Crimes and Mythdemeanors

Let's pray and get started. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit to open up our hearts and minds, and through the means of grace, through the word of truth, you would help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there, that we are to believe, teach, do, confess.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, by way of a little bit of summary, last time we were talking about David, we noted that David was engaged in quite an elaborate ruse. And in this particular case, we're not giving any credit to David as far as what he was doing as being right.

He had decided to go again, once again, on Israel's most wanted list. He heads to the land of the Philistines because he's convinced that Saul would continue to hunt him down if he stayed in Israel. He was speaking the truth.

He goes to the land of the Philistines, puts on the pretense that he's become a loyal Philistine citizen and an upstanding Philistine. He ended up getting this town of Ziklag. It was given to him by one of the lords of the Philistines.

And from Ziklag, that became his base of operations, and he was attacking all of the friends of the Philistines and then leaving nobody alive because, of course, everybody knows dead men tell no tales.

And then he would straight up lie to the face of the Philistine overkeeper. This guy just fell for it. Eventually, the Philistines gathered their forces together to actually go to war against Israel. And David, having to keep the pretense up, he and his men traveled with all of the Philistine army.

And when the lords of the Philistines saw that David was among them, they freaked out. And then we had this insanely bizarre story of how this lord of the Philistines just said, I really fought for you, David, but these other guys are not comfortable with you.

And David having to say, what do I need to do to show to you my loyalty? And he says, we must part the ways. And so they parted ways, and David has now split off from the Philistine army and is heading back to Ziklag.

And this is the point in which we're going to note that these lies that he's been telling, although they preserve his life, there's nothing really good that comes of it. And it literally almost cost David his own life because he wasn't where he should have been in this next part of the story.

So just to kind of reorient ourselves, the Philistine army is encamped. They're getting ready to go to war with Saul. And Saul has already consulted the witch of Endor, and she engaged in necromancy. And God actually permitted Samuel to come up from Sheol to let Saul know that he was going to die the next day.

And tragically, Saul, rather than repent, they kill the fatted calf and barbecue it and eat it, rather than him head to the tabernacle and offer up sacrifices for the forgiveness of his sins. So Saul is tragically going to die in his impenitence and rebellion.

It's just a terrible story, but that's still coming up. So you kind of get the idea where we're at in the story at the moment. Okay, so we read 29, how David parts the ways, good, achish, and all that kind of stuff.

So David, verse 11, so David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel. They're getting ready to go to war with Israel.

David Strengthens Himself in the Lord and Seeks Guidance by the Ephod

That's just where our context is. 1 Samuel chapter 30, then, now, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, pay attention to that third day stuff in Scripture. It's always kind of a telltale sign.

Something's going on here. The Amalekites made a raid against the Negev and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag, and they burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great.

They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, their wives and their sons and their daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

Then David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahanoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Naval of Carmel. David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters.

But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. So a little bit of a note here. David wasn't where he should have been under any circumstances. This pretense that he had put on nearly got him killed among the Philistine army.

He escapes with his life, and then when he gets back, Ziklag has been sacked. Everybody taken captive, all of their loved ones gone. They're talking about stoning him. And you can almost hear what their argument for stoning David was.

If it hadn't been for you putting on this big pretense, acting like you're all for the Philistines and lying to their face and us having to go out and march out with them, we would have been here to protect our family.

So this is all your fault. So they're bitter in soul. So David, his popularity numbers have plummeted greatly here at this point. Plummeted greatly. And so you'll note then that David, we get this wonderful phrase, David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God.

Which is actually what we're all kind of called to do in the midst of our troubles. Is David faultless about how this trouble had come upon? No, he practically bears all of the blame. And so he biffed it.

Now, that's like an 80s term, but showing my age. Renee can get it. Yeah, when I was in high school, yeah, yeah. We'd say no duh and biff and, you know, this weird 80s isms. But he totally biffed it. I mean, he fell on his face here.

