A Word about the Cost of Disobedience

 Today I want to share a word about the cost of disobedience as I comment on 1 Chronicles 10.

In our last episode, David learned to be the primary leader of a group of people by leaning on God. He learned when to go together with others as well as when he needed to go alone. He also learned when to advance and when to stand fast. Most importantly, he learned to lean on God and to seek His guidance before acting.

We have observed that the stories of David and Saul were interwoven in the last chapters of 1 Samuel. We could observe one act, and then the other respond, and we could see the bad decisions both made, as well as the good decisions that David made when he turned to God, something Saul never did. These same events were covered in 1 Chronicles, which summarizes the time in Israel’s history also covered by the two books of 1 and 2 Samuel. In this lesson we will see that 1 Chronicles 10 provides the reader a concise and dispassionate summary of how Saul’s story came to its predicted ending. As we read this passage, the high cost of disobedience is clearly revealed.

Motor Ship Herald of Free Enterprise was a British roll-on and roll-off ferry that carried people and motor vehicles between England and Belgium. It was designed with ramps at both ends of the vessel for rapid loading and discharge of vehicles. Those ramps were sealed by special doors that prevented the sea from flooding the ship. They were very effective, except when they were not closed properly. When Herald of Free Enterprise departed Belgium on March 6, 1987, the crewmember responsible for securing the bow door was asleep in his cabin. The officer who was responsible for checking that the doors were closed failed to do so. The ship’s captain, who was behind schedule and in a hurry, failed to follow standing procedures and he did not verify that his ship was ready for sea before leaving port. The result is that the ship flooded and sank, and almost two hundred lives were lost. As I said above, the cost of disobedience is high.  It matters not if the disobedience is through acts of commission, or by way of omission, Let’s begin with 1 Chronicles 10:1-6

The Philistines fought against Israel, and Israel’s men fled from them. Many were killed on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons and killed his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua. When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers spotted him and severely wounded him. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and torture me.” But his armor-bearer would not do it because he was terrified. Then Saul took his sword and fell on it. When his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his own sword and died. So Saul and his three sons died—his whole house died together. 

The Cost of Disobedience Includes Defeat and Death:

Humanity has perfected the art of “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.” So much so, that Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s triumphant message after the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813, “We have met the enemy and he is ours,” was transformed in the comic strip Pogo in 1970 to say, “We have met the enemy and he is us!” By this, Cartoonist Walt Kelly admitted that humanity is its own worst enemy. Sadly, the Bible agrees with him.

The Biblical litany of disobedience is almost endless. Adam and Eve disobeyed God first, of course, which laid the groundwork for Cain’s disobedience and murder of his brother, Abel. By the time that Noah was born, human disobedience was so blatant that God decided to start over by sending a flood to cleanse the world of human disobedience. Of course, what happened next was that Noah and his sons were also disobedient. This pattern continues throughout the Bible, even into the time of the New Testament church. The record of human disobedience in the Bible reminds me of a song by Robert Earl King, The Road Goes on Forever and the Party Never Ends. The title is ironic because the “party” included a barroom fight, drug dealing, murder of a police officer, running from the law, and finally a death sentence. It’s a rousing tune, let me tell you . . . but not very uplifting! The record of human disobedience is not uplifting, either.

In fact, the reason that Saul was ever made king over Israel and Judah in the first place was that God’s people found themselves addicted to sin, and they were caught up in a cycle of disobedience, calling on God for help, redemption and restoration, and then disobedience again. Paul, before Christ converted him on the road to Damascus, had experienced this same kind of defeat, which he described in Romans 7:18-24,

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this law: When I want to do what is good, evil is present with me. For in my inner self I delight in God’s law, but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

When we disobey God and His Word, and His Will, and His Way, we will face defeat and ultimately, we will face death. We know that the wage of sin is death, including spiritual death, mental death, emotional death, and physical death. This was the cost of disobedience for Saul, which we also continue to pay today for our own disobedience. Defeat and death are not the only cost of disobedience, however. Further costs for disobedience are revealed in 1 Chronicles 10: 7-10,

When all the men of Israel in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled. So the Philistines came and settled in them. The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons dead on Mount Gilboa. They stripped Saul, cut off his head, took his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to spread the good news to their idols and the people.  Then they put his armor in the temple of their gods and hung his skull in the temple of Dagon.

The Cost of Disobedience Includes Disintegration and Disgrace:

If defeat and death are the cost of disobedience which is paid by individuals, disintegration and disgrace are part of the cost paid corporately by God’s people for disobedience. When God’s people are disobedient, nothing good happens to the congregation, and nothing good happens to the reputation of God’s name and His cause.

In truth, what happened to Saul and the Children of Israel in 1 Chronicles 10 had its roots in the very founding of Israel and Judah, because the people were disobedient and they did not completely occupy the Promised Land. Two and a half tribes stayed on the wrong side of the Jordan River, and other tribes did not completely claim their inheritance from the heathen Canaanite nations. For example, the Tribe of Dan was the second largest tribe of Israel, but they failed to drive the Amorites out of the coastal plain, Instead, they, themselves, were forced out of their inheritance and migrated to a much smaller area. This not only divided Judah from the rest of Israel, but it also resulted in the Danites becoming disgruntled with their reduced circumstances, so they turned away from God and became known for idolatry.

Sadly, the Bible also tells us that the cost of disobedience was also paid by the church in the New Testament. The church in Corinth paid the price by suing one another in secular courts over matters that should have been settled within the church. Paul also called out this church because of their sexual immorality of a type that even pagans would not tolerate, for one of their members had taken his father’s wife. It is no wonder that in 1 Peter 2:11-12 that the apostle wrote,

Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.

When the writer of Hebrews said that we are “surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses” at the beginning of Hebrews 12, we usually assume that he is referring to the saints of God listed in the Roll Call of Faith in Hebrews 11, and he probably was. It is also true, that God’s people are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in schools, communities, and workplaces. When Christians are disobedient, their friends, neighbors, and coworkers observe their hypocrisy, and the name and cause of our God and His church are damaged.

As I wrote these lines, I was reminded of a church I know about from the time I served a local association of Baptist churches. The very first annual meeting of our association after I arrived there was held in that church’s sanctuary. It was compact, but beautiful, with fan-shaped seating for the congregation, and a well-designed and very useful balcony. It was a wonderful space for preaching the Word and worshipping God. I was chagrined to find out that the church had undergone a split just after their current pastor was installed, which was the third time that a conflict within the church had caused people to leave it. At that point they had less than twenty-five people in attendance, despite sitting at a well-travelled cross-roads in our county. I was told that everyone in that community knew the history of that church, and that was why the attendance was so low. This was only reinforced in my mind when the wife of the next pastor that the church called took a job at the only adult gift shop in the county. At that point I thought I had seen everything that could happen in a church ministry, but even today that situation still leaves me speechless. Next, let’s read 1 Chronicles 10:11-12,

When all Jabesh-gilead heard of everything the Philistines had done to Saul, all their brave men set out and retrieved the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh. They buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days.  

The Cost of Disobedience Includes Dismay:

When a ship goes down at sea, like in the case of Herald of Free Enterprise, or when someone gets lost in the Rocky Mountains, or in the aftermath of a terrorist attack like on 9/11/2001, first responders will launch a rescue operation. Many times, these are risky and dangerous, and they pose a threat to the life of the rescuers. This is why in the US Coast Guard there is a saying, when lives are in danger, “You have to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” Rescuers will put themselves at risk because they have hope that they can save a life or lives.

In almost all disasters, however, no matter how big or small, no matter how public or personal, at some point all hope of finding someone alive is lost. It is then that the rescue operation becomes a recovery operation. First responders no longer take as many risks as they might have before, and the optimistic hopefulness of the rescue phase switches to a more mournful thought of, “No man left behind.” This is where God’s people were after the death of their king. All that they could do now was to bury him and grieve their loss.

