Let's open up to 1 Samuel, chapter 23. I'm going to begin reading in a moment. But as we read and as we consider today's message, there's a couple of questions I want us to have on our minds. And the first one is this. I'll ask it as a two-part question. And it is this. Who is your God? That is, who do you worship? Or another, that's right, Jesus, yes. And who is your Lord? That is, who do you serve? Who do you obey with your life? Who do you owe your devotion and loyalty to? And I don't just mean, who would you acknowledge in word to be your Lord? But the actual actions and thoughts of your life, do they live that out? And that's a question for all of us to consider. It's a question that we see working itself out in the lives of David and Saul. And when we compare them to each other and we compare their relationships to the Lord and the Lord's relationship to them. And so that's the first question, two part question to have on our minds. this morning. But let's begin now reading in 1 Samuel 23. Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing floors. Here's how we're introduced to this chapter. We have a crisis. We have a city, Keilah. This is a city in the land of Judah. Judah being one of the 12 tribes of the land of Israel. So this is one of the cities in the land of Israel, in the tribe of Judah. And Judah, remember, is the tribe that David's from. And that's important as well. But what is perhaps most important here is that you have a city of Israel under attack and whose job is it and whose job has it been to defend and to fight for the cities when they come under the attack of the enemies of the people of Israel? Well, It's the role of the king to fight for them. And we've seen in the past, Saul has been the one that has gone out and rallied everybody together to fight. In fact, this is really integral to the story of how Saul became king. and how he began to live his role as a king. He stood up and he rallied everybody together when no one else wanted to fight and no one else was going out. And he fought against the Philistines and delivered the people of Israel by the strength of the Lord. But here now, we have a change. We have a change in the situation in that Keilah is under attack from the Philistines, but this time, it's David that hears. Where is Saul, we might wonder. Well, Saul was too busy doing what he shouldn't have been doing, that is, pursuing David, rather than defending his people, defending his people from the Philistines. So here's how it's introduced. They told David saying, behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah and they rob the threshing floor. So we have the setup, a crisis, David hears about it. Now, what is David going to do? What is David going to do? Well, what should he do? What should he do? And our initial reaction might be, well, David should go fight for the people of Israel. David should go fight and defend this city. And maybe that's right, but there's something more important that David should do. There's something more important that you should do when you're faced with crisis in your own life. What's first? You might know the right thing to do. You might think you know the right thing to do. You might know what you want to do. But what ought you to do first, always? Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord's guidance. Go to God in prayer, yourself. Ask others to pray for you, that God would show you what you ought to do. And this is what David does. Therefore, it says, therefore, therefore, and we're anticipating now, what's David gonna do? He hears, what's he gonna do? He inquires of the Lord. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, Go and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah. So God answers him. God speaks to David. Now how did David inquire of the Lord? How did the Lord speak to David? Well, there seemed to be two primary ways in this time, in this time of God's dealing with his people. One was through the prophets. God would send prophets to the people. God had sent to David the prophet Gad. And Gad had spoke to him in an earlier chapter and said, get out of the fortress, go into the land of Judah. Later on, Gad is called David's seer. So here was a prophet of God that was closely associated with David. He was, in many ways, David's prophet. He was someone God sent particularly to be an instrument of God's word for David. Gad and Nathan and Samuel are three of the prophets that are mentioned. And I believe, if I understand right, that those three in particular were the ones that wrote these things down for us today. They're the ones that God used to preserve the book of Samuel, these prophets. But also God spoke to them at times through the priests. Later on in this chapter we'll mention the priest, the ephod. And in the priest's garment there was something that we've already examined some. It was the ephod with the Urim and Thummim, which are believed to be these two stones. that were used to discern the will of God, and so when you see, at times, someone inquiring of the Lord with the priest, and God is essentially answering with a yes or no answer, then it seems to be that this is the case, this is the ephod. Now, it's very explicit here in this chapter that that's what happens later in this chapter. But in the early part of this chapter, we see God is giving more than a yes or no. God is telling