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[0:00] um strap in we're going to cover a lot of verses and we're going to cover them as quickly as we can uh go with me to the book of first samuel first samuel chapter 21 first samuel chapter 21 i'm going to look at first samuel 21 and 22 21 22 two chapters the 21st chapter is not very long uh 22nd chapter it's got a few more verses with it but really when we come to the historical works and we come to some of the writings in the old testament i think it does us better to look at them in big chunks we can break it apart if we want to but i think at that time we fail to see the big picture we fail to see everything that's going on and the consequences of these actions sometimes it is very beneficial of us to cover big chunks of scripture so that we can see actions and consequences connected and this is one of those texts so first samuel chapters 21 and 22 if you remember when we left first samuel off in chapter 20 david has went to jonathan and told him you know your dad's trying to kill me and all this agreement so jonathan and david enter into this renew their covenant relationship and jonathan kind of gets a feeling for his dad's desire and you remember the uh all the the signs and testimonies that happened he shot the three arrows and he told the boys they said they're a little further run get out of here so david flees david and jonathan meet and they flee and that's where we end it in the 20th chapter david is beginning what will be nearly a 10 year period on the run a time where he has left the presence of saul he is the anointed king he's the appointed king he's the one who's going to reign on the throne but a number of years are going to take place before that rain actually happens and in those years we have kind of a wilderness wandering years it's amazing when we read scripture how much happens in the wilderness or how much happens in times of separation and isolation you know we we read it all throughout scripture we see how god called abram from the land of the earth the chaldeans and told him to leave everything and go to the land that he would show him and he sojourned in the land he wandered in the land we see that happening with the descendants of abraham as they sojourn in the land and we see all these things taking place and then when god brings them out of egypt now we know it's because of their failure to go in faith into the promised land but they end up with 38 more years of wilderness wandering in those 38 years god redeemed that time he used it for his glory he built into his people what he needed to build into them he showed himself faithful and true he continued to remind them of who he is and then even when we get into the new testament we see it over and over again we see all these truths being played out jesus goes into the wilderness 40 days 40 nights he's tempted that's a little loud on me now brother i'm hearing myself i change batteries so when i change batteries there's all these adjustments that has to happen even paul paul is in the wilderness for three years right being taught of christ he would say later but it's amazing we read all these things in scripture david has his now his beginning so we're really in the very beginning stages of it before he actually gets into that place where he's going to spend the majority of his time moving around here and there we'll come upon one of those places where he stays the majority of the time we see what takes place so as we're looking at this what i want you to see is is the king on the run essentially but also the preparation that's taking place during that time because god does not forsake days he always redeems the time right he's doing a purpose he's doing a work he's god has a reason for his delays god has a reason for his timing god has a reason for even though david is the rightful king now he's on the run for nearly 10 years but god doesn't just leave him out there and

[4:06] nothing take place god does something in those days and he begins from the very beginning there are lessons learned there are truths that are applied and we see those so stay with me we'll make our way through these texts and then there are parallel texts that go to these chapters i don't know that we will get to them but i will allude to them okay so let's start in first samuel chapter 21 then david came to nob to helimelech the priest and helimelech came trembling to meet david and said to him why are you alone and no one with you david said that helimelech the priest the king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me let no one know anything about the matter on which i am sending you and with which i have commissioned you and i have been directed and i have directed the young men to a certain place now therefore what do you have on hand give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found and the priest answered david and said there is no ordinary bread on hand but there is consecrated bread if only the young men have kept themselves from women and david answered the priest and said to him surely women have been kept from us as previously when i set out and the vessels of the young men were holy though it was an ordinary journey how much more than today will their vessels be holy so the priest gave him the consecrated bread for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence which was removed from before the lord in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away now one of the servants of saul was there that day detained before the lord and his name was doeg the enumite the chief of saul's shepherds david said