1 Samuel 21:10-15

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at 1 Samuel chapter 21, verse 21, verses 10 through the end of the chapter. David has fled from Saul. He's gotten Goliath's sword. And he decides to go to an interesting place.
Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll see what we find in God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you that we get to read your word. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would please be with us, please teach us, please help us to understand this story. It's a small portion, Lord, but we pray that as we read this part, that you would please use it to teach us, to correct us, to rebuke us, to train us in righteousness. Lord, we want to be faithful servants, and we just thank you for the gift we have of reading your word. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Here we go. 1 Samuel chapter 21 beginning at verse 10.
Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. Sorry, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? Now David took these words to heart, but was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need, have I? Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? Well, we need to just stop, right? That's a whole portion of reading. We need to ask ourselves, what in the world is this about? David is running scared. David is going and he doesn't, He doesn't know where to go, what to do, where to turn. Things are ugly. And he's on the lam. It's interesting, though, that he leaves and he goes to Gath because he's got Goliath's sword and Goliath was from Gath. Maybe David was insane. Maybe he was mad. He's clearly not. But the point is, he's desperate.
He's trying to get away from Saul. He's trying to find safe haven somewhere. And so he finds it there. Well, he tries to find it there. And when he realizes, no, they know who I am. And they're even calling him the king. He's in big trouble, and so he fakes it. He just sees them. Starts foaming at the mouth, going down his beard, and scratching at the wall, or the door and stuff. And the King of Tisha's just like, get this guy out of here. I don't know. He's clearly out of his mind. I don't need any madmen around here. David, play acting. He's getting out of there by the skin of his teeth.
Maybe he thought, you know, the enemy of the person trying to kill me will be my friend. I don't know the rationale of David here, but it's clear the people think we can't trust that guy. Saul is killed as thousands, but David is tens of thousands. This is the champion of Israel. God's keeping him alive. It's weird. It's weird. Yeah, how's he walk essentially into the enemy's courtyard and yet still is okay?
Well, that's what this section is about. What's the best verse to summarize this? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I would say verse 13 and 14. As David realizes what he's done, they're going to kill him. He's concerned about this, starts foaming, playing, playing like he's mad, and the king's sending him away. What's this seed calling us to do? And how does this point us to Jesus Christ? What is this calling you to do? When you're in trouble, you should pretend like you're mad. Is that what this is saying?
No, right? Maybe it's good advice sometimes, but I don't think that this is what... We just can't take things and go, whoa, look, so in my life... No, right? That's not what... It's just what David did. It's historical narrative, not prescriptive. That would save us a world of problems if we just were willing to stop and say, okay, hold on, there is general flow and there's morality that we find in stories and things like that, but we can't equate ourselves one for one here. And so what are we called out of this, right? I think it's being called to know that God is sovereign and in his providence, God is the king.
He rules over his creation and as he orders the things happening on the earth, he's still protecting David even though David's doing things that you think, what in the world is up with this guy? The Lord has his hand on him. The Lord's caring for him. The Lord's protecting him.
I think about my life, right? I'm a pipsqueak, nothing, nobody next to David. But yet I think back to my life about how many things I think the Lord has spared me from, saved me from, things that I got myself into my own trouble. And yet, for some reason, God decided not to let me. Sometimes, really life-threatening type situations, I probably should have died, and yet God is gracious. For we know that all things work together for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purposes. So we trust Him. We trust him. And we know he's good. Because he sent us his son.
And it was Jesus that walked into some situations that just looked like, what are you doing, man? Why would you just give yourself over to the high priest? His father was caring for him. God did have a great plan for Jesus' life, and it was to die. for you and for me.
And so we can trust God's plans. We can hope. We can know that as a good and wonderful Heavenly Father, He always has an eye towards His children, loving us and caring for us. And He's proved it in giving us His Son. Let's pray. Father, we sometimes scratch our heads at our lives. Sometimes we look back and we wonder how we got out of situations. We just look in awe and see how incredibly gracious you have been to us all of our lives. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your goodness and your kindness towards us. And we pray, God, that you would please give us a good day. Let us walk before you with joy, knowing that you are always with us. and that Christ is always in us. In Jesus' name, Amen. May God bless you. May you walk in the joy that comes from Jesus Christ. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.