Our sermon text for this morning comes from 1 Samuel, chapters 21 and 22. Church, hear the word of the Lord, beginning in 1 Samuel, the 21st chapter. Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling. and said to him, why are you alone and no one with you? And David said to him, elect the priest. The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young man for such and such a place. Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. And the priest answered David, I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread if the young men have kept themselves from women. And David answered the priest, truly women have been kept from us always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Then David said to Ahimelech, then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, the sword of Goliath of Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, there is none like that, give it to me. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, is not this David the king of the land? Did not they sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and made marks on the doors of the gate and let a spittle run down his beard. Then Akish said to his servants, behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adulam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about 400 men. And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, please let my father and my mother stay with you till I know what God will do for me. And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, do not remain in the stronghold. Depart and go into the land of Judah. So David departed and went to the forest of Horeb. Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand. And all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, hear now, people of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as at this day. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nab, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nob. And all of them came to the king. And Saul said, here now, son of Ahitub. And he answered, here I am, my lord. And Saul said to him, why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, and that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me to lie in wait as at this day? Then Ahimelech answered the king, and who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law and captain over your bodyguard and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No, let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this much or little. And the king said, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. And the king said to the guard who stood about him, turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David. And they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Then the king said to Doeg, you turn and strike the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests. And he killed on that day 85 persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword. Both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep, he put to the sword. But one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father's house. Stay with me. Do not be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me, you shall be in safekeeping. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we confess this morning that we are weak. Father, I confess that I am weak in my mouth. And we all confess together that we are weak in our ears and in our hearts. And so, Father, we pray for your spirit We pray for your spirit to guide the words of my mouth, that I would truly preach the word of the Lord according to the word of the Lord, and it's in so doing that it would be the word of the Lord. And Father, I pray that our hearts would receive it for what it is. Father, I pray that our ears would not only hear this message, that our ears would not only hear your words, but that through your spirit, Lord, you would impress them deep upon our hearts. and that in impressing these truths to our hearts, you would change us, that we would continue to be renewed day by day, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Very few things in this life are certain. We know that to be true, don't we? Very, very few things in this life are certain, and many of the things that are certain are difficult things to bear. Many of you have heard Ben Franklin's old statement. It's very, very famous, especially around this time of year, that the only two things that are certain in life are death and taxes. We know that's to be true. But I want to add something to that as well. Yes, death and taxes are sure things, but so are hard times. Hard times are certain. Times of desperation are certain. These are times when we feel like we just don't know what to do. Times when it feels like the whole world is falling around us. And a question that we must ask ourselves, whether we are currently in a time of desperation or not, because we will all inevitably be in that time, is where do we look in times of desperation? Where do we look? Where do we look for hope in times of desperation? In this morning's text, it's clear to see that David himself is in a time of desperation. He is being hunted like an animal by the most powerful man in Israel, King Saul. And the king's anger shows no signs of abating. Truly, as David said at the beginning of chapter 20, there is but a step between him and death. In this account of David, we will see an example of how having a proper understanding of how to read biblical narrative can actually give us thick and reliable answers of where to look for hope in times of desperation. Again, understanding how to read the biblical narrative actually gives us clear answers as to where we should look when we face our own times of desperation. Now as we work through these two chapters, it is incredibly important for us to remember the main threads that we have seen all throughout the book of Samuel. We began this book with the priestly house of Eli, serving as ruler over Israel. But did the house of Eli stand forever? It did not. The priestly house