1 Samuel 23, Do You Need a Hand?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

First Samuel chapter 23, hear the word of the Lord. Now they told

David, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Kaila and are robbing the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the

Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Kaila.

But David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Kaila against the armies of the

Philistines? Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord said, Arise, go down to Kaila, for I will give the

Philistines into your hand. And David and his men went to Kaila and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow.

So David saved the inhabitants of Kaila. When Abiathar, the priest of Ahimelech, had fled to David to Kaila, he had come down with an ephod in his hand.

Now it was told Saul that David had come to Kaila, and Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.

And Saul summoned all the people to war to go down to Kaila to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him, and he said to Abiathar, the priest,

Bring the ephod here. Then said David, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Kaila to destroy the city on my account.

Will the men of Kaila surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard?

O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant. And the Lord said, He will come down.

Then David said, Will the men of Kaila surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the

Lord said, They will surrender you. Then David and his men, who were about 600, arose and departed from Kaila, and they went wherever they could go.

When Saul was told that David had escaped from Kaila, he gave up the expedition. And David remained in the stronghold 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, 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. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.

When the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds of Horesh, on the hill of Hathilah, which is south of Jeshimon?

Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, 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. Go make yet more sure.

Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there. For it is told me that he is very cunning.

See therefore, and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information.

Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.

And they arose and went to Ziph, a head of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the

Ereba, to the south of Jeshimon. And Saul and his men went to seek him.

And David was told, So he went down to the rock, and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when

Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain.

And David was hurrying to get away from Saul, as Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them.

A messenger came to Saul, saying, Hurry, and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.

So Saul returned from pursuing after David, and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the

Rock of Escape. And David went up from there, and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. On April 12th, 1961, the first Russian cosmonaut,

Yuri Gagarin, reportedly radioed from space, I can't see God. At least that was the claim of the

Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, at the next Communist Party Central Committee. Gagarin didn't actually say that.

But Khrushchev wanted people to think he did. Communism was intent on furthering atheism, because it wants people to believe that this world of matter is all there is.

There's nothing beyond just bodies, and food, and clothing, and houses, and stuff, or whatever you can hold, that is worth living or dying for.

Even though, according to historian Stefan Courtois, by 1997, Communism had killed about 94 .36

million people. So for a belief, and that's what Communism is, it's a faith like any other religion, a belief that says that physical life is all there is, it's very destructive for physical life.

But back to space. Is it really true that you can go to space and not see

God, or at least not see his hand, his handiwork? In 1992, astrophysicists launched the

Cosmic Background Explorer satellite to verify the Big Bang theory, and they did.

They proved that the universe had a beginning. Stephen Hawking called their findings, quote, the scientific discovery of the century, if not all time.

It actually isn't that revolutionary. We already knew from the laws of thermodynamics that the universe had a beginning, but cosmologist

George Smoot admitted, quote, cosmologists have long struggled to avoid this, what he calls this bad dream, by seeking explanations for the universe that avoid the necessity of a beginning.

But now they had to accept the fact. After all, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the universe had a beginning, then something or someone had to begin it.

It could not have begun itself. Something or someone who was beyond nature, beyond the universe, and so by definition supernatural, had to create it.

So the universe is God's handiwork. In it, you see his hand.

But still, someone would say, okay, okay, a God who made the universe, that we can accept.

But then he left it to operate on its own laws. That's called deism. In Latin, it just means faith in God, but it's a certain kind of faith in God, a

God who just makes the universe and leaves it to operate on its own. He does not control the world, who made the world like a clockmaker makes a clock and then just leaves it to run on its own.

And here's the real problem with the beliefs of most of the people around us. Most of the people around us here are not atheists, and they would scoff at Khrushchev and the communists trying to say, if we went into space and couldn't see

God, like Christians who say, you know, back to the cosmonaut on a spacewalk. Yeah, you take off your helmet up there and you'll see

God real fast. A better response, the heavens, the universe declares the glory of God.

