You can turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 21. 1 Samuel chapter 21. Remember the story of Saul and David takes place in 16.1 to the end of the book, 31.13. And here in 1 Samuel 21, we'll read from verse 1 to 22.5. And essentially what we have is David on his escape from Saul.
As I said with reference to chapter 19, if there was a one-word summary of that chapter, it would be deliverance. God delivered David from threat to His person. In chapter 20, that one-word summary would be covenant. It was the covenant with Jonathan that brought comfort and encouragement and strength to David in the midst of these trials.
And here in chapter 21, that one-word summary would be provision. God indeed provides for His man. even when he's on the run for his life. So beginning in chapter 21 at verse 1. Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest.
And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David and said to him, why are you alone and no one is with you? So David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you. and I have directed my young men to such and such a place. Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.' And the priest answered David and said, There is no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women.
Then David answered the priest and said to him, Truly women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young man are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day. So the priest gave him holy bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread, which had been taken from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.
And David said to Ahimelech, is there not here on hand a spear or a sword? For I brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. So the priest said, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, there it is, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is no other except that one here.
And David said, there is none like it, give it to me. Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another, and dances sang?
Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, look, you see the man is insane.
Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
So when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about 400 men with him.
Then David went from there to Mizpah of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and mother come here with you till I know what God will do for me. So he brought them before the king of Moab and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Now the prophet Gad said to David, do not stay in the stronghold, depart and go to the land of Judah.
So David departed and went into the forest of Herod. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, we thank you for the Word of God.
Again, we pray for forgiveness as we approach the Scriptures. We pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who takes the things of Christ and makes them alive and real to us. May we know that power of illumination that comes from on high. We ask that you would bless this time together, that we would learn the lessons concerning your provision. that we would learn something or two about the Lord Jesus Christ and his glorious gospel.
And we ask in his most blessed name, amen.
Introduction
Well, as we read through this particular chapter, it seems like basically a description of geography and topography, all these different places and all these different names and all these different locations. But if we see it only as a statement concerning geography or topography, we will miss the theology that the author has for us concerning God's provision of David in the midst of his escape from Saul. And there are several places that we need to focus on this morning. First, the escape to Nob in 21 verses 1 to 9.
Secondly, the escape to Gath in 21, 10 to 15. Third, the departure to the cave of Adolam in 22, 1 and 2. Fourth, the departure to Moab in 22, 3 and 4. And then fifthly, the departure to the forest of Hereth in 22, 5.
So again, a lot of name places, a lot of locations. a lot for geography buffs, but hopefully there are some nuggets here for theology buffs, because what is conspicuous in this chapter is that it's about God. It is about the Lord Most High as He looks with favor upon His servant David. When David is tried, when David is afflicted, when David is tested, when there are all manners of difficulties that have come upon him, Nevertheless, he confesses that the God of heaven and earth has delivered me from all of my afflictions.
Escape to Nob: Bread Provided
So let's first go to Nob. In verses 1 to 9, there is a request for bread. Now, Nob is probably the sanctuary city. It is described in 2219 as the city of priests.
The high priest is Ahimelech, the son of Ahitab, and the brother of Ahijah. Remember that Shiloh is no longer the central sanctuary. This is most likely the place before Jerusalem being the center of Israel's religious life. And notice that a Himalak seems to have some indicator that things are not well between Saul and David.
When Ahimelech sees David, according to verse 1, it says that he was afraid when he met David and said to him, why are you alone and no one is with you? He probably didn't know all the ins and outs, he probably didn't know every jot and tittle, he probably didn't know all of the details, but he certainly had some understanding that things were not right between Saul, the sitting king, and David, this man who gained victory in the battle in the Valley of Elah. So he's afraid and he asks David, what are you doing here? Why are you alone?
And now notice David's response here. What David does is he lies. I don't want to sugarcoat it, I don't want to candy coat it, I don't want to make it any more pleasant, but what David does is lie. John Gill says that David pretended he was upon a secret expedition.
Now, some would say, well, it's not a lie if somebody's trying to hunt your life down and kill you and all that sort of thing. We could deal with the ethics another time, another place, another situation. Notice here, though, it's just told us. The Bible's not recommending it, it's simply reporting it for us.
But Gill says that he pretended he was upon a secret expedition by the order of Saul, which none were to know of. No, not one, not his own servants, and that was the reason why he came to him alone, which was a downright lie, and was aggravated by its being told only for the sake of getting a little food, and especially told to an high priest and at the tabernacle of God, and when he was come to inquire of the Lord there, and was attended with a dreadful consequence the slaughter of the Lord's priests there, which afterwards lay heavy on David's mind. and is the very sin he is thought to refer to in Psalm 119, 28. He says this, "...this shows the weakness of the best of men when left to themselves. David, who has much hated lying as any man did, nevertheless fell into it himself." Again, if we want to discuss the ethics of lying, I'm happy to do that.
