Misled by a Misguided Heart, Part 2

Don't miss this change, this corrected response. David is now as panicked as he was back in chapter 27.

His natural instincts are screaming, you don't need to pray about this. Pursue! Get your wives and your children back, chased after those Amalekites and rescue everybody. That's the only way you're going to get your credibility back with your men. They're going to let their stones fall to the ground. They're going to go with you. It's obvious, David. You don't have to pray or see God.

Hunt them down. Listen to your heart. King David experienced a time when he became consumed with some false ideas that really took over his heart. The Bible teaches us that our actions are a reflection of the condition of our heart. So for David, those problems in his heart led to some bad decisions in his life. Keep listening because we're going to find help from God's Word.

This is wisdom for the heart. We're in a series on the life of King David called The Singer. Here's our Bible teacher, Stephen Davey, with this message called Misled by a Misguided Heart. There's a man who pastored a church, probably less than 200 people his entire life, who lived in the UK. I have a little paperback that he wrote.

It's been reprinted more than a hundred years ago. His name is F.B. Meyer, and he wrote on this text that we're studying. In fact, his commentary, that little paper book, is at the heart and in the theme of every commentator I read.

He writes this. When making major decisions, never act in panic. Calm thyself and be still. Force thyself into the quiet of thy closet until thy pulse beats normally and the scare has ceased to perturb you. When thou art most eager to act is the time when thou wilt make the most mistakes. Do not say in thine heart what thou wilt or wilt not do at that moment, but wait until God makes known his way. Isn't that good? Go into the closet and wait until your pulse slows down.

Count to ten, or a hundred, or a thousand. Now let's not be too hard on David. It's easy, you know, in 21st century America to talk about this guy, you know, going off the reservation, missing the path.

Can't imagine, can we? He's misled, certainly, by his misguided heart, but he has every reason to be absolutely discouraged. He looks around at the circumstances. He looks at this growing throng of people. He weighs the pressure and the balances. He measures the responsibility and the stress and he's chased by this mad king. What we can't see is to add to that that invisible spiritual enemy that's working away with his favorite tool, that corkscrew of discouragement. He pries open David's heart and he just pours in reason and rationale and excuses and weary ness and circumstances and David says, you know, I've been thinking.

I'm convinced it's right. I'm going to die at the hand of Saul. I'd be better off leading you all into the land of the Philistines, misled by a misguided heart. Well, that's my introduction. Let me take you now into chapter 27 and I've outlined it with four words that come to mind and we'll cover 27, 29, and half of 30.

It'll be miraculous. The first word is the word conniving. Look at chapter 27 and verse 2. So David arose and went over, he and the 600 men who were with him, we learn later, with their families, to Achish, who's Achish, the king of Gath. By the way, does that sound familiar?

It ought to. Several years earlier, David had shown up there and as soon as he showed up, he thought he'd find refuge. He was alone and Achish sees him and they begin to sing that little chant they'd made up about him killing thousands, ten thousands, and David realized he's in deep trouble.

He begins to act like he's insane. He claws on the gates of the city and he begins to drool down his beard and Achish says, I got enough crazy people around here to get rid of this guy and so he lets him go. This time, Achish is going to be happy to see him.

Why? Because he brings 600 highly skilled warriors and he'll explain later to other Philistine kings, David and his men defected to me. He's happy now to see them. He's happy to add these troops to his army.

Some time passes. It happens quickly in the text, but verse 5 informs us that after some time, David says to the king, he says, look, if I found favor in your eyes, let a place be given me in one of the country towns that I may dwell there, for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? In other words, look, king, I mean, we don't want to crowd your style. We're cramped in here and in the headquarters of the capital city and why don't you give us one of the country towns and let us settle there? Verse 6 informs us that the king gave David the town of Ziklag. Ziklag was originally given to the tribe of Judah, transferred a few years later to Simeon, only in recent days captured by the Philistines but left unoccupied. It's deserted.

