Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

they are obeying the Almighty when, in fact, they are executing his own evil designs instead. Therefore, we need to test carefully every directive which comes to us, to certify its real nature and source. God has provided ample warnings and examples in Scripture to educate His children, so that they will not be deceived. Had David killed Saul that day, no plea he could have offered would have been accepted by God as justification for such a foul deed. The source of the plan to kill Saul in that cave was revealed by the very nature of the plan itself, for it required David to as sume God’s role of fulfilling the promises He had made. Jehovah had anointed David king-elect of Israel and it was His responsi bility, not David’s, to remove the apostate ruler who stood in the way of the fulfillment of this promise. The only correct course for David to follow, was to wait patiently, trusting in the Lord to do His part in fulfilling His promise. In this instance, David had very clear views of what he must and must not do, and he knew he should not take the king’s life. He would not submit to the temptation of solving God’s problems for Him. He would leave this work to God and he would do only that which the Lord directed. The one concession David made was to tear off a portion of Saul’s garment to offer as proof to the king that he had been totally in his power. No sooner had he done so than his conscience told him that even that was one step too far ( 1Samuel 24:6). David’s soldiers completely misinterpreted God’s purpose in this event. They looked at matters from their own point of view and not from the position of God’s great love by which He sought to give Saul another opportunity to see the real nature of his evil heart and repent of his sins. For God to give Saul another chance, David, instead of taking the king’s life, had to play the divinely-ordained part of demon strating the Christian disposition of not retaliating or seeking revenge. This would lead Saul to see that David was not devot ed to his destruction as he falsely believed, that his own spirit was out of harmony with God, and that he was therefore unfit to rule. Through David’s ministry of love and righteousness, God powerfully appealed to the wicked ruler to repent and be con verted. Even though the king deserved to be destroyed, his day of probation was not yet ended and God, bent on saving him if at