Scripture: 1 Samuel 29:1-11
Sermon Series: 1 Samuel: God of Reversals – Sermon 30
What’s your favorite song about America? Do you get a lump in your throat when you hear The Star Sprangled Banner? Do you love God bless America? Maybe your favorite is Lee Greenwood’s God bless the U.S.A?
When our country was in its infancy, Britain had lost the war, the articles of peace were being signed, but on a raw, windy day in March a group of American Revolution officers planned a mutiny. This isn’t some Tom Clancy or Brad Thor (pictures) thriller. It’s known as the Newburgh Conspiracy.
On March 15, 1783, an officers’ meeting was held in Newburgh, New York. Washington’s army was waiting for the completion of peace negotiations that would end the War and allow the army to disband. But the soldiers hadn’t been paid for months. Officers used blankets to hide their tattered uniforms; soldiers didn’t even have blankets. There was little food. The army believed an ungrateful Congress had forgotten them.
Prior to the meeting of these officers, an anonymous “Address” was circulated, demanding relief from Congress before the army would disband. The plot originated with several army officers, including General Horatio Gates (picture), the “hero of Saratoga,” who despised George Washington and wanted to take his place. Tension was high as Gates opened the proceedings that morning.
General Washington (picture) wasn’t expected to attend but he entered the meeting hall through a side door and asked for permission to speak to his men. Gates didn’t dare refuse. Washington attacked the mutiny head on, reminding the officers of his loyalty to them. He declared that rebellion would lead to “the ruin” of both the army and government, and he pledged himself to their cause.
But then, the unexpected happened. Attempting to read a letter from a congressman supporting the army, he couldn’t read it and had to reach into his pocket for a pair of spectacles. Excusing himself, he explained that not only had he grown grey in serving his country, and he now found himself growing blind. His officers were stunned. Their frustrations and anger dissolved before their beloved commander’s admission of frailty. Some officers openly wept. Washington brought them back from the abyss.
We came within an inch of never having the United States. In 1 Samuel 29 David comes within an inch of never being God’s anointed king. Turn to 1 Samuel 29:1-11 (p. 251). David is on the brink of being a Judas, a Benedict Arnold or a John Anthony Walker (pictures). It’s a mess of his own making.
As a child I was taught, “Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” David has sown his own terrible mess.
Remember Laurel & Hardy’s (picture) classic line “Another fine mess you’ve got me into!” David had gotten himself into Another fine mess. He has no one to blame but himself. His chronic pattern of deception has caught up with him.
The chapter begins with David in a dilemma: to fight against his own people or risk execution by the Philistines. For 1½ years he’s lived a life of deception – pretending to be loyal to the Philistine warlord, Achish of Gath.
A decade of relentless attacks from Saul took their toll. David has been on the run, threatened, betrayed and hunted like a dog. He’s living in political asylum in Philistia. 1 Samuel 29 has David facing the prospect of fighting alongside the Philistines against Israel.
For decades Israel and Philistia have been involved in border disputes. Sensing the collapse of Saul’s kingdom the Philistines prepare a full-scale assault. They gather at Aphek (map). The mention of Aphek is ominous. It was the location of the Philistine battle with Israel when they captured the Ark of the Covenant, after which Eli the high priest died. It’s one of the darkest chapters in Israel’s history. What happened before at Aphek is about to happen again and end Saul’s reign. On this return to Aphek David has joined the Philistines and will be fighting alongside the enemy against Israel.
David is in a catch 22. His lies caught up with him. Achish, convinced of David’s loyalty demands he fight by his side. But to fight against Saul and Jonathan is something David can’t do. To refuse would blow his cover and reveal he’s a Jewish sympathizer. It’d be suicide. Even with his 600 mercenaries he’s outnumbered. He’s in a lose-lose. How will it be resolved? How will David get out of this mess? Taking matters into his own hands instead of trusting the Lord, giving into doubt and despair, living on lies hadn’t worked out. It doesn’t work out for us either. If you’re taking notes…
1.When we run from God, we pick up speed, vs. 1-2. Harvard Business Review carried an article entitled “Ethical Breakdowns.” The authors attempted to figure out how companies ended up making unethical decisions when none of those involved really knew how bad things had become. They concluded that most of those cases weren’t because of “out and out crooks.” Instead, “Much more often, we believe, employees bend or break ethics rules because those in charge are blind to unethical behavior and may even unknowingly encourage it.”
When you face murky decisions do you justify bad choices? How do you know you aren’t getting in deeper? As we make questionable decisions, who are we becoming? Good guys or bad ones? That’s what David is wondering.
