of En Gedi when he cuts off the corner of Saul's robe. And so, like, why this story and why is it happening twice? And so, I think it's really important. It's really crucial to really appreciate David. I mean, and maybe it was important for David himself to know the truth about himself. I mean, this time David has proof. Saul's repentance is just temporary. I mean, it's so volatile. He could kill him the next day. He could reasonably think Saul broke his word, Saul will never stop. David, "Listen, I've already passed this test once. Maybe now God is really giving me another opportunity to take him out." And what the second test comes to teach us about David and what it's maybe teaching David about himself is that David lives by principle. The first time he refuses to strike Saul, and maybe that was just a one-time occurrence. Maybe like, you know, once he comes to kill David again, the second time proves that his restraint is not emotional weakness or even a moment of pity. It's like the second time proves this is a matter of principle. David will never betray his principles, no matter what. And we see now more than ever, David lived by his conviction that God anointed him king over Israel. God will make him king over Israel in one way or another, in his own time and in his own way. He doesn't just say he's going to not lift a finger against Saul. This time it's deeper. He says, "God will fight my battles for me, and in one way or another, God will remove this obstacle for me." >> Yeah, that's exactly it, because David answers him in verse 9. Al tishleche yadecha, "Does Do not destroy him, for who can raise his hand against the Lord's anointed and remain guiltless?" Right? Do not destroy him. Mi shalach yado, "Who can lift a hand against the Mashiach Hashem and stay innocent?" David draws a line in the sand, no matter how great the temptation may seem, he will not cross. Yes, Saul's trying to murder him. Yes, the kingship is already promised, but Saul still carries the holy oil of kingship on his head, and David refuses to grab by violence what God has promised to give him in his own time. So, instead of Saul's life, he takes two things: Saul's spear and the jug of water from beside his head, and slips back out into the night. The proof, the evidence that he was close enough to kill the king 10 times over, and chose instead to walk away. Then David climbs the opposite mountain. He puts a great valley between himself and Saul's camp, and he shouts across the darkness. He wakes Abner, the general, and he mocks him. "You call yourself the guardian of the king? Then, where's his spear? Where's the jug of water that was by his head? A man came down to destroy your master last night and you didn't even stir? And Saul recognizes the voice carrying across the valley. It's David. Right? And the broken king calls to him. Verse 21. I have sinned. Behold, I have acted foolishly and erred greatly. I mean, there's a lot more to the little speech he gave there, but that's what he was saying, "Chatati, I've sinned." Hiskalti, I've acted like a fool. >> And that's what's so sad about Saul. You know, you see like you just see it. I mean, there were these are the exact words practically that he said last time when he spared David. "I have sinned. You're more righteous than I." It sounds like teshuvah. It sounds like repentance. Sounds like we're like he's returning. But once you break your word, you break your integrity. And then nothing you say can ever really carry that much weight. And I think Saul is showing us the difference between regret and teshuvah, real transformation. I mean, regret is feeling the pain of the moment. And that transformation is actually becoming a different person because of it. And to Saul, he may have tears now, but the next morning, the chase will begin all over again. And in some ways, this is the same warning we kept on hitting throughout the book of Judges. Crying in moments of crisis, and it's just not the same thing as actually changing your heart. >> Yeah, yeah. And and I'll tell you it's it what's clear about this is that David does not he doesn't fool himself. He doesn't delude himself into thinking that things are different. He doesn't come down the mountain. He remembers his lesson, too. Right? He crosses back across the valley. Right? Uh verse 23. And the Lord will repay, he screams to them, "And the Lord will repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness." Right? Hashem will repay each person, he's saying, according to his his tzedakah, his righteousness, and his emunah, his faithfulness. David is saying, "I will not take justice into my own hands. I trust the the one who truly runs history that he will settle every account in his time, not mine." And then Saul speaks the last words he will ever say to David. Verse 25. Baruch atah beni David. Blessed are you, my son David. You shall surely do great things, and you shall surely prevail. And then they part. Each goes his own way, and they never lay eyes on each other again. So, I think we have to ask ourselves, what is this chapter really teaching us here in our generation living back in the very wilderness that this all played out like right here? And while there