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1st
Samuel 24:1-22 “And
it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it
was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. 2
Then Saul took three thousand chosen men
out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the
wild goats. 3 And
he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in
to cover his feet: and David and his men
remained in the sides of the cave. 4
And the men of David said unto him,
Behold the day which the LORD
said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou
mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of
Saul’s robe privily. 5 And
it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off
Saul’s skirt. 6 And
he said unto his men, The LORD
forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’s
anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the
anointed of the LORD.
7 So
David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise
against Saul. But Saul rose up out of
the cave, and went on his way. 8
David also arose afterward, and went out
of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David
stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself. 9
And David said to Saul, Wherefore
hearest thou men’s words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt? 10
Behold, this day thine eyes have seen
how that the LORD
had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee; and
I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’s
anointed. 11 Moreover,
my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe,
and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor
transgression in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou
huntest my soul to take it. 12 The
LORD
judge between me and thee, and the LORD
avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall
not be upon thee. 13 As
saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee. 14
After whom is the king of Israel come
out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, a flea. 15
The LORD
therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause,
and deliver me out of thine hand. 16
And it came to pass, when David had made
an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son
David? And Saul lifted up his voice and
wept. 17 And
he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I
have rewarded thee evil. 18 And
thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD
had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not. 19
For if a man find his enemy, will he let
him go well away? wherefore the LORD
reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day. 20
And now, behold, I know well that thou
shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in
thine hand. 21 Swear
now therefore unto me by the LORD,
that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my
name out of my father’s house. 22 And
David sware unto Saul. And Saul went
home; but David and his men gat them up unto the hold.” Introduction
[Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED660] “Chapter
24 and 25 bring us to some very interesting lessons in the life of David, to
get even, or not to get even. Nothing
that you have ever had to think about or ever will, this was in ancient times
in another country [he’s being facetious].
Two circumstances, either one, where he could have acted out very
differently in some ways, one maybe we’d be way more prone to than the
other. But very important, the way David
responds, and what God does with him in these circumstances, and how he allows
these particular things to come upon him.
And David, we are told at this point, is in the area Engedi, and again,
those of you who have gone to Israel with us, on each trip it’s one of the
favorite places that we go to, there to Engedi.
Because of it’s beauty down by the Dead Sea, it’s warm, the Dead Sea is
the lowest place on the face of the Earth.
And this verdant valley, with this waterfall that’s beautiful, filled
with Ibex and Hyrax, different animals and so forth, and it’s filled with
caves. Some of them able to hold a
hundred people, and that whole area from Qumran down to the area of Engedi,
almost down to Masada, caves everywhere.
And David no doubt, familiar with this area, the waters from this spring
flowed from some of the underground springs in the area of Jerusalem, and
Judah, and made their way down through the desert, David no doubt familiar with
the upper territory of where this spring flowed and then came to the edge where
this cliff was. No doubt, David as a
young boy, familiar as a shepherd himself, with this particular area. And we end chapter 23, and it says “And
David went up from thence,” where he had been pursued by Saul, “and
dwelt in strong holds at Engedi.” (1st Samuel 23:29) David
Given The Opportunity To Kill Saul But Does The Right Thing And Doesn’t Take It “And
it came to pass, when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, that it
was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.”
(verse 1) he had been distracted from pursuing
David, and we’re not told at all whether he had victory or he just pursued and
the Philistines just fled. It was
certainly a move of God to bring him away from David. No symbol of any of God’s approval in regards
to Saul, that he would pursue the Philistines.
“it was told him” Saul, “saying, David is in the
wilderness of Engedi.” David, you’ve
heard of King’s College, this was the original King’s College, that we have
David in here, God instructing him. Notice,
“Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to
seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.” (verse 2) “chosen
men,” these are Special Forces, Navy Seals, Delta, these are the guys. “Saul took three thousand chosen men”
notice, “out of all Israel, and he went to seek David and his men upon the
rocks of the wild goats.” (verse 2) there in Engedi, where David would have
a rich water supply around by the Dead Sea where there was no water, and be
able to hide in these caves, completely familiar again with the area. And it now presents a very peculiar
circumstance that Saul finds himself in, and I love the fact the Word of God is
very honest about human life and human experiences. [A similar experience happened to one of our
Marines on Peleliu during WWII, where he went into a cave to relieve himself,
and was chased out of the cave, with his pants down around the knees, by a
Japanese soldier who had been hiding in the cave, now chasing him with his
bayonetted rifle out of the cave.] It
says, “And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave;
and Saul went in to cover his feet:” he went in, it was the men’s room, and
he had to go the bathroom, and this was going to the bathroom, in this
particular process he had to take his robe off, beyond that it’s up to you to
figure out what’s going on 😊. He went in “to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides
of the cave.” (verse 3) and David and his men were hidden in the sides of
that cave. What a coincidence. He’s got three thousand Special Forces with
him, thinking he’s safe, and he gets near a particular cave, and there were
caves everywhere, and as he got near this particular cave, the LORD
grabbed his transverse colon, down his descending colon, peristalsis started,
whup, you know, ‘I’ll be back, I’ve gotta go in here,’ and the Special
Forces guys said ‘We don’t have to do guard duty, do we?’ ‘No, no, you don’t have to do guard duty, I’d
rather do this alone,’ so everybody’s happy on this one, they get to stay
outside, make sure nobody gets in, Saul’s happy to be alone, and David and his
guys are happy they got Saul alone without 3,000 Special Forces, so a very
interesting circumstance arises. And
they’re already in the cave, you know how you go into a movie theater and it
takes you a minute to adjust to the darkness.
