Storm Clouds Part 1 (1 Samuel 19-20)

Have you ever felt like life turned against you for no good reason? You did the right thing, obeyed God, and served faithfully, only to watch storm clouds gather where the sun had just been shining. What do you do when doing right leads to being hunted?

In this episode, Stephen Davey opens 1 Samuel 19 and 20 and continues his series on the life of David. The pretense is finally over. King Saul openly orders his son and servants to kill David. Stephen walks you through the crushing losses David absorbs in rapid succession. His position, his wife, his spiritual mentor, and finally his closest friend, Jonathan. Every layer of stability is stripped away, not because David sinned, but because he stood faithfully in the will of God.

Stephen also draws in the courageous witness of Jonathan, a son who refused to imitate his father's evil, and points to David's honest cries in Psalm 59 as the very songs forged in these dark days. Alongside David's story, Stephen brings you into 2 Corinthians 4, where Paul confesses he too has been pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and knocked down, yet never crushed, driven to despair, forsaken, or destroyed. God, who raised us up, wants us to stand. And He wants us to remember how.

This message will comfort your heart when the storm refuses to lift. Desperate times have a way of redefining your sources of strength and rewriting your list of priorities. Every roof will leak except the roof of your Sovereign shelter. Look up. Look ahead. What you see now is not all there is. God will make everything right, even if He waits until glory. Until then, keep singing the song of faith that is being forged in your own hideout.

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Transcript

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In our last wisdom journey, we watched as Jesus dramatically claimed to be the light of the world. He promised to everyone who was spiritually blind that he could give them sight, that is, that he could grant to them the light of eternal life. Well, their response was to pick up stones to throw at them, and we're told that Jesus hid himself from these spiritually blind men and he slipped away. Now, as we continue our chronological study through the life of Christ and these gospels, what happens next is recorded in the Gospel by John

Light Of The World Returns

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chapter nine, where Jesus is going to reveal himself to a physically blind man, and his response is going to be very different. Verse one says, As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents? That he was born blind. You need to understand the disciples were simply repeating the popular teaching of their day. If there's sickness, well, it's punishment for personal sin. Sickness has to be somebody's fault. Beloved, we're living today in a suffering world, and all suffering can be traced back to the fall of mankind into sin. But every illness someone

Who Sinned And Why Suffering

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personally experiences isn't always the result of some specific sin. Sickness or suffering is not automatically the judgment of God in a person's life. In fact, this blind man's case here, Jesus says in here in verse 3, it was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. Think about that. In other words, this man's blindness was designed by God to allow the power of Christ at this moment to be demonstrated in his life. And let me tell you, beloved, your sickness today will reveal, it can reveal, deeper truths about God's character, who Jesus is, the power of Christ in your life, whether you're healed or not. Well, this blind man is about to reveal something about Jesus that was far more important than a healing power. Here in verse 5, Jesus says, As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Now you might recognize that expression from chapter 8, where Jesus dealt with the spiritual blindness and the darkness of unbelief. Jesus promised that he could effectively cure spiritual blindness if people would follow him. Now what's about to happen is a link between what Jesus said in chapter 8 with what he's going to do here in chapter 9. Now follow this. If he can heal the physically blind, then he most certainly can heal the spiritually blind. Now verse six. Having said these things he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, Go wash in the pool of Soloam, which means sent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Now this is a rather strange command of the Lord, and we need to see it within the context of the Feast of Tabernacles, which has just concluded. During the feast, the pool of Siloam was the place where the priest he went over there and he filled up a pitcher with water and he took it back to the

Mud, Siloam, And Obedience

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temple altar and poured it out at the base. This was a religious ceremony that symbolized God's power and God's presence. So Jesus sends this blind man to that same pool. The man obeys. Well, unfortunately, the rest of this chapter here records the blind responses of the Pharisees. First, they cross-examine this beggar who's been healed, and he tells them exactly what happened. Some of the Pharisees argue that Jesus can't be from God because this healing took place on the Sabbath. See, according to the Pharisees, it was okay to practice medicine on the Sabbath if life was in danger, but this blind man's life wasn't threatened, so it was against the rules. But now they're in a fix here, verse 16

Pharisees Put The Miracle On Trial

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indicates, because here they are, they're all huddled up trying to figure out, you know, what to do. And one of them raises the question here, how can a man who is a sinner do such signs? Giving sight to this blind man, well, that's a messianic sign. That's what the Messiah was supposed to be able to do when he came. Well, some of them suggest that, well, the man wasn't really blind at all. Maybe he's just making this up. So they they call in the beggar's parents and they question them. Here's their response in verse 2. We know that this is our Son and that he was born blind. But how he now sees, we do not know. Ask him. He is of age, he will speak for himself. It was rather tragic here, but they don't want to get caught up in the controversy. Verse 22 tells us that they were fully aware that anybody who confessed that Jesus was the Christ, that is the anointed Messiah, they're going to be put out of the synagogue. And that was a terrifying thing back then. The people were taught that to be shut out of the synagogue was to be shut out from God. But this beggar here, he's not intimidated at all. When the religious leaders come back to him one final time here in verse 24, they tell the healed man to, well, give glory to God. That's a legal phrase, by the way, that means you tell the truth. He replies in verse 25. Whether Jesus is a sinner, I do not know. One thing I do know that though I was blind, now I see. And listen, they they simply cannot get around this man's personal testimony. By the way, beloved, you you might not have all the answers today. Maybe you feel intimidated talking to people about Christ. You do have your testimony of going from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight. Just tell people about that. Well, this beggar here is he's actually bold. He asks these Pharisees now here in verse 27, do you also want to become his disciples? In other words, would you like to be able to see? Well, the the Pharisees, as you can imagine, are offended by this challenge. Verse 34 says, They cast him out. That means they got rid of him. They excommunicated him from the synagogue. They made sure he can't show up and give his testimony in the next worship service. Well, I love what happens next. Verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him, he said, Do you believe in the Son of Man? He answered, And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, You've seen him. It is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. Imagine, here's this lifelong beggar, a blind man from birth, and now his sight is fully

Cast Out For Telling The Truth

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restored. He he's he's at least he seem it seems like he's been abandoned by his fearful parents.

Jesus Finds Him And He Worships

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He's certainly attacked by the religious leaders. But Jesus goes and finds him and he embraces him. He he'd been told, you know, you can't come and worship in the synagogue any longer. Yet what do you have here? You got a worship service like no other. And this personal encounter with the Lord gives him the strength, it it definitely will give him the strength to carry him through very difficult days ahead.

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G.

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Campbell Morgan was one of the best known Bible teachers in his generation. To this day, he's one of my favorite authors. In 1888, he applied to enter the Wesleyan denomination as a minister. He had passed his written theological exams, but he still faced the test of uh of giving a trial sermon before a a panel of professors, scholars. Well, he did so poorly preaching that his application was rejected. Morgan uh sent a telegram to his father with just one word.

Rejected On Earth Accepted In Heaven

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Rejected. His father replied, rejected on earth, accepted in heaven. Well, let me tell you, G. Campbell Morgan would go on to become a powerful Bible teacher as well as a best-selling author. Great crowds would gather to hear him open up the scriptures. Well, this blind man, Jesus, is healed, might be rejected on earth, but he's accepted in heaven. His faith in Jesus, the light of the world, is enabling him now to see spiritually as well as physically. The Pharisees, however, have chosen to remain blind to the truth. To see or not to see, let me tell you, that's the question of the ages. I wonder, what's your answer today? Well, until next time, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.