Chapter 26, and look at verse number 1 of chapter 26, and the Ziphites came unto Saul to give him a saying, does not David hide himself in the hill of Hekilah, which is before Jeshimon? Now, I read that when Billy Martin was hired for the fourth time as manager for the New York Yankees, any boos out there? Just kidding. When he was hired for the fourth time, replacing Yogi Berra, Yogi, who is known for his witty expressions, simply said one thing, is déjà vu all over again. Déjà vu all over again. Now, of course, we know déjà vu is one of those French expressions that simply means already seen. And that, of course, when a person experiences déjà vu, they have this sense of familiarity, like I've been here before, I've done this before. Have you ever had déjà vu? Did I just ask that question? No, I'm just kidding. And so when you come to 1 Samuel chapter 26, you kind of get the sense that this is déjà vu, because the things that are happening here in this narrative seems like that it's already happened before to David. There's such a familiarity. to what's going on here in this narrative because it's so parallel to chapter 24. For example, once again, these people, the Ziphites, they report David's location to Saul. Once again, Saul gets his finest soldiers and comes hunting for David, intending to kill him. Once again, David is hiding in the wilderness. And once again, David finds Saul unprotected and vulnerable. And again, David is urged to kill Saul. But again, David refuses to kill Saul. And he takes a token. Again, that sounds familiar. The last time in the cave of En Gedi in chapter 24, what did David take? He took a part of Saul's robe. This time, in this narrative, David is going to take Saul's spear. And then once again, Saul will apologize for coming after David in this wrongful pursuit of him. And so there's a real similarity between these two stories. In fact, they're so similar that many critical scholars think it's the same story retold. It's just a different version of the same thing. It's merely an adaptation of what happened here. And they label this, they call it a doublet. Now, let me just tell you that these are liberal scholars that are looking for a reason to distrust the Bible. And they look at stories like this and they say, oh, this couldn't happen twice like this. This has to be the same story retold in a different way. And it's an argument they use to try to attack the Bible. But of course, we don't pay them much attention because we know the Bible is the Word of God. This is not the same story. There are too many details between these two narratives that are different. For example, in chapter 24, where's the location? The location is at Ein Gedi. In chapter 26, the location is different. It's at a place called Hekilah, out in the wilderness. The time is different. In chapter 24, that took place during the day. In chapter 26, what's going to happen in here takes place at nighttime. In chapter 24, at Ein Gedi, Saul comes to a cave. In chapter 26, at Hekilah, David comes to a camp. David, in chapter 24, cut off a part of Saul's robe. Here in chapter 26, he will take Saul's spear and his water jug. In chapter 24, David spoke only to Saul at the end of this. And we're going to see in this narrative that when David speaks, he speaks to Abner and Saul, And all of the army get to hear what David is going to say. In other words, what happened in chapter 24 was done privately, really between David and Saul, and a few of David's men, they knew about this. Other than that, it was pretty much a private affair. What's going to happen here in chapter 26 is very public. Everyone's going to know. David's character. Everyone's going to know David's integrity when it comes to dealing with Saul. Now, what's the application for us as we look at these two chapters and we see these similarities, yet we see the differences? Well, what I draw from this is that, you know, God will often give us the same spiritual test to take over again. Has that ever happened to you in your Christian life? You're going through a spiritual test and you're thinking, man, it seems like I've already gone through this once before. But now I'm going to have to go through this again. I call these spiritual retakes. Did your teacher in school ever make you take a test over again? Maybe not because you failed a test necessarily, but because that teacher wanted to emphasize the material or the lesson. There's a sense in the spiritual life where God, every once in a while in the Christian life, will cause us to go through a same test. Maybe a test He had given us before. He's going to do it to us again, maybe at a different time, at a different location. But it's the same thing. God does that sometimes. Why? Because God is doing some spiritual training in our lives. And you know, sometimes repeating things helps us to really get something, or God wants to emphasize something. Write down Ecclesiastes 3.15, that which hath been is now. That which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been. And that's just another way of saying God will repeat things in our life. He will repeat things. because He wants us to learn them very, very well. Now, we don't necessarily like taking the same spiritual exams over again. Someone wrote this, now I lay me down to rest. Tomorrow I have another test. If I should die before I wake, that's one less test I'll have to take. We don't necessarily like taking these, but this is part of our spiritual training. And so God patiently will bring upon us a trial or a test because God wants to emphasize the truth. God wants to train us in righteousness. God wants to see us excel spiritually. And if you look at the life of Abraham, you're going to see that happened certainly in the life of Abraham. He was going through some of the same things over and over again until he grew to the point in his spiritual life that he staggered not at the promises of God where he was strong in his faith. Now, with all that in mind, I want you to see four reasons here why God might