They’re in there, and no doubt the opening of the cave is where the
light is, so they see Saul coming in, no doubt staying outside, the Bible very
poetically says he went to “cover his feet,” and David and his men, they were
inside the cave. And the men of David
are described back in chapter 22, where is says ‘everyone that was
distressed, stressed out, everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was
bitter of Saul, discontent,’ so these are the guys that are with him in the
cave. And here comes Saul, ‘this
is such a God-thing, the guy that’s been making us all miserable, the guy that
put us in debt, the guy whose been pursuing your life, that guy whose taken
everything away from you, your position, your wife, your home, your country,
look at this, God marches him in here right in front of you, Oh this is such a
God-thing!’ “And the men of
David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD
said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou
mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of
Saul’s robe privily.” (verse 4) So they say ‘David!
this is it.’ And the Bible says
there’s wisdom in the multitude of counsel [it also says ‘Don’t follow a
multitude to do evil.’], here’s 400 guys [no, 600 guys telling him, remember
200 more from Keilah that joined him] ‘Kill him! Take your spear, pin him to the wall. What irony, he’s got his feet covered, he
can’t run nowhere, get him now!’ I know David, he’s gotta be thinking, he’s
tired, the Psalms says he would flee like a partridge on the mountains, you
know, Saul persecuted him for years, and there’s a real challenge for David
here. Now look, understand that God
could have taken Saul at any time he wanted.
It tells us in Daniel that our next breath, chapter 5, verse 23, is in
God’s hand. God could have had Saul drop
dead, fall off a cliff, God could have had him at any moment. And God will take Saul. But God is keeping Saul alive at this point,
as part of David’s seminary training, training David to be the king that he’s
been anointed to be. And he sneaks up to
where Saul had laid his robe aside, and he cut off the bottom hem of it, where
it was laid, and look what it says. “And
it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off
Saul’s skirt.” (verse 5) the hem of his garment. What a heart, David, you know we love David
at this point in his life. You know,
he’s tender, that he’s so sensitive to the Spirit, and I don’t believe you can
ever be too sensitive in this sense, you know ‘I shouldn’t have done that,
Oh I took something into my own hands, I reached out, I did something here
where I didn’t have the Lord’s leading.’
You know, it says he was cut to the heart, his own heart smote him
because he’d done this. “And he said
unto his men, The LORD
forbid that I should do this thing” notice,
listen to what he says, “unto my master, the LORD’s
anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the
anointed of the LORD.”
(verse 6) and he’s David’s master because he’s
the king, the LORD’s
anointed. He’s the LORD’s
anointed in the sense that Samuel had anointed him with oil, he’s the LORD’s
anointed in the sense David remembers well the day that God brought Samuel to
him, and went through all his brothers, and then finally poured the oil on his
head. And he looks at Saul and said, ‘Not
my doing, not the guy I would have picked, this is the LORD’s
anointed, this is something the LORD’s
done,’ honouring as it were the position, even
though he probably is struggling with the man.
[In the military we were always told we were saluting the uniform, the
office, not the officer.] Paul tells us
in Romans 13 that we should honour those that are in authority, because it
wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for the Lord, that the magistrate doesn’t bear
the sword in vain, he’s there to exercise vengeance on those who do evil, not
on those who do good. Well, David stands
back and says ‘I’m not gonna do this, I’m not gonna touch my master, the
LORD’s
anointed,’ “to stretch forth mine
hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” Ah, Deuteronomy
had said this, ‘The LORD
said To me belongeth vengeance and recompense, their foot shall slide in due
time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their things shall come
upon them, and they shall make haste.’ And we find it throughout the New Testament,
vengeance belongs to the Lord. David
wisely retracts whatever temptation there was there. And look, he’s got a context, he’s anointed
to be king, by Samuel, the LORD’s
doing, ‘I’ve been anointed by Samuel, God forbid that I should step into
this and speed up one process or the other,’ he has a certain reverence for
it, because he can relate to it to a certain degree, he knows his own
humanness, so he’s wrestling here. And
sometimes you and I might tend to be more reserved in terms that we can
understand well, in a bigger situation, ‘No, I can’t do this, I mean, this
effects,’ we might tend to be more reserved. Listen, there are lessons here for us. David knew that the Law said he shouldn’t
kill, there are things here that are obvious.
And we’re going to see him come to a resting place in chapter 24, and
that is in a point of disadvantage.
There are 3,000 Special Forces there, and at a disadvantage militarily,
but an advantage of the man he settles himself.
In the next chapter we’re going to see him with great advantage,
struggling to come to rest, a completely different circumstance. And God puts these two chapters back to back,
there’s a picture here. “So David,”
verse 7, “stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise
against Saul. But Saul rose up out of
the cave, and went on his way.” There’s
a word there that portrays there’s some heat to this. These are 600 guys that are discontented, ‘What
do you mean, you’re not going to touch him!?
What do you mean, the LORD’s
anointed?—the guy’s a jerk! He’s disobedient, he’s in rebellion against the LORD!’
he’s got to stay them, he’s got to
settle them down. Listen, he’s taking a
position against the majority. And they
are the majority of the men that are closest to him on earth. And they are the makings of the greatest army
Israel would ever see. And somehow in
this circumstance, the weight of God’s heart is more important to David than
all of the voices that are around him.
Please, Lord, let that happen in my life. You see, David is going to set a precedent
with his behavior here, he’s going to be the king of Israel, these men will be
his commanders and be all around him. If
David was short-tempered and murderous, that would have set the tone for his
reign and for his kingdom, and no doubt there may have been somebody that
lifted up a sword against him because he was the LORD’s
anointed. But instead he sets an
example. I don’t think it’s specifically
what he was trying to do, his heart smote him, he’s under conviction. And because he had a sensitivity to the LORD,
and there was a different calling on his life than the men around him,
remarkably he takes this stand against the majority of his counselors. And sometimes you might have to do that. I think the vast amount of time, if you have
good godly people around you, you know, it’s wise to listen to their
counsel. You should have a few people in
your life, that are not just born-again, but are godly. Sometimes we just like to get our posse
around us, and then tell us what we want to hear. That’s not what’s going on here, it’s
interesting to watch David, it seems to be a heated discussion, ‘I’m not
going to do this,’ ‘shh! Saul’s gonna hear ya!’ we don’t know if that’s
going on, but they’re deep enough in the cave evidently, they’re holding back
to some degree. It says “Saul rose up
out of the cave, and went on his way.”
