The Life of David: A Man on the Run
CCEA
School of Discipleship
January
26, 2025
Introduction
In class we’ll look at Kathleen’s mission trip pictures…
(Kathleen’s Mission Trip Video)
Break into small groups of three or so, share one thing you learned from
McGee’s chapter 2, “Water from the Well at Bethlehem”
Let’s stand and recite together Psalm 23:1-2
(Psalm 23:1–2 NKJV)
—1 The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie
down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
A Man on the Run
I was trying to think about how I wanted to introduce this lesson
today. I had a song rumbling around in
my head…
Play “Band on the Run”
But then I realized that McCartney wasn’t singing “Man on the Run”, but
“Band on the Run”. Isn’t it funny how
sometimes we get the lyrics wrong?
I also was thinking about that 1993 movie with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee
Jones, “The Fugitive”. Han Solo has been wrongly convicted of killing his wife,
gets a chance to escape, and is being chased by Men in Black agent K…
Play “Fugitive” clip
And that’s a much better picture to lay the groundwork for what we are
going to look at today.
Get your Bibles open to 1Samuel 18.
I’m going to try and hop skip and jump through 1Samuel 18-31 as we look at
David before he becomes king.
1Samuel 18
Last week we saw how God used David to bring about a great deliverance for
Israel when he killed the giant Goliath.
In chapter 18 we see David becoming friends with Saul’s son Jonathan and we
see David being promoted as general over the troops.
(1 Samuel 18:6–9
NKJV) —6 Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was
returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of
all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with
tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. 7 So the women
sang as they danced, and said: “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.” 8 Then Saul
was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed
to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only
thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 So Saul eyed David from that day forward.
This song the women sang apparently hit the charts and you could hear the
song being sung on radios all around Israel.
It's probably not surprising that Saul will again have another of his
“distressing spirit” episodes around this time and once again David will play
music for Saul.
This time Saul will pick up a javelin and throw it at David.
:8 Then Saul was very angry
Lesson
Jealousy
Several words are used to describe Saul’s feelings toward David:
Vs. 8 “he was very angry” when he heard the song
Vs. 12 “Saul was afraid of David”
All of this came about as it seemed to Saul that the people seemed to like
David more than him.
These are the roots of jealousy.
Some of you might relate to David here.
You find that some of the people who should be encouraging you or cheering
you on are instead fighting against you.
Some of you might relate to Saul here, if you were to be honest with
yourself.
Someone younger or more inexperienced seems to be promoted or rewarded more
than you.
You might feel like you are the one who should be noticed
instead of them.
I wonder if sometimes we lose perspective as to what is important.
When our focus is on ourselves and what we are gaining in life, our
priorities are wrong.
What are the priorities for the nation of Israel at this
time? What is most important?
Defeating the Philistines.
And here God has raised up a David to do that very thing.
If you were King Saul, shouldn’t you be cheering him on?
Paul tells us that “jealousy” is among the kinds of things that our lives
produce when we let our sin nature, our “flesh”, run our lives. Some of these
“works of the flesh” include…
(Galatians 5:29
NLT) …hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish
ambition, dissension, division…
More than one of these qualities could be applied to Saul.
Paul had been pretty hard on the carnal, fleshly
church of Corinth. When he wrote his
second letter, he said,
(2
Corinthians 12:20 NLT) For I am afraid that when I come I won’t like what I find, and you won’t like my
response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, anger,
selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior.
I think God desires that we learn to humble ourselves, be filled with the
Spirit, and keep our eyes on what God’s plan is.
That works whether we are a “Saul” or a “David”.
Illustration
“There's no limit to what you can do as long as you don't care who gets the
credit” is a quote that has been attributed to multiple people, including Harry
S. Truman, Ronald Reagan.
If you recall, one of the “rewards” for killing Goliath involved the king
giving his daughter to the victor.
Saul decides to use this as a “snare” (vs. 18:21), a way of causing David’s
death.
David is reluctant about marrying the king’s daughter because he felt he was
too lowly a man for this honor.
Saul responds by saying that David can pay a “dowry” for his daughter
Michal, one hundred Philistine foreskins.
By the way, Philistines aren’t going to give up
their “foreskins” willingly. David will
have to kill 100 Philistines.
David will go above and beyond and pay a dowry of 200 Philistine foreskins.
Pity the Philistines.
