Show Notes
1 Samuel 22:1-5
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Amen.
[00:00:07] Well, let's turn to the Lord in prayer as we turn again to hear God's word read and preached as well.
[00:00:16] And we'll hear about David in the wilderness, David on the run, David in a cave and suffering in many ways, many ways we just sang about, but the Lord providing for him, the Lord caring for him, and doing really amazing things through him, despite the difficulty of his circumstances.
[00:00:40] Let's pray and ask that God would bless the reading, preaching of his word.
[00:00:44] Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning asking that you would shine your word into our lives and that it would be like a light in a dark place, keeping us from straying, opening to us good paths, encouraging us with beautiful and wonderful things around us.
[00:01:04] Lord, even as we come to see more clearly the darkness and the curse of this that is on this world, we ask that you would also help us to see the hope and the redemption and the promise that is offered to us in Christ.
[00:01:20] And we come this morning with various difficulties and struggles going on in our own lives.
[00:01:27] Some of them feel light and manageable, others feel impossible. And we don't know what to do or where to turn.
[00:01:36] Lord, we pray for ourselves, we pray for one another. And we pray to you and ask that you would help us today.
[00:01:44] We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:48] Well, please remain standing. We have a short passage this morning from 1st Samuel, chapter 22, 1st Samuel 221 5.
[00:02:12] David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.
[00:02:16] And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him.
[00:02:21] And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men.
[00:02:34] And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me.
[00:02:45] And he left them with the King of Moab. And they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold.
[00:02:51] Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah. David departed and went into the forest of hereth.
[00:03:03] May God bless his word to us. Please be seated.
[00:03:25] Well, to start on what admittedly is a heavy note, the world is a very difficult place.
[00:03:35] The world is a place that is full of trouble.
[00:03:39] It's full of betrayal, injustice, all kinds of things that happen that make you say things like that. Should not happen.
[00:03:50] That's wrong.
[00:03:52] Things that make us righteously angry, things that frustrate us, things that keep happening over and over again.
[00:04:00] In the midst of all this, a lot of times it seems as though it's the innocent who suffer and it's the guilty who get stronger and more powerful, more capable.
[00:04:13] We long for things like safety, community, provision.
[00:04:19] We just want things to go well.
[00:04:22] We feel like we're not asking for much, and yet we often find ourselves sick and isolated and trapped.
[00:04:32] We find ourselves trapped in our in internal ways, fear and confusion.
[00:04:40] We find ourselves trapped in pain, not knowing how to relieve the things that are going on inside or even in our bodies and also in our relationships and in our world and our systems. I could go on. I won't.
[00:04:57] This is hard stuff and we experience it every day. And we came in here this morning with these things going on in our lives and in our world, and many people feel the difficulty of these things and feel spiritually homeless, kind of like David does at this moment. He belongs in Israel. He belongs on the throne, and yet he's not in Israel.
[00:05:23] He seems to even fear and have concern for his family, for his mother and father. And you could see good reasons why, if you remember where we are in the context of the story. The king of Israel is pursuing him, has tried to kill him multiple times and is continuing to do so.
[00:05:43] Where's David supposed to go? Where's home now? Where's safety now? Where's community now?
[00:05:51] He's been disappointed and betrayed by some of the most important and powerful people in his life, and this isn't the last time it's going to happen.
[00:06:02] These are things that David is going to experience over and over again.
[00:06:08] And yet in the midst of all this, God has anointed him and said, you're a king.
[00:06:13] In the midst of all of this, God has anointed him and not only said he's a king, but given him responsibilities to fulfill as a king, to protect, to lead, to provide, to judge. All these things that he is supposed to do for his people, how is he supposed to do them when this other man is trying to kill him, this man who seems to have all the power.
[00:06:39] Well, good news for us in this passage is that God can provide for us and care for us.
[00:06:45] Even in times of wandering, even in times where we do not feel fully at home, when we feel rocked and shaken, not only does God provide for us, but he provides for us people and communities of comfort and care.
[00:07:08] He provides for us in Jesus Christ, the Anointed king, the Christ who is able to rule over the midst of and in the midst of his enemies, not just in one place in Adelaide or anywhere else, but over the entire world.
