I'm sure there are probably times in your life that now as years have passed, you look back and you say to yourself, if I could just go back, I would do it differently. I would take a different approach. I would take different actions. I would say different words. I would do it differently. And yet, we have those thoughts, we look back like that because we recognize we can't go back. We really can't do it differently. What's done is done. Now, since I've been gone, the last couple of Sundays, our series through the last part of 1 Samuel have taken a little bit of a break. This is a series that, if you recall, I called the whole series David, a man who seeks for the Lord. We've seen through 1 Samuel where it began with Samuel, a man who speaks for the Lord. Then we had Saul, who was a man who tried to stand in place of the Lord. Now we come to David as a man who seeks after the Lord. But because I was gone, it's been set aside for a couple weeks. Hopefully that doesn't mean that you've forgotten everything. Hopefully there's a little bit of recall that's still there after a few weeks. David is on the run. Remember that? We're at the point here in 1 Samuel where David is on the run. He's on the run from Saul, and he doesn't know why. Saul is the king. In fact, Saul is his father-in-law. And yet Saul wants him dead. Of course, we know the reason. Saul's figured out that David is the man that God has selected to give the kingdom to after him. God has told Saul that the kingdom has been removed from him, and it will go to another, and Saul's figured out David's that man. So Saul is attempting to do away with David because he figures, if I can just do away with David, I can hang on to the kingdom. It's another clear example of Saul not being willing to submit to God at all. David fled from Saul's presence, but God hasn't allowed David to flee from the country. David tried. He tried to go a couple different directions out of the country, and God worked it out, so both cases, he had to come back. David's also began to accumulate a following. He has at least 400 men who have gathered around him, along with, we were told, in the last section we looked at three weeks ago, that the prophet Gad has been added to the mix. So there's a prophet there as well. The last we knew, we left off in 1 Samuel chapter 22 verse 5, the last we knew, David was hiding in the southern part of Judah. That's where we're picking up this morning. David and hiding in the southern part of Judah. But once again, our author, this author who put First Samuel together for us, will do what he's been doing for several chapters. He's been flipping back and forth between Saul and David, Saul and David, Saul and David. And he does this back and forth pattern to develop a contrast here, to show where David is everything Saul is not. David is the ideal king for God's people. Saul is not that ideal king. Saul is anything but that. Sadly, as we're flipping back and forth here though, as we see these scenes that focus in on Saul, they're scenes that become increasingly painful to read. Saul's in a downward spiral. Sin has his grip on him, and that downward spiral is increasing its speed. And the passage we're coming to this morning is a hard passage to read. It's an ugly, ugly passage. Yet it's in the Word of God, and it remains a necessary passage. When I was at Daniel's wedding back in May, you may recall, those of you that were here, Mark Burr spoke. He filled the pulpit for me that Sunday, and he brought a message from the book of Habakkuk that Sunday, a message that he entitled, Everyone Works for God. Well, that could really be the title of our message again this morning. Everyone Works for God. Our passage is very similar to the passage that Mark Burr dealt with that day, where it gives us an example that largely teaches the same idea. Everyone works for God. The way I've chosen the word, the main idea today is that even evil actions serve God's purposes. Even evil actions serve God's purposes. You may have noticed that I did not title this sermon, Every Man Works for God. I titled the sermon, When the Bottom Drops Out. Because that's what it feels like when evil actions come our way. It feels like at times that the bottom simply drops out. We all, I'm sure, have been in times or circumstances where we suddenly find ourselves feeling as if the bottom is just dropped right out from under us. I remember years ago, when I was a kid, we have family that lives in Kansas City, Missouri, and they had this great amusement park, one of the earlier amusement parks, and as a kid, every time we visited our family there, we'd go to that amusement park, and one of my favorite rides was one where the bottom dropped out. You get in this bin that would spin around really fast, and it would suck you up against the wall, and the bottom would drop out. Well, there's times in life where it feels the same, that the bottom drops out. I remember several years back, Grace and I had three of our four parents in the hospital at the same time. All three happened to be in different hospitals, even in different cities. My mother had had a stroke, and she had been transferred to a much larger hospital, a much larger community than our local hospital, so she was in with a stroke. My