helimelech now is there not a spear or sword on hand for i brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's matter was urgent then the priest said the sword of goliath the philistine whom you killed in the valley of elah behold it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod if you would take it for yourself take it for there is no other except it here and david said there is none like it give it to me then david arose and fled that day from saul and went to achish king of gath but the servants of achish said to him is this not david the king of the land did they not sing of this one as they danced saying saul has slain his thousands and david his tens thousands david took these words to heart and greatly feared achish king of gath so he disguised his sanity before them and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down his into his beard then achish said to his servants behold you see the man behaving as a madman why do you bring him to me do i lack madmen that you have brought this one to act the madman in my presence shall this one come into my house chapter 22 so david departed from there and escaped the cave of a dulem and when his brothers and all his father's household heard of it they went down there to him everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented gathered to him and he became captain over them now there were about 400 men with him and david went from there to misbah of moab and he said to the king of moab please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until i know what god will do for me then he left them with the king of moab and they stayed with him all the time that david was in the stronghold the prophet gad said to david do not stay in the stronghold depart and go into the land of judah so david departed and went into the forest of hereth then saul heard that david and the men who were with him had been discovered now saul was sitting in gebea under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand and all his servants were standing around him and saul said to his servants who stood around him here now oh benjamites will the son of jesse also

[8:10] give to all of you fields and vineyards will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all of you have conspired against me so that there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of jesse and there is none of you who is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush as it is this day then doeg the idomite who was standing by the servants of saul said i saw the son of jesse coming to nob to him like the son of ahitab he inquired of the lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of goliath the philistine then the king sent someone to summon ahim like the priest the son of ahitab and all his father's household the priests who were in nob and all of them came to the king and saul said listen now son of ahitab and he answered here i am my lord saul then said to him why have you and the son of jesse conspired against me and that you gave him or have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of god for him so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush as it is this day then ahim like answered the king and said and who among all your servants is as faithful as david even the king's son-in-law and who is captain over your guard and is honored in your house did i just begin to inquire of god for him today far be it from me do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any one or any of the household of my father for your servant knows nothing at all of this whole affair but the king said you shall surely die him like you and all your father's household and the king said to the guards who were attending him turn around and put the priest of the lord to death because their hand also is with david and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it to me but the servants of the king were not willing to put forth their hands to attack the priest of the lord then the king said to doeg you turn around and attack the priest and doeg the edamite turned around and attack the priest and he killed that day 85 men who wore the linen ephod and he struck nab the city of the priest with the edge of the sword both men and women children and infants also oxen donkeys and sheep he struck with the edge of the sword but one of the sons of ahimlek the son of ahita named abathar escaped and fled after david abathar told david that saul had killed the priest of the lord then david said to abathar i knew on that day when doeg the edamite was there that he would surely tell saul i have brought about the death of every person in your father's household stay with me and do not be afraid for he who seeks my life seeks your life for you are safe with me first samuel 21 and 22 several verses but i think it is very fitting for us to read them and get them into context as we look here at the king on the run and we see what god is beginning to do just three things i want you to see that take place at the very beginning of david's fleeing three truths that will resonate throughout his wilderness years if you will three things that god will continue to impart to him and to show him and use to prepare him for his soon coming reigning as king again god does not forsake the time he redeems the time he uses the time there are no wasted days in the economy of god and even david when he seems to be displaced and away from where god has called him god is using those moments to teach him and to grow him and to mature him to be what he needs to be when he's on the throne we see that even in our own lives when we see every aspect of it the first thing that we see is this time of deception we see the deception really

