The Spear Pt 1

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Good evening everyone. It is Wednesday, December fourth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eight forty nine pm Central Time, and I'm coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if depending on where you're looking, you may see the metadata and you may see the title. I think I have the title something as the Spear all right, but I don't have it the Spear Part one. I probably should have labeled it the Spear Part one because there's no way I'm going to be able to make all make it all the way through this. We're going to be doing a sermon review. Obviously. We're really focused on doing sermon reviews right now because we're trying to bring this year to a somewhat dramatic conclusion with the series that has driven everything this year, and that is the Sermons two point zero app Sermon Challenge. I'm not going to go back and repeat everything about the challenge or anything along those lines, but we've been I mean, that's been driving everything this year. So I'm like, okay, let's just keep doing let's just keep reviewing sermons. So we did Hebrews twelve. I think, personally, and this is just my own personal feelings, I think that the discussion about Hebrews twelve I thought was interesting and fascinating because I offered a completely different way of looking at that passage. Right,

1:36 Everyone's like, hey, what is the weight that is keeping you back from your Christian life? What is the sin? And we identify we just kind of make it whatever we think it should be. And I think that I think the weight and the sin there has very specific meaning and its context being written to Jews who are about to experience the end of the Old Covenant, the end of the temple, the end of the sacrificial system, the end of the priestly system, the end I mean they're gonna, I mean, the end of the nation. So I think then the weight and the and the sin has very specific connection. So I thought it was I mean personally, I mean, as sometimes you do something and you're like, oh wow, that should generate a lot of discussion, that should generate a lot of downloads, that should generate a lot of streams, and then you look and you're like, Okay, well maybe not. And I hate to say this. I hate to say this. A lot of times, when you're really focused on scripture interpretation, those messages get far less downloads than when you're talking about something like the future of Christianity. Are you dealing with something that's a little bit may maybe more controversial or a current event, you will draw in more people to that then maybe doing I think some pretty solid work on exegeating a text and placing it within its historical context. That's just not

3:08 as exciting, And I understand that, but I think whether whether it gets in. I think ultimately what you have to do sometimes is you can't worry about the number. What you have to do is like, Okay, that is worthwhile. Maybe right now nobody cares, but so sooner or later someone will stumble upon that and maybe it will help them see Hebrews twelve far different than they ever have. So then I was like, Okay. Earlier I was like, you know, I'm going to I'm gonna I think I'm going to broadcast. Now what do I do. Let's find a let's just grab the sermon's two point oh out. Let's choose a random sermon, And I saw one entitled What will you do with the spear? What will you do with the spear?

3:55 Now? I mean I got to give that title some prop I mean, it caught maya attempt. What will you do with the spear? And I'm like, what spear? What am I supposed to do with the spear? Oh? This is interesting? And then I noticed that the text for the sermon was First Samuel twenty six, and I was like, oh, no, oh no, oh, no oh no. So we're going to take an Old Testament passage that obviously mentions a spear, and it's going to become about what you and I should do with the spear. Now will this work? Is this going to completely manipulate the text, rip the text out of context? Is it going to push the original you know, recipients out and put and bring us in.

4:46 I don't know, maybe this is going to work. So I thought about doing it earlier, and then things things got interrupted and I didn't know my food was arriving at a certain time, and next thing, you know, then I had to go eat. So things kind of got messed up. So that so I'm okay, I'll get back to it now. Right before I went live, I saw that a new sermon was uploaded to the Summer's two point oh app on Hebrews chapter five, and I was kind of kicking myself. I'm almost like, wait, I know, I already got this audio uploaded. I should go download that Hebrews five, And we should do that, because what we just did Hebrews twelve. We've done a little work on Hebrew six. This could be interesting. But maybe we'll get to that. Maybe we'll do something tomorrow. We will see.

5:27 I've got this ready to go. What will you do with the spirit? Now Here is the plan this evening. You'll notice I did not label it part one. I did not label that. I probably should have. I probably should have, all right, And the reason I should have is I think the way I'm going to approach this this evening is I think we're just going to review a little bit of this and kind of get the basic concept, the basic idea, and then maybe tomorrow we will return and see what they do with the idea. Maybe now, maybe it won't take long and we're gonna just be like, oh boy, what has happened? Maybe maybe this will be what look we've got I mean, there's basically I mean, I know this is not making any like major prediction. But either this is going to be like a fascinating look at First Samuel twenty six with a very accurate and textual application that is challenging, convicting, and beneficial, or this is going to be dealing with Fort Samuel twenty six in a way that turns into an absolute train wreck. It goes off the path, off the rails, you know, the boat crashes upon the rocks, whatever illustration you would like to use. So I don't know which way it's going to go, but we're going to see. I probably should have labeled it part one, but right now it's just the title of something like what is the spear? Or or the spear? I think I just entitled it the spear. I was gonna put

