1 Samuel 23

Here are the notes from Lighthouse:

David is God’s anointed king, but he is on the run. Saul is determined to kill him and David and his band of men are left running from place to place seeking safety. Humanly speaking the situation looks unpromising, the future looking purely at the circumstances is uncertain. The bookies wouldn’t offer great odds on David living very long let alone on his becoming king. But this chapter focuses on the rock solid certainty of God’s word in the midst of the swirling uncertainty of events. But it does more than just that, God doesn’t leave David alone to make do and live by his wits until he is king, God guides David, God calls and encourages David to trust him, and God rescues and protects David.

God Guides(1-13)
There is a growing contrast in these chapters between David and Saul. In the previous chapter Saul puts a whole town to death here David saves a town and then is concerned to protect them from Saul’s murderous anger. David is concerned to be guided by God whereas Saul has repeatedly ignored God’s word and has set himself in opposition to God and his plans. As you read each successive chapter it becomes clearer and clearer that Saul is a king like all the other nations had and David is a king for the people of God.

The chapter opens with a report to David that Keilah is in trouble, it’s being attacked by the Philistines. David wants to rescue the town and when he asks God(2) is told to go. However his men are less certain, they are aware that they’re already under threat and to attack the Philistines could be potentially disastrous. David asks again(4-5) and is assured that God will give them victory. And so they go down and rescue Keilah.

(6)Seems like a bit of an aside, it’s at Keilah that Abiathar (the son of Ahimelek who has escaped Saul and Doeg) joins up with them. The verse even tells us he brings the ephod with him. But it’s not an aside, there have just been questions raised by David’s men about God’s guidance. This is God’s answer - the ephod contains the Urrim and Thummim – God’s given means of guiding his people in making decisions. Now when David seeks God’s will there will be no doubt from the people.

The contrast is immediately made with Saul – David has God’s means of guidance and has been guided by God. But Saul does not and has not. In fact Saul is left to speculate on what an event might means and he gets it badly wrong, blindly assuming God is giving david into his hand when he is not. God isn’t handing David over but will again guide him to safety because he keeps his word.

(9-13)Straight away we see the value of Abiathar and the ephod as David seeks God’s guidance. He asks two questions; will Saul come and destroy the town because of David? And will the people hand him over? The answer is yes to both, and so they leave and keep on moving. God guides David and keeps him safe.

We aren’t God’s anointed king but we are his people and are promised God’s guidance. We don’t need an ephod or the Urim and Thummim we have God’s word and his Spirit. We know God as our loving heavenly Father and trust in his sovereignty and goodness as we listen to him and make decisions based on who we know him to be.

God Encourages (14-18)
These verse are the meat in a betrayal sandwich. (1-13)We see the potential betrayal of the people of Keilah, (19-24)we see the actual betrayal of David by the people of Ziph. And in between we have this little story of Jonathan strengthening David, don’t skip over it because who knows where David would have been had it not been for this God given encouragement.

Firstly God encourages David in Saul’s being unable to find him, God keeps David and his men safe. But God also directly sends encouragement in the form of Jonathan who although his father can’t find David appears to know exactly where to go. Jonathan’s friendship and presence would have been an encouragement to David in itself. But physical presence is not encouragement enough, what distinctively marks out this encouragement is he “helped him to find strength in God.” Isn’t that a fantastic description of what Jonathan does for David.

David is on the run for his life for crimes he didn’t commit. He’s been driven out and he’s on the run, harried and hunted from place to place. Even his good deeds are met not with gratitude but potential betrayal. It would so easy for David to despair or begin to doubt God’s promises as one thing piles on top of another. But God sends Jonathan not just to be an encouragement by being there but to strengthen his hand in God.

How does Jonathan do that? (17)He calls on him not to be afraid, not to let the circumstances drown out God’s promises and sap his certainty in God’s word, but instead to trust in his safety from Saul and that he will be king. Jonathan calls David to remember God’s promises and character and to live in the light of them, and leaves with their covenant of friendship renewed.

God sends Jonathan to encourage David, to strengthen him, to help him remember. God’s grace and love is seen in guidance and rescue but also in the sending of a friend to encourage his embattled servant and stir him to continue living out his faith.

Don’t you long both to know Jonathan’s and be a Jonathan? Aren’t there times in life when we need a Jonathan who gets alongside us and encourages us in God? Someone who strengthens our faith by their presence and their commitment to us but also by reminding us of the promises of God and the wonder of the salvation that is ours.

Hebrews 3:12-13 is just one of many verses that call us to be Jonathan’s to one another in the church. “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today’, so that none of you may be hardened by sins deceitfulness.”

Do you see the danger, it is that circumstances lead us to become hardened bit by bit until we turn away from the living God. How do we ensure that doesn’t happen? We encourage one another daily. We encourage each other by our physical presence together be it meeting up for coffee, gospel groups, or on Sundays. We encourage one another not just by our presence but by God’s word and reminding one another of the gospel and its application for our lives and our hope.

What will this look like? It might mean phoning someone who is struggling, meeting up with them, modelling God’s grace when they can’t see it for themselves. It might mean offering to pick someone up in order to get someone to church or gospel group when they just don’t feel like it. It will mean listening, it will mean praying for and with people, it will means reading God’s word together appropriately and over time. This doesn’t happen instantly. Jonathan is not a new person on the scene, he’s someone with a track record of committed godly love for David. We need to cultivate these relationships, because the danger of not doing is too terrible to contemplate.

Whose hand this week can you strengthen in God by calling, by seeing, by sharing an encouragement? By praying for them?

God Sustains and Rescues(19-29)
After Jonathan leaves notice that the situation doesn’t get better, in fact it gets worse. Now it’s not potential betrayal its actual betrayal. And by(26) it looks like the end, David and his men are trapped and the net is closing in. It’s like the chase scene in the movie where capture is inevitable as they try to escape but are surrounded on the mountain.

But then in another of God’s great ironic twists David is rescued. Not by something David does, not by Jonathan, not by any Israelite, but by the Philistines(27-28). The Philistines who David defeated when he slew Goliath, who he has just fought (1-5) are God’s means of saving David from Saul. This isn’t coincidence, fate, karma or luck it is God again taking the evil purposes of those who oppose him and working them for the rescue of his people and his plan.

Turn to Psalm 54 where we see David’s reflections on this betrayal. David’s prayer is for salvation and vindication as he is under attack and his life is under threat. What hope is there when the godly are persecuted, when they are harried and harassed by those who oppose God?

(4)“Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.., You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.”(7)

What is our confidence when opposed, when under attack, when persecuted, when the plans and promises of God look uncertain? It is that God is our help and Saviour. He sustains through his guidance, through the encouragement of his people and reflection on the truth that he is sovereign and ultimately judge. Our future is secure and we entrust ourselves to him, not just when it looks that way but even more so when it does not.

God is the one who sustains us as we face struggle, persecution, when we come to the end of our strength God sustains. God’s plan will not be thwarted, God will build his kingdom. The question is will we trust him as he does so? Will we trust in his word, his sovereignty and his reign and rule?