First Samuel 26. So First Samuel 26. So in chapter 16, Samuel anointed David to be the next king of Israel, and then he became the next king of Israel. Is that how it went? No?

Not how it went at all. Well, it did in the end, didn't it? You know, you became a child of God if you accepted Christ as your Lord and savior. You are a child of who? You are a child of the king of kings, the Lord of lords.

You have an inheritance waiting for you in the kingdom of God in heaven, a place reserved for you, incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away. Bible says we will rule and reign with him for a thousand years and then enjoy the blessings of the new Jerusalem for all eternity with our savior. That will happen. We have been sanctified. That is set apart in Christ Jesus and given everlasting life.

Not thanks to our own will and good works, but according to the good works, the work of Jesus Christ our savior, and the will and grace of our heavenly father. We have been afforded something that we could never earn and that we will never deserve. And nonetheless, it is ours. Though David was in some manner a man after God's own heart, even as a young man in keeping sheep, it was still by God's grace that he chose him. And he set him apart to be the what?

The next king of Israel. But that didn't happen for many years. Many years. Next came Goliath. And then next, he was playing harp for Saul in the palace.

And then Saul got jealous. And then Saul tried to kill him. David had to run and hide, Left his wife behind. Left his army behind. He was a a captain of the hosts of Israel.

Left his prestige behind and became a fugitive on the run. And for several years, David spent in caves and valleys, sleeping under the stars, running from the king at the time, trusting the Lord that one day what God promised would come to be. We can trust that what God has promised us is going to come to be. But, there are some ups and some downs, some highs and some lows, some blessings and some trials to be had between here and heaven. Is there not?

There is. But as God was with David, God is also with who? He is also with us and he will not fail us. He has some lessons to teach us and we looked at some of those lessons already that David is learning for the day he will become king, that things he needed to learn and some of them kind of hard lessons. But he's learning and he's growing to be the king that God wants him to be at the time that God wants him to be at.

And God is also doing the same with us. You think in the book of James it says, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations or trials knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire wanting or lacking what? Nothing. Nothing that you need in service to your Lord and savior and God uses the good times as well as the what? The bad times and the hard times in order to chisel us and to mold us and to make us into that person that we need to be to tackle that next that next mission that is set out there before us.

So that is what God is doing for David here. So David has had a couple run ins with with Saul, had a run-in with Nabal. We looked at couple weeks ago. But in the end, the Lord works it all out and David continues on waiting upon the Lord. So, chapter 26 verse one, chapter twenty six one, the Ziphites came unto Saul.

Ain't it cool all these different names, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Parasites, the Jebusites, and these are the Ziphites. Okay. So the Ziphites came on to Saul to Gibeah. That's where Saul had kind of set up his central location there for his rule, saying, does not David hide himself in the Hill Of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon? Saul arose and went down to the wilderness Of Ziph, having 3,000 chosen men of Israel with him to seek David in the Wilderness Of Ziph.

And Saul pitched in the Hill Of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the wilderness. Now, again, when you see wilderness here, think more desert than jungle. Okay? The Judean wilderness is desert and I showed some pictures a couple weeks ago and what that looks like.

It's a lot of hills and a lot of desert. Okay? And so that's where David is hiding. There's a lot of different little valleys cut in between all these little hills and stuff that the water has cut through down through the years. And so there's a lot of different crevices and caves that you can and you can hide in.

So, so back to verse three, David, but David abode in the wilderness and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. David therefore sent out spies and understood that some Saul was come in very deed and David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched and David beheld the place where Saul lay and Abner, the son of Ner, the captain of his host, and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him. So we'll start there this evening. So David continues to hide from Saul. Just previously, David had been and his men had been hiding in a cave and Saul just happened upon the cave and didn't know some of David and his men were in there, decided to relieve himself in the cave and threw his his cloak aside and David snuck up and cut a piece of his cloak off and Saul never knew he was there.

Saul left the cave and when he got a ways away, David said, hey, Saul. Look, here I am and here's part of your robe that I cut off. And I had the chance to kill you, but I didn't because you are the Lord's anointed and God's gonna have to take care of that in his time. So would you please quit chasing after me? And Saul, said he would do that.

He wasn't gonna chase David anymore. However, Saul was not, this point in his life, a person whose word you could take for true. So despite Paul, despite Saul's assurances that he would no longer seek David to do him harm, David continued to hide from Saul and rightfully so. Leopards do not change their spots and apart from God's intervention, Saul who was plagued by an evil spirit would not change his intentions either. Given the right motivation, Saul would be right back to it again And that's exactly what happened here.

