The Flea Flees

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The following message by Alistair Begg is  made available by Truth For Life  for   more information visit  us online at truthforlife.org. Well, I invite you to follow along as I  read from 1 Samuel and from chapter 27.   The heading in my Bible is  “David Flees to the Philistines.”  “Then David said in his heart, ‘Now I  shall perish one day by the hand of Saul.   There is nothing better for me than that I  should escape to the land of the Philistines.   Then Saul will despair of seeking me any[more]   within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape  out of his hand.’ So David arose and went over,   he and the six hundred men who were with him,  to Achish the son of Maoch, [the] king of Gath.   And David lived with Achish at Gath, he  and his men, every man with his household,   and David with his two wives, Ahinoam  of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel,   Nabal’s widow. And when it was told Saul that  David had fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.  “Then David said to Achish, ‘If  I have found favor in your eyes,   let a place be given me in one of the  country towns, that I may dwell there.   For why should your servant dwell in the royal  city with you?’ So that day Achish gave him   Ziklag. Therefore Ziklag has belonged to the  kings of Judah to this day. And the number of   the days that David lived in the country of  the Philistines was a year and four months.  “Now David and his men went up and  made raids against the Geshurites,   the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were  the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far   as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would  strike the land and would leave neither man nor   woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the  oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments,   and come back to Achish. When Achish asked, ‘Where  have you made a raid today?’ David would say,   ‘Against the Negeb of Judah,’ or, ‘Against  the Negeb of the Jerahmeelites,’ or, ‘Against   the Negeb of the Kenites.’ And David would leave  neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath,   thinking, ‘lest they should tell about us and  say, “So David has done.”’ Such was his custom   all the while he lived in the country of the  Philistines. And Achish trusted David, thinking,   ‘He has made himself an utter stench to his people  Israel; therefore he shall always be my servant.’  “In those days the Philistines gathered their  forces for war, to fight against Israel. And   Achish said to David, ‘Understand that you and  your men are to go out with me in the army.’   David said to Achish, ‘Very well, you  shall know what your servant can do.’   And Achish said to David, ‘Very well, I  will make you my bodyguard for life.’”  Thanks be to God for his Word. Well, gracious God, as we turn now to the Bible,   it is in the confidence of which we have just  sung that we turn to the pages of your Word,   believing that by the Holy Spirit you come  to illumine the Word and to open our minds   and our hearts to receive its truth. And so  we pray that beyond the voice of a mere man   we may actually hear from you. Help us to  this end, we pray, for Christ’s sake. Amen.  Well, we’re in chapter 27, and I think that  some of you will have been reading ahead and are   familiar with it. And if you have been doing so,  then you, like me, may have found yourself saying,   “I wonder if this experience that is described  here in the life of David took place on a Monday.   And I wonder, was it raining?” Now, I may be the  only one that thought that or thinks in that way,   and I may be the only one who immediately found  myself rehearsing the words, “Talking to myself,   and feeling old, sometimes I’d like to quit;  nothing ever seems to fit,” or a subsequent verse:   “What I’ve got they used to call the blues.  Nothing[’s] really wrong, feeling like I don’t   belong.” And then, of course, you know the song:  “Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.”  Now, it’s not just by a desire for an  introduction that I refer to that. That is exactly   the way my mind works. It’s not a testimony to  the brilliance of my mind; it is an indication   of the fact that I’ve listened to so many songs  along the years. But as I read it and reread it,   I said to myself, “How did David move from the  confidence which pervades the end of chapter 26   and find himself in the midst of such despair at  the beginning of chapter 27?” Back in verse 24   of the previous chapter, he’s talked about how  the Lord delivered Saul into David’s hand. And   then he’s gone on to say, “And I know that  the Lord will be the one who delivers me   from all my tribulation.” Back in 26, he’s  anticipating that it will be Saul that perishes,   and now, at the beginning of 27, he is the  one who expects to perish by the hand of Saul.   