of Eli gave way to the prophetic house of Samuel, as Samuel was exalted to be ruler, to be judge over Israel. But did the house of Samuel stand forever? It did not. The prophetic house of Samuel has given way to the kingly house of Saul. But will the house of Saul stand forever? It will not, because David has been anointed to be king in his place. In fact, the kingly house of Saul is now hunting the anointed house of David. And the fact that these two houses are kingly houses should not surprise careful readers of the text of 1 Samuel. Because if we've read the text carefully, we will remember that there was a prophecy given in Hannah's prayer of praise in 1 Samuel chapter two. And in this prayer of praise, she prophesies that there is coming a faithful king who will shepherd God's people. However, there is also a more overlooked prophecy. And this is a prophecy that we find at the end of 1 Samuel chapter two. It's a prophecy that is a sign of judgment for the house of Eli. but it is also a sign of comfort for all Israel. And the prophecy is this, a prophecy is that the Lord is going to raise up a faithful priest. He is going to raise up a faithful priest who will go in and out before the Lord. Now we've seen that David is to be the Lord's anointed king, but at this point in the text, we're still a little unsure about the identity of this faithful priest. We are still unsure, that is, until we get to today's text. At the beginning of chapter 21, after fleeing the wrath of King Saul in 1 Samuel chapter 20, David arrives at what city? Look in the text. The city of Nob. Now the city of Nob, this is the first time that we have heard this city mentioned in all the scriptures. We have not seen the city of Nob before, and it appears that this city was made the capital of priestly activities following the devastation of Shiloh in 1 Samuel chapter four. Do you remember the battle of Aphek, where Eli lost his two sons and then Eli died? Shiloh was devastated at that time, which is likely why priestly activities shifted to Nob. Now the individual that David goes to see in the city of Nob is a priest by the name of Ahimelech. And what we have to understand about Ahimelech is that Ahimelech is the great-grandson of Eli the high priest. Ahimelech is the great-grandson of Eli who we met at the beginning of this book. Ahimelech was the son of Ahitub, who was the brother of Ichabod. Remember Ichabod? The glory has departed. And Ichabod was the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli. Now this is critical information for us if we are going to properly interpret these two chapters. It's information that we'll be returning to later. The text here says that Ahimelech the priest came to David trembling. Now why would Ahimelech the priest be coming to David trembling? It's for the same reason that the elders of Bethlehem were trembling when Samuel came to Bethlehem after his confrontation with King Saul. Just as the elders of Bethlehem knew of the dramatic confrontation between Saul and Samuel, so now a Himalak almost certainly knew of the dramatic confrontations that had been occurring between King Saul and David. And David says to Ahimelech the priest in verse two, the king has charged me with a matter and said to me, let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you and with which I have charged you. I have made an appointment with the young man for such and such a place. Now the majority of commentators on this text say that David here is engaging in outright deception. Now that's an understandable conclusion, isn't it? It certainly looks like there is deception here. And likely that is how Ahimelech understood these words. He likely, when he heard David say these words, understood him to be on a mission from King Saul. But that's not the only way we can read this text. David says what? Who has charged him with this matter? What are the words he uses? Does he say King Saul? No, he says the king has charged me with a matter. And the question we could ask is which king? After all, remember what the Lord had said in 1 Samuel 8, verse 7. The people have not rejected you, but they have rejected who? Me. They have rejected me from being what? King over them. This word from God creates a dynamic in the book of Samuel between the rejected king, that is the Lord, and the asked for king, the King Saul. Remember, Saul's Hebrew name, Shaul, literally means asked for. He is the asked for king. And so the question for us when we read these words of David is was David's mission from the asked for King Saul, or was it from the rejected king, the Lord God of heaven and earth? The plain reading would be that it was Saul who had sent David on this mission, but a more subtle meaning could be that it was actually the true king of Israel, the Lord, who had sent David to Ahimelech. Ahimelech understands David to mean Saul, but subtle hints in the narrative, at the very least, suggest that it was the Lord who had sent David to Ahimelech. For example, and if you want to look there, you can, chapter 20, verse 22. Chapter 20, verse 22, before the incident that precipitated David's departure, Jonathan tells David this. He says, but if I say to the youth, look, the arrows are beyond you, then go, for the Lord has sent you away. Who sent David away? The Lord. Do you see that in the text? If David has to flee, it is not Jonathan sending him away, it is not Saul sending him away. If David must flee, it is the Lord who is sending him away. And where does David go immediately after he is sent away? He goes to Nab, to Ahimelech, at least according to the ordering of this text. And what is it that he asks Ahimelech for? Look with me in verse three of chapter 21. David says, now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever is here. David specifically asked for what? Yeah, five loaves of bread. Now, this isn't the first time that we have seen bread play a crucial role in the book of 1 Samuel. In Hannah's prophetic prayer, again, this is a key prayer for the book, she prays this. Those who are