First Samuel 23 Verse 15 And
David saw that Saul was come out to seek
his life. And David was in the wilderness
of Ziph in a wood. And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose
and went to David into the wood and strengthened his hand in
God. And he said unto him, fear not, for the hand of Saul my
father shall not find thee, and thou shalt be king over Israel.
and I shall be next unto thee. And that also my father knoweth.
And they too made a covenant before the Lord, and David abode
in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house. Let's pray. Gracious Father in God, thank
you for your word. Thank you for this church. for this arrangement, Lord, where
your family comes out of this world and we gather together
in your name to hear from you, to hear of you, to worship you. We pray, Lord, that you would cause
our minds and hearts to be open and stayed upon you Cause us to look to you tonight to always be looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. Who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross and counted the shame a small
thing in order to save our wretched souls. May we find all of our delight
and all of our confidence tonight in him, in his precious name.
Amen. So the first verse there, verse
15, it causes us, it compels us to consider David's situation
at this time. It's easy to sort of just kinda take it for granted
and pass over this but when we read a verse like this David
saw that Saul was come out to seek his life and David was in
the wilderness of Zeph in a wood we have to stop and consider
David's situation and it's vital to what comes after it we need
to understand where he is in order to understand how precious
the next verse is. David's being hunted. Plain and
simple, he's being hunted. I doubt very seriously if anybody
in this room has ever experienced that or even knows anybody that
has experienced that. Of course, those who've been
in the military have been in danger of varying degrees. But I doubt if anyone has been
the personal target. David was the personal target
of an evil king and an army of men that followed him. A manhunt. I can barely sleep at night if
any little, if somebody just does something stupid to spite
me, somebody offends me. can ruin a night's sleep for
me, much less if somebody was trying to kill me. And you and I both know that
it made it worse, much worse, that David deserved better from
Saul. He deserved better from him. There's just no other way
to say it. It's one thing for somebody to
be angry at you or to spite you when you deserve it, but when
you've done nothing but good to somebody. and for someone
and they return your kindness with spite and deceit and outright
evil. It can eat at you, can't it?
Anybody ever experienced that? We all have experienced that.
But maybe not to this degree. Have you ever saved somebody's
life and they hated you for it? David had quite simply saved
Saul's life. and had served him faithfully
and done nothing but honor Saul in every way and Saul repays
him like this. I guarantee you David thought
about that when he laid down at night. I guarantee you because
he's just like us. David was responsible for all
these men that followed him and that was a burden to him. Remember the discontented and
the indebted and those who were in distress had come out to join
David in the cave of Dolem. And so the burden and the weight
of responsibility was weighing upon him. He had these men's
lives in his hand. They were risking their lives
for his sake. And the responsibility of leadership
is heavy enough when everything is going great. When they ain't going so great,
it's a heavy, heavy burden. When Paul was talking about his
sufferings, he listed his responsibility
as a leader of the people of God among them. Let me read it
to you. 2 Corinthians 11, 23. Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool. Paul didn't like defending himself. But there were times when he
had to. And he said, are they ministers of Christ? I am more.
But in between that, he said, I speak as a fool. I'm talking
like somebody bragging on themselves. But we know that his motive was
not that in the language that he uses. And we'll see that.
You all turn over there with me. Let's look at this. 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. I want us to get a sense of where David is. And
I want us to remember, as we're considering this very just introductory
part of the message, that God never changes. The God who came
to David and sent an angel to David, comforted David and strengthened
and encouraged David, he hasn't changed. He still loves his people
that much. He still cares about us. Never
a worry creases your brow that he's not more familiar with it
than you are. If you knew as much about it as he did, you'd
worry beyond measure. He knows everything about it.
But if you knew how much he loved you, you wouldn't worry at all.
2 Corinthians 11, 23. Are they
ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more.
In labors, more abundant. In stripes, above measure. In
prisons, more frequent. In deaths, oft. Of the Jews,
five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten
with rods, once was I stoned. Pretty sure he died when that
happened, looked like it. Everybody there thought he was
dead, but the Lord raised him up. Thrice I suffered shipwreck,
a night and a day I have been in the deep. That's probably
my greatest fear, being floating around in the ocean at night.
You think about that one for a little while. In journeyings often in perils
of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen,
in perils by the heathen. David was in a similar, that's
why we're talking about this. We want to find out where David
is and see what a precious thing God did for David. He's in similar,
he's suffering some things now. And many of God's people suffer
great things. Perils of robbers, perils by
my own countrymen, perils by the heathen, perils in the city,
in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren. In weariness, in painfulness,
in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often,
in cold and nakedness. You think David ever went to
bed hungry? It wasn't a whole lot out there, was it? Beside
those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily,
the care of all the churches. You see, David had that too.