He is totally responsible for this. And what does he do? He strengthens himself in the Lord. How is that possible? He's been a complete moron, a buffoon. He's morally culpable. He's to blame. Answer, how do you strengthen yourself in the Lord when you're the one who biffed it?

The prayers go something like this. Lord, I biffed it. And if it hadn't been for me, we would not be in this trouble. I totally screwed up. I sinned.

I've done wrong.

Have mercy on me. And guess what?

God does.

That's the amazing part. So I like to look at stories like this where we see somebody even as great in Scripture as King David and see that he is every bit as sinful by nature as I am, as you are. And I sit there and go, man, if God can forgive that guy, he can forgive me.

And so you'll notice the saints... Let's put it this way. David didn't walk on water. Far from it. He actually made some decisions that were utterly boneheaded, sinful, indefensible, and the like. So, now that David has strengthened himself on the Lord, David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech.

We all know how the song goes, Ahimelech, Ahimelech. He said, bring me the ephod. Now, what's the ephod? The ephod is the vestments of the Levitical priesthood. And on the ephod, you have the breastplate.

As part of the breastplate, they had the Urim and Thumim. These are ways by which you can literally talk to God that was set up for Israel at this time as part of the covenant. It's kind of like throwing dice, but not quite.

And you would get yes, no, or no answer at all. If they came up a particular way, there was no answer. And this is what was happening to Saul. Remember, he was consulting the Lord. Should I go up against the Philistines?

What do I do here, God? Throw the Urim and Thumim.

Nothing.

God, do it again.

Nothing.

Do it again.

Nothing.

God's not talking to you.

Yeah, right?

That works for Joseph Smith.

No.

No, actually, no. Okay, if you know Mormon mythology, and that's the best way to put it, Mormon mythology, there is an Urim and Thumim in Mormon mythology. I call it that for a reason. Because the claim is that after the angel Moroni revealed to Joseph Smith where the golden tablets were, that the golden tablets when translated become the Book of Mormon, nobody's seen them, by the way.

Nobody's ever seen these golden tablets.

Yeah, it's because they didn't exist.

Anyway, so no one was ever permitted to see them. But what Joseph Smith claimed is that the angel had also given him the Urim and Thumim from the Old Testament. And the way it worked was he was behind a curtain.

So he was behind a curtain saying that he was looking at the golden tablets, and there was a guy on the other side of the curtain who was not permitted to see the golden tablets who was like transcribing, right?

And so the way he tells the story is he put the Urim and Thumim into a hat and then put his face into the hat, and they gave the magical ability to see through the hat and then read the characters on the golden tablets, which were supposedly Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics.

There's no such thing as... Totally plausible, right? Yeah. Yeah, there are some claims that there may have been. But I mean, that's... Okay, so the Mormon claim regarding the Urim and Thumim doesn't even remotely match the Old Testament.

It was a Mosaic covenant thing specifically to ask God direct questions.

Okay.

We went down a bunny trail, but that's okay.

We got it out of the hat.

So I'll be here all week.

Anyway, David inquired of the Lord, Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them? God answered, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and you shall surely rescue. So David set out and the 600 men who were with him, and they came to the brook of Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

Now, a little bit of a note here, two things. Typologically, when you read the church fathers in their sermons or commentaries on this text, they see this as a little bit of a mini-typological picture of Christ going to rescue his church, the Bride of Christ.

That's kind of the picture that they... And I think that's kind of a good devotional way of reading it. But typologically, it's just a little bit thin. Now, this is another piece of this that is really important.

And that is, let me ask you this question. In the kingdom of God, is anybody, in the truest sense, greater than anybody else?

No, not at all.

You remember last Sunday's, I think it was last Sunday's gospel text, about the workers in the vineyard. The workers in the vineyard. The guys who started at six in the morning. How much did they get paid?

Dinero. Dineros.

They got paid 30 pesos.

Anyway.

Dinero. They got paid one dineros.

Oh, that's funny.

I'm going to have to remember that one.

No dinero. No dinero.

Anyway.