That's not the point in 21. It's not the point in Joshua 2 when we see that Rahab lied. It's not the point in some of these passages that we fixate upon and try to engage in a discussion of Christian ethics. I'm not saying that lying and not lying and all those things are unimportant, but that's not the point of the narrative and we mustn't miss it.
The narrator simply tells us what the case is. And notice what David then requests. Or David says, he says to Ahimelech the priest, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you or what I have commanded you. And I have directed my young men to such and such a place.
It is intriguing and we considered this at our Wednesday night Bible study. David's not real good at this. You've got to be careful when lying becomes really good or your lying becomes really easy. David's story is pretty well shot through with holes.
Why would David go on a mission by the king himself and not take a weapon? And how is it the case that his young men are ritually pure? Remember, what Israel engaged in was holy war. And because they engaged in holy war, it was looked at as a sacred act.
And in order to be prepared for a sacred act, one had to be consecrated. And in the case of these men, they had to be ritually or ceremonially pure. David's men had the ability to be three days prepared for this mission, but they were too rushed to grab a sword, David's not really good at this, and that's a good sign. It's not like certain politicians, for instance.
I don't want to cloud anybody's mind with such a suggestion, but there have been those who have been known to lie. And they do it with great easiness and facility, and they even seem to believe their own lies. David's not like that. He's a man on the run, he's a fugitive, he is on the hunt by Saul, and arguably, again, this is a case of self-defense.
What ends up happening in Nob is pretty horrific, and David does shoulder the responsibility. But God willing, we'll look at that in another time, in another setting. But he requests bread for he and his men. There's no bread there except for the table of showbread.
Remember when you walked into the tabernacle, and you went into the holy place, not the holy of holies, If you were not a high priest, you didn't go into the Holy of Holies. And if you were the high priest, you only went there on the Day of Atonement. But in that holy place on the north wall was a table of showbread. And there were 12 loaves of bread, probably symbolic of and typological of God's provision for Israel.
When they were in the wilderness, God's people needed to eat, and God provided that food for them. Perhaps as well emblematic of the necessity of God's word, because when God fed them manna from heaven, it was to underscore the reality that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And the placement of the table of the showbread was right next to the Holy of Holies. That is where God dwelt.
That was the presence symbolized or signified by this table of showbread. And so the priest says, the only thing that we have here is the food that is consecrated for the priest. And what they would do is on the Sabbath day, they would replace the old loaves with new loaves. And then the priest would eat the old loaves.
You can read more. about this in the book of Exodus. You can see all of this set forth there. But notice, very specifically, David then underscores that truly women have been kept from us, verse 5, about three days since I came out and the vessels of the young men are holy and the bread is in effect common even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day. So the priest gives him the food.
You say, well this is all very You know, sort of mundane, right? This is all very simple. This is all, you know, just a geography report. Just a traffic report.
We're just going to the city of Nob and sort of surveying things here from afar. Well, notice what's at stake here. God provides bread for David. And a not completely righteous David, I might add.
If David had, in fact, lied, and David secured bread by this lie, it might rise up on some of us or in some of us in the church to say, well, that's not right. That isn't legit. I have to go out and work very hard to get my provision of daily bread. It doesn't seem legit that David just got this handout from the priest.
The bread is exchanged, the old loaves that were for the priest are now given to David, and he gets to eat and fill his belly. I love what Ralph Davis says concerning this observation. He says, some scrupulous reader may object and complain that David, in all his finagling and deception, does not deserve this provision. He says, so what else is new?
Who would have daily bread if it rested on our desserts? Do you deserve the soup you're going to go home to? or the burritos, or the chicken, or the hamburgers, or whatever it is that is going to be on your table. Can you say with judgment day honesty, I have a right and an entitlement to this food? Not if you know anything about the holiness of God in your own sin.
If you know anything about the holiness of God and your own sin, you will know the only thing that you deserve, the only thing you have entitlement to, the only thing you have merited or earned is a place in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. That is your portion, that is your lot, that is what you deserve. Back to Davis. He said, we'd all be skeletons.
We can only second Jacob's position. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. Davis says, when everything is scraped down to the bone, I receive my daily bread, not because I am godly, but because Yahweh is gracious. This little stop in Knob underscores something that Jesus will later tell his disciples to pray.
