Learning to Rely on God

Welcome to week nine of our Bible study in 1 Samuel called The Coming King. Today we're going to cover chapters 21, 22, and 23. In last week's lesson, what we did is we looked at our three main characters and what we could learn from them. From Jonathan, we were inspired by his friendship and his support of David. From Saul, we were warned about the effect of unchecked disobedience on our spiritual health and unchecked harmful emotions on our mental health. And from David, we were strangely comforted. Even though we knew he was heading into a season of difficulty, we were comforted because we could already see how near the Lord was to David. And we, especially through the Psalms that you studied this week, but we learned that even when we're alone, we're not alone. Those are the same three lessons we're going to learn this week. From Jonathan, we are going to be inspired by his support and friendship of David. From Saul, he will signal to us even greater warnings of the destructive nature of jealousy and other harmful emotions. He's going to become completely unhinged in this lesson. But it's David that's the prime interest for the remainder of this book. He's going to flee now from one place to another, seeking refuge, seeking asylum, seeking a hiding place. And he's going to be tempted with despair, come within an inch of his life. But ultimately, David's going to learn to rely on God. So what I want to do is I want to start with a New Testament passage written by the Apostle Paul that shares that exact same thing. And I'll put it on the screen. It's 2 Corinthians 1-9. And Paul says,

The king-making events of this chapter take the shape of circumstances and difficulties that are going to cause David to rely on God and not himself. Saul was a man who completely relied upon himself. He was self-sufficient, self-promoting. God cannot use people like this. God wants to use people who learn to rely on him. God wants to use us as we learn to rely on him. Thus, the usefulness of trials and troubles and tragedies in our life, because they help us learn not to rely on ourselves, but to rely on God. So David's heading into a journey in these chapters that I'm calling a pilgrimage of problems. Why do I call it that? Because everything I do has to be an alliteration, and so that's the only thing I could figure out. He is going on a journey, for sure, and it's going to be filled with problems. So what I'm going to do for this week, a little bit different, is I'm going to kind of just number them like stops on a bus. Stop number one, stop number two. We're going to have seven stops on this pilgrimage. But before we start, there's a question that a reader might want to ask, and that is, why didn't David just, you know, stage a coup? Why didn't he before? He could have avoided decades, well, years over a decade of difficulty if he had just taken over. All the king's men knew that Saul was psychotic. David had the support of some or maybe all of Saul's family. At least Jonathan and McCall would have been behind him, and the people loved him. Why not just say, okay, everybody wants me to be king. They're calling me the king. I'll just do this. I'll just take over. Again, I said he could have avoided a lot of years, but David understood how God works, and David understood God's ways, and David knew that God had anointed Saul, and that Saul was going to be the king until God decided that he was no longer going to be the king. He knew that that was not in his own power to make a decision over. And so there was no other choice that David had but patience in adversity, patience on this pilgrimage. So the first stop was a town called Nob. It was out of the question for David to go to Samuel again. He's fleeing from Saul. He knew that would just endanger Samuel's life. So he decides to go to this town that seems to have been now sort of the makeshift sanctuary or the tabernacle since Shiloh had been destroyed. We really don't have anything in the Word that tells us that, but it seems to be that way. So chapter 21 verse 1 says, And we're going to stop right away because this is risky for him to go to Ahimelech, the priest. Why? Because Ahimelech, being the great-grandson of Eli, all these guys are descendants from Eli, he's the brother of Ahijah who's with Saul, who has been with Saul, they're brothers. So this was risky. It says, Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me, oh, five loaves of bread or whatever there is. And the priest answered David, I have no common bread, but there is holy bread. And they had a conversation about that. And the priest ends up giving David the bread of the presence. Now people did consume that, but the priests consumed it. It wasn't for common consumption. So he gives it to David, and he gives him the sword of Goliath. I suppose he felt like he was entitled to it. And then we read about this foreshadowing of danger when we read about this Doeg, the Edomite guy there. But this scene kind of sets up for us a moral difficulty. And I just want to pause and stop about moral difficulties that we find in Scripture. Was it okay for Ahimelech to give that bread to David, or was that wrong? Was it okay for Rahab to lie to the spies in Jericho, or was that wrong? Was it okay for Michal to deceive her dad's soldiers about the idol in the bed saying it was David? Was it okay for David to make up this story about King Saul sent me on a mission, that's why I'm here alone? We run into a lot of things in Scripture that we just kind of don't really know what to do with. And I feel like the writers want us to kind of grapple with it a little bit. And then what's worse is Jesus, when he's talking to Pharisees in the book of Matthew, seems to commend David for what he did. Let's take a look at it. I'll put it on the screen. Again, he's talking to these Pharisees that were fussing about Jesus' disciples taking grain, rubbing it, eating it, which is harvesting on the Sabbath. And so, Matthew chapter 12, he said to them, the Pharisees,

