For offenses must come, because we're in a cursed world and we are sinners, and our nature is to sin even if we're born again. Otherwise there'd be no war, no conflict. Jesus continues, but woe to that man by whom the offenses come. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offenses come.
So until he makes that last clause, he's just a general statement. Yeah, we all agree with that. And then he makes it personal. 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. And now here's Pastor Rick in 1 Samuel 27 as he continues his message: a repeated mistake. This time he's got a battalion with him.
They won't be so quick to push him around and think about taking him prisoner this time. But he's seeking political asylum. And Achish, the king of Gath, who seems to be a nice guy as Philistines go, but a little naive. He can use the mercenaries that David is bringing with him. Uh we're not privy to the.
What the Philistine Council warlords were discussing the five overlords of the Philistines. They were, of course, plotting Saul's death. which they will pull off in sixteen months, and take them about that long. Just to get ready for it. I mean, how many arrows do you have to make?
You don't have an assembly line.
So before you go to war, you've got to build up for it. You don't want to go settle for a. An army that's not supplied, supply is everything. Tactics for amateurs, supply is for pros, goes the saying. Anyway, I feel in a very paraphrased mood because I can't remember the quotes.
So, This uh Is a spiritual setback, as I've been mentioning, to go back again to where he failed. But David, you know, optimistic, it's going to be better this time. No, I do not think David is thinking he's going to bring revival to Gath. I don't think that's even possible. I mean, it's just not how they thought back then.
You've got your gods, we've got our God. Israel never really flashed a light. The church does. But Israel, you know, had, you know, look, Jonah. Jonah tried to bury his lamp in the ocean.
It's just. anything but have to preach to the Ninevites. And uh that wasn't just Jonah. There were others who shared that view. Anyway, David, here he is going.
To those who worship idols. And what we know about David is he hated that kind of stuff. He took it personal. You know, if you believed in an idol and you were in Israel, he just could not stomach that. He wrote it into many of his Psalms, not just one or two.
And so as again, he makes this mistake, he repeats this mistake, but God does not slam him for it. I like to hear that. But I'm cautious to say that to other Christians because I don't know if they're as strong as I am. That's a joke. But as a Bible teacher, you have to have some, you know, you can't, you don't want to open the door for someone to say, Okay, well weakness is now acceptable.
We always want to be fighting it. But again, God's so gentle with him. Here he is amongst uh the idolaters. Psalm thirty one, verse six, David writes, I have hated those who regard useless idols, but I trust in Yahweh.
Well, Achish trusts in idols, David. What are you doing over there? Case I'm building up against David is again, he does not belong there. He's out of his element. And he's going to come to that conclusion, of course.
He knows it. He just doesn't know what to do. Psalm 26, verse 4: I have not sat with idolaters. Idolatrous mortals Nor Will I go with hypocrites? Yeah, you can talk a big fight in this life, even a Christian fight.
You still got to do. You still gotta go through with it.
Well, anyway, the subtle little things are different from this time and the last time. I think I've hit most of them.
Well Akish probably said David. You've got a lot of men with you now. What happened? Last time you were here, you were a nut. David, I got better.
That's what else could he say? Verse 3.
So David dwelt with Achish at Gath. Remember, Goliath is from Getwa, was from Gath. And. Gath was is in the book of Guinness Book of Records for making the largest helmet ever made. for a human being.
Okay, that's not true, but it's funny.
So he says, So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household. And David, with his two wives, Ahenoem, the Jezreelitis, boo. And Abigail the Carmelitis Nabal's widow. Yay! Henoem, she's not going to produce any children.
It's going to be a problem. And again, Abigail sort of fades out. I'm sure she gets rid of the palace life and goes back to her. or ranch, remaining David's wife, however. Anyway, uh Achish, very happy to see David come and sort of be this feudal servant, this vassal.
That's what uh the word I wanted. And he also knows that if David is to mass 600 men, those are 600 less men the Philistines would have to face in an all-out war. That's a battalion, less. And so he's happy with that. Maybe more will defect to David.
And that will weaken Saul.
So it makes sense from if you look at it that way. But again, I always get the feeling that Achish seems to have lacked good judgment. I wouldn't have been comfortable with David over there. He killed a hero. I mean, that's never going to go away.
