Imagine what it would be like
to believe God called you to the mission field, take your
family there, and then have happen a series of events. Well I'm going to
read it to you. It's from a friend of
mine who did just that. He moved to the Philippines
with his family. He believed God called
them to be missionaries. I believe God did call them
to be missionaries there, but he says this-- "Dear Skip, I penned this
letter in the midst of turmoil. The Philippines
right now is facing one of the most difficult
times I have ever seen since being here. The inflation rate
has just hit 13%. This has caused great
difficulty for all of us. There have also
been major problems with the electrical power,
and we are experiencing two-hour blackouts twice a day. This is expected to continue. Manila is also engulfed in
a transportation crisis. Then, this morning, we
were awoken by the gunfire of another coup attempt. Getting up, I watched from my
daughter Anna's bedroom window as two World-War-II-era planes
dropped bombs on channel 4 TV. Even now, as I write
this, I can hear gunfire. Personally, we have also
had major trials and attacks from the enemy. Diana and Anna both
contracted an amoebic parasite and needed 10 days of treatment. The landlord raised our rent. Caleb, our dog, was
diagnosed with heartworms, and a burglar got into our yard
and tried to steal the car. He did not succeed, but
he caused some damage before he left." Now, if you spend the
money and the energy to go to a foreign
field and then have one bad thing happen
after another, at some point you've got to question, did
we make the right move, right? Now listen to how
he ends his letter. "Yet even when faced
with an uncertain future, I am realizing the truth of
Philippians 4:7, that says, 'the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus.' In fact," he says. "In fact, I feel guilty
for feeling so peaceful when many of the people
around are panic stricken. No matter what happens, there
is no greater peace or joy than to be in God's will. Even in the face of
uncertainty, there is an excitement
and an expectation of what God is going to do." How's that for a letter
of encouragement? Every time I read
this, I get convicted, which leads me to a question. How do you view your life? How do you see the reality of
things that unfold around you, good or bad? How do you view them? The real question is,
what is your world view? You know, everybody has a world
view, how you view the world, and we put a lens on every time
something happens around us, we read a news story,
we hear a report, we experience good or bad,
we are viewing those events through a lens-- our world view. Now the Bible, when you read it,
has a very distinct worldview. It gives you a very unique lens. And the biblical world view
in a nutshell is this-- that everything
was created by God, that mankind made really bad
first choices that caused disastrous results, that
those results have lingered on in every generation,
bringing death-- physically, morally,
and spiritually-- that God's plan was to
let those results play out for thousands of years, while at
the same time staging a rescue operation that would take care,
first, of the sin problem, then eventually he would
return to rule over a restored creation with those that
he was sent to save. That's a biblical world
view in a nutshell. Now if you do not have that
world view, if that is not your perception of
things, then most of life is not going to make sense. In fact, what
happens around you is going to seem very haphazard,
very random, very arbitrary, cruel, and you'll
be very lonely. If that is your world view,
life is still going to sting, it's still going to
hurt, will still be hard, but it's going to be much
clearer and more satisfying. And all of that can be
boiled down to two words that we are considering
in a series-- but God. We're going to be looking
at how the Bible presents that reality, and
every time it does, it puts that lens back on. This is how to view your life. No matter what happens
up to that point, but God changes everything. So we're looking at 1 Samuel 23. I'm going to begin around verse
13 or 14, and what I've done is come up with four statements,
four axiomatic statements, or self-evident statements,
self-clarifying statements that emerged from the text
that we were reading. And the first one
is a very simple one I think we would
all agree with-- bad things happen
to good people. You know, it would wonderful
if it was like, bad things only happen to bad people. Good things only
happen to good people. But it's not that cut and dried. Bad things happen
to good people. Let's see what
happened to David. 1 Samuel 23, verse 13 is the
end of a previous paragraph, but let's connect them. "So David and his
men, about 600, arose and departed
from Keilah--" a little town on the border
with the Philistines-- "and went wherever
they could go. Then it was told Saul that
David had escaped from Keilah; so he halted the expedition. And David stayed in the
strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains
in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every
day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. So David saw that Saul had
come out to seek his life--" that is, to kill him. "And David was in the
Wilderness of Ziph in a forest. Then Jonathan, Saul's son, arose
and went to David in the woods and strengthened
his hand in God. And he said to
him, 'Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my
father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel,
and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.' So the two of them made a
covenant before the Lord. And David stayed in
the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house." All right, this is David
we're talking about. This is the guy of
whom it is said, he was a man after
God's own heart. This is David. This is the future
King of Israel. This is the ancestor of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is David. This isn't Cain, this
isn't Saul, it's not Haman, it's not Judas, it's
not Herod the Great-- it is David, the central
figure in God's plan of redemptive history at this
particular time in history. And yet, he is suffering. He's being chased and hunted. His life is in danger. And all of that shows us a
very self-evident truth-- that bad things
happen to good people, that suffering is not a measure
of goodness or godliness, that it's not like some
cosmic karma that happens. It's like, boy, a lot of bad
stuff happened to that family. It must mean they're
doing bad things. That's not always the case. In fact, Jesus put it this way-- God causes the sun to rise
on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the
righteous and the unrighteous. What we are seeing
here play out is the effect of a very
jealous king named Saul-- jealous of David, jealous
of David's calling, jealous of David's capabilities,
forcing David to flee and live for years-- in fact, some believe
up to a decade-- as a refugee. So the language
here, the names that are mentioned, the places that
are mentioned here in the text are somewhere in the
region between the hill country of Judea and
the Dead Sea region. There's a lot of ravines,
a lot of rocks and caves, places to hide, and
that's where David is. You probably know this,
but some of the psalms that are written in the Book
of Psalms written by David were written during this period
of time, this decade of time while he was fleeing
and he was suffering, and they're very moving psalms. One of them is Psalm
63 that we believe could have been written
during this time, and it's because the very
top of the psalm says this-- a psalm of David when he was
in the wilderness of Judah. That's probably this time. Now that's a psalm
you're familiar with. He says, "Oh God,
you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you
in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for
you in the sanctuary to behold your power
and your glory, because your loving kindness
is better than life. My lips shall praise you. Thus I will bless
you while I live. I lift up my hands
in your name." It's the story, it's the
psalm of somebody longing to go back to the central
sanctuary worshipping with his people, but is forced
to be out in the dry desert areas as a refugee because
his life is in danger. Question-- what did David
do to invite this kind of mistreatment from King Saul? Answer-- absolutely nothing. He didn't do
anything bad to Saul. He didn't say bad
things about him. He didn't try to stage
a coup to take over. He was faithful, he was
diligent, he was obedient, he did everything the
king wanted him to do, he took care of some of
Israel's enemies, and yet this. In fact, he brings this
point up in another psalm-- Psalm 59, certainly
written during this period, when David writes,
"The mighty--" that is Saul and his armies-- "The mighty gather against
me not for my transgressions nor for my sin, oh Lord. They run and prepare themselves
through no fault of mine." David is not saying that
he is sinlessly perfect. He is just saying, I am not
suffering because of my sin. I didn't bring this on because
of my sin or my disobedience. So sometimes bad things happen,
and there's no direct cause and effect correlation. Bad things happen
to good people. Now, when this all started is
when David, just a kid, just a shepherd boy, goes to the
front lines of the battle and sees this big lug of a
Philistine named Goliath, and he defeats him. David kills Goliath. It's a story we're
all familiar with. Well, after that battle is done
and everybody's going home-- King Saul is going
home with his army, and as he's going back home,
Saul leading his armies after David got the victory,
the people of Israel meet the armies, and they're
singing, and they're dancing, and they're partying,
and the Bible says the women are singing a
song, and here's the lyrics-- "Saul has slain his
thousands, and David has slain his tens of thousands." Now first of all, the women
were singing that song, which didn't go over well with a