First, we should acknowledge that the acts of these brave men were honorable. Their community had been saved by Saul, and they owed him a debt of honor, which they paid him. They could do nothing about the way Saul had disobeyed God, and they could do nothing about the way Saul’s remains had been abused by the Philistines, but what they could do, they did. They honored the memory of what Saul had meant to them.

The major lesson we must learn from this is not about honoring our dead. What we must realize, is that when we are disobedient and when we fall, we hurt more than just ourselves. Our sin is like a rock thrown into a pool of water, causing ripples which endure far longer than the original splash. The law of Moses warned God’s people that the consequences of the sins of the parents are felt as far as the third and fourth generation of their children. Sin can be forgiven, but the dismaying consequences of disobedience will echo down through the ages.

One other lesson we can learn from this recovery operation is more personal. We must live with the consequences of our own disobedience, and that knowledge can cast a shadow over our lives. In the movie The Patriot, Benjamin Martin, the character played by Mel Gibson, had participated in a massacre of American Indians in the time before that covered by the film. When Martin’s own son was killed in a battle in the Revolutionary War he said, “I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost is more than I can bear.”  We know that Saul had been driven mad by his own regrets, and also that Judas ended his life, rather than face the dismay that he would have to live with after betraying Jesus. As the hymn says, sin leaves a crimson stain, and that stain is hard to live down, and also, it is hard to live with. Finally let’s read 1 Chronicles 10:13-14,

Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the Lord because he did not keep the Lord’s word. He even consulted a medium for guidance, but he did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

The Cost of Disobedience Includes Displacement:

In many ways, Saul’s story is a parallel of the story of the nation over which he was king. Saul, like Israel, had been chosen by God to perform a great mission for Him. Saul, like Israel, had been blessed by God to enable him to carry out that mission. Saul, like Israel, had turned his back on God, and he was disobedient to Him. Saul, like Israel, had refused to repent and return to God, and so he was rejected by Him.  Saul, like Israel, had the opportunity to serve God and to have his royal line be established. Saul, like Israel, threw that opportunity away.

Our God is an intentional God, and He will pursue His Will and His Way regardless of human failure. God had David displace Saul, and Saul’s line, and the line of David was established to rule physical Israel, and to become the line that established Jesus as the Savior and Lord of spiritual Israel, who are God’s people today. 

The original role of Israel was to be God’s agents of evangelism, bringing the peoples of the world to God and bringing God to the peoples of the world. Biblical Israel forfeited that privilege by her disobedience to God. She was displaced by the church, who are laborers together with God, with the mission of making disciples of all people.

Before we in the church become proud, and dismissive of Biblical Israel, we need to see two clear truths from the New Testament. The first is that the church is the Body of Christ in the world today, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We have God living inside our lives, something Biblical Israel never had. This very fact should keep us humble.

The second truth is that although God will not displace the church before the end times, He may very well displace individual churches, if they become disobedient.  God will not displace the preaching of the Gospel, but He may very well displace some preachers of the Gospel, if they, too, become disobedient. If God’s people want to love Him and His Son, they must remember what Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Or, phrased the other way, if you love Jesus, don’t be disobedient!

Conclusion:

As we close, you might want to say to me, “Wow, pastor. This was a depressing lesson.” And you would be correct. In my defense, I did entitle this series of lessons Royal Pains, so that was a clue that we had some less than pleasant ground to cover.  Still, I would not want to leave you without hope. And there is hope.  

In Romans 7, when Paul lamented, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” this wasn’t a question that echoed down through the ages like a shout into an empty canyon. No! Paul did not leave us hanging, for he quickly provided an answer, proclaiming, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.” 

As long as there is breath there is hope because of Jesus. Just because we have been disobedient before does not mean we have to continue to be disobedient. Commenting on the story of Cain and Abel, Pastor Charles Swindoll said that one lesson Cain should have learned was, “It’s never too late to begin doing the right thing.” Swindoll went on to comment, “And don’t miss the implied benefit: ‘If you do what is right, you will be fine.’”

God stands ready today to help us begin doing the right thing and avoid the cost of disobedience. Are we willing to let Him?

Every blessing,

Dr. Otsi Corbitt

A Word about Learning to Lead and Lean

Today I want to share a word about David learning to lead and lean as I comment on selected verses from 1 Samuel 22-25.

In our last episode, we saw that after Saul had plotted to kill him, David ran away to fight another day.  For David, this was a brand-new experience. He had never seen such anger and rejection before. Until now, everyone had recognized David for what he was, an obedient servant of God, and of those whom God had placed over him. For David, this was a shocking and unsettling situation. He panicked, and instead of turning to God, he relied upon his own skills and judgment.   

There is nothing like good judgment in a leader, but sadly, David often exercised nothing like good judgment. David was human and flawed. He turned to deception and violence to survive, and he was also arrogant and lustful. As David tried to escape Saul, he became just like him in many ways. In the end, he did turn back to God, but not before making many mistakes.

All that said, God used David’s time on the run to educate him and to teach him to be a leader of God’s people. Tal Bonham, former executive director of the Ohio Baptist Convention once joked that, “Well digging is the only job where you start at the top.”  David learned how to lead God’s people while leaning on God’s will and way in the school of hard knocks.  David had many natural skills, and he also had gifts given to him through his anointing from God. Still, having tools is not the same as knowing how to use them. That’s what God taught David, beginning in 1 Samuel 22:1-5,

So David left Gath and took refuge in the cave of Adullam. When David’s brothers and his father’s whole family heard, they went down and joined him there. In addition, every man who was desperate, in debt, or discontented rallied around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him. From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab where he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Leave and return to the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

David Learned When To Go Together:

Leadership experts have embraced an old African proverb that says, If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." This is like the saying that “Many hands make light work.” Working in a group provides endurance and power that no one working alone has. 

A great example of the power of a group is the expedition to climb Mount Everest in 1953 that allowed Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay to make the first recorded successful summit of the world’s tallest mountain.  To put those two men at the top of the world took over four hundred people, including thirty-five Western climbers, twenty Sherpa guides, and three-hundred and sixty-two porters. Hillary and Norgay stood on the shoulders of hundreds of unknown people to get to the top.

Another case of the power of a group was the Manhattan Project of World War Two that produced the first nuclear bombs. In telling the story of this massive effort, popular media often will focus on two people, Dr. Robert Oppenheimer, and Major General Leslie Groves, most likely because both men were forceful and peculiar personalities and they make for interesting viewing. In reality, several hundred scientists were involved in multiple locations, and thousands of construction workers and factory workers were essential to the task. The town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was founded to house many of those who labored in the darkness of secrecy in the effort to end World War Two with a literal bang.

So, then why don’t people always go together as opposed to going it alone? The people we go with are just like us; they are fallen and sinful and stubborn. The group that gathered around David were not the best and the brightest. They were not the hand-picked soldiers of Saul’s army that David had led into battle. These people were the least, the last, and the lost. And David was their leader, and he would learn to lean on God as he led this mob through the wilderness.

Of course, David and his motley band of followers are not alone in the Bible. Moses didn’t lead just a gang, but an entire nation into the promised land. The men Jesus called to be his twelve Disciples were mostly outcasts as well. The lesson we learn from all of these examples is that leadership is productive, but it is also difficult, and the leaders of God’s people must lean on Him to be successful. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 22:3-5,

From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab where he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay with you until I know what God will do for me.” So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Leave and return to the land of Judah.” So David left and went to the forest of Hereth.

