So, after a couple weeks off of 1 Samuel, because of Easter and then having a guest preacher, we're back in the book of 1 Samuel, and now we're up to chapter 21. And so, in a moment, we're going to read the entirety of chapter 21, which is actually a fairly brief chapter as far as 1 Samuel is concerned. But first, you may have noticed even the title of the sermon in the bulletin, Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire. That's a fun phrase. And this phrase is often used to explain how things can go very quickly from bad to worse, or at least from bad to bad, at the very least. And this life is really full of trials and difficulties. And sometimes in our effort, in our efforts to try to find a way out of one bad situation, What can often happen is that we jump, be first, into a whole nother problem. And whether that problem is really better or worse, it really doesn't change the fact that it's yet another problem at the end of the day. And difficulties in this life, they can really start to beat us down. They can hit us repeatedly over the head, often unexpectedly. Sometimes it feels like life is trying to sit in the water at the beach during a storm with their eyes closed. A wave comes up and it casts us headlong into the surf. We get up and sit back down only to be hit by the next one. And these trials really do seem to come in waves. And in the text for this morning, we're going to see how David behaved as a bad situation grew quickly into a worse situation. And one lesson of this text is that these trials, whether in David's life or our own, are not random. On the contrary, as difficult as the problems in our lives can be, God uses them to discipline us and to train us in holiness. He calls us into trials. He provides us the grace we need to endure those trials. And then he carries us out of those trials. And as a result of these trials, we are sanctified and our trust in him is ultimately strengthened. Therefore, as we approach the trials of our lives, we must do so knowing that our Heavenly Father actually loves us through these things. He will not call us into any situation where His abundant grace will not follow behind. Therefore, He is the one we should run to during every one of these trials. And because God is our refuge, we must seek shelter in Him alone. With that introduction, let's read 1 Samuel chapter 21. Then David came to nod to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling and said to him, why are you alone and no one with you? And David said to Ahimelech the priest, the king has charged me with a matter and said to me, let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here." And the priest answered David, I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread, if the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest, truly women have been kept from us, as always, when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day that it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Dog, the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Then David said to Ahimelech, Then have you not here a spear or sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, There is none like that. Give it to me. And David rose, and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish king of Gath, and the servants of Achish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul hath struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands? And David took these words to heart, and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let a spittle run down his beard. Then Akish said to his servants, Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? So we'll look at two points this morning. First, we'll focus on the internal threats David faces and then the external threats. So first, the internal threats. Now, it has been a couple of weeks since we've been in 1 Samuel, so I think a quick reminder of what's going on in these chapters will be helpful as we readjust to the text. Now, after killing the giant Philistine, Goliath, David had captured the hearts and the minds of Israel. From the smallest to the greatest in Israel, David was held in high esteem by all. Jonathan, the crown prince, and David had sworn a covenant of friendship with one another. Even Saul, initially at least, loved David, making him the captain of his elite household guard. But as David's prestige and reputation grew, Saul's favor towards him quickly disappeared. Saul actually grew jealous of David and hated him. And then he went through multiple attempts to try to kill David. Some subtle and some not so subtle methods all to get him killed. But the Lord was with David and so all these attempts failed. But then things finally reached the breaking point and David had to flee from Saul with the help of Samuel and Jonathan. And as we arrive at chapter 21 this morning, David is officially fleeing from Saul's court in Gibeah and starting his life on the run as a fugitive. And the problem for David in this situation was a difficult one. Where could he run to? He obviously couldn't stay in Gibeah where Saul and his royal court were located. If he went home to Bethlehem, he would have been found immediately. That's the first place Saul would go and look. He had to go somewhere that Saul could not reach him. But first, he had to escape the vicinity of Gibeah. And his first stop on the way out of the region was at the city of Nab. Now, Nab was essentially halfway between Gibeah to the north and Jerusalem to the south. And it was only a few miles in between each, so it's clearly very early on in this escape route. And it was a huge religious center at this point in Israel. Now, the ark wasn't there. The ark was at a place called Kiriath-Jerim. But even so, Nob appears to be the most prominent religious center under Saul's reign in Israel. And it's there that Eli's great-grandson Ahimelech, who was also the brother of Saul's primary chaplain, ministered along with the other priests. So then, when David arrives without Saul or an army, Ahimelech comes out to meet him. And Ahimelech immediately knew something was wrong. For one such a high rank as David, the son-in-law of the king, to show up with no entourage but just a few men, well, that's a little bit odd. That's a little bit strange, something that shouldn't be happening. And in their interaction, this is where things get very interesting in this passage. When Ahimelech asked David what was going on, David replied that the king had sent him