full have hired themselves out for, guess what? Bread. But those who are hungry have ceased to hunger. And this prophecy is filled out later in 1 Samuel chapter two. Remember how I mentioned the prophecy of the faithful priest? At the end of 1 Samuel 2, the Lord says this to Eli, and whoever is left in your house shall come to implore him, that is the faithful future priest, for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread. The image is that of divine reversal. According to 1 Samuel 2, there is coming a day when the hungry will be filled with what? Bread. And those who are full will then hire themselves out to and beg for what? Here we see in this text that David who is hungry is filled by the full house of Ahimelech. However, by the end of chapter 22, it will be Ahimelech's son Abiathar who would die if he was not joined to the house of David. Do you see that in the text? This is the fulfillment of 1 Samuel chapter 2. Those who are hungry are now filled. and those who are filled are now hungry. We'll see more on that later. But there's another place that we see bread in Samuel that parallels this text. Remember in 1 Samuel 9, Saul is out looking for his father's donkeys, and then he makes this comment. He says that they have no bread. What can we give the man of God? We have no bread. But after Saul is anointed as king at the beginning of chapter 10, do you remember this sign that his kingship is true? He is going down and as he is going down, Samuel says that men are going to come to him as they're going up to Bethel and they will greet him and give him two loaves of bread. For Saul then, his reception of bread was a sign of confirmation that he was to receive the kingdom. Do you hear that? Saul receiving bread was a sign that he was to receive the kingdom. It's no stretch to hear an echo of chapter 10 here in chapter 21. Just as Saul received bread as a sign of his coming kingship, so too David now receives bread as a sign of his coming kingship. But there's something different about David's bread. And it's not just that David gets, or asks for, five loaves compared to Saul's two. Now look with me at the beginning of verse four. And the priest, that is Ahimelech, answered David, I have no common bread on hand, but there is what? Holy bread. if the young men have kept themselves from women? And David answered the priest, truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy, even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy? So the priest gave him what? Not just bread, he gave them the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the presence, which is removed from before the Lord to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. David was not only given bread, David was given holy bread, the bread of the presence. We learn in Leviticus chapter 24 that this bread of the presence was given by the priests to God, not to feed God. Now, if we do research in the ancient Near East, so many of them would bake bread and then give it to their gods because they thought that they had to feed God. Their gods may have had to be fed, ours does not. Now, this bread of the presence was not to feed God, but it was to symbolize the people's covenant with God. The bread was not for subsistence, but for fellowship. It was for covenant reminder and for covenant renewal as the priests week by week consumed the bread. Leviticus chapter 24 verse eight, every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange the bread before the Lord regularly. It is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. Church, do we too have bread of the covenant? We do, we do. We too have bread that is not meant to satisfy our physical needs, but is to be bread of fellowship between us and our Lord. Bread that reminds us of and actually renews the new covenant that exists between us and our God in Christ. And church, what bread am I referring to? Yes, the bread of the supper, the bread of the Lord's supper. It is a consistent sign of covenant reminder and renewal. It is our bread of the presence, symbolizing Christ as we receive him spiritually. Now because this bread that David received was holy bread, there were certain rules that governed its consumption. Leviticus 24 verse nine says this concerning the bread of the presence. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due. What this text is telling us, what we learn from the law, is that this bread that Ahimelech gave David is to be consumed by who? Yeah, but not just the priests. This is to be consumed by Aaron and his sons, that is the high priests. They are the ones who are to consume this bread. But we know David's genealogy, don't we? We know that he is not from the high priestly line of Aaron. He's not even from the priestly line of Judah. He's of the priestly line of Levi. He is of the tribe of Judah, not Levi. So what are we to make of this? Is David in sin? Exactly. We must answer no, because in Matthew chapter 12, Christ uses this account as an example of why it is permissible to do deeds of necessity and mercy on the Sabbath. Matthew chapter 12, verses one through four, hear our Lord speaking. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. Do you see what Jesus is saying there? The assumption in Christ's words in Matthew chapter 12 is that David did nothing wrong in taking the bread of the presence. Even though according to Christ, he says, it was not lawful for him to eat. Do you see the tension that exists there? And so on one level, we can understand this as a deed of necessity. David was famished. If David did not eat the bread of the presence, there was a chance he would die. However, that is not the extent of Christ's argument in Matthew chapter 12. Christ continues, or have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? Then he says this, I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is what? Lord of the Sabbath. Christ's argument is not merely an argument of exception, although it certainly is that, it is also an argument of lordship. Not only is this an acceptable