very egocentric King Saul, and apparently everybody
knew the lyrics to this song, because everybody
was singing it. It hit the top of the charts,
and his name is in the song, but it's compared
to David, who has slain his tens of thousands. So he gets all in
a huff and decides to get very jealous of
David, saying, well, what more can he
have but the kingdom? So from that moment
on, the Bible says a jealous eye
was cast toward David. A couple of chapters later, when
David is in Saul's presence, Saul grabs his
spear and throws it, trying to play pin the spear
on the musician, but he ducks. David leaves the room,
and so Saul comes up with another plan. I've got to get rid of this kid. I'm jealous of him. And it says that he said, I
know what I'm going to do. I'm going to give David-- my enemy that I want to kill-- I'm going to give
David my daughter, that she may become
a snare to him. How would you like to be the
daughter of that creepy king, using you as a pawn to kill
somebody he doesn't like? Well long story short,
while they are together, they're married, they're
in the same house, Saul seeks to kill him. David escapes once again. Now, from that moment on,
for all of these years, David is suffering as a
refugee hunted by the king, and it's probably the lowest
moment in David's life, as expressed in some of those
psalms that I mentioned. But I've got to
tell you something. I'm going to make a
confession to you. It's going to sound
a little cruel, but I am so glad
that David suffered, and I bet you are too,
because out of that suffering was produced all of those
magnificent psalms, many of them that when we read
bring encouragement to us. And you read them go,
David went through that? That very deep stuff
that still ministers to millions of hearts
around the world. The music of the
sanctuary is often forged in the trials
of the Saints. We benefit from it. Spurgeon said, "God gets
his best soldiers out of the highlands of affliction." Now I'm bringing this up
as the first major point, because sometimes, if you
listen to some believers, you get the idea
that they're saying, well, once you come to Christ,
all your problems go away. Now is that true? Well, in one sense it's true. Your biggest problem goes away. You're not going to Hell. That's a big problem, and
that's your biggest problem. That goes away, but you get a
whole bunch of new problems. You now have a
target on your back, and all the minions
of the Hell and Satan himself will target you. Oh yes, you still
have victory, God gives you incredible
promises to get through that and be overcomers,
but that does not mean life is a downhill
slide from that point on. Good things happen
to bad people. I want to lead you to
a second truth that is self-evident in our story. Not only bad things
happen to good people, but bad people can't
stop a good God. Bad people can't
stop a good God. Now we come to the very crux
of this passage in verse 14. Second sentence, second
part of verse 14-- "Saul sought him every
day, but God did not deliver him into his hands." Now those two words
change the story. Those two words pull
back the curtain of God's providential care. As James Montgomery Boice said,
"If you understand those two words-- but God-- they will save your soul. If you recall them
daily and live by them, they will transform
your life completely." Verse 14, these two words
introduce us to the truth that there is a divine sovereign
hand ruling the universe, so that even though bad
things happen to good people, even though bad things
happen to God's good people, it's not the end of the story. The story continues-- but God. When you have a supreme,
all-powerful, universal ruler, malicious plans won't succeed. Now let me restate that. When you have a supreme,
all-powerful, universal ruler, malicious plans
won't always succeed. Sometimes they do succeed. In fact, in this case, they
did succeed for a while. How long did I say David
was running from Saul? 10 years. 10 years of suffering. 10 years as a refugee. 10 years living
away from his home. 10 years in caves. All because of this madman,
this crazy, jealous king. God allowed that to happen. But Saul was only allowed
to go so far and no further. He was allowed to display that
maniacal, crazy behavior only up to a point, and
then God stepped in. And when did God step in? When it served God's purpose. So all of this was
allowed to happen, but when it didn't serve
God's purpose, it stopped. Maybe your wheels are spinning. You're going, what do you
mean served God's purpose? Are you telling me that it
served God's purpose for David to suffer 10 years? Uh-huh. Sad to say, but yes. It served God's purpose for
David to suffer 10 years. Why? Well I think you know the
answer to that question. I think you know that
suffering can sometimes be beneficial, in
fact, very beneficial to the life of a believer. If we were to have
testimony time, and you were to tell me
your story or stories, I bet several of you
would say something like, it was a dark time. It was a very dismal time. I was so discouraged, I
