God’s Grace Working Through our Weakness
1 Samuel 21:1-15
Turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 21. Well, we know in our story that David is now fleeing from King Saul, as Saul has been trying to kill David. Remember he ran from Saul with the help of Michal, Jonathan. And then Saul met up with David, but the Spirit of God came upon Saul. So, let’s read David’s adventures in our story this week.
“Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, ‘Why are you alone, and no one is with you?’ And David said to Ahimelech the priest, ‘The king has commanded me with a matter and has said to me, “Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commanded you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place.” So now, what do you have on hand? Give five loaves of bread into my hand, or whatever can be found.’ And the priest answered David and said, ‘There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.’ And David answered the priest and said to him, ‘Surely women have been kept from us as previously when I set out and the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was an ordinary journey; how much more then today will their vessels be holy?’ So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before Yahweh, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds. And David said to Ahimelech, ‘Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand because the king’s matter was urgent.’ Then the priest said, ‘The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod; if you would take it for yourself, take it. For there is no other except it here.’ And David said, ‘There is none like it; give it to me.’”
“Then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. But the servants of Achish said to him, ‘Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of this one as they danced, saying, “Saul has struck his thousands, And David his ten thousands?’ And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath. So he disguised his sanity in their sight and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, ‘Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman before me? Shall this one come into my house?’”
1 Sam 21:1-15 (LSB)
When we open God’s Word, we sometimes find ourselves with maybe a wonderful account of creation, or something of the miraculous such as the crossing of the Red Sea or God causing the sun to stand still, or Christ coming to the world to save sinners or some great theology by Saul. Or we come to an account of our hero, David, the one who slew Goliath, soon to be king, yet now lying once again, this time to the priest. And then because of fear, waffling on the ground with saliva rolling down on his beard. God certainly does not hide the facts from these stories, does He? As the Bible gives to us the events that happened, and how through them, God fulfills His purposes. Fortunately, God does not use perfect vessels. I know that, because God uses me and God uses you. And before we get too down on David this morning, we must understand that this is what life may look like when you are on the run, when you are running for your life maybe because of no fault of your own, as David was.
A few weeks ago, David had found refuge with Samuel. And when Saul found him, the Spirit of God entered Saul so that he was unable to do any harm to David, ands now he runs into the priest. Now Ahimelech was the great-grandson of Eli and was now the priest. Yet when Ahimelech saw David, the Bible tells us that he was fearful, in fact, he was trembling. And we do not know for sure, but it would seem the priest was puzzled that David showed up alone. So, to ease the fears of the priest, David tells another lie. And therefore, he says that he is on a special mission for the king, Saul. Now some have tried to soften this story by teaching that David was actually saying that he was on a secret mission, and therefore sent by the King, his King, God, somehow knowing that this whole thing was happening in the grand plan of David becoming king. But this seems to be reading way too much into the story, as I believe we just have to conclude here that David was again trying to deceive.
And I do not wish to harp on this again, as we have mentioned it a few times already. But unfortunately, David keeps lying, so it keeps coming up. But to remind us again that we are just reading the facts here of the story, we are not being taught that there is a time to lie. When we think of the time when Rahab lied, and when David is lying here, neither needed to lie to be delivered. God is the One who is making David king here. God was the One who delivered Rahab and the spies. God does not need our lies to accomplish His purposes. In other words, the lie that we may perceive somehow rescued or saved someone is not needed by God to save anyone, as lying is wrong, lying is sin. And I am not stating this in a judgmental way or that somehow, I am bigger than David, for I would likely have done the same thing or worse if I found myself in the predicaments that David finds himself. Yet I do know that God had determined to make David king. And God did not need David’s lies along the way for that to happen. And we will actually find out later in our study that David’s lie led to the death of the priests. Now David may have thought that if he had been honest with the priest, that he was running from Saul; that the priest would have reported him to Saul, so he chose to lie. And as well, in our story David is hungry and so he asks the priest for food.