So Jesus emphasized here, mercy is greater than sacrifice. Is it fair for us to say mercy greater than the law? So then we ask questions. I wonder, would you drive 10 miles an hour over the speed limit to save a life, to get someone to the hospital? Would you lie about the whereabouts of your children to keep them from harm? These are difficult questions. But I like to just rest on what Jesus said here, mercy rather than sacrifice. So stop number two is Gath. And I honestly have no idea why David thought it was a great idea to go right into enemy territory. He'd killed hundreds of their men. And now he had Goliath's spear, unless these two stops were not in chronological order, which could be a possibility. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, it's not this David, the king of the land? Look at that, you guys. Even the Philistines think David should be the king. Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And David took these words to heart. He was much afraid of the king of Gath. wonder if David went into the situation not understanding how recognizable he actually was. And when he heard how recognizable he was, he thought, what am I going to do now? Perhaps the Lord gave him an idea, maybe he had an idea, but in verse 13 it says, he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane. And so now we have another deception, but a brilliant one. This was brilliant because in this time people were superstitious about those with insanity. They felt like it was bad luck for them to do any harm to them, and so they sort of just wanted them to move along, just move along. And maybe David knew that, maybe that was his plot. But Akish says in 15, do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? And so even the enemy rejected David at this point. And so we've been making the point of his aloneness. He, at every turn, is alone again. And aloneness with God does bring us to a place where God can shape us and mold us for usefulness. So David's next stop is a cave, stop number three, the cave of Adullam. Chapter 22, verse 1, David departed from there and he escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all of his father's house heard it, well they went down there with him because they were probably in peril as well. And then David begins collecting people. Apparently his time of aloneness is done and people start collecting him. Verse 2, everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, everyone who was discontented or bitter in soul gathered to him and he became a commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men. Now I do find humor in the fact that 400 men who seem to be down and out have no problem finding David, and yet the king of Israel cannot find him. But beyond that, I don't think David had any intention of raising up an army. But God had an intention to sort of gift him this ragtag army of men. And look again, what kind of people they were. They were distressed, they were stressed out in life, they were in debt. Most people were in debt because of overtaxation, they weren't able to pay their taxes, and so then there aren't very many choices. And so these men chose to flee. They were discontented, they'd been wronged or mistreated in some way. Again, David didn't set out. He probably, I don't know, if it was me, I probably would say, I don't need another 400 people to take care of. I'm struggling enough just with me. But I've noticed as I think about life that sometimes that's what God does for us. There have been times in my life where God has given me people that depend on me, and it has been a great mercy to me. There was a time when I had a one-year-old and a three-year-old, and I was going through a season of depression. I wasn't depressed because I had a one and three-year-old, it was a different situation. But that one and that three-year-old depending on me served as like a conveyor belt to pull me through this season. Because you got to get up, you got to feed them, you got to dress them, you got to get groceries, you got to read books, you got to go on walks, you got to take, you just have to. When people depend on you, you have to do things. Sometimes that is a mercy. Sometimes it is good for us. So when we have no one to be responsible for, it's much easier to fall into depression or self-pity. When we have no one to look after, it's much easier to sit on the couch. But when the whole family is counting on you, we learn to just do it tired, do it hurting. But the blessing is we are doing it. And so people depending on us can be God's mercy in our life. And I think, perhaps, it was God's mercy