deed on the basis of necessity, it is also an acceptable deed based on the nature of the one who is doing the deed. As the promised Messiah, as the Son of Man, Christ had divine authority to interpret the law of God rightly. Did Christ break the law? No, he did not break the law. He kept it and he interpreted it rightly because he had the authority to do so as the Lord of the Sabbath. Even so, in 1 Samuel chapter 21, David has the authority to take and consume the bread of the presence because his actions as the anointed one are foreshadowing the fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood and the fulfillment of its rules and regulations in Christ. That's why David can take the bread of the presence. It's not just because he was hungry. It's not just because he was desperate. David can take the bread of the presence because David is a picture, David is a type of Christ. And one day, all of the Levitical priesthood would be done away with. But Jesus Christ, the son of David, would rule and reign forever as a high priest. That is why David can take this bread of the presence without breaking the law. David here is being portrayed as the near fulfillment of the faithful priest that was prophesied at the end of 1 Samuel chapter two. And so church, we begin to gain some clarity on David's divine mission here in going to a Himalaya. In receiving the bread of the presence, David is receiving a priestly sign that he will one day lead all Israel in worship. For example, it will be David. It will be David and not merely the priests who leads the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem later on during his reign. Even in the midst of his exile, even in the midst of his fleeing and hiding from King Saul, the Lord is faithful to his promises. He's faithful to confirm his covenant toward David. And he not only does this physically, He also nourishes David spiritually in reminding him of this promise. Similarly, our Lord would one day be brought to utter humiliation. He would be cast outside the camp and he would be utterly forsaken. But that very moment of forsakenness was the moment of his victory. Our Lord truly cried out and he truly meant it, Ali, Ali, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But the ending of that Psalm of David was also understood to be true as well. Listen to how that Psalm ends, Psalm 22. It says, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. "'You who fear the Lord, praise him. "'All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him "'and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.'" And then get this, the psalm says, "'For he has not despised or abhorred "'the affliction of the afflicted. "'And he has not hidden his face from him, "'but has heard when he cried to him. "'From you comes my praise in the great congregation. "'My vows I will perform before those who fear him. "'The afflicted shall eat. and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord, may your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to who? The Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship. Before him shall bow down all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. They shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it. Church, who wrote this psalm? It was David. David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote this psalm, and we see that even David understood that he was a picture of Christ. Even David understood this. He is foreshadowing the Messiah, the true anointed one. This giving of the bread of the presence to David is a sign that even in the midst of David's suffering and persecution, the Lord would be true to his word. He would, and it foreshadows that in our Lord's suffering, his father would still be true to his word. The covenant of redemption would be fulfilled. And when we partake, brothers and sisters, hear me, when we partake of the bread of the covenant, we too receive a sign and a seal that the Lord, even in the midst of our suffering and our trials, and even in the midst of our sin, will be true to his word. He will be true to his word because of the new covenant that has been ratified by the shed blood of Christ. When we receive the bread of the Lord's Supper Church, this is what we are receiving. We are receiving the sign and the seal of the new covenant. Do you understand how significant that is? We are being reminded, our souls are being reminded every time we receive it that God is for us in Christ. Just as David received these signs, so we too receive a sign. But bread is the sign of the priesthood is not the only object that David receives from the hand of Ahimelech. Look with me at the beginning of verse eight. Then David said to Ahimelech, then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste. And the priest said, the sword of who? Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here. And David said, there is none like that, give it to me. David not only receives bread as a sign of his coming leadership over the worship of Israel, here he also receives the sword of Goliath as a sign of his coming role as king over all Israel. And here we gain even more clarity on David's divine mission, his divine trip to the priests of Nob. This trip was to receive the signs of the priesthood and the kingship. Signs that would signal to the rest of Israel that David was the anointed one, but also signs for David's own encouragement as he fled into the wilderness and into foreign lands. Similarly, our Lord Jesus Christ, before he went out into the desert for 40 days, and as he was out in that desert, he would be tempted by temptations that none of his predecessors could stand against. We know the stories of the Old Testament. Nobody could survive that temptation. But before our Lord went into the wilderness to be tempted, what did the Lord give him? He gave him a sign. He gave him words, he was baptized. And he heard these words from heaven, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. We who are in Christ also receive a similar sign and seal of