David Learned When To Go Alone:

Even though there is power and endurance in going together, sometimes we must go alone. In this case, David took his parents to a place of refuge and he left them there. It was safer for them to be in Moab than it was to be chasing around the wilderness of Judah with David and his followers. Sometimes going alone is simply necessary.

An early example of going alone is the high priest on the Day of Atonement. Once a year the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies to sprinkle the blood of a sacrifice for the sins of God’s people. The only one who could do that was the high priest, and anyone else who entered there would die. This process, of course, was a model of what Jesus did for us on the Cross. Only Jesus could die for our sins, and only He could provide us salvation. Jesus had to do this alone, and blessedly for us, He did!

Another example of something we must do alone is to profess Christ as our Savior and to accept His sacrifice for our sins. One of the mistakes that the Jews made was that they believed that their heritage was what made the difference in their spiritual wellness. In their minds, the decisions made by someone’s ancestors in generations past still covered them as they lived frail and human lives in their current day. In Matthew 3:7-10, John the Baptist told them very directly that they were wrong and in no uncertain terms!

When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

God’s family has no grandchildren! Each of us, on our own, must decide to surrender to God and be saved through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is something we must do alone, as we learn to lean on Jesus.

Sometimes, the only way that God can communicate with us is when we are alone. Moses was herding Jethro’s sheep when God came to him in the burning bush. Elijah was alone when God appeared to him as the still small voice. Both Jonah, in the belly of the fish, and the Prodigal Son feeding the pigs, were alone when they finally came to their senses and turned to God. Jesus fasted alone in the desert with God before He was tempted by Satan. Some spiritual lessons are tailored for individuals to learn on their own. Self-paced learning is common today, but God already had that concept in place in His Kingdom, almost from the beginning!

One other thing we must do on our own is to repair our relationships. Jesus told His followers that if they were in conflict with someone, that they must leave their gifts at the altar and go be reconciled with that person. He outlined this process in Mathew 18:15-17,

“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you.”

Although others can become involved in this process, reconciliation begins with a lone individual taking an action by themselves. Sometimes we just have to go it alone, but even then, however, God is always with us! Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 23:1-14,

It was reported to David, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and raiding the threshing floors.” So David inquired of the Lord: “Should I launch an attack against these Philistines?” The Lord answered David, “Launch an attack against the Philistines and rescue Keilah.” But David’s men said to him, “Look, we’re afraid here in Judah; how much more if we go to Keilah against the Philistine forces!” Once again, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him, “Go at once to Keilah, for I will hand the Philistines over to you.” Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, drove their livestock away, and inflicted heavy losses on them. So David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah. Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, and he brought an ephod with him.  When it was reported to Saul that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with barred gates.” Then Saul summoned all the troops to go to war at Keilah and besiege David and his men. When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to the priest Abiathar, “Bring the ephod.” Then David said, “Lord God of Israel, your servant has reliable information that Saul intends to come to Keilah and destroy the town because of me. Will the citizens of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, please tell your servant.” The Lord answered, “He will come down.” Then David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?” “They will,” the Lord responded. So David and his men, numbering about six hundred, left Keilah at once and moved from place to place. When it was reported to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, he called off the expedition. David then stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him every day, but God did not hand David over to him.

David Learned When To Go Forward:

An old saying is, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” This may have come from Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In Chapter 6, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat for directions: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where—” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Our God is an intentional God. He is not aimless or random, or haphazard. From the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden, God has had a plan for the salvation of humanity, and for the redemption and the renewal of the world that our sin has spoiled. Even when the Children of Israel were wandering in the desert, God had a purpose; He needed to cleanse His people by allowing a faithless generation to die out. 

God’s plan is marching onward, and He wants us to have a part in that plan: first to be saved ourselves, and then to help others to be saved as well.  God is going somewhere and He wants us to come with Him. The problem we often have, however, is that God is spirit and His plans are spiritual plans. We can’t see a spirit, nor can we see a spiritual plan. God, of course, has a plan for that problem also. In James 1:5-7 we read,

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, being double-minded and unstable in all his ways. 

In 2016, billionaire investor Mark Cuban gave his Number One Rule of Investing, which was, “When you don’t know what to do, do nothing.”  This might be great advice for an investor, but I like the corollary as stated by Oprah Winfrey. She said, “When you don’t know what to do, do nothing. Get quiet so you can hear the still, small voice.” This is great spiritual advice, as long as the still small voice you listen for is God’s!

When it is time to act, turn to God, and He will tell you where and when to go, and what to do when you get there. He might also tell you to stay, as well. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 25:4-13,

While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep, so David sent ten young men instructing them, “Go up to Carmel, and when you come to Nabal, greet him[b] in my name. Then say this: ‘Long life to you, and peace to you, peace to your family, and peace to all that is yours. I hear that you are shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have on hand to your servants and to your son David.’” David’s young men went and said all these things to Nabal on David’s behalf, and they waited. Nabal asked them, “Who is David? Who is Jesse’s son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters. Am I supposed to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t know where they are from.” David’s young men retraced their steps. When they returned to him, they reported all these words. He said to his men, “All of you, put on your swords!” So each man put on his sword, and David also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed David while two hundred stayed with the supplies.

David Learned When To Stand Fast:

If it is important to know when to go forward, it is equally important to know when to stand fast. Sometimes we are like the Jolene of the famous song by Dolly Parten. In the song, the character represented by Parten begs Jolene not to take her man. She sings, “Please don’t take him just because you can.” Like Jolene, at times we do things just because we can, and without seeking God’s guidance and leadership. This is where David found himself in 1 Samuel 25.

David was learning to be a good leader, and like all good leaders, he thought it was a good idea to throw his troops a party. He also thought it was a good idea to reach out to Nabal for a donation. So far, so good, but when Nabal refused David by using offensive language, David fell back on his baser instincts. He had become too comfortable with violence, and he told his men to saddle-up, intending to lead them out on a mission of revenge and sheep rustling. No where in this process do we see David seeking God’s guidance about any of these plans. It was good for him that Abigail, Nabal’s wife, had a better head on her shoulders than either David or her husband. Not only did she bring David a gift, but she also brought him a word from God that prevented him from unnecessary bloodshed and regret. We can see David’s grateful response in 1 Samuel 25:32-34,

Then David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today! May your discernment be blessed, and may you be blessed. Today you kept me from participating in bloodshed and avenging myself by my own hand. Otherwise, as surely as the Lord God of Israel lives, who prevented me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, Nabal wouldn’t have had any males left by morning light.”

Too often God’s people make their own plans and then ask God to bless them. When we do, we are approaching things from back to front, instead of from front to back. We must seek God’s guidance first, because sometimes He wants us to stand fast instead of charging off into the darkness.

Conclusion:

As we close, you might be saying to yourself, “That’s nice for David, but I’m not a leader.” You may not be a leader of a gang of four hundred malcontents and misfits, but if you are a parent, you are a leader of your children. If you are a husband, God expects you to become the leader of your household. If you are a teacher, then you lead your students. If you are none of these, you are the leader of yourself. The lessons David learned apply to all of us in some way or the other, but the primary lesson is universal: we all must lean on God. He will not only uphold us, but He will also lead us into His rest as well! 

Every bl;essing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Human Error and Divine Forgiveness

Today I want to share a word about human error and divine forgiveness as I comment on selected verses from 1 Samuel 21-30.

In our last episode, we saw that Saul, instead of repenting, actually leaned into his sin. He went over to the dark side by feeding his rage, resulting in murder, obsession, witchcraft, and ultimately, paralyzing fear. All this time he was chasing David, trying to eliminate him as a threat to his rule and that of his son Jonathan. So, what was David doing during this time? David was running away to fight another day.

