Who Can Kill the King, and Get Away with it? (1 Sam 26:9)

 Who Can Kill the King, and Get Away with it? (1 Sam 26:9)

This is my paraphrase of David’s question: "who can put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?” He had the opportunity. He was the righteous one, and the king was evil. He himself had also been anointed for the throne. But he stops himself twice (1 Samuel 24,26), and refuses to put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed.

The answer seems obvious to the question,Who can kill the king, and get away with it? The answer seems to be, should be, “No one.” 

But the Bible is a surprising Book, and so I have to wonder, is there any escape from the guilt attached to killing the king? 

In the broader, Biblical context, Jesus is the King before whom all must bow. To reject this King is to be alienated from the Kingdom. To ignore this King is to be rejected by God - “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” To raise your hand against this King - what then? Certain death?

Judas handed Jesus over. He was in the grip of the devil. Jesus said it would have been better if he had never been born. But what if, .. what if instead of taking his own life, Judas had repented? Would he have found forgiveness? Could Jesus blood, shed on the cross, cover this sin?

And what about Pilate, who proclaimed Jesus’ guiltlessness, and yet handed Him over to be crucified? What if, in retrospect, Pilate repented and sought God’s mercy through faith in this very same Jesus? Could even his sin find atonement?

And what of the chief priest, who shouted out “Crucify him; Crucify him”? Could he have come to a humbling change of heart? Could even he be redeemed? 

There is some language in the Bible about “the unforgivable sin.” Interpretations abound, but it seems to me that the one unforgivable sin is failing to believe in Jesus. It involves refusing the urging of the Spirit of God to turn and bow before Jesus. And so, if anyone, whether it be Judas or Pilate or an evil chief priest, if anyone repents and believes, they can be saved. So it seems that yes, you can kill the king and get away with it, because King Jesus died to make atonement for sinners like that, and sinners like me, and such an atonement offers forgiveness for even the most heinous of sins. 

And this, then, goes to prove, once again, that anyone can be saved from their sins, if they would but come to Jesus.