The end of 26, there is a benediction expressed  by Saul himself; he says to David, “You will do   many things and will succeed in them.” And that’s  kind of the parting shot. Neither of them would   have ever anticipated what was going to follow. Now, we’re helped in studying this Old Testament   book so often by being able to  go to the poetry, to the Psalms,   to the songs that David wrote. And in the Eleventh  Psalm, where David is confronted by a crisis,   his friends are giving him advice. And he responds  to that by saying, “In the LORD I take refuge;   how can you say to my soul, ‘Flee like a bird to  [the] mountain’[?]” So all his friends are saying,   “I think the best thing you can do is  make a run for it,” and he says, “Well,   why would you ever suggest that? Don’t you  realize that the Lord is my refuge?” And now,   here in this incident, we discover that he’s  not even prepared to take his own medicine—that,   in the picture of the previous chapter,  the partridge has flown into the mountains;   the flea has fled. In fact, I think I shall  use that as the heading for the complete study:   “The Flea Has Fled.” I think it drives home  the peculiarity of what’s going on here.  It is a phenomenal collapse by any standards.  It’s right up there with the story of Elijah   after his victory with the prophets of Baal.  You remember what a triumph that is, and then   the news comes that he’s being pursued by Jezebel,  and then what do we discover? Well, he’s sitting   under a broom tree, and he is despairing of his  life, and he’s assuming that he’s about to die.   It’s scandalous. It’s the same kind of scandal  that you find in the life of Peter, where he   says quite presumptuously, and presumably  in front of his friends, to Jesus, “Lord,   I’m ready to go with you to prison and to death”  —and then, within a matter of a very short time,   in responding to a lady, he says,  “Woman, I do not know who Jesus is.”  Now, it is really quite astonishing that one  who has been chosen to be Israel’s king should,   as Woodhouse points out, “have this skeleton in  his closet.” And if you look at the text, you   can see that it is there, and it is hard to deny.  He has determined that the best thing he can do   is escape. You’ll see that in verse 1: “I should  escape.” Further down in the verse: “I shall   escape.” And so, in verse 2 we’re told that he  “went over”—he “went over” to the other side.   Just even those two words convey, I think,  more than geography, as we will see.  Now, one of the striking features that we should  note immediately of the record that we have in   the Bible is the way in which it presents all of  its heroes—if we can refer to them in that way—not   airbrushed but warts and all. And actually,  it’s one of the verifying features, I think,   of the authenticity of the Scriptures.  If somebody was trying to make it up,   they would try and clean it up. But it isn’t made  up. It is a record of the people that God has   chosen to use. He puts his treasure in old clay  pots, and we can see that as we read our Bibles.  Now, to help us navigate the chapter, I  just have three headings. First of all,   to notice quite simply, in verses 1 to 4, the  plan, or David’s plan. It is a clear plan,   and as it turns out, it is a successful plan. He  says, “What I’m going to do is I will escape, and   all being well, Saul will stop looking for me.” Now, on the previous occasion, driven by his fear   of Saul— and this is back in chapter 21—he  made a beeline for Gath, you will remember.   And then, on that occasion, his fear of  being discovered produced what we referred   to then as a kind of an Academy Award–winning  performance whereby he feigned madness and duped   the king, Achish, in the process. Now here we are  again, and once again, he is outwitting the king.  Now, as you read this, you find yourself  saying—at least I do—“Well, I wonder, did Achish   forget what happened?” Hard to believe. Or is  he simply prepared to let bygones be bygones   for the sake of the potential benefit that is now  represented with the fighting force that on this   occasion David is bringing to the matter?  In verse 2: “So David arose and went over,   he and the six hundred men who were with him.” Now, the real question that is here is not about   the execution of his plan but rather about  the motivation. What is the underlying fear   that caused David to take this approach? Now,  we ought to be thinking along these lines,   because we’re reading our Bibles, and we’re  supposed to think, and we see the end of 26.   