[12:13] one of the dark spots if you will at the very beginning in the entire 21st chapter seems to be a chapter of deception seems to be david taking actions according to the flesh not according to the lord we know that there are some bible commentators that speak of the fact that when david goes to nob and he stands before the priest that when david makes a declaration that he is on admission from the king some would like to read into this and say well the king he is speaking of is the lord god the true king that could be an application but it doesn't seem to bear weight in the text because david implies his own guilt later on that's why we want to read all the way to the end of the 22nd chapter david begins to see his failure that took place but we start off when david flees and he's just fled from the presence of jonathan he's he's renewed this covenant with jonathan he knows that his life's in danger and he is previously before going to jonathan he's been in the presence of samuel he has been with the prophet samuel and in the company of the prophets and now he goes to jonathan he leaves jonathan he goes to nob and he goes to the presence of the priest if you remember the ark of the covenant is still detained in the house of a faithful individual the ark of the covenant is no longer present because the sons of eli have taken it to battle and then it was captured and all the story that took place at the beginning of first samuel when it was sent back so the ark of the covenant is not there many people believe that nob probably took the place of shallow after the ark of the covenant was captured and the philistines came in and won the day that this was a time where that no longer is the presence of god and shallow now the priests have moved to nob david goes to this place and he goes in there and rightfully so uh the priest has some concerns because david's not traveling with an entourage he's not traveling with a great company of people he is alone now the 23rd chapter seems to imply to us that david did have some men with him that he had sent them those men ahead of him it would be david's men we have to understand that there's more than likely when david fled some of his soldiers fled with him and it seems to imply that he had sent them ahead of him but he himself went to go before the priest to get something to eat but david comes in and he tells at best a partial truth at worst it's an outright lie because the priest asked why are you alone he says well i'm on a special mission from the king now we don't want to throw david because i do know he's a man after god's own heart we also know that at this moment he is covered by the spirit but he is not indwelt with the spirit that's a new testament practice but we also understand that even those who are covered by the spirit can operate in the flesh we saw saw do the same thing saw was covered by the spirit and yet in moments moments operated in the flesh and we have to at least give david permission here to be human to be man we see in the old testament time and time again where david fails we know he fails multiple times as king the difference is is that he does not fail with a high-handedness and continue to say well god i don't care what you say it's that he learns his lessons and repents this is one of those lessons i believe we have the penitent psalms of david which speak of his repentant and broken heart when he realizes his failures but yet david here comes in a kind of a air of deception and i believe that he's not being completely honest because of an honest desire to protect the priest at nob because if they knew he was fleeing from the presence of saul then they would have been compelled to report it to saul or would have been conspirators with him but david kind of walks the line here well if i don't tell them what i'm really doing then they will not bear guilt for their involvement with me because david's a trusted individual the problem is is the enemy always has his guy just like god always has his guy

[16:17] we don't know why the text just tells us that doeg the edomite is restrained by the lord there with the priest we don't know why he's there we know he's a chief shepherd of saul we don't know why he would be restrained unless he is fulfilling some vow it is kind of odd because the edomites are kind of the avowed enemies of the people of god but yet doeg here has at least joined himself so more than likely he is i kind of said well i'll go through the motions and i'll act like i'm worshiping the lord god just like the jews do that way i can really work my way up the ranks of saul what does this say about saul and that this is his chief shepherd by the way when the edomites in general are the enemies of god's people but doeg is here and he's he's restrained in the presence of the lord for some reason he is there and he notices this and he sees this now the redemption of this event is that jesus quotes this passage in the new testament and reminds us that compassion is better than legalism because he speaks of the reality that the priest gave david the show bread or the bread of the presence that was really just laid aside for the priest themselves to eat that david was not supposed to have it according to the letter of the law but it was better for the priest to have compassion on the hungry and give it to david and his men as opposed to fulfilling the letter of the law jesus uses this as an example where compassion and concern trumps legalistic obedience because the intent of the law really goes