1 Samuel 19
REMAIN THE INNOCENT
1 Samuel 19:1-17
King Saul began to plot against David's life. He even told his son and servants that they should kill David. But David had the protection of God, the love of his friends, and respect from the people. He was faithful to God, a brave and capable soldier, and most importantly: he was innocent. Saul wanted his successor to die, not David specifically. Saul had once greatly loved David, and remembrance of that love left him conflicted. One day he would try to kill David, the next he would swear not to kill David.
Yet it did not matter whether Saul decided to kill David or not because David had protection from God. The tumult within Saul's spirit was a personal journey with God, important and instructional scripture itself, but it would not block or ever deter God from placing His chosen on the throne.
Another attempt at David's life evaded, he arrived home just to realize that Saul's messengers were on their way to take David. Michal, David's wife, urged him to flee for his life; David followed her advice and she used tricks to buy him time when the messengers arrived. But David's decision to flee was not made from fear. He chose not to kill Saul; He chose not to defend himself. He chose to let God defend and protect him.
Moreover, David cared about Saul. Despite having plenty reason to hate him, David did not want to harm him. He remained innocent; God is a buckler to them that walk uprightly, Proverbs 2:7. God supports the righteous. This particular matter is life and death, but the lesson can be applied to less dire issues. We do not need to return evil for evil; rudeness for rudeness; impatience for impatience. It requires effort, it requires spiritual fortitude, but always endeavor to be the innocent party.
(We must note that David did not hang around to be abused and murdered by Saul. He left and, we will see, relied heavily upon God and prayer to preserve him. In our effort not to copy the bad behavior of our enemy, we are not choosing to allow it. Also remember that there is precedent and support of self-defense in the Bible).
GODS PLAN CANNOT BE DERAILED
1 Samuel 19:19-24
David fled, and escaped, and went to Samuel (the prophet through which God chose David as Saul's successor). Saul pursued David even there. He sent three sets of messengers, three separate times, to capture and kill David. Each time, the messengers abandoned their mission. The Spirit of God set upon each set of messengers and caused them to prophesy. After three failed attempts, Saul traveled to David himself. But when he arrived, the Spirit of God set upon even Saul and even Saul prophesied! Against his own agenda!
Not for the first or last time in scripture, we see that even enemies of God bow to His plans. No matter how mighty, no matter how numerous, no matter how clever or determined their own will, each bend to God's will. In Matthew 8:29, two evil spirits came into the presence of Jesus and quaked: "And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?"
Note that God's enemy is afraid of him, is aware that their destruction is imminent, inevitable, scheduled. The text does not say particularly what was prophesied, but we know the main point: David would be king. We have a choice: align our minds and behavior with God's will, which will not be derailed, or plot and flail and condemn ourselves with our own crooked agenda which will be.