The Best Laid Plans
1 Samuel • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” 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.” 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?” 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.” And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. 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.” And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 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, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” 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.” Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, “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.” And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home. 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 Hachilah, 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.” And 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 it is told me that he is very cunning. See therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.” So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.
There is an expression that goes: “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
And I found that quote attributed to multiple people, so I can’t give you its origin.
But I can certainly attest to the truth of it.
My plan from when I was 8 years old until my late 20s
Michael to Jeff to me to you - what if Michael had resisted God’s will and pursued his own?
Today, I want us to think about our plans. We have seen in the book of 1 Samuel so far many plans of men go completely awry. Eli and his sons, Saul, David, the people of Israel as a whole, Jonathan, the priests of Nob, Goliath the Philistine. The list goes on and on.
In fact, there is only from Whom everything has gone completely according to plan in the book - even through the troubles, and the failures, and the struggles - God’s plan is perfectly worked out.
And even though nobody else’s have, we still have two types of people. We have those who have success even through the trials, and those who have failure because of the trials.
And the difference is whether or not they have surrendered their plans in order to follow God.
Whose plan are we on?
Let’s consider first someone who is on God’s plan. We start with David.
Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.”
Keilah was a city in Judah, about 3 miles away from the cave in Adullam where David fled to at the start of the last chapter.
It is also near the cities of the Philistines. And realize, these Philistine cities were supposed to be part of Judah - they were part of the Promised Land that God gave to Israel.
Let’s back up in history.
We read this in Joshua 15 regarding the allotment of Judah in the land. Here are some of the cities that are part of their inheritance:
Joshua 15:44–47 (ESV)
Keilah, Achzib, and Mareshah...Ekron, with its towns and its villages; from Ekron to the sea, all that were by the side of Ashdod, with their villages. Ashdod, its towns and its villages; Gaza, its towns and its villages; to the Brook of Egypt, and the Great Sea with its coastline.
Ekron, Ashdod, and Gaza were three of the five cities of the Philistines. The other two being Ashkelon and Gath.
Now, why were the Philistines in territory alloted to Israel?
Well, when we read the story of the conquest of the land in the book of Joshua, we read that most of Israel had to basically be forced to go and take their inheritances. And they were having a lot of trouble doing it.
Then, at the close of the book, we have the epic speech by Joshua where he tells Israel to finish the conquest, and to choose who they will follow, and there’s that verse we all have memorized and probably have hanging somewhere in our houses where he says:
Joshua 24:15 (ESV)
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
And we all remember this speech as an epic call to follow YHWH and proof of Joshua’s great faith.
But go read that chapter later today and realize that Joshua is telling Israel that they are going to fail. That they are not going to be able to do it. He even points out to them that at that very day they were still worshipping other gods.
You see, this is the plot of Israel’s story in the Old Testament. They fail to obey God and to worship Him alone. And they fail over and over again, and then God calls them back and patiently forgives them, and the cycle starts again.
And part of that failure, a subplot, if you will, of their history, is their failure to drive the pagans out of the land.
When the book of Judges opens, we are told of the attempts to take the land. We are told of some of the conquests of God’s people.
But then we are told - in the very first chapter - of their failures. We read that Manasseh didn’t drive out the inhabitants completely. Ephraim allowed some of the pagans to live among them. Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, Dan - they all fail to do what they were told to do and the pagans live among them.
And then we read this as the precursor to the stories of the judges:
Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”
And this happens. This is happening in 1 Samuel.
Even at the height of the kingdom, when there is peace and rest from the enemies of God’s people, and they have control of the land and its borders reach as far as God promised to Abraham as far back as Genesis - even then, there are pagans among Israel. Many of them married to the king. And what God promises here comes to pass.
And then, the nation splits, and the people themselves - first in the northern kingdom, then in the southern kingdom - the people of Israel themselves, by and large, become pagans. They become just like the nations around them.
We have already seen this in 1 Samuel with the corruption of the priesthood and the people asking for a king like the nations.
What’s the point? Well, as we go through the book of 1 Samuel, what we have seen are these same failures and successes of Israel. We have seen that under Saul’s leadership they have failed to drive the pagans out of the land. They failed against he Amalekites. They failed against the Philistines repeatedly.
But we see one who succeeds where the people fail - David. He defeats Goliath and then routs the Philistines. Saul put him in charge of the army assuming he’d wind up dead, but whenever David went against the pagans in the land, there was only success. God gave him victory over and over again.
In other words, David was succeeding in God’s mandate for Israel where they and Saul were failing.
And we have already seen how David typifies Christ in this. Christ is the One Who wins the victory where all others failed. He is the One Who fights on behalf of His people and wins them their freedom. He is the One Who came to complete the mission God gave Him.
