Please open your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 21. We'll be studying the entirety of this chapter this evening, 1 Samuel 21. It's gonna be found in the P Bible on page 244. I ask you to please stand for the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let us hear him. Then David came 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 Ahimelech 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 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 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 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. 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? Do they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his 10,000s. 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 his spittle run down his beard. Benakish 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? Amen. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. Please be seated. Seek refuge in God. That is our call this evening to seek refuge in God. A refuge is a place of safety from harm. Perhaps also we could think of it as a place of rest from that which would cause us to be weary. But it's a place where we're no longer on the run, a place we're no longer in danger, we're no longer frazzled. We're able to find peace, safety, and security. And certainly in a fallen world, we are in need of refuges. There are things that would assail us. There are things that would cause us much grief. And we need those places of rest and security. And that is indeed the situation in which we find David in our passage here. David is now officially on the run from Saul. We've seen that God chose David to be the king who would replace Saul and anointed him privately as king through Samuel. Obviously, David made his appearance on the scene in a grand manner in defeating Goliath and saving the people of Israel from the Philistines in that great battle. And then we saw last week, as we looked through the chapters subsequent to David's spelling of Goliath, how Saul progressively, in his envy, desired to kill David more and more to the point where David no longer could dwell in the midst of Saul, in the midst of his own people, but had to go on the run. No former home is safe for David, And he must seek refuge from those who are seeking his life. What we will see in looking at this example of David is that we too, that he did and we too need to seek refuge in God. For the kids tonight, I have not a question, but a task for you to look at. So as we're going through the sermon, list all the connections that you find to Goliath. We dealt with Goliath a couple of weeks ago. Goliath is dead, we're not going to meet him again, but there are connections to Goliath that are in this chapter. So I want you to list the times and the ways that there are connections to Goliath here. As we look at the passage, we're going to look at it under two headings. We're going to see, as David is seeking refuge in God, that first, David flees to the tabernacle in verses 1 through 9, and then secondly, David flees to the Philistines in verses 10 through 15. Let us look once again at verses 1 through 9 as we consider what God has to say to us here. 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 Ahimelech 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 men 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 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 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, 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. So we do see the first place where David sought refuge as he's fleeing from Saul for his life, knowing that Saul desires to kill him, as he comes to the tabernacle. The tabernacle at this time was dwelling in a city called Nob. If you remember before, the tabernacle was in Shiloh, but as we saw earlier in 1 Samuel, the Ark of the Covenant was taken away from the tabernacle, was lost among the Philistines because the people lost the battle as it was taken by the wicked sons of Eli. And though the Ark had been recovered, it did not come back to where the tabernacle was. It is dwelling in another city, and it seems that The tabernacle, what's left of it, the rest of it, has gone to be in this other town, which is Nob, no longer dwelling in Shiloh. So there is a ministry of the tabernacle that is going on at this time, but it is a reduced ministry. It's not the fullness of the ministry that was going on when the ark was together with it. So this priest that we're finding here, Ahimelech, is serving in the tabernacle. But we understand that in a certain sense, he too is on the run. Not that he's fleeing from anybody, but he does not have the normal provisions for the tabernacle at hand for him to do his ministry. But nonetheless, this is where David runs. Why is it that he runs here? Well, David desired the Lord's presence, and he thought, that he could find help here if nowhere else. If the king is seeking your life and you're in the king's lands, there aren't many places that are safe to go. Now it wasn't necessarily common knowledge to everyone that the king was seeking David's life, but nonetheless, anyone that he did meet with would potentially be one who could be turned against him and also one who could be put in danger. But he desires to go to what seems to be a safest place that he could at least