It shows the work of his hand. The real problem though of people surrounding us here is deism, a

God they acknowledge exists. They say they believe in him who created everything, but they can't see his hand in their lives now.

Sociologist Christian Smith and Melinda Ditton in a 2005 book called Soul Searching described the common beliefs of Americans as moralistic, therapeutic deism.

Most Americans claim to believe in God, but when they look at nature, or when they look at history, or they look at their own lives, they don't see his hand.

They say the world is like, it's a machine, it's running on its own, or maybe there's just blind luck, just things kind of happen by happenstance.

Now, if they're pious, they're a little religious, they may want to bring God into the machine, at least occasionally, especially in tough times, someone's dying in their family, when they're sick, when they've got problems, maybe they feel overwhelmed by something, they don't feel they can handle it.

They like the footprints poem, because in it there's a therapeutic God who walks with them, who helps them in the tough times, but isn't in control of those tough times.

No one is, just happenstance, it's just bad luck, but he walks with you through it, and he may even carry you.

They want a God who respects our free will. When we can handle things, he'll let us walk on our own, who leaves us alone most of the time.

After all, we can walk through most of life on our own, thank you very much. They might even want to talk to him regularly, but they still don't see his hand in, under, and on everything, guiding it according to his will.

The faith of David was very different. We see that here in three parts, where David sees the hand of God.

He sees first God's directing hand, and second God's strengthening hand, and then finally

God's providential hand. First David sees God's directing hand in the first 14 verses, and he sees that in two parts.

He sees that God knows what will happen, and that God knows what could happen.

David receives word that the town of Kaila is under attack, could be pronounced Kaila or something like that.

There's two syllables, but I'm going to just pronounce it Kaila. The name Kaila means citadel, meaning that it was a fortified town.

It was a military outpost, probably had civilians there too, and whole families, but it's fortified to stop, probably for the purpose of stopping a

Philistine invasion. They're on the border near the Philistines, and now it's being besieged by the Philistines, and they're looting the threshing floors, apparently where they sift the grain outside the walls, and they're taking their harvested grain, which means people of Kaila could starve.

And the first thing we should notice about this is that since David is not the official king, this isn't really officially his business.

Here Saul should be coming to the rescue of Kaila, right? You get the alert, Kaila is under attack.

Well Saul, this is your job, you better do it. David is supposed to be the outlaw.

According to Saul, he's lying in wait to overthrow him. Now, if that were the case, David would leave the defense of Kaila to Saul, let

Saul's army take the casualties and spend their energy and spend their resources, while he just sits back and recruits more men.

Criticizes Saul, said, I would have done a much better job than Saul's doing, that kind of thing, and let the men come in and let

Saul get weakened. If he was really a rebel, he'd be thinking, you know, if that means temporarily letting the enemies ravage

Israel, well, that's what we'll have to do for the greater good. That's what David would think if he were a rebel, but he's not.

Rebels don't defend the country they're trying to take over. Typically rebels work to undermine the country they're trying to take over.

If foreigners attack, rebels let the government spend all their energy and their men fighting the invaders, while they sit back and they build up their own strength, criticize, and that kind of thing.

If David were a typical revolutionary, he'd let Saul counterattack the Philistines, hoping that Saul's forces are weakened in the end, and he would just bide his time.

But despite what Saul thinks, David is not a revolutionary. He's the anointed one.

He's the true king, and he proves that here by defending God's people.

He comes to the rescue. But first, he wants to know what the hand of God is doing, so he inquires of the

Lord. Not told exactly how, either through the prophet. He has prophet Gad with him, or maybe through the Urim and the

Thummim that the priests have. And he asks God, shall I go and attack these Philistines?

And the Lord answers David, go and attack the Philistines and save Kilah. It's a clear word from God.

Go, attack, save. Do the work of the king.

And David believes the promises of God, first to Abraham, that Israel will have this land. This is their promised land. Here it's being taken from them.