[00:07:26] Wherever people flee to Christ, they can find comfort and care and refuge. As we read in Matthew 11, and as we'll read in other places, God provides to us in Jesus, just as he did through David, a place for comfort and for care, a place to go, a place to flee, a place for refuge. And when we do, that's exactly what we find.
[00:07:52] God's promises are not empty promises. God provides for us a light in the midst of darkness.
[00:07:59] And so to think about this, that this morning in this passage, we'll think about three things. First, God's king, his Christ king, his Messiah king, his anointed king, who rules even when rejected, even when displaced, even when seemingly weak.
[00:08:19] Well, think about how God's kingdom gathers in, not only establishes a king, but gathers in a people of hurting, of those who are in need of help.
[00:08:30] And we'll think about how this connects with the church.
[00:08:33] It's a place of comforting and commissioning.
[00:08:38] So first this first point, God reigns through his Messiah. God reigns through his Christ. How do we see that here in this passage and as it's fulfilled in the Scriptures?
[00:08:50] Well, remember, first of all, we see that David was anointed. Remember Samuel came. Anointed David or sorry, yes, anointed David as king.
[00:09:00] That is something that God had promised, God said he would do. God had established and. And yet he is hunted.
[00:09:09] So this creates a difficult thing, right? How will God rule through his king when the king's not on the throne?
[00:09:16] We could think about other examples like this. How will God do his apostolic work of sending out the Gospel into all the world when Paul's in jail for a long time or other things like this.
[00:09:31] I was reminded this week of a article a pastor long ago of mine wrote. It was article called the Inefficiency of God.
[00:09:41] And it was all about all these examples in which you'd think the right thing, the efficient thing, the effective thing to do, would be to right, convert Paul and send him out and not let him rest in jail for months and months and years, right? Or to establish great king holy David, pour out your spirit on him and then send him out into the wilderness, make him be on the run.
[00:10:06] There's all these things in which to us seem confusing.
[00:10:10] It doesn't seem like the straight and efficient path.
[00:10:14] But the Lord has other means, the Lord has other plans. And one of the things he's often doing is he's showing us that he can and he does rule.
[00:10:24] Even in the midst of our weakness and in spite of our weakness, as the scriptures say, God chooses the weak and foolish things of this world to. To demonstrate his power.
[00:10:36] It's kind of like a cook going into a kitchen and opens the fridge and there's nothing there, right? Two, three, four ingredients, and then half an hour later you're eating this delicious thing.
[00:10:48] How is that possible? I say, as someone who doesn't cook very well, how is that possible? Right? Because of the wisdom of the cook, the skill of the cook. How much more so with God, who, who can take the things of this world, people like me, people like you, that are broken and struggling and finite and all these things, and then create this kingdom of priests, a light that shines in the darkness, a hope to the nations, and on and on and on.
[00:11:20] It's because of who he is, because how amazing our God is. And that's what he's doing through David, foreshadowing what he will do in an even greater way. In Jesus.
[00:11:33] He's showing us that even though his anointed one is in exile, even though his anointed one is hunted, God is still at work.
[00:11:46] God is not dependent on the things and the powers of this world to do what he wants to do.
[00:11:54] And how do we see that in our passage?
[00:11:57] Well, here, David, he just fled from the King of Gath, and now he's escaped to this king of Adullam and his father's house hears of it and they go down to him. But not only that, we read in verse two, everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, everyone who was embittered soul, just anyone who had a problem, it sounds like of almost any kind, were going to him.
[00:12:23] It reminds me of those moments early in the Gospels where Jesus is doing miracles and there's people just coming out of everywhere, gathering around Peter's mother, Peter's mother in law's house, right? Just people with all kinds of needs, people with questions, people with problems, people with difficulties in their bodies, all kinds of things, they just, they gather to him.
[00:12:49] This is an amazing thing that the Lord can do.
[00:12:52] The Lord doesn't need the things that we often think are needed in order to be effective.
[00:13:00] And here we see David being a king. Later we're going to see similar things happen with Solomon, right? Solomon on the throne and the Queen of Sheba, and people coming from all around the world to seek his wisdom, to get his counsel, to help make decisions. David's doing the same thing right here, but in a cave, on the run.
[00:13:22] It's an amazing. It's an amazing thing. And we see David's wisdom being exercised here. People trusting David, following David, seeking David, even though he's. He's a young man.
