The Heart of God

Okay, we are going to get started. If you guys would like to prepare, I'm going to do a little one-day mini-study. I would like you to turn to 1 Samuel 24. 1 Samuel 24. We'll do a little bit of a deviation because there's a topic that I thought would be a good one for us to cover.

So if you would like to get ready, that's where we'll start. But of course, we always open it up for questions. But give me just a second here. There we go. Let's pray.

Okay.

Church Discipline and the Purpose of Restoration

We are going to do a little bit of a mini-study. I don't see any questions currently in the chat. And this is the time if you do have questions to bring them up. You'll note that we dealt today in our sermon with that famous Matthew 18 text that has to do with church discipline.

But you're going to note that we do not discuss church discipline apart from the fact that we are little children and that calling somebody to repentance is Jesus going after lost sheep. If you lose sight of that, then you're going to end up misusing the concept of church discipline.

The purpose of church discipline is to go after lost sheep, not to just put somebody out of the church. And by the way, if somebody wants to continue to remain lost, they're free to do that. I don't know why they would want to.

But ultimately, when you look at church discipline, it's giving somebody what they want. You either want to be forgiven or you want to not be forgiven. If that's the case, then there's nothing we can do to help you.

But I wanted to note that last week and this week, and you'll note next week kind of plays into it as well. Hold on a second here. I ended up opening up something quite by accident.

There we go.

Let me make that a little bit smaller.

There we go.

That last week we talked about the temptations to sin coming from the world, our sinful flesh, and the devil. Not particularly in that order. However, we oftentimes lovingly, as Lutherans refer to that, as the unholy trinity of temptation.

We noted that last week we were called by Christ to take up our cross and follow him. And we spent a little bit of time looking in our sermon last week at Luther's large catechism as it relates to the portion of the Lord's Prayer that says, lead us not into temptation and what that means.

Basically, as Christians, we are going to be harassed and harried all along the way. And if you're not being harassed and made to suffer by the devil, give it five minutes. That's pretty much all it's going to take.

And the next round will begin. That's how it goes. But the question then is that as Christians, when we are sinned against, you'll note that it is in love that we then go to our neighbor. But in our epistle text last week, and I would remind you of that portion of it.

Let me pull that back up. In Romans chapter 12, at the tail end of Romans chapter 12, we are told these words. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. As it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, you give him something to drink.

For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. And the reason why we do these things is because we are Christians. We are saved. And in the types and shadows, I think there is a couple of stories that exemplify this.

David Refuses to Strike Saul in the Cave

In the story and the life of David, King David. King David is a guy who got this right in one major way, and almost got it wrong. He actually came really close to getting it wrong. And so where we're going to spend our time today is in 1 Samuel 24.

I'll give you a little bit of the context. King David is the anointed, but not yet coronated, King of Israel. Which is an awkward thing to be. Usually when somebody has a competing claim upon the throne of a kingdom, usually that is the cause for conflict, the cause for civil war.

And what has happened is that Saul, God has rejected Saul from being king, but he hasn't removed him from being king. But having rejected Saul from being king, God sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David the King of Israel.

So he's anointed, but God hasn't installed him into the office of king. So what do you do in a situation like that? And what David does in this situation exemplifies this idea of God is the one who gives vengeance, God is the one who does these things, and that you overcome evil with good.

So what has happened in the previous chapters here is that David gets wind of the fact that Saul has devices, is basically turned against him and is plotting to murder, to actually kill David, under the pretense, the false narrative, that David was planning a coup d 'etat to overthrow Saul.

Which is not true, David had no point. Does he ever, ever lift a finger to become the reigning king of Israel? But Saul, because he has a wicked spirit, because this guy just exemplifies and typifies all of our sinfulness, he has it out for David, so he creates a false narrative.

David is plotting a coup d 'etat, he's included my son Jonathan in on the plot, and oh, what a devious, devious, terrible person this guy is. And so he has then begun to chase David all over the Judean countryside.

