The irony of it all, such a contrast. David will do foolish things, but his life was not wasted. You and I do foolish things. It does not mean our lives are wasted. It can mean that if we're not careful.
Saul's grand mistake was living for himself. That's it, right there. How did he become the fool? He lived for himself, it was all him. Everybody else was just a vehicle for himself.
He spent his life on himself and no one else, and what did he get back? Nothing. 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. Unflinching Conviction again is the title of Pastor Rick's message. Today he'll conclude this study in 1 Samuel chapter 26. Saul may just drop dead from a direct stroke from the hand of God, and this will be all over with.
Maybe he'll be thrown from his horse. and die that way. or in or in combat. But he's not, I'm not going to assassinate God's anointed. I will not have that.
attached to my name and I will not take the throne that way. The only law protecting Saul Was a spiritual law by a spiritual man. who upheld the law. Of conviction. And again, if you want to uphold righteousness.
You might as well take a metal rod and go up on the roof in a lightning storm because you're going to draw. You're going to draw it. We're seeing it now. Go ahead and tell somebody that you think homosexuality is an abomination to God, and you'll draw lightning.
So don't be surprised. Don't be surprised when we see Satan doing what Satan does. Verse 11 Yahweh forbid that I should stretch out my hand against Yahweh's anointed. But please. Take now the spear, Now he had to finish this sentence very quickly because if all Abishai heard was take the spear.
All right. But please take the spear and the jug of water that are by his head. And let us go. And so we can hear Abishai whispering, mumbling in a whisper. Matthew's Gospel chapter 10.
Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. And well, we see this illustrated here. Yes, these men were tired from a day's march out in the wilderness, the sun beating down on them. That contributed to their fatigue, but we're explicitly told that.
Their sleep was enhanced by God. It was more than natural. God intervened, and He used the natural exhaustion to keep them in this deeper sleep. that they were in. But that's all about to stop.
Abruptly. Verse twelve.
So David took the spear and jug of water. By Saul's head.
Now, of course, Abishai is the one lugging it, but David is the one. getting credit. Yeah. Um executive privileges. And they got away.
And no man saw or knew it or awoke. for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from Yahweh had fallen on them.
So, the historian telling the story, probably hearing it from David and Abishai. That I mean, these guys were out. They couldn't even hear us talking. They were snoring so loudly. I'm not, I'm adding that, but which is possible very much.
I mean, 3,000 men snoring. What would that would be? You could be yelling at each other and the other guy wouldn't hear you. Anyway. Saul's over-exaggerated opinion of himself and his constant underestimation of everybody else got him in trouble this day.
How is that? Because it spread, just like fear spreads to other people, so does arrogance if you're not careful. And Uh this The spear, you know, is his weapon, it's by his head. Abner His general, I'm getting a little bit ahead, I'm gonna slow it down, but Abner. should have posted guards, but they're too arrogant to do it.
This would never have happened if he had followed the protocol, a military protocol. David took the spear of Saul instead of Saul's head because of this, again, unflinching conviction. We want that to be a dominant thought. He was very capable. He had lopped off the giant's head when the giant was laying in the same position Saul was in.
And yet He, um He doesn't do it. He's certainly capable of verse 13.
Now David went over to the other side and stood on top of a hill afar off, a great distance being between them.
So, what we're getting out of this is advantages are not guarantees. David knows he has the advantage, but he still plays it safe. He makes sure he gets far enough away that. If they get up to come after him, he's got such a head start that he can get lost, he'll lose them in the dark and in the hills and ravines that are all over the place there. As a matter of fact, out in when you're out this far away from civilization You can hear for great distances, you can see for great distances.
And your night vision, it's mostly on the side peripheral, is very sharp. I remember once being in a on a night training course, and I could see guys walking on the hi on the hill that had to be, I don't know, a half a mile away. I could see them just walking peripherally. And it was, we trained that way. And so these little things are.
we we might lose sight of because It's like if you're not around farm animals, you know very little about them.
Well, if You're removed from these things, you would kind of find it difficult to believe how he could talk to them from a distance and how they could see. Uh verse 14. And David called out to the people and to Abner the son of Nur, saying, Do you not answer Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who are you calling out to the king? Evidently David had been calling, but they couldn't hear him.