The chapter ends with this:
(1 Samuel
18:30 NLT) Every time the commanders of the Philistines
attacked, David was more successful against them than all the rest of Saul’s
officers. So David’s name became very famous.
1Samuel 19
Saul will tell Jonathan and others that he wants David to be killed.
Jonathan will stand up to defend David, David is
allowed to be in the king’s court again.
There will be more battles with the Philistines, David will do well, and
Saul will be enraged again with jealousy.
David will play the harp for Saul again and Saul will again try to pin
David to the wall with a javelin.
Saul will also send secret agents to David and Michal’s house to kill
David, but Michal will help David escape.
Then David will flee to Samuel at Ramah.
After all, it was Samuel who had anointed David to be the next king. Maybe he will know what to do.
(1 Samuel
19:18 NKJV) So David fled and escaped, and went to Samuel at
Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and
stayed in Naioth.
Saul will send more “agents” to kill David, but each time one of these
agents gets close to Ramah, God’s Spirit falls on them, they start prophesying,
and they don’t kill David.
Then Saul decides to go to Ramah himself…
(1 Samuel 19:23–24
NKJV) —23 So he went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God was
upon him also, and he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 And he also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked
all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is
Saul also among the prophets?”
:23 the Spirit of God was upon him also
Lesson
God can take care of you
It is not an absolute principle, but God CAN miraculously deliver you when you
are in trouble.
When the nation Israel was trapped between the Red Sea and the approaching
Egyptian army, God parted the Red Sea.
When the evil king of Israel wanted to kill the prophet Elijah, God sent
fire from heaven to consume the men who came to arrest Elijah (2Kings 1)
When the Syrians sent an army to capture Elisha (2Kings 6), God struck the
army with blindness and Elisha was able to lead them straight to Samaria where
they were captured.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were delivered
from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) by that strange “fourth person” in the fire
(the Son of God).
When Peter was arrested and put in jail, an angel came in the middle of the
night and set him free (Acts 12).
Play Video: Beware of God
To be honest, we ought to have pity on those who would come against us when
we are following God.
But keep in mind, these miraculous deliverances are
more the exceptions than the normal way of doing things.
Sometimes God wants to deliver you by using your own two feet as you run as
fast as you can.
Sometimes God will allow you to go through trouble.
Jesus was crucified.
There was no last minute “rescue”.
1Samuel 20
David will flee to meet his friend Jonathan.
Jonathan can’t believe his dad is still after David, but when he goes to
ask his dad Saul about it, Saul now throws a javelin at Jonathan (vs.33)
Jonathan goes back to David to warn him that Saul was indeed still after
him, and the two of them make a covenant of friendship between them. (1Samuel
20:42)
(1 Samuel
20:42 NKJV) Then Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since
we have both sworn in the name of the Lord,
saying, ‘May the Lord be between
you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants, forever.’ ” So he arose and departed,
and Jonathan went into the city.
This “covenant” will come into play later when David becomes king.
1Samuel 21
As David hits the road again, this time he goes to Nob, which was just
north of Jerusalem, a city where many of the priests lived.
The high priest Ahimelech seems a little concerned at seeing David, so
David tells him a story and lies to him and assures him he’s on the king’s
urgent business, and his men don’t have any food or weapons.
The priest says the only bread he has available was the special “showbread”
which was replaced in the Tabernacle every seven days.
Only priests were allowed to eat this special bread after it had been
replaced in the Tabernacle.
:4 there is holy bread
Lesson
Priorities
Sometimes certain rules, laws, or principles can come into conflict when we
are following God.
Jesus would use this story when He was challenged by the Pharisees as His
disciples were picking grains of wheat and eating them on the Sabbath. Jesus said,
(Matthew 12:3–4
NKJV) —3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was
hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he
entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to
eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests?
We can tend to get a bit inflexible about one set of rules
when God would have us be concerned about different issues that are more
important to Him at the moment.
God was more concerned about David and his men staying
alive than the rules of the Tabernacle or whether or not
David was even lying.
This is the same principle of Jesus’ disciples plucking
and eating grain on the Sabbath.
As to weapons, the priest tells David that the only weapon they had was the
sword of Goliath, and he gives it to David.
David will leave the priests and flee from Nob to Gath, that city of
Goliath, one of the five main cities of the Philistines.
