1 Samuel 23-27 (Seeking God's Will / Samuel Dies / David Spares Saul & Allies w/ the Philistines?)

Seeking the Lord’s Will Through the Priesthood and Scripture

Let's turn to 1 Samuel chapter 23. 1 Samuel 23. So over the next two weeks, we're going to try to finish up the book. So tonight, we're going to cover chapters 23 through 27. And then next week, the plan will be to cover the final three chapters, 20, well I guess 4, 28 through 31.

So we're going to be doing more of an overview since we're covering more ground. So here in chapter 23, this is titled David Saves the City of Kiala, this really isn't a well-known story. It's something that doesn't get covered in Sunday school.

You know, there's a lot of Old Testament passages that everyone knows like David and Goliath, but a chapter like this rarely gets brought up. But, you know, this is one of the benefits of going chapter by chapters that we're just covering everything.

So the thing that stands out to me about this chapter is David is constantly seeking God's will. He's just consistently inquiring of the Lord. Now, how did men back in Bible times, in the Old Testament, how did they, someone like David, inquire of the Lord?

How did they do that? Any ideas? Well, they would do it through the priesthood or through the high priest. Well, what's the problem? The high priest is now, what, dead, right? Saul killed the high priest Ahimelech, but there was one man who escaped, and that was Abiathar.

So David now has Abiathar as his priest. Abiathar comes to David. He has the ephod. He has those holy objects that we talked about while studying, I think, the book of Exodus and Numbers. The Urim and the Thummen, who remembers talking about that?

And if you wonder, well, what are they? What is that? Well, we don't know. We don't know how it works. Some people think it was something like rolling dice or casting lots, but we really don't know anything about these objects or how they were used.

But yeah, in the last chapter, Saul killed the priest, but now Abiathar is with David, and David is constantly seeking God through the priest. And, of course, today, under the new covenant, how do we seek God?

Through the priest. Through the priest, through the high priest, our great high priest, Jesus Christ. And we have the ability not to use the Urim and Thummen, whatever that is. We can go directly to God through Christ Jesus.

So that's something that they didn't have that same direct access that we have today. But let's look at 1 Samuel 23, 1 through 13. It says, Then they told David, saying, Look, the Philistines are fighting against Kielah, and they are robbing the threshing floors.

Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and attack the Philistines? So who is David asking? He's asking God. Okay. And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Kielah.

But David's men said to him, Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more than if we go to Kielah against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the Lord once again, and the Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down to Kielah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.

And David and his men went to Kielah and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a mighty blow and took away their livestock. So David saved the inhabitants of Kielah. Now, you would think they would be very grateful.

And I'm sure they were at first. But you would assume they would be loyal to David after this. Of course, that's not the case, says in verse six. Now happened when Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, fled to David at Kielah, that he went down with an ephod in his hand and Saul was told that David had gone to Kielah.

So Saul said, God has delivered him into my hand for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars. So it looks like there was only one way in. David's in there. Saul figures he has them trapped.

Verse eight. Then Saul called all the people together for war to go down to Kielah to besiege David and his men. When David knew that Saul plotted evil against him, he said to Abiathar, the priest, bring the ephod here.

Then David said, Oh Lord, God of Israel, your servant has certainly heard that Saul seeks to come to Kielah to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Kielah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard?

Oh Lord, God of Israel, I pray tell your servant. And the Lord said, he will come down. So Saul is coming. And David said in verse 12, will the men of Kielah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?

And the Lord said, yes, they will deliver you. So there's no loyalty there. Verse 13. So David and his men, about 600 arose and departed from Kielah. And with wherever they could go, then it was told Saul that David had escaped from Kielah.

So he halted the expedition. So why is David alive? It's because he was seeking God's will. If he hadn't sought the Lord, what would have happened? Well, yeah, he would have been trapped in the city and they would hand him over to Saul and I guess God would have to deliver him some other way, but still, uh, David, that's the point.