“David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after
Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when
Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed
himself.” (verse 8) Now look, if you
know the territory, huge ravine down one side, if he waited till he got on the
other side there’s no fast way for them to get back to David and his men. David goes out within earshot, he says ‘My
lord the king,” and when Saul was in front of him, David stooped with
his face to the earth, and he bowed himself.
“And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men’s words, saying,
Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?” (verse 9)
‘Why are you listening to the slander that’s been raised against me,
saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?’
“Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the LORD
had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee:” 600
bade me, “but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth
mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD’s
anointed.” (verse 10) What an example he’s setting, what a
precedent he’s setting for his own reign when he’ll take the throne. “Moreover, my father,” I’m not sure if
that’s just respect, or the fact that he’s married to Saul’s daughter, “see,
yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand:” he holds up now the hem of his
robe in his hand, “for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed
thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression
in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou huntest my soul to
take it.” (verse 11) David says,
he’s basically saying, ‘See the hem of your garment, this could be your head
that I was holding, like I held Goliath’s head.
It could have just as easily been your life.’ Put a star by this, or an asterisk, “The
LORD judge
between me and thee,” that’s the best way to
leave it, that’s the best way to leave it when you can, “The LORD
judge between me and thee, and the LORD
avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall
not be upon thee. As sayeth the proverb
of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.”
(verses 12-13) wow, heavy, we
know that, wickedness proceedeth from the wicked. In other words, David’s saying ‘I’m not
wicked, there is wickedness in this world, but it comes from wicked men, the
fact that I spared you, that is who I am.’
He
knows to leave vengeance to the LORD,
he knows God can deal with the circumstance.
And listen, it isn’t just a precept with him, it’s not just something he
is confessing, David really knows this, because he didn’t act out. Let’s watch him. “After whom is the king of Israel come
out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.” (verse 14) he’s
saying ‘Saul, I’m not worth the effort, I’m one shepherd guy, I killed a
giant, I married your daughter, I’m a dead dog, what good am I, you’ve taken
everything away, I’m not worth the effort, what are you doing?’ “The LORD
therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause,
and deliver me out of thine hand.” (verse 15)
David saying that in a really genuine way, ‘I’m going to let the LORD
deliver me from you, Saul.’ Saul’s
Problem--Doublemindedness “And
it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul,
that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.”
(verse 16) this man’s a paranoic schizophrenic,
and no doubt he’s lost his mind. He no
doubt, maybe he’s reminded again of Samuel saying, you know, Samuel turned to
go away, he held Samuel’s robe and part of Samuel’s robe ripped off in his hand
in chapter 15, and Samuel said ‘that’s just the way the LORD’s
going to rip the kingdom from you,’ and
now here’s David standing here holding the hem of Saul’s garment in his hand,
and maybe he’s reminded of the whole scene.
In James, he says in his Epistle ‘Cleanse your hands ye sinners,
and purify your hearts ye doubleminded,’ that’s Saul’s problem, one day
he’s crying, next day he’s throwing a javelin at David. One day he’s a friend, next day he’s his
worst enemy. Cleanse your hands you
sinners, that’s the simpler thing, if you’re in sin, stop, repent. But purify your hearts, you double
minded. Listen, “Thy Word have I
hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Sanctify me through your truth, your Word is
truth.” The Word of God never
returns void. If you’re struggling with
hard issues, my advice is, get your face in the Bible. But you know the problem is, nobody sees
them. If you wore a white shirt like a
television screen, and everything that went on in there is out on the screen,
we’d be in the Bible, ‘Oh please God, please God, don’t let the screen come
on, Oh please God, Oh please God.’
But it’s inside. We worry about
what people can see, we worry about what people think. But the Bible says ‘Guard your heart
with all diligence, because from it flow the issues of life.’ We’re not driven by our cognitive functions,
we’re driven by desire itself, by the heart, the deepest part of our being,
that’s what sets the course of our life.
And Saul is a man who needs to get his heart right before the LORD,
and he could have. He could have gone to
Samuel, Samuel is still alive at this point in time, and say ‘Samuel, I have
sinned, plead for me before the LORD,
let me offer a sin offering, I’m giving the throne to David today, it’s rightly
his, I’ve been, I’ve lost my mind, I’ve lost my perspective, I just want to
know when I close my eyes in this world, that I please God, help me.’ And God would
have received that. But Saul’s an
interesting case study for us, because he never gets his heart right, and
because he’s a man who never gets his heart right, he’s a man whose
doubleminded, swinging back and forth.
You know, Proverbs says ‘See a man given to change, meddle not
with him,’ because it isn’t just a change problem, it’s a heart
problem. Here he is weeping, carrying
on, you know, those big crocodile tears, alligator tears, whatever kind of
reptile makes those. “And he said to
David, Thou art more righteous than I:
for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.”
(verse 17) And listen, he would
again. He’s going to ask David here, as
it were, for reconciliation, for forgiveness, for peace. Are you willing to do that, when someone, myself
too, I’m made of the same stuff all of you are made of. When someone has hurt you, has betrayed you,
are you willing to forgive? Are you
willing to make reconciliation, because there’s a cost to it. If God is telling you to make reconciliation,
there’s no guarantee that that person isn’t going to do the same thing over
again, a week, a month, a year, a decade from now. It’s costly.
