First Samuel chapter 19 and verse 18. So first Samuel nineteen eighteen, David has been anointed to be the next king by Samuel. David has slain Goliath. David has had found a friend in the palace and many other opportunities that the Lord has provided him to put him in the place that David needed to be to learn more about what he will be one day, and that is the king. God sees the future.

God knows his plans for us, plans to prosper us. And he is working, working even in David's life here in many areas, things David needs to learn so that he can be the king that God wants him to be. And praise God, he's still working on me, to teach me things that I need to learn so I can be a better, minister and and father and husband and all those things that God wants me to be or you to be. Sometimes we pass the test with flying colors. Sometimes we fail the test and have to learn a lesson the hard way.

But you do not learn if you don't try, and sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail. And the Lord's aware of that. And praise the praise the Lord for the God that he is. He is a God of mercy and he's a God of grace and he's a God of faithfulness. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions, they fail not.

Great is thy faithfulness. In Joshua one five, I wanna read you don't have to turn. I'm just gonna read a verse. Joshua one five, it says, there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. God doesn't promise Joshua that he will not fail. God that Joshua won't fail. God promises Joshua that God won't fail. And praise the Lord for that because Joshua failed, but God didn't.

Moses failed, but God didn't. Abraham failed, but God didn't. David failed, but God didn't. We will fail, but God won't. He will keep all of his promises he has made, to us.

He will never leave his children nor, what, nor forsake them. And he is working even through some of the terrible choices that we make and some of the blunders that we make and some of the obstacles that we trip over, he is still working out his perfect plan in our life. It's not like you can make one mistake and, oh, oops, I'm off the path. I'm done for. It's over.

It doesn't work that way. God's not gonna let you off that easy. He already knows the blunders you'll make before you make them, and he already has a way to use you and to bring you back despite them. And he will still be there for those who trust in him even as our trust maybe at times is a little weak and needs to grow. So up until now, Daniel David has kinda passed all the tests with flying colors.

And as as incredible as it is that a young man should walk up and look a giant square in the eyes and say what David said and pull out that sling, that was that that that mountaintop experience that that that God moved because of David's faith. Behind that mountain when it moved was a whole mountain range. It it wasn't just easygoing for David. A matter of fact, David's life got quite messy. And sometimes life gets messy.

We want everything to to be a a bed of roses. We want everything to be a smooth path out before us. But life wasn't like that for our savior, and life isn't like that for us. Sometimes it gets awful rocky and bumpy, and sometimes we make we trip up and we fall. But who's gonna be there to pick us up?

God is. And so let's let's look at a few things that happened to David in these chapters and how the Lord was there for him as he was for Joshua, as he he will be for us. So things start to get messy here in chapter 19. Saul throws a javelin at David. Saul sends soldiers to David to to his house to kill him.

Thanks to David's wife, Michael, who happens to be Saul's daughter. She sneaks him out and gives him time to get away. In verse 18, we see and this is where we stopped. At verse 18, David flees from his house, escaping Saul, and flees, to, I I think, a good place. He heads to Samuel.

He heads to someone who he fully believes is listening to God and is blessed of God. Someone he looks up to. Yeah. David looked up to somebody. Who'd he look up to?

He looked up to Samuel. And so he fled, and he went to Samuel. Verse 18. So David fled, escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

And it was told Saul saying, behold, David is in Naioth and Ramah. And Saul sent messengers to take David. And when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying when they saw the, yeah, the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. When it was told Saul, he sent another messengers sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they prophesied also.

So what was happening here is this. Paul was sending soldiers, messengers to come and take David and to take him back to the palace where he was gonna make an example of him. But every time the messengers got to where Samuel was, they were overcome by the spirit of God and they they stopped in their tracks and started preaching. Did they get David and bring him back? No.

No. They didn't. Remember the story of Balaam, how Balaam was gonna curse the Israelites? And he opened his mouth to curse Israel and what happened? Well, God overruled.

