1 SAMUEL #26: ABIGAIL SAVES THE DAY

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Faced with a similar situation to the time Saul was in his cave, this time David almost failed, and took things into his own hands. Thankfully, the Lord sent a gracious, wise woman to remind him of right and wrong, and of the Lord’s promises. What about you and me? How do we respond when we are angry, or when we want to control things? Just as David was an example for us last time, Abigail is the one to imitate this time: to graciously speak the truth, and entrust ourselves to the Lord with the results.

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1 SAMUEL #26. 1 SAMUEL 25:1-38

As always, I strongly encourage you to read all of the text for this time, which is 1 Samuel chapter 25:1-38. It’s a little long to include as part of the text of the message here. Depending on what version you use, some things might be a little bit unclear, so let me set the stage. After the incident when David spared Saul’s life, Saul left David alone for a while, but apparently their issues were not really resolved. He didn’t invite David back to rejoin him in peace, and David didn’t push his luck. Instead, David and his men retreated further into the wilderness at the southern edge of Israel, the wilderness of Paran. This is desolate country, and it goes almost all the way down to the northeast corner of the Red Sea. It included some of the region where the Israelites wandered for forty years with Moses. In David’s time, it might have been a bit more green than now, however, it was still at least semi-arid, and people who kept large herds of sheep had to wander far into this wilderness in pursuit of water and food for the animals. There were no permanent towns or settlements there; it was kind of a no man’s land.

There was a man named Nabal who lived at the northern edge of this wilderness. He was very wealthy, and had large flocks of sheep and goats. Apparently, he regularly sent hired shepherds out into the wilderness of Paran with his flocks. They generally spent months at a time out with the flocks in this area. It was lonely and dangerous work for the shepherds. From time to time lions, bears and other animals attacked the sheep. At times lawless bandits would swoop down out of nowhere and steal some of the animals. In the spring time, the shepherds would return north with the sheep, bringing them back to the town of Carmel, where Nabal, the owner, would have them sheared, sell the wool, and butcher some of them also, and feast on the bounty of the harvest.

While Nabal’s shepherds and flocks were out in the wilderness, they encountered David and his men. At this point, David’s band numbered about six hundred. There was no way they could hunt and gather enough food to supply so many, therefore, it is certain that David and his men relied upon the kindness and generosity of others who lived at the edge of the wilderness. In spite of their need, they did not take any of Nabal’s sheep or goats when they encountered them. They certainly could have simply taken as many of the animals as they wanted – no small band of shepherds could have prevented them. Instead, they helped guard Nabal’s flocks against bandits and wild animals. In the springtime, when the herds were brought back from the wilderness, no doubt there were more than usual, since David’s men had helped protect them from the normal losses due to wild animals and bandits.

The owner of these animals, Nabal, was now cashing in on the bounty that David had helped to secure. So David sent word to Nabal respectfully asking for help for his men. He probably felt that one good turn deserved another. He could have demanded a certain percentage. He could have held all of the flocks of sheep for ransom in the wilderness until Nabal agreed to help him. Or, he could have simply taken them all. Instead, he basically said, “I have freely given protection to your people and animals. Ask your shepherds, and they will tell you. Now, would you please give us whatever you think is appropriate.”

Nabal responded with contempt and derision. He not only refused to help, but he deliberately insulted David.

Remember the previous chapter? Saul was trying to find and kill David. Though David had never done him wrong, and in fact, had risked his life time and again in Saul’s service, Saul was hell-bent on destroying David. (I am not swearing when I say “hell-bent,” I mean it literally. Saul’s rejection of God left him with a soul that was twisted to the purposes of hell). Even so, when David had the chance to fight back and destroy Saul, he did not do it. Instead, he said, “Let the Lord judge between me and you. Let the Lord bring about vengeance, if that is what he wants to do, but my hand will never be against you.” He rested in the Lord’s purposes, and refused to take matters into his own hands.

Well, here we are in a similar situation. Another powerful man had treated David unfairly. David had the ability to do something about it. But this time, David lost his cool. Rather than trusting the Lord to judge Nabal, he got into a towering rage, and started north with four-hundred of his men to destroy Nabal and his little empire.

And then comes the real heroine of the story, Abigail. She was Nabal’s wife. Some of Nabal’s men came to her, and explained what had happened. She made some immediate emergency decisions, and went out to meet David with plenty of food and supplies for his men.

Some of you have heard me preach through New Testament passages that teach us about biblical roles for women and for men. I think of Abigail as an amazing example of a woman who was used by God as a woman – not as a man. This is how it might look sometimes as we engage in the gender dance the Lord has designed for us. Abigail was wiser than everyone around her at this point in time. For a while, she was the only one who was truly committed to doing what was righteous, and she had to deal with two men in leadership who both wanted to do wrong (that is David, and Nabal). But she approached the situation with an amazing womanly grace and uniquely feminine strength.

She offered David gifts for himself and his men, which was the right thing to do. She also apologized for her husband. There is a play on words here. His name, Nabal, would have been pronounced “nu-bawl.” A Hebrew word for foolish or worthless is pronounced “nu-bawl-uh.” It’s a little like saying “Stu is acting just like his name: stupid.” (Deepest apologies to anyone named Stu who might be reading this).

Throughout the narrative it is clear that Abigail placed herself in David’s hands, and under his authority. However, while she was clearly submissive, she was not subservient. She did not hold back from exhorting David to do what was right. She reminded him of God’s promises to him. In particular, she gently reminded him that up until this point, he had fought only the Lord’s battles, and this battle he was going toward at that moment was not the Lord’s fight.

28 Please forgive my offense. The LORD will certainly give you, sir, a lasting dynasty, because you are fighting the LORD’s battles. May evil never be found in you as long as you live. 29 Even though someone pursued you and sought your life, your life is wrapped in the bundle of life which comes from the LORD your God. But he will dispose of the lives of your enemies like stones thrown from a sling. 30 When the LORD does all the good he promised and makes you ruler of Israel, 31 you shouldn’t have a troubled conscience because you spilled blood for no good reason and claimed your own victory. (1 Samuel 25:28-31, God’s Word)

You can see that she reminded him of the incident with Saul that we read about in the previous chapter. That might have been months, or even years, ago by this time. She pointed out that David was once again in the same kind of situation. She encouraged David to trust the Lord, not his own strength, and to trust the Lord’s promises to him. She pointed out gently that destroying Nabal would be something he would regret later, and it would be a shameful blemish on his record of trusting the Lord. She did it all with womanly grace and attractiveness.

There is no doubt that Abigail was in the right, while both David and her husband were wrong. Even so, there is no sense in this narrative that Abigail has somehow taken on the role of a man, or that she was imposing some sort of authority or leadership over either one of them. This is one example of what biblical submission can look like. You can see it is not subservience, or rolling over and accepting whatever men want to say or do. In her submission, her grace and wisdom were powerful and attractive. Abigail is a beautiful example of a woman who plays a significant role in God’s kingdom without violating what the Holy Spirit says elsewhere in scripture about gender roles.

And here is something important: she really got David’s attention. I suspect that David, being in the foul mood he was in, would have reacted angrily to a man who came and told him he was being stupid and making a mistake. But Abigail, with her womanly grace, completely disarmed him. He repented, and freely confessed that she was right and he was wrong.

They parted, but obviously, David never forgot the exchange. Abigail went home. She was still in a tough place, because now that she had dealt with one angry man, she had to deal with another, her husband. We have to read between the lines, but everything I see here suggests that Abigail was trusting the Lord to work out that conversation also. The next morning she told her husband, straight out, what she had done. Apparently very soon after, he had a seizure from which he never recovered. The Lord took care of it for her. I think the last time I preached about male and female roles it was from 1 Peter chapter 3. One thing I said there is that women are not being asked to trust their husbands, rather, they are asked to trust the Lord. Abigail did exactly that.

So, a couple thoughts for application. I like knowing that David needed help. Here was the man who would become the greatest king known to Israel, and not only is he in hiding, but he is barely holding on, dependent upon donations from kind friends and strangers. David wasn’t just a lucky guy who had everything fall into place for him. He spent a significant portion of time in real need, and he never would have made it without help. This is humbling, but the fact that David lived this way encourages me when I feel humbled by my own needs.

When I was preparing this sermon, I wrote the paragraph after this one, and then took a break. During the break I found out that the person who repaired my wife’s computer not only failed to fix it, but also told us that her hard drive was dead (it was working just fine when we turned it in). In addition, without mentioning it, he removed her original hard drive, which was 256GB, and replaced it with one that was half the size. For the privilege of secretly taking our hard drive in exchange for a smaller one, and not fixing the computer, they charged us almost $200. Did they think we wouldn’t notice that it was a different hard drive? Were they treating us like idiots? I was caught up in thinking about all the things I would like to say to them, and the review I would write, and maybe a phone call to the appropriate authorities. In that frame of mind, I returned to work on this sermon, and read the following paragraph, which I had written just before the break:

I think the more important message, the main one, is about trusting the Lord, and not taking matters into our own hands. David made a great choice with regard to that in the incident with Saul. But this time, David let the situation get to him. Abigail had to remind him to leave it with the Lord, or he surely would have done something that he later regretted.

Sometimes, it’s hard to be a preacher. Seriously, this sort of situation really gets under my skin, and in the past I have sometimes said things (or said them in a particular tone) that would make me embarrassed to later tell the person I am in conflict with that I am a Christian and a pastor. I have never sworn at anyone, but I have certainly been angry, and said things that were unkind and unchristian.

I let things sit for a day or two, and then all the way to the shop I prayed that I would not be a poor representative of Jesus to the repair guy. The situation is still ongoing as I write this, but I can report that I didn’t say or do anything I regret, and even after our encounter, I wouldn’t be ashamed to tell the guy that I am a pastor.

As it turns out the message from this chapter of scripture is one that is repeated in many places throughout the Bible:

35 Vengeance and retribution belong to me [says the Lord]. (Deuteronomy 32:35, ESV)

22 Do not say, “I will repay evil”;
wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you. (Proverbs 20:22, ESV)

29 Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
I’ll pay them back for what they did.” (Proverbs 24:29, ESV)

17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:17-19, ESV)

19 Remember this, my dear friends! Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. 20 Human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose. (James 1:19-20, GNT)

Maybe you don’t tend to lose your cool, like I do. Many people who remain calm still struggle with the impulse to control everything. You might feel uncomfortable waiting for God to do his thing, maybe you wonder if he is ever even going to act, and so you take matters into your own hands, in order to make sure that it does get done, and gets done the way you want it to be. I think this passage is for you folks, as well. Part of David’s problem was uncontrolled anger. But the text clearly shows that part of the danger for him was the temptation to take matters into his own hands. I have observed that many people struggle with that same temptation.

Of course, there is a balance. We aren’t supposed to sit on our hands and never do anything. At times, following Jesus means we ought to do something in various situations. But even when we act, we need to do it with a sense that Jesus is acting through us. If you struggle to tell the difference between controlling things for yourself, or acting in response to faith in Jesus, ask yourself this question: Are you OK if things turn out differently than you intended them to? If you aren’t, you might be trying to control things. On the other hand, if you are OK no matter how things turn out, then you are probably acting from a place of faith.

One of the encouraging things here is that David blew it here, but someone else came along to graciously steer him away from doing the wrong thing. The Lord knows we are not perfect, and he has never expected his people to follow him without help. He gives us the help of the Holy Spirit inside us, and also, as demonstrated in this text, he gives the help of other people who are also trying to follow him.

Listen to what he has to say to you today.

1 SAMUEL #25: HISTORY’S MOST EXCITING POTTY BREAK

David once again shows us what genuine trust in the Lord looks like. He apparently had an amazing opportunity to end his troubles and enter his destiny as God’s chosen king. However, David refused to take it, because it involved harming the man who was trying to kill him. It was more important to him to be right with the Lord than to achieve his ambitions. He trusted that the Lord would bring it about in His own time, and he, David, would not have to compromise to receive what God had promised.

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1 SAMUEL #25. CHAPTER 24:1-22

This is one of my favorite stories in the entire history of David. I think what David does, and what he refrains from doing in 1 Samuel 24, shows more courage, faith and heart for God than any of his amazing feats in battle. This is David at his best.

I want to briefly summarize the end of chapter 23, since we did not cover it in detail anywhere else. After David left the town of Keilah, he took his men and went into the wilderness on the other side of the Judean mountains. It may have been more green there 3,000 years ago, but these days, it is mostly desert. It was farther away from Saul, and in terrain that was significantly more rugged. Even so, Saul pursued David there several times, hoping to capture or kill him. During this time, Jonathan came secretly to David, and “encouraged him in his faith in God.”

I think I mistakenly said in an earlier sermon that the last time David and Jonathan ever saw each other alive was recorded in chapter 20. I was wrong, obviously. However this, here, in chapter 24, was indeed the last time the Bible records them being together. I want to focus for a minute on this last meeting of the two friends:

15 David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in Horesh when he saw that Saul had come out to take his life. 16 Then Saul’s son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God, 17 saying, “Don’t be afraid, for my father Saul will never lay a hand on you. You yourself will be king over Israel, and I’ll be your second-in-command. Even my father Saul knows it is true.” 18 Then the two of them made a covenant in the LORD’S presence. Afterward, David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home. (1 Samuel 23:15-18, HCSB)

Remember, Jonathan, like David, had a heart for God. Like David, he was filled with faith, and confident that God would fulfill his plan. In fact, Jonathan was entirely at peace with the idea that David, not he, himself, should be the next king. What a contrast between Saul and his son! Saul thought David might be God’s next chosen king, and his reaction was to be filled with hate and fear, and to try and kill David. Jonathan thought the same thing, but his reaction was to encourage David. Jonathan’s faith is even more amazing when you think about the fact that at this time, David was running for his life. It sure didn’t look like David was ever going to be king. Even so, Jonathan had confidence that the Lord would take care of David, and that he would make sure his plan indeed happened. Jonathan himself encouraged David with this attitude.

I love that one line: Jonathan encouraged David in his faith in God. Even David, man of God, sometimes needed encouragement to continue to trust the Lord. If that was true of David, how much more so of us.

