THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Samuel: God's Shift Of Israel From Apostasy Under The Judges To David's Reign

I. 1 Samuel: From Samuel To The Death Of Saul

AA. Overcoming The Snare Of Living By Fear

(1 Samuel 27:1-28:2)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Many people in today's world live in a state of fear:

(1) Agencies and organizations in Connecticut live with fear: Brigitte Ruthman's lead story, "Mass. pot law raises crash risk in Conn." in the Republican-American, November 21, 2016, p. 1A, noted how the "legalization of marijuana in Massachusetts is raising concerns about impaired drivers crossing Connecticut's northern boundary after traveling to partake . . . The implications concern enforcement agencies and organizations including AAA."

(2) Fear often grips students in academia: George Will's column, "Did academia help elect Trump?" (Ibid., p. 8A) claimed that "Indiana University" recently "experienced social-media panic ("Please PLEASE PLEASE be careful out there tonight") because a priest in a white robe, with a rope-like belt and rosary beads, was identified as someone 'in a KKK outfit holding a whip.'"

(3) Fear affects us locally: (a) Last Sunday, some believers told me how a member of the hit play "Hamilton" in front of the play audience admonished Vice President-elect Pence how to function once he got into office, an address accompanied by boos toward Mr. Pence from the audience. The believers who told me this were concerned over what such public disrespect for a newly elected national official might mean for the welfare of the nation.

(b) Another church member last Sunday told me he always suffers from fear about everything. He explained that he had heard a rumor about an alleged effort to undermine the constitutional order in America so as to create a dictatorship, and this rumor and others like it have made him fear everything all the time.

Need: So we ask, "If I live in a state of fear, why, and what does God want me to do about it?!"

I. Though David in 1 Samuel 26 had trusted God to keep him safe from Saul and his men, in 1 Samuel 27:1, he feared that Saul would eventually kill him if he stayed in Judah, so he decided to flee to Philistia.

II. This decision arose when David adopted a futile human view of circumstances view versus God's view:

A. David's fear of death by Saul were he to stay in Judah arose from a human, ungodly viewpoint, 1 Sam. 27:1:

1. First, this view arose from David's heart, not from God's revelation to him, 1 Samuel 27:1a.

2. Second, it was self-centered: David said, "(T)here is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me anymore," 1 Sam. 27:1b.

B. In reality, God's view of David's circumstances was just the OPPOSITE of David's futile human view:

1. We noted in 1 Samuel 26 in our previous message in this series that God's many precedents of past helps for David in rescuing him from Saul's repeat efforts to kill him was actually used of David to embolden him to approach a football-field sized group of 3,000 sleeping enemy soldiers to get Saul's spear and water jug in the center of that field to persuade Saul to cease chasing David. Thus, David's lapse in 1 Samuel 27:1 of recalling God's many precedents of protecting him from Saul was inexcusable!

2. David also forgot that the last time he fled from Saul to Philistia, his life had been threatened so that he had acted as if he were insane to escape death by the Philistines and flee back to Judah, 1 Sam. 21:10-22:1.

3. David had also forgotten God's directive after that through the prophet Gad to stay in Judah, 1 Sam. 22:5.

4. Also, David was neglecting use of the ephod brought to his camp by the priest Abiathar (1 Sam. 23:6) by which he could gain insight from God on escaping future threats by Saul like he did in 1 Sam. 23:8-13b.

5. David had also forgotten God's anointing for him to be king in 1 Samuel 16:13, meaning God had to keep him alive long enough for him to become king after Saul's demise, meaning Saul would not kill him!

6. In addition, David had forgotten the testimony of the godly woman Abigail whom David later married that God would make him king after destroying David's enemies, foes such as Saul, 1 Samuel 25:27-31.

7. Besides all of this, Saul's own son Jonathan had made a special trip out to David's hiding place in Southern Judah to affirm that David would one day reign over Israel after Saul, 1 Samuel 23:16-17.

III. Nevertheless, David adopted the futile human view of circumstances and fled to Philistia, resulting in a lifestyle of deception, sin and becoming snared into possibly having to help the Philistines fight Israel:

A. David fled from Saul in Judah, taking his family, men and their kin with him, and the Philistines gave him the Philistine city of Ziklag as a settlement in an agreement for David's helping the Philistines, 1 Samuel 27:2-7.