He flees to Gath hoping that the Philistine king Achish might give him
sanctuary. Yet some of the people
recognize David…
(1 Samuel
21:11 NKJV) And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is
this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in
dances, saying: ‘Saul has
slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands’?”
There’s that song again.
I wonder if someone said something like, “He must be crazy to hide in
Gath…” because that’s exactly what David does next. David will pretend to be crazy.
Achish decides he has enough crazy people in his city, so David moves on…
Let me stop for a second and make a comment here.
There are many of us well-meaning preachers who will criticize David for fleeing to Gath, the enemy.
They will criticize him again when he does it a second time in 1Sam. 27.
I understand the comments when the teachers say, “David was showing a lack
of faith here by fleeing to the enemy.”
My concern is this – I don’t see or read that God was critical of David for
this.
During these times “on the run”, David wrote more than a few of his
Psalms. Some of the Psalms will include
a little introductory note that tells us something of
the circumstances behind the Psalm.
David apparently wrote at least two of his Psalms connected to his times in
Gath (Ps. 34, 56). Does this sound like
a man who is struggling with a lack of faith?
(Psalm 34:1–4 NKJV)
—1 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. 2 My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it
and be glad. 3 Oh, magnify the Lord
with me, And let us exalt His name together. 4 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
Let’s take a step back and look at a map of where David has been and where
he’s going
Let’s identify
Valley of Elah
Gibeah
Nob (Jerusalem)
Gath
Adullam
Keilah
Maon
Masada
En Gedi
1Samuel 22
(1 Samuel 22:1–2
NKJV) —1 David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of
Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s
house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone
who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who
was discontented gathered to him. So he became
captain over them. And there were about four hundred
men with him.
If you did your homework assignment, you’ve read in McGee’s book (ch. 2) about these men.
This is the beginning of David’s “Mighty Men”.
By the way, In OLD ENGLISH, the word for “mighty”
is “merry”. You’ve heard the stories of
Robin Hood and his “merry men”? It’s not an original idea.
:2 distress … debt…discontented
Lesson
Usefulness
David’s men would become famous for their great battles.
They didn’t start off as “mighty”.
They started off in trouble.
It seems that when God wants to do a great work, He often starts with
people that are not that special.
Gideon – Gideon wasn’t the most famous man in Israel. Yet God brought a great deliverance through
just 300 men.
Peter and John had been arrested, and after they gave their defense before
the mighty Sanhedrin:
(Acts 4:13 NKJV) Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived
that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized
that they had been with Jesus.
I love the way my friend Gayle Erwin puts it:
Play Gayle Erwin’s “Foolish Things” clip.
Do you often wonder if you are qualified for God to use you?
God can use anyone, as long as we’re in a place to realize that we must
be dependent upon Him.
The rest of the chapter contains one of the most horrible war crimes ever
committed. Saul, in his rage against
David, finds out that the priests had helped David, even though they didn’t
realize that David was now considered Saul’s enemy. Saul has ALL the priests at Nob killed. Only
one priest survives, and he runs to David.
1Samuel 23
It’s about this time that David hears that the Philistines are attacking
Israel, specifically the city of Keilah.
David asks God, “What do you want me to do?”.
God tells him to attack the Philistines and save Keilah.
When David’s men respond and say, “Is that a good idea? We aren’t safe in
the land of Judah, what will happen if we attack the Philistines?”
So David asks God again, and God says, “Save
Keilah”
(1 Samuel
23:5 NKJV) And David and his men went to Keilah and fought
with the Philistines, struck them with a mighty blow, and took away their
livestock. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
:5 fought with the Philistines
Lesson
Don’t let troubles stop you
After David slew Goliath, his chief “ministry” was to fight Philistines.
He was pretty good at it too.
But now things are so much harder with Saul coming after him as well.
Sometimes when we are going through difficulty we
just want to quit whatever ministry we are doing.
But there’s a difference between God shutting a door and things just
getting difficult.
The prophet Jeremiah ran into troubles. He too wanted to quit.
(Jeremiah
12:5 NLT) “If racing against mere men makes you tired, how
will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will
you do in the thickets near the Jordan?
I think that Satan is often trying to find our breaking point, hoping to
discourage us and cause us to quit being serious about Jesus.
If I quit every time I get a cold, then I’ll probably find myself getting
lots of colds.
If I quit every time someone says something negative to me, expect a bit of
criticism.
Are you going through difficulties and are tempted to quit doing what you
do for Jesus?
