You will tonight to 1 Samuel
chapter 23. I want us to look tonight at these first
13 verses of this chapter. Then they told David, saying,
Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob
the threshing floors. Therefore David inquired of the
Lord saying, shall I go and smite these Philistines? The Lord said
unto David, go and smite the Philistines and save Keilah. And David's men said unto him,
behold, we'd be afraid here in Judah. How much more then if
we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? Then
David inquired of the Lord yet again. And the Lord answered
him and said, Arise, go down to Keilah for I will deliver
the Philistines into thine hand. So David and his men went to
Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their cattle
and smote them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants
of Keilah. And it came to pass when Abiathar,
the son of Ahimelech, fled to David to that he came down with
an ephod in his hand. And it was told Saul that David
was come to Keilah, and Saul said, God hath delivered him
into mine hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town that
hath gates and bars. And Saul called all the people
together to war to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his
men. And David knew that Saul secretly
practiced mischief against him. And he said to Abiathar, the
high priest, or the priest, bring hither the ephod. Then said David,
O Lord God of Israel, Thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul
seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake.
Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? And will Saul come down as thy
servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech
thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, he will come
down. Then said David, will the men
of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the
Lord said, they will deliver thee up. Then David and his men,
which were about 600, arose and departed out of Keilah and went
whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David
was escaped from Keilah, and he forbear to go forth. I'd just like to mention that
I ended the message last week when David heard when news was
brought to him of the destruction of 85 priests, remember, which
were slaughtered and their city, the city of Nob, was destroyed. Both women and children were
destroyed in that city. And David naturally felt some
responsibility. for what had occurred because
you remember it was his lying, his lying to the priest to receive
his help that was used against them. If you look in chapter
22 at his words in verse 22, we read, and David said unto
Abiathar, I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there
that he would surely tell Saul. Now watch this. have occasioned
the death of all the persons of thy father's house. No doubt
he felt a great weight, great responsibility for the slaughter
of those priests and that city. I want you to look over to Psalm
52. This is a Psalm that he wrote
on this occasion. Psalm 52. You notice in the title, it says,
to the chief musician, Masiel, a psalm of David, when Doag,
the Edomite, came and told Saul and said unto him, David is come
to the house of Ahimelech. Notice the psalm, why boasteth
thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man? He's referring to Doag,
this Edomite. who had killed unarmed, harmless
people. Why boasteth thou thyself in
mischief, O mighty man? The goodness of God endureth
continually. Thy tongue, and it was his tongue,
remember, when he told Saul that he had seen David come to the
tabernacle and to the priest asking for help, but he left
out the fact that David had deceived the priest. Thy tongue diviseth
mischiefs, like a sharp razor working deceitfully. Thou lovest
evil more than good, and lying rather than to speak righteousness. He lied in the sense he didn't
tell all that he knew. He didn't tell that David had
deceived the priest and in that way had received the help of
the priest. He made it sound like the priest
was in union with David, conspiring against the king, King Saul. Thou lovest all devouring words,
O thou deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy thee
forever. He shall take thee away and pluck
thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land
of the living. The righteous also shall see
and fear and shall laugh at him. Lo, this is the man that made
not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and strengthened himself in his wickedness. We're reminded that
the tongue My tongue, your tongue, the tongue of man, what destruction
it can work. As we see, this man's tongue
was a lying, a deceitful tongue, and it brought about much evil,
much suffering. His tongue was also a boastful
tongue. And I imagine that when he spoke
to Saul and told him what he did, he prospered. He prospered. He came into favor. Remember
the men of Saul, the footmen of Saul, and others would not
speak against the priest, but he did. And he did that to gain
favor with Saul. And I'm sure at first he prospered
somewhat from his lying. But look at what God said his
end would be. God shall likewise destroy thee
forever. And tonight, as we sit here in
this building, Just remember, this man is in hell suffering
tonight. The Lord shall destroy, likewise
destroy thee forever. Hell, just like heaven, is eternal,
isn't it? The wrath of God. And I thought
about this and I wanted to say this to you and I to remind us
tonight that only, only eternity will reveal the evil that has
been caused by man's tongue. No wonder James, the apostle
in the New Testament, wrote, the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of
deadly poison. How we should pray, you and I
should pray, because we have a tongue like that, set on fire
of hell, as the scripture says, all of us do. We can't tame it. We can't bridle it. but God can,
and how we should pray every day. Lord, lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Now, if you've turned back here
to 1 Samuel 23, I want to point out three things for us to consider
from these verses. First, David's seeking the Lord's
guidance in verses one through five. David seeking the Lord's
guidance two times. He sought the Lord's guidance
as to whether he should go to Keilah. You and I, we have a
wonderful admonition and promise in Proverbs chapter 3. It's very
well known to all of us, and it's so well known that we might
overlook it and might fail to realize what a wonderful blessing
it is. Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. Trust
in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Now listen, and he shall. Doesn't say he might. Doesn't
say perhaps he will. No, he shall direct thy paths. David hears that this city of
Judah, Kila, was under attack by the Philistines. You know,
in the book of Judges, we read several times that the enemies
of Israel would come when they were threshing their harvest,
their wheat. The Israelites would, you know,
they'd break up the sod and they'd plant the seed and they'd watch
it grow and they'd harvest they'll harvest and bring it to the threshing
place, and then when they would thresh the wheat, that's when
the enemies would come down, scoop down, and take all the
spoil, take all of their hard work with them. The first time
that we read of Gideon in the scripture, everyone is familiar
with Gideon, the sword of the Lord, and Gideon, but the first
time, this is what we read about Gideon, Gideon threshed wheat
by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. And that's
what David hears here. If you notice in verse one, behold,
the Philistines fight against Keilah and they rob, they rob
the threshing floors. Now, from what I read at least,
we know how they threshed and how they would beat the the corn,
the wheat, and then they would throw it up into the air, and
the wind would take the spog, that which wasn't wheat, would
take it away. And so this city was a city with
walls. We realized that. And the threshing
work was usually done outside the city walls, and I would assume
that people didn't like that I want to call it cascada, but
it's the outside of the grain, that which is no good. And when they pitched it up into
the air, the wind would take that away. Well, if you were
living next door to somebody threshing wheat, I assume they'd
just take it over to your house, take it in through the windows
into your house or something, into your yard. I remember one
time preaching in a town called Tapicon. I still remember the
town. And I went out there every week
and preached weekly, but one night I went out there and they
were burning chilies, peppers. They were burning peppers in
the yard next to where we were meeting. We were meeting outside,
if I remember right. And the wind was blowing just
the smoke And I just had to cancel the service, couldn't preach.
