1 Samuel 24:6 (NIV) He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.”

Once King Saul became jealous of David and afraid that he would take over his kingdom, he resolved in his heart to murder him. David was nothing but loyal to King Saul and did absolutely nothing to deserve his wrath. On the contrary, David had been a great blessing to the king, even helping him by giving him relief from a tormenting spirit by the music from his harp. David also won many military victories all in the name of Israel and King Saul. But King Saul, now apart from God, was determined to kill David.

One day, King Saul heard that David was in the wilderness of En-gedi, so he took 3000 of his elite troops to search for David and his men. After traveling a while looking for David, he had to relieve himself, so he went into a cave. Little did he know that David and his men were in that very cave further back. David's men encouraged him to kill the king because they surmised that God had delivered Saul into David's hands. David approached the king but wound up just cutting off a piece of his robe. But even from just doing that, David was conscious stricken. That's when he said the words of the verse above. He felt that he could never lay a hand on King Saul to do him any harm because he had once been anointed by God as king. Even though God had rejected King Saul for his disobedience and conceit, David still respected the fact that he had at one time been anointed and appointed by God.

No wonder David was as successful as he was. He became Israel's best and most successful king. What stuck out about David was his awe and reverence for God. Anything that was of the Lord or that the Lord had put His hands on, David considered sacred. This awe and reverence held back his hand from destroying King Saul although he had every human right to do it. After all, Saul was trying desperately to kill him. But David refused to take matters into his own hands and chose instead to honor God and to let Him deal with Saul.

So what does this mean for us? For one thing, we need to have a healthy dose of reverence and awe for God ourselves. The Bible tells us that God is a consuming fire and must be reverenced (Hebrews 12:29). We also need to reverence the things of God and the people of God who He has anointed. Even if a person who has been anointed by God makes a mistake or does something wrong, it is not our job to bring that person down. He or she is God's servant to be dealt with by God Himself. Oh that we would learn the lesson that David lived out so well and consider all things belonging to God as sacred and treat them with reverence and respect. I believe that as we do that, God will bless us for it just as He blessed David. Let's give God not only the glory that He is due, but also have reverence for Him and for the people and the things that belong to Him.

Pastor Joey Vazquez