For you have delivered my soul from death. I dodged this giant bullet. Born of my own bad thinking.
So faith must be tested to prove that it is faith and that it will remain genuine. And it's proven more than once, but we grow fatigue. We get tired of the cycles of trouble. I think that's why many of the older saints don't always finish well. They get tired.
Paul says, don't grow weary in doing good. Weariness is something to manage when it comes your way. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Aston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. A bad idea is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be teaching in 1 Samuel chapter 21. Verse 9, 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 it, take it. For there is no other except that one here.
And David said, There is none like it. Give it to me. Hard to do a verse like this justice because it's it's quite meaty.
So the priest said the sword of Goliath, the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Eli was legendary. Everybody knew the story. and this sword had been used to kill before. Certainly by David when he took the head of Goliath with it. Perhaps by Goliath.
Maybe Goliath never got to use it. Maybe everybody just fainted in front of him. I don't know. But either way, there it is. And to David the sword of Goliath was a reminder.
Of his true source of strength.
Now, this gets interesting because he knows that God gave him the victory. Remember that day? Who is this Philistine? And you know, who dares blaspheme? And he went out and took him out.
David's going to misapply the lesson. He knows this is connected to God. And he's going to do the wrong thing with it. He's going to come up with a bad idea. I think at this point is when the bad idea kicks in.
Up to this point, he doesn't know where he's going to go. He gets a weapon, he needs food. We'll take one problem at a time. But then when he asks her, Do you have a weapon?
Well, I've got the sword of Goliath. From Gath. That's where Goliath was from. That's when David, I can use that sword. I can run to gath.
I'll take the sword. I'll use it as a gift, as a token of peace. I carry the sword of the guy I killed, your champion. And this is what's going on.
Some of the past is going to flare up, though, and make a mess of things. It's a timely reminder, but again, it seems to have been misapplied. He says, Whom you killed in the valley of Elah, which is to us Christians, we look at that battle, that duel between the giant enemy of God's people, Satan, and David, of course, type of the Lord. Colossians 2, verse 15. Because this is what David did, and this is what our Lord has done: having disarmed principalities and powers.
He made a public spectacle of them triumphant over them. And then Hebrews 2:14, inasmuch as the children have partaken of flesh and blood. He himself likewise, that is the Lord Jesus. Shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had power of death That is the devil.
So, no matter what we do with our Bible reading and study and come to church. It can be nice and cozy and fun, but it's always about war. It is always about some spiritual resistance against us and our serving the king. It's always about Jesus Christ. He says here that the sword is wrapped behind the cloth.
In a cloth behind the ephod. The high priest's ceremonial robes were there. This is found in, I believe it is Leviticus. It is in one of the second four books of the Bible: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. One of those, it's in two of them actually.
If you will take. That Take it. Yeah.
So he says, take the sword. I like the way this blunt. It almost sounds like the way it's written. Like the priest wants to okay, we've given you the bread, take the sword and go. That's kind of the feel behind this.
But Had David trusted the Lord. At this point in his life, the way he trusted the Lord to slay the giant. What would have happened?
Well, what's going to happen would not have happened. But here's another interesting part about the verse: David's response. The priest says, For there is no other except. That one is unique, it cannot be duplicated. It is a sword with a lot of history and just a little bit of time.
but not much future history. Such are the enemy's weapons. Where's the sword of Goliath now? Who knows? Who cares?
That's how it got out of the temple. And David said, there's none like it. Give it to me. A reminder. For David from the Lord.
That he will care for him. There is nothing like this, David. This sword That victory. There's nothing like it. And we sing songs to our Lord Jesus with the same.
The idea behind the songs, there's no one like him. There are many people who have been crucified on crosses but only one cross of Christ. And there's many empty tombs. But only one tomb that was emptied the way. The tomb that Jesus departed from.
So these distinctions are significant.
So here's this token. given to him There is none like it. It's a literal statement, it's a historical statement, it's a spiritual statement, there's no sword made by anywhere around like this. The history behind it, nothing like it, and the meaning of God's victory. God never needed David to use Goliath's sword.
any more than he needed David to use Saul's armor. God was his sword, God was his armor.