for David too. Stop number four is a quick trip to Moab. And in verse, middle of verse three, we find David speaking to the king of Moab, and he says, please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Can I connect the dots for you again? David's great-grandmother, let's see how many greats are there, his great-grandmother was from Moab. So for his parents, this is just grandma. Like this was grandma's home. Ruth had left Moab to become connected with the people of Israel, but perhaps there was enough relational warmth left over there that David could take his mom and dad and say, stay here, so that they were protected. Stop number five is the forest of Hereth. And we have a prophet that comes out of nowhere, Gad, who will serve David for years to come. In verse five, Gad says, do not remain in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah. And so David departed, and he went into the forest of Hereth. And then the next thing that we learn in the scriptures is this tragedy that struck the village of Nob. It didn't have to happen. It was needless bloodshed. It happened because of Saul's unchecked emotions that blossomed into a full psychosis. Verse six says, now Saul heard that David was discovered and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand. And this spear that we hear about over and over with Saul seems to symbolize his grip on power, his grip on the kingship. Almost like if I let go of my spear or if I lose my spear, I will also lose my identity, lose the kingdom. And so Saul began to accuse his men of conspiring against him. And listen to the paranoia. We're going to start in the middle of verse eight. Listen to the paranoia in his voice. Saul says, no one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait, as at this day. And I picture the silence, because he's scolding them all, and it's all silent. And then Doeg, the Edomite, of course his name is Doeg, what else would it be? Pierces the silence, and he says, well I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord for him, and he gave him provisions, and he gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. I think Doeg is purposefully playing into Saul's delusions for some reason or another. So then the king sent to summon Ahimelech, the priest, and all of his father's house, meaning Eli's house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And here we have now this sham of a trial, where Saul himself is the prosecutor, he is the jury, he is the judge, there's one witness who is Doeg, and the sentence is predetermined. Listen to how it goes. Verse 13, Saul says to Ahimelech, why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him? And I picture Ahimelech, like, looking around like, what is going on in my life right now? Like, what is this? And he answers the king, he goes, well, who among all your servants is so faithful as David? He's the king's son-in-law, he's the captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house. Is today the first time that I've inquired of God for him? No! Listen, let not the king impute anything to his servant, or to any of the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all of this, whether much or little. That's his defense, and it is a true defense, and he must be confused by all of this. And the king said, well, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all of your father's house. And the king said to the guard, turn, kill the priests of the Lord. Why? Because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. That's his paranoia speaking. But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. But Saul had a kindred spirit. Saul and Doeg were kindred spirits in the same way that David and Jonathan were kindred spirits. So he says to his new friend here, Doeg, you turn and strike the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and killed on that day 85 persons who wore the label. and an ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword, both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep. He put to the sword. What a team they were. Saul's order, Doeg's action. They partnered together to wipe out the village. And I like how the writer says, he repeats two times, they put to the sword. In some other translations, some other areas it's devoted to destruction. It is this Hebrew word that is used. That means wipe out. Now there's two things that are sadly ironic about this. You might remember earlier in our study in chapter 15, Samuel came to, uh, Saul and said to him, the Lord wants you to devote to destruction. The Amalekites wipe them out. As it says here, man, woman, child, infant, ox, donkey, sheep. But Saul wouldn't do it. He kept the best of those things for himself and he brought back the King. So when God said to do this, devote to destruction, Saul would not do it. But when he agreed with his psychosis and his paranoia, then he did it to his own people. This is tragic. And the second thing about this is that back in chapter two of our study, we heard the prophecy against Eli's house. God had prophesied that there would not be an old man in his house. That fulfillment began with his sons and Eli themselves. But here it is continuing on in a really grand way. But there's one who escapes. One. Verse 20. One of the sons of Ahimelech named Abiathar escaped