Hope and Imagination

Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. Then said Abishai to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?” And David said, “As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The LORD forbid that I should put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them. –I Samuel 26:6-12

The great confrontation between the current and future kings of Israel takes place while the former is asleep. David’s assault comes as a result of God’s work. We are told “a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon” Saul and his men, which allowed David and Abishai to go into the middle of the camp undetected. Abishai believed God had delivered Saul’s life into their hands, but David, mindful of the Law, especially after the recent episode with Nabal, knew what he was and was not to do.

Concerning the end of Saul, David had seen from God’s dealing with Nabal that God would do with Saul what he determined. David had seen God work in a multitude of ways to deliver him from danger. This had taught David that there were countless possibilities as to how Saul would be dealt with by God. David had seen Nabal received justice in an unexpected way, and what he saw God do with Nabal shaped his understanding of how he should deal with Saul. There were many ways God could bring Saul’s reign to a close, but David knew from the Law that his hand was not one of them.

God did not reveal his plan for Saul to David. David could imagine many different outcomes, but his imagination had to suffice. Regardless of what Saul’s end would be, David had enough information to know how to react in the immediate situation. The great confrontation involved demonstrating to Saul that David would follow the Law, and that he was not a threat to the “LORD’s anointed.”

It is not a sin to speculate as to what God will do in the future. Indeed, often we push ourselves to despair by accepting situations for what they are, and not recognizing God’s power to do what he will in them. While it is true our hope is in his power, and not in our personal expectations, that all power is his should buoy our hopes, and part of how it does this is by enlarging our imaginations, allowing us to see possibilities of deliverance those in the world cannot.

These possibilities help sustain our hope, but our hope is also sustained by the knowledge that he will direct us in the here and now. David did not know what would happen to Saul, but he knew what he was to do regarding him. And, while none of know what the future holds concerning our current worries and dilemmas, we know enough to do what needs to be done today. We deal with our anxieties by knowing that a multitude of solutions are available in our sovereign God, and we also deal with them by looking at what is directly before us today, even this moment. In God we have every imaginable hope for the future, as well as strength sufficient do deal with the present.