WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.959 1 Samuel 21, 1 through 9. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:15.599 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest, and Ahimelech came to meet David trembling and said to him, Why are you alone and no one with you? 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:27.839 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, Let one no one know anything to the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you. 00:00:28.079 --> 00:00:31.920 I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:34.640 Now then what do you have on hand? 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:37.840 Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.840 And the priest answered David, I have no common bread on hand, but there is a holy bread. 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:53.600 If the young men have kept themselves from women, and David answered the priest, Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:57.920 The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:00.880 How much more today will their vessels be holy? 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:11.599 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:16.640 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:21.439 His name was Doag the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:27.680 Then David said to Ahimelech, Then have you not here a spear a spear or a sword at hand? 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:33.519 For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. 00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:42.560 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:46.480 If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. 00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:50.879 And David said, There is none like that, give it to me. 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:52.560 This is the word of the Lord. 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:54.079 Please be seated. 00:01:56.319 --> 00:01:57.439 Good morning. 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:00.400 Welcome to Redemption Church Denver. 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:01.439 My name is James. 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:03.040 I am the pastor here. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:05.040 Thank you for joining us this morning. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.479 A couple of quick announcements before we get into our text. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:13.439 Next Sunday is Easter. 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:15.520 That one snuck up on us. 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:17.840 So next Sunday's Easter. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.800 That means the Friday before that is Good Friday. 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.400 You can join us here for a Good Friday service that we'll be hosting. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.319 That will be at 6 30 p.m. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.680 So yeah, please come out and join us for that. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:33.919 Also on Easter, we will be doing baptisms that Sunday. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:42.719 So if you would like to be baptized, you can sign up in the app and just go to the calendar and click on baptisms, then there's a link and you can sign up. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:48.000 Then we'll be following up with you throughout this week to kind of talk through if now is the time to be baptized. 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:54.159 So I think there's about five folks that are signed up to be baptized at this point, which is extremely exciting. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:56.879 That should be a really celebratory Sunday. 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.159 And look, it will be anyway, because it's Easter. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:02.240 So we've got that going for us. 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:19.199 Gotham is uh a nine-month discipleship intensive that we do as a church here. 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:27.199 Um so if you're interested in that, uh you can look that up in the app as well and uh explore that opportunity. 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:31.840 All right, with that, uh well one more thing. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.479 There's two ways to get connected at Redemption Church Denver. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.039 We gather large and we gather. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.400 So we gather large on Sunday mornings, we gather in small groups throughout the week, which we call redemption groups. 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.520 If you'd like to be a part of one of those, you can also sign up in the app. 00:03:45.759 --> 00:03:48.639 I could I just hit a button in my brain and that happens now. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:50.000 All right. 00:03:51.039 --> 00:03:53.439 Let's pray and we'll jump into our text. 00:03:57.039 --> 00:04:05.919 Father, would you work in our hearts to reveal to us how you move in even our times that are most anxious? 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:17.439 Lord, as we see David this morning scrambling to find his bearings, I pray that you would establish yourself as the one bearing that matters in our life. 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:19.839 Lord, open our hearts to your texts. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:26.319 Let your spirit work in us, that it becomes a part of our lives, becomes the default function of our brains. 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:32.879 And when we're resting with nothing else to think about, Lord, let our minds, let us be a church where our minds shift to your word. 