And you and I have a better view of our example than David did, David
was being prepared only just to be a king, you and I are being conformed into
the image and likeness of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. [Comment:
I kind of disagree with Pastor Joe that David was merely being prepared
to be the physical king of Israel, as just like us, David will be in the 1st
Resurrection to immortality, and what’s more, he’ll be given his old job back,
for forever, to be the king of Israel all over again, cf. Ezekiel 37:22-25, and
Jesus will be Lord of lords and King of kings, over the entire Earth.] It tells us to turn the other cheek, to go
the extra mile, to forgive, ‘Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors,’ you know, important lesson brought before us here. There’s a risk entailed, no doubt, “I have
rewarded thee evil. And thou hast shewed
this day how that thou hast dealt well with me:
forasmuch as when the LORD
had delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.” (verses 17c-18) because
Saul knew he would have killed David if he got his hands on him. “For if a man find his enemy, will he let
him go well away? wherefore the LORD
reward thee good for that thou hast done
unto me this day.” (verse 19) And
listen now to Saul, he’s telling David this, “And now, behold, I know well
that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established
in thine hand.” (verse 20) He’s
admitting his rebellion, rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, too hearken
is better than the fat of rams, there’s a lot of ram fat hanging around these
caves, because there’s little hearkening on the part of Saul. And he’s admitting now that he knows, ‘I
know well that you’re going to be king,’ and then he says something
profound, ‘that the kingdom shall be established in your hand.’ It had never been established, never
under Abraham, never as Moses comes out of Egypt and comes to the edge of the
Promised Land, he doesn’t come in, Joshua fights the Wars of Canaan, but the
kingdom is still not established, you have the time of the Judges where there’s
no king, everybody’s doing what’s right in their own eyes. You watch Israel go through their idolatry
and God judging them and all of these things going on, and finally David will
be the first king to establish the kingdom, and it will go all the way to the
Euphrates, it will be, the kingdom under David, the thousands of square miles
were remarkable, and David was peaceful with many of his neighbours, they paid
tribute, David was the greatest king that the nation had seen. He says something very remarkable, not just
that you’re going to be king, but that the kingdom is going to be established,
that’s very remarkable for Israel, “in thine hand.” Very remarkable as he writes that here. So, think of what he’s wrestling against, how
many times do you and I refuse to give the throne of our hearts to the rightful
King? How many times do you and I, I’m
including myself, know that Jesus wants something, and we’re stubborn and
stiffnecked, we’re slow to relinquish.
He’s the proper King, and we know that Kingdom is only going to be
established under his hand, but there’s sometimes when we say ‘No, Lord if I
do it your way I’m it’s just never going to work out, If I do it your way I’m
never going to get married, If I do it your way I’m never going to get a
raise,’ how many times do you and I find ourselves like Saul, refusing ,
and I speak to myself, to yield the throne of my heart to the proper King?--selfishly,
holding onto something instead of relinquishing that thing to him. It takes faith to believe if you yield it
all, that the Saul’s are not going to run over you, they’re not going to
trample you into the ground, that God is going to uphold you and keep you. Interesting picture here, ‘I know that
the kingdom is going to be established in thine hand.’ “Swear now therefore unto me by the LORD,
that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my
name out of my father’s house.” (verse 21)
David had already made that promise to
Jonathan, and David would uphold that promise.
And it was typical for a new dynasty when they came in, often to kill
off all of the remnants of the old dynasty so there would never be a threat to
the throne from the old dynasty. He says
‘Swear now,’ “And David sware
unto Saul. And Saul went home; but David
and his men gat them up unto the hold.” (verse 22) The final words really of Saul to David. We will come to his death. David evidently not trusting Saul, Saul went
home, and David went back to the caves with his men, not trusting Saul enough
to go home. 1st
Samuel 25:1-13 “And
Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him,
and buried him in his house at Ramah.
And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran. 2
And there was a man of Maon, whose possessions were
in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep,
and a thousand goats: and he was
shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of
his wife Abigail: and she was a
woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in
his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb. 4 And David heard in
the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. 5 And David sent out
ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go
to Nabal, and great him in my name: 6 and thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity,
Peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. 7 And now I have
heard that thou hast shearers: now thy
shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing
unto them, all the while they were in Carmel. 8 Ask thy young men,
and they will shew thee. Wherefore let
the young men find favour in thine eyes; for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine
hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. 9 And when David’s
young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of
David, and ceased. 10 And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is
David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days
that break away every man from his master. 11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh
that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know
not whence they be? 12 So David’s young men turned their way, and went again,
and came and told him all those sayings. 13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his
sword. And they girded on every man his
sword; and David also girded on his sword:
and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred
abode by the stuff.” Introduction:
Where Is All This Taking Place? The
wilderness of Paran is here, https://bibleatlas.org/full/paran.htm
and Carmel and Moan are here, https://bibleatlas.org/full/carmel.htm
(Moan, a habitation, a town in the tribe of Judah, about 7
miles south of Hebron, which gave its name to the wilderness, the district
round the conical hill on which the town stood. Here David hid from Saul, and
here Nabal had his possessions and his home (1 Samuel 25:2 ). You can see in the second map where Carmel,
Moan and Engedi are, as well as Ziph and the mountains in Ziph, so you can see
where David has been traveling. The Death Of Samuel No
chapter break as it’s written, it just says then, “And Samuel died; and all
of the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in
his house at Ramah. And David arose, and
went down to the wilderness of Paran.” (verse 1) [see https://bibleatlas.org/full/paran.htm] and they “lamented” very
strong word, speaks of convulsing, weeping out loud, speaks of brokenness, it
would include that they put ashes upon their heads. “and all the Israelites were gathered
together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the
wilderness of Paran.” now this is interesting, this chapter brings David to
another confrontation, and he almost flips out here and loses it, very
interesting. He holds himself together
when he’s insulted by Saul, persued by Saul, when Saul’s in his hand and he can
take his life, and we’re going to see another circumstance kind of pushing his
buttons, and David flips out in this one, and is brought back to his senses
again. And it’s very interesting, and it
just says “Samuel died,” his mentor is gone at this point in time. And listen, Samuel, the thing about Samuel,
remarkably, is there’s so little print.
