A CORNER OF THE ROBE

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 23, 2022 under 2022 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message; October 23, 2022 from 1 Samuel 24

Theme: With trust in the God who brings about justice for us, we can safely refuse to avenge ourselves.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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There’s a story in the Old Testament about David before he became king. He was tempted to take something that didn’t belong to him. And it’s important to know this story; because there are times when you and I might be tempted to take this same thing as well … and it doesn’t belong to us either.

What is that thing? It’s ‘vengeance’—the act of paying someone back, and exacting justice upon them, for the wrong we believe they have done to us personally. Revenge is something that human beings think they have the right to take. In fact, there are entire social movements today that are organized around the idea of certain individuals ‘exacting justice’ upon whole people groups for long-term wrongs and perceived injustices.

But when people ‘take’ this thing that doesn’t belong to them, it never ends well.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; before I share this Old Testament story with you, I need to make it clear—dear brothers and sisters in Christ—that this thing called ‘vengeance’ truly doesn’t belong to us. It belongs only to God; and it is always wrong for us to take to ourselves what He says only belongs to Him. Only He can do it rightly and justly.

In Romans 12:19-21, the apostle Paul wrote this:

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:19-21).

The apostle Paul is quoting here from several Old Testament passages. He’s quoting, for example from Deuteronomy 32:35; where God plainly says,

“Vengeance is Mine, and recompense …” (Deuteronomy 32:35a).

You might read that and think, “But wait a minute. Aren’t there times when God called His people to go out to battle and defend themselves against a hostile enemy? And aren’t there times when people were permitted to go before judges and defend their rights against someone who was trying to take advantage of them? And of course that’s true. But those aren’t occasions of ‘avenging one’s self’. In those cases, the pursuit of justice is submitted to the accountability of a higher civil authority that is appointed by God—through governmental and civil leadership or through courts of law. Rather; what Paul was warning us against was those occasions when we take it in hand—on our own authority and in accordance with our own will—to avenge ourselves personally upon an enemy instead of trusting God to take care of the matter for us. Paul also quoted from Leviticus 19:18; where God told the people of Israel;

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord (Leviticus 19:18).

Instead of taking vengeance on a personal level, we’re to love our enemies and do good to them. This, of course, requires great faith in God. It requires that we take His promises to us seriously; and that we believe and trust that He will bring about justice for us in His own time and in His own perfect way.

Paul also went on to quote from Proverbs 25:21-22; which says,

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat;
And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For so you will heap coals of fire on his head,
And the Lord will reward you (Proverbs 25:21-22).

To ‘heap coals of fire’ on our enemy’s head means to show such kindness and mercy to them that it gives the God of justice the opportunity to bring conviction to their hearts. It may mean that they repent. But then again, it could be that they won’t. But that’s not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to refrain from taking revenge upon our enemy, to show kindness and mercy and love to them, and to trust ourselves completely to God to bring about justice for us.

We must take Him very seriously when He says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” We must not take what belongs only to Him!

And the story that we find in 1 Samuel 24—the story about David—illustrates to us that we can confidently do this. It teaches us a vital lesson in life; that, with whole-hearted trust in the God who brings about justice for us, we can safely refuse to avenge ourselves.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; this is a story that takes place in a very troublesome time for David. He was on the run from Saul—the king of Israel. Saul had been a disobedient and unfaithful king; and God had told him that He was taking the kingdom away from him and giving it instead to David. Saul—who was a very unstable man—hated David. Saul would often fall into periods of murderous rage against him—sending his troops out in pursuit of David in order to slay him. And so, David had to gather a small band of men around himself and flee for his life.

There was a particular time when Saul sent his troops out to find David. And they almost closed in on David and his men too. But God had allowed the Philistine army to invade Israel—forcing Saul to abandon his effort. Saul was frustrated, and David was safe … for the moment.

But this takes us to 1 Samuel 24; and introduces us to …

1. A DESPERATE SITUATION.

In verse 1, we’re told;

Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi” (v. 1).

I have visited this place called En Gedi. It’s along the western shores of the Dead Sea. It’s an oasis in the middle of the dry, arid region around the sea. It has beautiful streams, and waterfalls, and high, rocky walls. It also has caves in those rocky walls. David took his small army of men to this place of refuge. And they all hid themselves in one of the large caves.

It may have been that David and his men thought they were safe for a time. But there were people around King Saul who were continually convincing him that David wanted to kill him and take the throne from him. So they kept urging Saul to seek out David and kill him first. Saul kept listening to these accusations, because his own heart had grown hard and resentful toward David. And so, verses 2-3 go on to tell us that after he had been informed that David went to En Gedi;

Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave) (vv. 2-3).