Many of you know that the elders attended the Pastors Conference in Cleveland at Alistair Begg’s church just over a week ago. And we just had an incredible time enjoying the music and messages and workshops and the fellowship with each other. And my son Marty was there as well, with his lead pastor and one of their elders. So, I got to hang out with Marty for a bit. And if I had to give a highlight of the three days, it was when we arrived at the church each morning there were fresh doughnuts. Now I can be fairly disciplined when it comes to food, but I have to tell you that if I have a weakness, it is fresh, gooey, jam-filled, with white sweet icing plastered all over it, a tad undercooked, vanilla doughnuts, heavy doughnuts. I don’t know where they got them from, it wasn’t Tim Hortons or Duncan Donuts, but they were good. And first morning I had one and politely got up to get another. The second morning I just came to the table with two big doughnuts.
Now I wasn’t exactly starving as likely David was here. I mean, I don’t know what it would be like if you had been out running around from King Saul and arrived at the priest’s house where you could smell the bread being made—white gooey bread, a tad under cooked—I am sure this wasn’t whole wheat or anything, this was the good stuff with the real butter. Well, of course, the priest didn’t have any bread, except the holy bread. But the problem was that this bread was to be eaten only by the priest and his sons. Leviticus 24:9, “and it shall be for Aaron and his sons.” Well admittedly, this is very hard to figure out of why the priest gave David permission to eat the bread with this one condition, that his men had not been with women. And I understand the condition, but still not certain why this would have enabled them to have the bread. I do not believe we could chalk this up to the priest bending the law. But we do read in the very next chapter as it is summarizing this story.
“And he asked of Yahweh for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
1 Sam 22:10 (LSB)
The clearest understanding of this is that the Lord gave special permission to give this bread to David and his men. Now if we jump to the New Testament, you are probably aware of this question coming before Jesus in Luke 6:
“Now it happened that on a Sabbath He [Jesus] was passing through some grainfields, and His disciples were picking and eating the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, ‘Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him, how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread which is not lawful for any to eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his companions?’ And He was saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.’”
Luke 6:1-5 (LSB)
So, in this incident, the Pharisees were questioning why the disciples were picking and eating grain on the Sabbath, and Jesus brings up the very story that we are studying this morning of David eating the ceremonial bread. Well, in regard to the picking of the grain on the Sabbath, this was not forbidden, as the eating of food along the side of fields was permitted in the law for the traveller. The concern of the Pharisees was doing this on the Sabbath which again, this was not wrong according to the Mosaic law, though it was wrong according to the many man-made laws that had been written to protect the Sabbath. And Jesus asks them about the David incident, which we have found that the priest asked of the Lord and He permitted them to eat. And then Jesus concluded, “The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.”
Now this is a very deep and difficult story to know all that is going on here. Yet John Woodhouse points an interesting thought here what may possibly be the focus in the Jesus story and that is a reflection on the bigger picture, the connection of David and his men, with Jesus and His disciples. In the same story that Jesus told in the Matthew account, not only does He say that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, but He also says that something greater is here. In 1 Samuel we are reading about the soon to be king, the one whom God had chosen after His own heart, in other words, it was God’s heart, God’s choice. And this king is found with his band of men eating the ceremonial bread. And in the New Testament, Jesus and His band of men are found eating the wheat. In other words, in Jesus something greater than David has come. In our story, David has a few who believe in him, Michal, Jonathan, possibly the priest, while most opposed him. And we see the same thing with Christ, as he too had a few who believed in Him. That Jesus was mainly teaching through the story of his connection with David and he being the greater than David, even being the Lord of the Sabbath.
Well, entering in our story now is Doeg the Edomite, who we will learn more about on another week. You know when you lie, there is usually going to be a Doeg, that is going to catch up with you somehow. David dotted all his “I’s” and crossed all his “T’s” but missed a “D.” We know that the Edomites were historic enemies of Israel, as they refused to give Israel passage when they were going through the wilderness. Then something interesting happens.
“And David said to Ahimelech, ‘Now is there not a spear or a sword on hand? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons in my hand because the king’s matter was urgent.’”
1 Sam 21:8 (LSB)
Again, David must make up a fib as to why he had no sword. And the last we knew about Goliath’s sword; it was in David’s tent. And how it got to the priest, we are not told. But there is a good chance that David knew that the priest had it, as he seems eager to get it (end of vs 9), “give it to me!”