We hear of Samuel, again, in the Book of Psalms, where it says ‘the
LORD our God, let’s worship at his footstool for he is holy,
Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his
name.’ Samuel,
Psalm 90, by Moses, among those who call upon his name. In Jeremiah, when the city is ready to be
destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah’s pleading for the city, ‘Then said
the LORD
unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be
towards this people.’ Well what we hear is that Samuel was a man
who affected the heart of God. We see
him as a boy in the Tabernacle with Eli, we have snippets of his life at best. And here we hear that he died, but we hear
the Psalmist speak of him, we hear Jeremiah the Prophet speak of him, and
evidently known well through the history of the nation, that this was a man who
should be listed alongside of Moses, and should be listed alongside of the
greatest men in the history of the nation, this is a man that God says ‘Even
if Samuel was praying, I wouldn’t yield this time.’ It means that Samuel was a man who
was able to affect the heart of God, very interesting. The
Grace Of God--What Is It? You
know, we look at David, we love David, because of his humanness as we follow
his life. Of course, we all know about
David and Bathsheba, he murders her husband, he’s a great human, very broken at
the end of his life. He will never be
the king that he was before his fall, and he will never be the father that he
was before his fall. He will write the
Psalms that we love after his fall, because he will have a better perception of
the grace of God, and some of the things he gives to us come out of the deepest
place of his brokenness and his failing.
And sometimes when we think of God’s grace, we think strictly in terms
of forgiveness, you know that the greatest act of God’s grace is that he took
you and I, and he brought us from darkness to light, he justified us, removed
our sins as far as the East is from the West, as though they’d never taken
place. That he satisfied his own wrath
and all of his justice on his own Son, that he redeemed us. That there’s really no greater picture, and I
believe that’s true, of his love than that act of redemption, to us a child is
born, a Son is given. And then we think
it’s a great, and it is, picture of God’s grace, the prodigal, you know, we
come, we get saved, but the fact that we would mess us and make mistakes, and
major mistakes, and that God’s love would still be there for us, and that we
could return to him, that that’s a very incredible measure of God’s grace, and
it is. But the measure of grace that
exceeds that is this, that after we get saved, we need not become a prodigal,
because God’s grace is there for us to walk with him without failing, it’s by
his grace that that takes place. That he
measures his Holy Spirit out to us, he measures his Word out to us, and that if
we come to him and say ‘Hey Lord, I’m tempted here, I’m going to blow it, if
you don’t, don’t let me be on my own here Lord,’ that his grace is there to
keep us. In the world we live in,
independence is what is equivalent in many people’s lives to maturity, ‘this
person, they’re independent now.’ But
in Christ, dependence is maturity, to realize ‘I am as dependent on him for
the next battle as I was for the one I won ten seconds ago.’ It isn’t like I’ve got down Anger-101 and I’m
ready to move on, I don’t have to worry about that anymore, no, no, we’re just
as dependent on him ten minutes later, for the next thing that makes us angry,
as we were for that thing that made us angry.
But the thing is, as we’re dependent upon him his grace is extended to
us to walk with him. Samuel walked with
God his entire life. There’s not a
single record of Samuel falling into sexual sin, or killing anyone, except
Agag, who was supposed to be hacked in pieces, you know. There’s no picture of Samuel failing, Samuel
sought the LORD,
he was a man that touched the heart of God, he was a man that continually
prayed, and God extended grace to him.
Listen, wherever you’re at today, if you’ve come, you’ve gotten saved,
and you understand the great measure of grace he’s extended to you, and then
you’ve fallen away, done things wrong, and he’s brought you back, that is a
great measure of grace. But I guarantee
you, he will extend to you also a measure of grace to finish your pilgrimage,
without compromise, and without sin. He
will extend another measure of grace to us.
Look, I’m thankful, I make mistakes, I’m not killing anybody in caves,
ok, there are times, but those are momentary things, where we say ‘Oh Lord,
let me bring this thought into captivity and bring it to you Lord,’ you
know, the weapons of our warfare, they’re not carnal, they’re powerful, to the pulling down of
strongholds, bringing every thought into the captivity of Christ, and to make
sure those things happen rightly. And I
have full confidence that if I blow it, that his mercy and his grace and his forgiveness
are there. But I enjoy the freedom of
not having that hanging over my head.
And we’re going to see it in this chapter, when Samuel’s dead, David
almost does something, and he’s actually counseled ‘If you had done this,
when you got to the throne, David, this would have been hanging over your
head,’ and God’s grace to him, through this process [through Abigail]. Samuel is dead, the entire nation is
lamenting, no doubt David’s afraid that Saul is going to try to take advantage
of the death of Samuel, and it says he goes to the wilderness of Paran, he’s all
the way down to the Sinai Peninsula [at the top end of it], across from Saudi
Arabia. He’s way down in the south,
that’s where the wilderness of Paran is.
