the Word of God. Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And the priest came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, why are you alone and no one with you? And David said to 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 and whatever is here." 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 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 Dogue the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen. Then David said to Ahimelech, then have you not have a spear or a sword here at hand? For I have neither brought 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 it, give it to me. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish, the king of Gath. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. So David continues, he's on the run from Saul, and it should be confusing, because David, of course, is anointed to be the future king, and he's been faithfully serving the current king, not undermining Saul. He's the model servant, the model employee, the model general in an army. Why, if God placed his favor on David, and David is doing what he's supposed to be doing, Why are they after David? Why is he on the run? If God put him there and equipped him for this, and David is faithfully doing it, why is he on the run for his life? Saul wants plans, and if we're faithfully following God, nothing bad will happen. And yet, that's not David's experience at all. And I don't know what you're going through or what you've been through, but I know there have been seasons in my own life where I feel like I'm exactly where God has placed me. I have been equipped by God to carry out a task and everything has been against me. And I can be like David, woe is me. I thank God I've never been hunted. But it's not easy to believe Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. It's not easy to believe that at times. Especially long times. It's easy to understand if we bring things upon ourselves. Like I've had to live with the consequences of my actions. I understand why certain things are happening. Makes sense to suffer maybe in those cases. Maybe sometimes even in hindsight I can see what God did or how he used that thing. But there's other times when we can't see it at all. Even after it. What our text shows us today is one thing is for sure, that these times are not to be wasted. That God is actually working in them, whether we see it or not, or believe it or not, and that we can actually be sustained in the midst of the times. Where we pick up our story, David is actually in his early 20s. I was doing some research on the ages and when all this happened. Saul becomes king at the age of 30, and David's not even born, and Jonathan was already a child. Everybody thinks Jonathan and David are the same age. There could be a 20-year difference between them. There's at least a 10-year difference between Jonathan and David. At this point, Saul's been the king for over 20 years. David kills Goliath, they think, around the age of 15, but maybe as old as 18. And then he serves in Saul's house, and the way we read it in these chapters and flip the pages, we think it's like, it's all happening at one time. And that's why we, the huge swings, like Saul's happy with David, Saul's trying to kill David, it's like, why in the same day? No, no, he was in Saul's house, David was, after killing Goliath, for five to seven years serving Saul. And Saul liked this teenager. He played music for him. He helped him win battles. He wasn't a threat, he was a teenager. But now David's like 22. And everywhere David goes, people are recognizing him as the Lord is with him. And it always stuck in Saul's mind when the people sang to him, Saul has killed his thousands, but David is 10 thousands. We see at the end of the text I read, I didn't keep going, that David actually goes to Gath. That's where Goliath was from. And when he goes to Gath, the people go to the king and they say, behold David, the king of the land is here. That gives you some thought about how David was viewed. And so you can understand why Saul doesn't like David. But Saul has forgotten his place because God has told Saul that Saul's kingdom will not continue But God's been gracious to Saul. He doesn't kill him, he doesn't tear him down right there. He lets Saul live out his days, but the kingdom is gonna go to David. And Saul now, a senior citizen, is thinking about, what a lot of senior citizens think about, his legacy. He's the first king of Israel and his kingdom won't continue. And Jonathan would make a great king. Maybe he can thwart God's plans if he kills David. It's absurd, of course. But this is what's happening. And these chapters, so again, David is in Saul's house, and he's going back to his own parents at times, but for five to seven years. And now he goes on the run for about seven years. We don't think like that. We think God anoints David king, David kills Goliath, Saul gets killed and David becomes king. Oh no. There's a lot of wilderness wandering for David. And if you know that, you know, pastors read commentaries to see what... theologians say about the text, almost every commentary will combine these chapters. Usually you see like verse by verse exposition. In these chapters, it's sort of like David and Saul's house, let's group these three chapters together, and David on the run, let's group these four chapters together, because there's so much repetition. Twice, Saul throws a sword at David while David's playing the harp for him. Why do they tell us that happened twice? Well, it happened twice. How do you preach the same thing twice? Two times David is going to spare Saul's life. I think the repetition is there to help us understand this was going on for years. We don't get it when we read the text. And so David, many, many years, well over a decade after he was promised to be king, he is on the run. He leaves his wife, he leaves his friend, all the friends, and