[00:13:36] And we see him, not only these people coming to him, but he becomes, it says, a commander over them.
[00:13:45] This is not just one time advice. Thanks a lot. That was really helpful. And then they're on their way. They're wanting to follow him in a permanent way.
[00:13:56] We read that there were about 400 men with him, men that will eventually become this mighty fighting force which will do amazing things with him and at their head.
[00:14:09] That care that he gives for them gets particularized in this specific way with regard to his parents.
[00:14:17] He asks the King of Moab, this foreign king, to let his father and mother stay with them till I know what God will do for me.
[00:14:27] You can sense his uncertainty, right? He's trying to make the best decisions he can in a situation where he doesn't know what's going to happen.
[00:14:35] David doesn't know what's going to happen. We know what's going to happen.
[00:14:39] But put yourself in his shoes at this moment. Try to think about what you would do and think about your father and your mother. Remember how his whole service with Saul began with him going back and forth from the palace to his father's house?
[00:14:54] Right. And eventually Saul called David into his service in a more permanent way.
[00:15:00] His mom and dad have kind of been operating in the background in all of this. And we see David's continuing care for them. Jesus did the same thing when, as he was even on the cross and as he was preparing for the cross, making sure that his mother was going to be taken care of.
[00:15:20] Wisdom, compassion, love, leadership, all of these things. And from a man on the run, a man who is weak, a man who moments before didn't have a great fighting force, and all these people following him.
[00:15:37] This is a lot of people, by the way, at least to me, I guess it's all relative. But 400 men, and then you add some wives and families and things like this.
[00:15:51] You have quite a crew.
[00:15:53] You have almost a traveling city. It will grow to.
[00:15:57] If you start adding some numbers and doing a little math, you can quickly get into the. Into the thousands.
[00:16:04] When you add women and children, maybe animals and provisions, some servants and things like that later, David's going to need a city to rule from and to take care of these people. And God will provide that Too, Jesus likewise was despised and rejected by men.
[00:16:27] And yet even from the place of the cross, he became our king.
[00:16:34] And even from the place of the cross, Jesus established a kingdom that will last forever.
[00:16:43] Even from the place of the cross, we see soldiers confessing their faith, one of the thieves on the cross confessing their faith in him. Even as things were falling apart, you also see the gathering happening. And eventually, very quickly, as the Holy Spirit is poured out, as the Holy Spirit is poured out in Acts, the kingdom just explodes in number. Thousands of people confessing their faith in Christ and being baptized.
[00:17:18] After a crucifixion and of course, a resurrection, the Church has continued to suffer in all kinds of ways, suffers persecution in all kinds of ways and all over the world and for thousands of years, and yet it continues to grow and grow and grow and grow and grow.
[00:17:42] In fact, even in those moments of persecution, or maybe even especially in those moments of persecution, we see the Lord's strength, his care, and the witness of his people.
[00:17:55] The point in all of this, we see from David to Jesus, and even now, as Jesus rules over us and cares for us, that God is not limited by suffering.
[00:18:12] God does not struggle with our weakness.
[00:18:16] God's our rejection, our persecution, our loneliness, our finiteness.
[00:18:21] Even our sins, especially our sins, do not stop him from doing his mighty saving work.
[00:18:32] Well, who's this work for?
[00:18:34] We see God establishing these things even here in the Old Testament, which are fulfilled in even greater ways in the New. The kingdom is for the crushed.
[00:18:46] The kingdom is for the broken. The kingdom is for the hurting. Notice who David gathers in, right?
[00:18:53] Yes, he is this king, this upcoming king.
[00:18:58] But it's not all the, the great people of the land and the heads of households that are described here.
[00:19:05] David, as he establishes, as God is establishing through him this new kingdom, he brings to him all the weak people, the distressed ones, everyone who was in debt, everyone who's bitter in soul.
[00:19:20] And if you want to start a mission or an enterprise or a company, is that the kind of people that you want to start with?
[00:19:28] If you're going to go, let's say you're going to start a company and you put out resume calls and you say, here's what I'm looking for.
[00:19:35] I want to make sure you're having a really hard time emotionally, maybe even bitter in your soul, that would be good. I want you to make sure you're in debt, right? I want to make sure you're in debt and distress. If you could have distresses going on in your life, that's who I'm looking for. This is not what we do.