A
Rich, Foolish Farmer Named Nabal Causes David To Almost ‘Lose It’ “And
there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and
the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand
goats: and he was shearing his sheep in
Carmel.” Verse 2) Maon
is an area that’s adjacent to Paran [see https://bibleatlas.org/full/paran.htm and https://bibleatlas.org/full/carmel.htm]. This is not the Carmel in the north, it’s the
Carmel in the south by the mountains that border the Sinai, the desert down
there. “and the man was very great,” the
idea is wealthy. Listen, in that day if
you had two dozen sheep and a dozen goats, you were a wealthy man. Listen, it says this man owns 3,000 sheep and
a thousand goats, that’s a lot of rack of lamb, this guy had 3,000 sheep and
1,000 goats, “and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.” Now, the time of the shearing of sheep
for the herder was just like the time of harvest for the farmers, it’s a time
of rejoicing, a time of festivity, it’s a time when there’s labour at the end
of the season. And he is there, and this
area of Carmel is down in the south near the area of Paran. “Now the name of the man was
Nabal;” which means “fool,” and I have some questions as I look at it. What mom and dad would name their kid
“fool”? ‘What does he look like to
you, Hone? what should we name him? He’s
a little fool, look at him.’ So I’m
assuming this is a surname, I’m assuming that as time goes on, it’s a nickname
that he gets, or that his name was something similar to Nabal, and that they
reconstructed it because of what it tells us, that he’s churlish, he’s a
miserable human being. “Now the name
of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail;” Abba, in
the Hebrew, Father, Abigail is “the father of joy,” or “the father of
exultation,” it can be turned around the other way, “my father rejoiced,” or
“my father exalted,” you know, maybe this is a dad who had seven sons and
finally had a little girl and named her Abigail, as he jumped up and down and
whistled and sang a song. Her name is
Abigail. Listen, it says “and she was a woman of good understanding,
and of a beautiful countenance:” They don’t always go together, you
know. You’ll see sometimes a woman
that’s very attractive and very beautiful, and all of a sudden some foul word
comes out of her mouth, and it just destroys everything very quickly. You know when I was a kid, which was in the
1700s, we used to say “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the
bone.” Now by the way, the opposite
is as true as, you know, unattractiveness is only skin deep, but beauty also
goes clean to the bone, just to be positive, don’t know what I got myself into
here, so [laughter]. But she was of a
beautiful countenance, that word has the sense of drawing attention, she was a
looker, no eyes were in pain, everybody stopped and gazed on her, that’s kind
of, the Hebrew has verb roots, and some of that’s included. But listen, every Christian woman to me, countenance
is what real beauty is, countenance. And
it speaks of a light of his presence, the countenance of the LORD. And you can see some people, with all the
makeup in the world, just miserable, and in these days you can get it all,
hair, get a glass eye, teeth, you can get nipped and tucked and all of this,
and that’s nice, I’m not against that, an old barn looks good with a fresh coat
of paint [laughter], I’m trying to stay on subject here. This is the idea of countenance, just there’s
a beauty to her that’s an inward beauty in that sense, this is a woman who,
she’s a stopper, there’s something of depth and beauty about her. And you say ‘How does a man like him get a
woman like that?’ and the answer is, I don’t remember, it happened so long
ago, I got one, ask Rob, maybe he remembers, he got one too. So she was “a woman of good understanding
and of beautiful countenance: but the
man was churlish” mean-spirited “and evil in his doings; and he was
of the house of Caleb.” (verse 3) nothing like his ancestor, who, Caleb,
had become part of the tribe of Judah, of David’s own tribe. “And David heard in the wilderness that
Nabal did shear his sheep.” (verse 4) When
somebody has 3,000 sheep getting shorn you hear about that, that’s news. And David realizes it’s the time of
feasting. Now figure this, the average
loss on a flock of sheep, you know, probably in that time, maybe it would have
been 3 to 5 percent over a season. You
figure, if David, and it tells us, we’re going to hear one of Nabal’s servants
say ‘As long as David was with us in the wilderness, he protected us,
there was no loss,’ if David kept them from having a 3 percent loss,
you’re talking about hundreds of sheep that were still there as part of Nabal’s
flock. So it says “And David sent out
ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go
to Nabal, and greet him in my name: and
thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be to
thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.” (verses 5-6) peace,
“shalom.” “And now I have heard that
thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds
which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto
them, all the while they were in Carmel.” (verse 7) ‘While we were with
them, there wasn’t anything lost, we were not injurious, we didn’t hurt
them.’ “Ask thy young men, and they
will shew thee. Wherefore let the young
men find favour in thine eyes:” the ten that he had sent, “for we come
in a good day:” this is a time of rejoicing and prosperity, “give, I pray
thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.”
(verse 8) The fact that he sent ten
guys, he expected to get something back that three guys or five guys can’t
carry. So, David said ‘Look, we
were there, we were a wall, we protected you, we hear that this is the time of
sheep shearing,’ it was traditional for anybody who was participating in caring for the flock to
reap some of the benefits of the feasting and eating while they were doing
this, and David sends his men and says ‘look, remember us, we were out
here, we covered your back,’ David himself an old shepherd,
understanding the process here, ‘Whatever comes into thine hand, whatever
is on your heart, why don’t you send that back with the young men.’ “And when David’s young men came, they
spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.”
(verse 9) they stopped and listened, they look at Nabal. “And Nabal answered David’s servants, and
said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there are many
servants now a days that break away every man from his master.” (verse 10) ‘Lots of runaway slaves right
now.’ He insults them, ‘Who
is David?’ He knows who David
is, the whole country’s saying “Saul has slain his thousands, David has
slain his ten thousands,” the whole country knew who he was. And he tells us that in the next statement,
he says “who is the son of Jesse?” if he didn’t know who David
is, how did he know who his family was? In
other words, ‘Who does this guy think he is, hot stuff, the son of
Jesse? You go back and tell him there’s
lots of runaway slaves right now, the country’s filled with runaway slaves
right now.’ This guy’s from
David’s own tribe. This is what he says
[adding insult to injury], “Shall I take my bread, and my
water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers,
and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?”