You kind of see this western southern town with ragweed just sort of rolling through the town square. You can have that city, David. David moves in. Keep in mind that David is also moving into a spiritually barren and dry season of life. During these days, David will not compose any sacred song. No psalms are credited to this period in his life.

The singer of Israel has been silenced. But he's not sitting still. In fact, the rest of this chapter that I'll just overview shows him raiding Philistine towns.

He's leaving no one alive to tell the tale so he can keep his front up. But he is effectively, and this is a study all its own, but he's effectively as the king-elect beginning the conquest of the land. Even in his disobedience, God's purposes are being fulfilled.

Aren't you glad that happens? Now his raids will bring in necessary food and clothing for this group of people that is growing camels and cattle. Whenever Achish drives down south for dinner, he's missing sweet tea and grits and all that and comes to eat with David. David says, well, I got all this stuff from raiding those pesky Hebrews and King Achish is thrilled.

David says, I've been battling in the Negev, that is the dry land, the southern region around Beersheba. Before we leave this scene, go back up to verse four just for a moment and look at the last phrase. And when it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him. That's great news, isn't it?

Or is it? Well, Saul quit looking for him. David's plan worked.

He asks for a southern city and his request works. Achish is deceived by David whenever he visits. David's deception works. Look, it works. My plans that I concocted in my heart, they're working perfectly.

Must be right. Listen, part of the problem of following your own heart even when it is misguided is a false sense of peace and security. We're too quick to say, oh, I now have peace. Well, what did you do? Well, I got from out from underneath that responsibility.

I feel better. Must be God's will. The pressure's gone.

Oh, part of the problem is that security and peace is not from the Lord. Another author writing on this passage said the pressure might be gone and it might be a relief. The responsibility is relieved.

There's a release of pressure. That's great. You're left to believe my decision paid off.

Trouble is, it isn't going to last very long. The second word that soon follows conniving is the word cornered. Go to chapter 28 and verse 1. In those days, the Philistines gathered their force for war to fight against Israel. By the way, David has been living in Ziklag now for over a year, okay? Achish said to David, understand that you and your men are to go out with me in the army.

They're going to fight Israel. Uh-oh. David said to Achish, well, very well, you shall know what your servant can do.

And Achish said to David, well, very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Uh-oh. His plan is backfiring. He is effectively cornered. He can't say no.

That will ruin everything. He can't say yes, can he? He can't fight his brothers. Can you imagine him marching with his men toward that battlefield as they did to join with, if you can believe it, the Philistines in battle against Israel? He is cornered. Can you imagine now the pressure and the stress?

Life looked really good on the run back then. Now this king wants me to be his bodyguard for life, and we're now going to fight the Israelites. One author said David is chugging away this canteen, only it's filled with Pepto-Bismol. He's stuck. He has no idea what to do. His perfect plan is unraveling. He is about to be found out. David's plans have boxed him in. He's either going to lose his credibility and his right to rule as Israel's king for having killed Israelites, or he will lose his life. Satan, in the background, I can just see him wringing his hands in delight. I've got him.

Checkmate. By the way, keep in mind before we go to the next text, this is the battle where Saul will be killed and Jonathan too. This is the event prior to the coronation of David. Alan Redpath wrote years ago in his commentary on this text that man's extremity is God's opportunity.

That's a great idea to follow through with. God is at work in spite of David's lack of trust. I love the text where Paul reminds Timothy, when we are faithless, God is faithful. He cannot deny himself.

That is, we in Christ are in him. He can't deny us as his children. Even when we are faithless, God is faithful. We don't take that for granted.

We don't take it to the bank. We don't live in disregard of his holy justice and his discipline, but he is faithful. Now what happens next chronologically is not what takes place in your Bible. What takes place chronologically next is chapter 29. So look ahead there at verse two.