For Saul to go into the cave to “attend to his needs” means … well … just what you think it means. But what a desperate situation this presented! David was on the run for his life and the lives of his men. They chose a cave in which to hide. And then, King Saul chose to go and refresh himself in—of all places—that very cave in which David and his men had fled for safety.

There’s a lesson for us in this, dear brothers and sisters. Those moments when we might be tempted to do wrong—and take vengeance for ourselves instead of trusting God—might come at those surprising, unexpected moments of desperation. Temptation comes upon us in the midst of desperate situations; and we need to have it set in our hearts—well in advance—that we will trust God no matter what.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; I am imagining that David and his men were tired and fatigued. They had been on the run for a long time; and were being treated unjustly. There had been several times, by this point, during which King Saul had unjustly sought to kill them. You can imagine how a soldier like David, and the army of men that surrounded him, saw this as an opportunity.

And as we read on, that’s when we see …

2. THE TEMPTATION TO TAKE VENGEANCE.

The men around David remembered the promises that God had made about David—that God would remove the kingdom from Saul and give it to David. And so, verse 4 tells us,

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’” (v. 4a).

What a temptation this must have been for David! In one quick move, he could kill Saul and then receive the kingdom. But the problem is that the thing that David’s men said to him doesn’t appear to be a thing that God Himself ever said at all. It’s true that God had promised to give David the kingdom; but you won’t find any passage in Scripture in which we’re told that God would deliver King Saul into David’s hand and that David would be free to do to him whatever seemed good to him. This advice seems to have come more from out of the unbridled eagerness of David’s men to take vengeance on Saul, than from any clear message from God. It seems plain that this wasn’t a word from God, because David was careful not to act on it.

But what David did instead is told to us at the end of verse 4:

And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe (v. 4b).

Perhaps as King Saul was taking care of his needs, he had draped his royal robe over a rock; and it happened to be the very rock behind which David was hiding. What would have compelled David to take out a knife and cut it isn’t told to us. It could have been that David—in a moment of weakness, and because of the pressure of his companions—took out his knife and was about to ‘do the king in’ … and then, at the last second, simply cut the king’s robe instead. Perhaps David thought to himself, “There! I could have killed him; and I didn’t. But I sure took it out on his robe!” Perhaps—in a sense of ‘petty’ vengeance—he thought that cutting up the king’s robe was the next best thing to cutting up the king.

We’re not told why it was that David did this strange thing. But we are told how he felt about it afterward. He regretted it, and felt tremendous guilt about it. Verses 5-6 tell us;

Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. 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” (vv. 5-6).

David’s God-given conscience struck him; because—in essence—he had taken his own vengeance upon God’s anointed king of Israel. He performed a deed that didn’t come from any command of God; but rather that sprang from his own sinful self-will under pressure. He, in essence, defied God; and took it in hand to grasp for himself that which belongs only to the God of justice—and he did so in defiance of all that he knew and felt about the holy sanctity of the throne of God’s appointed king.

You know, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; in moments of temptation like that, we may not be tempted in the same way that David was. After all, he was tempted to rise up and literally assassinate the king. But we might be tempted in some other ways. We might be tempted to tear our enemy down with our words—that is, with slander, or gossip, or bits of news that would be designed to assassinate their character before others. Or we may even be tempted in some way to destroy something of theirs as payback for something they did to us. Perhaps that’s what David was doing to the king’s robe.

I remember reading a biblical counselor say that there’s a difference between other people’s sins, and my sinful response to other people’s sins. How true! You and I are not personally responsible the former; but we have complete responsibility for the latter. God will often allow us to fall into the temptation to take vengeance, in some way, as a test of our obedience to Him. Will we obey Him, and trust Him, and do what is right? As Paul put it, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

It had already gone too far with David. But he put a stop to it and didn’t allow it to go any further. He refused to lay a hand on God’s anointed king. Just think of how horribly it would have gone for David if he had! As verse 7 tells us;

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 (v. 7).

May God help us to resist the temptation to take what only belongs to God!

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; the reason that David restrained his men was because he chose to trust God’s promises toward him. He knew that—no matter what Saul might have done—God was still going to take the kingdom from him and put David on the throne in his place. It would all happen in God’s good time; and none of it would depend on any wrong-doing on the part of David.

And so; as Saul left the cave, we see from David …

3. THE WILLINGNESS TO SUBMIT TO GOD.

Perhaps, at this point, David looked in one hand and saw his knife, and in the other hand and saw the corner of Saul’s robe. And then, David did something that might possibly have terrified his men. I even wonder if they might have—at first—tried to stop him. We’re told;

David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed down (v. 8).

This was a very brave act. After all, King Saul—who had been pursuing David across the countryside—could have walked up and taken this opportunity to cut David down. But David was now completely submitting himself—not just to his king, but ultimately to the God of justice. We’re told;

And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? 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.’ Moreover, my father, see!” (vv. 9-11a).