6:58 your spear, my spear? Whose spear? But I don't really know which direction this is going to go? So let's listen. We'll find out. First Samuel twenty six. Is the text the title of the message, what will you do with the spear? This was uploaded today. It's available in the Sermons two point zero app. Look for it. And I don't know what else to say other than let's jump in. Are you ready, here we go again. The goal here tonight is not to even attempt to try to review all of this. It's forty two minutes and thirty six seconds, all right, That could take four or five hours, six hours of review, So obviously I'm not going to attempt that.

7:40 I'm just gonna try to see if we can get the basic concept down. Now, I don't. Part of me thinks I probably should have listened to the beginning of this, because we've noticed this with a lot of sermons, the beginning they take a long time. Like I know, a lot of people think my introductions are long, but if you listen to some of these sermons, it's just kind of into very slow. Many of them will read the entire chapter and I and I know that's a kind of a you know, each preacher makes that choice. Some people love that, well we heard the entire word of God read, but it just seems like it's very long just listening to them read the entire chapter. And then many cases, especially when it's a narrative and now you're going to walk through the narrative, Well, you've already read the entire narrative. To me, now we're going to walk through the narrative. I kind of like walking through the narrative without reading it because I'm if I don't remember all the details. It's like I'm discovering the details in real time. Other than saying, here's everything that happened. Now, let's talk about everything that happened, I would rather let's talk about this chapter and discover it like we're discovering it in real time. That but that's just a choice and preaching style. But many of them read it. So it means sometimes when we're listening first ten fifteen minutes, we don't even get to the sermon, so we will see what's going to take place. I could be wrong, but that happens a lot. We're going to find out.

9:05 We're going to find out right now. Well, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to First Samuel chapter twenty six. As Ryan mentioned, this will be our last time in First Samuel until the new year, and it's actually a really good place to stop. A lot of things resolve in a sense, and then there will be much to pick up on in the new year when we resume the story. But first, now, that's you know, we're doing a summer review. A lot of churches do this, and I don't know how I feel about it. Right, So a lot of times you're trying to preach through a book, right, And then yeah, I'm very conflicted on this, Okay, because I've done lots of preaching through books and we've been in We're in first I think four plus years. I can go through all the different books I've preached, verse by verse through and all of them multiple years, four or five years, and now I really loved doing that, right, But I'm gonna be honest with you, at times it was a little bit of arrogance to it, a little bit of pro Look at us, we spent five years going through a book. No church has dealt with the depth of this book like we have. And on one hand, I think that's true. We were going deeper than anybody else, and I stand by that, and I'm proud of that, hopefully not too much of a fleshly way, hopefully in

10:36 a right way. But you know what I'm trying to say, I think that that's a good thing. But at the same time, after doing that numerous times and kind of patting myself on the back, I kind of realized a lot of times by the time we were done, you could ask the people in your church some basic questions and they didn't remember anything. Like you're going through it, like you're and you're spending four five years of your life as a pastor. You're living in that book week after week after week after week after week. You're reading it and reading it and reading it and reading it and reading it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. I mean, you're living in it. And what you don't realize is the people in the pew, they're just showing up listening, and they've forgotten about it. Rarely do you get the people actually, I mean, because you start noticing it, You're like, okay, people, we're going to be in this chapter. We're gonna be in this chapter. This is where we're going to be for the next who knows how long. So each week be reading it, read it and read it, and read it and read it. And then you'll you know, you've been we've been in a chapter for six months. And then you'll ask some basic questions about the chapter, and then you realize nobody in the congregations they can't even answer the question. And so then what you want to do is take your Bible and I know this sounds bad, but you just want to throw it across the room and say, you know what, forget this. You don't sneak and care, I don't sneak in care. Let's just call it a day. Why are we pretending? Why are we playing this little game? Oh we're going verse by verse.

12:03 Nobody cares. You don't even remember what was preached. It's irrelevant, it's a waste of time. It's meaningless, meaningless, meaningless, right, I mean, come on now, I mean I've been through it too many times. And by the time you get to the end of the book, after being three four years, does anyone even remember? Do they even remember the outline of the book? Do they remember what chapter one was? I mean, you can do a review at the end. Okay, it's four years through the book. What was chapter one about? Uh uh? I told you to be reading the book week after week after week for the four years that were in Okay, nobody did that? Okay, obvious, Okay, great, that can be like. That can be discouraging, right, that can be discouraging. So then sometimes you have to ask is it worth doing that? I mean, that's like that, this is a big question. Is it really worth doing that?