That's why he says, Do you not answer? Don't you hear me yelling? I'm calling, but they're sleeping and sleeping hard. And finally, it registers. And uh that must have been almost a comical m moment.
Can you see David yelling? Abner and he's not moving and Abner shines. He'll hear you. Yell again. What do we got to do?
Go back there and shake them? Uh I I I find it very real to life. But he's deliberately exposing Saul in front of 3,000 witnesses. That's going to play into the future. And the effects of that's going to be remarkable.
The officers, the troops, the Benjamites. Saul's tribe is here.
Well, what we're going to read about later in Chronicles chapter 1. Uh 1 Chronicles chapter 12. We read this about men being loyal to David. From The Benjamites. You say, how did What made them switch?
They heard these stories. They heard about David not killing Saul. They heard about loyal men lining up with David. And eventually they came to do the same.
Well, when he becomes king, This is what we read.
Now, these were the men who came to David at Ziklag.
Now, that will be the next chapter. While he was still a fugitive from Saul, the son of Kish. And they were among the mighty men, helpers in the war.
Now, these men. When David is king, they came to him when he's still running from Saul. But when he is king, they're still with him, and they're lined up in parade to crown him king of all Israel. It continues, second verse: they were armed with bows. Using both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows with the bow.
They were of Benjamin Saul's brethren.
So you see, calling him out like this, not killing him. Harmless, you know, wise as a serpent, harmless as a serpent, it's paying off. What would have happened if he killed him? They probably would have had a very difficult time uniting the kingdom. under his throne.
And then we again read at the same time in 1 Chronicles 12, then the Spirit came upon. A Messiah. chief of the captains. And he said, We are yours, O David. We are on your side, O son of Jesse.
Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for your God helps you.
So David received them and made them captains of the troop. This guy is just, it's all he gets in the Bible, but he's just, it's an intensity that you just, you love to see happen. One warrior to another one. Shalom, shalom, shalom to you. He just, you know, I'm here.
I'm on your side. God helps you, and I want to be with you. I think loyalty is almost dead completely. It's so rare, under pressure. Under pressure.
I watch it in my own self. I know I can't be. getting it right all the time, so I'm watching. Uh anyway, Saul Such opportunities waste. These are the men that would have been his men.
They would have been Saul's men, but he wasted the opportunity. There's another lesson from the Bible to us all. He had Samuel. He had Jonathan. Ahimelech the priests.
Abner, David, He wasted all of it. You younger Christians, to learn how to see an opportunity when it presents itself. to see benefits to not waste them or misuse them. Or even speak out against them. Give it time.
Let it play out some. Don't be in a rush. When you have the right. Don't let someone rush you to go against your conviction. You're going to lose friends that way, but you'll gain others.
It's going to hurt that way, but in the end you'll be better off. You gotta believe these things because they're in the scripture and they're in life. And you look at those who've gone through it. And you hear them say it, and you say, well, if he can do it, I can do it. That is the benefit of discipleship.
That is the benefit of having the young, the middle, and the old. In the church, in the body of Christ, you get to see the young, the old, and the Yeah, the the middle wall working In rhythm, even though it looks very ugly and clumsy sometimes. Satan hates it because it is effective.
Well, verse 15.
So David said to Abner, Are you not a man? David. Hey, Adner's not liking this. He wishes he was still. Is this a nightmare?
And who is like you in Israel? David says. Why then have you not guarded your Lord the King? For one of the people came in to destroy your Lord the king.
Well, that's true. Abishai came in. I kill him, I'll give him one strike.
So David is putting them on defense. Abner's like, uh-huh. He doesn't have an answer for this because, again, Saul's arrogance infected. His command. His right-hand man, no centuries.
Are you kidding? 3,000 men, nobody's awake. You know, in the military, there's no nonsense about being on guard duty. Even if it's fake God duty. Even if you don't have a weapon and you're supposed to be guarding yourself firewise, you get caught sleeping, you find yourself court-martialed.
It's a very serious crime. And so David is saying that because David's been a commander, he knows when his men went to sleep out in the field, somebody had to be awake. Verse 16, This thing that you have done is not good. As Yahweh lives, you deserve to die. Because you have not guarded your master.
