For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away?
READ 1 SAMUEL 24:1-22 TEXT: v19 [ENEMY GOING FREE]
The Geneva Bible (a faithful Reformation Bible, preceding/AV) renders this text as follows:
For who shall find his enemy, and let him depart free?
The expectancy in those days was that when a bitter enemy was found,
then he could expect at least to be injured, or (more likely, if
circumstances permitted it) killed outright
Certainly Saul proved himself to be David’s enemy
At time/speaking: Saul was hunting David down
Saul had unwittingly/unknowingly come into David’s presence
David had found him and had his chance to kill him
Indeed some had urged him to do so
However, David withstood the strong temptation and, at risk of his own life, let Saul know that this was the case
Saul was truly amazed and backed off his aggression against David (at least for another while)
This incident has a gospel application
David is an accepted type of the Saviour
Jesus Christ is actually called “The Son of David”
Saul very fitly pictures the erring sinner
In v17 he admits to his wickedness against David
The Saviour and the sinner shall one day meet
If the Saviour is going to be gracious, then the sinner will be allowed to go away free (or in a good way)
If they meet, however, in circumstances that forbid the graciousness of
the Saviour to operate, then the sinner will not leave free, but rather
bound hand/foot and cast out into the blackness/darkness for ever.
4 main thoughts to consider:
1) BY SINFUL NATURE, WE ARE ALL ENEMIES OF GOD:
A/ I include the adjective in the “sinful nature” because it is commonly thought that if something seems natural, then it must be acceptable and without any indictment
We must deny that this is the case
If it is natural for someone to lie to protect/advance themselves or if
it is natural to lust after beautiful specimens/opposite sex
then let such bear testimony to/fact that our nature: depraved
All these sinful things that we seem to do naturally flow from a wicked heart – the Saviour Himself laid the indictment:
Read: Mark 7:20-23
Man’s defilement comes from within his own heart
It is the bad/corrupt tree that produces the bad fruit
Often we hear the wicked argument/Sodomites that their tendencies are natural and therefore normal and acceptable
This is not so
Was it natural that Saul should want to kill David whom he perceived (rightly) as a threat to his place on the throne?
Some may say that such would be taking it too far
I am happy that they should say so – a standard is admitted
The standard is the law/God and when we break the law/God which has an
infinite higher standard than we can set – then we become sinners
– rebels and enemies/God
If you have a tendency to steal or to be lazy or violent:
Take no refuge in it – rotten fruit of wicked/sinful heart
B/ Bible itself indicts us as enemies/God:
Romans 5:10 When we were enemies…
Colossians 1:21: And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works…
C/ Sinner knows himself to be enmity with God
Saul confessed it here freely when it would have been more prudent (although less honest) to deny it
Yet Saul knew that he could hardly deny it even if he tried
Had he not tried twice to smite David to the wall?
Had he not poured out his murderous hatred against David to Jonathan who, although his son, was David’s friend and ally?
He knew that David had his informed sources of the many wicked and aggressive things that he had said against David
Therefore he admitted freely that he was an enemy/David
D/ Who can honestly deny their sins?
Such sins make us enemies of God
Guilt is written all over us
Every day, when the unsaved sin against God, they add to the enmity until their cup/iniquity and enmity is said to be full
2) THE ENEMIES/GOD WILL BE EVENTUALLY CAUGHT:
A/ So it was here with Saul – he came face/face with the one whom he had been so long at enmity
This enmity is totally unwarranted and unjustified
David had done Saul no harm
That he should replace Saul upon the throne was not David’s doing, but God’s: (16:1)
David was willing to let Saul stay on the throne until God removed him from it in His own way and at His own time
David never usurped the throne of Saul
Passage: He still referred to him/his master/Lord’s anointed (v6)
Sinner’s enmity against God has no justification
He can say: “Friend”! I do thee no wrong” (Matthew 20:13)
Every thought/action of God is in harmony with His attributes of holiness/righteousness/justice/goodness and truth
No man has any grounds to have a grudge with God
Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? (Lamentations 3:39)
Passage: Saul freely admits that David was righteous
B/ Think not: we can keep sinning/God and get away with it
Every encouragement in this lawless age to suppose that we might cheat the forces of law/order and the powers that be
We live under a crumbling justice system that seems to be loaded against the innocent and almost sympathetic/guilty
This has given rise to the gangland culture around us
Violent men openly laughing into the faces of Law/Order
C/ There is a time appointed for a face/face meeting with God
In our passage: Almost by chance on both sides
David was fleeing from Saul and when Saul went into the cave, David and his men hide initially themselves
In the coming Day/Judgement: No such thing
[i] It will not be by chance:
God has appointed the day in which He will judge the secrets of men (Romans 2:16)
[ii] The guilty sinner will seek to avoid this day by fleeing:
Revelation 6:15-17
D/ Hence the Bible says: Prepare to meet thy God (Amos 4:12)
Everything is set up/this day when sinners will meet their God
It is a day appointed by God – marked in the calendar/Heaven
The Judge has already been appointed:
Because
he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given
assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Act
17:31
The judgement has already been given:
He that believeth not is condemned already (John 3:18)
The legal explanation for the cause of such guilt has been given:
And
this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John
3:19)
The prison has already been opened to receive the guilty:
Then
shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
(Matthew 25:41)
E/ This must impact the sinner
There is no chance/escape through being undetected
There are safe havens for criminals in God’s justice system
This world has many bolt holes for criminals
South American countries noted for them
Many of the Nazi’s WWII headed for them immediately
But there is none as far as God is concerned
And
though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and
take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the
bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: (Amos 9:3)
3) AS SUCH THE ENEMIES/GOD MUST EXPECT TO PERISH:
A/ Justice demands it
David found himself on a war footing/passage
He himself recognised that (humanly speaking) he would one day perish at the hand of Saul (27:1)
Natural justice allows a man to defend himself
David
had wisely chosen flight because he had a promise from God that he
would reign – but he did have the right to take all necessary steps to
stop the hand of the sworn murderer
Saul here recognises that he was escaping light
B/ What hope has the guilty sinner to expect the same?
