Respecting Authority

Saul wanted to kill David.  Saul was king, but God had rejected him, David had been anointed by Samuel as the next King, he had killed the giant Goliath and had married Saul's daughter.  

Saul chases David with 3000 men, David has 600 men of his own and they are on the run.

1 Samuel 24:3 - 7

3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, "This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.' " Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD." 7 With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

David had the prime opportunity to fulfill his destiny.  It cannot have been a coincidence that Saul just happened to stray alone into a cave where David and 600 of his men were hiding (big cave!).

David could have thought it completely within his rights to off Saul right there and then, God had certainly delivered Saul into David's deciding hands. David knew one day he would be king, and he knew that Saul would have to die for that to happen.  Yet he did not attack... why?

David certainly wasn't nervous about killing a man - just a few chapters of 1 Samuel earlier he'd slaughtered Goliath with a stone... then hacked off his head with the giants sword and carried it around, taking it back to Saul.  No the idea of killing a man would have not been an issue.

David simply recognised that Saul was the authority figure of Israel.  God had anointed Saul, and he was God-placed as the king of the Israelites and who was David to change that.  David knew that Saul had been rejected and that he was anointed as the next king, but still David also knew that to kill God's anointed would be a sin and that God would bring Saul down himself.

Even when everyone else though David would be right in killing Saul, even when David could have justified himself, and seen that God had led Saul right into his hands, he did not sin.

That's amazing!

How many times do we know we are justifiably right, morally, spiritually, biblically... yet in our actions of vindicating our beliefs or even acting in the best interest of others do we sin by undermining the authority of someone God has placed above us?

I struggle with this.  I know to do good is God's will.  How then can I do that good without undermining an authority is wrong?  In David's case, Saul ends up falling on his own sword, killing himself - I need to believe God will provide ways out without me going against the authorities above me.

That's hard...