Yahweh's anointed. And now, see where the king's spear is in the jug of water that was by his head? Oh, they didn't see that until he said it. Everybody's looking. Where's that jug of water?
I could really use a swig right now. Little cottonmouth here.
So David is asking, aside from saying, you know. You need to come under military justice for your negligence as a commander. He says, who is really the king's friend, Abner? you who neglected to protect him and exposed him to death, or or me, who spared his life in mercy, Am I really the enemy? Out in front of him, again, he's got 3,000 guys.
They're hearing this. The acoustics are amazing out there. Abner could have protested. He could have said, this is not fair. God put a sleep on us.
We couldn't wake up, but that's, of course, not true. God did put the sleep on them, but he couldn't. Should have posted a guard. The Lord saw that, hey, he didn't post a guard. I'm going to let him really sleep hard.
Verse 17. Then Saul knew David's voice and said, Is that your voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my Lord, O King. I don't think he said it like that. I think he's very bold.
Bold as a lion. This is the same question that Saul asked when David came out of the cave. Hey, I got you a part of your robe here. It could have been part of your. Heart.
Anyway, verse 18. And he said, Why does my David again asking? Why does my Lord pursue his servant? For what have I done, or what evil is in my hand? Why you trying to hunt me down with a regimen?
Everybody's saying, that's a good question. Why are we doing this? Verse 19.
Now, therefore, please, David's still speaking his monologue here. Let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But... If it is the children of men, may they be cursed before Yahweh?
But they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of Yahweh, saying, Go serve other gods. David says, Whose fault is this? If I have sinned and God has Put this conviction on your heart to deal with me, then tell me, and I can go to the temple and I can make an offering, and the Lord will forgive. If it's men. These men who again we know that David omits the reason why.
Everybody's ignoring the elephant in the room. Saul's demonically out of his mind. But. David is saying, if there are these men there pushing you forward, Saul, which we know you don't need anybody to do that. Then What's this about them making me go and worship fake gods?
by chasing me to the Philistines. This is a spiritual crime, is what he's saying. This is not right. This is the promised land. And I am a child of Abraham.
I have every right to worship at the temple freely without being hounded like this. Yeah, life's not fair. Not only is it not fair, it's mean. Verse twenty.
So now Do not let my blood fall to the earth before the face of Yahweh. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea. as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.
So he's maintaining his insignificance and relative harmlessness. I'm not going to hurt you like a flea may itch you a little bit, but not going to hurt you. A flea is worthless and insignificant. Partridge Almost impossible to catch. You use a snare to catch them, but.
Uh there in those days, uh they were hard to catch and so He's saying, I'm not worth the effort. You're chasing a nobody who you can't catch. What a waste! That's what he's trying to say in a very poetic way. Verse 21.
Then Saul said, I have sinned. Here we go again, probably crying too. Return, my son David, for I will harm you no more, yet not because of you. Because my life is precious in your eyes this day. Indeed, I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.
This is one of the great verses of the Bible, but are unfortunately in the negative column.
Well, no way when he says, I have sinned and I will harm you no more. No way is David going to say, I believe you. What's for dinner? And just not gonna is you know, Saul's admission of A fact is not enough for David. To let his guard down.
But Saul, this is the big word here. I have played the fool. Because when it came to conviction, Saul had none for righteousness. He was speaking initially of his attitude towards David. That's what his intention was.
David, I've been foolish with you, but it's much bigger than that. It told the whole story of his life. We read that and you say, I don't want to be in this position. One pastor of old says, perhaps the briefest And at the same time, the most accurate autobiography in existence. I mean, in just, you know.
Five English words. He has covered his life. I have played the fool. I don't want to be that guy. And they're out there.
And I don't know how to stop them. I think one of the biggest disappointments in pastoral ministry for me has been: I really thought the preaching of God's Word would yield a lot more fruit. I underestimated the power of sin and the enemy. God did not. God's word is still true.
Take it away, it gets drastically worse. I just wanted more. And that's, I think, a a positive era. I mean, should you want a bastard that doesn't have those expectations? Just no, it's probably not going to save anybody.