His faith is in that promise that this is their land. And so he believes in God, believes in God's promises.

That makes him willing to attack. He believes in the promises to Abraham, which are, those promises are fulfilled by Jesus.

So David's faith in the promises is faith in what

Jesus fulfilled. And he shows that faith by doing. His faith had works.

It's living faith. Here the work was going on the offensive to defend the kingdom where, officially, he's a fugitive.

Now who does that? What fugitive has ever defended the regime?

It's out to get him. David. David does that because of his faith.

So he announces to his men, mount up. We're on our way to attack the Philistines surrounding

Kilah. Something like that. Now remember, David had attracted losers.

Okay. There are a bunch of losers. They're the down and out. They may have been physically fine and physically good condition, but they have had a hard life.

Things had never seemed to go well for them. So these aren't confident, happy warriors.

So they're bold and willing to do anything. They've been beaten down. They're discouraged. They're losers.

And so when David tells them his plans, they reply in verse three, this is them talking about, behold, look at this.

We're afraid here and we're in hiding here in this forest in Judah and we're afraid here.

And you want us to go out, go on the attack? They're like Eeyore in the Winnie the

Pooh stories. Remember that? Gloomy, pessimistic. They're cowering.

They're terrified someone will find them where they are. And then they say, how much more if we go to Kilah where the armies of the

Philistines, the Philistines, we're afraid of Saul. The Philistines are stronger. You want us to go to war, go out of hiding, into the open and against the

Philistines of all people. Those are fiercest warriors out there. That's just crazy. And so David, knowing that he has a morale problem, asks the

Lord again, he has to be sure the hand of the Lord is with him. Notice how many times this passage talks about hands.

Did you notice that as we were reading through? The hand, hand of this, hand of that, the hand of the Lord, your hand,

David, the hand of Saul, strengthen hands. Here David sees the directing hand of God.

He inquired of God once and when his men questioned the guidance, he inquires again. Probably he does it in front of the men so they would hear it themselves.

And the Lord answers in verse four, arise, go to Kilah for I will.

This time he's promising. Before just God gave a command what to do, here he's promising what will be the end result.

I will give the Philistines into your hand. The Philistines are about to change hands.

God says, I will give the Philistines, I will give, implies that they're already in God's hand.

Okay, these Philistines are not just out of control, not just rampaging like a vicious dog let loose from his chain.

No, they're in God's hand and he can give them to whoever he wants. And the Lord promises the second time,

I will definitely give them into your hand. I have them. They're in my hand.

I give them to yours. So they go to Kilah and they win. They struck in them in verse five.

It says with a great blow, this is their first victory. So it boosts their morale, their confidence. They get livestock from the

Philistines. So they're gaining resources. They're getting equipped and David saved the inhabitants of Kilah.

So they're gaining a reputation as winners. They're getting, they're getting, these losers are turning into winners and all because they had trusted in the directing hand of God.

Now, when this church was first started in 2008, we were based in Yanceyville. Our focus was very much

Yanceyville, Castleville County, hardly, you know, Danville at that time was where we just go out to eat.

Think of, think of that for the church. We were meeting in the Castleville County parks at Rec Gym, but as we were looking for a permanent building, this one was available.

But Mary and I, around that time, we went on a church planners retreat about November that year, 2008 on the coast.

Ironically, the beach is called Casual Beach. I don't know what that's supposed to be. Anyway, but there I was thinking about whether we should move here about halfway between Yanceyville and Danville.

It's kind of out in the middle of nowhere, but it's about halfway between actually a little closer to Danville. And we were seeking God's directing hand.

And it crystallized in my mind that we should. The church even had a meeting about it and everyone, as far as I remember, was in favor of it.

Started to get support from a Baptist denomination. It was giving, started to give us $1 ,200 a month.

I think we got one or two payments, that's about it for $1 ,200 a month. And it's supposed to be for two years, for our first two years.