He's constantly seeking God. So David delivers the city. He finds out no loyalty. He is constantly seeking God's will because of that he is spared. So the important thing to highlight in this chapter is David's close walk with God, as opposed to Saul, who really had no walk with the Lord at this point.

Uh, Saul really didn't seek God's will. A matter of fact, he's, he's going to, uh, again, and is God going to answer him? No, at first Saul could seek God's will and God would speak to him. But after, you know, Saul rebelled enough times after, you know, again and again, after again, then God just said, I'm not, I'm not speaking to Saul.

So David has this close fellowship with God. And because of that, uh, David ends up thriving while Saul ends up dying. So how do we apply this? Trying to make application as we go through these chapters.

Uh, David had the priest and the ephod to discern God's will. So how for us today, how do we discern the will of God? What do we have? We don't have a priest. We don't have an ephod we have. Okay. The Bible.

That's, that's the first thing you think of. We have scripture to go to, to, to discern the will of God. Uh, do we have anything else? Okay. We have the Holy spirit. So while the details are different, we are also able to seek the Lord's will.

Uh, we can make decisions based on what we see in scripture. Sometimes the Bible is clear. Oftentimes the Bible is so clear. There are some matters quite frankly, that we don't have to pray about. Obviously we should pray and we should consistently be praying, but you know, some things you don't have to pray about because God, his word just tells us, but what about those issues where God's word doesn't directly speak to our situation?

Then what do we do? Okay. We pray. I would say you try to look for, uh, some principles in God's word, but if you're still not sure, uh, we can pray. Okay. But God doesn't answer us audibly like he, and I don't know that God was audibly responding to a biothar, probably not, but however it worked, God doesn't do that for us.

So what ends up happening is God will lay a burden on our heart. Uh, God will give us conviction. God will make his will known either through people he brings in our life circumstances, uh, something, something along those lines.

So there might have to be a time where we print, we read the Bible. We, we don't know we have to pray. We're waiting for peace. We're waiting for some sort of conviction and God might give that to us.

So we move forward. But what we feel God would have us to do, or sometimes we just have to stay put and wait and see what God does next. So God speaks through scripture and he leads through conviction, through circumstances, uh, who has ever felt, uh, that God has really led you in a, a very specific way by placing a burden on your heart or, um, you felt conviction about some of that, I need to do this.

I need to do that. Who's felt that. Okay. Yeah. I mean, really every Christian should feel that, um, often perhaps. Uh, so that's how we seek the Lord and David was doing it consistently. We should do it consistently.

Might I say you should do it daily all the time. So God still leads us today. Does anyone have a story that you'd like to share about some, you know, 30 seconds or a minute or less of how God's done that?

You don't have to, if there's nothing you want to share, but anyone go ahead.

Well, I think the first time I felt because I was always raising my hand when a missionary would say, were you willing to go ever since I was a little boy and a missionary saw her did, and, uh, I always said yes.

And I was at a men's retreat and the man walked in and says, we're some of the team to go to Haiti. And I wonder if you'd be willing to pray and the Lord would have you to go. And so once again, I did it.

And when I walked out, when I walked out of the building, it was as if he said, this is it. This is it. Finally, after all these years, and then of course he keeps doing Israel, Providence Christian Academy, FM Cosmesicus, and you just can't, you can't tell where, um, some might say I'm impulsive.

Well, the scripture says, what is it? Psalm 37, delight yourself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. How do you know if God really wants you to do something? You'll want to do it.

You'll want to do it for him, for his glory. And it'll, long as it's not something that's directly opposed to some command of scripture. Obviously there's some things that we can't say, God led me to do this.

And it's like a violation of this commandment. So that's clear. But yeah, oftentimes we know because of a strong, a strong feeling, typically we don't want to go by our feelings. So that's what you'll hear often.

I probably say that and that's true. It feelings can be misleading, but if they're in line with God's, God's word and you feel that conviction, I, that is one way that the Lord leads us. Okay. So David receives a word from God.

