David 3

Saturday Night, Session 3

Unseen Giants

recap

So we have been looking at King David’s life for the last couple of sessions

Night 1:

Samuel chose Saul as king, he was very “seeable” or tall and handsome…Really you get the sense in the book of 1 Samuel that he is just chosen because he looks the part...

There are even some funny things…Like he is out searching for his father’s lost donkeys…so if you really read between the lines in this story…Saul is following his father’s donkeys…He is literally being led around israel by lost donkeys...

It sort of symbolizes his whole administration as a leader

Whereas David was seen by God.

He was a man after God’s own heart

And he was a keeper of the sheep…or a leader of them…and when you think about it…this sort of symbolizes David’s entire administration

This Morning:

The question I asked us this morning is who are we all becoming?

When the stuff hits the fan, what are our “knee-jerk” reactions....

Saul liked to throw spears

David resisted the temptation

So if you remember

Saul was Israel’s giant and yet when it really mattered, he didn't have his hope in the Lord…so he failed

David was Small but he had placed his hope correctly in the Lord

Then we looked at this question of are you a “David” or are you a “Saul” When Saul gets stressed out he throws spears and when David gets spears throw at them he never throws them back!

So we asked the question, who are you at your core?

Are you a David or a Saul?

Well one of the truths of following Jesus is that:

the ways of God are most unappealing and seemingly irrelevant when we are angry, isolated or afraid.

We know this to be true, The path that God leads us down seems so unappealing when you are angry, isolated or afraid

Now it is impotrant to note...

Men…We make the mistake of going one of two ways with our emotions...

We either ignore them

Or we give them too prominent of a place in our lives and thus…We get ruled by them

Both are dangerous

This is probably the source of your greatest regret too. Right? You probably always say the things that you shouldn't say when you’re angry. You probably do the things you should do when you’re isolated or you are afraid…

When does pornography become a problem men?

When do angry words happen?

When do we push people away?

Its when we are angry, isolated or afraid

When we are a part of these conditions we feel compelled to do something…We almost have a senses of panic and we think…If I just do something it will be better…something, anything,

We rely on instinct, we rely on what we did before…Because just doing something, when we are angry, isolated or afraid helps to soothe us…

But often times, just doing something doesn’t make things better, it will often times make things worse…

Now lets get to David…

He has two colossal failures in his life. One that he is famous for, David & Bathsheba when he is in his fifties

And one that happens in his early twenties when he is running from Saul that he is not famous for

So as we remember from last week, because of David’s growing power and influence, Saul became afraid of David.

Saul began trying to do things like control David…So he tries to get him into his family by giving David his Daughter’s hand in marriage…

David is like, I don't think I am worthy to be the kings son-in-law…I’m really nobody

This makes David even more humble and its like, oh my gosh, who would do this!?

Well later on David does fall in love with one of Saul’s daughters, and this pleased Saul so he gave his daughter Michal’s hand in marriage to David…

Later, the king’s son and David became best friends and David’s power and influence began to grow and grow.

Saul would try and send David off on these missions that just seemed impossible so that he would die and each time David came back and he gained more favor and influence than ever…

Finally the preverbal pimple comes to a head…And Saul just looses it one night at dinner…..Dinner was the big meal of the day and to sit at the kings table was an extraordinary honor.

David would regularly dine with the king, But David had been missing dinners lately. It was kind of an open secret that the king was trying to Kill David.

So Saul just lost it at one of these dinners when David didn't show up

1 Samuel 20:30-31

30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

By the way if you’re at the dinner table and one of your kids screws up…I dare you to say…”You son of a perverse and rebellious woman!” I mean don't you think that Saul’s wife was at this dinner too?

Now…What Flared up? His Anger…Its hard to do things God’s way when you’re angry right?

But Saul lays out the real issue… Saul’s days were numbered, he always tried to do things his own way. He didn't honor God in the process

So way back in 1 Samuel 13, Samuel told Saul, your kingdom is done!

So Saul is really concerned that his son Jonathan’s kingdom could get established…so Saul could have a legacy…

Saul is saying, look Son, David needs to die if we are going to win…He’s a threat….

So Jonathan goes to David and says, you have to leave town man…You have to get out of Israel all together because my dad wants you dead…

David is only 22 at this point

All of the sudden David has to go on the run. He used to have all he needed… He was the king’s right hand man…and then all of the sudden

He was Abandoned…He was Angry & Afraid

And what happens when that happens?

Like anyone else, David Panicked….