13:00 Do people really retain anything? So is there a different way? Well, some people said, we'll go through the books quicker, So they'll go through, say First Corinthians, and are the Gospel of John or whatever in eight weeks or twelve weeks. Okay, Well, the only problem is when you listen to those sermons, they go through a chapter and you're like, well, you didn't even cover half of I don't know what the right answer. I used to be more committed to one. I'm not so sure anymore. But I also know churches love to do what he just said. And this is the reason I'm talking about all of this is so many churches, when they get to certain times of the year, they'll be like, Okay, we're working through this book. Hey, it's now summertime, so now we're gonna be going to our summer schedule and we know a lot of people are gonna be so we're gonna put this this study on hold, and then after summer we'll come back to it. Okay, wait, now it's almost time for Christmas. We're gonna stop again, and then we'll pick it up. When you have those breaks, Does anyone even remember? I mean that's the problem I'm having right now with our their four series in Romans, I kind of mess that up, not even because I was taking a break, but because other things got you know, I put out is anyone even going to remember Eschatology?

14:11 We ended on the dividic covenant. I need to go back and finish that. So I sometimes how do you work it? Like? How do you? I think every preacher struggles with that, like what do we do? Now? He's saying, hey, this is a good place to stop. So if this is a good place to stop, that means he's getting ready to cover twenty five verses and one forty two minute sermon. Twenty five verses and forty two minutes. That's now you can do that. If he's gonna go through and go Okay, here's the basic story, it's broken down into these parts. And because it's a narrative, he may be able to do that.

14:52 Now. The key is he's he I think he has to make a choice. He's either is gonna have to look at this and it's context and what was about for the people involved, or is he just going to go in and make it about us I don't know, but there's a lot church, there is a lot of those. I don't know if people in the pew ever realize that, but there's a lot of those stratgy those things you have to think about, Okay, do we cover this book? How much time do we spend in this book? Because on one hand, you want to believe by the time you're done, everyone in your church knows the book forward and backwards and they're experts on the book. But a lot of times, by the time you're done, you realize nobody even remembers it. And then what do you do if you take a break. I mean, it's it's December the fourth. They're not going to even be back in this book till the new year in January. Is anybody going to remember anything about first Samuel Are This is a question. I doubt I'm even going to remember this sermon review by January. I don't even think I'm gonna remember that even did this broadcast by that? So I don't know. The everyone has an opinion what's the right way to look? The right way is if you could get everyone in church on the same page, everyone's going to it's probably the same thing It's like in college, right a professor can give everyone, Hey, we're going to

16:22 do this, we're going to do this, we're going to do this, and if everyone will actually participate, by the end of the semester, they should have really mastered it. Well, the same thing could be in a church, but you got to get everyone to participate, even with our Bible study exercises or any of the things I try to do on the podcast. If people will not participate, there's only so much you can get out. There's only so much people who are going to get Now, if people are reading like I tell them to read, or if they're doing this, if they're doing an outline, if they're doing any of the work I give them, then okay. But in a church, what at least my experience is, you can't get most people to participate. They're going to show up to church and they're done. They're done, They're going to listen and they go home and most likely by the next Sunday, they're going to have a hard time remembering anything that was spoken of. And that's just a reality. That's not like there was a time when I was younger, there was I criticize people for that I'm like, well, if you love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul, and if you love the Word of God more than gold and silver, and you desired it more than the honey and the honeycomb. If you if you were like a new born babe that desired the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. If the word of God was truly a lamp and truly a light, if the word of if man did not live by bread alone, but by every word that presented out of the mouth of God, if you really cared, you would know this. And so well, now I'm just like, I think that expectation is just unrealistic because that's not

17:58 the way it works. So that just tells me maybe we got to be more honest with ourselves that everyone from from behind the pulpit to win the pew, we don't really love God's word the way we claim we do. I think we just have to be more honest. So I don't know how well it's going to work for them. We'll see. I mean, you can test yourself January the fifth, January the sixth, ask yourself how much you remember about First Samuel twenty six. Probably all of us will fill the test. Samuel chapter twenty six. If you're following along in a Pew Bible, you can find it on page two hundred and forty nine. It's also printed on page nine in the Order of Service. You could follow along in your own Bible, or in a moment, I'll be reading and you can just listen if you'd like. As we come to chapter twenty six, though, the context is really that it's the same old story for David. He's been on the run from Saul for chapter upon chapter now, and it's the same suffering, it's the same pressure, it's the same difficulty. Two chapters ago, Saul and David had a moment together, you may remember, when David spared Saul's life in the cave. Saul was moved, and Saul wept, and he acknowledged that what he had done was wrong, what he had done was evil. He said spiritual things about