on a secret mission. And this is where I have to note something. Theologians are very divided on how to assess David's actions and words in this chapter. At first glance, his story appears to be an outright deception, or maybe you could even call it an outright lie. And if you know what this interaction ends up leading to for the priests of Nob, then that seems to confirm that David was acting in fear here and not trusting in the Lord to protect him. That's the negative view of David in this passage. But there are others who take a more positive approach to David's deception here. Notice that David never said that Saul sent him on a mission, but that the king had sent him on a mission. Now, if king refers to Saul, then it's a deception or it's a lie. But if David was referring to Yahweh sending him away from Saul's court, then he told the truth. even if Halimelech didn't understand it. So Jonathan said to David in chapter 20, verse 22, Go for the Lord has sent you away. Yahweh has sent you away. Yahweh, the true king. So perhaps you could still call this a half truth, but some secrecy was necessary in this interchange. David had to escape, yes, but he also gave the priests innocent deniability should Saul ask why they helped David escape. Now, if we couple this with Psalms 34 and 56, which we don't have time to read through, they were all written about these events in this chapter. And there it appears that David was actually faithfully entrusting himself to the Lord throughout these events, even if there may have been some moments of doubt or difficulty. For those reasons, I actually take a positive view of David in these events. But even with the carefulness David displayed, he was still putting himself and the priest at risk by stopping at Nab. So why would he risk this visit? Why stop in Nab so close to the city of Gibeah? Well, he needed food and supplies for the road for him and his men. And it was normal in the ancient Near East, it was a normal practice for travelers to stop and ask for food from strangers when they needed it. That was not abnormal and it was not rude. So, David's stopping at this worship center and asking for provisions was not abnormal by any means. The only problem in this occurrence was that the only spare food on hand was the holy showbread. Now, 12 of these large loaves, they were much larger than a normal loaf, they were baked and placed in two rows before the altar of the Lord every Sabbath day. The old loaves would be removed and the new ones would be put in place. Now, what they did with the old loaves is that the ceremonially clean priests were allowed to eat these loaves as part of their food rations for the week in certain special locations around the sanctuary. So normally, according to the Old Testament ceremonial law, only priests are allowed to eat of this sanctuary bread. But Himelech determined that David's need in this instance was pressing. And so he supplied five loaves of show bread, as David had asked. So his duty to show mercy to David and to love his neighbor as himself was more important than the requirements of the ceremonial law. Here's where we need to differentiate two things. The moral law of God is unchanging and there is never a time where we can break it rightly. There are no exceptions to the moral law of God. But the Old Testament ceremonial law was not absolute like the moral law. And actually, this is where we see the connection to the New Testament Gospels. Jesus referenced this very event. and affirmed Ahimelech and David's actions there. He says this in Mark 2. One Sabbath, he was going to the grain fields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, Look, why are you doing what it is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them, Have you never read what David did when he was in need and was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. And he said to them, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." See, the Pharisees had tried to add all kinds of extra rules and restrictions around the Sabbath that God had never commanded Israel to keep. And as those Pharisees accused the disciples of breaking the Sabbath, they failed to recognize that they were at that moment speaking to the Lord of the Sabbath, the master of the Sabbath. The Lord had not forbidden the disciples from eating when they were hungry and in need. The Creator God provided for the disciples through those heads of grain and for David and his men through the sanctuary at Nab. And so as Ahimelech, that's a hard name to say, Ahimelech gave David the bread, David noticed something else going on that signaled danger to him. In the background was another man that was present named Dog, the Edomite. And we're not told exactly why he was there. And there are many possible reasons why Dog could be there. But ultimately, the Lord had placed him there for a purpose. And that fact will become important in just a moment. But Doeg, this man, this Edomite, was one of Saul's servants and clearly not one that David could trust in this situation. So David, noticing Doeg, realized that he was in severe danger and that moment also became aware of something else because of that danger. He was completely unarmed and unprepared for such an event. But upon talking with Ahimelech, he was able to take the sword of Goliath, which he had once given to the Sanctuary at Nob as an offering. And so considering it was his only option for a weapon, his prestigious history with it, and the fact that it was a legendary sword, he readily took the sword. So now David had food and a sword, but that still wouldn't be enough to protect him if he stayed with this danger. Dove was proof that David had to run, he had to leave. And so what we're entering into is a real period of testing for David. And while it may not look like it at this moment in David's life, the Lord was preparing him to take the throne, even through these kinds of moments. Now, I know none of you are being prepared to rule Israel or any other nation as a king, unless there's something I really don't know about. But you might be undergoing trials and testing. And those different trials and tests come in all different forms. The Lord can use poor health. He can use aging. He can use strained relationships and many more difficult things in order to train us to become more like Christ. Now, David had a specific mission from the Lord. While you don't have the same mission that David did, you still have a mission from