Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Heap Burning Coals | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 26

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

Do you love revenge? Do you trust God to make things right? How can we love our enemies? In today's episode, Keith shares how 1 Samuel 26 encourages us to give the mercy we received in Christ. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 26

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Revenge is one of our favorite pastimes. We love watching it play out, whether it's Maximus and Gladiators standing in the arena to avenge his family, or Harry Potter finally facing off with Voldemort. We're wired to find satisfaction in seeing people get what they deserve. Even the most childish squabbles between siblings or coworkers or classmates often end up in some form. of retaliation. Payback isn't just part of the plot, it's instinct. And honestly, it's not just

on screens or playgrounds. It happens in marriages and offices on social media. It's sarcasm disguised as humor, gossip dressed up as concern, silence used as a weapon. And I'm guilty of it. Maybe you are too. But 1st Samuel 26 gives us a very different picture. We find a moment when someone had every reason to retaliate but didn't. And it raises a question most of us don't want to ask. What does mercy look like when revenge feels right? Let's pray. Father, we need more than just advice today. We need to be changed. As we open your word, we pray that you would shape us. Soften our hearts. Help us see the world differently because we've seen you more clearly. Amen. So we pick up our story in 1 Samuel 26. Saul is still king, David is still on the run, and the people of a city in Israel

called Zipf, tip off Saul that David is hiding nearby. So Saul heads out with 3,000 elite soldiers. And when David hears Saul is after him, he sends some spies to scout out Saul's camp. And then when everyone in Saul's camp is asleep, David turns to Abishai, who's his right-hand man, and says, who will go down with me into the camp? We pick up in verse seven. So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there lay Saul sleeping with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him. So here's this strange moment. They see Saul sleeping. They see him vulnerable. Abishai sees the opportunity. He says, look, God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Let me pin him to the ground with one thrust. I won't need to strike twice. So Abashai wants to take this opportunity to

Saul. I mean, hasn't God delivered Saul into David's hands? But when he says that to David, David says, no. Here's verse nine. Don't destroy him. Who can lay a hand on the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? As surely as the Lord lives, the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on. on the Lord's anointed. So David refuses to take Saul's life. Instead, he takes the spear and the water jug and the two sneak out of the camp. Later, from a distant hilltop, David calls to Abner and Saul. He holds up the spear and the jug as proof that he was close enough to kill them, but he didn't. So David's message is clear, I could have killed you, I could have ended this, but I didn't, because

vengeance isn't mine to take. See, everything in us wants to fix injustice ourselves. Everything in us wants to get back at those who hurt us. But David points to a better way. He trusted God to be the one who set things right. Doesn't that make sense? Because you and I, we have mixed motives. I mean, sure, maybe we want to do us right and just and fair, but also we are proud, selfish people who see things from our perspective. We need to trust God, who is impartial, God who knows all things. God who knows every human hearts. God who is all wise. We need to trust him with our life, him with the way we've been mistreated. What's something in your life right now that you're tempted to take into your own hands? Has a friend wronged you? Has a boss hurt your career? Maybe it's

somebody in your family? Let's take it to God. Lord, when I want payback, when I want revenge, teach me to wait. when I want to lash out help me to hold back grow me in the kind of patience that doesn't just trust you in the good times but also trust you in the hard times amen so when saul hears david's voice crying out to him he realizes what has happened he recognizes that david has been merciful to him here's verse 21 Saul said i have sinned come back david my son because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again. Surely I have acted like a fool, and I've been terribly wrong. So Saul has a good response. It sounds like he is repenting. But notice what David does. He doesn't give a speech. He doesn't guilt trip Saul. He doesn't twist the knife. He's not sarcastic. He just shows him mercy. And the weight of that mercy is what convicted Saul of his sin. Here's Romans 12. Paul says, do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this,

you will heap burning coals on his head. So the burning coals here, it's an image of kind of an awakened conscience, of someone being so moved by your mercy toward them that they're convicted of their sin. That's what happened to Saul. David didn't just spare Saul. He valued Saul's life. He showed Saul grace, and that grace began to soften Saul's heart. So in 1st Samuel 26, David shows us that when we trust God with judgment, it frees us up to love our enemies. See, if I have to get vengeance on my enemies, it's hard to love them at the same time. But if I trust God with that, if I trust God to work it all out, then I'm freed up to love my enemies. David didn't let Saul's evil lead him to do something evil.

He didn't fight fire with fire. Instead he chose to interrupt the cycle of violence with peace because he knew he served the God of peace. Grace isn't weakness, it's power. Mercy doesn't excuse injustice, it exposes it, and it shows who's really trusting God. Father, give us the courage to show mercy when we'd rather make people pay.

Help us to trust that grace can do more than vengeance ever could. So David could have forced his way to the throne with a sword. Instead he waited on God. He waited on God's timing. He set down his spear. And in doing so, he foreshadowed someone greater. Because Jesus too was hunted. And Jesus too was betrayed and mocked. And Jesus stood over the people who wanted him dead and he chose mercy. Jesus turned the other cheek. He called out from the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Jesus didn't. crush his enemies, he let himself be crushed for them and for us. And that's why in Romans 5, Paul writes, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. In Jesus, God stood over us. He stood over

us when we were his enemies and instead of killing us, he spared us. He took death upon himself so that we could have life. That's our hope. Not just that we can become merciful people, but that we've already been shown mercy, and it's that mercy that God uses to lead us to repentance. Do you know God's mercy for you? Are you willing to trust him, to be the judge of others? See, we don't follow a king who takes revenge. We follow a king who takes our place. Jesus, thank you for showing us mercy. When we were your enemies, you called us friends. Teach us to walk in your footsteps, not just in receiving grace, but extending it. Make us people who lay down the spear. Amen.