The people of the region betrayed David, as the citizens of Keilah had done. When you read the Psalms that David wrote, you will often find references to treacherous people, liars and friends who betray. This is because this sort of thing happened to David astonishingly often. In spite of his integrity and the help he brought to others, in spite of his faithfulness to God and respect for Saul as king, people were quick to believe the worst of him, and spread lies about him, and betray him to Saul.

I don’t know about you, but this encourages me. I think my natural expectation is that if I surrender my life to Jesus and have integrity in letting him live through me, people will see it, and like it, and praise God for it. I expect a positive response to God’s life shining through me. I expect good results, and favor with people. But Jesus said we ought to expect the opposite:

18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don’t know the One who sent Me. (John 15:18-21, HCSB)

He explains that there is blessing for us in this situation:

10 Those who are persecuted for righteousness are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of Me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5:10-12, HCSB)

Peter, in his first letter, also talks about this:

19 For it brings favor if, mindful of God’s will, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God. (1Pet 2:19-20, HCSB)

13 And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed, (1Pet 3:13-14, HCSB)

Seeing the life of David, and hearing what the New Testament says, gives me hope. Being a person with a heart for God is not necessarily a way to get a whole bunch of people to like you. It isn’t a road to sure success. It is often the opposite. But I cling to these promises that there is great blessing for us in those sorts of trials, sooner or later. At this point for David, he experienced the persecution, but not the blessing.

At one point, David was almost caught. He and his men were in a valley or canyon, and Saul and his men were coming down another valley on the opposite side of the mountain. They were gaining on David. But before they could close, messengers found Saul, reporting that the Philistines were attacking elsewhere in Israel. Saul had to break off the pursuit. Once again, I want to point out that David did not know what his future held. He didn’t know for sure what God was doing, and he might very well have been caught. In that particular incident, it must have seemed like it was merely lucky timing that saved him.

And then we come to the incident described in chapter 24. Saul was back to his new hobby of trying to find David and kill him. He and his men were traipsing around the rugged desert and mountain terrain where, according to rumour, David was hiding. They weren’t having any luck. David appeared to be miles away. One day, Saul had to relieve himself, and he went into a cave alone for privacy. It just happened to be the cave where David and some of his men were holed up.

I want to make sure we understand the scenario. David was anointed by Samuel to be God’s chosen instrument. David and his brothers (who were there at the anointing, and with him in his trials) probably assumed that the anointing also meant that he was supposed to be Israel’s next king. Jonathan certainly thought so, and so did Saul, and probably, along with his brothers, the rest of David’s men. Israel’s present king – Saul – who was no longer God’s instrument, has been trying for a long time to kill David. Now Saul was alone, unarmed and unaware, standing right in front of David, sun-blind in the dark cave, back-turned with his pants down. Saul could not have been more helpless.

David could not have possibly have had a better opportunity to kill Saul without hurting anyone else.

David’s men believed that this was a gift from God. Surely Now was the time for David to kill Saul, and become king himself. I suspect that nine people out of ten would agree with David’s men. Killing Saul at that moment would have been easily justifiable self-defense – after all, Saul was there for the express purpose of killing David. Saul was acting contrary to God’s stated will and purposes – he was trying to kill God’s chosen instrument. So killing Saul would be not only self-defense, but also protection of God’s work in the world. I don’t believe there was a person living at the time who would have blamed David.

Hopefully, you have read the scripture. You know what happens: David creeps forward, knife held low and ready. He raises his arm to strike…and then lowers it, and quietly cuts off the corner of Saul’s robe. He creeps back to his men, and a furious but quiet argument ensues. Now David’s men, seeing that he will not kill Saul, are eager to do the deed themselves. Once again, who could have blamed David if he had let one of his men do it? Not only would he have the justifications listed already, but he could always claim that it wasn’t actually him who killed Saul, and he really didn’t want it to happen. But David argues vehemently, and commands his men not to touch Saul. Finally, Saul leaves the cave and the opportunity is lost.

I picture that the cave was up on the slope of a hill or something. After Saul has gone down a little ways, David emerges, and calls to Saul. He bows low to the ground in respect. Then he shows Saul the corner of his robe and says:

11 See, my father! Look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. Look and recognize that there is no evil or rebellion in me. I haven’t sinned against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life. 12 “May the LORD judge between you and me, and may the LORD take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. 13 As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you. (1Sam 24:11-13, HCSB)

All this wisdom from a man not yet thirty years old. But of course, it wasn’t really David’s wisdom – it was the Spirit of God at work within David. I think the key is verse 12: “May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you.” David literally refused to take matters into his own hands. Remember when Saul was about to lose the entire southern portion of Israel? His army was deserting him, Samuel wasn’t showing up, and so Saulheld a worship service merely for the purpose of getting people to stick around. Saul took matters into his own hands. But David would not do that. His trust was not in what he could do, but in what the Lord said the Lord would do.

We tend to look at circumstances as if they “prove” what God wants us to do. I think this is a very dangerous tendency. I knew a man who thought God was calling him to have an affair, because he felt that circumstances had so clearly put him and the other woman together. He thought it must be God. I am not making this up. It might be better to wonder if circumstances are being used by the devil to tempt us. Now, I’m not saying that circumstances never align with God’s will, but it should not be our default position to think that.

However, there is a natural question. When God sends your enemy into your cave with his pants down, unable to see in the dark, facing away from you, how do you know that it isn’t God’s will for you to kill him? I mean, we’ve already offered many reasons why no one would condemn David for doing it. So how did David know he shouldn’t do it?

I think there are two answers. The first is one that I never get tired of talking about: we need to live in a day-by-day, moment-by-moment relationship with the Lord. The ten commandments told David not to murder, but it would have been easy to justify it as self-defense, or war, not murder. David, like us, had to rely on a connection of faith with the Lord. Through that faith, the Lord communicated to him that it would be wrong. In the first place, let’s get real: if stabbing an unarmed, unaware person in the back isn’t murder, what is? David knew that the word of God was against murder.

We might say also, that David knew in his heart that to kill Saul was wrong. However the reason he knew it in his heart is because he knew the word of the Lord (in this case, “do not murder”), and he knew the Lord himself. It isn’t some mystery. If we want to know the will of the Lord, we too need to know His Word (the Bible) and spend time with him in prayer, worship and fellowship with other believers. Without that, what we “know in our hearts” might be very, very wrong.

I also think that for David, the Lord guided him in this situation through other “ordinary” factors. David, at least for a while, viewed Saul like a second father. Though Saul seemed to hate David, David did not hate in return. He still respected him, and had affection for him, and he was sad that they couldn’t have the relationship they used to have. In addition, I think David probably thought something like this: “How could I ever look my best friend Jonathan in the eye again, if I kill his father?” These might seem like very ordinary, “unspiritual” factors to go into such an important decision, but I think that the Lord uses exactly such things to guide us at times. He made each one of us. He knows the way each of us tends to make decisions, and honestly, I think we are too quick to put things into the category of “spiritual” and “unspiritual.” In my own opinion, everything is spiritual, because all of life belongs to the Lord.

Another thing is this: I think the Lord allowed David to see that to kill Saul at this point would be taking matters into his own hands, rather than trusting. I believe that there are times when God calls us to act speedily and courageously without hesitation. But there are also times when the Lord calls us to let opportunities pass by, and trust Him to bring about his purposes in his own way. Personally, I think the second way is harder, and in our culture we almost never think that way. We typically assume that if we see a means to meet our goals, it is God giving us that chance, and we should take it. Sometimes, that may indeed be true. But sometimes the Lord calls us to wait and trust so we can receive it from him, not get it by our own effort. Especially in our world today, I think we need to consider waiting on God as a first option, and only act if we are sure God wants us to. I say this because our culture will never encourage us to do that. We are taught by everything around us to act rather than wait.

Consider this: if David had killed Saul at this point, he might always afterwards wonder if God really wanted him to be king, or, if he had simply made himself king. And there was something that was more important to David than reaching his goal of becoming king. It was more important to him to be right with the Lord than to achieve his ambitions. So he said, “Yes, I’d like the Lord to judge you Saul, for what you’ve done. But my priority is not to judge you, nor to make my goals happen. My priority is to be right with the Lord.”

I want to point out that David did not meekly accept the way Saul was abusing him. He confronted Saul about how unjust he was being. He had proved his loyalty, and proved Saul’s own suspicions to be false, and he pointed those things out to Saul. He confronted Saul with the truth, but he left judgement to the Lord. So, when we are treated badly, it is not necessarily wrong to  speak out against it. It’s not necessarily wrong to get out of a bad situation if we can. But like David, we can leave judgment to God.

So, today, what’s your priority? Think of something that you really, truly want. Now imagine that you have the power to make it happen, right now. It would be easy. Would you do it, even if you knew in your heart that God didn’t want you to?

Now, I don’t want the message to be that we are just not as righteous as David. That’s not actually true. David wasn’t any better than us. He just learned to trust God, and he made that trust the primary and most important part of his life. But he wasn’t perfect. In fact, we’ll see in the next chapter that David forgot every thing he had demonstrated here, and had to be reminded of it. So, the message is: Trust God. I’ll say it again: Trust God. The thing that you want so much, the thing that you are convinced is even God’s will for you – God will take care of that. David eventually did become king. It didn’t happen that day. In fact it was still years away. But God did take care of it. He worked it out the best way possible.

I want to add something else. Maybe you’ve tried to trust God, and you haven’t been able to do it like David did. Understand this: David trusted God by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we want to trust God, it is more about surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in us than about us trying hard. It’s about giving permission to the Lord to lead you. Once you give that permission, and you surrender your choice to God’s best will, search the scriptures, and if you have no definitive answer from that, do what seems best, trusting that the Lord is leading you.

Also, we need to remember that when we fail, we have the Anointed One, Jesus, who trusted God perfectly, on our behalf. He did what we could not do, so that when we fail (not if!), we can trust that he has made it right between us and God. To do better next time, the main thing we need is more trust.

So trust him.

1 SAMUEL #24: THE LORD’S HEART TO SAVE

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David demonstrates the best attitude for us: to recognize that we are here to do as the Lord pleases. God is not our servant, but rather, the other way round. At the same time, David shows us the Lord’s heart to rescue us. The Lord has not forgotten you, and was willing to go to extreme lengths to save you. Once we know this, we can trust him as he calls us to do things that stretch us beyond our comfort zone.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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1 Samuel #24. The Lord’s Heart for Rescue. 1 Samuel 23:1-14

We are reading a book of the Bible that is primarily a record of history. Theologians call this kind of Biblical writing, “narrative.” In Sunday school, we all called them “bible stories.” The gospels – the bible stories about Jesus – are narrative. So is the book of Acts. So also, is much of the Old Testament. Whenever we read narrative we should keep in mind that there are three basic layers to it.

First, narrative parts of the Bible are descriptions of actual historical events. Archaeology has consistently confirmed and correlated the bible stories we read. Skeptics used to claim that it was all made up – but in trying to prove that, they instead proved how historically reliable the Bible is.

Even so, we need to realize the second layer: that this history was written with a purpose in mind. In other words, it wasn’t just recording history for the sake of history. In the case of Biblical narrative, it is history for the sake of learning about who God is, and how he deals with his people. By the way, all history is told with some kind of purpose like this, told with the purpose of advancing a particular kind of perspective. As a for instance, a few years ago, my friend, historian Dr Mark Cheathem published a book about Andrew Jackson: Andrew Jackson, Southerner. It informed readers about actual facts surrounding Andrew Jackson and his life, to be sure. But Mark also told the events of Jackson’s life from a definite perspective, and built a case that it is a valid perspective. His main thesis is that Jackson’s life was shaped by his own perception of himself as part of the Southern gentry class. (If you are interested in Mark’s book, you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Jackson-Southerner-Southern-Biography/dp/0807162310)

In a similar way, the Bible tells us real history, with a certain particular perspective about God and his people. The perspective used in the Bible is that God was at work in these events, and the writers, inspired by God, document how God was interacting with humans through the incidents that are recorded. So we not only look at the historical events, but, trusting that God inspired the writers, we look at how God was at work in them.

Finally (the third layer), we recognize that God is still telling the story, and he uses the Bible to communicate with us today, to tell us how he is at work in us and around us today. The bible is there to help us know God better through Jesus Christ. So as we read, we look for how he wants to communicate with us in this very moment, and how it helps us to know Jesus better, and walk in relationship with him.

In 1 Samuel 23:1-13, David heard that the town of Keilah, near both the cave of Adullam and the forest of Hereth, was under attack by the Philistines. As soon as David heard of it, he had two immediate reactions. First, he wanted to go rescue them. Second, he chose to ask the Lord if he should do that. Remember, both a prophet and priest were with David at this point, and I am sure that together, the three of them asked God about it. As it turned out, the prophet and priest discerned that David’s first reaction was exactly what God wanted. God’s heart, and David’s heart, was to deliver his people.

However, David’s men had a different reaction:

But David’s men said to him, “Look, we’re afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces! ” (1Sam 23:3, HCSB)

Remember David now had about six hundred men with him. The way war was waged in those days, it is possible that some of them had previously been sent to help Saul for a short time in some of his earlier battles. These citizen-soldiers usually just stayed for one battle or one short campaign, and they were not as important to battles as the professional warriors. Generally, they just hung around, and if the battle went well, they provided manpower for pursuing enemies; if the battle went badly, they would have been the first to flee. Because these men were so low in society, however, it is even possible that some of them had no experience in warfare at all. Certainly, aside from David, none of them were professional warriors – yet. Quite simply, they were afraid.

Consider the contrast between David and Saul in this kind of situation. When Saul’s men didn’t want to obey his orders, Saul sometimes tried to manipulate them through false religion, as he did by offering the sacrifice himself, before Samuel arrived, in chapter 13, or through his rash oaths in the second half of chapter 14. Or, he assumed that he didn’t need to ask for God’s guidance, as in the early part of chapter 14. Or, he caved in to whatever his men wanted, even if that conflicted with God’s desires, as in chapter 15. In chapter 22, Saul tried to goad his men into killing the priests by speaking insultingly and sarcastically.