(verse 11) You just read through the
verses, “I,” “my,” this guy’s got an “I” infection, that’s seven “I’s,” and
“my’s.” “So David’s young men turned
their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.” (verse
12) Now we’re going to find out that when David
finds out, his pipe spins around in his mouth, and says ‘That’s all I can
stand, I can’t stands no more,’ the spirit of Pop-Eye comes on him. Listen, there’s a lesson here, you know, he’s
gonna flip out. And it’s an important
lesson for us, because there are a thousand Nabal’s for every Saul and for
every Goliath, there are a thousand Nabal’s for every Saul. And sometimes, you know, David’s fled from
his home, fled from his wife, fled from Samuel, fled from Jonathan, he’s fled,
now he’s taken the right side of things at Keilah and with the Ziphites, he’s
had those things thrown in his face, he did Saul good and he turned away when
he could have killed Saul. And now after
all of this, he’s far away, done all of this good, and he’s just asking for a
little return, and now this fool, and for David it’s just the straw that breaks
the camel’s back, he’s just at that point.
And listen, isn’t it like this, we can do good in great battles, where
it’s a king or it’s a giant, we pray, we get ourselves ready. What takes us down is some Nabal, some stupid
thing. Don’t look at me like you don’t
understand what I’m talking about. David
must be thinking, look, ‘I’ll be persecuted by a king, but I ain’t going to
be persecuted by a fool, this is all I can take, I can’t stand this any
more.’ Look at verse 12, “So
David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all
those sayings.” David sees them
coming, empty handed no doubt. All the
guys were expecting rack of lamb, must all be watching, you know, here comes
the guys with nothing, and they must have gathered around, and look what it
says, “So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and
told him all those sayings.” Now
what’s going to flip David out here, is not just that Nabal’s a fool, not just
that he’s giving him a hard time, David’s pride is front and center, and he’s
going to be humiliated in front of all of his men, because these ten young guys
are coming back saying ‘This Nabal guy was saying ‘Whose this David, the
hot shot? Who does he think he is,
there’s lots of runaway slaves running around right now, why should I take
anything and give it to him?’ And David is cooking, he’s cooking, “And David said unto
his men, Gird ye on every man his sword.
And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his
sword: and there went up after David
about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.” (verse 13) ‘Four hundred guys, put on your swords!’ they say ‘OK, what are we doing, are the Philistines
coming?’ ‘No, no, it’s not the
Philistines,’ ‘What’s going on here, are
the Moabites coming? Are we going out to
fight Saul?’ ‘No, some farmer just
insulted the boss.’ [laughter]
‘We’re gonna whack him!’ 400 guys
are going to go kill some stupid farmer, ‘What???’ ‘Ya, we’re going to add a new verse to the
song, Saul has slain his thousands, David’s slain his ten thousands and one
stupid old farmer.’ This is crazy,
with Saul he makes them refrain, it’s heated, he exercises his will against the
majority, to stop the whole thing. And
now here’s some farmer that’s got his goat, and he’s got his whole army going
down there to get him and kill him.
Imagine what the guys are thinking, as they’re getting ready, ‘What’s
the emergency?’ ‘Some old farmer really got
the boss mad.’ David yielded to the
LORD in chapter 24, he’s forgetting
now, he’s lost track. The Lessons Of Nabal A victory for us in regards to these things is moment by
moment. Look, God writes this out in
great detail for us, so that we can see these things. One victory does not ensure the next one, you
know, only dependence and leaning upon him guarantees that. The worst mistakes we make sometimes are in
regards to the stupidest things. David
has this army to fight the battles of the LORD, not to kill old farmers. He had restrained them several times, where
he’s restrained them in the cave, when they wanted to kill Saul. We’re going to hear the report from the young
man here, it says ‘They were good unto us, they protected us, David
restrained his men from touching the flocks of this man, or being injurious in
any way.’ These men were not
given to him to destroy old farmers, and David at this point, he forgets his
calling, he forgets their calling, and that’s huge. There’s a lot at stake. And look, the lesson for us is this, we can
sometimes make huge and difficult decisions under great pressure, you know, in
one context, when we pray about it, it’s wrong, this is the king, this is the
giant, and then the stupidest things.
Kathy and I only fight about stupid things. And those were two fights, in the early
‘70s. We don’t argue about important
things, it’s the worst fight we ever had, no, you don’t want to hear that, was
the ham fight, it’s in the annals of our personal history, it was the worst
fight we ever had was our ham fight, and it was Mike’s fault, because she was
pregnant with him and we didn’t know it.
And I was roofing and doing a mid-week study on the West Coast at the
Calvary Chapel out there we were involved in, I was leading worship, this was
30 years ago maybe, I don’t know, at least.
And I came home, hot, tired, and she had made this ham, and she said “It
smells funny,” and I said “no, no, it smells great,” and she said “I
don’t think you should eat that, smells funny,” because she was pregnant,
it was pork, and I said “It doesn’t smell funny,” and I kept eating it,
and she said “I really…” and I said ‘Don’t touch that ham’ [loud
laughter]. and pretty soon we’re yelling at each other, and then I took my
drink and I threw it at her, she grabbed a knife on the table and stood up, and
I took the chair and said “Go for it,” it was a ham fight, and finally I
took the ham and threw what was left of it, I think I got and ate the rest of
it when she went to bed, had to clean the carpet off of it. It was really I think the worst fight we ever
had, it was the ham fight. We would
never fight over Saul or Goliath, or the way we wanted to raise our kids or
values in regards to the Scripture, and you feel like you do so good, you know,
the big decisions, you pray about it, but then some Nabal, some foolish ham
enters your life. And there was no love
or respect at all in that dinner right there, where we knew about those
important things. I actually have a note
here, Ham Fight, you know, my Nabal.