You want him to think, I'm going to change the whole world and I didn't think that, but I thought I'd make a bigger impact, a bigger splash. It's somewhat disappointing to make a little splash when you were expecting a big one.
Sola He didn't say out the cave, I'll never chase you again. He does this time. But it doesn't matter. He lies. I played the fool.
Again, the story of his life, unfortunately, he. He wasn't playing. There's nothing fun about this. And David, it's interesting. The Bible says David played music in chapter 18, and here Saul says he played the fool.
The irony of it all, such a contrast. David will do foolish things, but his life was not wasted. You and I do foolish things. It does not mean our lives are wasted. It can mean that if we're not careful, And Saul's grand mistake was living for himself.
That's it, right there. How did he become the fool? He lived for himself. It was all him. Everybody else was just a vehicle for himself.
He spent his life on himself and no one else, and what did he get back? Nothing. Verse twenty-two.
Now he doesn't even own a spear. He's missing his jug of water. David answered and said, Here is the king's spear. Let one of your young men come up and get it. David's not going to stick around and say, I'll wait here until he makes sure he gets the right jug.
David sticks his spear in the ground, leaves him, here it is, let somebody come get it, we're out of here, and disappears into the night. He'd be foolish to do anything else. Because, you know, if you're a commander in Saul's camp, even a lesser commander, you're going to be, while David's talking, you're sending guys to flank him. You take that shot. It's like, no, this is too good.
I can't. They weren't engrossed in his speech. They'd still be thinking he's the enemy, we gotta get him.
So, anyhow, David knew that. It's like they're tracing my call. I got to get off the phone. And verse 23: May the Lord repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For Yahweh delivered you into my hand today.
But I would not stretch out my hand against Yahweh's anointed.
Well, this is really a prayer to the Lord that David is making. Verse 24, and indeed as your life was valued much this day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of Yahweh, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. You crazy Yeah. Uh I mean, any rational being would just say, you know, yeah, you're right, you got me, and mean it. No.
Saul won't get another chance, but it won't. That's the only reason why we don't read again in coming after David. Uh Matthew's Gospel chapter 7. Because this is a, David is saying, Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Matthew chapter 7.
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them. For this is the law and the prophets. The golden rule. This is why those who never heard of Christ. who do evil.
will be held accountable for their evil, Because They would never want someone to do to them what they were doing to everybody else. It's amazing how some habitual liars hate to be lied to. Crooks hate to have something stolen from them. It is uh the madness of sin.
Well, is it too much to ask what Jesus said? You know, whatever you want men to do to you, do to them also. Is it too much to ask? Evidently not for the wicked. I mean, there's little crimes that can even be just too much.
Somebody thinking that they're in the neighborhood disc jockey. at six in the morning. I'm going to bless the neighborhood with my music. I'm telling you, if there could just be a a device that would fry systems, you could push it. And it just fries their system.
I'd quit my job. and just drive around looking for them. Did I say that out loud? All right, I'm kidding, but it There's this one person, I don't know him near where I live. He's far away.
He plays at like 12 o'clock in the night. I can hear it. In New York it was so bad. All right, verse 25. If you really want to know, later ask me, because I love ragging on them.
Saul said to David, May you be blessed, my son David. You shall both do great things and also still prevail.
So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place. Noble words made pathetic by a fool, and they're a fool because he doesn't mean them. This is what we're read first next chapter. This is David's reaction to all of this. First Samuel twenty-seven, verse one.
And David said in his heart, Now I shall perish some day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. And Saul will despair of me and seek me. Any more in any part of Israel, so I shall escape out of his hand. Then David arose and went.
over with six hundred men. who were with him to Achish the son of Moach, King of Gath. And that's what it was you know. He was cornered. He trusted God, but yet he was on that roller coaster.
Is God really going to deliver me from this man ever? He's just so tired at this point. And then he makes again a foolish move because. He just lost sight for a little while. And yet he's still a man of the word this whole time.
He's still writing Psalms.
So off David will go with loyal warriors. And God will add to his number and add to his victories and. We'll be reading about it. If things go according to plan, let's pray. Father, may we not be the soul in any story in life.
May we take these lessons very seriously. 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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