David has fled, David has fled from Jerusalem, and first stop was the tabernacle, and he was given provisions, he was given the bread of the presence, which he was not supposed to eat, but a human life is more important than a commandment in that sense.

So he was given the provisions of bread as well as the sword of Goliath. And what ended up happening is that when Saul found out about it, he questioned the high priest Ahimelech regarding this, and Ahimelech, because he had no idea that David was fleeing from Saul, that he was actually innocent of participating in any kind of plot or anything nefarious, but Saul wouldn't permit him, the narrative to be challenged, because none of the army of Israel would go after David if they thought that he was not a danger and a threat.

So he killed Ahimelech, the high priest, killed all the remaining priests who were serving in the tabernacle, and then put the entire town of, I think it was Naoth, to the sword as well. That's going to include men, women, children, animals, everything.

It all got killed. You'll note that Saul, he failed to put the Amalekites to complete destruction, but when his false narrative was being threatened, he had no problem devoting everything to destruction.

Kind of a fascinating story when you consider that. So what has happened at this point is that Saul is chasing David all over the Judean countryside and was super close to catching David, but just as he was about ready to pounce, about ready to finally catch up with David, he got word that the Philistines had attacked Israel, and so he and his army had to cut off their chasing of David and to go take care of the Philistine threat.

And then once that was over, this is kind of where we pick up. David is hiding in a place called En Gedi. If you don't know where En Gedi is, it's on the western, kind of midway down, western shore of the Dead Sea.

There's springs and waterfalls. It's kind of a nice zip code. There's some really beautiful pictures that you can take there. So if you've ever heard of En Gedi water, there's a company that bottles the water that comes up from the spring in En Gedi.

That's what that's all about. And here's what it says in 1 Samuel 24. This is where we pick up. When Saul returned from following the Philistines... By the way, I need to warn everybody, this story gets a little earthy.

You need to know that. When Saul had returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3 ,000 chosen men out of all of Israel, went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats' rocks.

That sounds like a cool place. I'd like to photograph that someday. Driving down the highway, turn here for scenic vista of the wild goats' rocks. I wonder if you can find it on Instagram.

Maybe.

So he came to the sheepfolds, by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. And yes, he probably took with him a copy of the Jerusalem Times. He was going to be there for a little bit, engaging in some bathroom reading.

In other words, you can kind of say it this way. David, who is the anointed but not yet reigning king of Israel, had an encounter with the currently reigning king of Israel, whom God has rejected, and literally caught him with his pants down.

That's quite the compromising position. But what David does here exemplifies this idea that we do not overcome evil with evil, but we overcome evil with good. So David and his men, they were sitting in the innermost part of the cave.

That's where they were hiding. They were hiding inside the innermost part of the cave. So the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which Yahweh said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.

So David arose stealthily and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He didn't put a sword in his back. He didn't cut off his head. He could have easily done that, and Saul wouldn't have known what hit him.

But instead, there's part of his cloak, so he cuts off the corner of the robe. But afterwards, David's heart struck him. He felt guilt because of this. Because he had cut off the corner of Saul's robe.

He said to his men, Yahweh forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, Yahweh's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing that he is Yahweh's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul.

And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. Saul had no idea he was in danger the entire time. He tended to his business, finished his business, went out and didn't even know that his life was in mortal danger.

Afterwards then, David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, My Lord the King. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and he paid homage. David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks your harm?

Now this is a fascinating question for David to ask. And the reason why it's fascinating is due to the fact that David is fully aware that the false narrative regarding him attempting to overthrow Saul, that false narrative, it had its origin in the mind of Saul.

That's where it came from. And so you're going to note here that David, in asking this question, is giving Saul a way of saving face. There's kind of a second level to the conversation, which makes it clear that David is communicating to Saul that he knows full well that Saul is the one responsible.