It began with what seemed like a smart move. David is exhausted from running from Saul. He’s at a point of despair so he goes over to Philistia to catch a break. I don’t think he intended to stay so long, but he got comfortable. He’d stopped trusting God. Then, he lies about his raiding excursions. And now he’s put on a Philistine uniform, as he and his band are the rear guard for the Philistines.
What David does here is abominable. It’d be like Martin Luther King Jr. joining the KKK. Or Patton becoming a Nazi. He’s about to become Israel’s greatest traitor, yet he began as Israel’s greatest champion. What happened? When we start a downward slide, it snowballs. Sin never stays small.
Last year Eliot Senseman’s (pictures) pet snake, an 18’ python, wrapped around his neck and strangled him. Many buy these snakes when they’re small, like 17” or 18”. They take them home but the snake grows 7’ in the first year. All of a sudden they’ve got a huge snake on their hands.
Sin starts small. Before you know it you have a monster that’s choking God’s life out of you. But we foolishly think we’ve got it under control. We dangerously underestimate sin’s power. David did and so do we.
David began with a little deception, but he just kept doing it. It became ingrained. David’s biggest problem is David. If you know Scripture it shouldn’t surprise us. David is handsome and gifted. He’s brave, brave enough to fight a giant. But he still has a sin nature like ours—which is what James says of Elijah in James 5. David is just a sinner like you and me.
In his book, Devoted to God, Sinclair Ferguson (picture) writes: “It is always a shock to our pride when we discover that we are sinners—and not merely people who occasionally sin.” Sin isn’t just some kind of infrequent aberration. We’re saved from sin’s penalty. One day we will be saved from sin’s presence, yet we are daily in need of being rescued from sins power.
When we look in the mirror of God’s Word, we’re often dismayed by what we see. We echo Paul’s words in Romans 7, “The good I want to do I don’t do, and the bad I don’t want to do I end up doing” (vs. 19). We totally understand how you get to verses 24 and 25: “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We know the only answer is that only Jesus delivers us, so that we’re simultaneously righteous in His sight and at the same time sinners in ourselves. David is saved from Saul, but needs to be saved from himself.
At the end of this August I will have been your pastor for 35 years. Do you know who’s given me the most trouble in those 35 years? “Me.” There’s no question about it and that’s not false modesty. If you want to check with my wife, she’d concur immediately.
David has been saved from lions, bears, giants, Saul’s armies, everything, but he needs to be saved from himself, and so do you and me.
In a crowd this size no doubt some of you are playing with a pet sin. It’s like a baby python. You think you’ve got it under control. It’s so small, even cute. Kill the snake. If you don’t, it’ll choke God’s life out of you. James 1:14-15 warns: “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (NLT).
2. God in His grace sometimes protects us from ourselves, vs. 3-5. The Philistine nation was ruled by the lords of its five chief cities of which Achish is one. These leaders were irate that Achish could be so naïve.
But Achish is proud that this Israeli hero, this servant of Saul had been with him so long. He lies about how long. It wasn’t years. He believed David’s lies that David was on his team.
The Philistine rulers are much more astute. These military leaders have no patience with his ego or gullibility. They feared David by being in their rear guard might switch sides and attack them from the rear while they’re fighting Israel on the front. They understood David more than foolish Achish. Their fears were well-founded. What better way for David to return as a hero to Saul but to return with lots of Philistine heads. In His providence God turned enemies into David’s saviors. Every Philistine kid knew that tune – David has struck down his ten thousands. Ironically, the song that got David into trouble with Saul gets him out of trouble with the Philistines! David finds himself not trusted by Saul and now he’s not trusted by the Philistines.
Sometimes Christians foolishly say, “If God doesn’t want me to do this, He’ll stop me.” It’s presumption. When God doesn’t intervene, they’ll blame Him. God protects David this time. But what He did for David, He might not do for us. God sometimes protects us from ourselves, but He doesn’t have to.
There’s an important lesson for us here. If a child of God defects—even temporarily—to the other side but then discovers that the other side doesn’t want him because they don’t trust him. Why? Because a child of God is always a child of God. The new nature within can’t be taken away though it can be camouflaged by compromise. It’s why backsliding is a kind of spiritual suicide. The believer who cuts himself off from the people of God soon discovers the people of the world don’t want him around either. So he’s fated to spend life in a kind of no-man’s land, half in the world, half in the church, a man without a country.
David is in the wrong camp with the wrong company but he doesn’t stop to ask the important question: What am I doing here? Many believers do the same thing and need to ask: What am I doing here?