father ended up with some sort of a blood infection. He was in the local hospital. Her father had his first heart attack, and he was in another city in a hospital. It felt like the bottom dropped out from under us. We couldn't even begin to keep track of the phone calls of what was going on, trying to keep track of what's happening in each person's life. I've got to believe, though, that that feeling of having the bottom drop out from under you is greatly exasperated whenever it is driven by evil actions from others. You know, it's one thing to have your parents in the hospital because of medical issues, is another to have people attacking you because they hate God. And because they know you believe in God, they hate you. At all times, we need to remind ourselves that God's purpose are always being fulfilled by our circumstances, but that is especially something we need to remind ourselves of when we're facing evil actions. We need to remember, even evil actions serve God's purposes. As I said, that's the main idea that we need to see in our passage. My plan this morning is just to kind of walk our way through this passage, to work through what's in it so that we know what's happening, and then we'll, at the end, draw a couple of lessons that apply to our daily lives, things that we can see within the example here of this passage that come home to rest in our lives. As we begin, the main idea that we have to remember is we're going to look at these evil, how evil actions serve God's purpose. We'll begin by simply looking at the story. The story here, and we'll split the story into three different sections. In verses six through 16 of chapter 22, we have Saul's deranged thinking. Saul's deranged thinking. Let's begin to read. You know, even in the days when they didn't have spy satellites, it was probably kind of hard to hide 400 men somewhere nearby. That's what we have going on here. There's 400 men, and the place where David is hiding is not that far from Saul's land. So it doesn't take long for word to get back that David's gathered here in the southern part of Judah. We know where he's at. So continuing, we see, now Saul was sitting in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. Saul said to his servants who stood around him, here now, O Benjamites, will the son of Jesse also give you, all of you, fields and vineyards? Will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? For all of you have conspired against me. So there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. There's none of you who is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in ambush as it is this day. Apparently the mention there of David's name was enough to drive Saul into half crazy tirade. And he directs it to his servants there standing around him. Notice a couple things here. All of these men are Benjamites. That, that was Saul's tribe. Way back when the nation demanded a king, one of the things Samuel warned about in chapter eight was that a king would hand out rewards to his servants. He would try to hand out rewards to keep people to him, and Saul has evidently lived up to that warning. He surrounded himself with kinsmen in the places of highest authority here, and he's given them all kinds of awards. He assumes that his kinsmen will share his style of greed. He's a man driven by greed, so he expects that they will too, so he tries to scare them by pointing out that David, remember David's a man of Judah, he's not a Benjamite, he's a different tribe. He tries to scare them, David's not gonna treat you the way I treated you. He won't give you the rewards I've given you. Saul expects that the thirst for power is going to cause them to line themselves with him. That's the content of the statement, but look at the tone. Look at the tone. Saul sounds half deranged at this point. He actually accuses his own son, Jonathan, his own son, he accuses of now being the one at the core of this vast conspiracy that in Saul's mind has been formed up, a vast conspiracy that's all out to get him. David actually is being cast here into the role of a dupe. Jonathan is behind it all and he's Manipulate David now to have David be the man that's gonna be used by his own son to get Saul out of the way. As you read these verses, you almost have to wonder if they're a bit of spittle flying out of Saul's mouth as he's launching all of these accusations at his people. You know, what we see here really is an example of the results that Paul describes in Roman chapter one. Paul describes in Romans 1 what happens when God removes His grace from a person. When God, as an act of divine judgment, removes His grace from a person's life, Paul tells us what happens. And three times in Romans 1, Paul says that God gives them over as part of that divine judgment. In verse 24 of Romans chapter one, the first time that he says God gives them over, the result that we see listed by Paul is that there's corrupted desires. There's inordinate affections. People begin to want the wrong things. In verse 26, Paul says a second time in Romans one that God gives people over, and there the result is corrupted behaviors. Immoral and perverted activities result of that, corrupted behaviors. And then in verse 28, a third time Paul says that men are given over