And David held, in his hand, the corner of Saul’s robe. Perhaps Saul turned himself around to look; and he saw that—indeed—the corner of his robe had been cut off. Then, perhaps he looked back again to David and saw the corner-piece in one hand … and the knife in the other … and put everything together. David went on …

“Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you” (v. 11b).

David had sinned in dishonoring the king by cutting the corner off his robe. His heart convicted him of it. But in the providence of God, that corner-piece became a piece of evidence that proved that David would not harm Saul’s person. It was evidence against which Saul could not argue. Clearly, David could have taken vengeance on Saul … and yet, clearly, he wouldn’t.

But David then went on further bring conviction to Saul’s heart by declaring his own trust in God. He said;

“Yet you hunt my life to take it. Let the Lord judge between you and me, and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you” (vv. 11c-13).

What did David mean by quoting that ‘proverb of the ancients’? He was basically affirming the obvious fact that evil deeds—like vengeance—come from people whose hearts are not right with God. Saul was behaving in an evil way. But David would not prove himself to be an evil man. He would show that he trusted God by not taking vengeance on Saul. He would not respond to Saul’s sin by sinning himself. He would wait for God to take care of the matter.

David brought even further conviction to Saul by humbling himself before him. He said in verses 14-15;

After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? Therefore let the Lord be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand” (vv. 14-15).

It was as if David was saying, “You are the king of Israel—the Lord’s anointed! And yet, I am nothing! Why, O King, do you do this great injustice by wasting your time pursuing me? As for me, I will trust God to be my Judge and my Deliverer.” And can you see, in all of this, how essential it was that David trusted God completely?

Casting aside all ability to avenge ourselves can only make sense if we believe and trust—with our whole being—that God exists, that He is a just Judge, and that He will come to the defense of those who trust in Him. It may happen in our lifetimes on this earth; or it may only happen ultimately in the courts of heaven. But if we genuinely believe that God will vindicate us in His good time—whenever that will be—then we can safely refuse to avenge ourselves.

We can trust wholeheartedly that when God says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay”, He means it!

* * * * * * * * * *

And how did Saul respond to all this? Verses 16-21 go on to tell us …

4. THE RESPONSE OF THE KING.

Did you notice how David honored Saul by calling him, “my father”? Saul was, in fact, David’s father-in-law. But clearly, David used this name as a term of tender love and respect. And so, it’s very significant to read of how Saul responded:

So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. 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. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day” (vv. 16-19).

And what’s more, it seems that Saul was not only convicted of his wrong-doing to David, but also of his wrong-heartedness toward God. He went on to say;

“And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Therefore swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house” (vv. 16-21).

This would not have happened had David not refused to take vengeance to himself—and if he had not trust God instead.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; before we close our time, let’s consider what verse 22 tells us about …

5. THE OUTCOME THAT GOD BROUGHT ABOUT.

We’re told;

So David swore to Saul … (v. 22a).

That is to say, David promised that—when God made him king—he would honor the request of King Saul. And that was a promise that David did—indeed—keep. He honored Saul publicly and respectfully at Saul’s death; and he sought diligently afterward to honor and care for Saul’s offspring. David trusted God by neither taking vengeance on Saul, or on any of his family members.

And notice carefully that verse 22 goes on to tell us;

And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold (v. 22b).

If Saul went home, then why did David and his men remain in the stronghold of En Gedi? It was because David suspected that this apparent change-of-heart on Saul’s part was only temporary. The king was an unstable and capricious man. He could easily be talked into pursuing David again. And in fact, he was. Chapter 26 tells us that David once again had the opportunity to spare Saul’s life—and that Saul once again repented of his wrongdoing to David.

Saul eventually came to a terrible and tragic end. But even knowing how things might turn out, David still would not bring about Saul’s death by his own hand. He trusted God; who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay”.

David did not take what belonged only to God.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; David eventually was made king—as God promised. And it was through King David that our own Savior, King Jesus, was born into the world. One great lesson to learn from this story is how God kept His promise to David—and how David learned to trust Him.

But it’s also a lesson for you and me personally, dear brother and sister in Christ. David had set an example for us that was ultimately fulfilled in our greatest Example of all—the Lord Jesus Himself. In 1 Peter 2:20-25, the apostle Peter wrote to a group of Christians who were suffering persecution. They were being treated unjustly. And he told them;

For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;

who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:20-25).

Dear brother or sister; are you tempted to take vengeance for yourself? Don’t do it! Resist that temptation! Instead, commit yourself to your heavenly Father who judges righteously.

With trust in His ability to bring about a perfect justice for us, we can—indeed—safely refuse to avenge ourselves.

AE