Shall we turn now in our Bibles to I Samuel, chapter twenty seven, as we continue our study through the bible. The one thing about the bible is it’s plain honesty. It talks about men as they really are. It doesn’t try to create idols of men.
You know, the whole thing of Hollywood is creating images, so that you think a person is something other than what they really are. One of the most difficult and disappointing things is meeting some of these Hollywood actors and actresses, because they have built up this image of, this is what they are. Then you meet them, and they’re just plain dull. Some of them, some of them are sparkling in their personality no doubt, but some of those that I’ve met are just really duds. Ha, ha! But they have this image built up around them you know, and it’s amazing how they are able to emote once the, the cameras go on. You know, you can be talking to them, and they’re just sort of a dull dud, and then when the camera goes on it’s just, you know, I mean, they’re just a whole different person, and a personality. I mean, it’s just, it’s just entirely different! But this whole image has been built up. So we are prone to think of them, other than they really are.
Not the Bible, it doesn’t give you any false illusions about anybody. Even those men in the Bible who through the centuries have been the heroes. Who has been a greater hero than David? Of course, maybe not with you, but with me, I’ve always admired this guy for his daring. I love it when Saul’s pursuing him, that he’s daring enough to slip down into the camp of Saul, with Abishai. I mean, go right into the camp, you know! I love this guy for his bravery, and for his daring.
Yet the bible is so blunt, and so honest with his mistakes. It leaves us no illusions, he’s a man. Subject like we are to discouragement, to fear, and to mistakes. As we get into the twenty seventh chapter of I Samuel, we see David in one of the low points of his life.
He had been under pressure for some time now, because Saul had been pursuing him, and Saul was bent on killing him. Wherever David would seek to hide from Saul, there were always those people around, who willing to gain some kind of a favor from Saul, told Saul where David was attempting to hide. Again, as David is in the wilderness of Ziph, the people go, and they tell Saul, “Is not David hiding again among us, in the hill of Jezamin, and so forth, and so Saul came down, and David had another narrow escape from Saul.
Too many times, too much pressure, and David begins to snap. He is discouraged, fear has gripped his heart, he is despairing. These are the words of despair, with which we open chapter twenty seven…
And David said in his heart [Or, said to his heart] I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul (27:1):
“Guy’s gonna get me, one day he’s gonna run me through with that javelin. I shall perish one day.” Talk about negative confessions, that is one. However, contrary to the teaching of positive and negative confessions, though that was a negative confession, you don’t get what you say, because Saul didn’t do David in. Some people are fearful of making a negative confession, “Ooh! You shouldn’t have said, Oh that’s gonna happen to you now!” Negative confessions, and you know, you create your own reality by what you say, and that’s a lot of baloney!
Now David’s declaration of despair showed that he had lost faith in the promise of God. God had promised that David would sit upon the throne. God had declared that He had rejected Saul from being king, and David was going to rule in his stead. For David, in his heart to say, “I know that one day Saul is gonna kill me”, is a lack of faith in what God has promised.
How opposite from Abraham, who could not see the way out, but because he had God’s word, knew that God was gonna do it. “I don’t know how God can do it, but I know He will, because He gave His word.” David had the word of God, just as Abraham, but David failed miserably in this test of faith. For he said, “I know one day Saul’s gonna kill me”. “No David, that can’t be. If you are going to sit upon the throne, and God has promised that you’re going to sit upon the throne, there’s no way that Saul can kill you.”
But, Saul has been pursuing and David is tired of running, and his faith definitely is lapsing at this point. And, as so many people, when his faith in the promises of God began to lapse, he began then to devise himself a means of escape. “Take things into my own hands. I don’t believe that God is able to take care of me any longer. I don’t believe that God will continue to deliver me from the hand of Saul. I don’t think that God is sufficient to take care of my needs, and therefore I better take care of myself!”
Oh man do we get into trouble with that kind of thinking! Whenever I think that, “I better do something for myself, because obviously God isn’t gonna work, God isn’t going to keep His word, God is gonna fail, so I better take over now, and I better plan my way out of this”. That is just an open invitation for disaster! The minute that I think that I can take better care of my life than God. The minute I think that I can improve upon God’s plan for me, and that I’ve gotta take it over now, and do it myself. Or, when I think I’ve gotta help God out. “Well, I know that God wants to, but you know, how can He do it without my help?” And, I get in, and I say, “Oh God let me help you now. I realize you need a little help here, and so let me do my part”. You know.