19:31 the Lord blessing David, but nothing changed, And here we are again, and Saul could say all kinds of things, but hadn't actually repented. Well, today is David is going to find himself in a situation where he could make all of this suffering, and he could make all of this running end if he would just do something that he said he would never do. Have you ever found yourself in a situation like that where you're just tired of running, weary of the suffering. Yeah, have you ever thought about that there might be this way that you could make all your problems just go away. But it means doing something you never thought you would do. What if you could just sin once and make your suffering stop?

20:33 What if you could just sin once and make the suffering of someone else stop? Well, that's the question that our story raises for us, and as we look at how the Lord is working in Daniel's life or David's life, excuse me, his story will help us as we think about that very question, because I think the reality is we face situations like that more often, and then we may even realize as we walk through this Christian life. Okay, so he's taking this story. David is facing a situation where he could do one thing and make all of us suffering, all of his trouble go away, but it would be a sin. What would we do if we face the situation where if we send one time, we can make all of our problems, all of our pain and all of our suffering, all of our difficulties go away. Would we do that? That's an interesting question?

21:39 All right? Now we could ask is that a Now this is important. Is that a correct application question that arises from this story? Now we will have to see. I think it's an interesting story. If you could send one time and make all of your problems go away, would you do so? Now, this one is very complicated, and I know when I start trying to explain, I know some of you already know what I'm getting ready to say. Some of you don't like when I say this, because you say you're excusing sin. I'm not trying to excuse sin. But this is where I struggle from the from the reality of Christianity and then trying to follow it through logically. Right, here's the reality of Christianity. Okay, So here there's pain, there's suffering, there's difficulty. I can make it all go away by committing one sin. Would I do that? Well, here's the bizarre thing about Christianity.

22:31 Let's say I will not commit that sin. I won't do that, right, I won't do that one that. I was getting ready to make a reference to a famous song, but I won't do it. I won't do that. Okay, never mind, I'm not gonna make that. I'm not gonna make a music joke, all right. So but I there's this one one sin, and if I can do if I commit this one sin, all of my pain, all of my suffering, go away. But I won't do that. But here's the weird thing. I don't commit that sin. But here's the reality of Christianity. That very day that I don't commit that sin, I'm still going to be committing all kinds of other sins. I'm still not going to be loving God with all my heart, my body, and soul. I'm still not going to be loving my neighbor as myself. I'm still not going to be holy as God is holy. I mean, I can just go I'm gonna I'm still not probably not doing all things without grumbling and complaining. I'm still I still probably have other things I've put before God. I could go on and on and on and well, but I won't commit that sin. Well great, but I'm gonna still commit all these sins. So I won't commit this sin that can make all my problems go away. But I'm still going to be committing all these sins. Oh, I know, I know this question makes Christians very very uncomfortable. I know that because it sounds like I'm justifying it. But I'm just trying to deal with our pithological reality of what Christianity teaches. Christianity teaches that we are called to be holy as God is holy. Reality says we are never

24:02 going to be that, so we're in a perpetual state of sin. It says to love God with our heart, mind, body, and soul. We're never going to do that, so we're in a perpetual state of sin. Be perfect, He's you're havingly, Father's perfect. We're never going to do it. We're already in a perpetual state of sin. So I'm in a perpetual state of sin. But you're telling me, if I could commit this one sin, I can make all my problems go away. Well, why wouldn't I commit that one sin to make all of my problems go away? Because if I really wanted to try to look at this logically, maybe all of these problems also service temptations. So maybe by committing this one sin, I make all of these other problems go away. Therefore I remove the source of temptation. I could logically even argue that it could actually reduce the amount of sin that I'm committing. Because problems, troubled, difficulty and suffering many cases lead to complaining, grumbling, discontentment, bitterness, frustration, anger, wrath. See, the Christian system is very difficult and how to measure it right, because we almost always create these hypothetical situations, and the way we create these situations, it's almost like, hey, we don't sin, oh, but if we could could We don't have any sin in our life, and now we face the situation where if we committed one sin, we could stop all of our suffering. But that's not an accurate way of looking at it, because the thing is, well, we're committing all kinds of sin, but if I commit this one sin, I can make all of my suffering go away, So don't I mean, how do we look

25:32 at that in a realistic way? Now? I know logically that could lead to lots of philosophical issues, right, So, but what you're saying is, if I don't commit this sin, it's of really no value because I'm already committing all of these other sins. I'm not saying that there's no practical value. There's always practical value and not committing a sin because because sin has many, many cases, practical ramifications and consequences, so there's always value in not committing a sin. From a practical standpoint. From a philological standpoint, you're still I mean, you're a sinner. Whether you stop one, whether you stop twenty, you're still a sinner. You are in a perpetual state of sin. So philologically, spiritually you're already sinning.