Now, what we’re told is that “David said in his  heart…” Now, that little phrase is important. In   other words, he was ruminating with himself at the  core of his being. This wasn’t just something that   was bouncing around in his mind. No. You imagine  him—at least I do—three o’clock in the morning,   and he wakens up in his bed, and he says  to himself, “You know, one of these days,   Saul is bound to get me.” And then he says, “And  you know, I’m responsible for so many people,   not only the six hundred men but now their wives  and their children”—probably a company of almost   two or three thousand people, and  they’re looking to him. That’s a burden!  And so, as he ponders in this way, he says, “You  know, I think the very best thing for me to do   is simply to escape. There is nothing better for  me.” Really, David? Didn’t you read your own poem?   Didn’t you read your own  psalm, 62, where you began,  For [you] alone, O my soul, wait in silence,  for my hope is from him.  He only is my rock and my salvation,  my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  You wrote that! So what is this about “There  is nothing better than that I should escape”?  Well, you see, what he’s doing is he’s talking to  himself, but he’s not talking sense to himself.   People say you shouldn’t talk to yourself. Well,  most people do talk to themselves—not necessarily   out loud. But if you talk to yourself, it’s  important that you talk sense to yourself.   And what he’s doing here is he’s leaning on his  own understanding. You remember in Proverbs 3,   it doesn’t say, “Do not use your understanding”;  it says, “Do not lean on your … understanding.”   So he’s allowing the questions  which press in upon him   to overturn his conviction that God is sufficient  rather than allowing the reality of God as   his fortress and his security taking  care of these overwhelming questions.  Now, I hope that none of us immediately find  ourselves taking the high ground and sitting in   judgment on him. And in fact, how often, in these  peculiar days in which we find ourselves, have   we not been guilty of the very same approach—big  affirmations of faith and conviction followed by   almost an overwhelming sense of discouragement  and perhaps defeat? It’s good to acknowledge   these things about ourselves, because it’s  true. Somebody gave me a quote from Spurgeon   this week—one of my young colleagues—where  Spurgeon says, “If any man thinks ill of you,   do not be angry with him; for you  are worse than he thinks you to be.”  So we’re not gonna think ill of David in this way.  And we’re gonna learn to talk to ourselves—to talk   truth to ourselves. That’s why we study the  Bible. That’s why we’re studying this old book:   because God speaks to us through his Word. We are  transformed, we’re renewed, as the Scriptures take   hold, learning then to resist the insinuations  of the Evil One, to remind ourselves that our   security doesn’t lie in our circumstances but  in God’s providence and in God’s promises;   reminding ourselves not to succumb to the  notion that my identity is in my job or   in my genes—either with a j or a g, whatever  way you want—or in my looks or in my schools,   but in the Lord, who has made me his own. You see, David has actually forgotten his   own poems. And the fact that his plan worked…  Because it did work, as you’ll see in verse 4:   “And when it was told Saul that David had  fled to Gath, he no longer sought him.”   Pragmatism cannot be allowed to  dictate our understanding of the story.  So in 1–4 we have his plan. The motivation of it  we need to ponder; the execution of it is clear.   And then in verses 5–7, his place. His place.  “If I have found favor in your eyes,” he says,   “let a place be given [to] me.” Now, what he’s actually doing here   as the story unfolds, we will discover, is  making sure that he can be out of the reach   of Achish and the Philistines. He basically comes  to him and he says, “You know, I think it probably   would be better—there’s a large group of us—it’d  be better for us to have a place of our own.”   