I want to follow this narrative to its completion. Let's go to verse two. As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, that is, they're at the battlefield now and they're parading by, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish. The commanders of the Philistines said, what are these Hebrews doing here? And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who's been with me now for, note this, days and years since he deserted, literally defected to me.

I've found no fall in him to this day. Look guys, he is a Philistine. Don't worry about it. They're not going to hear any of it. In the next paragraph, David and his men are forced to return home to Ziklag. Verse eight, David kind of acts with this, well I'm offended, you won't let me fight with you. He acts like he's disappointed.

His acting skills are worthy of Oscars. Achish has no choice now but to send David and his men packing, and this is God at work behind the scenes getting those Philistines all stirred up. We're not going to let David fight. He could be a fifth column, he could turn against us, send that Hebrew home. So David acts like it bothers him, and his men are literally rescued out of what we would have considered checkmate. David has lost a tremendous amount of credibility.

We'll see in a minute. His men aren't saying much. They've been led to the edge of a precipice with David leading them in his perfect plan. They just narrowly missed raising their swords against their brothers or being killed as spies. They are not celebrating or laughing or having a good time as they spend the next three days trudging back to Ziklag. They had been cornered, nearly killed, and it only gets worse.

The third word that comes to mind is the word crushed. Verse one of chapter 30 informs us as they head home. Note there. Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that is after three days of traveling, the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negev, the southern region, and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken captive the women and all who were in it both small and great. They killed no one but carried them off.

That is they abducted them and went their way. Verse three. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. And what happens is they all raise their voices, verse four, and weep until they have no more strength to weep.

Can you see them? They're sitting among the smoldering ashes of the ruins of that city and these battle hardened soldiers sob. They burst into tears until they don't even have any strength left to cry. It isn't long before some of the men say, you know what, this is all David's fault and they begin to gather stones. We've been following him and all of his perfect little plans and now we've lost and our families are abducted.

Let's kill him. Notice the last part of verse six. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. That's the first time in nearly two years David has had anything to do with God. Philip Keller writes in his wonderful little commentary, David has nowhere else to go. He's lost his credibility, the loyalty of his men, his leadership credentials, they are flaming with explosive unpredictability, they pick up rocks. Ready to shatter his skull and spill his blood, David has nowhere to turn and nowhere to run. His conniving had led them all to being cornered and now their hearts are effectively crushed. Now no doubt during this two-year period David's conscience had troubled them, had warned them. No doubt a himalect, the priest in their company has said David, we really ought to stop and ask for a word from God.

I've got the ephod that is the shoulder piece. I have the means to communicate with our covenant God. Don't we want to hear a word from him? No, no, no.

Keep it packed in the suitcase. But now for the first time what he thought would be okay is bringing him to the point of perhaps even being killed. I've mentioned Gary Richmond recently in his book entitled A View from the Zoo, biblical observations from what he saw at the zoo where he worked at the Los Angeles Zoo and turned them into devotional truths as he pastored along with that work at the zoo in his local church leading singles. In one chapter he told of a young zookeeper named Julie. The zoo had recently purchased a baby raccoon and it was among her duties to take care of it. Richmond wrote that it was playful, it was cuddly, almost like a little puppy dog and Julie's heart and everybody else in that division was soon won over. Julie could often be seen doing her duties with her cute little raccoon perched on her shoulder. She even named him Bandit.

Gary's experience, however, caused him to worry about Julie and he wrote that, I warned her that raccoons go through a glandular change at about 24 months of age and after that they will often unexplainably viciously attack their owners and a 30 pound raccoon can do the same kind of damage as a large dog. Over and over again Gary would warn his young apprentice. He wrote, she would always listen politely to me as I explained the coming danger but I will never forget her answer. It was always the same Gary, thank you, but it will be different for me. She would smile as she added Bandit would never, never hurt me.

Richmond wrote, three months after my last warning Julie had to undergo extensive plastic surgery for severe facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason. Bandit was released into the wild. David says, I can handle King Achish. I can even handle the deception of living in Ziklag.