At the conference there was a great speaker by the name of Willie Philip, and he has done some tremendous work in the Old Testament. And he said that the great value in these Old Testament stories is that they are real stories themselves and therefore must be taught that way. But, he said, they are also fulfilling God’s plan, that God is working through the events and the characters to fulfill His ultimate purposes. And though the facts and location of every story is vital and important, it is also contributing to what God is doing overall. We see this all the times in the Psalms. That when David is running from Saul, he pens these words, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Exact words stated by Christ on the cross.
We also see that while approximately one-third of each gospel is devoted around the events of Calvary and Christ’ death. So, too, we have approximately one-third of the book of 1 Samuel devoted to David running from Saul, as he will be running for the next ten chapters. And I would be extremely cautious about any mystical thought to this, except that the Bible often will focus much on the hardship of discipleship. And therefore, give considerable attention to the difficulty in following Christ, as the Bible spends considerable time addressing the struggles and often long times of suffering as a Christian in these stories. And this flies in the face of our modern-day Christian perspective. That the Christian life is to be generally smooth sailing and often will largely focus on the present earthly blessings. We know of two psalms specifically that are dedicated to this time in David’s life. In Psalm 34 he says things such as:
“I inquired of Yahweh, and He answered me,
And delivered me from all that I dread.
This poor man called out, and Yahweh heard him
And saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of Yahweh encamps around those who fear Him,
And rescues them.
O taste and see that Yahweh is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”
Psalm 34:4, 6-8 (LSB)
And then in Psalm 56:
“Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me;
All day long, an attacker oppresses me.
My foes have trampled upon me all day long,
For many attack me proudly.
When I am afraid, I will trust in You.
In God, whose word I praise,
In God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can mere man do to me?
All day long they distort my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
They attack, they lurk, They watch my heels,
As they have hoped to take my life.
Psalms 56:1-6 (LSB)
And here in our story we must understand that David is trampling around the countryside, likely fearful that he would at any time come across Saul or Saul’s men.
“Then David arose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.”
1 Sam 21:10 (LSB)
This verse could literally read that David ran from the presence of Saul. In other words, if Saul’s palace was in Toronto, David high-tailed it west down the 401. And then we read that he went to Gath. This is outside the nation of Israel into enemy Philistine territory. In other words, when he got to Windsor, he didn’t stop, he went across the border into the U.S. So, he must have feared Saul more than he did even the Philistines. Yet if there was one place where David should fear for his life, it was Gath. For it was Gath where the giant Goliath was from, the one whom David had killed. This would be like a Florida Panther fan going to Toronto. When I came into the church today, there was a Tim Hortons Leaf doughnut sitting by my door. That is one doughnut I would refuse to eat! Good for the Leafs to be done soon as you know Leaf fans, they would become way too boastful if the Leafs kept winning.
I wonder what David did with Goliath’s sword when he went through customs. Sort of hard to hide such a sword. If they saw it, he might say its not new. See the blood of Goliath is still on it. And we find here that he is soon recognized as the guy, the giant killer. Interesting that the guys from Gath knew all about the accolades that David had received in Israel. Did you hear who came through customs today? No, who? David, not the David? Yes! I wonder what he is doing here. I am not sure, but hard to trust him. In fact, (vs 11) they ask themselves, is he not the king of the land? It would seem that the song that the ladies were singing back in Israel had also become a number one hit in Philistia.
“And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish king of Gath.”
1 Sam 21:12 (LSB)
Apparently, David was not all that excited about all this fanfare, as he was anxious to get away from Saul and now, he finds himself on the front page of the Philistine papers. And it says that David (vs 12) greatly feared and rightly so as they were about to seize him. So, David has a plan.
“So he disguised his sanity in their sight and acted insanely in their hands and scribbled on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down into his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, ‘Behold, you see the man behaving as a madman. Why do you bring him to me? Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this one to act the madman before me? Shall this one come into my house?’”
