1 Samuel 23-24
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. We'll continue to walk through First Samuel. We're going to be in chapter 23 and 24 today, so you'll walk through those two chapters together.
In high school I played baseball and my freshman year we won state. Going into sophomore year, our senior class was kind of a little bit big headed. Before the season started, you had to pass a conditioning test called the country mile. It's about a four and a half mile run. Our seniors decided that because of where our coach was positioned—he parked his truck and the school was out in the country—it just was a run where you're running down that stop sign and back and around the school near the cow field. They realized that he didn't have visibility in every part of the run, so they thought, we're going to take some shortcuts. We're not going to run the full four and a half miles. We're going to shortcut here, here, and here.
When you're 15, 16, 17, you're dumb; you're not thinking through things. We thought we were because we thought, here's what we'll do. We'll all bunch up together here and we'll release here. We had a guy on our team who was about 300 pounds, so we didn't think through that he needed to be way back and finish way late. Our coach picked up pretty quickly that we were cheating. He saw the times and said this is very curious that the biggest guy on our team is running a seven and a half minute mile pace.
They finally said, all right, you guys have been running so well and doing so good. Like a cross country team, I've got your times, and that's the time you have to pass in order to make it on the baseball field. If you pass it, you go straight to the baseball field, but twice a week you have to make this run and then go to the field. He said, all right, now it's time to do it. Here are your times. We positioned all the coaches at every part of the run to see how good you were.
We quickly learned that cutting this race short and taking the shortcuts was a terrible decision. For weeks as we tried to make those times, I was one of the faster guys. It was like 28 minutes. I'm not a cross country runner; I'm not going to make close to six-minute pace for four and a half miles. I'll finish that story later and what happened. But I learned there, and I think we learn in life, that shortcuts are not good. They are short-sighted. We take them because we think that's ultimately what is good, that if we take the quickest route to get what we want, that's what's best. It's our own nature to trust in our own instincts and to actually not trust in the Lord, when oftentimes He lays out the more difficult road, a difficult path filled with suffering and difficult obedience.
Today we're in the part of David's story that feels, when you're in chapter 23, that for years he's been on the run for his life and he's been through trials and suffering and betrayal and the threat of death. He's been in it. But when we shift into chapter 24, he's going to have an option, a shortcut to the throne. We're going to see how this plays out and what this means for the Christian life as we consider what it means to have a long life of obedience to our Lord, even when it is difficult.
Let me pray, and then we'll walk through this together.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You would help us receive Your word as we walk through these chapters to see Your truth. God, I pray that we would not just be hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word, responding in faith and repentance and ultimately delighting in You above all things. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, so verse 1:
"Now they told David, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors."
We pick up where we left off last week, where David and his men are on the run. They just heard about the priest of Nob being slaughtered for proceeding to help them out. They're feeling the threat of death. At this point, they hear of a town called Keilah, a town in Judah on the border between Philistine's land and the people of Judah, and they're being robbed by the Philistines.
Verse 2:
"Therefore David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah."
David gives us an example here of what it looks like to walk with God. He sees a difficulty. He asks the Lord. The Lord responds, and he's willing to do it. But his men hear this and have questions.
Verse 3:
"But David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?"
Which is a legitimate question, because if they go into Keilah, they expose themselves. They've been hiding in caves throughout the land. To go and help this town, chances are Saul will hear about it and come. It might be a situation where they're fighting the Philistines and Saul’s army is coming. This seems risky.
So David goes back to the Lord.
Verse 4:
"Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand."
David and his men went to Keilah, fought the Philistines, brought away their livestock, and struck them a great blow. David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
Verse 6:
"When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David at Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in hand."
Abiathar was the remaining priest from the priest of Nob story last week. He comes and brings an ephod. Ephods are priestly garments that priests wore, but this is probably the main ephod that the high priest wore. This is important because in it were two stones—the Urim stone and the Thummim stone. We don't know for sure how they were used, but they generally helped answer prayers in a yes or no fashion, like, should we go here or there? The priest did some type of pulling out or casting of stones.
Verse 7:
"Now, it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah, and Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars."
Saul finally hears about it and says, aha, I’ve got them. They're in Keilah, a place with gates and bars. We'll stop the men there and finally take David down.
Verse 8:
"Saul summoned all the people to go to war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him."
He says to Abiathar the priest, bring the ephod here.
Verse 9:
"Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard, O Lord, God of Israel, please tell your servant."
They seek the Lord, asking if the city will betray them after David’s protection.
