he's trying
i think this is a fantastic passage (not that my opinion matters, haha) for lots of reasons. among them is that it is the resolution to a conflict that the story has been following for quite some time. heat that basically started brewing back when david (the little kid) felled goliath (the giant) and the nation rejoiced and the seed of jealousy and insecurity planted itself in saul (the king of israel).
as we see in many other biblical stories, the resolution comes from an act of humble obedience of God, but appears more like stubborn foolishness/idealism in the eyes of earthly lookers-on. (the 3 fellows who should've just bowed down to the statue to avoid the fiery furnace, the guy who should've just stopped praying--or at least not been so obvious about it--to avoid being thrown in the den of lions, the man who should have just admitted that He wasn't God in the flesh to avoid execution, etc.)
david's got saul, in the cave, unaware of the impending doom standing behind him, ready to slice his throat...david's men agree..."dude, this is totally God's way of handing you the throne. finish him!" (then david does a mortal kombat grappling hook throw and rips out saul's entire rib-cage, leaving his body lying there in a pool of cartoon blood...)
but david can't bring himself to do it. he didn't hear God telling him what his friends said God was telling him. the only thing he knows for sure is that saul is the one whom God ordained as king. saul is the chosen one. God hasn't taken him out, yet. and david knows that when God is ready for saul to go bye-bye...then it will happen. when God does it. not david.
so david doesn't kill him. instead he boldly steps out of the cave, after saul has finished "relieving himself" and at a safe distance, and hollers at saul. david tells him the whole story, about how it should be obvious that david isn't trying to kill him, since he had the chance in the cave and didn't. saul says, "dude, you're awesome & i'm a loser." and they all get some peace.
but HERE is the part of the story that is the most telling for me. david is this guy who is so in tune to God's will and so heroic and noble and all that. but if you rewind a few chapters, you can see how david lies to cover up his identity, in order to get help and shelter while he runs away from the king, and then how almost an entire city is slaughtered by saul because they helped david. so the guy who wouldn't kill one guy is responsible for the deaths of almost an entire city.
the guy isn't perfect. and when he messes up, he messes up huge. he's just like me (minus the eventual kingly palace and gold furniture and whatnot). he knows that God has something great in store for him, if he can just stay out of the way for long enough.
Created almost 2 years ago
