Well, we're progressing in our series in the life of David, a life with so many twists and turns. Up until now, things have gone mostly smoothly. But in this next chapter, we begin to see some worrying concerns. the heading i've given to this bible study is david's faith crisis deepens and we begin to see some concerning patterns emerging probably there was evidence in the previous chapter but with the light of chapter 21 and 22 we see these trends and we can join the dots. David is now fearful, four F's, he is fleeing, he's fibbing and he's going to fake. who he really is he's fearing fleeing fibbing and faking we won't stick to those titles but it gives a bit of a key to understand chapter 21 but just context if you go back to 1 samuel 15 and verse 24 i want to show you why saul and david were so opposed Why was it? Why did Saul hate David so much? If we turn to 1 Samuel 15 and we just read from verse 24. And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. All is confessing his sin. Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said unto Saul Samuel the prophet to Saul the king i will not return with thee for thou hast rejected the word of the lord and the lord hath rejected thee from becoming king over israel and as samuel turned about to go away he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle and it rent. That was very symbolic. It was indicating that Saul would not long be the king anymore. Verse 28, And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thou. I don't think many of us like to be told that we're passing over from you to someone else because they're better than you are. Saul did not like what he heard. David better than me? What do you mean? Verse 29, also notice the capitals, also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man. that he should repent speaking of the lord so that's something of background about king saul david is going to take the throne saul does not like this his pride has been stirred how easy that is he's going to be looked over if you'd like to turn to chapter 18 And just the last few verses, this is just to set the context so you can see why the hatred between Saul and David is so great. 1 Samuel 18, 28. And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him. And Saul was yet the more afraid of David. And Saul became David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines went forth, and it came to pass after they went forth that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was much set by. That's just the background. The Word of God is an amazing book. I could give you dozens of reasons why, but one of them is the Word of God does not sugarcoat its characters. It doesn't hide the sins of Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Mary, Peter. It doesn't hide the sins of David. And we're going to see some things beginning to take root in David's life that will reap an awful harvest in the years to come. And we can learn from this tonight. We want to avoid ever having to go to Cave Adullam, which is what chapter 22 is about. David goes down, down, down, and we will see the reasons why. Yes, up until now we've seen David as a type of Christ. We've seen him foreshadowing what Christ would be like, his courage, His bravery. But in this chapter, the trend is not Christ-like at all. He's waiting to be king. He knows Saul hates him. Saul's behaviour vacillates between sweetness and light. And then he grabs the javelin and tries to murder David three times. it's happened. David has been faithful and fearless but now we see him being fearful and faithless. Well we look at 1 samuel 21 and we're going to see here the initial trend of chapter 20 where there's some shadowy things where they take the idol and pretend that the idol is in the bed mikal had an idol in the home david had not got rid of it they tried to deceive the servants of saul it seems dishonest we gave him the benefit of the doubt but i think chapter 21 we will see that the deceit and the lies are now very real there is backsliding beginning to take root and we know that that will lead to dark times in the cave so we come to chapter 21 then came david to the priest he goes to see the priest that's a good thing he should have stayed with samuel But he decided to leave. He went to see his own family. He'd left his seat empty at the feast when Saul was there. But now he goes to Ahimelech. And that's a good thing. There's nothing wrong with who he went to. But he seems to be going round from person to person to person. Have you ever met somebody a bit like that? They don't like the answer they get from one person. So they go to another. another and another until they get the answer they want sometimes that happens pastorally you say something we try not to tell people but you say you may think of this or think of that people don't like the answer they go and confide in somebody else until they get the answer well David has been to Samuel he's been to Jonathan and now he comes to Ahimelech And he says to him, this is the king to be, the crown prince. Ahimelech says, why are you come alone? Can you imagine Prince William traveling around the country on his own, looking a bit disheveled, hungry, tired? No wonder Ahimelech says, why art thou alone and no man with thee? Well, very strange what's happening with David. David said unto Ahimelech the priest, the king hath commanded me to do some business. Lie. No such thing. He hath said unto me, let nobody know, no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee. He's pretending. He's faking. He's fibbing. There's no such thing, he's not been sent on a mission, certainly not a top secret mission. He's running from Saul, he's in fear, he's afraid. How easily we twist the truth when it suits us. We pretend, we fake, we give half-truths and lies. That's what David's about here. He says, he sent me and he told his servants to go to such and such a place. So David is now not just using idols to leave a decoy in the bed where he might have been as in chapter 20. He's now outright lying. One