Give us this day our daily bread. This is God's provision of David's daily bread. This is God's goodness and kindness to his servant in the midst of his trials, his escape from Saul. Now brethren, you may be tried and you may be afflicted and you may be going through severe hardship, but when you go home today and when you ladle that soup into your bowl, never forget the reality that God is making good on His blessing to His people.
The fact that we have daily bread. There are certain places where I would preach this sermon and I couldn't say it with as much gumption, if you will. I certainly couldn't make this point as strenuously in Ethiopia or in the Sudan. We have an abundance.
Maybe a trip to Nab every once in a while to see how David is provided for by the gracious hand of our God will cause us to stop in our tracks and say, praise God from whom all Costco's flow. Because we have been blessed tremendously. We don't just buy a little bag of something, we get gunny sacks full of it. We've probably got enough food in our pantries to sustain villages for weeks.
And what we find here is whether it is the bread that was on the table in the city of Nob or it is Costco that you go to, it is as a result of God's goodness and God's provision and God's kindness and God's grace to his undeserving people. We would all be skeletons, as Davis says, if our daily bread rested upon our daily merit.
Doeg the Edomite: Ominous Foreshadowing
Notice this statement concerning Doeg. The narrative would flow perfectly from 6 to 8, but there's this snapshot of an Edomite named Doeg. Now, Doeg is absolutely crucial to chapter 22. It's Doeg who's going to drop dime on David.
It is Doeg who's going to come to Saul when he's having his pity party in Gibeah and say to Saul, well, I know of a truth that David went to the priest at Nod. So Doeg, notice verse 7, a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord, and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. Robert Alter says this seemingly intrusive notation is a piece of ominous foreshadowing. 22.9 and 10. Again, we'll probably continue in that chapter and then head back to Matthew.
But I want you to see that this is, as Alter says, an ominous foreshadowing. The ghastly consequences of David's visit to Nob will pivot on Doeg's fatal presence. His identity as an Edomite reflects the enlistment of foreign mercenaries in the new royal bureaucracy. It also marks him as a man who will have no inhibition in what he does to Israelites, even Israelite priests. 22 is terrible.
What we didn't read in chapter 22, for those of you who are not familiar with the story, Doeg tells Saul that David went to the priest and knocked. And Saul said, oh, isn't that wonderful? Isn't that just great? No, Saul said, I want my servants to go and exterminate the priests.
None of them would even do it. Praise God for a little civil disobedience there. Not everything the king tells you to do, you should necessarily do. When the king tells you to go execute priests in Nob, you don't do that.
You must obey God rather than men. Now, I don't suppose that that's what really sort of inspired those servants, but nonetheless, they didn't do it. But what about Doeg? Doeg the Edomite didn't mind massacring priests in Gibeah and their families in Nob.
It's truly an amazing situation.
Goliath's Sword and the Move to Gath
Notice, David asks for a weapon and he gets the sword of Goliath.
Escape to Gath: Deliverance in Desperation
Let's move on to Gath. Where's the worst place David could possibly go, wielding the sword of Goliath? Gath, you say, right? Wake up, brethren.
What do we see in chapter 17? Who did David fight? Who did David disenfranchise of his head? Who did David meet in the battle of the Valley of Elah?
It was Goliath. He was a champion from where? From Gath. David's movement here is really difficult to get one's mind wrapped around, other than to say the persecution leveled at him by Saul was such that David would go to Gath carrying the very sword that he used to kill their champion.
It doesn't make a lot of earthly sense on one level. It doesn't make any sense on certain levels. Davis says it would be akin to a cow. If he knew what was going on in a slaughterhouse, nevertheless wandered in there.
You wouldn't do that if you were a cow, would you? You'd want to avoid such places, wouldn't you? If you knew you had never had chicken pox and you happen to be an adult, for children it's not that severe. For adults it's very severe.
But if you know that a certain family has chicken pox infestation, I don't know if that's legit or correct, the plague of chicken pox, you wouldn't go in there as a non-chicken pox having person. Right? Why does David go to Gath? Why does he go to Philistia?
Why in his escape from Saul? Does he see this as a viable option? Again, I don't know the particulars, but I know this much, that what he was facing from Saul was such that he would rather go into Gath carrying the very sword of the man that he had bested on the field of battle. Hometown boy loses it in the Valley of Elah.
That would have been the headlines in Gath. Now, David comes there to seek refuge. Isaac made a good observation on a Wednesday night. You know, when David comes out to Goliath, Goliath says, this is a ruddy young man.
