Reading this afternoon, 1 Samuel chapter 23, we're going to begin reading at verse 1. This is the Word of God. Now they told David, behold, the Philistines are fighting against Caleb and are robbing the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, go attack the Philistines and save Calah. But David's men said to him, behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more than if we go to Calah against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, arise, go down to Calah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand. And David and his men went to Calah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Calah. Just parenthetically now, There is something I forgot to say before we began this reading There is a word that's going to appear in this text in chapter 23 and chapter 4 again and again and again It's the hebrew word yad, which is translated in english as hand So saul's hand david's hand your hand his hand the lord's hand And the question the text is going to be asking you to figure out is, whose hand is everything and everyone really in? Now close parentheses. We'll begin again at verse six. When Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, had fled to David to Teukela, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. Now, it was told Saul that David had come to Caela, and Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars. And Saul summoned all the people to war to go down to Caela to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him, and he said to Abitur the priest, bring the ephod here. Then David said, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Calah to destroy this city on my account. Will the men of Calah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant. And the Lord said, he will come down. Then David said, will the men of Calah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, they will surrender you. And David and his men, who were about 600, arose and departed from Calah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Calah, he gave up the expedition. And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day. But God did not give him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul, my father, also knows this. And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home. Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hequila, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand. And Saul said, May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me. Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning. See, therefore, and take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah. And they arose and went to Ziph, a head of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Ma'an, in the Arabah, to the south of Jeshimun. And Saul and his men went to seek him, and David was told, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Ma'an. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Ma'an. Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul, as Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. A messenger came to Saul saying, hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, that place was called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi." We'll take just a moment now and we'll sing together from the 54th Psalm, number 54, all the verses. But before we do, I'd like to read to you the title of Psalm 54, and you'll see why it is that we're singing it now. The title reads as follows, to the choir master, with stringed instruments, a mesquile of David, that's a song of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, is not David hiding among us? Psalm 54 records how David responds to that betrayal. Let's stand and sing number 54. To 1 Samuel 24. David has written that song, perhaps he's gone through the wilderness singing that song, I am in your hands, you hold me up, you will repay them. We come to 1 Samuel chapter 24. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat's rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way where there is a cave. And Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. The men of David said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand and you shall do to him as it seems good to you. Then David arose and stealthily cut off the corner of Saul's robe. And afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And he said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing that he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my lord, the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks your harm? Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the King of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea. May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, is this your voice my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swore this to Saul. And Saul went home. but David and his men went up to the stronghold. This is the word of God. If you were to ask for a summary of the book of 1 Samuel, it would probably be something like this. God gives his people a king. God gives his people a king. And that king, of course, is King David. See, God had given his people a king before David, this man Saul. But Saul had proven to be a man who did not care a thing about the opinion of God, the commands of God, the precepts of God, the character of God. Saul didn't care. And so God, having seen Saul's rejection of him, had said to Saul, you have rejected me, I will reject you. And God had gone out, and for the sake of his own name and for the sake of his people's good, God had found another king. A man, God said, after God's own heart. A man whose heart reflected the heart of God. A man who loved the commands of God, the precepts of God, the character of God, the promises of God. But a good chunk of the book of Samuel deals with David's adventures in the wilderness. When I was younger, I used to always think of this portion of the book as a sort of Robin Hood section. David is constantly on the run. He's being chased by the king. The king wants to arrest him. The king wants to kill him. But David is always slipping out of his hands. But there's more to these chapters than just a very nice story about how, you know, the good guy wins and the bad guy loses. In the wilderness, where David is, David is being tested. He's being tested. And his character is being displayed. What actually lives in David's heart is being displayed for everyone to see, and it's being written down so that Israel, those under David's rule, those waiting for David's greater son, will know why God has put this king and this dynasty in place. And in these two chapters, we actually see something remarkable. We see a reflection, if you will, a foreshadowing, an adumbration, if you're a fan of big words, of another king who will also be tested in the wilderness, whose metal, whose God-likeness will be displayed through some testing that takes place in a dry and barren land. And, of course, I'm talking about the Lord Jesus. You remember how Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, and immediately upon coming out of the water, the Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove, and God the Father spoke from heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. And what happens immediately after that, immediately after? Well, that same Spirit that had descended on Jesus now drives Jesus into the wilderness. so that he might be tempted or tested by the devil. And the devil brings his tests, he brings his temptations, and they fall along the same general lines as the temptations that David faces in 1 Samuel 23 and 24. Satan comes to Jesus and he says, if you are the Son of God, Not saying you're not, but I'm not gonna say you are. But if you are the Son of God, if what God has spoken is true, tell these stones to become bread. If you're really the Son of God, prove it, prove it. And of course, Jesus responds to Satan, it is written. He's got nothing to prove to Satan. He says, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. Satan tempts Jesus to doubt God's word, Jesus responds by holding fast to God's promises, and we'll see the same thing with David. David is a man who might, at times, doubt God's Word, but he is, on the whole, guided by God's promises and, in the end, also strengthened by God's promises. The second temptation of Satan, Satan takes Jesus up onto the pinnacle of the temple, And he tells jesus if you are the son of god throw yourself down from the temple for it is written And now d uh satan quotes psalm 91 it is written He shall give his angels charge over you lest you strike your foot against the stone. They will bear you up on on their hands Satan says if you're the son of god prove it Prove it show show all of israel that you are god's son that you are god's special king if you really are And Jesus responds to Satan, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Satan pushes Jesus to test God's providence, but Jesus, in reliance on God's providence, refuses to fall for it. We see something similar with David. And then thirdly, Satan again comes to Jesus, and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world in an instant, and he says, all of these I will give to you if you bow down and worship me. Well, that is a very tempting shortcut. See, Jesus came to earth to win a kingdom. He came to earth to do his work so that at the end of his work he might say, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And here, right at the very beginning of his ministry, Satan is saying, you know what? I'll give all that to you if you just bow down and worship me. But Jesus refuses Satan's shortcut. And we see David in chapter 24 doing much the same thing. God's King endures temptation by relying wholly on God and His Word, showing that He is indeed the Deuteronomy 17 King. The king whose heart is formed by the will of God, the word of God, the promises of God, a king who lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The question really is, in chapters 23 and 24, will David trust God's word and will he trust God's hand? Well, the first test The first test comes in the first few verses of chapter 23. A city called Calah is under attack. It's probably the late spring or early summer of the year. The harvest has been taken in and the grains now being processed. And often during this time of the year, nations would go to war against other nations so that they could feed their cows the other nation's grain. It sounds rather strange to us, but if you know the difference between grass-fed, exclusively grass-fed beef, and grass-fed beef that's also been fed a little bit of grain, you know why the Philistines were in Calah. The Philistines