lie leads to another. We know that with children, we know that with adults. When you start to cover something up, you better have a good memory because you'll have forgotten what you've said to different people. I've known this. People go round and they tell a different story to each person they meet. And then you bring the stories together and you see, that doesn't add up. David, what are you doing? Pretending, lying, faking. Verse three, now therefore what is under thine hand? He's looking for something to eat. We can only read into the text that David has been wandering around, he's looking for food, he's hungry, he's needing sustenance and he says give me five loaves of bread in my hand or whatever there is present. there's a problem. This bread is holy bread. This is the bread mentioned in Leviticus chapter 24. It's the bread that was the show bread, literally bread that is shown to be seen as a sign of fellowship between God and His people. There was to be hot bread, fresh bread baked every day and it was to be put in public as a sign that God was in fellowship with His people if they wanted to be. And the bread was there where a Himalek is seated and David says, I'd like some of that bread. Well, that's a difficult question because that wasn't allowed. If you turned to Leviticus 24, you don't need to do it now. That should only really be eaten by the priests. It was holy bread. That's what it mentions here. This wasn't common bread, bread that could be eaten by anybody. It was hallowed bread. Verse 4, if the young men have kept themselves at least from the women. That's mentioning the Levitical law. If we were to read Leviticus, we would see that the bread could not be eaten unless they were ceremonially clean. There was to be nothing that speaks of death. No seed that's fallen to the ground, so to speak. And then the bread could be eaten. So David sets a problem for Ahimelech. What will happen? David says, I and the men who are with me, there were no men with him. Verse five, there's another lie. I and the men who are with me have been clean for three days. So it's lie upon lie upon lie that's being told. And yet Ahimelech, does he break the law? No, he doesn't. He offers the bread to David. And if you'd like to turn to Matthew's Gospel in chapter 12, we find that no less than the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Matthew chapter 12, and let's read verses one to eight the lord jesus is going to use this very event as an example of where the levitical ceremonial law is to be subordinated to need let's see how this goes matthew chapter 12 and verse 1 at that time jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn and his disciples were unhungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. The Pharisees think that they're breaking the law. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did when he was unhungered, and they that were with him? how he entered into the house of God and did eat the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat neither for them that were with him but only for the priests that helps as a commentary to Leviticus 24 or have you not read in the law how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath and yet are blameless the priests had to work they had to work very hard the people were not to work. So Christ was teaching a principle that where there's a clash between the ceremonial law and the law of necessity there was no doubt that the law of necessity was more important. 6 But I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Compassion, mercy is always more important than the letter of the merely temporary ceremonial Levitical law. that now has passed. He would not have condemned, says Christ, the guiltless, for the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. There's other examples. If your animal gets put in the ditch, falls in the ditch, you go and get it out. If somebody needs to go to hospital, you take them. Of course you do. Compassion, mercy are more important than those things that were to illustrate law of God and the character of God and aspects that we are so able to learn from. And so that's just a commentary on what's happening here in 1 Samuel 21. This is a powerful point for us today. We can get drawn into a legalistic mindset. some ways it's a lot easier to say this is what the law says boom boom boom boom you don't have to think but the world and the lives that we live are complicated I won't get into the situational ethics as to whether it's right to lie. We say no, lying is wrong in all circumstances. But there are times when particular principles, compassion, mercy, must come above the letter of the law. So David here is fed mercifully. The Himalek is commended by Christ because he gave him the bread that was for another purpose but it was repurposed to feed David. Let's go back to 1 Samuel 21. So the priest gave him hallowed bread for there was no bread but the showbread that was taken from before the Lord to put fresh bread in the day when it was taken. So here's David. He's told multiple lies. He is bending the truth. He's pretending he's got men outside when really he's been traveling alone. This is not good. Not good at all. Sometimes we become aware, and it seems to happen too often today, of another person that's fallen. Fallen into tragic, terrible sin. Some pastor that's fallen, some respected person that held office, and we think, how could that happen? It's terrible! How did it happen so quickly? There but the grace of God go I we say and that's true to an extent. But you roll forward to when David commits terrible sin with Bathsheba to Samuel 11 and then he has to cover it up. Did that just happen? No it didn't. The seeds of that terrible sexual sin are right back here in 1 Samuel and 21. the seeds of deceit. Somebody doesn't commit adultery just like that. They start to lie and to deceive and they start to do things which undermine their inner integrity. We have to watch that. When there's two people not one. A person at work, a person at home. Somebody