26:23 You're in sin. Practically you can say, well, if I don't commit that sin, then I don't have to worry about this, and that is true, but that's looking at things from just a very pragmatic, fleshly perspective, which anyone could look at. Right. A lost person could go, well, if I do this, I can have this consequence with us. Okay, I'm not now now. Philologically, even if you don't commit the act, you may be committing it in your mind, so then you're already spiritually guilty. I mean, the same thing is, man, if I commit this one thing, I can make all my problems go away. Okay, I'm not going to do it, But if you're doing it in your mind, if you're desiring it thinking about it, then you may already be guilty of it even if you never commit the act.

27:05 So then maybe theologically you you you're still guilty of it. You just don't get the benefit of removing the suffering and the pain. That is even more confusing. Hey, if I commit this act, I can make all my problems go away, all right, But I'm not going to do it. But you're thinking about it, and so you've already committed in your brain. So even though you don't commit the act, you're gonna get all the suffering, but you also are gonna get the guilt because you've already committed it in your mind. All Christianity can be maddening trying to figure out sometimes I think I think we probably have an idea what David could do here to end his problem with suffering. If the problem in suffering is being caused by Saul, who's hunting him down trying to kill him, then obviously David's about to fix it. Find himself in a situation where he could just kill Saul and all of his problems and sufferings would go away. Now even though David didn't kill Sault, well, he does have someone else killed, right, I mean we could go I mean, there's a lot of things David does wrong, but now we don't know what's in David's heart, right, so we could say that maybe David's heart was right. I mean, we know it's not pure, because our heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. But just think about this from a pragmatic perspective. If this story is about David having a chance to kill Saul and he doesn't and he still has to deal with the pain and the suffering, he could still be guilty of killing Saul internally, so philologically he would still be guilty. Just practically he

28:36 doesn't get the benefits from doing it. Do you see how, oh man, my head hurts. My head hurts trying to figure that out. That is a com oh man. I feel like I'm in philosophy class and we're dealing with ethics and morality and how morality can be very relativistic, in very contradictory, and I mean where we're getting into some really complicated issues here. Let's see how he handles it. I think what he's getting ready to do is just read a good portion of this chapter. So what we will say. I'll try not to interrupt the reading of it.

29:16 So I'm going to read first Samuel twenty six. You can follow along with me as i read, or you can just listen, and then we will pray and then consider this text together. First Samuel, chapter twenty six. This is God's word. Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibea, saying, is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hoki Law, which is on the east of Joshmone. So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Zif with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Zif, and Saul encamped on the hill of hockey Law, which is beside the road on the east of Joshimone. But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had come after him. In the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come.

30:09 Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner, the son of Naer, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment, while the army was encamped around him. Then David said to a Himelech the Hittite, and to Joab's brother Abashi, the son of Zuriah, who will go down with me into the camp to Saul. And Abeshi said, I will go down with you. So David and Abashi went to the army by night, and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner and the army lay around him. Then Abeshi said to David, God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now, please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.

31:07 But David said to Abshi, do not destroy him. For who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless. And David said, as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water, and let us go. So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill, with a great space between them.

32:01 And David called to the army and to Abner, the son of Nair, saying, will you not answer Abner? Then Abner answered, who are you who calls to the king? And David said to Abner, are you not a man who is like you in Israel? Why then, have you not kept watch over your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king of your lord. This thing that you have done is not good, as the Lord lives. You deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your lord, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head. Saul recognized David's voice and said, is this your voice, my son, David?

32:47 And David said, it is my voice, my lord, o King. And he said, why does my lord pursue after his servant for what have I done? What evil is on my hands? Now? For let therefore let the Lord the King hear the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the Lord. For they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods. Now, therefore, let not my blood fall to earth, away from the presence of the Lord. For the King of Israel has come out to seek a single flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. Then Saul said, I have sinned. Return my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake. And David answered and said, here is the spear, o King. Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day and my sight.

34:12 So may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Then Saul said to David, blessed be you, my son, David. You will do many things and will succeed in them. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. This is God's word, and it's given for our good. Let's pray and ask us help as we consider it this morning, Our Father in heaven, will you help us as we come to your word? Will you take away any blinders that may be over our eyes? Will you unstop our ears to hear your truth? Will you lift our gaze to our Lord gi and the wonderful salvation and deliverance we have in him. Will you humble us with your grace? Will you strengthen us in your weakness.