Now, it was David’s men who are baulking at obeying him. His approach was very different from Saul. He had already asked the Lord if he should attack the Philistines, and received an affirmative response. When his men were afraid, he asked the Lord a second time. This is so good at several different levels. In the first place, it shows that David was humble. He thought he had heard correctly from God, but he was willing to entertain the possibility that he was wrong. He wasn’t too proud to admit that. Second, it showed he had compassion on his men. David wanted to fight. But he could see that his men were afraid, so the second time asking God was for their sake, not his. However, once he did hear a second time that this was what God wanted, David didn’t tolerate any more discussion. His men could either follow him, or not, but he was going to follow the Lord. He did not seem nearly as insecure as Saul. So, he led them into battle, and they won a resounding victory, saving the town of Keilah.

But all was not well. No doubt David and his men were tired of living in the forest and the cave. So they weren’t in a hurry to leave Keilah – a real town with houses and even a wall. They were glad to hang out in civilization for a while. Saul heard that they were there, and declared: “God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with barred gates.”

I want to pause and point out two things. The first is a small difference. In all David’s interactions with God in this passage, he calls him “the Lord.” Saul calls him “God.” “The Lord,” is the way most English translations express the Hebrew personal name for God (we might pronounce it: “Yahweh.”) So, in fact, it is a more casual and intimate way to talk to God. To picture it another way, say you were talking about a man named John Smith. David is calling him “John” and Saul is calling him “Mr. Smith.” I think this is a reflection of their different relationships with God. To Saul, God was a distant Supreme Being, one that might possibly be manipulated into helping him (Saul). To David, he was a close personal relation, a friend in all things.

The second thing I want to highlight is their different approach to God’s guidance. David paused and talked to the Lord multiple times on many occasions. He asked what God wanted to do in every situation. Four times in these thirteen verses, we see David seeking God’s guidance. On the other hand, Saul simply assumed that God existed to assist him to fulfill his (Saul’s) own ambitions. In these verses, he did not once seek to know what God wanted him to do.

Let me state this even more clearly. In Saul’s mind, the whole point of God’s existence is to help Saul have the kind of life he wants. God is his assistant. But in David’s mind and heart, he (David) exists to serve God and carry out his will on earth. He is God’s servant, and even calls himself that exact thing in verse ten. I think that these two attitudes compete for dominance in everyone who believes in the existence of God. Is God there to help us live our lives – or are we here to express His Life and fulfill His Purpose here on earth? In other words, is my life about me (with God as a help and support to me), or is my life about God (with me as his valued tool and helper)? I think we all know the correct answer to that question. But practically speaking, many Christians live as if God is their servant, not the other way round. It is so easy to start thinking that the main point of God is to do good things for me. The truth is, the main point of my life is to let God work through me.

The citizens of Keilah were apparently not very grateful to David for his help. There is no record of any expression of thanks. Instead, when David asked the Lord if it was safe to stay there, the Lord told him that the people of Keilah would hand David and his men over to Saul, if he stayed. Saul’s intention was to surround the city and destroy it, with David and his men inside. It does not say so overtly, but it seems likely that it was a citizen of the town who went to Saul with the information that David was there.

This is ironic. The people of Keilah rejected their rescuer, David. Instead, they sent for Saul to come and capture David. In rejecting God’s anointed one, the citizens of Keilah were inviting their own destruction. In their rejection of David, they were destroying themselves.

Thankfully for everyone, David sought God’s guidance, as he did so frequently, and he led his men back into the wilderness, saving both himself and the town of Keilah, yet once again.

Now, we have heard the history of what happened. We have noticed how God was involved back then. But what does this mean for you today? How is the Lord using this to speak to you, to help you know Jesus better and walk with him?

Remember that David is a type of Christ. God used his life to show us what the ultimate “anointed one” is like. One of the things I think the Lord shows us here is that the heart of God is to rescue us. David, anointed with God’s spirit, heard of people who were in trouble and oppressed, and his first response was, “Can I go save them? Please?”

So, too, the heart of Jesus is for our redemption. He saw the people of earth being oppressed and destroyed by sin, and he said to his Father: “Let me rescue them!” And the Father said: “Yes!” He sees you and me, and says to his Father: “Let me rescue them!” And the Father says “Yes!”

God’s heart is for redemption. I know there are many things that happen in this life which we don’t understand. Believe me, I am a living illustration of difficult things that are hard to comprehend. I don’t know why God has not delivered me from my unrelenting pain, pain that afflicts me even right now as I write this.

But we can’t doubt that God loves us and wants to save us. He came in the flesh, he gave up his body in tortuous suffering to rescue us. More than that, he suffered unimaginable torment of soul for us. So, we know, His heart is for our redemption. Whatever you face, you are not forgotten. There is One who sees you as precious and valuable. His heart is for your ultimate salvation, for your best good.

David rescued the people of Keilah. Today, three thousand years later, it makes no difference to those people because they are dead. But the redemption we get through God’s Ultimate anointed one is eternal. It is the redemption of our spirits, souls and eventually the re-making and resurrection of our bodies. Three thousand years from now, the redemption of Jesus will still make all the difference in the universe.

Sometimes, like the people of Keilah, we don’t welcome the one who delivers us. Their rejection of David is pretty poor behavior. Here, he has just saved them, but now they turn around and try to have him killed. But if they had succeeded, they would have brought about the destruction of their own town as well. When we reject Jesus, it is just as offensive and ugly. He gave his life for us. He gave up his soul to be tormented on our behalf. Some people would like the benefits of his salvation, but want nothing to do with him – they don’t want a daily relationship with him. They feel that following Jesus, that surrendering our lives to him, will make us uncomfortable in various ways. Perhaps he interferes with our lives in ways we don’t like. Just as the town of Keilah, When we reject God’s anointed redeemer, we are inviting not freedom, but destruction into our lives. Let their behavior caution us to receive what God wants to do in our lives.

Maybe you identify with David’s men. You aren’t a professional, like he is. Perhaps God, through Jesus, is inviting you into something new and scary that you aren’t sure you are ready for. When God’s anointed (Jesus) invites you into his mission, don’t shrink back. David’s rough group of beggars and rabble weren’t fighters at this point. They were afraid, too. But out of that same group came the greatest warriors in the history of Israel.

Maybe you think you don’t have the background to pray for others, or to share your faith with your neighbor, or make a stand for God. You might be right. You probably don’t have the right background. But neither did David’s men. All they really needed was enough trust to follow where God’s anointed one led them. That’s all we need. We small, no-account group of Jesus-followers might be exactly the tools God chooses to use.

Let the Lord speak to you right now.

1 SAMUEL #23. THE CONTENT OF GODLY CHARACTER

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There was a tragic contradiction between the integrity of David, and the insecurity of Saul. While David was not perfect, he had a heart for God and took responsibility for his failures with a repentant heart, which was very unlike Saul. He also made sure to take care of his family. Though we sometimes think that David’s life unfolded exactly the way it should have, from David’s perspective, everything was uncertain. He didn’t know how it would all turn out. He simply did the best he could, repenting when he failed, and put all of his hope and trust in the Lord alone.

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1 SAMUEL #23. 1 Samuel 22:3-23

The Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart. We have already seen why on several occasions. He trusted the Lord to do battle with Goliath. Later he gave Goliath’s sword to the priests, because he saw it as God’s victory, not his own. He held on to his integrity even when Saul went back on his word to him. David ran not to his family, but to the Lord when he was in trouble. His orientation was toward God, and all his hope and trust were in the Lord.

But this does not mean that David was perfect. Most of us probably know about his major sins in connection with Bathsheba and her husband. But that wasn’t the only time he messed up, and it certainly wasn’t the first. Two weeks ago we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 21, and saw that even though David ran to the Lord when he was in trouble, he gave in to fear and lied to the priest Ahimelech. Now in chapter 22, we see the horrible results of that lie.

Before we get to that, however, I want to point out some unrelated positive things. At this point, David was in the cave with some of his relatives, and a number of other desperate men. It is unclear whether his parents had also joined him there or not. In any case, he knew his parents were likely to be in danger from Saul, and he could not expose them to the kind of harsh conditions that he would have to bear for the foreseeable future. So he took his parents to the kingdom of Moab.

There are two special things about this action. First, is the relationship David’s family had with the Kingdom of Moab. The book of Ruth is a short history (four chapters) of David’s great-grandmother Ruth. She was the grandmother of David’s father, Jesse. It is a sweet story about a family that went through hard times, but still trusted in the Lord. It shows us that David came from a family of people who had a heart for God. But the important thing for this particular passage is that Ruth was originally from Moab. Jesse may have grown up hearing stories about Moab from his Nana. So David did not just randomly dump his parents on the first foreign dignitary he could find. He took them to people who were actually relatives, albeit distant ones.

Second, this highlights something we don’t talk about much in modern western society. Both Old and New Testaments are clear that we have a responsibility to take care of our families, and even particularly, the elderly members.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn to fulfill their duty toward their own household and so repay their parents what is owed them. For this is what pleases God. (1Tim 5:4, NET)

If any believing woman has widows in her family, she should help them, and the church should not be burdened, so that it can help those who are genuinely widows. (1Tim 5:16, HCSB)

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1Tim 5:8, ESV)

David took his responsibility to his family seriously. He could have said, “Look Ma and Pa, I’m just really busy these days. I’m trying not to get killed, I have this band of men to lead, I am God’s chosen instrument in this generation, and oh, by the way, I have a kingdom to win.” Those things might have easily been more pressing than taking care of his parents. But he didn’t feel right doing anything else until he knew that they were safe and well cared for. We sometimes forget that both retirement and social security are relatively new developments. In all of history until about 50 years ago, elderly people did not have these. Instead, they had children. Where I grew up in Papua New Guinea, it is still that way. When someone gets too old or infirm to provide for themselves, their family takes care of them. It may have to be that way again in America before too long. That isn’t the end of the world. It worked pretty well for most of human history. And David managed it, even in his precarious situation. (I really hope my kids are reading this.) By the way, this didn’t mean, in David’s case, that he was always there. He was for a while, and then when he left, he made sure they were going to be OK even while he had to do other things.

When David left his parents there, his words to the king of Moab were very humble: “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, until I know what God will do with me.” He was not arrogant. Even though he knew Samuel had anointed him as God’s chosen instrument, and to be the next king, David did not presume upon God. He humbly admitted that he was in a pretty uncertain situation. I think this is also important because sometimes we read the Bible and we think faith was easy for the people that we read about. But this shows that David felt he had no guarantee of how his life would turn out, or even if he would survive the next few weeks. It is easy in hindsight to see how powerfully God worked in his life. It seems inevitable to us, reading it three thousand years later. We might feel that this was exactly how things were meant to go. But when David lived it, he had no more reason to trust God than you and I do today. He had no special guarantee. He didn’t know what was going to happen. This should help us to have confidence that God is still working in our lives, even when we, like David, can’t be sure how things will turn out.

Now, it appears that David stayed there in Moab for a time. In fact, it says that David himself took care of his parents (they lived with him) while he was “in the stronghold.” Then the prophet Gad (this is the first time we’ve heard of him since the very first chapter) says, “Don’t stay in the stronghold, but return to Judah.” “Judah,” of course, means the area belonging to the tribe of Judah in southern Israel. It can be confusing, but obviously then, the “stronghold” doesn’t mean the cave (because that was in Judah), but rather, the stronghold of the king of Moab.

The presence of the prophet Gad is interesting. If you remember from the first message on  1 Samuel, Gad was one of the three sources for the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. Remember that Samuel the prophet was Saul’s advisor for a time, but Saul never really listened to him. Finally, they parted ways forever. By the time of the events narrated in chapter twenty-two, Samuel was very elderly indeed, and would have been unable to live the hard life David was living. So the Lord sent David another prophet – this man named Gad. Fittingly enough, Gad appears to have been one of those original desperate, in-debt malcontented men that joined David. But the Lord gifted him to speak prophetically into David’s life. And unlike Saul, David listened and immediately responded to the Lord. This wasn’t necessarily an easy choice to make. The Lord was telling David to go back to a place where he would be in jeopardy from Saul. David did not want to fight Saul or any Israelites, yet he was supposed to go there where they wanted to kill him. Frankly, it didn’t make a lot of sense to go back there – what was the purpose of putting himself and his men in such a precarious situation? It doesn’t seem reasonable. Even so, David didn’t hesitate. Here again, we see David’s sensitive heart toward God.

Meanwhile, the text gives us a glimpse into what was happening with Saul around that time. It looks like Saul had, by this time, completely given himself over to hatred and jealousy of David. He verbally abused his own son Jonathan, as well as his men, accusing them of conspiring against him. He thought David had bribed them with promises of land and military commands. This was pure fantasy – how would David even speak to them? So we can see that Saul had moved from insecurity to almost full blown paranoia.

It is at this time, through Saul, that David’s lie to the priest brought forth its terrible fruit. Doeg, the man from the kingdom of Edom (not an Israelite) spoke up. He told Saul what he saw and heard when David came to the sanctuary at Nob. He mentioned that not only did David get bread, and the sword of Goliath, but Ahimelech the priest “inquired of the Lord” for David. “Inquiring of the Lord” at the very least meant a brief worship service and then use of the Urim and Thummim (– the “holy dice,” so to speak). It may have included a more thorough time of worship, and a sacrifice. So here is our proof that David went there not mainly for physical help, but to hear from God and worship in his presence.

Saul summoned Ahimelech (the high priest) and all the priests of Nob. He confronted Ahimelech, who tried to remind Saul that David was his good and loyal son-in-law, a faithful captain in his armies. Of course, Ahimelech knew nothing of the rift between David and Saul, because David had lied to him. It may well be that he would have helped David anyway, but David never gave him the chance to do so honestly. So, Ahimelech freely admitted that he had helped David. However, by insisting to Saul that David was a good and faithful servant, he only provoked Saul’s irrational paranoia and rage.

Saul erupted with wrath, and ordered his bodyguards to kill Ahimelech and all the priests. They balked. To kill the priests was an abomination. Even Saul’s faithful followers knew that he was ordering a horrible crime. Saul’s Israelite followers would not go through with it. I picture Saul screaming and raging, and then Doeg, who was not an Israelite, but who was cunning, unscrupulous and ambitious, did the deed. He murdered 85 priests that day. He continued on afterwards, and directed the murder of all of their families and the destruction of the village at Nob. With eighty-five men, plus their wives and children Saul, through Doeg and Doeg’s men, murdered two-hundred people or more. Not only that, but the text says they slaughtered all the livestock as well.