by God in judgment, and this time the result is corrupted thinking. People's thoughts run counter to God's thoughts. Thinking approvingly of things that God has disapproved of, and then rejecting the very things that God says ought to be sought out. If you think about it, we see all of these three things happening in our culture. We see corrupt desires, we see corrupt behaviors, we see corrupt thinking, they're all around us. Of course, Paul's already stated, we have to remember in Romans chapter one, Paul's already stated that the power of the gospel, the power that we sang about, the power of the cross, that's the only solution that comes for fighting against these corruptions. God's grace flows through the gospel. We can only truly fight the corrupting influence of the culture by the gospel. The gospel is the means, the cross is the means by which we can make an impact. It appears as if our culture is being given over to corrupt desires, behaviors, and thinking. People in our culture need the gospel. And in our verses here, Saul is a good example of a man who's been given over to corrupted thinking. His thinking is completely twisted. God has removed his grace from Saul. And this conspiracy theory is the result. Saul thinks everyone's out to get him. picking up again in verse 9. Now, three weeks ago, when we looked at the previous chapter, we had just a hint that there might be bad news over the fact that this guy Daold saw David stop by Nob and visit with him, elect the priest. There was just a hint. Well, none of the other servants that are standing around Saul that day answer Saul's tirade. They don't respond. Daog, the Edomite, speaks up. I saw the son of Jesse that you're talking about. Notice he echoes Saul's language. Saul's not referring to David as David. David's simply the son of Jesse, and Daog picks up that language. I saw the son of Jesse. He was at Nob. He was getting help from Emelech, the priest. And it doesn't take long for Saul to act on the information. Verse 11, then the king sent someone to summon Ahimelech, the priest, the son of Hittub, and all his father's household, the priests who were Nob, and all of them came to the king. Saul said, listen now, son of Hittub. Notice, I said David's been the son of Jesse ever since Saul decided David was his enemy. Now Ahimelech is the son of Hittub. In Saul's mind, everyone is either for him or against him. Which side do you think Saul's put Ahimelech on at this point? And he, Ahimelech, answered, Here am I, my lord. Then Saul said to him, Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he would rise up against me by lying in ambush, as it is this day? Then Himlek answered the king and said, And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, even the king's son-in-law, who is captain over your guard and is honored in your house? Did I just begin to inquire of God for him today? Far be it from me. Do not let the king impute anything to his servant or to any of his household of my father, for your servant knows nothing at all of this whole affair. But the king said, you shall surely die, Himlek, you and all your father's household. Now Himlek here had mounted a good defense, didn't he? His defense, if you think about it, is reasonable, it's complete, it's comprehensive, he has multiple points of why this is not what you're saying it is. He was surprised by Saul's charge, but his defense really comes to deaf ears. Ahimelech's response would have worked with a rational man, but Saul's thinking is deranged. He's not rational. From Saul's deranged thinking, we move on to Saul's deranged actions in verses 17 through 19. Saul's decided here that Ahimelech, the one who aided David, must die. He also convinced himself that all of Himlech's relatives were guilty by association. They're part of his family, they gotta be part of the conspiracy. They're all part of this, and they need to be brought down as well. Verse 17, And the king said to the guards who were attending him, Turn around and put the priests of the Lord to death, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he was fleeing and did not reveal it to me. But the servants of the king were not willing to put forth their hands to attack the priests of the Lord." Now it's possible you've forgotten, but this is the second time now Saul has actually issued an order to men who were serving under him and they refused to follow. Back in chapter 14, Jonathan, his own son, remember when Jonathan led the charge that rescued Israel from the Philistines? Saul wanted Jonathan put to death because Jonathan had eaten that little bit of honey, not knowing that Saul had forbidden it. And Saul said, Jonathan need die. And the men said, no, we're not going to do it. Well, same thing happens again. These men are under Saul's command, but they refuse. And if you think about it, part of what Himlech says in 14, he says, David was captain over the guard. So these men that Saul's saying, you're to put these priests to death. These are men who just a few days or weeks, we don't know how much time's gone on here. These are men that had been under David's command. And now they're being told that David is chief enemy against the state, the very man that led them. Furthermore, we were told that when David led