October 18

1 Samuel 27:1-12

David Among the Philistines

27 But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

² So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maok king of Gath. ³ David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. ⁴ When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

⁵ Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”

⁶ So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. ⁷ David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.

⁸ Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) ⁹ Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.

¹⁰ When Achish asked, “Where did you go raiding today?” David would say, “Against the Negev of Judah” or “Against the Negev of Jerahmeel” or “Against the Negev of the Kenites.” ¹¹ He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. ¹² Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”

 

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

You do this on purpose, I know. Thanks, Alexander. Thank you for your Word, Lord.

The Word that became flesh, but also this Word that you gave us. This Word that was inspired by the Holy Spirit. May we, Lord, as we quiet our hearts in the Word today, may we ask as always, may we see Jesus, and only Jesus.

Amen. Ted, I think we have a slide. There we go.

Number four in our series on giant busters. Where do you go if they have a slump, God? You know what that is? Anyone ever been in a slump? Maybe I don't even have to ask that because we've all been there, done that, because here's the thing. All of our giants, like Goliath, have a slump, God.

Doesn't fire bullets, but it does sadness. Doesn't take a life, but it does take our smiles. It doesn't inflict flesh wounds, but it does faith wounds.

Just one blob, a slump. And relationships are hard and difficult. And life sometimes feels like it's all uphill.

I'm like Sisyphus. I'm going up and then I come down. I go up and then I come down.

And it's sometimes dark and it's just struggling. Slump just goes all over the place. That's where David was.

He's been running away from Saul for a while now, hiding in caves, hiding behind trees, hiding in the hills. And to make matters even worse and to complicate it even more, he has 600 men plus their families with him that he has to take care of. This is when David looks around and he hits that button and the slump just hits him.

Listen to David. 1 Samuel 27. Maybe I need my eyes.

Starts with a butt. Boy, that butt thing. But David thought to himself, remember that word, one of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul.

The message says sooner or later Saul is going to get the best of me. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel and I will slip out of his hands.

So David and the 600 men with him left and went over to Achish, the son of Moab, Maok, the king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him.

David had his two wives, the Nimrim of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him. Let's stop there for a second.

To you, David, so sad. No hope. But the saddest of all, no God.

Because right now the only thing that David sees is this giant. You remember I told you about the giants, they give us tunnel vision, right? All he sees is Saul. He's got a poster of him on every wall in his bedroom and everywhere he looks, all he sees is this Saul thing coming at him.

All of those voice notes, he plays them over and over and listens to them over and over. And David focusses on his fear and his fear takes over and the slump hits him. The sad part about this is that David actually knew the remedy.

David knew way better than this. He knew what to do to prevent this because he's been there. He knows exactly what heaven asks us to do.

When the Philistines, when he was facing the Philistines, 1 Samuel 23 verse 2, it says, David enquired of the Lord. When he felt that his enemy was way bigger than him and he was so small before him, 1 Samuel 23 verse 4, David enquired of the Lord. When the Malachites came and attacked him, 1 Samuel 30 verse 8, it says, and David enquired of the Lord.

Over and over and over. David had God on speed dial. When he was concerned, he talked to God.

When he was afraid, he talked to God. When he was struggling, he talked to God. David talked to God most of the time.

But this time, this time David talked and I said to you, remember that word, verse 1, David talked to himself. One of these days, I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. One of these days, Saul is going to get the best.

David's focused. At the moment, that becomes his focus and David talks to David himself. David doesn't talk to God.

That's where that slump comes in. He hits the button, boom, all over him. What does he do? He runs away.

Saul stops. Where does he go? He defects right into the hands of his enemy, the Philistines. Worst of all, he takes the soldiers and their families with him into a land filled with idols and false gods, pitches his tent in the backyard of Goliath.

For a moment, David experiences relief. The soldiers can sleep with both eyes closed. The families start unpacking their stuff.

The kids go to the kindergarten, but here's the problem. Sleeping with the enemy only brings temporary relief. It doesn't last.