But to the people standing there listening on that day, the 3 ,000 men who were believing that David was a threat to the nation, David's words make it sound like Saul has been duped. He's a victim of false information.

He's acting on bad intel. So David said, I said I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for He is Yahweh's anointed. See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands.

I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May Yahweh judge between me and you. May Yahweh avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. And so here we see in the types and shadows, I mean this is an exemplification of kind of the virtues of Christ.

And let me explain it this way. So there's Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. The devil takes Him up to a high mountain and in an instant shows Him all of the kingdoms, all of the empires of the earth, which would include Egypt and Rome, the growing empire in India at the time.

Maybe even one of the ancient Chinese dynasties. They were around back then too. Shows Him all. Maybe the Incas, maybe the Aztecs, right? All of the different tribes of the earth. And says, I'll give you all of these if you'll just worship me.

Jesus could have seized control over everything, right? The devil just teed it up. In the same way though, David here is tempted. I mean the kingdom's sitting right there. All he's gotta do is kill Saul.

But he refuses to do that because of his fear of God. Consider also into this context then. Let me do this. I'm gonna duplicate this tab. All right. In duplicating this tab, we're going to take a look then at, hold on a second here, Matthew 28.

Christ, after His resurrection, the great commission passage, Jesus came and He said to them, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Did Jesus seize that authority?

No.

What does Scripture say? The one who humbles himself, God will exalt. Well that's what Christ did. He humbled himself by becoming obedient, even the point of death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him.

So you'll note that Jesus Christ doesn't lift a finger to get all authority. Instead, He humbles Himself and allows Himself to be hunted and killed. And because of His innocent suffering and death, God exalts Him.

So you can see how these themes are then working out. And this plays in how we love and we treat each other. So David then says, again, backing up into verse 12, after a dead dog, after a flea. So David is completely trusting himself into the hands of God and trusts that God Himself will plead His cause and God Himself will deliver him.

Now we all know this is not how we think. That's not how I think. That's not how you think. But again, this is what we are admonished to in Scripture. Let me again kind of read our text from last week.

We play by a different set of rules altogether as forgiven sinners. And you'll note, again, it's kind of a weird thing. We have enemies. But we should not have enemies because we've provoked them to be our enemies.

We have enemies for preaching and teaching the truth and calling people to repent. And, well, impenitent sinners always owe God a grudge. And since you are speaking on His behalf when you're speaking the Gospel or calling people to repent, well, then you get the joy of suffering for the sake of Christ when you do that.

But if you're suffering because you're a jerk, that's not how Christians suffer. So, coming back then to our text. So how is this going to end off? This is kind of like chapter one of our study in this.

So as soon as David had finished speaking these words... So you'll note, at this point, Saul's false narrative has been just demolished. It lies in tiny little microscopic pieces all over the Judean desert floor at this point.

And there's no way for Saul to continue with the pretense that David is plotting a coup d 'etat. By returning evil with good, David has destroyed the false narrative against him. And in destroying that false narrative, Saul has left only one recourse because none of the men, the 3 ,000 men that are with him, are going to kill David at this point.

You can all see them going, oh, this was just a big misunderstanding because David was a national hero. David has killed his thousands. Saul has killed his thousands. David, his tens of thousands. He's a national hero.

So they're all relieved. And at this point, here's where Saul goes. Is this your voice, my son, David? Is this your voice, my son?

Oh.

So Saul lifted up his voice and he wept.

Oh, this is all just a big misunderstanding.

So he goes along at this point. And he said to David, you are more righteous than I. You have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me in that you did not kill me when Yahweh put me into your hands.

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? That's not how the world operates. But you're going to note, David here exemplifies the heart and the mind of Christ. Exemplifies Christ in the types and shadows.

So may Yahweh reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Now this next part, my personal opinion, is that this was a pretty sick request on Saul's part.