Saul here was caught in the very act
A close interrogation would have shown that he was there on the mountain with 3,000 chosen men/war to take David
Does God not know our every movement/motive?
I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:23)
Nothing can escape His all searching and all knowing eye
In
Revelation 1, the eyes of the Risen Christ are said to be a flame of
fire (1:14) – burning away the covering dross and getting to the very
heart of the matter
C/ We gain some insights from the incident of David’s men when he is was hiding in the cave while Saul was there:
[i] Saul had come unwittingly into the cave which could have been the place of his deserved death
Saul was an enigma:
He felt on one hand that he was the one in control
He had the 3,000 men behind him and David was on the run
Yet Saul had no feelings of security
He saw David as a threat to him when no threat existed
Yet he perceived no threat when he went into this cave
Yet there he could have met with his death
[ii] He lay down in the cave and feel asleep
Even 3,000 men could not save him now
Sinner is spiritually asleep
His senses are dulled to the things/God
He gets up – he eats/drinks and goes about his business each and every day and forgets that there is an eternity
He but assumes that he will awaken from his bed the next day
What had David (instead of cutting off Saul’s cloak: (v11)
had quietly but effectively slit Saul’s throat instead?
Saul would have wallowed in his own blood in the darkness/cave and had been ushered out into eternity
The sinner seems most unaware that he is a candidate for wrath
The Bible calls him a “child of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3)
He is not only spiritually asleep but spiritually dead/sins
[iii] There are voices that clamour for his destruction
David’s men urged the destruction/Saul
I cannot but help think of that portion/Scripture in Luke 13
Parable of the unfruitful fig tree and the vineyard owner
Then said he unto the dresser of his
vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig
tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he
answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I
shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit,
well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. (Luke 13:7-9)
It is only the mercy/God that keeps any man out of destruction
There is nothing in which the sinner can put his hand and argue that it deserves to keep the wrath/God away from his head
[iv] There was nothing in Saul’s words that suggested any impropriety on the part/David when face to face with David
Whatever he had said before disappears like snow/ditch
Indeed he acknowledges: God had delivered him to David (v18)
He goes further and acknowledges David’s sovereignty (v20)
The Day/Judgement will admit of no miscarriages/justice
No court/appeal because none is needed
Courts/appeal are a necessary evil
Set up because they recognise possible failures/justice
Designed to restore what has been wrongfully taken away
But none will be needed when God passes sentence on the great Day/Judgement which is coming for each/every sinner
The summing up and the sentence will be line with the manifold perfections/God and will be to His unvarnished glory
Let the unrepentant sinner therefore expect to perish
He cannot keep on defying the authority/heaven and expect no come back on his wicked deeds
If judgement is not instant - does not mean that it is stagnant
Mills/God move may be seen to move exceedingly slow – but they will be seen to crush exceedingly small
Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. (Job 36:18)
4) THE GOSPEL IS A MESSAGE/GRACIOUS DELIVERANCE:
A/
Although there is every doubt that Saul himself ever partook of the
saving grace of God, yet his failure is no yardstick with which to deny
it to others
B/ Take these words as they stand however
For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away?
Answer is “yes” but it a conditional “yes”
Although
David here let Saul go on the basis of a mere (and not very deep)
acknowledgement/sin, Saul failed to really build upon it
He would soon be back to his old murderous ways
(They were to meet again in very similar circumstances)
But there is another meeting between the enemy and One determined to be gracious to him
We but half quoted two texts earlier re: our enmity with God
Let me now finish both quotes:
Romans 5:10 When we were enemies…
For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Colossians
1:21: And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works…… yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh
through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in
his sight:
Gospel (as seen) does not deny the idea of enmity
It does not whitewash the position/sinner
It exposes it in all its ugliness/reality
But it does something that no other message can do
It does not merely restrain the sinner
It regenerates him – it saves him by sovereign grace
C/ It sends him away (as it were) in a good way
For
the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory:
no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. (Psalm
84:11)
All things will work together/good of the Believer (Romans 8:28)
D/ Christians should thank God for meeting with Him/grace
It could easily have been so different
Had God left us to our own devices – then it would be so
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: (Romans 7:18)
Sinful nature does not endow us with the desire to seek/God
Significant that the first thing we read of Adam/Eve doing after the Fall is hiding from God
Getting as far out of His sight as they could was their plan
But God dealt with them in grace and drew them to Himself and let them go out, not only free, but in a good way
Tucked under Adam’s arm was the first gospel tract
The promise of a coming Redeemer who would smash the serpent’s head and redeem His people
Let’s be thankful for not only hearing the gospel, but being given grace to believe it to the saving/soul
We have believed through grace – let us thank God it is so
E/ Appeal to ungodly
THE END