He is concerned that his geographical relocation  will not prove a hindrance to what he really wants   to accomplish. And it’s actually not difficult to  see how Achish could reason along these lines too   and say to himself, “Well, you know,  since Saul and David are enemies,   then the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And  so, yeah, why don’t I do that for you?” And   so what he’s actually doing now is he is  hoodwinking the king. He did it in a far   more dramatic way back in chapter 21. He had to,  because of the pressure of the circumstances. But   in this case, it’s a very, very fascinating  approach that he takes. It’s not necessarily   commendable, but it is quite unusually brilliant. Now, we should remember that when Saul had been   concerned about the whereabouts of David back  in chapter 23, he had said to the Ziphites,   whom you will recall, who were letting Saul know  of David’s whereabouts—when he gave the directions   to the Ziphites, he said to them, you know, “Be  very careful, and do your homework on this,”   “[because] it is told me that he is very cunning.”  He’s very cunning. So add that to the Davidic   résumé: he’s “ruddy,” he has “beautiful eyes,”  he’s “handsome,” he’s brave, and he’s cunning.  Now, you can see how cunning he is. Look at this  approach: “If I have found favor in your eyes…”   Well, clearly he has already found favor  in his eyes, or he wouldn’t be there.   “Why should your servant dwell in the royal  city with you?” “Your servant”? You’re now   the servant of the Philistine king? No, this  takes deference to the point of duplicity.   “No,” he says, “it doesn’t really just  seem sensible. It doesn’t seem right   that I should be taking up place in the  royal city. You’re the king, you know.”  Verse 6: “So that day Achish gave him Ziklag.”  And that is how Ziklag became what it then   became—namely, a city of the kings of Judah.  If you go back and read for homework, you will   discover that it was part of the cities that were  there when the people came in to possess the land.   Somehow or another, the Philistines got  their noses into it, and by this point, it’s   sufficiently under Philistine control  that the king of the Philistines can   designate it as a place for David to be.  That in turn, in the providence of God,   brings it back into the realm of Judah. Now, what this actually did in practical terms   was it placed David and his men beyond the border  of Israel, in a position from which they could   do some real damage to their enemies—and that  they’re going to do. It also placed David outside   the reach of the reconnaissance of Achish himself.  The only way that Achish could know what was going   on is if David informed him what was going on. And what was going on? Well, the plan in 1–4,   the place in which he settles in 5–7,  and then his practice, or the practice   that ensues. If you look at the eleventh verse,  you will see in our text it says, “Such was   his custom all the while he lived [there].”  In the NIV, it says that was his “practice.”   So if we had gone there in the year and four  months when David and his troops were centered   in Ziklag, what would we have discovered?  Well, we would have discovered this:   that he took action against all these people  that are described for us in the eighth verse.  Now, one of the ancient commentators  suggests that the military actions   participated in here by David are actually  justifiable—both understandable and justifiable.   Says Matthew Henry, to whom I refer, it is  because what David is actually doing is what   God commanded to be done when the people entered  into the promised land. We won’t delay on that,   but you can read of it in the book of Numbers and  in the book of Deuteronomy. And you’ve got these   amazing passages—for example, in Deuteronomy  chapter 7, where God gives clear commands:   “Do not leave anything behind. Do not allow these  people to exist. They will marry your daughters.   They will destroy you with their pagan practices.  They will raise up idols,” and so on. This is why:   not because God is a vengeful God but because  God is a holy God. And of course you know the   story all the way through the judges, that  they did very little in relationship to this.  Now David, in this situation, finds  himself in a position, if you like,   to do some cleanup. It’s important that we read  the Bible in the context of the Bible. We read   Deuteronomy 6 with great frequency: “Hear, O  Israel: The Lord your God, the Lord is one. And   you shall love the Lord your God with all your  heart, soul, mind, and your strength.” And then   you go into chapter 7, and you find out exactly  what that meant. It meant that you can’t play   fast and loose with sin. It meant that you cannot  tolerate that which is opposed to God’s holiness.   And so, in actual fact, David was  not attacking the Philistines,   but he was actually attacking people who were  hostile both to Israel and to the Philistines.  Now, the implication of it is very  straightforward, and it is taxing when   you think about it, again, in terms of who’s  doing this: he was attacking mutual enemies   while pretending to be attacking his own people.   