David what he ought to do and what the result is going to be. He says, go and smite the Philistines and save Keilah. Before we move on, stop and consider a moment as well. Who is David inquiring of? I asked you to consider that question. Who is your God? Who is your God? Well, who is David inquiring of? Easy answer, it seems. He's inquiring of God, but God reveals himself with a personal name, and that's the God that David is inquiring of. Everybody in that time had their gods. They had their gods that they worshiped, that they believed in, the gods of the Philistines. It mentions like Dagon, or it mentions the gods of Egypt. When God pours out the plagues on Egypt, he says that he would bring his judgment upon the gods of Egypt. Later on, there'll be the gods of Babylon, Baal and Nebo, and there'll be the gods of all the different nations. There's Baal, who people worshipped at that time. So, if we know that David is inquiring of God, we'd ask, which God? Who was David's God? Who was the God that David worshipped? And so we see here in verse 2, it says, therefore David inquired of the Lord. The David's God was the Lord, but I'll make note to you here, in your Bible you see the word Lord, sometimes in the printing of the Bible, it'll be Lord in all capital letters, and sometimes it'll be Lord with regular presenting of that word, Lord. And that's because the word here that's Lord is the personal name of God, often pronounced Yahweh, or sometimes pronounced Jehovah. And I know they sound very differently, but those are really the same word just with different vowel pattern and different consonants because language is strange and it changes over years and it gets adapted when things get translated. But when it really comes down to it, those are the same word. They come back to this name of God, Yahweh, David inquired of Yahweh. Why is it rendered as the Lord with all capitals here? Well, it goes back many, many generations, but in a kind of spirit of reverence over the name of God, people in different times have been reluctant to pronounce the name of God or to use it too much or to use it lightly. And for that reason, there was a time when in reading the Hebrew scriptures, people wouldn't say the name of the Lord, lest they say it irreverently or be too loose with it or too casual with it. And so what they would do is they would replace the name of God in the reading, people do this to this day, they would replace it with the Hebrew word Adonai, which means Lord. And so then when the Bible got translated, for example, into Greek, the name of the Lord was substituted with the name Lord. Yahweh was replaced with the Greek word for Lord, kurios. And in English, we do in many of the printings of the Bible, something similar, Lord. Lord, but it's put in all capital letters here so that we are not disguised of the true information that this is the name of the Lord. This might seem overly technical, but it's important because this is showing us that when it says, the Lord, your God, it's referring to the personal name of God. It's referring to Yahweh, Jehovah. That is the God, that is the Lord that David is inquiring of. The word Adonai, that means Lord in the traditional sense of a master or one to whom we owe obedience and respect, and so it says there are lords many in the Bible. There are lords. There were earthly lords. Sarah called her husband Abraham. She called him Lord. She didn't call him the name of God. She called him Lord as in her Lord in that name Adonai, that word Adonai, which is a title of respect. and of honor and of submission. But this name, Lord, here is the name of God. Therefore David inquired of the Lord." I'll just show you one other verse to demonstrate this a little bit. It's in 1 Samuel 15 30, something we've already read and seen. 1 Samuel 15 30, Saul talking to Samuel After Samuel has announced to Saul that God is going to take away the kingdom from him, Saul wants at this point to preserve his respect among the people. He wants to preserve the order and consistency and authority of his kingdom, so he wants Samuel to worship with him, publicly, so that everyone would see that God is still on Saul's side, so that everyone would see that Samuel is still supportive of Saul. He asked this in 1 Samuel 15 30. Then he said, I have sinned yet honor me now I pray thee before the elders of my people and before Israel and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. We have both words here. God is a word Elohim. But I've already said that God as a word itself is not as personal as the name of the Lord Yahweh. Because God could refer to the gods of the Philistines, the gods of Egypt. It's the same word, but the Lord is the Lord, the God of Israel. And so what Saul says here is very telling, and it's telling about his relationship to the Lord and to Samuel. First of all, because it is important to him to worship the Lord in this verse, not out of a desire for him to preserve and uphold and and revigorate his relationship to the Lord, but so that he appears before the people to be worshiping the Lord. That is, what is important to him is how what he's doing appears to men, rather than having a right relationship with God. And that is revealing of Saul, but it also ought to be a warning to us. That in our hearts and in our actions, that we are not like Saul where we do what we do in order to be seen