WWUTT 329 David Flees From Saul?

The Bible describes David as a man after God's own heart, but he was still a man, and a man who sinned.

The Bible shows this man was a sinner who was in need of God's grace, just as all of us are when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the

Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our

Q &A on Friday. Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our study of the

Old Testament, we are in 1 Samuel, chapters 21, 22, and 23 today, if you want to open up your

Bible and join with me there. We're also going to be in the book of Psalms. Some of these events that we're reading about inspired

David to write some of his Psalms, and so when we get to those events, we'll read the Psalm that corresponds with it.

To kind of recap what we looked at last week, we read about Jonathan and David's growing relationship with one another.

Jonathan, who is the son of King Saul, David told Jonathan that Saul was trying to kill him, but Jonathan was insistent that he wasn't.

So he told David, I'm going to go inquire of my father, find out if he's trying to kill you. If he is, well, here's my signal, and you need to run away, and if he's not, then you know that you can come out of hiding.

So Jonathan went to Saul, and Saul actually accused Jonathan of trying to hide

David and attempted to kill Jonathan, his own son. So Jonathan knew that David's life was in danger.

He warned David, and David has run away, and that's where we pick up the story with David on the run. So in 1

Samuel, chapter 21, then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest, and Ahimelech came to meet

David trembling and said to him, why are you alone and no one with you? If you'll remember,

Saul had put David in charge of a thousand men. Saul was actually hoping that David would die during his military campaigns, but the

Lord was with David, and David was very successful. So he had quite a reputation. Ahimelech knew who

David was, and here in this instance, David not even being able to trust his own men is running alone.

So he comes to Ahimelech, who sees that he is by himself, and David said to Ahimelech the priest, verse 2, the king has charged me with a matter and said to me, let no one know anything of the matter about which

I send you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place.

Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here.

So David's not actually going to meet with anybody. He has made up this story to Ahimelech because he's hungry and he wants some food.

So even though the Bible describes David as a man after God's own heart, he was still a man and the

Bible is not shy in revealing his faults. So here in this instance, David is told

Ahimelech a lie because he can't trust Ahimelech either. Perhaps Ahimelech would also turn

David over to Saul if he knew that David was trying to run away from Saul. So Ahimelech responds to David, verse 4,

I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, the bread of the presence, if the young men have kept themselves from women.

Now this goes back to a command in Leviticus 15, verses 16 and 17. If a man is to have sex with his wife and he has a discharge, he has a discharge of semen in other words, he's supposed to wash himself and is unclean until evening.

Now it's not because sex is a sin, even between a husband and a wife, but for ceremonial cleanliness, if a man is to discharge his seed, something that belongs to him, that is a part of him, then that makes him ceremonially unclean until evening.

And so he can't participate in any sacrifices or ceremonies at the tabernacle. So this was also the case with men on a military expedition and even more so with these men because they are unable to wash themselves and therefore would be unclean for a longer period of time.

This is why Uriah the Hittite, which we read about in 2 Samuel, would not lay with his wife as David instructed him to.

David had an affair with Bathsheba and so to hide this affair, he wanted

Uriah to sleep with his wife so that if she got pregnant, it would look like it was Uriah's baby. But Uriah wouldn't because he knew that it would make him unclean since the men were at war.

They were still fighting and it was also unfair to his men. He had a love for the men that he was fighting with.

They couldn't sleep with their wives because they were out on the battlefield and so Uriah didn't think that it was right that he should get to lay with his wife either.

So this all has to do with this command that's given in Leviticus 15 verses 16 through 17. A Himelech is telling

David, I can't give you the bread of the presence if your men have been with any women recently because they would be ceremonially unclean.

They cannot eat the holy bread. So David says to the priest, truly women have been kept from us as always when

I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey.

How much more today will their vessels be holy? So again, he's still making all this up. So the priest gave him the holy bread for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the

Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day that it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day detained before the

Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Then David said to a

Himelech, then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand?

For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste.

And the priest said, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you have struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.

If you will take that, take it for there is none but that here. And David said, there is none like that.

Give it to me. So let's go to Psalm 34. This Psalm has somewhat to do with this exchange that has happened here, but more especially with what is about to happen in Gath, which is the next portion of 1

Samuel 21 that we're going to read. So Psalm 34, David says, I will bless the

Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the

Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the

Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the

Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you, his saints, for those who fear him have no lack.

The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Come, oh, children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good?

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good.

Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones.

Not one of them is broken, which is a prophecy concerning Christ, by the way. Affliction will slay the wicked and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.

The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

So as David says things here like the young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the

Lord lack no good thing and taste and see that the Lord is good. David is rejoicing in the

Lord that though he had been hungry, the Lord provided for him. But this Psalm really has more to do with the event that we're going to read next in first Samuel chapter 21, starting in verse 10.

But Psalm 56 also goes with this event. So we'll read Psalm 56 once we get to the end of the chapter.

So first Samuel chapter 21 and again, starting in verse 10, then David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Akish, the king of Gath.

And the servants of Akish said to him, is not this David, the king of the land?

Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul is struck down as thousands and David is ten thousands.

You know, David was carrying the sword of Goliath that probably gave him away. They knew exactly who this was because, oh, this is the guy that we saw strike down our champion and look, he's still got the sword of Goliath with him.

And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Akish, the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard, look like a madman.

Then Akish said to his servants, behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?

Do I lack madmen that you have brought me this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?