and fled from David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons in your father's house. Stay with me. Don't be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me, you will be in safe keeping. And Abiathar becomes somewhat of a priest for David for a long time to come. But these emotions here, with this knowledge about Nob, David now carries a new layer of grief and guilt. Any one of us with a normal emotional foundation would feel guilty. We would take on the guilt of this. Although I want to say this was misplaced guilt. Okay. David did not order the destruction. Saul was the one that ordered the destruction. And we should pause here for a moment and ask ourselves, what do we do with misplaced guilt? Because these kinds of things happen in our life too. And we feel guilty for something that we truly weren't accountable for. And we say things like if I hadn't gone back in the house that morning to check on the iron, I wouldn't have been in this particular spot for that car accident. If we hadn't have let our son go on the ski trip, then this wouldn't have happened. Or on the other hand, we'll say, I knew I was supposed to call her yesterday morning. I knew I was supposed to reach out. And if I had done that, see, we collect these things and we think that anything bad, somehow we were the ones behind it. And I think that we need to look at this and say, you know, we can't live in a sense of misplaced guilt. Okay. This is not ours to take on. And this was not David's to take on. The fault was placed at the feet of Saul and Doeg, not David. Stop number six is the city of Keilah. And you know, these things happened over many years. This didn't all just happen in one week that we're studying. It goes on and on. One more time, David heard that the Philistines were raiding the town of Keilah. And you know, it was Saul's responsibility as the king to protect people, to protect the nation of Israel. But he was so busy holding his spear and holding grudges and holding onto the kingship that I don't think he noticed some of these things, but David did. And he thought he had a pretty good group with him now. And, um, he had a priest with an ephod. And so he inquired of the Lord, not just once, but twice. And I'm going down to, uh, verse four, middle of verse four. And the Lord answered him and said, arise, go down to Keilah for I will give the Philistines into your hand. And so David and his men went to Keilah and they fought with the Philistines and they brought back their livestock and they struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. Good for him. But Saul heard about it. Verse eight, Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. You almost get the sense here. I think it's a true sense that Saul was willing to wipe out another town just to find David. He's just, that's how he's thinking these days. Verse nine, David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And so he said to Abiathar, the priest, bring the ephod here. Here's one thing I like about what David's doing. Yes, he had misplaced guilt over Nob, but he's slowing down now. He's slowing down in inquiring of the Lord. And that is a good thing. And so verse 11, David says, will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? And the Lord said, he will come down. And David said, will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, they will surrender you. And then David and his men who were about 600 now arose and departed from Keilah and they went wherever they could go. And when Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. And again, I think that Nob was a huge impression on David. At some point a few weeks ago, we talked about the fact that as we get a little bit older, we can rest on our experiences and that's not always a good thing. We'll say, oh, I see that problem. I know how to fix that and that we move forward. And this is a good reminder for us to stop, to inquire of the Lord. Lord, what should I do? Now, I haven't been running for my life anytime recently. I don't think you have either, but we have lots of things in our lives, lots of decisions that we could take this to heart and say, okay, before I rush into that, I should stop and inquire of the Lord. Will this be good for me? Will this be good for my family? So I think that's a good model. Last stop and number seven is the wilderness of Ziph. And in verse 14, David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. So this is the location that he's at. It's very discouraging to have the King of Israel haunting you every day. David had done nothing to ask for this. David had not done everything perfectly either, but discouraged people don't need critics and they usually don't need advice. What discouraged people need is encouragement. And that is what we get from Jonathan again. Precious three verses we have here. Let's read verses 16 to 18. And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, do not fear for the hand of Saul, my father shall not find you. You shall be King over Israel and I shall be next to you. Saul, my father also knows this. And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord and David remained at Horesh and Jonathan went home. I want to linger on these verses a little bit. They're so beautiful to me, but there are things that we see that gave a great