We can understand the timeline of the last chapters of I Samuel if we imagine them like a split-screen effect in a television show or in a motion picture. In one window of the screen, we are shown what one of the characters in the show is doing, while the actions of another is shown in the other window.  In our last chapter, we saw what Saul was doing in his window of the screen, and in this chapter, we see David‘s actions which happened simultaneously with Saul’s. 

For David, this was a brand-new experience. He had never seen such anger and rejection before. Until now, everyone had recognized David for what he was, and obedient servant of God, and of those whom God had placed over him. For David this was a shocking and unsettling situation. In the American south a common way to describe what David felt was, “He was like a calf, looking at a new gate.” Or maybe, “He was like a deer in the headlights.” 

In Scriptures that we have previously considered, David had expressed full confidence in God because when David needed His help God had provided it. In those circumstances, however, David had faced creatures and people whom he knew to be his enemies. In this case, however, David was being chased and threatened with destruction by his king, the one whom he willingly served. David was in a place where he’d never been before. How did he react? How would we react? 

Like David, we often choose dysfunctional ways to respond to these types of circumstances. In fact, David’s response is a great illustration of the saying by Alexander Pope, “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” Let’s begin by reading 1 Samuel 21:1-9,

David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was afraid to meet David, so he said to him, “Why are you alone and no one is with you?” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me a mission, but he told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about the mission I’m sending you on or what I have ordered you to do.’ I have stationed my young men at a certain place. Now what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”  The priest told him, “There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women.” David answered him, “I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men’s bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today.” So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, for there was no bread there except the Bread of the Presence that had been removed from the presence of the Lord. When the bread was removed, it had been replaced with warm bread. One of Saul’s servants, detained before the Lord, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul’s shepherds. David said to Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or sword on hand? I didn’t even bring my sword or my weapons since the king’s mission was urgent.” The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want to take it for yourself, then take it, for there isn’t another one here.” “There’s none like it!” David said. “Give it to me.”

David Erred Through Deception:

Almost immediately after he fled from Saul, David turned to a trusted spiritual advisor, the priest Ahimelech. From other Scriptures, we know that Ahimelech had sought God’s guidance for David on several occasions, and it was natural that David would turn to him for help in a time of need. Where David erred, and what I mean by erring is that David sinned, was that he lied to his priest and that he tricked him as well.

When Ahimelech saw David, he knew something was wrong, but just like what happens in every church every Sunday, when David’s pastor asked him how David was doing, he essentially told Ahimelech that he was fine, in this case because he was on a secret mission for King Saul. Not only didn’t he say that he was in trouble, but he also actually made up a false story. Remember, we don’t always have to say all that we know, but what we say must be the truth! 

David went on to tell further falsehoods. No evidence exists that he had any men or that anyone had purified themselves, despite what David promised Ahimelech. In addition, the bread that David ate had been dedicated to God, and David was arrogantly assuming that God wouldn’t mind if he disrespected the priests, the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and even God Himself. Also, the king’s mission was urgent, but it was to kill David, not to have David arm himself with Goliath’s sword.

In the end, Ahimelech believed David, someone who, up until now, had never told a lie. This cost Ahimelech and many others their lives, and all because David lied to him. What would have happened if David had been honest with Ahimelech can never be known, but what did happen showed that sometimes others can pay the price for our sins. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 21:10-14,

David fled that day from Saul’s presence and went to King Achish of Gath. But Achish’s servants said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Don’t they sing about him during their dances: Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands?” David took this to heart and became very afraid of King Achish of Gath, so he pretended to be insane in their presence. He acted like a madman around them, scribbling on the doors of the city gate and letting saliva run down his beard.  “Look! You can see the man is crazy,” Achish said to his servants. “Why did you bring him to me? Do I have such a shortage of crazy people that you brought this one to act crazy around me? Is this one going to come into my house?” 

David Erred Through Faithlessness:

We have seen how Saul went over to the dark side spiritually, now we see David going over to the dark side literally. Achish was a king of the Philistines, someone who was a sworn enemy of David’s people, and of David’s God. Now, David was turning to this heathen king for help.

Up until now, David had kept faith with his family, his king, his people, and his God. When faced with a situation that he’d never seen before, David decided that his best course of action was to fake being crazy, so that the enemy of his people would take him in. While the saying “any port in a storm” might be true for ships on the high seas, it is manifestly not true for God’s people. 

In taking this action, David was rejecting all that was good and holy, and righteous and just. Even then it didn’t work out for him, because Achish wanted nothing to do with an apparently crazy man who had killed many of his own countrymen in battle. Later, after David had realized his mistake, he wrote the 15th Psalm which says,

Lord, who can dwell in your tent? Who can live on your holy mountain? The one who lives blamelessly, practices righteousness, and acknowledges the truth in his heart who does not slander with his tongue, who does not harm his friend or discredit his neighbor, who despises the one rejected by the Lord but honors those who fear the Lord, who keeps his word whatever the cost, who does not lend his silver at interest or take a bribe against the innocent the one who does these things will never be shaken.

Trying to do God’s work, or even trying to survive, by using the means of the Devil is not only an error, but it is also a sinful lack of faith and faithfulness. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 24:1-7,

When Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the wilderness near En-gedi.” So Saul took three thousand of Israel’s fit young men and went to look for David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave, so they said to him, “Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’” Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “As the Lord is my witness, I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” With these words David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul.

David Erred Through Arrogance:

One obvious factor in David’s life was that he had skills. He was a talented musician and writer, and he was also an outstanding warrior with the endurance to complete an entire military campaign. Up to this point, everything that he had put his hand to had been a success. This record of achievement went to his head, and David became arrogant and he put aside his humility.

Being humble does not mean that you can’t have confidence in your abilities. The physical, mental, moral, and spiritual abilities we have, all come to us from the greatest source of all: God above. If God has called and equipped you for a task, humility requires that you attempt to accomplish it. 

On the other hand, when you become overconfident, and when you forget how you got to where you are, you begin to exhibit an ungodly and unseemly arrogance. This happened to the Children of Israel after the fall of Jericho. Not only had a man by the name of Achan kept some gold and silver from Jericho in violation of God’s commandments, but the Israelite soldiers came to believe that they had won the Battle of Jericho instead of God. Then they started free-lancing and decided to capture the small village of Ai. Confident in their own strength, the Israelites sent only a small force to Ai, but they were quickly defeated, with thirty-six men killed and the survivors running from their enemy.

David’s son Solomon would later write in Proverbs 16:18 that, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” We must always remember that as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:7, “So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” Our arrogance puts us on the thrones of our lives, and this is a serious error, and a sin. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 25:39-43,

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord who championed my cause against Nabal’s insults and restrained his servant from doing evil. The Lord brought Nabal’s evil deeds back on his own head.” Then David sent messengers to speak to Abigail about marrying him. When David’s servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David sent us to bring you to him as a wife.” She stood up, paid homage with her face to the ground, and said, “Here I am, your servant, a slave to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” Then Abigail got up quickly, and with her five female servants accompanying her, rode on the donkey following David’s messengers. And so she became his wife. David also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and the two of them became his wives. But Saul gave his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Palti son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

David Erred Through Lust:

In a previous episode, we saw how Samuel had twice offered David the chance to become his son-in-law, but David was reluctant. David was humble, at that time anyway, and he didn’t think that he was worthy to marry the king’s daughter. Later, after much persuasion, he did marry Saul’s daughter Michal, but he left her behind when he fled for his life.

It is interesting to note that in I Samuel 22, David had found a safe place for his father and mother with the king of Moab. However, he didn’t find a way to rescue Michal from Saul’s household. He left her there in Saul’s hands, and the king gave David’s wife to another man.  Later, when David was king and Michal was restored to him, she would come to despise David. It is easy to think that their relationship was spoiled years earlier when David ran off and left her.