Some of these people from this area of Ziph came to Saul and they said, hey, hey, we know where David's hiding. You can come get him. You can surprise him. And so all of a sudden, Saul, who had said he was done, wasn't. And you do not make deals with the devil and expect the devil to keep his promises.

That just doesn't that doesn't not a wise thing to do. So David kept hiding. He kept running. There's no shame in running in this instance because while David is yet running from Saul, he is waiting on who? He's waiting on God to resolve the situation.

He's not just running and he's not just hiding. What he's doing is he is giving God the opportunity to resolve the situation however God intended to do so. Because you see, was God who sent Samuel to anoint Saul to be king, and then it was God who sent Samuel to David to be king. So David thought in his mind, well, if God chose Saul and God chose me, then God's going to have to choose how that comes to be. And, the Bible says in Isaiah forty thirty one, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. There is a time to run and there is a time to to wait. And in this case, those two were one and the same, to run from Saul and to wait on the Lord and to let the Lord take care and resolve this situation.

In Acts chapter one, Jesus told his disciples as he was sending bound to send back up in heaven, he said, I want you to go back to Jerusalem and I want you to do what? Wait and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. But after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, then you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Sometimes we get a little bit antsy and impatient, and we want to take care of some things ourselves that are not our prerogative to take care of. We just need to do what is right and wait and trust in the Lord.

There is a time to to to stand and fight and there is a time to fight another day. There is a time to run away as it is. For instance, the best way to defeat sin in your life is to run from temptation. Not to run into temptation, but to run what? Away from temptation.

First Corinthians six eighteen says, flee fornication. First Corinthians ten fourteen says, flee from idolatry. First Timothy six eleven says, Paul says to Timothy, oh man of God, flee these things. The these things being youthful lust that he talks about in second Timothy 22 when he says, flee also youthful lust. I like this passage here.

It's one of my favorite proverbs I learned, I don't know, back in college, I think. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. The prudent the wise man foreseeth the evil, that is the trouble coming. And rather than running headlong right into the trouble, they alter their path. They hide themselves.

They pull back. They wait. But the simple, the simple man, he doesn't see the evil coming and he just runs headlong right into the mess. Right into the mess. David knew where the trouble was and the time was not for running into the trouble.

The time for had been to hide himself and wait on who? And wait on the Lord. But things are going to change a little bit here and an opportunity isn't going to present itself once again. So David sends spies out to see where Saul is And they come back and they say, we see him. He's over there and Saul is laying in this trench and he's surrounded by how many men did he bring with him?

3,000. Okay. So 3,000 men. Of course, Saul is right in the middle of this encampment. I know when I read this as a kid, I I kinda skipped over the 3,000 men part.

So I'm seeing this little hill scattered with a few bodies. But there's 3,000 bodies surrounding Saul, and he is right in the middle of it. So what does David decide to do? Well, now David decides that it's time to do something a little different than just running or hiding. And so in verse six, says, then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab.

Abishai and Joab Zeruiah is David's sister. So, Abishai and Joab are his nephews. Okay? So so he says to these two men, one of them being his nephew, who will go down to with me to the Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.

So David said to Abishai and being so David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster, but Abner and the people lay round about him. Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day. Now, therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not spite him the second time. So Abishai so David and Abishai, they creep down to the place where Saul is through the bodies that are laying there sleeping on the ground in order to get to where Saul is. So they had to walk through a lot of people who were sleeping, kind of precarious here.

But Abishai, boy, he's gung ho. He's just he's he's ready for a fight, him and 3,000 men, you know. Young fellow. He's going to take them all on. But was that was that David's idea?

Was that David what David had in mind? The answer to that is to that is no. That's not what David had in mind. But they come up to Saul and they've they have worked their way all the way into the camp. So here is the spear and there is Saul and Abishai says, David, I will take care of him.

Let me take care of him. I'm going to strike him with the spear one time and there won't be an any need for a second time. It'll just be that quick and it's over and done. And I can understand how that made sense to Abishai. He had been with David running from Saul.

Saul had been trying to kill him. Saul had thrown javelins at David on more than one occasion. So Abishai said, David, let me take care of him. And what did David say? David said to Abishai, destroy him not.

I'm sure about that time Abishai's eyes got about this big. What? We walked all the way down here through all these men, all this danger, and you're not going to let me kill him? So David continues. Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the lords and lords anointed and be guiltless.