didn't see any way out, but then this is what happened. This is what I learned. This is why I'm
better because of it. Spurgeon, once again-- he
said so many good things. He said, "The hardest hearted,
most unlovely Christians in all the world are those who
have never had much trouble, and those who are the
most sympathizing, loving, and Christ-like are those
that have suffered the most affliction. The worst thing that
can happen to any of us is to have our path
made too smooth." That's amazing. "The worst thing that
can happen to any of us is to have our path
made too smooth." But here's the good news-- there is a limit. There is a limit,
and the limit is when it violates God's purpose. Now what's God's
purpose for David? He's going to be the next what? King. King. So for him to be the next
king, he has to live, not die. That's why we read, "Saul
sought him everyday, but God did not deliver
him into his hands." So up to a point, this
guy is crazy and maniacal, but God wouldn't
allow that to happen. That's the difference. It's a profound truth. Remember the story
of Job, the book we sort of love but not really? So Job, he was godly. He was the godliest
guy on the earth. God even bragged that to Satan. But there's this conversation
between Satan and God in chapters one and two, and God
allows Satan to go against Job up to a point. Remember, the thing is,
don't touch his person. So things around him happen
where his life caves in with his loved ones. Second chapter, God says,
OK, you can go further, but don't take his life. Spare his life. At each point, Satan
was under the parameters of a sovereign God, under the
permission of God up to a point and no further. Satan is on a leash. Sometimes I think it's
a little too long, but that's God's business. Then you go to the New
Testament, Mark chapter 8. A demon-possessed man--
there's not just one, but several demons in this man,
and the demons say to Jesus, permit us-- listen
to the language-- permit us to go into
that herd of swine. They had to get permission. They only acted and reacted upon
permission of a sovereign God. What does that mean? It means this-- all of humanity,
all the angels in heaven, all the demons of
hell, and Satan himself operate under the strict
parameters of a sovereign God. So only by permission. And only for God's purposes,
and these two words-- but God-- introduce us to that truth. Those two words introduce
us to the truth, that God's ways are
behind the scenes, but he moves all the
scenes that he is behind. This is what's happening
in the natural world. But God is acting. What this means
to you personally is that if you are going
through a fiery trial, that God has his eye on you
and his hand on the thermostat. He's watching. He knows how long
you've been in there. He knows how hot it's getting. He didn't walk away and forget. He didn't have ADD. He never says, oops. Oh, that poor Christian
crispy critter. I've left him in
an hour too long. He's really burnt by now. I'd better get him out. He's got his eye on you and
his hand on the thermostat. Now what this means even
further, if I boil it down, is a profound truth. You are invincible until
God is done with you. You are invincible until
God is done with you. In Revelation 11,
there is a story in the end times of
two witnesses that come to the earth. They have miraculous powers,
and the world knows about them, they see them, but there is
a remarkable text that says, "and when they had
finished their testimony, the beast that ascends
out of the bottomless pit came against them
and killed them." They died. When did they die? When they had finished
their testimony. So you are invincible
until God is done with you, and once God is
done with you, can I just say, who wants to
be around here anyway? It's like, well,
there's heaven waiting. I'll take that. When God's done with
me, get me out of here. I'm out of town. So bad things happen
to good people, but bad people can't
stop a good God. Here's the third truth, a
self-evident, axiomatic truth from this passage. A good God doesn't
negate good sense. Now look at verse
15 for a moment. God has just not delivered
him into the hand of Saul, verse 14, but look at verse 15. So David saw that Saul had
come out to seek his life, and David was in the
Wilderness of Ziph in a forest. That means he was looking
for cover amongst foliage so that he wouldn't be spotted. Now this is amazing. Why didn't David just
throw caution to the wind? I mean, if God is
sovereign, and God's God-- God can deliver anybody, why
didn't David just walk out in the open and go,
oh Saul, here I am! You can't touch me! Answer-- because
David is not an idiot. He hid. He made all the right choices. The fact that God is
running the universe doesn't turn David
into a fatalist. He used every means at his
disposal to protect himself. He's still using
his mind, he's still applying evasive
strategies to get out of a predicament,
because David believes both in the sovereignty of