Now, that's a nice Bible lesson, is it not? Go out and live it. A whole nother story. God keeps it real. This sword never helped him.
It really got him in trouble. Verse 10. Then David arose. and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. And David arose and fled that day from before Saul, that Saul would not chase him into Philistine territory is the idea.
He is desperate. He's now going to the world for help. We read this. You know, in my earlier years, reading and loving this story so much. It was David, what are you doing?
Why would you go to the world for anything spiritual, any protection like this? As the years have gone by, and found out just how much the devil can throw at you. Through even other people. He's desperate. The pressure is on him and it is intense.
He's not thinking straight. He's not thinking with God. He's conscious of God. I'll get to why I know that in a moment, or maybe you know it too. But his choices are neither sensible nor helpful.
Yeah.
almost with a chuckle. He is doing what he would never do if he had a clear head. Haven't we been like this? Under such pressure you can't think straight. It's a simple decision.
He is jumping out of the fire into the frying pan. I know it's backwards. Because Saul is the fire. I mean, if he stays there, Saul's going to kill him. He's got to go somewhere.
Achish is not as bad, but he's bad. He's a Philistine. And so Be careful to judge David at this point. Would you have done better? Ecclesiastes 7:7.
Surely oppression destroys a wise man's reason. Yeah.
Oppression, that pressure begins to squeeze out of us what's inside of us, and what's inside of us may not be as strong and noble as we think. Why Gath again? Because he thinks Saul will not chase him there. And he also thinks that Ikish is going to be somehow Receptive, and he is going to be receptive of David. to a point.
There's a deal breaker coming. When they Remember that there are songs written of David's exploits. Saul is killed as thousands, David is ten thousands. Saul the sometimes church goer drove David to a point where he felt safer with the enemies of God's people. Them with His own people.
Are there church goers like this? Are there church goers that can I don't mean, you know, the church gets a bad deal when it stands up for what it believes in. If the church doesn't stand up for what it believes in, it's apostate. If it does stand up for what it believes in, it's mean.
So, what you say, I don't care what you think. I know what the Bible says. But this is not the case with Saul. Saul just wanted to kill David because he was jealous of him. It made Saul feel small, and he would not have that.
Saul had to be the best in his self love, his brand of self love. Drove David to feeling that he had a better chance with the enemy than with God's people. May we never be like that as a church. But you'll always have people that will accuse you who are committing blatant sin, blatant in your face, and demand you look the other way. Or else you're not loving.
You know, I'm also not stupid.
So verse 11. How many faces flashing before me over the years of people who try to pull things like that and then go out and talk about you? For I just said. The commandment is clear. There's no two ways about this one.
I'm not being mean. If I wanted to be mean, I'd go key your car while you were waiting for me. waiting for the appointment. Anyway. Verse 11.
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 in dances? Saying Saul has slain his thousands and David is ten thousands. David's exploits, again, had become legendary, even amongst the enemies. Word got back.
People, we love David. Who do you guys got? Who you got? You don't have Goliath. We got David.
That song. That was the beginning of his troubles. When the women brought that song dancing, you know, Saul, yeah, you did all right, but David. That song was the beginning of his trouble, and now it's in the middle of his trouble. Thanks, ladies.
Response. Who would think that such an innocent celebration would cause one man so much grief, and God would take that grief and turn it into A king. He developed a king through this. Verse 12.
Now, David took these words to heart. I bet he did. And he was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. You could see on their faces that this wasn't going. When they brought that up, isn't this the same David?
So David shows up at the Philistines, you know, in Ghidi and Gath, and he He enters the city, he's carrying the sword, he's got his men with him, and he says, I want to speak to the king, I have a present for him. And so they bring him to David, and David presents the president, and it's going pretty well there. And then all of a sudden, wait a minute, what did you say your name was? David, the same one that the songs, and David, of course, realizes this has just quickly gone sour. In verse 12, David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king.
Again, it's a sad thing when we think we have more hope amongst unbelievers than anywhere else. Amongst the people of God or alone. And throughout history, false believers like Saul have been very dangerous to true believers. Think of the Spanish Inquisition. If you're not familiar with it, you're missing out.
