What does the Bible mean when it says not to touch God's anointed?

Yet another reason has been pressed in favour of delay, and this is when evil, in the Church or otherwise, is of long standing, or has been sanctioned or committed by one who, himself a Christian, has been of reputation and beloved amongst the saints. Nor is the quotation of Scripture wanting in this connection. I have heard quoted this passage: "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." (Ps. 105:15.) Or again, "Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Num. 12) As in the other cases so here, I need scarcely say there is a wresting of Scripture. To seek to walk in separation from evil, to seek to exercise conscience as to its existence where manifest, or failing this to separate myself, is not doing harm to any of the Lord's "prophets." It is the very reverse of this, even a blessing to them all. Nor were the words addressed to the Lord's people - another reason for their inapplicability - they were addressed to the nations, as the context will show. As to speaking "against Moses," it is still more manifest that the quotation can have no possible application. Sin or evil is in Scripture every where spoken against by the Lord Himself, nor do we assume equality (as Aaron and Miriam did) with what we speak against. There was no desire in the heart of either to separate from what they presumed to be evil in Moses, through his marrying an Ethiopian woman; but there was a desire to assume to be what they were not, namely, equal with him of whom the Spirit has recorded that he was "meek above all the men which were upon the earth," and this God rebuked. But if it is that which the Lord condemns, the fact that it is of long standing can be allowed no weight, and if countenanced by one who has held or holds some influence over the minds of the saints, there is all the more reason why there should be no delay, lest the leaven work and they become through his influence deceived and ensnared. But we have Scripture testimony, and no delay was proposed to the mind of the apostle Paul when Peter, himself of reputation and beloved, had been betrayed into error, and Barnabas and others were in danger of becoming leavened by it. (Gal. 2:11-21.) He acted faithfully and at once, painful as it must have been to him to do so.

As to Abimelech (Phases, p. 132), it was not justice that God was displaying; nor was He in the case of Esau. (Ib.) In that of Abraham and Abimelech, it was divine care over one He had called out to walk before Him. "He reproved even kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Ps. 105:15. God cares for those He calls to walk before Him. Gen. 20:3. Abimelech had wantonly taken by tyrannical power a member of Abraham's family. God shews that He will not suffer His people on earth to be touched with impunity — that He would shew Himself careful of those He thus owned. He was made known by it in connection with His people; and this was of the last importance.

God so led Saul blindfold, as it were, that he is found alone in the cave, in the presence and power of David, to experience the forbearance of his son-in-law, and the respect in which the man after God's own heart held one who had been anointed by the Lord. What cared Saul for David as such! How differently did David view Saul as such. "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." (1 Sam. 24:6.) What God had set up, though rejected by Him, David would not raise a hand to destroy, reading, surely, in this a lesson to many a one since his day. If provocation could have justified the slaughter of Saul, David had received provocation enough. If providential circumstances had been a safe guide for David, surely, when Saul entered the cave alone, David's time to be avenged had come. It was in this light that his men viewed the matter, and urged him to take advantage of his opportunity. Placed in his power, David made Saul aware of the risk he had run, and forced the king openly to acquit him of any designs against his person or his life; whilst he remitted his cause to the Lord, to judge between them, and to plead his cause, and to deliver him out of Saul's hand. "After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog? after one flea?" (1 Sam. 24:14.) What a victory did David gain that day! Saul had to humble himself before him, and to entreat his kindness for his offspring when David should be king in power, making David to swear to him. Saul could trust to David's oath. David could not trust Saul.

Saul had been raised out of deep obscurity into prominence and position without any action that might win the attention or attract the hearts of his subjects, so that, if the Lord's sanction of him were lost sight of, there was nothing in his own conduct to command their respect or retain their confidence. But whatever may have been the thoughts of Israel generally, to David's faith Saul was always "the Lord's anointed," and as such entitled to the deepest respect; so that, when once and again his life was in David's hand, David would not touch him. Even when David cut off a piece of Saul's robe in the cave, his heart smote him for the oft-repeated reason, "he is the Lord's anointed." (1 Sam. 24:6.) When the news of Saul's death was brought to David by one who, thinking to meet with reward, professed to have given the finishing stroke, David's resentment broke forth in, "How wast thou not afraid to put forth thine hand against the Lord's anointed?" and soon the Amalekite's own life measured the extent of David's indignation. Was it that David had sympathy with Saul's conduct and ways, or fellowship with him and personal affection for him? Surely not. But in the spirit of Him (David's Son and yet His Lord), who said, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat," etc., David leaves it to the One who put Saul on the throne, to put him from it in His own time and way. He was content meanwhile to suffer, and to have his name cast out as evil by Saul, until the day should come when God should publicly vindicate him, and the united tribes of Israel should accept him as their king.