Probably his face was glowing red. Well, here David has a beard, so there's a bit of period of time that has passed here. You know, we look at this, it didn't happen on Monday and then Tuesday and then Wednesday and then Thursday. When we get back to our Wednesday night studies, we see that Samuel dies.
And the time between Saul's installation as the king to Samuel's death is about 21 years. So there's a period of time going through here. Now notice the men of Achish have never seen David, unless they were personally witnessed in the Valley of Elah, but they don't have pictures. They don't have internet.
They don't have a selfie of David by Goliath. They just don't have that. There's no Facebook. There's no Twitter.
There's no social media where David says, I want the battle in the Valley of Elah. They don't have that. They are a bit perplexed. They say, is this not David?
Is this not the king of the land? Is this not the one of whom we heard the song? We heard it. They didn't have radio, they didn't have internet, but they had heard this particular song.
And it goes like this. Saul is slain as thousands, and David is ten thousands. Is this not him? We don't want him here.
He's a bad guy. He bested Goliath. He took out our champion. He destroyed our livelihood with reference to Israel.
So what happens with David? David's afraid. That's what the text says. David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.
This is the cow who's wandered into the slaughterhouse and starts to see what happens here. He doesn't want to be there. He understands his plight. He understands the challenge.
He understands the difficulty. If these men are able to eyewitness me, the king of Achish is not going to take this happily. He's not going to look and say, oh wow, he's carrying the sword of Goliath. Good on you.
No, they're going to neutralize David. So what does David do? He changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his gate. It looks like a good plan.
Doesn't it? Think about it, just from the perspective of wisdom. It's you there. You see what's happening.
You understand the score. Would you think to feign madness? Would you start letting drool go down into your beard? Would you start scratching at the doors as if you were a cat or a dog that wanted to get out?
Would you do this? Probably not. I don't know how many of us would conceive of such a ploy. So on the one hand, it looks somewhat wise.
On the other hand, this is the man who's gonna sit on the throne of Israel as David himself, acting like a fool, acting like a madman. You know, it is at this instance that David writes Psalms 34 and 56. The superscriptions for both those Psalms indicate that he wrote those Psalms at this particular time. Again, I want to lean on Davis here for a moment.
He says, we must not call, or merely call this episode, David's folly and sigh about how lucky he was to get out. When we read Psalm 34, David is extolling the goodness of God for delivering him from all his afflictions. You mean God delivers us from all our afflictions even when we do things like these? Yeah.
Yeah, He does. See, at some point, we really have to come to grips with Romans 8.28. At some point, we've got to take it off the fridge magnet and put it in the heart. God does cause all things to work for good.
We interpret all things there as when I'm reading my Bible, when I'm praying, when I'm keeping myself in the love of God, just like you said from Jude 20 and 21. All things there is comprehensive. It's the bad things too. And probably in the context, that's the emphasis of the Apostle Paul.
Everybody knows good things work out when we're doing good, don't we? I mean, at least we all believe they should. It's in the difficulties and in the trials and in the seasons of affliction and distress. So back to David's.
We must not merely call this episode David's folly and sigh about how lucky he was to get out. I suggest our response be governed by David's own response. According to the headings of Psalm 34 and 56, those psalms arose in the wake of this fiasco in Gath. You may look at 1 Samuel 21, 10-15 and wonder, can anything good come out of Geth?
Here is David, foolish, desperate, confused, awed. But it's the stuff Psalms are made of. So David does not say, I am lucky, but God is for me. He sees men not as frightful, but as flesh.
His deliverance from all his fears and all his troubles is the pledge that Yahweh will follow suit for other believers and the basis for his continuing praise. Along with desperation there is nevertheless praise. He says this is an instance of David's desperation. Could it be anything less?
He's standing before an enemy king. The enemy king is being alerted by his servants that this is David. This is the man wielding Goliath's sword. The man who killed our champion.
This is a time of desperation. Davis says, I do not mean that we should act foolishly in order that praise may come, but only that we should never forget God's mercies given us even in our foolishness. Back to that whole bread thing. If we only are worthy of our bread when we do the exemplary things and never sin, we're gonna die as skeletons.
If God only delivers us when we're absolutely composed, We're towing the line. We're doing everything right. This was a time of desperation for David. And instead of saying, wow, I got lucky, they bought my feigning of madness, he says, God has delivered me.
God has delivered me. I love the response of the king. We'll just spend a second here. He says, have I need a madman that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence?
This is Akish. The original seems to suggest, do I have need of another madman? He's got enough madmen there in Philistia. He's got enough Gathites that are out of their minds.