Does this remind you of anything? When the Lord called Saul to destroy the Amalekites, among other things, he was supposed to kill all of their livestock also, but Saul would not do it. He kept it for himself and his men, because livestock represented wealth in those days. Now, however, when the Lord definitely did not command Saul to do this, Saul tried to ensure the killing of every last person, including women and babies, and he also ensured that all of their livestock was also killed. What a horrible contrast! He will not engage in holy war for the Lord, but he will do so on his own behalf, for mere revenge.

However, they missed a priest. Actually it’s possible they missed two. Much later we will learn that Zadok, son of Ahitub, was a priest during David’s reign. Ahitub was the name of Ahimelech’s father, so Zadok might have been his brother. Of course, however, it could be a different Ahitub. However, we do know clearly that Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, escaped, and he took his priestly garment, called an “ephod” with him. The important thing about this is that the ephod was where a priest kept the Urim and Thummim. These were the “lots,” or “holy dice” used to determine God’s will. Abiathar fled to David and told him what happened.

22 Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew that Doeg the Edomite was there that day and that he was sure to report to Saul. I myself am responsible for the lives of everyone in your father’s family. (1Sam 22:22, HCSB)

David’s response was remarkable. Saul was the one who ordered the murder of the priests. Doeg was the one who carried it out and did the actual killing, probably assisted by some underlings. But David said, “this was my fault. I am responsible for the loss of those lives.”

You see David had a heart that God loved. It wasn’t because David was perfect. He lied to Ahimelech. But he was open, willing, humble and, when confronted with his sins, truly repentant. When Samuel confronted Saul about the sins he committed, Saul’s response was always something like: “Well I had to do it,” or, “Circumstances demanded it,” or, “My men made me do it.” David could easily have said, “I had to lie to save my life.” He might have said, “It was an extreme situation, calling for extreme measures. Besides, I’m not even the one who killed them.” But instead, his response was: “I was responsible for this great tragedy.” He willingly accepted the blame, and repented.

This is not to say that David was blind to the evil of Saul and Doeg. After hearing of this horrible crime from Abiathar, he wrote Psalm 52, in which he castigates the evil of Doeg, and by implication, Saul. In David’s eyes, their biggest sin is this:

Here is the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, taking refuge in his destructive behavior. (Psalm 52:7)

Even more amazing is what David wrote next. Remember he was still hiding in fear of his life. Remember, he had no more reason to trust the Lord than you and I do.

But I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God; I trust God’s faithful love forever.

I will praise you forever for what you have done. In the presence of your faithful people, I will put my hope in your name, for it is good. (Psalm 52:8)

David did not say that because he was now out of danger, and in a secure situation. Instead, David was seeing with the eyes of faith. He trusted that God’s goodness and his faithful love meant that he was indeed secure, no matter what else was happening.

As always, the Lord brought some good out of every terrible situation. David was his chosen servant. Now David had both a prophet (Gad) and a priest (Abiathar, son of Ahimelech) to worship with him, and give him godly counsel. And unlike Saul, David humbly and willingly received what God said through them.

Now what does all this mean for us today?

Maybe you need to hear the specific practical advice that you should take care of your family, and even your parents when they are unable to take care of themselves.

Perhaps you face the temptation that Saul had, the temptation to give in to insecurity. Do your fears drive away the people you love, or cause them harm? I doubt anyone reading this has committed murder on the scale that Saul perpetrated that day. Even so, the difference between faith and doubt is huge, and it matters a great deal. Without trust in the Lord, if we trust only in ourselves, like Saul, we are doomed to hurt those around us. See how much better it is to be like David and put your trust in the Lord alone.

Like David with Gad and Abiathar, do you have godly spiritual advisors who listen to the Lord and have permission to speak honestly into your life? If not, ask the Lord to send you a few.

For me, and possibly some of you, it might be that we need to learn to see with the eyes of faith, to recognize that whatever might be going on in our lives, we can trust the faithful love of God, and feel secure in Him.

There is one last thing. Last time we talked about the concept that in the Old Testament we find people or events that remind us of Jesus, or show us what Jesus is like, or what following him is like. There is another one this week. More than two hundred people lost their lives for helping David. So today and throughout all history, people around the world have been persecuted and killed for following Jesus. It is a reminder that we should pray for those who are persecuted today, and also that we should be ready to make a choice between our own life and our obedience to Jesus.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you about all this right now.

1 SAMUEL #22: FOLLOWING AN EXILED KING

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David and his men teach us some things about Jesus and his followers. Like the followers of David, we come to Jesus desperate and poor. Like David’s men, following Jesus means we are “all in,” with no backup plan. We are called to wholehearted commitment to Jesus. When we answer that call, even our ordinary lives are significant in the spiritual realm.

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1 SAMUEL #22. 1 SAMUEL 22:1-12

1 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. 1 Samuel 22:1-2

In the previous message we saw how David took the time to stop at the tabernacle to worship the Lord. This almost certainly cost him the chance to go home to Bethlehem for a final time before his exile. He did this because he wanted to be in the presence of the Lord once more. He wanted to hear what God had to say to him in this difficult circumstance. Those things were more important to him than home, family or even the certain help he would have received in Bethlehem. After stopping at the tabernacle, he went to Philistine territory, but found life among his enemies to be very insecure. Realizing he’d made a mistake, he fled from there, and ended up hiding and living in a cave near a place called Adullam. In fact we now know that there is a whole network of caves in that area.

Pause for a moment and consider how low David has fallen. He was anointed to be God’s chosen instrument, ultimately, to be the king. He served as a feared and honored warrior – he was, in fact, a national hero. He was the son in law of the king. He had lived in comfort and honor. Now he is hiding for fear of his life, in a cave. Caves are not known for their comfort. There is nothing soft to sleep on. There is no natural light. There are no bathrooms, so after a while of living there, it would smell pretty ripe. And yet, David’s heart didn’t falter. He did not appear to think he was somehow too good to live that way. Arthur W. Pink commented on this:

“The high favorites of Heaven are sometimes to be located in queer and unexpected places. Joseph in prison, the descendants of Abraham laboring in the brick-kilns of Egypt, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the great fish’s belly, Paul clinging to a spar in the sea, forcibly illustrate this principle. Then let us not murmur because we do not now live in as fine a house as do some of the ungodly; our “mansions” are in Heaven!”

Sometimes I think we Christians in the Western world are a little soft. God loves to bless his people, but his main purpose for us in this world is not that we merely feel comfortable. David was God’s chosen instrument, just as we Christians are today. And the Lord was with him in the cave, perhaps even more potently than when David finally lived in a palace. We need to take the long view, the view of eternity. What happens here and now is not the end. I like where I live right now, but it is a dump compared to my permanent home in heaven. David knew that was true for him as well.

There are two Psalms that show in the superscription that they were written by David “in the cave.” Unfortunately for David, he spent time hiding in several different caves, and at different periods in his life. So we can’t know for sure that these were written in the caves near Adullam at this particular time. But there’s a good chance that  either one or both of Psalm 57 and 142 were written at this point in his life. Remember, the Psalms are not collected in chronological order, so 142 could easily have been written before 57.

Both Psalms start with David expressing fear and anguish at his dangerous and uncertain situation. But both end with him declaring his trust in the Lord, and his praise to him. Psalm 142 seems particularly appropriate for David’s situation in 1 Samuel 22.  The last line of Psalm 142 says, “The righteous will gather around me; because you deal generously with me.”

 This is a declaration of trust. It is also an optimistic take on what actually happened shortly afterwards. David’s brothers and his father’s whole family came to live with him in the cave. He was no longer all alone – his family shared in his hardship and persecutions. In addition, more men joined him until there were about 400 altogether. The text says that these men were all either “desperate, in debt or discontented.” It doesn’t sound exactly like “the righteous.” It sounds more like a ragtag band of malcontents and ne’er-do-wells. David’s family aside, these sound not like the cream of the crop, but rather the sludge of society.

However, they all agreed upon one thing – David was now their leader. This was actually a pretty big deal. As we will learn next time, Saul the King felt that anyone who helped David was committing treason, and he sentenced them to death. So when these men gave their allegiance to David, they forfeited their lives. There was no going back. If David was not vindicated, if he didn’t end up as the true king, they were dead men.

In the Old Testament, sometimes we encounter people or events that theologians call “a type of Christ.” What they mean is, sometimes God used historical events or individuals to show the world what Jesus was like, even though Jesus had not come yet. It is a foreshadowing – a partial picture of what the real messiah will look like. These “types of Christ” serve two purposes. First they were for the people in Old Testament times, to help them understand what God is really like, and how he really saves people. Remember, Romans 3:25-26 tells us that even people in Old Testament times were saved through Jesus, as God looked ahead to what he was going to do at the cross. And so there are these shadows and parts of pictures that gave people a sense of what was to come. Second, these “types” are there to strengthen our faith. Even the Old Testament is all about Jesus, and so when we read it, we should be looking for Jesus and how it shows Him to us.

By the time Jesus walked the earth, even the Jewish Pharisees believed that many of the people and incidents in the Old Testament were pictures of the coming Messiah. In particular, the Jews felt that David’s life and character would help them to identify what the Messiah was like. David was anointed with oil and with the Holy Spirit to be God’s uniquely chosen instrument. Both the Hebrew word “Messiah” and the Greek “Christ” mean simply “anointed one.” Jesus Christ means “Jesus, Anointed One.” So some of the life of David, the anointed one, looks ahead to the ultimate Anointed One.

In this particular case, there are several significant comparisons. David was God’s chosen anointed one, and yet he was rejected by the leader of the nation. He lived with integrity and didn’t do anything wrong, yet he was forced to live as an outcast. Jesus was God in flesh, the Ultimate Anointed One, and yet he was rejected by the status quo of Israel. He too was an outcast. David accomplished miraculous things in battle against the Philistines. Jesus also performed many miraculous signs – healings, driving out demons, calming storms and more. He destroyed demonic enemy strongholds.

There is one “type of Christ” in this passage that I want to dwell on a little bit longer, and that is the followers of God’s anointed. The men that followed David were of no account. They were shiftless and in trouble, the dregs of society. And yet mostly from these ragtag 400, came some of the mightiest names in the history of Israel. There was an exclusive trio of warriors, known as “the three.” One of the three was the warrior Eleazar. Once he and David were surrounded by Philistines in an open field. They stood back to back, just the two of them, and fought against dozens, or possibly hundreds, of enemies. They prevailed and all their enemies were killed (1 Chronicles 11:12-14; 2 Samuel 23:9-10). There was a larger elite force of “thirty mighty men.” From what we can tell, they all started out among this group of no-name, no-account people who came to David long before he actually became king.

In the same way, the important members of society did not join the ragtag band of Jesus’ disciples. Instead he got tax-collectors, prostitutes and smelly, calloused fishermen. He had his “three” – Peter, James and John. He had his twelve then beyond that, a few more.

The followers of David had to be kind of desperate to go to him. They were literally giving up everything to join him. If he didn’t come through, they were lost. There was no halfway commitment. This wasn’t, “I’ll go hang with David for a while, and if it doesn’t work out, I can always go back.” No it was an irrevocable alignment with David, breaking off the loyalties of the past.

Jesus calls for that kind of allegiance from us also. He doesn’t want us to come to him, keeping our options open in case something we like better comes along.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39, ESV)

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

Peter and the twelve, like the first followers of David, went all in. Peter expressed the kind of commitment they made to him:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69, ESV)

Peter was saying “We have nowhere else to go. We’re with you all the way – we have no backup plan.”

Just as David’s followers were desperate and poor, Jesus calls to the broken and poor in spirit. Let’s face it, it is hard to really give ourselves over to Jesus unless we realize that without him, we are lost. Paul describes it like this:

26 Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one can boast in His presence. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord. (1Cor 1:26-31, HCSB)

Now, let’s be honest. Sometimes it seems like it might be more exciting to be one of David’s men than to follow Jesus. I mean, as I read this, I think about David and Eleazar fighting back to back against the Philistines. It’s like a scene out of Lord of the Rings or some other action movie involving heroic hand-to-hand combat. It’s amazing. I often wonder if this real history might have been the inspiration for the legend of Robin Hood. Even if Robin Hood was real, he might have been inspired to his deeds by this very story. There are battles, betrayals, secret hiding places, defections. It is all very well to say David is a type of Christ, but most of us will go through our entire lives without these types of exciting events. Following Jesus can seem almost boring. I mean we go to work or school and come home and do stuff, go to bed and then get up and do it all again. Sometimes we’re so bored, we make excitement for ourselves, even when it’s self-destructive.

I think that is all because we fail to recognize the spiritual reality that exists with and alongside our world, hidden, but no less real. What David and his followers were involved with physically, Jesus and his followers are engaged in spiritually. David was the king who was chosen by God, but rejected by many of the people. He lived almost as an agent in enemy territory, gathering those few worthless people who had nowhere else to turn to help him. In the same way, C.S. Lewis describes our life of following Jesus like this:

Enemy occupied territory – that’s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You see, though the battle is more spiritual than physical, it is no less real for all that. We have a faithful, loving intrepid leader. We are undercover – living as part of society, but not living for the same purposes as the rest of the world. Sometimes perhaps we need to wake up, and open up our lives to be more engaged in this secret mission. We need to be more aware of how the Lord wants to work, to be more aware of the people he is bringing across our paths and into our lives. I think when we are in the new creation we will be amazed at how significant our ordinary lives were. We’ll see how amazing it was that we said that encouraging word, or spoke the truth into a hostile situation, or forgave others, or showed them compassion. I think in the spiritual realm, these sorts of things are actually great battles, moments that will amaze us as much as we are amazed by the exploits of David’s mighty men – or maybe even more.

Joining the Rebel King paints a target on our backs, a target his enemies would love to use. But if we trust him and submit to his leadership, he will mold us into mighty men and women of faith, significant in God’s kingdom forever.

If you have never done it, would you consider going “all in” on Jesus, right now? I mean burn your bridges, like the followers of David did. Have no backup plan if Jesus disappoints you in the short term. Give yourself fully to Jesus, and break forever from every other means of feeling good about your life. You won’t fit in very well with the world when you do this. But you gain far more than this broken world could ever offer.

