Welcome to the fourth week in our Summer message series we are calling “David for King”. The title of this week’s message is called “Moral Margin”
David is a very important figure in the story of salvation history, the story of God preparing to send his Son into the world so he can put the world back into a right relationship with him. We learn about David in Samuel 1, Samuel 2, and the first book of Chronicles. Over the weeks of this series we are looking at David’s life. Now to be honest, we are just scratching the surface. There are so many great stories that we are skipping over, simply because we just don't have time to go into them.
Let’s take a moment to catch up with where we are in David's story. David grew up in Bethlehem, an obscure little town as the shepherd boy, the youngest of many brothers, kind of the runt of the litter. God sent the Prophet Samuel to anoint him as the future king of Israel. At that point David’s life changed. His circumstances didn’t change, but his future trajectory changed. The circumstances of David's life changed when he stood up to Goliath. Where other people saw a major, major problem, David saw a major opportunity. After David killed Goliath his popularity grew. This did not sit well with the current king of Israel, King Saul. He became more and more jealous as David became more and more popular. King Saul was determined to kill David, but David escaped from Saul, forcing David to spend the next major portion of his life on the run from Saul, the most powerful man in the nation.
Last week we heard how David became the leader of an army. Well, to call them an army would be a stretch. They could best be described as a ragtag group of men. But David was determined to save the people of Keilah from being attacked by the Philistines. With the Lord’s help, David and his group defeated the Philistines. Now, Saul who was still hunting David down, found out where he was and came after him. David escaped from the town of Keilah to a place called the Caves of En Gedi, which is where we pick up today’s story.
In 1 Samuel 24 we are told "Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the rocks of the wild goats." Not exactly a fair fight. David has about 600 men following him, Saul has 3,000. David's men, this kind of ragtag group against Saul and his group of 3,000 chosen men, the best warriors in Israel. David is way outnumbered, and Saul's got both quantity and quality.
The caves of En Gedi must have been quite large. David and his men were in the cave and wouldn’t you know, Saul arrived at the same cave. David as we know is outnumbered, so he and his men hid in the cave thinking that Saul and his men would pass by and he would escape Saul once more. But instead of Saul passing by, he went into the cave for privacy while his men waited outside. While his back was turned, David’s men told him this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. Here was his chance to sneak up behind Saul and kill him. He was being presented with a solution to his problem. David and his men were tired, they had been on the run from Saul for quite some time, after all God had already anointed him as the future king of Israel. But David realized this is not what God wanted. There were two problems with this solution as David saw it. The first, what would he tell people about how he became king. We all have stories about our life. How we met our spouse, how we choose our career or school, things we did when we were younger. But what kind of story would this be for David. “I bravely snuck up on King Saul while he had his back turned to me and killed him” The second problem is obvious, murder is wrong. Now, David had killed in battle, but this was cold blooded murder. And the wrong thing done for the right reason, is still wrong. And David knew that.
So instead, David snuck up and cut off a piece of Saul’s robe to show Saul that he could have killed him but didn’t. Even this weighed on David’s mind. Further on in Chapter 24 we hear that he regretted doing this. David had a moral margin. By that I mean he didn’t live right on the edge of God’s law.
See, David had what I would call a well-formed conscience with moral margin. By that I mean David wasn't trying to just not break God's laws. He lived way back from them. He lived with a boundary. And he had a respect for authority. He knew that God's law taught respect for authority, so he felt guilt in just the act of cutting off a piece of Saul’s robe.
Sometimes we want to try to live right up against the law. How far can we go without going over, pushing the boundary. Don’t’ put yourself in a situation where that boundary could be pushed. Don’t go to the party where you know people might be using drugs. Don’t put yourself in a position where you might be tempted.
After Saul had left the cave, David called after him and showed him the piece of his robe that he had cut. He held it up as a sign that he could have killed Saul, but out of respect for his authority he didn’t. David was able to live with himself because he did what was right.
Throughout this series, we're trying to learn from David's story, about how to be like him, how to be men and women after God's heart. So, what can we learn from this story? I want to offer two brief applications.
First, we need to be like David in our approach to God's word, and to have a well-formed conscience and then create a moral margin. David knew what the right thing was because he loved God's law. He loved God's teaching. He tells us throughout the Psalms how God’s law brought refreshment to his soul. David did not look at God’s Word and God’s laws as being restrictive. We too often think of the Ten Commandments as constraining us—as if God’s ways will keep us in servitude and from realizing our dreams and reaching our potential. We forget that God means to give us abundant life and true freedom. We have the Bible and we have a catechism to help inform our conscience and know that they are there to help us live better lives.
Second, as we have a well-formed conscience, we need to have a moral margin, that we don't try to see what I can get away with, but we live way back from that line.
What are some examples of this? For those who are not married, God teaches us that sex is for the confines of marriage. Don’t put yourself in a situation that you could regret later. For those of us who are married, God clearly teaches, "You shall not commit adultery." Don't live at the line by flirting with people in the office or even putting ourselves in situations where we can become emotionally connected to a member of the opposite sex. Stay far back from that line to preserve your marriage. We all need to recognize that those teachings are there not because God is against me or trying to keep something from me, but because He's for me. Make sure we are in a position to say "You know what? I did it in God's will and God's way." That's a story worth telling.