[00:19:55] We look for people who are the opposite of all of these things. People have their lives together, people who are capable, people who are going to drag us down. And we bring them on board and we move forward, right?
[00:20:08] Fine. That's not how the kingdom of God works.
[00:20:13] That's not how the kingdom of God works.
[00:20:15] Jesus comes and says, all who are weary and heavy laden, come unto me.
[00:20:22] That's a call.
[00:20:24] All who are burdened by their sins, all who are struggling, all who are isolated, all who don't know what to do, all who are bitter in soul, come unto me and I will give you rest.
[00:20:40] God is not seeking those who are well, the Scriptures say, but those who are sick.
[00:20:51] And that's what's happening here. 1 Samuel 22. As we hear of David's followers, we hear of people who are struggling, and Jesus does the same thing.
[00:21:02] Would you turn with me to Luke chapter four? We've got to spend just a little bit of time here, meditate on this particular amazing moment.
[00:21:16] Luke 4.
[00:21:25] So the chapter begins with Jesus going out into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit. Anointed by God, he returns from the Jordan. This is verse one. And was led out into this by the Spirit, into the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil.
[00:21:44] Now, we won't read the whole thing, but there's a number of ways in which the devil entices him, tempts him, promises him the world, the kingdoms of this world.
[00:21:55] All he has to do is give himself over to this evil one.
[00:22:00] But Jesus doesn't, of course, fall for this.
[00:22:04] Well, soon after this, after this period of being in the wilderness, being under temptation, being pursued even by the devil that we read in verse 16, he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
[00:22:26] And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him.
[00:22:30] He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He's quoting now, reading, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.
[00:22:44] 2. Proclaim good news to the poor.
[00:22:47] He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
[00:23:01] And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
[00:23:07] And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
[00:23:11] And he began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
[00:23:19] Wow.
[00:23:21] It's a moment very similar to David in the cave, isn't it?
[00:23:26] David's in the wilderness, David's on the run. And in that moment he.
[00:23:30] Well, he doesn't call them, but the Lord draws to him those who are distressed, weary, heavy laden, those who are in need.
[00:23:40] That was foreshadowing David's greater son, his great, great, great, great, great great grandson, who would come and fulfill and establish this Davidic kingdom, this messianic kingdom forever.
[00:23:56] And Jesus does that.
[00:23:58] Jesus does this. He. He endures this period in the wilderness. And there's. That extends out in bigger ways, but here, very specifically, very literally, in the wilderness, pursued by the devil. And then. And what we. And the conclusion of that is that the Spirit of the Lord is on him because God has anointed him.
[00:24:21] And this prophecy that was anticipated in David, prophesied by Isaiah, is now being fulfilled in Jesus right there before their eyes. Can you imagine that?
[00:24:32] Watching him, wondering what he's going to say, what the sermon is going to be about? And he sets it down and he said, this is all fulfilled in me today.
[00:24:41] That is a very bold claim. Imagine if I told that to you.
[00:24:46] Imagine if I read Isaiah and I said, today this has been fulfilled in your hearing, in me. I am the Christ, the long prophesied Messiah.
[00:24:57] It would be stunning, perhaps unbelievable, and certainly with me it should be unbelievable.
[00:25:05] But with the Lord Jesus, there's all these other things happening, right?
[00:25:10] The way he teaches, the things he says.
[00:25:14] And he's healing people, people who had diseases for a people are coming to him who aren't just. I've got a question. But deep turmoil in their souls, mysterious things. And they leave happy other people that try to play games with him and twist him up and mess him up. And he never gets flustered.
[00:25:37] People that come to him who have been paralyzed for decades, medical problems going on for a long time, confusing doctors. And he heals them. And he heals them. And he heals them.
[00:25:50] He calms the sea.
[00:25:53] Just speaking it.
[00:25:55] He prophesies things that happen, including, best of all, we might say you, his own crucifixion, death and resurrection.
[00:26:07] And then he rises from the dead.
[00:26:12] This is not just another man claiming to be something great.
[00:26:17] Jesus proves over and over and over again, and the Scriptures prove over and over again. And God proves over and over again through Jesus that he is in fact who he says he is, that the Spirit of God is upon him and that he is actually bringing good news to the poor, Liberty to the captives, sight to the blind, and liberty to those who are oppressed.