the men, that he said back in chapter 21, verse 5, that these men were careful to observe cleanliness rituals. In other words, David made sure that the men under his leadership followed the Mosaic law. They did that which was intended to be righteous. And now, these men are being ordered to kill priests, the priests of the law of Moses. And they would have none of it. They just stood there and refused. As one commentator stated it, the servant of the kings placed their fear of the Lord above their fear of the king. But Saul's not going to let it lie. Verse 18, then the king said to Daog, you turn around and attack the priest. And Daog, the Edomite, turned around and attacked the priest, and he killed that day 85 men who wore the linen ephod. And he struck Nob, the city of the priest, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants, even oxen, donkeys, and the sheep he struck with the edge of the sword. You know, the Bible frequently summarizes incredibly heinous crimes with very brief statements. The Bible never glories in gore, but this is a gory summary. It's summarized very briefly, but this is a heinous event. Dao kills all the priests that had come in response to Saul's summons, and then he goes and annihilates the town that they came from Note if Daog is, again, called Daog the Edomite. In fact, three times in this chapter, which is rather unusual, when you meet someone, you may be told who he is, he's Daog the Edomite, but three times in this chapter, he's referred to as Daog the Edomite. We're supposed to recognize that he is from Edom. Edom is frequently presented in the Old Testament as a group in opposition to God, in opposition to God's people. Daog is certainly fulfilling that role here, isn't he? And you know, after this event, we never see Dale again in the Bible. He just disappears. He comes for this one purpose, and then he's gone. That means that we should recognize that there is more going on here than simply an Edomite executing Saul's deranged sentence. There's more happening. As the blood flows here in verse 18, We're to remember the judgment that was pronounced upon Eli all the way back in chapter two, verses 31 through 33. Eli was the high priest, and Eli had failed in his mission as high priest. He did not uphold righteousness in Israel, and God said that he would remove Eli's family from the priesthood. God began that process with the death of Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But this horrid event marks a further stage in that judgment as Himlech is killed because Himlech is the great-grandson of Eli. God is executing his judgment here. God is fulfilling his statement of judgment. Dao is doing the evil deed, but both he and Saul are still working for God, even if God remains holy and God remains fully Apart from their evil deeds, these men through their evil are fulfilling God's plan. They're fully responsible for their own evil, but even evil actions serve God's purposes. There's one further thing that we should notice too. As we read through verse 19, we should notice that this description, the author goes in great detail here about all the things that Dale goes and kills in the town, and we should notice that description matches up perfectly to what God commanded his people to do when he placed a group under what was called the ban. Think of Jericho back when the nation of Israel first entered the Promised Land and Jericho was completely destroyed. They were placed under the ban. They were instructed to be destroyed. In fact, Saul had the kingdom stripped from him back in chapter 15 because Saul refused to carry out the instructions of God against Amalek. Amalek was being placed under the ban, Saul was to completely annihilate them, and yet Samuel comes and finds Saul's got the best sheep, and the king of Amalek, Agag, was still alive. Now apparently, with Saul's approval, Daog is slaughtering the city of the priest of Moses, the priest of God, the Aaron priesthood. He's slaughtering that city as if they were under the ban of God. What an unspeakable crime is being placed here at the foot of Saul. This is on Saul, not Daog. It demonstrates with absolute clarity the complete rejection of God's righteous standards that epitomizes Saul. The downward spiral of sin inevitably leads to deranged actions. We've seen Saul's deranged thinking, his deranged actions. The chapter closes out by flipping back to David with what I will call simply David's humble response. Let's go ahead and read the final verses. But one son of Hamlech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the Lord. Then David said to Abiathar, I knew on that day when Daog the Edomite was there. that he would surely tell Saul, I have brought about the death of every person in your father's household. Stay with me, do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life, for you are safe with me. We are not told how Abiathar here escaped the slaughter at Nob, but he did escape, and he fled to David. God providentially arranged that one priest would survive. Saul set out to annihilate the priesthood, but God ensured that one would still survive. And yet what a contrast there is between David and Saul. Saul will do anything to try to promote himself. Saul will do anything to hold on to