are probably many lessons to learn, I'll tell you what hits me standing on these hills in Judea. Uh with I I I I really think I I visualize which valley, which sides of the mountain, you know, right on the other side of us, Jeremy, where Pnei Kedem and Metzad are. That is a valley that is not traversable. That's ours, but you could still hear each other. I picture it right there. Right? And And it's just clear that David ran and and and hid, and he refused to become the thing that was hunting him. David understood something that the whole world struggles with to this very day, that having the power to do something is not the same as having the right to do it. He had the strength. He had the opportunity. He even had the promise, and still he would not seize the crown through the bloodshed of the anointed of Israel. >> You know, and Ari, that's exactly the test of Israel today. I mean, for 2,000 years we had no power, and the world claimed to pity us. And now we've returned home. We've built an army. We have real strength in our hands. And for the first time in millennia, the world needs to look at us, and now they're demanding that we apologize for our own power. And so, I think the deeper lesson of David is not that power is bad. We have nothing to apologize for. It's that the king of Israel has to wield the power differently. It needs to be anchored in God and accountable to heaven. The world senses that Israel is just operating now from realpolitik or different reasons. We don't have that leader that projects godliness, that's representing God in the world. David is the prototype of the king we're waiting for. And every time Israel uses her strength with moral clarity instead of practical calculations and political considerations, we will be living out the lessons that David taught us on these mountains. But soon, a leader is going to rise up like David and lead us on the path of righteousness. >> From your mouth to God's ears, Jeremy. I mean, it's beautiful because that's the whole point. David isn't just sparing a man. He's modeling what malchut, what the kingship rooted in God, is supposed to look like. He refuses to let the cruelty of his enemy turn him cruel. He refuses to let Saul's madness rob him of his own sanity, of his own righteousness, of his own truth. And and the deepest truth of all is the the tardema, that deep sleep. Because it reminds us that the opportunity itself came from Hashem. God laid the whole scene before David, not to test whether David could win, but to test whether David could be trusted with winning. The throne was never going to come from a spear in the dark. It was going to come from God in the open in its time. And I really believe that that's our story as well. We're not building this nation in the dark by stealing what isn't ours. We are receiving back in the light of day the inheritance God promised our fathers. And the only question is whether we can be trusted with it. Whether we'll cling to our righteousness and the justice of our cause when it would be so much easier to abandon it and to play pragmatic games with the welfare of our soldiers and our nation, just because the whole world is demanding it and if we just do it, they'll just love us so much. Right? David walked away from that camp with a spear, a jug of water, and his soul fully intact. He became the king from whom Mashiach will descend, not because he grabbed the throne, but precisely because he refused to grab the throne by force. Right? So, here's the question this chapter leaves us tonight with, at least what I think. Right? When the moment comes, I think even in our personal lives, not just a when you when you have the power and the excuse and every reason to compromise who you are, will you be strong enough to hold the line? And it's not only each of us who's being asked, I think the whole nation of Israel is. For 2,000 years, we had no power and the world claimed to pity us. Now we've come home. Now we hold real strength in our hands, an army, a state, sovereignty in our ancient hills for the first time in millennia. And David's question from that mountain becomes our question. Will we wield this power the way he did, anchored in Hashem and restrained by holiness? Will we cling to the justice of our cause precisely when it would be so much easier to abandon it? And to the righteous of the nation standing with us here tonight around the world, you know, many so many of you that are watching this that are connected and love Israel, you've chosen to bless Israel even when it costs you everything. Right? Know that this is your test, too. Will you trust that Hashem will repay ish et tzidkato ve'et emunato, every man his righteousness and faithfulness for every man and every nation that stands on the side of truth in his perfect time? Because according to the laws of this world, it's much wiser to either stand against Israel or be silent right now. There's a real danger to standing with us. Do you believe that Hashem will repay you? Right? Because that's the courage of a king. And that's the courage being asked of our generation right now. So, chazak u'baruch, my friends. Be strong and courageous. 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