Because again, when you have somebody who has a competing claim to the throne, that usually results in civil war and real conflict and people really die. So watch what Saul says. Swear to me therefore by Yahweh that you will not cut off my offspring after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.

And he's asking this because that's standard practice. David ascends the throne. What David should do is all of the sons of Saul, they should be put to the sword. And so you'll note, Saul is asking this probably not in good faith.

Well, if God's going to give the throne to David, well maybe one of my sons can rise up and avenge me and reclaim the throne. That's what's going on. But watch what David did. He swore. He said, okay, fine.

So David swore this to Saul and Saul went home. David and his men went up to the stronghold. Chapter 1. Now the next chapter, chapter 25, but chapter 2 in our lesson today. Now you're going to note in this next part of the story, David is going to be the one who's going to be acting sinfully.

And the person who's going to be exemplifying the humility of Christ and the one who is going to repay evil with good is a woman. And it's a beautiful story. It really is a fascinating story. But remember, David has just repaid evil with good.

But David, if you haven't figured this out, he's a sinner like me and like you in much need of the forgiveness of God. And he's able to be tempted into great sin just like the rest of us. If you're not sure about this, I would remind you of the Bathsheba affair and how her husband ended up dying, Uriah the Hittite, and all of that story.

So you can recognize that David has many sinful faults as you and I have and is prone to sinful passions like all of us. Yes, Bruce.

So, God is rejecting Saul for sin and rebellion. David, who is also sinful.

Yes.

Can you explain in David that murderous, adulterous David is, quote, a man after my own heart?

Right.

I always think that the real divide between Saul and David comes down to what comes out of them when confronted with their sin. When Saul is confronted with his sin, his refusal to obey the voice of the Lord and devote to destruction the entire Amalekites, including their king, Agag.

When confronted with his sin by the prophet Samuel, Saul deflects and he shifts blame. Kind of the same way.

That Adam did.

And he shifts blame. Remember Adam. The woman you gave me. She, she, she's the one. When confronted with his sin, Saul says, I was just obeying the voice of the people. I was just obeying them. Well, we saved the best because we wanted to offer them as sacrifices to God.

And so he shifted blame, covered it piously and all this kind of stuff. But when it comes to David, David was one who understood that he was a sinner. And when he was confronted with his sin in regards to his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the Hittite, the prophet Nathan confronts him and David, the only words out of his mouth is, I have sinned against Yahweh.

That's his only, I have sinned. And then when you read Psalm 51, you get these words in Psalm 51, against you and you only have I sinned. And so the difference between the two is the difference of one who recognizes his own sin and shortcoming and says the same thing about himself that is true that he's a sinner while the other refuses to say the same, say what Scripture says, say what God says about him that he's a sinner.

There would have been mercy and forgiveness and absolution for Saul as well. But rather than owning his sin and confessing it, he shifted. That's what he did. And that's the thing that's challenging for us.

And so David being a man after God's own heart, is a guy who understands the mercy of God. He understands that God is merciful, kind, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. And that with God there is forgiveness.

Not chintzy little bits of forgiveness, but true bonafide forgiveness. To understand the heart of God is to understand that God in his default nature, if you were to sit down with Jesus in your house over a cup of coffee, you would find that he is humble, he is kind, he is merciful.

This is what he's like. You want to know what God is like. You look at Jesus hanging on the cross. But so many times, we as Christians, it's easy to convince people of the wrath of God. It is difficult, and I mean downright impossible without the Holy Spirit, for somebody to believe that God is kind and that he is merciful.

In fact, there's a substitute in our days. People don't believe that God is merciful. They just believe that he doesn't condemn anybody. God is indifferent. He's like a senile old grandpa. Every time you go and visit his house, he's got a butterscotch to give you.

He's patting you on the head, even though you're just a little jerk.

That's right.

God is only wrathful to the person they don't like. That's not a bad point. So when we talk about being a man after God's own heart, David exemplifies that as the forgiven sinner. But you're going to note here, in what comes next, David is going to come dangerously close.