that shortcuts. Somebody who sears their own conscience. and says things intended to deceive. And isn't that what's happening here with King David? If it can happen to King David, this can happen to us. But it doesn't need to happen. a sense it's not there but the grace of God go I because we have duties to keep our heart David was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people as we shall see shortly saying the wrong things fearful fibbing faking no wonder he was backslidden Now it's not this downward dive that would lead to the sin with Bathsheba. It will be another one. But isn't this representative of the Christian life? There is a battle. A terrible enemy, Saul, is causing him to be fearful. But he's allowed himself to be weakened. When he was a boy, a teenager, he was so strong, so courageous, fearless. But he's allowed himself to get into this situation. We mustn't underestimate the fear that Saul put into him. He hated him continually. But David had responsibilities to keep his heart. And so we see what's happening here. So that's the first incident that we will look at. Let's move on a bit quicker and see down this terrible man. I don't even like his name. Verse 7. His name, verse 7, is Doeg. I can't imagine you'll call your children Doeg. He was an Edomite. He's not even an Israelite. He's called the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. The expression there doesn't mean he was a nice shepherd. It could be translated as he was a violent man. It seems like he was his bruiser, his bouncer. He was the man that Saul had sent. It doesn't seem like he's really come to the priest to do spiritual business. It seems like he's got a bad intention. We'll see more of Doeg later. Come to verse 8. David said to Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? Somebody came in tonight with a sword, would you believe? I think they were giving it to somebody for a Sunday school illustration. But here David says, I need a sword. Well, he didn't need a sword when he killed Goliath. He used his stones. He used Shepard's tools. But now that he's backslidden, he needs to turn, he thinks, to worldly methods. things that he hadn't required before. What's there under your hand? One commentator I read suggested that the very reason he'd gone to see Ahimelech in the first place was to get that sword. He probably knew that it had been taken as a trophy and had been kept in the priest's house and he was going there specifically to get Goliath's great big sword. so he says is there here a sword seems to suggest he knew there was i haven't brought a sword with me and i don't have any weapons because the king's business was very quick he sent me away quickly i don't think he did verse nine the priest said the sword of goliath the philistine whom you slewest is here and it seems like david immediately says yes that's what i wanted give it me he wants to take it feels the need for protection he feels the need for human methods and weapons the weapons of our warfare are spiritual the weapons are not carnal there is none like it Spurgeon in his very inimitable way takes just this phrase there is none like that give it to me he completely ignores the whole context of the chapter as he alone often does and he preaches a whole message on there is none like it give it to me things that we desire and want but won't do us any good as it was in the case with david so he sees the sword he asks for it and verse 10 it seems like that's it he's got what he wanted and he's up again and he's off where's he off to now verse 10 david arose and he fleed he's a man on the run he's fleeing from saul where is he going to go to anywhere where saul is not where does he go this is topical this is really about what the news has been about in the last day gath one of the five cities of the philistines Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gaza, Gath. He chooses Gath. Why did he choose Gath? That's where Solomon was from. Isn't it a strange thing that a man who's already many people, there was 200 on one occasion, in order to satisfy King Saul, goes to the very hometown of Goliath. Do you think he might meet Goliath's widow there? Or maybe the widows of the 200 that he killed? What a foolish thing to do. He's in enemy territory. His mind must be so distorted that he would flee from Samuel and from Ahimelech and now he goes to the Philistine land and to the very hometown of Goliath. What's come across him? Well, what happens now? He goes to see Achish and it seems like he's in dreadful fear of this man as well, another king that he's frightened of. the servants say oh this is David we used to sing a famous song about him that he killed his tens of thousands but Saul just thousands and verse 12 David puts these words in his heart and he's sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath And now what happens is he changes his behaviour and he pretends to be beside himself and mad. It's just an act. The man that's lied and who's fibbed now pretends to be completely mad. And in those days if you spit on your beard that was the final sign of madness. So Achish sees him and says we don't want anything to do with this man he's a madman and it seems that's what David wanted. He wanted to be pushed out. So David's now at rock bottom. He's gone to see Samuel, Jonathan, Ahimelech. Now he's gone to see the king of Achish. What's happened to him? He's fallen dreadfully. He's allowed himself to slip. This is not anybody else's fault but his. It's his responsibility. He's not been walking with the Lord. He wouldn't have gone to those places. He would have stayed with the Prophet Samuel. He would have stayed in the safety there. But he hasn't. He's so fearful, he's running from place to place to place to seek refuge. And there is no refuge for David. He's behaving like a madman. mad in his pretense but he's also gone slightly mad in his conduct and that's the end of chapter 21 i've whistled through it and we find at the beginning of chapter 22 and we'll just pause on these two verses but come back to it next time david departs and he goes to cave adulam he goes to a place with 400 other needy men. That doesn't sound great, does it? 401 needy men. Men can be very needy. 