RESURRECTION 2024: FINDING JESUS WHEN YOUR DREAMS ARE DEAD

On the day of God’s greatest triumph for humanity, the disciples thought that they had lost everything. Their dreams were indeed dead, but those dreams were far too small and limited. God was doing something much greater than anything they had imagined. They were profoundly discouraged because they could not see Jesus. Jesus came to them and showed them (and us!) how to see him from now on.

Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties with the audio for this sermon. It is perfectly understandable, but we apologize for the “fuzzy” sound at the edges, which was caused by audio clipping.

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RESURRECTION SUNDAY, 2024. LUKE 24:13-49

This is a wonderful part of the scripture. It is Resurrection Day, the day that the world changed. Everything has gone exactly according to God’s plan. But the disciples don’t know it yet. In fact, it seems to them that God’s plan has come to a screeching, tearing, smash-up end.

Two of them are walking, trying to get their heads around what they see as a tragedy. It is actually not a tragedy at all, but they can’t know that yet. They were so sure that Jesus was the One. He had to be from God. They knew him. The one called Cleopas was the uncle of Jesus (according to an early-church writer: either the brother, or brother-in-law of Joseph), so he knew him well, even before Jesus started going around doing miracles. Neither Cleopas or his friend had ever met anyone like Jesus. They heard him, and he spoke like no one had before. They saw him do genuine, honest-to-goodness miracles, so blatant that they knew he was sent by God. It was obvious to them that he was the one sent to deliver their long-suffering country from brutal foreign oppression.

But now the same old story was repeating itself. It was just one more crushing defeat in the long war against evil. This bright star, this man unlike anyone they had known, had been killed by the powers-that-be, who felt threatened by him. It was over.

I want us to get into their mindset just a little bit, to understand their feelings, because I think we are also prone to feel that way at times. Clearly, (in their eyes) whatever Jesus had been doing, it had come to nothing. Clearly all of their hopes and dreams that Jesus would save their country were shattered beyond repair. When they met a stranger on the road who asked about their conversation, “They stopped, and looked discouraged (Luke 24:19, CSB).”

Let’s back up a minute. The Resurrection had happened. This was absolutely necessary. Jesus claimed to forgive sins – something only God could do. In his time ministering, he talked and acted like he had the very same authority that God had. He told people that they were supposed to follow Him – not God, but Him. He even said people should make him – Jesus – more important than anything else in life. So if he wasn’t God, he was the very worst kind of egomaniacal demon. But he didn’t act like a demon either: he healed people, he treated people with compassion, he taught people to love one another. He also predicted on many occasions that he would die, and that he would rise again.

So if he did not rise from the dead, Jesus was a fraud. If he didn’t rise from the dead, his words about forgiveness and following him, and loving others were all meaningless. And that’s exactly what it looks like to the disciples on resurrection day. In fact, Jesus has already risen, but they haven’t seen it yet. They can’t quite believe he was a fraud, but what was he then? Even in the moment of wildest victory, they think they are defeated. They only see tragedy, even though the reality is wonderful, amazing victory. They literally cannot see what is right in front of their faces.

They were profoundly discouraged, because they couldn’t see Jesus. They had been hoping he was going to deliver Israel from the Romans. That dream was now dead. But Jesus was up to something far, far bigger than they had ever imagined. He wasn’t there to deliver one small country from the Roman Empire. If he had been there merely to fulfill their earthly dream of delivering Israel, where would that leave us today? He would be a footnote in history, like Judas Maccabees.

But Jesus was there to open a door to something eternal and lasting, something much better – infinitely better – than any thing they, or we, could hope for in this mortal life. The reality is, they had nothing to be discouraged about. Something even better than all of their small hopes has been realized in the man who is standing in front of them. But they can’t see him, not yet.

Instead of revealing himself as the man in front of them, he shows them the path that all Christians will have to take in the centuries to come:

27 Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures. Luke 24:27

There is a reason he did that. He would not always remain on earth, and he was teaching them the best way to find Him whenever they wanted to. This is now the primary path to seeing Jesus: the Bible. As he reveals himself to them through the scriptures, their hearts burn within them with a strange fire.

Then, they reach the house and start the meal. Finally, he reveals himself to them fully. Again, he shows himself in a particular way. He does it in the breaking of the bread – that is, what we now call communion, or the eucharist. Once more, he is showing the way for all generations afterwards – we can find him in the breaking of bread. This is another major way that we can see Jesus.

They are thrilled beyond measure. Though he leaves them again, they run, full of joy, all the way back to their brethren in Jerusalem – seven miles! They are met with more tidings of joy, for Jesus has shown himself to Peter also.

Now, Jesus comes to all of them at once. I love this next part. Two of them spent several hours with him earlier, and finally knew him at the breaking of bread. Peter has seen Jesus earlier also. Now, he stands in their midst…and they think he is a ghost!

This is so comforting to me. It means doubts are normal. Even after he had appeared to them on the road and revealed himself to them through the scriptures, and then at the breaking of bread, when he appeared to them again, they thought it was a ghost. With him standing right in front of them, they doubted. Doubt is not a sin. Jesus understands it. He makes them give him a piece of fish. He makes them come touch him, and look at his scars. He understands that what he asks us to believe is improbable. The resurrection is wildly improbable, even though he told them it would happen.

I think we are like that so often. We don’t understand what Jesus has been up to. We are focused on things in the world, and we miss the eternal promises that are offered to us: promises that will never spoil or fade, never be destroyed by age or the limitations of this mortal life. We so badly want to him to heal our friend, or fix our relationships, or fulfill our dreams that we fail to see he has already done something that is so much better than any of that.

Now, the difficult thing for us is that Jesus is not standing in front of us. The Bible explains clearly why. If he remained in physical body, most humans would never get a chance to spend even a few seconds with him. So he sent his Holy Spirit instead. But the fact remains, we don’t get to touch his body, see his scars and watch him eat. He spoke to them then, and what he said was for our sake – for us, who never saw his body:

44 He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you ​— ​that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, 47 and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And look, I am sending you what my Father promised. As for you, stay in the city until you are empowered from on high.” (Luke 24:44-49, CSB)

He isn’t revealed to us in a physical body any more. But he is revealed in the scriptures. The purpose of the Bible is to reveal Jesus to us. If you want to know Jesus better, read the Bible. Start in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Read a chapter a day, or less, if you need to. Keep on through the New Testament. After a month or so of regular reading, you will have more of Jesus than you did before. After two months, even more.

He is also revealed in the breaking of the bread – what we call communion. This is one reason we do communion every week in our house churches. It is one of the most important ways that Jesus reveals himself. In communion we see again the Jesus that died for us. We see again the Jesus who secured an eternal covenant for us by his blood. And through the eating and drinking we have fellowship with Jesus, and with one another.

Finally, we have something that the disciples did not yet have on resurrection day: The Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says: “what my Father promised,” and “until you are empowered.” We have Jesus within us through the Holy Spirit. This is even better than having him as a person we see and touch. This is why Paul could write:

20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20, CSB)

When we live like that – by faith in Jesus – then Jesus can express himself not through one human body, but through every person who trusts him. I can see Jesus through you. You can see him through me. Maybe I can see his laughter and humour through one person, and his thoughtfulness and depth through another, and his care and compassion through yet another. Maybe, perhaps, you can see a little bit of his suffering through those who suffer. I don’t want to gloss over this too quickly. In the Western world, we Christians have often forgotten the importance of seeing Christ in the community of believers. This is part of his gift to us. We can catch glimpses of Jesus in one another. I hope you can see that obviously, this applies to all Christians, not just pastors and leaders.

Through the Holy Spirit, we also find Jesus within ourselves. I don’t mean we are little specks of God, or any similar nonsense. I mean that when we repent and trust, we are forgiven, and the Holy Spirit makes his home in us, and we can access him for guidance, grace, hope and comfort. We don’t have to go to a temple, or kneel on a rug facing east, or anything like that. If we have repented of our sins (which means being sorry, and having the best intentions to not continue in them) and trusted in Jesus then he is right there, all of the time. I began my own walk of faith even before I can remember. I was very young. And so, I cannot recall a single day in my life of feeling truly alone. This is because Jesus has always been there through the Holy Spirit. I’ve had one or two crises of faith where I thought maybe I didn’t believe anymore. But each time, I couldn’t escape the fact that He was still with me. He is with us always, just as he promised (Matthew 28:20).

All of this was made possible by the resurrection. It is all available to you and I. It isn’t cheap – it cost Jesus dearly – but it is free to us. So today, consider some questions:

Are you profoundly discouraged? Without minimizing the struggles you are facing, can you also trust that what Jesus has accomplished for you is more wonderful than you could even imagine? Even in your moment of deepest sorrow, the reality is that Jesus has secured eternal joy for you.

Are you focused on something Jesus can do for you only within this life? Can you learn to reorient your focus, so that you can see that whatever you might lose or miss out on in this life is nothing compared to the eternal life Jesus gives us? Cleopas and his friend wanted freedom from oppression. That’s a good thing to desire. It’s not wrong. But their vision was too small, too limited. Jesus came to bring eternal freedom, and not just to Israel, but to all people. Perhaps, in your discouragement, your vision is also limited.

Do you have trouble seeing the reality that through Jesus, the ultimate victory is won? Do you still act like you have been defeated?

First, if you have not ever consciously repented and trusted, why not try it now? Repentance is not about feeling guilty all the time – quite the opposite. The process I am talking about removes our actual guilt and should lead to far fewer feelings of guilt. I don’t say “no feelings of guilt,” because I am being realistic: some of us had guilt drummed into us at an early age, and though we are declared “not guilty” when we repent and trust Jesus, we still carry it around in our minds. But when we do truly repent, and then trust, those guilty feelings are reduced, and some people, as time goes on, find that even the feeling of it is almost entirely removed. Whether or not the feeling goes, the reality is that when we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus the actual guilt is removed. Our sins have been fully punished – but in Jesus, not in us.

A second thing:  this is all very good news. And Jesus, even as he assured them of the fact of his resurrection, called them to be his witnesses to that good news. All Christians are called to be witnesses. A witness simply tells what he or she knows. We don’t have to argue anyone into the kingdom of God. We bear witness to Jesus as we have come to know him through the scripture, through communion, and through other believers.

Finally Resurrection Day is something to celebrate. Though our culture makes Christmas the premier holiday, in fact, Resurrection is the biggest day of all for us who trust Jesus. This is the day that Jesus made good on all his promises. This is the day he opened the way to eternal life, to better hopes and dreams than anything we could find in this life. This is the day he triumphed over the powers of evil.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

HE HAS RISEN!

1 SAMUEL #21: RUNNING FOR REFUGE

David was running for his life, but he still took time out to worship God. Later, alone in a cave with nothing but the clothes on his back, he praised God. Let’s look at this tumultuous time in David’s life to find hope and comfort, to learn how to put the Lord above all things.

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1 SAMUEL #21. 1 SAMUEL 21:1-15

The excitement, adventure and romance of David’s life are not over yet – not by a long shot. So I encourage you to take time to hear the message of these true stories. When something grabs your attention, shocks you, or stirs your heart, pause and ask the Lord to speak to you through it. Pay attention to how the Lord is appealing to your heart through the life of David. I trust that you can and will continue to do that, even when we move through the text a little more pedantically.

Last time we saw how David began life as a fugitive. He had a daring midnight escape, assisted by his young wife, from whom he was now kept apart. He found safety for a while with the prophet Samuel, Saul  eventually pursued him to Samuel’s house personally, and then was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit. Saul’s son, and David’s friend, Jonathan, believed that this experience with God may have changed his father’s attitude toward David. But alas, it wasn’t so. Saul rejected this experience with the Lord, as he had with other opportunities to repent.

After Jonathan sadly warned David that Saul had not changed in his desire to kill him, David fled again. The logical place for David to go was back to his family in Bethlehem. It is almost certain that his family would have helped hide him, or at the least, given him supplies to travel far away from Saul.

However, David did not go home to Bethlehem. Instead he stopped at Nob, which was much closer to Saul’s headquarters than Bethlehem. David probably spent enough time at Nob for Saul’s men to get to Bethlehem ahead of him – any reasonably smart person would assume that David would go there first. In other words, by stopping, David gave up his chance to go home and get definite help from people loyal to him by blood. So why did he go to Nob instead, and give up that help?

There appears to be only one reason: Nob was the place where the tabernacle of the Lord was set up. Wherever Nob was, it isn’t called that anymore, but it was quite likely located at the place we now call the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem, north of  Bethlehem a few miles. We are so used to thinking of the biblical capital city of Israel as Jerusalem, but Jerusalem at this time was controlled by non-Israelites known as Jebusites. David, at the time of his escape, was in Saul’s home-town, Gibeah, which was north of Nob.

It is possible that David was afraid that Saul would punish his family if they helped him. Even so, it was likely that Saul would punish them anyway, because Saul could not have been sure that David had not, in fact, been to Bethlehem. Perhaps David was being cunning, and staying away from places he’d be expected. That’s definitely a possibility, but I think we can learn the real answer from the words of David himself.

OGod, You are my God; I eagerly seek You.

I thirst for You;

my body faints for You

in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.

  So I gaze on You in the sanctuary

to see Your strength and Your glory.

 My lips will glorify You

because Your faithful love is better than life. (Psalm 63:1-3)

Or, again:

I am at rest in God alone;

my salvation comes from Him.

 2He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my stronghold; I will never be shaken. (Psalm 62:1-2)

For David, God was his family. He was the most important family, and the most certain help in times of trouble. Now even though David’s faith was far beyond that of his contemporaries, we need to remember that in those days, worship was oriented around the tabernacle. The presence of God was believed to be most real there. And, in fact, before the time of Jesus, there was something unique and special about the tabernacle (and later, the temple). And so David was faced with a choice. He could go into exile and hiding without ever seeing his family again, or without ever worshipping at the tabernacle again. He chose God over his family. He couldn’t stand the thought of leaving without spending one more time in the presence of God in a special way.

In addition, David saw the Lord as a very real help in times of trouble. And so he chose to seek whatever help he might get from the Lord, trusting in the Lord’s help even more than the assistance he would have received from his family. Besides what we know of David’s heart from the psalms, the confirmation of this is also given in the next chapter. In 1 Samuel 22:10 we learn that David “inquired of the Lord” while he was there. Inquiring of the Lord usually involved a time of worship.

