I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 23. Study verses 15 through chapter 4, verse 7. 1 Samuel 23, verse 15 through chapter 24, verse 7. Let's read God's word together. David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, do not fear for the hand of Saul. My father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you. Saul, my father, also knows this. And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh and Jonathan went home. Then the Sifites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh on the hill of Hakeelah, which is now south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O King, according to all your heart's desire, and come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the hand of the King. And Saul said, May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me. Go, make yet more sure, know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there, for it is told me that he is very cunning, See, therefore, and take note of all the lurking places where he hides and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you. And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah. And they arose and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Now, David and his men were in the wilderness of Mahan in the Ereba to the south of Jeshimon. And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was tall, so he went down to the rock and lived in the wilderness of Ma'an. And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Ma'an. Saul went on to the side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. And Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them. A messenger came to Saul saying, hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, that place was called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat's rock. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave, and the men of David said to him, Here is the day which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand. and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. And David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward, David's heart was struck within him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him. seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. The word of the Lord our God, may he give us grace. May he teach us from the example of David and help us to be a people thousands of years removed from this passage of scripture that would still be obedient and filled with faith as we have read of David here in the text. Let's pray together. God, we pray that you would minister to us, O Lord, that you would help us to understand your word. Lord, help us to be a people who would consider who you are in the midst of the troubles of your people. Father, we ask that you would minister to us, O Lord, you give us comfort. Lord, that we would be encouraged in you. We pray this all in Jesus name. When people are offended, when we are offended, we usually respond in several ways. Sometimes the response or maybe even a reaction may be to use words to discredit our enemies. That person hates me for no reason. They hate me. He's a terrible man, has a terrible attitude. He has no morals. He's not upstanding. And so the deflection is put at hand against any attack. Other things we might do in response to offense is that we may act out of rage, striking out to harm the person that's come toward us. It may be A thing that we do, yes, with words or more really with our hands or with actions or violence against others. In addition to this or instead of this, the response may be then to fall into deep depression. To feel as if I've been attacked. I've been attacked for no reason. I'm nothing. Maybe my enemies altogether right about me. They hate me and they have good reason. I'm not worthy of anything. I'm worthy especially of what I'm getting. And still for others, overwhelming anxiety overtakes them and drives them into a place of a hardened spirituality and a self-sufficiency that ultimately fails. And I just want to say that those things are not mutually exclusive. It's not as if you only have one or the other, but I would even say that most of us in hard season experience most of those things and probably even more. And when we come to David in the passage of Scripture, He is faced with this circumstance. He's been offended, he's been hated, he's been slandered, he's been hunted. Not only that, he's also been a man called by God. And what we see in David in this circumstance is him behaving in a godly fashion, giving us other options than a discrediting word or an act of rage or depression or anxiety or other things. He suffers this faithfully, though he didn't know Christ, he suffers it as a Christian with a heart filled with faith to the Lord. But he's not immune to the things that are happening to him. There is no doubt that this weighs heavily upon him. In fact, if you go and you read the Psalms, you see it and you're brought along into the nighttime tears of David, the sleeplessness and the overwhelming grief that he feels as being a man called by God, but oppressed by the people that he is to be king over it. And though David is facing a superior politically in Saul, he is a man so much greater morally, martially and militarily, as well as spiritually. And again, we see David as a man of God respond in a spiritual and faithful manner. And so the three things I want us to see in the passage, the first of them is the blessing of godly encouragement, verses 15 through 18. The blessing of godly encouragement. Verses 19 through 28, I want us to see the slow tactic of faith. The slow tactic of faith. Then verses 29 through chapter 24, verse 7, The benefit of a convicted heart. The benefit of a convicted heart. So as we