Preach to Yourself
1 Samuel 27:1-28:2, 29:1-30:31, Remsen Bible Fellowship, 05/16/2021
Intro:
In the book of 1 Kings, chapter 18, we read one of the most famous showdowns in all of history. Elijah climbs to the top of Mt. Carmel and builds an altar to Yahweh. In the other corner of the ring stand 450 prophets of Baal. And Elijah issues a challenge: let’s see who has the real God. Prepare a sacrifice, and call for fire from the sky. The prophets of Baal do just that, and spend all morning wailing, cutting themselves, and praying. Elijah mocks them- maybe your god is going to the bathroom, or is on vacation, or maybe taking a nap? No one heard. No one cared. No one answered. But when Elijah has his altar prepared it is dowsed three times with water, surrounded by a water filled moat, and essentially fire-proofed with everything but asbestos. Then he prays, and fire falls from the sky. It not only consumes the sacrifice, but the water in the moat as well. Yahweh hears. Yahweh cares. And Yahweh answers. But this makes chapter 19 almost shocking, because in the next chapter Jezebel, the queen, makes clear that she is displeased with him. And he runs for his life into the desert and begs God to kill him. The turn almost leaves the reader with a sense of vertigo.
David seems to be in a similar position as we approach these late chapters of 1 Samuel. In the beginning of chapter 27 we read this, Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” David has just been on a mountaintop of victory - maybe not quite like Carmel, but certainly a high. He has seen God spare him time and again, but this last time it really is rubbed in Saul’s face publicly. The plains Indians of North America had a custom of counting coup in battle. This meant that if you could ride up to your enemy and touch him with your hand or your bow or your coup stick, and ride back unharmed, you actually accrued more renown for yourself than if you killed him. This served several purposes, it humiliated him, but it also meant you had a way to defeat your enemy without having to draw blood. Well, David has essentially has counted coup on the most powerful man in the region. God has protected him to walk away unscathed. And yet here we find David despairing that this could continue.
The Danger of Preaching a Bad Sermon
The first principle we find in our text this morning is the danger of preaching a bad sermon to yourself.
1 Samuel 27:1-4 Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” 2 So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3 And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. 4 And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.
Do you see what David is doing there in verse one? David said in his heart. David is talking to himself. I’ve spent most of my life talking to myself and being corrected for it, and someone should have corrected David here. But the issue isn’t that he’s talking to himself: we all do that. The issue is what he’s saying. Here this man who has been displaying such faith, such confidence in God, has despaired to the point where he just wants to throw in the towel and pack it in. There’s no way this keeps working in Israel, he says. So what does David do? He packs up and heads for Gath.
Now, we probably shouldn’t be too harsh with David - these are trying circumstances, after all - but there is no way we should read this and think it makes sense. Do you remember the last time David fled to Gath? He had to feign madness to keep from being killed. Hey, that place where I had to let drool run down my face and scratch the walls like an animal so they wouldn’t kill me - I think I’ll head there!
1 Samuel 27:5- 12, 5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 6 So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. 7 And the number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a year and four months.
8 Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. 9 And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish. 10 When Achish asked, “Where have you made a raid today?” David would say, “Against the Negeb of Judah,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,” or, “Against the Negeb of the Kenites.” 11 And David would leave neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, thinking, “lest they should tell about us and say, ‘So David has done.’ ” Such was his custom all the while he lived in the country of the Philistines. 12 And Achish trusted David, thinking, “He has made himself an utter stench to his people Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.”
As we see the rest of this chapter, God is providing a life for David and his men here in Philistine territory. David asks for a separate city, and so Achish gives him Ziklag. This not only provides David with a place of safety, it also makes for an effective base of operations as he spends 16 months raiding the country all around, persecuting the native inhabitants of the land. This too is a bit of a mixed story. The attacks on the enemies of Israel are surely to be seen as David starting to fulfill what was left incomplete by Joshua and the people when they first entered the promised land, and also what was left undone by Saul himself in chapter 15. Yet David also seems to be extremely brutal, not out of fealty to Yahweh’s command, but out of a fear that Achish might find out what he’s doing. Because not only is David raiding, he’s lying to Achish about who he’s raiding. This leaves David in a pickle.