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:35.120 So, Father, we lift this up in Jesus' name. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:35.920 Amen. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:47.600 So the question we're looking at this morning is how do you maintain your faith when your plans fall apart? 00:04:48.399 --> 00:05:04.240 What happens when you think your life is taking a certain trajectory, and you think you know the moves that you're supposed to be making, and those seem to be lining up, even God seems to be ordaining things in your life to lead you on this particular path. 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:07.360 Well, what happens when those things fall apart? 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:19.439 What happens is what we're really trusting in, what we're really putting our faith in, what our hope is actually in, that gets revealed. 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:25.600 And often what gets uncovered is we weren't really trusting in God alone. 00:05:25.759 --> 00:05:29.120 We weren't really hoping in His goodness and His kindness. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.160 That wasn't what gave our lives shape and bearing. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:37.600 Instead, what gave our lives that shape was the way that we interpreted our story. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:44.240 The way that looking backwards, we connected the dots and said, well, this gives me this certain type of trajectory. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:50.000 Because I went to this school and I majored in this thing, and then I got this job and I moved to this city. 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:54.879 And so that must be God piecing me together to be this type of thing. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:06.639 But when sickness sets in, when the job goes away, when the relationship falls apart, when the new city didn't provide you the fulfillment of adventure that you thought it would. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:10.160 Well then what did those things mean? 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:14.639 What was God really saying by providing those things? 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:19.759 David is in a situation like that in our story this morning. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:24.959 David had been anointed to be king when he was just a kid. 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:33.279 And then all of a sudden, all these things start adding up in his life that point towards him taking the throne. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:38.399 Right after he gets anointed to be king in front of his brothers, he's anointed in secret. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:47.360 And then all of a sudden, the current king, Saul, starts getting plagued by this terrible anxiety. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:51.199 And the thing that relieves it is music. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:55.600 And David is a skilled musician, it's the sign language for skilled musician. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:07:02.639 And he gets selected to go into the court, into Saul's court, and play music for him. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:07.759 So he's anointed, and then boom, he's in the king's court. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:13.199 It's like, oh, well, God must be moving me in this direction. 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:33.680 And then on leave from the king's court, when he's back at home one day, the uh army is off at war, and he goes to deliver some cheese, and he gets caught up in this incredible moment where he sees that his skills would allow him to defeat Goliath, and that would rescue the army of Israel. 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:39.920 And so he volunteers and he defeats Goliath, and then he's brought into the king's court. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.879 And he must have thought, like, wow, I'm anointed to be king. 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:44.000 That was incredible. 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:58.639 And then my musical ability brought me into the king's court so that he knows me, and then I defeat Goliath, and so I'm brought into the family, and then more than that, Saul uh starts to not like David, which is a different story. 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:00.240 It's the story we're about to get into. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:07.600 But Saul starts to not like David, but he still offers him his daughter in marriage, and so he becomes son-in-law to the king. 00:08:07.759 --> 00:08:10.480 So this is a wild couple of years for David. 00:08:10.720 --> 00:08:16.399 All of a sudden, he goes from just tending sheep to, wow, I'm going to be king. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:18.160 This is amazing. 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:30.959 To in the king's court using his music, to uh defeating the enemies of Israel and being brought into the king's family as his son-in-law. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:44.159 All of these things must have developed in David's mind, the sense of care from the Lord, and the sense of his life having this true trajectory that almost couldn't be interrupted. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:47.759 His life is just moving so smoothly. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:55.759 And then all of a sudden, Saul, the king, turns on him. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:59.279 And he becomes the object of Saul's jealousy. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:05.759 And he conspires together what we saw last week with this incredible friendship that he had with the king's son. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.840 And they discover together that the intentions of Saul's heart is to kill David. 