our identity and purpose in the ordinances of baptism in the Lord's Supper. You're gonna hear me talk about these over and over and over again because it is critical. The ordinances are visible sermons. They are truth made tangible that preach to our own souls and to all those around us that we belong to God because we are one with Christ. There are how many baptisms? What does the Apostle Paul say? There is one baptism. We participate in the baptism in which our Lord also participated and so we spiritually participate with Christ. How many cups are there? Just one, how many loaves of bread? Just one, spiritually speaking. We partake of these same elements from which our Lord partook. And as we partake of these elements, we are reminded of our Lord, but also, in partaking of them, we experience the same spiritual reality. We spiritually participate with him. We spiritually have fellowship with him. And it is these ordinances that strengthen our faith, so that we can continue to endure as strangers and sojourners in the midst of the wilderness of this world. Are you starting to understand how important the ordinances are? Too often we downgrade them. We just say, okay, yeah, those are just things that we do. No, no, no, no, no. These ordinances are extremely significant for the life of the church. because these are what encourage us to keep going in the midst of this world. Church, we only neglect the ordinances to our harm. Use them, yearn for them, and receive them by faith. We need the means of grace that our Lord has so graciously provided. We need them. David needed these signs of promise, for he was about to leave the land of Israel. and flee to the city of Gath. That is a city of the Philistines. Look with me in verse 10. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his ten thousands. You see, David flees to Gath, but even in Gath, the people recognize that David is the true king of Israel. Notice the wording there. They say, is this not the king of the land? They know that David is king. They know that he is the anointed one. Here, even the Philistines know the song that is circulated about David and his conquests. Achish and his people recognize David's kingship. The people who walked in darkness, they have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shown. But their recognition of David's kingship causes a reaction of rejoicing in David? No, it's a reaction of fear. In verses 12 through 15, we see David begin to act like a madman because he is afraid of Akish and the Philistines. Now, one reading of this text is that David feared that Akish would kill him since he knew that he would be the king of Israel. This would put David in parallel with people like Abraham and Isaac who also feared for their lives at the hand of a foreign king and so used deception to save their lives. But I do not think that that is the best interpretation of this text because it doesn't fit well with David eventually going to Akish in 1 Samuel chapter 27 and finding refuge among the Philistines there. What seems to be the case then is that Akish and his men knew that there would inevitably be conflict between David and Saul and that they could capitalize on this political instability by assisting David and getting him to be king over Israel. Do you see how that could be the case? Well, why don't we help David? He's going to be the king. Let us help him and destroy Saul in the process. And then while we're at it, we will earn some favor with the new king. Do you see that in this text? David's fear of Akish, if it's interpreted this way, is less parallel to Abraham and Isaac's fear than it is parallel to our Lord's reaction to those who sought to make him king by force. And because of this, we see this text not so much as presenting a fearful fault in David, but as presenting an anointed one who trusted that the Lord would, in time, deliver on his promise to establish David's kingship. In other words, David understood, having received the signs of the priesthood and kingship from the hands of the Himalak, that the Lord would do his work in his time. All David had to do was wait patiently in the wilderness. The day was coming. but he was not to use ungodly means to accomplish the divinely promised end. Church, I'm not gonna summarize for you where our world is at today. Many of you watch the news, for better or for worse, and you see it. Our world seems so bent on breaking the bonds of the anointed one, so bent on rebelling against God, and at times it can be tempting for us believers to compromise in the name of gaining political or social or financial ground. That could be tempting. Do you agree with that? It can be very, very tempting. But brothers and sisters, David understood that to align himself with the Philistines in pursuit of God's promises was to forsake God's promises. Church, for us to align ourselves with the world and its systems and its values in pursuit of what we see as our divine mandate is to forsake our divine mandate. And so, yes, we wander in the wilderness, but we don't wander as those who have no hope. When we hear the news of what's going on in the world around us, we do not mourn like the rest of the world, or at least we ought not. But when we hear what's going on around us in the world, we do not respond like the rest of the world, or at least we ought not. And the question is why? Because again, we have the signs and seals of the covenant promises. We have the signs and the seals of the Covenant Promises Church. We have a promise, a tangible promise from God that he will be true to his word. I'm gonna keep bringing this up over and over and over again because it is so critical for us to understand. What does the Lord's Supper have to do with our interactions with the world throughout the week? What does the Lord's Supper have to do with our politics? What does the Lord's Supper have to do with our finances? What does the Lord's Supper have to do with our worldly relationships? And the answer is what? It is everything. It has everything to do with all