Listen, the exhortation, we’re overtime here. Listen, ladies, we’re going to get to Abigail
and we’re going to break her down next week and really study her, just a
remarkable woman, who ends up to be David’s wife, just incredible, her counsel,
her wisdom. But look, each week we go
through these lessons, please take note of them, here’s the first lesson with
Saul in the cave, and David has people telling him, the same army, who he’s
going to ask to kill the fool, wants to kill the king, and he’s keeping the
whole army from doing that. And
something in his mind is attached to the problem, ‘Samuel anointed him with
oil, Samuel anointed me with oil, there’s something in this that’s divine that
none of us has the right to touch,’ his heart is convicted, ‘I’m not
going to do this,’ he restrains the whole army from killing Saul, and he
must come away from that, in a sense feeling so good, and what an example he
had set for this young army that’s growing up around him. And then a chapter later, some Nabal, some
stupid thing, some ham steps in and insults him, now he’s got the whole army
putting on their swords to kill an old farmer.
To get even or not to get even, forgive us our debts as we forgive
those who trespass against us, we’re very inclined to that. Listen to me, here’s how carnal I am, I like
Charles Bronson movies [for me, the ultimate example of that is Liam Neeson in Taken,
or Clint Eastwood in the Dirty Harry series, or The Band of Brothers,
or The Pacific, true war movies, or the Lethal Weapon series with
Mel Gibson], you know, I can’t watch ‘em, because I like them, I like the
movies where something terrible happens, and the hero goes out and kills all
the whackos. I know that’s wrong, I have
to pray about it, but I’m happy when all the weirdos are dead at the end of the
movie, I got faith in humanity again.
You’re laughing because you understand exactly what I mean, because he’s
doing what I can’t do, I’m a Christian Bronson, I can’t do that, buy bullets
for him, you know. There’s
something in us that likes the idea of revenge, it can be as sweet to us as any
other temptation in life. And if
we’re going to serve the Lord, whether we’re a king, wherever we are in his
court, it’s better to be a doorkeeper in the Lord’s house, than to dwell in the
tents of wickedness. Same King we
represent, same Kingdom, and it’s really hard because sometimes we really get
hurt, sometimes we really get betrayed, it says when Judas went out and
Jesus was troubled in his spirit, it’s hard, betrayal, it’s hard. And we’re all going to experience it in one
form or another. The way we lived in the world before we got saved, we
handled things much differently. And you
get saved and you hear the Bible say if somebody smacks you on one cheek, turn
‘em the other cheek. And I remember as a
young Christian, and every young Christian says, ‘After he smacks the second
cheek, can I give it to him then? I
already got two cheeks, so I got two tries,’ and then you think 70 times
7. The Lord doesn’t want us
meeting out vengeance, he doesn’t want us, listen, personal things, he doesn’t
want us to take retribution, he doesn’t want us to be vengeful, that’s not for
us to do. We’re not talking
about people serving in the military now, we are talking about personal
insults, personal betrayal, personal hurt, and some of those hurts stay with us
our entire life, I’m not naïve and I understand that. But as long as you are bitter to the point
you want vengeance, your offender holds the power, because they are haunting
you. The day you say, ‘Lord Jesus I’m
just going to forgive that person and walk away,’ they no longer have power
in your life. And I am not saying it’s
easy, listen, I’m not saying it’s natural, I’m telling you it’s supernatural,
and God will give you the grace when you’re genuinely hungry for it to do that,
because we can never do it, we can never do it.
And when he does give you the grace, and you have victory, understand
ten minutes later you’re gonna need his grace again for the next
confrontation. It isn’t like ‘Forgiveness-101,
I got it nailed down, let’s move onto
something else’ no, this is our journey through this world, there’s hurt,
this is Earth, it’s not Heaven, don’t ever get them confused, this is
Earth. But look at God working in the
life of this man. Nabal’s gonna die, 30
verses after this, he’s gonna die, David’s gonna say ‘I’m glad I didn’t kill
him, I feel much better about it, thank you LORD, you killed this
fool.’ you know, I don’t think his
attitude’s right, there, but God’s gonna take care of Nabal, he could have
taken care of him then, God could have taken care of Saul, Saul’s gonna die in battle. But God was allowing these things to roll out
in the life of David, the man whose life he was the most intimately involved
with, the man whose life he cared the most about, the man who was the man after
God’s own heart, who he was forming into the greatest king the nation would
ever see, is the man whose taking all the heat.
And God’s allowing it to come “in measure, in measure,” it’s governed,
it’s not out of control. And some of
these courses are mandatory courses, not electives. And they still come, because we’re still
being conformed into the image of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not
what they do.’ Let’s stand,
let’s pray. And look, I don’t know
everyone here, maybe you’re here tonight and you’re not saved, and your heart
is full of bitterness, you’ve come through an abusive life, and in one way or
another you’re tired of carrying that load and you’re ready to say ‘If this
Jesus can change my life, I need forgiveness, because I have the potential to
kill somebody in a cave, if I’d have been there with the person I’m thinking
of, they’d have never come out of the cave,’ and maybe you know in your
heart you need forgiveness, you need Christ.
Please, when the services are over you make your way up here, we’d love
to pray with you, give you a Bible, some literature to read, we’d love to see
you ask Christ to be your Saviour and your Lord, not religion, relationship,
just love to see that happen. But as I
know most of our faces, let’s just pray and say ‘Lord, teach us these
lessons,’ because I can get provoked in traffic, I mean, I do good on huge
things, then in traffic I say ‘In the Millennium, I want to have a big
machine that goes down the road and cuts off the front of people’s cars who
roll out in front of me, just teaching the lesson that they should never do
that,’ great big claw that throws it in the back, I want that to be my job
in the Millennium. God says ‘That’s
not going to be your job in the Millennium.’ …[transcript of a connective
expository sermon given on 1st Samuel 24:1-22 and 1st
Samuel 25:1-13, by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500
Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116] related links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED660 Giving
you and idea of where all this is taking place, the wilderness of Paran is
here, https://bibleatlas.org/full/paran.htm
and Carmel and Moan are here, https://bibleatlas.org/full/carmel.htm. You can see in the second map where Carmel,
Moan and Engedi are, as well as Ziph and the mountains in Ziph, so you can see
where David has been traveling.
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