00:09:12.559 --> 00:09:25.440 And David moves from a person whose life has this amazing upward trajectory that maps perfectly onto what he expected God's plans to be for his life. 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:32.000 And now he's a fugitive on the run from the anointed king of God. 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:36.960 That's where David finds himself in our story this morning. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:50.559 And what we see as this unfolds is we're gonna look at really two stories how David responds to this deep anxiety that he finds himself in when the bearings of his life start to vanish. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:59.200 And then we're gonna look at how Saul responds to this same sort of anxiety that's happening in his life. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:04.159 We'll see that they both respond negatively. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:10.639 David respond responds badly, and Saul responds badly. 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:16.480 But there's a difference in the way that they relate to their bad responses. 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:20.399 And that amounts to the sole difference between Saul and David. 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:22.480 I'll give it away in a word. 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:26.000 One responds with humility before the Lord. 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:36.799 So we're gonna go ahead and jump into our story where we're going to see David as a fugitive on the run, just like the Harrison Ford movie Air Force One. 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:39.919 And why would he not say the fugitive, right? 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:41.360 That was the joke. 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:58.000 And uh just like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and they are a fugitive on the run from Saul, and uh David is going to make some moves to try and get himself out of this terrible situation that demonstrate his anxiety. 00:10:58.080 --> 00:10:59.279 So we'll jump into our story. 00:10:59.440 --> 00:11:09.200 David's a fugitive on the run now, and it says, 1 Samuel 21, 1 through 3, then David came to Nob, it's the name of the city, to Ahimelech the priest. 00:11:09.360 --> 00:11:17.200 And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, Why are you alone and no one with you? 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:20.159 It would be a rare way for David to travel. 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:32.559 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has charged me with a matter, and said to me, Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you. 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:36.320 I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:38.639 Now then, what do you have on hand? 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:41.440 Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:43.039 David's on the run. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:50.960 He in he goes to the priests in the city of Nob, and Nob was the city that contained most of the priests in the nation. 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:57.200 And he approaches them because he's running with a small group of people, and he requires provision. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:04.639 They're fugitives on the run, and so they need to stop into a place and pick up some food because they're starving and they don't know where they're headed. 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.919 Now he approaches Ahimelech, and what does he do? 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:09.919 But he starts lying. 00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:15.519 And he starts conniving with the priest of the Lord. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:22.080 And he says to him, he doesn't say to him, Look, Saul has turned on me, and I'm on the run, and we're trying to make it out for our lives. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:23.519 I can't figure out what's happening. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:39.360 Instead, in his fear, as a fugitive, not knowing what provision he could receive, not knowing whether the Lord would provide for him at all, he says, Uh, hey, I'm traveling alone because the king sent me on this special mission to such and such a place. 00:12:39.679 --> 00:12:42.480 And uh, we're going to need whatever provision you have. 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:45.120 Do you have the five loaves of bread? 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:47.440 Uh could you spare perhaps five loaves of bread? 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:53.039 They would have had twelve, which would have been this holy bread that was a daily offering before the Lord. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:13:02.000 And what happens is Ahimelech says, look, the only bread that I have here is holy bread. 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:06.159 And you aren't priests, so you shouldn't have the holy bread. 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:09.360 But Ahimelech is a good priest. 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:28.879 And he understands that the law is not met in the letter of the law, it is described in the spirit of the law, which amounts to love, which means when you uh when you encounter someone at such need as David seems to be in, the compassionate thing to do is to give him the bread, be it holy or not. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:41.919 This is an action that Jesus will actually affirm when uh his Jesus and his disciples are walking through a field on the Sabbath and they grab some oats off of a uh oat tree. 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:45.600 I have no idea what oats grow on. 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:48.720 And they do you or I or anyone know? 