And his peers will not be comfortable with it either either. They're going to challenge Achisha. What do you mean David's with us, lining up with us to go against the Jews? You crazy? Send him out of here.
I can't wait till we get to that. Just one little moment. But it's just always like, yeah, man, what were you thinking? Who does that? Achish of Gath.
So now you have an answer when someone says to you, Who does that? Achish of Gath.
Saul, the author. Of this hardship. And I just want to take a moment to quote this New Testament word about. Saul's behavior. Woe to the world because of offences, and they make us stumble.
Well, they help us stumble. For offenses must come, yet 'cause we're in a cursed world and we are sinners, and our nature is to sin even if we're born again. Otherwise there'd be no war, no conflict. Jesus continues, but woe to that man by whom the offenses come. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offences come.
So until he makes that last clause, he's just a general statement. Yeah, we all agree with that, and then he makes it personal. He singles everyone out and says, You make sure it's not you. Because woe to you too. If you are the one causing the righteous to stumble, And that's what Saul is doing.
Abigail, the Carmelitis, I always want to say caramel because I like caramel. Who doesn't like caramel? Anyway, I can put it on my burgers. It's so good. No, that's much.
But anyhow. Nabal's widow. She is referred this way frequently. The historians just never let anybody forget that this was a miracle, that Nabal was struck dead for his treatment of David and Abigail and others. Verse 4, and it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath.
So he sought him no more.
So he goes across the border and and now he he This does not again confirm that this was the right choice. But as I mentioned, it's easy to put ourselves in the judgment seat when we're not in the hot seat. But he's trading one trouble for another trouble, and I covered that hopefully a little bit at the introduction of. This consideration. Back to First Samuel, listen to David's words before he met.
King Saul. And he shows up at the battle line. When nobody's fighting, Saul or Goliath is coming out, taunting, mocking, terrorizing everybody. humiliating them, which is even worse than being struck. To be humiliated day after day.
And David hears of it, and David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away their reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? You see, he's like, he is in it. He backs it up. You know, talk is cheap, but it ain't cheap when you go back it up like he does do.
My point is to draw this contrast. Here he has this disdain. for the Philistines, who were the enemies of God people, who were to be pushed out of the land. And now he's seeking refuge with them. And He's going to lie more and more.
And listen to verse. I'm not going to get read verse 5 all of it yet, just to make the point to build it up. Verse 5, he says to Achish, For, why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? Uh why are you the Philistine servant, David? You see what happened was happening?
He doesn't mean this. He knows he's not a Philistine servant, but he's got to play this game.
Well, he shouldn't be there. He should have the hardship of surviving Saul in the promised land rather than dwelling with the enemies. Peace at any price is not advisable for us. The end does not justify the means. We have to guard against these things.
Yes, we do them from time to time, but we always are convicted. If we are living in the light of Scripture. I mean, I'm convinced that Paul should not have taken those men down to the temple to make that little offering for them. He writes all about it, as I believe he wrote Hebrews, later on, but God stopped him from making that offering by having him arrested.
So we make these mistakes and we recover. Verse 5. Then David said to Achish. If I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town or country that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?
He's lying to him. I mean, he d David's sick of the Philistines, and so are the people that he's with. There's a cultural clash going on.
So he shows up with 600 men, and they're probably on the outskirts of the city, but they're interacting with the Philistines, and they can't stand each other. And he knows this, and so he goes very diplomatically and says, Why should your servant dwell here with flattering the king? And Achish, gullible, probably glad to get rid of him, too. Says, well no, I got this place, there's some water there. It's called zig lag.
as a manly name, for a place for you to dwell, David. I mean Tinkletown would have been bad. I said, David, I give you Tinkletown. No, I don't want it. Not really.
I mean, I live one little town from the town, is named Manquin. Why couldn't I have moved there? Don't doesn't that an appealing name for us men? In an age where, anyway, let's just get back to this.
So, the subtle indicators are showing the potential for a drift if he's not careful with his lying and his just not being forthright and just subtle little things. Verse 6: So, Achish gave him ziklag that day, therefore, a ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day.