David didn’t stop fighting Philistines and defending Israel
He saves the city of Keilah, even though they will betray
him and tell Saul where he was
I like that David asked God what to do.
Even when his own friends told him to quit, he asked God and obeyed God.
Well Saul hears about what David had done and he
brings his army to lay siege to Keilah.
God warns David that the people of Keilah will betray him
so he leaves and finds a new place to hide…
(1 Samuel
23:14 NKJV) And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness
of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand.
The word translated “strongholds” is metzad, and may in fact be a reference to “Masada”, that towering
rock formation near the Dead Sea.
The “Ziphites” will send word to Saul that David is hiding near them.
Then David moves near a mountain in the “Wilderness of Maon”.
Saul catches up to David and while Saul and his men are going around one
side of the mountain, David and his men are going around the other side of the
mountain.
David is about to be captured when…
(1 Samuel 23:27–29
NKJV) —27 But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the
Philistines have invaded the land!” 28 Therefore
Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape. 29 Then David went up from there and dwelt in strongholds at En Gedi.
Please note. When
Saul left to fight the Philistines, David didn’t hang around waiting for Saul
to return so they could pick up where they left off. David left.
Quiz Alert!!!
:29 David went up from there
Lesson
Take the exit
I know this may sound obvious, but there’s a principle here.
(1
Corinthians 10:13 NKJV) No temptation has overtaken you
except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow
you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will
also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
God promises to provide an “exit”, a “way of escape”.
The question is, will I take it?
I find that when I am facing a temptation, I often get “interrupted”.
I have learned that God is often behind that interruption.
He loves me. He
wants me to do well.
Before Cain killed his brother Abel, he got angry…
(Genesis
4:6–7 NKJV) —6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your
countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be
accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is
for you, but you should rule over it.”
God was interrupting Cain’s “temptation”.
But Cain didn’t pay attention and take
the escape.
There will always be a “way of escape”
It may be a phone call.
It may be a Scripture that comes to mind. It may be a knock on your
door.
But when God lights up an “Exit” sign, take the exit.
1Samuel 24
When David took his “exit”, he went to En Gedi (“spring of the young
goats”), sort of an oasis in the desert that surrounds the Dead Sea.
There is a spring up in the mountains that forms a creek that runs down a
canyon and eventually to the Dead Sea.
It’s one of my favorite places in Israel.
You can hike pretty far into the canyon where you
will meet a waterfall that’s been named “David’s Waterfall”.
Play David’s Waterfall Video
At the base of the waterfall you can see where there once was the roof of a
cave, but the waterfall has since collapsed the roof.
Around the edges of the canyon there are trails up in the rocks where you
can see wild goats walking along the edge.
It’s here that David and his men hide in a cave.
Saul has tracked David to En Gedi, and Saul makes his way into one of the
caves to “attend to his needs”, or, go to the
bathroom.
While Saul is doing this, he doesn’t know that David is in that same cave.
David’s men start urging David to take this moment to kill Saul, but David
only cuts off the corner of Saul’s robe before realizing that even that wasn’t
the right thing to do.
(1 Samuel
24:6 NKJV) And he said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing
to my master, the Lord’s
anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed
of the Lord.”
Saul is unaware of all this, and after Saul leaves the cave, David calls
out to Saul and confronts Saul regarding all the paranoid evil things Saul has
been doing to him while he was being gracious to Saul.
There seems to be a small sense of conviction in Saul
and he admits that he knows that David will one day be king.
:6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing
Lesson
Letting God handle it
David could have become king very easily, but it would meant killing Saul.
David recognized God’s original calling and anointing on Saul and David was
not about to disrespect it.
He preferred to let God handle Saul.
Not all kings obtain their office the way David did. When David was old, his son Absalom thought
he’d take matters into his own hand and tried to kill his dad.
I find that sometimes in life, problems can develop between individuals.
We can let those problems fester. We
might even try to take things into our own hands and get rid of that other
person.
But sometimes it’s best to just let God take care of it. If talking it out doesn’t work, be
patient. Be gracious.
1Samuel 25
David leaves the oasis of En Gedi and makes his way into the Judean
wilderness.
Perhaps it’s there that he writes (according to the superscript),
(Psalm 63:1–3 NKJV)
—1 O God, You are my God; Early will I
seek You; My soul
thirsts for You;
My
flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. 2 So I have looked for You in the
sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3 Because Your
lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.