cause us to go through maybe a similar spiritual time of testing. Maybe one that we've had before. And God will do it to us again. What is the Lord trying to do? Well, I look in this story here, and I see what God is doing in David's life, and I say, God is still doing those things with us as well. Here's the first reason. To dispel our fears. Just write that down. to conquer or dispel our fears. Now again, we saw in verse 1 that these Ziphites betrayed David. These were people of the tribe of Judah. They should have been loyal to David, but again, they betrayed him. Look in verse 2, then Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having 3,000 chosen men of Israel with him to seek David in the wilderness. So here Saul takes 3,000 of Israel's finest soldiers. This is the seal team, six or seven, whichever one is the best. This is the green berets that Saul takes with him. And he's out there after David. Now, David seems to be a step ahead here, because look in verse 4. David therefore sent out spies and understood that Saul was come and very deed. And David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched. And David beheld the place where Saul lay. And Abner the son of Narek, the captain of his host, and Saul lay in the trench. and the people pitched round about him. When it says trench there, it simply means inside the circle. You have to picture it like this. When they camped that night, Saul was in the middle of the camp, and all the soldiers were spread out around him. So he was in the center, and the Hebrew word really is the center of the circle, and the army was around him. And there's 3,000 soldiers, so remember that in your mind. So there's a lot of tents there. They're all spread out all around Saul, protecting him. David is able to see this. And notice what David does. I want you to see the courage and the boldness of David. Because, you know, when you go to chapter 24, what do we see about David? He's kind of hiding in a cave. He's cowering in fear. But he's not doing that here. He sees the camp of Saul. And notice what he says in verse 6. And David then answered David and said to Ahimelech, the Hittite, And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with you. You want to do what, David? He's talking to these two men, one by the name of Ahimelech. That's not the same Ahimelech as the priest that we saw earlier. It's a different guy, the Hittite. And these two men, and David says, you know, which one of you, it's singular, the verb in Hebrew, which one of you want to come with me? David wants to take one man with him down to Saul's camp. Interesting. Abishai said, I'll do it. This was David's cousin. His father's sister, Zeruiah, is the mother of Abishai. So this is David's cousin. And so those two together, they go down. Look at verse 7. So David and Abishai came to the people by night and beheld Saul lay sleeping within the trench. That is right there in the center of the camp. His spear stuck into the ground. Here's another interesting thing. In the Middle East encampment, the leader's tent was always recognized because just outside of his tent, he would stick the spear in the ground. And his spear was a way of knowing that this was the tent of the king. That's the way they camped back then. So they go into the camp. They see the center of the camp. There's Saul's tent. There's the sphere stuck in front of the tent. That's interesting that he wants to go down. Think about this again. And Geddy, he's hiding. He's not hiding here. He goes right down to the camp. You say, why would he do this? David is confronting his fear. He's not living in fear anymore. He's going right down to the tent. And he is unafraid. They're all asleep. What's happening here? This test that David is going through again is forcing him to confront his fears. And by the way, how could David just waltz into the camp there because he knew that God was his protection. He knew that. He had grown to understand that. In fact, look at verse number 12. It says, And so David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster, and they got them away. And no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awake, for they were all asleep. Watch this next phrase. Because a deep sleep from the Lord. What has fallen upon him? A deep sleep from the Lord. David knew that the Lord was his protection. Let me tell you something about you. God wants you to be unafraid of the enemy. He does not want you walking around in fear, cowering in fear, afraid of your circumstances, afraid of difficulties, afraid of people. God wants you to confront your fears, having faith, knowing that God is with you and that God will protect you. This is what's going on in the life of David. The Bible says God has not given us what? The spirit of fear. He doesn't want you walking around in fear. He wants you overcoming your fears. And by the way, later on, David will write Psalm 54 after this event, and in that, in verse 4, he says, Behold, God is my Helper. He knew that the Lord was his Helper. There's a second thing that I see here in this story. God will allow us to go through a trial or a test again to dispel all of our fears, so that we learn to walk in and encourage, but secondly, to deepen our faith. Because notice what happens here in verse 8. Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thy hand." Now you have to imagine, they're whispering here, and actually, I don't want to give you all the technicalities, but the Hebrew has that sense of it. They're whispering back and forth, obviously. They're in the camp, and Abishai whispers, you know, the Lord has delivered thine enemy into thy hand this day. Now, therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with a spear, even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him a second time. I like this guy. He says, you know, it's only going to take one blow here. I'm not going to just keep stabbing him, David. Just let me just add on this one strike of the spear, and it'll be done. Now, again, this is similar, because the last time in the cave of Ein Gedi, the men were encouraging David to take the life of Saul. And there was a sense in which David was tempted to do that. He came to the point of, maybe I should. And he even cut off a part of Saul's robe. But what does the Bible say? You remember in that last narrative that David's conscience bothered him about that. because he was genuinely tempted to do that. But there's something different here about David now as he answers this request. Because David now has grown. Notice his response. In verse 9, David said to Abishai, destroy him not, for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? The key to this, and I think this is a key verse, and don't read over too quickly, look in verse 10. David said, furthermore, as the Lord liveth. Now he's speaking with confidence here as the Lord lives on the life of God Yahweh. I know this as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall what might him. or his day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle and perish." What is David saying there? I have learned that God knows how to take care of these things. There's more of a confidence here with David. And what we're really seeing here, and I think this is part of the writer's purpose by comparing these two narratives, where on the first time David was somewhat tempted, on this time there's no temptation at all. He speaks with total confidence. He knows that it is better to place things in God's hands and trust the Lord and wait upon the Lord. He knows that. Where did he learn that? Well, in chapter 25, he met a guy by the name of Nabal. Remember, David went out to kill him. And who interceded or interrupted him? I should say, Abigail. Remember, she said, don't do this. Let the Lord take care of this. And what happened to Nabal later on? The Bible says the Lord took his life. And David learned from that. You know, you can't take these matters into your own hands. And by the way, also, you can't run from your trials. While David was running from Saul, guess who he ran into? A Nabal. If you're trying to run away from your trials, you know what? Your trials will be waiting for you when you run somewhere else. It might not be Saul, but it'll be someone Saul-like, Nabal. You know, sometimes pastors, they leave the church because they want to get away from certain people, and you know what they'll find? Those same people waiting in the next church. They might not be the same names, but they're the same people. It might not be Saul, but it'll be Nabal waiting there for you. And David has learned, he's grown in his faith, that, you know, I need to put these matters in God's hands. I will not touch the Lord's anointed God. will take care of him. And so David grows in his confidence. Now, let me just quote you what a man by the name of Dale Ralph David. He has a wonderful commentary on First Samuel. He says this, quote, Here is the same patience and restraint as in chapter 24, but it has a deeper patience, a more informed restraint. David has learned something from his fiasco with Nabal, and I think that is so very true. He has grown in his faith. He has deepened in his faith. And God is obviously training David and making him the man that he wants to be. So why would God allow you to go through a similar or same set of circumstances or a trial or a test? Because you know what? God's doing that work of deepening all of our faith. God's not done with any of us yet. He's continuing to deepen our faith even more. And so God will say, OK, Jerry, you have to go through this again. Well, I already went through this once, Lord. Yeah, I know. But we're going to go through this again, because you need to deepen your faith a little bit more here. There's still some lessons that you need to learn. Here's number three. To dispel our fears, to deepen our faith, but also write down number three, to demonstrate our faithfulness. You know, sometimes God, when he puts us through a trial again, it may be for the benefit of those around us. It might be because God says, you know what, I want to put you on display to let other people see things about you that they don't know about you. And by doing that, it will encourage them. You see, now remember, David is going to have to be the king of Israel. And here are these very soldiers of Israel. What are they doing? They're trying to hunt him down, and they're trying to kill David. Why? Because they think David is a scoundrel. They think David is someone who's trying to kill Saul. They think David is a disloyal servant, that he had some kind of agenda, that he's been out there trying to get people to support him so that he can overthrow the real king. And so they have all these rumors, all these things going on about David. But you know what? None of those people really know the man that God knows. And what God has to do is God has to put David's character on display for all of them, because, you know, David's got to leave them one day and they need to know what kind of man he is. And so this whole trial accomplishes this purpose. Again, what happened at Getty was private. What happens here? It's going to be very public because notice what happens. Look down in verse 13. Then David went over to the other side. stood on the top of the hill of far off a great space between them and David cried to the people and to Abner, the son of their saying, answer thou not Abner? Then Abner answered and said, who art thou that crieth to the king? And David said to Abner, art not thou a valiant man? And who is like to thee in Israel? Wherefore then has thou not kept thy lord the king? For there came one of the people in to destroy the king, thy Lord. The thing is not good that thou hast done, as the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruise of water that was at his bolster. So what happens? David and Abishai, they sneak into camp, they take his spear, Now, the spear was on the outside of the tent. I think perhaps the water jug was maybe on the inside, so they go even right on the inside of the