First Samuel chapter 29. First Samuel 29. So years now that David has been a refugee, so to speak, exiled per se from his own country in and out of Judah. For a time now, he's been living among the Philistines. He has been making raids on the enemies of Israel unbeknownst to the Philistines while he lived there and had got in a relationship with the king of Gath, Achish is his name, wherein Achish had become quite the friend and confidant of David.

And now the Philistines, which is a kind of a collection of city states, had banded together to make an attack in Northern Israel, in the Jezreel Valley. And David has been called by his friend, the king of Gath, to join in the battle. So in a sense, David's bluff has been called. He is in a pickle. The Philistines are going to battle with who?

Israel. What is David going to do? Is he going to keep up the appearance of being the ally of the Philistines and shed the blood of his countrymen? Or is he going to turn on his friend who has been giving him refuge in Philistia over the last several months? This is the pickle that David finds himself in.

If you look back to chapter 28 verses one and two, it says, And 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 thou shalt go out with me to battle thou and thy men. And David said to Achish, surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head forever. Clearly, Achish is under the impression that certainly David is going to go to battle with the Philistines and that he can trust David to have his back.

That is the crux of what he is saying here as he speaks to David. If you look over to chapter 29, the intervening text there in chapter 28, we have the story about Saul and the witch of Endor that we covered a couple weeks ago on Sunday evening. And so this story of David and Achish continues in chapter 29 verse one. Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands, but David and his man passed on in the rearward with Achish.

So here is a little map. You can't see Aphek on this map, but if you could, Aphek is right about there. Okay? Just north of the map. Down here is Jezreel.

Right here is the Sea Of Galilee. Okay? And the Philistines have come up oh, well, here's Aphek. Never mind. The Philistines have come up to Aphek, is right here.

The Israelites have gathered in the Valley Of Jezreel here, and the two are about to go to battle in between here here and there. Okay? So Gath, Aphek, Jezreel is what we're reading about here in the text. So the battle lines are being drawn. The armies are coming together and they're going to fight somewhere in the interim along the coastline or in the Valley Of Jezreel.

Verse three. Then said the princes of the Philistines, what do these Hebrews hear? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines these are leaders from particularly the other cities, Ekron, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and the one that everybody knows about today because it's in the news all the time, and that would be what? Gaza. Okay?

On the coastline there. So these are the there's five cities that make up Philistia. These are princes from the other cities and they are not too excited about who? They're not too excited about going to battle with David. Okay?

Not really excited about that. And so they make their complaint to Achish. Is not this David, the servant of Saul, the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days or these years? And I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day. So Achish said, well, he's been with me for a long time now and he has not failed me, so I don't have any worries about it.

Verse four, the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, make this fellow return that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, which would be Ziklag, by the way, the place that had been given David not far from Gath, And let him go not down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us. For wherewith shall he reconcile himself unto his master and should it not be with the heads of these men? Is not this David of whom they sang one to another in dances saying, Saul slew his thousands and David his 10 thousands? So the Philistines had heard or some of them been involved in a previous battle a couple decades ago in which a young man named David killed their champion named Goliath. And, of course, the armies of Israel routed the armies of the Philistines and cheered David.

So naturally, they're a little bit skeptical of David and actually, they're right to be skeptical of David. Achish was, I think, a little too quick to accept David's help. So verse six. Then Achish called David and said unto him, surely as the Lord liveth. Interesting.

Achish, who was a Philistine The Philistines have their own gods. They were not particularly worshipers of the gods of Israel the God of Israel. However, David had had some impact upon Achish. When Achish wants to emphasize something here, he actually uses notice it's all capitals, l o r d. That's the name Jehovah or Yahweh or however you pronounce it, the name of the God of Israel.

Very specific. So then Achish called David and said to him, surely as the Lord liveth, thou hast been upright and thy going out and thy coming in with me, and the host is good in my sight For I've not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me. Unto this day, nevertheless, the Lords favor thee not. Wherefore now return and go in peace that thou displeased not the Lord to the Philistines. And David said unto Achish, but what have I done?