stop by, the tabernacle where God's priest is ministering. Although the priest was suspicious about David coming alone, as we see he comes out and he's trembling when he meets David, which seems to indicate he knows something's wrong. You don't normally just come to tremble when the great champion of your people comes to meet you. David certainly had shown no hostility to God's people nor his priests, so he's suspicious about David coming alone and asks why it is that he's alone. But nonetheless, even though perhaps the answer that he receives is not as sufficient as he would like, he's willing to help. We see the answer that David gives to this question, this inquiry of why is he alone, what is it that he's doing, as David tells him that he is on a secret mission from the king. And what are we to make of this answer that David gives here? Well, some have pointed out, and it is technically the case, that this answer can, from a certain point of view, be true, as David has been anointed by the true king of Israel. God and has been sent on a mission to defend the people, to be one who would be ruler of the people, and so he is seeking to accomplish the will of the true king in that way, so this could be a means by which what David is saying is technically true, though certainly the meaning that the priest is going to take from these words is not that, that he's on a mission from Saul. So is David telling something, saying something that is outright untrue, or is he saying something that can be true from a certain perspective? It's hard to know. Likely he's just saying something that is untrue. But nonetheless, there can be a way that this is construed as being true. At the very least, even if he is saying something that is untrue to the priest, his purpose in doing this is that it does protect the priest as much as possible. He's on the run from Saul, and if he comes and says, well, the king wants to kill me, but please give me help, then now the priest has a decision to make. Is he going to help this one who is public enemy number one, or is he going to report him to the king, what's he going to do? David is protecting him and allowing him to be able to be in the dark, as it were, about what's going on, in hopes that it would then make it so that he does not draw the wrath of Saul. And David makes a request in this. He asks for food. Being on the run, he left quickly. He didn't have much with him, though he is desiring to have something to eat. But we see here in the passage the only food that was available at the tabernacle is the show bread, or what the ESV calls the bread of the presence. This particular bread was special bread for the ministry of the tabernacle. It was 12 separate loaves. Loaves aren't technically correct. They weren't made in loaves, but 12 separate pieces of bread. that were set on a golden table in the holy place. If you remember the way the tabernacle is ordered, there's the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant dwells. Only the high priest can go in there, only once a year. Outside of the Holy of Holies is the holy place, which is still on the inside of the tabernacle proper, the building of the tabernacle. Only the priests can go in there. And this is where the showbread was. It would sit there, and the idea is that, as it sat on the table together with the lamp stand, the light of the face of God, the light of the presence of God is shining on these 12 pieces of bread, which represent the 12 tribes of Israel. And the priest is ministering here. in the context of what's going on here, to bless the people of Israel on behalf of the people of Israel with this being an emblem, a sign of God's favor upon Israel in the tabernacle. And these 12 pieces of bread were to be changed out weekly. On the Sabbath day, The 12 pieces that had been there for seven days would be removed and were to be eaten by the priests, and then 12 new pieces were to be set out, and thus the pattern went throughout the ministry of the tabernacle. So we find that there's a problem here. Only the priests are allowed to eat the bread of the presence, but this is the only bread that is available. Yet, we see that the priest was willing to give the bread to David, spite of the fact that David wasn't a priest himself. Now, why is this? Well, the priests knew that the law was about treating holy elements the right way and in providing for the priests, but the law was not given to be a means of depriving those who were in need, particularly those who are serving the Lord and even have sanctified and consecrated themselves to the Lord's service. So the priest is a rightful recipient of the bread of the presence. It was his to take, it was his to eat, and this we can take from the implication, and actually when this passage is quoted in the New Testament by Christ, that this is happening on the Sabbath day when the pieces of bread were to be changed out and were to be eaten. He being the rightful recipient of these pieces of bread had some latitude to give the bread to those who had consecrated themselves and were in need. And that's the significance of what he says when he asks if the men have kept themselves from women. the idea being if all bodily emissions under the ceremonial law caused uncleanness, one could not partake of holy things, interact with holy things if one was