A blessing came out instead. So Paul said, keep sending these people and, well, they just God stopped them in their tracks. Verse 22. Then when he also to Ramah, and he came to a great well that is in Sechu, And he asked and said, where are Samuel and David? And one said, behold, they be at Naioth and Ramah.

And he went thither to Naioth and Ramah, and the spirit of God was upon him also. And he went on and prophesied until he came to Naioth and Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before Samuel in like manner and laid down naked all the day and all the night. Wherefore they say, I saw also among the prophets. He stripped off all of his royal garments, and he was helpless in the hand of who?

In the hand of God. In acts chapter five and verse 39, a wise man, though we're not told he ever truly became a believer in Christ, had some counsel for the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. They had arrested the apostles, some of the disciples, and they were trying to decide what to do with them. And Gamaliel stood up in the council, and he said, you know, there have been other people that claim to be the Messiah. They led these little rebellions, and they came to nothing.

They just kinda fizzled and went away. He said if this is one of those, it's gonna fizzle on its own and go away. But if it's of God, you don't wanna be on the wrong side. So why don't we just wait and see what God does? So he said in acts five thirty nine, he says, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

Now had Samuel already told Saul that he was going to lose the throne, that his family would not continue? Yeah. He told him that in chapter 15. He had told him that in chapter 12. Samuel had already repeated that two or three times to Saul, but Saul didn't want to surrender.

So who was he fighting against? He was fighting against God. And is that a smart thing to do? No. It's not.

Because who's gonna win? God is going to win. Saul could have learned his lesson here with his embarrassment and ramah, but sadly, Saul's heart was set, and it was set against who? It was set against God, and it was set against David. And he was blind to the buzzsaw that he was running into.

In Romans chapter one, it talks about those who were not thankful for did not give God the glory for what he had done. And they turned the worship of the creator from the worship of the creator to the worship of the creature. And God gave them over to a what? To a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. And so we saw see from a man who earlier in his life at least indicated his faith and allegiance to God now has departed entirely from listening, to the Lord.

And we'll see this continue. But our story isn't so much about Saul, but again, it is about David. And so what did God do for David here? Well, Saul kept sending people and they kept running into a what? A brick wall, so to speak.

You couldn't see the wall, but the wall was there. Why? Because the Lord was defending David. Chapter 20. Chapter 20.

So David runs to Samuel, And then after David sees the hand of God protecting him once again, he runs to Jonathan. In verse one, we see, and David fled from Naioth and Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, what have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before thy father that he seeketh my life? So for some reason, and I'm not exactly sure, I guess maybe because he knew that Saul knew he was in Ramah and that Saul was just gonna keep trying.

So he leaves Ramah and he searches out Jonathan. Now who is Jonathan? Jonathan is Saul's son. And so David, running somewhat in fear, it would seem still, runs to Samuel, runs to Jonathan, and he puts Jonathan in a very difficult spot. He says to his friend, what have I done?

Why what what is my sin or my iniquity? Well, what have I done to your father that he seeks my life? And he said unto him, God forbid that thou shalt thou shalt not die. This is Jonathan speaking. Behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he should show it me.

And why should my father hide this thing for me? It is not so. So Jonathan says, I can't be. Yeah. He has a temper.

You know, he throws javelins at people every now and then. But he's not he's he's not determined to kill you. Certainly not. You mean, he was Saul's armor bearer. He was the he was the hero of Israel.

Certainly, Jonathan says to his friend, he's that that's that's just you know, he's he's not gonna do that. David swears more he says, David swore moreover and said, thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes. And he sayeth, let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved, but truly as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death. Does it sound to you that David's a little concerned? Yeah.

I think he is. I think he's kinda running a little bit scared. The man who stood before Goliath with a sling is now running a little bit scared, and he's looking for some help from his from his friend. I'm not sure exactly what help he is seeking, whether he thinks Jonathan can turn the heart of his father like he did previously, or whether he's looking for some advice and protection from from Jonathan. It is not clear.

