Summary:
In 1 Sam 24-26, David was presented with three opportunities to kill.
Even when it seemed that God had given him the opportunity to kill Saul, David still was committed to doing the will of God, though it seemed unfavourable to him. Let us learn from David who always sought to bring honour to God in everything he did.

This sermon will be on understanding the will of God based on 3 stories of David.

Rom 12:2

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Paul contrasts obeying the will of God with conforming to the world. Conforming to the world is effortless. Because it’s in our own nature; it’s in us! On the other hand, obeying the will of God requires effort. This verse says it requires transformation by the renewing of the mind. And it’s not always obvious what the will of God is. It’s less obvious that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect. We know it’s theoretically true. But when applied to our lives, we aren’t able to see. Instead we see what the world offers us as good and perfect. We may even mistake what the world gives us as perfect. We think the will of God is not good to us. We find the will of God is unacceptable. Sometimes we even wonder how the will of God can be perfect. And precisely because it’s not obvious to us, Paul tells us we need to prove it. The Chinese translates it as “test” “discern” which is the same as English to “prove”. What is obvious does not need to be proven.

This sermon takes a look at a practical application of this verse by looking at 3 stories of David. Each time, he’s presented with the opportunity to kill or not to kill. How did David prove what was the good, acceptable and perfect will of God?

1st incident

1 Sam 24

Saul chose 3000 men to go after David’s life. Coincidentally, Saul entered the same cave David and his men were hiding. An opportunity has presented itself. What is the will of God? To kill, or not to kill? What would you have done?

Let’s take a look at what the men of David wanted to do.

1 Sam 24:4

Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

Without a shadow of doubt, killing Saul was the will of God for David. To them, they had very valid reasons. Because Saul was the source of all their troubles. He has relentlessly gone after their lives.

They told David in 1 Sam 23:3,
“Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

They were in constant fear of their lives because of this man Saul.

And if we read 1 Sam 23:26, they were almost caught by Saul. The Bible describes them as escaping by “a hair’s breadth”. So killing Saul would help them solve all problems.

Is this how we determine what the will of God is? “If the outcome is favourable to me, it’s the will of God. If it’s not, it’s not the will of God.”

Secondly, it was very clear God had given them this opportunity.

1 Sam 24:4
“This is the day of which the Lord said to you”

Of all the caves in this region (there were many in En Gedi), why did Saul choose this one to answer the call for nature? And God is the Lord of all nature. It was very clear to them that it was the hand of God. Not just to them, to everyone in this story!

V10
Look, this day your eyes have seen that the LORD delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD’s anointed.’

It was very very clear to David that it was the Lord who delivered Saul to his hand.

V18
And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.

It was clear, even to Saul, that it was the hand of God.

So if God has given us this opportunity, isn’t it the will of God? “Why should I not take it?”

Furthermore the men of David really thought they were fulfilling the will of God (v4). God had already rejected King Saul and promised David would be king. What was wrong with actualising the promise of God? If not, how will our master David become the king of Israel? Furthermore, it’s done in self defence! We’re not murdering Saul, he’s coming after our lives! Even Saul said he would have done the same (v19). To Saul, it was only reasonable to have been killed when having fallen into their hands.

What about David? What did he think the will of God was?

V6-7
And he said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.

David comes to an entirely different conclusion from his men. He concludes that killing Saul is not the will of God. Because David knew that whether an outcome is favourable does NOT determine the will of God.

There was once a man who came to church. He asked if adultery was a sin because he had fallen in love with a married woman. The relevant verses were shown to him. But he was not convinced. “I need to go home and pray about it.” He came back. He concluded that based on his prayer and communication with God, this was not a mortal sin, or a sin at all.

Was he trying to find the will of God? Of course not. He only wanted the outcome to be favourable to Himself.

