He Gives Life to Losers • 1 Samuel 22
44:02 Teaching begins
Notes
God let David have a taste of life at the top. He is chosen and anointed by God to be king in Israel. He is given an opportunity to show the whole nation his abilities and his devotion to the Lord. In his own personal life he is brought to the attention of the king, becomes his personal assistant, commander of 1000, marries the king’s daughter. His future is bright.
Then God takes everything away from David: job, status, standing in the community, reputation, wife and family, security, and it seems, his future. How in the world is he going to be king now? David has been made a loser.
Now God begins to give David people to lead. He’s going to be a leader after all. But they’re not the guys you would want to follow you. These guys are losers. But that’s whom God gives to David and in effect says, I want you to take care of these men. King Saul is killing innocent men under him, but I want you to be like Me; I want you to give these losers life.
We’re reading in 1 Samuel 22
1. Losers find David and join up with him and he cares for them, vv. 1-5
A. David escapes from Gath, where he was trying to blend in, and it didn’t work. He was recognized, he pretended to be insane so they would let him go, and they did.
B. He goes to a city in Judah called Adullam. Outside the city there are caves that he hides in like a stronghold. It works as a shelter, security, for survival.
C. All of his brothers hear about it, everyone in his father’s household, and they come to him. They have become losers, just like David.
1. David has lost his job, his home, his wife, his reputation, all the supports that he could rely upon.
2. Because the family is related to David they lose everything as well. Three of David’s brothers were in the army of Saul, they’re out. They lose their homes, their jobs, their friends, their support.
3. David was the youngest, the baby. They ignored him, even made fun of him and looked down on him. Now they have become like him and they come to him and put themselves under his care. They look up to him.
D. Somehow this gets around, people are passing on the news: there’s safety with David. He’s taking care of his whole family. Others get the idea: maybe I’ll join up with him. I have nothing else to fall back on. They probably wouldn’t say it, but they are losers too.
1. They are in distress. Life has become so difficult that they can’t handle it. They are in dire straits. It’s dark, desperate, depressing. It overwhelms them. So they run away and leave the situation they are in. But they hear the rumours, run to David and say, “May I join you?”
2. They are in debt. They owe money or goods to a creditor and they can’t pay it back. They took a gamble and lost. Now what? It’s bleak and cheerless. Hopeless. Nobody wants to help a poor person. But they hear the news and say to themselves, “Maybe I’ll join up with David.”
3. They’re discontented. Literally, “bitter of soul”. This is what Samuel’s mother Hannah was experiencing. The second wife was being arrogant, belittling her, making her feel cursed by God, making her feel worthless. This constant irritation, vexation, drip, drip, drip, makes you crazy. Finally they say, “Maybe I’ll join up with David.”
4. What these three situations have in common, distress, debt, discontentment, is that they go on and on. There is no letup, there’s no sign of change, of hope, of light at the end of the tunnel. Life beats these people down and exhausts them. And they look at themselves and say, “Man, I’m not doing so good. I can’t do this anymore. Life wins and I lose.”
E. David is their last hope, and he becomes captain over them.
1. That means he is their undisputed boss. You want to dispute his authority? You can just get lost. David doesn’t need them. They need him.
2. This also demands loyalty. David doesn’t need anyone who will sell him out for personal gain. If you’re not for me please get lost.
3. These men have evaded or escaped authority by running away up. But now they must obey David because he’s their last hope.
F. David takes care of his parents by asking the king of Moab to shelter them. This is going to be too strenuous for them. They are already old in the days of Saul.
G. But David himself is committed to taking his refuge in the Lord. That’s not any one place, it’s in the will of God, it’s what God wants. There’s a prophet named Gad with David now, and Gad says it’s time to get out of here, go to Judah. And that’s how David stays a few steps ahead of Saul.
H. Notice, people are coming to David beat down by life, threatened, they are fugitives, wanted for crimes, they are guilty or guilty by association. David receives them, protects them, cares for them, leads them in his refuge in the Lord. He gives them life.
2. Saul is so worried about himself that he takes life, vv. 6-19.
A. Someone has informed on David’s hiding place and Saul is berating his servants. He scolds them, condemns them vehemently and at length.
1. All you guys are disloyal and are probably working for the son of Jesse. (Remember that to call someone son of whoever without his personal name is an insult. He can’t bring himself to say the name David.) He’s promised you fields and vineyards and high places in his army when he takes over.
2. You’re all conspiring against me. My son is conspiring against me, the son of Jesse is conspiring against me.
3. Not one of you is sorry for me or tells me anything. What he means is nobody loves me.
B. Just as an aside here, none of these things are true.
1. God loves Saul. But Saul didn’t obey God so He fired Saul from being king. Saul didn’t obey God and get off the throne. He has no right to continue being king.
2. Saul is justifying himself. He is not wrong, everyone else is wrong. Saul is totally focused on himself. When you’re focused on yourself, you’re all that matters, so you can scold and condemn everyone around you because they don’t love you and feel sorry for you. Even now, Saul isn’t giving life here, he’s taking it, little by little.
C. Doeg the Edomite informs on David and Ahimelech.
1. He doesn’t do this because he is loyal to Saul or loves him. He’s doing this for his own personal gain. If people get hurt, that’s tough. If Saul approves of him, that’s all that matters. I want to win in life. This is how you win. Take care of number one, just like Saul is doing.
2. Personal gain is not a legitimate way to live, it’s not a legitimate reason to do anything. The Bible condemns living for personal gain because it’s not loving others. It leads directly to taking life, not giving life. Love gives life. Any other way than God’s way of love takes life. It kills.