come to verse 15, we meet David and he has fallen on hard days. He's no longer the commander of the many seated in the court of King Saul. He's no longer the man who lives under the household of a princess of Israel, having married the king's daughter. No, he's running for his life. In fact, we've just seen him in the previous verses being a champion of the people of God. He's gone at the command of God and he's defended the people of Kila, a village or a city, a walled city for that matter, in Judah, his own kinsmen. And he's gone in reference to the call of God. And there he defended them. And what's their response? Well, to hand him over to Saul. It's betrayal. It's deep and it's hard. And so on one hand, he's got his betraying family members. On the other, he's got a maddened father-in-law who is also his king. And he's got the Philistines that he's taken it to. On every side, he's surrounded. And you may recall that at the very end of the section that we read last time, verses 13, 14, David flees the city, flees for his life. He's running, even though the Lord gives his enemies over into his hand. And we're told he goes here and he goes there. And in the passage of Scripture, we meet David hiding in an area of Ziph in a forest. It's Horesh, if I'm pronouncing it properly. It's just some place. It's some security. He's he's like the story of Robin Hood and his merry men running and hiding in the forest. It's hard. It's hard because on the one hand, he's got all these enemies, but on the other, he has a divine call. He's anointed to be king. And not only that, he's been strengthened for the task. Again, I mentioned Though not politically, he's not been coronated as king and placed upon the throne among the people of Israel. He is the greater fighter. He is the greater commander of a military force. And his heart is nearer to his Lord. So why is he running for his father-in-law? Why is he hiding in caves and in wildernesses? No palace, no robes, no glory. The king to come running from the king who is hating him. I think it's because he's just a man. He's a faithful man, but he feels the weight of his smallness and the greatness of God that if not for the Lord's help, he's honest about the reality. He has no hope. He's relying on the Lord at every step. But again, he's a man. He's running for his life. This has been the direction of God. Should I leave? And the Lord's commission to him was, yeah, David, They're going to give you over and run. And again, I don't think it's a hard thing, especially in the reading of the Psalms, to understand David's heart to be one extraordinarily burdened. Almost overwhelmed to the point of despair. But what do we read here, verse 16? We read about the blessing of godly encouragement. David had seen that Saul was coming to seek his life, even as he was hiding in the wilderness of Horesh. And we're told that Jonathan, Saul's son, his friend, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. Different translations translate the phrase, strengthened his hand in God. But I would say that that's about as basic of a translation as you can get. Others will say he encouraged him or he made him ready before the face of the Lord. But you get a sense. Jonathan knows of the plight of his friend and he goes to him in the midst of it, knowing full well the danger that's at hand. It makes so much sense to imagine that if Jonathan had been caught by his father, what would have happened? He'd have put him to death. Furthermore, if his father even knew that Jonathan knew the location, of David, he would have put him to death. He's already done this against an entire village, against an entire people and against a priest of God at that. Jonathan's not safe, but nonetheless, in his heart, he goes to his friend because he understands that as a man of God, it is indispensable to have the encouragement of fellow believers. And so he goes to him. And the testimony that he gives him is really simple. You can look at it there in verse 17. This is exactly how he strengthened the hand of David in God. He said to him, Do not fear for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you. Saul, my father, also knows this. It's a basic statement of fact. It's not even a profoundly biblical or spiritual exposition, but it is a testimony of faith from Jonathan to David. There's assurance here and it's assurance of the things that God is doing in David in the midst of Israel. Look at it. Do not fear for the hand of Saul, my father shall not find you. As if he could follow it up with a phrase, God will not let it happen. That's the sort of assurance that he brings to David. You shall be king over Israel. It's set in stone, David, it's in the heart of God. He's already called you and anointed you and you're his man. And it doesn't matter what's going to happen because you will sit upon the throne. You're not a palace now, but you reside in the courts of heaven in the heart of God. It's as certain because it is held within the decree of the Lord as if it's already come to pass. That's why he can use such strong language, the language of assurance. You shall be king over Israel and I shall be next to you. My father knows this. And it's this simple message that takes David's heart undoubtedly from despair. The heights of heaven to make him a man who can then deal with the continued hunt that Saul is committing against him. Now, you can see the response of this verbal encouragement, there is a steadfast commitment that's then made between Jonathan and David and the Lord. The passage of Scripture uses a very common phrase in the Old Testament, verse 18, and the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And if you've studied the Bible very long, You may have read or been told by ministers