Four Characteristics of Godly Faith
1 Samuel 26, Remsen Bible Fellowship, 05/02/2021
Introduction, v1-5
There is a lot of talk in our times about the secularizing of our culture. Much hay has been made of the rise of the “nones”, those whose religious preference is nothing in particular. Not Christian, not Jewish, not Muslim or Mormon or Hindu, etc. Just, “none.”
However, as scary as that may sound, especially to those of us who would look at America’s framing documents and think “how could this sort of Government work apart from some shared understanding of the world?” This decline in religious affiliation, and shift in worldviews actually does not indicate a secularizing worldview, at least at the individual level. If you go ask these “nones” if they are atheist, what you will find is that almost “none” are. They have some sort of faith. It’s usually a hodgepodge, feel good throw-together, characterized by sociologist Christian Smith as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Deistic because it does believe in some sort of deity. Moralistic because that God probably wants me to be nice to others and try to do more good than bad. Therapeutic in that how good and bad are evaluated is by my feelings. This somewhere out there higher power surely wants me to be happy.
All of this to say, the worldviews we confront in the world today aren’t really “no-faith” options, they’re “wrong faith” options. Unbelievers have faith in, they trust, the wrong things. As believers, our temptation is not to abandon all beliefs-that’s not even possible-it’s to embrace the wrong beliefs. So we need the word of God to fix our minds firmly on the truth of who he is, and to show us what true faith looks like. So if you would, please turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 26.
Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?” 2 So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3 And Saul encamped on the hill of Hachilah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshimon. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, 4 David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. 5 Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him.
As we come into this chapter we start to hear echoes of the earlier story in chapter 24. There Saul was pursuing David after having been tipped off by the Ziphites that David was on the hill of Hachilah. And, just like in chapter 24, Saul is coming out with 3,000 of his best men to chase David down. But notice verses 4 & 5. Whereas in the cave Saul had happened
Godly Faith Withholds Vengeance, 6-12
6 Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Joab’s brother Abishai the son of Zeruiah, “Who will go down with me into the camp to Saul?” And Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” 7 So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. 8 Then Abishai said to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.” 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless?” 10 And David said, “As the LORD lives, the LORD will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. 11 The LORD forbid that I should put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go.” 12 So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.
Abishai the son of Zeruiah was a nephew of David’s (1 Chr. 2:13–16). His sister Zeruiah had three sons (her husband is never named), all of them valiant in David’s entourage
Abishai, however, envisions himself as the instrument of divine deliverance: “Let me pin him to the ground” (v. 8). In so speaking he echoes—probably unwittingly—the narrator’s description of Saul’s murderous intentions against David (see 18:10–11 and comment; 19:10; cf. 20:33).
Here is the same patience and restraint as in 24:6, 10, but it is a deeper patience, a more informed restraint. For one thing, David has learned something from his near-fiasco with Nabal (chap. 25). In that situation “Yahweh struck down [Hebrew, nāgap] Nabal so that he died” (25:38), and here (26:10) David considers that Yahweh may also “strike down” (nāgap) Saul. The use of the same verb may indicate that David has learned that Yahweh can be trusted to handle both fools and oppressors when such matters are left in his hands.
Many contemporary believers, in fact, would do well to let their imaginations run riot in regard to the adequacy and sufficiency of God. Regretfully, we probably associate imagination with falsehood or fancy. But “faith-full” imagination cannot be accused of that. In fact one might say that faith needs imagination to pull out all the stops if it is even to begin to grasp the grandeur, majesty, and ability of Yahweh. I am thinking, for example, of the stirring comparisons, questions, and pictures of Isaiah 40:12–31. In this sense imagination will not lead us beyond but will help us arrive at the truth of God. Such imagination does not falsify God but finds him. Our minds are so sluggish, uncreative, and proud (i.e., that we insist on only the facts, the dry facts) that we have desperate need of an imaginative faith. Surely God is praised when his people ask, “Who can guess how he will work here?” (see comments at 14:6). As long as we do not try to imprison God’s freedom we should feel perfectly free to speculate on the measures he may use to deliver his people.
Godly Faith Looks To God For Safety, 13-16
13 Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them. 14 And David called to the army, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Will you not answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you who calls to the king?” 15 And David said to Abner, “Are you not a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. 16 This thing that you have done is not good. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the LORD’s anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is and the jar of water that was at his head.”
One needn’t be too awake to figure this out. For all his protection (Abner + three thousand troops) Saul is defenseless. The omnipresent symbol of his power (18:10, 11; 19:9, 10; 20:33; 22:6) has been effortlessly pilfered.
Godly Faith Wants to Worship, 17-20
17 Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” 18 And he said, “Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? 19 Now therefore let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the LORD who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering, but if it is men, may they be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 20 Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the LORD, for the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
In ancient times it was commonly believed that to be driven from one’s homeland was tantamount to leaving one’s god(s) and being forced to “serve other gods,” the gods of the alien territory of exile
But David was more enlightened than many enlightened Christians; he knew that to be cut off from “Yahweh’s inheritance” (v. 19) was to be cut off from “Yahweh’s face” (v. 20), that “when one had left Israel there was no possibility of public worship.”
Godly Faith Rests in God Alone, 21-25
21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.” 22 And David answered and said, “Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and take it. 23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the LORD gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the LORD’s anointed. 24 Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the LORD, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.” 25 Then Saul said to David, “Blessed be you, my son David! You will do many things and will succeed in them.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
David is not looking to Saul, not hoping on Saul, not believing Saul. He places himself under Yahweh’s eyes and in Yahweh’s hands.