Go find out about Thomas Takamata in the You couldn't talk them out of torturing anybody. Who didn't agree? He was a psycho-evil person. Anyway. Jeremiah the prophet.
was imprisoned by the Hebrew king Zedekiah. And Jeremiah was struggling. Zedekiah would go back and forth, bring Jeremiah. He wanted to listen to Jeremiah, but he was a very weak king and he was also evil. And anyway, Jeremiah said, please don't send me back to that prison.
If you do, I'm going to die. And the king says, okay, but then the king turns his buddies loose.
Okay, do to Jeremiah whatever you want.
Well, they throw him into this pit. There was no water there, but it was mire, and the scripture says, and Jeremiah sank in the mire. And of course, the eunuch, Lebalmelech, he rescued Jeremiah. But Jeremiah 39, 12, he writes, down for us. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, said about Jeremiah.
And what I'm pointing out here is you have A false believer like Zedekiah, who claims to be king of God's people. Tormenting and punishing and persecuting God's prophet. The righteous person. Then you have the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, who says, take him and look after him and do him no harm. But do to him just as he says to you.
This is after. He conquers Jerusalem and takes over the city. He gives his commander these instructions about Jeremiah. Look after him, take care of him, do him no harm. And it's shameful.
Why didn't the Hebrew king think this way about Jeremiah? Religion is some dangerous stuff. And it is the truth, is what stabilizes it, but not only truth, you've got to have love. Because again, if you just have truth, you just go around clobbering everybody. And not only love, you have to have humility, a view of yourself.
to understand that you're not all that. These are important, and there are other things that belong to it. That's again why our Bibles are so thick.
So anyway, David realizes the implications of their realization.
So what else what is he to do now? Theatrics go crazy on him. David, verse thirteen.
So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched the doors of the gate, and let his salibre fall down on his beard, What What is this? I mean, that's what Abimelech's going to say, the same thing. This had become David's Hagar. You know, God told Abraham that he and Sarah in their old age would have a child. But it took years.
And so they couldn't wait anymore. They took matters into their own hands, and Sarah came up with this brilliant bad idea. I know his Hagar. Have a child with her. Abraham says, okay.
And the next thing you know, Ishmael is born, and he's a problem for the rest of his life. His hand is against every man, every man in his hand is against him. We have to be careful as we go through life that we don't create these Hagars because we can't wait for God. That's the lesson that comes out of this. Wait for the Lord, but it's painful.
Going to be more painful if you don't wait. Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of a man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in Yahweh shall be safe. The fear of man brings a snare. That's where David was. snared by Saul.
And he lost sight of trusting the Lord. This man after God's own heart is acting crazy, scratching the door, drooling all over the place, making these noises, running around wild.
Well the real madman is back in his palace That his David's devil-in-law So Who's the cause of all this? is back home being catered to. And David is reduced to such behavior. For nothing, for doing good, for doing what he was supposed to doing his duty. Verse 14.
Then Achish said to his servants, Look, You see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? They were civil enough not to say, well, he's insane, he's Jewish. He killed Goliath, let's kill him. At least that doesn't happen because God is protecting David.
But it's a real good question. Why have you brought him to me? Well, we didn't know he was crazy. He shows up with this sword. It was a nice sword.
We felt you'd like to have it.
Now, the king, you say, why would the king be impressed? It says he's going to make him look like a star amongst the other kings. Because the Philistines had five cities, they were five lords of the five cities. Gath was one of them. And so, you know, he'd be, you know, boy, look at that.
Achish got the sword of Goliath back. Way to go. It'd be thumbs up all on his page. Verse 15. Have I need of a madman?
That you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence. David can hear. David's like, excuse me, I can hear you. I can hear you talking about me. Shall this fellow come into my house?
This is sarcasm and is humorous. I think it's intended to be humorous. I think Akish is pretty secure king. And he said, What are you bringing me a kook for? But these Theatrics This quick thinking of David saved his life.
Now from heaven's point of view, We act like madmen. We act like we're out of our minds whenever we put ourselves where we don't belong and we know we don't belong there. But life is hard. It's so many temptations. He almost perished.
Seeking refuge with the enemy. Amongst the pagans, Escaping now escaping the Philistines. He's going to have to come up with another plan. I mentioned to you that David was not really mindful of trusting God. He was aware of God, he never lost consciousness of Yahweh.