are attacking Cala, they are robbing the threshing floors, and they would have brought their entire herds of cattle along so their cattle could come along and munch on the grain and go back to Philistia fattened. Cala was a city that was rather close to Philistine territory, so it was always in danger of these sorts of attacks. And you might think, well, Israel's got a king. Israel's got a king, so that king should do king things. Israel's got King Saul, a king who was set aside by God, anointed by God, set aside as Israel's king exclusively for the purpose of attacking Philistia and defending Israel from the Philistines. But Saul's not doing that. Saul's not doing that, and so David inquires of the Lord, while Saul's not doing his job, is it time for me to step up? Shall I go and attack these Philistines? And he likely asks Gad the prophet, who's with him, what is the Lord telling me here? What should I do? And the Lord says to David, he says, go and attack the Philistines and save Caleb. David's got his command, revelation has been provided to him. But David's men aren't so sure. They're not so sure. See, David and his men are in the wilderness of Judah, a place where nobody lives. It's rather safe for them to be there. The king of Israel wants their heads. He wants them all dead. So the desert's a good place to be. The king of Israel's gonna have a hard time finding them there. But God is now saying, go from that desert area, from that wilderness, and go to this densely populated area where everybody's gonna see you, where you're gonna be vulnerable. And David's men, of course, are afraid. And they said, we're afraid here in Judah, in the wilderness. How much more if we go up to Calah against the armies of the Philistines? And David goes to the Lord again, just to make sure. Because it is a fearsome thing to go with a small band of men up against the armies of the Philistines. And the Lord answered him, now with more clarity, Arise, go down to Caela, for I will give the Philistines into your hand. The Lord is basically saying here, the Philistines, yeah, they're a fearsome nation, but the nations are a drop in the bucket. They're the dust on the scales. The hearts of kings are held like water in my hands. The Philistines are in my hand. I will give them into your hand. And so David goes. They rise and they fight with the Philistines. And instead of the Philistines' livestock being brought back to Philistia with full bellies, The livestock of the Philistines now belong to Israel. So David saved the inhabitants of Cala, and you'd think, well, now Cala's got to love him. The city of Cala has got to love David. He's just saved them. But we all know human nature better than that. People never act quite the way they should act. It was told Saul that David had come down to Calah, and Saul said, God has given him into my hand, for he's shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars. And Saul summons all of Israel to war, not against the Philistines, like they should have been, but against David. And David hears what Saul's doing. He hears how he's mustering all the legions, all the armies of Israel. And David, again, inquires of the Lord. Now, probably not by Gad the prophet, but by Urim and Thummim. Now, those are some $5 words. The Urim and the Thummim was kind of like a way of determining, well, it was a God-ordained way of determining what God's will was. prevailing theory, because the Word of God does not describe what they are, but the prevailing theory is that within the chest piece of the high priest, part of his uniform, there was a small bag, and in that bag there were two small pebbles, one of them of one color, one of them of another color. Now, these two pebbles, they felt the same. And when people inquired of the Lord, they would ask a yes or no question, And they would say, if yes, give Urim, if no, give Thummim. And the priest would put his hand into the bag and he would pull one out, either Urim or Thummim. It's kind of like flipping a coin. But this is a divinely ordained coin flip, if you will. David asks the priest, bring the ephod here, bring the Urim and Thummim here. And David prays to the Lord, O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has heard that Saul seeks to come down to Caela to destroy the city on my account. Now his question, will the men of Caela surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant. And the Lord said he will come down. And David said, well, will the men of Calah, I've just saved them. I've just saved them from the Philistines. I've just saved their harvest. I've just given them all this Philistine livestock. Will these men of Calah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord again answers, they will surrender you. And David and his men, who were about 600 now, arose and departed from Calah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Calah, he gave up the expedition, and David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand. See, David receives an answer from God. David asks God for guidance, and God gives David that guidance, and immediately David is, okay, we've gotta do what God says. There was a bit of waffling the first time. David's men might have diverted him, but this time David hears the commands of God, he hears what God is saying, and he listens to God's promises. But David's relationship with God's Word is something that is continuing to develop. See, David's still in the wilderness. He's received many promises from God. He's been promised by God, in fact, that he's going to be king, and he's not yet seen that. He's been promised by God that he will be Israel's great champion, Israel's great king, and he hasn't seen any of that. And so you can imagine at this point that David is feeling rather discouraged. Saul, his father-in-law of all people, is chasing him, trying to kill him. This city of Canaan that David has just saved, was about to give him into Saul's hand to destroy him? You can imagine David's feeling quite low here. And in fact, our text strongly implies that David is feeling quite weak here. But what does God do? We've seen in verses one through 14 how God guides David by his promises, but in verses 15 through 18, we also see how God strengthens David by his promises. David is a weak man in the wilderness. He is exposed, he's in constant danger. Saul is constantly chasing after him. Saul seeks him every day, verse 14 says. Saul does not find him, Jonathan does. Jonathan finds him. And verse 16 says, Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. David is a man who loves God's Word, and he's got a friend here who loves God's Word all the same, who loves God's Word in the exact same way, and he's got a friend here who knows how to use God's Word. So what does Jonathan do when he comes to David? Does he just say, David, you're a strong man, you're a brave man, you're a great warrior, you'll make it through this? As you say, David, you're clever, you're resourceful, you've been a shepherd, you know how to live in the wilderness, you can make it through, you can endure until Saul is finally off the throne. No, no, no. Jonathan does nothing like that. He doesn't just strengthen David's hand, he strengthens David's hand in God by saying to him, do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you. Saul, my father, also knows this. What does Jonathan do? What does Jonathan do for his weak friend? He brings to him the strong, infallible promises of God. See, that is the source of a Christian's strength. That is the source of a Christian's strength. We are weak people, but God gives us strength according to His Word. And so there is a bit of application here. As Christians, we do have a responsibility to be Jonathans to one another. We need to be people who are familiar with the promises of God's Word. We need to be people who are familiar with the precepts of God's Word and the character of God as revealed in His Word. And when we see other brothers and sisters wavering, waffling, perhaps, in their faith, We must take that Word that we have taken in and we must bring it to them and apply it to their particular circumstances, to minister to them, to refresh them. This is a picture that Colossians gives of God's church. Christians are to be those who speak God's Word to one another. who speak to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, who say to each other, the world is saying this, but remember, remember, God says this, who say to each other, oh, you are weak, you're feeling weak, you're feeling horrible. You are weak, but guess what? Guess what God's Word says? It says that He is strong and that He is with you. We ought to be Jonathans to one another, knowing that the Christian life is long, And it's hard. And often it's one long slog through the wilderness. And that's where David still is. He's now in the wilderness of Ziph, at Horesh, on the hill of Hakkila, south of Jeshimun, places that we've got no familiarity with. In fact, we don't even know where all these places are, even if you crack open a Bible atlas. David's in dangerous country, he's in wilderness, he's in a desolate land, and the hits just keep coming. The Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "'Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh on the hill of Hakkila, which is south of Jeshima? Now come on down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender you into the king's hand.'" People that don't even know David. He calls them strangers in Psalm 54. Strangers seek his life. They seek the favor of the king, the apostate king, Saul, instead of the well-being of Israel as a nation. And they themselves turn against against David, and Saul responds in a rather puzzling way, puzzling if, again, you don't understand something about human nature. He says to the people of Ziph, may you be blessed by the Lord. Just as he had said in verse 7 of this same chapter, God has given him into my hands, Saul is horribly misreading providence. He's saying, oh, God is giving me an opportunity now. God is giving me an opportunity to come and destroy David, wipe him off the face of the earth. God is giving me an opportunity through these people of Ziph, just like He gave me an opportunity through the people of Calah to destroy David. Saul is horribly misreading Providence. So the Ziphites, they go back to their country, and they stay on the lookout for David so that they might somehow guide Saul to him to destroy him. And Saul and his men, they go out to seek him, verse 25, and David is told that Saul's gone out, so he goes down to the rock and lives in the wilderness of Ma'on. David finds a natural fortress, if you will, and lives there, a place where he