Scripture

1 Samuel 26:7-11 NLT

So David and Abishai went right into Saul’s camp and found him asleep, with his spear stuck in the ground beside his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying asleep around him. “God has surely handed your enemy over to you this time!” Abishai whispered to David. “Let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t need to strike twice!” “No!” David said. “Don’t kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the LORD’s anointed one? Surely the LORD will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle. The LORD forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed! But take his spear and that jug of water beside his head, and then let’s get out of here!”

Consider

Years before, God had chosen David to succeed Saul, Israel’s first king. Aware of his special anointing, David nevertheless continued to serve King Saul and to remain a loyal subject and son-in-law. Meanwhile, Saul—jealous, vindictive, and likely suffering from mental illness—made repeated attempts on David’s life, forcing David to flee from his wife and home to live in exile for many years.

Now David and Abishai, a commander in David’s army, come upon a sleeping Saul. What Abishai sees as a perfect opportunity to end the life of David’s enemy, David sees as an opportunity to honor God by resisting such temptation. Saul was God’s anointed king, whom God had not yet removed from power. Until he does, David says, I will trust in God’s sovereign judgment and wait for God’s timing to bring about what God has promised me.

We, too, may come upon the opportunity to bring down an enemy. We may uncover a vulnerability and the chance to hurt someone back as we have been hurt. Like Abishai, we may move in for the kill without thinking about what God wants from us.

Hating one’s enemies and desiring their ruin seems a natural human instinct. Yet David chose to honor God by honoring the life of his enemy. Let us, like David, pause before we strike and remember God’s sovereignty. It may be that God has plans for our unhappy situation that do not align with our ideas about justice or personal satisfaction. We must allow for the possibility that God wants to use us to somehow bless this person whom, left to ourselves, we would rather denounce and dismiss.

Pray

Sovereign God, when conflict bruises my heart or my ego, help me to pause like David and remember that you are Lord of my life. Give me patience to wait upon you and faith to trust that the future will unfold according to your desire, even when I don’t understand your plan. Overrule my instincts for revenge by filling me with your loving Spirit, so that I can value and respect even those people who do not value or respect me.

Reflect

Deuteronomy 32:35; Luke 6:27-36

Ponder

What makes it difficult to feel compassion for an enemy?