he's on the run. David writes Psalm 22, which we know the Lord uses of himself, but it says this in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. And David pours out his heart, to God who anointed him. I don't understand. Psalm 22 verse nine, yet you are he who took me from the womb and you made me trust you. Like you did this. You raised me up God. I didn't raise myself up. Why am I on the run? Many bulls encompass me. Strong bulls surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like ravening and roaring lion. Be not far from me. The trouble is near. There's none to help. Where are you God? This man is on the run. He feels abandoned by God, he's abandoned by Saul, who's like a surrogate father to him. Saul called him his own son, he gave him his daughter. He was a son-in-law for sure. And so David can no longer be in Israel. He's gonna go into exile. The king's put the word out, he's hunting him. And so that's why David goes to live with the enemies. Gath. where he kills Goliath. We read that chapter, he acts like he's crazy and they're afraid of him. I'd be afraid of a crazy guy that could kill a giant too, slobbering in his beard, he's got Goliath's sword. Back in that day, they thought mental illness could be contracted, so they stayed away from him. Then David goes and lives with the other Philistines and he actually fights with them, not against Israel. David has to do this because Saul's not stupid enough to go into his enemy's camp to get him. But before David leaves Israel, he goes to the house of the Lord. He goes to the tabernacle. It's his last stop. Once again, the question is why is God allowing this? Does it make sense? Is it just that Saul's evil? You know, I think it's a pattern that we see in the scriptures. So think of Moses, ends up in Pharaoh's house, becomes mighty in word and in deed. They think he was probably a general in Egypt and maybe even in charge of the building of the pyramids. And then he sees his people, God's people, Moses, sees them and he tries to save them in his own strength. And so God sends him into exile, hunted by the king, stripped of everything, including his dignity. And when Moses is old and many years later, God says, okay, now you're gonna go do what you thought I wanted you to do, but you're gonna do it in my power. Think of Peter. What does he tell the Lord? All these will leave you, but I won't leave you. Peter declares, you're the Christ, the son of God. Jesus says, my father revealed this to you. Then Peter rebukes Jesus, and Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. He says, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. And Peter, still not getting it, pulls out a sword or a knife, and he goes to attack a battalion coming after Jesus, cutting off a guy's ear. And Jesus says, put your sword away. and everything Peter thought he knew about a Messiah, the kingdom of God, how God works, dashed to pieces, and Peter goes cowering. This guy says, I'll never leave you, Jesus, goes cowering to a slave girl. At the end of John's gospel, Jesus goes to him and he says, now you're ready to feed my sheep. Now you're ready to be a fisher of men. Jacob, the trickster in the Old Testament, son of a patriarch, the promise and the blessing is given to Jacob. But Jacob goes and he tries to steal that blessing that's already his. God sends him into exile, I think for 15 years, because Esau's hunting him. And he essentially becomes almost like a slave to some other guy. And then God brings him back and says, okay, now you could be the 12 tribes of Jacob or Israel. And I think what we see God doing here with David is God raises David up. He gives him everything. Puts him in the palace. Gives him the applause and the love of humanity. He's a war hero. And then God takes it all away from him. So as to say, I'm the one who raises up kings, and I'm the one who tears down kings, and you're not gonna be like Saul who thinks he's gonna rule in his own power like somehow he had all these gifts on his own. And so you're gonna go learn what it is to rely on me. And you're gonna be able to identify with the people you seek to lead who have to rely on me because they don't have what you have. God gives him everything that he didn't deserve and then he takes it all away and David didn't do anything to deserve that either. You know, we just had our missions conference and Pastor Aldo preached to us two nights and he had, I don't know, 20 points in two days. So if I ever go long here and give you too many points, I'm just gonna remind you, you all thought I had energy and I got excited. But one of the points he made, which I thought was, two points in particular I'm gonna talk about. One was, God works through paradoxes and contraries. You wouldn't think God would raise up somebody to be a king and then make him be hunted for like 20 years. God is making David strong by making David weak. Because it's gonna teach David, and Paul will say this, right? Therefore when I am weak, That I am strong. Strong in Christ. Strong in the Lord. The next thing, that point from all those talks that I see here, is I love this. It was like his first point Saturday night. That before we can be givers, we need to be receivers. In other words, before you think, and Aldo's point was, before you think you're gonna go give missions and give the gospel, do you believe you need the gospel now? David needs to see himself as somebody in desperate need for his daily bread from God alone. And like I said, David didn't do anything wrong to need this lesson, because we all need this lesson. David is gonna be king and so God is teaching him that God is the one who raises up kings and he's the one who tears down kings. That God provides for his people and God disciplines his people. And in order for David to lead God's people, he must be led by God. In order for David to provide for the people as king, he must see himself as needing God to provide