1 Sam 21:13-15 (LSB)
This has got to be one of the most bizarre stories in the Bible. Do we congratulate David here or do we condemn him? Is this a great move by David? Or is this the actions someone who lacks trust and faith? Some have actually called this a smart strategic move on David’s part. But we must admit that this is such a far cry from his faith and words to Goliath, isn’t it? In other words, why in front of Goliath does he say such things such as:
“You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, whom you have reproached. This day Yahweh will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the camp of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh does not save by sword or by spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and He will give you into our hands.”
1 Sam 17:45b-47 (LSB)
And now the same David stands before Achish and says, “I will strike you down and remove…” No! He acts like a mad man and drools. And we can relate to Achish’s response here. Likely hoping that this condition of David wasn’t some kind of disease that was catching. In other words, get this guy out of here! So, what do we make here of this action by our hero David? Could someone be so courageous at one time in their life and then act so cowardly on another occasion? If anything, the Bible makes it seem that David had more to fear from Goliath than he did from Achish.
So, how do we account for this? How about our spiritual growth? Does it grow the day we come to know Christ and continue to grow and become great? Does one great spiritual achievement guarantee a later great spiritual achievement? Here’s a question. Could the spiritual condition of David be at a better place when he stood before Goliath than it was before Achish, though this was later in his life? Could you and I exhibit a greater spiritual zeal and courage earlier in life than we might at a later time in life? I don’t not know about you, but I find some of the greater challenges come as life goes on. Certainly, not to ever deny the faith, but there can be times of cowardness.
At the conference Alistair Begg told a story of going to the doctor a few years ago. He is now 73, so he would have been 71 at the time. And if you do not know Alistair Begg, he is this short, skinny guy. And the doctor told him that he was doing okay physically, blood pressure good, heartbeat good. But he said to him, Alistair, don’t fall. And Alistair Begg said he felt insulted by this warning, and he said to the doctor, “Fall! You are not talking here to my Dad.” Well, he said a few weeks later he was walking out to the gar-age and tripped down the two steps and hurt his knee, cut his hand, and wiped out some shelves. And he said that as he was laying there on the floor, and thought to himself, “Oh, this is what the doctor was talking about!” Our spiritual growth and faith can look that way at times, like a fall. And though we do grow spiritually over time, I sometimes long for a deeper walk. For wouldn’t it be good if we unconditionally gave our all for Christ? And were always progressing upward spiritually, consistently. Let me leave you three lessons regarding our faith in closing.
- The longevity of our faith may not always mean consistent spiritual growth.
Why? We think it should, but it is not always the case, as many who have been Christians for many years have fallen flat on their faces. Turn to:
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree you are sharing the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you … but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be put to shame, but is to glorify God in this name … Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God must entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing good.”
1 Pet 4:12-14; 16; 19 (LSB)
This passage promises trials and sufferings. But it does not promise spiritual success every time. For how does it describe these trials? Verse 12, as a test. And what does a test do? It teaches us how we are doing. And it would seem that there will be times when we do better than at other times. And if the apostle Peter had to be tested to see how his faith was doing, I certainly am going to have to be tested. And the difficulty of the test is that it is made up by the teacher, it is not something that we make up ourselves. In other words, we have no control over the test or what’s on the test.
I remember as a student, we might whin after a test. “I didn’t know this would be on the test, not fair! Well, we do not know what will be on the Lord’s tests to us. “Not fair Lord, my test is more difficult than his test!” As the test may be sickness, a relational hurt, a work struggle or disappointment, an accident, a death, a betrayal, a financial loss, a frustration over our own lack of giftedness. And the Teacher is God, who is in complete control of the test, we are not. And the goal of the true believer is to be growing in our Christian faith, as Peter teaches that our faith should persevere to godliness, to knowledge, to self-control, to kindness, to love. But sometimes we might get a report card back that says, “C” or even worse! Sometimes we might slay the Goliaths, and on other times we may not do so well.
I don’t know about you, but if that was all there was in this story, it might be pretty discouraging. That we would leave David acting like a madman. I am sure he may have questioned his faith the next morning. But remember I said that these stories also teach us of the plan of God moving forward. In other words, what was God’s plan? That David would be the next king. And so, God was preparing him to become the man that God would use to do all that He had in mind for David and Israel, and therefore, sometimes David might receive a failure and sometimes an “A.” As acting this way as he does at the end of our chapter, or as he begins our chapter by telling a lie, or just a short time earlier, he courageously slays Goliath—God’s plan, God’s plan—is still moving forward, isn’t it? The longevity of our faith may not always mean consistent spiritual growth.