Now it's kind of an odd number, isn't it? $1 ,200 a month. Why not even 1 ,000? Or better round up, that's what

I prefer. But it was $1 ,200 a month. Now by January, so that'd be 2009, they eventually told us on a

Friday that they wanted us in Yanceyville. And if we move to this building, that they will cut the $1 ,200 per month.

We're not getting anything. And I still thought we were being led here, but that threat gave me second thoughts.

The next morning, Saturday, wake up, go check my email, turn on the computer.

There's a message from a guy I didn't know, but a friend of Mary. Originally he's from Singapore, but now lives in Houston, Texas, saying that he was wiring the church a gift of, guess how much?

$1 ,200. I looked at that and blinked, then shouted to Mary upstairs still in bed, hey

Mary, did you tell him about the $1 ,200? Took a little while to wake up.

What are you talking about? No, he didn't know anything about it. The Lord led him to give exactly $1 ,200 at exactly the time we were having exactly that amount taken from us.

And in case you think, well, that's just for one month. Well, later others gave us more than enough to make up for what we lost by moving here.

Can you see the Lord's directing hand in that?

Well, the Lord's hand directed them to Kyla, not just to save the city or to equip their small army or to give them their first victory.

He shows them that the Lord knows what could happen, that he knows definitely the result of contingent events.

That is, he knows hypotheticals, counterfactuals, how people will react and things will change if conditions change.

Here, whether David stays in Kyla or not, how will that change things? Historians like to play with counterfactuals to speculate on how things would have turned out differently, if not for a few changes.

What if France had become reformed, which almost happened.

I mean, there was one king in line to be king and he was reformed. And if he would have become the king, France would have been reformed.

Now there would have been no St. Bartholomew's Day massacre on August 24th, 1572, when about 10 ,000 or more, some people estimate up to 30 ,000, reformed believers in France were murdered.

So there would have been no French reformed refugees called Huguenots, many of them coming to America, and there would have been no

Paul Revere. There probably would have been no French Revolution, and so no

Napoleon. And perhaps, because Germany would have been different, no

Hitler. What if Oliver Cromwell had lived 20 years longer, which could have happened because he died when he was only 59, and he had established a permanent republic in Britain in the 17th century?

There likely would have been no American Revolution. What if the South had won the Civil War? What if the

USA hadn't developed the atomic bomb when it did? How much longer will World War II have lasted, and how many more would have died?

And on and on. You can play this game, but it's all speculation. We have really no idea.

You can guess from trends, but once you change one thing, all the other variables could change, and people are unpredictable under different situations.

So you really don't know in any of these how people could have reacted. But God does.

He knows exactly how things will change and what people will do if you change something.

And this is important because a theological movement called open theism, I prefer to call it mini -theism, says that God can't know contingent events, because if He does, then they aren't open to change.

If God knows the future, then the future can't change, and so people's choices are already set.

But they say people must have free will and be able to change their will.

And so if the USA, take that scenario, the USA doesn't have the atomic bomb in 1945, and then

God is kind of like us. You ask Him, would Japan have surrendered anyway? And He says, I don't know, maybe.

God's like us. He can't know if the Japanese will ever surrender or if the Soviet Union will take advantage of the

USA being stuck in a bloody war in Japan, take advantage to take over all the rest of Europe and Asia.

He can guess, but He can't know what will definitely, they will definitely do under different circumstances, because people have to be free, they say.

But we see here that God does know. In the

Bible, God has to be sovereign and almighty.

And almighty, like in the Nicene Creed, we confessed, almighty means all power, there's no limitations, infinite.

So infinite knowledge, infinite power, infinite ability. He knows all things and all power to do all things.

So David and his men are now in Kaila, and Saul learns that they are there, and now he's on his way. The priest,

Abiathar, joins David there with his ephod. An ephod is a priestly garment, it's kind of basically a vest with 12 stones in it for the 12 tribes, and something attached to it called the

Urim and the Thummim. Now, we don't know exactly what it was or what it looked like or how it worked, so that's all a guess.