But he comes to Jonathan. He says, what is this? Jonathan says, no. It's not. David said, yes.

It is. And so David and Jonathan defies a scheme to determine Saul's intentions. And one which involved deception. Jonathan went and lied to his father about what David was doing because he wanted to see his father's reaction. One which nearly got Jonathan killed because guess who was guess who was the target of the javelin this time?

It wasn't David. It was who? It was Jonathan. Jonathan's life was the one who was put in danger trying to cover or figure out what to do for his friend. And what a friend indeed Jonathan was.

Not a perfect friend, but a true friend. What confidence David had in Jonathan. In the end, what did Jonathan find out? Who was right? David was right.

Saul was out to kill him. And in the end, they departed best friend still, saddened by the jealousy of Jonathan's father. To David's credit, he never suggests that Jonathan should turn on his father, nor does he request for Jonathan to leave with him. We never see that request in scripture. To David's credit, he goes above and beyond to keep the pledge he made to Jonathan concerning his family.

In verse 14, if you look in verse 14, it says, and thou shalt not only while yet I live show me the kindness. This is Jonathan speaking to David. Thou shall not only while yet I live show me the kindness of the Lord that I die not, but also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house forever. No. Not when the Lord hath cut off the enemies of David, everyone from the face of the earth.

So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, let the Lord even require it at the hand of David's enemies. And Jonathan caused David to swear again because he loved him, for he loved him as his own soul. David, Jonathan had already acknowledged, though he was the eldest son of Saul, that the throne was not his for the taking, but his friend David. And all he asked was for his life and the kindness of David to his descendants. Did David keep that promise?

The answer to that is yes. In second Samuel chapter nine, after Jonathan's death and David's David's ascension to the throne, David sent messengers looking for any of Jonathan's relatives till they found one. His name was Mephibosheth. He had been dropped as a child and he was lame. And for the rest of his life, he sat at the king's table in the palace because David kept his promise to his friend.

What a friend. Sadly, their friendship would be fraught with difficulty from here on out as David lived as a fugitive from Saul whom Jonathan served. And Jonathan never left his father, and David never asked him to. And what a story of love and allegiance and respect for the Lord and for their families is displayed in the story of these two young men who walked a tightrope, so to speak, in their friendship, but never lost their friendship despite the tightrope that they had to walk to keep it because God kept it. And what a wonderful thing for David even on the run to know that in the house of Saul, he had a what?

He had a friend. That brings us to chapter 21, and things kinda take a, uglier turn in chapter 21. As I said, sometimes life gets messy. And while the throne was David's to come, there was a lot of messy in between Goliath and the throne. So David's on the run still in verse chapter 21, then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest.

And Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David and said unto him, why art thou alone and no man with thee? David said unto Ahimelech, the priest, the king hath commanded me a business and hath said unto me, let no man know anything of the business whereabout I send thee and what I have commanded thee, and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Now was that true? The answer to that is no. David just told a big fat lie.

He wasn't sent by the king. He was running from the king, but he wanted Ahimelech's help, and so he lied. Verse three. Now therefore, what is under thine hand? Give me five loaves of bread in mine hand and what there is present.

And the priest answered David and said, there's no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. David answered the priest and said unto him, of a truth women have not have been kept from us about these three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it be sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but the shewbread that was taken from before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. So David was hungry, and he saw that Ahimelech was carrying what? Bread.

And he said, I see there you have five loaves and I and few that are with me, we were hungry. Can you can you give us the bread? And Ahimelech says, well, no, because this this bread is taken off of the table of showbread. The table of showbread in the tabernacle, that bread was only for who? For the priest.

That was for their sustenance. It would stay there for a certain period of time, I think a week, and then it would be taken off and the priest would eat it and then at the time it would be replaced. Well, they had replaced the bread with new bread and he was carrying the old bread that was taken off the table. And he said, well, this is the this is the, the sacred bread. This was the the showbread that was taken off the table.