These were people, the people that came out to him, they were
the ones that saw him as God's King. They believed God. Maybe not, probably not all of
them. Some of them may have just been out there because they didn't
have anywhere else to go. That's a picture of us coming to Christ,
isn't it? Why do we come to him? Where
are we going to go? The care of all the churches,
and listen, that wasn't something he was bragging about. Look how
strong I am, you know, I'm able to minister to all the churches. Who is weak and I'm not weak?
That wasn't something that made him feel strong. No reason to boast. It was a
constant reminder of how weak he was. Who is offended and I burn not."
It was a continual burning in his gut because of offenses.
It wasn't a pleasant thing. David had that. He had the responsibility
of these men weighing upon him. There were 600 men at the time
that he had to lead into harm's way. Again, it wasn't just something
where he was leading them in good times. He was leading them
in great peril. That was part of his affliction.
And the latter part of the verse, and David was in the wilderness
of Ziph in a wood. Living in the woods ain't all
it's cracked up to be. When I was younger I used to
like to rough it, what we called roughing it. But I'll tell you
this, roughing it in our understanding of the concept was probably a
lot better than what David was going through. Roughing it to
us, we'd make a trip to Walmart before we roughed it. How about
you? Well, I don't reckon David, that
he probably didn't have those Carhartt long johns to put on,
you know, so when it got cold and sleeping bags with a flannel
lining in them, you know, we had some Coleman lanterns and
stoves and we had an old pot belly stove in our deer cabin
and it'd get cold in there. But boy, we'd stoke that thing
up and the sides of it would start to glow a little bit It
would get warm in there. They didn't have stuff like that.
They could build a fire. But we had a dozen other luxuries
that we would take with us when we roughed it. So it wasn't that
bad. And remember why David and his
men were in the wilderness of Zipf in a wood. Instead of staying
at whatever passed for a hotel in those days in the city of
Keelah. It was because the people of that city who David and these
men had just saved from their enemies, though they had at the
time plenty of troubles of their own, those Keolites or whatever they
call themselves had utterly betrayed David and his men and were going
to deliver them up to their enemies and so they slept in the woods. instead of whatever accommodations
should have been offered unto them. So David had affliction
without and affliction within. He's in a bad place. He's in
a place of suffering and of course this pictures our Lord. Our Lord
was the anointed King of heaven and earth and yet he suffered. He suffered in body and mind
and heart and soul. David's body suffered, his mind
suffered, his heart was broken, betrayed by enemies and friends. But God sent him an angel. And
I use that word simply in the sense of its basic meaning which
is a messenger. A messenger. In verse 16 it says,
Jonathan Saul's son arose and went to David into the wood and
strengthened his hand in God. So here's David, God's anointed
king and yet suffering before he went to the throne he had
to suffer as our king, the king of heaven was anointed king he
was he never stopped being king but he was made perfect through
sufferings before he ascended his throne and David pictures
our Lord Jesus very beautifully here in his misery And for so many reasons David
is miserable as we looked at, but only our Lord Jesus Christ
was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That Isaiah prophesied
of in Isaiah 53, he is despised and rejected of men. Even those that he saved, like
David, hated him. He had already written their
names down in a book and covenanted with his father to shed his precious
blood for them. They had no interest in his book,
in what he did, who he was. He is despised and rejected of
men, not just some men, all men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. I don't know grief that well.
I'm thankful. I don't want to. And we hid as
it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. How can we even try to imagine
what it was for our Savior to literally bear all of the iniquities
of his people? You ever just think about that? We can't enter into that. There's
really no use speculating about it. We can read what God has
said about it and be in awe. All of the sorrow. We don't know
what sorrow is. He bore our sorrows. We don't
even know what it is. And we're not ever gonna. We're
not ever gonna except that we're able to enter into his sufferings.