But anyway, that's kind of off the subject. But anyway, David
hears that the Philistines are robbing this city of their wheat. And so he asked the Lord, he
asked the Lord if he should go up. Now, Remember this, one of
the reasons given for Israel asking for a king, they wanted
a king to defend them. They wanted a king who would
fight their battles and that was really the primary work of
a king was to defend his nation. But the king was not doing that.
King Saul. He was not doing his job. That was his responsibility to
defend his nation. But he was absorbed. This man
was so absorbed with his envy and jealousy and hatred of David,
he didn't care for anything else. The Philistines come in and they
lay siege to this city. He doesn't come to help them,
which he should have as a leader of that country. But the one
thing that he desired above everything else was to destroy his enemy,
David, who wasn't his enemy, but he perceived him to be his
enemy. You see what jealousy and envy
can do to a person. David inquired of the Lord, should
he and his men go and fight with the enemies of his nation? Really,
it was Saul's responsibility to do that and David doesn't
want to put himself in that position, usurp that position of the king. But so he inquires of the Lord. Now how he inquired here we're
not told. But the writer suggests it was
with the help of that prophet, Gad, who had told him to come
back to Judah. Remember, we saw that a few weeks
ago. Gad told him to return to Judah. That with his help, he inquired
of the Lord, and the Lord told David, go up and smite. Go up and fight and save Keilah. Well, David's men, They didn't
have David's faith. They didn't have David's faith,
and I don't believe they had David's love for the nation.
And so they didn't see the wisdom of going up. They were afraid. They were afraid because they
saw that by going up to defend and fighting the Philistines,
they would put themselves in the middle if Saul and his army
were to come and fight against them. They would be fighting
on two fronts, the Philistines on this side and Saul and his
army behind them. And so I see David here as being
very practical, don't you? He inquires of the Lord a second
time. He asks the Lord. And this time,
if you notice, there's a little difference in how the Lord answered
David. But in verse four, when he inquired
the second time, it says, and David inquired of the Lord yet
again, and the Lord answered him and said, Arise, go down
to Keilah, for I will, I will. We love this. God's I wills,
don't we? I will. That's a very important
phrase in the eternal covenant of grace. I will remember their
sins and their iniquities no more. I will be their God. I will write my law upon their
hearts. I will and they shall. And so this time, When the Lord
responded to David's inquiry, God said, I will. Go up, go down, rather, to Achela,
for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And we know,
without even reading it, that God is true to his word. Verse
five, so David and his men went to Achela and fought with the
Philistines and brought away their cattle. and smote them
with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants
of Keilah. Not only did David save the city,
the inhabitants, but he also procured food for his army because
he took away, the scripture here says, much cattle from the Philistines. So it's important for us to seek
the Lord's will. David was a man after God's own
heart and as we look at his life as we go through these scriptures
we can see there's so many things that could be included in that
statement that David was a man after God's own heart. But one
thing stands out here, he was a man who sought the Lord's will. He sought the Lord's will. And
we'll see this, God willing, as we go through 2 Samuel as
well. But the second thing I wanted
to bring out, Saul misread God's providence. Notice that in verse
7 and 8. He misread God's providence. And it was told Saul that David
was come to Keilah, and Saul said, God, now this is how he
understood the fact that David and his men had come into this
city that had walls and gates, that he was enclosed. God hath
delivered him into mine hand. This is what I've been waiting
for. This is what I've been looking for. Maybe this is what I've
been praying for. God hath delivered him into mine
hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town that hath gates and
bars. And Saul called all the people
together to war to go down to Achela to besiege David and his
men. How deceitful and how wicked
is the heart of man. Saul's hatred of David caused
him to believe In spite of everything that he had experienced to this
point, of seeing God's hand upon David, David slaying the giant,
and David being delivered out of Saul's hand when he cast that
javelin at him, all of these things that he had seen, but
his heart still deceives him into believing that this was
God's way for him to dispose of David. David had come into
a place now where he couldn't escape. And I want you to notice
while Saul wouldn't come down the city of Keilah, the Philistines
come and they attack. He doesn't do anything. He doesn't
raise his army and come to defend that city, but when he hears
that David is in that city, here he comes. Here he comes with
his army. Saul called all the people together
to war. Now, obviously, he didn't tell
the people the truth. He didn't tell the people that
he was going, they were going with him to kill David. They were under the impression,
no doubt, they were going down to Keelah to save that city.