Here, we see the outcome would be totally unfavourable to David. But David spared the life of Saul. David also knew that a God given opportunity does not mean that it is the will of God. We might ask, “Why did God give me this opportunity, if God does not want me to take this opportunity?” We have to be a bit careful. Because not all opportunities come from God. Some opportunities come knocking because we go and look for them. We go looking for the opportunities despite the command of God forbidding us. Of course there will be opportunities for us to sin.

In fact, this story tells us that even if the opportunity is from God, God might have presented it to us, not so we can act on it, but to see whether we would honour Him and not act on it.

What was David’s criteria to determine the will of God? His one and only criteria was whether the action would give God the greatest honour. And in this case, it meant that since God had anointed Saul, then Saul can only be removed by God.

We can see David had a high regard for the anointed of the Lord. He felt guilty even for cutting the corner of Saul’s robe. Why?

The speaker was trying to think of an equivalent in today’s terms. Here is an example. He has a long time friend of his; who used to stay in the hostel 30 years ago. The hostel master somehow didn’t like him and always picked on him. There was once the hostel master made his friend wash the drain outside the hostel. The hostel was large and the drain was long. His friend got angry. He said it was so long, he spent so much time and he was so angry. So when he had the opportunity he did something. He thought no one was looking. He secretly released the air from the tires of the hostel master. He turned around and the hostel master was just right there staring at him.

In a similar way, cutting off the corner of Saul’s robe may seem insignificant to us. But to David, it was going against the interest of Saul. To David, what did it actually mean to honour the anointed of the Lord? It meant that he had to honour Saul as his master. Immediately after his conscience struck him, he refers to Saul as his master in v6. And then v7 he restrains all his servants from harming Saul. He could’ve just allowed his men to do the dirty work for him. He could have said, “I didn’t do it! My men wanted to do it!”

Would you still seek the best interest of a man who wanted to kill you?

But David knew he had to work for the best interests of Saul. David honoured Saul not because Saul was a great or good man, but because he had to give the greatest honour to his God.

In the end, David proved what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Even Saul acknowledged that David was a righteous man.

What about us? Who do we give the greatest honour to?

2nd incident

1 Sam 25. We just read that David refused to take vengeance for himself. But here there’s a complete flip of the script. David wants to take vengeance for himself. What happened? Because David’s men had protected Nabal’s flock while they were in Carmel. Some have asked whether David was acting like a gangster asking for protection money. What David did probably reflected the practice at that time. The danger of raiders was very real. In fact, later on David was raided as well. His own city Ziglag was raided by Amalekites. Even Nabal’s men acknowledged that David’s men gave them very good protection. It was not an imagined scenario. And David is not asking for a monthly fixed amount. He sent his men on one feast day and asked Nabal to give something.

How did Nabal respond? Actually, Nabal had a few options. He could have given a great generous gift to David. Or, he could have given a less generous gift. David had said anything was fine. Or thirdly, Nabal could have apologised and not given a gift. He could have said, “I need to leave what I have for my shepherds and shearers.” And he could have apologised. But he took the last option, which shows that he was really a scoundrel. He decided not to give and even added insult.

“Who is David?”

Of course Nabal knew who David was. In fact, he says “Who is the son of Jesse?” David was well known in Israel. But Nabal just refused to acknowledge David.

How did David respond? To kill or not to kill?

V13
Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.

David’s action is expected. In the world, the thinking is, “If you don’t treat me well even though I treat you well, I will take vengeance.”

The servants knew what was coming.

V17
Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.”

We know David doesn’t use the ways of the world. But why did David take this action? He refused to take the life of Saul but now wanted to slaughter the whole house of Nabal.

Saul was his superior. The anointed of the Lord. The king. Of course Saul had his men too. But now Nabal was insulting him.

If we think about it, Nabal was really a fool. If David could protect him from the raiders, wouldn’t David be able to raid him?

Nabal asked, “Who is David?”

But in reality, who was Nabal to insult David?