Although at one time David was too humble to take one of Saul’s daughters to be his wife, he had now come to the point that he had no qualms about taking a wife. In fact, he took for himself two wives. It seems as if David had convinced himself that there wasn’t much sanctity in marriage after all. If one wife was good, then two or three must be better. Even a warrior on the run deserves a little comfort now and again, right?

It seems as if David looked on marriage the way that some people look at ice cream, wanting to enjoy the flavor of the month. Paul, in Ephesians 5:25-33 gives us a much different picture of how a husband ought to view marriage,

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

Let me be clear, what David was doing was common for the culture of his day. Any man who could afford to have multiple wives did, and even those who probably couldn’t afford them, like David, also did so. The fact that something is common in the surrounding culture does not make it wise or acceptable for God’s people to do that thing.

All of this looks bad, but sadly, it gets worse. Let’s read 1 Samuel 27:8-12,

David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. From ancient times they had been the inhabitants of the region through Shur as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he did not leave a single person alive, either man or woman, but he took flocks, herds, donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he came back to Achish, who inquired, “Where did you raid today?” David replied, “The south country of Judah,” “The south country of the Jerahmeelites,” or “The south country of the Kenites.” David did not let a man or woman live to be brought to Gath, for he said, “Or they will inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” This was David’s custom during the whole time he stayed in the Philistine territory. So Achish trusted David, thinking, “Since he has made himself repulsive to his people Israel, he will be my servant forever.”

David Erred Through Violence:

During my time as a military chaplain, I served with some troops who had been well-trained in the application of violence to accomplish a mission. Some had become comfortable with that idea, and they expressed that comfort with some pithy sayings like, “If someone is worth shooting once they are worth shooting twice.” Or “When it comes to shooting your enemy in close quarter battles, always give them ‘p’ for ‘plenty.’” Or the classic from the Cold War, “Nuke’em ‘til they glow, then shoot them in the dark.”

The passage from 1 Samuel 27 reveals to us that the little shepherd boy had now become a stone-cold killer. David had gotten far too comfortable with violence, and while his massacre of witnesses made great tactical sense, at least in the World War II German SS war crime sort of way, it is hard to see someone anointed by God killing innocent people. God’s people must not err by convincing themselves that sinful behavior, even for the right reasons, is righteous.

So far, it seems as if David was making all the same mistakes that Saul did. He was on a slippery slope to depravity and destruction, but before that happened, David, unlike Saul, turned to God. Let’s read 1 Samuel 30:1-8,

David and his men arrived in Ziklag on the third day. The Amalekites had raided the Negev and attacked and burned Ziklag. They also had kidnapped the women and everyone, in it from youngest to oldest. They had killed no one but had carried them off as they went on their way. When David and his men arrived at the town, they found it burned. Their wives, sons, and daughters had been kidnapped. David and the troops with him wept loudly until they had no strength left to weep. David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had also been kidnapped. David was in an extremely difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. David said to the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, “Bring me the ephod.” So Abiathar brought it to him and David asked the Lord, “Should I pursue these raiders? Will I overtake them?” The Lord replied to him, “Pursue them, for you will certainly overtake them and rescue the people.”

David Turned To The Lord:

In this passage we see the essential difference between David and Saul. Up to this point, both men had tried almost everything imaginable to win their mutual struggle. Sadly, nothing they had tried so far was successful, and most of it was downright sinful. 

These men remind me of the test pilots that author Tom Wolfe wrote about in his book, The Right Stuff. A recording of one such test pilot tells a sad tale. As his experimental airplane was crashing, he was heard on the radio, saying, “I’ve tried A! I’ve tried B! I’ve tried C! I’ve tried D! Tell me what else I can try!” Then came a “truly spooky click” on the radio that indicated the airplane had crashed. As test pilot Bob Hoover said, “If you’re faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.” Both David and Saul flew the crashing airplane of their lives as far as they could. One factor, however, was different between the two of them

Saul ultimately crashed, because he desperately tried all the wrong things. David almost followed suit, but at the last second, he turned to God. This both saved him and it redeemed the absolute mess he had been making of his life.

Conclusion:

As we close, let us return to the saying, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” If someone like David can make so many mistakes when faced with a new and threatening reality, so can we. David traveled a long and twisted path to come to the place where he gave up on his own efforts, and returned to his God, the One forgave him, and the One who helped him. Why don’t we skip to the end of the story in our own lives, and just turn to God? We will save ourselves from making many mistakes, only to wind up in the same place, seeking God and His forgiveness and guidance!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about Going Over to the Dark Side

 

Today I want to share a word about going over to the dark side as I comment on selected verses from 1 Samuel 20-28.

In our last episode, we saw that God had directed Samuel to anoint David to become king. We also saw that David’s destiny had changed, but by-and-large his day-to-day life had not changed. He was still his father Jesse’s youngest son, and David recognized that fact. He still tended his father’s sheep, and he still took lunch to his brothers.

For as long as Saul remained the king of Israel, David was a model of humble service to Saul, to the people of Israel, and to God. David did service without subversion both in the shadows and in the limelight, and he continued to serve God after he was driven off into the wilderness. David was content to be a model of humble service because Saul was still his king. 

Saul was still king, but he was struggling. He knew he had sinned against God, and that he had lost his destiny, and that his son Jonathan, with whom he was very close, would never become king over Israel. Even so, Saul could have repented and served his God and his people with honor until the end of his life. This is not what Saul did, however. He went over to the dark side.

The idea that we have a dark side to our spirits was a prominent theme of the Star Wars media franchise, so much so that a very popular meme appeared that is common across social media in various forms. This makes light of going over to the dark side by showing Darth Vader or the evil Emperor Palpatine proffering a plate of delicious looking cookies, saying, “Come to the dark side . . . we have cookies.” I can admire the wittiness of that meme while also knowing that evil is nothing to make fun with.

The idea that we must choose between good and evil did not begin with Star Wars, of course. An old Cherokee parable says that people have a fight going on inside their spirits. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil and the other wolf is good. The bottom line of this parable says that the wolf which wins is the one which you feed. We will see that Saul fed his evil wolf copious amounts of red meat. Let’s begin by reading 1 Samuel 20:30-34,

Then Saul became angry with Jonathan and shouted, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don’t I know that you are siding with Jesse’s son to your own shame and to the disgrace of your mother.  Every day Jesse’s son lives on earth you and your kingship are not secure. Now send for him and bring him to me—he must die!” Jonathan answered his father back, “Why is he to be killed? What has he done?” Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, so he knew that his father was determined to kill David. He got up from the table fiercely angry and did not eat any food that second day of the New Moon, for he was grieved because of his father’s shameful behavior toward David.

Saul Fed His Dark Side Through Rage:

Anger is a natural human emotion. We all feel and express anger, although what angers us and how we express that anger varies considerably between people and also between situations. Usually, our anger is an example of our lack of control, but not always.

It is true that some anger is righteous anger. When someone else is being hurt, or when God’s name and cause is being slandered, it is only right that we should get angry. When Jesus cleared the Temple of the money changers, He explained His actions in Matthew 21:13,

He said to them, “It is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves!”

This action of Jesus was so out of character for Him that it has become another internet meme, which merges two separate thoughts: “If anyone ever asks you, ‘What would Jesus do?’ Remind him that flipping over tables and chasing people with a whip is within the realm of possibilities.” Again, I admire the wittiness of this meme, but it misses the point of what Jesus did. Jesus was defending His Father’s house and His reputation, He wasn’t just blowing His top. Paul taught us in Ephesian 4:26-27,

Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity.

Saul/Paul wrote this sound counsel many years after Saul had been king, but his Old Testament namesake could have benefited from it. King Saul held onto his anger, he fed it, and it exploded one day into a fiery rage. When that day came, Saul nearly killed his own son, whom he loved. Unchecked anger is a dangerous thing.