35:09 Will you break us down in our pride and restore us and make us more like our savior. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Okay, there's the hot chapter. Wow, Oh man, I've got so many I've already raised a lot of questions about the way he set this up. Hey, what are you going to do with the spear? What if there was one sin you could commit to make all of your problems go away? Would you do that? And I already talked about all of the kind of the issues with that whole even question. But man, did anything jump out at you in this text? You know what jumped out at me? First Samuel, twenty six This is crazy, verse twelve.

35:54 First Samuel, Chapter twenty six, Verse twelve. So David took the spear and the jug of water by Saul's head, and they got away, and no man saw or knew it or awoke, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen on them. No, wait a minute, Wait a minute. So God intervenes in this situation to make them all fall asleep. Couldn't God have intervened in this long drawn out drama. We're Saul trying to kill him, and all of the things that go we all I mean, you just go read everything that happens. People died, There's all kinds of things that happened in the story. So God intervenes to make them all sleep, But he doesn't intervene to stop these people from being killed, or this from happening, or from this from happening that is the most just melts my brain.

36:45 The concept in it, like, wait a minute, wit So, God can intervene at any time, but he doesn't intervene here to spare these people's lives. He doesn't intervene here. He doesn't He could have fixed He could have. He could have just intervened, changed Saul's heart and fixed the whole probably. I mean, there's a million things they could have done. So then what would we have to what would we take from this? Then? Everything that happened, the craziness, the death, the destruction, everything that happened. God was clearly then organizing orchestrating it. And because i mean here he intervened just to make everyone go to sleep. I mean, doesn't that not bother you? Doesn't that not jump out of you? Going win him at witnam at wit him. If God can intervene here in this situation, I say say, keep everyone asleep now, he said. But the story ends with Saul saying I'm not gonna harm you anymore. And I'm sorry, Dasaul do anything else. I'm just asking you the question. Now, let's see how he handles this. But I've already pointed out some major struggles I would have with this story. Let's see what he does with the story.

37:55 Well, as we consider our text this morning, we'll do so with three points and the relatively simple I think it's David's temptation, then David's response, and then Jesus response. So look at David's temptation, David's response, and then we'll consider together Jesus' response. So, first of all, let's notice David's temptation in this story. The people of Ziff, the Ziff Fights, they're not our favorite people in for Samuel. They've betrayed David before, back in chapter twenty three, they sold him out and saw Saul came down hunting after David, and here they are at it again. This time they go find Saul and they let him know they know David's location, and again even though Saul had said he was sorry, he takes three thousand of his choicest soldiers and he goes out against David's six hundred men and they encamp on the hill. But David also has scouts, and those scouts lay out saw location, and then David himself goes in and scouts it out. We don't get many details of all of this, but what he comes to find out is that Saul is at the center with three thousand people around him, and he's there with his cousin Abner, who's the commander of his army. And then, in this way that reminds us of Jonathan taking his armor bearer and going up on the hill against the Philistines, David takes one man with him. He takes Abashi, who's

39:28 his nephew, and they sneak into the camp at night, and they as they make their way through the camp, which would have taken so long, like I'd love I can't wait to see the movie of this someday, Like how David and Abathar work their way through all these sleeping soldiers, but they come across this amazing providence. I don't know if it would be that dramatic to watch God put a deep sleep on all of them. So maybe they were sneaking around, but there would have been no reason to sneaking around because they weren't gonna wake up because they were supernaturally put to sleep. And I did just double check. It doesn't appear after first Samuel twenty six, It doesn't appear Saul makes any more direct attempts upon it doesn't appear after first Samuel twenty six that Saul makes any more direct attempts to kill David.

40:27 So his problem in a sense is solved not by using the spear, but by not using the spear. All right, So, so in reality, his opening question was, what if you could commit a sin and make all of your problems go away? Well, it seems the story is what if you couldn't? What if you could not sin, it would make all your problems go away? Right? Not not whether could you sin and make all your problems go away? Would you do it? Well, in this particular case, if you would have killed Saul, that would have made all of his problems go away. I don't know. Well, by not killing Saul it seems to make some of his problems go Yeah. If I don't know if this works, Let's see how he builds this. His initial question was, what if there was a sin you could commit to make all your problems go away? And my thing is, even if I don't commit the sin, I'm already in sin, so that that whole thing kind of falls apart. But it looks like what happened David doesn't commit the quote unquote sin, and well, at least the problem goes away.