So they got paid a dineros. How much did the guys who got hired like one hour before sunset, how much did they get paid? Same. And what was the big thing? You're treating them and making them equal to us who've borne the heat of the day.

That was the claim, right? This is another story that is a lot like that. And if you remember last week's gospel text, the kingdom of God may be compared to. This is how it started off. Jesus started off the parable with those words.

This is a kingdom section of scripture. This is teaching us about the kingdom itself. And so you're going to see in what comes next, this difference between the guys who stayed to guard the baggage and the guys who went to fight the battle.

Based upon, this is a kingdom thing, were they treated differently or treated the same based upon what you know of how things work in the kingdom. The same. And you're going to see it's almost the same exact theme and motif, but we see it in the Old Testament.

So we'll see that as we read this out. It looks like it's raining rats and sheep out there. Is there lightning? Right there? Lightning.

Okay. All right.

So David pursued. He and 400 men, 200 stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor. And you're going to learn that these fellows, they guarded the baggage, which is actually kind of an important thing if you think about it.

Okay?

When armies travel, especially in the ancient world, and really even up to this day, supply lines are a big deal. Is an armed force able to move quickly if they are really bogged down with supplies?

No.

In order for an army to be really effective, they need aggression and speed. Those are two key components to winning a battle. And so the fact that some guys were willing to stay back, and they were too exhausted anyways, to basically guard all the food and supplies and all that kind of stuff, made it so that David's army was able to just totally lighten up and only take what was necessary, armor and swords for the engagement, which makes them a very, very deadly force.

So they found an Egyptian. So they're on their way, and they found an Egyptian in the open country. They brought him to David, and they gave him bread, and he ate. They gave him water to drink, and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins.

Isn't it fascinating?

We're getting the menu that this fellow engaged in.

Isn't that fascinating?

It's little details like this that tell us this isn't mythology. This is history, and whoever was recording this history had an intimate knowledge of even some of the minutia, and that minutia actually helps demonstrate this ain't some long time ago in a galaxy far, far away kind of stuff.

So when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. He was near death. David said to him,.

To whom do you belong?

Where are you from? He said, Well, I'm a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago.

Isn't that just great?

Here goes this third day stuff. So you've got a slave who falls sick. I've got the solution. We're just going to leave you to die. Human life was worth like nothing.

Nothing.

All right, so I fell sick. When we had made a raid against the Negev of the Carithites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Negev of Caleb, we burned Ziklag with fire. David said to him, Will you take me down to this band?

He said to me, Swear to me by God that you will not kill me, or, even worse, deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band. Can you imagine what would have happened to that fellow if he had been returned to his master?

Yeah, he's the guy that led us to you.

You can have him back.

Yeah, that wouldn't be good.

So good deal on his part. So when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

This is just foolishness. Have you ever seen game video footage of college football games where some guy, literally, they're on the 20-yard line back on their side of the field, and the running back gets the ball, and he runs that ball, and nobody's catching up to him, and he gets 10 yards from the end zone, and he starts doing, like this, and then, boom!

You ever seen that? That's kind of like what this is happening here. You don't party and dance just a few kilometers away from the town you sacked. This is just dumb on so many occasions. So I'm just saying, if you're going to do an end zone dance, wait till you get across the end zone.

Just kind of.

All right.

So they were dancing because of all the great spoil, and David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled.

Apparently camels are fast enough that you can get on one and get out of town. So David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken. David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken.

David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and the herds. The people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil. All right, a little bit of a note here. This is how this works.

The guy who led the raid, he's the one who decides what happens with the spoil. Remember when Abram conquered the ten kings?

All right.

Who did the spoil belong to? Himself. He tied the part of it and gave the rest back to everybody. Didn't keep a penny for himself. Who does the spoil belong to?

David.

The text says so. This is David's spoil. So then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow David and who had been left at the Brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him.

And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and his children and depart.

But David said, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what Yahweh has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us who would listen to you in this matter. As for his share, for as his share is who goes down into battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage.

They shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. Does this not sound exactly like the same concept taught in last week's Gospel text? It's the same thing.