But he he said, well, are your men ceremonially clean? And the answer to that was yes. And so Ahimelech justified giving that which belonged to who? It was for who? The priest.

Unto who? David to sustain him. In the New Testament, Christ actually uses this as an illustration as his disciples went through a field and they they milled little corns of grain and popped them in their mouth. Christ uses this as an illustration to illustrate that the high priest had the power to give that bread to who? To David because he was the what?

He was the high priest and he took with that which was his, and he chosen the spirit of the law to give that to David. And thus, who is the highest of all high priests? Jesus Christ. He was the one not only who runs the temple, he is the one to whom it was built. So the high priest decided to give the bread to David, but yet there is an issue.

David what? David lied. And Ahimelech did not know that he was helping David as he was running as a fugitive from Saul and seen by many as a traitor or a competitor to Saul's office. Verse seven, it says, now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg, an Edomite.

Who were the Edomites? They were the descendants of Esau. Mhmm. They lived near around the area of the Dead Sea. They were not worshipers of the Lord God of Israel.

They gave Israel a hard time when they came in the land. On several occasions, they sided with Israel's enemies later on. Doeg is an Edomite, but he's serving Saul. He is the chiefest of the herdmen that belong to Saul. And he's there, and he's what?

He's like a spy. He's watching what's going on. And he sees that David is there, and Ahimelech has helped him by giving him bread. And David said unto Ahimelech, and is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me because the king's business required haste.

He's continuing his what? He's continuing his lie. And the priest said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine whom thou slewest is in the in the Valley Of Elah. Behold, it is there wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If thou will take it take that, take it for there is no other save that here.

There's there's no other here besides that one. And David said, there is none like that. Give it me. So David came to Nob, to the place where the tabernacle was now set up as he is fleeing from Saul, and he stops to request food. However, not being completely sure which side the priest will choose, he chooses to lie.

David panicked and out of fear and self preservation above all others, he does not give the priest the opportunity to choose, to knowingly choose which side he will help. Maybe to give David the benefit of the doubt, maybe he thought by lying and not telling him what was going on, he might be protecting the priest because the priest can say, I didn't know. And that's what the priest will say in the next chapter, and it doesn't help him. Maybe that's what David thought. I don't know exactly what David is thinking, but David is thinking he's hungry, and David is thinking he needs a weapon.

And David isn't maybe trusting in God as much as he should be. Thus, he has to lie. Did anybody else ever do that in the Bible? Maybe, I don't know, Jacob comes to mind. You know, God promised Jacob the blessing, but but Isaac was gonna give it to who?

To Esau. So Rebecca and Jacob, they come up with a plan. We'll lie. We'll trick your father into thinking that you're Esau and we'll get the blessing. And when you lie, it always goes really well.

No. Lying gets you, and sometimes not only you, but also others others in trouble. Lying does not end well for anyone. Just tell the truth. This lie would haunt David for the rest of his life as we will find out.

But moving on, we'll come back to it a minute. Let's move on to verse 10. So David leaves Ahimelech. He leaves with a full belly. He leaves with a what?

With a sword that, you know, he figured I mean, that was his anyway. He was the one took it off of Goliath. And so he runs off with the sword and and with the food, and he heads to the next place. Verse 10. Verse 10.

And David arose and fled that day for the fear of Saul and went to Achish, the king of what? Gath. Okay. So David runs from the pre it went down. It sort of made sense to run to the tabernacle.

That was a sensible place to go. And now he runs to where? To the heart of enemy territory. That's Gath. The people of Gath are Philistines.

That's the city where the man came from who carried the sword that he killed that he now carries. Gath was the home of guess who? Goliath. And so David, in fear, trying to get out of Saul's territory, runs into the enemy's territory instead. Again, we don't always make the smartest decisions when we're run by what?