of these things. Why? Because like the bread of the presence and the sword of Goliath, it serves as a sign and a seal, a visible sermon that our God has always been and always will be true to his word. He will fulfill every single promise that He has made for us in the new covenant in Christ. Do you believe this? The ordinances remind our souls of these truths. We have the sign and the seal of the covenant. And so although we do not yet see with our eyes Christ upon His throne, And although, and we know this to be true, our eyes are often still wet with tears, we know that God is going to be true to his word. We know this. And we have a sign that we regularly receive that reminds our minds and our hearts and our eyes and even our mouths that this will certainly come to pass. And so, church, we do not need to compromise with worldly powers to accomplish God's ends. He is going to do it. We do not need to wed ourselves to the spirit of this age. Our God is making all things new, and how is he making all things new? Through the very means that he has given us in his word. He is doing it, and he will do it. But that's not all, and we're gonna move through chapter 22 a lot quicker than we moved through 21. This next account is an incredibly timely reminder in times of desperation of God's providence over all history. In verses one through five, what happens here is David's family comes to meet him down at the cave of Adullam. Now David's family, as David is fleeing from Saul, his family comes to join him, why? Because they too are in danger from the wrath of the king. They are relatives of this one who has been set up as the replacement of King Saul. But the question is, how can David protect his entire family when he can barely protect himself? And the answer is, he can't. He can't, and so where does he go? He goes to the king of Moab. Now why would David go to the king of Moab? Well first, Moab at this point was in a time of conflict with Saul, but second, if we remember from the book of Ruth, David is also in part a Moabite. If we read Ruth chapter 4 verses 21 and 22, Salomon fathered Boaz, that is Ruth the Moabitess' husband, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered who? David. What we learn there is that David's great-grandmother was a Moabitess. 1 Samuel 22 then adds a whole nother dimension to God's sovereignty in the book of Ruth. Because of what the Lord had orchestrated all the way back in the days of the judges, David's family had a place of refuge where they could flee. Do you see that in the text? Because of what the Lord had done in the past, he sustained David's family in the presence. Again, there is a lesson for us here in persevering through times of desperation. Not only have we received covenant signs, but we are also assured that the Lord is sovereign. What that means is that our Lord knows all things, or is that he is in control of all things, past, present, and future. And we are assured that our God is omniscient, that he knows all things, past, present, and future. And so by this text we are assured that nothing that is coming down the line for us, nothing that is coming down the line is outside of his knowledge or his control. Nothing. There is not a thing that will come against you that he does not know about and that he is not sovereign over. Not a thing. He was sovereign all the way back in the days of Ruth. all the way back in the days of David's great-grandmother, preparing the way for the salvation of David's family. Isn't that incredible? Similarly, all the way back in the days of your great-grandparents and your great-great-grandparents, all the way back as far as we can go, who was still in control? It was God. Truly, He works all things out according to the counsel of His will. Truly, all things work together for the good of those who love God, for the good of those who have been called according to His purpose. Even those things that we do not yet understand, God is working for our good and for His glory. He is. And as we see in this account, the same God who was sovereign and omniscient in the days of Ruth, was sovereign and omniscient in the days of David, as he sends the prophet Gad to warn David to flee into the land of Judah, which he immediately does. And here, if you look in the text in verse six, the scene shifts. The scene shifts from the seed of the woman, from the anointed one, to the seed of the serpent, to the rejected one. Verse six, now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him, Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with a spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. Notice how the narrator sets the scene. Saul, like Eli before him, is here depicted as a what kind of leader? He is a sitting leader, not standing. But not only that, what does he have in his hand? His spear, now this has been a constant refrain for King Saul. He always has his spear in his hand. He sits with his spear ready to strike at the anointed one whenever he gets the chance. Verse seven. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, here now people of Benjamin, will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as at this day. Do you hear the raving nature of King Saul here? He is beginning to recognize and to vocalize his increasing isolation. Not even his servants, indeed not even his son, is faithful to him. But there was a serpent in Saul's garden, and under the tamarisk tree, he speaks to Saul. Verse nine. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nab, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub. And he inquired of the Lord for him, and gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. The reappearance of Doeg the Edomite sends us all the way back to the middle of chapter 21, where in verse seven we see this. Between David receiving the bread and the sword, verse seven, now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. When none of Saul's Israelite servants would assist him in the capture and slaughter of the anointed one, Doeg the Edomite would. Verse 11, then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests who were at Nab, and all of them came to the king. How many of them? All of them came to the king. And when they arrived at the king, King Saul accuses Ahimelech and his family of assisting and aiding King David. And he is mad. He is furious. Now, naturally, Ahimelech denies the accusation. But we must ask ourselves the question, was Ahimelech as ignorant as he says here? Or was he lying to the king? Now, I'm inclined to go with the latter. and interpret Ahimelech's words to Saul here as a condemnation of Saul and his pursuit of David. Similar to Jonathan's words at the beginning of chapter 19. Ahimelech was not a dumb guy. And anybody who was that powerful in Israel would know what was going on between David and Saul. For if the Philistines knew, Ahimelech certainly knew. And so in Ahimelech's words to Saul about how David has done him no wrong, he is condemning Saul. He's saying, Saul, this is your greatest servant. Saul, David has done nothing wrong to you, of course I would help him. But these words do not turn away the wrath of King Saul. He does not repent, but doubles down in his sin. Verses 16 and 17, and the king said to Ahimelech, you shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house. And the king said to the guard who stood about him, turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David. And they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me. But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the Lord. Saul demands the execution of the priests, but his servants understand how sacrilegious, how blasphemous such an action would be. And so they commendably refused to carry out his orders to slaughter the priests. And that's good on them, right? But remember, there was a serpent in Saul's garden, a serpent by the name of Doeg the Edomite, and he reappears ready to do Saul's bidding. Verse 18, then the king said to Doeg, you turn and strike the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day how many? 85 persons who wore the linen ephod, that is 85 holy priests to the Lord. Verse 19, and Nob, the city of the priest, he put to the sword, both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep he put to the sword. Church, we have seen Saul sin previously in 1 Samuel, but this incident pushes his sin to new heights. Not only does he have 85 priests of the Lord, that is holy, set apart priests to the service of the Lord, not only does he have them slaughtered, he also has the entire city of Nob wiped out, man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey, and sheep. He shows no mercy to those who assisted the anointed one. And the irony here is thick, because remember, in chapter 15, Saul refused to follow the command of the Lord to utterly wipe out the Amalekites. He refused to do it. He would not wipe out the enemies of the people of God, but who would he wipe out? He would wipe out his own people. He would wipe out the priests of the Lord, all their children, all his father's house, all of Ahimelech's family. Saul's sin should make our stomachs turn. This is a sacrilegious, blasphemous action. But it also raises in our minds a significant theological question, and it is this. Is Saul morally responsible for his actions here in chapter 22? This is an easy question. Is Saul morally responsible? He is. Of course he is. He is the one who is killing the priest. He has sinned grievously. He is morally responsible for this slaughter. And yet we must raise another question. Was God still sovereign in the moment of this detestable sin? We must say yes for these reasons. First, the scriptures teach throughout that God is always in control of all things. If God is not in control of all things, then he is in control of nothing. He is always sovereign, always in control. But second, this event had already been prophesied in the book of Samuel. In 1 Samuel chapter 2, remember the promise of the faithful priest that we started with? Listen to these words. In response to the wickedness of Eli's household, the man of God says to Eli in 1 Samuel 2, verse 30, therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares, I promise that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. But now the Lord declares, far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house. "'so that there will not be an old man in your house. "'Then in distress you will look with envious eye "'on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, "'and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. "'The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar "'shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, "'and all the descendants of your house "'shall die by the sword of men.'" That was prophesied in 1 Samuel chapter two. This prophecy began to be fulfilled in 1 Samuel chapter 4 in the battle of Aphek, when Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed, followed by the death of Eli. And this prophecy is more fully fulfilled here in chapter 2, when Eli's great-grandson and his entire village, his entire household, are murdered by King Saul. And it will be fully fulfilled at the beginning of 1 Kings chapter 2, I believe it is, when the son of David, King Solomon, banishes the only surviving son of Ahimelech from the priesthood. What we see here then is that the sin of Saul, in the sin of Saul, the Lord was fulfilling his promises. In the sin of Saul, the Lord was fulfilling his promises. And this extends beyond just the scene. It was the sin of Saul that drove David into the house of Ahimelech to receive the sign of his coming reign. It was the sin of King Saul that revealed the Lord's mysterious providence and giving David's family refuge in Moab. It was the sin of King Saul that continued to fulfill the Lord's promise to cut off the house of Eli. It was the sin of King Saul that, in verses 20 through 23, drives Ahimelech's son Abiathar to David, further fulfilling the prophecy of 1 Samuel 2, and revealing to the careful reader that David is here being depicted not only as the faithful king, but as the faithful priest. Yes, we must affirm that Saul was morally responsible, amen? And yet the Lord was sovereign even over Saul's heinous sin. Amen? As Saul violently violated the word of the Lord, the Lord was faithfully fulfilling his word. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways. But we must not stop with these accounts. We see these texts, and we see the theological truths that undergird them, but we must look beyond them to the one concerning whom they are but types and shadows. Remember, in all of these books, we must see who. Christ, we must see Christ or we miss the point. You see church, that Christ is the true and greater son of David and that Christ too was a faithful priest and a faithful king. But unlike David, Christ was the only perfectly faithful king and he was the only perfectly faithful priest. Like David, Christ too was revealed to be our priest and our king in his humiliation. But unlike David, our Lord's humiliation involved not only bearing the weight of the wrath of a king, but bearing the weight of the wrath of God. Like David, Christ, too, refused to be made a king by worldly means and compromises. But unlike David, our Lord was not made king over a strip of land in the Middle East. No, he was made king over all the cosmos. He says in our commissioning, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. All authority. Like David, Christ too attracted the misfits and the discontents of society. I love that verse at the beginning of chapter 22. Christ attracted all those people. He was a friend of tax collectors and a friend of sinners. But unlike David, our Lord did not primarily deliver them from political oppression, but he delivered them from their sin. He not only delivers them physically, he delivers them primarily spiritually. He saved them from their sins. And church, get this. While we see an example of the intersection between human sinfulness and divine sovereignty in the slaughter of the priests of Nob, we see the ultimate example of this intersection in the slaughter of the Son of God. Like Saul, the Jewish leaders and the Romans and the crowds were morally culpable for their actions, were they? Yes, they were morally responsible for crucifying the divine Son of God. They chose to crucify the only begotten Son of God because they hated the light. They hated the Son of God. But we see all throughout scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, that all this took place to fulfill what had been written. To fulfill the plan of salvation that God had planned since before the foundation of the world. And so, believer, in your times of desperation, in your wilderness moments, remember this. Our God is sovereign over all, including over times of evil and suffering, including the death of his own son. He is sovereign over all. And it was in that death that we received undeniable confirmation that Christ is our priest, that Christ is our king, and that he will save his people. He will save his people. We see this truth foreshadowed here in this account, but we hear it echoed throughout all of our lives. We see it. It is as though when we hear the word faithfully preached, and when we experience the Lord's Supper faithfully practiced, we hear the words of King David to Abiathar in verse 23. But these words in our ears and in our hearts do not come from David, but from the true and greater son of David. And the words are these. Stay with me. Do not be afraid. For he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me, you shall be in safekeeping. And we know that these words are true because our Lord is no longer in the wilderness, is he? He is no longer in the wilderness, but at the right hand of the Father. And he is no longer on the cross crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? No, he is on his throne with his father, interceding for us. There he is serving faithfully and without wavering as our perfect prophet, priest, and king. Church. In your times of desperation, and they are certain, cling tightly to the precious covenant signs that Christ has given us. Remember that God is providentially working all things out for our good and for His glory, even things hundreds of years ago and even things we do not understand. And feel deeply within your bones this mysterious tension. that although we bear responsibility for our actions, our God is working out all things according to the counsel of his will and the will of no other. And cling to, remember, and feel these things primarily as they resonate from the cross of Christ. Let us pray. Father, this morning's text is a complicated one. Father, there are so many moving themes that we have seen all throughout the scriptures, and yet, Father, the core of it is this, that you have given us a faithful king, that you have given us a faithful priest, and that, Father, you have given us signs and truths to cling to in our own times of desperation. And so, Father, be merciful to us, be gracious to us, Lord, and give us your spirit in these times. Father, send upon us the spirit of adoption, crying out to our spirits, Abba, Father, speaking truly to us that we are the children of God, that we have a king, that we have a priest, and that his name is Jesus Christ, that he was the one who went out into the wilderness on account of his people, that he has borne all the weight of your wrath against our sin, so that there is not a drop left for us. But the Father, he did not stay in the wilderness, but was exalted to the throne, that he did not stay on the cross and he did not stay in the grave, that he did not stay in the realm of the dead, but was resurrected and has ascended to your right hand. Oh Father, give us lips that are able to praise him this morning and give us hearts that are able to endure any time of difficulty because we know this to be the case and seal it on our hearts through the word and the signs that you have given us. In the name of Jesus Christ, our faithful King and faithful priest, we pray. Amen.