So, small or great? Apostle or young child? All are seen, treated, and rewarded equally in the kingdom of God. That's interesting. So you notice this kingdom theology is present and in play all the way back in the Old Testament.

By the way, this is something that's actually stated quite explicitly in Scripture. The opening chapter of 2 Peter. Listen to this. 2 Peter 1, verse 1. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Those are some pretty big, ginormous credentials within the church. He is a true apostle of Jesus Christ. We know about his discipleship. We know his great successes, terrible failures. We know about his great fall and his restoration into the apostolic ministry.

This is a man who gave his life, laid down his life to preach the Gospel. So he's Saint Peter. And here's what he writes about you. To those who obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Equal standing.

Equal.

Now, it's been a tradition among Lutheran churches for a long time. Time immemorial, if you would. Lutheran churches are oftentimes named after saints. Saint Matthews. Saint Peters. Saint Pauls. Common names for Lutheran churches.

What about Saint Robin?

Saint Janet? Because of that, there shouldn't. But you see the point I'm making. Saint Scots. Are you not saints? Is your faith not on an equal standing with Peter's?

Uh huh.

And so you kind of get the point that I'm making. We don't oftentimes think of it in these terms. We always and again have this hierarchical view of Christianity. And we inherit it from the world's understanding of how power works.

Right?

The power is always this hierarchy. Look at an organizational chart for a Fortune 500 corporation. CEO at top. And then below him the VPs and then their different departments. And then the guy who just hired on in the mail department.

He's down at the bottom here somewhere. And this is how we think. Top. Down. But in the kingdom of God, the last will be first. The first will be last. Everything's flipped. You have a faith of equal standing.

You have a citizenship of equal standing as Peter's, as Paul's, as David, as Jonathan, of Abraham. In fact, have you considered this? You will be resurrected on the exact same day they are resurrected.

They will not precede you. You will not be behind them. We will all have the same rebirth day together. Yeah, that's right. We get grandstand seating for the destruction of the heavens and the earth and the creation of the new heavens and new earth.

Grandstand seating. And we'll all be in the nosebleed section,.

By the way, for that.

This is true. But there will be no nosebleed, so we'll have to call it something else.

Right?

This is just critical stuff. And so I love how this text in 1 Samuel talks about those who said, Nuh-uh, you get nothing. We get more than you. David, the Scripture calls them what? Worthless fellows.

Remember when Jesus responded to the guys who were grumbling? We worked the whole day long, bared the heat of the day, and you've made them equal to us? What does Jesus say to them?

Buddy. Hey, buddy.

I'm doing you no wrong. This is my stuff. Can I not do with my stuff what I want to do with my stuff? Or do you begrudge me because I am generous? I find it always fascinating when you look for the connections between Jesus and David.

The connections are clear, and what's fascinating is that David is exemplifying something that's taught by Jesus explicitly in one of his parables. I mean, there it is.

Just does it.

Fascinating.

So we continue. Let me get back. So he made it a statute and rule for Israel from that day forward to this day. All share alike. When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of Yahweh.

It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth, of the Negev, at Yathir, in Ereor, of Shipmoth, Esh Tamoah, in Rachal, in the cities of the Jeheramilites, in the cities of the Kenites, Hormah, Bor, Ashan, Atach, in Hebron, and for all the places where David and his men had roamed.

Let's see what comes next.

So you notice we're going to jump back now. Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. So while all of this was going on, the Philistines launched their attack against Israel. The men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchushua, the sons of Saul. So three of his sons died in the battle. The battle pressed hard against Saul.

The archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.

But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Now this is important data. Keep this in mind. So you know how this actually went down. So the battle just couldn't go worse. Israel's fleeing before the Philistines.

The archers of the Philistines are able to figure out, Hey, Saul's over there, and they launch barrage after barrage. He gets hit, wounded. He's probably mortally wounded, but we don't know for sure. And so he says to his armor-bearer, We're about to be taken prisoner.