unclean. So he's asking if they're unclean, he says no, actually they're holy, they're more than just clean, they're holy, they've consecrated themselves and so, Though it would not be the normal course of things, it is licit for them to be able to partake of the bread of the presence. And so the priest, caring for David, knowing the purpose of the law, not just sticking to the letter of the law, but to the spirit of the law, does indeed give David the bread. But David, as we see here, was also in all of this seen by a servant of Saul. And whether or not it's because of this, he then asks for a weapon. He asks for protection as he knows that this man is not going to be seeking his good. This could be a cause of trouble for him. And he finds that there's no weapon here except the sword of Goliath, interestingly enough. The last time we saw the sword of Goliath, it was in David's tent after he had taken the sword and used it to decapitate Goliath after hitting him with the stone. David took the sword and put it in his own tent. Apparently at some point it was given to the priest to house Goliath. And now it is being returned to David and he takes the sword for protection, but also as an emblem of God's power, of God's victory, that what God has done in his life to be a means of encouragement to him as well as protection. But nonetheless, in all of this, David coming and finding a welcome, finding help from the priest here, David could not stay. He could not continue to endanger the priests. He could not endanger all those serving at the tabernacle. He was able to find a temporary refuge at the house of God. He was fed and equipped for his journey, but he did need to move on. He needed to continue to seek refuge in God. And so we see how this continues then in the next few verses in verses 10 through 15. So we see after David having fled to the tabernacle, now David flees to the Philistines. Let us look back at these verses. 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? Do they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands and David his 10,000. 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 his spittle run down his beard. Then Achish 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? So you see the next place that David sought refuge in is paradoxically having first gone to the tabernacle and having just received the sword of Goliath, where is it that he goes? He goes to Goliath's own hometown. Gath is where Goliath was from, and it is ruled by the Philistines. One of the five lords of the Philistines dwelt in Gath, and David is going there for refuge. Why is it that he chooses to go here? We're not told, but it is likely the case that he chose to go there because this is a place where Saul wasn't going to come. Saul wasn't looking to pick a fight with the Philistines. He wasn't looking to go into their territory and have a head-on attack. And so, the rationale likely was if he finds acceptance with the Philistines, then David will be safe from both Saul who was hunting him and the Philistines who would also be the ones who had been hunting him and he would have to worry about. He can kill two birds with one stone and be safe from everybody who would be chasing him simply by going and being among one of those who was formerly seeking his harm. And David would successfully revisit this strategy later. We'll come to see, David's going to try this again, and it's going to work. But at this point, it does not. At this time, the Philistines do not see him as an asset against Saul, but only as a hated foe. They remember what it is that he did to Goliath. They remember what it is that he did to 200 of their men in recent months or years. And they remember the songs that had been sung about him. They even recognize, whether or not they recognize that he is truly in line to be king, or they simply recognize that he is the one who is rather acting as the king who goes forth and fights the battles for the people, they're saying, this is the one who should be king over Israel. This is not somebody we want to trifle with. And so they saw him as a hated foe. And David, seeing then that he would not receive a welcome among the Philistines, resorted to playing the madman in front of them in order to escape their fury. And I think this raises a couple of questions for us to ask and have answered here. First is, why didn't David fight the Philistines in this case? David has already had great success over Goliath. He's had great success over the Philistines as a whole. As we mentioned, he's struck down 200, though he likely wasn't fighting alone when he struck down 200 of the Philistines. He had a regiment with him. But nonetheless, he's had great success. And we've seen Jonathan and others before Samson also preeminently we can think of as those who were empowered by the Lord to strike down great numbers of the Philistines when the numbers were not in their favor. Why doesn't David call upon the Lord and fight the Philistines? Well, I think the answer to that is that though God was with David, David could not presume that God was going to fight supernaturally simply for him. The other examples that we have of this, although Samson was selfish in the way that he was fighting, God was nonetheless bringing deliverance for Israel in what he was doing through this. David was not going