should be safe. And when Saul hears that, he pursues even more after David in the wilderness of Ma'an. And David's over here on the one side of the mountain, and Saul's here on the other side of the mountain, and you've got this picture of Saul kind of in a pincer move, trying to surround David. His forces, his thousands and thousands of men are now surrounding David's little band of men. At the last moment, at the last moment, a messenger comes to Saul and says, hurry, come, stop chasing David. The Philistines, the Philistines have made a raid against the land. So Saul returns from pursuing after David and goes instead against the Philistines. Therefore, that place, it says, is called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of Ein Gedi. You've got this contrast here, two kings. You've got one that assumes the continued favor of God, though of course that has been denied him, King Saul, striking boldly ahead. And you've got this other king knowing the favor of God, knowing that he's on God's side, that he is God's anointed, fleeing from him. And you might think, well, this is not in character with David. It's the most famous story of David. It's David and Goliath, right? When David goes out against insurmountable odds and he conquers, he knocks that ten-foot giant down. And you remember the songs they sung of David. David has killed his tens of thousands. And you might think, well, shouldn't David be taking hold of naming and claiming verses like Deuteronomy 28 verse 7, your enemy shall come against you one way and they shall flee seven ways. Or Leviticus 26 verse 8, five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall chase 10,000 and your enemy shall fall before you by the sword. David could have read those words of God, he could have taken those promises and inappropriately applied them to himself in this situation. and said, well, I'm God's chosen king, God's got a responsibility to protect me, so I am going to go and fight against King Saul. He thinks that God has given me into his hand, but God's given him into my hand. David runs. He preserves his life because he will not test the Lord his God. Is it because David's men are inexperienced in fighting armies? No, no, of course not. The first half of the chapter was all about them fighting an army of Philistines that had come against Caleb. They were perfectly capable of doing this sort of thing, upheld by God. But David will not test God's providence. No, no, rather he will trust God's providence. He will trust that if he obeys God, God will do what God has promised. And God indeed does do exactly what He has promised, and He saves David from the hand of Saul by incredibly unexpected means. Not by sending lightning and striking Saul and his army dead. No, by using the Philistines that we've already established are in God's hands to distract Saul from David. And there, David escapes from the hand of Saul, because God, who's got the Philistines in His hand, has also got Saul in His hand and David in His hand. Now, finally, we come to the last temptation of God's King, the temptation to seize the crown in His own time, to seize His kingdom. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he resumes this chase of David. They tell Saul, hey Saul, David's in the wilderness of En Gedi. If you want him, go to En Gedi. And so Saul takes 3,000 chosen men, his 3,000 strongest, mightiest, most watchful warriors, you'd think, out of all Israel, and he goes to seek David. He takes his special forces. And he goes to seek David where he knows David can be found. But again, a peculiar providence of God. Saul is seeking David, but God brings Saul right into David's hands. He came to the sheepfolds by the way, and sheepfolds were often around caves. Caves are natural barns, if you will, natural places to live. And in this area around En Gedi, there were some massive caves. During the First World War, there was one cave in this area in which several thousand men were able to hide with all of their equipment and be safe from any kind of aerial scouting or bombardment. They were natural fortresses, natural refuges. And David and his 600 men are tucked in the back of one of these caves. And Saul comes into the cave to do what bears do in the woods. And he's vulnerable. He's vulnerable. The Hebrew literally says, it's a euphemism, it literally says Saul went into the cave to cover his feet. So he's there with his pants around his ankles, so to speak. He's vulnerable. He could not be more vulnerable. No longer surrounded by his men, no longer in a position of strength, but in a position of absolute vulnerability. And David's men, once more, Just like they had been the source of tempting at the beginning of chapter 23, now they come to Him again, and they say, David, David, here it is, your opportunity. You can take Him out now, and all Israel will rally behind you. They love you, David. You can be king this very day. The Lord said, didn't He? The Lord said that He would give you the kingdom. Here it is, here it is, take it, David. Providential opportunity. David has every possible rationale he could ever dream of to go up to Saul and kill Saul. He could say, well, you know, I'm Israel's true king. I'm Israel's true king, so I have a responsibility to put down every single rebel against my rule. And Saul, well, Saul's trying to kill me, so