That’s like when my grandkids come and say, “Oh Grandpa! I want to help you!”, I shudder. I love it, but I know the job is gonna take me about five times as long with their help. You know I can mow the lawn in about two minutes flat. But when my little grandson is helping me, oh man it takes a long time to mow that lawn! So when we, I wonder what God does when we say, “Okay God, I want to help you”, “Oh my!” We think we’ve got to help God fulfill His plan.
So when David began to devise his own means of escape from Saul, his own means of preservation, “I don’t believe God can preserve me. So here’s what I’m gonna do”.
there is nothing better for me than I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines (27:1);
Oh what a false conclusion! Nothing better for me”, really there’s nothing better for you, than you just submit yourself totally to the will of God. Nothing better that you just commit yourself completely into His care David! That’s the best thing for you! But David is now filled with fear. Fear has fought off the faith, he is despairing. “I know he’s gonna kill me! There’s nothing better for me than to escape speedily to the Philistines”, and this word, “speedily”, really gives you the clue, and the key to the whole thing.
Because whenever Satan is beginning to pressure you into action, it’s always quick. “Hurry! Don’t think about it!”, as in hypothesis. “Don’t think about the consequences, don’t think about the old routine. Don’t think about the consequences, you’ll come out clean you know!”, and don’t, “Move, move! Quick, quick! Hurry!” How many times have we gotten into trouble with this, “Quick, speedily, hurry up and do it now!”? We act before we have an opportunity to pray, before we have an opportunity to even think it through. We move out on our own without seeking the counsel of God.
This was David’s problem, you see, he had the priest with him. The priest that brought the ephah. David had been consulting God, God warned David that Saul was indeed coming. God showed him, and delivered him, as he sought God through the priest. But in this case, there’s nothing about David seeking the Lord, seeking the will of God.
He is acting now just out of his own analysis of the situation, and not seeking the guidance, and the counsel of God, and moving quickly. “Oh I’d better speedily get down there!” Watch out when Satan begins to push you. “You don’t have time to pray about this, you better act now! You’re gonna miss this opportunity! If you don’t get it now man, it’s gonna be gone forever! Quick! Move!” Satan so often pressures us into actions that we spend years regretting, because we hurried into a situation, without waiting upon God first, and getting the mind of God.
If God wants it for you, it’ll be there tomorrow. You don’t have to worry about that! It’ll be there next week, you can spend a week in prayer on it, and it God wants you to have it, it’ll still be there. I find this so many times with different things. In fact, I find that if God wants me to have it, I just wait for it, the price usually goes down pretty well too.
There was a, there was a car in Huntington Beach, at William’s Oldsmobile, beautiful black Oldsmobile that I wanted. The salesman showed it to me, it was just out of my price range. It was a used car, but it was still out of my price range. Only had twelve thousand miles, it was owned by an oil executive in Huntington Beach, in the days when oil executives had money.
You heard about the two women walking down the street, and this little frog came hopping up, and it said, “Would you pick me up please?”, and the lady picked up the frog, and it said, “Kiss me please!”, and she said, “Why should I kiss you?”. Said, “Well I am a Texas oil man, and I had a hex put on me, and I was turned into a frog, and if you kiss me, I can be an oil man again”. The woman stuffed the frog in her purse, and her friend said, “Aren’t you gonna kiss it?”, she said, “My goodness no! A talking frog is worth a lot more than a Texas oil man now a days!”
Anyhow I wanted this car, but the price was just too high. So the salesman brought it by, and showed it to me and all, and I drove it around. Oh it was just, you know, just a nice car. I needed a car, but it was just too much. Well, a month later, the salesman called me up, and he said, “We still have this car down here Chuck, and you know, sure a nice car”, and I said, “Yeah but”, I said, “it’s just, I can’t afford it. You know it’s just out of my range”. Two months later, the guy called up, and he said, “The boss told me to call up and tell you to name your price. He can’t get rid of this car, and it’s such a nice car, he can’t understand why it won’t sell. So he figures you must be praying, so you name it, and you tell us what you can pay for it”. Boy did I enjoy that car!
If God wants you to have it, you’re gonna get it. You know, you don’t have to sign the dotted line right now, it’s gonna be gone tomorrow, we’ve got five guys waiting in line to get this, you know. But that “speedily”. David says, “I will speedily go down”.
and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in the coast of Israel: and so I will escape out of his hand (27:1).