When we know even as we're known. The shame of bearing all of the sins of
his people and hanging naked between heaven and earth on a
cross. The guilt of all of our sins. He bore the guilt of it too. The agony. And I imagine, I don't
know, I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I think
that probably the physical sufferings were the least of it, don't you
think? to be betrayed by everybody he
knew and I don't even know how to say
that his own father turned his back on him and forsook him all we know for sure is this
it crushed him because where I read just now the word bruised
he was bruised For our iniquities, that word, and it's not an obscure,
maybe it means this, what it means is crushed. That's what
it means. That's all it can mean. Crushed. Broken. Shattered. That's the definition of the
word. And even before His hour had
come, our Lord suffered for us through all of His life. When
he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, and
listen, you don't just fast because you feel like fasting. Fasting
is an outward expression of inward sorrow and grief and misery. You stop eating because that's
the last thing on your mind. And he fasted 40 days and 40
nights in the wilderness. And like David, he had not where
to lay his head. But David is just a shadow of
him who casts the shadow. And Satan came and afflicted
him, tried him, tested him, tortured him. That's the word. But Satan found him faithful
and mighty. Because the Lord has laid help
on one that's mighty. He did that for me. He did all
of that for us. All of it. And when Satan departed from
him, it says in Matthew 4.10, Then saith Jesus unto him, Get
thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And then the devil
leaveth him, and behold, angels came. and ministered unto Him. And I'll tell you this, I know
this, I don't understand it, and I'm in over my head, you
know that? I'm in over your head too. But the Lord didn't receive any
preferential treatment when He walked as us on this earth. If
angels ministered unto Him, I guarantee you they minister unto us too.
I guarantee you they do. And that's the Lord ministering.
He's using His angels, His messengers that do nothing but His will
and delight in it. They don't care about anything
else. Wouldn't it be wonderful? We're going to experience that
one day when all we care about is just doing His pleasure. And
nothing makes us happy but that. And that was them, and they came
and ministered unto our Lord Jesus Christ when he was suffering. And when David was suffering
in our text, the Lord sent him an angel, not the same kind that's
in Matthew 4, but a messenger that ministered unto him and
strengthened him. Now first of all, what a blessing
it is to have a friend. In all of David's misery, and
I'm sure that he had varying degrees of good relationships
with all those 600 men that were following him. They all looked
up to him. But it doesn't seem like he had any friend like Jonathan. that could be a blessing to his
heart and what a blessing from God a friend is especially when
you're in trouble and you know that's when the world says a lot of stupid
things but every once in a while you know something makes sense
it's just I guess the law of the averages or something But
they say you know when you're down you find out who your friends
are. That's a lot of truth to that. When our Lord suffered
we hid as it were our faces from Him. What our Lord found out
is that He didn't have any friends. He didn't have any friends. He
was a friend of us. But He had to reveal Himself
to us and cause us to fall in love with Him. There's a lot I want to say about
that, but we just don't have time. David had a friend here when
he was down, and a true friend is one like Jonathan who will
strengthen your hand in the Lord. As much as the friend in himself
means to you, what makes him precious and special is that
you're able to rejoice in the Lord together. That's what makes
it something that this world can never understand. Brothers in Christ, the word
there, strengthen, is encourage. He encouraged him in the Lord.
And we find that same word in another place in David's life.
Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 30. In verse one, let's read a little
story here and I'll try to expound the context of it a little bit
as we go. But in 1 Samuel 30 verses one
through eight, it came to pass when David and his men were come
to Ziklag on the third day that the Amalekites had invaded the
south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire.
And the reason David and his men weren't there, we'll see
when we study this in the context of that, is that David was off
on a fool's errand. He was off doing something he
should not have been doing. He took the men and left the
women and children in Ziklag. Shouldn't have been there. Should
have been home. This wouldn't have happened. And then verse
2, and had taken the women captive, the Amalekites came while David
and his men were away. Shouldn't have been away, but
they were. taking the women captives that were therein and they slew
not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went
on their way. And you think about that now,
the Amalekites invaded that city and took every one of them. You
might imagine that some of them might resist a little bit and
be killed. God didn't let it happen. So David and his men came to
the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and
their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David
and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and
wept." We can't enter into that much, can we? Think about that.