That’s what we need to understand. What he’s  actually doing is not what he says he’s doing.  Now, if then, according to Matthew Henry, he  can be, if you like, exonerated in any way   for his actions, there is no way that he can be  excused for his lies. Because he flat-out lies.   When Achish inquired about the raids—you’ll see it  there; there’s almost a sort of naive simplicity   to this character. Verse 10: “[And] when Achish  asked, ‘Where have you made a raid today?’”—so,   “Tell me about your most recent raids.” And he  came back to him, and he said, “Well, I’ve been   pillaging in the territories of the Negev of  Judah, and the Negev of the Jerahmeelites, or   the Negev of the Kenites.” Now what he’s actually doing   is he’s trying to make Achish think what  Achish actually does think: that his attacks   are being made on the interests of his own  people—that he’s actually attacking Judah.   And in order to make sure that that story  doesn’t get out, he goes to great lengths,   as you will see: “And David would leave neither  man nor woman alive to bring [the] news to Gath,   thinking, ‘lest they should tell about us and  say, “[This is what David did.]”’” So I’m not   sure about Matthew Henry’s analysis of it,  the idea that it is justifiable because what   he’s really doing is what God wanted him to do. I  don’t know. I know this: that he’s telling lies,   and that is a violation of God’s command. Now, what then ensues, of course,   is there for you to ponder in the text. David  now finds himself trapped by his dishonesty.   David now finds himself compromised by his own  cunning—that he’s too clever for his own good. His   plan: “I’m gonna get killed. I may as well go over  there. It’s the best thing I could possibly do.”   Saul buys it, so he doesn’t pursue him. “If I can  get myself a place away from Gath, then I’ll be   able to operate with great freedom, execute it.”  And then he continues to follow his pattern, and   so he ends up with a major problem. So, four Ps;  the plan, the place, the practice, the problem.  His problem is just this: that he’s done  such a fantastic job of conning Achish   that he can’t get away from his own  deal. He’s hoisted on his own petard—in   the way, back in chapter 13, “Israel  had become a stench to the Philistines,”   and here Achish decides that David has now  become “an utter stench” to his own people.   “Achish trusted David.” Not  because he was trustworthy!   He trusted him, thinking, “He’s made  himself a stench to his own people.   Therefore, he will always be my servant.” In other  words, he’s saying, “There’s no way he’s gonna go   back now. It’d be impossible for him to go back.” In other words, David has done such a tremendous   job of fake news that he’s confronted with  this real dilemma. Because Achish thinks now   that he’s been down there kicking his own  people. So when he puts his army together for   the battle that is about to happen, David will  be right there fighting with the Philistines.   If he then refuses to go and  fight with the Philistines,   then Achish will no doubt realize that he’s been  conned, and David will probably lose his head.  Now, that’s why you go into the first two verses  of 28—because you have to. Because it gives the   context of this. The Philistines were gathering  their forces for war to fight against Israel.   So this year and four months that has ensued  has been a year and four months in which David,   in isolation from his own people, has  created the impression in the mind of   the Philistine king that he’s actually  on his side—but he’s not on his side.   And so Achish decides that he’s going  to give him a significant position.   He “said to David, ‘Understand that  you and your men are to go out with me   in the army.’ [And] David said to Achish”—quite  cunning response, clever response—“‘Very well,   you shall know what your servant can do.’”  He doesn’t tell him what he’s gonna do,   ’cause he doesn’t actually know what  he’s gonna do. ’Cause he’s stuck!   “If I go, I’m a dead man. If I stay, I’m a  dead man. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”   So his ambiguity is an  indication of his duplicity.  And just when we’re itching to find out  how this will be resolved, the story writer   presses pause and says, “Now  Samuel had died, and all Israel…”   Yeah, well, wait, wait a minute! That’s  like you’re watching a sporting event,   and all of a sudden they break in with a  weather forecast or something—you know,   when it goes across the bottom of the screen,  beep beep beep. No, forget that right now!   