David certainly suffered, didn’t he? Could God have delayed Samuel’s anointing him as king until Saul was close to death? Could he have spared David all the wonderful success that brought him to Saul’s attention? Could God have kept the people who were faithful to Saul from knowing where David was, so that there would be no one to tell Saul where to find him? He could have done any of that or all of it to spare David the suffering; that He didn’t means that He had a use for the suffering. David must have understood that; remember in the psalm we read yesterday, he wrote, “The Lord tests the righteous.”
Job knew that suffering refined him. The New Testament gives us many references to the value of suffering. Check out Romans 5:3-5, II Corinthians 4:17, Hebrews 12:7-13, James 1:2-4, and I Peter 1:6-7. Suffering means that the lovely character qualities it produces are enjoyed by those who are worthy for having endured. James tells us to “count it all joy” when we suffer trials, and the reason we can do that is because we value what it produces in us. Do you value suffering so, or do you seek to avoid it?
Jonathan came and encouraged David in God. Talk about a handsome character; Jonathan was on the same plane as David. He loved David, and he must have loved God also . I base that conclusion on his actions in inciting a panic in the Philistine camp at Micmash and thus inciting Saul to action for a victory over them, and his helping David to find strength in God. He obviously had submitted to God’s rejection of Saul, even though he as Saul’s son seemed worthy of leading God’s people after his father. Further, he held no grudge against David, but encouraged him in God. What a friend. What a human being. What an encourager. He presents us with a worthy example.
David would not take vengeance on Saul, because God revealed in the Law that vengeance was for Him to take. He waited a long time for God to take it! In the meantime, he had to protect Saul’s life from his men. He passed up an apparently God-given opportunity to kill Saul; how did he know this wasn’t God’s vengeance? Although his men said that it was, he refused to harm God’s anointed. What a contrast to Saul, who always was persuaded by the people to do wrong. Think about what he did: he passed up a chance to have his sufferings ended and to take the throne God had designated for him. But if he had taken that easy way out of suffering, if he had sought only to make life easier for himself, he wouldn’t have been a man after God’s own heart. Being like God is not easy. Do you expect it to be?