He lost sight of the fact that God was with him…he lost sight of the fact that He killed Goliath and the faith he brought into that moment

We have the benefit of knowing how David’s story ends…But in the moment you are thinking “David!” Why have you lost sight of this!

People may be looking at your life too and be thinking…Hey didn't you trust God? Why have you lost sight of this?

You may even look back at parts of your life and think, why did I act that way? Why did I spend that money? Why did I do that thing?

And it’s real simple, when you feel abandoned, angry or afraid then you panic

So in David’s life in the very next chapter, here is what happens:

1 Samuel 21:1

David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”

at this time there wasn't a temple, so to go to the priest David had to go to wherever the tabernacle was, and at this point in his life it was in Nob.

And what does the priest say

Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?

Ahimelek knows that something is up…because usually you would hear David coming, before you saw him

David would travel with over1,000 mighty men usually on horseback

In fact this was probably the first time that Ahimelek had ever seen David alone.

1 Samuel 21:2-3

2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

So here David is at the place where the 10 commandments are stored and what does he do? He Lies!

And it's a really bad lie too! Why does he lie? Because he’s afraid!

He’s Like I am on a secret mission and uhhh…I told my men to meet me “at a certain place” Like what does that even mean?

What happened to the David who said, In you Lord I put my trust all day long?

1 Samuel 21:4-6

4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.”

5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

Let me explain this really fast. The priests would bake bread and dedicate it to the lord as a reminder of God’s feeding and providing for his people in the dessert. They would actually offer it on the alter and this was the consecrated bread…

So Ahimelek says hey we don't have the normal stuff. But we have this bread that is special, its holy, it’s for consecrated and really just for the priest!

Now David may have been kept from women, but was he pure? Well…He just lied to the high priest! So how pure can you be?

And just catch this next part because it is so key to the story

1 Samuel 21:7-9

7 Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief shepherd.

Ok when we just read that: this is the Establishment shot that the writer is giving us…Because this guy is really important in the rest of the story…When we just read this we all should have said, “DUN DUN DUNNNNN!”

Because this guy will come back as an important character in the story…And he’s an Edomite…See there is nothing that is insignificant in the Bible.

Brief side-note: There is no useless detail in the Bible! There was a set of twins born in the book of Genesis: Jacob who would be renamed “Israel” and Esau who would form “Edom”

While they reconcile at the end of their lives… if you were to track Edomites all through the bible there is this constant struggle with Israel and Edomites…In fact there is this entire book of the Bible, Obadiah which prophesies that Edom will be destroyed…

To take this one step further: When Jesus was born he was from the line of Jacob and Herod the great was an Edomite…

Now…Doeg the Shepherd, Good guy or Bad guy in the story?

Ok but here is the really remarkable part of the story:

1 Samuel 21:8

8 David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.”

DO you all catch what’s happening?

1. David you’re the most famous warrior in the nation, and you’re asking for a spear or a sword?

2. Who is buying David’s story here…The guy normal travels with a thousand people, he has his own supply chain for food and weapons and yet he is showing up here and asking for weapons?

3. And we covered the significance of the spear last week right? Its symbolic of David taking matters into his own hands

4. What happened to the kid who said:

In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.

And then Check out this next verse, its so good! It fact…I hope this just burns into your memory…Because its that amazing

1 Samuel 21:9

9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.”

David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

Do you catch what is happening here?

The fact that this sword and spear is with the priest at all is a reminder that these were dedicated to God as a way to say, the Lord Delivered me from Goliath.

Those sword and spear should have been reminders to David that when he was just 15years old he took down Goliath with just a sling and a stone, because God was with him!

Where is the kid who wrote: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil?

The fact that he is even taking these weapons reveals that he is living in fear!

Where is his faith? Where is his confidence?

And the answer is Fear, Anger Loneliness!

These three things can cause us to forget all that God has done for us in the past and to act impulsively!

These three things undermine our faith in God

This would become a decision that David would come to regret for the rest of his life because the consequences of this are huge!

Why is it when Fear, Anger and Loneliness occurs in our lives do we decide to do things that we have never done before?

We decide to do things that we ultimately regret?

It’s probably because when we make these decisions we cant see clearly and we think something like

Well my situation is different! You don't understand,…

If God were really with me then God wouldn't be doing this to me…

Now here is what I think is a core truth:

It’s so easy to trust God when you have nothing to trust him with and nothing to trust him for!

When your in college and your like running off to every mission trip and doing things on a whim, draining your bank account to nothing…Because God’s got this!

That's an easy thing to do when your young, you’ve got nothing to lose, no one else to care for!