We just know what it was called, the Urim and the Thummim, apparently had two parts, the Urim and the Thummim. But it was used for seeking the

Lord's direction. The priest has it now, and because of Saul's massacre we saw last week, now

David only has the priest. And when David learns that Saul is coming, he seeks the Lord's directing hand in verse 10.

He and his men apparently like it there in Kaila, right? It's a town after all, better than camping out in that forest or those caves where they had been.

They're in a town, they got food and water, they got hospitality, so it's nice there compared to where they were.

It's fortified, and apparently he looks around at the local men and concludes that if they join him and fight with him, they will probably be able to withstand

Saul's army here in this fortress. But will the men of Kaila support him?

Now, you'd think they would. You'd think they would be grateful to David for saving them and then want to return the favor.

Gratitude is the response of a spiritually healthy person. When someone saves you, you should be grateful.

Someone said that Christian ethics, that is what we do, how we live, is based on gratitude. He saved us.

Now we want to live for him. We want to live in the way he tells us to, not out of duty, because he saved us.

And now I want to live for you. It's something I want to do out of gratefulness. But David seeks the

Lord's directing hand. O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant, talking about himself, has surely heard that Saul has come to Kaila to destroy the city on my account, like he had destroyed

Nob. Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Is he going to come?

This is based on whether David stays there. O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.

In other words, if we stay, that's the contingency, that's the hypothetical. Can you, God, definitely see what

Saul will choose? And the Lord answers that Saul will come down if he stays.

He knows what Saul will do in that circumstance. Then David asks in verse 12, will the men of Kaila surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?

There's another circumstance, another scenario. Again, if we stay, can you,

God, definitely see how they will respond? They should be grateful we saved them, but how will they respond when the pressure is on?

And the Lord answers, they will surrender you. He knows exactly what they will do given that circumstance.

They won't be grateful. They will bite the hand that feeds them. So with that, because of God's knowledge of what could happen,

David and his men, now up to 600, notice that, before they were 400, so they've grown by 50%, leave in verse 13, and they went wherever they could go.

It was kind of wandering around. Saul hears that David has left Kaila, and so he gives up. He goes back home.

David and his men camp out in strongholds, fortified mountaintops, in the wilderness of Ziph, in verse 14.

That's further southeast. It's toward the Dead Sea. It's not quite there yet. Meanwhile, Saul sought him every day, sending out spies and patrols looking for David.

But God did not give him, this David, God did not give David into his,

Saul's, hand. God's directing hand led

David away from Saul. God directs his people and directs his enemies in the wrong direction.

Second, David sees God's strengthening hand, starting in verse 15.

David saw that Saul had come to seek his life. In Hebrew, nephesh could be translated soul.

When you see what's coming against you, you can feel overwhelmed. There's forces coming against us for our life, for our soul.

You see the people who betray you and disappoint you, people like the inhabitants of Kaila, people you helped, and now they don't care.

They lack gratitude. Or you could see your own mortality. You may come a time when you see a sickness, a disease, a decline, this old age coming against you, coming for your life.

Or you see sin coming to seek your soul, to trap you in some sin, trap you in sexual immorality or in greed so that you're constantly seeking more dollars.

Sin is seeking your life. Sin is on this expedition to hunt your soul down.

And as John Owen said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

Well, David can see now that Saul is seeking to kill him. And that's depressing. That's discouraging.

And so in verse 16, Jonathan, his friend, comes to visit. Jonathan strengthened.

Notice that in verse 16. He strengthened his hand, David's hand, in God.

That's David's grasp on God as being discouraged. And Saul came in and strengthened it.

So David is grabbing hold of God even stronger now because of him. He encouraged him. He says to him in verse 17, do not fear for the hand, there's that theme again, the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you.

Jonathan knows that because he believes in the promise to David. You shall be king over Israel.

Now, at this point, David, at least he has an army now, he has 600 men. Before, he believed before when David had absolutely nothing.