This is what David has been doing.
And what we see throughout the book, is that David - on the run, living in caves, hated by the powers of this world, without many resources - he is continuing to carry out the mission God gave Israel. He is fighting the people of the land and driving them out.
We have one such occasion in this chapter. And we’ll see more in later chapters.
Here, the Philistines, who are presented in the book as the primary enemy of Israel in the land - here they are attacking another part of Judah’s rightful territory, Keilah. In fact, they have taken the city.
In verse 3, the men with David speak of Keilah as outside of Judah’s jurisdiction.
And so, David now hears that the enemy of Israel is regaining land that God gave to Israel.
What will he do about it?
He’ll do what God tells Him to. He’ll obey.
And what he’ll do first is learn his lesson and inquire of God before he does anything.
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 inquired of God. How? Well, I believe the same way he does it later in the chapter, which we’ll get to.
But the point here is that David is not going to act without knowing God’s will. He has already seen how that turns out.
And he asks God if he should fight the Philistines, and God says yes. God’s mandate for the people of Israel has not changed. Even though they won’t be able to fulfill it perfectly. Even though it will take God to really do it. Their calling is to subdue and fill the land God has given them.
And that’s what David wants to do.
But his men are not on board with is plan.
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?”
Remember what we saw in the last chapter: David and his men were safe and comfortable on the other side of the Jordan, but God made His will clear to David. Through His prophet, God tells David to come back into Judah - to go into the trouble rather than avoid it.
And here, we see that the men know what kind of danger they’re in being in Judah. So they tell David, “listen, it’s bad enough that we are here and in danger from Saul, but why are we going to go into Philistine territory and fight the Philistines?”
And note that they are “here in Judah” and don’t want to go to Keilah. That is because it was now under Philistine control.
You see, under Saul, Israel was losing land, not gaining it. The pagans weren’t being pushed out, they were taking over.
So what does David do? I mean, he trusts these guys. He pretty much has to, they’re like the only friends he has right now. And he needs them to go with him if he is going to take back Keilah. And they don’t want to go.
But there is one voice he listens to above all others:
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.”
When God makes His will clear to David, David listens to Him, not man.
When God makes His will clear to us, we need to listen to Him, and not man.
And how does God make His will clear to us now? We don’t have Urim and Thummim, or prophets, or priests who we go through to get to God. But as we saw last week, we have His Word. That is the benchmark. We get our marching orders directly from God through His Word.
And that means that even our “the Spirit is leading me to do blank” ideas have to be held up to the scrutiny of the Word. The Spirit is not going to lead you to do anything contrary to what He inspired men to write in His Word.
So again, the question isn’t whether or not God speaks and makes His will clear to us. The question is whether or not we will hear Him and obey.
David and his men obeyed.
And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
They obeyed, and God gave them success.
Once again, David is the one who is fulfilling God’s mandate to subdue and fill the Promised Land. He takes the city back from the Philistines.
All is now well, right?
Not exactly. There’s still that Saul problem that David has.
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.” And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men.
While David and his men are fighting the enemies of God and taking the land as God commanded them, we have Saul and the army of Israel - those who should be taking the land - trying to hunt down and kill David.
Saul wants to take Keilah not because it belongs to Israel as part of God’s promise and he want the Philistines out of the way, but because he wants David out of the way.
This is a problem for Israel as a people. They are not fulfilling God’s mandate, but they are actually fighting against God and his anointed!
So, between David and Saul, who is doing the job of the king of God’s people? David is!
He fought with those who gathered around him - the true king - and overcame the world. He used the few people and what little resources God gave him to obey, and God gave him success.
Meanwhile, Saul is trying to fight against him. He is using every resource God has given him to fight against God.
We have a picture of the church vs. the world right here.
If we use what God has given us - the people and the resources - to obey Him and fulfill the mandate He has given us, He will give us success.
But we need to realize that the world is using every resource they have to fight against God and us. And we need to be ready for that.
How?
By believing that our God will preserve us, and bring us victory. We saw - the world cannot be victorious over the church because God has already won the victory for us.
So all we need to do, is obey. Whether we have much or little - whether we are many or few - we know what God has called us to, and if we obey Him, we cannot fail!
And God will preserve us. If we listen to Him speak, and we obey, the world can’t win.
And that’s what we see with David here. He hears God speak and he obeys, and the world cannot win.
But how does he hear God speak?
Let’s back up a bit:
When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand.
Now we read last week about Abiathar fleeing to David, and that was before David came to Keilah. Is the book going out of order here? Is the Bible retconning the story of Abiathar?
No.
