Divine irony and a way beyond hate

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the LORD reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

1 Samuel 24:19-20

David models a way beyond hate, revenge, and killing. And David was a man of war. In the storyline just previous to this, David led his ragtag army of deserters and misfits to recapture an Israelite city from Philistine invaders. He knew how to fight in battle. David was a soldier. He knew what killing the enemy was all about... as a kid he hacked off the head of Goliath and walked around with it! 

Even though Saul had made David his enemy, David refused to do the same. He refused to go to war with Saul. He saw him as God’s anointed king and waited on the Lord to deal with Saul’s rage against him. David in his heart refused to make Saul the same kind of adversary as Goliath.

At the cave at the Wildgoat’s Rocks in En-gedi, Saul made a strategic error. The king entered the enclosed cave without having someone scout it out first, not realizing David and his men were hidden in it. Saul had more pressing kingly concerns. Nature was calling! It’s sorta comical and my inner ten year old boy imagines all the bathroom humor possible in the situation. Saul removes his robe to take care of business, and David sneaks up and stealthily cuts off a corner of the king’s royal robe. 

This would have been the perfect opportunity to strike Saul down, end the fugitive lifestyle, and claim the throne for David. But David refused to see Saul as an enemy. As the king’s company musters again in front of the cave, David marches to the entrance and then this treaty with Saul is made by Saul as the king acknowledges what God is doing.

Ironically, in 1 Samuel 23, Saul had hoped to capture David in a vulnerable position when David’s troops went to liberate the city of Keilah from Philistine invaders. It was a walled city which Saul hoped would be a trap. God intervened to spare David as Saul was closing in. Now, at the cave, the tables turned and it was Saul that was delivered, not by circumstances, but by David’s own choice. This is what got Saul’s attention... God turned the tables. God saved him, and at least for a while, Saul’s raging against God and against God’s plan for David to become king stopped. God will ironically do His work, for His glory, and no person will stop what God will do!