He certainly doesn't need this Israelite. Get him out of here.
Cave of Adullam: Fellowship in Affliction
So where's our next stop? He goes to the cave of Adullam. What do we see in the cave of Adullam? This is the occasion of Psalms 57 and 142.
Isn't that amazing? When you are tried, when you are afflicted, when you are pressed, when you see hardship, when you are down, is your response to praise? Maybe there's a lesson as we survey this theological geography on how to respond to the various problems we face. If there's a continual theme in the heart and in the mind of David, it is to respond with praise, with thanksgiving, and with worship.
And for David, it meant to compose the very psalms that we would sing in our church today. And even one better, Psalm 34 is an acrostic. That means that each verse starts with an A, a B, a G, and all the way through the Hebrew alphabet. I've got to tell you, brethren, if I am running from a king that wants to kill me, probably the last thing I'm going to do is sing a psalm, and certainly the last thing I'm going to do is write a psalm, and if I was going to write a psalm, it wouldn't be an acrostic.
David's the real deal. That's how you respond to trial and affliction. That's how you respond to the sorrows of the Christian life. This text underscores that there will be, but it highlights the consistent response of God's people.
It's not to freak out. It's not to lose it. It's not to say forget it. It's not to absent yourselves from that place of keeping yourself in the love of God.
See, that's the tendency. There's a quitter mentality among us. It's too hard. It's too difficult.
There's too many challenges. You don't know what it's like. You don't know my problems. You don't know how it is to live with such a guy or such a girl.
You don't know what the temptation of the Internet is like. You don't know what I'm like when I get around that drink. You don't know what I'm like when I get around that drug. You don't know what it's like to have these sorts of things.
No, but I do know what it's like to have a God who is our refuge and our strength. I do know what it's like to see a man like David who's running for his life, hunted like an animal, who nevertheless stops to praise God. You see, maybe the reason why we continue in this sorrowful, dreadful, tried, afflicted state is because we never say, stop, that's enough, break out the Psalms, and let's sing. You see, brethren, some of the fixes in the Christian life are very simple.
Because they're so simple, we think, oh, that'll never help. What's more helpful than gathering together in the Lord's house on the Lord's day? If you haven't seen the value of the Church of God on the Sabbath day yet, hang around, you will. Talk to people who haven't been in good churches, or talk to people that have been in deserts, or talk to people who have had no means like you have.
Value it, praise it, and praise God in the midst of it. This is what we learn from David. Notice, when he goes to Adullam, what does he do there? It says, when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
This was a very strategic and wise move. David is being hunted like a dog, right? David rightly concludes that if Saul is against me, it won't be long until he turns his attention to my father. Remember, Saul reneged on his promise.
Saul said that whoever kills Goliath, he gets to marry my daughter and his father gets tax-free exemption in Israel. Well, now his father and his mother have to run to the cave of Adullam along with the rest of his family. You see, even here, Think about it, theologically. Think about it from a Christian life point of view.
Who do you think David needs to see in this moment? Who's always good to see? Your mom, right? Even if she's not a Christian, even if she's not a believer, isn't it always good to see your mom?
Is there a bigger fan of yours in this world than your mom? Mothers love some pretty terrible human beings. They have a capacity for it. I mean, maybe even Charles Manson's mother loved him.
There's some beastly people out there and their mothers typically love them. This is a blessing from God in the midst of a run, in the midst of an escape, in the midst of now hightailing it out of Gath, he goes to the cave of Adullam. And who is he joined by? He's joined by his family.
That's a great encouragement from the hand of God in a time of affliction. But notice, he's not joined only by his family. He's joined by the distressed, the indebted, and the discontent. That's who hangs out in the cave of Adullam.
That's what it says. Notice, verse 2, and everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them, and there were about 400 men with him. Those 400 men would prove crucial in the coming events.
You see, God doesn't leave his man on his own. You see a theme, provision of bread in Nob. Provision of safety in Gath. Provision of family and friendship in the cave of Adullam.
Maybe this isn't where you'd go to find friendship and family, but this is where he found it. You say, well, we'd rather rent a hall. And we'd rather have a feast, and we'd like to have everything just so. Now, it might be the cave of Adullam, but you'll get some benefit.
You'll get some encouragement there.
Departure to Moab: Providence Prepared
Now, notice from here, they go to Moab. This is quite a journey. This is quite a ways to go. This is on the east side of the River Jordan.
Notice in verse 3. You see, David needs a safe haven for his parents. David is on the run. Let's please not forget that.
