INTRODUCTION:
ILL: When I was leading worship in Denver there were two sisters on the worship team. One day one of the sisters was in a car accident and suffered minor injuries like on a Thursday. She was a shaken up really bad and had looked death in the face and wrote a poem about the experience. Her sister brought the poem to me Sunday night about 5 minutes before the service saying, “God has told us that this poem needs to be read in the service tonight.” I asked to read the poem. To her credit there were some powerful things her sister wrote about God but there was also a fair amount of confusion. She wrote like someone who had powerful experience and a severe concussion. Things were profound and muddy. I took it to Brad, the pastor I was under, and we both felt that reading it that night wasn’t good timing but suggested reading it the following week once we could get a better understanding of what she wrote. That wasn’t what she wanted to hear. She kept saying, “God wants us to read this.” We just said, “We’re open to it but just not tonight.” So we started the service and she came up on stage and led a silent revolt. She sat down on the steps and I’m told stared daggers into my back. Everyone saw it. She just held the mic but never sang. Everyone was completely distracted. The pastor, myself and the young woman had a difficult conversation after that service and it revolved around her trying to trump the situation by throwing out God’s name.
That was my first experience in church leadership with the Christian trump card. See in the Christian life we have a trump card and it’s, “God told me”. God told me to… God’s will is… I heard God say… I remember at Moody hearing guys actually say to girls they were dating, “God told me you are the one.” And the girl said if not thought, “God aint telling me that.” Invoking the name of God can be the ultimate trump card in the church. Who can fight against it? What can you say to the person who says, “God told me?” God was wrong? There are times when God clearly leads and talks to us but I’m talking about the behavior of using God’s name for our own purposes just like what happens in this story today.
II. KEILAH: v1-7
Last week David ran from Israel alone and then returned with 400 soldiers and a priest who had joined David’s cause. So while David was hiding out a messenger came with some news. READ 1-7. Imagine David just trying to get his head around what was going on with his life. He has 400 men join him and soon to be 200 more with their families who are looking to him to be their king. You want to talk about an organizational and administrative nightmare. Who was going to feed and protect, and provide social structures for all these people? Meanwhile they are all living in fear of an impending attack from Saul. And a messenger comes bursting in saying “Help! Help! We’re under attack!” The city Keilah was populated by people from the tribe of Judah. These were his people. David’s first response was to inquire of God whether he should go and God said, “go”. He announced this to his men and they weren’t too keen on the idea. The text says they were afraid and that makes sense. This was a rag-tag army. They hadn’t trained and fought together. They were completely unprepared to fight any battles especially against the Philistines who were the far superior military force.
David’s response was interesting to me. He didn’t say, “God told me, and we’re doing it.” He went back to God. You don’t get the sense that David went back to God because he doubted God. I think he went back to God because his men’s lives were on the line and he was humble enough to think maybe he hadn’t heard God right. Twice he inquired of God and both times God confirmed his message for David to fight. Notice the men go with him, which says a lot about their trust in David and that God was indeed talking to him. The text says they won. It’s here that we see David acting as the true king of Israel. He’s protecting the borders and people of Israel as God’s anointed king. Don’t miss how God provides for David’s people by giving them the lifestock. His army probably didn’t see that coming as a result of obeying God but He’s kind of thrifty that way. The author adds one small comment. Abiathar brought the ephod with him. The ephod was a tool to determine the will of God that the high-priest carried. As this story goes on there is a sense that David is surrounding himself with people and tools that lead him to God. It’s as if in these first seven verses the author wants to make it very clear that David was moving towards God and God was moving towards David and this connections sets up the next section. READ v7-8.
III. KEILAH v7-14
You can’t help but notice that Saul’s first thought when he heard the news was, “God has handed him over to me.” Are you kidding me? Now you and I hear how bizarre that that sounds. Saul had no clue about what God was doing. His comment makes your jaw drop. How in the world could Saul have the audacity to claim to know what God wants? He just got finished murdering 85 of God’s priests!
APP: See if Saul could bring God on his side then he could justify mustering his entire army to kill David and no one could argue against him. The God-trump card is something that has been around for a long time. Remember when Jesus was temped by Satan? One the temptations was for Jesus to jump off a building because as Satan put it, “God wouldn’t want you to die” and actually quoted scripture. Satan played the God card. He twisted scripture to do it…but isn’t that the essence of playing the God-card? Satan wants to actually use God’s name to make us feel righteous and then twist it to achieve our own selfish ends. After invoking God’s name it makes it impossible to fight back. We use God’s name to justify actions that God would never bless to keep people from questioning us or to make ourselves feel better. It happens all the time.
David: David got wind of the impending doom and had to be floored. Talk about gratitude. They probably still hadn’t finished the celebration dinner before someone ran to Saul to rat out David. READ 9-13. David’s response couldn’t be more opposite than that of Saul’s response. Rather than saying , “God this or God that”, David got his priest and the ephod and they spent some time praying. David asked two questions and God answered the second question first, “Yes, Saul will come”. David returned to the first question, “Will the people give us up?” God again responded and said, “Yes they will.” So the million dollar question is who’s side was God on? Apparently Saul was claiming God was on his side and the text said David was hearing from God. Let’s read what happened. READ V13-14. This verse right here is the crux of the story. Saul said, “God has given David into my hands” and this verse, full of irony, said the same phrase…and added OR NOT. See Saul can say “God this” and “God that” all he wants but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that that God is not in habit of being controlled. Saul seems to think he has God under his thumb and then somehow David and his men just seem to always escape. We’re not talking about the size of America here folks. This is Israel, and actually it’s more like just the southern part of Israel. It’s not that big. It’s one the reasons why David wanted to leave Israel in the previous chapters. It’s too small of a place but not if you’re God and you don’t want David found. It may be uncomfortable and miserable for David and his men but apparently God didn’t care about that either.