of men, but that we care most of all about our relationship to the Lord. That He would be our God, that we would desire to worship Him whether anybody saw or not. that we would seek to please God rather than men. And so that's very revealing. The other thing that's very revealing is his choice of language. He says to Samuel, turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. And so even he acknowledges that the Lord is Samuel's God rather than saying the Lord my God. and we see the distance from his heart. And it reminds me of what Jesus said to many in his day, when he said, they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. There's an outward honoring of God, and we ought to honor God with our lips, but the inward honor of God with our hearts is foremost, it is before that. What comes out of our lips ought to be the outpouring of what is in our hearts and not a disguise, not a pretend, not a fake worship of God. But our hearts ought to be honoring to the Lord. So, we see, David inquired of the Lord, saying, shall I go and smite these Philistines? And the Lord said unto David, go and smite the Philistines and save Keilah. So we see something important taking place here. We see the working out of David replacing Saul. This should have been, by the nature of his role, this should have been Saul's role to save the people. And we'll see later on that Saul is called away to fight the Philistines. But here David is stepping up and filling out being the replacement of Saul. God had poured his spirit upon David and he'd taken it away from Saul. So David is replacing Saul. But David gets some more counsel. David gets some more advice from the people around him. And David's men said unto him, behold, we be afraid here in Judah, how much more then if we come to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? Now on a human level, what David's men are saying here is very reasonable. What they're saying is, all right, David and his men, and remember he had about 400 men and this has grown apparently to about 600 at this time. David has about 600 men. And what they're saying is, we're here in Judah, we're hiding out, we're fleeing from our lives from Saul, things are not going well for us, we're living in a state of fear, we're afraid even here in the land of Judah, our homeland basically. How much more are we going to be afraid? How much more trouble are we going to be in if now we go and we start fighting against the Philistines? We'll not only have Saul after us, but now we'll have the Philistines after us. We'll be in a battle on both sides. So it's not maybe the best strategy for them. And in fact, what they're going to do is going to put them into a situation of more trouble. And that's amazing because it's God that's leading them there. Following the Lord, following the Lord does not mean that God is always going to, when he calls us in one direction, when he leads us in one direction, it doesn't mean that God is always going to lead you into the place that's going to be the easiest path. It doesn't mean that if you are in tune with God speaking to you and God guiding your life and you're in tune with God's word and you're in prayer about your decisions and God leads you and you obey and you follow, that doesn't mean that God is going to always lead you on the easy path. It doesn't mean that trouble is not going to come upon you. It doesn't mean that God isn't going to lead you in a situation where you're even in more danger and crisis and trouble. God has a reason for it, and God will be with you through it, but God may lead you into, at times, more trouble. And he's going to do that here, in this situation. So conversely, that means that just because you find yourself in a situation of trouble, and you believe that you followed God's leading, and yet you find yourself in suffering or difficulty, that does not mean that that was not the Lord that led you into that. And so let's see what happens to David here. But David receives counsel from his men. He received the word of the Lord. So what does David do? Who's he going to follow? Who's he going to obey? Who's he going to follow the leading of? Well, David does something both wise and intelligent here. He inquires of the Lord again. Maybe he saw there was much wisdom in what his men were saying, but David, is under the obligation, the duty, the responsibility, and the privilege to follow God's leading first. So David inquires of the Lord yet again, and the Lord answers him, and the Lord confirms his previous answer, but he also gives him more insight. And this is part of why it seems like David might be hearing from a prophet here, because the Lord is speaking to him. And the Lord answered him and said, arise, go down to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And what we see in the very next sentence, the very next clause, tells us much about David. God said, go, and David went. David listened to his men. He listened to the Lord. And when they were at odds, David followed the word of the Lord. So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their cattle and smoked them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah And it came to pass, when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David, to Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. And that's how that paragraph ends, which is interesting because it's