And what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee under this day that I may not go fight against the enemies of my Lord the king? And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight as the angel of God. Notwithstanding, the princes of the Philistines have said, he shall not go up with us to battle. Wherefore, now rise, go up early in the morning with thy master's servants that are come with thee. And as soon as ye be up early in the morning and have light, depart.

So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning to return unto the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went up to Jezreel. So at that point, David turns and he hightails it. Let me go over a couple things there. David takes his men and he leaves Aphek, which is up here now where I thought it was on the other map. He leaves Aphek and he comes down here to back to Ziklag.

Now that's no short trip. That would have taken him a little while to get from one place to the other. In the meantime, the armies of the Philistines left Aphek and headed the other way to go up to battle in Jezreel with the Israelites and, of course, who was leading the armies of Israel but king Saul, and we'll come back to him in the next chapter. But for the moment, we're talking about David. Notice first of all, which we've already noted, the king's trust.

Clearly, the king trusted David and went to bat for him. So David gathered his men with the rest of the Philistine troops to battle in Jezreel. But as we read, some of his compatriots didn't trust David. So they complained and finally Achish gave in and he sent David back to Ziklag and this resolved the issue. What was the issue?

Well, the issue was this. Is David going to fight for the Philistines? Is David going to fight for the Israelites? Or is David playing along to find out what's going to happen? And the answer to that is the Bible doesn't say what David was going to do.

I'm not absolutely sure that David knew what David was going to do. He had himself in a what? Between a rock and a hard place because he was making decisions all on his own, it would seem. We put ourselves in spots like that oftentimes. When we fail to take advantage of our Lord who has simply said, ask and it shall be given.

If you lack wisdom, ask me. I'll give it. But you have not because you what? Has not. David didn't ask and David got himself in a pickle.

We don't read that David sought the Lord's direction going to Gath. We do not read that David sought the Lord's direction concerning what he did in Gath nor the Lord's guidance here. Stunningly, there's no mention of his seeking the Lord's guidance in what he's doing in the land of Philistia. Previously, God had told him to stay in Judah. Maybe David isn't talking to the Lord much because in his heart, David knows why.

He should be back in Judah and not hiding in fear in Philistia. Maybe David doesn't want to know what God has to say because he thinks he won't like what God has to say. Now, it's easy to all get up in arms over David, but have you ever been there? Have you ever hesitated? Sorry.

My voice is cracking tonight. Have you ever hesitated to talk to the Lord or to go to him in prayer because you think he's going to tell you something that you don't want to hear? Or because you have your path set and you don't want him sticking his nose in your plans? I think that happens way too often in the lives of God's children, not just this one. And it's when we need to talk to God the most that we talk to God the least because we fear what he has to say.

We fear not in that a fear that drives us to him, but a fear that drives us, what, away. And that's the wrong kind of fear. A fear of God getting in the way of what we want. And I think that's what was happening with David here. When Israel went into the Promised Land, things were going great and they conquered Jericho.

They walked around the walls and the walls fell down. And then what happened next? Well, Joshua failed to talk to who? He failed to talk to God it would seem and he decided, you know, hey, we conquered this huge city. This little town over here, AI?

It's nothing. We can take care of it. Be careful. If you think you stand, lest you what? Fall.

And so Joshua decided, hey, we can handle this. I'll just send part of my army. Well, part of his army got routed and 36 soldiers in his army died because he didn't stop to to talk to God. In that case, I think there was just a little bit of pride going on. Things got back right.

They figured out there was sin on the camp, and they took care of that. And they went back to battle, and they won, and things were going great. And then these these fellows just show up on these horses or camels or whatever, and they're in old raggedy coves and their food is all rotten and their cheese is all growing with stuff. And and they tell Joshua, we've come from a far country and we wanna make a treaty with you. But actually, they were just from a couple hills over.

And again, Joshua fails to do what? He fails to talk to the Lord. Now this wasn't his pattern in general. Usually, Joshua sought the advice of the Lord. But once again, for some reason he didn't.