Not many days before I wrote this, a minor car wreck in St. Louis, MO resulted in an argument between the drivers involved. This contention became so heated, that one of the drivers returned to his automobile, procured a firearm, and shot and killed the other driver. We must learn to be angry but to not sin, because the consequences of sinful anger are severe. 

Saul fed his anger, which burst out into a rage that pushed him further into the dark side of life. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 22:9-19,

Then Doeg the Edomite, who was in charge of Saul’s servants, answered, “I saw Jesse’s son come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob. Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions. He also gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” The king sent messengers to summon the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub, and his father’s whole family, who were priests in Nob. All of them came to the king. Then Saul said, “Listen, son of Ahitub!” “I’m at your service, my lord,” he said. Saul asked him, “Why did you and Jesse’s son conspire against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him, so he could rise up against me and wait in ambush, as is the case today.” Ahimelech replied to the king, “Who among all your servants is as faithful as David? He is the king’s son-in-law, captain of your bodyguard, and honored in your house. Was today the first time I inquired of God for him? Of course not! Please don’t let the king make an accusation against your servant or any of my father’s family, for your servant didn’t have any idea about all this.”  But the king said, “You will die, Ahimelech—you and your father’s whole family!” Then the king ordered the guards standing by him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord because they sided with David. For they knew he was fleeing, but they didn’t tell me.” But the king’s servants would not lift a hand to execute the priests of the Lord. So the king said to Doeg, “Go and execute the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite went and executed the priests himself. On that day, he killed eighty-five men who wore linen ephods. He also struck down Nob, the city of the priests, with the sword—both men and women, infants and nursing babies, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

Saul Fed His Dark Side Through Murder:

While Saul had a track record of being morose, difficult, and angry, his sinful actions reached a new darkness in this horrific event. Saul resorted to the cold-blooded murder of innocent people to try to achieve his own political survival. This will not be the last instance of premeditated murder in our study of the kings of Israel and Judah, but this homicidal act by Saul set the climate for others to follow in his steps.

Murder, as opposed to killing on the battlefield or as part of a judicial process, is always a sin. Murderers decide that it is time for another’s life to end, placing themselves in the role of God. No human born of a mother and father is God, and to place oneself in that position is the height of arrogance. That’s not the only factor in this massacre that makes it a heinous act, however. Saul went over the top in this spree of premeditated murder.

First, Saul accused Ahimelech of a motivation that he did not have. The priest had been misled by David, and he never had any intention to overthrow Saul’s reign. Ahimelech was as innocent of subversion and conspiracy as was David, yet Saul decided he must also die.

Next, not only did Saul kill an innocent person, but he also killed the representative of God on the earth. Priests stood between God and people to bring about reconciliation and forgiveness of sins, yet Saul did not honor that vital work. Saul struck at the very heart of the spiritual life of his people.

Even worse, Saul not only killed Ahimelech, but he also had many other priests and their entire families killed. He even had an entire city destroyed. Note that Saul’s own soldiers refused to conduct this massacre, and Saul had to enlist an Edomite to do his dirty work for him.

This incident reminds me of a story told by my professor in an undergraduate class. He was a former police officer and a former state trooper, and one day he was drinking in a bar when another patron took offense at him. The other man was both very large and very inebriated and he threatened to attack the professor and beat him. My professor, who was not so drunk as his challenger, looked at the other fellow coldly. He said, “Go ahead; take your best shot. You might hurt me this evening, but when I am well again, I will find you and burn down your house. Then I will kill your wife, your children, your parents, and any other person, animal, or thing you hold dear. Then I will come for you.” The drunk decided that this man was no one to trifle with, and so he moved on.

Whether or not my professor was simply bluffing or not, Saul meant what he had said, and his cold-blooded murder pushed him further into the dark side of life. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 23:19-29,

Some Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Isn’t it true that David is hiding among us in the strongholds in Horesh on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon?  So now, whenever the king wants to come down, let him come down. As for us, we will be glad to hand him over to the king.” “May you be blessed by the Lord,” replied Saul, “for you have shown concern for me. Go and check again. Investigate where he goes and who has seen him there; they tell me he is extremely cunning. Investigate all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with accurate information, and I’ll go with you. If it turns out he really is in the region, I’ll search for him among all the clans[of Judah.” So they went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness near Maon in the Arabah south of Jeshimon, and Saul and his men went to look for him. When David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. Saul heard of this and pursued David there.  Saul went along one side of the mountain and David and his men went along the other side. Even though David was hurrying to get away from Saul, Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. Then a messenger came to Saul saying, “Come quickly, because the Philistines have raided the land!” So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to engage the Philistines. Therefore, that place was named the Rock of Separation. From there David went up and stayed in the strongholds of En-gedi.

Saul Fed His Dark Side Through Obsession:

For Saul, David became an obsession. David lived rent-free in Saul’s mind and soul, and he became Saul’s major focus in life. Obsession is the character traits of determination and focus misused. When people become obsessed, they lose touch with other important factors in life. Saul was not always an obsessed person, if he at times came close.

Remember back before Saul was anointed king? He had gone out with his servant to search for his father’s lost donkeys. He and his servant looked high and low, but they could not find them, and Saul came to the point when he was ready to give up the search. At that point, Saul was diligent and determined, but he was also rational and realistic. He could balance his search for the lost animals with his concern for his father, who probably had begun worrying about the safety of his son and his servant. Those days were gone, and Saul was now obsessed with David to the point that Israel became vulnerable to a Philistine attack. He was derelict in his duties to the nation because of his obsession. How can we avoid this mistake of feeding our dark side through obsession? 

First, we must recognize that some obsessions derive from medical conditions and these must be treated by medical means. To ignore this is to ignore how God’s creation has been affected by human sin. By that I don’t mean that someone who has a medical condition that causes obsessiveness is sinful, but that human sin has corrupted the perfect creation of God. Yet, God in His grace has given us modern medicine to address these medical conditions.  But, what about other obsessions, the ones which do stem from our sins? What do we do about those?

Jesus gave us a simple, yet profoundly powerful means to avoid feeding our dark side through obsession. In the Sermon on the Mount, He taught us this in Matthew 6:33,

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Of course, we are limited and weak people, so we need God’s help to follow even this type of simple command. Blessedly, Paul told us in Romans 8:26 that God’s Spirit helps us in our weakness. Saul, however, cultivated his obsession, and that was another factor that pushed him toward the dark side.

Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 28:5-10,

The Philistines gathered and camped at Shunem. So Saul gathered all Israel, and they camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he was afraid and his heart pounded. He inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him in dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets. Saul then said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I can go and consult her.”  His servants replied, “There is a woman at En-dor who is a medium.” Saul disguised himself by putting on different clothes and set out with two of his men. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said, “Consult a spirit for me. Bring up for me the one I tell you.”  But the woman said to him, “You surely know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you setting a trap for me to get me killed?”  Then Saul swore to her by the Lord: “As surely as the Lord lives, no punishment will come to you from this.”

Saul Fed His Dark Side Through Witchcraft:

In a previous episode, we saw how Samuel had delayed anointing Saul’s replacement, David, because Samuel was so fond of Saul. He simply could not let go of their past together. The same is apparently true of Saul. An old saying that describes why people can get into a rut in their lives is, “You go with what you know.” Saul had not progressed in his spiritual life, and in fact he had regressed. He was desperate for help, and he turned to his old mentor, Samuel.

While God does intend for His people to grow and mature, there is nothing inherently wrong in asking an old friend for advice. The problem in this case stemmed from the fact that Samuel was dead, and Saul went to the dark side to contact him.