There’s an interesting story, that now takes place as David and his men are
in this area known as “Maon”.
A wealthy man named Nabal had a large ranch there.
David and his men would often protect Nabal’s shepherds from the dangers in
the wilderness, and so one day David sends some messengers to ask Nabal if he
would like to provide some food for David and his men.
Nabal refuses and calls David a few choice names.
By the way, Nabal’s name means “fool”. Several times in this story we know why
people called him a “fool”.
When David hears about Nabal’s offensive response, he gets mad and decides
to teach Nabal a lesson, maybe even kill the jerk.
Nabal was married to a beautiful and wise woman named Abigail.
When she hears about what was happening, she quickly packed a huge goodwill
package of food and wine and headed out to meet David and his men.
She persuades David to be merciful and not kill her husband. Her words to David are quite a lesson in
reconciliation.
(1 Samuel 25:32–34
NKJV) —32 Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this
day to meet me! 33 And blessed is your advice
and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to
bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as
the Lord God of Israel lives, who
has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me,
surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!”
:33 you have kept me …from avenging myself
Lesson
Letting God handle it part 2
David almost takes things too far with Nabal. He almost seeks out
his own revenge.
Abigail stops him.
Sometimes God can speak to our heart and keep us from doing something
stupid, like David and Saul at En Gedi.
Sometimes God will use others to help us from taking revenge, like Abigail
did with David.
Either way, the lesson was the same.
Paul put it this way:
(Romans 12:17–21
NKJV) —17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the
sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as
depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do
not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is
written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is
thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of
fire on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good.
By the way, the story didn’t stop there.
When Nabal finds out that he was almost wiped out by David before his wife
stepped in, he seems to have a stroke, and he dies.
And David ends up marrying Abigail. (yes, wife #2)
1Samuel 26
Saul will once again try to seek David and kill him.
This time Saul will be camping out at the “Hill of Hachilah” when David and
his nephew Abishai will sneak down at night while Saul was sleeping, and they
will take Saul’s spear and a jug of water.
David will make his way to another hill where he’ll call out and wake everyone
up.
David will again confront Saul about his baseless chasing of David. He’ll
show everyone that he had snuck into camp and taken
Saul’s spear and water jug.
They all know that David could have killed Saul, but David has consistently
chosen NOT to kill Saul.
Saul is convicted by David’s kindness,
(1 Samuel
26:21 NKJV) Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son
David. For I will harm you no more, because my life was precious in your eyes
this day. Indeed I have played the fool and erred
exceedingly.”
Perhaps this is like those “hot coals” that Paul mentioned in Romans 12
They apparently decide to go their own separate ways.
(1 Samuel
26:25 NKJV) Then Saul said to David, “May you be
blessed, my son David! You shall both do great things and
also still prevail.” So David went on his way, and Saul
returned to his place.
1Samuel 27
(1 Samuel
27:1 NKJV) And David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish
someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I
should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of
me, to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I
shall escape out of his hand.”
Once again David will take refuge by hiding with the Philistines.
Again, some fault David for going to the Philistines, but I’m not sure I
see any kind of clear rebuke from God about it.
In fact I see some “fruit” from David’s time
among the Philistines.
You can draw a line from the Philistines in Gath to a group known as
David’s bodyguards, the Cherethites. The Cherethites were Philistines who followed David.
I’ll leave you some breadcrumbs in my notes to chase that down.
(1 Samuel
30:14 NKJV) We made an invasion of the southern area
of the Cherethites, in the territory which belongs
to Judah, and of the southern area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with
fire.”
(2 Samuel
20:23 NKJV) And Joab was over all the army of Israel;
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites
and the Pelethites;
When David becomes king and decides to move the Ark of the Covenant to
Jerusalem, there’s a serious accident and the Ark is temporarily stored at a
man’s house named “Obed-Edom” (servant of Edom). He was known as a “Gittite”, or someone from
Gath (1Chr. 13:13)
(1
Chronicles 13:13 NKJV) So David would not move the ark with
him into the City of David, but took it aside into the
house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.
There was another friend of David’s who defended him when Absalom tried to
kill him, known as “Ittai the Gittite”, or, “Ittai
from Gath” (2Sam. 15:22)
(2 Samuel
15:22 NKJV) So David said to Ittai, “Go, and cross over.”