to presume that simply because he needed to be delivered that God was going to give him the grace and the power to supernaturally defeat the Philistines when he is in the midst of them, and so does not go to fight against them in this regard. And so instead, he decides to act like a madman. And that is the second question. Why does acting like a madman work? Because you could think to yourself, if you're the Philistines, well, here's this man who has struck down our greatest champion, who has struck down hundreds of us. He's in our grasp. He's acting like a crazy man. What better time to seize upon him and kill him? He probably won't do anything to us if he's just acting in a crazy manner. Well, this has to do a little bit with what it means to be a madman in that time and place in the ancient Near East. Those who were crazy, those who were insane, were not just viewed as having a mental ailment. They were viewed as being touched by a spirit. And for good reason, oftentimes they would have been. And so to strike one who was being possessed by this spirit, who had a, what they would view as a god, dwelling in this one, would be to then incur the anger and wrath of that god, because that god is dwelling in, is doing something to this person for their purposes. They wouldn't necessarily understand it, but Here they are doing this, and so you don't want to incur the wrath of the God that has possessed them. Better to let them be, let them go on their way. Now, the text is clear. David is not possessed by a spirit of any sort. David is intentionally doing this, unlike Saul, who was afflicted by a spirit. No spirit overtakes David, he does this on his own, and it is a means by which he is able to escape the clutches of the Philistines. And interestingly enough, as we look at other scriptural testimony to this event, David in doing this is looking to the Lord to be his deliverer and trusting in the Lord. We already read from Psalm 56, which if you remember the title, it speaks of a psalm that he wrote concerning when he was seized by the Philistines in Gath. So it's referring to this incident. The other psalm that is a reflection of this time is Psalm 34. And in both cases we see David talking about God's faithfulness as he looks to him, as he depends upon him to be delivered from his enemies, the Lord being faithful and indeed delivering him. And so David is seeking his refuge in the Lord even as he's in the midst of the Philistines, even as his original plan doesn't seem to be working. He takes up this tactic, he deceives the Philistines, and is enabled by God's grace to be delivered from their clutches. As we see in the first verse of the next chapter, he escapes from the city and is not harmed. Thus, David was spared and able to escape from the Philistines. He did not find a welcome among God's enemies. He did not find a refuge among God's enemies, but he did learn to seek refuge in God. So that's the explanation of the passage. How might we put it to practice in our own lives? Let us consider two things. First, the godly use of holy things. And secondly, godly use of deception. So let's consider holy things and how we see David interacting with them here. As I mentioned, there is some question about David's use of holy things in this passage. The showbread. whether or not he was supposed to be the one who was eating it. However, Christ does settle the issue of whether or not David was doing anything wrong when he cites this instance approvingly. Christ, in defending the disciples when they were picking grain on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees object to the fact that they're picking the grain, and Christ appeals to this and says, well, was it wrong for David to eat of the showbread, which only the priests are allowed to eat? And the clear implication of the answer is no, it was not wrong for him to do that in that circumstance. And thus also it wasn't wrong for the disciples to be picking grain and eating it on the Sabbath day. So, David was not using it wrongly. But still, this instance raises for us the important question of What it is that holy things are for, and what must we do to treat that which is holy rightly? So let's answer this first by examining what the word holy means. Helpful for us to have that perspective in view. What it means for something to be holy is that something is set apart from common use for service to God. And often this is in a worshiping context, not exclusively in a worshiping context, but set apart from common use for service to God. This can be true of people, places, and things, or even times, or things that can be set apart to the service to God, not to be used commonly. As an example, these things fall into two categories, ultimately. There are two categories of things that are holy. There are things that are made holy or consecrated by God himself. Some examples of that might be the Sabbath day. God has declared the Sabbath day to be holy. The sacraments are things that God has established, that they are holy signs and seals given to us to minister his grace. Those who serve in church office are set apart. There is a ordination, laying on of hands that is setting those who are, whether elders or deacons, apart to be holy, to serve God in a holy service. And so these are all things that God himself makes holy, has declared to be