Their wives and children were gone. They lifted up their voice and
wept until they had no more power to weep. Not sure I've ever wept
that much. You didn't even have the strength
to cry anymore. And David's two wives were taken
captive Ahinoam and the Jezreelites and Abigail the wife of Nabal
the Carmelite and David was greatly distressed. I'd say that's probably you could probably use a lot
more words. For the people spake of stoning him. Now not only
had he lost his family And not only had he been a disappointment,
he's the leader. The buck stopped with him. He's
responsible for this. He was the one that made the
decision that he shouldn't have made. And they were away and
this happened. And it's on him and everybody
knows it. But not only all that, but they're talking about killing
him for it. Because the soul of all the people
was grieved. Every man for his sons and for
his daughters. But David, encouraged himself
in the Lord his God. What other encouragement at that
time did he have? You talk about no hope. I mean he's probably thinking,
this is a little bit of speculation, but if he was anything like me
he's thinking they've already killed them all. They're all
dead. They're goners. They hate us. And yet he encouraged himself
in the Lord his God. Same word there, strengthened
his hand in the Lord, encouraged himself. And David said to Abiathar
the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee bring me hither the
ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the
ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord,
saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake
them? And he answered him, Pursue,
for thou shalt surely overtake them. And I suspect this last
little phrase was probably one of the best things that David
ever heard. And without fail, you're going to recover all. If anybody else said that, I
wouldn't believe it. No way. No way can every one
of them be safe and unharmed. No way. But God said, It's all
going to be fine. Do you see the significance again
of the priesthood as in the context of our verse? David had sought
the Lord by his ordained priest. That's Christ. No man cometh
unto the Father but by his priest. By his mediator. And we see that
here. Those who come unto God by his
Son Jesus Christ have great reason to be encouraged. He said, you
come to me and you won't go away disappointed. Whatever it is
you need, you'll have it. They have great reason to be
encouraged even when there is no other reason to be encouraged. I'm reminded of Job, who even
when his wife, now he had lost everything that he had, his sons
and daughters were slain. They're dead. And even his wife
said to him, why don't you just curse God and die? You are a
complete failure. But he was enabled by the grace of God to say, the Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Where are you going to go when you have nowhere to go? I remember
this hymn that we sing sometimes, just as I am, though tossed about,
with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within and
without. O Lamb of God, here I come. How about you? How about you?
When you've got nowhere else to go, And you know he still
has to shut us up like that. Even though that's happened,
by his grace he saved us, he shut us up to himself. He showed
us that every other refuge will fail, does fail, has failed.
And caused us to come to him. He has to keep doing that. I'll
still lean on myself. I'll still look to this world.
I'll still trust a spider's web as my refuge. He's got to keep
shutting me up to himself. Taking refuge and encouragement
in the Lord is pictured a lot in the scriptures. What was the
ark to Noah in the flood? It was pretty much everything.
You think I'd be overstating it to say the ark was Noah's
world during the flood? I don't think that's overstating
it. That's Christ to us in the storm brought on by our sin. The storm was brought on because
man's evil was great in the earth and the imagination of his heart
was only evil continually. His wickedness was great. And
so God destroyed this world. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And God shut him up in that ark. And it was to him safety, provision,
comfort, peace, security. That was God's grace. He could
reach out and touch the grace of God surrounding him. That's Christ to us. In the Lord,
that's where we're encouraged. In Christ, in myself, I have
no recourse. I have no strength. I have no
ability. I stand no chance against my
enemies. There's nothing to encourage
me anywhere else but in the Lord. In the Lord I have nothing to
worry about. In the Lord have I righteousness. You remember our text in Isaiah?
Surely one shall say in the Lord have I righteousness. I'm one
of those. What else am I going to say when
I see that there is no other righteousness but Him? And I
must be righteous before God. Bless God in the Lord have our
righteousness. It's Isaiah 45 24. In the Lord
all of my sins are paid for. Like David I've made a mess of
things and that's putting it lightly. I'm a walking disaster. It's my fault. But in the Lord all of my sins
are paid for. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. In the Lord, I'm blessed with
every spiritual blessing that there is. Every once in a while,
I just try to get a hold of that. That's something worth trying
to get a hold of, isn't it? Every blessing that God can give
someone, He gave it to me when He put me in His Son. Boy, that just makes my mind,
it's time to play. My mind just can run and jump
in that. I can just run around and rustle up the leaves and
jump around like an idiot. Just thinking about that. Every
spiritual blessing in heavenly places in the Lord. That's why we encourage ourselves
in the Lord, because in the Lord None of this is a problem. None
of this is a problem. In verse 17, let's look at verse
17 back in our text. And he said unto him, this is
Jonathan speaking to David now. He said unto him, fear not. You
know, that's God's phrase. That's what God says when he
comes to people in trouble, isn't it? Fear not. This is God speaking
to David. He sent him an angel, didn't
he? He sent him a messenger. This is the messenger of the
Lord. He's saying what God is saying to him. God is using the
mouth of a friend. Has he ever done that for you?
Use the mouth of a friend to speak right to your heart. Fear
not, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find thee.