So David’s own plan of escape, devised his own survival.
And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, the king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, who was at one time Nabal’s wife. And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him (27:2-4).
So you say, “Hey wait a minute though! It worked! Why fault David? The plan worked. It was a good plan. Saul didn’t chase him any further”. There is a damnedable philosophy that the ends justify the means, but that is not always so. In fact it is difficult to justify the means by the end result. Here, the end results were good, but it doesn’t justify what David did. His lapse of faith, his failure to trust in God. Because when you take that turn from God’s path, you’re on now a path that’s going to lead you ever downward into the pit. David, turning aside from God’s path, has begun now a path that we shall follow, as we see our hero going down deeper, and deeper into the pit. Until he gets so low, that I cannot believe that this is David, God’s man, and God’s choice.
So David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there: for why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? Then Achish gave him Ziklag: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth to the kings of Judah unto this day. And the time that David dwelt in the country in the Philistines was a full year and four months. [So he was sixteen months there in the land of the Philistines, living in the country town of Ziklag.] And David and his men went up, and he invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalikites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as you go towards Shur, even to the land of Egypt (27:5-8).
So he began these incursions against these Bedouin type people, their villages, in the area of the Negev desert. South from the area of Gath into the area towards Egypt. These were really raiding parties. David was ripping off the cattle, and the sheep, the donkeys, and stealing their goods.
And David would smite the land, and he would not leave man or woman alive, but he took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and their clothes, and he returned, and he would come to Achish, and give Achish a portion of the spoil (27:9).
You cannot justify what David is doing. It is wrong to destroy people, and to rob them of their goods. But this is the path of a man who is headed down. He’s turned aside now from God’s path, and he’s begun a downward trend.
So Achish said, Oh where have you made your [invasions, or your] in roads today? And David said, Oh I went against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmellites, and against the south of the Kenites (27:10).
In other words, the Jerahmellites were actually one of the families, the major families of the tribe of Judah, and against the southern part of Judah, and the Kenites were a protectorate tribe of Israel. So that David lied, outright lied to Achish about where he was gaining these spoils. He was actually taking the spoils from the people who were friends to the Philistines, but wiping them out completely, so there’d be no witnesses. Then as Achish would say, “Oh where’d you grab, where’d you rip these off?”, and David said, “Oh I went over to southern Judah, you know wiped out a couple of their towns and took these”. He was outright lying unto Achish.
And David did not save neither a man or a woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, Lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwells in the country of the Philistines (27:11).
He didn’t leave any witnesses, no one was there to report on what David was doing. Horribly wrong! Committing these horrible crimes, and then killing all the witnesses. There is no excuse and no justification for David’s actions. He was horribly wrong!
And he deceived Achish so that Achish believed David, [It’s too bad, this king trusted David, believed David, and yet David was just a liar.] and he said to himself, He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.
It sort of pleased Achish because he figured, that David going against Judah, they’re all angry with him now, they all hate him, and so he’ll never be able to go back, he’ll be my servant forever.
Chapter 28
So it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, Know thou assuredly, that you shall go out with me to battle, you with your men. And David said to Achish, Surely you know what your servant can do. And so Achish said to David, I will make you the keeper of my own head for ever. [“You’ll be my personal body guard, yeah I know how valiant, and tough, and strong you are in battle, you’ll be my personal body guard.”] Now Samuel the prophet was dead, and all of Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away all of those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land (28:1-3).
That is people who were dabbling in spiritism, the mediums or the witches who would contact the dead, and be channelers. In the common parlance, the new age parlance is, “channelers”, and they had gotten rid of all of these channelers. These people whose bodies became possessed by the demons who, who spoke declaring to be Rampa, or some other spirit.
The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched themselves in Shunem: and Saul gathered all of Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. [So they’re getting ready to face off in this gigantic battle.] And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by the Urim, nor by the prophets (28:4-6).
So Saul was seeking guidance from the Lord. But, God was no longer speaking to Saul. Saul had rebelled against God. Saul refused to obey the command of God. He had been rejected by God, because he had rejected God. So here he is seeking, and this is interesting, these are three of the ways by which they sought guidance from God. Through dreams, for God would speak often to them through dreams. Or, through the Urim, which was the going to the priest, and him having this little Urim that he wore on the ephod, on his chest, and they believed that it was probably two stones, a white stone, a black stone. You ask a question, pull out a stone, if it’s the white stone, the answer’s yes, if it’s the black stone, the answer is no.