David as a 15 year old boy only had his life to lose if he went and fought Goliath…and if he died, he would have been a legend…

But now that he has a family, a huge position and on top of that, Samuel anointed him as the next king…

David has a lot to lose!

It’s easier to trust God when you have nothing to trust him with and nothing to trust him for!

I see this a lot in Junior high and high school students: They go to Camp they accept Jesus and they say God You can have everything, take at all…

And God’s probably like…Well its not really much, I mean that's your parents house, your parents room, your parents car…You don't have much to Give kid…

And then when kids get older they start dropping away from their faith! Why?

They start amassing responsibilities & stuff! They have a job, a family, a career…and it’s easy to trust God when you’ve got nothing to lose but what about when you have everything to lose…a little fear…a little loneness…a little anger and its easy to take matters into your own hands

When things are going great, how difficult is it to show up and serve, how difficult is it to come and sing these songs? Its easy right? But when the things you value begin to slip away…not as easy

So After this, the next story, David runs away to the Philistines!

Smart Move? NOPE!

Not only that he goes to Gath, which was Goliath’s town…Not only that he is carrying the Sword and spear of Goliath…And they are like hey you’re the guy who killed goliath, don't try and tell us your not you even have his sword and spear!

So David has to pretend that he is insane! He scratches the wood with his nails, he slobbers all over himself…

And the king eventually kicks him out…He’s like I’m up to my neck in crazy people already I don't need another one

And then he goes and lives in a cave! And finally, he comes to he senses and David goes and inquires of the Lord and the Lord told him to go back to Israel.

But meanwhile. Remember when I told you that back with Ahimelek there was a bad guy there…

Well Doeg goes to Saul and here is what happens

1 Samuel 22:9-10

9 But Doeg the Edomite, who was standing with Saul’s officials, said, “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelek son of Ahitub at Nob. 10 Ahimelek inquired of the Lord for him; he also gave him provisions and the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”

This is high treason. You don't give food and weapons to the enemy of the king!

But remember the lie! Ahimelek had no clue he was arming the kings enemy

Ahimelek had no reason at all to think of David as an enemy to Saul

And here is what happens next

1 Samuel 22:11-17

11 Then the king sent for the priest Ahimelek son of Ahitub and all the men of his family, who were the priests at Nob, and they all came to the king. 12 Saul said, “Listen now, son of Ahitub.”

“Yes, my lord,” he answered.

13 Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and inquiring of God for him, so that he has rebelled against me and lies in wait for me, as he does today?”

14 Ahimelek answered the king, “Who of all your servants is as loyal as David, the king’s son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard and highly respected in your household? 15 Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of his father’s family, for your servant knows nothing at all about this whole affair.”

16 But the king said, “You will surely die, Ahimelek, you and your whole family.”

17 Then the king ordered the guards at his side: “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because they too have sided with David. They knew he was fleeing, yet they did not tell me.”

But the king’s officials were unwilling to raise a hand to strike the priests of the Lord.

18 The king then ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests.” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck them down. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. 19 He also put to the sword Nob, the town of the priests, with its men and women, its children and infants, and its cattle, donkeys and sheep.

One guy escaped this whole thing and went and told David all that had happened…

And David was broken and here is what he said

1 Samuel 22:22

22 Then David said to Abiathar, “That day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, I knew he would be sure to tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of your whole family.

Sometimes taking matters into your own hands seems like the best thing to do at the time, but the end result is disastrous!

In defense of David: He was massively wrong, but when he realized it, what did he do! He owned up to it….

See David could fight the giant of Goliath

But the giants of loneliness, fear and anger were not as easy. They are the unseen giants that can control us to consider doing things that we have never considered before.

It can cause us to go back to old habits, old hurts old hang ups…It can cause us to consider some truly stupid options for life

Loneliness fear and anger can cause us to hurt people around us…Usually the people whom we love the most, or who love us the most

Some of you have been dealing with this issue your whole life…Dad’s anger flew out of control and it scarred you

Mom’s depression and isolation caused you hurt and feelings of abandonment on a genetic level

Who is the collateral damage of your anger, your fear or your loneliness?

When Ahimelek brought out the Sword and the spear, David should have know right then and there that he was wrong…

He even Said it..He knew word would get back to Saul…He knew when he was doing it, it was wrong

If your facing these things today, Fear, Anger isolation..>Don't run

David would later write this Psalm and I think it is what David would tell you if he were here today

Psalm 9:9-10

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 10 Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

So maybe you’re here today and you’re facing, Anger, fear or isolation:

Response: