DAVID'S LEGACY 1 SAMUEL 24:1-8; 9-25
“LESSONS ON THE LAM”
As noted our reading picks up right where John left off last week. As you heard the father-son like relationship that Saul and David had has gone south. Saul, succumbing to feelings of jealousy and resentment, has turned on David. “Hey David, nice job defeating them Philistines!” 'Oh thanks...'
“You beat more of 'em than I did!” (pantamimiming spear throwing) / (dodging) 'Whoa...!'
“Hey David, what do you think about tonight's dinner?” “'Oh, well it's quite good, I think...'
“Who cares what you think?!” (pantamimiming spear throwing) / (dodging) 'Hey...!'
“Hey David, why don't you play your harp no more? 'Cause the last time you threw a spear...'
“I never threw no stinkin' spear...! (pantamimiming spear throwing)/(dodging) 'What the...!'
David's been dodging spears faster than the Yankees having been losing games to the Dodgers!
Sorry Yankee fans.
And now, David's on the lam. You now what that means, right? No, it doesn't mean that David rode around on the back of some sheep. He's not a shepherd any more. It's a reference to when someone is on the run from the authorities, which David definitely is. He's an outlaw, as it were, since Saul as king, is the law of the land. Brings to mind a cartoon I saw featuring a talkative saleswoman in a travel agency selling the disgruntled convict sitting in front of her of some great travel package...
(talking with her hands) “Sure you can! Try our new 12 year 'On The Lam' package. It has deluxe dumpster accommodations, free alley cats, 2 garbage drops a day and rain or shine outdoor dining! Whatta ya think?!” 'Whatever.'
Like it or not, David's on the lam. And what's not to like? You've got comfy rocks for pillows, dust in your donuts for breakfast and an angry tyrant on your heels to keep you on your toes. What develops, from the ground up as it were, are David's lessons on the lam, insights to faithful living. To get at the first of these lessons we need to dig in to the context a little bit.
Chapter twenty-four, here, is the first of three trials in the wilderness. The second one involves the trial of having his request for food and supplies rudely denied by Nabal, a rich dude from Carmel - with a sneer and an insult no less. Instead of acting on his anger, however, David winds up following the wise counsel of Nabal's wife, Abigail. Lesson: Seek and listen to godly counsel.
The Third story in the trilogy is a second case of David finding himself in fortuitus circum-stances. Saul forgets his oath, gets himself in a lather, and goes hunting for David again. He wears himself out and camps out with his men a top a hill where again David spares his life. There David expresses again what motivates him – to be in the presence of God. That's the point. “Why are you chasing me? Must I die on foreign soil, far from the presence of the Lord?” (1 Samuel 26:18,20)
So David again foreshadows the life story of his descendant and heir to his eternal throne, by enduring three tests in the wilderness, just as Jesus does in Matthew 4. David's test, as was Saul's, has to do with his relationship to the kingdom at hand, and that's what's at stake. Israel has already been renched out of the hands of one king. David's lessons on the lam include how he passed this test.
-2-
Chapter 24 reveals at least three things David gets right. One he resists peer pressure. That's huge! We're all under intense peer pressure. It's all around us – in our schools, in the way products are marketed, in the way we use social media. The presure to look a certain way, behave a certain way, and yes, vote a certain way shapes us. The political peer pressure in our country right now is intense! And people are far more inclined to get in one another's face about it – both personally and virtually. People were getting in David's face too, only in his case, those people were his friends and colleagues. They were the voices around him, in other words, that he should've been able to trust.
When Saul walked into the cave in which David and his men were hiding, “David's men whispered to him, 'Oh – my – gosh! He doesn't see us! He took off his tunic and his robe. He's going to poop! Awkward! Wait! Now's your opportunity, David! Today the Lord is telling you, 'I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with them as you wish.'” (1 Samuel 24:4)
That verse can teach us much. It becries the question, how did David's men get it wrong? Biblical scholars have asked that very question, many of whom went back to try and find what biblical text these guys were referring to. The result? There isn't any. David's men weren't quoting scripture, they were interpreting their current circumstances in light of what they thought God should say & do.
How many voices around us, including among our friends and colleagues, are whispering the same, I wonder? How quick we are to assume we speak on God's behalf. What's more, it should be noted that David's men are both earnest and sincere, but wrong. As one commentary puts it: “Their assumption underscores the danger of making decisions based solely on circumstantial signs.”
(NLT Study Bible)
It's a lesson within a lesson on the lam. A little more humility would've served David's men well. As for David, he always seems to be asking himself, “What would God want me to do? What would honor God most in this situation?” The question leads him to an 'aha': “'The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the King. I shouldn't attack the Lord's anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him.' So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.” (1 Samuel 24:6-7)
This seeking to honor God mindset is crucial to David passing these three tests in the wilderness and he is quick to make that known to those around him, as he does here with his men. He does so again when calling the king out on his murderous search and kill campaign. And notice that when he does he notes the role that peer pressure has taken in leading Saul down the rabbit's hole he's in.