But no, that wasn't in Saul's heart. He wouldn't go down there
to deliver those people, but he would go down to capture and
to kill, to destroy David. A third thing that appears to
me, God's infinite knowledge is here manifested. His infinite
knowledge is manifested. How? David was somehow made aware,
we're not told how, but somehow he had heard that Saul was planning
to come down and he inquired of the Lord. Now this time we're
told how he inquired of the Lord. The first two times he inquired
of the Lord, we're not told exactly how, but now we're told he calls
that man who was a priest, he's now the high priest because his
father, his family had been destroyed. And remember when he came, he
brought with him that ephod. Now, there were many ephods,
but there was one ephod of the high priest. And in that ephod
was the stones, the Urim and the Thummim, by which they could
discern, by which God would manifest or reveal his will. And so that's
what David now is able to ask this priest to inquire of the
Lord. And he has two questions. He
asked the priest, now the priest is doing this. And you say, well,
how did those stones and that breastplate, how did that reveal
God's will? Well, you know, that's something
that's been lost. The knowledge of, I've heard
it read, and I'm sure you have too. There's a lot of opinions.
We know it has to do with lights because of the meaning of the
words. But when Israel was taken captive into Babylon, that was
part of what was lost. But this priest, David says,
I want you to find out these two things. Number one, will
Saul come down as I've heard? That's the first question. And
number two, will the men of this city, will they betray me? Will they betray me, deliver
me into the hand of Saul? You know, as you read through
this passage and other passages, you see what could have been
meant in many of his psalms when he talked and spoke about being
betrayed by friends. These people, they owed their
existence to him. They really did. He had saved
their city. If he had not brought his army
down, no telling what the Philistines would have done. And you would
think out of loyalty and love and thanks, gratitude. Oh no, they'll never deliver
you into the hand of Saul. They'll go down with you before
they do that. That was the second question.
Will, will the man of Kelah deliver me into his hand? Well, the answer
to both questions we see are contingent. They're contingent
on the first answer, he will come down, but that's contingent
on David remaining in the city. He didn't come down. Why didn't
he come down? Because Saul heard that David
had left. It was contingent. The answer
that he was given was contingent on David remaining, staying in
Keilah. If you remain here, The answer
might be like this, if you remain here in this city, yes, Saul
is going to come down. He will. And the answer to the second
question is also contingent upon Saul's surrounding the city and
the men of the city being given a choice, either being destroyed
by Saul and his army, and remember the city of Nob, he had destroyed,
They would be given a choice, and they could deliver David,
or they could fight it out. And the answer was, they'll deliver
you. They'll deliver you. Now, David and his men left the
city, so Saul didn't come down. He didn't come down. And the
men of Keilah were not given a choice. They were not placed
in that position of having to choose to deliver David or to
stand and fight. We see God's omniscience in this,
don't we? God not only knows what will
take place, he also knows all the possibilities. He does. We see God's omniscience even
in possibilities. He not only knows what will happen,
but what would have happened under certain conditions. I hope that we appreciate like
we should the infinite wisdom and the knowledge of God. I don't
think that maybe we do. The infinite wisdom of God, the
knowledge of God. He not only knows what will happen
tomorrow because it's ordained, but he knows what could have
happened if men had done things differently. Do you see that? The question is twofold here.
Will Saul come down? And the answer is yes. But he
didn't come down. The answer was yes being contingent
on David staying in the city. When Saul heard he had left,
he had no desire to go down there. And will the men give David into
the hands of Saul if he stays here in this city? But saying
he didn't, then they didn't deliver him. But God knew that. God's
knowledge is knowledge of all things. Know that Psalm 139 is always
such a blessing to me when it speaks about us being created
by God. There cannot be a word on our
tongue, but he knoweth it altogether. David, let's look at that psalm
in closing. Psalm 139. He comes to the point, he says,
such knowledge is too wonderful for me. That's where all of us
are brought, isn't it? When we think about how great
our God is. Oh Lord, thou hast searched me
and known me, thou knowest my down-sitting, my uprising. Thou
understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path
and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways, for there's
not a word in my tongue. But lo, O Lord, thou knowest
it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before and laid thine hand upon me. Now notice, such knowledge. God's knowledge, God's omniscience,
God's knowing of all things. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's high. I cannot attain unto
it. May the Lord be praised in our
thoughts and our words and our actions. Let us sing a verse
or two of a hymn.