- The responsibility of the true believer is to prepare for the spiritual tests.
Though it is God who is working to fulfill His plans and purposes, this gives no place for us as His servants for idleness or indifference, as the Lord promises to us that His grace is more than sufficient. For He has not left us on our own, but He equips us for service. And there is nothing on the tests that we can claim as an excuse. In other words, we cannot say, You didn’t teach me well enough. For we have the Master Teacher who provides everything we need to do well. And we have the Master Book. Therefore, we are to, “Study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” See, a deeper faith is not that we are able to do more and greater things. A deeper faith is being convinced that God is the Hero and that He can do greater things. He is the Teacher who prepares us for His test.
- The security of our faith is based upon the grace of God.
What we see in this story is that the quality of David’s faith is secondary to the story. In other words, we do not walk away from 1 Samuel 21 and conclude, isn’t David great! No, God is great! As we see that God’s plan is moving forward despite David, and that actually will continue. Easy to read the story of David and Goliath and cheer on David as the hero, but even when David is not so courageous there is no uncertainty of what the Lord is doing and what He has planned. This is why when we read Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, we read such names as Samson, as they were part of the story, even in their weakness. For God is the Hero of Hebrews 11, as it is God whom they placed their faith. God is the Hero of 1 Samuel 21, as God is the Hero of the whole Bible.
So, where is your faith this morning? Do you understand the grace of God in these stories. How did all this begin? The people asked Samuel for a king. In other words, it all began by their rejection of God and so, He gave them Saul. Therefore, the only reason for a king from a human perspective was because of Israel’s request, which God condemned them for, as it was a desire from the sinful hearts of His people. See, the idea was worldly, for the other nations have a king Lord! And the idea was sinful, yet God said “yes.” And the outcome was not a disaster for Israel, for their sinful desire brought about for them the ultimate, eternal King. Back in 1 Samuel 12 we read:
“For Yahweh will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because Yahweh has been pleased to make you a people for Himself.”
1 Sam 12:22 (LSB)
John Piper says here that God is literally saying, because of My name’s sake, I will not destroy you, though that is what you certainly deserve. Piper goes on to say that:
“This story has far-reaching implications. The grace of affirming a monarchy conceived in sin signal that every blessing that comes from this kingship is undeserved. Every blessing that flows from this kingship is grace.
John Piper, Providence 132
Folks, in all our endeavours, all our efforts, that we strive to be right and biblical and good. Yet we know that our efforts can be tainted. In other words, if your blessing depended upon our perfections and goodness, we would be in trouble. Therefore, Lord, we know that You must deal with us in grace, as You dealt here with the people of Israel, for You ultimately brought them what they did not deserve. As eventually, David will sit on the throne, and his son Solomon will become the next king, and he will build a temple. And Solomon’s prayer was the same, when your people Israel, when they pray toward this place, when You hear them, forgive them. If they are defeated in battle because of sin, yet if they acknowledge Your name, hear them and forgive them. If there is no rain because they have sinned. Yet if they turn to You, please Lord, hear and forgive them.
You know all the Lord’s blessings to you and me over the years, will not be due to our goodness, but to His grace. As you and I were born in sin. You and I sin in this life. Yet we will someday be perfected in Christ, by His grace, for this is His purpose for His people. Just as it was His purpose to send us a Saviour and King. Let’s pray. Lord, we ask that You forgive us for our shortcomings, our sin. Times when we do not exhibit great faith, when we allow the fears of life to influence our godliness and spiritual growth. We thank You that You are great and that You will do all that You desire, as there is no question from Genesis to Malachi that You would come as the King. Just as there is no question from Matthew to Revelation that You will come again. So, we praise You this morning for the working out of Your grace in our lives, undeserved blessings from a purposeful and loving God, who will fulfill His plans, His grace working through our weakness. Therefore, may our joy and praise always be directed to such a great God. And all God’s people said, amen.