The Greek of the Septuagint says:
“And it was with the fleeing of Abiathar the son of Abimelech to David, he went down with David to Keilah with the ephod in his hand.”
Or the Hebrew could just as easily be translated:
“After Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David, he brought an ephod to Keilah in his hand.”
Abiathar was already with David before he goes to Keilah. And he already had the ephod. And that is how David has been inquiring of the Lord. And he does it again here.
David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 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, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” 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.”
Now, if you’ll remember back a few months, David Langford explained briefly what are known as the Urim and the Thummim. And while the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what they were, whatever they were, they were a means of determining God’s will for His people.
And they is what is in view here.
Now, this speaks simply of an ephod. And as we’ve seen, those that “wear the ephod” are the priests. Samuel wore an ephod, if you’ll remember.
So Abiathar having an ephod with him when he comes to David would be assumed since he was a priest.
But the writer in verse 6 tells us specifically that when he came to David, Abiathar had an ephod in his hand. And we know from the last chapter that he was the only one in the priestly line to escape Saul.
So I think a specific ephod is in view. He ran from Saul, but he grabbed the ephod of the High Priest when he left. And why wouldn’t he? He was the only priest left alive from the city of the priests.
And, back in Exodus 28, we are told of the garb of the priests, including his ephod:
These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests.
Later in the chapter, we are given details about the ephod and the breastplate of the High Priest:
Exodus 28:28–30 (ESV)
And they shall bind the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, so that it may lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, so that the breastpiece shall not come loose from the ephod. So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of judgment on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place, to bring them to regular remembrance before the Lord. And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before the Lord.
And we are told in the book of Numbers what, at least in part, the Urim and Thummim are to be used for. Moses knows he’s about to die and he asks God to give Israel a leader. And this is what we read:
So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.”
The Urim and Thummim were to be used primarily as a means of the leader of Israel determining battle plans.
That is exactly what David - the true leader of Israel - the true king! - that is what he did to determine whether or not he should go against the Philistines.
And that’s what David does here to determine how to handle Saul:
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, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.”
Now, as I said, nobody knows exactly what the Urim and Thummim were, but they were clearly something put into the breastplate - stones of different colors, many believe - that would give “yes” or “no” answers depending on the stones that are pulled out.
So David prays to God, and asks if Saul is going to come against him in battle. And by whatever stone he or the priest pulls - or whatever the means is - he gets an answer. Yes, Saul is coming.
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 then asks if the men of Keilah - those he just saved - if they will take Saul’s side in the battle. And he again gets an answer of yes.
Think about that. The people that David just fought to save - who he risked his life for - they are going to turn against him and surrender him to Saul.
They will sacrifice David to save their own lives.
Now think about this. The true King Jesus Christ came to save the lost. And He willingly sacrificed Himself to save us.
Can you imagine a greater love than that?
And yet - then, as now - there are those who Christ would have laid His life down for that have turned against Him nonetheless. Who have turned against the One Who came to bring salvation.
We see again here that picture of the church vs. the world. And we see why it is that way: because it is the world against Christ.
But notice here, David wasn’t the only one who risked his life - all of those who joined themselves to the king did. It wasn’t just David that the world was going to turn on - they were going to turn on all those who joined themselves to the king.
And while we should expect nothing more and nothing less than exactly that to continue until Christ comes back to complete the victory, we can also expect something else.
That God is in control:
Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition. And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
God spoke to David in order to preserve him, and all David had to do was obey. And he did.
And though Saul kept coming against him, God in His providence would not allow Saul to be victorious.
So too, our God sovereignly preserves His church. The world will come against us, and come against us, and come against us. But they will not - they cannot - be victorious over God’s people.
And notice, here, we are told that David had about six hundred men gathered to him.
In the last chapter, when all the weary and heavy laden sought relief and joined themselves to David, we are told there were 400 men.
Already, through the obedience of the few, God is growing the number of those who join themselves to the true king.
And now, as God preserves His church, we see that He does something else. He grows His church.
And He does it through His people - when we hear what God has said, and we obey what God has said, and we seek His will above our own - God gives us success.
We gain ground for the kingdom of Christ as we overcome the world, which is how God grows our number and calls more people to join themselves to the King.
And we do it in the face of opposition. The world will come against us and resist God.
But God sent us a King to overcome the world.
And now, those who join themselves to Christ do the same. And we may risk our lives to do it, but God will bring us success.
Because God is in control. He is sovereign over it all.
When we started this series, I said that a thread that ran the whole way through the book is the sovereignty of God. We have seen that come into the forefront of the text, and then at times it is not as prominent.
But it’s always true.
And in our passage here, we see it front and center.