Well, according to God in Joshua 14, ziklag belonged to the Jews, period. First, Judah, then Simeon gets it, but this ends up in David's hands, about 20 miles from where Saul lives in Gibeah. And as the crow flies, as you walk there, it's probably 40 miles. But anyway, be that as it may. He now has this.
Place where there's water in the desert, and this is now a desert area. It says, Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah from that day forward. This is the editor. of the historical events. who has published this for us.
Is saying these things are written after the split of the kingdom of the Jews into north and south. This is sort of a time stamp of when it was published, not the events taking place. And uh His forces grew. We read this last session. It's worth reading again.
Now, these, 1 Chronicles 12, verse 1.
Now, these were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still a fugitive from Saul, the son of Kish. And they were among the mighty men, helpers in war.
So he gets some quality men added to the ranks, but by the time we get, I think, to chapter. 30, we find he's still said to have 600 men. Not an exact 650 or something like that. It's certainly within rounded off. Anyway, he never gives this territory back to the Philistines.
Verse 7.
Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one year One full year. and four months. He doesn't know how long he's going to be there. See, if we read this, it was only, you know. 16 months.
But while he's there, he doesn't know how long Saul's going to live. Saul, he might think, Saul is going to have 20 years. This is going to be my life now. And God knows in sixteen months Saul will be dead. He does work mysteriously.
He does work slowly. We learn to live with it. And it's what separates the belie one of the things that separates believers from unbelievers is that God is worthy to us of whatever inconvenience that comes our way. Uh 2 Samuel chapter 2. Verse 1, we read about David asking God after Saul's death, where should I go?
It happened after this that David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah? And Yahweh said to him, Go up David said, Where shall I go up? And he, that is Yahweh, said to Hebron, And so he'll be in Hebron for Seven years. And then he becomes king of the entire Jewish nation, the people, all tribes. He probably doesn't ask God about going to the Philistines.
Why? Because he knows God's gonna say no. Why else? Who does that? I'm not gonna ask.
He's gonna say no. Welcome to a pastor's life. They're not going to ask me if they can do that one, are they? Um Verse eight And David and his men went up and raided the Gisherites. The People across the other side were the guess you're wrong.
These guys were, I guess you're right, they just couldn't commit. The Gerzites and the Amalekites. Wrapping was in style long before this generation, because if you read it that way, just anyway, for those nations were the inhabitants of the land from old. as you go to Shier even as far as the land of Egypt.
So these people that aren't far from David, that he is raiding.
Well not far, I said within fifty miles. Give or take, they likely would have attacked him at some point. If they found out he's doing well, you've got that oasis rolling, his crops and stuff, they would attack him.
So this This is certainly some of it is preemptive, but it also is under the commandment of God. But it's kind of twisted because David should be attacking the Philistines too. But he's justified in this: Deuteronomy 20. But of the cities of these people which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite. Pezarite and the Hivite.
The gebosite Just as Yahweh your God has commanded you. I don't know. Did it sound as odd to them as it does to us, all of these ites? They probably didn't catch it. I don't know.
But anyway, this is within that commandment, his striking them, but it's. Course is tainted because he should be doing that to the Philistines. Also. He's making these raids, he's enriching himself, he is slaughtering the people that he is raiding, men, women, and children, and taking the loot, which was customary in those days. It seems brutal to us because it was brutal.
But Uh in it was kill or be killed. The Gesharites Uh live to the southwest as you go towards Egypt. The Gerzites are not mentioned anywhere else, only here. The Amalekites were the. Perpetual enemies of the Jews.
They were nomadic and they were brutal. And they attacked Moses from the back, from the rear. And of course, Joshua duked it out with them. Saul was to wipe them out, and he did not. It would show up again in the book of Esther.
Then eventually they fall off the chart, they are assimilated into other peoples, and they are no more. Sure is that mostly desert area between Egypt and Beersheba, and Beersheba, the Southernmost part of Israel's boundaries, at least labeled that.
So they're all going south. It's all desert, is what I'm saying. And they're looking at these pockets of. Bedouin and tribes that are there, and he's launching raids. And there's really no way for them to let Achish know that David is doing this.
They're they're more ally with Achish than they are with the Jews. Big why? Why is that?
