1 Samuel 26:1-25: Overcoming Temptation

1 Samuel 26:1-25: Overcoming Temptation

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Samuel, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Samuel 26:1-25, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

¹ Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?” ² So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph…. ⁵ Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him. ⁶ Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” ⁷ So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. ⁸ Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” ⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?” ¹⁰ And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. ¹¹ The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” ¹² So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. ¹³ Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them. ¹⁴ And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Will you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you who calls to the king?” ¹⁵ And David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. ¹⁶ This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.” ¹⁷ Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands?... ²¹ Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” ²² And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. ²³ The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed….

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we’re taught that the heavens and earth will pass away but that your words will never pass away. They’re eternally true, eternally relevant, and eternally powerful. So, help us to see the truth of this text and understand its relevance and experience its power. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

If you've been a Christian for just about any length of time, you’ve undoubtedly experienced temptation. Even though the Bible teaches that God transforms us in a radical way at our conversion, we’re still tempted to sin on a regular basis. And unfortunately, we’re all too often woefully unprepared for the temptations we face and are therefore quite vulnerable to those temptations.

A few months ago, I was getting in my car to drive to church on a Sunday morning. And as I went to insert my key into the ignition, I discovered that the entire area around my ignition had been ripped open and was severely damaged. I mean, there were wires everywhere. The obvious conclusion, of course, is that someone had tried—and thankfully failed—to steal my car overnight, even as it sat parked in my driveway. Fortunately, I only ended up having to pay a $500 deductible on what ended up being a $2400 repair. However, I have to admit that I was kind of asking for it—because I had been leaving both of my vehicles unlocked for 10 years in my driveway and never had any problems—until, one night, I did. So, you’d better believe we double check our vehicles every night now to make sure they’re locked.

And just as my carelessness in leaving my car unlocked left it vulnerable to that attempted theft, our lack of understanding about how to be prepared for temptation leaves us in a terribly vulnerable condition. And part of the problem is that we simply aren’t very aware of how temptation operates.

As one author named Marshall Segal observes, “We expect [that] temptation will march through the front door, dressed like a wolf, announcing itself loudly as it comes. But temptation often prefers the back door, and the bedroom window, and that crack between the floorboards. Temptation relies on subtlety and nuance, on deception and surprise, on ignorance and naivete. To begin to taste victory, we have to start treating the war like a war. We have to study the enemy of our souls.” I believe that last remark is a reference to Sun Tzu’s famous book, The Art of War, in which he speaks of how critical it is to “know your enemy.”

So, in order to win the war against sin, we first have to realize that we are indeed in a war and start acting like it. And that involves—among other things—studying our enemy. We have to study the way in which sin attacks us through temptation. And that’s precisely what today’s main passage of 1 Samuel 26 will help us do. In this passage, we find David successfully resisting the temptation to kill Saul. And that’s the main idea of this passage: David resists the temptation to kill Saul. And as we read about David overcoming temptation, we’ll glean some insights about how we can overcome temptation as well.

Now, as you probably noticed as this chapter was being read, the events of chapter 26 are extremely similar to the events of chapter 24. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, King Saul and his army of 3,000 men were pursuing David in order to kill him. However, Saul went into a cave in order to “relieve himself,” and it just so happened to be the very cave in which David and his men were hiding. So, David had an opportunity to kill Saul. But David stood by his convictions and refused to harm Saul—since, in David’s words, Saul was “the Lord’s anointed.”

And as we see here in chapter 26, something incredibly similar happens. Although there are a few key differences, the events of chapter 26 bear a striking resemblance to the events of chapter 24. Now, last time, we focused on David’s regard for the authority God had established. David understood that it was his duty to honor God-ordained authority. And everything we discussed related to that still applies in this chapter. Yet, today, I’d like to focus on another aspect of this passage—and that is David resisting the temptation to kill Saul. 

So, let’s begin by looking at verses 1-2: ¹ Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?” ² So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. So, here we go once again, right?

Now, Saul had promised David at the end of their previous encounter that he wouldn’t pursue David any more. Yet we see in these verses how trustworthy Saul turned out to be—and the answer is not trustworthy at all. When the Ziphites tell him where David’s hiding, Saul immediately starts pursuing him once again.

