Making the Best of Having to Wait •1 Samuel 27
Notes
Unexpected development: David leaves Israel entirely and goes over to the Philistines.
Some people think that David is backsliding, that he’s abandoning his faith in God, he stops walking with God. For the next year and four months he does his own thing and only repents when his city is burned and everyone kidnapped and he loses everything—only then does he repent.
This idea that David is sinning doesn’t really fit the facts. He’s not doing the things that go with not trusting God, namely, sinning against God. In fact, he hasn’t stopped expecting God to fulfill His promise to make him king over Israel. He does have to wait, but he’s making the best of having to wait.
Let’s read vv. 1-4.
1. David completely withdraws from Israel.
A. In verse 1 David’s point is not, “Saul’s going to kill me! I need to do something quick, desperate, and stupid like defect to the Philistines.” Like that’s going to be a quick fix that he will regret later.
1. He’s already avoided quick, desperate, and stupid fixes twice with Saul, and once with Nabal.
2. If he was thinking of doing something quick, desperate, and stupid he could have done that already.
B. But David does something much more humble and self-denying and risky to himself. He completely removes himself from Israel. He gets himself out of Saul’s hair. He’s no longer a provocation that unsettles him.
1. His point in v. 1 is really, “There’s no reasoning with Saul. He is never going to stop looking for me to kill me. There’s no getting him off of this. This is a dead end.”
2. With me out of the country Saul is going to stop looking for me and I won’t have to keep going through this loop: Saul brings out the army, I spare his life, he says he’s sorry. Then we do the whole thing over again.
C. There’s another reason for David to stop running. He has to think about wives and families.
1. Do you notice that David’s 600 men have households now? They’ve been getting married on the run. David himself has married twice since he’s been running from Saul.
2. It was a lot easier to run when it was just guys and they were single. But David and his men can’t realistically make their wives and families run with them. They’re not as quick and flexible.
D. When Saul inevitably hears that David has left the country he stops searching for him. There’s nothing to trouble Saul now—everything is great, all nice and peaceful. We’ll come back to this later.
2. David asks Achish for a place to live, vv. 5-6.
A. He doesn’t ask right off the bat. They need to get to know one another, and Achish has to get the sense that he can trust this David.
B. But after an appropriate amount of time David brings up the issue: “You know, we don’t have to be crowding you here in the royal city. What do you think about giving us a place somewhere in the country, somewhere out of your hair?
C. So Achish gives David Ziklag.
1. The point about this is that David doesn’t want to live with the Philistines. He doesn’t want to become one or think like one. He doesn’t want to associate with them. He doesn’t want his guys to pick up Philistine habits. Bad company ruins good morals. David is keeping his distance.
2. Something special about Ziklag is that it is a city that should belong to the tribe of Judah, David’s tribe. It’s mentioned in Judah’s inheritance in Joshua 15:31. But it belongs to the Philistines instead.
3. From this time on it ceases being Philistine and belongs to Judah, as a personal residence of the kings of Judah. David is thinking about Israel, not the Philistines.
3. David makes the best of his time while he waits, vv. 7-12.
A. David doesn’t know how long he’s going to be with the Philistines. It doesn’t look like God is doing anything about fulfilling His promise to David to make him king. David has no visible signs that encourage him, yes, God is making you king. See? There’s nothing to see.
B. In the meantime, the Philistines live by raiding others.
1. He’s got 600 households to provide for.
2. He also has to bring a percentage of what he makes as tribute to Achish, because Achish is the king he serves under. He is a vassal of Achish. It’s like being in the Mafia. Achish is the crime boss. He gets a percentage from his boys.
C. So David raids like a Philistine, but he doesn’t raid Israel. He raids people who inhabit Israel from of old.
1. These are people that Israel should have put under the ban of God, the cherem, and completely destroyed. God said to do this because their time had come, their iniquity was complete, and He was using Israel to judge them. If Israel left them alive, they would learn these people’s ways and idolatry, and come under God’s condemnation for the same sins. Israel did not obey God and these nations taught Israel to worship other gods and come under God’s judgment.
2. David is taking opportunity through this need to raid to wipe these people out. He can’t let anyone live because word would get back to the Philistines that David isn’t really doing what the Philistines want him to do. But these peoples are 400 years overdue for judgment. David is still doing the will of God as he is among the Philistines.
4. David isn’t doing any of his own will in any of this.
A. He’s denying himself, not furthering his own agenda in becoming king of Israel. He’s allowing Saul to have it all.
B. He’s not associating with the Philistines, he’s just living in their countryside.
C. He’s continuing and advancing the work of God as he is able.
D. Is any of this backsliding? He is lying to Achish, but not to cover up his drinking, partying, pornography, and drug abuse. He’s covering up the good things he is doing for Israel because that would get him killed on the spot.
E. David is living in hope of God fulfilling His promise to make him king of Israel. That affects how he lives in the present as he waits. I bet if you asked David he would say he’s not crazy about waiting. He doesn’t like the situation he’s in. But what do you do? You wait in hope and make the best of your waiting.
5. So what?
A. David knows his hope and what he is waiting for.
1. God came to David and said, “You will be the king of Israel.” David’s expectation came from God, and that means he has to wait for God to fulfil His promise.
2. Do you know your hope and what you are waiting for? 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep (that is, believers who have died), so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
3. Your hope should be the death and resurrection and second coming of Jesus. That is the only hope to have because it comes from God and endures past this life. Do you have this hope? Are you trusting in Jesus and waiting for Him to come?
B. David doesn’t know when God will fulfil His word.
1. There are no signs that would indicate it’s about to happen. But Paul in Romans 8: 24 says hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. It would already be there if you could see it.
2. We also don’t know when Jesus will come. He specifically said, no man knows the day or the hour. You have to be ready. You have to wait.
C. You wait for God’s promise with perseverance. You want to live in agreement with God so you can receive what He has promised.
1. If David had really backslid and thrown away his expectation from God he would have indulged himself with the pleasures of this life because that’s all there is. And you only go around once in life so you better go for all the gusto you can. That’s the motto of those who have no hope. Get it all now.
2. But no! He’s living with self-denial, humility, discipline, and he’s in danger and risk constantly. Because he doesn’t believe God is going to make him king of Israel? He would be a complete fool! No, he suffers because he does believe God.
3. 2 Peter 3:10-14 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless
D. David is willing to wait in a difficult situation because he knows it has to be temporary. Philistia wasn’t home for David. It was just for a time. It’s the same with us. We are not looking to stay here forever. We are not home. The Holy Spirit has come to live at home in us, and that helps. But this is temporary. Home is permanent. David could wait, and so can we.
E. Consider this carefully: If you don’t have hope from God, you have no hope at all.
1. Saul is happy right now. Since David left there’s no more anxiety, no more tension, no more strain. The kingdom is Saul’s now. All peaceful and happy. It’s everything Saul hopes for.
2. Achish is thinking, “Wow, what a great guy David is! He’s going to serve me forever! Life is good right now.”
3. But this isn’t going to last. Saul is going to die soon and lose everything. Achish will see David become king of Israel and no attack against him will prosper because God fights for him. Achish and Saul’s hopes are temporary because they’re based only in this life, and nothing in this life is forever.
4. So whatever hope of good you have in this life is no hope at all.
5. You need the hope of eternal life in Christ Jesus. He commands you to come to Him this morning and put your trust in Him, that He died for your sins, He rose again from the dead, and He is coming again in glory.
You only have a little time. Make the best of it as you wait for Him.
Let’s pray.