Loneliness, guilt, heartbreak will soon rush in. Oh, did you hear that amen? That was David saying that amen, because David knows all about that. But the song of the slump has three verses.

You can't stop yet. It goes like, woe go so. Not do re me.

David wore out, verse one. David got out, verse two. In the third verse that we'll look at, David sold out.

This is how it goes. Verse five. David said to Achish, if I have found favour in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns that I may live there.

Now remember who Achish is. It's his enemy's king, the Philistines, the boss of Goliath. Assigned to me in one of the country towns that I may live there.

Why should your, and look at that word, servant. Servant. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you? So on that day, Achish gave him Ziggurat, and it belonged to the kings of Judah ever since.

David lived in the Philistine territory a year and four months, 16 months. So David strikes a deal with his enemy. Part of the deal is this condition that David had to fight against his own people.

David accepts the deal. Well, you know David by now. I hate these glasses.

Now, David and his men, listen carefully. David and his men went up and raised the Jeshurites, the Jerusalites, the Amalekites, all the other kites, and then our text has it in brackets. Hebrew doesn't have brackets, but it's something really important that it's telling us.

From ancient times, these people had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt. Then, put up that slide that I sent you. So, if you look at the slide, Gath is way up north.

Ziklag is down. You'll see the land of the Philistines is that little darker green on that side. Yeah, your left side too, against the Mediterranean Sea.

You know many of those places. Gaza, Ashdod, still there today. Ashkelon.

Gath is where Achish lived. David asked, give me down here. This is close to the border with the Amalekites because the Amalekites, all the iths lived down south because as we go further down, you'll know the picture.

It goes down to Egypt. This is where he went down. If you look to the east or your right of that where you see Jerusalem, Hebron, Beersheba, Shiloh, you know those places.

That's Israel. What did he promise the king to do? He would go east. Where does David go? He goes south.

He lies. Now, look what David does. He goes, he attacks these people, which he shouldn't have.

Verse 9, whenever David attacked an area, there we go. Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but he took sheep and cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothes. And then he returned to Achish.

And when Achish asked, where did you go raiding today? David would, and we've got some words that should be added in there. David would lie and say, oh, against the negate of Judah, or against the negate of Jeremiah, or against the negate of the Canaanites. The word negate in Hebrew means wilderness or desolate land.

It's not the desert. The desert is Midbar in Hebrew. It's the east side that I showed you.

It's called the negate. Those of you who were to Israel with me, can you remember how dry it was down in Judah, that dry area that we went there? It's barren. So when he talks about the negate of Judah, he's saying, I went to that part of Israel where Judah's tribe would be.

When he says, I went to against the negate of Jeremiah. Now, Jeremiah is interesting. He was the great grandson of Judah.

So it sounds like someone's his own family. When he says, I went against the negate of the Canaanites, the land of the Canaanites, Moses' father-in-law was a Canaan. And they were incorporated into the tribe of Judah.

So he would lie and say, oh, I fought against all of my own people. I killed all of those people. Never did.

Now look how the story goes on. Because of the lie, verse 11, he did not leave a man or a woman alive to be brought to death. Of course, he thought they might inform on him.

They might tell the truth. He'd say, this is what David did. And such was his practise as long as he lived in the Philistine territory.

David trusted David. He said to himself, oh, he's become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life. Not David's finest moment, right? He lies to the Philistine king.

And to cover his deceit, he covers that with bloodshed. He would continue doing this. Why? And before this would get better, it would get worse.

Islam would get worse. Let me explain that. You're not going to read that.

What happens in chapter 29? It became the time of year to go to war with each other. So the Philistine king says, we're going up to Jezreel, where we're going to fight against Saul. Remember, Jezreel was the plain on which they fought all of the wars where Armageddon will happen.

I told you there's no such thing as Armageddon. Armageddon in Hebrew means the mountain of Megiddo, which is on the plain of Jezreel. So they went to Jezreel to go fight.

David and his troops go with. As they get there, King Achish gets very wise counsel from his generals. They say, send David and his troops back, because we know this guy.