By the end of the chapter Achish, believing everything David says, thinks he must be making himself hated by the people of Israel. So we come to the first couple verses of chapter 28, In those days the Philistines gathered their forces for war, to fight against Israel. And Achish said to David, “Understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.” 2 David said to Achish, “Very well, you shall know what your servant can do.” And Achish said to David, “Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life.” Achish now expects David to pick up arms and fight against Israel. If you’re saying, whoa, how can God’s anointed lift up arms against God’s people?, you’re asking exactly the right question. What started off as David preaching to himself a sermon that failed to account for God’s faithfulness led to actions that now have him backed deep into a corner.
Interlude
And then the narrative breaks, and turns to Saul. What is going on with this? We’ll come back to this story next week, but here the author jumps out of chronological order (we can tell this by the geographical markers in chapter 28, 29, and 31) to bring us back to Saul. It’s almost as if he wants to say, “oh, you think what’s happening with David is bad? Look to what depths Saul has fallen.” But while there is definitely some compare/contrast happening between the two characters, there is also a disturbing level of similarity between the two men. They both have made decisions that have them in bad places. The difference between them is not their wisdom or inherent goodness or badness. The difference is in how they relate to God. But we’ll pick back up on Saul next week. Let’s continue to David and chapter 29.
Unexpected Grace
1 Samuel 29:1-5, Now the Philistines had gathered all their forces at Aphek. And the Israelites were encamped by the spring that is in Jezreel. 2 As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, 3 the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day.” 4 But the commanders of the Philistines were angry with him. And the commanders of the Philistines said to him, “Send the man back, that he may return to the place to which you have assigned him. He shall not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he become an adversary to us. For how could this fellow reconcile himself to his lord? Would it not be with the heads of the men here? 5 Is not this David, of whom they sing to one another in dances,
‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
As David and his men ride north with Achish to Aphek, you have to wonder what is going through the heads of David’s men. Did we really leave Saul and join David in order to fight our own people? Will I ever be able to show my face at home again? It must have been a disconcerting time. David himself must have been wondering “how am I going to get out of this?” But God has surprising ways of rescuing his children.
When they pass before the commanders of the other Philistine cities, those commanders go to Achish and ask, are you out of your mind? What are these guys doing here? To which Achish replies that David has been with him and has been such a good and loyal servant he couldn’t possibly let him sit home and miss out on this fight. The Philistine commanders then remind Achish of a certain little song they all knew, one which might indicate that David would be inclined to kill them all given the chance. So Achish is forced to bring David the “bad” news.
Then Achish called David and said to him, “As the LORD lives, you have been honest, and to me it seems right that you should march out and in with me in the campaign. For I have found nothing wrong in you from the day of your coming to me to this day. Nevertheless, the lords do not approve of you. 7 So go back now; and go peaceably, that you may not displease the lords of the Philistines.” 8 And David said to Achish, “But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?” 9 And Achish answered David and said, “I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. Nevertheless, the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He shall not go up with us to the battle.’ 10 Now then rise early in the morning with the servants of your lord who came with you, and start early in the morning, and depart as soon as you have light.” 11 So David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. But the Philistines went up to Jezreel.
One almost feels bad for the dense and trusting Achish. He seems to be genuinely disappointed to bring this news to David, but of course everything he thinks he knows about David is a lie. David hasn’t been faithful, David isn’t upset (though he certainly feigns it here), David has just been spared a tragic encounter by God. God has delivered his servant through the prudence of the Philistine commanders.
Brothers and sisters, this should cause us to take heart. Have you ever leaned on your own understanding, trusted in your own wisdom to get you out of a situation, only to make it worse? Have you ever made such a wreck of your life that you wondered who could possibly rescue you from it? God can rescue you. He may not deliver you out of the hard times that result from your sin. You may have a hard row to hoe. But there will be a route to escape from the sin itself (1 Corinthians 10:13). It may not be an easy road, but there will be a road. For David and his men, that road was a 60 mile trek back home.