But he wasn't acting on it. He took matters into his own hand, thus the Haggar illustration. And the way we know this is right after his escape, he writes two Psalms about this. I don't know of another episode in his life where he writes two Psalms about the same episode. Psalm thirty four and Psalm fifty six.
are about his pretending madness in Gath and escaping. And in these two Psalms He admits, he emphasizes that he was not trusting God. This had a lasting, a heavy impression. He failed in his own heart. He said, I blew it.
I wasn't trusting God. But instead of dragging his knuckles all over the place, David writes a psalm. Psalm 34 verse 8. Oh, taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him.
Remember, he wrote this after he wasn't trusting Yahweh when he went to the world for help. The Psalm 34, verse 7: The angel of Yahweh encamps all around those who fear him and delivers them. In verse 15 of Psalm 34, the eyes of Yahweh are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
Okay, wait, wait. Saul has ruined your life. You've got this devil in law chasing you wherever you go, and you're writing praises to God.
Sort of like Paul when he was in jail. Paul was saying, Pray that I have boldness to preach the gospel. Instead of pray, get me a good lawyer. And it's just, you know, this balance these heroes have. When the spirit fills fills them.
That's what we want. It's what we're attracted to. Then Psalm fifty six. In God I will praise His word. In God I have put my trust, I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?
Well, if he stayed back, let's all catch up with him. He would have found out, right? But he did not do that, of course. He's getting it together, he's going to end up in a cave. And He's going to write a psalm about that too.
David's on a roll. This was sort of a wake-up call for him. It's like, I thought I was trusting God, but I really was not. And I found myself in a situation because of a bad idea. misapplying the leading.
Psalm 56, verse 13: For you have delivered my soul from death. Have you not kept my feet from falling? that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
So David says. After surviving this, I got to live more for God. That was his conclusion. that his word did not let him down. for you have delivered my soul from death.
I dodged this giant bullet, Born of my own bad thinking. And so faith must be tested to prove that it is faith and that it will remain genuine, and it's proven more than once. But we grow fatigued. We get tired of the cycles of trouble. I think that's why many of the older saints don't always finish well.
They get tired. Paul says, don't grow weary in doing good. Weariness is something to manage when it comes your way. Almost done. To David, somewhere in his heart, if you say, you know, if I were in David's spot and looking at the circumstances.
Before us, the lying, the running to the enemy for help. Because he could have just ran to the cave first, but he didn't think of that because that whole sword thing threw him out. I got a good idea. This is God. I'd take the sword to get out of this.
Prior to these Psalms, he seems to have Surrender to the fact that God was not interfering with his life as much as he wanted him to interfere. To trust God while overcoming and winning, that's one thing. To trust God when you're losing. when you don't see him interfering. When you see damage taking place, that's another thing.
Peter the motto to be and he knew it God promised Peter, Jesus Christ promised Peter, that he would die a martyr's death.
Well, there came a time in the church history while Peter was still ministering. that the Christians were being persecuted. And so Peter writes to them about their persecution. And he never tells them it's going to be okay. He tells them, you know, stay strong in the faith, preach the gospel.
Manage the church. She tells the pastors in the midst of persecution: shepherd the flock of God that is among you. Not as overlords. But he says this, 1 Peter 1 verse 7. That the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold perishes.
And pause there.
So I get a little tired of the genuineness of my faith being tested. I'd like to do it once or twice. And that's it. Yeah.
But when I remember that it is precious. That there's more to it than the suffering I'm going through, that it has meaning and purpose to it, even if I can't identify these things. David couldn't identify it. He wasn't sure he was going to get on the throne and be the king. The whole anointing thing with Samuel, the oil poured on him, now he's drooling on himself.
Peter continues. though it is tested by fire, as we know. There's no such thing as fake fire. It is hot. And it hurts.
He said, may be found to praise, honour, And glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's all about eternity with us. It's all about the next life to the glory of Christ. Otherwise my suffering just becomes tedious. World suffers.
but is pointless in the end. Let's hopefully gain some lessons out of this experience. Stop here. It gets worse.
Next session. Um Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com.
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Okay.
