Audio Link
Taking Refuge
1 Samuel 22; Remsen Bible Fellowship; 03/14/2021
Introduction
The world we live in is not safe. Ever since the entry of sin into the world in Genesis chapter three, the human experience has been characterized by suffering, pain, and ultimately death. We might think that as Christians we are granted some sort of stay or exception in this order of the world, which is precisely the offer of prosperity teachers like Benny Hin or Joyce Meyer or Joel Osteen. You can have your best life now! Healing now, prosperity and material wealth now, just have faith! But of course, this is not the promise of Jesus. Jesus said to his disciples, In this world you will have tribulation (John 16:33).
This expectation of worldly trouble has been a mark of Christianity all the way through. Perhaps you remember John Newton’s line from Amazing Grace, through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come/‘tis grace hath brought me safe thus far/and grace will lead me home. Grace has already brought us through many dangers, toils, and snares-and will continue to do so. Where then, do we turn for such amazing grace?
If you would, open your bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 22.
David Learns to Take Refuge in God, v 1-5
David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. And David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab. And he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me.” And he left them with the king of Moab, and they stayed with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. Then the prophet Gad said to David, “Do not remain in the stronghold; depart, and go into the land of Judah.” So David departed and went into the forest of Hereth.
As we pick back up in our story, you will remember that David has been in Gath, because for some reason he thought going to God’s enemies was a good idea. The plan backfires, though, and he ends up pleading insanity. Acish is disgusted by David’s behavior, and thus tosses him from the royal presence, and David is saved. So now, since he is not welcome in Gath, he departs and heads for the cave of Adullam.
And once he arrives in the cave, word of his presence leaks. And this cave then becomes the happening place not only for David’s family (v1), but for every misfit, outcast, and loser in Israel (v2). Not exactly the army David would have drawn up for himself.
Hey, want to build an army?
Sure-could you give me all of the people in distress, all the people who can’t pay their bills, and all the malcontents?
Nonetheless, this is who David has. And the presence of so many of these folks, along with their willingness to defect to David at a time when everyone knows he is being hunted points to how far Saul’s prominence in Israel had fallen. He’s losing his grip on the kingship. And while he will retain his throne until his death, things will get increasingly worse for him.
In verse three we find David leaving the cave of Adullam, which was in the land of Judah, and heading for Mizpeh in Moab. This might seem strange at first given that he had just been in Philistine country and it hadn’t gone well. Why head to the Moabites? But if we remember on Jesse’s side of the family is a Moabite connection. Who is Jesse’s grandmother and thus David’s great-grandmother? Ruth, the Moabitess (Ruth 4:17-22). So if David is going to take his parents someplace safe, away from Saul, Moab does seem to make sense. But what he does next is head to a mountain stronghold, apparently also in Moab. Again, this seems a logical move. Saul is chasing David, and he needs a place to be safe, right?
Enter the prophet Gad. Gad will be a frequent player in David’s story, but here we have our first record of him, and this is his message: get out of here! Go into the land of Judah. Now this seems ludacris. David is safe in the stronghold. The king of Moab will keep his territory safe, even if he couldn’t, a mountain stronghold would provide good natural defenses for the 400 discontent soldiers David is hauling along with himself. Why would God send him back to Judah?
One reason could simply be God’s desire for David to be seen by the people as someone who is present and for them. Remember there is a period of years where David is on the run from Saul, and if he just ducks out of the country that whole time, the people may well not view him as the king when he gets back.
But far more important, more fundamental, in my view, is this: God is teaching David to look for another stronghold. Turn with to Psalm 57, where we’ll read the first three verses:
To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame rhim who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out this steadfast love and his faithfulness!
David was looking for a refuge, but what he needed to see was that the refuge he needed most was the refuge he already had: the personal presence of God. In you my soul takes refuge, he writes in verse 1. In the shadow of your wings.
Where do you look for refuge? What makes you feel safe? Is it something you can control, something you can manage? The ways we look for refuge in this life are a lot like holding onto a little tarp in the middle of a hurricane. So long as you hold onto it, it’s definitely better than not having the tarp. As the writer in Ecclesiastes says, money answers everything. Life’s easier when you have it. But what happens when you lose your grip on the tarp and the gail force winds of life rip it away? Whose wings will shelter you then?
Brothers, sisters: we must flee to the Lord for our safety. David writes, again from the cave, in Psalm 142:5, I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” The reason we need an eternal God for our refuge is that this world is full of trials-and many antichrists are coming.
Many Antichrists have Come, v6-19
Now Saul heard that David was discovered, and the men who were with him. Saul was sitting at Gibeah under the tamarisk tree on the height with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing about him. And Saul said to his servants who stood about him, “Hear now, people of Benjamin; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards, will he make you all commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds, that all of you have conspired against me? No one discloses to me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is sorry for me or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as at this day.” Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, and he inquired of the LORD for him and gave him provisions and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
Then the king sent to summon Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were at Nob, and all of them came to the king. And Saul said, “Hear now, son of Ahitub.” And he answered, “Here I am, my lord.” And Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread and a sword and have inquired of God for him, so that he has risen against me, to lie in wait, as at this day?” Then Ahimelech answered the king, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” And the king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father’s house.” And the king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because their hand also is with David, and they knew that he fled and did not disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king would not put out their hand to strike the priests of the LORD. Then the king said to Doeg, “You turn and strike the priests.” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five persons who wore the linen ephod. And Nob, the city of the priests, he put to the sword; both man and woman, child and infant, ox, donkey and sheep, he put to the sword.