From verse 2 onwards, David refers to companions who are with him. So apparently a few people loyal to him went along when he fled. If we read this in isolation, we might think that David was embellishing the story for Ahimelech, the chief priest. In fact, Jesus refers to this very incident in Matthew 12:1-6, and confirms that David had some men with him at this point.

However, David did tell a lie. He told the priest Ahimelech that he was on a special mission for Saul. For many years I maintained that it wasn’t wrong for David to lie on that occasion, because after all, he was fleeing for his life. But David’s lie led to a terrible tragedy. The priest Ahimelech, and almost his entire family, were later murdered by Saul for helping David. Now Ahimelech, had he known the truth, may still have chosen to help David. But in that case, his death would have been the result of his own choice. As it was, David, by his lie, was the one who made the choice that led to the tragedy later on. It may seem harsh to point out that David sinned here. But you see, David had the right to risk his own life. He did not have the right to deceive someone else into risking his own life, and the lives of his wife and children. He ought to have given Ahimelech that choice by telling him the truth.

The priest gave David and his men some of the holy bread. In the tabernacle, (and later, in the temple) there was a table that held twelve loaves of bread. This was called the “bread of the presence.” The twelve loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel, sitting in the presence of the Lord. Each week, the priests baked twelve fresh loaves, and took the old ones off. Those old loaves were supposed to be eaten only by the priests and their families, since they were consecrated and considered holy. Ahimelech decided to give some of this consecrated bread to David and his men. 1000 years later, Jesus officially approved this action. He taught that this incident demonstrates that the goal of worship activities is to bring us closer to God – not to serve empty religion and mindless tradition (Matthew 12:1-6).

In addition to the bread, David obtained the sword of Goliath. Obviously, at some point, he had given it to the priests. This again shows us something about David’s heart. He never looked at his victory over the giant as his personal success. It was God’s victory, on behalf of the entire nation. So he placed the sword in the Lord’s sanctuary, so that all who worshiped could see a physical reminder of God’s power and grace and care for his people.

However, at this point in his life, David needed a weapon. So he took the sword back. It must have done the same thing for him that it did for the worshipers. It would have reminded him of how the Lord cared about him, and fought his battles for him.

After this David fled to the only place he thought he could be safe from Saul – to the Philistines. Once again, we are limited by writers who did not take the time or sheepskin for complete explanations about what happened, or what David could possibly have been thinking. It’s true that now David was Saul’s enemy. As the old saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy, is my friend.” And so he may have expected the Philistines to welcome him. In addition, war in those days was conducted very differently. There were often rules and even a kind of etiquette. It is possible that it would have been considered dishonorable to kill an enemy when you met him away from the battle field; even more so if he came to your town of his own free will.

Even so, David seems to have overlooked the fact that he had killed thousands of Philistines in battle. Though they did not immediately kill or imprison him, the Philistine leaders felt pretty sour about their king welcoming the man who had killed so many of their soldiers and friends. They reminded the king of this, and David realized that he was not in a good position. So he pretended to be insane. It’s possible that the king thought he was just some unknown crazy man, and that the people who thought he was David were wrong. In any case, he decreed that David should simply be kicked out of town.

 One of the most remarkable aspects of this part of David’s tumultuous life is his attitude and heart through it all. It is true that he failed and gave in to fear by lying to the priest. But through the rest of it, his heart remained steadfast, trusting in God alone for help. He wrote a psalm shortly after he escaped from the Philistines (that is at the end of chapter 21). Considering his circumstances, what he wrote is remarkable. Here is part of it:

1 I will praise the LORD at all times. I will constantly speak his praises.2 I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart.
3 Come, let us tell of the LORD’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.
4 I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.
6 In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD listened; he saved me from all my troubles.
7 For the angel of the LORD is a guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him.
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! (Psalms 34:1-8, NLT)

Again, he wrote those words shortly after the events of our text for today, 1 Samuel 21. He was so serious about his faith that he chose to worship God rather than get help from his family. After he escaped from the Philistines with nothing but the shirt on his back, he said: “I will praise the Lord at all times.” With all of this in mind, let’s listen to the Lord for what he would say to us through 1 Samuel 21. Consider some of these questions:

Where do you run to when you are in trouble? Who, or what do you see as your most reliable help in trouble? Is it to the Lord? If not, why not? Take heart from David’s example, and let it encourage you to consider the Lord your best and most certain help. Learn from David that seeking the Lord is even more important than any other kind of assistance you might find.

Maybe your temptation is to cave in to fear, like David did when he lied. His lie had awful consequences. We don’t get to know what would have happened if he had told Ahimelech the truth, but it could hardly have been any worse than what did happen. Maybe the Lord is calling you to be honest in a situation where honesty could ruin a relationship or at least get you in trouble. But before you choose to withhold the truth, remember the awful consequences to dishonesty.

And what reminds you of God’s power, grace and help given to you in the past? What can encourage you like Goliath’s sword encouraged David? Take a few minutes now to listen to the Lord.

1 SAMUEL #20: THE GREAT STORY

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Our text today tells a story; an exciting, true story of danger, adventure, love and friendship. But it is not David’s story, not really. It is a part of God’s ongoing story that reveals what he is like, and blesses those who trust him. We are part of the same story. Sometimes we don’t believe that. Sometimes we think the story is all about us, and at other times we don’t believe we belong in the story at all. But when we trust Him, God weaves our lives into his wonderful, grand story, and promises that we will be a part of the happiest ending of all time.

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1 SAMUEL #20. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTERS 19 & 20.

Last time we saw that Saul, having closed the door to God’s Holy Spirit,  was overwhelmed by an evil spirit and he threw a spear at David, God’s chosen instrument. Now you would think this would be the signal for David to quit, and find other employment. But apparently David assumed that this was just a temporary fit of insanity. The manifestation of the demon that afflicted Saul seems to have looked a lot like paranoid-schizophrenia. So David apparently took it somewhat in stride, and put it down to “one of those fits the king has.” But even when the evil spirit had somewhat abated, Saul, unknown to David, made a decision that he wanted him dead.

Saul told his advisors, including his son Jonathan, to kill David. Before anyone could take action, Jonathan spirited David away, and then talked some sense into his father, and Saul relented. David came back to the king’s court, apparently welcome there. Even so, Saul’s heart had not fundamentally changed. There was another battle with the Philistines, and David, relying on God and the talents God gave him, won another great victory. This aroused Saul’s jealousy again, and again, overwhelmed by an evil spirit, he tried to kill David himself.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, as the saying goes. That time David got the message. So did his wife, Saul’s daughter, Michal. She urged him to run away that very night. You can imagine the tearful passionate goodbyes, and the cool night air as David climbed out the window, and she pulled in the rope that he used. She made up an image of David, complete with a hairy head, to fool his pursuers, and put it in their bed.

In the morning Saul’s men came for David, and Michal reported that he was sick, buying more precious time for David to get away. The men went back to Saul, then returned with orders to bring David on his sick bed for Saul to kill him. When they did this, the deception was discovered, but Michal blamed David, saying that he had threatened her. Most likely, David had told her to take this approach, so that she would not be punished.

David fled to Samuel, where the Lord protected him from Saul’s men, and even Saul himself. Every time Saul’s men came to capture David at Samuel’s place, they were overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit, and instead of completing their mission, they were overcome with religious ecstasy and began to praise the Lord and speak his word. Saul himself came, and the same thing happened to him. You might remember that when Saul was first anointed, he had an experience of God’s Spirit coming upon him, and he prophesied (chapter 10:1-9). At that time it was an empowering confirmation of God’s call on his life. It was a positive experience, and he stayed in control of himself. This time, because his intentions were evil, he lost control of himself, and ended up lying naked for a day. The Hebrew there could mean “stark naked,” or it could mean, basically, “in his underwear.” Either way, in contrast to the beginning of his reign, we see that Saul is now out of step with God’s spirit, and instead of being empowered by the Spirit, he was thwarted from his evil purpose.

The Lord was giving Saul yet another chance to repent. He was not harming Saul, but reminding Saul that he was God, and giving him the opportunity to reconsider the course of his life.

Apparently, David wondered if Saul’s encounter with the Holy Spirit in this way caused him to change his mind. So, David secretly returned and sought out Jonathan, who agreed to help him. They set up a test to find out if Saul was still serious about killing David, and a secret rendezvous point, and even a code.

Their test proved that Saul was indeed intent on killing David. Though the Lord had given him yet another chance to repent, Saul had refused it. Jonathan gave the secret signal telling David he was in deadly danger. After sending his young helper back to the town with his weapons, Jonathan and David met for the last time. They re-affirmed their friendship, and then David departed, never to see his best friend alive again.

As I considered this section of scripture for this message, I was looking for some hidden gem of a verse, or some principles to apply to our lives. But what really captured me was the story. It is a true story of adventure, romance, danger, intrigue, spiritual power, battle and conspiracy. There are many novels that do not have plots this exciting. And what I want to suggest to you today, is that the story IS the message.

The events of David’s life call to us. There is a mission for the hero to be part of something greater than himself – to be God’s chosen instrument. There is love and romance in the midst of the adventure. There are friends like brothers. There is a deadly enemy who seeks the life of the hero. There are setbacks, plot twists, codes and conspiracies. And yet, through exciting twists and turns, with the help of his lover and his friends, the hero escapes and lives to fight another day. I don’t know about you, but in my unguarded moments, I realize that I want some of this in my own life. I want adventure, romance, joy. I want a mission in something that matters, something that is greater than myself.

Now, David was a good-hearted man of faith. Even so, you have to imagine that not all this was easy for him. He had experienced God’s call on his life. He had felt the beauty of God’s creation, the heart-swelling form of music, the joy of friendship, the ecstasy of love, the fierce rush of battle. All these things spoke to his heart and told him that God was good, and that God had given him a part in a great adventure.

But that wasn’t the only message that David got. Before he killed Goliath, his brothers told him he was arrogant, callow and irresponsible. Saul’s actions told him he was in grave danger, and his life was worthless. He was driven from his wife and friends; he lost his career, and it was too dangerous to return to his family. I have no doubt that the devil used these things to tell David that it was a cold cruel world, that God wasn’t really there for him, that in fact, his life had no meaning. The devil probably also used these events to make David question whether he really was chosen by God to be the instrument of the Holy Spirit. What David said to Jonathan shows how he was feeling:

I swear to you by the living LORD that I am only a step away from death!” (1 Samuel 20:3, GNT)

When we look at the life of David from start to finish it is obvious to us that God was calling to him and working in his life. We can see that David was involved in a purpose greater than himself. We might even envy the adventures he had, especially since we know that things turned out OK for him. But I am not sure that these things were always so obvious to David. He wrote many songs and poems (which we now call Psalms) when he was in trouble. He was often worried and distressed. He was harried and hard-pressed. He expressed his fear and doubt at times. This was certainly one of those times. Psalm 3 gives us a picture of how David was probably feeling:

1 I have so many enemies, LORD,
so many who turn against me!
2 They talk about me and say,
“God will not help him.” (Psalms 3:1-2, GNT)

Or, for another example, the first part of Psalm Six:

1 LORD, don’t be angry and rebuke me!
Don’t punish me in your anger!
2 I am worn out, O LORD; have pity on me!
Give me strength; I am completely exhausted
3 and my whole being is deeply troubled.
How long, O LORD, will you wait to help me? Psalms 6:1-3

You see the Story is not always obvious when you are inside it. So David had those two competing ideas: First that God cared about him, and that he was part of an amazing story being told by God; and second, that his life was pointless and worthless, and God did not care about him.

I want to suggest that we are in the middle of a story ourselves, and we are faced with the same dilemma as David; we hear the same two messages. We hear something that tugs at our heart in beautiful music; we sense something eternal when we are very close to the ones we love; we feel God when we look on the glory of his creation. Scattered throughout our lives are the echoes of God’s voice, calling to our hearts, telling us that there is something greater, good and wonderful. It tells us that we are truly loved and accepted, and are called to be part of a greater purpose. Our hearts were made for a great intimacy. Even the fact that we want these things to be true is a sign for us.

But there is a deadly enemy after us, no less than he was after David. And so things happen to us that make it seem like life is meaningless. We get hurt in ways that suggest we should shut up our hearts, and not listen to the echoes of God’s voice. We get the message that we can’t ever really get the real life we yearn for, so we should settle for drugs, or alcohol, or work or money or shallow relationships, or mindless entertainment.

This perspective is hard to see, because we are inside the story of our lives. In Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien records a moment when Sam and Frodo muse about the bigger picture, the story of their lives.

“Take any [story] that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”

“…Why to think of it, we’re in the same tale [as the ancient stories] still! Don’t the great tales never end?”

“No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.”

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

Looking at David’s life story, if we could, we might say to him, “Hang in there! Don’t give up hope. God will make your life into a beautiful, exciting, inspiring story.” But David did not know that. He was faced with a choice. He could believe the echoes of God in his life, or he could believe the message that the devil tried to give him through the bad things that happened to him. David made the choice of faith, and the world is better for it.

You may not see it, but you are inside the very old, ongoing story. You are in the same story as David was. If you trust in Jesus, you are one of the chosen instruments of the Holy Spirit in your lifetime. You will have plenty of opportunities to turn back. You have an enemy that can only win if you do turn back, and he is doing all in his power to make you believe that there is no story, and you are not part of anything greater. Don’t believe him. Trust instead in the goodness, greatness, love and joy of God. As the writer of Hebrews says:

35 So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised. 37 For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life. (Heb 10:35-39, HCSB)

Just like David, we don’t know how the story will turn out. We don’t know how God will weave us into his story. Because we often don’t see it, we often make four types of errors:

First, sometimes, we don’t believe the story exists at all. We see no plan, no purpose, no evidence of anything but random chance. But honestly, the entire universe, from the properties of light and matter, to the details of DNA shout deafeningly of Design. The objective truth is that it is far more likely that tomorrow a stranger will put a winning 10 million dollar lottery ticket into your mailbox than that the physical universe is the product of random chance. And if the universe is not an accident, neither is your life.

Second, perhaps we do  believe there is a Divine story, but we think that we cannot really be part of it. We are too insignificant. Our lives are too ordinary to be part of the story God is telling. We might believe that if God actually was using our lives to tell a story, then our part might easily be skipped because it is too boring. But to believe that is to disbelieve God’s promises in scripture.