There is a Chinese saying, “人善被人欺，马善被人骑”, meaning, a weak person is liable to be bullied, a weak horse is likely to be ridden.

David was going to show Nabal.

V22
May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.”

But was this the will of God? Obviously not.

V31
that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.”

If David had killed Nabal, he would have shed blood without cause. He wasn’t killing Nabal out of self defence. Being insulted doesn’t mean you can kill a person. Abigail said that doing this was taking vengeance for himself. The right response is to commit it to God. Just like what Paul said in Romans not to repay evil for evil. Do not take vengeance for ourselves.

We may also act like David when our emotions get the better of us. If we are humiliated. If the person insulting us is someone lower than us. All the more we find it harder to swallow. Let’s not talk about doing the will of God. It’s the last thing on our minds. We just want to defend our pride/honour. Is this not the action of the people of the world?

For David, his reaction is out of character. But it was really a moment of rashness. He was angered by the harsh words of Nabal. Words can really insult someone and cause someone to do something foolish. But he was also quickly appeased by the wide words of Abigail.

V33
And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand.

Previously we saw David discerning that the voice of his men wasn’t the will of God. Here, David shows that he’s not a person that does not listen to others. He discerned that Abigail’s voice of reason was actually the will of God. He recognised it was God who sent Abigail to hold him back. So he turned course. He acknowledged that he was wrong and he wasn’t supposed to take revenge for himself. He should commit it to the will of God. Again David proved what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Because God repaid Nabal for all he had done. God struck Nabal dead. Only God can take vengeance because vengeance is the Lord’s.

How about us? When God sends a voice of reason to hold us back, do we still insist on taking matters into our own hands? Or do we overcome our emotions like David and submit to the will of God?

3rd incident

1 Sam 26

This is almost a repeat of chapter 24. Everything said earlier can be applied here. In this chapter, again Saul changes his mind and wants to pursue David. Again an opportunity presents itself.

V12
So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul’s head, and they got away; and no man saw or knew it or awoke. For they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.

Previously, there was still a chance it was a coincidence that Saul entered the cave. But now the deep sleep came from the Lord. Everything is also laid out nicely for him.

v7
there Saul lay sleeping within the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head

The spear was just next to Saul’s head. Most likely this is the same spear Saul tried to spear David with.

Again, what is the will of God? To kill or not to kill?

v8 Abishai and the men who followed David say it’s the will of God to kill Saul. “Maybe you didn’t do the will of God the other time. God is giving you a second chance to do His will!”

Likely this was a test of David’s endurance. Saul had changed his mind. Would David also change his mind?

The first time David committed to do the will of God, God provided a way out for him. What happens when things become unfavourable again? Would we stick to our commitment? “What if Saul keeps changing his mind? What if he keeps coming after me? Maybe God is really giving me an opportunity here to finish him off.” Sometimes we make a commitment and also change our minds.

Saul was someone who constantly flip flops. Previously he said he had sinned! Then he comes after David again. We know that Saul had removed all the mediums from the land of Israel. But when his own life was in danger, he went looking for a medium himself. He was a man who did not hold on to his commitment to the very end.

Are we like Saul or like David? Many of us made commitments when we received the Holy Spirit. “I must live for God. I am going to attend more services. I will read the Bible and pray everyday.”

Are we still committed today? Or have we changed our commitments already?

In conclusion, let’s read
Heb 10:36
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

Time is the greatest challenge to our faith. Endurance is most necessary to do the will of God. Doing the will of God for a moment is easy. But doing the will of God for a lifetime is difficult. Doing the will of God when it is favourable is easy. Doing the will of God when things turn unfavourable is very very hard.

And in all three stories we see that David was committed to doing the will of God, even when the situation was unfavourable. Even when he was insulted and had to swallow his pride. He was committed to the very end.

And eventually we know that David proved the good, acceptable and perfect will of God throughout his life. Will we also prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God throughout our life? Are we committed to the will of God to the very end?