Eugene Peterson (pictures) in his book Leap Over a Wall, points out that “This David/Achish episode isn’t a biblical license for caving in to the culture. Scripture repeatedly admonishes us to “come out from among them; be separate.” We’re taught in many and various ways to resist the undertow of the world’s culture.” This is an account of what happens when we find ourselves overwhelmed by our culture with seemingly no way out. It’s a story of God’s hidden providence and behind-the-scenes efforts. God in His grace does for us what we aren’t doing for ourselves.
God’s ways of orchestrating His preserving providences are often shocking. Dr. John Feinberg (picture), in his book, The Many Faces of Evil, tells the story of when his wife, Pat, was diagnosed with Huntington’s—a genetically-transmitted disease that causes deterioration in the brain, thus causing deterioration of physical and psychological abilities.
John and Pat weren’t just concerned about the future of her health, but the health of their children. If one parent has the gene that causes Huntington’s, children of that parent have a 50% chance of having the disease. What was also troubling to John was that they had no warning that Huntington’s was a possibility for Pat—and he felt that they should have been warned.
Soon after the diagnosis, they requested a copy of Pat’s mother’s medical chart to see if there was any family history of the disease. They learned that Pat’s mother had suffered from Huntington’s, unbeknownst to the family. Initially, Dr. Feinberg said that he was angry, realizing this diagnosis came five years before he met his wife. It could have altered everything!
But then Feinberg writes of his realization that this hidden knowledge was a gift of grace from God: “For twenty years that information had been there, and at any time we could have found it out. Why, then, did God not give it to us until 1987? As I wrestled with that question, I began to see His love and concern for us. God kept it hidden because He wanted me to marry Pat, who is a wonderful wife. My life would be impoverished without her, and I would have missed the blessings of being married to her had I known earlier.
God wanted our three sons to be born. Each is a blessing and a treasure, but we would have missed that had we known earlier. And God knew that we needed to be in a community of brothers and sisters in Christ at church and at the seminary who would love us and care for us at this darkest hour.
And so He withheld that information, not because He accidentally overlooked giving it to us, and not because He is an uncaring God who delights in seeing His children suffer. He withheld it as a sign of His great care for us. There is never a good time to receive such news, but God knew that this was exactly the right time.” You and I often don’t understand God’s ways. But God is always good and always good to those who belong to Him.
3. God can use naïve leaders to accomplish His will, vs. 6-7, 9-10. Achish is apparently not a library card holder. He proves the adage that anyone can be president or in his case, king.
Verse 6 is the first time God’s name is used in the account. It’s noteworthy that the only time that God is mentioned is on the lips of a pagan king, “Achish called David and said to him, “As the Lord lives.” Mentioning David’s God is a providential reminder to David of who he really is and where his allegiance should be.
Achish is enamored with David. He buys all of David’s lies. The Philistine commanders are afraid that David would become an adversary; Achish insists he’s an angel. Achish is embarrassed that he has to dismiss his bodyguard. But David had deceived Achish for the sixteen months he’d been in Ziklag, while it was true David had done nothing to harm Achish.
Achish is an interesting contrast to Saul. He defends David’s loyalty when David is deceiving him, while Saul believed that David was his enemy when David had done no harm to Saul. Achish made David his “bodyguard for life,” while Saul dismisses him from his service. Like the Roman governor, Pilate, Achish pronounced that David was innocent – three times, while Saul, the Jewish king was certain David was a traitor and demanded his death.
The affection Achish feels for David borders on comedy. He doesn’t want to hurt David’s feelings, but also doesn’t want a problem with the Philistine commanders. He insists that David leave first thing in the morning so they can get on with the battle.
4. God is never honored when we’re deceptive, vs. 8. University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert Feldman (picture) studied lying for more than a decade. His research has some startling conclusions. “Most shocking is that 60% of people lie during a typical 10-minute conversation and that they average two to three lies during that short timeframe.”
When it comes to lying, David is an overachiever. Verse 8, “And David said to Achish, ‘But what have I done? What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?’” You’d have expected that when the word is given to David to return to Ziklag, he’d shout, “Hallelujah! I didn’t know how I was gonna get out of this mess. This is better than I could have hoped for. You mean I can just leave?” Achish would have said, “Yeah, I’d like you to go quietly and swiftly.” But David doesn’t do that!
Instead David responds with one of his favorite questions: “What have I done?” Remember the first time he said that? It was when his brother said, “Why did you come down here? Just to see the battle?” David responds “What have I done?” On another two occasions, he asks the same question: “What have I done?” In both cases, it is a protestation of his innocence.
But what’s happening here? “What have you found in your servant from the day I entered your service until now?” Are you crazy, David? You just got the chance to walk, no harm-no foul, and you’re protesting it?