To murdering,.

Murdering a whole group of people who, by the world standard, no one would really care. Let's take a look at the story, what comes next. 1 Samuel 25, Samuel died. All Israel assembled and mourned for him.

They buried him in his house at Ramah. So he had pretty much a state funeral. All of Israel comes for the funeral of Samuel. So David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Ma 'on whose business was in Carmel.

The man was very rich. He had 3 ,000 sheep, 1 ,000 goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Naval. Hebrew, that pretty much translates as fool. And you've got to sit there and go, your parents, your mom and dad, did not name you that.

They did not name you fool. Which basically means, by the way, I don't know any parents who hate their children so much that they would name them fool. Hey Ashley, hey Becky, hey Duane, come on to the table.

And fool, come on, where are you fool? Nobody does that. So you just have to wonder what the back story is there if he behaved so badly and so foolishly that that became his nickname. I think I worked for this guy at one point to be honest with you.

Wow. Okay. Alright.

So the woman, okay so, his name was Naval, and the name of his wife was Abigail. Listen to this woman. The woman was discerning and beautiful. The man was harsh and badly behaved. Oddly enough, he's a Calebite, which means he comes from really good stock.

Caleb was one of the two men who was permitted to enter the Promised Land. He had faith. He was one of the 12 spies who spied out Canaan. It was Joshua and Caleb who gave the good report. The other 10 spies gave the bad report.

So this guy is harsh, badly behaved. How does a beautiful, discerning woman end up with a guy like this?

Alright.

Now David heard in the wilderness that Naval was shearing his sheep. Now a little bit of a note here. David, he still has an official capacity.

Within Israel.

Saul has called off his pursuit of David because his false narrative got blown to smithereens by David. God gave Saul into his hands. And so David still has an official capacity where his job in working for the king and also as the anointed king of Israel is to protect the citizens of Israel.

And by the way, when the military protects us, do they do it for free?

No.

Now we always pay for our military via taxes. But back in the day before there was income tax and things like this, the government had, officials of the government had a rightful claim for being compensated for their protective work.

This is not a mafia kind of situation. This is where some guy shows up,.

You know, I see that you got like a thousand sheep, man. It'd be terrible if like 500 of them were like missing or something.

Someday I will come and ask you for a favor.

Right, exactly. Now my mafia guy impersonation is really bad. It's not one of my better voices.

The day of my daughter's wedding.

See, Mikey, he does it with that good New Jersey thing going on here.

All right.

So understand that what's going to happen next is that David, we're going to hear, is going to protect Naval's livestock. Protect them during a time when Naval could have easily lost part of his wealth.

So David sent 10 young men. David said to the young men, you go up to Carmel, you go to Naval, greet him in my name, and thus you shall greet him. Peace be to you, peace be to your house, peace be to all that you have.

Shalom, shalom, shalom. This is a triple shalom here. This is a big deal, right? It's not, it's shalom cubed.

All right.

So, and then the men sat there to say, I hear that you have shearers, now your shepherds have been with us. We did them no harm. They missed nothing at all the time that they were in Carmel. So ask your young men and they will tell you, therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes for we come on a feast day.

Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David. Respectful. And he's only asking for one meal for a feast. And he's pointing out that we protected your, we're protecting your livestock.

Now when David's young men came, they said all this to Naval in the name of David, and then they waited. Naval answered David's servants,.

Who's David?

Who's the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. And this is, the implication here is that basically saying, yeah, David, he's guilty of breaking the fourth commandment.

He's some kind of renegade, some kind of rogue or whatever, right? So he insults him now on top of it. Yeah, this is not a good response. This is no bueno. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I don't know where?

So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all of this. And David goes volcanic.

Yeah.

Every man strap on his sword. So every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. About 400 men went up after David, while 200 remained with the baggage. By the way, this is not luggage.