I can even handle marching the battle against Israel. It'll work out. I know what I'm doing. I don't need any advice from God or his priest or his word.

I know we're not supposed to be in league with the Philistines. Something will happen somehow. Get out of this. I've got plans. It'll all work out.

It'll be different for me. Kniving, cornered, now crushed. There's a fourth word finally that comes to mind. It's the word corrected.

It's a good word. For the first time David calls the priest to lead him in seeking the wisdom of God. Look at verse 8. And David inquired of the Lord, that is through a homileck and the ephod, shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them?

Should I do this? God answered through the priest, pursue for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. Now don't miss this change, this corrected response. David is now as panicked as he was back in chapter 27. His natural instincts are screaming.

You don't need to pray about this. Pursue. Attack. Get your wives and your children back. Chase after those homileckites and rescue everybody.

That's the only way you're going to get your credibility back with your men. They're going to let their stones fall to the ground. They're going to go with you. It's obvious, David.

You don't have to pray or seek God. Hunt them down. Listen to your heart. David says, no, I've listened to my heart enough. I want to know if God even wants me to go after them.

I want to hear from God. Chapter and the narrative ends happily. David and his men rescue their families and defeat the Amalekites. A battle takes place and King Saul dies.

It won't be long before David mounts the throne. Let me wrap up our study today by making two closing observations. I've said it several different ways. Let me say it one more time. First, be careful. Listening to your heart is dangerous. Frankly, you and I can talk our hearts into anything, can't we?

It's a unanimous vote. Be careful of the junk you tell it. Be careful of the influences you allow into it. Contrary to the latest movie or book or blog, the last thing you want to do is follow your heart even if the music reaches a crescendo. The devil has his tools ready seeking someone to discredit 1 Peter 5.8 and he knows how to use that old corkscrew of discouragement in someone's heart. Be careful. Listening to your heart is dangerous. Secondly, be thankful God is ever ready to be gracious. Now I don't want to trivialize this scene.

Follow me for just a moment though. If you were God, how would you have responded to David after nearly two years of a cold shoulder? Now my back's against the wall, my men are picking up stones, I think I'll pray. What would you do? Would your response be something like detention for the next six months?

You're going to wash windows for a long, long time. Or David, take a hike. Or David, I don't trust you anymore. David, I'm finished with you. David, I'm going to find somebody else to think that you would possibly join the Philistines against Israel.

Obviously, we need a new king. Lord, shall I pursue them? And God answers. And it's different than you would expect. David, I trust you.

Suit up. I have another victory for you to win as you get back on the path. How gracious to a repentant and humbled, crushed, cornered child of his. Listen, beloved, don't believe the propaganda that God has finished with you. That God is tired of you. That you stayed too long with the Philistines.

You've been off the path too long. That what you did was just too wrong. That's a lie.

That's junk. That doesn't match the truth of God in his grace for you, his beloved. God would say, that's sin you're confessing.

My son paid for that one too. In fact, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from every sin. Every sin. 1 John 1 7 and 9. You repent, you seek his will, you seek his word, and then you suit up.

But learn with David, his successes are not due to his planning savvy. They are due to God's grace and mercy. It's not going to be long before the singer of Israel writes a new song. Maybe for you, you'll begin to sing again too. Have you experienced a time when it seemed like you were in a spiritual desert? Maybe you felt as if your heart had grown cold and your walk with God was stale instead of being fresh and vibrant.

Maybe you or someone you know is experiencing that right now. God wants to use his word to bring refreshment and healing when we need it. And maybe God's used this message to encourage you today.

I hope that's the case. This is wisdom for the heart. Stephen Davey is working his way through a series on the life of David called the singer. Today's message is entitled misled by a misguided heart. A listener to this program named Kelly went to our website to send us a message. She told us that she has listened to wisdom for the heart on her local radio station every weekday for the past five years. We're always glad to hear from our listeners.

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