It is easy to conclude from our study of the Scriptures that Saul never did anything correctly after his rescue of Jabesh, but his conversation with the Witch of Endor belies that fact. Saul had prohibited using seers and mediums, and he had made the penalty for witchcraft as death. Yet, like many things Saul set out to do, he violated his own laws and his own oaths. He said one thing and did another, and in this case, he looked to the dark side for help. How did that work out for him? Let’s read 1 Samuel 28:15-19,

“Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” Samuel asked Saul. “I’m in serious trouble,” replied Saul. “The Philistines are fighting against me and God has turned away from me. He doesn’t answer me anymore, either through the prophets or in dreams. So I’ve called on you to tell me what I should do.”  Samuel answered, “Since the Lord has turned away from you and has become your enemy, why are you asking me? The Lord has done exactly what he said through me: The Lord has torn the kingship out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David. You did not obey the Lord and did not carry out his burning anger against Amalek; therefore the Lord has done this to you today. The Lord will also hand Israel over to the Philistines along with you. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me, and the Lord will hand Israel’s army over to the Philistines.”

Satan is a liar from the pit of Hell, but ironically, he also knows the truth. James 2:9 tells us,

You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.

When Saul turned to witchcraft, he was playing with fire, and it was not a good move. The facts that Saul learned from feeding his dark side through witchcraft were not any different for him had he not done so. To state it plainly for us today, nothing good comes from turning to the forces of evil for help when we are in trouble. 

The results of all of Saul’s foolish actions are found in I Samuel 28:20-225

Immediately, Saul fell flat on the ground. He was terrified by Samuel’s words and was also weak because he had not eaten anything all day and all night. The woman came over to Saul, and she saw that he was terrified and said to him, “Look, your servant has obeyed you. I took my life in my hands and did what you told me to do. Now please listen to your servant. Let me set some food in front of you. Eat and it will give you strength so you can go on your way.” He refused, saying, “I won’t eat,” but when his servants and the woman urged him, he listened to them. He got up off the ground and sat on the bed.

Saul Fed His Dark Side Through Fear:

Everything that Saul had done since he had disobeyed God led him to this point. He had fed his dark side until it was obese, and it was weighing down his spirit to the point that Saul collapsed on the floor and refused to eat. Not only was Saul unable to lead his troops, but he was also unable to even control his own emotions.

As Saul fed his dark side, it became more than a ravenous wolf, it became a debilitating parasite. It sucked the very life out of Saul, and the more he fed it, the more it wanted, until it all but destroyed him.

In contrast to Saul’s experience with the dark side, the Scriptures abound with God telling His people to “fear not, for I am with you.” In John 10:10 Jesus described the contrast between good and evil this way,

A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

The dark side is the thief of our joy. Why would we ever feed it?

Conclusion:

Few people are ever as one-dimensional in their failures as was Saul. We try to play both ends against the middle by feeding both wolves, but that is a fool’s errand. The only way to that abundant life in Christ is to let him feed your good wolf. He’s the only one able to do that and wise people let Him!

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt

A Word about a Model of Humble Service

Today I want to share a word about a model of humble service as I comment on verses from 1 Samuel 16-17-18-19.

In our last episode, we saw how God had taught Samuel some lessons in living with wisdom as He directed Samuel to anoint David to become the next king over Israel and Judah. Samuel learned that wise living includes releasing the past, watching our words, seeing people and situations as God sees them, and seizing the day when opportunities are presented to us by God. Now, our focus will turn to David, the young shepherd boy whom Samuel had been told to anoint as king. How would he respond to this opportunity which had been presented to him by God? David became a model of humble service, unlike another young man whom I recently read about:

This young fellow was a new husband, and he and his young bride moved into their first house together.  They were learning how to live on their own, without the help of their parents or their siblings, and that included making minor home repairs. One of their light fixtures had developed a fault which caused the bulb to begin blinking, and the young husband decided he would repair it. His equally young wife knew he’d never done such a thing before, and she suggested that they should hire an electrician. Her husband scoffed at that, “We don’t need to spend all that money, I’ll watch a video on-line and take care of it.” Despite her vociferous protests, the young man said, “Quit your fussing! I have this all under control!” He climbed up a ladder that he had borrowed from their neighbor, but it was too short. He then ascended to the very top step, whereupon the ladder tipped over and fell from under him. As he, too, fell, he latched onto the light fixture to save himself. Down came the ladder, down came the young man, down came the light fixture, and down came half of the ceiling of the room. When the dust settled, the young man jumped up, holding the fixture above his head, exclaiming, “I fixed it! It won’t blink anymore!” What his wife said in reply is unprintable.

Proverbs 16:18 tells us that, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” Young David could have fallen prey to that temptation, but with God’s grace and power in his life, he didn’t. We will begin by reading 1 Samuel 16:14-23,

Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and an evil spirit sent from the Lord began to torment him, so Saul’s servants said to him, “You see that an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command your servants here in your presence to look for someone who knows how to play the lyre. Whenever the evil spirit from God comes on you, that person can play the lyre, and you will feel better.”  Then Saul commanded his servants, “Find me someone who plays well and bring him to me.” One of the young men answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is also a valiant man, a warrior, eloquent, handsome, and the Lord is with him.” Then Saul dispatched messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me your son David, who is with the sheep.” So Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a wineskin, and one young goat and sent them by his son David to Saul. When David came to Saul and entered his service, Saul loved him very much, and David became his armor-bearer. Then Saul sent word to Jesse: “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor with me.” Whenever the spirit from God came on Saul, David would pick up his lyre and play, and Saul would then be relieved, feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.

Service Without Subversion:

Almost from the moment that David was anointed by Samuel, his story became intertwined with Saul’s. The timeline of their relationship is very intricate and convoluted, and the Biblical account of their relationship may not be completely chronological. Like with the Gospel of John, the timeline of these events is not always clear, but the lessons God intends for us to learn however, are crystal clear. 1st Samuel presents to us two facets of how David came to be in service to Saul, and there may have been more which the Holy Spirit did not lead the Biblical authors to record. Both stemmed from a need that only David could fulfill.

The first need was a personal one. Saul had become a tormented soul, and the only therapy that eased his spirit was music. David was a skilled musician, and he did Saul a great personal service by playing the harp for him. This brought David into Saul’s household, which gave David access to all the sordid details of Saul’s disaster of a life. What use did David make of this knowledge? Well, none, actually.

The “holy grail” of a national intelligence agency is to place a source at the seat of power of their enemy. This is called a penetration agent or a mole. This type of spy gives access to the juiciest kind of intelligence, upon which action can be taken that could cause the fall of a king or even a nation. Yet David never used his access to Saul and the inner workings of Saul’s court in that way. Why not?

First, Saul was not David’s enemy, he was David’s king. David had been designated as his successor, but Saul still sat upon the throne. David’s attitude towards Saul will be seen later in their mutual story, when Saul was chasing David to kill him. David had the chance to kill Saul in a cave but didn’t. 1 Samuel 24:6 reveals David’s heart in this matter,

He said to his men, “As the Lord is my witness, I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.”

In addition to this, through his experiences as a shepherd, David had learned to trust in the Lord. In 1 Samuel 17:37 we read,

Then David said, “The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Although he had many opportunities to do so, David never tried to manipulate God’s plan for his life and for Saul’s, either. In contrast to that, I know of a former youth pastor who conspired to push the pastor of his church out of his position so that the youth pastor could take his place. David refused to do that kind of thing, and he is a model of humble service without subversion. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 17:55-58,

When Saul had seen David going out to confront the Philistine, he asked Abner the commander of the army, “Whose son is this youth, Abner?” “Your Majesty, as surely as you live, I don’t know,” Abner replied.  The king said, “Find out whose son this young man is!”  When David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine’s head still in his hand. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David answered.

