1 Samuel 26 Bible study: Who can stretch out his hand?

David says it four times in this chapter (tap anointed). Twice to Abishai: "who can stretch out his hand against the LORD’s anointed, and be guiltless?" (26:9), and "The LORD forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed" (26:11). Once to Abner: "you have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD’s anointed" (26:16). And once to Saul himself: "I wouldn’t stretch out my hand against the LORD’s anointed" (26:23). In the cave he had said the same: "The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him" (24:6). In Hebrew stretch out his hand is the phrase of 22:17 (tap stretch out), where "the servants of the king wouldn’t put out their hand to fall on the priests of the LORD" (22:17), and wouldn’t there and in 26:23 is the same Hebrew verb. Saul's guard wouldn't raise a hand against the LORD's priests at Saul's word; David won't raise his against the LORD's anointed, though Saul is hunting him.

1 Samuel 26:23→leads toMatthew 16:27

After sparing Saul a second time, David says, "The LORD will give to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness" (26:23), and asks, "let my life be respected in the LORD’s eyes" (26:24). Jesus told his disciples, "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will give to everyone according to his deeds" (Matthew 16:27). No New Testament passage cites 1 Samuel 26, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear one teaching in both: the Lord repays each person for what he has done, and David, who had spared the LORD's anointed, asks to be dealt with in the same way (26:23-24). Others read each in its own setting: David is speaking of that day, "because the LORD delivered you into my hand today" (26:23), while Jesus speaks of his own coming in glory, straight after "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" (Matthew 16:24).

מָשִׁיחַmashiachsay ma-SHEE-akh

Strong's: "anointed; usually a consecrated person (as a king, priest, or saint); specifically, the Messiah". Brown-Driver-Briggs lists among its uses "king of Israel anointed by divine command". David says "the LORD’s anointed" four times in this chapter: twice to Abishai (26:9, 26:11), once to Abner (26:16), and once to Saul (26:23). 1 Samuel uses the word twelve times, and seven of them are David's words about Saul in chapters 24 and 26 (24:6 twice, 24:10; 26:9, 26:11, 26:16, 26:23). He says it again in 2 Samuel, to the man who said he had killed Saul: "Why were you not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the LORD’s anointed?" (2 Samuel 1:14). In John's Gospel, Andrew tells his brother Simon, "We have found the Messiah!" (John 1:41), and John adds, "which is, being interpreted, Christ" (John 1:41).