And he got himself between a rock and a hard place because when it was revealed that they were Gibeonites from a few hills over, he had already made a treaty in the name of the Lord. So now what was he gonna do? Either he honors the treaty he made in the Lord's name and allows them to remain, which he was commanded not to do, or he takes them out and breaks the treaty that he made in the name of the Lord. So there's no perfect answer. So the Gibeonites were allowed to remain a slave amongst the Israelites and you get to the end of the book of Judges and you see what happened because of it.

So lest we get ahead of ourselves, unless we think we got it handled and we don't need God, or unless we're just don't wanna talk to him because we we know we're headed the wrong way and we really don't wanna hear what he has to say. We really need to hear what he has to say, don't we? We really need to hear what he has to say. And we get ourselves in these types of situations. Sometimes to dire personal consequences, addiction, jail, disease that's of our own.

Sometimes to injury of others, leading somebody else astray. Sometimes despite our lack of interest in God, our decision doesn't end so calamitous. Every decision you make without asking God doesn't always end badly. But don't think because this one didn't end badly that you just don't need to ask him the next 10 times because eventually, if we ignore him, we're going to make some bad decisions we just didn't have to make. Sometimes the Lord rescues us from ourselves.

God's done that for David. And God's gonna do that again. Has God's done that for many of us despite ourselves? Because that's just the kind of God he is. He's a God of righteousness and justice and holiness.

He's also a God of love and compassion and mercy. Praise the Lord. God still has plans for David. Despite some of David's blunders and mess ups, the same as ours, is God done with David yet? The answer is no.

Is God done with you yet? No. Else you wouldn't be here. God's not done with you either. I used this in something this morning.

Second Peter two nine says, the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust until the day of judgment to be punished. I I used that in Sunday school, I think, with Esther and Haman. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations. You know, don't give up. You may have made some blunders.

You may have made some bad decisions, but the Lord knows how to what? He knows how to get you out. You just got to finally stop and turn to the Lord. And you may have dug your hole pretty deep, but the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations. And by godly, he doesn't mean those who are always righteous and good and do the right thing, but those who turn and trust and repent.

Those in God's eyes are the godly. And he knows how to deliver us even out of some of the worst pits that we dig ourselves into. Praise the Lord for that. And so don't know exactly what was going through David's mind, but God knew and God knew what He was going to do. And so David is sent back to Ziklag.

Therefore, is not allowed to fight for the Philistines. Therefore, David's not involved in the battle. Therefore, David doesn't have to choose which side he's gonna fight on. So we are left for the rest of our life not knowing what David was going to do, you're left in suspense. I guess you'll have to ask him when you get to heaven someday.

What were you going to do? Praise the Lord. God knew what he was doing despite David. And he delivered him out of the pickle that he had got himself into. But then we get to chapter 30.

And even sometimes when God delivers us from the dire situation that we put ourselves into, there are still consequences for our actions. God doesn't erase every consequence. We still have to deal often with hardship and sometimes tragedy because of poor decisions. And so we see in chapter 30, it looks great. Hey, it's solved.

Until David gets the Ziklag and guess what he finds. It came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that's how long it took for them to get from Aphek down to Ziklag, that the Amalekites you see the territory of Amalek. I don't know if you can see that down here, but it says Amalek right there. But this is Amalek's territory there. They're kind of a nomadic tribe, so they kind of move all throughout the peninsula down there.

So he gets back to Ziklag and the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken the women captives that were therein. They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire. And their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep.

And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitis and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. For David encouraged himself, but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. So they got back to Ziklag. And while they were playing footsy with the Philistines, they weren't protecting their families.

And their families were taken captive, and their stuff was taken, and their homes were burnt down. So they show back up and they see in the distance as they're coming to Ziklag, the smoke rising from the city. And they get there and they find it is all gone. Now, God tells us that they didn't kill the wives or the children, but they didn't know that for sure. They knew they weren't dead there, but can you imagine?

They are just over overwrought. If they had been there, but they weren't. They weren't there. And they got angry. And who did they take their anger out on?

