Wilderness (Part 2)

Sometimes the most dangerous moments in your life aren’t when everything is falling apart. Sometimes they’re when everything seems to fall into place. Who in here would like to win the lottery? It’s actually not all it’s cracked up to be. Many who win the lottery end up filing for bankruptcy. Studies have shown that for people who are already in trouble, winning the lottery gets them in more trouble.[1]

That’s where David is in 1 Samuel 24. He’s still in the wilderness. Nothing about his situation has really gotten better. He’s still being hunted. Still moving from place to place. Still living in caves, strongholds, places he would never choose for himself. But now something is placed right in front of him that looks like it could solve all of his problems.

So the question now isn’t just about how he’s going to survive. The question is, what is he going to do with this opportunity that’s in front of him?

When you come to verse 1, Saul has just returned from dealing with the Philistines. Remember, by God’s providence, that’s what we saw rescued David last week. But immediately Saul turns his attention back to David. Verse 2 shows us he has three thousand chosen men. That number is intentional. It’s to show us this isn’t random searching. Saul hasn’t moved on from this. He is committed to finding David and ending his life. This has completely consumed him.

Verse 2 tells us they’re in the region of the Wildgoats’ Rocks. This is rugged terrain. Steep cliffs. Caves in the rocks. Big enough for 600 people to hide in. Remember last week…this is still our game of hide and go seek.

And then in verse 3, something happens that almost feels too good to be true for David. Saul enters a cave to, let’s just say…relieve himself…go potty. And the text tells us David and his men are in the innermost parts of that same cave. You almost have to pause there and let that sit to consider the sovereignty of God in that. Out of all the caves in that region, Saul walks into that one. Out of all the places David could be hiding, he’s in that one. Saul is alone and vulnerable. Completely exposed. And 600 men are holding their breath in the dark.

And immediately, people start whispering their opinions to David. In verse 4, David’s men look at him and say, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” In other words, this is it. This is your moment. This is what we’ve been waiting on. This is God giving you the opportunity.

And y’all, that does makes sense. It seems right. Everything about this moment seems like God is handing David exactly what he needs. BUT…not everything that looks like God’s provision…listen to this with your head and your heart…is God’s permission.

We must gauge opportunities through obedience to God, not convenience.  (24:1–5)

Sometimes what you want isn’t what you need. Sometimes what you want isn’t what God is in.

God does present us with opportunities. He opens doors. He moves circumstances. He places things in front of us. But not every opportunity is obedience to God. David is hidden in the cave. Saul enters that very cave. The moment feels like it’s providentially from God. But we’re not called to interpret our opportunities only by convenience. We’re called to discern every aspect of our lives through obedience to God.

That’s where I think we often get this wrong, and so we miss out on a lot of good in life. And we miss out on a lot of what God wants to do. We assume that if something opens up easily, then it must be from God. If it makes our life easier, then it must be His will. If it solves our problem quickly, then surely God is in it. But Scripture doesn’t teach us to follow open doors blindly. It teaches us to follow God faithfully. That’s what we’re called to do. Period. We’re not to presume on God. If God says go, you go. If God says wait, you wait. We negotiate with God far too often and want him to work on our timeline, whatever that may be.

David doesn’t rush. He doesn’t react immediately. At the end of verse 4 we see that he creeps up close to Saul. Close enough to end all his problems. To end all of the running and fear and striving. But instead of taking Saul’s life, he cuts off a corner of his robe. But that bothered him.

Verse 5 says his heart struck him. The Hebrew means his heart smote him, like a physical blow of conviction.[2] Why is he convicted here? Why is his heart so troubled over something even so seemingly small? It’s not because he didn’t kill Saul when he had the chance, but because he stepped even slightly outside of what God would have him do. He knew he acted in disobedience.

Holiness should govern our conscience. (24:5–7)

I love what Eugene Peterson says about how the wilderness shaped David’s holiness: “In the wilderness years, as David was dealing with God, a sense of the sacred developed in him. While he was living in that austere country, his awareness of holiness, of God’s beauty and presence in everything, in everyone, increased exponentially. David was above all reverent. He had an inordinate capacity for wonder. The Psalms, many of which came out of these wilderness years, are our main evidence for this. This story puts the holiness on display.”[3]

We see this with David’s conscience. It’s shaped by holiness. That holiness restrains his actions. He has both the ability and the opportunity to kill Saul. All of his people and his whole situation is pushing him to act. But something inside of him says “no, don’t do it.” His heart “strikes” him. That right there is holiness within him at work, governing his actions.

Think about it like this. It’s like a governor on a go-kart. You put that governor on there so it doesn’t run full throttle. Because if you don’t, it will. I have a ten-year old little boy that would put it on two wheels. (I’ve see him put a 4-wheeler on 2 wheels…It’s called a FOUR wheeler for a reason.) That’s how we are by nature. Left to our own devices, we run full throttle. We react quickly. We justify ourselves quickly. We are impulsive. But holiness is meant to be the governor on our soul. It slows us down. It restrains us. It keeps us from going places we shouldn’t go, even when everything around us says to go.

There’s no audience in that moment in the cave. There’s no one there to correct him in that moment. And yet his heart is sensitive to God. He turns to his men in verse 6 and says, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed.” David sees Saul differently. He doesn’t ignore what he’s done or pretend he’s right. But he knows that Saul is still the Lord’s anointed. He’s still the king. And that affects how he responds. And he persuaded his men in verse 7 not to attack him either. He showed him mercy.