holy, and are to be treated as holy because God has made them to be so. But the second category of things are things that we devote to Him as holy, so things that aren't in and of themselves by God's declaration holy, but are good and right for us to be able to devote to Him as that which we're setting apart to say, yes, we want this to be given in service to God. So for that, we have special days such as We can think of holidays that we devote to worshiping the Lord or simply particular days that we choose for prayer and fasting. Our gifts, our tithes that we give to the Lord, we're setting apart and we're offering this to the Lord to say this is going to be holy for the Lord's service and not for common use. or any service that we do in the context of the church as we are offering service to our brothers and sisters, seeking to build up the church, we are devoting ourselves to particular holy service rather than whatever common actions we might otherwise be taking. So those are examples of the two categories, God makes things to be holy or we can devote things to be holy. And these things are set apart to God, not to be used commonly, you don't take the sacramental bread and wine and just decide to have a regular meal out of it when it's been set apart for the purpose of serving the Lord's Supper. Not that when we eat it afterwards, I'm not saying the kids are wrong or anybody's wrong for eating the bread after it's done, that's not the point, or drinking the wine after it's done. But when we've set it apart, we're saying we're using it for this purpose, it would be wrong for us then to treat it for other purposes to then just use it cavalierly. And that gets to then what is a godly use of these holy things? How is it that we can treat holy things in a right manner? Well, there are two particular things I would call us to consider. First, we're to treat them with respect and reverence for the purpose for which they've been given. When something is holy, you don't goof around. You're not casual. when something is holy. We have examples of this when people come into the presence of God. For example, Moses, when he comes to the burning bush, God says to him, Moses, take off your sandals for the ground on which you are standing is holy ground. There's a special reverence, a special care that needs to be taken here. You don't just treat this like it's just anything else. It's been set apart for God's service. It has a special function. It is mediating to us God's presence, God's grace, and so we need to give it proper respect and reverence when we are dealing with it. And so in treating holy things, we need to have a proper respect for our Father, our King, our Savior, who has said, this is holy, this is in service to me. And insofar as we don't do that with holy things, we treat them wrongly, we are therefore not having a proper respect for God himself. So we need to make sure that we are giving that proper care for what God has given to be holy. Secondly, we also want to guard them so they're not contaminated with holy things. We talked about what it means to be holy is to be set apart from that which is common. It's no longer in the realm of that which is normal, which is every day. It now has a special purpose. And so, you shouldn't use that which is holy for other purposes, nor allow unholy things in or when we're Doing holy service when we're at a holy time, like the church service, we're trying not to be free of distractions. We're not trying to allow the other things that are going on in our life or the world to be crowding in like, oh, well, I'm here to worship the Lord, but also let me check the scores on the game very quickly while this is going on. Or let me be thinking about all the things that I need to be getting to when I get home or when I go back to work tomorrow. Now, the idea is that we're devoting ourselves, our time, our thoughts, our energy, our hearts to the Lord to worship Him because this is a time that He has set apart to be for our renewal, for us to focus on Him, to have His grace mediated to us, and we should be guarding that in our hearts and not allowing that to be contaminated in the sense not that these other things are bad things, But if they distract us from the particular thing that we are being set apart to, then it's going to lose the holiness, the purpose for which it has been given. So when we see this priority of guarding holy things at work in Christ's life in particular, his care for cleansing the temple of the money changers, if you remember the examples when he does that. Why is it that Christ sees the need to cleanse the temple from these who are doing a, well, in some cases, an honest business. I guess in the particular case of that, it wasn't, they were making money hand over fist and defrauding the people who were there. But nonetheless, offering ways for people to buy sacrificial animals seems good and right to be done, but it was happening in the court of the Gentiles, a place that was set apart for the Gentiles to be able to come and pray, to devote their hearts, their minds to the Lord, But here they're doing this business in the court, disrupting, distracting what should be a place of prayer for his people, and so Christ chases them out. It's meant to be a holy place. It's not meant for this. It would be viable in another area, but not in