[00:26:51] And that's why we're here today, because that's us.
[00:26:57] Those are the things that we need. And we see what God has done in Jesus and we say, I'm following him because he's the anointed one.
[00:27:09] He's the king. I don't care what else is going on in this world. I don't care what powers there are. I don't care what weaknesses there are in me. I'm following him because he's everything.
[00:27:22] The spirit of the Lord is upon him. Where he goes, I go. And this, of course, the great work of God and this work that he's doing gets taken to yet another level when we learn that not only is he healing us, but he's sending us.
[00:27:48] He doesn't just gather us in and take care of us and comfort us and care for us. He does all that. But then on top of that, he commissions us and he says, now go out into the world and tell everybody about me.
[00:28:04] He makes us useful to him.
[00:28:07] People who are oppressed and enslaved and captive and blind and weak and dying. He makes us useful.
[00:28:15] And you might think, well, how can I be useful when X and Y and Z and 1 and 2 and 3 are true of me?
[00:28:23] I don't know, people. I'm really sick. I'm struggling. I'm super busy. I'm in debt. On and on and on and on.
[00:28:32] But have you been listening?
[00:28:34] Have you been listening to what God is telling us about His Messiah and about that kingdom that he establishes?
[00:28:43] God establishes a kingdom that not only brings us in, but also sends us out as David's mighty men will become.
[00:28:52] Sends us out to do amazing things in his name for his glory, for his honor. And we get to be a part of that.
[00:29:03] A church.
[00:29:04] He establishes a church, a community, a place that is broken and suffers sometimes from our own fault and foolishness, sometimes through external pressures and things that happen, but a church nevertheless, where healing is happening and where we are sent.
[00:29:25] So we are struggling, admittedly, obviously, broken systems, broken hearts, injustices, all kinds of terrible things inside and out.
[00:29:36] The scriptures aren't Pollyanna ish about this. They don't pretend it away. They don't sweep it under the rug. God puts it out there, shows us the mirror, and we all go, yeah, that's right.
[00:29:49] In fact, the Scriptures often speak with much more clarity about suffering than we do.
[00:29:56] Often that's an understatement and yet.
[00:30:01] And yet what happens?
[00:30:04] God reigns through his Christ in the midst of it.
[00:30:09] God reigns through Jesus in the midst of all this. And he calls the weak and the suffering unto him.
[00:30:17] And he uses us all to the praise of his name.
[00:30:23] So that's why you must leave the world behind and go find Jesus.
[00:30:31] The good news is he's not far.
[00:30:34] You don't have to climb into heaven for him. You don't have to find some secret mystery. He's been proclaimed to you today.
[00:30:43] He is not of the world, but he is in the world right now, among his people.
[00:30:49] And so listen for his voice.
[00:30:53] Find his people, follow him and you will find refuge and protection and commissioning for things that God will have you do.
[00:31:06] Let's pray and ask that God would help us to see and to believe and to act. Let's pray.
[00:31:13] Our Heavenly Father, we give you all praise and honor and glory. You who are able to take the weak and foolish things of this world and make them whole and make them strong and make them new and make them imperishable even we give all honor and praise to you, a great king who is above all gods.
[00:31:35] The idols of this world are foolish.
[00:31:38] They cannot see, they cannot act.
[00:31:42] The ways in which we worship them and bind ourselves to them, enslave us and make us fall and fail and be foolish.
[00:31:55] But Lord, while you are at work, change has happened and is happening.
[00:32:02] We find healing, we find illumination, we find wisdom, we find hope. We find love.
[00:32:10] We find this in you and through your work.
[00:32:14] We find it in ourselves as we follow you through your Son and by the power of your spirit who has anointed us in Christ to follow him and lead us into all truth.
[00:32:27] Lord, we ask that today you would help us to set our eyes on Jesus, to fix our faith firmly on him, so that no matter what our circumstances are, no matter whether we have hours left in this world or decades left, that you would help us, that you would heal us, and that you would use us to the praise of your glorious name.
[00:32:52] Lord, we are filled with gratitude to belong to you and to your kingdom.
[00:32:59] We give you thanks and praise in Jesus name.
[00:33:03] Amen.