D. Saul summons all the priests in Nob, eighty-five of them, and accuses them of conspiring with David against him. “Son of Ahitub”, Saul says, that means he’s out for blood.
E. Ahimelech reasons with Saul.
1. David is the most faithful servant you have!
2. He’s your son-in-law! Captain of your guard! Honoured in your house!
3. I’ve always inquired of God for him! That’s what I do, it’s my job!
4. I don’t even know what is going on here!
F. This is the scary thing about being self-focused: only you are right. Everybody else is already wrong. No one can tell you anything.
1. Proverbs 26:12 Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. If you are not open to reason, then how will you change your mind and receive Jesus? You are doomed to condemnation and judgment and destruction because you won’t listen and think.
2. Proverbs 3:5-8 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
G. Saul commands his servants to kill the priests, and they will not obey. God bless them. That’s too far. But he tells Doeg the Edomite, you do it. And Doeg kills eighty-five men on the spot, and then wipes out Nob, right to the ground, women, children, babies, animals. For his own personal gain. Where is Doeg the Edomite right now? He is silent, because there’s nothing for him to say. He is awaiting judgment. It is inevitable. He got away with it in life but he will not get away with it in death.
3. Abiathar escapes to David, vv. 20-23.
A. Abiathar is a son of Ahimelech. And Abiathar has just been overwhelmed by life. He’s lost all his relatives, his father and his mother, maybe even his wife. He’s lost his job, his reputation, he’s wanted by Saul. Life is too much for him, he’s been beat down. He’s become a loser.
B. So he does what 400 other losers have done.
1. Somehow he hears about David, how others have come to him and gotten help. So he figures, I’ll join myself with David.
2. Isn’t it interesting that Saul can’t find David, but anyone in need who wants to find David finds him?
C. And David takes responsibility for Abiathar! It’s my fault, he says, but it’s not his fault!
1. David has done not one thing wrong to Saul, to Ahimelech, to anyone. It’s not his fault that Saul is out to get him, or that Doeg was at the house of God when David asked Ahimelech for help. He does not have to take responsibility.
2. In fact, this is the curse of God on the house of Eli for his stubbornness and refusal to repent for his sins. Remember in chapter 2 God said, 1 Samuel 2:30-33 “Therefore the LORD God of Israel declares, ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before Me forever’; but now the LORD declares, ‘Far be it from Me—for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father’s house so that there will not be an old man in your house. You will see the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that I do for Israel; and an old man will not be in your house forever. Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life.”
3. So David is innocent, he is not behind all the grievous events, but he still takes responsibility for what happened, and he takes responsibility of Abiathar. They will have to find me and kill me first, so don’t worry. I will care for you.
4. So what? David is doing what Jesus does. Jesus gives life to losers.
A. Remember that the Messiah is the Son of David as well as the Son of God. We can look at David’s life and see parallels with Jesus.
B. For one thing, Jesus is the Son of God who had to be made like His brethren in all things, because to save us he had to become like us, yet without sin.
1. You look at David, he was at the top, the son-in-law to the king, successful warrior, wise, resourceful. Yet he lost it all.
2. Just like Jesus Philippians 2:6-7 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
3. David became just like the men who gathered to him. They really were losers, distressed, in debt, discontented, yet they were really wrong. David was innocent and without offense, just like Jesus became like us, yet without sin.
C. Another parallel is that these men all came to David. How did they find out? Somebody told them. They had to hear the good news that David would take you in if you came to him. They believed it and went to find him, and they found him. How do you come to Jesus? You have to hear the good news that Jesus receives sinners. There’s a weird concept around, that we have to clean up our lives before we come to Jesus. But the good news is you come to Jesus just as you are, not cleaned up. You come if you are distressed, you come if you are in debt to God and you can’t pay the righteousness He demands. You come to Jesus if you are bitter of soul. You don’t sweeten up. You come to Him and ask Him to take you in and care for you and save you. He will clean you up and wash away your sins and debts and bitterness. He makes you new.
D. David was these men’s last hope. There wasn’t any other place to go for help or a new start. Only Jesus gives a new start because only Jesus paid for your sins and finished off your old life. He rose from the dead to give you His new life. You share that with him, just like David shared his life with these losers.
E. David honoured his mother and father and provided for them. Jesus as He was hanging on the cross provided for His mother. He committed her to His disciple John.
F. David saves the worst of men, and so does Jesus. He only saves sinners. He did not come for the righteous, for the healthy, He came for sinners and for the sick.
G. Notice that there is no one righteous, no, not one. This is important to the good news about Jesus.
1. Those 400 men were not the best of men and they knew it.
2. And the priests of God were also under the curse of God. They hadn’t done anything against the king, they were not guilty that way, but there was this curse on them that came because their great-grandfather sinned against God.
3. Our great father Adam sinned against God and the penalty for that was death. Everyone born of Adam dies. Ahimelech says, “I didn’t do anything, I didn’t know what’s going on, I’m innocent,” but the curse is still working. Everyone is under the condemnation of Adam. In Adam all sin. You can find out if that’s true. You go to the ten commandments and see if you’ve broken any. You’ll find out you have.
H. Of all the men of his family doomed to die, Abiathar escapes death and the curse by seeking and finding David. That’s what Jesus does.
1. He’s not hard to find. John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. How did Abiathar escape certain death? Because the Father gave him to David. The Father is giving you to Jesus.
2. You come to Jesus with sins, with guilt, with the curse of God on you. He receives you and cares for you and you’re safe with Him because He took your curse upon Himself and fulfilled it. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There’s no more curse.
I. The good news is still going out: Jesus gives life to losers.
Have you come to Him?
Let’s pray.