1 Sam.21 Running From The Lord
Intro
:One of the things that points to the Bible being inspired by God that it is
the Absolute truth for society thru the ages
A)Is that the Bible uniquely presents it’s hero’s at
times in unfavorable light – Tells the Good the Bad
& the Ugly
B)We read of Moses
committing Murder / Abe’s giving his wife to be in the Haram of the King /
Peter’s Denials
1)And here in this section dealing w/ the
Life of David – we find David has hit Rock bottom – turning to deceit &
acting in a undignified manner
C) The bible uniquely
tells of the moral failures of its hero’s – but their failures only serve to MAGNIFY the GRACE OF GOD in their lives !!!
Prov.24:16 Though a righteous
man may fall seven times/ he rises again
D) Although we see David
fall in a big way here in this Chapter – We see him rise again – as He turns to
the Lord
1)
And we see that the
grace of God is more than ready to cover David’s sin & to carry him on
- Read v.1-13
Here
we see an event in David’s life where he hits rock bottom / his heart is filled
w/ fear - Learn several lessons
A)1ST
LESSON David does the right thing – He runs to
the house of the Lord / but does the wrong thing once he gets there.
B) When Ahimelech the Priest sees David he can tell that something is wrong – see it in David’s countenance –
1) Plus It seemed unusual to Ahimelech that a prominent
man like David would wander around the villages of Judea all by himself.
C)
It made Ahimelech think something must be wrong, so he asked David, Why are you alone, and no one is with you?
David
Responds by lying v.2 He is on special business for the king & had to
leave in haste – needed food for he & his men
A)David’s reasons
for lying seem clear enough.
1)1st
he wants to protect himself, so he will not tell Ahimelech why he has come or
where he is going, so Ahimelech can’t inform on him to Saul.,
B)David Probably doesn’t
feel that he knows Ahimelech well enough to really trust him.
1) Second, he wants to
protect Ahimelech and the priests by keeping them out of the conflict between
himself and Saul.
C) In many ways, we can
understand why David lied, and even sympathize with him.
1) Many of us would have done the same or worse in the
same situation.
This
is the thing that I want us to see is that a lot of people doing the right
thing – by running to the Lord when they are in a Jam
A)They run to the house of the Lord – but they do not do Business w/ the Lord when they come.
B)People want their
lives to get better – w/out totally surrendering to the Lord their whole lives
1)
Like going to the
Doctor – pain in your Chest – you hope he just gives you a pill or a shot &
sends you on your way
C) Instead he says – You
have a massive problem – arteries are clogged – need to have surgery in one
week – you never show up
1)
People do that w/ the
Lord- He reveals – surgery is needed – Something needs to be cut out / sin
removed / bad habit replaced
D) Thanks but no thanks
I will take my Chances
Why didn’t David just tell the truth?
A)Why couldn’t he come to
Ahimelech the priest, and say "Ahimelech, as strange as it might seem to
you, Saul is trying to kill me.
B) I don’t understand
the situation myself, but I know God does not want me to die at the hands of
Saul.
1) So I am running for my life, and trusting God will
protect me and show me what to do.
2)Please pray for me,
because I’m pretty depressed and scared!"
C) Why didn’t David do
that – The answer is because at this moment in David’s Life he is Choosing to
take matters into his own hands
1) Things are in my hands always a MESS!!!!
So David asks for some food & Ahimelech tells him the only bread that was available was the Showbread
A)What did the showbread
mean? Why would God have a bakery rack in the tabernacle?
B)The importance and
meaning of the showbread is found in the name. Literally, showbread
means "bread of faces."
1) It is bread associated with, and to be eaten before,
the face of God. F.B. Meyer calls the showbread
"presence-bread."
C)To eat the showbread
was to eat God’s bread in God’s house as a friend and a guest of the Lord,
enjoying his hospitality.
1) In that culture, eating together formed a bond of
friendship that was permanent and sacred.
D)Eating the showbread
was a powerful way of saying, "Lord I love You and I seek Your face.
1) I’m in Your presence & I want to be
transformed by seeing Your face."
In giving David the bread, Ahimelech broke with priestly
custom, or tradition but not with God’s word.
A)He rightly understood
that human need was more important that Levitical observance.
B)LESSON #2 – Human need
is more important than religious Customs & traditions
C) In fact Once, when
Jesus’ disciples were criticized for breaking religious custom by eating
against traditions,
1) Jesus used what Ahimelech did to explain the matter
/ approved of what Ahimelech did (Matthew 12:1-8).
D)Jesus uses this event
in the life of David as an example for breaking religious customs – Human
need supercedes – Religious tradition
1) Early days of Calvary/ Chuck – Hippies & their
bare feet – rip up the carpet –
E) We need to watch that
we don’t allow our traditions & customs to keep us from responding or
ministering in a situation that God has set up
Also worth noting that As Jesus told this story – there
is no mention of David’s lie – there is no mention of David being in the wrong –
A)That my friends is
God’s grace & forgiveness – He remembers our rights what we did right &
forgives & forgets what we did wrong
David prayed in Psa 25 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;According
to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
B) We pray that they
would be forgiven & removed on the basis of what Christ did do!!!!
1) David prayed that his sins would be
forgiven & removed & they were on the basis of what Jesus would
do - AMAZING CONCEPT
C) Lesson #3 Although
David’s sins were forgiven here - But there are always consequences to sin –
David would come to
horribly regret this lie – Because Doeg the Chief Herdsman – is there over
hears tells Saul
1)
Result Ch.22 Saul
orders Doeg to kill the 85 Priest living in Nob & their families – in a
horrific massacre
E) Only one of
Ahimelech’s sons escapes Abiathar – runs to tell David – David’s response v.22 So David said to
Abiathar, “I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would
surely tell Saul. I have caused the death of all the persons of your father’s
house.