foreshadowing something. It reminds us of Abiathar, the priest. Remember the end of the last chapter? Saul viciously had the entire family of Ahimelech the priest killed, all the priests put to death, and only one escaped, Abiathar. This one escaped. from the entire line of the priesthood, the only priesthood the Lord left. He's from the line of Eli. Eli going all the way back to the beginning of the book of Samuel, and he's the only one left. Everyone else has been killed. And he goes to David, and David says, you'll be safe with me. He says, he that's seeking your life is seeking my life, but with me you will be safe. And Abiathar comes down, and here it mentions that when Abiathar came, to David, he brought something with him. He brought the ephod. He brought the priest's garment. This is going to be a great benefit to David. It's going to provide David insight into the will of God because the priest had this means by which the king was able to inquire of God by asking the ephod. by asking, and the casting of lots revealed the answer of the Lord. Yes, no. And he could ask a question. And he will, this will become important. So this is foreshadowing this. But he saves Keilah. And now you might wonder what then would be the reaction of these people, this city? David came and he saved them when they were in a state of trouble. David was their savior. He was their deliverer. They were His people. He came to His own people and He saved them by really putting Himself into danger by His own sacrifice. And how then would you think that these people would respond? Are they going to rally around Him and be loyal to Him? Well, in fact, they're not. In fact, they will betray him given the opportunity. And then it turns our attention to Saul. So we're focused here on David, what's happening to David now. The narration turns and it reveals what's going on with Saul. It was told Saul that David was come to Keilah and Saul said, God, had delivered him into mine hand, for he is shut in by entering into a town that hath gates and bars." The more that I've read and studied this book and seen the character of Saul, the more striking it is and troubling it is how many times you see Saul invoking God, or invoking the name of the Lord, to his side, to his defense, like he's doing here. David's claim is that God has delivered David into his hands. He's implying that God is on his side. He's implying that he has the blessing of God in what he's doing. And so we see that just the use and the acknowledgement of the name of God, or the acknowledgement of God, does not prove that one has the blessing of God or the loyalty of God. In fact, God has refused to answer Saul. The last time we saw Saul do what David's about to do, that is inquire of the Lord through the ephod, it says the Lord did not answer. But here, David is gonna inquire. And Saul called all the people together to war, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. And David knew that Saul secretly practiced mischief against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, Bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake. So notice here, David said, O Lord God of Israel. I'm emphasizing this today in particular, because as you read your Bible, I want you to see that with the understanding of what's going on. You'll see that phrase common, Lord God. And we will, in our own speech, perhaps even use interchangeably the Lord, God, but the words are very precise. and revealing of what's going on. This is talking about who God is. Who is the God that David worshiped? Who is the God that he's calling out to and seeking guidance from? The Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel. The God of Israel. All the nations had their God or their gods. Most of them had multiple gods. The Philistines had their gods, Dagon and others that they worshiped. But the God of Israel, and at the heart of the message of the Bible, is that the God of Israel is the true God. The God of Israel is the God that created, not only Israel, but the one who created the earth and all things therein, the one that created the heavens, the stars, and the sun. And you go back to Genesis, and it says, in the beginning, God. created the heavens and the earth. And the Bible, as the story unfolds and more and more truth is revealed to us through the pages, we see that it is the God that called Abraham, that called Isaac and Jacob, and that established the nation of Israel. That is the God who created this world and all things therein. He is the true God. And this is the God that David serves. This is the God who in the fullness of time took on flesh and dwelt among us. In the one who came to be called, his name would be called Immanuel, which means God with us. This is the God that we worship. Then David said, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant has certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy the city for my sake. So here's what's gonna happen. Saul has this strategy. David's in Keilah. David has delivered Keilah. The people are in debt to David for saving them. But Saul is gonna come and he's gonna surround the city, besiege it, and he's gonna say, here's your choice. You give David up. and he can die for the rest of you, or I'm going to destroy the whole city. And so David inquires of the Lord. David inquires of the Lord in verse 11. He says, Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard, O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, he will come down. Okay, so this is important. David asked two questions. First question is, will Saul come down? And the Lord says, yes, he will come down. Second question, will the men of Keilah give me up? Then said David, will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, they will deliver thee up. So God has revealed this to David. This is what I mean when I say God did not lead David into an easy situation. He led him into, in essence, a kind of trap. David's now in a city, going to be besieged, surrounded by people that are willing to betray him to save themselves. And this is the situation that God has led David into. But God is also going to deliver David through this, and he does so by revealing God's knowledge of what's going to take place. And I want us to stop and consider for a moment the foreknowledge of God, how deep that goes, what that means. We sometimes speak about God having foreknowledge. One aspect of that is we think, well, God knows the future. God knows what's going to happen before it happens. And that, of course, is true. God does know what's going to happen before it happens. But God's foreknowledge is even deeper, more profound than that. God knows what's going to happen before it happens, because God is sovereign over His creation. Because God is the principal actor in everything that does happen. Because God knows the hearts of the people of His creation, and because God created all things and governs them as He wills. So God, of course, knows the future before it happens, because God is the one that is bringing to pass the future. And when we consider the actions of His creation, like Saul in this case, or the men of Keilah, the Lord knows their hearts. And in this case, God not only knows what will happen, But it also reveals that God knows what would have happened had things unfolded differently. In other words, had David not done what he's about to do, which is to get up and get out of there before they give him up, God has already revealed to him what would have happened had he stayed. Saul would have come, and the people would have given David up. And as it turns out, that doesn't happen. because David leaves, because David is warned of the Lord. So the foreknowledge of God, when you think about what God knows, the God you serve, think about this, God not only knows what will happen, God knows the hearts of all people, and He knows what they would do in a given situation, but more than all of that, God in His foreknowledge, not only knows, but governs the events of this world and this life. So that even the most tragic event in the history of the world, the betrayal and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus at the hand of his enemies, At the hand of his own people, it said he came unto his own and his own received him not. See, David wouldn't be the last one to be betrayed by people that he came only with kindness and with help to their aid. But it happened to Jesus in full. It says that when Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the Jews, when everyone, the powers of this world, were united together, it says they were united together to do whatsoever God's hand had determined before to be done. What God in His purpose, in His divine sovereign purpose, had intended to come to pass in order to accomplish God's ultimate plan. So God is sovereign. God is in control of the events of this world. And so his foreknowledge is not like that of a fortune teller who's able to peer off into the future and see what happens before it happens. No, God's knowledge comes because God See, God is past, present, and future. God is not bound by time, as we are. And God not only sees the future, but God owns the future. And God inhabits the past, the present, the future, because that is all part of His creation. So God tells David what's going to happen. And if he stays, Saul's going to come down. The people are going to give him up. So David and his men, which were about 600, arose and departed out of Keilah and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forbear to go forth. And David abode in the wilderness in strongholds, and remained in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered him not into his hand. And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life, and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood." Here's David's situation, dire situation. Saul seeking him every day, every day. Saul's trying to kill David every day. You know, you think your problems are tough. Saul's trying to kill David every single day. And he's pursuing him everywhere he can. And Saul even says, God has delivered him into my hand. But the Bible says, the Bible says, God delivered him not into his hand. See, Saul could do nothing. that God did not allow him to do. Saul could go no further than the bounds that God sets on Saul's ability. It's kind of like what Jesus said to Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate said to Jesus, when Jesus wouldn't answer him, he wouldn't defend himself to Pilate, Pilate says, don't you understand that I have the power to either save you or kill you? It's like, Jesus, don't you understand, Jesus, that I have the power of your life in my hands? That's what Pilate thought. Pilate's the authority. He works