Now, Akish was probably not his name. It was actually a title that would have been given to the ruler of a of a

Philistine city such as Gath, because we see his name referred to in other places as a different name other than Akish.

So anyway, having been delivered from the hands of the Philistines and not put to death because they had bested their champion,

Goliath, David writes Psalm 56. So let's go to Psalm 56 here.

This is the rejoicing that he gives to God, having been delivered from his enemies. Psalm 56.

Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me all day long.

An attacker oppresses me. My enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly.

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise. In God I trust.

I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? We've talked about that this past week, haven't we?

What can man do to me all day long? They injure my cause. All their thoughts are against me for evil.

They stir up strife. They lurk. They watch my steps as they have waited for my life for their crime.

Will they escape in wrath, cast down the people? So, God, you have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call this.

I know that God is for me in God, whose word I praise in the Lord, whose word

I praise in God. I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

I must perform my vows to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you for you have delivered my soul from death.

Yes, my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of life.

I love verse eight there, where it says, you have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book? In Psalm 139, David says that that all of his days were written in God's book before one of them came to be.

So one of the things that that David is praying about here in this Psalm is reminding himself that every one of the tears that he cries had already been written in God's book before one of these tears was shed.

And so David knows there is nothing that is happening in his life that God did not know about even before it happened.

So David is being reminded that he can entrust himself to the Lord for God is faithful to him and to his promises.

What a beautiful, beautiful way to consider that a beautiful Psalm. So first Samuel chapter 22.

Now, David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him and everyone who was in distress and everyone who is in debt and everyone who is bitter in soul gathered to him and he became commander over them.

And there were with him about 400 men. So here we see David generating an army for himself, the

Lord continuing to provide. And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and 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.

Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold, depart and go into the land of Judah.

So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth. So do you understand the significance of of the king of Moab that David left his family with them?

His great grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite. She was from Moab.

And so so anyway, that was why David would have left his family there with the king of Moab.

So now verse six. Now Saul heard that David was discovered and the men who were with him.

Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on on the height with his spear in his hand and all his servants were standing about him.

And Saul said to his servants who stood about him here now, people of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards?

Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that all of you have conspired against me?

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 and wait as at this day.

Then answered Doeg the Edomite who stood by the servants of Saul. I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub.

And he acquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath, the

Philistine. Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub and all of his father's house.

The priests who were at Nob and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, here now, son of Ahitub.

And he answered, here I am, my Lord. And Saul said to him, 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 so that he has risen against me to lie and wait as at this day?

Then Ahimelech answered the king. And who among all your servants is so faithful as David?

Who is the king's son -in -law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house?

Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No, let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.

And the king said, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house.

And the king said to the guard who stood about him, turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand is also with David.

And they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the

Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, you turn and strike the priests. And Doeg, the

Edomite, turned and struck down the priest. And he killed on that day, 85 persons who wore the linen 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.

But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after 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 of your father's house.

Stay with me. Do not be afraid for he who seeks my life seeks your life.

With me, you shall be in safekeeping. So David realizes that the lie that he told caused

Abiathar or Abiathar, however you, however you choose to pronounce that, costs

Abiathar's father's life. And so now what has happened here is

Abiathar has brought the ephod to David. The priesthood has actually changed hands.

It's gone from being with Saul to being with David. And Doeg totally bought

Saul's bargaining and realized, hey, I can make something of myself.

I can be put in charge of men of hundreds or of thousands if I do what Saul tells me.

And so it's by his sword that he ends up killing 85 priests. Even the men who were with Saul feared the

Lord and would not put to death these priests. But there also may have been because it mentions that this was the king's guard.

And it said earlier that David had been put in charge of the king's guard.

So these men still had sympathy with David. They still had loyalty to David as well. Another reason why they did not strike down these priests.

So we have this massacre that has occurred at Nob because of Saul's hand being against David and also because of this lie that he told to Ahimelech that resulted in Ahimelech helping

David and then Saul striking Ahimelech down, thinking that Ahimelech was conspiring against the king.

So these events led David to write Psalm 52 and it's a short

Psalm nine verses. Here is what he wrote. Why do you boast of evil? Oh, mighty man, the steadfast love of God endures all the day.

Your tongue plots destruction like a sharp razor. You worker of deceit.

You love evil more than good and lying more than speaking what is right.

Say law. You love all words that devour. Oh, deceitful tongue. But God will break you down forever.

He will snatch and tear you from your tent. He will uproot you from the land of the living. Say law.

The righteous shall see and fear and shall laugh at him saying, see the man who would not make

God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and sought refuge in his own destruction.

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

I will thank you forever because you have done it. I will wait for your name for it is good in the presence of the godly.

So now let's finish up our reading today with first Samuel chapter 23. 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 than if we go to Kaila against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the

Lord again and the Lord answered him, arise and go down to Kaila for I will give the Philistines to your hand.

It's likely that David was inquiring of the Lord through the prophet Gad. 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 son 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.

And David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar, the priest, bring the ephod here.

Then David said, oh, 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 is heard?

Oh, 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, you see that they are growing in number here, rose 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 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, 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. Then the

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

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 to 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 ahead of Saul. Now, David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon in the in in the

Ereba in the south of Jeshamon. And Saul and his men went to seek him and David was told.

So we 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.

This has been when we understand the text of pastor Gabriel Hughes for all of our podcasts episodes videos books and more visit our website at www .utt

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