This is not like, you know, it's not a turntable with all the baggage going around it. These are their provisions and their extra military weapons and things like this. You don't want those to fall into somebody else's hands.

I always enjoy putting historical and anachronistic things into a text.

All right.

So he's on his way. David's anger levels have gone off the charts. And in a rage, he's about to go murder everybody. He's going to devote pretty much everybody to destruction. Is he justified in that?

No.

This would be full-on murder.

All right.

David, you were doing so well with Saul. What happened here, man?

All right.

Now, let me, before we get to this next part, let me check questions real quick. Illyris says, Thank you so much for this teaching. The verse is on church discipline in a new light, and it fully makes sense.

I'm glad that it does. When you see church discipline as a way of calling errant sheep, as Christ seeking after his errant sheep, then you can do such a thing in love, not in vindictiveness.

Luis says,.

Pastor, can you explain the meaning of heaping burning coals on your enemy's head when you help them? That's quite an image. I don't know what the exact reference, if there's an ancient image along the lines of, but heaping burning coals on his head is pretty much, you know, basically, it caused their conscience to feel pain.

They're the ones feeling pain. You know, here I treated you terribly, and you're treating me good. And so now, all of a sudden, they have a guilty conscience as a result of it. I think that's really kind of the gist of the idiom.

So Elizabeth said, God sees the heart. Pastor Chris, is there any scripture that states that Saul repented before he died? No, there isn't a single text that says that. In fact, the real tragedy of Saul, when you consider it, is that as he gets ready to go into battle against the Philistines, he is seeking an answer from God, and God is refusing to answer Saul.

There was a means that was set up under the Mosaic Covenant as part of the high priest's garb. There were these two stones. They called them the Urim and the Thumim. And we're not exactly sure how they worked, but we pretty much understand that the way God set things up in the Mosaic Covenant, that when you went to the high priest, you could inquire of God, and God would give you an answer.

So you can ask God a direct question. And the Urim and Thumim pretty much had three answers. One answer was yes. The other answer was no. And the other answer, rather than being no, the answer is I'm not telling you.

And Saul, before the big battle where he loses his life, is inquiring of God what to do. Should he go up and attack? Should he do this and that? And the Urim and Thumim kept coming back, I'm not telling you.

I'm not saying. So God had cut off all communication with him. And so Saul, rather than going to the high priest and saying I have sinned greatly against God, have mercy on me, forgive me, and calling out to God in mercy and sacrifice, he goes to the witch of Endor, who engages in necromancy, and the woman ends up calling up Samuel from Sheol, and there's no sign that Saul repents at all prior to this.

In fact, the sad part is, is that an animal that could have and should have been used for a sin offering by Saul ends up becoming his last meal with the witch of Endor. That's kind of the gist of it. So, yeah, it's so sad.

It's a very tragic story.

All right. All right.

Pastor Chris, an impersonator of Joel Osteen is hilarious. Well, thank you. Thank you for coming to Kongsvenger. Today we're going to just talk about how you're the V's knees, and you're the head and not the tail.

Sorry.

Josh is going to end up cutting that out of the audio.

All right.

All right.

Let's come back.

All right.

All right.

So here we are then. David has said strap on. Strap on your swords. Everybody's off. 400 men armed with swords are about ready to go and put an end to Naval and everybody. So here's what happens. One of the young men told Abigail, Naval's wife, and you could tell this guy knows he's in trouble.

He's in deep kimchi. And so this guy goes, Abigail, you're not going to believe what Naval, oh, I can't believe what a stupid name that is, but he lives up to his name. You're not going to believe what he's done this time.

So this young man, he went to Abigail, Naval's wife. He says, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master. He railed at them, yet the men were very good to us. We suffered no harm.

We did not miss anything when we were in the fields as long as he went with them. They were a wall to us both by night and by day. All the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do for harm is determined against our master and against all his house.