In 1 Samuel 23 and 24 we see Saul pursuing David throughout the land but never catching him. God is protecting David every step of the way. When Saul gets close to David, he is side tracked by another distraction.

Saul comes to the caves in En-gedi. Saul goes into one of the caves for a time. It happens to be the cave where David and his men are hiding. David’s men encourage David to kill Saul now that he is alone. David gets close enough to Saul to cut off a piece of his cloak but does not kill him. Saul is the anointed king and as long as he is the Lord’s anointed David will honor him. .

Saul leaves the cave and David follows him. He shows him the piece of the cloak and assures Saul that he does not want to do him harm. Saul begins to weep recognizing that David has repaid Saul’s evil against him with good. He realizes that it is God’s plan for David to be king and asks that David spare his family. David promises and they part ways.

One thing that stands out in this story is that David listens to the Lord over listening to his human counsel. While we can use human counsel to test what we believe is God’s will, we need to be faithful to God’s will when we are certain of it.

Mark 16 contains an interesting situation. The first eight verses were part of the original materials. They end with the women being so afraid of what they have seen at the tomb that they run away in fear and do not tell anyone. Early scholars were uncomfortable with this ending. If it happened this way, and nothing changed, the gospel would never have been spread. So they added verses nine through twenty. While it is clear that eventually the women must have told the disciples what happened or else we would not have the rest of the New Testament it is interesting to consider their fear. How many times are we placed in situations where we know we are to say something about our faith to someone and we are afraid. If we keep silent how will it affect the spreading of the gospel to people we may never know? As Jesus says many times in this Gospel account, “do not fear, only believe.”