I should put him down. Saul is an enemy of God. Saul has ordered the mass destruction of God's priests. I've got the right to kill him. Saul is a man who hates the Lord. He cannot be the leader of God's people. He will lead them into sin. I've got every right to kill him. God has delivered him into my hands. Who am I to deny God what God wants? It's not easy for us to come up with a dozen more rationales for why David should kill Saul, because we're rather good at that, aren't we? We're rather good at giving ourselves rationales for taking shortcuts in accomplishing what we think is the will of God. We often take providence and bend it to be some kind of reflection of the the will of God for what we should do with our lives. So we meet the perfect person. Oh man, they're good looking, they've got a great character. God has put them right into our lap. And we think, well, I should go out with this person. Speaking now as a single person. But there's one problem. They're not a Christian. We try to convince ourselves, no, no, no, no, no, it's an opportunity. God has put them on my path. God has given them to me. I have a responsibility to carry out some kind of evangelizing. And then there are so many other ways in which we take the providence of God as revelation from God. We take providential opportunities as commands. And we push God's process. We are unwilling to wait for God's timing. The Christian life, again, the Christian life is long, and it is hard, and it is a slog, like David's time in the wilderness. So we're always looking for shortcuts. And when a book comes out promising, hey, these are five steps to a vital Christian life, ten steps to achieving the marriage you always dreamed of. Those things grab our attention because we like shortcuts. We like knowing exactly what to do, when to do it, regardless of what God says. What does David do when presented with this shortcut to the throne? Well, David, first of all, rises and quietly creeps up behind Saul while Saul's doing his business. and he cuts off a little corner of Saul's robe. He's literally within striking distance. He could take Saul's life, but instead all he takes is a little piece of Saul's robe. Verse five, and isn't this incredible? Afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. What a tender conscience he has. What a tender conscience. But of course, this is not just about taking something that belongs to Saul. David's not just conscience stricken because of that. You remember the last time a part of a robe was given to someone, right? When Samuel had said to Saul the last time, you will not see my face again. When he had said, I am leaving, you no longer have God's favor. I am not going to go with you. I'm not going to show God's favor to you. Saul had grabbed at Samuel's robe. And Samuel had kept walking, and the section of Samuel's robe had torn off, and Samuel whirled around and said to Saul, in this way, God has torn the kingdom away from you. Well, David recognizes what it is that he's doing. He recognizes that what he's doing is not necessarily appropriate in the situation, kind of rubbing the promises of God, the threats of God in Saul's face. So David's heart strikes him. And he says to his men, once again, I will not, and you will not, we will not put out our hand against Saul because he is the Lord's anointed. God has anointed him, we may not take him down. So David does not push God's process, but on the contrary, he waits on God's process. Because Saul leaves the cave, and what does David do? He doesn't stay where it's safe, no, he runs out of the cave as well. And he says, my Lord the King, with a little corner of Saul's robe in his hand. Saul looks behind and David bows down with his face to the ground. This is unbelievable. The respect that David still has for King Saul. A model perhaps for us for how to live with unjust kings and rulers while awaiting the return of the Lord Jesus. But David goes to King Saul and he says to Saul, why are you listening to all these rumors swirling around that I'm out to get you, that I want your throne, that I'm trying to kill you? Why are you listening to those rumors? They are unfounded, they are untrue. There were some men back in the cave where I've got a small army saying, hey, now is the time, take the opportunity, strike him down. And I said, no, I can't do that, he's the Lord's anointed. And then as proof, David holds up the corner of Saul's robe and says, you're missing a piece of your robe there, Saul, and I've got it right here. Here's the proof. I'm not against you. I am not against you, and I will not raise my hand against you. I am innocent of all these charges they're bringing up against me. Then he says something more than that. Not just, I am guilty, I am guiltless, but he also says, he doesn't deny, he says, you are guilty, but I'm not the one to take vengeance on you. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. And then he points out to Saul how ridiculous this task of Saul's is. He's wasting Israel's resources. He's trying to swat a mosquito with a shotgun. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? A dead dog, a flea, that's what I am. May the Lord therefore be judge and may He give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand. David does not push God's process, but he tells his men and he tells Saul that he is going to wait for God's process. He's going to wait for God's process. And Saul hears what David says, and Saul weeps. He weeps. Not necessarily because his heart has been changed. Really, he's chasing after David again in chapter 26. Not because his heart has been changed, but because his heart has been struck by the righteousness of David. The God-likeness of David. You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. You've declared this day how you've dealt well with me. in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, that is, if a man, according to the flesh, finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? No, of course not. It's contrary to human nature. You shall love your neighbors and hate your enemies. That's the way the world works. But you've done what no natural man does. So may the Lord reward you, Saul says, with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know, and Saul repeats what Jonathan had said in chapter 23, I know that you shall surely be king. and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. And then he asks David, show the same mercy to my descendants that you have now showed to me. And David swears, I will do this. And Saul went home, but David, David did not go with him. David and his men remain in the wilderness. They remain in the wilderness, where David will continue to wait on the Lord. I told you at the beginning of this sermon that 1 Samuel 23 and 24 are a kind of test, a kind of demonstration that David really is the Deuteronomy 17 king that God's people needs. He's tempted to doubt God's Word, but David is guided by God's promises and strengthened by God's promises. He's tempted to push God's providence, but he does not test God's providence, he trusts God's providence. He's tempted to seize the crown in his own time, but he will not push God's process, but he waits on God's process. And verses, chapters 23 and 24 are the author of 1 Samuel's argument, yes, David is the exact kind of king that we need. And yet you see there are cracks in David's character, aren't there? When David hears the word of God at the beginning of chapter 23, he has to go back and say, are you sure? Are you really sure? Chapter 24, David will not attack Saul himself, but he does cut off a corner of Saul's robe. This sort of pictorial representation of the fact that the kingship is going to belong to him. There are cracks in David's character. Is he a righteous man, as Saul says? Yes, most certainly. But in the cracks of David's character, we see that someone else needs to come to be Israel and the church's perfect king, not simply a very good king, a righteous king, but a perfect king, a holy king. See, where David did well, you understand Christ did supremely well. And therefore, Christ is fit to be our King. According to the standard of Deuteronomy 17, Christ is fit to be our King, because He is a man guided by God's promises, trusting God's providence, waiting on God's process. And Christ did this not only in one episode of His life where He was tempted by the devil for a specific period of time, but Christ did this throughout His life. He waited. He was guided. He trusted. He suffered. He was homeless. And yet in everything, in everything, though he was tempted in all things as we ourselves are, yet he was without sin. And in Christ, we have not just this example of what a godly man looks like, but we have a man who is not only God's king, but also God's priest. God's fitting sacrifice. A man with perfect, absolutely perfect righteousness. And this matters, not just because he then has the character to be our king, but he has the purity to be our priest. See, when Jesus died on the cross, what was demanded by God was a perfect, spotless sacrifice. Someone who had obeyed God's law every single day of his life, who had never turned to the right or to the left, who had always looked to God, looked to God's providence, stood on God's promises, never pushed God's process. Someone who never took any shortcuts. And because Jesus was that perfect sacrifice, we, dearly beloved, we are also the recipients of that absolute perfection. We know, we know that we often forget God's promises. We know that we often straight-up reject God's promises, that we misread God's providence and push God's providence, that God's process moves too slowly for us, that we are not willing to wait for God's process. But in Christ, we find the righteousness that we cannot muster on our own. In Christ we find a spotless Lamb who has died for us and who has given us His righteousness. And so when God looks at us, those who are in Christ, those who have received Christ's righteousness, He does not see people who have rejected His Word, He does not see people who have pushed His providence. He does not see people who have rejected His process, His long process of sanctification, but He sees people who are perfectly righteous as Christ Himself was. You've been declared righteous if you are in Christ. You've been declared righteous. Now, the question really is, will you continue in the path laid out before you? Christ has given you white robes. Will you keep those robes white? Will you follow in his footsteps? Will you follow your king on the path he leads? Will you be guided by God's promises? Will you trust God's providence? Will you wait on God's process? Let's pray.