41:28 So then is the then do we take this? If we don't commit sin, all of our problems go away? You see how the logical You see, here's the problem. When you take these stories and start applying them, you see where you can Hey, is this what you tell the church? If you will just not commit the sin to make your problems go away, your problems will go away? Because well, if you obey, God will make all of your problems go away. The thing is, can we I don't know? Let's see what he does. Saul and Abner are there, and instead of doing what soldiers should typically do, keeping watch throughout the night to make sure your king and commander of your army are fine, they are sound asleep. And not only that, Saul's spear is right there by his head, and Abishai whisperingly exclaims, God has given your enemy into your hand this day.

42:26 And the text tells us that abishi is right. Even though you know, when we think back to Saul coming into the cave and David sparing his life, we know that God sovereignly ordained Saul to come into that cave. Well, when we come to this text, though, it makes it explicit for us that God's providential hand was behind this whole thing. Verse twelve says no man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them. A deep sleep like what came over Adam and Abraham, falls upon these men. The bottom line is this, God made it happen. David was able to find Saul.

43:14 David was able to get to Saul without being noticed because God had given him into his hand. Now, this this is where I would struggle, right, this is where I would struggle because if God is the one directing all of this, then what all about all the situations where things went wrong. I'm gonna I'm just gonna I'm just gonna look see if I can find a number here. I'm gonna look something up. How many is he? How many people died and Sauls campaign against David?

44:06 Okay, the Bible does not provide an exact number of people who died during Sal's campaign against David. However, it does mention several violent episodes that occurred as a result of Saul's obsessive pursuit of David. We have the massacre at Knob for Samuel twenty two eighteen through nineteen, and a particular brutal episode, Saul ordered the slaughter of the priest of Nob because they had unknowingly helped David doag. The Itamite carried out the order, killing eighty five priests who wore the linen he fought. Additionally, the entire town of Knob was destroyed, including men, women, children, infants, and animals. So all of these people are slaughtered. God steps in here to make everyone fall asleep, but it does not step in to save any of the people, even babies being slaughtered. You see where philosophically, these are things you have to struggle with when dealing with the text. Casualties and skirmishes. While sauls pursued David with his army in the wilderness of Zif and the desert of Maeon, there were likely deaths during these encounters, so the Bible does not record specific numbers. Saw mobilized significant military resources in these campaigns, suggesting some degree of conflict, but these engagements often ended without major battles because David evaded capture. Other consequences of Saul's obsession. While not directly attributed to Saul's campaign, his focus on pursuing David weakened Israel's ability to defend itself and directly contributing to losses and other conflicts, conflicts such as against the Philistines. So the point is, people die,

45:37 we know, at a minimum, eighty five priests die at a minimum, and an entire town is destroyed, men, women, children, babies, and animals. Hey, but God sovereignly stepped in and made these people fall asleep. Didn't bother to sovereignly step in? You see where that? I know that makes Christians uncomfortable with me, But it's something we have to deal. With, right. See. God's sovereignty is a wonderful concept when it all works out in a beautiful way and it ends like a Disney movie and they lived happy, happily ever after and they rode off into the sunset. Oh, God's sovereignty is wonderful.

46:24 When an entire town is burning and everyone's dead, it's not so oh God's sovereignty in this particular case, because God, God could have he intervened here. I mean, does that ever? Does I mean? Does that? I mean just from a not forget a theological perspective, just from a normal person who reads. When you read the Bible, like man, God intervened here, What an amazing thing. And then later on you'll be like, these people are all dying. Where's God? These people are? Where's God?

47:04 Where? And then you know, fifteen chapters later, God intervenes in some miraculous way. But the major question in this narrative is this, what is David going to do with the spear? What is he gonna do with the spear? The spears mentioned six times in this narrative account. It's really the center of what's going on. An abashi. He knows what David should do, doesn't he? I love this now, please, And what's crazy to me about this is they're like whispering it probably and they're having this conversation. Now. Please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear.

47:49 Don't worry, Saul may have missed. I'm not gonna miss I won't have to strike him twice. This will all be done. And notice what he's holding out to David in this He's saying, David, use the spear to solve your problems. Saul is your enemy. He keeps making your life miserable. Look, David, God has given him into your hand. Let's end this thing. And David, think about how poetic this is. Think about the justice of this. This is the same spear that Saul has used to throw at you and try and kill you, and to throw at Jonathan to try and kill him. But now that spear is right here, and he knows, probably from the incident that took place in the cave, that David doesn't want to be the one to kill Saul. And maybe Abashi thinks that David has a sensitive conscience or something. I don't know what he really thinks about it, but notice what he'sa says, David, you don't even have to be the one to kill him. You don't have to lift up your hand against Saul. The Lord brought us here so I could do it for you, and I'm a really good shot, and so it's all going to work out.