401 of them in a dark cave, in a dark place. That does not sound like a great place to be. I once heard a church describe itself as, we're a cave of dullum. And I thought to myself, well, cave of dullum isn't really the place we should go to. Kavadallam is a place for people who are running from problems, running from debt, running from distress. In our translation it says discontent. And there David is at rock bottom. What's he gonna do? What's he gonna say? Well, we don't have to guess, do we? Because we have Psalm 56 and Psalm 34. Turn to Psalm 34. Let's just look at a few of the verses here, because this is really a commentary. We believe, and you can tell it from the heading of this psalm, that David penned this when he was in the cave. The heading is this. psalm of david psalm 34 when he changed his behavior he pretended to be mad before abimelech who drove him away And he departed. Abimelech is the generic name for a king, so it's probably Achish. And this is his state of mind once he's called out to the Lord. This is his conclusion. I will bless the Lord at all times. I haven't done that in the last few months. His praise shall continually be in my mouth, David thinks. I haven't been praising God much recently. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. No, I've been thinking of my own wisdom, my own ideas, Goliath's sword. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. David's a changed man. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. He's become the chaplain in the cave. Verse four, I sought the Lord. This is the turning point. It seems very sudden that David calls out. It's very personal. I sought the Lord. He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Can you say that? Was there a time when you called out to the Lord, you found yourself in a dark cave, spiritually speaking, You've been running from your problems, your debt, spiritual debt. your distress your discomfort all the different issues of life family problems work problems i sought the lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears and then verse five we looked at this at a prayer meeting they this is all of them 401 they looked unto him and were lightened some of you bear a heavy load Some of you have not had your sins lifted. You bear the burden of guilt. you bear the burden of those who are under conviction of sin what did these men do they looked unto him and their faces were radiant and they became lightened and they were not ashamed verse six this was the pivotal verse for one of our church members when they were converted in the middle of a nightclub and this verse spoke to them, this poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. That's what David thought, that's what David experienced, this poor man, he's king, he's the elect king, He doesn't seem like a king at the moment, does he? Running in fear from Saul, sat in a dark, dank cave. But when he prayed and called out to the Lord, the Lord heard him, saved him, lifted him up. Oh, what joy David experiences. down, down, down, fear, fibs, lies, faking, and the Lord draws near. The Lord always draws near. Our problem is we don't seek his face, we don't look, we don't look up, we look down, we look at Goliath's sword, We go to the wrong places to seek help. We turn to the internet instead of the Word of God. We don't look to Him in prayer. But when we do... we will be lightened we will be radiant our faces will be lifted up we will not be ashamed and the lord will hear turn to psalm 56 let's just dip very quickly into this psalm another psalm written we believe at the same time look at the heading to the chief musician upon jonathan mictum of David, when the Philistines took him in gath. Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth me, mine enemies would daily swallow me up, for they be many that fight against me. His mind has become overcome with problems and difficulties and anxiety. Verse 3, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee, is the turning point. In God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. I don't need to fear Saul. I'm the Lord's anointed, he says. The Lord kept me through three javelins. He kept me through all of Saul's intentions. And back in chapter 21 of 1 Samuel, David's lost it. He's lost his focus on the Lord. He's looked down, he's looked to the side, he's looked back, but he's not looked up. And isn't that true of us? Is that not what we do so often? You speak to somebody, how are you? Oh, problem, problem, problem, problem. Sometimes we need to share a problem. But problem after problem, no. We need to be lifting our eyes upward. We need to be looking to Christ, thinking of His Word, praying to Him, and the Lord will help us through and out of all our troubles. What lessons for us. David got himself into this mess. The Lord got him out of it. David, by his omission and the things that he did, cause this problem. We bring so much problems upon ourselves. But in the midst of this desperate position, he sees the Lord's light coming to him. In the darkest of places, David is lifted up and he becomes the captain, the leader, the chaplain to these 400 Other men, friends tonight, why do we cause ourselves such needless pain? Be very careful when the heart takes shortcuts. Be very careful when integrity is compromised. Be very careful because there could be a deep fall to come. If you sense that happening in your life, if worship of Almighty God is not your top priority, Every day, every opportunity that you have to be under the light of the Gospel of Christ, then watch out. Be prepared for a fall. It's only in His light, says Psalm 36, verse 9, that we see light. All light had gone in the cave. until the Lord appeared and met with David. May we not go into Caver, Dullam. May we draw near to the Lord first and often and be often in his presence and in his light.