So David says, no, you can't kill him because God anointed him. God set him apart. God's gonna have to take him out. That's not whose responsibility. That's not ours.

That's not ours. Not our responsibility. So I'm sure Abishai is thinking, well, then why are we down here? David further said, furthermore, as the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battle and perish. In other words, David said, the Lord will take care of it in the Lord's time.

He will meet his end in the Lord's time, not mine. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed, but I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster and the cruse of water and let us go. So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster and they gapped them away and no man saw it nor knew it, neither awaked, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them. How else do you explain 3,000 soldiers all camped around Saul and not one of them woke up and went, I wonder who that guy is over there standing above Saul. But David David knew that the Lord was what?

The Lord was with him. He did not go in there to kill him, but to bring proof that the Lord had put Saul's life in David's hands. And we'll see that in a minute. That continuing to chase David was futile. 3,000 soldiers versus two that walked down in the camp.

And the two walked in and the two walked what? And the two walked back out. There's no contest when God is on your side. That David was a more virtuous man than his enemy and something I'm sure he also wanted not only his own men, but also the soldiers of Saul to see. David had every opportunity to kill Saul, and he didn't take it.

And Saul had been trying to kill him for the last couple years. David makes it clear to Abishai, his nephew, that his trust is not in spears and not in chariots and horses as David later wrote in one of the Psalms, but his trust was in his Lord. The Lord had said he would be king. Was the Lord going to fail? I don't think so.

The Lord would choose the timing and the death of his predecessor. That wasn't a choice for David to make. It was God's choice. Proverbs three, five, and six would later be written by David's son, Solomon. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean on into thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. David demonstrated his faith that day and his trust in the Lord. What would have made sense was what Abishai said to do. Take the spear, kill him, and let's be done with this. And Abishai would have seemed justified in his action, but David David chose a better way.

There are sometimes there are things in life that seem justifiable, But ask the question before you act. Is it just justifiable or is it really the right thing to do? Because when you trust in the Lord and do the right thing, even when it's not the easy thing, you will have God's reward. And God's reward is better than what would have happened had David smote Saul that evening. There would have been a vicious civil war probably.

I suspect that David chose these two men because of his trust in them to follow his instruction. He knew when he told Abishai don't do it, that Abishai would what? Would not do it. And maybe because they were two men that he thought could learn a very valuable lesson. Abishai was the one who raised his hand first, so it was Abishai.

David was safe in God's hands as we see in verse 12. Believing his tensions to be sincere, David trusted God once again to protect him as he walked into and out of the camp of Saul. And if our intentions are true and we are following the Lord, we can trust that God will not abandon us either. Even though the clouds may be dark and troubles may pop up in our way, we can trust in the Lord. So that brings us to verse 13.

So so David hides from Saul, then David sneaks down into Saul's camp and takes his spear and cruise of water to show his his trust in the Lord. And then David speaks with Saul in verse 13. So then David went over to the other side and stood on top of a hill, afar off, a great space between them. So David waited till he was far enough away that the 3,000 men, when they woke up, wouldn't just, you know, turn and kill him. Wise.

And David cried to the people and to Abner the son of Ner. Now, Abner the son of Ner is the highest general in Saul's immediate army. He is most responsible for protecting who? For protecting Saul the king. So David speaks, to Abner, the one who's supposed to be protecting the king.

Answerest thou not Abner? Then Abner answered and said, who art thou that cries to the king? David said to Abner, art not thou a valiant man, and who is like to thee in in Israel? Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the king? For there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy Lord.

This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die because ye have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the cruse of water that was at his bolster? Abner looked and oops. Where are they?

Well, they're not with Saul. They're in whose hands? They're in David's. And Saul knew David's voice and said, is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, it is my voice, my Lord, o king.

And he said, wherefore doth my Lord thus pursue after his servant? For what have I done or what evil is in mine hand? Now, therefore, I pray thee, let my Lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering. But if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord saying, go serve other gods.

Now, therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea and when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains. So, let's stop there for a moment. So, so David speaks up. Actually, he speaks to Abner before then he speaks to Saul. He rebukes Abner because, well, Abner was supposed to be taking care of the king and, well, he wasn't doing a very good job because David walked right in there and back out again.