By fear. And it plainly says here that David is running in fear. The servants of Achish said unto him, is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing one to another of him and dances, saying, Saul had slain his thousands and David his 10 thousands? And David laid up these words in the heart and was sore afraid of Achish, the king of Gath.

So so he was afraid of Saul, so he he ran into Gath. And guess who found out he was there? Some of the people said, oh, hey. Did you know that David's here? Do you know the guy that killed Goliath is here?

Do you know the champion that has slaughtered thousands of Philistines is where? Is here in your territory, king. Maybe you ought to do something about it. So David became afraid. He changed his behavior, verse 13.

Before them, he feigned himself mad in their hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and he left his spittle fall down his beard, which is in that day was a sign of madness and humiliation. Then said Achish unto his servants, lo, you see the man is mad. Wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of of madmen that ye have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?

David therefore departed thence and escaped to the Cave Of Adullam. So what did David have to do to get out of trouble in Achish? He had to pretend he was what? Mad, crazy, out of his mind. Did it work?

Yeah. It worked. It worked when he lied at the tabernacle. He got the bread and the sword. It worked, so to speak, when he got caught in Achish, and he had to pretend.

But but just because something works doesn't make it what? Doesn't make it right. And sometimes when you make foolish decisions, it puts you in a position where it's hard to make a decision that doesn't seem just as equally foolish to get out of the fix that you put yourself in. Remember Joshua? Going back to Joshua.

The people from Gibeon, which was like two hills over, come to Joshua with these old tattered clothes and this moldy bread, and they said, Joshua, we've been traveling from a far country and wanna make a treaty with you. And Joshua without, at least it isn't recorded, without seeking counsel of who? Of God decides, hey. Yeah. There yeah.

We'll make a treaty with you. And he signs a treaty in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel with the Gibeonites. And guess what happens a few days later? They find out that the people they just signed a treaty with, well, they just lived two hills over. And they're Canaanites, and they weren't supposed to make any treaties with the Canaanites.

And so now Joshua's in a spot. He made a mistake, and now he really, there's no perfect decision. But sometimes we put ourselves in that situation. Sometimes David put himself in that situation. What I find interesting is somehow God did not abandon him.

God did not say, David, you've messed up. It's over. God told David that one day he would be king. And despite David's panic and fear and the mess that he made messier, God was still with him. And in each of these cases in the Psalms, he praised God for getting him out of a situation of his own making, and God did.

Chapter 22 verse one, David runs to a cave in Adullam. This is somewhere not too far from Bethlehem. And when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And everyone that was in distress and everyone that was in debt and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him and became a captain over them, and there was with him about 400 men. So from this point forward, David has an entourage of about 400 men that travel, with him that are there to defend him.

And then he leaves Adullam with his 400 men. And David went thence to Mizpah of Moab and said unto the king of Moab, let my father and mother, I pray thee, come forth and be with you till I know what God will do for me. Moab is on the other side of the what? The the Jordan River. It's over in what was called Gilead later on.

Moab, again, the descendants of the the Moabites are the descendants of one of the children of Lot. They had not been all too friendly to Israel. They had tried to stop them and came into the land, but they were not at war with David like or with Saul like the Philistines were. And like as David's what would be? Great grandmother great great grandmother in law, Naomi and Elimelech went to Moab, and that's where Ruth came from, who is David's great grandmother.

David went, took his family, and he went to Moab. Maybe he still had even contacts in Moab. And there, he asked them to watch over his father and his mother till I know what God will do for me. And he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the while that David was in the hold. And the prophet Gad said unto David, abide not in the hold, depart and get thee into the land of Judah.

So David was gonna stay in the fortress over there in Mizpah in Moab, But Gad, the prophet who pops up here a couple times, came to David and says, no, God says you go back to Judah. God does not want you staying where? In Moab. Moab seems like a place of what? Safety.

But where is where is the safest place to be? In the will of who? In the will of God. Sometimes what we perceive to be the safest route isn't the route that God has planned. And God says, no.