beyond just the keeping the letter of the law but yet david here goes and he gets the sword from goliath whom he had killed the sword is there we don't again we don't know why the sword is there but it's there he has no weapon so he takes it again there seems to be this air of deception and as we read on further it seems ironic to us that david flees from the presence of god's people and goes right in to the presence of goliath's hometown he goes to achish and he goes to gath which is where goliath is from now get this picture david who killed goliath is wearing goliath's sword and goes to the hometown of goliath and really i think feels like he can get away with it you said well why do you read that because as we read on later david is captured by achish's men and brought before achish and it says and david feared greatly here are some of your parallel passages psalm 56 is a psalm which david wrote when he was captured by achish's men psalm 56 psalm 34 is the psalm that david wrote when he was freed by acting insane the 21st chapter seems to be one that david has to learn a lesson it's better to trust the lord in truthfulness than to walk in deception it's better to trust the lord in truthfulness than to walk in deception because as we read later on the priests and the city of nob pay a great price for david's deception and david himself put his own life in great jeopardy by his deception and if it wasn't for god's faithfulness then it would have all ended there now i know as we read this passage and as we get into the 22nd chapter

[20:18] it seems that the priest ahimelech and the family and all the priests of nob and even the city of nob when we read that we say god is so unfair because doeg the edamite reaches out saul tries to get his men to kill the priest his men won't do it they refuse to do at least there's a spark of concern right a spark of righteousness among his people uh but doeg he doesn't care he just wants to climb the ranks so he turns around and and really just goes crazy he does more than what he was asked to do he kills all the priests and he goes into the city of nob and he ransacks the city of nob and i know when we read that we're going man it was david they never did conspire with david right david deceived them david kind of walked in and david himself accepts this blame he said they died because of me though that's where we begin to see repentance right that's where we get admittance and david understands this but before we take the sovereignty of god out of this understand who it is that's living at nob these are the descendants of eli and you remember god gave eli a prophecy through samuel that no descendant of eli would live to an old age remember that because of his failures because of his stumblings because of his lack of obedience and righteousness and faithfulness to god the very first prophecy that samuel is given the very first word of god that that resonates to the people of israel samuel young samuel has to tell eli the priest that god has pronounced that no old man would be raised in the lineage of eli so even here we see by the way that's his descendants at nob this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of god and if you don't lay the blame at david's feet solely david should not have deceived but eli should have also walked in obedience and faithfulness this is just one of the tools that god uses to bring about his word you're reading in the old testament if you're reading through the book of isaiah some of us are and you're reading when you read the works of the prophets and and you begin to see it seems like well god's going to pronounce judgment upon this city god's going to pronounce judgment upon this people and we seem to get lost in that and we see how god is bringing judgment upon everybody and what is astounding is when we read it is how god uses other people for his judgments right god's judgment reigns upon them by these people invading that land and then they'll invade over here and then they'll do this over here god is so sovereign that he is in control of every action even david's deception david lays the blame in his own feet he said i am the reason the blame but the reality is is this is also a fulfillment of the word that god has declared to the household of eli so before we say well why didn't god stop it the greater question is is why didn't eli walk in faithfulness why did the word ever have to be proclaimed because we want to lay the blame at god's feet rather than accepting the responsibility that man has brought upon themselves we see the deception the second great truth that we see is in those parallel passages and that is dependence david's flesh if you will gets him in a position where he really doesn't need to be because it says in verse 12 of the 21st chapter david took these words to heart and greatly feared a kish king of gath fear begins to come upon him now he's intentionally went to a place that he probably should not have been he went to the land of the philistines because he figured saul will never follow me there and he went not only just in the