the temple. So we want to rightly use holy things by treating them with respect and reverence, and guard them so they're not contaminated. Now why is this treatment important? It's because holy things specially connect us to God. God is present in everything, but God himself, as we see throughout in the scripture, sets things apart as holy. And if we don't treat them rightly, it will hinder our ability to relate to God in all things. So for example, again, coming back to the idea of the church service, a person who has no regard for the church service, just treats it like it's any other activity that they might be doing, ultimately is not going to find that they're going to honor God in the rest of their life. They're going to treat God lightly, they're treating Him lightly when the time has been set apart to worship Him, to devote time and energy to Him, and it's just, well, it's just like any other time, no big deal. that's not going to engender itself to then treating God with honor and respect and putting Him first in the rest of life. And so we want to treat these things specially because then it helps shape us, it helps direct us in the way that we can relate to God in those times which aren't necessarily set apart. But insofar as we know that we do have times we need to submit to the Lord, we do have things that we need to treat specially because they are given over in service to God. These other things we can also, in a certain manner, devote to the Lord, consecrate to the Lord, and make holy. as we devote the particular work that we do day by day and offer them up to the Lord and honor Him in even the common things that we do. But also as we treat these things rightly, we learn self-denial and self-control. We grow in our sense of God's presence and we strengthen ourselves for service to the Lord as we intentionally give care for the things that God has set apart as holy. It will bless us in these ways for, yeah, we're learning, okay, I can't just treat this the way I would any other way. I have to perhaps take this time and this time is not for my own purposes. I'm resting in God and what he has done. I'm devoting myself to the worship of God. I need to discipline myself unto that. And so it's a means of helping us grow in that, also a means of helping us, again, have a sense of God being present with us and strengthening us for what he calls us to do in the rest of life. But at the same time, even as we see in this passage, holiness is not meant to constrict us, to warp us in the sense of, well, this thing is holy and therefore everything else in life has to completely stop because this thing is holy. So what do I mean? So the example of what Christ says when he cites this event, the Sabbath, or man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. so that we come to the Sabbath day, it's a day set apart unto the Lord, we're called to worship Him. That doesn't mean, therefore, we do not care for our family, it doesn't mean we don't care for our neighbors, it doesn't mean we don't care for any animals that we might have. There are certain things that, yes, we recognize this is the Lord's day, we're devoting it to Him, but there are still basic responsibilities that we need, and even things that might interrupt What we might otherwise be doing in setting apart the day as holy, but our works of necessity, works of mercy as our confession speaks of them, things that are necessary for us to engage in, that are not wrong, that are not therefore defiling the day, therefore not using the day rightly, because the day is, the holiness that God is enjoining, the holiness that God has called us to is not a holiness that suffocates life or the other kinds of duties that we have, but is meant to actually help us in the normal course of godly living But nonetheless, it's not a means of therefore, for example, when David comes and asks for bread, sorry, it's holy, you can't have bread. And go on your way and perhaps, who knows what happens to you. But rather, you're able to care for those around you, you're able to uphold the commandments, even in loving your neighbor. And so if we devote ourselves to holiness, in ways that keep us from good and right duties that God has given us, particularly for caring for those who are around us, we ultimately have lost the plot. Holiness is not meant to make it so that we are not of benefit to our neighbor. So my encouragement to you then, taking all of this together, is to evaluate the way that you treat holy things and to seek God in reverence in dealing with these things. And make time to do this in your own life. Make time to do this with your children if you are a parent. Devote time, set times apart. This is a time when we're going to read the Bible. This is a time we're going to pray. And we're going to try and take away these distractions. We're trying to help them discern the difference that this is holy versus these other times, that the other times are unimportant. but we're teaching ourselves to devote particular things to God because God gives holy things to minister his presence among us and to train us for the life that we are to live. And so making godly use of holy things ultimately in all of this helps us to seek refuge in God as we desire him and seek the things that he has given to mediate his presence among us. And so we want to