From this later came the idea of being, “black balled”, which was a, a continuation, dropping a ball in and when you vote for a man to come into the club or not, you each have your white and black ball, or white and black marble. You drop in, there’s a black marble in there, that you’ve been black balled. But the idea is, is to be, is the answer, “no”, or, “yes”, and thus they inquired of the Lord.
Or, often times, God would speak to them through prophets. Throughout the Old Testament, so many times we find the prophet of the Lord, coming to a king, and speaking to him, the word of the Lord. Now with Saul, God wasn’t speaking. No prophets, He wouldn’t respond through the Urim, nor was there any dreams. Thus…
Saul said to his servant, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, [Or a demon spirit] that I may go to her, and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that has a [Demon spirit, or] familiar spirit at Endor. [Which is not that far from Gilboa, where Saul was camped with his men.] And so Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night, and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by your familiar spirit, and bring me up, the one that I shall name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off all of those that have the familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then are you trying to trap me for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment happen to you for this thing. Then the woman said unto him, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring up Samuel (28:7-11).
Now there are those today who purportedly contact the spirits of the dead. There are people who go to them in order to contact some dead relative. These people gain credence by often times, when in this trance, and supposedly the voice of your dead relative begins to speak to you, they will talk to you about incidences of the past of which only you and this person were familiar with. Thus, as soon as they begin to say, “Remember that glorious weekend we had at Carmel, and how when we were sitting out there on the balcony, we saw that a well, that surfaced out there in there in the beach? And, remember…”, and you think, “Ooh this has got to be it, because no one, we, you know, that was a glorious weekend, no one knew that. Oh!” You’re, you’re sucked in.
This is done quite often by demonic spirits. These demons are around, they know what’s going on, and often times these people who are the mediums, or as the newest word, channelers, are really demon possessed. They are able to reveal startling, and interesting facts of the past. Because of this people are deceived into believing that they are actually contacting the spirits of their dead relatives.
There’s nothing new about this. It’s been around since the beginning almost. There are laws against this in the book of Deuteronomy. So it’s existed from way back when. Even before the law was written, these people had learned how to contact, and how to be possessed by demon spirits, and how to be the channelers for these demon spirits. This witch of Endor was such a medium. She was possessed by a demon spirit, and did have powers, demonic powers.
Now when Saul came to her, he requested that she would bring back the spirit of the man that he would name. She said, “Well you know that king Saul has ordered all of the witches put to death”. He swore unto her, and interesting, isn’t this interesting, he swore unto her by the Lord, that she wouldn’t be put to death.
Now an interesting thing also, you remember when Saul came back from the destruction of the Amalikites, where God said, “Utterly destroy them, don’t leave any of them alive”. The Amalikites were still alive. David was making raids against the Amalikites, and we’re gonna find where the Amalikites made a raid against David. They were left alive. Saul did not obey the voice of the Lord. In fact, interestingly enough, oh we’ll get to that next week. Don’t want to tell you everything I want, know, in one night! Oh, I’ll tell ya. Saul was killed by an Amalekite. Now Amalek was a type of the flesh. He was told to utterly destroy them, utterly destroy the flesh, in failing to do so, he was destroyed by an Amalekite. Interesting.
If you don’t bring the flesh to the cross, the flesh can destroy you. The flesh life can destroy your spiritual walk. So how important.
Now, remember that when he disobeyed, he didn’t obey the command of God, and Samuel came out to meet him, and he said, “As the Lord liveth, I’ve done everything the Lord commanded me”, and he said, “If you’ve done everything the Lord commanded, then how come I hear the sheep, and the cattle?”, and he said, “Oh I brought these back to sacrifice them to God”, and he said, “To obey is better than to sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft”.
Already he had been guilty of, of, of a similar type of sin. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and here he is now, consulting the witch, entering into witchcraft. So she said, “Who do you want me to bring up for you?”, and he said, “Samuel”. So she went into her trance, and as she did…
She saw Samuel, and when she saw Samuel, she screamed with a loud voice (28:12):
She was probably shocked herself that it worked! Ha, ha! I mean, here she had, she saw this spirit ascending, and it, and it frightened her. She screamed!
and the woman spoke to Saul, and she said, Why have you deceived me? you’re Saul. And the king said unto her, [“Cool it lady!?”] What did you see? don’t be afraid: And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. He said unto her, What form was he? And she said, He was an old man who was coming up; he’s covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself (28:12-14).