for the Roman government. He can put Jesus to death. He can spare Jesus. He can deliver him. Jesus says, no, no. He says, you cannot do anything that my father's not allowed you to do. You don't have any power. I have power over my own life to lay it down. or to take it up. And that's how it is, that we think that we have power, we think that we have the ability. Saul thought that he could pursue and destroy David, but God would not deliver him into his hand. One last part of this passage for today, but before we read this, I wanna ask you the other question. that I wanted to have in your mind. The first one was who is your God? Who is your Lord? Who do you worship? Who do you serve with your life, with your actions, your heart? This is the second question for you to consider. Consider it this week. Who can you encourage in God this week? Look for someone that you could say a word to encourage them in the Lord. Maybe you will come across, or maybe you know of someone who is suffering, someone who is afflicted, someone who is in dire straits like David was in, with Saul seeking his life every day, and he's hiding out in the woods, and he's running, and his people are going anywhere they can, and they can't even hide out in a city that they saved because the people will betray them, and so they have to hide out in the woods, hide out in rocks, You know, David had a lot of faith, but even David, I'm sure, could become discouraged. You see it in the Psalms. He wasn't always full of confidence that everything would be okay. He went into times of despair and discouragement, and God encouraged him and held him up. And sometimes one of the ways that God will encourage somebody is by sending you to speak a word to them, to encourage them in the Lord. So think about, this week, who can you encourage in God? Who can you say a word to remind them of the power of God and the work of God in their life and the promises of God, the promises that God has made that he is always faithful to keep. Praise the Lord, David had a friend who encourages him in the midst of his time of trouble. Verse 16, and Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David in the wood and strengthened his hand in God. David's encouragement came from, in some ways, an unlikely place. Saul's son, the son of his arch enemy, comes to him, seeks him out, finds him in the woods, and strengthens his hand in God. He encouraged him. And he said unto him, fear not, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find me, and thou shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee, and that also Saul, my father, knoweth. Jonathan understands something. He understands that God had rejected his father from being king over Israel, and he had chosen David, and David was going to be king. And Jonathan, rather than, as we've seen, rather than resisting that, rather than fighting that like Saul or being envious of David, Jonathan desires more than anything to be David's greatest supporter. He encourages him in his time of trouble. And in some ways, that's how you know who your faithful friends are. The ones, you know, when David's on the throne and everything's great and he's wealthy and powerful, sure, a lot of people are gonna wanna be his friend. But Jonathan's his friend when David's in distress. And he's still there and he says, I know you're gonna be king and I'll be next to you. He's gonna be David's right hand man. This was his hope. I'm sure this was David's hope. And things do not always work out how we hope and how we desire. And life is full of tragedy. But regardless, Jonathan was faithful. to the end with David. And as far as we see, this was the last time he would ever see David. His best friend. His greatest friend. And he says, you're going to be king, and I'm going to be right there with you. And he encourages him. And they had made a covenant, and they had made a covenant again, and here for the third time they make a covenant, promises to each other, commitment of their loyalty, and the loyalty of their descendants after them to one another. And they too made a covenant, it says, before the Lord. And David abode in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house. They come together. Jonathan encourages him, he upholds his hand in the Lord, then they go their separate ways for the destiny that will be before them. But David goes from this encouraged and strengthened in the Lord. So who can you encourage this week? You know, you don't know what a day will bring. We say, I'm going to go in this city and do this or that. As James said, we might say, I'm going to go here, I'm going to buy and sell and get gain. And he says, you don't know what a day is going to bring. You don't even have power over your own life. So he says, you say, tomorrow, if the Lord wills, we will live and we will do this and that. So you never know. You never know when you see someone. Will that be the last opportunity you have to speak words to them? So embrace that every day and ask yourself, who can I encourage this week? I don't know what a day is going to bring forth. And I'm so thankful that Jonathan and David in this last opportunity they had to come together, that Jonathan took that opportunity to encourage David and to strengthen him for what was before him. Who is your God? Who is your Lord? And who can you strengthen in the Lord? Who can you encourage?