This isn't the route I want you to take. I have something better. And what God has planned for us, sometimes it it it just doesn't seem as safe. I just just let me stay in the hold. I wanna be in my what?

My my comfort zone. Let me be. But God says to David, no. Get up. Leave Moab.

I want you back where? In Judah. Why? Well, that's that's where he's gonna be king. And so David goes to the Philistines and they he gets what?

Tossed back into Judah. He goes to Moab and he gets what? Tossed back into Judah because you know something? That is the safest place for David to be in the will of the Lord, And it's always the safest place for us to be as well. But now we get to the sad part of our story this evening.

Remember remember Nob? Remember David lied to the priest so that the priest would help him? He figured if he was running from Saul, he might turn him in or he might not help him at least, so he lied. And everything seemed to be fine, but but for who? Who is the problem?

Not a Doeg. Doeg. So there was this man of Saul's camp that was there, and he was watching what was going on. So that brings us to 22 and verse nine. Then answered Doeg the Edomite, which was set over the servants of Saul, and said, I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub.

And he inquired of the Lord for him and gave him victuals and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. Then the king sent to Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father's house, the priests that were in Nob, and they came all of them to the king. So Doeg says, you wanna know where David is? Well, I saw him. He was in Nob, and the high priest was what?

Helping him. So king says, okay, call them in. So he calls the high priest and the priests of Nob in. And Saul said, hear now, thou son of Ahitub. And he answered, here here I am, my Lord.

And Saul said unto him, why have ye conspired against me, thou and the son of Jesse, and that thou hast given him bread and a sword and hast inquired of God for him that he should rise up against me to lie in wait as at this day. So Saul accuses the high priest of being in cahoots with David and and plotting a scheme in order to kill Saul and to take his throne. That's that's what Saul thinks is going on here. At least that's the the plan he's got running around in his imagination. Ahimelech answered the king and said, and who who is so faithful among all thy servants as David, which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding and is honorable in thy house?

Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me. Let not the king impute anything unto his servant nor to to all the house of my father for thy servant knew nothing of all this, less or more. In other words, Ahimelech said, I had no idea that there was this rift between you and David, and he said, I was just helping the king's right hand man. But Saul's heart has already, what, turned and the spirit has left and God has given him over to a reprobate mind, and he doesn't hear.

Now he has become just like all the other kings. You know, what is it that makes us different? It is the spirit of the the Lord. Unlike the Old Testament where the spirit came and went and came and went, the spirit today doesn't do that. When you receive Christ as savior, the spirit comes in and he comes into what?

He comes in to stay. And what makes the difference between us and others? It's not the spirit of man. It is the spirit of God, and the spirit of God has left Saul. And Saul is just like all the other kings.

You go down through history and you look again and again, these kings killed their children. They killed their grandchildren. They killed their best friends. They killed their own generals because they were paranoid that somebody was trying to kill them and overthrow them. And now Saul is just like the rest of them because he has turned away from the Lord.

The king says unto Ahimelech, thou shalt surely die, Ahimelech, thou in all thy father's house. And the king said under the footman that stood about him, turn and slay the priest of the Lord because their hand also was with David and because they knew when he fled and did not show it to me, but the servants of the king would not put forth their hand to fall upon the priests of the Lord. Saul commanded an atrocity, something unimaginable in the land of Israel, to kill all to slay the priests of the Lord. And his servants refused. All but who?

All but sadly, Doeg. Here he is again, Doeg. And the king said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priest. And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he fell upon the priest and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod. That's 85 of the priests that day.

Doeg slew at the command of who? At the command of Saul, the king of Israel. The one who was supposed to keep his people. Boy, that is a loud bass speaker out there, isn't it? Does anybody hear that besides me?

Good. I'm not not going crazy. Alright. So so Doeg turned and slew 85 of the priests that day. Verse 19.

And Nob, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen and asses and sheep with the edge of the sword. He didn't leave anybody. He slew the entire town of Nob, the place where the tabernacle had been moved to to the worship of the Lord. And though Doeg was responsible for Doeg's actions and will be before God, who else was? Saul.