As the story turns back to Saul, we find a sorry scene. He is back home in Gibeah, sitting under a tree, whining about how hard life is for him. “Why don’t any of you love me as much as you should? What favors has David done for you that you all treat me so mean? No one feels sorry for me.” (v6-8)
Into this pity party enters a character from the previous chapter, Doeg the Edomite. One of the things the author surely wants us to notice is that Doeg is, indeed, an Edomite. That is to say, he is a descendant of Esau, not Jacob. He is not part of the people of Israel, yet he has been given this high role in the kingdom and now is serving as a key counselor to Saul. The people of Israel wanted a king like all the other nations, and now they have a king like those nations who takes not only his cues, but also his counsel, from those surrounding nations.
If you remember in 21:7, we read that while David was visiting Ahimelech, “Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s herdsman.” It seems an odd blip in that narrative, but now we are going to see its significance: Doeg is going to rat David out. After Doeg spills the beans on David’s visit to Ahimelech at Nob (v10-11), Saul summons Ahimelech and his entire household to himself. Upon bringing him in, Saul essentially accuses Ahimelech of sedition against the crown. And as you might imagine for someone who considers himself loyal, this catches Ahimelech off guard. In v14 he says, “And who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and captain over your bodyguard, and honored in your house? Is today the first time that I have inquired of God for him? No! Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to all the house of my father, for your servant has known nothing of all this, much or little.” We might paraphrase: So, since when is serving your most loyal servant a disloyalty to you? I don’t know what’s going on between you, but my hands are clean.
But Saul is beyond reason at this point. He doesn’t see the obvious truth of Ahimelech’s statement, and instead orders him and all the other priests to be killed. But there is a ray of hope at the end of v17-Saul’s servants refuse to follow this order! They see the insanity and apparently are happier to face the wrath of Saul than of God.
But then enters Doeg the Edomite, again. As I read chapter 22 this week I kept associating Doeg with Grima Wormtongue from the Lord of the Rings. He is just that slimy character who makes you want to vomit every time they come on stage. And Doeg not only follows the command to kill Ahimelech and the other priests, some 85 persons, but then takes it even further: he goes to Nob and slaughters their families, their animals, he destroys the whole of their whole property and lives. Tim Chester offers this helpful comment: “Here is the terrible irony, the sign of how far Saul has fallen. In 15:2–3, God told Saul to conduct a holy war against the Gentiles. Now in 22:18–19, Saul tells a Gentile to conduct a holy war against God.”
Saul has set himself up against the Lord’s anointed, against the christ. Saul has become an antichrist figure in the narrative. 1 John 2:18 states, Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Anyone who sets themself up as the one to be worshipped and who demands unflinching loyalty is an antichrist. The seed of the serpent, seeking to strike the heel of the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). How can one be safe from the antichrists who come? Flee to the true Christ, the Lord’s anointed.
Flee to the Lord’s Anointed, v20-23
But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled after David. And Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the priests of the LORD. And David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have occasioned the death of all the persons of your father’s house. Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping.”
We find out in verse 20 that Doeg the Edomite wasn’t completely successful in his evil mission to wipe out the priests of God. One son of Ahimelech, Abiathar, escapes to David. On his coming to David and relating the events that took place, David is clearly contrite over his culpability in the death of the priests and people of Nob. But he also makes a curious statement in v23, “Stay with me; do not be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. With me you shall be in safekeeping.”
Saul is after Abiathar for one reason: his connection to David. And yet David says, fear not: with me you are safe. And in this statement I think we find an enormously important principle: being identified with the Lord’s anointed may land you in a world of earthly trouble and tribulation. But it’s the only place you’re eternally safe.
This is a principle the importance of which I cannot overstate. We are living through a shift, that on a broader national stage has already taken place, and it will eventually work it’s way thoroughly into our lives as well. That shift is one from a form of christianity being the dominant culture, such that even if people weren’t believers they were tolerant or even appreciative of biblical belief and practices; to a culture where those same beliefs and practices-being genuinely and clearly identified with Christ-will become seen as socially negative, or even evil.
This has been a process long in the making, in fact historian Carl R. Trueman in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self traces it back at least as far as the 18th Century and the work of Jean-Jaque Rousseau. But it has become acutely obvious with the triumph of the sexual revolution in the past decade. And I think a lot of Christians feel like Ahimelech before Saul: how did my normal views that everyone shared 20 years ago all of a sudden become culturally offensive and even repugnant? Why does being a Christian now mean I’m the bad guy? We’ve been caught flat footed.
But being a Christian has almost always, across time and history, meant being an outsider, a cultural misfit, someone looked upon with suspicion by the watching world. Being tied to Jesus will mean we may get treated like Jesus. John 15:18-20, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
But if this sounds like doom and gloom and defeatism, it isn’t. Because here’s the good news: Jesus always wins. That verse we quoted earlier from John 16:33, In the world you will have tribulation, it continues on to say, But take heart; I have overcome the world. Not he “will” overcome the world. He has. Even though we wait to see that in its fullness, it is as good as done. So certain as to be spoken of in the past tense. Which means that there is no safer place to be than at his side. No better position to be in than fighting his battles with him. No better refuge in the time of storm. The greater Son of David already is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on High (Hebrews 1:3).
David learned at the beginning of our text that the only true safety came from looking to God as his strong tower and refuge. In the middle of the text, an antichrist rises to fight the people of God, and in the end Abiathar finds that the only safety to be found is in fleeing to the Lord’s anointed. Fleeing to the Christ. Have you taken refuge in Jesus, the Christ with a capital C? Do you find your identity in being tied to Jesus? In this world it may cause troubles: but take heart, he has overcome the world.