for him. In order for David to be a giver of grace and a dispenser of grace, David needs to understand that he needs grace too. God is telling him, before you can be savior of the people, you need to see yourself as needing saving. David needs to be sustained by God, he needs to find rest in God's house, and that's why God sends him out into exile. And like I said, he leaves with nothing, a hot mess, disheveled, and he finds himself in the house of God. the last place he could go in Israel before going to live among the enemies. And when he shows up there to the priest, he does the only sensible thing in his mind, he lies. He lies. The priest knows something's wrong, right? He's trembling. Like he comes and he's like, something's not right. You're like the commander of the king. I don't know if the priest knows Saul put the word out, Says, Dog the Edomite is there. So this is a non-Jewish person that is working with Saul, serving Saul. The priest knows he's there. Maybe that's why he's trembling. He's like, Saul's hunting David and Saul's servant's there. Or maybe he doesn't know that David's being hunted, but he looks at David, a disheveled hot mess. Something's not right. David lies to him. Maybe David lies to protect the priest. give him plausible deniability. Or maybe he lies because he's afraid the priest won't help him. Maybe he's afraid the priest will turn him into Saul. We don't know. Or maybe he and the priest kind of wink at each other when he lies to him. Like maybe the priest does know. He sees Saul's man there, he sees David on the run, and David tells him a story and the priest winks at him. We don't know. I don't think we're supposed to know. I think the Scriptures want us to be in tension. What is going on here? And feel the angst. The priest says all he has there is the showbread. The holy bread that's meant for God, that on the Sabbath day is removed and fresh bread is replaced, and this is the holy bread that the priests are to eat. See, this is the tabernacle. This is the temple. So again, Jewish history, They're wandering in the desert, they have a tabernacle, which means a tent, where all the things of worship are. It moves around and it gets set up. Well, they end up in the promised land, and they just set this tent up kind of permanently there. And in it, you have all the things. So you have a big, it's called a bronze laver, a big washing basin. You have an altar of sacrifice, where sacrifices were made for forgiveness of sins. You have an altar of incense that carries prayers up to God. A lampstand, a Jewish menorah really, but like a lampstand to provide light. And a table with 12 loaves of bread on it. And then inside this dwelling, this structure, this temple or tabernacle, there's an inner room. There's an inner room and an inner inner room. And it has the Ark of the Covenant in it. But what you see is that it's arranged like a house. There's a place to wash. And there's lights. And there's a table of bread there, and the bread is always there, reminding the people that God is always with them. And did you love it? It's called the bread of the presence, because the smoke and the incense would fill this tabernacle, and it would be carrying prayers up to God, but it would also just be filling it with God's presence, emblematically. And the priests would eat that bread. Once it was removed, then fresh bread was replaced. The temple was meant to be a picture of heaven, because it's a garden. And on the embroidery and the tapestry, there were pomegranates and palm trees, and it looked like a garden. And there's the bread of the presence to eat and consume, to dine with God. But of course, there's separation in that, right? The priests are the only ones that could go in there and eat that bread. They represent the people back to God and God to the people. And there's the killing of animals. The shedding of blood to show what sin does and to show how sin needs to be atoned for by the shedding of blood. Not everybody can go there. The Bible says this bread could only be eaten by the priests. So Leviticus 24, 5-9 says, in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings of perpetual due. It's part of the law of Moses, that this bread was only to be eaten by the priests, again, the priests representing the people. Now why did the priest give David the bread that only belonged to the priests? Could the priest do that? The next chapter, Dogue the Edomite goes with Saul and they go to this priest, because that guy's a snitch. And he says, why did you help David? And three times the priest, it was said in that, that the priest inquired of the Lord. So it doesn't say it in our chapter, but the next chapter it says that when David showed up, the priest inquired of the Lord. He prayed for David, it says it three times. So perhaps the Lord, The Lord obviously impressed upon the priest that it's okay to give him the bread. And yet it's a breaking of the law, make no mistake about it. And so we have to wrestle with that. And by the way, David's lie and the priest's action in breaking the law brought consequences because 70 to 80 priests, I forget the number now, were killed that day. Nobody in Israel would do it, but you have Dog, even his name. Doge the Edomite. All right, my people, you kill him. He slaughtered all the priests. The only sword went with David, Goliath's sword, so. I don't know why it was allowed. Maybe it wasn't allowed. The priest obviously thought it was more important to give to David and break the law. Maybe it was allowed because David was the anointed of God who prefigures Christ. Maybe that's why the, maybe the Lord make an exception. But like I said, there's certainly a cost to it. And if we hear this passage and wonder why is David rewarded for lying and why is the priest overlooking the law to give David what he's not supposed to have? I think the better thing to say and ask or answer is God is just a God of abundant