49:16 And so what we see in this narrative is that there's a way to look at the situation where the spear is there as the solution to David's problems. And before we move on to think about David's response and what he amazingly does. I think it's good to pause and consider the temptation that he faced and how we ourselves might face that as well. Do you ever feel this way that you're back to the same old story. The situation hasn't changed. The same people are making your life miserable Again. It's not Saul in the Zephites. But maybe it's that coworker who's always stepping on you and trying to get ahead. Maybe it's the other kid who's always teasing you, who never includes you. Maybe it's that person who, no matter what good you seek to do to them, just seems to delight in making your life miserable.

50:21 And maybe it's not about the people in your situation. Maybe it's the same exhausting situation that's tiring you out. You know, you've tried everything, but no matter what you do, you can't get ahead financially, You just can't make ends meet. Maybe you've fought against a certain sin for years, but now it feels like it's just more intense than ever. No matter what you do, it feels like the trials just keep coming, and not only just keep coming, they're getting worse. And like David in the cave. You've tried the right way, You've tried doing the good things, but what good did that really do? I mean, David's sitting here and he's saying so I even cried about everything for goodness sakes, and yet here we are again. I just can't keep going on like this. Something has to change, And then in our lives the Lord brings this amazing providence.

51:24 There it is that spear that could change everything. You find a weakness in your coworker that you could exploit or you could hold against them. You find out something super embarrassing about that kid who's always picking on you. There's that opportunity in a conflict to just say that truth that you've held back for so long. There's that detail that you could leave out of the tax form, or that situation that you could just not report and see what happens. And when you find yourself in that problem evidence so often there's an abashi right there reminding you you don't even have to do the thing that you think is wrong. Someone else can send the text, someone else can spread all that information. You don't have to grab the spear and go do the big sin.

52:19 But you could just give into the smaller one that everyone else does. Now this is this is interesting. Now we can ask ourselves does all of this fit? I mean, does all of this apply? So basically, hey, you're facing a situation. There's the spear. You could use it. Now Again, philologically though, from a true understanding of the law, even if you don't pick up the spear, even if you tell everyone back out of the cave or let's let the let this sleep, we're not going to touch this. Nobody nobody's sending the text. Nobody is going to do this. No one's going to send in the text form. Nobody's going to do anything, and everyone walks away and goes home. Philologically, though, if you wanted to do it, if you desired to do it, if you've done it in your mind and heart, you're still guilty of it. That's the only problem with this story. This is making it making sin very just external. Hey, as long as you don't take the spear and boom do the thing, then you're good to go. But philologically, you don't even have to touch the spear. You don't have to. You just can think it, desire it, want it.

53:31 Even if you walk away, you may already be guilty of it. That's the part that's being forgotten here. Now, there are practical benefits from not doing those things right. You can say it's additional sin, it's a different kind of sin. There may be other consequences that come from it. So I'm not denying that part that there there's always practical value. But from a philological perspective, this becomes very like is that the point of the story or is the point of the story more about what's the godly attitude towards governmental authority that's even ungodly right? Is that the point of the is the point of the story?

54:21 David is like, Hey, God appointed this authority. It's not for me to do anything. Is this kind of more just Romans thirteen in action? Is it more about that? Or is it about oh, this difficulty and this difficulty and and is that a good application? Or is that going? Is that? I don't know, I don't know if it works. You don't have to lie, You just don't have to say all the truth. Just throw it out there with a little spin on it. See what happens. You don't have to hurt the other person. You could just not do the loving thing that would help them. You see, we, like David, so often find ourselves in these tempting situations where our hearts long to do the thing that would make the situation change, especially when we find ourselves in this ongoing wilderness running like David was facing. What do you do when the spear is right there and it seems like it will make all your troubles disappear? What are we supposed to think? How are we supposed to respond?

55:41 Now, we'll stop right there. I don't know if I have a good answer about some of this. I don't know if I have a good answer exactly. How does this apply? What is? Oh? Yeah, I'll let you spend some time with it, all right. I think we're definitely going to have to come back to this. We need to spend some more time with it. But we'll stop now, just kind of leave it there for you to just all well, if you're like me, I'm going to be haunted by this question all night.

56:29 I don't know if I'm going to come up with a good answer, But yeah, you can spend some time with it and see what you come up with. All right. For now, we'll just leave it there, all right, the spear, What would you do with it. All right. Thanks for listening everyone, have a great night. God bless