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:51.279 Oh. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:55.360 So that song's just a lie. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:56.480 All right. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:14:01.440 Uh so uh they grab them and they start grinding them in their hand. 00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:04.639 Uh apparently we're all farmers. 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:10.000 Um and on the Sabbath it was against the law to grind in your in your hand. 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:11.279 That was considered work. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:18.480 And so uh uh the Pharisees approached Jesus and they're saying, Why are you allowing your disciples to work on the Sabbath? 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:20.159 And he references this event. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:23.279 He says, Well, remember the compassion that was shown to David. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:33.120 Remember, David and his men were hungry and they required the holy bread on the Sabbath, and so the compassion uh took priority over the ritual. 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:41.279 And so this is a good thing that the priest does, but he does it as one who is being deceived. 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:47.360 He thinks he's helping someone who is supporting the king, really, he's helping a fugitive on the run. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:15:00.000 He'll say, You can have the holy bread, a hymn, the priest will say this, you can have the holy bread if uh your men have kept themselves pure, so they haven't been with women. 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:04.399 Uh this would have been a typical means of approaching a holy place. 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:21.279 And David doubles down on his lie saying, Look, when I'm on a normal expedition, uh, which implies when I'm normally sent from the king like this, uh, we would abstain from women as a means of demonstrating our single-minded focus on the task assigned from the king. 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:24.720 How much more on a special expedition like this one? 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:28.320 See, he reinforces the lie now a second time. 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:34.080 They receive the bread, and then David requires some weaponry or some armor. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:34.960 He has nothing. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:43.600 And he says, you know, the king's uh task that he sent me on was so urgent that I wasn't able to grab my sword on the way out. 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:45.440 Do you have anything here? 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:57.279 The sword that happens to be there is Goliath's old sword, and so David ends up with Goliath's old sword, the sword that he chopped off Goliath's head with. 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:00.960 Which that's just kind of a cool coincidence. 00:16:01.840 --> 00:16:07.360 The point is that three times to Ahimelech, David doubles down on this lie. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:13.919 I'm sent from the king on an urgent mission that is a secret mission from the king. 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:29.360 David in this incredibly anxious place where he feels abandoned by the providence of God because he enters a moment where this is really out of step. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:43.600 You know, the way to the throne might be you get in because of your skill as a musician, and then you demonstrate your skill as a warrior, and then you marry into the family. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:48.480 But but then becoming a fugitive on the run from the sitting king. 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:52.639 You know, where else is God's story going wrong? 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:55.679 That's what David must have been considering. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:00.399 And so he thinks, I need to take this into my own hands. 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:11.839 You know, if I come to this priest with reality, armed only with what God has actually shown me, this will certainly result in my death. 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:19.359 And so he takes matters into his own hands, thinking he can bend reality to his will. 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:26.640 But there's one little verse that's buried in the midst of the description of David's three lies. 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:33.440 And it's one little verse that you can skip over so easily, and it's 1 Samuel 21, verse 7, and it just says this. 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:41.519 It says, Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.680 His name was Doeg, the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. 00:17:48.480 --> 00:18:09.759 That little verse means that David's lie, which he thinks works, his lie, which he thinks would bend reality towards his will, and gives his men the bread, and gets him the sword, and gets them on their way equipped, that lie will be found out. 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:26.960 David is in an incredibly anxious place, as we've described, and in his anxiety, what he results to is taking matters into his own hands to lie and manipulate the situation that he is in. 00:18:27.279 --> 00:18:47.200 Now, his anxiety and the lie are related to each other, in a sense, the anxiety motivates the lie, but both of those things are related to this deeper aspect of David's character, of what's happening in David when he finds himself in this type of anxious moment. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:50.880 And what that thing is, is arrogance. 