Grace Demonstrated February 10, 2016
David, Saul, and a Cave
1 Samuel 23:15 – 24:22 Page 1
David is in hiding yet the people of Judah are coming to him for services that normally they would go to the King
King Saul is on the throne but______of God
David is on the lam and not only is he God’s anointed King but he has with him a priest as well as a prophet.
You want to hear from God, you find ______
He has just saved Keilah and then had to leave since the people were going to ______to Saul
Is David being persecuted?
Is he being persecuted simply because he is anointed of God?
Are all of those who identify with him also being persecuted?
Is David being tested?
Luke 24:26
“Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
As we follow the story of David’s troubles and listen to the echoes of his experience in the New Testament, we will understand why the sufferings of David are important, why it matters that the Christ must suffer, why we cannot be unmoved by the gospel that Jesus is the Christ, and why “we do not lose heart.”
John Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2008), 454.
1 Samuel 23:15–18
Now David became aware that Saul had come out to seek his life while David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh, and encouraged him in God. Thus he said to him, “Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel and I will be next to you; and Saul my father knows that also.” So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house.
David has moved about 12 miles to the south of Keilah into the wilderness of Ziph.
Ziph (zif) =______; melting place.
Stelman Smith and Judson Cornwall, The Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible Names (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos, 1998), 253.
David is in the______
Psalm 12:1–8
Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases to be, For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another; With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, The tongue that speaks great things; Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” “Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in the safety for which he longs.” The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times. You, O LORD, will keep them; You will preserve him from this generation forever. The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
David is going to be encouraged, again.
This time he will be encouraged by Jonathan
Interesting the Jonathan could easily find David but Saul and his intelligence network continues to struggle
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In essence Jonathan is telling David that Saul knows what is going to happen but is fighting it. Saul is, of course, going against God’s will.
J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible Commentary: History of Israel (1 and 2 Samuel), electronic ed., vol. 12 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1991), 127.
Psalm 54
For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself among us?” Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your power. Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen against me And violent men have sought my life; They have not set God before them. Selah. Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. He will recompense the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness. Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good. For He has delivered me from all trouble, And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies.
1 Samuel 23:19–24
Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? Now then, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul to do so; and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.” Saul said, “May you be blessed of the LORD, for you have had compassion on me. Go now, make more sure, and investigate and see his place where his haunt is, and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very cunning. So look, and learn about all the hiding places where he hides himself and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon.
The people of Ziph could see David and his men moving around. You could not miss it.
David and his men a move bit further south to Maon
v. 20 reads literally thus: “And now, according to all the desire of thy soul, O king, to come down (from Gibeah, which stood upon higher ground), come down, and it is in us to deliver him (David) into the hand of the king.”
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 521.
The people of Ziph, of the tribe of Judah, were willing to give up David, they wished to curry favor with Saul
Saul was all about______, and he would continue to follow a track until it ceased to work
He has the folks from Ziph feeling______for him
Notice what he says:Saul said, “May you be blessed of the LORD, for you have had compassion on me.” 1 Samuel 23:21
And he uses______
Saul is in the throne room and he is still acting______, David is the one victimizing him
Sin does that
We cease taking a realistic view of our own sinfulness and we begin to lay the problem on others.
We become the victim
Remember the original victim?
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Genesis 3:6–13
When the woman saw that the tree produced good food, was attractive in appearance, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. Then she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate some, too. As a result, they both understood what they had done, and they became aware that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. When they heard the voice of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden during the breeze of the day, the man and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. So the LORD God called out to the man, asking him, “Where are you?” “I heard your voice in the garden,” the man answered, “and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid from you.” “Who told you that you are naked?” God asked. “Did you eat fruit from the tree that I commanded you not to eat?” The man answered, “The woman whom you provided for me gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate some of it.” Then the LORD God asked the woman, “What did you do?” “The Shining One misled me,” the woman answered, “so I ate.” (ISV)
It was someone else’s fault,______
God holds each of us individually culpable for our own sin
We are______for what we do
Revelation 20:11–15
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Colossians 3:23–24
“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”
1 Corinthians 9:24–27
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 3:9–15
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
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Revelation 4:5–11
“Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.” And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
The word for crown used of the elders is stephanos, not diadema
Saul is responsible for what he does, yet he uses God talk to make it appear his rebellion is approved of God and he is serving God. Remember, he killed the priests.
Apart from recognition of athletes and winners of various kinds of competitions, in the Gr-Rom. world the awarding of a crown or wreath signified appreciation for exceptional contributions to the state or groups within it.
William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 944.
Our crowns, symbols of______through the blood of the Lamb
The chase is on, the people of Ziph go out after David with Saul closely behind
1 Samuel 23:24–26
Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard it, he pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to seize them.
Maon stood about five miles south of Ziph in the wilderness of Judah. The Arabah describes the low-lying area that extends from Mt. Hermon to the Red Sea including the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea regions. Jeshimon means “desert” or “waste” in Hebrew, so it may have been the name of a region east of Ziph.
Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), 1 Sa 23:24.
So, while David is on one side of the hill, Saul is on the other and they do not see each other
How does God save David?
He______David’s enemy
This allows time for David and his men to escape to Engedi which is five miles further to the south towards the Dead Sea
David’s new hideout is an area with many caves along the high cliffs. The whole region between the Dead Sea and the hill country of Judea consisted of steep valleys and gorges cut by the streams and wadis that flowed into the Dead Sea. En Gedi means “spring of the goats” because of the excellent water source located there.
Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill, eds., The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012), 283.
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After dealing with the distraction, Saul returns to the business of chasing down David.
1 Samuel 24:1–2
Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
David has 600 men, Saul has 3000
We also find that the Holy Spirit has a ______in this section of scripture as well
1 Samuel 24:3–7
He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. The men of David said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which the LORD said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’S anointed.” David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.
We move from a______of what is going on to a______blow by blow description
The Holy Spirit wants us to know what is going on
Picture this, David and his crew are in hiding in one of the caves we saw
They have seen and heard Saul’s troops
They are close so they move to the back of a cave and wait
In comes Saul
David and his men have Saul literally______
No one cleared the cave, no one checked to make sure it was safe
The King had______
David and his men could see Saul, Saul could not see them
Now comes the whisper
David’s men told him, “Look, today is the day about which the LORD spoke to you when he said, ‘I’ll give your enemy into your hand.’ Do to him whatever you want!” David rose and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. (1 Samuel 24:4, ISV)
That seems odd to us today, what does this mean?
The hem is where the______was indicated
In ancient Mesopotamia, “to cut off the hem” was to strip one of his personality, authority, etc. A husband could divorce his wife by cutting off the hem of her robe. A nobleman would authenticate his name on a clay tablet by pressing his hem on the clay. Cf. the “train” (shuwl) of God on His Throne; Isa 6:1; God’s Covenant with Israel: Ezek 16:8; Ex 39:25,26; fringes on Levitical garments: Num 15:38,39; Deut 22:12; Ex 28:33,34.