Third, we often think the story is our story, that it should be all about us. If we think that way, it becomes difficult at times to see the story at all, or to see how it can be good. However, even David’s story was not about David, it was about what God was doing for his people. In the Story God is telling, the main character is God. It is not all about us. However, God includes us in His story in ways that bless us and bring us lasting joy, even when at times we experience suffering. He has planned a beautiful ending for all who will trust him, for all who join His story.

Fourth, sometimes we reject the idea that God is working purposefully in our lives because we cannot see how it all fits together. We think that if we cannot understand how a certain event could fit into God’s story, then that means it doesn’t fit. I was caught in this for awhile because of my chronic pain. I didn’t see how my intense ongoing pain could fit into any story that God is telling. But I finally realized that I was being overwhelmingly arrogant. I was assuming that I should be able to understand everything that an infinite Being was doing. If God is indeed infinite, than it is certain that we will not be able to understand a great deal of what he is doing, or how it all works together for His glory and my good. To insist that I won’t believe because I cannot understand is not only arrogant, but also foolish.

In 2022 I watched a football game between my alma mater, Oregon State University (OSU), and the University of Oregon (called  “Oregon” for short). Oregon was ranked #9 in the nation at that point, and OSU wasn’t even in the top 20. OSU started out okay, leading 10-7 at the end of the first quarter. Then the University of Oregon exploded, scoring three touchdowns and a field goal, while Oregon State made mistake after mistake on both offense and defense. With three minutes to go in the third quarter the score was Oregon 31, and OSU, 10, and OSU looked like they were just waiting for the game to be over and the humiliation to end. That’s how things stood, with the game three-quarters finished. It was all but over. All that remained was to see how badly they would lose.

Imagine you spoke to the players of OSU at this point. Imagine saying: “You are in the middle of a historic game of football, one of the most amazing wins ever for OSU. Your names will be spoken by sportscasters nationwide, and people will talk about what you did today for years to come. Someone will even use this moment as a sermon illustration in years to come.”

I suspect that most of the OSU players would not believe you. Many of their fans had already left the stadium, and they probably wanted to go as well. But, as you have probably guessed, OSU did indeed go on to win the game, scoring  28 points in the final quarter of the game. It was one of the most amazing comebacks in the school’s history.

Now, I want to make sure you understand something here. I am not asking you to trust the story, or even to trust your part in the story. No. I am saying: Trust the Teller of the story. Trust the Author, the one who is weaving all of our lives into his amazing good story. We can be sure that he is good and that he is at work in our lives, even when we cannot see it. We can be sure of his good intentions, and good character because He actually entered the story Himself, and died for you and me, to make sure that we can participate in the happiest ending of all time.

We are in the middle of the story. We don’t know what is to come. And we often think the story ends with our death, but it doesn’t. It ends with our resurrection. Let’s wake up, and see that we are part of an amazing story with a beautiful ending.

Hear the wisdom of Larry Crabb.

“This world is fallen. Things happen that make no visible sense. But somehow through it all, God is telling a good story. Without the ending, the story is not good. But nothing happens, nothing can happen, nothing ever will happen that God cannot redeem to move the story along to its glorious climax.”

Let the Holy Spirit open your eyes to His good story, and let him speak to you now.

1 SAMUEL #19: GRACE, JEALOUSY, LOVE AND INTEGRITY

1 Samuel 18 depicts the rise of David as a warrior and leader, and the escalating tension between him and Saul. Jonathan, Saul’s son, recognizes David’s faith and forms a covenant with him, seeing in David a kindred spirit. Despite David being the hero of the day, Jonathan, as the king’s son, was seen as the more important man. Yet, he reached out to David in an act of grace, giving him his robe and belt, symbolizing their bond and enabling David to stand without shame in the king’s court. This act is reminds us of how Jesus gives us his righteousness so we can stand without fear or shame in the presence of God.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

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1 SAMUEL #19. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 18:1-30.

1 Samuel chapter 18 is part of a larger section that records the development of David as a warrior and leader, and the increasing tension between Saul and David.

In number 11 in this series, we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 14, and saw that Jonathan, son of Saul was a very different man from his father. Jonathan was a man of faith. He trusted that if God wanted to deliver his people, he could do it, whatever the odds. I have wondered at times, why Jonathan, being the man he was, did not fight Goliath himself. The bible doesn’t tell us, but I suspect that Saul might have forbidden him to do it, since he was the eldest son, and thus very important to Saul. In any case, it was God’s desire to use David in that situation.

David approached Goliath with exactly the same kind of faith that Jonathan had when he fought the Philistines in chapter 14. Jonathan recognized the faith of David and recognized in him, a kindred spirit. Without any pretensions as the king’s son, and in self-confident humility, Jonathan reached out to David in brotherly love, and made a covenant with him. Remember, though David was the hero of the day, everyone around them would have felt that Jonathan was the more important man. Jonathan reaching out to David was an act of grace – he didn’t have to do it. A “covenant” was a solemn agreement. It doesn’t spell out here what exactly the covenant was. I think we can assume that it was a little bit like the old native American tradition of becoming blood brothers. Certainly, they became lifelong friends, inseparable in spirit, loyal to each other in spite of the difficult circumstances that could have come between them. In addition, after the victory over Goliath and the Philistine armies, Jonathan gave David some of his precious iron-age battle equipment.

Jonathan also gave David his robe and his belt. In those days, robes, belts, tunics and so on were actually quite precious. There was no mass produced clothing; every piece had to be painstakingly made by hand. Jonathan, son of the king, likely had more than one set of clothing, but David, eighth and youngest son of a sheep farmer, had only his rough shepherd’s outfit. David’s clothing was probably not very nice, and not really appropriate to the court of the king. So Jonathan gave David a robe and a belt to wear over his clothes, probably so that he could be at Saul’s court without embarrassment.

I think it is always worth asking: “Can we learn anything about Jesus from this passage of scripture?” I think in this place, Jonathan shows us something about Jesus, and then, elsewhere in the text, David does. So, right here, Jonathan, the son of the king, clothed David, who was the least honored son from a poor family, so that he could stand without shame in the presence of the king. Does that remind you of anything? I’m thinking of 2 Corinthians 5:21:

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:2, CSB)

Just as Jonathan imparted his own clothes to David, so that he could feel that he belonged in the presence of the king and court, so Jesus gives us his own righteousness, so that we can stand without fear or shame in the presence of God. This text, through Jonathan, reminds us of that. Jonathan’s gracious covenant with David reminds us how God has reached out to us in a covenant secured by the death of Jesus Christ.

After Goliath was killed, the armies of Israel pursued the Philistines to the gates of two of their cities. Previously, Israel had won only defensive victories against the Philistines – they had driven the Philistines out of the hill country when they invaded. However, this time, spurred by David’s feat of faith, they took the battle into Philistine territory. As they returned from the fight, the people celebrated and sang songs of victory and joy. In their songs they sang that Saul had killed thousands, and David tens of thousands.

When we looked at the psalms, we learned that Hebrew poetry and song is not about rhyme, rhythm and meter. Instead, it uses parallelism. In parallelism, a thought is stated, and then it is re-stated in a slightly different way. So that’s all that was happening in the song that the Israelites were singing about the victory, recorded in verse seven: Saul has killed thousands; David, ten thousands.

Saul should have known that this was just a poetic way of celebrating the victory. In fact, he must have known that. It was just a song, and it was typical of Hebrew songs. But it bothered him. This was a faith opportunity for Saul. He could trust that God was Lord of both him and David, and that God would be merciful and good to him even now. Before this, the Lord had used David’s music to deliver him from his torment of the mind. He had just used David to deliver the whole country from the giant, and the Philistines. He could have been thankful for what the Lord had done for him through David. But he let this poetically expressed song eat into his mind. It bothered him, and he gave in to doubt and insecurity. 18:10 says this:

The next day an evil spirit sent from God took control of Saul, and he began to rave inside the palace. David was playing the lyre as usual, but Saul was holding a spear, and he threw it, thinking, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David got away from him twice. (1Sam 18:10-11, HCSB)

We can see a horrifying progression happening in Saul. First, Saul was God’s chosen instrument, and the Spirit of God moved him to lead the people victoriously against their enemies. But then, he began to give in to insecurity. He tried to manipulate the people through religion; he even tried to manipulate God. Then, he stopped seeking the Lord whenever it was inconvenient. After that he flat out disobeyed God, and then lied about it. He lost his status as the Lord’s instrument, but the Lord reached out to him, allowing him to be in need, and then providing a way to meet that need through David’s music.

Previously, when the Lord used the evil spirit to try and bring Saul to repentance, Saul was able to find hope and relief by God’s spirit working through David’s music. But at this time, it seems that Saul utterly rejected God’s spirit. He chose to not live by faith. He chose to try and control his own fate, apart from God’s plans. And so when David played music for him after this, there was no relief, because Saul had cut off all of God’s efforts to reach him. Now, instead of bringing relief, David’s music made Saul worse. He threw a javelin at David, while he was playing.  Apparently, David thought this was just one of the fits that Saul had. It seems like he didn’t, at that point, believe that Saul was truly, actively, trying to kill him. So after the fit passed, David returned to Saul’s service.

Before Goliath was dead, Saul had promised that whoever killed him would be made rich, would marry the King’s daughter, and his family would be freed from taxes. But after David killed Goliath, Saul did not immediately let him marry his daughter. Instead, he added conditions, saying that David must join the army and prove himself. David’s response: “Who am I, that I should become son-in-law to the king?” was probably just the normal, proper form in such a situation. It didn’t mean David was refusing the marriage, it just meant he was proving his humility and loyalty to the king. Saul, however, ignored his promise, and had his eldest daughter married to another man. It is possible that Saul did this to try and provoke David into anger, so that David would respond in some way that could be called treasonous, after which Saul could have him executed. But if that was Saul’s plan, it didn’t work.

In the meantime, Saul’s youngest daughter had fallen in love with David. In those days, in that part of the world, a prospective groom was supposed to give goods and property to the father of the bride. This  gift was called the “Bride Price.” They did the same thing in Papua New Guinea where I grew up. In New Guinea, the price was usually paid in livestock and other property, and ancient Israel was probably similar. In chapter 17, Saul promised that killing Goliath was the bride price for marrying Saul’s daughter. Yet, Saul didn’t let him marry the first daughter, and when he finally offered his youngest daughter, Michal to be married to David, in verse 23, David said basically, that he couldn’t afford to become the king’s son in law. Probably David said this as a gentle reminder that Saul had already promised the marriage as a reward for killing Goliath. It would give Saul the opportunity to say: “No, no, don’t worry about it, you’ve already paid the bride price.”

But Saul didn’t say that. Instead, he actually demanded something more from David than the death of  Goliath. In other words, he did not keep his promise. Second, David’s statement that he was poor, and couldn’t afford the bride-price meant that Saul must have also gone back on his promise to make the giant killer a wealthy man (17:25).

Saul’s new bride price was that David had to kill 100 Philistines, and mutilate their bodies to bring back a certain gruesome proof of each death. He was hoping that the Philistines would get so angry about this that they would hunt down David and kill him.

None of this is fair. None of Saul’s treatment of David from here on out was righteous or godly. David was God’s chosen instrument – and yet through Saul, the devil was continually cheating him and threatening his life.

Even so, David voluntarily paid double what Saul asked – he killed not 100, but 200 Philistines. So Saul finally let David and his daughter, Michal get married. But even then, he treated David poorly. The law of Moses says this:

5 “When a man takes a bride, he must not go out with the army or be liable for any duty. He is free to stay at home for one year, so that he can bring joy to the wife he has married.( Deuteronomy 24:5, ESV)

But Saul made David continue to serve in the army. So, in his hatred of David, Saul was willing to hurt his own daughter. In spite of all this, David did not become bitter, or even disrespectful toward Saul. He did not even confront him about his false promises. He continued to trust the Lord to work in him and through him. He continued to do what the Lord put in front of him to do, which in this case, was to fight in Saul’s army. And through the Lord, he was protected and blessed in his endeavors.

I want to point out a few things that come out of this particular chapter. First, let’s look at the negative example of Saul. When we close the door on God, it means we open a door to the realm of Satan and evil spirits. I don’t mean that this happens every time we make a single mistake and choose wrongly or fall into sin. But Saul persistently and deliberately rejected God over a long period of time. When he experienced the torment that resulted from that, God sent him help. But at this point in his life, he deliberately and explicitly refused the help that God sent. Therefore, it seems to me that chapter 18 records a time when Saul makes a firm, final decision to not trust God. As a result, God had no way to reach him anymore. And since Saul put himself beyond God’s reach, he was a sitting duck for the devil.

Second, we see the intention of all evil spirits – to destroy the work of the Holy Spirit. David was the instrument of the Holy Spirit at that time. The evil spirit, when given control took the most direct route – destroy God’s chosen instrument.

I think it is important for us to recognize the spiritual war that this reveals. David was aware of it in the battle against Goliath. Jonathan was aware of it in his earlier battles. The devil wants to destroy the work of God. Jesus, talking about Satan in John 10:10 said, “a thief comes to kill, steal and destroy.” Peter wrote this:

Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. (1Pet 5:8, HCSB)

This world is not neutral territory – it is a battle ground. All of us who trust in Jesus are now the chosen instruments of the Holy Spirit. The devil cannot kill us all. But he seeks to undo the work that God wants to do in and through us. We don’t need to fear the devil – Jesus told us that he has won the definitive victory over Satan.

And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:18-20, ESV)

Satan cannot harm us if we remain in Jesus. Therefore the New Testament tells us to be alert (1 Peter 5:8), to remain in Jesus (John 15:1), to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:9 and James 4:7) and to take our stand against all the powers of evil in the spiritual realms (Ephesians 6:10-18). We don’t need to be afraid, but we shouldn’t be naïve either. If the devil could, he would drive a spear through you too. Saul shows us the only way the devil can get at us – when we shut God out. No doubt it would have been hard for Saul, given his insecurity, to keep receiving help from David, whom he now saw as a rival, but that help was there for him. However, he was not willing to humble himself to receive it. He was unwilling to trust God’s goodness, and so he put himself into a very bad situation.