00:18:52.160 --> 00:19:02.079 Both the anxiety and the lying are rooted in arrogance. 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:13.599 The anxiety is rooted in an arrogance that says, I know how my story should be unfolding. 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:27.839 And if it doesn't unfold that way, if it doesn't manifest in the way that I know to be right, then it's wrong. 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:39.759 It couldn't be that perhaps God knows more than me, perhaps he's working things together for a good that I can't see from my limited perspective. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:51.599 Instead, God is messing up, he's obviously abandoned me because he's shown me his faithfulness that feels like something I would pretty much expect. 00:19:52.079 --> 00:19:58.480 And if his faithfulness feels differently than that, then I know that he is wrong. 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:05.039 And if God has abandoned me, then what have I have, what do I have left to do than to take matters into my own hands? 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:13.279 God anointed me to be king, but I'm gonna make sure that I make myself the king when God takes his hand off the wheel. 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:22.160 The anxiety says, I know how things should be working and they aren't working that way, therefore God is wrong. 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:28.480 The lying says, I have the power to make things right. 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:43.119 I can move the world, I can act like God and thus speak into existence a new layer of truth that will protect me, but there is no such new layer of truth. 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:49.039 Do you see how the anxiety and the lying are both rooted in this arrogance towards the Lord? 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:55.920 The way that this is described positively in Scripture is a verse that has been incredibly helpful to me throughout my life. 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:59.200 This is 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:07.599 And it says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:09.039 How do you do that? 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:14.720 Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:26.160 In that book, Peter describes the very opposite disposition from what David has here, which is one of humility, not arrogance. 00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:30.480 One that says, I trust that God cares for me. 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:43.119 And I'm in this anxious place now, but instead of trusting and believing in my anxiety that I have read the world accurately, I'm going to cast my anxiety onto the Lord. 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:52.160 I'm going to trust that he still cares for me, even though I can't read all the signposts like I was once able to do. 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:56.880 And I'm going to humble myself under his mighty hand. 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:01.680 That is, under the plan that God Has for me. 00:22:02.880 --> 00:22:04.960 Which may look very different than mine. 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:13.920 And that may mean acting according to his will, even in times where, to my vision, it looks like that would just harm me. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:21.119 And it's actually there that David could move in peace. 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:30.720 So God does not forsake David, despite his arrogance towards him. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:41.839 Instead, what God does next, and this is kind of interesting, I think, is God brings David towards what may be one of the most humiliating moments in David's life. 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:46.799 That is to say, he really humbles David. 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:52.799 Because David has the spirit in him, that humility doesn't harden him towards the Lord. 00:22:52.880 --> 00:23:02.000 It's not something that he wars against, but it actually shapes his heart so that he could one day move in a trusting way with the Lord. 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:14.799 So here's what David does: He gets his provisions, and seeing that Israel has turned against him and King Saul is pursuing him, he flees with this small group of men and they go to Gath. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:22.319 Gath is one of the five cities of the Philistines, the arch nemesis of the Israelites. 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:25.920 And it's also Goliath's hometown. 00:23:26.559 --> 00:23:38.000 So he thinks Israel is so after me that it would be better for me to run to my arch enemies, the Philistines, and perhaps they won't recognize me. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:43.119 The guy who killed Goliath, carrying Goliath's sword. 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:49.119 His anxiety is making him do incredibly foolish things. 00:23:49.359 --> 00:23:57.839 And so he goes and approaches the king of Gath, whose name is Ashish, which I think is pronounced David, ahish. 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:04.559 Yeah, that's the Mark it. 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:14.960 He approaches Ashish and he's immediately recognized, and he's even recognized at a status that he doesn't even have yet. 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:22.000 They say, uh, hey Ashish, isn't this David the one who they sing the songs about? 00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:22.799 How does it go? 00:24:22.960 --> 00:24:23.599 How does it go? 00:24:23.839 --> 00:24:27.359 Saul killed his thousands, David has killed his ten thousands. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:30.319 You know the catchy tune we hear the Israelites singing. 