But he's still just a refugee. He's a hunted man. But he believes in the promise to David.

Jonathan will support him all the way. He says, you shall be king and I shall be next to you. And that's encouraging.

He says that Saul knows that David will reign and he's trying to stop it, but he won't succeed. Nothing can succeed.

The gates of hell can't prevail against you. He reminds David of the promise from God. And then they make a covenant again before the

Lord. This is church. That's what they're doing.

They're a church. You see the enemies of God, they're out to get you. You need to have your hand strengthened in God, strengthened with the promises of God, the promises of God to you, promises of God to Christ.

And you will sit with him, you're seated in him. You're strengthened by God's people.

And that's what we're doing right now. And we covenant together. We covenant so that we will keep doing that.

And you need to be part of a body to which you are covenanted, not just where you attend, but to where you are covenanted.

And that will strengthen your hand in God when all you can see outside are enemies.

Jonathan goes home and that's the last time we're told they saw each other. But the people of that region, Ziph, see

David. And even though David is the hero, David's the hero. He took out Goliath.

He killed his tens of thousands. He rescued just recently Kyla. They see an opportunity for themselves to ingratiate themselves with Saul.

And he'll reward them. He's the king. He's got power. He's got wealth. He's got things on his side. We do a favor for him.

He'll help us. And so they tell Saul, is not David hiding among us? They effectively become

Saul's spies. Many people don't think about what's right or what's wrong, who's righteous and who's wicked.

They simply support whoever is in power, who can, who can reward them, who can give them the stuff they want.

And so they invite Saul, the official, but not the true king to come down.

And they will surrender him, surrender David into the king's hand.

There's that theme again. You have to hand it to them. They're all in on Saul's side.

And so now David has the local people against him. So Saul blesses them in verse 21, thanks them for having compassion, for thinking of him.

But he's hesitant. He asked them to double check where David is. Maybe he's, Saul is tired of starting expeditions to go hunt down David.

And then when they get there, David's escaped already. And so he says that David is very cunning, that he hides out in lurking places in verses 22 and 23.

You gotta love that phrase, lurking places. He wants sure information he asked for.

Give me sure information. He has to get direction from them because he can't get it from the

Lord. How can David escape with all this against him? Now with the people looking for him, basically surrounded by spies, every little village around him, and now it's reporting on him to Saul.

And here he composes Psalm 54, which we just sang. When the

Ziphites went and told Saul, is not David hiding among us? Oh God, save me by your name.

Imagine being wanted by the police, your picture on TV all the time. Amber alerts talking about you on Facebook.

Everyone's out to get you. Sooner or later, your luck is going to run out. Of course, there's no such thing as luck.

Luck is what people see when they can't see the hand of God.

They just think it's random. It's out of control. It's luck, they call it. No, it's not.

Third, David sees the providential hand of God, starting in the middle of verse 24.

The people of Ziph were actively conspiring against him, and so he moves on to Moen.

It's a little more southeast, even a little closer to the Dead Sea, and still not quite there yet. Around this time,

David composed Psalm 63, when David was in the wilderness of Judah. And wilderness, by the way, means in their language, means like the desert.

There's no one living out there. It's just desert land. We usually, wilderness, we think of forest, but it's desert.

And he prayed there, oh God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you.

Saul doesn't catch him in Ziph, but he hears that he's moved on to Moen, searches for him there. He's getting closer.

He's getting hot, very hot. And in verse 26, they're on the same mountain.

Apparently, they're so close, it's only like a rocky ridge in between them, separating them, almost like a fence.

That's the only thing that's separating them, this ridge of rocks is dividing them. They're that close.

Saul and his army on one side, David on the other. David was hurrying to get away from Saul. Saul's men are closing in.

It looks like they're just about to capture him, that they have the upper hand.

And then finally, for David, his luck has run out. But there's no such thing as luck.

Someone said there's no such thing as luck. Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Well, here, there's more to it than that.