Preaching the Right Sermon
As we come into chapter 30, we find out that Ziklag had some visitors of a less than friendly nature while David and company were away.
Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negeb and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire 2 and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. 3 And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. 5 David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
Again we find David having experienced a great relief and deliverance from God by being sent home from the battle - only to find the city sacked, the inhabitants kidnapped, the possessions all stolen. What do you do when you have just made a 120 mile, nearly week long, round trip, only to come home and find your loved ones stolen and your homes burned? You cry your eyes out (v4). And then you look for someone to blame, typically the guy at the top (v6). David’s men have been drug to and fro by him, and now they are contemplating doing Saul’s work for him. If David could ingratiate himself to Saul by killing the Philistines, maybe these men could come back into the land as those who killed David. These men who joined David in the bitterness of their soul (22:2), now are bitter in soul toward him (v6).
But how does David respond? But David strengthened himself in the LORD His God.
This isn’t rubbing God like the magic genie in a bottle. This is looking to God just when the going gets tough. This is David realizing where all of his trying to figure it out for himself has gotten him. A whole lot of nowhere. So he turns to the Lord. Commentators have noted how important it is that the text refers not merely to God, but his God. David’s trust in Yahweh, though he at times strays, is a personal trust. The Lord is his Shepherd. Do you know God in this way? It’s easy to know about Jesus in a society that is still soaked with bibles. But do you know him? Do you trust him to save you?
1 Samuel 30:7- 15, 7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. 8 And David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?” He answered him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue.” 9 So David set out, and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. 10 But David pursued, he and four hundred men. Two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor.
11 They found an Egyptian in the open country and brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate. They gave him water to drink, 12 and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit revived, for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights. 13 And David said to him, “To whom do you belong? And where are you from?” He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago. 14 We had made a raid against the Negeb of the Cherethites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the Negeb of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire.” 15 And David said to him, “Will you take me down to this band?” And he said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will take you down to this band.”
Again we find God providentially leading David and providing for him. What are the odds they come across this man in the desert? We know these Amalekites have made this raid thanks to the narrator, but David doesn’t have this voice in his head. He just knows it was a band of raiders. But God tells him to pursue, so they do - and here is an Egyptian man who can take them where they need to go.
1 Samuel 30:16-31, 16 And when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. 17 And David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. 18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. 20 David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”
21 Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people he greeted them. 22 Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart.” 23 But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. 24 Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.” 25 And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.
26 When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, “Here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD.” 27 It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth of the Negeb, in Jattir, 28 in Aroer, in Siphmoth, in Eshtemoa, 29 in Racal, in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, in the cities of the Kenites, 30 in Hormah, in Bor-ashan, in Athach, 31 in Hebron, for all the places where David and his men had roamed.
We’re almost reminded of Job when we read verse 19, that David brought back all. Everything that had been taken has been restored, and even more because of the spoil that would have come from the other cities these raiders had been to. As we close I want to focus in on verses 22 & 23, Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart.” 23 But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us.
There is a faction of the fighting men who don’t want the baggage watchers to receive any of the spoil. Their case is understandable, but I don’t even want to evaluate David’s substantial response as much as the theology underneath it. He says, you shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. His fundamental viewpoint of all of this bounty is that it came from the hand of God. We went through all of chapters 27 & 29 without David so much as mentioning Yahweh, but now he seems to have regained his footing. He understands that his strength comes from Yahweh, deliverance comes from Yahweh, victory comes from Yahweh, and good gifts come from Yahweh.
This is the difference between preaching the right and wrong sermon to yourself. Are you preaching a sermon wherein you have to be the fix-it-all hero? That will lead you into some foolish actions. Instead, preach to yourself the goodness and the promises of God. Nahum 1:7, The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. He is worthy of your trust. He’s proved that in the gift of his Son, he’s proved it in your life (if you open your eyes), put your confidence in him.