his power. David is the exact opposite here. David is a picture of humility. David is a man that says, if I could just go back and do it differently, this is my fault. I brought this on. He's a picture of humility and servitude. He doesn't even mention Saul's role in the whore at Nob. Rather, he assumes significant responsibility for the tragedy, simply because David had gone there when he fled. He had allowed himself to be seen by Daog. And apparently he had ignored any suspicions that were going through his mind at the time that this could lead to trouble. Instead of a warning him, Melech, David had simply continued fleeing that wild flight to try to get away from Saul's sword. Now, though, we leave this sad chapter with David being the man who is functioning as the protector of the last surviving priest. The king that was sitting on the throne of God's people, Saul, should have been the protector. Instead, Saul's the destroyer. David, God's anointed king, is the protector of God's priest. Even evil actions serve God's purposes. We've seen the story, and in the story, this idea is played out with very harsh truth. So what can we learn from all this? What can we learn? What are the lessons I think there are two significant lessons that we can learn from this ugly story, two lessons that apply in our lives today. Both of these lessons are like pillars that set down on the bedrock that will stabilize us when we find ourselves being bashed by hurricane force winds of evil. First of all, God does not promise to protect his servants. God does not promise to protect his servants. As Americans, I think we really need to grasp this truth. We need to grasp this. We live in the land of plenty. And because of that, we are able to indulge in many of the pleasures that are available to us. And because of that, we're susceptible into falling into the false ideas of the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel that says God wants to make us healthy, wealthy. Sure, I know we're good fundamentalists in this church, right? So we reject the most outrageous forms of prosperity gospel, the kind that's promoted by Joel Osteen and others like him. We reject that. Still, We're prone to fall into the ideas of the prosperity gospel ourselves. We're prone to fall into those ideas every time we find ourselves questioning God's goodness when we're struck by adversity. We're sick, and we expect God to heal us. And then we become greatly discouraged if God doesn't. That's evidence of the prosperity gospel mindset. Someone we love dies tragically and we're unable to understand how God would let such a thing happen because this person was a good believer. You know, thoughts and reactions like these actually show that we've fallen prey to the prosperity gospel's false premises. The idea that God is obligated to protect his servants. That God is obligated to make things good for his people. We need chapters like this to correct our thinking. God does not promise to protect his servants. We can never find such a promise anywhere in Scripture. Instead, what we find in Scripture are promises like these, Isaiah 55, 8, where God says, God says, you will never be able to fully understand what I'm doing because I'm God and you're not. We find statements like Psalms 23.4 that says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. God's plan does not match up to our way of thinking because God is not us. He is infinitely greater. And because he's infinitely greater, his plans are infinitely greater and his goals are infinitely beyond what we can even comprehend. His goals are to bring glory to himself. And sometimes that works through his plan of allowing evil to come our direction. Sometimes hardship, agony, and even death are part of his plans. God does not promise to protect us, but he does promise to be with us, to be there to comfort us. And that comfort will be sufficient for whatever he calls us to face within his plans. We need to remove the tentacles of the prosperity gospel that have managed to grip all of us to some level. We need to remove those from our mind and replace them with the truth that God does not promise to protect his servants. His plan is so much more glorious than that. And that brings us to the second significant lesson that we can learn from our ugly story today. God does promise to fulfill his word. God does promise to fulfill his word. Our protection is not God's concern. His word is most certainly his concern. God is absolutely concerned with fulfilling every single thing he has said. For God to do anything less than that would mean he is no longer God. God is imminently concerned with fulfilling his promises to us. Of course, that truth cuts in two directions, doesn't it? God has promised judgment to those who reject him. The derangement that we see happening to Saul is part of the fulfillment of God's judgment on him. The slaughter at Nob was part of the fulfillment of God's judgment upon Eli. These are temporal judgments. In other words, they're part of this life, but they are judgments. And these judgments should remind us that God has promised that the way of the faithless, or the transgressor, as we may know it, the way of the faithless or the transgressor is hard. That's Proverbs 13, 15. Fear of