Is he feigning this commitment so he can rub Achish’s nose in the embarrassment of it all? Or, when he talks about fighting “against the enemies of my lord the king,” is Saul actually the lord and king he has in mind? In which case, the Philistines are the enemies.
Remember, Saul had told people, “You better be careful with this guy David, because he is very cunning.” Frankly, David is so cunning that it is difficult to determine what he’s up to. Some scholars note an ambiguity in David’s answer to Achish. He used the phrase “my lord the king” on previous occasions to refer to Saul. It’s possible that David did in fact want to fight against “the enemies of my lord the king.” That is, he wanted to fight against the enemies of Saul, which would be the Philistines. Perhaps it’s why David protested his forced departure. He really did want to turn against the Philistines in battle.
We’re not sure what’s going on. We’re not sure even David knows what he’s doing. It seems like he’s winging it. I can relate to David, can’t you? Sometimes I get into situations without knowing what I’ll do when I get there. Sometimes I have a chance to get out of a bad situation but I don’t take it. Too often I manage to make things worse. When it’s all over, sometimes I can’t explain my choices. Often I look back and wish I’d done it differently.
How about you? Do you look back at choices you’ve made and wonder why you did it that way? Do you wonder whether you made the right choice?
It’s purely speculation, but I think David is playing this whole situation by ear. I don’t think he has a plan. I think he wants to see how it will play out. While I don’t believe he’s making the best choices here, I do think there’s something we can learn from him. David is fearless, even a little reckless. Maybe in his head he doubts his decisions, but at least he makes them.
As a pastor, I interact with many individuals after they make mistakes. I can usually relate because I make lots of them. But more often, I interact with people who are scared of making a mistake. They don’t want to make a decision because they might do it poorly. I meet many people who are terrified of making any decision because it might be the wrong one.
How about you? Are you frozen by the fear of making a mistake? There’s a lot of that in the Church, a kind of Christian perfectionism. It’s an inability to act because we’re so concerned all of our decisions must be perfect.
David’s courage, his willingness to leap before he looked is what we admire about him. We could use more of that in the Church. The Christian life is not about playing it safe. It’s about taking risks for God.
Conclusion: So what can we learn? What does David’s life teach us? How should we respond when we’ve made Another fine mess?
I recently stumbled on this account from Pastor Stuart Strachan Jr. (picture). He writes:
“When I was in college I sometimes visited Bel Air Presbyterian Church, as did many of my friends. At that time Bel Air was known for being a place celebrities liked to visit. One Sunday, a friend of mine’s sister was there and got to observe the following interaction.
There was a man sitting by himself in a pew, in torn clothing, looking fairly disheveled. After the service had ended, a well-to-do couple in the pew next to him began a conversation with the vagabond. They informed the man that there was a shelter not far from the church that he could easily get to via the bus. After patiently listening, the man simply responded: ‘I’m Bob Dylan (picture).’ Then he walked away.” That’s a big and embarrassing mistake.
David made some sinful mistakes. He made a big mess of things. We all do. This passage should encourage us. As we look back on the time line of our own lives, we have no trouble picking out times when we were depending on our own abilities and cleverness, confident we knew the right way and decisions, and it proved disastrous. It may have nearly destroyed us.
God’s mercy never withers. God doesn’t throw us in the dumpster when we blow it. His mercy is still full, warm and stubborn, so stubborn that it insisted on pursuing David. David really did know as he wrote in the 23rd Psalm something of goodness and mercy pursuing him all the days of his life.
David’s mess and God’s deliverance by pagan saviors show that David’s success isn’t because of his savvy. It’s because of God’s mercy. The same is true of us. We are not great people but we have a great and gracious God!
David’s lies made a complete mess. Just as God saved David from the Philistines and King Saul, God graciously saved David from himself.
David didn’t deserve to be saved by God. At this point, he’d still turned his back on God. He was living life his own way. He’d left God behind. Yet, God still loved him and saved him from the mess he’d made of his world.
I don’t know what messes you may have made of your life. Maybe you’ve walked away from God. You’re here but you’re backslidden and you need to come Home to the Lord.
Just like David needed to know, you need to know that God still loves you. He loves you so much that even when you don’t care about Him, He is still willing to rescue you and protect you from the consequences of your dumb, sinful choices.
Even if you’ve turned away from God, He hasn’t turned away from you. He still loves you and is graciously pursuing you. He wants you to come Home to Him. He wants to fix your mess. It’s what the cross is about…God fixing our mess that we can never fix. Will you let Him fix your mess today?