Well, you take your anger out on who? The leader. It was David's decision to go up with the Philistines. It is David's decision to leave the city unprotected, and so they're angry. They're they're they're diswrought with sorrow.

They're angry with David and for good reason. You can make excuses for them, but they have a good reason to be angry. But finally, finally, what does David do? But David encouraged himself in the Lord is God. For a little bit here, you don't see much about God, but finally God returns to the mouth and the thought and the mind of David.

Should have been there all along like he should be on ours all along, that we get distracted and make bad decisions. David's decisions, because he was a leader of many, took had consequences on a lot of other people besides himself. But finally finally, David stops and he thinks, well, it's not over. It's not over. They came back to the city and they thought, hey, it's over.

Boy, we lost it all. But finally, David thinks, no, God God will hear. God isn't done with me yet. It's not over. So verse seven and eight, David finally does what he should have done all along.

He seeks God's will. David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I pray thee bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David. That was the priestly garment, breastplate that the high priest wore. And David inquired at the Lord saying, shall I pursue after this troop?

Shall I overtake them? And he, that is God, answered him. God answered him. Now, in the previous chapter, Saul kept talking to God and God kept his mouth, what? Shut.

But now David inquired after David had made such a blunder and made such a mess, he had a repentant heart. And when he came to God with a repentant heart, what did God do? God heard his cry and God answered him and God led him. David inquired of the Lord and he said, go ahead. You shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.

So David inquires of the Lord. The Lord answers. Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three, it says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new, what? Every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness. If we're willing to humble ourselves and seek the Lord, He's still there. He hasn't left us. He he will not leave or forsake his children though we may try to run away from him at times. He's still there.

Hebrews chapter 12, if you want to turn over there for a second. Told you, please. Hebrews chapter 12 has something nice to say I think is pertinent to our discussion or rather my lecture. Hebrews chapter 12 verse five. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.

Two things there, writer of Hebrews, he's alluding to a passage in the Old Testament. He says, despise not the chasten of the Lord. Don't get angry with God when He chastens you. Nor faint when thou art rebuked. Don't just throw your hands up and give up either.

Those are not the right response when God has to chasten you. Neither of those. Getting angry, not the right response. Throwing up your hands and giving up, not the right response. He goes on, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons. For what is he what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Verse nine. Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection of the Father's spirits and live?

For they fairly for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. In other words, wow. David came back.

He had he made a blunder and and he is in a mess and a fix. His his soldiers are are angry with him. His wives have been taken captive, and he doesn't know where they are. You know, it wasn't like they had GPS and they go, oh, yeah. Their cell phone, I can read it.

Oh, yeah. They're down that way. He didn't know where they were. Didn't know where they'd gone. But finally, he chooses to talk to the Lord.

And it seems he learned something from his what? From his error. God doesn't want us to get angry. God doesn't want us to give up. God wants us to learn from our mistakes.

That's what God wants. God chastens us so that we might learn to make a better decision next time. He takes advantage of the mercy and grace of God. Do not listen to the enemy who says you've blown it. God hates you.

God doesn't care about you. Listen to the words of God. His mercies are what? New every morning. We just need to learn from our mistakes.

As Paul said, I alluded to in Philippians, he can't go back and fix the problems, the mess ups that he made last year, the year before. Forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward to those things which are before. For the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, to do better next time by God's grace because His mercies are new every morning. So he called and God answered. And this time, David what?

Well, first of all, he asked. Second, he listened. And third, he what? He followed. He asked, he listened, he followed.

That that's the right formula, is it not? Listen to God, trust him, Believe him. Follow him. Ask, listen, follow. And that's what he did.

Verse nine. So David went, he and the 600 men that were with him, and came to Brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. And David pursued, he and 400 men for 200 abode behind, which were so faint, they could not go over the Brook Besor. And they found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David and gave him bread and he did eat. And they made him drink water and they gave him a piece of cake of the figs and two clusters of raisins.