God and in the responsibility of man. He believed that God did not
deliver him into Saul's hand. Why should he deliver
himself into Saul's hand? I bring this up because
I find many people very passive in their view about
God's sovereign nature. When you talk to them,
it's sort of like they feel they're just passengers
along for God's wild ride, and they have absolutely
no responsibility, no duty. Whatever happens is what
God wanted to happen, so why should I think,
or deliberate, or plan, or organize, or strategize? David did not think this way. David thought this way-- God may deliver,
but I have to duck. I still have to use my common
sense and do everything I can, because this is
what God might use to deliver me from Saul's hand. So he believed that God's
sovereignty is enmeshed in man's responsibility. Now in the New Testament,
Jesus gives a parable. I've always found it
an interesting parable. It's sort of out of left field. It throws a lot of
people when they read it. It's in Luke chapter
16, I believe. It's called "The Parable
of the Shrewd Manager." It's the story of
a manager who works for the owner of the business. The owner of the business is
about to fire him, he knows it, so he goes to all of
the clients of the owner and cuts a deal with them. How much do you owe my master? Just cut the debt in half. It's a very illegal-- it'd land him in jail today. It was illegal,
self-serving, but he was using his present clout
to think of his future. And it says the
owner of the company finds out about the manager
and actually commends him, not because he stole
from him, which he did, but he commands him for
thinking far enough in advance to plan and hedge his
bet for his own future. What's the point of the parable? Jesus says this in
closing it off-- he's making a point
about using our heads. He said, "For the
people of this world are more shrewd in dealing
with their own kind than are the people
of the light." That's an amazing statement. He's saying
sometimes unbelievers are smarter than believers in
thinking through and planning and strategizing their future. He's using a negative
example to give a good point. There was a man
in New York City. Walked into a bank
and asked for a loan. A loan officer came out
and introduced himself. He said, how much you want? He goes, I want $5,000. I'm going to Europe on business. I'll be back in two weeks. I'll pay it back in two weeks. You need $5,000? Yes, sir. He goes, well, for us
to loan you $5,000, we need some sort of collateral. We need some sort of security. What have you got? The guy who wanted the
loan pulled out the keys to his Rolls-Royce
and says, it's parked right out in the front. Would that be enough security? And the guy said, well,
that would be plenty. So everything checked out. The man got the loan, walks out
of the bank with the $5,000. Meanwhile, an employee of
the bank takes the keys, gets in the
Rolls-Royce, drives it under the bank in
the parking garage underneath in secure parking. In two weeks, the businessman
returns from Europe, pays back the $5,000 plus the
interest, which was $15.41. The loan officer
approached the man and said, listen, thank
you for your business, but while you were gone,
we did a little checking, and we discovered you're
a multimillionaire. You don't need a $5,000 loan. So why would you come in
here to get a loan for $5,000 when you're a multimillionaire? The man smiled, and he said,
where else in New York City can you park a car in
a secured area for two weeks for only $15.41? That's why he was
a multimillionaire. That boy wasn't playing
checkers, he's playing chess. He's strategizing his move. Back to what Jesus said,
the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing
with their own kind than are the people of light. Listen-- while God
is being sovereign, make sure you're being sensible. That's the truth of this. Bad things happen
to good people, bad things can't
stop a good God, and a good God doesn't
negate a good sense. That brings us to the fourth
and final truth that emerges, self-authenticating
truth from this passage, and that is, bad times
call for good friends. Verse 16 introduces
such a friend. "Then Jonathan, Saul's son,
arose and went to David in the woods, and
strengthened his hand in God. And he said to
him, 'Do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my
father, shall not find you. You shall be King over Israel,
and I shall be next to you. Even my father
Saul knows that.'" It's a pretty
remarkable statement because Jonathan is the
son of King Saul, which means, in that day and age,
the way kingdoms worked, when the father dies,
who's the next king? Son. So the next king after Saul
would have been Jonathan. Jonathan says, you're the
man after God's own heart. You're the next King. Not me. I'll just be next to you. Even Dad knows that. So verse 18-- "The two of them
made a covenant before God, before the Lord, and
David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went
to his own house." David's hiding, trusting