Jesus. And in the face of every trial in your life, your duty, is to remain faithful to the Lord and his word. David did the best he could to act wisely and to preserve his own life and the lives of others in these difficult circumstances. His deeds were imperfect, but it's difficult to accuse him of being faithless here. Now, you too will be hard pressed in your lives at some point, as I'm sure all of you have already been at many points. And despite the difficulties the Lord has placed in your path, the question is always, will you remain faithful through them? Remember how I said that the Lord had planned for Dogue to be present. We don't often think in terms like that. That was an extreme threat to David that led to him being cautious, escaping quickly and even leaving with the sword for defense. So God's planning here actually pushed David to better preparation and ultimately to flee a dangerous situation and location. So as you see the difficulties and the roadblocks in your life, don't treat them as if chance was being cruel to you. There's no such thing. God has a plan in everything he ordains, even for your life. The trial before you may not be pleasant. In fact, I can almost guarantee you it won't be pleasant or it wouldn't be a trial. But you can still be sure that it is for your good. So the question for you as the trials come is whether you will trust the Lord and his plan and submit to it faithfully. You don't have to understand it. Even looking back on it after it's already passed, you don't have to understand all the details. You just need to trust your God through them. So that's the internal threats David was facing. Now it's like the external threats. So David, upon realizing that he was not safe in Nab and realizing that Dov was a message that he needed to flee, he left. But as we read about his next stop, this may surprise us a little bit. He ran from the internal threats of his own countrymen to the Philistine city of Gath. He went to Israel's foremost external military threat in that period. That's where he ran to. He wasn't safe from Saul in Israel. He was a fugitive, so perhaps he could not hide among Saul's enemies. And it may come as no surprise to you that David didn't actually end up blending in too well in the city of Gath. Now, it's unclear if David was trying to hide his true identity or not. It is possible that he didn't try to deceive the Philistines and simply hope that King Achish would hire him as a mercenary or allow him to live as a noble in exile. But regardless, regardless of David's intentions, the king saw, or the king's servants rather, saw through David. And here's where we have to give a little bit of credit to these Philistines, because they knew all about David. They said to Achish in verses 10 and 11, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands? They called David the king of the land. They knew who Saul was. The song shows that they knew who Saul was, but they didn't call David a servant of King Saul. They named David King. So even among the Philistines, it appears that everyone knows that David is the obvious choice for king for Israel, not Saul. His exploits, his reputation and his military prowess far surpassed Saul's. Furthermore, it's really David that they're clearly terrified to meet in battle. And this is where really this whole scene becomes even more ridiculous. David had defeated these same Philistines multiple times in battle. David, not that long ago, had killed 200 Philistines, taken their foreskins, and used it as a bride price for his wife, Michal. Now, some of those men may well have been from the city of Gath. So that kind of mission doesn't win you too many friends. It doesn't win you much goodwill among your enemies. But the best part of all is this. What weapon does David carry with him in the Gath? The sword of Goliath, the giant Philistine champion from the city of guess where? Gath. So he hopes to find refuge. in the renowned hometown of the renowned city of the champion he defeated years earlier, with said champion's sword in his hand. It's a rather ironic situation. And yet somehow, through all of this, Akish didn't seem convinced of David's danger to him. It's his servant's words that cause something that we haven't really seen before in this book yet. As the servants of Akish tell Akish they should be worried about David, we see that David was actually afraid. And it's even more severe than that. He was terrified that Akish would kill him. Now, while at Nab, I think David was acting in faith. You can argue that, but I think he was. But here he actually does seem to buckle just a little bit under the trial. Rather than the bold man who challenged Goliath, we see a man who was terrified before his enemies. Now, while I do not think his actions at Knob were bad, they're definitely a little more ambiguous and frankly less noble here in Gath. He faked or feigned insanity. He marked on the gates with graffiti that was either nonsense, just gibberish, or possibly things that were symbols that the Philistines would have considered curses. He also made sure to desecrate his beard by letting his spittle drip down it. Now, the beard in the ancient world is a little more important than we often think, but today it was a symbol of manhood, of power, of authority. You didn't ruin your beard. You didn't cut up your beard. You didn't let stuff get on your beard. You took care of your beard. No one in their right mind would ruin their beard in the ancient Near East, willingly, in their right mind. It just wouldn't happen. And so another way to translate, actually, he feigned insanity is that he pretended to be insane. It's that he made himself look foolish. He's making himself a fool in the eyes of those around him. So while not the most honorable way by any means to escape danger, it's similar to the way that Abraham and Isaac had fooled Philistine leaders in the past. When they were afraid of the Canaanites, they claimed their wives were what? their sisters, all to get out of danger. David, he also contrasts against Saul through these events. Commentator named Robert Bergen says that David took upon himself the trappings of insanity to hide his sanity. Saul surrounded himself with the trappings of sanity to cloak his insanity. And yet somehow through all this, David's plan ends up working. And so as a result, Akish essentially bans David from his house as someone who is insane. Now, many places in the ancient world actually considered psychotic