or even heard in this church that the phrase is literally in the Hebrew, they cut, they conveyed a covenant. They cut it. Why is it? In that language, what does it mean to cut a covenant? We think of covenants as contractual agreements, and we don't generally think of those things being divided, but rather signed or maybe sealed with a stamp. But in the Old Testament, it's a formal ceremony of covenant. And whatever this is said, it's coming with the weight of the animals split and one piece put here and another piece there. And the agreement is bound on threat of death. It is serious. Moreover, it's under the face and the watchful eye of God. It's a binding agreement. with mortal and eternal consequences. That's what we're talking about. And it's once again, Jonathan committing his heart to David. Likewise, the call of God to David. It's absolutely true. It's unshakable. And for David, it is a godly encouragement. And I just want to just bring it to you, brothers and sisters. If you are not engaged one with the other in a regular ministry of encouragement, you should be far too often believers, Christians, people in the household of faith share with one another more complaints than blessings. Our ears ought to always be tuned to handle and care for the complaint of a brother or sister. However, we ought to always be striving to pour out the love of God and the encouragement that we ought to give to one another. The Lord gave his son for you. If you've not said that to one another, that needs to be a thing that is on your lips to the church. You're secure in the hands of God, his love is extended to you, he loved you so much, he gave his son for you. The sin that you're struggling with, you need to hear this. If you're in Christ, Jesus died for it. And it ought to be a constant encouragement. Christian to Christian, so that we are dug from the pit in the wilderness of the soul, so that when we're exposed to danger to the left and to the right in the depression of the heart, that we can simply know that God has promised good things to his people and that we are his people. That's why I encourage you to encourage one another. with phrases of truth that come from the scriptures, they don't even have to be profound, they just need to reflect the truth of the heart of God. So that we all hear and take the weight and the encouragement, God loves us, now press on. That's the weight and the encouragement that Jonathan gives to David. God loves you, now press on. We go on in verses 19 through 28, we see the slow tactic of faith. Far be it from anybody to consider that I've become a great student of tactical military movement. I certainly haven't. This is the tactic of the soul I'm speaking about this evening when we look at the passage of Scripture. In verse 19, you see a break in the narrative changes and no longer is David with Jonathan. We're told Jonathan goes home following the covenant, but that the Sifites now go up to Saul in Gibeah. These are the landowners. They've seen David snooping around on their borders. And what do they do? They go and they tell Saul. It's as simple as that. They've got a case of the tattletales. My sons come running in. Daddy, daddy, you won't believe what he did to me. And I say, yes, I will. I saw it out the window. Why are you tattling on one another? But that's what's going on. Grown men, a whole people, the elders among those who are in Ziph. That's most likely who's going up to Saul. And they're going and they're telling on David, the great champion of the people of Israel, who they know Saul hates. They know it. It's no secret, it's an open reality. Maybe they've even put up signs with David's face scribbled on by ancient artists. Who knows? Where's David? He's somewhere, like an ancient Where's Waldo puzzle. And here's the tale. We know where he is. He's there. He's specifically in the strongholds of Horesh. We could take you straight there. The response of Saul is this, hey, you go make sure I don't want to go all the way out there and he gives me the slip. Once again, he just evaporates like a ghost. I want you to know where he is. I want to be able to come and to take him on my terms. And he needs to know nothing of it. That's the word. So what do they do? Well, they go and they do their part, as they've already said, to Saul. And here, David. Being the military might and master he seems to be, he responds, but he does so in an interesting way. He runs from him. It's pretty simple. He runs from him here and he runs from him there. He goes out from amongst the Ziphites ahead of Saul, we're told in verse 24, and David and his men, they go to another area called Ma'an in the Arabah in the south of Jeshua. It's very specific, the history here is important. And then what happens, verse 25, Saul keeps on, he's after him, he's dead, he's determined, his nose is set toward David. And verse 25, David was told again. And so he went down to the rock and he lived in the wilderness of Ma'on. And it just goes on. He goes from there to another place. And then we're told of this circumstance where you've got Saul and his men, the thousands of them, and David and his 600, and they're on opposite sides of the hill. Because let's be real, the mountains there are kind of like hills. And what happens? What does David not do? Again, I've already mentioned he's militarily stronger, he's physically more capable in a fight. So if there were to be a face off amongst the Lord's anointed ones, Saul hasn't got a hope, not even close. But does David attack him? He doesn't. He runs from him. And he does it again. And you might say, well, of course, David's only got 600 and Saul's got thousands. They're the best. They're the chosen ones. We're going to read about it in chapter 24 