Now it doesn’t say that Saul saw him. Her description, he perceived that it was Samuel. I find something interesting here, and I don’t, well, I just throw it out, and you can do with it, you can throw it out too. But, just something interesting. I question that he would still look like an old man in the spirit state. I don’t think that you’re ever going to be in eternity, in the state in which you die. Otherwise, it would be better for all of us to kick off at about twenty five or so, you know. Ha, ha! The fact that there was the appearance of an old man, you see well, his body was in the grave. You know, it couldn’t have been his body, that was already decayed in some sarcophagus someplace. So she, she sees this old man with a mantle. Interesting, and you can do with it whatever you want. But, he began to speak to Saul.
And Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up (28:15)?
Now prior, of course to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, every one who died went into Sheol, into Hades, and as you that were here a few Thursday nights ago, we discovered that Hades is in the center of the earth. So, “Bringing me up. Why have you disquieted me, or disturbed me, to bring me up?”
And Saul answered, I am distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me (28:15),
Oh what a tragedy! What a confession! “God is departed from me.” How sad and tragic, the life when God has departed from a person!
he doesn’t answer me any more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams (28:15):
You know, he had killed eighty five of the priests of God. He had wiped out these men of God. So there’s really no men of God around to speak to him. “And He has not spoken to me by dreams, or by prophets.”
therefore I’ve called thee, that you might make known to me what I shall do. Then Samuel said, Why do you ask this of me, seeing that the Lord has departed from you, and is become your enemy? The Lord has done unto you, even as he spoke to you by me: for the Lord has rent the kingdom [Or, torn the kingdom] out of your hand, and has given it unto your neighbor, even unto David: Because [And this is the reason why God took the kingdom from him, “Because”,] you did not obey the voice of the Lord, nor did you execute his fierce [judgment or] wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this unto thee this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines: and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me: [“Saul, you’ve had it man!”] and the Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines (28:15-19).
So what news could be worse? It was so, so awesome that…
Saul just fainted, he just fell on the ground, the full length of his body along the earth, and he was sore afraid, because of the words of Samuel: there was no strength in him; for he had not eaten any bread all that day, or all that night. And the woman came unto Saul, and she saw that he was sore troubled, and she said unto him, Behold, your handmaid has obeyed your voice, and I’ve put my life in my hand, and I have hearkened unto your words which you spoke to me. Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou to the voice of your handmaid, and let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength, that you might go on your way. But he refused, and said, I will not eat. But his servants, together with the woman, compelled him; So he arose from the earth, and he sat upon the bed. And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she hurried, and killed it, and took the flour, and kneaded it, and baked some unleavened bread: [Didn’t have time for the bread to rise.] And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they did eat. Then they rose up, and went away that night (28:20-25).
So, things are closing in on Saul, but meantime, we go back to David.

Chapter 29
Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. [They’re up in the middle part of the kingdom, in the valley of Armageddon, Ezrelon, Jezreel, in the area of mount Gilboa.] And the lords of the Philistines passed on by the hundreds, and the thousands: but David and his men passed in the rereward with Achish. [So David was bringing up the rear with Achish.] And the princes of the Philistines said, What are these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me for these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day (29:1-3)?
Of course he had been deceived by David, but he said, “Hey this is David who came to live with me. He’s a good man!”
The princes of the Philistine were angry with Achish; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Get rid of this guy, that [we may] he may go again to the place which you have appointed him, and let him not go with us into battle, lest in the battle he turn against us and be our adversary: for why should he not reconcile unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men (29:4)?
In other words, “What better way could he make up with Saul, then in the midst of the battle, turn and cut our heads off! You know, so no way will we allow him to go into battle with us!”
Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in their dances, saying, Saul has killed thousands, and David his tens of thousands? Then Achish called to him, and said to him, Surely, you’ve been upright, you’re going out and your coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in you since the day of your coming unto me unto this day: nevertheless the lords do not favor you. Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that you not displease the lords of the Philistines. And David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what have you found in your servant so long as I have been with you unto this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the king (29:5-8)?
Here we find David at the lowest. You see, ultimately he went to fight against God with the enemies of God. He had sunk so low, and we’ve watched his progress downward, that now he calls God’s people his enemies, or, “The enemies of my king, and I’m ready to go and fight against the enemies of my Lord the king”, and announces that Achish is his Lord, his king. He’s ready to fight against the enemies of Achish.