Then Ittai the Gittite and all his men and all the little ones who were
with him crossed over.
There would be six hundred men among the Gittites that followed David (2Samuel
15:18) as he was fleeing from Absalom.
(2 Samuel
15:18 NKJV) Then all his servants passed before him; and all
the Cherethites, all the Pelethites, and all the
Gittites, six hundred men who had followed him from Gath, passed before the
king.
:1 I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul
Lesson
Forgiving vs. Trusting
It has taken me years to learn that there is a difference between forgiving
someone and trusting them.
Forgiveness means that I learn to “drop” or “let go” of the issue.
I will choose to no longer harbor a grudge, hatred, or bitterness in my
heart toward that person.
That’s not always easy to do.
Corrie Ten Boom was one of the Christians sent to the prison camps for
trying to protect the Jews from Hitler.
In her book The Hiding Place,
Corrie tells a story …
It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S.S. man who
had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was
the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of
mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How
grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my
sins away!” His hand was thrust out to
shake mine. And I, who had preached so
often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my
side. Even as the angry, vengeful
thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus
Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me
to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not.
I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness. As I took his hand the most incredible thing
happened. From my shoulder along my arm
and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost
overwhelmed me. And so
I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness
that the world’s healing hinges, but on His.
When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.
This is forgiveness.
To “Trust” another person means that I can count on them, but that takes
time to develop when it’s been broken.
I can forgive the person who breaks into my home and steals my TV.
But I may not necessarily give them the keys to my house
after that.
Forgiveness means I let it go in my heart.
Trust means I let them back into my life.
Have you heard the definition of “insanity”? When you do the same thing over
and over again expecting different results.
We are mistaken when we think that forgiveness alone will
fix a relationship.
It’s required that we learn to forgive, but keep in mind
your forgiveness may not actually do anything to change the person who has hurt
you.
If they want you to “trust” them, then they need to invest
the time to change and show you they’ve changed.
This is not about what’s going on in your heart toward
them, it’s for their sake that they need to show they’ve changed.
When you are married to an alcoholic, they may from time to time promise to
change, but it’s not their promise that fixes your relationship, it’s the
actual change.
For the addict, stop expecting things to magically change
because you shed a few tears.
You may need to get into a program and ask for help.
When one spouse continually physically abuses the other, one person needs
to leave. Not necessarily to divorce,
but to leave for safety’s sake.
Promises of change aren’t the same thing as actual
change. You don’t let them back into
your house until they’ve proven they’ve changed, and even then
you need to move slowly to be sure they’ve changed.
1Samuel 28-31
I’d like to summarize the next four chapters quickly
While David is safe living in Gath, Saul will go through a crisis.
Samuel has died and Saul feels like he can’t get God to answer his cries
for direction, and it looks like the Philistines are getting ready to attack.
In 1Samuel 28, Saul will visit a witch at Endor (sounds like Star Wars,
doesn’t it?) in order for her to conjure up a dead
Samuel to ask for direction.
Samuel tells him he will die tomorrow.
In 1Samuel 29, David and the Philistine Lords are taking their troops north
to the battlefield, but these Lords they demand that David not be allowed to
fight on their side lest he turn against them and fight for Israel.
Those Philistine Lords aren’t too dumb.
In 1Samuel 30, while David starts heading home, he hears that Ziklag, the
town he had been living in, had been attacked and everyone’s families were
kidnapped by the Amalekites.
David organizes his men, they attack the Amalekites, and rescue everybody.
In 1Samuel 31, Israel and the Philistines go to battle near the mountain of
Gilboa.
Israel is defeated, and Saul and Jonathan are killed.
Though it was a sad day for Israel, God is about to turn a new page in the
history of Israel as God has opened the door for a new king to emerge…David.
Homework
Read McGee chapter 3, “Doing the Right Things the Wrong Way”
The title on the YouTube video doesn’t quite match our title, but I’m
pretty sure it’s the same message.
Memorize Psalm 23:1-3
(Psalm 23:1–3 NKJV)
—1 The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie
down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. 3 He restores my soul; He leads me
in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
Quiz
From the lecture (7pts):
1. When facing temptation, we need to learn to
Take the _____ (exit)
From Memorization (fill in the blank, 3pts)
2. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the _______ waters.
(still)
(Psalm 23:1–2 NKJV)
—1 The Lord is my
shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me to lie
down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
Blessing