Verse 11:
"And the Lord said, He will come down. Then David said, Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will surrender you."
David and his men, about 600 now, arose and departed from Keilah and went wherever they could go. They asked the question, should we trust Keilah? The answer was no, as you see from the Lord's response.
When Saul was told that David escaped Keilah, he gave up the expedition. David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
David saw that Saul had come to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand. He said:
"Do not fear for the hand of Saul. My father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you."
Saul, my father, also knows this. The two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh and Jonathan went home.
Jonathan, David's friend, hears about these troubles and encourages him. From Psalm 34, which was written while David was in the cave fearing his life, we know the Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. David, on the run for his life with deep discouragement, has this friend encouraging him.
This encounter is significant because Jonathan has hopefulness. He says, one day you’ll be king, and I’ll be beside you. This foreshadows that Jonathan will never see David be king; he will not live to see him on the throne. This is their final encounter. Jonathan, in his last friendship act, encourages David, telling him not to fear and to trust God's promises.
Verse 19:
"Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Akilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart’s desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand."
Saul said:
"May you be blessed by the Lord for you have had compassion on me. Go make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is and who has seen him there, for he is very cunning. See and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information."
They went ahead to Ziph as spies.
If you read Psalm 54, David expresses his distress at this betrayal by his own countrymen:
"For strangers have risen up against me; ruthless men seek my life; they do not set God before themselves."
David is deeply discouraged by continual betrayal, even from people of Judah.
David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, about five miles south of Ziphara in the Arabah. Saul and his men went to seek him. David went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David there. Saul went on one side of the mountain and David and his men on the other side.
David was hurrying to get away from Saul, who was closing in to capture them.
A messenger then told Saul:
"Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land."
Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. David then lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.
At the last moment when Saul was about to capture David, God sovereignly intervened. Saul did what a king should do and protected his people, and God preserved David’s life again.
Chapter 23 gives us more examples of David continually facing the threat of death and betrayal. Think—he escaped death at Nob, at Ziph, at Maon, at Gath, and at Keilah. This is years of hunting, suffering, and fear. Every time trying to go to sleep, hearing a branch break, wondering, is it the day? Years of hardship and trauma under the threat of constant death.
This sets up First Samuel 24, where David has the opportunity to end it.
Verse 1:
"When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Wild Goats Rocks."
Saul handles the Philistine raid, then he finds that David is near Wild Goats Rocks, basically a rocky hill where wild goats live.
The story takes an interesting turn.
Verse 3:
"He came to the sheepfolds, where there was a cave. Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave."
Saul goes into the cave to use the bathroom, for privacy. David and 600 of his men are hiding inside that cave, which hopefully gives you an idea of how big it was.
David’s men were very excited because Saul was most vulnerable now, when using the bathroom. This was a moment on a silver platter—David and his men could have ended all the hardship with one swing of the sword.
Verse 4:
"And the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you."
They urged David to take this opportunity.
David rose stealthily and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He could have ended it all but instead cut a piece of his robe.
Verse 5:
"And afterward David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed."
David persuaded his men not to attack Saul.
Saul rose and left the cave, going on his way.
David knew God’s heart and the heart of the king. Saul was the Lord's anointed king, even if evil had been done. David would not decide when Saul’s kingship ends. He trusted the Lord and obeyed, not murdering a man while he was vulnerable.
His men, who have been under the threat of death for years, followed his example. That shows David's leadership.
After Saul left the cave, David boldly confronted him.
Verse 8:
"David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, My lord the king."
Saul looked back. David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.
David said:
"Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm? Behold this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against the Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed."
David pleaded:
"See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. I cut off the corner and did not kill you. You may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it."
He called out:
"May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you."
He even said:
"Out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After a dead dog, after a flea? May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand."
David showed that he would not sin to get what God promised. He humbly lowered himself to be insignificant—a dead dog, a flea—and pleaded with Saul to see that he was not the enemy.
Verse 16:
"As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said, You are more righteous than I, for you repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. You have declared this day how you have dealt well with me and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands."
Saul has moments of clarity and contrition. He weeps and realizes David is the better man.
There's a cool link to Judah and Tamar back in Genesis 38, a picture of having evidence in hand and declaring righteousness.
Saul continued:
"Now behold, I know that you shall surely be king, that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hands. Swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house."
David swore to this.
Saul went home; David and his men went up to the stronghold.
Saul finally sees it: David will be king. He pleads for the protection of his offspring, as it was common in history for successors to kill rival family members.