The sad, tragic thing is that many times, when a person turns away from the path of God, he never intended to go as far as he does. He didn’t intend that it get him this involved. He didn’t intend to get so far immersed in that sin, that one day he would turn his back upon God, and become an enemy to God, or to the people of God. Finding himself now in that position of fighting against the people of God, he has come to rock bottom. This is as low as David could sink. It’s a shame we can’t go into the next chapter, we have to leave David in the pit. Ha, ha! But next week, we’ll see the grace of God, as God brings him out. But with some heavy, heavy dealings.
But here’s David, he’s sort of fainting, “Hey you know, what have I done man? I want to fight with you!”, and he’s, I think it’s sort of a put on with David, I think he’s saying it to manage the situation, and playing his cards to the, you know, playing them all the way out, and just putting on this thing. “Hey man I’m ready to fight with you. What have I done? You know, I’m ready to go into battle!”
But Achish answered and said to David, I know that you are good in my sight, as an angel of God (29:9):
Oh man how David had him fooled! I mean, you know people like to put on this kind of a holy aura though, you know. “I’m like an angel of God, I’m so holy and so good”, and here he’s lying through his teeth to the guy, and, and deceiving him, and doing all these dastardly things, and yet you know, his appearance before Achish, is, is just you know, “like this noble man who’s out ripping off all the Israelites, and bringing me the loot”.
notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He will not go with us into battle. Therefore rise up early in the morning with your servants that have come up with you: And as soon as it is light, depart. So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel (29:9-11).
So David parted from their company, went on back. We see him at the bottom, at the bottom of his career. Next week we see where God restores David, and, and this is the beautiful thing. You see, if the bible didn’t give us this insight of David, if, if the bible only gave us the, the high points of David’s life, only gave us the victories, only gave us his strong faith in God, and trust in God. If we only had the Psalms, and didn’t have all of these other things about David’s life, we’d think, “Wow! Wouldn’t it be great to be like David, so God could use me! But I know God can’t use me, because man, you know I’ve told lies, and I’ve failed. There’ve been times when I’ve been afraid, and my faith was weak, and God can’t use me. Oh if my faith were only strong like David’s! Always strong, then God could use me!” But you see, God points out that David had his flaws, in fact some of them, much worse than yours. Yet God used David.
Being weak, failing, does not disqualify me. If I will yield my life to God, if I will just repent of my sin, and ask God’s forgiveness, God will use me as His instrument, to do His work. God can still use you. You may have sunk pretty deep in the pit, I don’t know that you have sunk as low as David. But God is forgiving, and God is merciful, and if you’ll just seek God, He will restore you, and God will use you to do His work. That’s to me, the beauty of the whole story. God lets us know that the men He uses, are not perfect men, they are people just like us, filled with flaws, fraught with failures, and yet God, in His grace, uses them to do His work.
So may God make each of us His instrument, as we yield ourselves unto God, and may God help us to guard against despair, discouragement, fear. That lack of faith, and trust in the promises of God, that would drive me to try to do things on my own, because that is the beginning of the path that, if I follow, it will lead me to the bottom. Let’s pray.
Thank you Father for the opportunity tonight, of again looking at Your word. Thank You again Father, for speaking to our hearts, through your word. Now Father we come before You, confessing our own failures, our own weaknesses, presenting our bodies to you as living sacrifices, that you Lord, might use us in whatever manner you desire, to accomplish your will and your plan on this earth. Lord, we realize that we are living in perilous times, we see the enemies of God as they are gathering together their forces, seeking to destroy the people of God. According to their own confessions, seeking to destroy God, and the thought of God out of the minds and hearts of people. Lord, we thank you that, “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world”. May we stand up in faith Lord, knowing that as the Church of Jesus Christ, we have the word of Jesus that, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against us”. So Lord, we stand in your name, to do as you see fit, Your instruments, to do your will for Your glory. Amen.
It’s gonna be a busy week filled with a lot of activities, as we prepare for the glorious celebration next Sunday, Jesus is Risen, and our hope for eternal life is affirmed. May God be with you this week, watch over and keep you. May His hand be upon your life to guide, and may you walk in the will of the Lord, for His glory, in Jesus’ name.

Edited & Highlighted from “The Word For Today” Transcription, Pastor Chuck Smith, Tape #7089
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