Loyalty

Then David went out of the cave and called to Saul, “My lord the king! … the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave.  Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the LORD’s anointed.’ …” (1 Samuel 24:8-10)

But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him!  Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?”  (2 Samuel 26:9, NIV)

Although he was unjustly treated and his life constantly threatened, David remained loyal to King Saul – the very person who was doing the treating and the threatening.  David’s attitude and actions towards Saul epitomize loyalty.  Now loyalty is defined as faithfulness to commitments or obligations.  To break it down even further, loyalty involves discretion and an unwillingness to want to hurt the other person; it involves protecting them from others and being truthful with them.  With all that said - most people’s loyalty would go out the window the very moment their life was threatened by that person.  Well on second thought – most people’s loyalty stop for far less than that.

If you read 1 Samuel 24 and 2 Samuel 26, you would see that David had two opportunities to kill Saul, which would have eliminated the threat on his life.  Both times, he refused to lay a hand on Saul, and commanded his men, who were loyal to him, to do the same.  How could David be so loyal to someone who wanted nothing but to kill him?  Even more amazing - how could David refer to Saul as the “LORD’s anointed”?  The answer is this – David’s loyalty to Saul was an extension of his loyalty to God.  David understood that no matter how wrong or unjust Saul was – it was not his place to kill Saul.  God had anointed Saul and placed him in the office of king, and it would be up to God, not David, to remove him.

Today, if we are indeed loyal to God, allow our loyalty to extend to those who God has placed over us.  Honestly, it doesn't really matter if that leader deserves our loyalty or not - the fact is - God does.