You may also recall that it was this same group of people—the Ziphites—who had informed Saul of David’s whereabouts back in chapter 24. So, the Ziphites are basically a bunch of tattle-tales who can’t contain their desire to curry Saul’s favor. Also notice that, just like before, Saul sets out in pursuit of David with 3,000 chosen men. We were told back in 1 Samuel 24:2, “Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David,” and we now see that very same number and terminology of “three thousand chosen men” used once again in chapter 26. It’s like déjà vu.

After that, verses 5-6 tell us, ⁵ Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him. ⁶ Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.”

So, in case you were wondering why men have shorter average lifespans than women, I’m pretty sure this is why. It’s bright ideas like this that severely limit the average male lifespan. And we can’t be sure exactly why David desires to sneak into the enemy camp since the Bible doesn’t tell us, but David’s apparently intending to do something.

Verses 7-8 then tell us, ⁷ So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. ⁸ Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.”

Now, at first, we might wonder how in the world David and Abishai were able to make their way to Saul undetected. I mean, wouldn’t Saul have sentries on the lookout for that very thing? Later on in the passage, though, verse 12 tells us that “a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.” So, it was the Lord who enabled David and Abishai to make their way to Saul.

And Abishai recognizes that. That’s why he says in verse 8, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day.” By the way, this is the same thing David’s men said to him previously when Saul wandered into the cave. 1 Samuel 24:4 tells us, And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’”

So, on both occasions, David had what appeared to be a golden opportunity to take Saul’s life and thereby become the new king of Israel. And I think we can safely say that David must have been sorely tempted to do that very thing. Perhaps he was even more tempted on the second occasion than he was on the first occasion—since Saul had by that point demonstrated that he was going to keep pursuing David regardless of what David did. David’s mercy toward Saul on the first occasion hadn’t ultimately done anything to prevent Saul from seeking to kill him. So, maybe Abishai was right. Maybe David’s only option was, in fact, to kill Saul. He certainly appears to have a golden opportunity to do that very thing as he stands over Saul while Saul’s fast asleep.

Likewise, the temptations we experience often appear to be golden opportunities to get something we really want. The Puritan author Thomas Brooks once observed that, “Satan loves to sail with the wind, and to suit men’s temptations to their conditions and inclinations.” Satan knows what we desire and loves to entice us with what we desire in order to lure us into sin.

Brooks also uses the analogy of Satan baiting the hook, as it were, with whatever he thinks we’ll find most desirable. Maybe it’s money or sexual pleasure or power or recognition or success or security or popularity or a relationship or something else. And Satan’s usually exceptionally good at figuring out which kind of bait will be most appealing to each of us. However, Satan always hides within that bait a hook. His hope is that we’ll take the bait without noticing the hook so that he can get his hook into our mouths and then proceed to reel us in and take us captive. And the more aware we are of the way Satan works through temptation, the more prepared we’ll be to face it.

In addition, another insight we can glean from the temptation David faces is related to how easy it is for us to justify in our own minds the sins we desire to commit. In this passage, David doesn’t even have to come up with that justification himself because Abishai gives it to him. Abishai states, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day.” In other words, if God didn’t want you to kill Saul, he wouldn’t have given you such an obvious opportunity to do so.

Likewise, there are all kinds of ways in which we often try to justify and rationalize our sin. For example, we might convince ourselves that we deserve whatever it is we’re trying to obtain through sin because of how virtuous we’ve been in other areas. It reminds me of something Ravi Zacharias said. In case you’re not aware, Ravi Zacharias was a well-known Chrisitan apologist who was later found to have been sexually immoral with numerous women. And he reportedly told at least one of these women that she was his “reward” for living a life of service to God. Apparently, just as various characters in the Bible were rewarded for serving God faithfully, Ravi thought he deserved a reward as well in the form the of the numerous women whom he pressured and manipulated into having sex with him.