in a sovereign God, but even though he's trusting
in a sovereign God who did deliver him, he's discouraged. He's weak. He's fearful. That's why his buddy
says, don't fear. You don't walk up to somebody
with a big smile saying don't fear. You don't say to somebody who's
very confident, don't fear. It's a nonstarter. It makes no sense. You say that to
somebody who's fearful. We know David was
fearful and discouraged because many of the psalms we
have written during that period expressed that fear, that
discouragement-- pouring out his heart, weeping
before the Lord. Enter Jonathan. It says he strengthened
his hand in God. He encouraged him to
be strong in the Lord. Listen, you might be
a strong believer, but all believers
experience discouragement. All believers
experience setbacks. All believers experience
low moments of wondering, of second guessing, and their
faith goes back and forth. All of us, even the greatest. When you think of
Elijah the Prophet, you think of somebody
who's bold, right? Unafraid, right? Keeps going, right? That was chapter
18 of First Kings, where the prophet stands
with great power of God, and calls fire down from heaven. Very next chapter, he's running
from King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Gets down to the Sinai
desert, perks his head up toward heaven, he
goes, God, it's enough. Take my life. He goes from victory to
suicidal in one chapter. That's Elijah. That's discouragement. When you think of
Paul the Apostle, you think of somebody
bold, assertive-- put me down, I'll
get back up, but he writes to the
Corinthians and he says, "We were burdened beyond
measure and above strength so that we despaired
even of life." That's why at times like that,
you need friends like this. Every David needs his Jonathan. Every discouraged person
needs his encourager. Don't you love it that Jonathan
comes to encourage him. He didn't say,
hey, come on, man. You're David. You're the man after
God's own heart. You're mister psalm writer. What's up with your
discouragement? No, he meets them there. He knows David loves the Lord,
but he turns his thought back to God. The best friend
you can ever have is somebody who turns your
thoughts back to the God you love. Jonathan does that. By the way, their
friendship was forged over their mutual love for God. When Jonathan saw
David's zeal for the Lord as he stood before King Saul
and he said about Goliath, "He's defied the armies
of the living God," as he stood before
Goliath and he said, "You come to me with a
sword, a spear, and a javelin. I come to you in the
name of the God of Israel whose armies you have defied." Jonathan hears this little kid
talking about his trust in God, and every time he heard
it, he said, amen. I like this guy. And from that moment on,
they formed a covenant. It says, "their hearts
were knit together," and they became friends. So the long and
short of it is this-- David was being chased
and attacked by Saul, but God kept him safe. David was feeling
weak and discouraged, but God sent him Jonathan. David was being
hated by the king, but God would one day
make him the king. So, back to those
two words-- but God. If you can live your life with
the truth of those two words, then you can live like my friend
who went to the mission field in the Philippines and said,
man, all this bad stuff is coming down, but I am
living with the peace of God in anticipation and expectation
of what God might want to do. I'm praying that all of
us will learn to look for the but God in our lives. You may not see it right away. It may take years, and then
you'll look back on a situation and go, wow, God was in that. I hated that car
accident I was in. I saw no point of
that, but then I watched how the Lord used that. I'm praying that
you'll learn to live in expectation and
anticipation, that but God inserted into your
life can change it whole. Father, we thank you for stories
such as this, the stories that highlight these two
life-altering, life-changing words-- but God. Once God is introduced, once
you are put into a situation, once we view you, and
we put on the lens of a biblical
worldview, everything is remarkably different. Everything that didn't
make sense, we believe, will one day fall into place. Everything that seems
so random and haphazard is orchestrated, somehow,
on multiple levels by an all-powerful
sovereign God. And so, Father, we
entrust ourselves to you because we know
that you love us, and we know that the Bible
is a story of romance, of a good God drawing out
a fallen, broken people to himself into a
love relationship, and that no matter what
happens because of us or to us, once you're brought into the
picture things can change. I just pray that we would
view that and see it, because it's there
no matter what, but once we see that,
it changes our outlook. May our uplook change our
outlook in Jesus' name. Amen! We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. How will you put
the truths that you learn into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