there. They're tough guys. He may even have more than that pastor. We don't even know the full measure because it only goes down to a smaller number later. Why does he do it? Why does he not attack him? Well, he's afraid. I don't think that's the case. I think that this is the slow, methodical faith that grips his heart. He's waiting on the Lord. The Lord has always delivered his enemies into his hands, even whenever they far outmatch him in every way. The shepherd boy facing the giant. David facing the Philistine masses. David facing the Philistine masses again there at Keilah. This is something he knows. You know, Saul might have slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. David knows what it is, that the Lord always helps him. And so what does he do here? I think it's because of the encouragement. He simply waits. He eludes the greater Saul. He hurries away. Verse 26. What does the Lord do? He provides. And it is his reliance on the Lord's work. It doesn't have to be by David's hand. We're going to see that in the very last point. It doesn't have to be by David's hand. It can be by God's hand. And up until this point, The Lord has not told David, take your sword and go and extinguish your enemy. Instead, the constant thing that's said by the Lord is, I will deliver you. I will deliver your enemy into your hands. I will give you victory. I will give you success. Never, David, just go do what you will. And so David is waiting on the Lord. Look there in verses 27. In the provision of God, you've got, again, the context, David and his men on one side of the mountain, Saul and his men on the other. And there's about to be the face off. It's almost time for the battle. We read, A messenger came to Saul saying, Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land. So Saul, verse 28, returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, the place that was called that place was called the rock of escape. And David went from there up to in getting his waiting on the Lord works because God loves his people, his deliverance of David works because God works by means. And I just want to tell you this. It's not miraculous, although it is sovereign and it is of divine direction. And you say, well, what do you mean? There is a distinction, a miracle is where God works against nature to accomplish a thing, against the ordinary function. Well, let me just say it is ordinary for the Philistines to attack the Israelites. But make no mistake, this is all within the providence of God and the delivery of David. So he doesn't even get into a situation. where he's faced with facing off with the man that the Lord has appointed to be king of Israel. It's God's doing. And it is a good thing for us to simply slowly wait in faith on the Lord. And very often it's the right thing to simply run from it until the Lord deals with it. You go on and in verses 29 through chapter 24, verse 7, we see the benefit of an accusing conscience. And I think just the introduction to that point, most of us don't want an accusing conscience. If we're honest in the very depth of ourselves, we want some peace. We want the affirming conscience. After all, that's what we're told. You should love yourself. You should love the things you do. You should feel at peace within your own person. Why would you say there's a benefit to an accusing conscience? And I'll say that it is because it draws us away from ourselves and to the Lord for help. So, verse 29, David goes from there to En Gedi. And then, 24-1, when Saul returned from dealing with the Philistines, he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. And Saul, once again, just takes up the hunt. He's after David. It's the same story. He took three thousand chosen men out of all of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats rocks. Hilarious place name. And that's really a basic translation. It does make some sense. It seems like this is probably a place that was frequented by the shepherds of Israel. or maybe even people before them in this ancient land. And you've got these shepherds that come and they've established a sheepfold in one of those caves for the protection of their sheep. And well, maybe those rocks that are out near it, you can almost get the picture of wild goats popping their head up and looking around at all the domesticated sheep. It's this sort of picture. It's a well-known place. It's the place of shepherds. And now it's the home of another shepherd boy. A man after God's own heart. And he goes and Saul, he strikes gold this time. We don't have any sense that he knows anything, but that he's in the wilderness of Engedi. Maybe he knows the area. Maybe he knows that could be used as a stronghold. That's why he goes there. But nonetheless, he finds David and he doesn't know it. And the text of Scripture tells us that as he came to the sheaf folds, by the way, there was a cave and Saul went in to relieve himself. In the Hebrew it says he goes in to cover his feet. Kind of an Old Testament way of politely saying one has to go to the restroom. And so that's what we were talking about. Saul going by himself without the 3,000 to deal with his own business. And he goes into the cave where he sees no one, he hears nobody, sees no footprint from any of the men of David. and look at what transpires. We read in verse three, now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave and the men of David said to him, here's the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you. And we're told David rose up and he stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe without Saul ever knowing it happened. And there's a few things that we should confront here. There's a sense in which David rightly understands the circumstance. He's still