I have been reading the books of Samuel in recent days and am amazed by the incredible honour and respect that David (King) had for his predecessor King Saul. On at least two occasions, one when Saul was sleeping in the same cave as David and two when Saul was sleeping around the camp fire with his soldiers encircling him, David had opportunity to take the life of the King but decided to spare it.
On both these occasions David says to "touch not God's anointed" showing the shear honour he felt for the person whom God had chosen as King even though he had fallen from grace. This is a real lesson for all those in ministry today.
David had already been anointed as the coming King of Israel by Samuel, he had known how because of sin, Saul had been rejected by the Lord, yet David in his wisdom chooses to honour and respect the man God had anointed. I believe it is because of this respect that God honours David by vowing to forever have a King on David's throne.
Yes, I know what you are thinking, the King to eternally sit on David's throne is none other than the King of Glory himself, our Lord Jesus! And yes, when you have the foresight as the great I Am has it is easy to promise such things. But David himself was a type of the Messiah and therefore foreshadowed things to come. Yet it was still "a man after my own heart" as the Lord described David, that the Lord was honouring because of the respect he held for those in office.
This then begs a question for us today, how far should we go in honouring men and women of God that have gone before us? I recently heard a fellow speak on the "Y" generation and how they wish to pull down all the structures and organisations that their parents and grandparents before them have created. Whilst it is easy to see this as a negative thing, which I think most of us who have children in the Y generation do, I choose to see the creative and ownership aspects of this.
I believe the Y generation have these desires as they themselves wish to do good things like their parents and grandparents before them. Whilst we who are in transition would simply prefer they carry on doing what we did, I believe they wish to do even greater things than what we ever did. Which sounds similar to the expectations Christ had for us. See John 14:12
But David reveals in 1Samuel 26:9-10 8Then Abishai said to David, "Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand; now therefore, please let me strike him with the spear to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time." 9But David said to Abishai, "Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the LORD'S anointed and be without guilt?" 10David also said, "As the LORD lives, surely the LORD will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish.…
Though David knew of his own future was established by the Lord he also knew that Saul's downfall would also come from the Lord's hand. David was able to honour Saul because he was secure in his own relationship with the Lord. Whether we are the Y generation or the previous ones it is imperative we understand who we are in Christ! When we understand who we are in Christ then man can do us no harm and it gives us the liberty to be a blessing to those around us, as was David in honouring Saul.
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