“Trust Isn’t Automatic” – FBC Morning Light (5/11/2023)

Well a good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading in 1 Samuel 23 and 24, Acts chapter 5 and Psalm 94. But our focus for our devotional this morning is going to continue in the book of 1 Samuel.

This is a great, a great book and these narrative sections of the Old Testament, these historical narratives are fascinating in many ways. And in chapter 23 and 24 do not disappoint whatsoever. So in chapter 23, David is continuing on the run from Saul who wants to kill him.

And we read this in verse 14 that David stayed in the strongholds in the wilderness. So he's out in the wilderness running from Saul. He remained in the mountains in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day.

He's looking for him every day. Saul has not given up. He wants to kill David. But, it says, God did not deliver him into his hand. And so, you know, David is on the run. And then you have this really humorous situation at the end of chapter 23, where Saul is in pursuit.

He finds out where David is, and so he's in pursuit. He's going after him. And we read that Saul and his men are chasing after David and his men. And Saul and his men are on one side of a mountain, and David and his men are on the other side of the mountain.

You can kind of see this picture as, you know, Saul and his men are running south to come to the south end of the mountain to come around and come up on the east side of the mountain, and David and his men are heading to the north to go over the north side of the mountain, come down the west side, and he's got a big circle.

But eventually, the image seems to be that Saul figures out, we need to do a pincer move, you know, and so splits up his men, and they're about to surround David and take his men. But just at that time, as you read at the end of verse 14, God did not deliver him into his hand, just at that time, Saul gets word that the Philistines have invaded the land.

So Saul has to quit his pursuit of David and take his soldiers and go fight against the Philistines, and David and his men are able to escape. And chapter 24 begins telling us that David and his men flee to En Gedi, they hide in the wilderness of En Gedi, and Saul finishes the job with the Philistines, he finds out where David is again, and so he heads to this wilderness of En Gedi.

And we read that he came in verse 3 to the sheepfolds by the road where was a cave, and the way that King James translates it is, Saul went in to attend to his needs into this cave. All right, so you can get the picture here, don't need to be graphic about it.

Saul goes into this cave to attend to his needs, goes in by himself, presumably. What he doesn't know is that David and his men are hiding out in that cave. Must have been a pretty deep cave, and David and his men were able to be there in darkness.

But they could see what Saul was doing. Saul had to remove one of his robe, his outer robe, so that he could take care of his needs, and David snuck up and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And you know, some of the men were telling David, hey, here's your chance, do him in, get rid of him.

David doesn't do it, he refuses to do that, he's got enough sensitivity to say no. I didn't put him into office, God did let God take him out when God is ready to take him out. He's the anointed of the Lord, I'm not going to raise my hand against him.

But he did cut off the corner of his robe. So when Saul's done doing his business, taking care of business, he leaves the cave, gets far enough away that David comes out of the cave after him and says, hey, Saul, I want you to know, I got nothing against you.

I could have killed you, but I didn't. Look at the corner of your robe. Yeah, that corner that's cut off, I did that. That could have been your head I cut off. And this is enough to bring some conviction upon Saul.

And Saul finally says, in verse 16 of chapter 24, is this your voice, my son David? Remember, David is Saul's son-in-law. Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He wept.

There's great evidence of contrition, and perhaps even repentance on his part. And he said to David, you are more righteous than I am, for you've rewarded me with good, whereas I've rewarded you with evil.

You have shown this day how you have dealt well with me, for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. I would have killed you. You didn't kill me. You had a chance, and you didn't.

And you see Saul weeping about this, and confessing to David, David, you're more righteous than I am. He goes on in verse 19, says if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Then he says this, therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.

And then, now listen, he says, and now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. There are all kinds of earmarks of repentance in Saul's response to David here.

In fact, in verse 21 he says, swear to me that when you become the king, that you will deal well with my descendants. You will not destroy my name from my father's house. So David swore to Saul. Now, at this point, you would think, okay, there's been confession, there's been repentance, you know, Saul seems genuinely repentant, and now there can be reconciliation.

These two individuals, they can be restored, father-in-law and son-in-law, they can come back together, they can get along with one another, and carry out the rest of Saul's days as king, in harmony and unity, and have a peaceful transition to David's reign.

But the chapter ends this way. It says Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. In other words, just because Saul has confessed his wrongdoing, and even seems to promise that he's not going to harm him again, it doesn't mean David trusts him.

He doesn't trust him. And even though David seemingly, correspondingly forgives him for what he's done, it doesn't mean David trusts him. And I think that is a perfectly appropriate response. There's some people who seem to think that, in this whole subject of forgiveness, that if somebody who has done you wrong and harmed you, or sought to harm you in some severe way, if they admit it, they say, yeah, I was wrong, I never should have done that, you were right, I was wrong, forgive me, that your forgiving of that person means therefore you must have complete reconciliation with that person, and move on in the relationship as if that never happened.

Well, if David had done that, he'd have been dead, because what's going to happen in the very near future is that Saul's going to come back out after him again and try to kill him again. No, just because someone confesses their wrongdoing and promises not to harm you again, and you legitimately and rightly correspondingly forgive that person, it doesn't mean that trust is automatically fully restored.

Trust is something that has to be gained with experience and with time. And I like to think of it this way, that forgiveness on the basis of repentance, confession and repentance, forgiveness allows for the process of reconciliation to take place, and potentially a restoration of the relationship.

It doesn't come automatically, though, that's an important thing to see. And we see a good example of it right here in this Old Testament story. Let's learn from it. Our Father and our God, I pray that while we must be ready, ever ready to forgive, that we would have hearts that are forgiving.

But I pray, Father, that we would not be naive in that forgiveness and set ourselves up to allow someone who has abused us or harmed us greatly in the past to do it again, just because they go through the process of confession and apparent repentance.

We need to be wise in this, and while we grant forgiveness, may we be patient and allow trust to be built so that maybe the relationship can be fully restored. Father, we need wisdom in this, grant it, we pray.

In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday, I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.