“Then David shouted to Saul, 'Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn't true, for the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave. The Lord is my advocate, and he will rescue me from your malice.”
(1 Samuel 24:9-10, 15)
Again David's test in the wilderness reveals the danger of peer pressure, of listening to the voices that seem to have your best interests at heart, but do not strengthen trust in God or serve his will. Interesting that the voices around Saul spoke into and fed his fears. They warned him of a conspiracy, that David was not to be trusted, worse, that he was his enemy. They pit one camp against the other.
The result? There got to be a lot spear throwing, accusing and hiding. Sounds kinda familiar. But notice again David's antidote. He focuses on what is required of him to bring glory to God in the moment before him and then he looks for any and every opportunity to make others aware of God's mercy and goodness. That is to say, in the heat of peer pressure in the wilderness, David praises God... -3-
It brings to mind one of my favorite moments in the Lord of the Rings movies. Frodo is feeling discouraged and makes the comment that he wishes the ring had never come to him and that none of his had ever happened. Gandolf lovingly smiles at the hobbit and replies, “So do all of those who live in such times, but that is not for us to decide. We can only decide what to do with the time alloted us.”
(Gandolf from The Fellowship of the Ring)
David passes the test by noting the voices of peer pressure around him and withstanding them by focusing on what he knows God expects of him, what would honor God and then sets about doing one thing that clearly does – helping others see the mercy and goodness of God at hand!
There's another timely lesson on the lam here, though. It's one that confirms a New Testament teaching from the hand of the Apostle Paul. David repeatedly embodies that teaching through his insistence to do no harm to the king specfically because he is God's anointed, or as David so emphatically puts it: “for the Lord himself has chosen him.” (1 Samuel 24:6)
Paul will echo that sentiment when he writes the church: “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. Give respect and honor to those who are in authority.” (Romans 13:1, 7)
A lot of folks, including church going Christians, would slap on the postscript to those verses, except when they are ungodly or slash evil. But Paul doesn't add that postscript and in fact wrote those verses when a certain tyrant had ascended the throne in Rome, a cuddly fellow named, Nero. For those called to help others see the mercy and goodness of God at hand one way we do that, as hard as it may be, is to offer respect and honor to those in authority, especially those we oppose.
In such divisive times as these that's easier said than done. As someone noted recently, within a few days, half of our nation will be grieviously anxious for their wellbeing and the future of our country. Half are convinced that the other half is deceived, and the other half likewise. In such a season we seek to be a refuge in the political storm. Like David, we see it as a testing in the wilderness, an ample opportunity to earnestly seek God's presence and bring his goodness and mercy to light.
In sparing the man's life who had doggedly sought his own, David showed again how he was a man after God's own heart, for mercy and forgiveness are the means by which love transforms the world from a wilderness of darkness into a domain of God's loving grace and presence.
Such was the extraordinary experience of Ernest Gordon, a British Army officer who was captured at sea and sent, along with thousands of others, to work on the deadly Burma-Siam railroad. The place was a living hell. Naked except for loin cloths, forced to work in 120 degree heat, tortured by insects, jagged rocks, and sadistic guards, it was every man for himself. 80,000 men died.
One day a shovel went missing. A guard gathered the men and demanded a confession. No one stepped forward so the guard raised his gun to begin shooting the prisoners. Suddenly an enlisted man stepped forward and said, “I did it”. The guard fell on him in a fury, beating him to death. That evening when tools were inventoried again, a mistake was discovered, no shovel was indeed missing.
One of the prisoners connected the incident with Jesus' words: “There is no greater love than when a man lays down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) Attitudes in camp began to shift. They started treating the dying with respect...., prisoners began to help each other, thefts grew rare.
-4-
“Death was still with us – no doubt about that, but we were slowly being freed from its destruc-tive grip. We were seeing for ourselves the sharp contrast between the forces that made for life and those that made for death. Selfishness, hatred, envy, jealousy, greed, self-indulgence, lazyness and pride were all anti-life. Love, heroism, self-sacrifice, sympathy, mercy, integrity, and creative faith, on the other hand, were the essence of life, turning mere existence into living in its truest sense. These were the gifts of God to men. True there was hatred, but there was also love. There was death but there was also life. God had not left us. He was with us, calling to live the divine life in fellowship.”
(from Ernest Gordon's To End All Wars)
Gordon's book tells of the transformation of individual men in the camp, a transformation so complete that when liberation finally came the prisoners treated their sadistic guards with kindness and not revenge, kind of like a future shepherd king from long ago. The miracle on the River Kwai, as it came to be known, was no less than the creation of an alternate community, a tiny settlement of the Kingdom of God taking root in the least likely soil, a spiritual fellowship that somehow proved more substantial and more real than the world of death and despair and deception around them.
Perhaps something like this was what Jesus had in mind as he painted word pictures of the Kingdom of God. In the soil of this polarized, chaotic and violent world, an alternate community may take root as it aligns itself with another world, spreading rumours and planting settlements in advance of that coming reign and it's king foreshadowed by one who shows mercy and grace instead of revenge.
(from Phillip Yancey's Rumors of Another World)