We have several positive things in this text, also. Jonathan, as I mentioned earlier, shows us a bit of what Jesus is like. He made a covenant of grace with David, and by giving David his clothes, made him able to stand without shame or fear in the king’s court. This is exactly what Jesus does for us. We do not have to be ashamed or fearful in the presence of God, because Jesus has clothed us in his own righteousness. He made a covenant with us, though we have nothing to give to him in return. David was not too proud to receive that grace. I believe that we too, should give up our own pride and our own “rights” so that we can receive the grace that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.

There is something else here. Yesterday and today I saw items in the news that bothered me deeply. People with a great deal of power are using it to impose their own personal view of the world upon others. When I read things like this, I feel angry and worried about the future. But then I think about today’s text. David was God’s own chosen instrument. Yet he encountered massive injustice. The king was changing the terms of his own promises, making things harder and harder on David, and there was no one to hold him accountable. David had no option but to live with the injustices, and they kept piling up. Even so, the Lord was with him, and there was nothing that king Saul could do that would stop God’s work in David’s life. David’s response was to trust God, and do the work that was in front of him to the best of his ability.

We are not promised a life free from hardship. But we are promised that God’s presence is with us, no matter how difficult things get, or whether or not we can consciously feel that presence.

We tend to look at David as a special person, and of course, he was. But what was most special about him was that he trusted the Lord. Do you know that the Lord does not love David any more than he loves you? If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a chosen instrument of the Holy Spirit, just like David was. There is no quality of love or grace that God gave David that he withholds from you. His grace to all of us is overwhelming. His desire to save each one of us is powerful. If you look at David and think “He was special to God,” you would be right. But you are no less special to God than David was.

Receive the grace of the Lord now. Ask the Lord for the faith to trust Him.

1 SAMUEL #18: FACING THE GIANT

The story of David and Goliath is one of the best known Bible stories in the English-speaking world. We love hearing about the underdog who, against all odds, conquered the intimidating, unconquerable giant. However, the main point that is made in the text is that the victory was possible because it was actually a spiritual battle. It wasn’t young David against a battle-hardened giant. It was an arrogant, profane giant against…the maker and ruler of the universe. David won, not because he was brave or skilled, not because of anything within himself, but because he aligned himself with the Lord, and allowed the Lord to use him as his instrument.

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1 SAMUEL #18. 1 SAMUEL 17:1-57

1 Samuel chapter 17 contains one of the most familiar incidents in the whole bible: the fight between David and Goliath. Now, most of us know the story outline pretty well: a young man (almost certainly a teenager) defeats a hardened warrior twice his size. Before we get to the good stuff, let’s deal with a few historical facts and questions. Goliath was about nine feet, six inches tall – almost three meters. He was huge. If you browse the internet, however, you might find out that other sources suggest he was considerably smaller. The Greek version of the Old Testament (called the Septuagint) gives Goliath’s height as something like 6 feet, maybe six feet five inches. One of the Dead Sea scrolls, and the historian Josephus also record Goliath as around six feet, but it is likely that both of those documents got their information originally from the Greek Old Testament, so it really boils down to just that source. Six foot five would be about a foot taller than most men in that era of history, a very large person by comparison for sure. However, I think the smaller size is unlikely, and I think it is the result of a translation or copying error when the Jews were creating the Greek Translation of the Old Testament (remember, the original language of the Old Testament was Hebrew).

You see, in addition to Goliath’s height, we are given the weight of some of his armaments, and the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) agrees with those measurements. But the weight of those things matches a nine foot man much better than one who is only six feet tall. His mail coat (a kind of body armor) weighed 125 pounds. This means that it was extremely large. That amount of weight would not be necessary on a man who was 6’5” – the mail should be smaller, and therefore weigh less. Even a man who was six foot five would find it difficult to run and use a sword and spear while carrying an extra 125 pounds. But that isn’t all of the extra weight he carried. The text says his spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam, and just the iron tip weighed about sixteen pounds. If you put 16 pounds at the end of a long pole, say four inches in diameter, even someone who is 6’5” would have a hard time using it effectively as a spear. Maybe a big strong guy that height could use it with two hands, but it would be unnecessarily difficult to use, much harder than one better matched to his size. Also, Goliath wore bronze leg protectors and carried a bronze javelin, and a sword, adding significantly to the weight he carried. By the way, I suspect that the sword was probably a normal-sized blade. It’s size is not described anywhere, and David, still a teenager, was able to use it to cut off Goliath’s head after the battle, and he used it again a few years later.

Anyway the point is, we’re probably talking close to two hundred pounds of gear. Not even a six foot five man would have had armor and weapons that weighed that much, especially not in those days, when those things were rare and expensive. So we’re going to stick with the nine foot height.

This is my friend, Barry. He says he is 6’3″, but I think he’s closer to 6’4″. The replica of Goliath behind him is 9 feet, to scale.

There is another puzzling thing about the text. After the whole thing is over, Saul asks his military commander a strange question about David: “Whose son is this youth?”

The question is strange because at the end of chapter sixteen, prior to the fight with Goliath, David was brought to court to play the lyre/harp and sing for Saul. The text even says that Saul loved him. And David’s father, Jesse, is mentioned by Saul’s courtiers in those same verses. This is one of those places where some people claim that the Bible contradicts itself. I want to point out to begin with that there is no theological or spiritual significance to this “contradiction” even if it exists. There is no doctrine or principle at stake here.

Some scholars speculate that chapter 16 and chapter 17 came from two different sources, and the source for chapter 17 was unaware of the account of how David came to court as a singer. In fact we do know that the author potentially had three different sources:

29 Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer, 30 with accounts of all his rule and his might and of the circumstances that came upon him and upon Israel and upon all the kingdoms of the countries. 1 Chronicles 29:29-30, CSB)

So it is possible that the end of chapter 16 came from one of these sources, and chapter 17 from another. However, whoever actually wrote down the book of Samuel put these two stories right next to each other, and he must surely have seen the apparent contradictions – but he made no attempt to explain it. Therefore it is safe to assume that whoever wrote the history that we call “1 Samuel” saw no necessary contradiction between these two chapters, and in fact, assumed that readers would be able to understand the apparent contradictions. And, as it turns out, there are several possible non-contradictory explanations.

Chapter sixteen records how Saul was afflicted with an evil spirit. The manifestation of this was apparently some kind of mental illness. In fact, continuing on through 1 Samuel, Saul exhibits some of the classic symptoms of paranoid-schizophrenia. So Saul’s question may have been partly a result of the confusion he experienced because of that affliction.

Notice also that verse 15 tells us that David was now going back and forth between his own home, where he tended the sheep, and the place where Saul’s army was encamped. So apparently, when the Philistines came out to fight, David’s status changed. Saul released David to go back and help out at home. Verse 16 tells us that Goliath issued his challenge every day for forty days. But when David arrived, it appeared that he had not yet heard Goliath’s challenge. This means he was gone from Saul for at least forty days. The last time Saul saw him might have been even longer than that, because apparently, when David came to visit the army, it was not to play music for Saul, but rather to bring supplies to his brothers. So it’s likely that Saul hadn’t seen David in several months, possibly longer. Since David was still a teenager, he had probably grown and changed a great deal in a short amount of time, as teenagers tend to do. That alone could account for Saul’s confusion.

On the other hand, it might not have been confusion at all. Saul promised a reward to the person who killed Goliath. He said the person who did it would be married to his daughter. He also said that the whole family of the victor would be exempt from taxes. In order to keep these promises, he needed to officially verify the identity of David’s father, since the father was the key figure in both the marriage arrangements and tax exemption. Remember, Saul does not ask, “who is that young man?” – he asks, “who is his father?”

It is true that in chapter sixteen, someone mentioned that David was the son of Jesse, but that may have been the only time it was mentioned to Saul, and he might not have paid a lot of attention at the time. I know I easily forget the names of people I have never met, and who are mentioned to me only once. So it is possible that Saul knows the victor is David, but he can’t remember David’s father’s name.

It’s also possible that Saul was confused, because he did not think of David as a warrior, but rather as a minstrel. So when he saw him accomplish a great feat of war, he thinks, “Is that really David? Can’t be. It must be one of the soldiers.” So he asked Abner, who as the commander of the army, would know who the soldier is.

All this is to point out once more that there is no necessary contradiction between this and chapter sixteen. There are several reasonable explanations, and obviously, the person who put together the book of Samuel expected that his readers would not read it as a contradiction. Once again, I say that even if there was a contradiction it wouldn’t mean anything, anyway. It would have no significance to any part of the Christian faith.

All right, now let’s turn to the story. The tribes of Israel are faced with a giant. Remember, though, that Israel had a very large man on their side also – King Saul was likely around six foot five, since he was described as roughly a head and shoulders taller than any other person in Israel. Certainly, that was smaller than Goliath, but he was bigger than anyone else in the Israeli army. He should have been the natural choice to face Goliath. But Saul was afraid just like everyone else. By this point, he had already rejected his role as God’s chosen instrument.

Everyone else looked at the external situation. Here was a man almost twice as big as anyone else. He was well armored, with potent modern weapons that others would have a hard time even lifting. It was like fighting an intelligent, well armored grizzly bear. To send a boy with a sling against a giant with armor was crazy. The odds were completely in favor of the giant.

But David saw it primarily as a spiritual battle. What it looked like on the outside made no difference to him. In David’s eyes, Goliath wasn’t challenging him, or Israel – he was challenging God. When he first saw the situation, he said:

For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26, ESV)

You can almost picture the men around David staring at him, and then at each other, and then thinking: “Is David blind? Does he not see the nine foot guy with the giant spear?”

I already mentioned Goliath’s armor. Leaving aside the difference in the size of the armor, only two people in the Israeli army had equipment like it: Saul and Jonathan. The armor and weaponry was iron age technology. The rest of the Israelis were using bronze age weapons. The difference, and the advantage it gave the Philistines was a little bit like the difference between muskets and modern semi-automatic rifles. Both can kill you, in roughly the same way, but the more modern weapon is far more deadly.

For this reason, once David volunteered to fight the Giant, Saul tried to get him to wear his own armor, to even out the advantage. David ultimately rejected it for three reasons. First, it didn’t fit him. Saul was a much bigger man. Second, it was not David’s style. David had fought for his life before against lions and bears, and he didn’t use that sort of thing. God used him differently. Third, David did not believe he was at a disadvantage. He rejected the armor for much the same reason as he was willing to fight in the first place: the weaponry didn’t matter. What mattered is that God was on his side. He said to Saul:

36 Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:36-37, ESV, italic formatting added for emphasis)

 So, in David’s eyes, it wasn’t a boy against a giant. It was an arrogant giant…against the Creator of the Universe. All David had to do was give God a chance to strike Goliath down. It didn’t matter what weapons or armor he had. Using the sling wasn’t a clever surprise tactic. It was just the tool that was most handy and familiar to David. The real weapon, in David’s eyes, was the power of God.

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. (1Sam 17:45, ESV)

The outcome, of course, made history. David killed Goliath with a stone slung into the skull. He completed the job for certain by cutting off the giant’s head with his own sword. David predicts what will happen, but most importantly, why:

And this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or by spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD’s. He will hand you over to us.” (1Sam 17:47, HCSB)

David actually ran toward the giant. I don’t think he was stupid, and though he was brave, it wasn’t primarily bravery. He had the confident faith that the battle was the Lord’s. The Lord used what David had, which was a sling. In his encounters with the bear and lion, most likely he stunned the animal with a stone from his sling, and then finished them off with a club. He felt that the Lord protected him then, and sees no reason not to expect the same protection now. So he whipped a stone at Goliath, and scored a shot right on his forehead, where the helmet did not protect him. He took Goliath’s own sword and made sure he was dead by decapitating him. This created a tremendous uproar among the armies that were witnessing it. The Philistines were filled with dismay, and then terror. The Israelites finally realized that David was right, and the Lord was fighting for them, so they rushed on the disheartened Philistines, slaughtering them, and chasing them all the way to the gates of the nearest Philistine walled city.

I invite you to pause for a moment to consider what the Lord might say to you through this. What are you facing in your life that seems like a giant threat? Is there any place where you feel that the odds are stacked against you doing what God wants you to do? I encourage you to see God’s battles from God’s perspective. Now, sometimes we are fighting battles that are not God’s – that is a whole separate issue. But if we are walking in faith, letting Jesus live his life through us, the battles we encounter in the course of doing what He wants to do in us and through us – those are battles that He will fight. We don’t need any special equipment. All we need to do is grab whatever is most handy and comfortable, and let the Lord do the fighting.

There is a related truth here. God will use you – the unique person that he has made you to be. Others pressed David to take Saul’s armor, to fight the way everyone thought he should fight. David politely but firmly declined. He was just fine  being who God made him to be. So when it comes time to rise to the challenge, I am not saying you should despise advice. But it is OK to approach your challenges as the person that God made you to be. You don’t have to pray in the fashion of “all good prayer warriors.” You don’t have to look or sound exactly like other good Christians as you face your giants. But do listen to the Lord, and do what he tells you.

Do you realize also, like David did, that our battle is not in the arena of flesh and blood, but is actually a spiritual conflict? David actually had to fight a flesh and blood conflict. Even so, he recognized that it was primarily about what was happening spiritually. So, we have to face trials and difficulties of various kinds – and yet it is good to remember the spiritual reality behind it all. Maybe we have to pay bills and it is hard to make ends meet. That is flesh and blood. But there is a battle that goes along with that – the battle of discouragement and hopelessness and the challenge to trust God as provider. Yes, we must deal with the flesh and blood, but the battle is spiritual.

Maybe you have to deal with someone in your life who is difficult, or troublesome or who causes you anguish. Obviously, you encounter that in flesh and blood situations. But the real battle is to trust God, to continually allow God’s power to forgive that person, to recognize that the devil wants you to hold on to rage and bitterness.

This isn’t a blank check to say: “God will do whatever I want him to, as long as I do it in his name.” But it is an invitation to see the spiritual reality behind our physical life, and to trust God to do good things in us and through us.

So where are you intimidated right now? What “giant” are you facing? A relationship? Finances? Health? Career? Does it look like all the advantages are against you? Hear the Lord’s invitation to trust him right now. Although it wasn’t written until a thousand years after David, he knew the truth that is in Romans chapter 8:

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. (Romans 8:28-34, NLT)

Trust in the Lord right now. Let him speak to you.