Saul wants to kill David. And David rightly concludes that if Saul wants to kill me, he's probably going to destroy my family. And David was right to conclude this when we get to the rest of chapter 22 because Saul destroys the city of priests. So David goes to Moab and he says, let my father and mother come here with you till I know what God will do for me.
So he brought them before the king of Moab and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Now you say, wait a minute, that seems odd, wasn't Moab An enemy of Israel. Didn't they have friction? Didn't they have tension?
Didn't they have dispute and trial and difficulty one with another? Why in the world would David, first of all, go to Gath, end up in the cave of Adullam, and now he goes to Moab? If we were to be Monday morning quarterbacks, we'd be saying, David, don't go to Moab. They're not going to take kindly to you.
Oh, but you see, God has prepared the way. This is beautiful. God has prepared the way. Who is David's great-grandmother?
She's a Moabitess by the name of Ruth. So when David appeals to the king of Moab, and he says, by the way, my great-grandmother had Moabite blood running through her veins. The king of Moab says, certainly, your parents can stay here. Now brethren, think about this.
God's provision when we don't even recognize it. God's provision when we're not even ready for it. God's provision when it truly is a surprise. In this instance, several, several years prior, God prepares for this.
Again, David's. He says in David's case, all the unusual arrangements had been made over a century before. God plans his kindnesses long beforehand. He directed circumstances long in advance in order to bring a ray of relief in David's present distress.
It was not something David set in place, it was a gift. Yahweh arranged it long before. Nor is it something he does only for chosen kings. A great number of his saints have stories to tell about desperation and providence.
You see, who would have thought? God. Who would have prepared? God.
Who would have planned? God. Who would have decreed? God.
Those four brief chapters in the book of Ruth, as beautiful a story as they are in terms of the love and the commitment and the fidelity and the good things that we see spelled out, the point of it is Gil reminds us is Christ. He is the scope of the whole, that book and all of scripture. It is the genealogy at the end of the book of Ruth that tells us everything. Ruth the Moabitess was the great-grandmother of David, king of Israel.
This is why Ruth the Moabitess is found in Matthew chapter 1. This is how God works. God uses means and God employs things that we would never ever imagine. It in many ways is exhilarating and breathtaking to see on display the providence of God as he governs all his creatures, as he governs all their actions, as he gives favor to David by the king of Moab so that they will indeed be kept safe.
God is glorious. And notice David's recognition of providence, till I know what God will do for me. Now
Departure to the Forest of Hereth: The Word of God
notice in verse 5, the departure to the forest of Herod. David no sooner says, till I know what God will do for me, now the prophet Gad said to David, where did Gad come from? Notice there's not a parenthetical statement, and the prophet Gad, he'd gone to this school, he'd married this woman, he fathered these children, he was a well-likes, but the prophet Gad said to David, what do we learn here? We learn the blessedness and the excellence of God's giving of his word, right?
David says, until I know, until I know what God will do for me. In the very next statement it says, now the prophet Gad said to David, do not stay in the stronghold, depart, go to the land of Judah. So David departed and went into the forest of Herod. Again, we've got a Bible sitting on our laps.
We've got Bibles in these pews. We've got Bibles on our phones. We've got Bibles everywhere. And we can take for granted the presence of the Word of God.
You see, Saul couldn't take that for granted. As a result of Saul's sin and Saul's rebellion and Saul's rejection of the living God, God no longer spoke to Saul. That's something underscored in this section. Saul is not getting divine revelation.
He's not getting a word from the Lord. By the time we get to chapter 28, Saul is asking a medium for help. Why is that? He says it specifically.
Because the Lord will not answer me. He doesn't speak to me in word. He doesn't speak to me in prophet. I no longer have the priest and the ephod.
And he doesn't even speak to me through the Urim anymore. David doesn't have that problem. God tells David, go to the forest of Aaron. Go to Judah.
Why? That'll all be unfolded as we move through the rest of the book. But the blessing to underscore here is that in the midst of trial, in the midst of affliction, in the midst of difficulty and hardship, what do we nevertheless have? The provision of God's word.
The provision of God's Word. Brethren, that ought to be enough for us to just stop here and sing praises to our God. Do we value and prize the Word as we ought? Always reminded, when we consider certain things like these, that account, and Ian Murray's Puritan Hope.
There was a Puritan by the name of, I think it was John Rogers. He was preaching. He personified God to the people, and then the people to God. And from God to the people, he said, I'm going to take your word.
I'm going to take your Bibles. You neglect them. You don't read them. You don't come to the house of prayer.
