Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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The author of 1 Samuel could write for television.
Seriously.
He could be a writer on a drama series.
He’s held our attention.
He jumps from scene to scene.
He leaves us in suspense (that is, if we read a section or chapter at a time).
The story we resume today was interrupted by 1 Samuel 28.
The story began in 1 Samuel 27, was interrupted by 1 Samuel 28, and now, 1 Samuel 29 is interrupting the story started in 1 Samuel 28.
It’s David’s story interrupted by Saul’s story which is interrupted here by the continuation of David’s story.
It’s riveting writing.
Just imagine if this was old-timey television, when you had to wait an entire week to see what happened next.
Kids these days have no idea what we went through.
If you weren’t home, you missed it.
There was no DVR, no streaming services, no way to watch an episode you missed.
The advent of the VCR just got your hopes up; most of the time it wasn’t programmed correctly or you missed the first or last few minutes.
1 Samuel is kind of like that.
If we were reading this straight through, we’d be following two different stories, longing for resolution.
If it just came a chapter at a time, we’d be left hanging.
Waiting.
Wondering.
We’d talk about it during the week, wondering what was going to happen with David, how Saul was going to bite it (we know he’s going to die, we just don’t know how).
We’d be placing bets on when and how the kingdom would transfer from Saul to David.
It’s a great story.
And the storytelling just gets better and better.
What’s more, all along the way, the Lord is at work.
He’s on the move.
His purpose will not be thwarted.
The Lord is, once again, all but completely unmentioned in this chapter, but that doesn’t mean He’s absent.
It doesn’t mean the Lord is on holiday or taking a nap.
No, our God neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121).
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Samuel 29.
If you are able and willing, please stand for the reading of God’s Holy Word:
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
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I told you it was a great story!
What an unexpected salvation!
In 1 Samuel 27:1 we read: But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul.
The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines.
Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
David’s decision to go to Philistia has brought him to this point in 1 Samuel 29.
David and his men are stuck marching with the Philistines into battle against their own people, the Israelites.
The story was interrupted and we were left hanging.
As we come back and find David, we see David in a desperate situation.
David has a little cover; he’s in back of all the Philistines marching with Achish.
But this situation is no good; David has to know this is bad.
David’s been playing Achish for a fool.
He doesn’t want to be found out by Achish; Achish would absolutely have David killed for his trickery and deceit, not to mention all the Philistines David killed and raided in the time he was there.
And David certainly doesn’t want to be seen by Saul or Israel to be marching with the Philistines.
David really needs to find a way out of this situation.
I wonder if he’s wracking his brain, if he has some of his men helping him think about a way out of marching with the Philistines.
The text doesn’t tell us anything of the sort.
David has to play this just right.
Rock…David…Hard place.
But then something strange happens.
The commanders of the Philistines, (that is, the five Philistine leaders from the five different regions of Philistia) question Achish about these Hebrews.
“We’re getting ready to fight the Hebrews.
What are you doing with these Hebrews?”
Achish defends David as faithful to him and helpful to him.
“David and his men have been with me a long time (16 months now); they’re good.
You’ll like them.
David’s a great guy, really!”
One would think the insistence Achish shows would settle it; Achish goes to bat for David.
But the Philistine commanders aren’t having it.
The Philistine commanders know what David is capable of and they can only imagine why David is there with Achish in the first place.
They suspect that David is doing what David has actually been doing.
Rather astute for some fellas just walking into this...
The Philistines recall the song they’ve heard playing on Top 40 radio:
1 Samuel 29:5 “Isn’t this the David they sang about in their dances: “ ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands’?”
Achish wants David to stay.
Achish is defending David.
The Philistine commanders are angry with Achish and want David gone; they’re arguing against David.
They tell Achish to “send the man back…he must not go with us into battle.”
This is precisely the out David needs.
And it comes from…the Philistines?!?
Very, very strange.
And it gets even more strange.
Achish goes to deliver “the bad news” to David.
The “bad news” is actually “good news”, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Achish gives in to the Philistine commanders and tells David, “Hey, man, I really like you, but the rulers don’t approve of you.
It’s not me, it’s them.
Turn back and go in peace.”
Whew!
But David plays like he’s hurt and insulted by all of this.
“What have I done?
Why can’t I go and fight?”
Strange, right?
“The deceived (Achish) defends his deceiver (David), and the relieved (David) disputes his relief!” - Dale Ralph Davis
Achish assures David that he’s pleased with David, as pleasing in my eyes as an angel of God.
But he reiterates the decision of the Philistine commanders in releasing David from battle: “He must not go with us into battle.”
David is to leave the next morning and that’s just what David and his men do.
The Philistines go to battle and make sure David does not go with them.
We know, because we’re Bible people, that this chapter—1 Samuel 29—is not the story of a lucky break.
We know this is divine deliverance, a merciful deliverance.
The author doesn’t have to spell it out for us.
We get it.
We can read between the lines.
The Lord is Good, and Quiet
The most obvious mark of this story about the Lord’s goodness is that it says nothing about the Lord’s goodness.
The chapter says basically nothing about the Lord.
Outside of Achish’s odd comment about David being as pleasing to him as an angel of God, there’s nothing explicitly mentioned about the Lord.
The Holy Spirit inspired author of this book doesn’t make everything so obvious for us.
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