He departs from the city and he goes into the wilderness and verse 16 it says, uh, then Jonathan, Saul's son arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. So here is another way that the Lord works.

He works through other people, uh, bringing people into our lives to strengthen us. So David and Jonathan, you remember they had that, you know, tearful, uh, goodbye, a few chapters earlier. Well, they meet up again and Jonathan doesn't tell us what he's doing.

He's probably reminding David of all the times that God delivered him. He's probably reminding David of the promise that you will be king. So whatever is happening, Jonathan is strengthening David. So David may have been having doubts, who knows, but he walks away from this time with Jonathan.

I think he's regained his confidence, uh, not just in himself, but trusting in, in God's plan. So Jonathan's reminding David of all the things that have gone on up until this point. And it just reminds us of how important it is for us to come alongside other people.

There's somebody hurting right now. Somebody who needs a friend right now that, you know, tomorrow or this week, God can open a door and you can go and strengthen them. And we need people to come into our lives and strengthen us.

This is all different ways that God works. Um, you know, it's just a reminder. Sometimes, you know, David probably knew all the stuff Jonathan had to say, but sometimes you need to hear it again. It's like with a sermon, you know, I've heard many sermons, like I've heard this message before, like it's nothing brand new, but I needed to hear it right then and there.

It happened to me just a few months ago, there was another local pastor in the area, preached a sermon on Sunday night. I can't say that any of it was brand new to me, but I really needed to hear that that night.

And it really, uh, really did strengthen and encourage me. So this is why the church and having a Christian friends is so vital. We can just help motivate and strengthen one another. Okay. Verse 18 says that David and Jonathan made a covenant before the Lord.

What is a covenant? It's the promise, an agreement, a binding agreement. Just a reminder. We have a church covenant. So this isn't something people only did back in Bible times. When someone becomes a member of Morris Corner Church, you enter into a covenant agreement.

You agree not only to do like the basic things of, you know, attend and give and serve, but also we agree to look out for one another. We agree to be kind to one another. We agree to help each other if we're in need.

So all of this is necessary to successfully live out the Christian life. So just as David and Jonathan needed each other, so do we. So David is ultimately successful in the end because of what? What's the one thing that guarantees David will rise to the throne?

Yeah. Well, he's believing in the Lord, but it's the Lord himself. It's God's promise. So David will succeed because God is with him. That's true. But God is using other people to bring about his will.

Rarely does God use a miracle in nature to deliver his people. He does that in the Bible sometimes, but other times it's just circumstances. So David is in the wilderness. Chapter 23 ends with Saul's troops.

Basically we don't have time to read through everything, but his troops circled David. David is trapped. Like David is finally caught, but you know what happens? Saul then gets word that the Philistines have invaded elsewhere.

So now all of a sudden Saul has to withdraw. He has David right where he wants him finally, but then, hey, the Philistines invade. So Saul has no choice. Now he has to pull his troops and go fight the real enemy.

How did that happen? Somebody in Israel did something, said something, provoked the Philistines. They invade and David is delivered through the providence of God. So that's how God works through circumstances.

David Sparing Saul and the Call to Leave Vengeance to the Lord

Okay. Chapter 24, moving on. Chapter 24 is titled David Spares Saul. This is a well-known story. This probably does get covered in Sunday school. Is that true, Sue? Okay. Sue says yes. This is part of the Sunday school curriculum.

David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. He's hiding out with his men in the caves. So it's a perfect place for them to hide. Saul once again, you know, this thing with the skirmish with the Philistines must have come to an end.

So Saul now can waste his time and go back persecuting David. Seems to be his favorite hobby. So Saul, Saul goes into this cave and wouldn't you know, this is the exact cave David is hiding in. You think of all the caves in Israel, what are the odds that it's like a hundred percent?

Cause this is a divine appointment here. Yeah.

Can I tell you though, that I did hike that. This wasn't the last time I went to Israel, but we, I did hike that with a young woman from Switzerland. And there's not that many caves and there is sort of a trail that goes up and I bet you it was one of two because there was a spring of water that came out there too.

But anyways, it really made these, these stories really come to life. I might well have been in the very cave. Yeah.

I have pictures. Okay. So David and his men are hiding out in this cave and all of a sudden Saul comes in and the scripture says that Saul went into the cave to attend to his needs. Well, the King James version says that Saul went in and he covered his feet and there's been much discussion about what exactly that means.

Most translations say that Saul went in and was relieving himself. Okay. That's, that's one idea. Some scholars, however, believe that Saul went in to take a nap. We don't know. It doesn't really matter.

Either way, David and his men, they see this, they see, I mean, can you believe it? Here comes the King right into the very cave that we're, Saul's vulnerable, whatever, whatever he's doing, Saul is a sitting duck.

So they say to David in verse four, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand. Now, would it look like that? Oh, absolutely. This is like the perfect opportunity that you may do to him as it seems good to you.

And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul's robe. This would lead me to believe that Saul was sleeping. But again, who knows either way. And now it happened. Verse five afterward that David's heart troubled him because he had cut Saul's robe.

I don't think I would have been as bothered by that, but David was verse six. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord's anointed to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.

So David restrained his servants with these words and did not allow them to rise against Saul and Saul got up from the cave and went on his way. So it's, it's understandable that David's men, when they see this, they figure this is a sign from God, David, God wants you, or he wants us to kill Saul.

Now, if you were there, I mean, I might've thought that, I mean, it seems pretty reasonable. I mean, if we're saying that God is working through circumstances, I mean, this is, if, if, if there's ever a sign, this would be it, but David feels this is not the right thing to do.

Why? Well, I think David knows the scriptures and he knows what the scripture says, you know, about the thing called the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill. This would not have been self-defense.

If Saul, whatever Saul's doing, either way, this, this couldn't be self-defense. So David figures, if I, if I kill Saul, or if I allow you guys to do it, uh, I'm going to be the guilty one. So in these chapters, we basically learned David's position is that Saul, because he is God's anointed, unless Saul is struck by God himself, or unless somebody else kills, something else happens, we are not touching Saul.

We will not take matters into our own hands. So Saul leaves the cave. He goes along his way. David follows after him, uh, from a distance and he starts to yell out to Saul, look at verse nine. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say indeed David seeks you harm?

Look this day, your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you today into my hand in the cave and someone urged me to kill you, but my, I spared you. And I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my Lord for he is the Lord's anointed.

Moreover, my father, and you notice that, that David calls Saul, his father. What is Saul called David, David, my David, my son. So verse 11, moreover, my father, see, yes. See the corner of your robe in my hand for in that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill, you know, and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand.

And I have not sinned against you yet. You hunt my life to take it. Let the Lord judge between you and me and let the Lord avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancient say, wickedness proceeds from the wicked, but my hand shall not be against you.

After whom has the King of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog, a flea. Therefore let the Lord be judge and judge between you and me and see and plead my case and deliver me out of your hands.

So David is very content to leave things in whose hands, the Lord's. That's always a safe, safe thing to do. So it was when David had finished speaking these words to Saul that Saul said, is this your voice?

My son, David, and Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Then he said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have rewarded me with good. Whereas I have rewarded you with evil and you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me for when the Lord delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore, may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

Now for Saul to come out and say that and admit that presumably in front of his soldiers. I mean, this is quite a thing, but you know, this, this moment with Saul in tears saying this stuff, it's going to be short lived, right?

So he gets into this back and forth with David and he's feeling sorry, and this is going to happen again in chapter 26. And this is why a lot of people say that Saul was either, you know, and we're not medical experts so we can't really diagnose him, but it's common to hear people say that Saul was bipolar or whatever, you know, he's, he's just constantly, you know, going from one extreme to another.

But Saul now begs David that when he takes the throne, that David wouldn't cut off his descendants. Here's a common thing that would happen when a new king would take over, when there'd be a revolution, something like that, the new king would do what?

You'd just kill everybody who is related to the old king. So that's what Saul is afraid of. Is David going to do that? Now David probably wouldn't do that anyways, but Saul asked him to make a promise and David will keep that promise.

Besides, David has already made a covenant with Jonathan. So at least for Jonathan's sake, he was going to show kindness to descendants of Saul. But David is a man who, here's another contrast, David is a man who keeps his word.

Saul is a man who what? Always is breaking his word. So a Christian really needs to keep their word because unbelievers, people who are of the world are constantly going back on what they say. So we shouldn't do that.

Verse 22, so David swore to Saul and Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Okay. Now moving along to chapter 25, what's the major event in chapter 25 starts out with what? Yeah.

The death of Samuel. And what is it? Just a couple of verses. Looking at this, it amazes me that such an important man in Israel's history. How many verses does he get? There's like a little, little statement, oh, and Samuel died and moving on, like Samuel is a major figure in Israel's history.

So it just seems odd to me that so little is said about such an important man. But then again, we haven't heard the end of Samuel, right? He's going to reappear in the story in a couple chapters, although there's debate over whether or not that's really Samuel that comes up, but we'll get to that next week.

The rest of the chapter deals with a story about David and Nabal and his wife, Abigail. So this is a fairly well-known story. We're not going to read through it, but so far we've seen David as a great man.

You know, he's been described as a man after God's own heart, godly man. David has lied. That's true. He's lied a few times to save himself, but still a lie nonetheless. But now from this point on, we're going to start seeing David's flaws more and more.

As David starts to collect power, he's going to start collecting something else. And what is that? Wives. Yeah, David's going to start collecting wives. So David and his men are in the wilderness and they approach the estate of a wealthy man named Nabal.

Scripture says about Nabal that he was harsh or evil in his dealings. I mean, his own wife calls him a scoundrel. So I mean, he's a pretty bad guy. But Nabal was harsh in his dealings. But it says that his wife, Abigail, was very beautiful and wise.

She had good senses about her. So it appears that when David and his men were in the wilderness, that they did something to protect Nabal's flock and his shepherds. So really you can look at it that Nabal maybe owes David something.

But it's that time of year where there's going to be the shearing of sheep. There's going to be plenty of milk and vegetables and meat and all the rest. So David sends a message to Nabal to see if he would give him and his men some aid.

And what does Nabal do? He responds with insults. Verse 10, Nabal says, who is David and who is the son of Jesse? In other words, he's basically saying David is a nobody. I don't care about David. Tell David to get lost.

I mean, this is basically what he's saying, that David is just some deadbeat who ran away from his master like all the others that do that. So this is a real insult, a real slap in the face. And as soon as David hears when Nabal's response is, David's like, all right, we're going to go and we're going to kill this guy.

Probably not, you know, probably not what David should have done. So Nabal is drunk. David's on the way with his men to kill Nabal and Abigail, because she's very wise. She hears about this. She intervenes.

So the next morning, long story short, the hangover wears off. Abigail has helped David. She's fed him, give him and his men all the stuff they need. Nabal kind of wakes up and realizes he's in big trouble.

Now if you just read through the story quick, you might get the sense that David just, he wanted to go in and get rid of Nabal so he could take his wife. That's not really what was happening. Who kills Nabal?

Not David. Who kills him? Yeah. It says the Lord struck Nabal. So Nabal died, but next thing you know, because Abigail is now a widow, what does David do? Remember, she's not just wise. She is very beautiful.

So David now, officially David is now a what? Begins with a P. He is now a polygamist. Okay. How many wives does he have? It says he took Abigail and this other woman. What's the other woman's name? A Hinoam, but David already has a wife, right?

Michael, Saul's daughter. Even though it says in verse 44 that Saul had given Michael to another man. They're going to get back together. So David at least has three wives. So David is now officially a polygamist.

So this is another way that David does not look, does not look that good. He's making the same mistake that other men in the Old Testament made. You think of a few names, Jacob, Israel himself, practiced polygamy.

Abraham, I guess, wasn't technically a polygamist, but he did have a child with his, yeah, Hagar, his wife's maidservant, Gideon, another man that practiced polygamy. Later on, Solomon, David's son will continue the practice.

What was God's attitude towards polygamy? God didn't really, it's one of those things that you might say that God overlooked it. Like these men are never condemned for it, but every time somebody practiced polygamy, it never worked out well.

It always caused problems. And we know from Jesus's words in Matthew 19, that God's plan from the beginning is one man, one woman for life. So in the Old Testament, these men of God did it. And that's just the way it was.

When the, here's the thing, people will read the Bible and they'll say, well, this is the argument the Mormons made, right? Because the Mormons used to practice polygamy. They said, well, David practiced polygamy and Solomon practiced.

And they're, they're getting the idea that because someone in the Bible did something that made it right. Is that how you read the Bible? No, it never says this was something that God commanded or even approved of.

So that is not the way to read the Bible. Long story short. It was tolerated, we might say, but in the New Testament, first Timothy three, speaking of the Bishop, men of God in the Old Testament, again, tolerated men of God in the New Testament.

Absolutely not. Now it is specifically forbidden, but again, it makes, it makes David look bad. All right. So as we move along with the book of first Samuel, most of this is historic narrative. We're not seeing too many doctrinal passages like we did in Exodus and Deuteronomy.

But we do see doctrines that are reinforced and basically one doctrine. And you can let me know if you see something here that I am not picking up on, but one doctrine I see reinforced is the doctrine of the depravity of man that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Even the man of God, David, I mean, look at some of the things he's doing. So you see any doctrines that come out? Maybe the goodness of God that he's not just what, what, what God did to Saul, he could do to David.

He could reject David because David's done a lot of, is going to do a lot of terrible things. So any other doctrines that kind of jump God's mercy with holes, what we deserve? Yup.

Yup. Maybe the perfection of Christ because, you know, there wouldn't have been a need for Jesus if David was perfect. Right.

Good. Yeah. This, this teaching of the depravity of man, it really is the basis for, you know, the gospel and why it's necessary for Jesus to come to, to die for all of these things. But basically someone else, something else we can draw from this, God can use imperfect people.

Okay. I know that's all he has to work with. I mean, that's true, but you know, it's been said that God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick. I always kind of like that statement. Sometimes when you read through, especially the new Testament epistles, you can get the idea that, you know, you have to be like near perfect in order for God to use you.

You don't really get that sense by reading the old Testament. You can get it from certain new Testament books. You definitely don't get that idea from the old Testament. So God can use imperfect people.

It's really a question is, you know, it's not, are you impeccable? It's are you, are you available? Are you willing to let God use you? All right, move along to chapter 26. We're almost done. David discovers where Saul and his men are camped.

So they're all camped out. They're sleeping David and his servant Abishai. They sneak through the camp where everyone's asleep. And verse 12 says a deep sleep from the Lord had come upon them. So there's no possibility of anyone waking up.

God's keeping David safe. Another way, this is a sort of a miraculous thing. So David sneaks through the camp. There's Saul in the middle with his spear and a water jug next to his head. So David's like, let's go grab that stuff that's right next to him.

We'll take it out. We'll go beyond the camp and whether David's standing on the ledge or whatever, yelling at, now he starts yelling down at everybody. And who is he addressing? He's addressing Abner, who is the commander of the military.

He's Saul's, you know, right hand man. He's like, hey Abner, look at, look at what we have. We have the spear. We have Saul's water jug. You're not a very good commander because we could have killed your, your master.

Abner, how come you let us do that? You deserve, Abner, you deserve to die. Seems like David might be having a little fun with this. But then it goes back into the same, you know, Saul recognizes his voice.

And then, David, is that you, my son? And they go back into this, you know, back and forth. But here's how the chapter ends, verse 25. Here's what Saul says to David. May you be blessed, my son David.