They're about to take us. And you can only imagine what would happen to Saul had they taken him alive. And so he literally says to his armor-bearer, Kill me. Have mercy on me. Kill me. And the armor-bearer's like, No way.

Killing a king is a big deal. It's a big deal. I oftentimes, not in our lifetime, but in recent history, a person who kind of stands out as one who you have to really wrestle with as far as his morals is Bonhoeffer.

Does anyone know the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? He actually played a part in the plot known as Operation Valkyrie. So he's a clergyman plotting to kill Hitler. And when you kind of sort this out, there's no way that what he was doing was not a sin.

In fact, he himself acknowledged it as a sin. And he said that it would have been the greater sin for me to not try to take his life, because by his life being ended, other people's lives would be saved.

This is how he justifies it. But nonetheless, it's a sin. And when Operation Valkyrie totally blows it, pun intended, if you know the story, Hitler tried to assassinate this guy so many times, and nothing ever seemed to work.

This was a bomb in the same room as him, feet away from him, and just the way the table in the conference room was, and where the bomb was, deflected the blast enough that, I mean, he got out of it with just his ears ringing.

And you sit there and that's just crazy. But Bonhoeffer, they find the plot, he finds part of it, he ends up in prison, and as the Allied forces are about to liberate the prison where he's at, the Nazis execute him.

And you sit there and go, yeah, it's a sin to actually kill a head of state. And so he's one of these guys that you just, he creates some real thorny issues for us. And in this text, here we have this fellow, the king begging him,.

Kill me,.

And he's, no way. No way.

And you know how the real story is, because what's going to happen is that somebody else is going to take credit, but you now know how this happened.

So,.

His armor bearer would not, he feared greatly, therefore Saul took his own sword and he fell on it. Saul dies by suicide. And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and he died with him.

Thus Saul died and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men on the same day together. And when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled and the Philistines came.

And lived in them.

This is just devastating. This is like the Dodgers playing the San Diego Padres.

It's just like that bad.

None of you seem amused by that.

Okay, little inside baseball joke.

Yeah, pun intended again. Tough crowd today, tough crowd.

Okay.

It's like the Yankees and the Twins, right?

Yeah, okay. All right.

The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. So they cut off his head, stripped off his armor, sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.

They put his armor in the temple of Ashteroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan. And when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, went all night, took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh and then they fasted for seven days. This is an Israeli special ops operation at this point.

Um...

Well, yeah, that was separate. Yeah, they had the bodies.

But they didn't get the head.

So, and what these fellows did, I mean, and this is going to come up. It's going to be mentioned again very shortly, but what these fellows did is they basically sacrificed their ceremonial cleanness in order to take away the dishonor that was being shown to Saul and his sons and their carcasses and to take that away from them.

In the ancient world, when one army would lose to another army, it was always seen as a victory of one god over another god. And so, you know, they risked their lives. They became ceremonially unclean for seven days as a result of this.

They ended up fasting after it in order to remove that dishonor that was being shown to Jonathan and Saul and his other two sons. And, you know, it's a real testimony to, you know, kind of the right thing to do, even showing respect.

For those who have departed,.

You know,.

Not dishonoring them in death.

All right, let's see here.

I think, yep,.

David Honors the Men of Jabesh-Gilead

2 Samuel 1. Now, in order to get this next part, let's review some of the kingdom theology here. David has been up to this point. The anointed but not yet coronated king of Israel. Who was keeping him from being the king?

Well, the other king that God had anointed and that was Saul. And we see two completely different fellows. One is a man of faith. One is a man of no faith. One bears fruit in keeping with repentance and obedience to God.

The other one despises the word of the Lord and is constantly disobeying Him. It just plays out. One is like the old Adam. The other is like the new Adam, Christ. And you see how this is all playing out.

And now things are different. Saul is dead. And you're going to note that David does not immediately become the king of Israel. It's going to take some time. He becomes the king of the Jews and then later becomes the king of all of Israel.

There's growth in his kingdom. And this kind of has eschatological significance for where we are right now. But things are going to change. Things are going to change for him but they're going to change slowly.