Here, it looks like Saul is prepared. He has the preparation and the opportunity. He's prepared with the spies, with the local people.

He's scouted out where David is. He's prepared for David being cunning and hiding out in those lurking places.

And now he has the opportunity. He's on the very same hill, only a ridge of rocks in between them.

Saul is not relying on luck, but on preparation and opportunity. But he doesn't have the hand of God working for him.

What in theology is called providence. Providence, like the name of this little town, is the doctrine that God controls all of nature, all natural things.

God has not just seen in miracles, you know, when he overrides the laws of nature, walks on the water, feeds 5 ,000 people, just a few loaves of bread and a few small fish, heals the blind, raises the dead.

Some people say they won't believe in God unless they see a miracle. But God is seen in his providence, his hand in everything.

The laws of nature are not working kind of independently, on their own, outside of his control, like a machine, like a clock.

They are his hand. He is the ultimate cause of all things.

You know, you think, how did you get here this morning? You think, well, I decided to come.

I got up, got that text. Maybe that's why I reminded you to come. Got in my car, drove the car, and I brought myself here.

But what ultimately made you decide to come? Well, God did. God ultimately provided the car, the job that gave you the money for the car, and the job that gave someone else the money, and they gave it to you for the car, the health so that you could drive, the roads so that you could get here.

God works through means, like the cars, like jobs, the government that builds the roads. But God is doing it all.

The means, the cars, the employers, the governments are God's hands.

Can you see the hand of God? Well, here so far,

David has avoided Saul by his cunning, by lurking, being in lurking places, by the

Lord's direction, even the Lord telling him what could happen in hypothetical situations. He provides strength from Jonathan.

But now it looks like his luck is about to run out. But there's no such thing as luck, because this has never been about luck.

All those people going to the casino in Danville are hoping for good luck.

But there's no such thing as luck. You know, when you gamble, you're asking God if He wants to take this money away from you.

And it turns out, when you gamble, most of the time, He says, yes, I do. Thank you very much.

It's not luck, because there's no such thing as luck. There is instead providence.

God's working through nature, through means. Here, Saul is right on the verge of catching

David. He's just over this little ridge of rocks. He's that close, almost like on the other side of a fence.

He's just about to catch him and his men, when suddenly, in verse 27, a messenger comes with urgent news.

You know, King, hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. Now, Saul can't ignore this urgent plea.

It's his job to defend Israel. If he ignores it just to chase David some more, there could be other rebels all over Israel thinking,

Saul's not defending us, and they will rise up against him, and he'll have much more trouble. So, he has to break off the chase just when it looked like David was in his hand.

Now, the modern person would say, oh, David was lucky. No, it's all

God's providential hand. What caused the Philistines to attack at just that moment?

Oh, they probably had their reason. They probably had it planned months ahead of time, but it was determined by God's providence.

What caused Mary's friend in Houston to give $1 ,200 at the very same time we are being deprived of exactly that same amount?

Well, he probably had his reason, whatever it was. I've never asked him for choosing that amount, but God was in control of it.

David can see the hand of God in Saul being taken away by his duties, and so names the place the

Rock of Escape. And then he takes his men to the strongholds, that's the forts of En Gedi near the

Dead Sea. He got away because of God's hand.

But here's the catch. If Saul had caught him, a counterfactual, that would have been

God's hand too. We don't just see God's hand when the hero escapes.

When the son of David was betrayed, arrested, and didn't escape, he's beaten, put through show trials.

When Pontius Pilate and Herod, they looked like they were going to let him go, but finally they don't.

So that the son of David was crucified. Then the apostles prayed in Acts chapter 4 verse 28.

They prayed that all this that has happened, it happened to do what, speaking to God, praying to God, to do what your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

David here escapes, and the son of David does not escape the cross, but then escapes the tomb because of God's hand to save his people, chosen before the foundation of the world.

Your salvation was never left up to luck or to your own preparation or opportunities.

It's from the hand of God, and for that we should be grateful.