[24:21] land of philistines he went to the city of gath he went wearing goliath's sword for who knows why i mean that's the only sword he could get he went to that place he decided to go there and he put himself in a position he should have never been in and he greatly fears when you read psalm 56 and i hope you do when you read psalm 56 you see the fear and the sorrow and the brokenness that's going on in david's heart because he realizes he's in a place of despair but what we see is that when david put himself or the lord allowed david to take control and and and get to a position where he shouldn't have been it brought david to a place of dependence it brought him to a place of absolute surrender because he had no one else to turn to when you read the psalms that walk parallel with these passages you see david's dependence upon the lord his god to deliver him it's amazing how many of the psalms are penned in david's times of exile those dark moments because see the dark moments of our life will either push us to a greater dependence or it will move us to open rebellion when we are in places of jeopardy we're in places of of uncertainty we're in places of uncomfortableness we're we don't know exactly what's going on we respond either one of two ways especially in our relationship with the lord god either we grow in our dependence or we grow in increase in our rejection because difficult seasons leave no room for neutral ground so what we see is david the anointed appointed king is growing in his dependence upon the lord some of it because of his own choosing others because god allowed him to get to a place of desperation desperation is not necessarily a bad place to be because it brings us to the place of celebration right and all of a sudden he begins to pin these psalms and then when you turn over to psalm 34 and it says when david feigned insanity before a kish and when david feigned insanity was delivered you see this rejoicing david is not speaking of the fact that oh i tricked them david is revealing that his hope and his desire is always in the lord his god right and he begins to see this celebration that god had delivered him here's another parallel psalm psalm 52 psalm 56 speaks of the reality when david was captured by a kish's men psalm 34 speaks when he was delivered and we see the dependence there what about when david hears what happens to the priest at nob and all the inhabitants of nob psalm 52 psalm 52 psalm 52 says that when david heard the word of doeg's slaughter of the priests by the way the the titles above the psalms this is one of the things that we've spoken of that is unique to the old testament we understand that when the bible was written it wasn't written with chapter and verse it was written as as a book was we we broke them up later on uh in the history of biblical history of breaking them up chapter and verse for our own sake many of the headings and the titles that you have across your passages in scripture were added later on for our own understanding right there are additions for us what is unique though is the headings and the titles in the book of psalms are in the original writings of psalms so when we read these headings we're reading them as they were recorded from the very beginning psalm 52 tells us david wrote this when he heard what doeg had done and again rather than saying i'm going to go get him whether he is showing his dependence and his trust upon the lord his god that god would lead that god would be faithful

[28:23] that god would redeem that god would repay that vengeance and that god god would just do a mighty work see what's amazing is god not only showed david the importance of truthfulness god is also increasing worship because he's bringing him to a place of dependence with every great tragedy with every stumbling block even i mean this isn't we don't know how long this takes but it's just a matter of a few months or a few years maybe uh but but with every great obstacle the worship of david increases and he's trusting and he's looking and he's completely dependent upon the lord his god and then we see the third and final thing from this passage and that is deliverance there's deception dependence and deliverance when god redeems those times and david is delivered it says in the 22nd chapter so david departed from there and escaped to the cave of a dulem a dulem is in the land of judah so he's back to where he should be pay attention to this he's there his brothers hear about it and his brothers and his mother and father come to him rightfully so because of anybody that's part of a conspiracy uh if david is trying to ascend to the throne then david's family's all in jeopardy right uh saul would have killed all of his family too so his brothers and his mother and father come to him he takes his mother and father to moab which again seems odd until we realize that god had worked things out because david's great grandmother was a moabitess there's family ties there because there's one place that saul won't go other than the land of philistines it's also the land of moab and god had worked those things out you remember ruth right you remember ruth so david has somewhere to take his mother and father because why else would the king say yeah they can stay here there's a tie there there's a connection god in this sovereignty and then david is here and so it seems that david's in a place of deliverance but it's not just deliverance for david because then notice all these people start coming people start coming we don't know how many david had with him it seems to imply later on in the text that he had a few with him but then it begins to tell us that everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented gathered together what we have here is that now david becomes a person of deliverance for those who are unsettled with the reign of saul you say oh well this is just a kind of a vagabond group of people well probably but distressed over how things were going under saul's reign indebted which by the way is contrary to the law of god because there were supposed to be years of jubilee and years of forgiveness and they weren't supposed to charge