people to be somewhat untouchable. You send them on their way, you let them do their thing, and you don't harm them, you don't kill them. So, ironically, David's ploy actually leads to him being declared unkillable, really, by the king of Gath himself. Here again, we see a great irony. David is God's chosen and anointed king who has been declared a man after his own heart. But because of David's actions, he has been rejected by men. First Saul and now Akish, though for different reasons. And again, man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. But David's rescue does not necessarily speak to whether his actions in Gath were right or wrong. So how do we assess David's actions in Gath? Well, at a human level, the trick was successful and David was safe. However, he had to make himself look very foolish in order to escape, and we have to ask the question if that's where he should have gone in the first place. Seems a silly place to decide on. So really, we must examine things holistically, bringing faith and obedience into the equation. And once again, commentators are all split on whether David acted well in faith or poorly according to his own strength or even as a result of fear. And really, I think there's good arguments on both sides for this. And frankly, I'm not sure we can make a determination with any level of confidence either way. But what we do know with the utmost certainty is that the Lord preserved David through these dangers. David's efforts were going to be impure in some way, no matter what. He was not a perfect man by any means. And yet God chose to work through David to prosper his plans. And that does not determine whether they were in and of themselves always good or bad. But it does show that the Lord was protecting, no doubt humbling and training David through this entire situation. God's grace in David's situation was not dependent upon how holy he was that day, that week, or even that year. David was always going to be unworthy of God's grace and incapable of earning it. And yet, out of his mere good pleasure and out of his love for his people, God chose to love David, to rescue him, and to teach him through it all. And this whole fugitive portion of David's life mirrored what happened to the Israelites in wandering in the wilderness. The Lord tested them and trained them in the wilderness, preparing them to enter into the promised land. And so only after this training was Israel able to enter into Canaan and take dominion over it. Only then could the kingdom of Israel be established. And so, too, David was being prepared to take the throne. And in this way, he also foreshadowed Jesus. David had been anointed and was now undergoing a period of testing. Before Jesus began his earthly ministry, he was baptized. And what happened right after that? He went out into the wilderness to be tested for 40 days before having a showdown with the devil and defeating him. And so, in these chapters of 1 Samuel, we see yet another way that David and his life pointed to Christ. And so while these similarities are amazing, the differences between David and Jesus are actually more important right now. David was clearly an imperfect man. And so again, we have to ask this question, did David succeed or fail in this chapter? The answer is yes, he did both. He was not perfect at Nob and he was not perfect at Gath. He was he was not under God's grace or favor because he had earned it. He could never earn the favor and grace of God by his own merits. And neither can you. There is nothing you can go through in this life where you are going to be perfect. You will fail, whether in small ways or in large ways. David failed and sinned just as we do. And yet he was under grace, not because of his works, but because of Christ and his perfect work. So as you undergo trials of various kinds, you will have failings, you will have shortcomings. Other times you may do very well, but even in those times where you did great, there's going to be some tinge of sin or failure in your efforts. And so, in both, you are dependent upon Jesus and His grace because even your best moments are tinged with sin. If your salvation was contingent upon your ability to perfectly obey, you will be damned. You are under grace, not law. You have been washed clean by the blood of Christ. And because of that, you can be confident that even the trials that you face are somehow for your good in the end. Of course, we all know the verse from Romans 8, 28, but it's one we have to repeat a lot because we forget. For those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Every believer faces external threats to their faith. Persecution, conflict, bad influences, and there are many, many, many more. Every believer deals with internal threats also. Temptations, sin, struggles of all kinds, conflicts. Trials are not an abnormal part of Christian life, but a regular occurrence. And that is not an accident. And the Lord isn't watching you and waiting to give you some kind of letter grade followed by reward or punishment. Only one thing matters at the end of these trials. Are you clinging to Christ more than you were at the start of it? Have you grown to trust and praise the Lord more through those struggles? Through those situations and struggles, God is training you just as he was training David, just as he protected David from the threat surrounding him, so he is guarding you. He's the one who calls you into every trial and also your safe shelter and refuge in those trials. And that is why you must continually seek shelter in the Lord. And that is why you must live under the grace of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord God, how quickly we want to rely on the filth of our own works. And on the other side, how quickly we want to assume that if anything bad is happening, it's because we're being punished for something. And in fact, we fail to recognize that often it is simply your good fatherly discipline and care training us to love you more, to let go of the things of the world, to let go of our self-sufficiency. and rather to learn dependency upon you and upon your grace. Lord, I pray that you would grow us in this way and that you would help us to remember the promises that you have given us in Scripture, that you are with us, that you love us, and that you are training us to be with Christ for eternity. Lord, help us to rest in these things and to take great encouragement from them. We ask them in Jesus' name. Amen.