not going to go and stab Saul in the back. He's still not going to strike the Lord's anointed. He's kept from it out of a sense of his calling. It's not Saul that he venerates, it's God that he venerates. Again, this is the Lord's man for the moment. It's God's hand that he's afraid of. He's not going to I'm going to lay a finger specifically on Saul. In this act of David in verse four, it should have a psychological effect. After all, where's Saul? He's going and he's hunting his enemy and he knows he's in the area. He goes to relieve himself and he didn't even know he was there. Like a phantasm, David goes and slices part of the clothing that's on his very body. It's terrifying. It would be unnerving for me or for you. You ever been pickpocketed? Someone slides their hand into your pocket, you don't even know. All of a sudden you go and 20 minutes later you realize your wallet's gone. And you think, oh, what a terrible thing. I've lost my wallet. There's a violation of the privacy of a person. It's not only the loss of financial wealth, but it's, well, the reality that you're very vulnerable. It's a scary thing. And you might think they've got my driver's license with my home address. They've got my cards and access to my wealth. They've got my kid's pictures. They've got all these things. It's a frightening thing. There's something of that here where David, probably in a calculated fashion, intends to have psychological effect on Saul. Significant. Not only that, he's mocking him. This is his king's robe. It's not just any part of his garment. It points him out in the midst of the men that he's with, and he's going to come out having gone in with it whole, and now it's obviously sliced. It's a thing of disrespect to the king. It's David's mocking of his incapacity to harm him or to lay a finger on him, and it's significant. And you might even stand back and say, boy, that's brilliant. That's brilliant. Saul deserved and he deserves so much worse. He's a terrible person and he is. Why in the world do we have in verse five a convicted, grieving David over what he's done? Look at verse five. And afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He says to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed. Little Lord means master, king, big Lord Yahweh, the God of heaven. It's directly the translation of the text. He says, far be it for me to do this sort of thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed. because he had cut off this corner of the road. David pursues his men. I'm sure they're all like men would be. You take something off your enemy, they're probably pounding their chest. We're so great. We're so tough. But David calms the man, and he tries to bring this conviction to bear. He says these words to them, and he doesn't prevent them to then attack Saul. We're told Saul rises up, leaves the cave, probably doesn't even know that it's happened. by the end of verse seven. So why, again, why is he so bothered? Why is he so, why is this such an issue? Why does his heart strike him? Is it because of Saul? No, it's because of the Lord. Again, read his words in verse six. The Lord forbid. The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed. That man is. The one who defends me, who protects me, who loves me and called me. The Lord forbid that I would offend him and lay a finger on this man whom he's given me no right to even touch. And this accusing conscience presses David and changes his action and takes him inward to think in the midst of his enemies, not of the wickedness of the man, but rather of the holiness of God. And it's the fear of God that grips him, keeps him from doing even more. produces the grieving proclamation in verse 6. Friends, I just want to say that we'll never, ever, I don't think, be faced with Saul in a cave seeking us for our lives, likely never a king of any sort of people coming after us to kill us in this fashion. We should be afraid of God more than we are afraid of others. We should be concerned with His holiness and the things that please Him, the things that are dictated by His heart, so that every single act is put to the test of simply, as a child of God, how would my God be pleased or displeased in the condition of my heart or the actions that I act out? That ought to be what grips us. We ought to fear the Lord. so that we could simply be concerned with what the Lord would forbid, even though the whole world would encourage us to perpetrate anything and everything in the pursuit of even justice, even a good thing, a thing that would affirm who we are and help us out in very, very difficult situations. And accusing conscience, always being toward the Lord, always submitting our hearts and saying, Lord, You are the one that judges the very depths of who I am. It's a great benefit because it's that that will keep us back from unholiness and turn us to repentance when we need to repent. We're not going to press on. We're going to stop here and next week we'll take it back up. Whenever David goes and confronts the man whose robe he just cut, he has a conversation with Saul and it's likely to confuse you as we study it next week because it's Not at all what you would probably expect. So let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you for the scriptures, for the study of the ancient history of your people. Lord, these ancient truths that reveal the eternal facts of who you are. Lord, help us to fear you as we ought. Help us to consider your call on our lives. Lord, help us to behave in a way that would show that you are the Lord of our lives. And that, Lord, you are the one that directs us, oh Lord, in every situation. It's good and bad, but it's easy and hard. Father, we thank you in all these things, in Jesus' name, amen.