Fifty Two Weeks / 1 Samuel 26

This is why David was great. 

David had done nothing against saul. In fact, David had been a great blessing to Saul, but because David was so successful Saul’s envy and paranoia caused him to try to murder David and forced David to flee for his life. At this stage David had been gone for quite some time and in spite of his following had suffered much as a homeless refugee. 

Once before Saul had been delivered into David’s hands. David and his men were hidden in a cave when Saul entered the cave alone. David’s men urged him to kill Saul then and there but David refused. He did cut off a piece of Saul’s robe which he later presented to Saul as evidence that he could have killed him, and while Saul was remorseful for a brief while David knew it would be short lived and wisely fled. 

This time was different. Once again Saul was coming after David to kill him for no good reason. This time it was clearly the Lord who delivered SAul to David. This wasn’t just Saul wandering into the wrong cave. The Lord placed Saul and his men into a deep sleep. 

There’s more. David’s cousin Abishai bravely volunteered to go down to Saul’s camp with David. When they arrived and saw the situation Abishai knew that he could not persuade David to kill Saul so he offered to do the deed himself! David would not even have to strike Saul himself.

This is why David was great.

1. The Lord could trust David to do the right thing even when it would have been so much easier to do the wrong thing. David could even have claimed that it was “the Lord’s will”. But the quality of David was such that he would never do the wrong thing and point a finger at God.

1. David understood that a leader is responsible for his followers. Obviously even a great leader cannot control everything those under the do; however, those things they can control they are responsible for. David could not look the other way while Abishai killed Saul and claim no fault. Moreover, even if David had been able to claim no personal guilt he cared too much for this fine companion to allow Abishai to bring such guilt upon himself. This is a real leader.

1. God could trust David to be merciful. Later in his life David would do some bad things. Adultery and murder are pretty big sins. This wasn’t David’s MO but it was a substantial lapse. Yet, David seems to have gotten off pretty lightly. He is still considered to be one of the greatest men of history. Why? Jesus explained it in Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.”

This is why David was great.