00:24:30.559 --> 00:24:36.960 And isn't this uh also the one that they refer to as the king of the land? 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:41.599 They don't refer to him yet as the king of the land. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:44.960 But what was David's reputation amongst the Philistines? 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:47.519 It was that he was the king. 00:24:48.480 --> 00:25:05.359 So this terrifies David because he realizes he's been completely exposed in front of his enemies, and he is now the king of Israel, standing with just a couple of guys surrounded by the armies of the Philistines in front of the Philistine king. 00:25:05.519 --> 00:25:08.160 And what does he do to get out of that situation? 00:25:08.319 --> 00:25:11.279 But he makes himself look insane. 00:25:12.720 --> 00:25:19.519 This is the part of the story that I think what we're supposed to see here is this deep humiliation of David. 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:26.880 You know, he he makes Spit run down his beard and he starts clawing at the door like a dog. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:30.079 It's this terrible scene. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:58.319 It's something that I think if we were to see, we would we would think that King David, the the humble, brave warrior who walked in front of Goliath and slayed him and was and stood in the strength that represented Israel, the one who trusted in God against the strongest warrior, is now cowering and hiding and making himself look like this beast before our enemies, king. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:01.920 It's this despicable moment for David. 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:04.240 But it works. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:10.400 And Ashish says, uh, don't I have enough madmen in my court? 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:14.799 And the other guys had to be like, come on, man, we're just trying to help out. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:19.519 And uh they they get rid of David, they just get rid of him. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:21.839 And so he makes it out alive. 00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:23.039 He is freed. 00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:26.880 He's taken to this place of incredible humility. 00:26:27.279 --> 00:26:38.079 This is one of those great moments in scripture, especially in this section of scripture, where we get to hear what David's inner monologue was like and what his prayer life was like in this exact moment. 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:45.440 There are two psalms that correspond to this exact scene where he is in front of the king of Gath. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:53.200 There's Psalm 34, which is after he gets out and escapes, and he praises the Lord for his escape. 00:26:53.359 --> 00:26:57.680 That's the Psalm where he says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:04.640 What he's referring to then is, I just made it out because of the Lord's goodness. 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:22.559 And the psalm that he writes before he makes it out, maybe when he's going in or at some time during his stay in that uh the court of the Philistines, he prays this in Psalm 56, verses 8 through 11. 00:27:23.039 --> 00:27:28.880 Consider how different this is than the liar before the priest. 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:37.440 This is what it looks like to see someone who casts their anxiety on the Lord and humbly trusts in the Lord. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:44.079 He says in Psalm 56, verses 8 through 11, You have kept count of my tossings. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:48.480 You've put my tears in your bottle. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:51.920 Are they not in your book? 00:27:54.079 --> 00:27:55.359 This I know. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:59.920 Oh, then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. 00:28:01.359 --> 00:28:05.599 This I know that God is for me. 00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:15.839 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. 00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:18.160 What can man do to me? 00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:22.480 It's a very different David. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:30.079 This David humiliated before the king of Gath, who sees nothing to turn to but the Lord. 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:33.279 He humbly turns to the Lord. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:40.960 In 1 Peter 5, verse 7, it says, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. 00:28:41.119 --> 00:28:43.759 Look at how David sees that the Lord cares for him. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.599 He says, Have you not kept count of my tossings? 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.079 Are my tears not in your bottle? 00:28:50.160 --> 00:29:01.200 He's saying, like, look, Lord, I know it feels to me like you've just turned your back on me, like you've ignored me through this terrible situation of the king turning on me. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:03.279 But have you not kept count? 00:29:03.519 --> 00:29:06.960 Has every tear that I've shed, you know about it. 00:29:07.920 --> 00:29:09.920 They're written in your book. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:20.559 I feel like I've wandered completely out of your plan, but when I'm humble and when I remember the truth of who you are and who I am before you, I can't wander out of your book. 00:29:20.960 --> 00:29:23.759 I can't remove myself from your plan. 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:28.400 That's the humility of peace. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.160 It's very different from the arrogance of anxiety. 