“Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.”
—1 Samuel 26:24
“Really! Again?”
There are three ways one might say this of our text. The first one is bad. The second one is true. The third one is best. The exclamation “Really! Again?” might disparage Scripture, disdain Saul, or delight in the Savior.
“Really? Again?” some ask of Scripture, doubting its veracity and truthfulness. Saul pursues David with three thousand men—again? David’s hides in the wilderness—again? Saul is given into David’s hand—again? David is encouraged to take Saul’s life—again? David refuses to take the life of Yahweh’s anointed—again? David does take something of Saul’s to confront Saul with—again? Saul “repents”—again? Thus they argue that same event is being told by different sources, concluding that we cannot trust the historical accuracy of the Bible’s game of telephone.
To which we might reply, “Really? Again? After that line of argumentation has been tried with so many passages and failed? Really? Haven’t we been here before? And shouldn’t your repetition of the same argument in a different place, at a different time, with a different text disprove the very logic of your point? Really? Again?—As if no human in the history of mankind has ever had the experience of dealing with difficult people of saying, ‘Really? Again? Haven’t we done this before?’”
“Really! Again?”—the text intends for us to ask, not of itself, but of Saul. “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Again and again. Sinful man may hate his sin, but he repents of it only to return to it. Really. Again and again.
“Really! Again!” we exclaim most fully as we return to these themes hundreds of years later. The life of the King, even in the depths of His humiliation, is precious to the Father. When as a child he must flee to Egypt, His life is precious. As He wanders through the land without a home with a motley crew, His life is precious. When his brothers betray him, His life is precious. As He acts with perfect integrity and lays down his life for His enemies, trusting His Father, His life is precious. Even when He stoops so low as to bear the curse in the place of sinners, the resurrection testifies that the life of the King is precious in the sight of the Lord.
And if you cling to Christ in faith, His life, the life that is precious in the sight of God God, is your life. Really! So that again and again, forever, His unfailing covenant love and mercy redeem you out of every trouble.
No Other Boast 