blessing. And his child needs something. And David comes as unworthy as he is, and he receives food. Bread. He's kind of like the prodigal son in a sense. And again, David didn't do anything to be on the run. But he leaves the palace, and he goes off on the run, and then he comes back to the house of God with some far-fangled story about why he lost everything. Did you see how ridiculous the story is? The king sent me on a mission, and it was so important I couldn't bring provisions or weapons with me. It's absurd. trying to justify how it's okay for him to have something he has no right to, like the prodigal son. And the father in the story of the prodigal son doesn't pay any attention to any of that. He says, kill the fatted calf. I don't care what he's done. He's my son. You know, Jesus uses this example, and you might be thinking that already. Well, doesn't Jesus speak about this? Yeah. Jesus uses this example as he and the disciples are going through the grain fields. And it's on the Sabbath day. And they start picking the heads off the grain and eating it. Now that was allowed. The law actually allowed for that. You couldn't glean from the edges of the field. It was meant for people who were hungry. Kind of a neat little provision in God's law. But the issue was, they were farming. on the Sabbath day. And the Pharisees said to them, well, I'll read it. One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields, this is Mark 2, 23. And as they made their ways, disciples began to pluck heads of grain, and the Pharisees were saying to him, look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Now Christ says, have you not read what David did when he was in need and was hungry? He and those who were with him, And the text alludes to this, right? It says there's some men that are with David waiting somewhere. How he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and that's, there's two names that can be used for that name, and ate the bread of the presence, listen to this, that is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. Then Christ said the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is Lord even over the Sabbath. Now I'm still not, like, you gotta understand, Christ and the disciples weren't breaking the law. They weren't. These were laws that Jesus will tell the Pharisees. You've made laws that are not in the Bible, not in the scriptures. So Christ and his disciples weren't breaking the law, but Christ acknowledges David did break the law. Why is that okay? Well, it says he was in need. Does that make it okay? I think a lot of commentators will just say yes. And yet Jesus says not one jot or tittle of the law will be, I've not come to abolish the law, the smallest piece of the law has to stand. I think the Lord overlooked it because it was paid for by Christ. I don't think we could say it was okay for this to happen, but there was a need there and our God is a gracious God and he met the need. And now us and Jesus Christ, we don't have all those laws. The point was we can't follow them. I think this is an example to show you can't follow the law perfectly. I think this is gonna be a picture of what it will be like, by the way. In other words, only the priests could eat the bread. And yet we're called a kingdom of priests. And only the priests could go into the tabernacle or temple of the Lord. And we're told now to come boldly to the throne of grace and in through Christ. Because we go in through the greater son of David, the anointed king, Jesus. And as he enters in, we enter in. We come with him. And I think that's why the text says David shared it with people. See, David, God's anointed, comes into the house, he gets the bread from the priest and he shares it with those who are in him or represented by him. It's a picture. You get it? I know you do. I think rather than get hung up on the law and what do we see here? David is on the run in the midst of a terrible storm of his life. He's tired, man, and you don't just go to a food line and get food, right? He's dodging spears, he's jumping out of windows. It's craziness. And now he's got nobody left. And he finds himself in the only place in Israel where he can find rest, and he receives bread. We have placed our faith in Christ, and while we'll still struggle in this world, we're called to rest in the things of the Lord, to receive from the Lord, to go to the Lord for that, to be fed by him, to find the calm before the storm, to find the calm in the storm, to remind us that one day there won't be a storm. Because Jesus Christ went himself into the very eye of the storm and calmed the wrath of God for us. Talking about storms, obviously Hurricane Ian on the mind. And man, probably like you guys in North Carolina, like I have family at every place of Florida. I mean, family or friends, I know people all over. It's a large state too. And thank God, you know, thank God. I mean, people, I mean, people I know are fine, but people have died. So that's not good, obviously, you know. But like, and then it was coming up to us and it reminded me all of the hurricanes. And by the way, when I was interviewing at Meadowview, y'all just had Hurricane, did you have Florence, 2018? I think it was Florence. And I remember talking to Ken Kuhn and Greg Green on the phone during an interview, wondering if the interview would even happen. But they were gracious enough. I don't know if they had power when they were talking to me. But I've lived through a lot of hurricanes. Hurricane Wilma, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Andrew, of course. I mean, these are direct hit storms to Miami, Florida, where I lived. So I've seen class five hurricanes, I've seen class three hurricanes, and you know what's an eerie thing? The eye of the storm. You ever gone out in the eye of a hurricane? I'm not talking about just a storm that's just all over and there's no organization to it. Hurricanes are