So eaten up with jealousy and anger that he did the unthinkable. Isn't it interesting that Samuel since I read this in one of the I didn't think this up on my own, but one of the commentaries I read reminded me this. Isn't it interesting? Saul was sent out to kill all of the Amalekites. By who?

By God because they had, came upon Israel as they left Egypt. They didn't fight with them from the front. They attacked them from the rear. They killed their children and they killed their weak. And God said to Moses and to Joshua, one day I will destroy Amalek for what they did this day.

And so God sends Saul off to destroy the Amalekites, and he comes back with the oxen, and he comes back with the sheep, and he comes back with the king because he didn't obey the Lord. And Samuel said, once again, it was the second time Samuel said, the kingdom is gonna be taken from you. All you had to do was obey, and you refused and blamed it on the people. Isn't it interesting that Saul, who couldn't kill all the Amalekites that God told him to, is the man standing commanding the death of the priests and their wives and their children and every last soul in the city of Mount. Oh, how far has Saul come in jealousy, in anger, because he turned his heart away from the Lord.

And the Lord let the jealousy and anger have him, and it ate him up. Very sad story. It isn't quite over. Verse 20. And one of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar escaped and fled after David.

This is Ahimelech's son, Abiathar. He apparently was the only one to escape the slaughter at Nob. So I guess Doeg didn't completely succeed. And Abiathar showed David that Saul had slain the Lord's priest. And David said unto Abiathar, I knew it that day.

David says, I knew it that day. When David lied and when he got the sword and when he ate the bread, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Doeg. And he says to Abiathar, I knew it that day when Doeg the Edomite was there that he would surely tell Saul, I have occasioned the death of all the persons of thy father's house. Abide with me, fear not, for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life, but with me, thou shalt be in safeguard. David had to admit to Abiathar, this isn't just fall Saul's fault.

This is what? This is also my fault. David put Jonathan in a hard situation, almost cost him his life. And then he runs to Nob, and he puts unknowingly the lives of an entire town of people in jeopardy. Wasn't his hand that killed them.

It wasn't his desire to do so. But his lie cracked open the what? Cracked open the door. And that is something David would have to live with for the rest of his life as he became good friends with Abiathar. By the grace of what?

By the grace of God. Abiathar would be a great a great friend, a great help in the days to come. Abiathar escaped with Urim and the Thummim, these were stones that they used to to request guidance from God. But it wasn't so much those as it was the high priest himself. For the next several months or maybe years, the priest of Israel traveled with David.

And despite the mess and despite the sadness of the loss of life, despite the lies that David told and despite the devil incarnate who pushed Saul and Doeg into killing all those people, despite all of that, David, God was not done with David yet. And God did not abandon him because he is a God of mercy and of grace, and he is a God who always keeps his what? Always keeps his word and always keeps his promises. And sadly, David had to learn some lessons the hard way, and sadly, it cost some others as well. But God hadn't given up on David.

And as much as we it is unlikely that we will ever bring about the deaths of people by our lies, Our lies are no better than David's. And our mistakes, our blunders are no better than his. But we have a good God, and we have a wonderful God. And we have a God whose mercies are new, what, every morning and who keeps his promises to his children, who knows our frame that we are but what? They are but dust.

And whose spirit lives inside of every child of God to help us, that though we should fall, we should not be, what, cast down. And that we might learn to trust him more fully and not make the same mistake next time. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you for your faithfulness to David. Thank you for the lesson today in your mercy and grace, but also in the importance of the decisions we make.

Lord, you say in your word, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not into thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge you, and you shall direct our paths. Lord, as you're teaching David in a crisis packed situation, Lord, help us to learn from him and help us to learn from the mistakes that we make to trust you more so that you will keep us in your will, so that you will guide us in the place of blessing, blessing not only for us but in the lives of others. Lord, thank you for Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.