Why did he do that? Well, possibly to cause some doubt in Saul's mind about the the the trustworthiness of his highest servant. Or maybe simply because he genuinely felt it necessary to rebuke Abner for not protecting the king as one day he would be the king. But then Saul speaks up. And then David speaks with speaks to Saul and he speaks respectfully because Saul is still what?

Saul is still the king. So he speaks to him respectfully. I find that interesting. In our political world, we we don't really speak too respectably of our opponents today, do we? But David did.

He offers to make a sacrifice if Saul's pursuit be led of the Lord. And while possibly sincere, David clearly does not believe this to be the case. He implies instead that other men may be pushing Saul to seek David's life. If this is God make if this is God wanting you to do this, then then, well, I'll have to have a talk with who? With God.

But if this is not God, if this is other men pushing you to do this, if this isn't God willed but man's will, then those that are pushing you to do this, they ought to be cursed. They ought to be punished for chasing me out of Israel. David points out that Paul's pursuit is keeping him from worshiping the Lord as he would desire to. He points out that Saul had better things to be doing than running all over the wilderness chasing David like a flea or a partridge in the in the mountains. The the way they caught a partridge, the partridge didn't like to fly, it liked to run.

It would fly, but it liked to run. And they would chase the partridge and chase the partridge and chase the partridge until the partridge finally got tired. And then they would catch and kill the partridge. And they Saul said David said to Saul, you're chasing me like a partridge. You got better things to be doing with your time than forcing me out of mine inheritance, out of my land, and into the arms of foreign gods and foreign peoples.

David speaks in humility. He calls himself a flea. Isn't there something better to be doing with your time than chasing me? It isn't right, Saul. But he speaks with humility and he speaks with respect.

And Saul responds. Verse 21, then Saul said, I have sinned. Return my son David for I will no more do thee harm because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool and have erred exceedingly. The Bible says a soft answer turneth away, what?

Wrath. And blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. David could have escalated this in a hurry. David could have said, well, I can take out 3,000 men with my 600 men because God's on my side or I can just take care of Saul and but David spoke bluntly but respectfully, and it disarmed Saul. And he got a confession out of Saul.

And this is does seem to end Saul's pursuit of David. The Philistines become a bigger problem and Saul has to turn his attention to the Philistines here as the book of first Samuel comes to a close. I don't know if Saul was truly repentant or just tired of losing. But in second Corinthians, it tells us true confession and remorse is followed by repentance. In second Corinthians seven nine, it says, now I rejoice that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance.

For ye were made sorry after a godly manner that ye might receive damage by us and nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Saul was made sorry. He confessed. It seems at least he stopped chasing David, but there doesn't necessarily seem to be a true repentance in Paul's heart in Saul's heart.

I keep saying Paul and not Saul. I blame my my head being full tonight. The and then verse 22, and David answered and said, behold the king's spear and let one of the young men come over and fetch it. The Lord rendered to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the Lord delivered thee into my hand today, but I would not stretch forth my hand against the Lord's anointed. And behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.

Then Saul said to David, blessed be thou, my son David. Thou shalt both do great things and also shalt still prevail. So David went his way and Saul returned to his place. Saul remind I mean, David reminds Saul that his trust is in who? His trust is in the Lord.

And he was doing going to do right by the Lord, and the Lord was going to take care of him. And Saul acknowledged that. And it seemed to make a little bit of a difference in the heart of Saul. But even if it did not bring him to the point of repentance, it was a testimony. A testimony to the grace and power of God who helped David walk into that camp and walk back out unharmed.

It was a testimony to the grace of God that put it on the heart of David to let God take care of his enemy and not to do it himself. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, say it the Lord. It was a testimony to the power of God and the mercy of God and the grace of God that we see portrayed perfectly in the son of David, Jesus Christ, who treated his enemies with love, who came not to kill and came not to judge, but came to save sinners. He died not just for his friends, but he died for his enemies to make them his friends.

And thus, he has made friends of us because of what he did. There's a little of the grace and mercy of God in faith. We can certainly live learn from the life of David as he is learning it at the hand of the Lord. Let us do the same. Let's pray.

Dear God, thank you, Lord, for your word this evening. Thank you for the testimony of David. Help us, Lord, to follow you wherever you lead us to do your will, to seek your will and your wisdom that you might show yourself mighty in us, that we might be a testimony to others also. Our lives touch the lives of others the same as David touched Saul's and those men that were with him. Lord, help us to see our opportunity that lies before us just in choosing to let others know that we trust you and that we are going to approach the trials that face us in obedience to the will of God and trusting him to take care of us.

In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.