Service In The Shadows:

The second need to which David responded was a need of God’s people in battle. At least he did so in due course. First, however, he had some more mundane needs to fulfill. 

When Samuel anointed David to be king, it changed David’s destiny, but did it change his life? In the short-term, the answer was, no. David was still the youngest of eight sons of Jesse, and he still took care of his father’s sheep. David came to the attention of Saul because of his confrontation with Goliath, but we must remember why David was there on the battlefield in the first place. He only came to the battlefield to bring his brothers their lunch!

God graciously offers His people the opportunity to work alongside Him. Sometimes these opportunities are big, and flashy, and complicated. Sometimes, they involve making lunch.

One of my favorite characters in the Bible rendered their service in the shadows, and they do so even until this day. That person is the one who made the lunch of five loaves and two fishes that Jesus used to feed the five thousand men, plus women and children. We don’t know who made this little boy’s lunch. Chances are that it was a mother or older sister. In any case, some unknown, but diligent parent or sibling thought, “There is no way I am going to let Junior go out without some food!” Then they proceeded to put feet to their thoughts and made a common, every day, but perfectly adequate lunch . . .  for one!

They had no way of knowing what Jesus was going to do with their act of diligence. They could never have imagined that Jesus would feed a multitude with such meager rations. They only knew that the right thing, the diligent thing, to do was to send out their son or brother with lunch. Because they were diligent in a small, everyday matter, they got to be a silent partner with Jesus in one of His most famous miracles!

So, what if that unsung mom or sister didn’t do the right thing that morning? What if they had slept late, or what if they didn’t care if Junior went hungry? Would that have kept Jesus from feeding everyone (including Junior)? Of course not; Jesus as Creator could make bread and fish appear from nowhere. Everyone would have still been fed, and there still would have been baskets and baskets of leftovers. The only one to miss out would have been the silent partner, the slothful sluggard who let a little boy leave home without lunch. 

David, too, faithfully served in the shadows, that is, until he was thrust into the limelight. Next, let’s read 1 Samuel 18:5-9,

David marched out with the army and was successful in everything Saul sent him to do. Saul put him in command of the fighting men, which pleased all the people and Saul’s servants as well. As the troops were coming back, when David was returning from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing with tambourines, with shouts of joy, and with three-stringed instruments. As they danced, the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. Saul was furious and resented this song. “They credited tens of thousands to David,” he complained, “but they only credited me with thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul watched David jealously from that day forward.

Service In The Limelight:

One fact that Jesus highlighted in His teaching, is that the truth of our lives will, sooner or later, be exposed. As He said, in Mark 4:22,

For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light. 

This is a fact for both the good aspects of our lives, as well as the bad. As one old saying puts it, “The cream will always rise to the top,” and as my friend from my deployment to Iraq always said, “You can’t hide money!” Despite how humble and unassuming David was, he still had skills, and he also had been given an anointing from God. Sooner or later, he was going to make a splash, and he did. He didn’t try to do anything special, he just could not help himself. 

Also, it is clear from the Scriptures that David was not a “one hit wonder.” David was able to consistently and effectively meet the security needs of God’s people. The interesting part about this tale of David’s success was not that it happened; the interesting part is how people reacted to it. 

First, God’s people were thrilled. Nothing succeeds like success, and the people of God loved what they saw in David’s life. They loved what they saw so much, that David became a celebrity. The praise of people is intoxicating, but it is a high that does not, and cannot, last. Psalm 103:15-16 reminds us,

As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known. 

The crowds that proclaimed Jesus on Palm Sunday were replaced on Good Friday by the crowds that called for Jesus to be crucified. We will see that as much as anyone might enjoy the fame that David received, David was a model for us, because his focus was on serving God. As Paul reminds us in Galatians 1:10, our true audience is God, saying,

For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

If the people loved David, Saul did not. He became jealous of David’s fame, and he became jealous of David’s success. Maybe Saul saw in David what might have been in his life, but regardless, David’s fame turned Saul’s love for him into something sour and bitter.

Like fame, we must also not take the jealousy of other people to heart. When another becomes jealous of us, it can hurt our feelings, and we can feel threatened by them. However, it is imperative we must remember whom it is we actually serve. Paul reminded the church at Corinth of this in 1 Corinthians 3:5-9,

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So, then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s coworkers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

So, what did David think about all of this?  We can see that in 1 Samuel 18:20-23,

Now Saul’s daughter Michal loved David, and when it was reported to Saul, it pleased him. “I’ll give her to him,” Saul thought. “She’ll be a trap for him, and the hand of the Philistines will be against him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You can now be my son-in-law.” Saul then ordered his servants, “Speak to David in private and tell him, ‘Look, the king is pleased with you, and all his servants love you. Therefore, you should become the king’s son-in-law.’” Saul’s servants reported these words directly to David, but he replied, “Is it trivial in your sight to become the king’s son-in-law? I am a poor commoner.”

Despite the intoxicating applause of the people, and despite the fearsome jealousy of King Saul, David remembered whom he served and he didn’t allow the limelight to overshadow his call from God. Finally, let’s read I Samuel 18:28-19:2

Saul realized that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved him, and he became even more afraid of David. As a result, Saul was David’s enemy from then on. Every time the Philistine commanders came out to fight, David was more successful than all of Saul’s officers. So, his name became well known. Saul ordered his son Jonathan and all his servants to kill David. But Saul’s son Jonathan liked David very much, so he told him, “My father, Saul, intends to kill you. Be on your guard in the morning and hide in a secret place and stay there.”

 Service In The Wilderness:

Saul had now reached what I call his Popeye Moment. Like Popeye, his attitude towards this upstart David was, “I’ve stood all I can stand, and I can’t stand no more!”  In his madness and jealousy, Saul decided he had to kill David. To be clear, no universe exists in God’s Creation in which murder for jealousy is a righteous act. By this mindset, Saul demonstrated to all how low he had sunk in his spiritual condition. This was bad news for David, but in the event, however, he had more hope than Saul did.

Despite Saul’s anger at him, David still had friends who were righteous people, and one of those was Jonathan, Saul’s son and David’s best friend. Jonathan warned David, and that would allow David to escape into the wilderness to fight another day.

Many of God’s servants in the Bible have experienced a wilderness experience, so many that it almost seems like a rite of passage: Abraham, Moses, and David, each journeyed through a literal wilderness, while Joseph, Daniel, and Nehemiah, had figurative wilderness experiences. Peter was in a spiritual wilderness from the moment he denied Christ on the night He had been betrayed until dawn on the first Easter Sunday. Paul spent three years in solitude, being taught a renewed and redeemed understanding of Scripture, and Jesus, Himself, fasted in the desert forty days before His triumph over the temptations of Satan. I believe we can take three practical lessons from these experiences that we can apply to our lives today.

First, wilderness experiences sometimes occur because of our own sin. Despite that, God will not abandon us, but when we repent, He will lead us through to the other side.

Second, wilderness experiences sometimes occur because God wants to teach us lessons that can only be taught in that way. The school of hard knocks is a thing, and sometimes, that is the only school with the curriculum that we need so that we can grow and mature and serve God effectively.

Finally, wilderness experiences always give us the opportunity to trust God, and when we do, He always proves Himself to us, and He always receives the glory that He is due. As the old hymn paraphrases Malachi 3,

Trust Me, try Me, prove Me, saith the Lord of hosts, and see if a blessing, unmeasured blessing, I will not pour out on thee.

Conclusion:

For the servants of God, for those who are His co-workers, humility is always the best course of action. This is not the way of the world, but God’s Kingdom is not of it, but it is above it. In these Scriptures above, David a model of humble service, and one we should emulate. Our humble service to God brings Him the glory He deserves, and the blessings that we need.

Every blessing,

Dr. Otis Corbitt