Well, spiritually because of Satan, of course, but more On the surface, the Jews were intolerant of the other people's gods, and the other people were not intolerant of each other's gods, and it became personal. What are you saying about my idol? I'm saying it's a piece of junk. Them fighting words. And so, to this day, Uh the Jews of survive because they're you know, we're not We're not with you.
To a fault, of course, from the Christian perspective. Verse 9: Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive, but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Achish. Again, leaving no witnesses. This is brutal. One of the reasons why he's disallowed from building the temple of God.
God knows this brutality exists under the curse. And God has said, you know, I have to accept some of this or come down and end it all. Which he's not yet ready to do. But he does not want that association. David goes back to Achish with gifts because.
He is the servant. He's already said that. And as a vassal, he brings him some of these. Not only is he ready to offer military assistance as a vassal, but he is also going to give him some of the goods. Word would get around.
Have you seen David at Ziklag? They built that place up. They're all walking around these nice Italian suits. And you get nothing, Akis. She would have said, Well, we'll see about that.
So he has to give him something. Verse 10. Then Achish would say, Where have you been? Made a raid today.
Well, this is nice. Is this Egyptian cotton? David would say against the southern area of Judah. He's lying.
Well, he's a half-truth. It is due to southern area. But it ain't Judah. It ain't not the tribe of Judah he's going against. Or, he would say, against the southern area of those people there.
are against the southern area of the Kenites.
So Achish seems to just adore David. Because atheists just a little goofy. I mean, it just, well, you just have people like that in life you just like. You just get along with them very quickly. And I think Akish, you know, after David gets well from Akish's perspective, you know, when he's not kooky, he's actually kind of a funny guy.
David would be in there with his heart busting out the tunes. Akish would be rocking, you know, just Human natures. Verse 11: David would save neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath. saying, lest they should inform on us, saying, Thus David did, and thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. And these are brutal people.
It's so hard to imagine, you know, Driving down the road with somebody who's just wiped out a village. I mean, could you imagine it? With it with up close. I mean, not long-range, snipering, throw a hand grenade in. I mean, with your sword, connect, you know.
And it was life. In that world, So here is David. He wanted to live in the enemy's territory to escape a greater enemy. But he wanted to live in the enemy's territory without troubling that enemy too much. There's a lot of fodder there for us to munch on and think about.
In the workplace, how do I handle this? Wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove. We're not here to Wrongfully provoke and be abrasive. Love covers a multitude of sins, but at the same time, we have to try to retain integrity, which is not easy to do. It's very easy to retain integrity when no one's challenging it.
Come up with all these rules because this is a nice standard, and then all of a sudden, mmm, we got a problem. Again, God using An imperfect servant because he doesn't have any others. And when we know that, so hearing that, God, all of his servants are imperfect. I'm almost finished, incidentally. We don't want someone to say, well, then that's licensed to be imperfect.
That would be very unwise. We David His imperfections will increase on the record for us as he does.
Well, in his life. because the temptations increase and he pays a heavy price. for his imperfections, which is not incentive To Emulate David. And say, well, you know, David, God loved him, and he was imperfect, and God used him, and God didn't slam him. That's true.
Most of the time. But there were times that God did slam him. And David in the end recovers magnificently when he's an old man, but that just, you know, it's much to learn for us. Verse 12: So Achish believed David, saying he has made his people Israel utterly abhor him. Ha ha ha.
Therefore, He will be my servant for ever. Achish thought he knew David's heart. It could never be the way Akish thought. Because he was a carnal man, and a carnal man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Even in this day, when the Spirit's not given to preach Messiah, the Spirit is given.
And David's heart was never going to side against Yahweh. The best David could do was hide his heart from Yahweh after when he sinned with Bathsheba for about a year. He writes about it later. But just because the king felt secure does not mean he was secure. And so the next chapter we come to Uh Saul And As death closes in on him spiritually and physically.
We have much to to gather from that.
So let's let's pray. Thank you, Father, always feeding us. We need it so much, even The most well-fed saint though has to post Double the guards. It is a uh Very serious thing to be a Christian, and you help us all the way. And may you find us in times of discouragement still submitted to your lordship.
We ask you in Jesus' name, amen. Uh 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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