And the reason I share that is because you and I are often tempted to employ a similar line of reasoning and convince ourselves that we deserve something and therefore that it’s okay to sin in order to get it. And of course, there are also plenty of other ways in which we try to rationalize our sin as well. Perhaps we tell ourselves that it’s okay to commit a sin because everyone else is doing it or because at least we’re not as bad as this other person or because it’s just a small sin or because we have good intentions or because we’ve been under a lot of stress lately or because it won’t really hurt anyone. As you can see, there’s a nearly endless list of ways in which we often try to justify or rationalize our sin. Yet, at the end of the day, all of them are just as foolish and downright pathetic as the way Ravi tried to rationalize his sin.

By the way, this is one reason why it’s so important for us to be in regular fellowship and develop meaningful relationships with other Christians in contexts such as Community Groups—so that we can hold each other accountable and keep each other from succumbing to this kind of foolish thinking. As one author named Paul Tripp writes, “I need you in order to really see and know myself. Otherwise, I will listen to my own arguments, believe my own lies, and buy into my own delusions. My self-perception is as accurate as a carnival mirror. If I am going to see myself clearly, I need you to hold the mirror of God’s Word in front of me.”  And if you think for a moment that you’re above that and that you’d never buy into your own delusions, that says to me that you already have.

Then, moving forward in our main passage, David thankfully doesn’t succumb to temptation by doing what Abishai encourages him to do. Verse 9: But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?”

Likewise, for us today, our fear and reverence of God should function as deterrents from sin. Even though it may sometimes seem to us that no one’s watching and that no one will ever know we’ve sinned in a certain way, the fact is that God’s always watching. And not only does God see the things we do, he even sees what’s within our hearts. And you’d better believe he’ll hold us accountable. Jesus says in Luke 12:2-3, ² Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ³ Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

And not only should we fear the future consequences in eternity that God will bring upon us in response to our sin, we should also fear the consequences of sin during our earthly lives. It’s been said that “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”

We then read in verses 10-12 of our main passage the way David continues to respond to Abishai when Abishai encourages him to kill Saul: ¹⁰ And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. ¹¹ The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” ¹² So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.

Perhaps one reason David expresses such confidence that the Lord will eventually take care of Saul in one way or another is because God had just struck down David’s enemy Nabal in the previous chapter. When David had refused to take revenge on Nabal but had instead entrusted the situation to God, God had demonstrated that he was very much able and willing to bring upon Nabal the punishment he deserved. And it’s likely with that lesson still fresh in his mind that David expresses confidence in this chapter that God will take care of Saul in his own timing and in his own way. As Paul writes in Romans 12:19: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

After that, in our main passage, verses 13-16 tell us, ¹³ Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them. ¹⁴ And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Will you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you who calls to the king?” ¹⁵ And David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. ¹⁶ This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.”

So, just as David had previously presented the corner of Saul’s robe as evidence that he could have killed Saul in the cave but chose not to, David here presents Saul’s spear and water jar as evidence, once again, that he could have killed Saul but didn’t.

Verses 17-18 then tell us, ¹⁷ Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands?” David then continues reasoning with Saul in the subsequent verses.

We then read in verse 21, Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” This admission from Saul is quite notable. Of course, Saul had said something similar to David previously when David had presented the corner of Saul’s robe outside the cave and apparently didn’t really mean what he was saying. Nevertheless, everything Saul says here is quite true, even if Saul’s heart isn’t entirely sincere in saying it.

And Saul’s admission in this verse serves to drive home a key point that this chapter—and really the past several chapters—have all been seeking to illustrate. And that is that Saul’s vendetta against David demonstrates how morally unqualified Saul is to be king, while David’s righteous response, on the other hand, demonstrates that he is morally qualified to be king.

After that, David responds to Saul’s admission of guilt in verses 22-23: ²² And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. ²³ The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Saul then pronounces a blessing on David, and the two of them go their separate ways.

Yet I believe David’s statement in verse 23 is perhaps the most important statement in the entire chapter: “The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.” This is the belief that led David to resist the temptation to take Saul’s life. David sought to demonstrate “righteousness” and “faithfulness” in his conduct toward Saul because he believed that the Lord would reward him. Of course, the primary “reward” he probably had in mind was being made king one day, but his statement here is phrased in a very general way that encompasses all of the ways the Lord rewards his people for righteousness and faithfulness.