You do not meet. You don't gather. You don't use the means. So the man is preaching, and he personifies God, speaking as God to the people.
And then he says, on behalf of the people to God, Basically, forgive us. We have neglected your word. Forgive us. We have neglected the means.
Forgive us. We have rejected those good things you've given to us. And then he says on behalf of the people to God, take our houses, take our jobs, take our stuff, even take our children, but take not thine word from us. Brethren, we have all these Bibles and all this access and I wonder at times if it's just become old hat.
We're just so familiar with it. We've become somewhat Bible hardened. Well, Saul understood the lack that he had such that when he gets to 28, he wants to find a witch that will bring up Samuel so that he can have a private session. David's got the word.
Gad speaks for God. The prophet is the mouthpiece. And this, in the midst of trial, in the midst of affliction, in the midst of hardship and grief, brethren, this is a lifeline from God Most High to His suffering saints. Don't neglect it.
Don't stay away from it. Don't put it down. Is it not the devil's logic when you feel down to say, well, I'm not going to read and I'm not going to pray because it won't do any good anyway. Guess what?
You're not simply to read and pray so it'll do good. You're to read and pray because God tells you to. We're utilitarians. If it doesn't help me or benefit or make me better, I'm not going to use it.
No, we need to be obedient. Do what God says. Brethren, isn't this one of the things that happens? Or, I'm not going to go to church today because I don't want to be around people.
That's from the devil. It's not from God. It's from the devil. It's not from God.
God commands you on the Sabbath day to be in his house. Guess where you should be? Not Taco Bell. not hanging with the devil, should obey God. It's a blessing for the people of God in the midst of their trials and afflictions, and it's a blessing that oftentimes is neglected because we'd rather have pity parties like Saul and Gibeah than man up or woman up and do what we're supposed to do.
Application: Trials and God's Provision
Well, in conclusion, I think this chapter sufficiently underscores that there is, in the first place, the presence of trials in the Christian life. Robert Vannoy describes Chapter 21 in a useful overview. He says, Chapter 21 provides a wake-up call to God's believing people of all times and places. It is a reminder that, one, living as a Christian in a fallen world is inherently dangerous.
In case you needed reminding of that, just look at David. Two, our own foolish behavior often heightens the dangers of this hostile environment. You see, if it was just a hostile world that we were to deal with, I mean, that would be one thing. But do we always respond to that hostile world in the bestest possible ways?
No, we wander into Gath with Goliath's sword. We go to the priest and nob and we don't tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help us God. Sometimes we compound living in this world by our own foolish and oftentimes sinful conduct. Now again, I'm not saying this so that we'll go out and sin and be fools so that God will deliver us.
But just the point that when we look at the way God works in the midst of His people, even through those things, the Lord proves faithful. Vandewey says, thirdly, God's mercies are new each day in spite of our failures. And fourth, God's purposes for His people cannot be frustrated by the designs of the ungodly. You need to appreciate that.
From Nob to Gath to Adullam to Moab back to Herod, what's happening? God is going to station David on the throne. Saul, the rejecter of the word of God, Saul, the one who has engaged in a sin that is as bad as witchcraft, is going to be destroyed and the kingdom of God is going to advance. Never forget that.
David's greater son tells us in these terms, I will build my church in the gates of Haiti, shall not prevail against it. And then what he says at the end, it is important that God's people are reminded of the dangers that are endemic to their own journey through life as strangers and pilgrims on earth, and that these dangers do not just arise from without, but also from within. In the second place, we have seen, I hope successfully, God's provision in the midst of trials. David interprets it this way.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all, whether it's the need for bread, whether it's protection from hostile enemies, whether it's for friendship and fellowship and family and encouragement. whether it's a safe haven for one's parents, or whether it is the Word of God through the prophet Dad. The Lord is with David every step of the way. Brethren, read your Old Testament. Certainly read the New.
Read the entirety of the Bible. You need to see the life of God's people flushed out in the midst of Israel, in the Old Covenant community. To see David go from place to place and to see how in the world is he continuing. How in the world does he get up out of bed every day?
I mean, brethren, one affliction oftentimes is enough to bury some of us. David has it over and over and over and over again. I mean, when he gets the Spirit, in chapter 16, the troubles begin. When he gets the Spirit, all these things fall upon him, just like his greater Son.
As soon as we see that Spirit descend upon the Lord Jesus in his baptism, and the Father's voice say, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, you think the Spirit is upon him. Not that it was devoid, but this is a public manifestation to confirm the reality that he is always servant of the Lord. But when he has the Spirit, you think, well, everything's going to be good from here on out, right? Just like you do with David.