But of course, if it is that important, then it  is important that this material is broken into   by this material. And that’s what the writer is  saying here: “You think David’s got a problem?   Wait till you see Saul’s problem.” So he  breaks away from this—creating suspense,   if you like stories—so that you have to say, “I  have to read on now and find out what happens.”   You’re gonna have to wait till chapter 29. And  so we will, with a visit to 28 in the interim.  So let me end by noticing just this, what you will  have detected already: there is no mention of God   in this chapter. There is no seeking of God.  There is no sense in which David is relying   on anything other than himself. The chapter  ought to strike us as puzzling, disturbing,   ought to cause us at least to wonder how David,  as a ruthless liar, could possibly be the one upon   whom God set his heart as to be his king. Ralph Davis, in just a sentence or two,   helps us out. He says, “The Bible does not  claim that God’s servants are dipped in Clorox   so they will be infallibly sin-free and  attractive to [us].” David was brilliant,   he was brave, he was beautiful, but he was capable  of deceit. He was capable of self-promotion.   So not only are we confronted by the fact that the  chapter contains no mention of God, but we’re also   caused to reflect upon the fact that  the way this story is recounted for us,   it resists every attempt to  make David an example of virtue.  Now, that will come as a striking notion to some  of us. Because the way in which we read the Bible,   not least of all the Old Testament stories, is  we read it in terms of the heroes: “Daniel was   a great fellow. You should be great. David was  terrific. You should be like David,” and so on.   “Esther is a model person,” and so on, and we  go through the thing. There is no question that   there are lessons to be learned from them. But  none of them ever are the hero of the story.  Eventually, you see, we’ll discover that not only  was Achish foolish to put his trust in David,   but we are definitely wrong if we make  David the hero of the story. Because   the story of the kings of Israel will one day  end like a dangling conversation. Down through   the corridors of time, the searchlight, if you  like, scans the horizon, waiting for the one   who is the embodiment of the King, settling  on an evening there in a village in Bethlehem,   where the wise men come asking the question,  “Where is he who is born the king of the   Jews?” The spotlight fastening on the crowds  in Jerusalem, testifying to the one of whom the   prophet wrote, “Behold, your king is coming  to you … humble and mounted on a donkey.”  What is the point? Well, the point is  pretty simple, and it’s straightforward,   and I hope we can grasp it together. The very  fact that David is, in this chapter, a reminder   to us of his fallibility and his inability and  his own sinfulness is in order that we would not   fasten on him but that we would be reminded that  Jesus is the only King, that Jesus is the only one   that we can trust to tell us the truth. And  that is why we say to one another in our song,   “Come now, come bow before him  now with reverence and with fear.”  Yeah, chapter 27, a kind of godless chapter.  Not a good chapter in the story of David’s life.   Not the worst chapter in David’s life, as we  will see. But we learn lessons in the silences   and in the absences, because that’s  the way God has given us the Bible.  Father, thank you that the Word of God  repays our attention, our investigation,   and the submission of our hearts and  minds to its truth. We are struck by   the duplicity, the hostility, the fearfulness,  just the collapse of David in this chapter.   But then we’re aware of that in our own lives.  We know what it is to go from a big end on a   Thursday to a real disaster on a Friday, to  make great professions to other people and then,   in the silence of our own hearts, to crumble,  to end up looking like a broken deck chair.   Lord, thank you that Jesus is the King. He is the  one who is the truth. He is the one who speaks   truth to us. He is the one that we can  trust. And in his name we pray. Amen. This message was brought to you from Truth For  Life where the learning is for living to learn   more about truth for life with Alistair  Begg visit us online at truthforlife.org
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Channel: Alistair Begg
Views: 9,764
Rating: 4.8838172 out of 5
Keywords: Biblical Figures, Christ as King, Lying, Trusting God, Truth For Life, Alistair Begg, 1 Samuel, King David
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Length: 35min 12sec (2112 seconds)
Published: Mon Aug 17 2020
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