Remember what the women sang. Saul killed his thousands, but David killed his ten thousands. When this guy starts fighting with us, he's going to turn against us and fight us.

And Saul will see that, and he'll be in Saul's good graces again. Don't let that happen, because we're going to lose. Send him back to Ziklac.

Wise king, he listens, sends David and his troops back. When David and his troops get to Ziklac, they find something that they never thought they would. The Amalekites, when they were away, came and they completely destroyed the city of Ziklac.

Nothing left. And they took the women and children as hostages. So here they come and they sit.

All this deceit and all the stuff that went, the slump that ended in there, there they sit in the ruins of Ziklac. And the moment he sits there, his soldiers pick up the stones and they say, it's all you. And they get ready to stone David.

And the slump hits rock bottom, no pun intended. And I wonder, as David sits amongst the ruins of Ziklac, with his soldiers ready to stone him, I wonder whether he regretted that prayerless decision to get out and to sell out. Because you have to think, the slump is the petri dish of all our bad decisions.

And the thing is, all those tough decisions that we made in the, or the hard decisions that we made in the tough times, will stay with us for a long time. So my question to you today, each one of us ask ourselves, how do you handle your hard times? When you've lost your faith, when you've lost your hope and your happiness, when you're tired of crying, tired of forgiving, and you feel like you want to go up that hill, but you can't do it because you just come down. How do you handle your hard times and slump years? Do you run to death, sell out to the Philistine King, and end up in the ruins? Because that's not the solution.

But what is the solution? The solution is to do the opposite of what David did. David didn't pray. Pray.

Pray always. Pray all the time. Can you remember what Paul says? Don't be worried about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, take it to God.

Pray. When the slump hits, pray. When the slump overwhelms you, pray.

Never stop praying. What did Jesus do when times got tough? Did he sell out? He went and he prayed that he was at his knees before the Lord. Ask the Lord.

He gave this gift to pray, to ask. David, stop talking to the Lord. Talk to God.

Do you remember what Jesus said? Are you tired? Are you weary? Are you burned out? Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Do you know what the message says? Come walk with me, work with me, learn from me, and I will teach you the unenforced rhythms of grace, and I will teach you to live lightly and freely. You can't run to the Philistines.

You'll end up in Ziklag, in the ruins, with the men standing around you with their rocks. Talk. Come.

Find wise counsel. David didn't do that. He just got good counsel.

David, find someone that you can trust. Just this past week, I had this privilege again to sit with my friend Dennis. Dennis was an elder in this church.

They moved to London. Dennis and I would meet weekly to hold each other accountable, talk about our lives, our children, our everything, our work, and pray together. I miss that so much.

Now we see each other monthly. We meet halfway, go to Woodstock. This past week, we went and had breakfast.

And then we sat in a park out there in the sun, and we just spoke. And I could talk to him about my retirement, how I feel about that, about my health, my life, and Dennis talked about it. And we lifted each other, and then we prayed.

And a lot of people thought, I don't care what they thought, walking through the park. These two guys sitting there holding hands, and we're praying, praying. What an amazing holiday it was, because I had someone who could talk with me, someone who could pray with me, someone who could stand before the Lord with me.

You might not want it. Can I tell you something? You might need it. But the slump, it hits really hard.

Look where David ended. Let's not end the story like that. As David sits there in the ruins of Zikla, with his men around him, all filled with the gunk of the slump, David finds grace.

David finds his strength. David knows what to do. Put this slide on there, or that text on there.

1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 6, just the last one, that David found strength in the Lord his God. It's good to have you back, David. We missed you.

Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Lord, we might not like it, but those giants, they're all around, and they come at us.

Sometimes we want to sing that slump song, woe, woe, so. We feel worn out. We want to get out.

Then sometimes we sell out. Then we remind ourselves, but David found the strength in the Lord his God. Thank you that you are there.

Thank you that you hear when we lift up our prayers. Thank you that you are always available to let us walk with you, be with you, speak to you. Thank you that you wash the old slump and all the stuff of the slump off of us and make us brand new.

Thank you that as we face our giants, we're not alone, because you are always there. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name.