tent. They take it, and they go back to a safe distance upon the hill at that place called Hekilah, and David begins to cry out, Hey, Abner, wake up! Abner, aren't you the one that's supposed to guard the king? And what is he doing here now? He's taunting Abner. He's making fun of him. Now, while David is crying out, you get the idea from the text that all of the soldiers wake up, because in several places it says that he cries to all the people, that is, all the soldiers that are there. So he's crying out, and Abner wakes up. Who is this that would dare disturb the king's sleep? And all the soldiers now are aroused. They're wondering what's going on. And now they're hearing this conversation that takes place between David and Abner. And David is really poking fun at Abner. Man, you're the man, Abner. What a great guard you are. You were asleep. And one of the soldiers from here went in and took the spear and Saul's water jug. And what you did, you're worthy of death. You have not kept your master. In fact, back in these days, when a century went to sleep, That was a crime that was punishable by death. And here is Abner, supposedly the mighty general of this elite group of soldiers. And by the way, it's plural here in the Hebrew, so David's not just casting an accusation against Abner, but against all the soldiers. Hey, all of you mighty men, you're asleep and you left your king unguarded. You're worthy of death. And then he kind of taunts him and says, hey, do me a favor, Abner. This is the Harmon paraphrase here. Do me a favor, Abner, see if you can find Saul's spear. Oh, you can't find it? You know why? It's right here. We have it. We have his spear, which proves what? That David was close enough to kill Saul. He could take his life. Now again, who's listening? Three thousand soldiers. These are the same people who had believed in their mind that David was some bad guy, some outlaw, trying to kill Saul, trying to take over the kingdom. That was the report that they had received. And now they're seeing for the first time that, guess what? That's not the kind of person that David is. If he wanted to do it, this was his opportunity to do it. And he didn't do it. So, this is making Saul look awful bad. This is making David look awful good. And then Saul enters. Saul wakes up in verse 17. And Saul knew David's voice and said, Is this the voice of my son David? This cracks me up. Oh, my son, David. You have to kill me. You want to call me my son, David? Oh, is this my son, David? And David said, Is my voice my Lord, O King? Now, notice David is very respectful. He calls him, my Lord. He calls himself his servant. And then David is very logical in his argument in verse 19. Now, therefore, I pray thee, my Lord, the king, hear the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred thee against me, let him accept an offering. But if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord, for they have driven me out of this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go serve other gods." In other words, what's he saying here? Using great logic. Look, there's only one or two reasons why you're still after me. Either God has caused you to come after me because I've sinned against God, or man. Now, if I've sinned against God and you're on a mission for God because I've sinned, then let me make an offering to the Lord. I'll confess my sin. I'll repent. If you're on a mission for God to kill me, I'll repent of it. But if men have stirred you up, if others have told lies about me and rumors about me, and they're causing you to come after me, then let them be a curse, because these men have driven me then away from the inheritance of the Lord. That is, I'm out here in a foreign land, I'm not close to where I can worship God. It's as if they said to me, just go and worship other gods, because I'm out of Jerusalem, I'm out of the Holy Land, I'm away from my family, and what they are doing to me is wrong. And so it's either God or man, but whatever, I will do what is right. Look at verse 20. Now, therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord. That is, away from the Lord. We could say, don't kill me here in this foreign land. That's away from the place of the Lord. where there is not the presence of God. The Jews believed that God's presence was there at the tabernacle in the Lord's land, and David didn't want to die in a foreign land. And so he uses this logic. And notice Saul's response, verse 21. Then said Saul, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day, and behold, I have played the fool. and have erred exceedingly." Now, this is a monumental confession. You say, well, this is the same one he gave at En-Gedi. Yeah, I know. But again, there weren't 3,000 soldiers listening at En-Gedi. Here, Saul, before all these men, is confessing that he's the one who sinned, that he's the one who played the fool. God put David through this test because God was putting David's character on display before some key people around so that they could see that David was a faithful servant. David was a loyal servant. David had no animosity in his heart against Saul, none whatsoever. David was trying to do right before God. And what this does is this exalts the character of David. You know, every once in a while, God will put you in a trial, not necessarily because what God is trying to do in you, but what He's trying to do through you. It may be because your testimony and how you stand and your character will be the thing that God wants other people to see, so that they can be encouraged in their own faith. Whenever you go through a time of testing in your life, you always have to remember that other people are watching you. And what you do and what you say will have an impact on others around you. I think this was a key moment in David's life. I think this was a time when everyone began to reassess the kind of person that David was. It was God preparing David to be the king. And really, this was the beginning of the end for Saul because Saul, in this