1 Samuel 26
Saul would not amicably release his post as king; David would not forcefully take it. The position had been given to, then taken from Saul by God. The root reason why Saul would not cease his homicidal hunt for David is the same reason God revoked the kingship from him: Saul refused to heed God's counsel; a godly nation cannot be led by a godless king.
It was not because Saul was an imperfect person. All fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23. David was not an exception. David was imperfect. But David obeyed God. If Israel had a leader that obeyed God, they would be led into blessed places. The judgement with which their king would shape and define their nation would be informed by a perfect God.
Saul did not obey God, but losing the kingship was not a personal punishment so much as it was a divine tweak to ensure that the righteously led nation, born of Adam, Abraham, and Jacob would continue through generations. Generations that would carry scripture and this holy, wholly separate (from the way of the world), lifestyle straight to Jesus' birth and beyond. Changing the heart and life and world of countless multitudes.
Saul and three thousand men pursued David through the wilderness once again. Once again, God positioned David, the prey, to have the upper-hand. It would have been so easily, and presumably tempting, for David to end the seemingly ceaseless threat on his life. He could have committed the act and reasonably labeled it self-defense. Breathed his first breaths without constant vigilance for the enemy behind his shoulder. Instead, David chose to respect God's timeline. He chose to live longer as a hunted, innocent man because above all of that, he was a blessed man. A protected man. A man, by God, chosen to be king.
David's restraint should remind us of 1 Peter 5:10, in which we learn that our tribulations construct our character thus and prepare us for God's plan. Though terminal, Saul's position as king was sanctioned by God. David was humble enough to appreciate that it was not his authority to determine that end date, even if it meant further misery.
Is it not, in misery, that we either learn or abandon that which will determine the outcome of our situation? Is it not reasonable to see that David, while chased like a vole by a cat, had the opportunity to learn how to be king? He learned to seek counsel from God. He learned to take direction from God. He saw the state of the character of a person who had never learned those things. He witnessed how imperative it is to a nation that a king not cling to personal pursuits. He learned patience and perseverance. He learned how to lead; he learned how even a rag-tag army led, ultimately, by God very much renders the mightier army the underdog.
As there was no shortage of opportunity for growth for David, there is none for us. God is our provision and shelter as we are starved and rain upon by tribulation. We are students before his hearth even in cold and vulnerable physical, emotional states. If we allow ourselves to be.
Saul did not. He was ashamed of himself. His desperation ate away at him, inside and out. He was a void; a bag of tumultuous wind. He lived as slave to his desire for status, power, wealth, ego. He lived in such a way that caused everything that mattered to him to die. Ashamed of himself, time and again, Saul refused to learn. He refused to abandon his plan, his methods, his timing and trade them for God's.
Having gained entrance easily, and standing outside of a sleeping Saul's tent, David reprimanded Saul's men for their poor protection of their king. David refused to forcefully take the crown, he refused to inherit it by a lapse in an army's duty. It would be handed to him by God or he would not have it at all. Not out of ego, but humility. He would not take what God had not unequivocally determined to be his at the precise time the determined it.
And even Saul blessed David for this, and knew David would prevail over him. David's ability to place God over self was a testament even to Saul of strength not weakness. Trusting God is not inaction... it is the most active one can be. It is an internal restructuring of character, a battening of the hatches, as the world lashes and coaxes you to yield.
Are we not all David, hunted, prey to an adversary? Hunted by our own base instincts? Anger hopes to claim us. Desire, pride, greed. 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, in no uncertain terms, that our adversary prowls around, seeking to devour. Will be be devoured or we will be shaped by God? Can we withstand the growing pains, of resisting the adversaries of life, of exercising trust in God? For if we resist our adversary, it will flee, James 4:7.
Our adversary... the devil and everything that the word figuratively encompasses: Depression, disillusionment, anger, greed, arrogance, injustice, corruption, deception, danger...
How do we resist? We choose, in every moment and thought, interaction and act, what is sanctioned by God. Justice. Patience. Mercy. Discernment. Humility. Kindness. Wisdom. Harmlessness. Not to be doormat but a door, through which those who receive your righteous behavior might pass. In strength we resist when we yield not to the adversary but God, who is our strength most especially when we have none, 2 Corinthians 12:10.
We do not allow a hunter, an adversary, (in any of its manifestations) to determine us prey. We are not prey, forced into hasty, scrappy, corrupt, hopeless or retaliatory behavior. We are children of God capable to repel whatever negative force in our life tries to lash and coax us away from righteous behavior and trust in God's choices and timing. We are not pieces moved haphazardly, we are not mere victims or byproducts of the bad things or people that happen to us, we are beloved and strategically placed by God when we allow ourselves to be, when we allow ourselves to see. To listen. To follow God to our precise place in His plan.