00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:37.599 And the Lord rescues him. 00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:42.720 You know, right after this, David flees to a cave called Adjilim. 00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:48.000 And it's a cave right in between the city of Gath and Bethlehem. 00:29:48.079 --> 00:30:00.640 And his family, who lived in Bethlehem, it's a small town that will become increasingly more important in scripture, will run to meet David at Adilim as they get word that he is staying there. 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:18.799 And David, who has now been rescued and is reconnected with his family, all fleeing from Saul, word gets out that he's there, and uh listen to who gathers around David. 00:30:19.440 --> 00:30:31.839 It says in 1 Samuel 22, 2, it says, and everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. 00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:34.880 And he became commander over them. 00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:38.480 And there were with him about 400 men. 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:50.160 David is humiliated, and then he's exalted. 00:30:52.640 --> 00:31:11.599 David is terrified for his life before his enemy king, he turns to the Lord, and when he thinks he's just a fugitive on the run, outside of the plan of God, when he's hiding out, God just gives him an army. 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:17.200 And it's an army that only a humble king could accept. 00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:20.640 It's the debtors. 00:31:21.839 --> 00:31:25.200 It's the ones who've been made bitter in soul. 00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:29.279 They're just a pack of strays. 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:33.839 And here they are, huddled around David. 00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:37.359 One day they will be mighty men. 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:40.480 Not now. 00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:44.319 Now they're just the ones bitter in soul. 00:31:45.680 --> 00:31:47.279 A humble army. 00:31:48.559 --> 00:31:54.640 Now let's turn to see how Saul handles this situation. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:06.240 Meanwhile, it doesn't say meanwhile, but might as well, it says now, in 1 Samuel 22, 6, says, now Saul heard that David was discovered. 00:32:06.400 --> 00:32:08.240 And the men who were with him. 00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:19.200 So Saul is sitting at Gabea under the tamarisk tree, on the height, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. 00:32:19.359 --> 00:32:20.480 That's the context. 00:32:20.640 --> 00:32:27.680 And I was going to put the whole speech that Saul makes, but it's a lot of text, so I'm just going to summarize it for you. 00:32:27.920 --> 00:32:29.440 But first, let's get the setting. 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:31.279 Saul is sitting. 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:34.880 The army is just standing around him. 00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:42.160 This hunt for David has turned into twiddling their thumbs, saying, We don't know what to do. 00:32:42.319 --> 00:32:44.480 We don't know how to get this guy. 00:32:45.279 --> 00:32:50.000 They don't know his location, although they know that he has fled. 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:58.400 And so here's the speech that Saul makes to his soldiers that are standing around while Saul is sitting. 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:04.400 He says, None of you are going to tell me where David went. 00:33:04.720 --> 00:33:11.519 None of you even told me that he made a covenant with my son, who he turned against me. 00:33:12.160 --> 00:33:13.839 And he uses this phrase. 00:33:14.079 --> 00:33:18.559 He says, None of you even feel sorry for me. 00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:23.279 None of you even feel sorry for me. 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:27.599 That's a rousing speech from our great leader King. 00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:30.400 It's pitiful. 00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:36.240 It's the self-pity that's that's kind of disgusting to look at with David. 00:33:36.400 --> 00:33:39.920 Look, his soldiers, they don't know why they're chasing David. 00:33:40.079 --> 00:33:41.920 They don't know where he is. 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:45.759 We know that because we saw David flee in secret. 00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:51.039 And yet Saul is so caught up in this terrible self-pity. 00:33:51.519 --> 00:33:57.440 Saul, in that type of arrogance, saying, Look, this whole story is about me. 00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:02.559 It's about how I've been betrayed, it's about how my son and David have turned on me. 00:34:02.720 --> 00:34:10.079 And in that self-pity and his arrogance, Saul stands among his troops completely alone. 00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:22.639 Whereas we saw David in this humility that the Lord brought him through, stands completely alone and then surrounded by troops. 00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:28.000 So Saul gains an ally. 00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:38.159 In 1 Samuel 22, 9 through 10, after Saul's speech, when none of the Israelite soldiers are speaking up, says, Then answered Doeg the Edomite. 00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:39.360 Remember him? 00:34:41.119 --> 00:34:44.880 The guy who was standing around and overheard David tell his lie. 00:34:46.800 --> 00:35:03.599 Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, he says, I saw the son of Jesse come to Nob to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. 00:35:04.159 --> 00:35:06.000 Doeg is an Edomite. 00:35:06.159 --> 00:35:10.480 He was actually one of Saul's prisoners after they had conquered Edom. 00:35:10.719 --> 00:35:13.119 He has no loyalty to the Lord. 00:35:13.840 --> 00:35:19.280 So for him to sell out David and to sell out the priests means nothing. 