All the things that you're worrying about, Don't worry about it. He strengthened his hand in the
Lord now. He didn't just make sentimental
comments, you know, that this world tends to make. Listen,
the hand of Saul, my father shall not find thee, and thou shalt
be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee. What he's
saying there is that when you're king, I'm going to be right where
I am now. I'm going to be right there with
you. That's where I want to be. Jonathan loved David. He wanted
David to be king and he wanted in on it. Not as a rival, not as a you
know to succeed him on the throne. He could have done that right
now. He was in position for that now. He rejected that. He had
no use for that. He's saying I want to be there
with you wherever you are. I'm with you here in the woods
and I'll be with you when you're sitting on the throne if you'll
let me. And that also Saul my father
knoweth. Saul my father knows that I'm
with you. You know The Lord, he comforts
us in every way, doesn't he? You know it irked David that
he had done Saul right. He had been faithful to Saul. But here's some consolation in
that. Jonathan said, I'm with you. I choose you over my father. And he knows it. He knows it.
And notice now that these are no empty words. The world, you
know, they've got all their little sayings. Everything will be alright.
How do you know? How do you know that? The world has no right
to say that. Based on what? You have no right
to say that to anybody if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ
or trust him or have bowed to him. Jonathan said what he did
on the basis of God's promise to make David king. He said it
by faith. He trusted God and he said, remember
now David, remember who your God is. Remember who anointed
you. Remember who made you everything
you are. Remember how they said that to
Saul? God's prophet said that to Saul?
God made you everything you are. And you turned his back on him.
You turned your back on him. But David's being reminded here
in comfort and grace. The Lord has put you where you
are. He's not going to do that and then let you fall. He's not
going to do that. He's going to do what he said
he would do. You may spend a few more nights in the woods, but
God's going to do what he said he'd do. And it's by grace through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ that we encourage ourselves in the
Lord. We have reason to, don't we? It's not just some power
of positive thinking. We encourage ourselves in the
Lord because of what he's promised us. Isn't that it? And we strengthen our head. in
our God. Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me. And look what Jonathan said last
there. Jonathan's ambition now was for David to be king. Jonathan didn't want to be king.
Jonathan, Saul would have made Jonathan king after he stepped
down. He was next in line and he threw
that in Jonathan's face. He tempted him. You know how
religion bribes and threatens. That's all they know how to do.
They bribe with heaven and they threaten with hell. No thought for God or his truth.
Now Jonathan wasn't interested. He wanted David to be king. He
delighted in the fact that David was exalted and he just wanted
to be with him. Does that remind you of the thief
on the cross? Lord remember me when you come
into your kingdom. I want you, you're going to be
king and I want to be there to see it. I want to be there. Verse 18 and they too made a
covenant before the Lord and David abode in the wood and Jonathan
went to his house. They renewed that covenant of
which Bephibosheth, Jonathan's son, would later be the beneficiary. Just as God renewed his covenant
with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the covenant was concerning the
seed of those men, which is Christ. And he renewed that covenant
of grace with those men. And David said, he made with
me that same covenant. An everlasting covenant before
David died. And you and I who know the Lord
Jesus Christ are the everlasting beneficiaries of the covenant
of grace and love that was made before we were ever born. Ephesiath
hadn't even been born yet and he was already taken care of. Because of the love with which that covenant was
made. And we are the beneficiaries
of that everlasting covenant of grace made before we were
ever born. And now here we are sitting at the king's table. Though lame on both of our feet. Don't have a leg to stand on.
Don't need one. Don't want one. Would you stand
on your legs if you had them? Before God? If you had legs,
would you stand on them before God? Better not. We stand in
Him. We stand in Him or we fall. And I hope that this is an encouragement
to us tonight. The longer I preach, I believe,
the more the Lord impresses upon me two things. I want it to be
clear. And it blesses my heart. There's
no greater compliment that's ever paid to me. And when somebody
says to me, boy, that was clear, that was just so clear. And I've
had people's children. I've had people say, my teenager
or my young child, commented that he can understand what you
say. Boy, Lord don't ever take that away. Don't ever take that
away. And the second thing is this,
I want to comfort God's people. And I'll tell you this, God's
people now, this world is another thing, but God's people can only
be comforted in the Lord. Encouraged in the Lord, strengthened
in the Lord, renewed in Him. And that's my desire, to strengthen
your hand and your God. And whether God uses me to do
it or not, I pray He'll do that for us. Of God are we in Christ Jesus,
who has made unto us everything that we need. May we be encouraged
in Him tonight. Let's pray.