But when it is a matter of confidence in God, all of David's prudence disappears. He advances boldly — the world would say “recklessly” — with Abishai alone into the midst of three thousand adversaries and fearlessly goes to seek out his enemy. Faith that feeds on difficulties grows through meeting them. The hill of Hachilah where David goes towards Saul is the witness of greater faith than was the cave of En-gedi where Saul inadvertently fell into David's hands. But however varied the circumstances may be in which faith is involved, the principles that direct faith are unchanging. Saul, although on the verge of judgment, remains the Lord's anointed to David as long as God has not given the final signal. For David to act otherwise toward him than in grace would be to deny his character all the more seriously since he had received the Lord's approbation at En-gedi. Abishai, David's companion, lays a snare for him here without even realizing it himself, and probably because of the very affection he bears for his master. Knowing that David will not avenge himself, Abishai offers to avenge him. (v. 8). Had this taken place, the rejected king's character of grace would have been entirely compromised once again. This is one of Satan's principal objects with regard to believers. If he can induce us to take our own interests in hand, to avenge ourselves, to demand our rights in this world, he makes us fall from faith because at the same time we become like the world we deny our confidence in God alone. David had been in danger of giving up this principle in the matter with Nabal, but he had learned his lesson; God had strengthened him and his own heart had no need to reproach him as at the “rocks of the wild goats.” “Destroy him not,” he says to Abishai, “for who can stretch forth his hand against Jehovah's anointed, and be guiltless?” (v. 9). This unchanging principle follows him until just after Saul's death, when he has the pretended murderer of the king struck down: “How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy Jehovah's anointed?” (2 Sam. 1:14). Thus until his last breath Saul remains inviolable for David, as being the Lord's anointed.

"And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense." If Jeroboam would not have Jehovah's priests, God sends His prophet into his land. "And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out." It was a bold message, but delivered in faithfulness. It was directed, not against the king, but the priests, though the king seemed to feel the force of its application to himself. "And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord." Jeroboam had forgotten, or ignored, the reproof administered by God to kings almost a thousand years before; "Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm" (Ps. 105:14-15). He was quickly reminded of his error, and entreated pardon. "And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Entreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again." But it was his heart that had need of healing, rather than his hand. In this he was like the mass of men today, who look more to the hand and its deeds than the heart of sin that prompted the evil acts. The penitent publican smote upon his breast, as if to express that there, from within, came all the transgression, iniquity, and sin.

The apostle now turns to his own great and recent trial at Rome, and the experience, bitter in many respects, but not without deep thanksgiving to the only One Who never fails and Who gives us to know that all things work together for good to those who love God — to those that are called according to purpose. "At my first defence no one stood with me, but all deserted me: may it not be laid to their account!" (ver. 16). How keenly painful and humiliating this was to the apostle few can estimate, because so few make the least approach to him either in faith or in love. Not a soul on earth could feel as he felt what such failure was to the Lord Himself; which feeling gave, therefore, immense emphasis to his prayer, "May it not be imputed to them." Psalm 105:13-15 makes evident what the Lord felt of old when His chosen ones went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people: "He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, He reproved kings for their sake, saying, 'Touch not Mine anointed and do My prophets no harm.'" Now, He may let any or all men do them wrong, and for the present may reprove neither kings, nor subjects, nor serfs, when they scorn His anointed, and do His servants all the harm they can. Another day He will render to each according to his works. But what does He feel now? What in any place where His own betray and desert those He honours, and those who, for His sake, served them best in the hour of deepest need? May it not be laid to their charge!

Moreover, that conscience was appealed to by the dauntless testimony of the Baptist. For John came "in the way of righteousness." Like Noah, he was a "preacher of righteousness" in a day of unnatural corruption. Like also his prototype Elijah, he delivered his words of truth in a profligate court. John reproved the king for the many notorious evils he had committed; but perhaps his blackest crime was to marry his brother Philip's wife, and the intrepid prophet did not shrink to denounce the incestuous adulterer to his face, although he sat upon a throne, condemning him by the laws of God and man (Lev. 18:16; Lev. 20:21). "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife" summed up his charge. The king's guilt was trebly great; for the wife of Herod was alive, the husband of Herodias was alive, and Herod and Herodias stood in the relationship of uncle and niece. But there was no repentance. The words of John did not turn this disobedient one "to the wisdom of the Just" (Luke 1:17). Herod hardened his heart, and as the Spirit of God says, in view no doubt of the ancient precept, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm," that he "added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison," and would have done worse to him, but "when he would have put him to death he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet" (Matt. 14:5). This popular opinion in favour of John was so strong that the chief priests and elders also feared to oppose it (Matt. 21:26).

There is not one bright spot in this king's character to relieve the darkness of his life's brief record. He "humbled not himself before the Lord," it says, "as Manasseh his father humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more" (or, "multiplied trespass," marg.). So odious did he make himself, even to the backslidden people, that they rid themselves of his unwelcome presence by the hand of assassins. "And his servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house." His subjects must have been reduced to desperate straits when they would thus violate God's expressed prohibition — "Touch not Mine anointed." Jeremiah and Zephaniah must have been youths about this time, and the former's reluctance to taking up the prophetic work to which he was called can well be understood when the true condition of affairs in Judah at that time is known. Both could see quite plainly what they might expect if faithful to their trust.

How beautiful are his words: "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." Saul was still his master and the Lord's anointed, and nothing would induce David, either directly or through the instrumentality of others, to harm a hair of his head.