Regardless of the fact that Saul came against David relentlessly - every day - God did not give David into his hand.
And then, for the last time, David sees his friend Jonathan.
David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul’s son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, “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.” And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.
Look at the faith of Jonathan, the one who has joined himself to the true king, choosing him even over his own family. Look at the faith that believes that God is in control and will give His people the victory.
He tells David what I just said - the world will not be victorious against God’s king. Jonathan is sure of that not because of David, but because, for Jonathan, this is all about what God is doing.
He has faith in God and His promises, even in the worst of situations, and this is a bad situation.
And yet, Jonathan reestablishes his covenant with the king. He says “this is a bad situation, but God is going to work it all out, and I still swear my loyalty to God’s anointed king!”
He says: “as for me, I will serve the Lord.”
And then, what Jonathan believes - and what God promises - is worked out in real time:
1 Samuel 23:19–26 (ESV)
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 Hachilah, 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.” And 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 it is told me that he is very cunning. See therefore and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul.
Though the whole world was against God’s anointed and those who followed him, God is in control. And Saul pursues David, and God preserves David, and Saul pursues David, and God preserves David, and on and on it goes.
And then, God even sovereignly stops the pursuit:
1 Samuel 23:26–28 (ESV)
As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.” So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore that place was called the Rock of Escape.
God is in control. And God uses the Philistines to draw Saul away from David.
And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Engedi.
And that’s how the chapter ends.
Now, I would like to draw some contrasts out of our passage today.
First, notice the difference between Saul and David regarding who they listen to - what they trust. And we already know, Saul is of the world and an enemy of God, and David is of God.
And so we have Saul, who listens to the world and its ways. He is told by man that David is trapped in a walled city and Saul listens and sees it as his opportunity to gain victory.
But he fails.
The Ziphites then tell Saul, “hey, come with us, we got David” - and Saul doesn’t get him. And then he is told to go to Maon, but that winds up being fruitless. Then he is told to go into the mountains, but he again fails to find David.
Saul listens to the world - to man - over and over and over again, and it gains him absolutely nothing.
Then we have David. He listens to God. God reveals His word through the prophets, and David listens. God gives guidance through the priests, and he listens. He uses the Urim and the Thummim, and David listens. He uses the faithful assurances of a man of great faith in Jonathan, and David listens.
And David is given success. He is provided for. He is preserved.
We have worldly wisdom, over against Godly wisdom.
The plans of men, over against the plan of God.
One who acts according to his own will, over against one who obeys God’s will.
Which one describes us best?
And the truth is probably that we are sometimes one way and other times the other. There are certainly times - hopefully most times - that we rely on Godly wisdom to make our decisions. And that we heed the plan of God and obey His will.
And right now, if there is anyone sitting here who is thinking to themselves, “Obey God? No, I don't really want to be that kind of person” please see me immediately after service today. We’ll talk.
Of course we all want to - at least, we want to want to - be people that obey God. But, of course, sometimes just wanting to want to isn’t enough, is it?
So, think about worldly wisdom over against Godly wisdom.
When we fill ourselves up with worldly wisdom - when we hear more worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom, and read more worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom, and talk more about worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom - we start to think with more with worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom.
And when we take in more worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom, we start to put out more worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom. With our own words, and our own thoughts, and our own actions.
Brothers and sisters, you can’t sow with worldly wisdom and reap Godly wisdom. Let me put it this way: you can’t take in more worldly wisdom than Godly wisdom and expect to be Godly.
Not in thought, word, or deed.
What will we do about that?
Think about the plans of men, over against the plan of God. And the biggest threat here are not the plans that others have contrary to God. The danger - the very real danger - is our own plans.
When our plans don’t align with God’s plans, whose plans to we follow?
I am quite sure David, one day just keeping his father’s sheep, the next day anointed king by God, and then suddenly a national hero for taking down the strongest enemy of God - I am quite sure his plan was never to live in caves, run from town to town, and hide on mountains for fear of his life.
And when he escaped, his plan wasn’t to come back into the danger.
And his plan wasn’t to continue to fight the Philistines.
But none of that mattered to David. When God’s plan and his plan were at odds, the choice was clear. What about us?
Sometimes we have plans - big plans - established plans - already begun and nearing the goal plans. And then God steps in and reveals His plan.
And maybe its pride, or the fact that we’ve already worked so hard for them, or we just always thought we’d be doing “this” - but it is very difficult to open our hands and let our plans go.
But, Saul had plans, and they didn’t work out. David had plans and they didn’t work out.
But only one of them was given success in what he did. Because he let go, and followed God’s plans.