falling under God's judgment is meant to serve as safety rails for God's people. We should be so concerned that God might bring this temporal judgment upon us that we avoid the things that would cause it to rise up. We should seek after God. Even more so, we need to recognize that those who refuse to come to God through his son, Jesus Christ, Those who refuse the cross that we sung about are ignoring what Jesus has said. Jesus has clearly said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He has said, no one comes to the Father but through him. And we have the promise in Revelation chapter 20, verse 15, that the destination of every person who rejects Jesus is the eternal lake of fire. This is a promise of judgment, eternal judgment. We need to recognize that. Yet, we also find in scripture the promise of eternal life. Another promise of God that he will faithfully hold onto. John, the apostle, says in 1 John chapter three, we know that we have passed out of death into life. We know that because God has promised to everyone who places faith in Jesus that he will be saved from eternal death. God doesn't promise to protect us in this life. His plan is greater than this current life. God's plan is eternal in scope. And he has promised everyone who places faith in Jesus Christ that they will have eternal life. They will pass from death into life. And even as we have a chapter as ugly as the chapter we have this morning, we're able to celebrate that glorious truth. We've passed from death into life. We have passed from eternity in the lake of fire to eternity in the presence of God. We only pass from one to the other when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. If you're here this morning and you have not done that, then God's promise of judgment is still upon your head. Let today be the day that you pass from death to life. Move from one set of promises to another. I encourage you, talk to me before you leave after the service. I would love to share with you how you can do that. We're here this morning because we celebrate the cross. The cross is the means that allows us to know that even in the ugliness of chapter like this, there is glorious hope. We celebrate the truth that God does promise to fulfill his word. We're celebrating that promise every week we gather together corporately for worship. We worship God because His promise established through His Son is a promise of eternal life. So while we may not have a promise of protection, we have a glorious promise that far exceeds that. Even evil actions serve God's purposes. I'm sure that David, based on the words that he gave to Beothar here at the end, that if he could go back and do things differently, he would. He would not stop and let Daog see him there at Nob. He would, or if he did, he'd run Daog out of the country. There were lots of options that David would pursue if he could go back and do things differently. But such is not possible. And with any other option, we would not have this chapter and all the valuable teaching that is there in this, the hard lesson that we have here in scripture. Even evil actions serve God's purposes. We should not be discouraged when we encounter evil actions. They're serving God's purposes. We need to learn that God does not promise to protect his servants. We need to learn that God does promise to fulfill his word. These are the lessons that give us the ability to joyfully endure actions that come our way, actions that will energize us to share the glorious heart of God's purposes. The center on the cross of Christ. Even evil actions serve God's purposes. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the time we've been able to spend looking in your word again today. Father, this truly is a hard chapter to read, it's a hard chapter to look at, because it shows the evilness that comes when sin takes over as grace is removed. In it, Father, is a warning to us. We are only preserved in this life through your grace. And if we reject your offer of saving grace, there will come a day that you remove your preserving grace. And Father, for any person who rejects the saving grace offered through Jesus Christ, there will be a day that they stand before Him and hear the sentence of eternal judgment. So I pray, Father, you would move in the heart of anyone sitting here today, this morning, May this be the day that they bow the knee before Jesus and accept him as Savior. Father, I pray for the rest of us that you would help us to conform our thoughts to your revelation. May we throw off the false thinking that causes us to look for ease and pleasure in this life, that allows us to become discouraged when things don't go the way that we want. May we learn to joyfully endure whatever we encounter in life because we have Jesus Christ. Father, this is not just a gut it out and put on a happy face type of enjoyment. This is a true joy that comes in the midst of hardship because we have that which is so much greater than anything we can possibly endure in this life. We have Christ. Father, may that reality consume us today. And as it consumes us, may we be transformed, be men and women who go out and proclaim the glory of Christ to a world who needs to know Him. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.