David was destined to be king – the prophet Samuel had told him that back when he was just a boy, caring for his father’s sheep (I Samuel 16:12-13). Saul’s son Jonathan had already made a covenant with him, promising him allegiance (I Samuel 20:15-16, 42). Even Saul himself admitted that David was a better man than he was, and that David would indeed succeed him on the throne of Israel one day (I Samuel 24:17-20).

And suddenly, David had a golden opportunity to seize what was rightfully his. In fact, since everyone in the camp of Saul had all fallen into a miraculously deep sleep (I Samuel 26:12), it seemed that God had opened the door for David to take power once and for all. As his cousin Abishai pointed out, it would be so easy to kill Saul (I Samuel 26:8), and all his troubles would be over.

And you know, Jesus was faced with the same sort of temptation. Satan told Him to jump off the top of the Temple and demonstrate His miraculous powers by keeping Himself from injury (Matthew 4:5-6). He even quoted Scripture to Jesus, claiming that this sort of display was in accordance with God’s will. And such a public display would surely have settled once and for all the question of whether Jesus was the Messiah. Such a display would have secured the throne of David for Jesus, a throne that the Son of David surely deserved.

But David refused to take the throne by force, because while it would have been wrong to murder anyone in his sleep, the anointed King of Israel deserved special protection and reverence (I Samuel 26:9). Just so, Jesus refused to take the easy way out, choosing the cross as the only way to obey the Father and receive the glory that was rightfully His. Both David and the Son of David insisting on getting what they deserved, the power and glory they had been promised, but only in the right way – the way of humility, the way of suffering, the way of obedience to the Father.

And if we want to follow David’s example, if we want to live as loyal subjects of King Jesus, that must be our manner of life as well. We must never do only what feels good or makes sense to us, but must consistently follow God’s law of self-sacrificial, unconditional love, especially when it would be so easy to get back at those who have hurt us. There’s just no other way to walk the way of the cross.

I Samuel 26:6-12 (NASB)

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.