00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:20.800 It's easy for him. 00:35:21.039 --> 00:35:23.280 He's just turning on his enemies. 00:35:23.360 --> 00:35:26.480 And yet this becomes Saul's only ally. 00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:34.079 And what he does is, uh, excuse me, I lost my place in my notes. 00:35:36.719 --> 00:35:42.800 So what happens is he Saul gets this word and he moves towards Ahimelech the high priest. 00:35:43.199 --> 00:35:48.960 And he approaches him and he basically says, Hey, what is the deal with David? 00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:52.719 You helped David when he was betraying me. 00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:55.920 And this is Ahimelech's response. 00:35:56.239 --> 00:36:04.800 It says, Then Ahimelech answered the king, and who among all your servants is so faithful as David? 00:36:05.519 --> 00:36:12.079 Who's the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house? 00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:15.519 Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? 00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:16.159 No. 00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:26.559 Let not the king impute anything to his servant, or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little. 00:36:28.400 --> 00:36:31.920 Ahimelech responds and he says, I didn't know any of this. 00:36:32.320 --> 00:36:33.440 How could I? 00:36:33.679 --> 00:36:35.039 I knew David. 00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:37.840 I knew that David had always been trustworthy with me. 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:40.079 He'd always been faithful towards you. 00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:43.039 I knew that David was your very son-in-law. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:46.480 Was this the first time I've inquired of the Lord on behalf of David? 00:36:46.559 --> 00:36:47.360 Of course it wasn't. 00:36:47.519 --> 00:36:48.960 David was here all the time. 00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:52.239 He didn't make a move without inquiring of the Lord. 00:36:54.480 --> 00:36:56.079 It's not enough. 00:36:57.119 --> 00:36:59.519 Ahimelech is still killed. 00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:05.440 But when we look at his response, you know what it makes you wonder? 00:37:05.840 --> 00:37:07.280 What it makes you see? 00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:11.199 He had such a confidence in David. 00:37:11.760 --> 00:37:17.599 There was such a rapport there, there was such a belief in who David was that David probably could have told the truth. 00:37:18.559 --> 00:37:22.000 He probably could have been straightforward with Ahimelech and survived. 00:37:22.159 --> 00:37:24.639 Perhaps they both would have fled together. 00:37:25.760 --> 00:37:27.840 Instead, he lied to him. 00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:39.840 He puts him in this terrible position before King Saul because he's uninformed, and he baits him so that he walks straight into the mouth of his enemy. 00:37:43.679 --> 00:37:51.280 Here's the king, King Saul orders his soldiers to destroy all the priests at Nob to kill them. 00:37:52.719 --> 00:37:54.320 They won't move. 00:38:00.400 --> 00:38:02.400 But Doeg is also there. 00:38:03.760 --> 00:38:06.719 He has no such apprehension. 00:38:07.440 --> 00:38:09.840 So then the king turns to his only ally. 00:38:10.239 --> 00:38:14.719 1 Samuel 22, 18 through 19 says, Then the king said to Doeg, you turn and strike the priests. 00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:21.119 And Doeg the Edomite turned, struck down the priests, and he killed on that day 85 persons who wore the linen Ephod. 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:26.480 And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword. 00:38:26.639 --> 00:38:32.480 Both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep, he put to the sword. 00:38:32.639 --> 00:38:36.480 Do you remember why Saul was rejected by God? 00:38:36.719 --> 00:38:41.840 It was because God said to go destroy this entire city. 00:38:42.159 --> 00:38:43.679 And Saul wouldn't do it. 00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.719 Instead, he kept the spoils for himself. 00:38:47.119 --> 00:39:00.800 Now, when the city is made up of the priests of the Lord and their families, whose only crime was showing compassion to someone who they thought deserved it, he destroys them all. 00:39:02.320 --> 00:39:06.079 Saul and his arrogance has sunk to this terrible place. 00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:10.719 A terrible hardness of heart has come over him. 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:16.559 Where his only ally left is his enemy. 00:39:20.880 --> 00:39:28.880 So now we have to ask ourselves, all the priests are dead, the town had been slaughtered. 00:39:29.440 --> 00:39:31.039 Whose fault is that? 00:39:33.119 --> 00:39:34.639 Is it Saul's? 00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:38.719 Or is it David's? 00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:45.360 See, David's lie is what made them so vulnerable. 00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:50.320 It's David's lie that involved the priests. 00:39:50.400 --> 00:39:53.280 They didn't ask to be involved in this whole game. 00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:56.800 They didn't even think they were. 00:39:58.159 --> 00:40:09.760 But David, in his arrogance, he thinks he can take reality into his own hands and avoid bringing this harm by manipulating the way things are, but he can't. 00:40:10.960 --> 00:40:15.679 Instead, 90 people lay dead and then their families. 00:40:21.679 --> 00:40:26.559 But we see a difference in David's response. 00:40:27.360 --> 00:40:29.760 There's one priest that survives. 00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:31.679 One priest makes it out. 00:40:32.320 --> 00:40:33.760 This is the recounting of his story. 00:40:33.840 --> 00:40:36.719