And David had success personally, yes. But more importantly, he had success for the sake of God’s people, and for those who gathered themselves to God’s anointed king.
In other words, God’s plan for David, wasn’t really about David.
And the same is true for us. We may have goals - but goals are personal - our goals are for ourselves. So we each plan accordingly to achieve my goals for me.
But God has goals for His people. And He plans accordingly. And He will often call us to lay aside our plans for ourselves in order to achieve His goals for His people.
And it may mean we suffer personally. And it may mean our goals go completely out the window.
But we can’t expect to be part of God’s plan when we constantly choose our own plan.
What will we do about that?
Whose will are we going to follow? Ours, or Gods?
That’s first.
Second contrast: note how God uses the same means to give success to His people and failure to His enemies.
Again, David had plans and God interrupted them in a big way. But because David followed God’s will, the circumstances of this life meant success for David.
And Saul had plans and because of his own sin, his plan and God’s did not align. Yet Saul still sought his own will. And the circumstances of this life meant failure for Saul.
Note that the Philistines attack God’s people to start the chapter. And because David sought God’s wisdom and will, and submitted to His plan, God used that to bring success for David, his men, and the city of Keilah.
God worked it out for His king. God worked it out for those who follow the king. And God used it all for the good of His people.
At the end of the chapter, the Philistines attack again. But because Saul did not seek God’s will at any point, because he followed his plans instead of God’s, and because he heeded worldly wisdom, Saul wound up with nothing. Not even his own plans worked out.
The same circumstances worked out two completely different ways. And the difference is what we’ve already spoken about.
For those who ignore God’s will and live according to worldly wisdom, the circumstances of this world will inevitably ruin their plans. Because they judge success according to worldly wisdom.
But for those who desire God’s will and act according to Godly wisdom, there is only success.
It may not be the way we defined success when we had our own plans. It may not be success by worldly standards, and likely won’t be. But it is true success. When we are part of God’s plan, and our wills are submitted to Him, we always win.
The same circumstances are for the good of God’s people, but to the detriment of the plans of the wicked. And if our plans align with God’s, and our wills align with God’s, and our wisdom aligns with God’s, we will only ever have success!
Why?
Because God is in control. He always is, whether that fact smacks us in the face like it does sometimes, or it fades to the background of our minds like it does sometimes.
And we see that in the third contrast here. And that is the contrast between God’s foreknowledge and God’s sovereignty.
The Bible talks about these two aspects of God’s dealings with people and events - His sovereignty and His foreknowledge. And many who want to assert our freedom over God’s freedom speak about foreknowledge like it means God knows what will happen in the future. And based on that foreknowledge, He makes His plans.
But that is not what foreknowledge is. We see here, as David consults God on what Saul is going to do, God tell David: “Saul is going to come down to Keilah and the men of the city will hand you over to Him.” God tells David what He knows is going to happen.
But it doesn’t happen. Because God had other plans. Saul had his. The people of Keilah had theirs. And God foreknew it, but it wasn’t part of His plan.
Clearly, God does not make His plans around what He knows will happen.
God makes His plans and sovereignly ordains what happens. He doesn’t work according to man’s plans.
He gives David success. He brings Saul failure.
Because He is in control of it all.
And while this may seem like a debate we ought to leave to the theologians to bicker about, it is very pertinent to not just what we read in the book of 1 Samuel, but to our own lives.
It matters for us, for our families, and for our church.
Because it matters that God is in control. At all times, through all circumstances.
Because God doesn’t work according to our plans. So we need to work according to His.
And that means, if we choose worldly wisdom - to take it in and give it out - and we choose our plans and pursue those, and we choose our will over God’s will, we will - because God is in control - we will prove to be fools, and we will fail.
But if we choose Godly wisdom - to seek it, know it, speak it - and we choose God’s will and God’s way - if we hear God and obey God - then we can’t fail.
So we have a choice to make.
What wisdom will we seek, what plan will we follow, whose will will we obey?
The right answer is clear.
So, for right now, there is only one thing we can do.
We can be like Jonathan - who had the choice between God’s anointed king, and the world. And because he had faith in a sovereign God, he chose God - to want what God wants, to plan what God planned, and to follow Him no matter what - and even in the worst of circumstances, he was able to declare his devotion to the true king!
He said “this is a bad situation, but God is going to work it all out, and I still swear my loyalty to God’s anointed king!” He resoled to follow God’s plan.
So like Jonathan did, we need to decide to follow God’s plan.
So like Jonathan, we need to renew the covenant with our God!
The Gospel - the Covenant in Christ’s blood
We fail, God calls us back, we fail, God calls us back. The cycle ends when we resolve to follow His plan