highly organized, destructive forces. They form at the eye, usually like a water spout in the ocean starts spinning and then suddenly it collects and it drags up water and temperatures are changing and it becomes this giant beast and the eye could be miles wide. Could take a few minutes for the eye to pass over an area or it could take a half hour, maybe more. And the strongest force of the storm is those winds right around the eye, but in the eye, it's perfectly calm. And I remember, I think it was Wilma, it was 2005. And it was funny, my dad was out of town and Susan was out of town, so I was with my mom in her house. They had a house with shutters and everything. And man, it's scary when concrete block houses are shaking like this and water is coming in from the roof. And you're like, why is the roof leaking? It wasn't used to leak. And you hear banging. And you could peek through maybe the shutters and you could see, and you see trees down and you wonder. And it's dark, there's no power. And you're in a storm, man. And then suddenly, it goes quiet. And you actually think you heard a bird chirp. And then it gets light. And it kind of peers through the gaps in the shutters and you're like, is it over? And so I go out. Go out in the eye of the storm. And it's beautiful. It's eerie and beautiful at the same time, because there's mayhem and destruction all around. And you could see darkness 360 degrees around. But right above you, not a cloud, sunshine, and the birds think it's fine out. That's peace in the middle of the storm. And it reminds you, the eye walls could be coming, but there is peace, and we made it through this far, and God can help us make it through the rest, and it's gonna be sunny again. The eye of the storm is the source of the storm, and it's the rest in the storm. And David goes to the eye of the storm. Because the temple where God is emblematic in Israel, he's bringing this about. And yet David is fed there and he receives rest there. The thing with a storm is there's no avoiding it. You can run from it, you can prepare for it, but it's coming. Man would love to be able to control nature. We can't even predict nature. I know there's storms we end up in and maybe you're in one right now. And wondering why you're in it or how come it's there and can you outrun it. And I think today's text is saying whether you're in a storm or preparing for a storm, we need to be fed by God. We need to see ourselves as needing grace, even if everything's okay. We need to know where to go to receive sustenance and rest and food. And yes, if we're weary, even more so. You know, the tabernacle that David goes to, it all points to Christ, the whole thing. The whole structure itself, what happens in the structure, who the people are in the structure, and the items in the structure. And so there's an entrance, and the entrance is access, and each room has entrance and access. That's why Jesus says, like, I am the door. No one comes to the Father except by or through me. Jesus Christ is the very access. There's an altar there, and Jesus Christ is the sacrifice that's on that altar. John the Baptist says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It's a very altar. There's a water basin for washing there, and Jesus says, we need to come and be washed by him, and say, come to me and I'll give you living waters. When you go into the inner room, not the Holy of Holies, but the holy place, and you walk in, there's a lamp stand, and what does Jesus Christ say? I'm the light of the world. Then on the other side, there's a table of bread, and what does Jesus say? I'm the bread of life. And not only that, he's the bread and he's the table. Because he says, come, come buy from me. Why do you waste your money for food that does not fill and drink that does not satisfy? Come, buy fine food and bread from me with no money and without price, come. Matthew 11, 28, we read this for the call to worship. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. John 6, 37, all the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. I put in your bulletin, where is it? A quote by John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress. I didn't really plan on this, but I'm gonna read that quote. Not the whole thing. Bunyan writes, I'm going down lower in it. Neither can any objection be made upon it. Now, I'll read the whole thing. You let Aldo go over an hour. They that are coming to Jesus Christ are oftentimes heartily afraid that Jesus Christ will not receive them. This observation is applied in the text. I gather it from the largeness and openness of the promise. I will in no wise cast out. He's referring to that verse in John 6, 37. Whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For this word in no wise cuts the throat of all objections. And it was dropped by the Lord Jesus for that very purpose. and to help the faith that is mixed with unbelief. And it is, as it were, the sum of all the promises, neither can any objection be made upon the unworthiness that you find in yourself, that this promise will not assail. But I am a great sinner, you say. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I am an old sinner, you say. I will in no wise cast out, Christ says. But I'm a hard-hearted sinner, you say. I will in no wise cast out, Christ says. But I have served Satan all my days, says you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have sinned against light, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have sinned against mercy, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. But I have no good thing to bring with me, say you. I will in no wise cast out, says Christ. There's nothing that if you come, like David comes with nothing, right? He has nothing to offer. Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross I cling. Jesus invites us to come and receive from him, and that's why we'll be celebrating the Lord's table today. Let's pray.