Mercy flows from trust in God’s sovereignty and justice. (24:8–15)

David spares Saul, and then he does something, I think, that’s just as important as sparing him. He tells him why he spared him. In verse 8, he steps out of the cave, calls after Saul, bows before him, and then he lays everything out in the open. He tells him he could have killed him but didn’t and shows him the part he cut off.

He says in verse 12, “May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.” Wow. That right there says so much. That’s complete surrender by David. David is taking the situation, the injustice, the mistreatment, the pressure he’s been living under, and he’s placing it completely into God’s hands.

And y’all, that’s not easy to do. But it’s necessary to do. Because everything in us wants to hold onto the hurt. When someone wrongs you, when someone lies about you, when someone comes after you, the natural instinct is not to hand that over. The natural instinct is to hold onto it, replay it, justify yourself, and if the opportunity comes, respond. Get ‘em back.

David had that opportunity. He literally could’ve stabbed him in the back. But instead, he steps back and says, God will deal with this. That right there is what it means to trust God’s sovereignty. It means you actually believe that God is in control, not just in theory, but in the actual details of your life. And if God is sovereign, then David doesn’t need to force his own will.

But it’s not just sovereignty. It’s also justice. David says in verse 15, “May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.” David believes that God sees rightly, judges rightly, acts rightly. By showing mercy, David’s not ignoring justice. He’s trusting God with it. And God’s the only one who can truly bring justice anyway.

And that is where mercy comes from. Because if you don’t trust that God is just, you will feel like it’s your responsibility to make things right. You will feel like you have to step in and ensure that wrong is punished and right is defended. But when you trust that God is just, you are freed from that burden of justice yourself. God will hold every single person accountable.

That’s what David is doing. He’s not saying Saul is innocent. He’s not saying what Saul has done is acceptable. He is saying, I will not take God’s place in dealing with it. That is a completely different way of living. And y’all, there is so much freedom in living in God’s mercy.

So David rests in God’s sovereignty and justice. And this allows him to worship. He writes Psalm 57 from a cave, and many attribute it to this season of 1 Samuel 23 and 24.

We worship God when, in faith, we rest in His character. (Psalm 57)

1 Samuel 24 shows you what David did in the cave. Psalm 57 shows you what was going on in his heart while he was there. What you see externally in 1 Samuel 24 makes more sense when you understand what is happening internally in Psalm 57.

David’s not just hiding in a cave. He’s worshiping in it. That’s what true freedom looks like, when you hand everything over to God.

He begins in verse 1a, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge.” That’s dependence. He’s crying out. Pleading. He feels the pressure and danger. Saul is still after him. Nothing around him has changed.

But listen to what he says next in verse 1b. “In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.” That’s faith. He’s not denying the storm he’s in. He’s saying, in the middle of it, I know where my refuge is. It’s you, God. His refuge isn’t the cave. His refuge is God.

And that’s what worship looks like in the wilderness. It’s not tied to your surroundings. It’s not dependent on your circumstances getting better. You can worship in the wilderness because worship is rooted in who God is.

You see this in verses 2-3. He says, “2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!” David is trusting in who God is and that He will accomplish His purposes. That is why he could leave Saul alive in the cave. Because he believed God would fulfill His purpose without him stepping outside of obedience to make it happen.

And then in the middle of danger, in the middle of pressure, in the middle of uncertainty, David begins to praise. In verse 5 he says, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” Nothing has changed externally. Saul is still a threat. The wilderness is still harsh. The future is still uncertain. And yet David is praising. Why? Because his worship is not tied to his circumstances. It is tied to God’s character.

He says in verses 9-10, “9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.” That is what he’s resting in. God’s steadfast love. His hesed. God’s faithfulness. Not his own ability. Not his own plan. Not his own situation. And that’s where worship grows. It grows where our faith rests in who God is. Not who you are. Not what you can control. Not what you can figure out. Who God is.

That is what allows David to worship even before God has delivered him. Because he knows God’s character. God is merciful and gracious.

We have been shown mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus.

In Exodus 34, God reveals Himself as merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. But He also says He will not leave the guilty unpunished. That is who God is. And those two realities come together most clearly at the cross. Because at the cross, God doesn’t ignore sin. He judges it. He places that condemnation on Christ, though. Jesus takes what we deserve so that we can receive mercy.

David stood in a cave with the opportunity to strike down his enemy, and he chose mercy. Jesus went to the cross and was struck down for His enemies so that we could receive mercy.

At the end of 1 Samuel 24, Saul has an emotional change of heart over being shown mercy by David. How can you not?! But there’s no great proof of true repentance in Saul. You can feel emotion and not be changed.

“In fact, it is worse to have this kind of emotional response if it doesn’t result in true repentance. “If a man is emotionally upset, as Saul was, and awakens to his condition, but only weeps about it and still doesn’t obey God, his second state is a thousand times worse than the first. Emotion that does not lead to action only leads deeper into sin and rebellion.””[4]

May that not be said of you today. You have been shown great mercy by Jesus Christ. And He calls you to repent and believe.

1 Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/25/heres-why-lottery-winners-go-broke.html

[2] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5221.htm

[3] Eugene H. Peterson, Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 77.

[4] Redpath; from https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-samuel-24