JONATHAN: v15-18
That whole statement about God was cool but then the story gets even better because Jonathan makes a cameo appearance. Doesn’t it strike you as ironic that Saul and his whole army can’t find David but Jonathan can. Jonathan had ONSTAR. Jonathan comes out to what? “Help David find strength in the Lord.” Aside from the fact that God is all over David living on the run was like living a nightmare that never ended. And into this mess comes Jonathan with one purpose only, “To help David find strength in God.” Let’s take a moment and think about what that means. Jonathan went on to remind David of God’s promises that were still true even though everything about his life proved them false. It seems that Jonathan’s words simply encouraged David to trust that God was in control. I could hear him challenging David to God to God for strength and not try to take control of his life.
APP: Let me ask you, when you see your friends and family getting ground down by life are you someone who builds them up in God or do you speak words that tear at the fabric of their relationship with God? Do you tell them they should fight back or seek peace? Do you encourage them to take control or yield control to God? In an attempt to comfort do you pander to their pain and brainstorm of ways to escape it? People the higher road in this relationship with God is trust and sometimes we may the voice of God to people to take the higher road. We can do it with compassion and empathy rather than just guilting them into pulling up their bootstraps and quit whining. We saw in the last chapter how Saul found people who would tell him what he wanted to hear. It seems to me that the best friend we could ever be is someone who will calls people to take the higher road and trust God rather than take control and start playing the God card on people.
IV. IN THE NICK OF TIME: v19-29
The people of Ziph were located in the Southern part of Israel and were also from the same tribe as David and were as loyal as Keilah. READ v19-20. The Ziphites were trying their hand at politics. They cozied up to Saul seeing an opportunity to gain the king’s favor by showing their loyalty to him over David who was from their own tribe. Listen to Saul’s response. READ v21-23. You get the sense of Saul’s skepticism. He didn’t want to look like an idiot chasing David and never catching him. Phrases like, “make further preparation…find out all the hiding places…definite information.” But what sticks out more than anything is once again Saul plays the God-card. “The Lord bless you.” He took it upon himself to use God’s name to bless those who see life his way. His arrogance is stunning. What’s scary about this is that Saul had become so convinced that evil was good he could invoke God’s blessing on evil. Having other people support him was like pouring gasoline on the fire.
APP: Forget how twisted or warped the premise is, having other people, especially Christians, agree with is all we need to confirm we are on God’s side. Nobody, and I mean nobody, including me is immune to this. We are all susceptible to walking down the wrong paths and when someone else joins us the bring a sense of validation and comfort. And we feel strongly that God is with us so we bless them in God’s name. God’s blessing legitimizes it. Our cause is holy. God will fight for us. Right? Let me ask you something, do you treat the things you own differently than you do something you borrow from someone else? For instance, have you ever borrowed someone else’s car that was way more expensive than yours? You get behind the wheel with a healthy level of paranoia, right? You’re praying you don’t get in a wreck or mess it up. Why? Because it’s not yours. But let’s say you drop off the car and get back into your old beater. You then start praying the opposite, “Lord, let somebody hit me so I can get a new car. We treat the things we own differently than the things we don’t own.
What’s wrong in this story is that Saul thought he owned God. He thought he could do whatever he wanted to with the name of God. Throw it around. Use it to impress or manipulate people. We do not own God and He doesn’t owe us anything no matter how many people may agree with us. And the author wants to stress what God thought of Saul dragging His name into it. Let’s finish it. READ V24-29. Saul for all his manipulation and espionage and political maneuvering still couldn’t find David.
CONCLUSION:
It seems to me God is trying to highlight two approaches to his sovereignty. One was Saul, who arrogantly proclaimed and the approach was David how humbly inquired. Our approach to God should be one of inquiring not proclaiming. It seems to me that the more a person matures in their faith the less willing they are to invoke God’s name. The life God calls us to is not one where we place God’s name on our will. That’s not to say that we can’t call attention to God’s work and give him credit or mention the occurrences in our lives where He does speak and lead. There’s a balance we need to work towards. Hear me on this. But the context of this passage is someone using God’s name to justify their sinful behavior and cause and it is to that end that the author is warning us. Don’t go there. Be a person who inquires of God. This act of inquiring lacks pride and dogmaticism or smacks more of humility and the possibility we may not have heard it right, just like David. Folks we need to salt our conversations with phrases like “it seems” or “I think” when involving God. It gives people room to maneuver and for us to be wrong and keep from dragging God’s name through our mess.
We should also develop a healthy skepticism towards people who play the God-card to justify their sinful behavior or who try to manipulate you into joining them. If you should find yourself in a conversation where someone is playing the God-card I would recommend a quiet exit. We don’t have to correct everybody. And definitely would hesitate before I did because it will be war.