Lesson: There are always consequences to sin
A)Often times it is others who are affected
B) Men listen – Your sin
in Porn/ influence on your kids / They are influenced by it
1)
Your sin ladies –
gossip – there are always going to be others hurt / killed / affected by our
sin
C) Bible teachers –
Stricter Judgment – Broader affect – Serious thing
1)Our Sin always has a negative affect
upon others –
Now there were two things that David asked for – 1st was food the 2nd was a weapon – v.8,9 Do you have a sword or a spear
A)THE SWORD OF GOLIATH - HOW
did Alimelech get the sword of Goliath?
B)David must have
presented it to the Lord..... Presented it in the Tabernacle of the Lord
and it was kept by the priest
1) Now David is on the run and he needs a
weapon and the Lord gives it back to
David
C) LESSON#3 You can NOT out give the Lord
1)
Whatever you give to
Him will ALWAYS come back to you... Especially in your day of need
D) Sometimes we wrestle
w/ our giving – whether it is time or finances – how can I tithe – not in the
budget –
1) But this is the one area in our lives – where God says test
me on this
Mal. 3:10
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the LORD
of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out
for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
A)
Now this is the only
place in the entire Bible where the Lord says – TEST ME / put me to the TEST
B)
Bring your tithes into
the Storehouse / Storehouse is the Place of congregational meeting / Place of
meeting & dispersing
C)
God says test me/ Prove me & watch what happens – watch
how I take care of your needs
1)
See we can never out give God – so God says watch how I open up the windows of
Heaven & Bless you
D)
David gives the Sword
of Goliath to the Lord & the Lord gives it back to him
As David took the sword of Goliath, imagine what he must
have thought! Of course, he was happy to have a good weapon
A) But did he remember
how he came to win that sword for Israel? He didn’t do it with lies and
half-truths.
B) He did it with a bold
trust in God, a trust that believed God and trusted Him to sort out the
consequences.
C)The last time
David held that sword in his hand, he used it to cut the head off the giant he
had killed with great faith in God (1 Samuel 17:51).
1) But the sword was not the weapon of faith; the sling
and the stones were.
D) David now remembers
the victory, but perhaps not the faith that brought the victory.
1)David can have the sword of Goliath in his
arsenal, but he would be even better equipped if he had the same faith that killed
Goliath.
E) At this point He is starting to trust more in his
own cleverness than in the Lord, on the Run again !!!
1) High School – Ran a stop sign – tried to outrun a
Police officer / But there was no way –
F)
David is trying to run
from God – God won’t let Him !!!! – v. 10-15
Now this is comical of how when we are not trusting in the Lord we will do the stupidest things
A)David leaves Nob w/ Goliaths sword at his side - & he heads for Gath – Guess who was from Gath? GOLIATH
B) David goes to the home
town of the Philistine Champion w/ the very sword that he used to cut off the
Giants head
1)
He goes there hoping
to find a refuge & some asylum – but his plan backfires / they recognize
who he is – ( what he did )
C) Not only killed
Goliath but he killed 10,000 of their men
1)
David responds by
acting like a crazy man – completely undignified
Degrades
himself & the Lord
D)David pretended
madness in their hands., including scratching on the doors of the gate, and let
saliva fall down on his beard.
1) It was as if David was foaming at the
mouth.
The saliva on the beard
was especially convincing, because men in that culture would have considered
that something only a man out of his right mind would allow. "An indignity
to the beard was considered an intolerable insult and would not have been
permitted by a normal person." (Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown)
Beard being undignified
– wait until your beards grow back –
So David 1st runs to the house of the Lord but is not honest w/ the Priest & so then he runs to the World –
A)Many people today follow in those same steps – they run to the Lord but are not willing to surrender to the Lord – turn to the world
B)People don’t fall away
from the Lord – they walk away / they make a choice to not stand on the promises
but on the arm of the flesh /
1)
they make their decision to forsake the Lord – to walk away from the
Lord –
C)But Know this God
makes it hard – { He doesn’t let David get away w/ this
God does that w/ us – We
have too much of the Lord to really enjoy the World – But at the same time too
much of the world to really enjoy the Lord –
D) The person who stays
in this Limbo state will eventually really – slip up because although the
spirit is willing the flesh is week & if I am not feeding my spirit – if I
am not dealing w/ the sin I am just allowing my flesh to get stronger
And the HS is not going
to force you to walk w/ God !!! Will not invade your free Choice
David flees – during
this time that he gets in touch w/ the Word of God wrote Psa. 34 / Psa.56
David gets back in touch
with God’s word. Three times in the Psalm, he repeats the phrase I will
praise His word (Psalm 56:4, 10).
Sword of Goliath there is
none like it – Sword of Spirit there is none like it
When David trusted in
himself or in the ungodly, he had distanced himself from God’s truth. Now, he will
praise His word! In 1998, a Marine Corps pilot flying low in the Italian
Alps clipped a gondola cable, and 20 people plunged to their death. Just a few
weeks later, a crew of five Navy fliers was killed in California's Sequoia
National Forest when their helicopter smashed into power lines. Three years
earlier, a crash involving the same power lines had killed two people. In 1999,
NATO forces bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese
journalists and injuring 20 others. Each of these tragedies had the same cause:
faulty maps. Investigators say that the National Imagery and Mapping
Agency and its predecessor organization have played a role in at least a dozen
accidents since 1985, some involving fatalities and loss of military aircraft.
If you don’t have the right map, you will get into trouble. God’s Word is the
map for our lives. So, when David says I will praise His word, he is
back in touch with the essential road map for his life.