interest to their brothers in the lord but that was happening anyway so they went there and those who were discontented means to be of unsettled mind and unsettled soul about what was going on with the reign of saul so now all of a sudden this these people who know that what saul is doing is wrong find a place in a person of deliverance and they gather to david and there's 400 men i like having one bible commentator says this shows us the power that god can even use because david ends up with 600 men he ends up with 30 mighty men and he has a three men i've told you before i love the stories and the accounts of david's mighty men they're just they're just awesome to me uh but david really has this um not really what you would call a great army he doesn't have Saul's got several thousand right but david's men are mighty and it shows us the power of leadership god ordained and appointed leadership that david takes these men they're loyal to him they stay with him they risk their own

[32:28] lives these are the men that will go into bethlehem and get from the well or and try to bring it back to david and so he can have a drink he pours it out before the lord says i'm not going to do it because you risked your own life right the power of leadership not only just leadership but godly leadership that god takes all these people who are on kind of the fringes of society and he does mighty things with them i mean they kill lions in the pit on snowy days they take their stand in the grain fields and don't don't give up they swing until their arms get tired right it's amazing what they do and the whole time Saul's men are just like ah whatever because who leads you matters it really does it really does and we see these people are gathered around him but then we read a little bit further and they go to the stronghold now the stronghold that's a pretty particular word in the hebrew and its translation is masada uh if you ever look up biblical history and you even look up at the fall of jerusalem the fall of jerusalem in 80 70 uh the people leave jerusalem and they go to this place called masada masada is a fortress that's right a little bit uh around the dead sea that's not too far away from the dead sea but masada is like this impenetrable fortress and many bible scholars and i think rightfully so believe that that's where david went he went to masada which is this kind of this plateau there's one little stream that goes up to it it was said in biblical history that the inhabitants could live in masada they had cisterns dug they had so much food stored up they could have stayed there for 70 to 100 years never come out of the city and nobody could have ever bothered them masada plays a pretty important role in your extra biblical history because it is there many people believe the preservation of the dead sea scrolls and those things went out from there but anyway so david's got this he's in this fortress he's at this place right it is not what we would see when jerusalem fell yet but it's still a stronghold because it's very well protected but then we read this according it says and then the prophet gad speaks to david so all of a sudden there's the rightful king there's his men and god has brought a prophet and the prophet gad speaks to david now gad will come up later on when david counts the people and he shouldn't it'll be the prophet gad who speaks to him tells him he was wrong we see the prophet gad being used throughout the life of david but here's his first appearance he says you need to leave why when we read further in the text we find out that saul realizes somebody knows where david's at more than likely while saul was standing under the tamarisk tree saying we know where david is gad's over here telling david you need to leave god always has his man so he leaves he leaves the stronghold and he goes into the forest it's a place of deliverance and then when doeg does his thing then abeathar flees to david personal deliverance now look at this now waiting to take his place on his rightful throne is the king we have a king in david we have a prophet in gad and we have a priest and abeathar all in waiting king prophet and priest waiting to take their place of reign it'll be some time but everybody that god needs to move his people forward are in waiting saul is going to pursue them god will protect them but there's a place of deliverance i cannot escape the implication in the application that we too have a king prophet and priest waiting to take his throne but it's all in one person that there's a king in waiting who we call jesus christ waiting to take his throne and he is the ultimate place of deliverance but here we begin to see what god is doing as david flees messes up

[36:30] sure makes mistakes when read the text i'm like man i wish he wouldn't have done that but yet god is continuously moving god's continuously working and what he's doing is he is shaping his man he is shaping david so that when he gets to the throne david's who he should be when he's there sometimes in our life in our wilderness wandering times god is working on us and moving in us and we fall we stumble we mess up sure we do sometimes we feel like we're just living on a run but god is preparing us and shaping us and molding us to fulfill what it is he called us to do to begin with he is working even in those dark years it seems for an amazing purpose first samuel 21 and 22 thank you brother i thank you for your patience and as we read those verses i do encourage you to go read those psalms psalms psalm 56 psalm 34 and psalm 52 great parallel psalms to the text really show us so so

[38:01] Thank you.