When you think about chapters 23 and 24 back to back, you see how long David suffered and how many years of hardships he endured. He had the opportunity right then to end all his hardships with one swing of the sword and take the throne. But he did not. He trusted the Lord and was obedient to the will of the Father.
This is a beautiful picture of trust in God.
It's also a foreshadowing of the more righteous path of Christ.
Jesus also would be offered a shortcut to the throne during His temptation in the wilderness.
In Matthew 4:
"The devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to Him, All these I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.
Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve."
Jesus was offered the throne but rejected the shortcut because He trusted the will of the Father, even when that road was filled with suffering—the road to the cross.
Jesus suffered agony, physical pain, separation from the Father as the full cup of God's wrath bore down on Him.
Even when Jesus was suffering, He could have called down angels to end it, but He did not.
He endured to the final breath, with redemption in mind for us.
When He finished His work on the cross, He ascended to the right hand of God, where He rules over all kingdoms forever.
Amen.
Going back to 10th grade, when we were running this unreasonable time every day before practice, it was clear we were never going to make our times.
Finally, our coach said, all right, I’m going to bump up the time to what it should have been.
You smaller guys got 32 minutes, which was a pretty steady pace.
I hate running. To this day you won’t see me running; I’m not a runner. I don’t want to be a runner.
Because I hated running so much, I was determined to make the time. I ran faster than I ever had in my life. I was blazing fast.
Coming around the final turn, about a quarter of a mile left, my coach said, you’re not going to make it.
I sprinted, after running four-ish miles, with everything I had.
The final few steps before the finish line, I puked. Then I puked walking across the finish line because I was not going to miss this time.
He said 29 minutes.
I was like, are you kidding me? I could have walked.
What we failed to see about this conditioning test was we could only see what was right in front of us—a stupid run we had to do.
You may think, why do baseball players have to run? It’s because of endurance for the season.
When you play 30 games in high school, 60 plus in college, or 162 in pro baseball, you have to get in shape, or your body will break down mid-season.
At 15, you don’t see what the coach is doing. You don’t see that the suffering he puts you through over and over again is for a greater good, so you can make it through the season and not break down.
We didn’t trust our coaches. We saw what was good in our minds, so we took the shortcut.
But that’s what we do all the time in life. We see the easier option right in front of us and want to take it.
We have wonderful examples from Scripture about what it looks like to be obedient and how good that is.
David could have taken a shortcut to the throne, but didn’t.
Jesus was obedient to the Father, even through suffering, for our redemption.
We have wonderful examples of the long road of obedience, even when it’s difficult.
So the question today: What shortcuts are we tempted to take?
In business or work, we know shortcuts: how to cut corners, how to cheat.
We see others do it and wonder why we have to do it the right way.
But God calls us to integrity and obedience for our good.
In relationships, it’s common now to simulate marriage without the covenant.
Living as if married, moving in together, enjoying pleasures without commitment.
It’s hard to be obedient in that and honor the Lord.
But God has good for us when we trust Him in obedience.
We fail to see that when we take shortcuts.
Some feel a desire for vengeance when they've been wronged.
Shortcut is to take vengeance ourselves.
God calls us to trust Him for justice, which is far better.
In parenting, there are shortcuts.
Moments needing patience, control of emotions.
Shortcut is to lose control or discipline wrongly.
In marriage, conflict, and other struggles, shortcuts abound.
We often coach people to confront, to avoid gossip, to be faithful to God’s calls.
Some suffer deeply and may see shortcuts like substances, self-harm, or worse.
We cannot see the long obedience God calls us to.
As you consider today, what shortcut options are you taking when God calls you to obedience?
My hope is we consider David’s actions and the better David, Jesus Christ, and follow their lead.
Matt will come up and lead us in one final song.
As he comes, don’t shift or move, just listen.
The wrong response to the call is to say, "I’m going to do this by my strength," trying to muscle obedience.
The response is to look to Jesus.
Hebrews 12 says this after chapter 11:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
Our example is to look to Christ, put our hope in Him, who endured the cross and now rules from heaven.
May we first look to Christ by grace through faith and be people who trust God every step in obedience.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father, I pray that You would help us hear the good news of the Gospel that calls us to trust You, so that we might not take the shortcuts in life that do not bring joy, honor You, or bring good to us or those around us.
God, I pray for faithfulness, but that it comes by first trusting in You.
We have failed, sinned, and chosen shortcuts.
May You cover us in grace, by Your grace, through the blood of Jesus shed for us.
May we leave here as a people obedient to You, even when it is hard.
In Jesus' name, Amen.