He has the Spirit now. Everything's going to be good from here on out. Just like with us. We have the Spirit now.
Everything's going to be good from here on out. Well, we know with David, as soon as the Spirit comes upon him, all the troubles come. When David's greater son receives the Spirit, what happens? That self-same Spirit drives him out to the wilderness to be tested by Satan for 40 days and 40 nights.
In the same manner, brethren, when we receive the Spirit, there are times and seasons and instances where trouble and trial and hardship and affliction come. It's just the reality of the Bible. The health, wealth, prosperity gospel is so wrong. It is so contrary.
It is so far removed from anything scriptural. And yet, that health, wealth, prosperity gospel, if it isn't proffered by big-haired men, with big-haired women, with big cars, and big houses, and big everything, it still seeps down into the evangelical mind. And persons even in Reformed churches, and persons in good evangelical churches think, Well, I'm a good guy, so everything should go well, right? I'm a believer in Jesus, so why do I have these trials?
Nowhere in the Bible does it say believers in Jesus won't contract cancer. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that believers in Jesus won't lose children. Believers in Jesus won't lose their way. Believers in Jesus won't lose their jobs.
These are the trials and afflictions that God uses to conform us unto the image of His Son, of whom it was said He learned obedience, there's suffering. Hebrews 5a is a standing testimony to each and every one of us that if we would be conformed unto Christ, that conformity is not going to come through ease and through a lack or absence of trial. It's going to come through hardship. This section provides, as well, the occasion for worship.
If David didn't go through these situations, we wouldn't have Psalms 34, 56, 57, and 142. And
David as Type of Christ
I want to end on a note that points us to David's greater son. Look back to Adullam in chapter 22, verse 2. And see if you don't hear the echoes of David's greater son in that cave. And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.
Doesn't that describe us? Aren't we in distress? Aren't we in debt? And aren't we discontent?
Now note what happened. So he, David, became captain over them. Who? The distressed, the indebted, and the discontented.
I love what John Gill says in this connection. He says, in this, he, David, was a type of Christ who receives sinners distressed with a sense of sin, discontented in their present state, and in debt, and unable to pay their debts. Isn't David here, functioning in a typical capacity, pointing forward to the one who would one day say, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will rest. In other words, Christ comes to the cave of Adullam and he bids us flee.
He bids us come. He bids us to believe. And he becomes captain over them. It is a most blessed picture, or illustration, or emblem of what Christ and the Gospel does.
And if you are not a believer in Christ today, if you are outside of Christ, if you have not come to Him, received Him, and rested upon His Gospel, then you find yourself described in this section. You are distressed by sin. You are indebted to God because of sin, and there is a discontentment. You won't acknowledge it.
The persons of our day who are not Christians say, well, I have greater peace and greater freedom, greater quality of life not being a believer. No, deep down inside, you know in your heart of hearts things are not right with you and God. That produces discontent. John Owen said something to the effect, when men hear thunderings, and they see the lightnings, and they see the tempests, they fear not so much at what the phenomena shows, but in their secret thoughts that God is nigh, and that He is a consuming fire.
I think Owen's right on the basis of Romans chapter 1. Men know, you know that God is and you suppress that truth and unrighteousness to all of your boasting and your bragging and your self-sufficiency to say, well, I'm happy and I'm content and the atheist or the agnostic life is most satisfying to me. At heart, there is a discontentedness because God made us for communion with him. And when we don't have that communion with Him, things are not right.
You see, there's hope, there's safety, there's forgiveness for Adulamites. There is hope, safety, and forgiveness for those who are in debt, those who are in distress, and those who are discontent. And it's in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him.
Repent from your sins. And by God's grace, you will know what it's like to have him as the captain. There's no greater joy, is there, than to have the one the bride calls altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. No greater joy than to call him captain.
There ought not to be any place we don't want to follow that blessed captain, our beloved Savior, our Redeemer, and our Lord. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in Heaven, we thank you for the Word of God, we thank you for the story of Saul and David and what it tells us concerning you. We thank you for your deliverance, your provision, your covenant, your kindness to your people in their trials and afflictions. I pray that this would not just stay in 1 Samuel 21 and 22, but we would see it in our own lives, that we would appreciate the providence of God, that we would thank you for the revelation that you've given us in the Old and New Testaments. Give us grace, Lord God, to go from this place to honor and to praise you.
Bring us together tonight so that we may hear the word of God, that we may see the word of God in this ordinance of the Lord's Supper. And we pray these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.