And when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him for he had eaten no bread and and nor drunk any water three days and three nights. And David said unto him, to whom belongest thou and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant of an Amalekite. And my master left me because three days gone I fell sick. We made an invasion upon the South of the Cherethites and upon the coast which belonged to Judah upon the South Of Caleb.

That's the area of Hebron that was given to the family of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire. Well, David already knew that. And David said unto him, canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, swear unto me by God that thou will neither kill me nor deliver me into the hands of my master and I will bring thee down to this company.

So he begins to head with his army down south because, well, that's where Amalek is, so that's a good guess. They went somewhere to the South. And they happened upon an Egyptian who had been taken as a slave by one of the Amalekites. And he was in sad shape, so they nursed him back to health and he knew where they were going. So God's better than GPS.

God had a man just waiting for him All ready to show him where to go. All David had to do was ask, listen, and follow. And God had it all figured out. So indeed, they found out where they were going in verse 16. And when He had brought Him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.

The Amalekites were a ruthless bunch, but they weren't dumb. They knew that Israel and Philistia were going to battle against each other up in the North, up here. And so they said, We got open season down here. So they invaded both parts of Philistia and Judah. And they were excited, all the spoil they got.

They thought they got away with it all, but they didn't count on who? The God of David. They didn't count on the God of David. In verse 17, and David smote them from twilight even to evening of the next day. And there escaped not a man of them, save 400 young men, which rode upon camels and fled.

And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor anything that they had taken to them. David recovered all. And David took all the flocks of the herds and they draved before those other cattle and said, this is David's spoil.' This wasn't just the stuff taken from Ziklag. This was stuff taken from many different places they had raided.

David finally asked God, God, what should I do? And God said, Go after them. And David listened. And now David has everything back, not without some stress, not without, I'm sure, some injury, some pain, some sorrow, But God in His mercy led David and He kept safe their children and their wives. And He got it all back despite himself because finally he trusted and he sought the guidance of the Lord.

Verse 21, David came to the 200 men which were so faint they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the Brook Besor. And they went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted them, then answered all of the wicked men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, because they went not with us, we will not give them out of the spoil that we have recovered save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart. So some of the 400 men that went down with David, they said, hey, we did all the work. They sat up here doing nothing.

So we're not sharing anything with them. Right? Selfish. No good. Then said David, ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.

For who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part in that goeth down to battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff. They shall partake alike. And it was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day. So the people that watched the stuff, their supplies and stayed behind and the people that fought, David said they will both be rewarded just the what?

Just the same. We see a little bit of wisdom of Solomon and his father there. He didn't it would have been so easy for him just to, you know, give in to his men and say, yeah, they don't deserve it. We did all the work. But he didn't.

He didn't. He did that which was right. Not only does he share the spoil with those, it continues in verse 26, and when David came to Ziklag, he sent the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends saying, behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies, the Lord, to them which were in Bethel and to those who were in the South Of Ramoth and to them which are in Jattir, to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoah, and to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites, and to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in Ephak, and to them which were in Hebron and to all places where David him David himself and his men were won't to haunt. In other words, David didn't keep the spoil for who? For himself.

He shared it. Every town that had help to keep to feed his men, to take care of his men, to hide him from Saul, he shared of the great spoil with all of those towns and all of those people. Now maybe he did it somewhat to get on their good side, but I do believe there was some sincerity and compassion on David's part as well. The Lord had prospered him and so he demonstrated that he was not simply a greedy, power hungry, man seeking riches, or he shared it with the people, particularly the people who had helped him. And at least in Judah, that began to seal the deal that was going to be opened in the next chapter with the death of Saul.

So when David finally sought the Lord's direction and followed the Lord, things went well. When David forgot to talk to the Lord or consider what God wanted, they went what? Badly. And even after they went badly, when David turned back to the Lord, guess what? He was still there and he still answered.

And he'll still do the same for us. We just need, when we have messed up, when we have gone astray, we need to repent. Like God told the people at the church of Ephesus, remember from whence you are fallen and repent and do the first works. I'm still here. I haven't gone anywhere.

And what's true for David in that respect is also true for us.