make a godly use of holy things as we seek refuge in God. The second application is a godly use of deception. We see here in this passage David deceives the priest and the Philistines. We can say that at the very least whether or not, you know, whether David was telling a lie We don't necessarily know, but we see that he did nonetheless deceive the priest and the Philistines. What should we think of this and how should we learn from it? The first thing that we should recognize when it comes to deception is that our God is the God who is the God of truth. Scripture tells us God cannot lie. He never lies. He is not able to lie. He is the one who is truth. If we remember Christ, he says he is the way, the truth, and the life. On the other hand, the devil, we are told in John chapter eight, is a liar. and has been lying from the beginning. Lying comes from his own character. So the character of God is truthfulness, the character of the devil is to lie. And so our desire must always be to conform ourselves in all things to God's truthful character and to seek the truth, see the truth be upheld. That should be the rule for the way that we're living our lives. Now that being said, nonetheless, we do see that God in the scripture is not above using deception for his good purposes. We've already seen in 1 Samuel earlier on when God tells Samuel to go anoint David, Samuel's worried, what if Saul hears about it? What do I do? And so God tells Samuel, well, tell the people that you're coming to offer a sacrifice. Now, Samuel indeed did offer a sacrifice, but that wasn't the purpose, ultimately, for which he was coming. It was a half-truth. His ultimate purpose to come was to anoint David as king. That's why he was being sent there. Nonetheless, God himself tells him to tell this half-truth. We also will see later on at the end of the book of 1 Kings, God is the one who holds counsel with many spirits and says, who is it who is going to be a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets to deceive one of the kings of Israel that he may die because God wants to bring judgment upon Ahab, this awful king of Israel. And so God's not above sending this spirit to be a lying spirit in the mouth of false prophets who would then tell lies in order to destroy this wicked king. And we also see examples where God rewards those who spoke untruthfully. We can think of Rahab when she heals, or not heals, hides the spies who are in Jericho, or also the Hebrew midwives when they say that, when they protect the male children of the Hebrews from Pharaoh who was seeking to kill them. So we see that God is not above using deception for his good purposes in this regard. And from this, we can see that it is valid to use deception against those who would harm you or others, I guess I should say wrongfully harm you or others, or otherwise use the truth for evil purposes. The idea that's often given is that those who are seeking to use the truth for evil are not owed the truth, do not have a right to the truth in these regards. But even then, we should seek to honor the truth as much as possible and not verge into fabrications, not just completely go into making up tall tales, but There's a proper use for deception that can be used in these cases. So in thinking through this, it's helpful for us to ask ourselves, what is our relationship with the truth? Do we use deception for bad purposes? Is it our desire to be those who are true? Or do we look at these particular exceptions to the rule, as it were, these instances that yes, deception is used, and then use that as a cover for all kinds of bad uses of deception. Do we mislead others, or do we exaggerate to make ourselves look better? Do we have a very loose relationship with the truth? If that's the case, let us repent of our deceiving ways, There are right uses of deception, but we don't want to be people who are known as deceivers. We want to be people who are committed to the truth. We particularly want to remember that Christ came to bring the truth to all, and that it is his truth that, as we've heard recently in the Gospel of John, sets us free. And so, let us seek to carefully following this example, make a right use of deception, but also a right use of the truth as well. Whereas we do so, we can even in this seek refuge in God. And so we've looked at and considered David fleeing to the tabernacle, David fleeing to the Philistines to seek refuge in God. We've listed the connections that we found to Goliath in looking at this. We've examined then as we're seeking refuge how we make a godly use of holy things and also a godly use of deception, all of this pointing us to the fact that we need to seek refuge in God. And so through his trials, David did find that refuge in God. We also have the example of our Lord Jesus Christ who continually made God his refuge as he faced the challenges of his life leading ultimately to the cross. May we therefore follow their example and seek God's holiness and his truth as we follow them to find our refuge in God as well. Let us pray. O Father, you are the holy God who is our refuge in every adversity. Give us wisdom to be holy and to devote ourselves to truth while making godly use of deception when appropriate. In all things, O Lord, teach us to run to you and to find that you are our protector. through Jesus Christ. Amen.