encouragement to David at the time, but we can see some great models in this for ways that we can give encouragement to one another. And so I want to bring out four points from those verses. And the first one is that Jonathan strengthened his hand in God. Jonathan strengthened his hand in God. What Jonathan was saying to David in the moment is saying, hold fast to the task that God has set before you. We all get discouraged and fatigued in the lane that God has put us in. And that's before a pilgrimage of problems sets in. And then we're especially discouraged and fatigued in the task that God has set before us. And when someone comes along and strengthens our hand in God, that's gold. That is gold. Second thing is that he reminded David, you shall be King. Okay? part was personal. Jonathan believed God had a plan for David, even though it sure did not look in the moment that there was any kingship coming into his life. So he reminded David of what he knew, what he knew down deep. David knew he was anointed to be king, but you know, even when you know something, man, it just goes away like this. And so Jonathan reminded him, this will come to pass in God's time and in God's way. Third thing, Jonathan exhorted David, do not fear. My father shall not find you. He was saying, it's a tough time right now, but this is going to end and this is going to end well. Jonathan was a very sensitive man. I love every time Jonathan opens his mouth, he has some great insights and he reminded David that God had a plan and he was not going to perish in this situation. I have a way of trying with my own little way of to encourage my friends. And what my words are this, it won't always be like this. I'll try to say to somebody, it won't always be like this. And usually the response I get is, really? And I feel like they want, like, it's really like, would you say that again? You know, it won't always be like this. Even, even a Christian friend who's dying, you can say, it won't always be like this. When you're done with this season, you'll be in a better place. You'll be with the Lord. And so it's, I kind of feel like Jonathan was saying here, don't worry, don't fear. It won't always be like this. And then the fourth thing, Jonathan said, you shall be King over Israel. And now this is not personal. This is more than just the man, David. He was going to be King over Israel. He was the coming King whose kingdom would outlive his own lifetime. God had a purpose. God had a plan. And David would model, David would show us a type of another coming King. This was all part of God's unfolding plan of redemption. And so Jonathan was reminding David of things that were bigger than himself. And sometimes that's useful for us as well. So after this encouragement, then the Ziphites ratted out David to Saul, and it won't be the only time they will do that. In verse 19, they say to Saul, is not David hiding among us in the strongholds? Now come down, O King, and our part shall be to surrender him into the King's hand. And Saul said, may you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me. No one else has cared about me. Nobody has cared about how difficult my life has been, but you look what you're doing. Bless you. So they found more kindred spirits and Saul pursued David. And Saul went on one side of the mountain and David's men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. And just when Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, oh, look, a messenger came to Saul saying, hurry and come for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. I think the Philistines must have been making a raid against Gibeah or something close to Saul because he certainly didn't seem to be caring before. It had to have been personal, but God was sparing David. God was using these situations to give him the space that he needed. So Saul returned from pursuing David and he went against the Philistines. And therefore that place was called the rock of escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi. So what I wanted to do was wrap up this lesson with those wonderful Psalms that we had in our study guide, but I'm out of time. I wouldn't be able to do even one of them justice. So I'm going to wrap it up the way we started with the words from the apostle Paul to remind us again,

If you are weighed down with problems, maybe to say it as a sentence of death would be hyperbole. But at some point, if you're weighed down with problems, we need to consider the fact that God's work in our life is not necessarily to just get rid of the problems. God's work in our life is to cause us to rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. A good word. Father, thank you for that word. We all have room in our life to disconnect from the reliance that we have on our own thinking, our own abilities, our own emotions, our own heart, and Lord, to put ourselves in the place where we rely on you. Lord, even these things that we see like this messenger that comes, that takes the enemy into another direction. Lord, those are the things that you do in our life when we rely on you, Lord. So I pray that you would help us to be faithful, to always look to you and to bring our problems, surrender them to you, knowing Lord that you are our savior. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.