“Disastrous Deception” – FBC Morning Light (5/10/2023)

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week, and today we're reading in 1 Samuel 21 and 2, Acts chapter 4, and the 93rd Psalm. I want to continue looking at some things in 1 Samuel.

David’s Weakness Toward Deception in 1 Samuel 21

You know, David is rightly elevated as a great king, a great man in so many respects, but there is a weakness in David that I think we need to acknowledge and be aware of, and that is a weakness related to deception.

You see that side of David come out in chapter 21 in two different incidents, and the first has to do with going to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. So David is on the run. It's become very clear by chapter 20, 1 Samuel, that Saul wants David dead, and he's going to stop at nothing until his enemy, Saul's enemy, David, is killed.

And Saul's on the run, and rightly so. I mean, he should be on the run, fearing for his life, but you know that fear can provoke within us an inordinate deception. I think in this chapter, chapter 21, there is an inordinate deception, and there is an understandable deception.

Let me explain. So David goes to Nob, and he goes to Ahimelech, and he's hungry. David and his men who are with him, they're hungry. They need something to eat. And Ahimelech is afraid. What's David doing here?

Why, you know, he's got these soldiers. Why has he come here? Ahimelech doesn't understand. And David said this. Now listen to what he said. He said, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you.

And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. All right, question, is that true? Answer, absolutely not. It's a total fabrication. And then David says to Ahimelech, give me what you have, so we have something to eat.

And the priest says, well, you know, I don't have anything other than the holy bread, the show bread that we replace periodically. And David said, well, you know, go ahead and give that to us. And so the priest gave him the bread.

And then David, not content with just having something to eat, he said to Ahimelech, he said, do you have, is there a sword around somewhere? Because, you know, I had to leave in such haste that I couldn't even get my weapons.

Really? Really? Well, Ahimelech says, well, I don't have anything other than the sword of Goliath, the Philistine that you killed. It's wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you'll take it, you can take it.

David said, there's none like that one, give it to me. All right, now all of this was deception. And I believe it's an inordinate deception. He did not need to make up this story. He didn't need to lie to Ahimelech like this to try to get something to eat.

But he did. But he did. And the results are going to be disastrous. Because, in verse 7, it says that a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name, notice, detained before the Lord.

And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. Now that's stuck right in the middle of this story. Why? Because Doeg sees what's happening here, and then later on, he's going to go and report this to Saul.

The Tragedy That Follows David’s Lie

In chapter 22, verses 6 and following, you know, David has gotten away, and Saul is whining because, you know, David's gotten away. And he says, is David going to help you guys? Come on, why isn't anybody helping me out?

And then Doeg said, well, I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob and to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab, and he acquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine.

All right? So the tactic and the place and all that David has done is now laid out flat before Saul. And Saul's response to all of that is to go and kill Ahimelech and all the priests at Nob. The results have been absolutely disastrous.

They've been disastrous. Now, would Ahimelech have given the bread to David if he knew that David was running from Saul because Saul wanted to kill him? Saul was perceiving David as a fugitive. Would Ahimelech look at David as a fugitive and then not give him something to eat?

Perhaps. It would have saved his life. But David wasn't willing to take that risk. He was willing instead to lie about it, his mission, lie about what he was doing, in order to get what he wanted. And the results were disastrous.

David’s Feigned Madness Before Achish

Now, the next set of deception at the end of chapter 21 is maybe a little more understandable. David flees to Gath, and he goes to Achish, the king of Gath. And the story is told, hey, this is David. He's the one that slew his tens of thousands.

This is the chant that is said for this guy. And so David hears that they're talking about this, and so he pretends to be a looney tune, right? He fakes being a madman, drooled down his beard and all this kind of stuff, and Achish responds, you know, I don't need a madman in my kingdom.

What's this guy doing here? Get him out of here. And, you know, David is spared. He was afraid that he might be taken captive and whatever. So he deceives with this madman act. Now, is that justifiable?

I think it's understandable. Should he have gone to Achish in the first place? Well, that was probably a safe place to go. Was it a lack of trust? Hmm. Hmm. Are we on to something there? Because verse 12 says David took these words to heart, and he was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.

Now, what's interesting is that David was not afraid of Goliath, the Philistine, the giant, who could have very easily squashed him, but he's very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath, and so afraid that he has to act in deception.

Well, the deception with Achish is not going to end here, and we're going to come upon that on Saturday's reading, and maybe Mike will talk about that. But what I want us to catch is this. David, overall, a good man, one that has many great qualities, and one whom the Lord chose to be the king in place of Saul.

One whom the Lord chose to have his line reign as king forever. But David was not Jesus. David was not Jesus. David was a man with a sinful heart, just like every other man. He was a fallen creature who needed redemption.

He was a man who could sin, and here, I think, in this chapter, we see examples of that very thing. Not only a lack of trust in the Lord, but flagrant deception that brought about great harm to others who didn't need to be harmed.

A Warning Against Elevating Fallen Men and Responding to Fear with Sin

Let this be a warning to us on a couple of fronts. Let's be careful not to elevate fallen men in the Scriptures to positions of perfection that isn't theirs. And then, given the fact of his deception here, let's be careful that we don't we don't respond to fear in the same way that David did.

Respond with lying and deceiving in order to supposedly protect ourselves. We ought to be careful that we don't succumb to sinful deception. So our Father and our God, thank you for helping us to see that David's feet were feet of clay, and that he could engage in sinful behavior, wrong behavior, and I pray that his failure would serve as a warning to us as well.

And we pray this in Jesus' name, and for his sake. Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday. I hope the Lord blesses you in it. Good day.