And that includes the rewards we receive as well. Although there are plenty of differences between our situation and David’s, one thing that’s the same is that those of us who are Christians can expect God to reward our righteous and faithful conduct. Of course, this includes the heavenly rewards spoken of in many places throughout the New Testament such as Matthew 6:18 and 1 Corinthians 3:14.

Yet perhaps the greatest reward is one that we begin to receive even during our earthly lives—and that is the reward of God himself. The greatest reward we could ever receive is being close to God and experiencing his presence and tasting the sweetness of communion with him. And it’s our desire for the joy found in closeness with God that functions as our primary and ultimate motivation to say “no” to sin.

As David himself writes in Psalm 24:3-4, ³ Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? ⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. Perhaps this understanding is what enabled David to resist temptation in our main passage. He desired closeness with God more than he desired anything sin could give him. And that’s likewise how we can overcome temptation as well.

So, the key to overcoming temptation is to cultivate a desire for God that surpasses your desire for sin. The nineteenth century preacher Thomas Chalmers makes this point in a sermon titled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” Chalmers observes that the only way we’ll ever be able to over our affection—or desire—for sin is if our affection for sin is displaced by affection for God. We can’t just empty ourselves of sinful desires. Instead, those sinful desires have to be displaced by desire for God and delight in him.

Imagine a bucket filled to the brim with water. If you were to put a large rock into that bucket, what would happen? It would displace a portion of the water, right? Some of the water would be effectively expelled from the bucket as the rock was placed into it. And that’s what affections for God will do to our desire for sin. That’s what Chalmers means by “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.”

So, just to get really practical, the way to overcome temptation isn’t merely to grit our teeth and try harder. Instead, focus on cultivating a greater desire for God. Just as a campfire doesn’t keep burning all by itself but instead has to be fueled on a regular basis with more firewood, our desire for God has to be fueled as well. And the habits that fuel our desire for God are some of the most ordinary elements of the Christian life such as seeking God in prayer and meditating on the Bible and having meaningful fellowship with other Christians. It’s these things that fuel our desire for God so that we come to desire and delight in him more than we desire and delight in sin.  

Along these same lines, I’ve long appreciated Psalm 84:10-11, in which the psalmist says to God, ¹⁰ For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. ¹¹ For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Think about that last sentence: “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” Contrary to what Satan would have us believe, God’s not holding out on us.

So, don’t even allow yourself to be intrigued by sin. So often, our fall into sin is actually more a gradual slide into sin. And that gradual slide begins when we start imagining that what’s outside the moral boundaries God’s given us is more desirable than what’s inside. Yet that’s simply not the case. As the psalmist reminds us, God will never withhold anything truly good from those who walk uprightly. What’s inside the moral boundaries God’s given us is always more desirable than what’s outside. So, don’t let yourself daydream about sin, flirt with sin, or be intrigued by sin in any way.

Yet, the fact is that, despite our best efforts, there will unfortunately be times when we succumb to temptation. Just consider David. Even though David successfully resists temptation in our main passage, he won’t always be so successful. The most notorious example of this is when David succumbs to temptation with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. So, what should we do when we find that we’ve crossed the line into sin?

My recommendation would be to go straight to 1 John 1:8-9, which says, ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And the way God’s able to remain “just” and yet still offer this forgiveness and cleansing is through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus. Even though the just penalty for our sins is punishment in hell for all eternity, Jesus bore that penalty when he died on the cross. That’s why John goes on to say just a few verses later in 1 John 2:1-2, ¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

The key word there is “propitiation,” which simply means that Jesus offered himself as the atoning sacrifice that averts God’s wrath. The reason you and I don’t have to suffer God’s wrath is because Jesus already suffered it on the cross. He then rose from the dead so that he now stands ready to save everyone who puts their trust in him. And that’s the great comfort we have whenever we sin.

Although David sometimes failed to overcome temptation, Jesus never failed. He faced temptation and overcame it every time. Jesus is therefore exactly the kind of high priest we so desperately need—especially when we feel like we’ve really blown it this time by falling into sin yet again.

As Hebrews 4:15-16 says so well, ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. If you feel like you’re a hopeless sinner, you’re exactly the kind of person Jesus came to save and to whom he offers mercy and grace.