confession, basically was saying to those men, I've been lying, I've been deceiving, I'm the one who is the fool here. And really, it was a death blow, you could say, for Saul. Let me give you the last reason. God will allow us to go through trials again to dispel our fears, to deepen our faith, to demonstrate our faithfulness. But here's the last thing, to disarm our foes. to disarm our foes. There's one other thing here in this story that's interesting to me. Look at verse 22. Notice how now Saul has given this speech, but notice how David answers in verse 22. And David answered and said, Behold, the king's spear and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. And the Lord rendered to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord delivered thee into my hand today, but I will not stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointing." So David just said, here's the king's spear. And I think this is what's being emphasized in here, that David now has Saul's spear. Now remember, this is the spear that Saul used to try to kill David, to try to pin him against the wall. This is the spear that Saul always had with him. You read other narratives, sometimes you get the sense that he used this spear almost as a scepter. He always had it there. This was always a source of intimidation, of fear to those that were around Saul. He always had that spear. And as you walk by, you're always wondering, what's he going to do with that thing? And this is the spear that was taken, and now it's in David's hands. And you know what? You get the sense here that Saul now, his weapon is gone. He's powerless. He's like a lion that has no teeth now and declawed. He's like the snake that has no fangs. He can't hurt. David has taken the spear. And I think that's symbolic there for the fact that the Lord has protected David and He's made Saul vulnerable. The Lord has defeated David's enemy right before him and delivered the spear into David's hand. You know what the Lord does for us? defeats our foes, and then he reminds us of the victory that he's given us. And I think sometimes through trials, he uses that trial to remind us of that very thing. Do you realize that you have been given the victory? that the Lord Jesus Christ has taken away Satan's spear. Because many years ago, a greater son of David came into this wilderness. He went into an enemy camp. He took the spear, that source of intimidation that Satan uses against people. And you know what that spear is? The Bible calls it in Hebrews, the fear of death. That's what Satan uses to try to intimidate people. The fear of death. And Jesus took that spear away from Satan. And now, He gives us the victory. And He says, I'm going to give this weapon that was used against you, I'm going to give it to you now. You are victorious. I have defeated your foes. And we need to be reminded of that. Beloved, you are victorious because of what Jesus Christ has done. And God wants to remind you constantly. You know why? Because we often forget that. You have the victory. In fact, the Bible says that you are more than conquerors. The Greek word there, conqueror, in the normal Greek word is Nikeo, where we get the word Nike. But that wasn't enough. Paul didn't say you were conquerors because that doesn't cover it. You're more than conquerors. You're hyper-Nikeo. You're hyper-victors. You're hyper-conquerors. You're super-conquerors, literally. You're not just victorious. You're more than victorious. Why? Because of Jesus Christ. And David is reminded in this that God has defeated his enemy, that God has given him the victory. And David takes that victory. He understands it. And you know, it's interesting how he responds here. He says, you know what? I'm going to give this back to you. I'm going to put it back in your hands. And I'm going to let the Lord judge between you and me. He's walking in total faith now. He says, let the Lord judge who is righteous and who is faithful. In other words, you're going to reap what you have sown. That's the point that he's making there. He's reminded of the great victory and that's what God wants to do for all of us here tonight. Let's bow for prayer. We're out of time tonight. Let me just ask you with your heads bowed and eyes closed. Is the Lord kind of bringing you through a trial? And it seems like, man, I've been here before. I'm going to go through this again. And why is God doing this? He's doing a deepening work. He's doing more in your life. He's doing things that sometimes we can't even see. These are a few things. He might be just using your example to demonstrate your character to others, to encourage other believers. Or perhaps He's just deepening you, your faith, your walk, your trust in Him. Or perhaps there's some fear in your life. You know, the Lord wants you to walk so that you don't fear anymore. So you have absolute, total confidence in Him. He wants to disarm your foes. Maybe there's some enemies that you have been running from. And the Lord wants you to realize that you are victorious in Christ. He's given you the victory. Friend, let these things sink into your heart tonight. And if you're here tonight and you just need to pray and say, Lord, teach me these things. Do that deeper work in my life. Teach me, Lord, to walk in faith and not in fear. Is that your prayer tonight? God, pray for me. That's my desire. Bless You, Father. Lord, thank You again for Your Word and how it helps us, Lord. I pray it will help your people tonight, Lord, that may be going through a trial time of testing. Lord, let it strengthen them. Let them lay hold of these things, Lord, so that the work that you're doing in them would be a deepening work, a demonstrating work where we can see their growth, their profiting appears to all because of what you're doing. Father, give your people the grace, the wisdom, the patience, the faith to embrace and to endure whatever, Lord, you and your providence place upon us. And Lord, we pray this for your glory's sake. We pray it in Jesus' precious and matchless name. Amen.