B. To build the Philistines' confidence that he was loyal to them, David pretended to make raids out of Ziklag into Southern Judah (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 1 Sam. 27:8-10) when he was actually making raids on "northern Sinai desert tribes which were enemies of Judah," Ibid.; 1 Samuel 27:8-10.

C. To keep true activities hidden from the Philistines, David killed all of the people in the camps he attacked lest anyone in them report back to the Philistines the truth about who David was really raiding, 1 Samuel 27:9-11.

D. This effort seemed effective, for the Philistine ruler Achish believed David was making himself abhorrent to Israel in presumably raiding them so that Achish thought David would be his servant forever, 1 Samuel 27:12.

E. However, such action by David was outright murder according to the Mosaic Law:

1. Deuteronomy 20:10-18 clearly forbade Israel from killing all the people of their enemies who lived outside of the land of Canaan, for God wanted only the Canaanites fully destroyed because of their apostasy.

2. Thus, David's human view of circumstances led him not only to violate the will of God in leaving Judah to live in Philistia, but to maintain his life in Philistia, he had to deceive and murder, sinning against God!

F. Living in such sin, David removed himself from the place of God's blessing (Deuteronomy 28:15ff), and that led him into getting cornered into possibly having to help the Philistines fight against Israel, 1 Samuel 28:1-2:

1. While David was in Ziklag of Philistia, the Philistines decided to wage war on Israel, 1 Samuel 28:1a.

2. The Philistine ruler Achish thus told David that he and his men would join his forces in going to battle against Israel (1 Samuel 28:1b), and David replied with the ambiguous statement, "Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do," 1 Samuel 28:2a NIV; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 Samuel 28:2.

3. Achish presumed David's remark meant he would help him fight Israel, so Achish claimed David would be his "bodyguard for life," 1 Sam. 28:2b ESV, NIV. David now seemed cornered into having to fight Israel!

IV. However, David's destructive, sinful human viewpoint fueled by fear could have been avoided had he relied on the Holy Spirit of God Who was given to him by the Lord for effective service (as follows):

A. When David was anointed king, the Holy Spirit came upon him for life to equip him to serve, 1 Sam. 16:13.

B. The Holy Spirit equipped him like He does the believer today among other things (1) to preserve sound beliefs and thinking (2 Timothy 1:13-14 NIV) and (2) to avoid living in timid fear, 2 Timothy 1:6-7 NIV.

C. Thus, in 1 Samuel 27:1a, David had ceased to rely on the Holy Spirit for how he thought, authoring his own view of circumstances, resulting in timidity and a lifestyle of unbelief and sin with the loss of God's blessing.

Lesson: Though equipped with the Holy Spirit to think and to believe God's truth and courageously to heed it with God's blessing, David ceased relying on the Holy Spirit's power to author his own thoughts about circumstances, resulting in a lifestyle marked by fear that produced actions of deception and sin with the resulting loss of blessing.

Application: If we struggle with fear, (1) may we believe in Christ for salvation from sin and be equipped by the permanent sealing of the Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Ephesians 1:12-14. (2) Then, may we rely on the Holy Spirit's power for courage and guidance in thinking and believing God's truth and (3) read and heed Scripture and God's Biblical leading in events in our lives (4) so as to THINK and to DO what is sensibly upright with God's blessing!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

Right after I had finished typing up the first draft of the body of this sermon and was trying to work on an illustration for this conclusion part of the message, a man drove into our parking lot and entered the door of our Church Board Room next to my office. After he hollered a bit to see if I was here and I hollered back to let him know where I was, he entered my office from the hall door and handed me a check he had made out for his offering! He explained that he had been reading in the Bible about his responsibility to give to God. He had attended a number of our worship services, and had come under conviction from reading that passage about his need to give, and so he was restless until he had driven onto our Church property to give me his offering that Tuesday morning!

As he was leaving, I took his folded check and put it in a Church offering box, amazed at how God had moved this man to come to the Church with an offering check just as I was starting to work on this part of the sermon! It was as if the Lord had said, "Don, see how I am sovereignly at work in My people to build my Church that the gates of Hades not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18)? I know you have often told people in the Church that truth to encourage them counter their fears by trusting Me and My word, but I want you to repeat that truth again as you tell them of this incident in your sermon conclusion! This time, however, the illustration is emphatically from ME!"

So, I share this incident with you right now as a message from God Himself that you not live in fear.

May we trust in Christ for salvation. Then, may we rely on the Holy Spirit to think aright, to heed the Word of God aright and to do so with courage and not fear that we might enjoy God's blessing!